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.

26. Chapter 26

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

x-x

36.3 BBY – Current Year

Chapter XXVI: Mos Espa Fiasco

x-x

Turning off the communicator, Naruto put it in one of his pockets and moved through the alleyways, back to the cantina that the others were currently getting food in. The conversation with his Master went as well as it could have considering the circumstances. He was henged to look like an average teenager with short brown hair and no whisker marks. His hood was no longer covering his head but he had to wonder if someone would recognize him without the henge. It was difficult to know what the people searching for that bounty were really looking for. An assassin droid was mentioned in the bounty poster but there was no picture of HK or a good description.

Juugo was not mentioned at all and he wondered if bounty hunters and the rest were even looking for orange-haired teen and the two dancers. 'Does Jabba know that they weren't eaten by the creature?' he wondered as he walked into the cantina and took a seat to eat the food that had been ordered for him. Despite not knowing what it was, he still devoured the food as he hadn't eaten anything in over twelve hours.

Finishing his brief meal, Naruto looked to the others and then to Suigetsu, "The plan is quite simple. Suigetsu and HK will head to Jabba's compound and collect on my bounty. With the bounty removed and money secured, everyone will meet up at the Vulture so we can leave this planet. There will be one contingency plan in place should things go wrong."

"What about us?" asked one of the slave girls who he believed was named Ann. "You don't have to stay with us and may leave whenever you like." said Naruto as he thought about the best way to remove their memories of the past twelve hours or at least keep them from talking about their group.

"It isn't that simple. What about our implants? We can't leave the planet because of them." questioned the sister. Naruto looked at Tann but with unfocused eyes while he tried to think what to do. They weren't supposed to be his problem and Juugo wasn't supposed to jump in after them.

"How exactly do your implants work?" asked Naruto as he really had no idea what configuration the device had or where it was even implanted. Unfortunately for him, neither Tann nor Ann seemed to have that information either. While the others prepared to leave, he decided to ask someone where the nearest junkyard was.

x-x

Reviewing an old and well used datapad, Watto glanced over his inventory once again. The Toydarian hovered near the the checkout counter and glanced up from his pad to watch over his recently acquired slave. The small blonde boy was trying to lift something onto the shelves that was a little heavier than what he was able to handle. Though the child showed excellent mechanical aptitude, Watto wished he had acquired someone a little older. 'Can't be helped.' he thought as he remembered that he acquired the boy in a bet with Gardulla the Hutt.

Deciding to finally speak up before his merchandise was damaged, "If you break that equipment, you'll have to work it off with extra hours." he shouted across the room but the possible bad situation was averted by one of his potential customers.

Juugo's hand reached out, steadying the piece of equipment and keeping it from falling. Letting the boy help, the pair pushed the item onto the shelf. Juugo smiled at the boy, who smiled back and Naruto ignored the entire situation as he searched through the shelves for the devices that he required. Various items soon filled his arms and he even spotted a few things that he wanted for the other projects that he was working on. Walking up to the register, Naruto emptied the contents of his crossed arms onto the table and Watto looked the items over before adding up the price in his head. As he created a list of the items and put prices with them, he began to realize something.

While the items being purchased could be used as replacement parts for any number of different machines or devices, the sum of all the parts together could be used for something rather different. 'All the parts needed to make a bomb with remote detonator.' the Toydarian thought idly as he kept his eyes away from the customer and appeared to be still adding up the total cost. The only thing missing was the explosive but with the power packs being purchased, a much smaller explosive device could be created, 'Or the power packs could be used to enhance a more powerful explosive.' he realized but kept it to himself.

If the person in front of him was planning something, then telling the Hutts could earn him a nice reward. His thoughts however were interrupted by the voice of his slave, "Hey Mister. What do you need all that stuff for." Glancing down to the boy standing right next to the customer and realizing what had been said, Watto's face instantly changed from his aloof but sly expression to one of shock and surprise. It was only on his face for a brief moment but more than enough to be noticed and understood by Naruto.

"Stop bothering the customers." Demanded the Toydarian owner and he moved to usher the boy into the back rooms of the store. Naruto watched the scene and thought over his options. He had been having great difficulty trying to read the owners mind and now he knew that something was wrong, 'He must have put together what I plan to use these parts for.' He realized and stayed completely calm while acting as if he hadn't seen the owner give himself away. From how the creature looked and the lack of success at reading thoughts, he guessed it was a Toydarian, which Plagueis taught him were one of the few sentient species that were immune to Force tricks.

