Naruto: A New Beginning
Chapter 13
(Date: June 30, 2552. Location: Epsilon Eridani System, Planet Reach)
(Reach Surface Location: Montez Military Training Academy, Military Reservation 01478-B)
Currently we find Naruto being interrogated by his one friend and two peers', it didn't end there though. More and more people were finding it in themselves that they wanted to understand Naruto more as well. They never knew someone like Naruto could exist, In the past they found themselves thinking (what does this kid think he's doing), or thought processes along the line of (what does this weakling think the ODST is . . . a game?). The people who thought these negative things were still in the training program, but that's not where the irony lays, the irony lies in the fact that five out of six of the enlistees that failed their evaluation thought these very similar thoughts. This goes to show, you are to never judge a book by its cover . . . because you don't know what you may learn of it if you take a look inside. It also show's to never overestimate yourself and never underestimate others, because there will always be something that they know and you don't.
"So . . . Naruto was it?" The man with the mutton chops said, he also had on a white muscle shirt that clearly depicted his physical frame, very muscular. He was also tall, about six feet in the air, In addition he had tan skin and was also wearing black cargo pants. His voice was deep, clear sounding and serious. "Well then, it's only fair that I give you my name as well, since were going to be on a team we need to know everyone's name." Mutton chops dude said this while looking at everyone's faces that had now fully crowded the area to the left of Naruto's bunk bed, while Naruto sat there with a wide eyed expression depicting his shock at the collective of people.
"My name is Mathew Rodriguez, it's nice to meet you Naruto." He said this while extending his hand towards Naruto for him to shake. Naruto quickly snapped out of his reverie and stood up to shake his hand, Naruto shook Mathew's hand with an excited grin.
"It's nice ta meet you to Mathew." Naruto said in his usual friendly way when meeting new people. They finished shaking hands and then Mathew's facial muscles twitched into a frown.
"I'm sorry for underestimating you two back at the recruiting center, my entire being believed that you two were going to fail and when I saw you pass I was at first denying it, thinking it was just a fluke, but then throughout the next few days I noted both of you were determined to continue pressing on and I saw it in both of your eyes that you weren't about to give up. That gave you my respect and this apology." Mathew said this sincerely. "What about you, I haven't really gotten your name yet." Mathew was saying this towards Camilla.
Camilla extended her hand first.
"My name is Camilla Crespo, nice to meet you Mathew." Camilla said with a friendly smile on her face. Mathew then shook hands with Camilla as well.
"A pleasure to meet you as well Camilla." Mathew said with his serious expression still in place when he let go of Camilla's hand. "I also feel it is only prudent to apologize to you as well, I bear the shame in thinking you were going to fail due to being a female, that makes me an ignorant person and I hope that you will forgive me as well for underestimating you." Mathew said earnestly.
"Of course, no hard feelings right." Camilla said with a smirk.
Mathew simply nodded.
Suddenly someone from within the crowd walked to the front and stood next to Mathew.
"Hey, sorry if I'm being too forward, but do you mind telling us what the hell happened with that piece of paper you crumpled, because it's really hard to comprehend how that turned into a dangerous weapon that reproduced the effects of M41SSR MAV/AW-Rocket Launcher." A young man with spiky gelled hair and slightly tan skin, wearing a black shirt with a hot female model printed in the front of it holding two M6G-Magnums, her left arm extended forward as if pointing at the person standing in front of the young man and her right arm hanging loosely by her side. Also under the woman, spelled in a wide arc and with the font of Italics were the words 'Guns and Girls, Two of my favorite things.' He also had a lean and muscular frame, and was wearing woodland camouflage military pants with black steel toe boots.
"I wish I could answer that, really I wish I could, but only my godfather is capable of making them and explaining how they are made." Naruto lied, only because he wasn't ready to tell them the truth, if he were to show how he made them then that would be an obvious indicator that he is not really a normal human being. So for now he would try his best to make believable lies until he can trust a lot of people like Camilla.
"Then where is this godfather of yours huh? I want to meet him, I want to know how the hell a piece of paper could compare to technology, and I want to see what kind of wack-job explanation he's going to have for that phenomenon." The spiky haired trainee said.
"Sorry but I don't really know where he is." Naruto retorted back.
"What do ya mean you don't know!" He said quite angrily.
"All I remember is the village I use to live in and the people that lived there as well, I also have most of my memories from my childhood to now, but the one thing I can't remember is how I got lost in a forest outside of my village." Naruto said with a small frown in place.
"I can attest to that." Camilla started. "I found him unconscious at the edge of the dirt road back where I live, it looked like he came out of the forest and his clothing was in tatters, at that point he was mostly amnesiac but throughout the day's he was starting to recount his past, so don't push him to remember something he can't right now, maybe he'll tell you someday but for now drop the subject on that explosive paper." Camilla said in a serious voice with a neutral face directed at the spiky haired trainee.
