Reaper Threat v2
Chapter 25 – A Cure Long Coming
SSV Normandy SR-2 – C.I.C.
Captain Alexa J. Shepard emerged into the C.I.C., from the conference room, to see the galaxy map turned into a holovid projector showing another sparring match between her shinobi crewmen. "Let me guess," she said, turning to Ashley Williams, "Naruto couldn't resist the urge to put his old friends to the test?"
"You know him too well," Ash replied with a laugh, "The pot's up to 4500 credits, with good odds on the XO. You want in?"
"500 credits on a draw," Alexa smiled, watching the fight. Gaara had tried to catch both Konoha shinobi with his sand, only for both to use hiraishin to escape. "So, Naruto did teach that move to Sasuke," Shepard thought, "These guys never cease to amaze me." She walked to the lift and keyed the option for the cargo hold.
Cargo Hold
Shepard emerged from the lift, only to see Vega and Cortez standing by the shuttle with slack jawed looks on their faces. "You get used to it after a while," she said to the two officers, shocking them out of their stupor.
"I saw them in action on the Collector base," Vega reminded her, "But I still can't wrap my head around everything these ninjas can do."
"I served on the Rushmore before coming aboard," Cortez explained, "And there was 3 shinobi stationed on it. One guy was able to reduce a boulder to rubble with one punch, and I still can't figure out where that girl kept all those weapons. A friend of mine is on the Iwo Jima, where another team is stationed. One of those shinobi rides his dog like a horse, and another is a living beetle colony. Freaked everyone out when they came aboard. They thought the girl was blind."
"According to Naruto, her family can see better than most anyone," Shepard noted, "Their eyes have special properties that allow for 360 degree, and x-ray like vision."
The three shinobi noticed Shepard standing there, and stopped their spar. Naruto heard a beep from his omni-tool. "Naruto," EDI told the blonde, "you're needed on the vid-comm. It's Admiral Hackett."
"Let the Admiral know I'm on the way," Naruto responded, turning to his friends, "Good match, Sasuke, Gaara."
"Any idea what Hackett needs?" the Uchiha inquired.
"None," Naruto thought out loud, and headed to the lift, joined by Shepard.
"Something up?" Alexa asked, curious.
"Hackett needs to speak to me," Naruto replied, "Wonder what this is all about."
"Got me," Shepard said, keying the C.I.C. option, "Must be important. Meet me on the bridge when you're done?"
"Sure," Naruto answered, separating from Shepard in the C.I.C., and heading to the Comm room. He stepped on the scanner pad and punched the button to take Hackett's call.
"Naruto," the Admiral greeted the shinobi, "I've got a bit of a problem that I hope you can help with."
"I'll try, Admiral," the Uzumaki responded, saluting his senior officer, "What do you need?"
"We're trying to come up with options for the ground war, once we roll out the crucible," Hackett briefed Naruto, "What I need is an expert on shinobi battle tactics."
"One minute, Admiral," Naruto told the Fleet Admiral, "I know just the guy. EDI, get me Shikamaru Nara on the scout frigate, Versailles. Have him get on the vid-comm. Admiral, Shikamaru's the best shinobi strategist I know. His work during the 4th Shinobi war helped the Alliance to victory."
"Nara here," Shikamaru stated, joining in the conversation, "hey, Naruto, what's up?"
"I wish this was a social call, Shikamaru," Naruto told his friend, "We're on with Admiral Hackett. He needs an expert in Shinobi battle tactics, and I could think of no one better."
"Man, what a drag," the Nara replied, "What are you working on, Admiral?"
Hackett went on to explain what he was working on, and what he needed from the lazy genius. "Can you help us come up with a strategy?" the Admiral inquired.
"Of course, Admiral. I take it you're going to have me transferred to your ship?"
"Starbase, Shikamaru," Hackett corrected, "I'm overseeing the construction of the Crucible and the Biiju class dreadnaughts."
"Send a shuttle and I'm in," Shikamaru said, and Hackett closed his connection.
"Thanks, Shika," Naruto nodded to his friend, "and say Hi to Ino and Choji for me."
"Stay safe out there, Naruto," the Nara advised his friend.
"I'll try, man, but right now, we're headed to Tuchanka to cure the Genophage."
"Anyone on the Normandy that we know?"
"Sasuke, Sakura and Gaara, but Sakura's working with Mordin Solus on the Genophage cure."
"And Sasuke's a SPECTRE."
"Shukaku's on Tuchanka. When we force the Reapers off that world, and cure the genophage, I'll have him transferred to the starbase with you."
"We'll need all the Biiju to retake Earth,"
"I'll make sure they're there. Stay safe, and good luck, Shikamaru. Naruto out." Naruto closed the connection and stepped off the pad. "Another war," he thought. With his thoughts wandering to his friends from Konoha, he left the comm room, walking past the conference room, and C.I.C. to the bridge. "What's our jump time to the Krogan DMZ, Joker?" he asked, walking up beside Shepard.
