After a wild rampage through the halls of the Jedi Temple, Jace and Naruto managed to finally outrun Master Drallig, or "The Troll" as his students had referred to him. The total sum of destruction amounted to several damaged statues, destabilized pillars, and a number of other structural and decorative scars that graced the halls, courtesy of the Troll's somewhat careless lightsaber and Naruto's general carelessness.
When the two young men were almost about to leave the Temple, they were stopped by a seemingly oblivious Master Yoda. Naruto bowed and Jace saluted as they were walking towards the exit.
"In the other direction, do your quarters lie." Master Yoda said, pointing with his gimer stick in the general vicinity of the previous shenanigans that Jace and Naruto had been the cause of. "Distressed, you seem, Apprentice Chrytos. What is it that troubles you?"
"Ah, sir." Jace said nervously, scratching the back of his head. "We were just trying to escape the weapons master, who appeared to be somewhat, er, displeased with our practice ten minutes ago."
"What did this practice consist of, if I may ask?" Yoda inquired.
Before either Naruto or Jace could open their mouths, Master Drallig stormed up behind them, bowed to Master Yoda, and faced the two blondes, a serious look on his face.
"Where did you two get the impression that you were allowed to touch the weapons in the training room?" He demanded.
Naruto, foolishly, spoke first. "Nobody said not to..."
"So you thought you could just pick up a lightsaber and swing it about like some toy?" Drallig appeared to be furious, but Jace spotted a hint of something else in the old man's eyes.
"As I recall, sir, nobody was injured in any way. We also still have all of our limbs attached to our bodies." Jace crossed his arms in irritation. "I do believe you need a stronger base than that to justify bitching either myself or Naruto out as if we were nothing more that small children playing with fire for the first time."
Cin Drallig glowered at Jace for a few minutes more, then broke out into laughter. "You have a spine, boy. I like that!." The old master clapped Jace on the back and ruffled Naruto's already messy hair. "Master Yoda, these two young men showed an impressive display of swordsmanship rivalled only by the Weapon Masters of the Old Republic." He gestured to Jace, "This one even showed signs of instinctively knowing old Juyo, Soresu, and Shien in the way he wielded two lightsabers, Master."
Yoda chuckled at the enthusiasm of his old student. "And one of your personal students, you would have him be, hmm, young Cin?"
"I would, Master Yoda, but for the fact that he would be better served learning from the Order's known master of Vaapaad, Master Windu." Drallig responded soberly.
"Consider your recommendation, I will. Guide these two to their quarters, I request of you." Yoda waved as the Troll guided Jace and Naruto to the Apprentices' quarters.
The next day greeted Naruto and Jace with Master Drallig yelling at them to get themselves out of bed until he was unexpectedly srtuck between the eyes with an airborne clock from Jace, which indicated the planetary time to not yet be close to sunrise. "I rise with the sun, old man." Naruto yelled as he shut the door and locked it in Drallig's face. The old Master grumbled as he searched for Master Yoda to ask for advice when he saw an orange blur with blonde hair fly past him, screaming foreign profanities as Jace followed, a vengeful look on his face.
"Between the Troll's yelling, my insomnia, and your fucking unlimited stamina, I will never have a normal sleep pattern again!" He yelled as he sprinted after his terrified Japanese friend. Naruto continued to beg for mercy until the chatter was suddenly cut off by a burst of agony-filled screaming that caused the hairs on the back of everyone's neck to rise.
"Oni! Oni! America no oni!" Naruto screamed at the top of his lungs as he escaped Jace's fury. Jace walked from the corner he had stopped Naruto in, a peaceful, yet smug look plastered on his face.
He nodded to Drallig. "Sir." was all he said as he continued to walk away, ignoring the open fear that many of the Padawans and Apprentices now displayed. He passed Master Yoda along his way to the training room.
"Distressed, young Uzumaki seemed." Yoda said. "Have anything to do with his status, do you?" He noticed the still-gaping students. "As well as that of the rest of the Temple's students? Hmm?"
"I'm not sure, Master Yoda." Jace responded with a visible gleam in his eye. "They've never seen a member of the military woken up early when he's not on duty, I presume?"
"Never introduced to the military, have they ever been, young Chrytos." Yoda chuckled.
"Oh, that's understandable." Jace replied. "Now, sir, if you dont mind, I have to go beat Naruto senseless again because he made me exercise early as well." He waved as he sprinted off, yelling "Get your blonde ninja ass back here!" as he spotted Naruto on the other side of the Hall of a Thousand Fountains.
