Out of the Unknown

by axellon2008

Naruto discovers a crashed starship outside his village and his life is forever changed. Under the unorthodox tutelage of a Sith Lord's spirit, he will learn the technology and history of a larger galaxy that he, and no one else from his planet, ever knew existed.

8. Chapter 8

N: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

I forgot to post the Poll Results in the last chapter so here they are.

POLL RESULTS

WINNER: Plasma (suggested by Hollow-Inuyasha) – 41 votes

Storm (suggested by FFwatchdog) – 22 votes

Ice (suggested by axellon2008) – 18 votes

Crystal/diamond (suggested by Ffwatchdog) – 16 Votes

No sub-element – 10 votes

Magnetism (suggested by DarknessKen) – 10 votes

Swift (suggested by Fury074) – 9 votes

Dust (suggested by Draco Kamikaze) – 5 votes

Thank you to all who voted.

x-x

38 BBY – Current Year (Naruto is eleven years old)

Chapter VIII: Plans moving forward

x-x

"I spy with my little eye...something...purple." stated Naruto with a hidden smile.

"It wouldn't happen to be myself or Yoroi-san again...would it Naruto-kun?" stated Kabuto with a nervous chuckled while adjusting his glasses. Both he and Yoroi were the only ones wearing purple for at least a mile since they were on the road and heading back to the village from a mission.

"Wow, Kabuto-san! Your really good at this game." stated Naruto with fake awe.

"Well I am rather observant." quipped Kabuto with a fake smile.

This was by no means the first time that Naruto had insinuated or suggested in one way or another that Kabuto and Yoroi could be spies. It wasn't always subtle either. Like when Naruto found out about Kabuto's ninja info cards and suggested that some of the information on them might be classified and Kabuto probably shouldn't even know it and that a spy for another village would really want to get his/her hands on cards like that. It didn't really matter what Naruto said as their sensei still remained as clueless as ever concerning his genin.

Kabuto however was well aware that Naruto knew something about him but was rather curious as Naruto had never openly admitted anything and never bothered to alert anyone that his teammates were spies. Kabuto found it strange and he would never openly admit that he was a spy nor had he tried to silence Naruto in anyway. Kabuto also knew some things about Naruto and never admitted them either. It was an interesting stalemate and dynamic as neither made any moves to admit what they knew and just continued the charade.

Naruto was rather enjoying messing with his two teammates again. Neither could really do anything about it and didn't want to risk revealing anything. They were both still ranked as genin while it had been a year since Naruto had been promoted to chunin at the chunin exams. Naruto tried to get the other members of his team promoted as well but Kabuto opted out after the second exam and Yoroi failed to be selected for chunin rank during the final stage of the exams. From what he could tell, Kabuto seemed to have another purpose for staying a genin and he felt that it had to do with the ninja info cards and information that the silver haired genin was constantly gathering.

After much meditation, Naruto had decided that it would be worth it to strive for promotion instead of staying a genin. He had examined the reasons for both sides of the problem at length. The conclusion Naruto came to was that he had more reason to get a promoted to chunin than stay as a genin.

Naruto found that it would likely look more suspicious if he, who had been rushed through the academy, had not been promoted to chunin in a short amount of time. People, especially the Hokage, might think it strange that such a promising academy student had been unable to reach chunin a few years after becoming a genin. The other reason that he wanted to get promoted had to do with what he had found in the ninja library. Since 'raiding' the archives in the guise of Mizuki, Naruto discovered how useful fuinjutsu could be as well as the rest of the information in the library. After looking through the scrolls he copied and sifting through his memories of what he read and saw, he came to realization. Despite spending hours in the library, he had barely scratched the surface concerning the information that was available to the rank of chunin.

Rather than disguise himself as another chunin or go through another charade while risking being caught, he instead decided to push for promotion and now wore the vest of a chunin. He had forgone the high collared shirt as it didn't mesh with the vest and instead had a hood sewn onto his vest as well as used white bandages and tied them around his neck and the bottom portion of his face. The bandages didn't cover the area around his mouth which was left open for using jutsu. He had also sealed his sword in a storage seal on the forearm that was typically used for holding his master's holocron and a second ninjato was attached to the back of his vest. It looked exactly like the ninjato he had made but was not. Naruto used the fake to fool people and unsealed his real ninjato when he had to. He wanted people to see the imitation of his real sword on his back and notice that there was nothing special about, which would lead them to think that any rumors about it were false.

As the team reached the top of a small hill in the road, Konoha was revealed to them in the distance. Naruto's eyes went directly to the Hokage monument but he wasn't looking at the faces. He was looking through them, to the hideout that only he knew was there. Naruto often found himself glancing at the monument and his thoughts would always wander to the stolen items that were hidden there. On some level, the knowledge always made him uneasy and paranoid about being caught. However, it was unlikely that it would be discovered considering the security and modifications to the hideout that he had made with his Master's help.