'Does that mean that I can't extract knowledge from his head either?' Naruto wondered but didn't have time to ponder the question long as the owner soon returned. While the being hovered back to it's original position behind the counter top, Naruto ignored the man's excuses and determined what he was going to do. Before the owner could give him a price on the items Naruto spoke, "I was also interesting in something else and I was hoping perhaps you could help." he said and put the Toydarian completely on edge.

"I was interested in acquiring some slaves and hoping perhaps you might know where I would be able to do this. You see, I'm not from Tatooine, only visiting, and have quite a bit of money to spend that I just won." Naruto explained as he completely diverted the owners thoughts and seemingly offered a reward for the information that he wanted.

The new topic caused Watto's eyes to slightly widen, though he was unaware of this. Pretending to the think the question over and figuring out how much he could swindle the customer for information that was common knowledge to those that lived in Tatooine, he answered, "Well there are several auctions going on each week but most of the merchandise there is just substandard and probably not worth your time. However there are a few other private auctions that have much nicer merchandise."

"I thought so." Naruto lied and continued, "But, I was looking for something a bit special...or...let's say rare."

"I'm sure if they don't have it, then they can get it for you if you pay enough." Responded Watto with a look as if he'd just won something. "They'll also take care of the implant process at this place, won't they?" Naruto questioned in a slightly more serious manner as he had finally gotten the real question that he wanted answered.

"Of course, that won't be a problem. The boy that was in here is my slave. I won him and his mother from betting on a pod race and they were already implanted at the same place you're inquiring about." Watto said in a matter-of-fact tone and made sure to add, "This information isn't known by everyone..." Watto lied, "...and it won't come cheap."

"That's understandable..." Naruto said in as cheery a voice as he could and he reached into one of his pockets, pretending to grab something from it. He then placed his hand down on the edge of the table. His palm was slightly elevated over the top of the counter and the positioning of his fingers made it seem like he was placing something on the table. Sliding his hand over closer to the owner of the shop, the Toydarian leaned forward, hoping for the hand or fingers to move slightly so he could view how much he was getting offered for the information.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Naruto used his other hand to grab the creatures head and slam it onto the counter top. Pulling out a kunai and placing it on the cheek of the owner, Naruto said in a deadly voice, "You've got three seconds to tell me the location of where they do the implants, otherwise I'll start by cutting off your wings."

x-x

Naruto left the shop into the hot midday suns with his stolen merchandise in a bag and quickly moved to a nearby alley so he could change his henge.

He'd left the owner alive but the Toydarian wouldn't be waking up soon. A customer had walked in during their exchange so he had left the injured owner on the floor behind the counter. From the information he gathered, it turned out that the place he wanted was one of two main slave station for Mos Espa. Slave implants were also installed there by medical staff. It was also attached to Jabba's Townhouse which worked out perfectly for him given the proximity to where his other plans were being put in motion.

'While Suigetsu is taking care of the bounty, the rest of us can go into the slave station.' he thought as he left the alley and went to the meeting point. The others were already making their way to a location near Jabba's compound, in fact it was right across the street. He had tasked Suigetsu with scouting the outside of the compound, while the others stayed off the main streets to avoid suspicion.

He wouldn't be able to get an idea about how many were inside but that didn't matter. The goal was not to finish off the Hutt or start a siege of the massive townhouse. 'But it doesn't hurt to know what Suigetsu is walking into.' he admitted and passed by many different establishments on his way through the winding sand streets of Mos Espa. Glancing back and forth to both sides of the streets, he saw his bounty posting displayed almost every thirty feet. No doubt everyone in Mos Espa knew his incorrect face.

x-x

Quickly moving through the streets of Mos Espa, Plagueis traveled to a specific location that he had gleaned from the mind of his young experiment. He knew that their group would be leaving the planet soon and he still had one last task to take care of before he was ready to set out. The Demon Brothers were on standby with the skiff and the others were merely lounging about the ship when he left. No one asked him where he was going and he wouldn't have answered them anyway.

