Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Mega Man Zero.

Electronic Diary Entry #2-1031-2

A blazing red cloak…bright golden hair…

…and the ability to summon a powerful sphere of energy that can destroy even a mighty Golem in a blink of an eye.

There seemed to be nothing out of reach. Even the forces of nature themselves were tamed and subject to command…fire, water, wind, earth and lightning…

I had thought we were finished, especially when I realized that it wasn't Zero standing before me…that all our efforts for both peace and freedom would be for nothing…

Before…we had lived each day in fear…fear of Neo Arcadia…fear of death…

Sadness…uncertainty…fear…

Yes…that was how I felt…

…until I saw him standing before me…until I saw the Maelstrom of Hope…

~ Ciel

(adapted from Ciel's Memory: Rebirth of Zero – Mega Man Zero Audio Drama)

"Welcome to our base, Naruto. This is a shelter for injured Reploids who are suspected of being Mavericks."

"Mavericks?" Naruto asked.

Despite the massive holes in his memory, Naruto knew he was never the smartest person around even in his own time. So now, presumably after many, many centuries, Naruto was more lost than a mouse in a maze.

"Ah, yes," Ciel said with an apologetic smile. "Please forgive me. Reploids and Mavericks have existed for several hundred years now so we have become accustomed to speaking of them as if they always existed. As I have already explained to you, Reploids are the epitome of artificial intelligence."

Naruto nodded. "Yes, machines with brains, hearts, and souls."

"A somewhat simplistic interpretation, but that will do," Ciel responded diplomatically. Naruto almost rolled his eyes. If Ciel thought he was being stupid, she should just flat out say it. Naruto frowned after a moment though. The poor girl probably thought that he might abandon her if she offended him. Naruto would have to correct that thought. He did what was right, no matter how much people insulted him. "Like humans and unlike simple Robots, Reploids were purely governed by their own moral conscience. Of course, that left the door open for Reploids to eventually commit acts of violence."

"I see," Naruto said. "So these Mavericks are Reploids who have gone out of control and impulsively attack whatever they want instead of making proper ethical judgments."

"Yes. The first set of Mavericks became Mavericks because of a virus that infected them and altered their programming, making them lose the ability to empathize with others and predisposing them to become terribly violent. Eventually, a cure for the virus was found at great cost. But the…the ruler of Neo Arcadia has suddenly began claiming that Maverick outbreaks were happening once more."

"And innocent Reploids were being labeled as Mavericks," Naruto concluded. "That explains why everyone else," he gestured to the Reploids who were walking around the base, "is here. But you," he pointed to Ciel, "are human. I can sense the chakra that your body is emitting." The girl looked confused so he explained. "Chakra is the energy that runs through every organic life form." Seeing the girl nod, Naruto went on. "This Neo Arcadia isn't coming after you. So why are you here? Why are you needlessly putting yourself in danger? Couldn't you work from inside of Neo Arcadia to create reforms?"

"I…" Naruto could tell that Ciel was hesitating. "I…as an Enlightened One, I have a special empathy with Reploids. I can see and feel things that they do. Most of my closest friends were and are Reploids. So…so it…it was only right for me to come and lead them."

Naruto wasn't fully convinced, but nodded. He didn't really care to hear what her real reasons were; he respected the right to privacy, after all.

"Except that you don't have any fighters here." Naruto explained before Ciel could ask. "I can tell just by looking how they carry themselves, you know. Almost all of the people, um…Reploids, here are civilians."

The girl nodded. "The few combat Reploids we have are remodified civilian Reploids. Other than that, most of us are civilians who have adapted and learned how to fight. It's been almost six years since we escaped Neo Arcadia and created the Resistance. We have fought so hard to survive."

Naruto blanched at that. Six years ago? The girl must have been eight or nine years old at the time then! Whatever modifications they made to her DNA must have made her far more mature and independent as well if she was leading a group of people at that age. Naruto was still whining about being an orphan and playing in the sandbox at that age.

And it wasn't just six years of living. It was six years of enduring attacks and fighting to survive.

He looked at the blond, pink-wearing girl in a different light.

"I'm sure you have…" Naruto said in an awed tone.

Ciel nodded sadly. "Even so, we all knew that the end was coming. We didn't have the firepower to fight against the many combat Reploids, some of them B-rank and above, that Neo Arcadia had. We didn't even have the resources just to survive. Reploids are technically machines, but even they need nourishment in the form of energy crystals to survive. With Neo Arcadia hoarding all the energy, the Reploids here were eventually going to die."

"So you gambled on finding this legendary Reploid named Zero."