With the new seal information and following his Masters teaching and instructions, he had fortified the hideout with a combination of fuinjutsu and Sith runes. The entrance to the hideout was hidden with a Force illusion that was created with the runes. While Naruto found he had little ability in genjutsu, with help from his Plagueis, he started learning how to make illusions with the help of Sith runes and was even working on using the ability to copy the effects of genjutsu that he knew of but couldn't use.

With the entrance hidden, he had also placed a barrier seal over it to prevent anyone from entering, if they got past the illusion, and detection seals so that he would know if anyone was near the main entrance to his hideout. The inside of the hideout had several other traps and the entire room had been reinforced with Sith runes to make the walls stronger and fuinjutsu had been used to prevent noise and chakra from being sensed by someone outside the room. A barrier was put on the noses of the Kage to, on the off chance that someone thought of it, enter his hideout through the noses of the former and current Kage.

With all the modifications he had made, Naruto was confident that a Hyuuga would not be able to see into his hideout and it would be hidden from them. Even if someone entered it, he used another application of Sith runes to produce a second Force illusion inside of the hideout and make anyone think it was just an empty space.

From the Scroll of Seals, Naruto had added two more additions to the hideout. He added an extra trap to the entrance way and also used a powerful earth jutsu to create a second entrance to the hideout. The jutsu was made for the quick creation of bunkers and required a very large amount of chakra to use as well as a single fuinjutsu seal. Naruto used the technique to create a vertical shaft that went down into the rock of the mountain and to just below the level of the village. It then traveled to the building where his apartment was and he created a hidden entrance so that he wouldn't have to keep going to the Hokage monument to access his hideout.

He would only have to enter the hidden tunnel and walk directly there, unimpeded and unnoticed. Naruto actually went by the area anyway because the staircase to his apartment was on the inside of the building and the entrance to the secret tunnel was placed in the stairwell.

The earth jutsu he used to create the tunnel pushed the rock away and compacted it to form solid walls while engraving a unique design on the surfaces of the tunnel that was the same as the seal used in the jutsu. The fuinjutsu was used to start the tunneling process and consisted of a rectangular seal that was placed on a smooth surface and it set the dimensions of the bunker system to be created. The design of the seal was engraved onto the walls as the jutsu worked and served to help keep the shape of the tunnel system being created. The user could also create rooms of different sizes besides just tunnels and even create multiple levels. The technique drained chakra based on how elaborate and big the bunker was so a person could easily try to create something too large and drain themselves of Chakra. The technique was not slow but it was also not fast and Naruto didn't try to see exactly what he could do with the technique. He just created what he needed.

The entrance in the stairwell was hidden with another illusion to make it appear as a solid wall and a person could even touch it and feel a solid surface as part of the illusion. Naruto wasn't sure if a dojutsu could pierce the illusions he was using for his hideout as he had read in in the academy that they could do that but this wasn't a genjutsu, it was Force illusion, so he wasn't sure. He did know that few people would look in the stairwell of his building for an entrance to a secret hideout. Naruto walked to that very entrance now as his team entered the village and went their separate ways while the jonin sensei went to the Hokage tower to brief the Sandaime on the mission and fill out a mission report.

'A lot has changed since I stole the Scroll of Seals.' Naruto mused while he walked to his apartment. He had found an incredible array of jutsu in the forbidden scroll and now had access to many powerful techniques. Many of the jutsu in the scroll involved the sacrifice of a person or the user but the rest more than made up for that. It contained barriers and ninjutsu that did not have nature affinities tied to them. Naruto also found several fuinjutsu seals that were explained in detail which included a cursed seal, a memory seal, and his own seal that was on his stomach and held back the kyuubi.

Apparently a cursed seal was any piece of fuinjutsu that was placed on an individual that spread across or was placed on their body and could have varied affects. Naruto read through the different applications and knew that he would have to develop one of his own. The memory seal was supposed to be able to seal off certain memories or all of person's memories. It was something that Naruto was very interested in as it would be much better than what he was currently using for memory removal, which removed everything and left nothing. However it could be removed by a person with enough sealing knowledge and experience but Naruto had a few ideas about that.

His own seal was certainly of interest to him and he learned about the existence of a 'key' that went with his seal but he had no idea who had this extra piece of fuinjutsu and it worried him knowing that someone else had it.

Probably the most interesting discovery had been the shadow clone jutsu which was by far the best clone jutsu that Naruto had ever encountered. He had mastered it in an hour and could already make numerous perfect clones of himself to use to help his plans while he worked on something else. He had already used them to work on the hideout and put all of the Sith runes in place. Naruto also learned the other corresponding jutsu that went with the normal shadow clone jutsu which included: the clone explosion jutsu, the shuriken shadow clone technique, earth release shadow clone, and the lightning release shadow clone.

