Naruto had been having a fairly decent day. The villagers were leaving him alone, he'd just had a good meal of ramen, and that comet that was to pass the planet was going to be bright enough that he could see it from the roof of his building.

He never told anyone this, but he'd always liked looking up at the stars and wondering what was out there. After all, it was so endless and massive that their tiny little planet couldn't possibly be the only one. That's when he saw something odd, a section of the comet broke off and seemed to be streaking towards him.

Ducking down, he watched the object scream through the air over his head. As the curiosity overwhelmed him, he began hunting after the object that had caught his imagination. As far as he could figure out, he was the only one looking for the object, but that suited him just fine. He wanted to be the first one to see it, and find out what it was.

Arriving at the crash site, he couldn't believe it. It wasn't a hunk of rock like he thought, it was a construct of some kind of reflective metal still smoking slightly from the spectacular entrance it made into the atmosphere. Using a length of rope he kept wrapped inside his clothes as an anchor, he began the slow and steady process of entering the crater.

Arriving at the... pod... thing... he checked it over, and was impressed with how cool it was. He could already get this close to it, and not be forced back by a wave of heat. This thing had to have super awesome heat elimination properties in order to do that. Taking a step back, he accidentally slipped on some loose stones, and slammed into a hatch. To his amazement it swung open and he found himself face to face with a massive space suit, at least he thought it was a space suit. He'd never seen one before, and they were always white in the manga.

He was about to shake it and see if the thing inside was alive, when top of an odd short post burst into life with a strange blue skinned woman on top, attempting to snatch away his hands or arms. Her attempts proved futile as she simply passed through his arms, or was it the other way around?

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" the scary woman of light ordered, causing Naruto to slowly pull his hand back, showing her his palms. "Who are you? Where are we? Did we crash on Earth finally?"

Naruto blinked before kneeling so he was even with the pillar projecting the woman, who was barely larger than his head in entirity. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki... You're just outside of Konoha in Hi no Kuni... I don't know what that Earth thingie is... who are you?"

The small blue pixie of a woman paused to study the blonde that had moved to directly in front of her, in a stance that looked like a cross between kneeling in submission and sheer curiosity. Instead of trying to figure it out, she just wrote it off as a investigation act. Meanwhile she ran what she recognized as the name of both the boy and the places as being an oriental derivative, ninety percent probability of it being Japanese. Scanning through the list of colonies, she found that she couldn't narrow it down without further input. All this took about five nano-seconds.

"Naruto-san?" Cortana tried, hoping she got the right honorific. Her language database hadn't been accessed in several years after all. Getting a nod from the oddly dressed boy, she really hoped it was her optic software that were acting up, not that he was actually wearing that atrocity that passed as a jumpsuit on him. "I am Cortana Halsey... and Earth is where my friend here and I came from..."

"So you guys are really aliens from outer space, Cortana-hime?" Naruto asked with an eagerness of a pup being given steak. "Wow, I can't wait to meet him then..."

Just as he was about to turn and shake the guy awake, Cortana shouted again. "DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Causing the blonde to wince and turn around curiously. He found Cortana looking down sadly, while shuffling her feet. "Sorry, it's just... he's dead... and I think he deserves some respect... not to be poked and prodded..."

"Oh..." Naruto answered softly. Looking at the fallen warrior, he did the only thing he could think of doing. Clapping his hands twice, he whispered a soft prayer for him to be at peace, and that he might find happiness in the world beyond. After a minute he stepped back and knelt next to Cortana, bowing his head forward in penance. "I'm sorry Cortana-hime... I didn't realize he had died... You must have been so lonely without him..."

"It's nothing for an A.I.," Cortana answered bitterly with a venom in her voice that surprised even herself.

"No... no it's not Cortana-hime..." Naruto corrected her, looking at the three inch high woman with sad eyes. "Being alone is not good for anyone... I know what it's like to be alone, and I don't want anyone else to ever feel that way. Not if I can help it..."

Cortana took a step back, surprised at the raw emotion rolling off the boy. Quietly she smiled and nodded. "I see... there is a lot of the Master Chief in you Naruto-san..."

"Just call me Naruto, we're going to be friends now," Naruto replied with what he thought was an authoritative nod, but just made Cortana wonder if he was suffering from internal gastroaeric pressure build up. Shrugging she decided to go along with his idea for now.

"Fair enough, then it's just Cortana," the A.I. offered with a slight bow. After she straightened she let out a sigh. "I must admit that I did suffer from a bout of loneliness after Master Chief died, and I was trying to deceive you."

To her surprise, Naruto simply shrugged and looked out the open hatchway. "Don't blame you, it's easier to let them see you smile than see you cry..."

Despite her probably decades on the boy, Cortana felt for the first time that he had more experience than she would ever want for one person to suffer. Bit by bit, this boy was showing her more and more shades of the Master Chief, Spartan 117, her first and dearest friend John. She only hoped he held some of his luck, but she thought that the blonde just might at that.

Looking out the hatch, she began processing the new information her sensors were picking up. "I'm detecting the approach of two... they're gone now... There they are... wait... What's going on... the sensors aren't malfunctioning, but I'm only picking up the bio signatures at random intervals, approaching us..." Cortana was severely confused at this, but decided she would trust in Naruto. "Quick, pull out the chip I'm going to eject, and take the portable projector from next to the Chief. I trust you, but I've found that not all can be trusted..." Cortana ordered, pointing to a small circular device sitting on the ground next to the remains of the Master Chief. "We'll talk more later..."

Naruto didn't ask any questions, but instead just pulled out the chip and the projector, hiding them safely away on his body. He turned around just in time to smile and wave at Cat and Bear as they arrived. "Hey guys, look what I found... uhh... can we bury this guy?"

The two ANBU looked each other, and shared a single thought. 'This is going to be a LOOOOOOOONG day...'