Moving around a corner, he stopped and began searching in the alley. From his memory, he knew the location was correct but he couldn't find what he was after. Exploring nearby alleys and even looking inside a few of the abandoned homes, he continued the search for the items he sought. He was in a less crowded area of the city and off the main street that meandered through the city. Many of the buildings around him where abandoned and run down but he wasn't interested with them. Concerned that he may have the wrong location, he began to move away when his foot struck something in the sand.

Reaching down, he pulled out a severed droid arm that had been almost completely covered by the sand, obscuring the part from view. Recognizing the arm as part of what he was after, he set the piece down and looked back to the sand to find the remaining pieces. 'The recent storm must have covered the rest of the parts.' he realized and knew that he was in the correct location. Unable to find the other pieces he sought, Plagueis turned to the Force. Concentrating on his surroundings, the Sith Lord created a small dust storm. Not concerned with anyone that could be watching, the spinning wind lifted the sand up and exposing the remaining pieces.

He had seen several pieces of that particular droid in his experiment's room and now he had found the rest. After looking through the boy's memories, he knew that piece by piece, Anakin Skywalker had been coming to that exact location and collecting those parts. Not wanting to be seen with all the parts at once, and since the boy was so young, he wasn't able to collect much at a time or be able to come to such a location very often to scavenge the parts. That was the main reason why the collection of the dismembered droid was proceeding slowly.

'But I intend to speed things up.' Plagueis thought as the winds died down and he looked to the uncovered pieces that now littered the ground. Now that he could see more of the droid, he determined from the parts that it was a Cybot Galactica protocol droid model but he couldn't be sure of the age. Scanning through the parts and reconstructing the droid in his mind from the parts in on the ground and those from the boy's room, he found that the droid was just over fifty percent intact. The protective outer shell was completely gone but the appendages and robotic skeleton all appeared in good condition. However, some of the more important systems and likely the circuity as well as all the wiring would need replacement.

Picking up the head, Plagueis examined the droid brain and found it missing a few key parts but he knew that they were rather generic and could be obtained from many different places. 'With a lot of work and some scrounging, I think he could finish the droid in a few years.' believed the Dark Lord of the Sith but he was confident that with a little more help and after procuring a few more parts, he could drastically cut down that time for the boy.

Collecting the parts and wishing he had a storage scroll or the chakra to use it, Plagueis proceeded to take them to the boy's house. 'Along the way I'll have to make a quick stop at the junkyard he works at.' thought Plagueis as he promptly walked in that direction with arms full of droid parts. He would have to walk halfway around the city but he already planned on going to that particular junkyard anyway.

x-x

Looking both ways as he stood at the end of an alley, Suigetsu determined that the coast was clear enough for his entrance to the compound. Coming out from the alley with HK-47, he dragged behind him part of corpse. It had a head, torso, and arms but was missing the everything below the belt-line and was wrapped inside a cloak.

Smiling as he walked past a few people, Suigetsu found that while most were a bit weary when they saw the huge sword he had strapped to his back, the ones that had a clue as to what he was dragging made sure to move to the opposite side of the street or into a nearby alley. Seeing the largest building in the city, the pair moved past numerous small buildings and shops as they looked for the main entrance to the building dominating the backdrop. Eventually they came to a street that's only purpose was to lead to the palace-like complex.

The Desilijic Townhouse as it was known on account of Jabba's clan name, was a collection of interconnected buildings with the main complex at the center. On the western side of the compound were three open-top hangars, with one several times larger that the others. Apparently Jabba's transports would land at his complex and unload illegal goods or even slaves that would be implanted and sold at the station in front of the compound along the main roadway through the city. There were many other buildings but their purpose was unknown. Seemingly Jabba owned every property adjacent to his massive Townhouse.

East of the hangars was the palace part of the compound. It was dominated with four domes of different sizes and several towers. Nothing on the compound save for the towers randomly placed in between the domes was over five stories in height, with the towers extending several stories above everything else.

HK eyed numerous organic targets as he examined the compound from afar. It seemed Jabba had significantly increased security. Even the roof of the building had guards posted or patrolling. He could see snipers in the towers and several ground to air laser cannon emplacements where guards waiting to use them. He guessed that the 400 meter long complex should have it's own shield generator, though it did not seem active if it even existed.