"Fine! But I want to be the first to know when you do remember . . . my names Jasper Kalians by the way, it's good to meet two capable people like yourselves Naruto and Camilla, if you have any questions based on anything UNSC weaponry you're looking at the perfect guy to answer em." Jasper said while jabbing a thumb at his chest in emphasis.
"It's nice to meet you to Jasper." Naruto said with a smirk.
"Likewise." Camilla agreed.
"Say, Naruto?" Another one of the trainees walked up to them. The person was a brown haired female with short cut hair that didn't reach past her ears, she also had a lighter skin tone comparable to Camilla and wore a white t-shirt with woodland camouflage cargo pants. Her eyes were colored hazel and were gazing directly at Naruto's ocean blue eyes with a slightly narrow eyed stare. She also had a lollipop in her mouth. "So you say you're a ninja right?" Naruto nodded without hesitation. "Wouldn't that mean you're a trained assassin, because if you are then I guess that means I'm a ninja too huh?" The brown haired girl smirked at Naruto and Camilla's reaction of a wide eyed stare.
Everyone else was now looking at the girl with varied amounts of confusion and disbelief.
"My dad would teach me stealth and assassination techniques when I told him I wanted to be just like him, he's a veteran ODST that fought insurrectionist's before the Covenant came." She added as reference.
"That's great!" Naruto surprised her by saying this so enthusiastically. " Me and you are gonna get along just fine then, I could probably teach you a few things myself if you would like that." Naruto added with his friendly cheerfulness.
Once she got over her shock at this kid's forwardness she couldn't help but smile.
"Sure, that sounds like fun. Regardless." She extended her hand in greeting. "My name is Misha, Misha Gardner." She said with a smile and her lollipop tightly clamped on her teeth.
"Naruto Uzumaki at your service." Naruto said while he shook hands with her.
"Oi, I'm feeling kinda left back ere' mate." Someone within the crowd of trainees said.
"Yeah what the Aussie said, we all better introduce ourselves because were gonna be in a team soon." Another one said.
"That's if, no one backs out." Another trainee added.
"I have an idea!" Everyone redirected there attention towards the standing Naruto. "It's gonna sound childish but if that bothers you then then you're just gonna have to deal with it." Naruto said while smiling only slightly.
"What are you proposing Naruto?" Mathew asked calmly.
"Well what I was thinking is, this room is pretty big. Why don't we just sit down in a circle and introduce ourselves . . . An introduction circle." Naruto said with his hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face.
"That does sound childish, I'm out." A trainee said.
"It really doesn't matter to me, this could be interesting at most." The trainee next to the first one added. Some people agreed with him.
"It's a majority vote, we will make the circle and introduce ourselves as a team." Mathew said with finality.
"Alright! Let's do this in the middle of the room." Naruto walked on ahead and sat down in a random spot, soon followed by Camilla and in extension Chaser. The circle was beginning to form as more and more trainees decided what harm could this possibly do. Soon enough they had a crude circle going with only one person missing from it.
"You guys are all a bunch of kindergartners; I can't believe you actually just did that." Was the response of one stubborn black male with short hair cut in a shape up and light brown eyes. He had his muscular arms crossed over his black shirt with the letters ODST printed on the front of it. He was also wearing white track pants with a single black line on each leg followed by steel toed boots. "What kind of self-respecting . . ." He didn't get to finish because Misha had cut him off.
"Look at it this way buddy, a group of ODST candidates is having a team meeting for the purpose of preparing for the future. You can still decide not to be within this circle but the problem with that is if you make it to the elite ODST then this is going to be your team looking out for you, and they're not going to know a single thing about you and you in return will not know them, you will be a stranger in a group of friends. So I suggest you sit down, man up, and participate in the damn introduction circle." Misha stated while standing up and looking directly at the man with a glare and crossed arms of her own.
"You know what, fine, you're right. I'll start if that's okay with everyone." With an intelligent speech like Misha's you could convince people to see the right of way. With violence you cannot solve anything besides creating more resentment and violence.
"Yea sure go right ahead." Naruto said with his smirk still in place.
The man that was vehemently against this at first; was now sitting with a peeved expression next to Misha and another trainee.
"My name is Julius Hemmer, I'm here because of my familial roots of long time military service, and to kick some alien ass ODST style. I apologize for refusing to do this at first but it's simply in my nature to do things that I don't want to do, I'm known by a lot of my family member's as the stubborn bastard, Hah! I guess I am though." Julius finished with a small smile.
Amusedly enough people were thinking about how quickly he changed character from outright refusal to complete cooperation, oh well, don't question the good things in life.
"Well you betta get use to it mate, you can't be that stubborn bastard while taking orders from your superiors." Julius simply looked at the man with the Australian accent and sandy blond hair, he was also wearing a white t-shirt and beige cargo shorts. He had a slight tan but looked a bit more red if anything. He was also wearing white NIKE running shoes.
"What makes you think I don't know that?" Julius said with a frown directed at the Australian trainee.