Naruto smirked when he saw the look of surprise. No doubt that she had thought she would have to lay everything out in detail for him.

Once upon a time, that may have been the case, but now…Naruto had more than enough experience, knowledge, and wisdom to connect seemingly unrelated facts together.

"Zero fought with the legendary X a hundred years ago. Those two saved the entire world multiple times. Zero was our last hope." Ciel clenched her fists tightly. "Most of the Reploids here had thought that Zero was nothing but a fantasy. While…while I know that Zero did exist once upon a time...it appears that the thought that we could find Zero had been nothing but a pipe dream. I'm afraid their fears were proven to be correct."

"Hey there," Naruto consoled, walking over to her and putting his arm on her shoulder. Naruto frowned when he felt her tense. The girl was probably unused to any sort of contact because of the life she lived. "Maybe you didn't find this Zero, but you found me." Naruto smiled cheekily. "I like to think that I'm fairly powerful, you know."

"Please!" the girl turned to look at him with tears in her eyes. "Lend us your strength! I know you have nothing at stake here, but please help us!"

Naruto was taken aback by her intensity and took a step back. He briefly wondered if the look she had was similar to the one he had in his own eyes when deciding to put his life on the line for something he believed in. "Wait," he asked. "What about X? You said he also saved the world, right?"

"That legendary Reploid is still alive and he is trying to 'retire' all the Reploids here. X…X is the ruler of Neo Arcadia!"

Naruto figured that "retiring" was synonymous with "killing" when it came to Reploids.

"X? The hero who saved the world is trying to kill innocent Reploids?"

"Until we can find Zero, we need your help! Naruto, please help us…please…" Ciel begged. "I'll do anything…anything for you!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly. He didn't miss the way that Ciel avoided answering the question. Given how smart the girl was, it had to be done on purpose.

Still, it didn't seem like Ciel was intentionally try to mislead him. It was probably something personal. Maybe she had been close to this X or whoever. And while it was true that Naruto didn't have a stake in this battle, he was never one to sit on the sidelines and watch injustice be done. He didn't exactly know what Mavericks were, but the civilian Reploids that were around the base were definitely not Mavericks. The Resistance Reploids were mostly harmless.

Yes, it was strange that he would be fighting for machines that were alive, but if one were to be completely honest and technical, humans were essentially a collection of molecules and compounds as well. Life was life.

"Hey, calm down," Naruto said soothingly. "To be honest, I don't know what's going but I know that killing harmless and innocent people is wrong. Until you find Zero, I'll help you out, okay?"

Ciel's eyes widened. "Really?"

Naruto nodded. "Of course. I'm not one to stand by and let innocent people get killed on my watch…" he paused, "even if they're not human." Naruto laughed. Not surprised by this development at all…I mean…I even considered animals my family, after all.

Wait what? Naruto froze. Did I really have animals that close to me? How would I even begin to talk to them? Ugh…I can't remember anything!

And yet, the feeling that he was missing something drastically important continued to weigh on Naruto. It was almost as if his mind was trying to grasp something that was so close yet so far.

"And…and…did you want anything in return?" Ciel asked carefully. "We don't have much, but…"

Naruto's eyes snapped back into focus. He looked at Ciel and gently shook his head. "I have a very strong feeling that someone very close to me would want me to ask for something very specific, but I believe that doing a good deed is its own reward."

"Thank you! Thank you so much! We won't ever forget your kindness!"

The next day, Ciel had spent quite a bit of time with Naruto. He wanted to learn more about the situation at hand and she wanted to hear stories from the past.

There weren't too many specific things that Naruto remembered. However, based on what Naruto did know, Ciel estimated that Naruto must have been asleep for around almost a thousand years. It definitely put the tall tales of people using magic during those times into perspective. Ciel had previously written those stories off as just fairy tales but seeing what Naruto could do made her reconsider.

Just what happened to make people lose those magical abilities and turn to technological advancement as an alternative?

Naruto spoke of many wars that occurred during that era. Perhaps people simply grew tired of waging wars on such fantastical scales. The fact that Naruto, a relic of a world war, was sealed without ever being woken up by his people supported that theory of war-weariness.

Not that it did much good, Ciel thought to herself grimly. The war-weariness must have died down after some time.

Ciel wasn't a historian but she knew enough to know that people found ways to hurt others no matter what era they lived in. In Naruto's era, it was through the use of chakra. In her era, it was through technology. There had been a short period of peace following the discovery of X and the creation of Reploids since the increased efficiency of the Reploids drastically decreased the need for humans to work and reduced the scramble for finite resources, but violence still managed to creep in over time, culminating in the terrible Elf Wars a century ago where 60% of all humans and 90% of all Reploids died.