"Still 2 hours jump time to the DMZ relay," Joker notified the ship's XO, "From there, it's still an hour to Tuchanka."
"What did Hackett need?" Shepard asked.
"He needed an expert on Shinobi battle tactics," Naruto answered, "I got him in touch with Shikamaru. He's the best there is."
"He sent me something regarding you," Alexa commented, "Alliance Command read your dossier from Tsunade, and issued an N7 commendation for you. As of now, Naruto, you're a fully recognized N7."
To say the least, Naruto was shocked. An Alliance N7 was the best of the best. "I'll try to live up to expectations," he responded.
"Shepard," EDI prefaced as the AI ran through a few commands on her terminal, "There's a Turian distress beacon coming from Tuchanka."
"Let's have Sasuke, Vega, and Javik investigate the distress call," Naruto advised, "The rest of us can then concentrate on the genophage cure."
"Not a bad idea," Shepard nodded, "EDI, get Sasuke, Vega and Javik up to speed on the distress call."
"Already on it," EDI answered, "The crew is gearing up now, and will be ready when we reach Tuchanka."
3 Hours Later – Skies over Tuchanka
1 Shuttle broke off from the other two. "I have provided Sasuke's team with the location of the distress beacon," EDI advised Shepard, "The one in command of the Turian squad is Lieutenant Tarquin Victus, the Primarch's son."
"Wonder what a Turian squad is doing on Tuchanka," Shepard noted, now more curious.
"We'll find out after the mission," Urdnot Wrex stated, matter-of-factly, "Right now, we focus on curing the Genophage."
"Right," Alexa nodded, turning to Mordin, "How do you plan on releasing the cure?"
"Shroud facility," the Salarian answered, "is where STG released both original and modified Genophage. Will disperse cure in air. All Krogan get cure."
"Shepard," EDI interjected, "The shroud facility is built by a shrine of some sort, and there's a reaper not far from it."
"That 'shrine' is a battle arena dedicated to Kalros, the mother of all Thresher Maws," one Krogan female explained, "She lives in the area. That gives me an idea."
"What do you have in mind?" asked Liara T'Soni.
"We summon Kalros to kill the Reaper," the Krogan continued, "That arena has two maw hammers. Use both, and you can summon Kalros."
"Gaara, can Shukaku hold off the Reaper long enough for us to summon the Maw?" this question came from Garrus Vakarian.
"We should," Gaara replied, "Shukaku may not be as powerful as Kurama, but I'll bet he's itching for a fight." It's this moment that Naruto noticed a look in the former Kazekage's eyes.
"Something on your mind?" the blonde shinobi asked of his friend.
"After dealing with Cerberus," Gaara explained, "Miranda and I started to actively pursue a relationship. Things were great. We were both happy. 2 weeks ago, she received a message saying that Oriana had disappeared. She went off, on her own, to try to locate her."
"You want to help her," Ashley noted.
"Yes," the red-haired ninja replied, "that's why I've already asked Sasuke to assist me, once we're done on Tuchanka. He agreed, and we'll be getting off the Normandy before you all go to Rannoch."
"Get ready, People, we land in 10," Shepard ordered, putting her helmet on.
Sasuke's Team
"Lieutenant Victus, this is Council Spectre Sasuke Uchiha," the shinobi said into the radio, "Do you read?"
"Uchiha, VIctus here," the Turian lieutenant answered, "Switch to secure channel 57-Alpha." Sasuke did as told, and Victus continued, "We're here on a covert mission. There's a bomb on this planet. We're here to disarm it. Thing is, it's covered over in Reapers, and right now, we're surrounded."
"We have your location, Victus. We'll be there in two minutes."
"Too risky for an air drop. Two harvesters in the area."
"Shouldn't be a problem for me," Sasuke told the Turian commander, while opening up the hatch on the shuttle, and jumping. His perfect Susano'o surrounded himself as his descent turned into a glide, which took him right at the Reaper forces. The shinobi unleashed a barrage of black flames on the two harvesters, before sending a lightning storm down on the rest of the Reaper forces. "Shuttle, you're clear to land near the Turian squad's location. Vega, Javik, rendezvous with me there."
"On our way," Vega responded.
Sasuke landed in front of the Turian squad and strode calmly up to the Lieutenant. "You said there's a bomb on the planet? Did the Reapers put it here, and what's it's destructive power?" While the Uchiha asked the questions, the shuttle dropped off Vega and Javik, who soon joined their squad leader.
"It was here since the end of the Krogan Rebellions," Victus explained, "We put it here as a last resort, should the Genophage not work. It's a planet buster. Yield is around 57 quadrillion megatons." Vega just whistled.