"Oi, just tryna help ya out mate." He said with his hands up in a calm down position. "Anyway my name is Riley Irwin, I was hoping joining the UNSC would help me travel to far off places and such while kickin Covenant arse, I thought the ODST was my best option cuz those blokes go everywhere, if I succeed it'll help me achieve my dream's easier." Riley summarized about himself.
"Das cool and all homie, but you gotta have a much realer reason than dat, yo . . son if you're like me than you lost family to the fucking Covenant to. I'm here to learn the most effective ways to massacre the mothafucka's the same way they be massacring us cuz of they dumb as religion and all that bullshit, know what I'm sayin." Another black male of African American descent said with many hand gestures during his explanation of why he is here. He was sporting a cornrow hairdo and was wearing a black jersey with the word ice printed in capital letters on the back, in addition he was wearing black and white digital cargo pants as well. "But fuck dat shit for now, we all trying to be homies so was up niggas my names Marcus Smith but my homies call me ice, merciless ice cold nigga word up." Marcus Aka Ice said.
"Ugh, let's just get this over with so I could get some sleep." Everyone directed their attention towards a beautiful long black haired girl with razor sharp black eyes and a red bandanna tied on her head, she had flawless lightly tanned skin and a lean bodily frame. She was wearing a white tank top over a black t-shirt with short sleeves and was wearing tight black shorts that reached just on top of her knees. "My name is Caitlyn Buttowski but you can call me Kate, that's what everyone else does anyway, I'm trying out for the ODST because I was tired of just sitting at home doing nothing while millions of other people risked their lives so I could live a day longer, well I had to act and do something so what better then joining the crazy badasses that help keep humanity alive just a little longer, right?" She said this with a very sharp smirk on one side of her gorgeous features. "I also feel that instead of being an immobile lump of flesh it's better that more and more people try out for the ODST because can you imagine what an army of elite ODST's can do in a ground war." Her smirk got a little larger as she started fantasizing about how awesome things could be.
"Well it looks like I found a sister in arms." Camilla said with a smile. "Me and you have something's in common, like our love and excitement for the ODST and trying to take part in changing the world." She added.
"Well then, it seems were gonna get along famously." They both nodded and smiled at each other.
"Looks like that Naruto guy had the right idea in this introduction circle." A man with a slightly darker tan said, he was also wearing a beige t-shirt that had a religious golden cross with diamonds studded on the front and sides. In addition to that he was wearing woodland camouflage baggy jeans and had black adiddas running shoes on. Not to mention he had brown eyes and combed back black hair that still stood up a little bit. He was of Hispanic descent. " Well to keep up the momentum we got going my name is Roberto Felix Esteves, but everyone I know likes to call me Rob and I like that shorter version anyway. I joined because it was always my dream to drop from the atmosphere and start kicking alien ass, I wanted to be a hero and to this day I'm still trying to do that. I want to help and be recognized in the process, and like Riley I want to travel, just not during service more like after it." Rob finished.
Now there was only one person left from the dozen trainees that survived the tests so far.
The last man was a Caucasian male with a 5-o'clock shadow and a head full of black hair that was flat and came to a widows peak at his forehead. He was muscular and had a white t-shirt on with beige cargo pants and olive drab steel toed boots, he also had black eyes and was holding a blue stress ball in his right hand.
"Well, I guess I'm last." He said with a normal tone of voice. "My names Hunter Hayden and like Julius my family comes from a long line of military service, only I'm the first one in my family to ever join the ODST. Everyone was always too afraid to join, only having enough courage to join the Marines and try making it back from the front lines, they always said the ODST was a suicidal branch of the UNSC that only hired the craziest of the people, but here I am and all of you seem mentally stable to me. This is me trying to prove them wrong and in the process become a stronger and better soldier than anyone in my family ever was. The bonus is killing those damn cretins called the Covenant." Hunter said while squeezing his stress ball angrily but not making any facial expressions during the short summary about himself.
"Hey technically I haven't introduced myself properly yet so here goes." Naruto said as the attention of his new peers were redirected to him.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki and I come from an unknown village here on Reach that separated themselves from society, during my time in that village I was always an orphan for as long as I can remember until my godfather picked me up and showed me how to defend myself using the same arts that real ninja used back in ancient times. For some reason though I one day found myself being picked up by Camilla and from that day onward I have set myself to helping her as much as I can for helping me. I would also like to utilize my skills for this war." Naruto said in a shortened version of what his backstory is for this dimension.
"And I'm the girl that found him on that road, my names Camilla Crespo and it's very nice to meet all of you. Like Kate I also was determined to follow in my dad's footsteps and join the ODST to make a difference in any way I can, Naruto is my friend and partner in arms that promised to help me with my dream along the way. I also would like to introduce my dog Chaser, me and my dad trained him as a puppy on how to do many things and how to listen to basic and advanced commands so he could probably be an asset to us in the future." Camilla said happily and proudly.
Everyone on some kind of universal law stood up to shake hands and exchanged mild pleasantries and such.