"Hey Ciel," Naruto pointed at the digital map on her computer screen. "I noticed something strange but I wasn't sure how I'd ask you this."

"Yes?" She swerved in her chair to see where he had pointed.

"Well, you said that Neo Arcadia is this entire region, correct?" Naruto circled a rather large portion of the screen with his finger.

"Yes," she answered, now understanding what Naruto was getting at.

She decided to let him finish his thought, however.

"Well, why are we so close to Neo Arcadia?" Naruto asked. "I can't ever say that I was a strategist, at least from what I remember, but even I know that setting up a base near enemy territory is just asking for trouble."

Ciel nodded. "It is and it's part of the reason why we're in such a predicament. Because of our relative proximity to Neo Arcadia, we constantly have to be on the lookout for Neo Arcadian patrols. But if you look carefully here," she pointed to a place opposite to where Neo Arcadia was on the map, "you can see that we're bordered by a desert."

"Why does that matter?" Naruto asked with a frown. "If anything, it looks like the Resistance Base is squeezed in between several harsh environments."

"That's the point. Outside of Neo Arcadia, there aren't very many hospitable places to stay. The desert extends for thousands of miles. And if you move north this way," she gestured up on the map, "the entire landscape is barren save for ice and snow. There are specialized Reploids that can operate in such environments, but typical civilian Reploids are only somewhat more durable than the average human. There is no way for us to live or even travel through under such harsh conditions."

This had been the terrible consequence of the Elf Wars. Because of fallout from the weapons of mass destruction used in the war, nature was almost completely destroyed elsewhere on the planet.

Naruto winced. "So you're basically saying that you can't escape too far even if you wanted to because you can't live anywhere else…"

"More or less correct. There are habitable places thousands of miles away, but we have no means of getting there without getting detected by Neo Arcadian forces. Neo Arcadia monitors the entire airspace here. We can send slow and low-flying transport planes out, but any higher up, planes will get shot down."

"What about those Trans Servers? Can't you use that technology to transfer people over large distances?"

"Again, that's only if we have the coordinates. Moreover, Trans Servers, while useful, are limited in their range. We can only transfer people a few hundred miles at the most. And those are only with state-of-the-art Trans Servers, which we do not have."

"Whew…" Naruto muttered. "And so you've been staying here for six years?"

Ciel shook her head. "We were on the move for several years. It was really a stroke of luck that allowed us to find this place."

"No," Naruto said with a small smile, "it wasn't just luck. I'm sure determination and will had quite a lot to do with it."

"Naruto…" Ciel felt her heart start to race and face slowly flush. She didn't quite understand why, however. She did know that as a human girl, her body would respond in certain physiological ways whenever she got near human boys, especially attractive ones, but…this was considerably more than what she had predicted.

This was far more emotional.

Naruto just seemed to have a strange effect on her.

"No, I'm serious," Naruto replied earnestly as he met her eyes. "Even during my time when it was almost normal for children to go into battle, not many would have been able to do what you've done here. And I don't care what you claim about your intellect and genetics; you're still a young girl."

Ciel felt her breath catch in her throat as she looked into his eyes. Naruto's words didn't say it, but she could tell that he too, like her, had felt such huge burden on his shoulder before at a far too young age. She didn't have any special empathic connection with humans, but she still could almost feel the empathy in the air and the sorrow and pity Naruto was feeling for her sake.

It was almost as if he was saying he'd share her burden with her.

"I…" she whispered as she began to tear up. For six years, she had steel herself and tried to keep her heart as strong as possible. But for some reason, this boy from the past just made her feel so vulnerable. "I just want peace…"

Naruto nodded with distant eyes, as if he were remembering something in the past, before his eyes focused like lasers again and bore into her own.

"So do I, Ciel…so do I."

Over the next few days, Naruto went on various small missions for Ciel and the Resistance. Ciel must have been trying to get him used to battle before sending him on a large mission because the assignments she had sent him on were ridiculously easy. For the most part, he had an easier time on all the missions than he did when he first escorted Ciel out of the abandoned laboratory & shrine he had been sleeping in.

Currently the mission he was to take over an abandoned factory. The factory itself was some ways away from the base—enough that taking over the factory wouldn't give away the position of their base—but still close enough that they could incorporate it into their infrastructure and use it to create badly needed tools, such as weapons and machines.

"Neo Arcadia must be a joke," Naruto grumbled to himself as he slashed through Pantheon after Pantheon in the area with custom-made energy kunai. "There hasn't been a single decent enemy out here." He threw an energy shuriken, something that Cerveau had made for him based on the technology of the day, which pierced the shield of a Barrier Counter and made the flying Reploid explode.