"And the Reapers have possession of this bomb?" Javik asked, "Reckless."
"Not arguing that point," Victus noted, "But we have to get up to it, and disarm it. It's old tech, so any of my squad knows how to disable the bomb. We just need your team for backup."
"The Reapers won't touch your squad," Sasuke advised the Turian, "Let's disarm that bomb. Vega, Javik, go with the Turian squad. We'll take out the Reapers around the bomb, then I'll set up a perimeter they can't get through with my Mangekyo Sharingan's power. I can make a wall of black flames that the Reapers dare not go through using Amaterasu, around the bomb site. I'll also provide air support with my Susano'o. Get to it."
Shepard's Squad
Shepard's shuttle landed a good distance from the arena, in an area where the Reaper wasn't looking. After the entire team disembarked, Naruto took in the surrounding area. "Gonna be tough to get through that reaper," he said, then thought to Kurama, "can you sense Shukaku around here?"
"He's close," the fox answered, "I wouldn't doubt if it was just hiding in the sand around the area, waiting to strike. By the way his Chakra's reacting, I'd say Gaara's right. He's itching for a fight."
"Gaara, see if you can contact Shukaku, he's close by," Naruto advised, "Alexa, did the Turians say if they were also going to provide support?"
"We've got a wing of Turian fighters inbound," Shepard answered, "When they and Shukaku strike, we'll be clear to move in, hit the maw hammers, then proceed to enter the shroud facility and disperse the Genophage cure."
"Shepard," Ashley said to her commander, "I think we should split teams. I'll take a team and protect Mordin, Sakura and the Krogan females. You take Naruto, and Garrus to clear us a path to the facility, then meet us there."
"Great idea, Ash," Alexa Shepard replied, with a grin, "Wrex, you're with Ash, as is Liara. Gaara, you and Shukaku will be providing us with a distraction to get to the maw hammers. Keep that Reaper off us."
"Good luck, Naruto," Sakura told her friend and teammate, "See you inside." Naruto just nodded, as everyone split off into teams.
Gaara
The former Kazekage raises his arms to shoulder height, commanding the sand around him. Soon, the sand took the form of Shukaku's head. The two needed not say anything as Gaara soon stood atop the biiju's head and the sand demon rose to full height.
The Turian fighter wing all jetted in and hit the reaper with covering fire while the Biiju charged up a biijudama, and fired it at the monstrous machine.
Shepard's Team.
As soon as Naruto spotted the full sized Shukaku firing off a biijudama at the Reaper, he nodded to Alexa and the team moved out, wading through one wave of husks and other Reaper forces after another.
"According to Wrex, the maw hammers should be close by," Shepard noted, Naruto, can you have some clones go hit the hammers, while we hold the Reapers off here?" Naruto nodded and made a small army of shadow clones. The clones divided up and headed off to one of the two maw hammers.
"Shukaku and Gaara are really giving that Reaper a hard time," Garrus said, unloading another thermal clip into a wave of Husks, "And he's the weakest of the Biiju?"
"And Kurama's the strongest," Naruto added, blasting a hole in the heads of his own wave of reapers, "We've already seen that Kurama's biijudama can take out a Reaper. Hell, I'll bet Shukaku could, too, if we weren't already working with a plan to have Kalros take out the Reaper."
It didn't take long for Naruto's clones to hit both Maw hammers, using sheer numbers to overwhelm the reaper forces enough to allow one to slip through and activate the massive hammer, which sent shockwaves through the earth.
Gaara and Shukaku
The earth under the massive Biiju trembeled. Shukaku sunk Gaara up to his knees in his own sandy head to help the shinobi keep his place on the biiju's head. The turian wing pulled out as a thresher maw bigger than Shukaku jumped out of the ground and over Shukaku, to latch onto the Reaper. Kalros coiled around the mechanical terror, knocking it over onto the sandy dunes of Tuchanka, and dragging the Reaper into the ground.
"Holy shit! That worm doesn't fuck around," Shukaku said, obviously impressed, "Tell Naruto that that Reaper is worm food, Gaara."
Shepard's Team
"Well, the reaper's worm food," Naruto noted.
"And Ash just said that they've got Sakura and Mordin to the Shroud facility," Shepard added, "Let's get moving. We need to get there soon. Mordin's making the final preparations to release the cure." Shepard's team quickly took off running from the arena, and to the Salarian shroud facility, where they met with Ashley and Sakura.
"Where's Mordin and Wrex?" the human Captain asked.
"Wrex took the females back to the Urdnot camp," Ash reported, "Mordin did what he needed and is now almost ready to disperse the cure. The females weren't necessary anymore."
"Where's Sasuke?" Sakura inquired, "Has his team finished with their mission?"