After Jace finished beating up Naruto to relieve his frustration, the two blondes managed to sneak out of the Temple until they ran into the bearded Council member that Jace now identified as Master Obi-wan Kenobi.
"Sneaking out?" Obi-wan asked with a knowing smile as his another Jedi came up behind him. "Anakin here was quite adept at it when he first came to train as a Jedi."
Jace crossed his arms. "I highly doubt that if you wanted us to go back, we would just be standing here talking." He raised one eyebrow. "If anything, I would say you knew we were leaving for a bit."
"Your assumptions would be correct." Anakin laughed. "Though, I don't know how..."
"Your stances are relaxed," Naruto reported. "You also exude an air of mischief, indicating that you both have done the same thing and are not about to stop us from 'learning' about finding our way around."
"Not only that, but Anakin has a small pouch with enough credits for a few meals on the inside of his belt." Jace continued. "Obi-wan has a very extensive record for causing mischief readily available for those who would dig deep enough."
"And the kicker," Naruto finished. "We got lucky that it was you two."
All four looked at each other seriously before bursting into laughter. They began to walk towards a diner that Obi-wan mentioned. The diner was owned and run by his old friend Dexxter, who held as many stories as he did laughs. The large creature before them gave Naruto and Jace a start, partly because he was almost a good quarter-meter taller than Jace, who stood at about two meters himself.
"Obi-wan, how can I help you?" The large Besalisk asked the Jedi Master.
"I have a couple students who wanted to sneak out of the Temple for a bit." Obi-wan said with a somewhat stern look before a smile took over again.
"I see," Dexxter said. "And you want me to teach them the proper places to go when they decide that the Temple is just a bit too stuffy for them?"
"Just like you did with me?" Anakin chimed in, grinning.
Dexxter laughed heartily. "Aye, that was a good lesson I taught you, though, huh?"
The two Jedi laughed with the Besalisk, while Naruto and Jace exchanged confused looks at the banter for which they had no background information to refer to. Dexxter returned his attention to the young men.
"So, what would be your names?" He asked politely.
Jace spoke first, feeling no aggresion or ill will from the large alien. "Jace Chrytos, sir." His military attitude did not seem to have diminished, even in the presence of such a casual group.
"No formalities necessary here, young Jace." Dexxter said. "Just call me Dex. Everyone else does." He chuckled again.
Naruto overcame his initial nervousness, seeing the ease with which everyone spoke to the Besalisk. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki. I'm pleased to be meeting you, Dex-san." He bowed.
Before Dex said anything about formalities, Jace cut in. "Where he comes from, on our planet, bowing is very common, as is the honorific at the end of a person's name." He laughed. "It took me a little while to get him to stop calling me 'Chrytos-san'."
"Shut up, Jace." Naruto said, punching his friend. "He's lying! I swear to Kami!" He pulled Jace into a headlock. The two pulled each other outside to continue their brawling where it wouldn't damage the diner.
While Dex stared in confusion at their violence, Obi-wan rubbed his temples while Anakin laughed.
"Do they do this very often?" Dex asked nervously. "It seems dangerous for them to be beating each other senseless in public like that" He winced as Naruto kneed Jace in the face.
The faint sound of Naruto's shouting leaked through the window. "That was for this morning!"
"They do it all the time." Anakin said. "According to both Naruto and Jace, it's to keep themselves from taking out their boredom on other students."
Dex now looked distressed. "This is how they relieve boredom?"
"Don't worry, Dex." Obi-wan said as he walked outside to break up the brawl. "They don't induce property damage unless they're apprehending criminals."
Naruto and Jace found themselves in the now familiar position of hanging upside down, courtesy of a Jedi's use of the Force.
"Next time you two sneak out, beat each other senseless with Master Drallig watching." Obi-wan released the two blondes. "He loves to watch you two go at it apparently."
"The Troll tried to wake us up early..." Naruto complained.
"I hit him in the face with a clock..." Jace continued.
Naruto finished. "And I yelled at him and locked the door in his face."
"I wondered why he looked so shocked..." Obi-wan mused. "He must have never been yelled at by students before, and clocks aren't very soft." Following this, all three broke into laughter as they re-entered the diner.
"Have the two young warriors calmed down?" Dex asked cautiously.
"They were woken up early by Master Cin Drallig this morning." Obi-wan explained.
"Oh, no..." Anakin recalled his first training sessions with the Troll.
"They showed him that he needs to choose a better method of waking his older new students." Obi-wan chuckled.