"WOooooo! I'm knocking out, today was pretty exhausting and I need my sleep if I'm going to survive tomorrow." Kate said as she walked to her bunk bed.
Ice suddenly walked up to Riley and elbowed him slightly in the ribs to get his attention.
"Oi what is it you want mate." Riley asked only slightly peeved at the way his attention was grabbed.
"Ay yo Riley, look at that fine piece of ass walkin away, I bet that's why her last name is Buttowski know what I'm sayin heh heh." And a fine piece of ass it was as Kates butt was not too big and not to small, it was perfect.
"Grikey you got the right idea about that one but she ain't my type, now the lass with the short brown hair is a real beauty with all the right curves in all the right places if you know what I mean ehhh Icy boy." Riley said while nudging Ice on the side with his elbow.
"Yeah I know whatchu sayin but if that's what you like homie it's all you, Imma try and stick it wit that doll over there hah hah." Ice said with a perverted smile.
"O'right that's cool Ice, but I'm about ready to follow your dream girls example and hit the hay, later." Riley said with a small wave as he walked back to his bed as well.
"Aight peace out homie." Ice said with a more subdued smile.
Soon everyone was getting ready to go to sleep as they knew that tomorrow was going to be another tough day, and for some it was kind of scary to think about what Drill Sergeant Condor is going to torture them with next.
There was still day light outside but everyone was too tired to care and now we even find Camilla getting comfortable on her top bunk while Naruto was laying down In the bottom bunk with his left hand behind his head and his right hand was hanging off the bed and was on Chaser's head petting him. With Chaser happily wagging his tail while laying down.
'Today was kind of awesome, I just met a bunch of new people each with their own unique personality and I feel like because of that none of us is going to fail whatever Drill Sergeant Condor has in store for us.' Naruto thought confidently. 'Especially since were going to be a team, I'm going to continue following your rule forever Kakashi-Sensei about those who break the rules are trash but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash.' Naruto said in nostalgic remembrance. 'I'll make sure to tell everyone that same rule when tomorrow since were going to be a team.'
Soon Naruto fell asleep as well to make tomorrow come faster. No one was none the wiser about what waited for them the next day, but for now let's hope that with Naruto trying to uphold his promise he would be able to help them through it and strengthen them and their bonds in the process.
(The next day: July 1st, 2552)
It was still very early in the morning and everyone was still sleeping soundly as there body's repaired themselves for the next task. It was so early in fact that the sun hasn't even peeked out yet and the birds are still sleeping as well.
Suddenly Naruto had to wake up as he heard a low growling sound coming from Chaser that alerted him to something not being right. He told Chaser to be quiet with a hand gesture to his lips and Chaser complied obediently seeing that someone was awoken from their slumber due to him trying to silently alert them.
Naruto got out of his bed quickly and quietly and made his way to Camilla.
He tried waking her up and slowly she opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Naruto's ocean blue eyes. The first thing she did was almost scream but Naruto quickly clamped her mouth shut with his left hand while he held onto the ladder of the bunk bed with his right. He told Camilla to be quiet and made a follow me motion.
She followed him down the ladder quietly as well and turned walked around the bed where she saw him crouched next to Chaser as Chaser looked ready to pounce on a target with his head low and his teeth slightly bared. Naruto gestured for her to come over to him and she decided to crouch next to him.
"Help me wake everyone up as quietly as possible." Naruto's hot breath tickled her ear as he whispered that sentence to her.
"Why?" She whispered back the same way.
"Because we are slowly but surely being surrounded right now." Was Naruto's whispered reply and through what little light the moonlight created he could perfectly see Camilla's wide eyed look. She simply nodded as her last reply and went to do her assigned job, Naruto did the same and with both of their quiet efforts they had the entire team awake and confused but not making a sound.
He made another gesture for them to get closer to him and everyone huddled around him crouched and confused.
"Were surrounded, do not make any sudden movements or loud noises." Naruto whispered silently, he saw the reactions going off on his teammates, some disbelief and others fear. "Don't be scared, my bet is that this is another one of Sergeant Condor's tests, because of Chaser I was able to wake up and notice the movement outside the barrack. Let's surprise him and his lackey's with a surprise counter attack." Naruto whispered to everyone again but with a vicious grin adorning his face.
For the sake of being silent most of them nodded and some had smiles of their own like Kate and Jasper.
"Oi, Naruto, what's your plan mate?" Riley whispered very quietly as he was next to Naruto.
"It's simple, if they decide to storm in here were gonna be ready for them with a wall of mattresses, the matter of the fact is they aren't going to use live rounds of any sort so we'll be protected by the mattresses while we charge them, and in the process hopefully acquire some of their weaponry. For now though let's pretend to sleep so we don't alert them too quickly . . . you guys follow." Naruto finished with his improvised plan.
They all looked at each other as if visually debating and eventually looked back at Naruto and they all nodded.
"Good, get back into position and wait for my signal, you'll know once it happens, now go." Naruto whispered his orders and they all dispersed silently back into their beds.