'Inner thought: There is also no way to tell how many levels are beneath the surface.' Noted the droid as he continued to review the outside of the complex and marked the locations of everything he could see on a rudimentary map that he was making and saving changes too.

Looking down the street leading to the main gate of the palace structure, the two nodded to each other and made their way down the street. Suigetsu noted that aside from the main gate, there was no protective wall around the compound. The walls of the continuous building were tall enough, and likely thick enough, to create a protective barrier that had no low windows or easy access points.

Coming to the gate, Suigetsu stepped forward as several guards barred their path, "I'm here to collect on a bounty. The Big Man definitely wants to see me." he said and the Gammorean guards looked back and forth between each other.

x-x

Leaning against an alley wall, Naruto watched Suigetsu and HK move out of his sight before taking the lead of his group and walking straight towards Jabba's slave station. He wanted the collecting of the bounty to go uninterrupted. Adopting a henge that had a breather mask on as well as bandages to cover most of his face, Naruto stopped in front of the two guards posted outside the building he wanted.

"I'm here to have my two slaves implanted, step aside." he told them and they quickly complied, moving out of his way to let the group of four pass. Walking into the facility, they proceeded down to a lower level and eventually came to a business-like area that retained the aesthetic of Tatooine interiors. Standing in line and waiting for their turn, Naruto looked around the room and thought it looked like a shady dentists office or small clinic, rather than a place to have slaves implanted with exploding chips.

Looking at the line of people ahead of him, Naruto frowned and sidestepped the others patiently waiting. Moving past them without a word, he arrived at the head of the line and waited at the counter for a moment before someone noticed him. One of the personnel at the facility yelled out something to him but Naruto had no idea what language the man or possible woman, was speaking. "He says you can't skip ahead of everyone in line," another employee informed him after Naruto ignored the previous statement.

"Yes I can." said Naruto in an even voice and the man agreed with him. "Where are your forms?" he then asked and with another wave of his hand, Naruto said, "You've already seen the forms. Let's move on to the implantation." Despite the outrage of those that he had cut in front of, Naruto and his group of three were ushered through a door and led to an operating room.

x-x

Stopping his sprint just short of where he thought a junk shop was, Plagueis rested his Mustafarian body against the wall of a building out of sight from the main street. Mos Espa wasn't a large city but it's construction was not laid out in any coherent manner. The main road winded it's way through the city from it's start at the southern edge to it's end at the very northernmost area of the Mos Espa. From it, numerous other roads were offshoots at various angles and most of the main shops in the city were along the man road while very large areas of slave quarters being placed in the outskirts.

Unfortunately this meant that it was extremely difficult to travel off the main road and through the city, because of how easily it was to get turned around or take a wrong turn. This was exactly how he had been traveling but it also meant that he could cut through different areas and bypass long bends in the street which would have significantly added to his journey. Stashing the pieces of droid in the alley and covering them with sand to keep anyone from finding them, Plagueis proceeded to find the junkyard he was after at a walking pace that was no longer impeded by the heavy droid parts.

After a large curve in the main road, Plagueis could see the tall outer walls of the junkyard as well as the stacked scrap materials that lay beyond. Heading for the door, he walked right in and his size as well as presence startled the hovering Toydarian behind the counter. Though unaffected by the encounter on the outside, Plaguies was very curious as to why the male Toydarian was holding his nose with a bloodied rag and was so startled by his entrance into the shop.

It made him wonder if someone had robbed him recently and he noted how the man eyed him while keeping a hand under the counter. Presumably the action was to be in close proximity to a hidden weapon, but he couldn't actually tell if there was a weapon under the counter or if it was just an act. Looking through the shelves, Plagueis moved toward an area of the shop that displayed droid parts and he searched through the racks for the items that he sought. What he needed was a droid brain as well as a few other key parts for the head. Those would be the most expensive to obtain on Tatooine.

While searching, he detected the presence of two other life-signs entering the shop as well as one other life-sign of someone who appeared to be on the property, though out of sight. Glancing to the front entrance, he saw two Mos Espa police walk in to the establishment and immediately go to the owner. As the owner began describing his assailant, the Mustafarian features of the Sith Lord turned into a frown, or what would have been passable as a frown for the species. 'That sounds an awful lot like a henge that my student would wear.' Plagueis thought and though he tried to keep his eyes to the shelves, his attention was brought back when the owner called out for someone.