The solid energy spikes on his shuriken and the energy blade on his kunai didn't absorb chakra at all, but they were definitely significant upgrades over metal weapons and easily pierced through things that even metal blades couldn't. In fact, Naruto suspected that they were sharper and had greater penetration power than wind-coated metal weapons.

It was a shame he couldn't add chakra to augment those characteristics even more. He found that he couldn't even clone them with variations of the shadow clone technique.

Naruto had heard that Zero's signature weapon had been a sword made out of similar solid energy and asked for his own set of solid energy weapons. Naruto was strong but he wasn't so arrogant as to think that he couldn't get stronger from the new technology that the future had.

"I didn't need your help, Naruto-san."

Naruto rolled his eyes and jumped away from the pompous Reploid who had addressed him. It had been Colbor, a low-end combat Reploid. Colbor had quite an interesting background. He was originally slated to be one of the degenerate Pantheons, but the manufacturing plant made an error and had given him far more computing power than necessary along with a civilian Reploid exterior to an Pantheon interior.

In short, Colbor was a smarter Pantheon that looked like a civilian Reploid.

Although…given how dumb those blue Pantheons are…that's not much of a compliment. Naruto thought with some disdain.

Colbor had made it known from the beginning that he had no intention on relying on Naruto. In his opinion, Naruto, someone who had no stake in the battle, wasn't someone the Resistance could trust. Furthermore, Colbor had doubts about how strong a human could be.

As Naruto hurled several more shuriken to destroy more Barrier Counters, Naruto briefly wondered if Ciel had put Naruto and Colbor's squad on a mission together to build up trust.

Naruto had to hand it to the pretty leader of the Resistance. For the most part, her plan was working. Naruto jumped over a female Reploid to slash several Hoppiders that had appeared from behind a corner. He saw her give him a look of gratitude before he body flickered away. But Colbor proved to be idiotically stubborn and tried to refuse almost any sort of help to his detriment.

After about an hour, they finally cleared out all the enemies in the factory and reached the central power room.

"Alright," Colbor announced before Naruto could stop him. "One more room to take. Follow me."

"Wait," Naruto cried out. In his opinion, the factory takeover had gone too smoothly. He couldn't sense these mechanical Reploids, but he could still sense danger. And there was something wrong.

Naruto was still suspicious that there were more enemies lying around. He wouldn't be surprised if there was a powerful Reploid waiting to take potshots at them the moment they let their guards down.

Colbor paid him no heed and knocked the door down with a body slam.

"Colbor-taichou!" several of the Reploids in the squad cried out as Colbor quickly took a buster shot to the leg.

Groaning, Naruto rushed to eliminate the Securipider that had dropped near Colbor with an energy kunai. "Idiot," Naruto scolded as the sliced pieces of the Securipider fell around him. "Don't push yourself too hard in an effort to prove yourself. We're all allies here."

"Speak for yourself," Colbor hissed while grimacing in pain.

Naruto ignored him and turned to one of the Reploids in the squad. "Oyie-san," Naruto addressed the female Reploid he had saved ealier, "please contact Ciel and notify her that you and Colbor-san will be returning immediately via Trans Server."

"Don't listen to him," Colbor groaned out stubbornly. "I'm in charge here!"

Naruto opened his mouth to retort but suddenly the alarms started blaring in the factory.

"Watch out," Naruto shouted as he tackled one of the Reploids to the ground. If his memory served him correctly, the Reploid's name was Dande. He was the youngest of the group and had recently joined the combat group.

A large energy ball charged with lightning sailed right above where the two of them had been a second prior.

"Our sensors are going haywire!" Faucon, another young Reploid and one of the seven Reploids on the mission with Naruto and Colbor cried out. "It must be a powerful C-rank Reploid or higher."

"Tch," Naruto muttered. This mission had gone south in the span of a minute since Colbor made the boneheaded move to break down the door to the most important room in the building without checking for security systems. "I don't give a damn about what you think Colbor so I'm taking over. All of you…" Naruto gestured to all the Reploids, "get the hell out of here. Go back to the entrance and once you get there, call Ciel to transfer you out."

"What about you, Naruto-san?" Dande asked in a nervous tone. "Aren't you coming with us?"

Just then, a gargantuan snowflake-like Reploid dropped from the ceiling.

"Just get the hell out of here!" Naruto shouted. "Worry about yourselves!"

They apparently didn't need to be told after they saw the Reploid and ran off as fast as they could while carrying Colbor.

"Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert! Guard Orotic shall destroy all intruders!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow as everyone disappeared from sight. "Guard Orotic? That's your name?" Naruto smirked as he took out several energy shuriken. "Well, my name is Naruto and I don't feel like being destroyed today."

"Where's Naruto?" Ciel almost demanded as she saw Team Colbor materialize back inside the Trans Server. She had immediately activated the Trans Server and linked it to Team Colbor's location once she heard the request to pull back. Easily understanding that this was an emergency situation, she figure she could hear the report once the squad got back.

She hadn't expected them to come back one person short, however.

"Probably dead," Colbor growled out with clenched teeth as he kept pressure on his wound.

Ciel didn't even notice that Colbor was wounded because she suddenly felt her heart stop. Dead? Impossible! Naruto…he's…he's too strong for that, right? This was supposed to be an easy mission!

"Colbor-taichou!" the other Reploids shouted out in indignation.

"What was that for?! Naruto-san isn't dead!"

Ciel's head turned so fast that she might have gotten whiplash. Taking a deep breath, she looked at the youngest member on the team who had claimed that Naruto wasn't dead. "Dande-kun, explain."

"Colbor-taichou accidentally set off the security systems when he broke the door to the power room against Naruto-san's advice," the young Reploid reported, apparently not even caring that Colbor was staring daggers at him. "Colbor-taichou was then injured by a Neo Arcadian Reploid. Naruto-san killed that particular Reploid and then ordered us to return, but Colbor-taichou rescinded that order. After that, we then encountered a high level combat Reploid."

Ciel did not like where this was going. She looked somberly at the other members of Team Colbor. "What did your scanners say about its power level?"

Faucon, a young burly Reploid, stepped forward. "C-rank…or possibly even higher."

Ciel tightened her hands into fists. A C-rank combat Reploid was far stronger than what she would have liked.

"So Naruto stayed behind to fight and buy you time to escape…" she whispered out, stating the obvious.

All of them except Colbor nodded.

Ciel sighed. She had figured as much as soon as she realized where Dande's report had been going.

Even in the few days she had spent with Naruto, Ciel realized that Naruto had a heart for others. He would go out of his way to make others feel safe and happy. He took time to talk to the children, listen to the elderly, and learn the history behind all the members of the Resistance. There were a few members of the Resistance, like Colbor, who hadn't accepted Naruto immediately, but for the most part, everyone had started to consider Naruto as a comrade, especially after he started going on missions for them.

He wasn't the legendary Zero that they had been expecting, but Naruto was still a new friend and comrade nonetheless.

"Naruto-san will be fine!" Dande declared confidently. "I've never seen anyone move as quickly as he does. He's stronger than all of us think, Ciel-san. Remember? You said he even took down a Golem for you!"

Ciel didn't respond. Yes, Naruto took down a Golem, which was more or less around C-rank, but that particular Golem was a hundred years old and wouldn't be a C-rank by modern standards.

"Um…Ciel-san?"

She shook her head to clear her thoughts. Ciel couldn't obsess about Naruto right now; not when there were people around watching her. Her mind turned to more immediate matters.

Fixing Colbor with a disappointed look for his bitterness towards Naruto, she gave out several orders. "Take Colbor-taichou to the infirmary. If the rest of you aren't injured, then take the rest of the day off."

All the members of Team Colbor nodded and slowly walked to the door.

"What about you, Ciel-san?" Dande called out from the entrance to the room when he saw that she wasn't going to leave with them.

"I'm going to wait for Naruto."

"Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)! Rasengan! Rasengan! Rasengan!"

Naruto slammed yet another Rasengan on the surprisingly sturdy remains of the Reploid he had just killed.

The battle against Guard Orotic hadn't been the easiest Naruto had ever been in, but it hadn't been the hardest either. It was, however, probably one of his more annoying battles.

Naruto had spent several minutes bombarding the metal snowflake with Rasengans from his shadow clones, but had been annoyed when wires and machines came out seemingly out of nowhere to repair the arms that he had destroyed. So Naruto had to spend another few minutes dodging fire, ice, lightning, and buster bullets while he repeated the entire process. Unfortunately, the entire factory operation must have been set to create spare parts for the damn Reploid and it took half-an-hour before the Reploid ran out of arms to protect its core with.

Eventually though, Naruto won that battle of attrition and managed to land a Rasengan straight into the core. Unlike the situation with the Golem, Guard Orotic didn't die in a large explosion. The resulting "explosion," if it could be called that, had been more like a small sputter of released energy. Nothing outside the power room had been damaged.

But because he had taken what Ciel had to say to heart—that powerful Reploids always died in an explosion—Naruto approached the dead Reploid in a cautious manner before then began tearing it down into as many pieces as he could to make sure it stayed dead. He was still dismantling the metallic body of the snowflake-like Reploid in case it had some form of auto-repair mechanism for its core like it did for its arms.