Naruto looked at Camilla and smiled along with a nod of his head, she returned his gesture with an enthusiastic one of her own.
(Outside the Barrack Designate 333)
"Alright men, were gonna hit em fast and were gonna hit em hard, were not even gonna give em time to think as to what the hell could be going on. For this exercise were going to show them never to let their guard down. Now load the paintball guns and turn on the electric chips that will stun them on impact, this should be a nice wakeup call." Drill Sergeant Condor communicated through his helmets interior com's speaker and spoke to all of his men that consisted of five other military veterans from the ODST, all of them wearing their ODST armor and looking ready to kick some trainee ass. "Now on the signal of the concussion grenade were moving in and show these little shits what Drill Sergeant Condor's training program is all about."
(Inside the Barrack)
As everyone was mentally preparing for the upcoming confrontation a metallic sound was heard bouncing across the floor, the only person who knew what that was warned everyone as quickly as he can regardless of Naruto's signal.
"COVER EYES AND EARS NOW, FLASHBANG!" Jasper warned as quickly as possible.
Luckily everyone obeyed and was spared from blindness and deafness as it wasn't a flash bang, it was a concussion grenade, but Jasper's warning helped everyone out overall.
If they hadn't covered their ears so quickly they would have been so disoriented they wouldn't even be able to walk straight. Naruto heard it the loudest even though he followed Jasper's warning but was able to ignore it's effects.
"MATTRESSES NOW!" That was his obvious signal and everyone followed it to a T.
Everyone grabbed their mattress and held it one way or another, some vertically some horizontally, but they all converged towards the middle of the barrack and made their defensive wall. Just in time too, as dark figures entered the barrack and started shooting at them. Even though Naruto didn't anticipate the concussion grenade he was still correct about the weapons they would probably use.
"START PUSHING BACK NOW!" Naruto ordered everyone as they started moving forward quickly holding the mattresses as shields.
The counter attack started working effectively as Julius started the charge and tackled a dark figure with a football tackle knocking him down and making him drop his paintball gun. Hunter was next as he saw a shadowed pair and flew towards them while holding his mattress horizontally, he succeeded in knocking both of them down and he rolled off the mattress and picked up one of their guns for his use. Julius was able to retrieve a paintball gun as well and started shooting a barrage of paintballs at the enemy. Hunter followed suit immediately after and soon enough all six soldiers were down from the stun mechanism inside the paintballs.
"Someone turn on the lights." Camilla ordered and Julius was the first one to move because he was closest to the light switch. Soon he turned on the switch and the white fluorescent lights hanging in the middle of the ceiling in a single row all the way to the back of the barrack flared on and shone it's light upon the attacking, quote on quote 'enemies'.
"Oh shit, damn we just fucked up some bitch ass ODST's." Marcus 'AKA' Ice was the first one to comment on the appearance of their attackers.
Kate was the first one to walk up to one of the ODST's on the floor and took of the person's helmet. The guy within the helmet looked a bit above middle aged as he had some wrinkles and greying hair. Kate then took of the next mask and everyone looked on wide eyed a bit as Drill Sergeant Condor was still immobile from the stun hit to his neck.
"Sooooo . . . I guess this was a training exercises but I don't know if there was supposed to be a goal in it for the trainees, he might have been trying to teach us a lesson because Drill Sergeant Condor doesn't seem the kind of guy to just do something randomly without purpose." Naruto pointed out. "Camilla this is probably another one of their scare or man up tactics right?"
Camilla nodded her head.
"Damn ." Everyone looked at Drill Sergeant Condor as he was being released from the short paralysis the chips caused. "That's the first time that's ever happened to me while training ODST candidates." Drill Sergeant Condor was grinning. "You guys keep impressing me," He said as he was getting up from his prone position..
"I have never trained such a capable group of trainees in my entire time being here in the academy." He said this while grinning still, he was also now standing at full height with his helmet under his left arm. "You all amuse me greatly, I was the one trying to teach you all a lesson in not letting your guard down, but it seems I was the one that let my guard down. Hah! The irony." He chuckled a little about more and then the rest of his ODST's started getting up as well and taking off their helmets.
"You all definitely have the potential to be one of the most elite teams of the ODST" The first person who's mask was taken off said.
"Yeah, just don't get all cocky now for taking us down once. This is just the beginning of your ODST training." The first one that Kate unmasked said.
"Well! We don't have time for greetings, you all gotta go back to the drawing board and make something new for these guy's because of today's failure to educate, I on the meantime will be putting them through the meat grinder regardless of their little achievement here today." The Drill Sergeant ordered his comrades.
"Yes sir." They all responded respectively and left the tent to go do as ordered.
"NOW ALL OF YOU WALKING BAGS OF FECAL MATTER ARE GOING TO DROP AND GIVE ME AS MANY PUSH UPS AS YOU CAN!" Every looked at the Sergeant for only 1.5 seconds and for Drill Sergeant Condor that's too much time spent on not following an order.
"NOW!"