Naruto entered the stairwell of his building and created a shadow clone that was inside of the illusion that covered the new entrance to his hideout. Without missing a beat, the shadow clone substituted itself for the real Naruto without producing any smoke and the real Naruto continued walking into his hideout while the shadow clone proceeded up the staircase to go to his apartment. If anyone was watching he hoped the illusion would conceal the switch between himself and the clone but he had no real way of knowing that it was successful. Naruto hadn't been caught yet so he had a feeling it was working as he walked down the tunnel to the vertical shaft in the Hokage mountain.

Naruto walked on into the darkness until he reached the vertical shaft. He never bothered to put any lighting in the tunnel as he could easily move in the dark. For a brief moment he crouched down and a wind picked up around him. Given that the shaft was small, he had figured out a better way than climbing it, it was also more fun. Using Force jump he propelled himself up and then a burst of wind around him increased his speed. There was no way he could add something like an elevator as he just didn't have the materials to do it and wasn't going to frivolously spend money when he could do something else.

After copying scrolls from the ninja library in the guise of Mizuki, Naruto had found out a great deal of information about how to train in using chakra natures and after he had been promoted to chunin, he was allowed to purchase the special paper that allowed him to figure out what his affinities were. Previously, he had just been learning what he could get his hands on and wasn't concerned with which affinity he had. Once he used the chakra paper, he found that he had an affinity for wind and water.

From that test, he knew that wind must be his primary affinity but he wasn't sure if water was his secondary affinity or he had an affinity for water because of his training to learn the Nidaime's water jutsu. Everyone had a primary affinity and it was the chakra nature that their chakra was naturally attuned to and could learn to use the easiest. Some people even developed a secondary affinity or even a third affinity that worked the same way. Naruto's affinity for water, however, was not a secondary affinity but a developed affinity for water jutsu. He had used water chakra nature so much that his body developed an affinity for it but it was not natural like his primary affinity. A person could have up to three natural affinities and could develop the reset through training and using jutsu for those specific chakra natures. The natural affinity or affinities would always be better than the developed ones. Jutsu of the natural affinity would be easier to use and consume less chakra while jutsu with developed affinities would consume the same amount as each other but more than the natural affinity.

Naruto never really bothered with it before because he was interested in learning all of the chakra affinities and using jutsu from all five. He had more than enough chakra so it didn't matter how much the jutsu consumed or whether it was a natural or developed affinity. Since he had the proper training techniques for learning to manipulate each of the elements, he had started learning all of them. From that point, he had almost mastered all five chakra natures. The only chakra nature that was giving him problems was fire which was taking him much longer than the others had. Before Naruto started that training, he already had learned some earth manipulation and had mastered the water manipulation. It had taken a long time but on a suggestion from Master Plagueis, Naruto used his shadow clones to speed up the process and work on training in multiple things at once.

Nearing the top of the shaft, Naruto slowed himself down and just came out of the opening in the floor, landing gracefully on the ground of his hideout. Moving into another room of hideout he removed a few scrolls from his person and placed them into the slots in the alcove he had created from the rocky walls of the hideout. With earth manipulation, he had expanded his hideout to accommodate rooms giving him a place to sleep if he needed it as well as storage.

The scrolls on this wall contained sums of money that he had 'acquired' during several of his missions. He didn't steal from the clients but if he was raiding a bandit camp then some of the loot might go missing and no one would know. He also gambled on several occasions while his team stayed in a village with a casino. Things like that happened a lot on the missions he was a part of but no one had ever noticed, though he suspected that Kabuto knew of the stealing but the glasses wearing spy had never said anything or alerted anyone to Naruto's transgressions.

Naruto wasn't completely sure how much money was enough but at some point he had the feeling that he would need a lot of money to fix and refuel the ship. He couldn't convince everyone using his mind tricks and some items he might need couldn't be purchased locally.

Those scrolls also had materials that he had picked up which included chakra metal that he planned for a few more weapons. He already had his sword but the new weapons he had in mind would be very different from a sword.

Moving to another alcove, he looked through the scrolls there and selected two of them. They were vital for his Master's and his own plans so he would need to take them on his next mission. The results of his extra activities during his next mission would determine what course he would take to get off of the planet and into the galaxy that he wanted to see.

Naruto already knew what his next mission would be as the Hokage had informed him before he leaving for the mission he just returned from. He would be performing standard border patrol along with a few other ninja. They would patrol along the Southeastern border of Fire country which hardly received any notice because it didn't border with any countries with hidden villages like the Northern and Eastern borders of Fire Country did. This was exactly what Naruto had been waiting for and he went to the final scroll alcove to find a slightly larger scroll that fit on the small of his back.