Reploids didn't have chakra so Naruto had no reliable way of knowing if they were truly dead. He'd be damned if he made a mistake like letting the enemy survive to report his existence and any accurate estimation of his power to the higher-ups of Neo Arcadia.

Yes, that was definitely the reason.

Naruto's continued trampling of the Reploid remains had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Naruto was still confused and slightly freaked out by this whole idea of machines being alive. And his destructive actions were most certainly not related to the scary dreams he had the previous night where his kunai and shuriken somehow came to life and tried to kill him.

Naruto gave one last stomp on the Reploid remains for good measure before looking at the thousands of metal pieces scattered across the floor of the room.

Naruto shrugged as he took out a storage scroll.

And besides, who knew? Maybe Cerveau or whatever the engineer's name was had use for scrap metal.

"Man," Ciel heard Naruto yawn as he teleported back to the base around half-an-hour after the others had come, "Scavenging for spare parts is thirsty work. I should be getting paid in gold for this."

Ciel let out a sigh of relief when she saw Naruto step out of the Trans Server. "You're back," she gasped out, just realizing that she had been holding her breath for much of the time she had been waiting. Naruto hadn't called at all and must have used a Trans Server that had been inside the factory to make his return trip.

Naruto gave her a confused look. "Of course I'm back. Why wouldn't I be?"

Ciel didn't know if Naruto was intentionally playing dumb or if he was just that uninformed and unimpressed about the strength of his enemy. The latter, if true, had particularly frightening implications.

"Team Colbor told me that you were fighting a powerful enemy."

"Really?" Naruto asked mildly, making a show of looking confused by scratching his head. "I just told them to go back while I scavenged around for scrap metal that we could use. Most of the weapons I use are partially made of metal and I wanted to at least earn my keep. It wouldn't be fair to keep mooching off of your funds for my weapons. See?"

Ciel watched in slight irritation as Naruto took out of his strange scrolls and instantly flooded the entire floor of the Trans Server room with metal pieces of various sizes.

She could immediately tell, however, that the "scrap metal" was actually pieces of Reploid armor.

Moreover, from Naruto's overly light-hearted tone, Ciel knew he was lying—he wasn't doing a good job of it—but at the same time, Naruto didn't have a single scratch on him to suggest he had been in battle. His black outfit lined with orange didn't have a single speck of dust on it and his red cape with its black flame design was as flashy as ever.

"Yes…scavenging for scrap metal, indeed," she said slowly, decided to play along. If she thought about it from a different perspective, it was rather sweet of Naruto to lie to keep her from worrying. And since he wasn't injured in the least, Ciel really didn't have any true cause for concern. "You might want to take some of that to Doigt when you have time. Cerveau's rather busy this week with a priority project and Doigt is the one who actually builds most of the things that Cerveau designs."

"Will do!" Naruto said cheerfully. "Thanks for the tip!"

With that, Ciel walked out of the room shaking her head, not knowing whether to be annoyed, impressed, or pleased.

The next day, Naruto found himself sitting on a ledge in the room that acted as mission control. It didn't have any special gadgets or devices, but it was the room closest to Ciel's room and laboratory and everyone in the Resistance considered it an "official" place.

Because no one was allowed to go outside, the ledge had become Naruto's place to meditate. He didn't know why he meditated, but instinctively felt that it was the best way to train at the moment.

Although how meditation is actually training, I have no idea, Naruto thought. I can understand that meditation improves focus and would help right before a battle, but why do I have this urge to constantly meditate?

After several hours of drawing blanks in his mind, Naruto decided to think about the issues he had information on instead, particularly about a gentle and very pretty girl who was doing some kind of research experiment in her laboratory next door.

He could see why people would follow her. The girl exuded kindness and gentleness and it was crystal clear that she genuinely wanted peace between Reploids and humans. Naruto's shinobi training warned him that it wasn't wise to trust someone so openly when he knew very little about the person, but Naruto's innate instincts said otherwise. And Naruto always went with his instincts.

Naruto didn't remember too much about the past aside from general knowledge. But he vaguely knew that he had participated in a war, lost many friends, and had desperately wanted peace.

A certain phrase kept repeating itself in his mind. Breaking the cycle of hatred…

Naruto didn't know what that phrase exactly meant, but he did know that he sacrificed himself for the sake of world peace. Perhaps the phrase had been a reference to his sacrifice. Regardless, his fiery passion for peace and disdain for evil was still strong in his heart and Ciel's equally resilient determination to bring true peace to the Reploid was what drew him to her and to her cause.