Initially he thought the owner was calling to him, which he remembered would be a significant problem as he couldn't speak any language they would be familiar with, however, the call was not directed at him and was soon returned by a much softer voice. A blonde boy ran in from a back room and Plagueis instantly recognized who it was. 'Now I remember why I knew the exact location of this shop.' he realized as the memory surfaced of his investigation into the slave records. He had seen the address because the junkyard owner, Watto he believed was the name, also owned his experiment and the mother. The blonde walked up to the counter and began answering the questions that the police were asking.

Still keeping to the shelves, Plagueis finally found some of the parts he was after and began collecting them but he slowed down his progress as he didn't want to get involved with the local law enforcement. It would be difficult to talk his way out of a problem, especially when they wouldn't be able to understand his speech. Once the police had left, he would purchase the parts and he also had something else in mind. He had been presented with a better opportunity than his original plan had entailed and wasn't about to let it pass.

Naturally resistant to mind tricks because of being a Toydarian wasn't the same as being impervious to all mind tricks. With the knowledge that he had and control of the Force, it wouldn't be impossible for him to dominate the mind of the simple store owner. It would simply take a little finesse to deal with the strong-willed and resistance species. Once the police left and the boy went back to work, he would approach the counter and implement the newly conceived plan.

x-x

'You know the guy must be loaded when he's the only person on a desert planet with a water fountain.' reasoned Suigetsu as he examined the courtyard. It was also the first time since being on the planet that he had seen actual plants that were growing. The open courtyard had a number palm trees but also other plants that didn't necessarily looked suited to being in an environment such as Tatooine. HK ignored the plants in favor of memorizing the layout of the building and escape as well as choke points.

Moving past the aesthetic features, a contingent guided the pair into and through the luxurious building, presumably to meet with the owner. The inside proved to be more extravagant than the outside with numerous decorative carvings on the sandstone walls and wide hallways with tall ceilings. After many turns, the pair was eventually led to a large circular room with a very tall, domed ceiling. Many different armed mercenary types were surrounding the central figure and Suigetsu looked at their weapons to see what they were using. 'Lots of melee weapons.' he noted with a small smile as even if getting hit by blasters wouldn't kill him, it still hurt and he wouldn't mind collecting a few of the implements that he saw.

Sitting on a platform that seemed to hover off the ground, was a large green slug-like creature. While HK was unaffected by the appearance of a Hutt which he had seen countless times before, Suigetsu was rather disappointed. 'All of these dangerous looking people follow this helpless looking slug?' he thought and held back a frown.

From his perspective, the hairless and unclothed slug was completely unarmed and lounging, but nothing gave him the idea that it was dangerous or even strong. The bandages on the side of the head and missing arm only made the Hutt look more pathetic in his eyes. He guessed it further emphasized that the slug had a great deal of money and all the surrounding people were hired help. 'I suppose I used to be like that.' he realized, because before joining Naruto's group he worked for whatever client payed for his services as a ninja of Kirigakure.

Coming to a stop in the middle of the large room, the pair glanced around them at the possible hostiles before Suigetsu dragged the covered corpse a little closer to the Hutt and dropped the end that he was carrying on the floor. 'Be careful you fool. Any harder and you would have destroyed my clone.' resounded a voice in Suigetsu's head and he mentally apologized before clearing his voice and announcing to the crowd, "I've come to collect on the bounty." Fishing out a small holoprojector from his pocket, he turned it on and showed the bounty poster of the person known as 'Rasen.'

Everyone present stared at the pair before the largest occupant of the room began a deep mocking laugh. As if on cue, the others in the room began laughing as well and the laughter grew in volume as fast as it grew in participants. 'They're all going to die. I'll start with...' were Suigetsu's thoughts on the laughter before he was interrupted by Naruto. 'Don't let them get to you so easily. They're only laughing because Jabba is laughing. We still need them, if only for a little while.' The voice informed him and Suigetsu let a small smile form on his face. The information put him at ease because it seemed that Naruto didn't really care what happened to any of the individuals laughing at him.