Naruto smiled as he had waited so long to test the item in the scroll and now he would finally have his chance. And it was exactly what he needed to complete his next task in the constraints that he had.

x-x

Several days later, southern area of Fire Country

x-x

Minutes passed at a very slow rate as Naruto tried to wait patiently for the right moment. He was currently on lookout for a given time period of the night. The group he was with consisted of several chunin and a jonin. Naruto was woken up from his sleep to take the next watch and now he was impatiently waiting until he knew that the ninja he was with were all asleep before he started his real mission.

'Every minute that passes gives me less time to complete what I came here for.' thought Naruto as he was rather irritated and decided to try and meditate. Ten minutes later the ninja that had woken Naruto up for lookout duty was fast asleep and Naruto began his mission. With a single handseal, he created a shadow clone to stay behind while he ran off in the direction of the ocean.

Hopping from tree to tree, Naruto raced to get to the ocean as soon as possible so that he could use his alternative mode of transportation. It took almost half an hour to reach the ocean from where his patrol was camping for the night. Once he was on the shore, he pulled the medium sized scroll from his back and set it on the ground, then opened it.

The scroll just contained a large storage seal and he released the seal. After the smoke had cleared, Naruto reached down and activated the power source on the speeder bike and the repulsorlift in the vehicle quickly activated causing it to jump off the ground a couple of feet and stay there as if it was suspended or propped up by something. Naruto jumped on the bike and then smiled before pushing the throttle and seeing what the bike could do.

x-x

Naruto could hardly get the smile off his face as he traveled at incredible speeds over the ocean. It was dark and he was far enough out from the shore that he didn't have to worry about people spotting him and few boats were out at night. The only problem he was having was that the bike was so fast that his long journey was made rather short. He was traveling over two hundred miles in less than half an hour and the return trip would be just as short. It was a shame that he didn't have time to really figure out what this bike could do or take it for more of a joy ride. His lookout shift was only three hours long and that was the window of opportunity that he had to be back by in order to replace his shadow clone before waking someone for the next shift.

He was headed to Sea Country, specifically to Jiro island where Orochimaru had a secret base and laboratory which was run by a man named Amachi. While Naruto had great knowledge of many of the sciences what he didn't know was whether the two substances that he was bringing with him were possible to recreate with the technology and resources of his planet. He knew a great deal about technology and materials in the greater galaxy but his information was stunted when it concerned his own planet.

What Naruto needed was a person that had knowledge of what this planet had and could determine if both substances could be reproduced and then mass produced. Both chemicals were paramount in getting the ship operational and having enough power to venture off the planet and through hyperspace. If they couldn't be recreated then he would have to find something else or come up with another solution. As of yet, he didn't have solid backup plans but he wasn't sure what other options Master Plagueis might have.

Naruto flipped his goggles down as he approached what he thought was the main island of Sea Country. Zooming in the with goggles, he changed course, headed for one of the outlying islands that he believed to be Jiro Island which would have the hidden laboratory that he was after.

Slowing the speeder bike down, Naruto moved to a small inlet which provided cover from any prying eyes. The laboratory had two entrances, one under the water and the other hidden in the rocks and riddled with traps. Naruto got off his speeder, turned off the power and repulsorlift, then sealed it back up in the scroll.

Jumping from rock to rock, he made way to the main entrance of the complex. He wasn't planning to just ask Amachi or bargain with him for what he wanted done, he had something else in mind.

x-x

Inside the facility

x-x

Amachi sat at his laboratory table in his main workspace. He was currently working on the first set of samples for his newest underwater super soldier formula. It was right before he looked through the lens of the microscope that he once again checked the cameras.

He was a paranoid person by nature and made it a habit of always checking, multiple times a day, that his facility was secure. It was one of the reasons that he had moved the feeds from the camera system as well as the security monitoring alarms into his work area. The first few years he had been in this secret laboratory he had gotten fed up with constantly walking back and forth from his lab to the security room.

No sooner had he looked at the monitors then he noticed the camera on the main entrance showed nothing but static. That camera had gone down before though, so he wasn't that concerned as the salt water tended to corrode everything overtime and the cameras just didn't last in that area of the complex. When he was about to turn back to his microscope the camera came back on but the second camera on his system went to static at the same moment.

Amachi's eyes widened at this and he temporarily forgot the project that he was working on to give his full attention to the camera monitors and the alarm system which had yet to trip. While watching the monitors, the third camera, which was inside of the facility and covering the door went down as well. With a rapidly beating heart, Amachi left his worktable and sat down in front of the monitors.

He didn't have to wait long before the second camera came back on and then the fourth camera went out. Now in a panic, Amachi activated the traps inside of the facility that required power and went to get his ninja supplies. It was currently just himself in the complex complex but numerous traps littered the hallways that led to this part of the facility. 'If someone has entered, then they will be in for quite a surprise.' He thought with a reassuring chuckle as if it really was a person, none of the alarms or traps had been set off yet and he convinced himself that they would protect him and that it might just be a glitch in the system.