That and Naruto didn't like the sound of some of the stuff Neo Arcadia was doing.

Yes, forced retirement of Mavericks would be right…except Neo Arcadia seemed to retire Reploids on a fixed schedule and in consistent numbers. It seemed highly unlikely that Maverick outbreaks happened at such regular intervals, producing exactly the same number of Mavericks each time. Then there was martial law under X, forbidding anyone to say anything negative about Neo Arcadia. To Naruto, that smelled very much like repression and a way to dampen any sort of dissent. And worst of all, in Naruto's opinion at least, there were records of experimentation on human children. Yes, Ciel had turned out perfectly fine, but playing God was well outside the boundaries of moral law. Naruto vaguely remembered that one of his sworn enemies dabbled in human experimentation as well and it left a bad taste in his mouth.

"Naruto-san?"

Naruto opened a single eye to look at the two Reploids who had addressed him. One was a skinny Reploid with a helmet-visor apparatus and the other one was a burly human-like Reploid. Both of them looked relatively young as far as Reploids went.

"Yes?" Naruto wracked his brains for the names. "Dande and Faucon…right? From Team Colbor…"

"Yes! You remembered our names!" the one with the visor, Dande, said excitedly.

Naruto didn't see what the big deal was—he wasn't a celebrity or anything like that—but nodded nonetheless. "I figured if I'm going to be working around here, I might as well get to know everyone. It'll probably help me endear myself to the Reploids here as well."

Faucon and Dande exchanged looks. Naruto saw that they understood the hidden meaning behind Naruto's words. He, as well as they, knew that there were people in the Resistance who still viewed Naruto with suspicion.

"Well," Naruto asked, now standing up and joining them down on the lower level of mission control. "What brings the two of you here?"

Naruto watched with curiosity and amusement, as the two of them seemed to mull things over by themselves. The two of them suddenly dropped to their knees and bowed their heads.

"Naruto-san," Faucon spoke for the both of them. "We want you to train us."

"Eh?!" Naruto blinked several times in shock. "Training?! Why do you want training? And why me?! Don't you have training tips or whatever you call it?"

Dande lifted his head up. "There are training protocols, but those were designed for combat Reploids. We're civilian Reploids who don't have the specs to fight in the normal way. We'll never get strong using normal methods."

"You saw how badly our mission could have ended yesterday, Naruto-san," Faucon added. "We're weak and terribly so. Among the ones who are still alive, Colbor-taichou is considered the strongest in the Resistance and that was because his body was designed for combat in the first place. And even someone like him can't hold a candle to you."

Naruto groaned. He had spent the day meditating to get rid of a headache and now these two young Reploids just undid all his work. "So you think just because I fight in a different way, you could pick some things up from me?" Naruto shook his head before they could even respond. "Nope, I refuse."

"But Naruto-san!" Dande protested. "We'll train hard! We promise!"

Naruto sighed. "Look. I use something called chakra to enhance my body. It's a form of energy that exists inside of all livi…I mean organic," Naruto was careful about his words, "forms of life. You Reploids don't have it."

"It doesn't have to be your unique abilities!" Faucon continued to press. "Dande and I hadn't even planned on learning those. We just want to learn how to fight. We've seen the look in your eyes and how you move in battle. You've seen more battle than all of us in the Resistance combined. If you can get us to a place where even someone like Colbor-taichou is, we would be eternally grateful."

"What about your specs, as you put it?" Naruto argued back. "You said that your specs don't allow you to fight at a high level. Ciel and Cerveau told me that they performed some modification on you recruits, but clearly, those modifications don't increase your potential that much. What do you think I can do when everyone has failed?"

Despite his words, Naruto was becoming more and more intrigued. The two Reploids were showing both earnestness and tenacity in spades and those qualities resonated with Naruto. Naruto also remembered that he too once had begged multiple teachers, whose names he didn't remember, to train him in vain. As long as he had the time and the two Reploids had the will, Naruto wasn't going to turn them down.

"Everyone in the world is told that Reploid potential vastly exceeds human potential. Yet here you are, Naruto-san, a living testament to how false that teaching was," Dande said with fervor. "I refuse to believe that I am limited by my specifications."

"That goes for me as well, Naruto-san," Faucon said, "You don't have to find a way to help us overcome our limitations; we'll do that for ourselves. However, we do want to learn and benefit from your experience and knowledge."

Naruto smiled. "Well, I can't say no in the face of such determination." His grin turned evil as he raised his killing intent, which somehow seemed to affect even Reploids. "But don't hold if against me if my training kills you."