Sasuke's Team
The Uchiha's wall of black flames kept further Reaper incursions on the bombsite from happening as the Turian squad completed their mission. Victus had to climb up on the bomb to release the final lock to disable the monstrous device, and would have fallen to his death in the process, had Sasuke not caught him with his Susano'o. "Where's your ship, Victus?" Sasuke inquired.
"in orbit over the planet," the lieutenant responded, "We dropped in by shuttle. We can call for a pickup."
The Uchiha nodded, "Ok, good work, Lieutenant." He then tagged his own radio, "Shuttle, we're ready for pickup." Within a few minutes, Sasuke's team was in the air, headed back to the Normandy.
Shepard's Team.
Sakura smiled, knowing that Sasuke's team was already back on the ship. Meanwhile, Naruto had walked over to the elevator into the facility with Mordin. The salarian was curious as to why the shinobi was going with him, to which Naruto just said, "In case we need to get out quickly." Shepard moved over to the two and gave Mordin a handshake, before embracing Naruto. Naruto then took Shepard's chin in between his thumb and forefinger and moved her face lightly into a kiss. When they finally broke, he gave her a confident smile and nod, before pointing at her arm, where the N7 tattoo with the hiraishin seal around it was. No more needed to be said. They would get the cure into the air of Tuchanka, and Naruto would use Hiraishin to get them out, should anything go wrong. Shepard stepped back beside Sakura, and the shinobi and the salarian both stepped onto the elevator.
"When you've finished dispersing the cure, Mordin, I'll teleport us out," Naruto told the scientist, "Just do what you have to. I've got our escape planned."
"Understood," Mordin replied as the elevator finally came to a stop at the top floor of the facility. He quickly keyed in a sequence of commands to compensate for rising temperatures in the dispersal unit, and the cure was immediately sent out into the air over the Krogan home world. Naruto then placed a hand on Mordin's shoulder and the two were gone just nanoseconds before an explosion rocked the top of the facility.
Shepard and Sakura were quick to notice the explosion at the top of the facility, but breathed a sigh of relief when Naruto and Mordin appeared in front of them. "Told you we'd be ok," the shinobi smiled, "Now, let's get back to the ship."
"The shuttle's already picked up Gaara, and Shukaku, who's taken on a smaller form for transport," Garrus noted, "It should be here shortly."
SSV Normandy SR-2 – War Room – Video Communications.
"The genophage cure is already showing results and the Krogan have pledged to aid the Turians in the fight for Palaven. The reapers have been driven off of Tuchanka. Also, we've got Shukaku, and he will be sent to your starbase, Admiral, to stand by until we're ready to roll out the Crucible," Shepard reported, with Naruto at her side, "Any ideas on extracting the other Biiju?"
"Since Son Goku was on Sur'Kesh," Hackett stated, "We've already got him here. Also, we've got Killer Bee with Gyuuki. Chomei is on Rannoch, and Palaven actually does have a Biiju helping to drive off the reapers right now, Saiken. The only one we're having trouble locating, at this time, is on Thessia. The shinobi sent Kokuo there."
"Shukaku, Matatabi, Son Goku, Kokuo, Saiken, Chomei, Gyuuki, Kurama," Naruto nodded, "I guess Isobuu is on my home world?"
"For the moment," Hackett told Naruto, "But he's in a holding pattern. Apparently, the Reapers don't know where the shinobi home world is. We've kept that a closely guarded secret for a reason. One thing the Reapers did when they wiped out the Protheans was to use census data to find all Prothean colonies. We didn't want the Reapers to use our own data to find the Shinobi, so we kept all information on them out of official channels."
"We'll head to Rannoch soon," Alexa advised Hackett, "We can extract Chomei while we're there."
"I can talk to Sasuke before he leaves the ship about picking up Kokuo from Thessia, and Saiken from Palaven," Naruto added.
"It's all coming together," Hackett nodded, "Good. We've made a lot of progress on the Crucible, and the Biiju class dreadnaughts are almost ready to roll out. We're putting together the crews now. By the way, Shepard, your mother's here, too. She's now wearing 2 stars and is in command of the biiju class escorts for the crucible." Shepard nodded with a smile. "Good work, all of you," Hackett continued, "Things are coming together quickly, and it's looking like we have a chance, thanks to you. Hackett out."
Once the two stepped off the scanner pads, they headed out of the war room to the bridge. Naruto held Shepard around her waist with his left arm.
"Where to now, Fearless?" Joker asked of the captain.
"Drop Sasuke, Gaara and Shukaku off at the Council's starbase," Shepard ordered, "Then, set a course for Rannoch." Joker did as he was commanded and soon, the Normandy was leaving orbit from Tuchanka, and headed to the mass Relay.
End Chapter 25.
NEXT CHAPTER: PRIORITY – RANNOCH! KURAMA VS REAPER.