Minutes passed and Amachi's eyes were glued to the monitors as camera after camera went off and then came back on moments later. 'It must be someone moving through the compound but...but how is it that the camera's aren't able to get anything?' he questioned to himself as it didn't make sense that the camera's would temporarily go out and come back on. He knew of no technique that could possibly do this.

As the camera's continued the strange progression, Amachi noticed that none of the traps had been triggered and even the alarm system hadn't been tripped. 'Who could be that familiar with the security to enter and proceed with such impunity?' he wondered and his hands started shaking while a few beads of sweat formed on his forhead.

Ever closer the unknown figure proceeded and never once was Amachi able to see who it was on the screens. Eventually, the camera right outside the laboratory went out and Amachi listened to what was happening. The door to this part of the facility was like a vault door, built to stop most ninjutsu and even exploding tags. Walking closer to the entrance he looked at the door and sighed as who ever it was must not have been able to get through.

No sooner had he thought that, then the crank on the vault door started spinning on its own without anyone there to turn it. The uneasiness and fright quickly returned as the door was unlocked from the outside and swung open.

The entrance was shrouded in shadow as Amachi watched with quick breaths as he tried to figure out who might be there and why the door had swung open by itself. A figure stepped through the shadow and while Amachi may still have been afraid of him, he was almost happy to see Orochimaru.

Orochimaru walked through the vault door and chuckled at the frightened and wide eyed Amachi, "Kukukukuku. You almost seem happy to see me Amachi." stated Orochimaru.

"I had no idea it was you Orochimaru-sama, you definitely took me by surprise. You usually don't enter the facility in such a way and I thought it might be an intruder. I had no idea you were making an unscheduled visit." stated Amachi in relief from the ordeal but nervous about what the snake sennin was doing there.

"I was in area and had a few samples for you to analyze." stated Orochimaru and he reached into his ninja pouch to retrieve two small scrolls.

"Are they organic samples?" asked Amachi as he took the scrolls and brought them to an empty work table. Unrolling the scrolls he unsealed two vials. One had a clear viscous liquid and the other had a greenish liquid.

"No they are not organic. I wish to know as much about them as possible and know if they can be reproduced. You have one week." stated Orochimaru in a serious voice and Amachi gulped slightly but nodded. He would have to put aside his current work but he was also interested in what the chemical substances that Orochimaru had brought him were.

Stepping over to his equipment, he started up the machines that he would need and when he turned around, the vault door was shut and Orochimaru was nowhere to be seen. Looking over to the monitors he noticed nothing out of the ordinary but didn't think anything of it as Orochimaru was a very powerful ninja and could come and go as he pleased from his own hidden facility.

x-x

Orochimaru emerged from a outcropping of rock like he was a part of the rock itself and was engulfed by smoke a moment later to reveal Naruto. He moved to the scroll attached above his ninja pouches and removed it to unseal the speeder bike.

It was a plan that he had come up with ever since he heard about his upcoming patrol mission. The only person Amachi would do something like that for, without question, was Orochimaru. Naruto didn't actually know how Orochimaru entered or exited the facility and how he got into contact with Amachi. Figuring that Orochimaru was a person that liked to manipulate as well as play with his pawns, he decided to put Amachi on edge and scare him enough that he would think Naruto was the real Orochimaru and would be less likely to question anything. He knew some information about the facility and enough information from Musumi's and Mizuki's memories to know how Orochimaru sounded and acted as well as what he looked like.

Naruto needed Amachi to work on analyzing and figure out if it was possible to recreate the two substances. One sample was the main fuel that was needed to create the powerful reaction in the ship's reactor. The other sample was a substance that he had found which he believed could fix the micro fractures on the ships hull. It was an emergency sealant used for hull repairs which was called spatch-cote. It was only made for quick fixes until proper repairs could be created but Naruto only needed to get from his planet to a planet in the known galaxy. From there he could secure another ship. He planned to use it to coat the areas of the hull that were damaged in the crash.

This was the best option that he and his Master could come up with given the technology that they had available. Unfortunately, even if the hull could be fixed, they still needed to make more fuel and Naruto hoped that it was possible. The only thing he could do was wait for a week, until his patrol came back to the area they were currently in, so he could travel back to Sea Country.

Naruto made it back before the shift change and replaced his shadow clone. When the agreed upon time came up, he switched with another chunin and then went to bed.

x-x

A week later, around the same area of Fire Country

x-x

Making his way back to the facility, Naruto entered in a much quicker and stealthy manner like he had exited the last time. He was very curious to see what Amachi had found out about the substances he had given the scientist. The results of the analysis would change his and his Master's future plans and determine when they would be getting off of the planet. Naruto didn't let the possibility of not ever getting off the planet cross his mind as he was dead set on seeing the rest of the galaxy.