The two Reploids shivered but nodded. "Yes!" They affirmed.

Naruto released his killing intent and with some sense of nostalgia said, "Okay! Let's get started then! Tell me about yourselves. Your likes, dislikes, dreams, and stuff like that."

"Training? For Dande-kun and Faucon-kun?"

"Yes, training," Naruto nodded. "I figured I might as well get your permission since you're the leader around here."

Ciel thought for a second. Reploid power and combat abilities were set in stone at creation and it wasn't likely that Naruto could do much to improve anyone's fighting strength.

She shook her head sadly. "Sorry, Naruto. I'm afraid you'll be wasting your time."

Naruto frowned. "Why?"

She explained. "Reploids certainly have a higher base power than humans and like humans, have the capacity to learn over the years. However, they just aren't all that adaptable. Much of what Reploids are capable are decided before they are made."

"Hm…" Naruto furrowed his brow. "I have a question actually. It's a bit off-topic though."

"Yes?" Ciel looked at him curiously.

"How do Reploids age? I heard the old guy Andrew talking about how he had to make his body and mind older to match the human woman he loved, but he also talked about Reploid children."

Ciel shook her head, knowing what Naruto was trying to say. "It's not the same. Reploids do gain experience over the years and their bodies do mature, but it's not in the same way that humans mature." She decided to use the Reploids Naruto intended to train as examples. "Dande-kun and Faucon-kun are young Reploids, having been made only twelve or thirteen years ago. To make Reploids more human-like, their bodies were set by scientists and designers to grow physically as they gained experience at the same rate as a human would. However, their growth patterns and adult sizes were all preset according to certain specifications before they were made. The materials needed for their growth were already inside their bodies as well."

"So any changes that Reploids undergo are purely to make them more human-like?"

She nodded. "Much of Reploid research involves making Reploids as human as possible…civilian Reploids, at least," she added. "There are combat Reploids only a year old that act, function, and look old and mature."

"Sounds almost useless," Naruto commented.

Ciel smiled sadly. "Perhaps, but there has been research done showing that humans are considerably more accepting of Reploids that look and behave like humans. It was done for the Reploids' sake."

The boy's eyes widened. "I see." His eyes soon hardened, however. "Tell me, Ciel," he asked. "Why are you fighting?"

She looked at him in confusion. "B…b…because! What Neo Arcadia is doing is unjust! How could I not fight?"

Naruto laughed harshly. "Well, you're outnumbered, the Reploids you have here are innately worse at combat…so how could you hope to win?"

She froze at that. She never really did consider that. "I…I…" she stammered.

"You instinctively must have known this because you set out to find Zero, who presumably has higher innate combat abilities than anyone here," Naruto continued. "But even then, you're horribly outnumbered by the enemy. There's no way you could win. Neo Arcadia can continue to create more combat Reploids. It's a battle of numbers that just gets worse and worse. So is the best you're hoping for a delay? Are you just trying to extra time for the Reploids here so that they can suffer for several more years before finally being retired?"

"N…no," she shook her head. "No. I…I really want permanent peace."

Naruto smiled gently. "What was it…? Specifications, you said?" Naruto laughed. "Please…nothing in this world is completely governed by specifications." Ciel could only stare back as Naruto looked straight at her. "Determination, drive, desire…those are things that can't be measured by numbers."

"I…I…I guess you're right, Naruto," Ciel sighed, relenting. She looked down. It would be hypocritical of her to say that training Reploids was a waste of time when by that same logic, this entire fight against Neo Arcadia was a waste of time. "Do as you will then."

Her eyes widened when Naruto grabbed her shoulders. She felt her face flushing again. Why did Naruto have such an effect on her?!

"Don't look so down. I was trying to cheer you up. Think of it this way. I believe you can win this war," Naruto said cheerfully. "I also believe that there's more to Reploids than just their specifications. Given how much you care for Reploids, I know we're in agreement on this."

She nodded, but couldn't say anything. It was almost as if her body and brain had shut down from being too close to Naruto.

Naruto didn't seem to notice. "So give me the two idiots and I'll make them into champions."

Author's Note: I'm sorry there wasn't a true battle scene in this chapter. I wanted to focus more on laying the groundwork for relationships between Naruto and the various Resistance members. Given the vast number of enemies in the Mega Man Zero series, I had to be choosy about which battles I wanted to write in detail. Otherwise, it'd be a battle, or even two, every single chapter and that becomes old really quickly. Also, there will undoubtedly be some Mega Man Zero purists who might say that the first enemy is actually Aztec Falcon instead of Guard Orotic. I know, but I decided to change it for plot purposes.

Reviews will be appreciated.