The laughter soon died down however and with a small motion from Jabba's head, one of his men stepped forward and grabbed the shoulder of the corpse, pulling off the cloak and turning it up to get a look at the face. They were apparently not the first people to come in with a body and try to collect on the bounty. Though Suigetsu was the youngest person to come in. Seeing the face of the corpse, the being that went to identify the body quickly said something in a language that Suigetsu didn't understand. While the words were lost on him, the effect it had on the Hutt was more than enough for him to know that they believed that he had killed the person shown in the bounty.

The Hutt spoke while directly looking at Suigetsu and despite not knowing the language, he had a general idea of what was said based upon the surprised look on the Hutt's face. Before the translation droid near the Hutt could convey the words, "I wanted to bring him in alive and demand more money but he bled out on the way here." Suigetsu answered with a shrug. The effect was a short period of complete silence in the room. Despite failure by countless others, the adolescent in front of them had apparently succeeded and done so with ease, or at least not accruing any injuries.

The silence was ended when a more jovial sounding laughter began coming from the Hutt. It was much louder than before and Suigetsu smiled in turn as it appeared that the slug was pleased with what he done and brought. When the laughter started to die down, recognition dawned on the Hutt and he pointed to the droid that was standing close to the newcomer. Weapons were drawn by the various villainy around the room and pointed directly at HK.

Guessing what was going on, Suigetsu stepped in front of the droid and said in a placating manner, "Relax~! He's got a restraining bolt. He's my droid now and completely harmless." The statement evidently put the Hutt at ease, possibly because the black restraining bolt was clearly visible on the droids rust-color armor. Although no one else in the room besides the pair knew that the device was something that Naruto had picked up at the junk store. It didn't work at all and was just for show.

Jabba gave a deeper laugh and nodded his head in understanding. He knew he could always try and barter for the deadly droid later but not in front of the crowd. Though the person before him was a complete unknown, he was very impressed by the work and the sword that the young human carried on his back. He did wonder if the teen had actually done the deed or perhaps taken the body from some other successful bounty hunter, but either way it didn't really matter to him. He was still interested in adding the boy to his syndicate, which recently had lost many of it's Tatooine-based members and since the boy wasn't on his personal list of people who were contacted about the bounty increase, he only had to pay the lower amount.

In a loud booming voice, the Hutt began to speak and any murmuring in the crowd died down instantly. A brief moment passed after the Hutt stopped speaking and Suigetsu was confused about what to do next until a droid near Jabba began translating the words to him, "The Great Jabba congratulates you on your bounty and wishes to know what currency you would like the payment in?"

Before Suigetsu could even answer the question, a voice in his head began conveying different types of acceptable currencies, "Aurodium ingots, nova crystals, or..." but Suigetsu ignored the voice and turned to speak with the droid near him. Surprised at being completely ignored, Naruto tried to once again deliver the message by speaking through the clones mind but Suigetsu payed him no attention.

'Suigetsu, what are you doing?!' he demanded but was again ignored and had to try and guess concerning the developing situation. With the clone's body staying motionless, Naruto tried to catch the short conversation with the droid but had no success. 'What did you just tell that droid?' he demanded of the white haired teen but could only feel amusement on the mind of his comrade. Said droid began speaking a moment later in what Naruto knew was Huttese. Through the link with his clone, Naruto could feel perhaps surprise from the Hutt but he wasn't sure what had been spoken and he couldn't use his powers through the clone to get more information from Suigetsu's mind. 'Does he know of this limitation?' he wondered with disdain.

Since Suigetsu refused to answer, the clone, he simply waited for a verbal response from the Hutt to find out what was going on. Undecipherable words were spoken in response to HK's response and the voice of another droid quickly translated, "The Mighty Jabba is amused with your choice of payment. Someone will take you to collect your reward and afterward a banquette will be held which the Great Jabba wishes for you to attend."

Suigetsu readily agreed and was then led out of the main. Naruto wanted to have the clone reach out and grab Suigetsu's leg but refrained and the clone remained completely still to keep the position it was in. Trying to keep his anger in check, he pulled back from his connection with the clone to focus more on the situation his real body was in

x-x

"I refuse. I won't do it!" said the clinic doctor with finality as he looked upon the two young humans and two older Twi'leks. The man gave a quick glance to the alarm button situated next to the door's control panel. Upon touching it, all of the guards in Jabba's entire complex would be alerted to a problem in his operating room. The problem was, it was across the room from his current position.