As everyone traded stories, Dex became familiar with his newest customers. Between Naruto's stories about missions as a ninja and Jace's relations of various explorations into martial arts, music, and meditation, Dex discovered that they held almost as many stories as he did, when they appeared to only be recent adults.
"If I had been through as many adventures on just one planet as either one of you," Dex said. "I would have tales to tell for the rest of my days."
"That wasn't even the best part." Jace said.
"That has to be when we were captured by slavers." Naruto stated. Jace nodded in agreement.
The next hour was spent as Jace and Naruto related their collective tale of their capture and escape. The past couple of weeks, and the rapid intake of discoveries that they had made.
"After we finally got to the Temple, Naruto and Jace introduced themselves to the Council in a most... unorthodox manner."
"Since then, they have brawled in the Council chambers, the training room, the Hall of a Thousand Fountains, and the Archives." Anakin recalled the locations in order.
"Every incident has resulted in some traumatization of the Apprentices nearby, irritation of the nearest Master, or a combination of the two." Obi-wan rubbed his eyes. "What gray hairs I never gained from training Anakin, I have received in the two days that these young men have been present at the Temple."
The group parted ways outside the diner. As Jace followed Naruto in the opposite direction of Obi-wan and Anakin, the former said to his student, "You felt it, didn't you?"
Anakin nodded as he and Obi-wan began the walk back to the Temple. "Those two had energy rolling off of them like light shines from a nova."
"Did you get a sample of their blood?" Obi-wan asked. "We did have instructions to do a midichlorian count if possible."
Anakin shook his head. "No, Master. Despite their common brawls, neither one draws blood. They just pummel each other until they get bored or tired."
Obi-wan and Anakin continued the rest of their trek to the Temple in silence.
When the two blondes returned to the Temple at close to evening hours, they were weighed down with hundreds of thoudsands of credits they had gathered making bets, racing, and fighting in the Coruscant underground. There was still a small stretch of the lower levels of Coruscant's back streets that nobody would go near, due in part to the smell and carnage, as well as the rumors of the demonic creasture lurking in that darkness. In truth, Naruto and Jace had been cornered by a particularly nasty gang of Separatist dissidents who intended to take the young men hostage, thinking they were full-fledged Jedi. Jace had rapidly dispatched a number of the unfortunate non-humans using his bare hands.
Now they were walking up to the entrance of the Temple, only to stumble into a very irritated-looking Master Windu. Naruto and Jace looked at each other, then back at Master Windu. They grinned sheepishly, holding up their hands in surrender.
"Where have you two been?" Windu demanded.
"Getting some real world practice?" Jace said hopefully.
"Cleaning out the Coruscant underground's funding?" Naruto chimed in before Jace elbowed him in the ribs sharply, resulting in a particularly loud crack.
"You will be allowed to keep those credits on one condition." Master Windu began with a stern look. His eyes lightened as he finished, "You have to go for blood testing and vaccination tomorrow, as well as gather these parts." Mace Windu pulled out a datapad with an entry in text that Naruto and Jace could not read.
"Uh, Windu-san..." Naruto began.
"Is there a problem?" the bald Master asked.
"Yeah," Jace said, handing Windu the datapad. "We can read any of that. Our planet had several writing systems, but none of it looked like that."
Naruto pulled out a digital sketchpad he had acquired earlier that day and wrote his name in Japanese. He then handed the pad to Jace, who wrote his own name in Latin letters. Jace in turn handed the pad to a very perplexed Mace Windu, who examind the writing from both Naruto and Jace.
"You still write by hand on your homeworld?" He asked incredulously.
Naruto and Jace began a set of beating their heads against the wall, both saying "Baka" in unison as they took out their exasperation with the lack of communication between Captain Tarkin and the Jedi Council.
Master Windu just stared in wonder as the two young men slowly began to form dents in the section of wall they both stood before. Eventually, he saw a trickle of blood start of Naruto's forehead. He pulled out a sample container, hiding it in a cloth as he wiped away the blood. "You should probably stop beating your heads against the wall. It recieves enough abuse from the environment without your assistance. Now, get to bed." He pushed Naruto and Jace inside and made his may towards the medical lab.
Mace handed the sample to a med tech, who put the small vial in a midichlorian detector. The results the tech returned elicited an open look of shock as the Master copied the information to his datapad to show to the Council the next day. 'Now I just have to acquire a sample of that Jace kid's blood.' he thought as he walked to his own quarters.