In the guise of Orochimaru, Naruto entered the main part of the lab. Amachi was working on something and Naruto's eyes wandered to the security monitors. He didn't notice anything in most of them but nearly the last monitor had a girl tied down to a table somewhere in the facility. Naruto's eyes widened at this as he wondered what Amachi would be doing kidnapping a young girl.

"Amachi." Orochimaru said in an even voice and couldn't keep the smile off his face when Amachi jumped in his seat and turned around to find the sennin right behind him.

"S-sorry Orochimaru-sama, you startled me. I wasn't sure when to expect you." Amachi said nervously and went to retrieve the samples that had been given to him the previous week as well as two manilla folders which Naruto assumed contained the results of the testing.

"I analyzed the two samples as you requested. The first sample..." and Amachi held up the vial containing the ship fuel, "...is like nothing I have seen before. I don't think it can be replicated at all. Frankly I can't recognize some of its composition. May I ask where you acquired it?" questioned Amachi and the response he got was, "No you may not." And Naruto had to keep the scowl off his face at the news about the fuel.

Frowning slightly, Amachi continued, "The second sample can be replicated and I could see several uses for it. It stays in an incredibly viscous state until it is exposed to the air then it begins to expand slightly and eventually hardens to an incredible degree. Again, I've never seen anything quite like it." stated Amachi while examining the vial again at the curious substance.

Naruto was relieved that at least one of the substances was viable and now he had a way to patch the hull of the ship. It wasn't a permanent solution and he would have to create a large amount of the sealant for the entire bottom hull but it would be sufficient until he could either get the ship properly repaired or get a new ship instead.

Orochimaru reached out and took the samples from Amachi and before Naruto could do anything else, he spoke, "Since you're already here...I would like to tell you that my research is progressing." stated Amachi with a smile and Naruto managed to keep in character.

"I suppose that is why you have kidnapped the girl?" inquired Orochimaru with a slight glance at the monitoring device. Amachi nodded and said, "Yes, exactly. I haven't injected her with the serum yet, but this time I think the test will be a success, not like the last subject that expired shortly after injection. I've corrected the problems but if something does happen I can always dissect her to find out what went wrong."

Amachi turned around to get some of his notes or something to show Orochimaru and Naruto looked at the man in front of him and then back to the monitor. His eyes narrowed and he no longer believed Amachi could be of any use to him.

x-x

Naruto reached a secluded place on the main island of Sea Country and once again unsealed the speeder bike from the scroll. The girl was now in the local hospital and Amachi's corpse would likely wash ashore some time the next day or perhaps that night. Naruto blinked and tried to focus and ignore the headache. He had taken a large amount of information from Amachi before he killed him and was still trying to sort through it which could be difficult depending on how much information was taken. He now knew exactly what he would need to produce the sealant for repairing the ship and now he would only need the money and equipment to do it. Unfortunately he couldn't use much of the medical knowledge he had taken from Amachi, given that his chakra control wasn't good enough. However, the information he wanted to know about technology and materials on this planet that were available to him was very useful.

The problem was the power source for the ship. The fuel was no longer an option and he would now have to remove the reactor assembly from the ship and replace it with something else. The ship required a large amount of power to be able to use the hyperdrive and he wasn't sure how he would be able to find something else that could produce that kind of power. 'The ships reactor easily produces orders of magnitude more power than all of Konoha requires on a yearly basis. I can't replace it with just anything. It needs to be something that produces an incredible amount of power. If I can't find it then I'll just have to build it.' thought Naruto and he sighed as he knew that building a reactor that would meet his power requirements would be incredibly difficult using the limited supplies and resources of this planet. A small smile did cross his face as he thought about what kind of reactor he could make, what he would need to make it, and the challenge it would be.

x-x

Nearly a month later

x-x

Kabuto walked to the usual meeting place for his team but his mind was definitely elsewhere. He kept in touch with Orochimaru as well as a few other spies working for the snake sennin through coded correspondence in the medical journals that he regularly received. From the last message that he just got, Kabuto learned Amachi was found dead almost a month ago. The scientists body had apparently washed up on the main island of Sea Country but it took so long to reach Kabuto because no one could identify the body. From an autopsy report done in the local hospital, the man had apparently drowned.

This was of great concern to Kabuto because Amachi hardly ever left his lab and a scientist working on creating the perfect underwater super soldier was not likely to drown. 'Unless his own creation had killed him.' thought Kabuto but that was unlikely as he had no report of Amachi having any success. It had only been found that Amachi was missing when the agent who frequently brought supplies to the hidden facility found it abandoned and began trying to find out what happened.