Naruto glanced in the direction that the doctor's eyes had looked and saw the alarm panel. The operating room had two beds with numerous instruments and other equipment attached to it. There were only two doors that led out of the room, one which they had come through and one more that the doctor did not seem to be concerned with. 'Probably that means that it doesn't lead anywhere helpful to him.' Naruto surmised looked to the man with a satisfied smirk, believing that the doctor was trapped.

'It may be best to emphasize for him that I don't care about the Hutts and make him fear me more than Jabba.' and on that thought, Naruto broke the silence, "Fine. You don't have to remove the chips from these two Twi'lekks." He said and quickly received concerned looks from the other three in his group but ignored them for the moment. However, before the clinic doctor could be the least bit relieved from the burden of going against Jabba and freeing slaves, Naruto kept talking, "It would be terrible to force you into doing something that you don't want too. So here's what we'll do." and he paused for a moment before finishing, "I'll do the surgery."

Surprised looks were shared by everyone in the room and the two would-be patients started to protest until Naruto held up his hand and silenced them. "I'll start by strapping you into this chair and then begin implanting chips into you." Naruto explained to the doctor while motioning to the many slave chips which were in clear view on one of the nearby counters

"I'll put one or two in each of your appendages, followed by one in your neck. After I've successfully completed these operations, I'll cauterize the entry wounds and then begin the process of removal. You may lose appendages during the process of removal as I may not get the first one right, or the second or third. But I assure you that although I may look young, I'm not that inexperienced at playing doctor. I can surely stop the bleeding before you lose too much when an appendage explodes and probably keep you from going into shock despite such trauma. By the time I get to the chip in your neck, I'm confident that I'll have the process down and can then begin on these two young ladies with confidence. This way you can remain firm in your stance against helping us with your knowledge and skills and I'll get to have some fun. How does that sound?"

The long explanation was met with horrified looks around the room.

"You're out of your mind." Were the words that the clinic doctor blurted out and Naruto gave a fake smile in response before explaining, "No, at the moment I'm just really frustrated and annoyed with your noncompliance. So, I think I'll be better off doing it myself. I'm certainly not going to think about removing their chips before I get some experience first. That's just crazy."

After a short period of shocked silence, Naruto added, "So, who's going to be doing the operation, me or you?" The doctor stared at him with disbelieving eyes and short heavy breaths before looking to the three companions. He quickly determined from the expressions on their faces, that the leader of the small group didn't appear to be joking. With a nod that began slow and increased with speed, the man agreed.

"Good. And just remember, I'll be watching over your shoulder. If anything happens to them, I'll make you suffer for a long time before I kill you." said Naruto darkly as he put further emphasis on the doctor performing favorable with no complications. 'I could just take the information from his head but it's probably best to leave it to someone who actually has the physical experience.'

x-x

Waiting at the large blast door while one of Jabba's men used a key card and code was agony for Suigetsu. The guard had already messed up the code once, delaying them from gaining access. His prize was just on the other side and he was tempted to just cut the door apart with his sword. If there was one important thing he learned during the briefing before disembarking on the planet, it was about the dangerous lizards that stalked some areas of the planet. But he also learned that Jabba was heavily involved in the illegal arms shipping business.

That information to him meant that illegal melee, energy, and projectile weaponry was continuously coming into the Hutt's possession and then being sold or transported elsewhere for sale. So it made sense to him that at any one time, Jabba may have an extensive inventory or at least supply of illegal weapons on hand. There was always the chance that nothing came through Tatooine and the arms business was conducted elsewhere or that nothing was stockpiled but as the door opened, Suigetsu's imagination was put to shame as a veritable armory of items came into view.

The blast doors opened up into a very large circular storage room which was filled with crates and on many of the differently shaped containers displayed examples of what they were filled with. The room was divided into different areas based upon classification of weaponry. One area featured strictly energy weapons of various types and likely with different effects. Another area seemed to be completely melee weapons such as vibroblades and other paraphernalia. The rest of the room was devoted to explosives and other projectile weaponry.

"It's beautiful." exclaimed Suigetsu as he fell to his knees and looked upon the cache of his dreams. Jabba was amused at the young man's reaction to his main armory and storeroom. Some of the weapons in the room were to be moved out soon by his various gunrunners but he always felt it was best to keep a large stockpile of weaponry on-hand or at least close by.