Everyone dropped and started doing push-ups and Drill Sergeant Condor was about to add more towards today's list of exercises.
"Once you're done with those push-ups were going for a little jog back to the obstacle course." No one complained out loud but everyone excluding Naruto was mentally groaning and complaining about it.
(One Hour Later: Cafeteria)
"Wooo." Camilla said exasperatedly "DS. Condor sure is a slave-driver, he only gave us a minute before he had us doing more exercises at the end of the obstacle course." She looked at Naruto's face and giggled slightly as she saw him eating really fast and crying waterfalls of tears simultaneously.
"Come on it's not that bad Naruto." Naruto didn't answer as he had to keep eating or he wasn't going to finish it if he stopped. Eventually though he slammed his left fist on the table and wiped his mouth with his right.
"This is one of the worse things I have ever tasted, I cry because I take delight in good food but this, this is an abomination." Naruto said with a glare at his empty tray.
Camilla giggled some more at the seriousness he was displaying over food. Soon all the trainees finished their food, they would all be talking if they had more than ten minutes but that's going to have to wait until they get back to the barracks.
Suddenly a new person they haven't seen before appeared in their midst.
"I need all the ODST Candidates to follow me, today we are having class on the Covenant and the type of weaponry they use, we will also be going over strategic thinking and ODST battle formations." A black haired female with long curvy black hair and black framed glasses wearing a white lab coat that was open and was showing the yellow shirt she was wearing underneath.
All of the trainees got up to do as ordered and followed the woman through a set of double doors within the cafeteria opposite of the entrance and entered a white hallway lighted with fluorescent lights. They continued following her until she stopped at room with a small tag on the front door labeling it room 205B.
She entered a key code on the panel and the door hissed open and she entered with the trainees following behind in a single file line.
The room was oddly circular in dimension with the seats following this pattern, in the middle of the room was some kind of machine that had a low intensity blue light in the middle.
"Take your seats close to the middle of the room please and I will begin class with a short analysis on the Covenant you will be dealing with in the future." She said in a soft educational voice.
Everyone quietly did as instructed and sat in the chairs closest to the middle.
"Okay, class is officially in session. My name is Mrs. Frankenfield and I will be teaching you strategy and the most recent knowledge we have on the Covenant." Mrs. Frankenfield stated while walking to the machine. She took out a remote from her controller and the machine flared to life when she pressed a button on the remote. The machine turned out to be a holographic projector and the first thing it projected was one of those small bipedal infantry units the Covenant uses that are called Grunts.
"I'm sure you have all seen these midgets on t.v or something of the like but its best you know more than what they simply look like." She educated them. "Tough, vicious, and capable with a wide range of Covenant hardware, Grunts are a significant military force. Their discipline, however, is hierarchy reliant and dependent upon strong leadership and strength of numbers. Leaderless, they present significantly less resistance." She clicked another button on her remote, then the image of the grunt switched to that of a tall armor plated alien that was slightly reptilian in nature.
"Now these bastards are one of the toughest the Covenant has to offer, the leadership in any given group. In most cases, neutralizing Elites will cause the rest of the unit to lose cohesion." She pressed the button on her remote again and for two hours they learned a little about the Covenant and battlefield strategy they could implement on the field, soon though Drill Sergeant Condor went and picked them up and put them through some more harsh conditioning drills. This process went on for a couple of days, on one day they were given this weird fluid to drink and were then put inside cryogenic chambers so they could get use to them. Followed by that was weapons training where everyone was taught how to shoot, clean, and repair their guns, the guns were then added to their everyday curriculum and they basically had to learn about them inside and out and remember everything.
They also learned about more Covenant and strategy's to take them down, in addition to that Drill Sergeant Condor was trying more and more ways to put them in situations where the odds were stacked against them. One entire week had passed and the improvement was noticeable, Drill Sergeant Condor would put them through the morning routine and by the end of the week they had gotten used to live rounds being fired at them while crawling through the barb wired mud pit, and their endurance levels had went higher as the could now survive his morning training without too much fatigue all the way to breakfast where the food if you would want to call it that was just a mere nuisance. Then they would go to class and learn new things like military protocol and basic/advanced military hand signs.
(One Week Later: July 8, 2552)
"Uhhhh, I feel like a puddle of gelatin." Camilla said to Naruto while she was laying down on his bunk bed since she was too tired to climb up the ladder.
Naruto was simply sitting on the side of the bed waiting for Camilla to gather her energy for her climb to her bed. Things have changed slightly in the matter of one week, everyone besides Naruto was just that much stronger than before as Drill Sergeant Condor had to come up with new exercises to get them sore muscles.
Naruto himself had changed his attire to a white t-shirt and woodland camouflage cargo pants that was provided by the academy. Tomorrow Drill Sergeant told then they would be running away from him while wearing weights on their arms and legs. Camilla had also needed to change to the same attire as they couldn't wear they're original outfits since those things didn't survive the week with the treatment they were getting.
Drill Sergeant Condor was one scary bastard as you never knew what kind of scary shit he would think up next and call it training.