The equipment was missing and all the research, which initially had lead the agent to believe that Amachi had run off. If it were not for the fact that he had been dead for several weeks by that point, then Sound ninja would be actively searching for the man. Numerous questions were going through Kabuto's head. What had happened? How was the hidden facility discovered? Who was behind it? Where was the research? Was Orochimaru-sama's spy network in danger and was there a leak? Is my cover in danger?

Unfortunately, none of the questions he had could be answered at this point. Kabuto doubted even Orochimaru had the answers to all of these questions. The most important question at this point was who had found out about the facility? 'It was well hidden and had been for over a decade.' Kabuto thought. The list of people who could have found it was small. Akatsuki was on that list, as well as Jiraiya, and perhaps a few others. However, that didn't explain why Amachi was killed and the research missing. Kabuto doubted that Akatsuki, at least what he knew of the group, would be interested in Amachi's research. 'They would have been after information about Orochimaru-sama's whereabouts. They wouldn't have made his death look like an accident or been concerned with the research. For Jiraiya it would also be the same.' he thought and that left a very short list and the possibility of an unknown third party or possibly hidden village.

As Kabuto's mind worked, he wondered if this could have had anything to do with Musumi's death. 'The man's mind was accessed after all.' he thought. Could someone have found out about the base and then waited to take it? That also seemed unlikely as if they knew about the hideout, they would have acted immediately and not waited several years.'

Danzo was still a possibility as the man did have the resources to do it. Kabuto was positive that if the old war-hawk had a chance, he wouldn't hesitate to kill Orochimaru, try to destroy any link between them, or perhaps steal research. However that wouldn't explain why he would kill Amachi as the man could be valuable to him.

Arriving at the meeting spot, Kabuto sat down and continued to go over the possibilities while waiting for the jonin sensei to arrive. He didn't take much note of Naruto who was sitting not very far away.

This was not the first time that Naruto had heard the name of Danzo in the thoughts of certain people in the village. A few years ago, Naruto gleaned the name from the Sandaime's thoughts and this was the second time that he had felt Kabuto thinking about Danzo as well. Naruto hadn't been very concerned the first time Kabuto thought of it, which was when they first became a team. The name had no meaning to him at the time and he couldn't gather what meaning it had to Kabuto either as several other names appeared in the man's thoughts along with that one.

After Naruto had felt the Sandaime thinking about 'Danzo', he had started looking into it to find out who this 'Danzo' was and why both the Sandaime and Kabuto were thinking about the same person. Unfortunately, his search turned up very little. It wasn't until he stumbled upon the name in the older records section of the archives library that he found some mention.

Apparently Shimura Danzo was a former ninja of the village and was currently retired. Naruto found scarce information about the man but just from the picture alone, he could tell that there was something else going on. He felt it through the Force and Plagueis had told him to try and dig deeper.

The most that he had managed to find out was that Danzo was now a member of the village elders but he wasn't really an adviser to the Sandaime. However he did go to all of the ninja council meetings. It was odd because Naruto really couldn't find a reason for Danzo to be at those meetings as no other retired ninja attended the council meeting and it would seem whatever reason was hidden from nearly everyone that wasn't on the council or perhaps old enough to know. This was a problem but not something that he couldn't figure out. It seemed that Danzo was definitely a person that worked from the shadows and since so few people had ever heard of him, despite holding enough status in the village to be on the ninja council, that meant that there was much more to it than just being a veteran ninja. Plagueis had told him to look into it when possible but focus on their real priorities.

Naruto turned his head and looked towards the approaching sensei. A few moments later, the Jonin sensei arrived and they went to the Hokage tower to get a mission. The team still met occasionally as Naruto only had a few mission and duties as part of his rank so he still did missions and worked with his original team.

The real priority that Naruto had now was not looking into shady figures in the village, but getting money, a large amount of money. It would be difficult as he couldn't draw attention to himself. The question was, where could he get such an amount of money and how much would he need?

Once he had the money, he could purchase the proper equipment for his needs, as building a reactor would be rather difficult. From talking with Plagueis, they had decided that building a fusion generator would be the best idea. The ship already had a small fusion generator that was for emergency power. Based on looking over the device and the combined knowledge and ideas from of both Master and student, they believed that a larger fusion generator could be created that would be enough to power the propulsion and other vital systems of the ship.

A starships main power consumption was the engines. The weapons did need power but most ship weapons were not that draining and neither were any of the other systems. It was the engines and hyperdrive that were the most power consuming. The hyperdrive actually needed less power than the engines when they were being used but they still needed to actually lift off from the planet and get into space so enough energy had to be generated from the reactor to at least achieve orbit with the engines.