(July 12, 2552)
Four more days had passed and within those days at the end of Mrs. Frankenfields class instead of Drill Sergeant Condor making them do some more training immediately he instead had them do the SOEIV simulations, he showed them what it looked like and how to operate it manually. He showed them where their guns would be put inside the insertion vehicle and how to act in an emergency using the backup thrusters and the manual steering. Within those four days they also learned how to shoot more accurately with a wide array of UNSC weaponry like the MA37-Assualt rifle and the M6G-Magnum, along with marksmen guns like the M392 DMR or the SRS99-Sniper Rifle which was favored by Camilla and Hunter and as a bonus they were quite adept at learning how to use them. Jasper, Kate, and Julius all preferred using the M392 DMR (Designated Marksman Rifle) since they liked the medium to long range feature it had and they as well learned how to use it decently within those four days.
Every day from July 1st to July 12th was a day that Drill Sergeant Condor would take advantage of, he would come up with the meanest ways to teach them a lesson and that lesson that he would teach would always have a serious purpose. Like that one time on July 10th where the Drill Sergeant found it prudent to throw a fragmentation grenade in the middle of their morning run, instead of watching them run away from it as expected two trainees did something that will strengthen the familial bond that all his trainees were starting to develop. Mathew was the first one to notice the grenade and he dived for it to cover it with his body while Naruto saw what Mathew was diving for decided to kick it away from them and into the forest. If it were a live grenade they both would have succeeded in saving their teammates lives.
July 11th they were being taught by Mrs. Frankenfield after morning training and were being taught the various weapons they should expect the Covenant to be using. There were some pretty scary mechanisms these weapons had like the Needler, it was a handheld Covenant weapon with pink crystals sticking out the back, but don't underestimate it due to its size and color. This weapon is capable of firing those crystal needles at high speed and one amazing factor of it's capabilities is that it can home in on its target and pierce them and their armor, that's not even the scary part, if you get hit with one of these needles its best you pull it out as quickly as possible or it will explode inside of you most likely finishing you off, and if you get hit with too many then all the needles will synchronize and explode in a large ball of pink death with 75% the power of a fragmentation grenade.
They also started learning about the vehicles the Covenant uses today on July 12th, like the Covenants version of a tank called a Wraith, this blue monstrosity shoots high density plasma mortars that explode on impact damaging whatever is within its large radius of damage. Along with that was the very versatile Ghost, a small single occupant vehicle that shoots plasma rounds at a high rate from the double mounted plasma cannons it has on the front, it has been known that there are techniques to commandeering them and easily taking them down but they are usually deployed in pairs making it harder to do.
The days are starting to go by faster now for the trainees as they were starting to adapt more quickly to the Drill Sergeants lessons and training sessions. They no longer feared him and what he would do next; they only prepared themselves for it. It seems that the twelve man team has exceeded expectations and that's what the UNSC wants and that's what the Drill Sergeant wants. These soldiers in training are become more and more capable each day with the knowledge they are being given and the skills they are being taught and Drill Sergeant Condor couldn't be any happier that he was the one entrusted with them.
(July 14th, 2552)
Another two days had gone by and the trainees barely noticed as they were too focused on becoming the best damn ODST's they can be. They would study the strategy material that Mrs. Frankenfield would give them, they would study the historical wars that humanity has had generations before and after the 21st century and they would learn from them. To this day they have never felt so mentally and physically capable as the cafeteria food they were given in collaboration with their harsh training has made them stronger in two weeks then they could have been without it.
Currently we find all the trainees back in the shooting range for their spare time of the day.
Naruto was re-testing a wide assortment of UNSC weaponry that was currently laying down on the white table before him. He has already learned how to use them but he is simply not that comfortable with them yet. The only one he could say he is comfortable with was the M6G-Magnum and the M45 TS-Shotgun because right there he has short range and medium range which is all he feels he would ever need. Were the situation to call for it though he could easily use any UNSC weapon effectively same goes for everyone else.
Naruto suddenly picked up M319 GL-Grenade Launcher and decided to test fire the EMP they were told it produced when holding down the trigger for longer than a second. He opened the barrel the way he was taught how and loaded it with a grenade round. He aimed down the field holding the launcher slightly elevated and held down the trigger preparing to fire.
He let go of the trigger and the thump sound of the grenade being released rang out and he saw the grenade travel at a higher speed than a thrown frag grenade and watched it detonate after bouncing from the fifty foot line. The explosion wasn't that large but that's not what mattered, Naruto was able to see the instant the electro-magnetic pulse was released and marveled at how it closely resembled a Lightning release technique he had seen from Raiga back in the days when he went on that mission to the Katabami gold mine.
This also reminded him that he still needed to reveal that one secret about himself, he was really starting to trust his teammates but he still didn't feel it was safe as long as he was here at the academy, so he held off on that. Regardless of that Naruto was also thinking about training himself because while the exercises that Drill Sergeant Condor had him do were enough to keep him in shape they weren't enough to get him stronger because the Drill Sergeant really didn't know the limits of Naruto's strength.
"You will do no such thing as training in a academy with eyes and ears everywhere, you have already heard about this mysterious group called the Office of Naval Intelligence so stick with your plan of revealing your power when necessary" Kurama decided it was only smart to nip this in the bud before Naruto went and did something stupid again.
'Ugh, I know Kurama but I'm getting bored not doing anything awesome, I still haven't even been able to bust out my new fire techniques yet and I've been getting anxious just to use some chakra, look all I'm saying is that I have too much energy to burn and not a big enough outlet.' Naruto reasoned inside his head as he put down the grenade launcher and picked up the DMR for some more practice with it.
"That's too bad, you're going to have to wait it out or you will put us at risk." Kurama said this with finality.
'Awww man.' Naruto whined inside his head as he was shooting the DMR with some accuracy, he simply did not feel comfortable holding it for some reason so for now he would put it down and be satisfied with his decent accomplishment of having a good grouping of shots on his target which was 40 ft, away.
"ATTENTION!" The Drill Sergeant suddenly announced from behind all of them.
Naruto quickly turned around and saluted the Drill Sergeant in synchronized movement with the rest of his teammates.
"I have been informed that Drill Sergeant Stoner would like to perform a joint operation with his ODST's who are training in another segment of the area we are in designated Military Reservation 01478-B, we will be going to a place affectionately called the Pain land where both teams will be competing for the best time through one of the toughest obstacle courses we have. You better get a good nights sleep since were leaving tomorrow morning by Pelican." Drill Sergeant Condor immediately walked away after his announcement leaving the trainees to their own devices.
"Finally!" Naruto was the first one to comment out loud. "Something challenging, come on don't you guys agree, it was starting to feel repetitive what the Drill Sergeant had us doing. Don't you guys want something challenging to put our skills to the test." Naruto said excitedly.
"Hell yeah! I've been waiting for something like this!" Jasper responded second.
"Yep! Being pitted against another team is a bonus since we get to compare our skills with theirs." Kate added afterwards.
"Yah niggas iz crazy, didn't you hear the fuckin name of that obstacle course. Fucking Pain Land . . . now what does that tell you." Ice commented truthfully.
"It tells us that you have a flimsy ballsack." Julius was the one who said that and had everyone cracking up with Ice looking aggravated as shit.
"Maann shut the fuck up Julius, you don't know shit! I bet your gonna piss your pants along with everyone else when we see the damn course the Sarge is talking about." Ice retorted back.
"Oi! Speak for yourself mate, I happen to like completing obstacle courses, it makes ya feel good inside when you get to the end and you realize that you got stronger as your time gets lower." Riley commented while looking at Ice.
"Damn Riley I thought you was my nigga." Ice said comically with his arms crossed.
"Well I don't know about you guys but I'm going to bed, I'm beat." Hunter said this and started his trek back to the barrack. It was starting to get dark out.
"Yeah I'm following Hunter's example, it's best we all do if were gonna be going to Pain Land tomorrow." Camilla said as she followed after Hunter with Chaser at her heels.
"I guess I'll go to since I really don't have anything else I can do." Naruto followed after Camilla. Soon everyone just went out of principle because they recognize each other as friends and teammates. Everyone was now in their bed mentally preparing for tomorrow and physically healing today's after effects of training. Luckily they will feel refreshed in the morning due to the nutrient packed food they had as their second meal of the day, man that stuff may taste bad but it really works.
So now we find that Naruto is coming to terms with his predicament and trying to the best of his ability to not physically adapt but mentally to new and continued changes he will see within this new world. Tomorrow is going to be a day that will be filled with epic moments and strenuous activity that will pit their survival skills with another team to see how far they have truly advanced in the two weeks they have been in the Montez Military Academy. But as they get closer to being the soldiers they were meant to be, something else that was not anticipated is also getting closer, something that will happen too soon and will test the mettle of the UNSC and the ODST's in training. It is inevitable and depending on the actions of certain key people the expected will happen and nothing can be done to stop it.
Authors note: I am Sorry. I truly am family, it's not my fault but I am still sorry. It has been four days since I updated and it was really hard trying to write while being around my family. I Could only get in a couple hundred to a thousand words per day, but when I finally got home today I was able to finish and wrote you guys a longer than normal chapter from what I have been writing usually. Now that I am home updates will be coming at a faster rate and the story will start to progress. All you readers out there give thanks to (RoyalTwinFangs, Nekomata N. Ninja, Fallen-Ryu and edboy4926 along with LordGhostStriker, Yanagi no Mai, and Swelgur the Challenger.) These readers gave me the strength and motivation to update as fast as possible and to uphold my promise of a longer chapter. PEACE OUT FAMILY. AND DON'T FORGET TO REVIEW THIS CHAPTER, I NEED TO KNOW IF IT WAS TOO BORING OR WHATEVER, LEAVE A REVIEW PLEASE!