Naruto had already thought up a way to get the ship out of the lake and it wouldn't alert the village nor would it require him to use the Force to try and lift it completely out of the lake. He only needed to lift the ship to the surface for what he had in mind.

x-x

Later that day

x-x

Naruto looked up and down the street his team was currently walking along in Tanzaku Gai. They were heading to deliver a scroll to a simple merchant and would likely spend the night in the village. This wasn't the first time he had been in this particular village. The last time his team had been here he was thrown out of every casino and back room gambling place in the village. They all suspected him of cheating but couldn't prove anything. The fact was that he was just lucky and had too many other abilities to not win so much. He didn't even have to try to get mental images of other player's cards or determine what the next card in a deck might be. It didn't matter what the game was either, he won so easily that he always got thrown out eventually. A henge also wouldn't work for long and he had even tried to purposely lose once in a while but ended up winning too much in the end. Whereas most found it difficult to win at gambling, Naruto found it difficult not to win.

He had therefore stopped trying to get money through gambling. Stealing wasn't really getting him anywhere though. He was only able to steal small amounts and he knew that he would need more than he could get through these methods and much more money than he could get from being a ninja of Konoha. Naruto had thought about stealing money from a wealthy individual but no one living in or around Konoha had that much money and stealing from multiple people or doing anything else to bring attention to him would be a bad idea. The village may be prospering but it wasn't full of wealthy people and neither was Tanzaku Gai or any of the other villages in Fire Country, save perhaps the capitol.

'What we need is a someone that we can easily manipulate that has a great deal of money. We won't need to steal, blackmail, or threaten them. I already have something in mind.' said Plagueis through their connection and Naruto mentally acknowledged what his Master was saying.

'I suppose all I need to do is ask around and find a few names.' thought Naruto and he knew that they would have a little free time later that night to spend in the town after the mission was completed. He knew it shouldn't be too hard to find a few names that could be useful to them.

x-x

Later that night

x-x

The man dropped to the ground and Naruto's shadow clone dragged him to the alley wall and leaned the man against it, then put an empty bottle from the trash in the man's hand. Anyone passing by would just think the man passed out from drinking. The man would wake up with a headache and think he had a hangover.

After making sure that his sensei and teammates weren't following him, Naruto had headed out on his information gathering mission. This was actually the fourth person whose mind Naruto had looked through. He had started out talking to a few drunken merchants and asking questions that would bring to their minds a very greedy person with more money than they could ever need and they would associate a name with that person which Naruto could glean from their minds.

After getting a few names that way, he decided to look in further detail in the minds of a few local criminals to find names from them. What Plagueis really wanted was a rich and unsavory person that was already involved in illegal dealings. The former Sith Lord reasoned that a person with illegal dealings, that had yet to be caught, would definitely know how to acquire what they wanted without gaining too much attention or making anyone curious. Naruto had agreed with his Master's reasoning and sifted through the names he got from both parties until he found crossovers. The name Gatou came up with several of the criminals and several of the merchants.

Apparently the man owned a shipping company, and not just any shipping company, but the largest on the planet. The man had apparently gotten to such a status through buying out and bullying the other shipping companies as well as using his legitimate business for illegal contraband shipments. He also hadn't been caught or even implicated in any wrong doing and held high regards with the normal public while being known well by criminals. From what he found out, Gatou was currently in Wave Country which the merchants found rather funny as Wave wasn't known for anything except fishing and only had a small port. They seemed to think that Gatou was going senile for even going there as that the county had no foreseeable value to someone of Gatou's wealth.

The information greatly intrigued both Master and student as it promised everything they were after and more. Greedy, owned a shipping company, involvement in illegal activities while not being caught, and was currently isolated. Plagueis was very interested in what a person like Gatou was doing in a country like Wave and had already come up with several theories which he didn't share with his student as he wanted Naruto to come up with his own reasons.

It might be a little while before he would have enough time to get to Wave Country as his duties as chunin were demanding and didn't leave him with large blocks of time in which to sneak off from the village or while on a mission. Naruto had contemplated riding his speeder bike above the trees to get there faster but he could be spotted by a patrol. He would have to be patient and wait for a break in his duties to head off to the small group of islands that made up Wave Country.

Please Review

AN: The bunker creation jutsu has the same results as Orochimaru's hideout when, in Shippuden canon, Team Seven chase Orochimaru and Kabuto back to their hideout to find Sasuke. It produces the same type of design on all the surfaces of the bunker system and can create rooms. I thought that since Orochimaru apparently had several bases, that it would need a powerful or elaborate earth jutsu to be able to create them as fast as possible and it would seem that something that large might be labeled as a kinjutsu.

AN: I did think about creating some kind of chakra powered generator to power the ship but everything that I thought of really didn't seem viable or practical to me. Even small starships need an incredible amount of power that wouldn't come close with anything I could think of on Naruto's planet or that could be created with Chakra. I did think of the Bijuu but discarded the idea.