Motioning to his men and translation droid, he gave out orders and proceeded to leave the room. The droid relayed the information out loud to everyone in the room and informed Suigetsu and HK that they could take from the room whatever they wanted but with a cost not exceeding the bounty price. With that said, Suigetsu started moving throughout the room and examining the items on display and inside the crates because he was just approved for 500,000 credits worth of illegal weapons and he aimed to get some of everything present in the room.

"Hey, what's this one?" Suigetsu asked and waited for the assassin droid to move over to where he was. "Response: That is a unguided or 'dumb-fire' rocket launcher." stated the droid as it looked the item over and then proceeded to begin its own search. As Suigetsu rummaged through another area, he held up another weapon over his head and yelled out to HK, "What about this?" Turning to see where the white-haired Meatbag had gotten to, HK examined the item, "Response: A disintegration rifle."

"We'll need at least a crate of these, right?" Suigetsu asked and the droid's photoreceptors grew slightly brighter before answering, "Response: Agreed."

Looking through the explosive, HK proceeded to find that certain individual weapons were missing from the crates and containers. Based upon what was missing, he guessed that Jabba armed his newly hired or previously hired men with the weapons from the room. Upon that guess, he searched for the same model of micro grenade launcher that he had picked up at the Palace.

Said weapon was still slung over his back, though the magazine was empty and the rifle essentially useless. Finally opening the correct container, HK removed the spent magazine and replaced it with one of the full ones that was siting in the case next to other magazines and rifles. Glancing at the guards that Jabba had left to watch them, he marked their positions in the room and went to pick out other weapons that he wanted to keep for himself.

"I'll start making a pile!" yelled Suigetsu with his arms full of weapons as he moved to an area of the room with more open floor space.

x-x

'This is progressing rather fast.' thought Naruto as he watched at the doctor work. One Twi'lekk, Ann he believed, was already done and her procedure had only taken a few minutes. Watching over the man's shoulder, he guessed that most slaves had the chip implanted into the neck which it seemed that both dancers had.

Glancing to the closed door at the opposite end of the room, he curiously stretched out his senses to that room. At first he thought it was a large animal and thought it best to just ignore it, but as he concentrated on the adjacent room, he found that the large life-sign was actually numerous smaller ones that were very close together. Not only in the horizontal direction but also vertically. 'Too close to be multiple floors.' Naruto thought and turning back, he caught the doctor eying him for a second before going back to work.

'He doesn't want me to go in there.' Naruto realized and now he was even more curious about what lay behind the door. 'Once he's done with Tann, I'll open it and find out what's there.' He thought and continued watching to make sure the operation was successful.

In a few moments, the chip from the Tann's neck was removed and made a 'tink' sound as it was dropped in a nearby metal dish along with the other chip. As the doctor began sealing the wound, Naruto looked at the two small devices. They were only the size of his finger nail and perhaps a little thicker, but apparently they were not only able to pick up a signal from a transmitter but if the person strayed outside of the signal's range, the explosive in the device would detonate. Given that the device was placed in the back of the neck, even a small explosive under the skin would ensure death.

A thought dawned on Naruto as he turned his eyes back on the doctor's work, 'When we left the palace, shouldn't their chips have exploded?' Although he had prior knowledge of the existence of such chips and was well aware that both girls were slaves, it was not something that he had thought about as they moved through Jabba's Palace and fled the area. 'I didn't even think about their chips until they mentioned them. But why didn't they activate? Are they duds?' he wondered, glancing back to the chips. Both devices certainly looked intact.

His features turned sour as he realized the reason that both girls were still alive, 'The interference from the sandstorm must have stopped their chips from detecting the signal. Given how frequent sandstorms are, the device probably knows when the signal is lost because of interference and won't explode because of it. Otherwise there would be a massive amount of dead slaves after every sandstorm moved through. However that really isn't that comforting. If there wasn't a sandstorm when we were leaving, they both would have been killed when they left the transmission area.'

It wasn't something he should have cared about, especially considering that they had just met and Juugo was the only one that wanted to save them and bring them along. They weren't actually a part of his group, and after leaving the building they would be parting company. Despite knowing that, he did find himself wanting to help them. They weren't annoying or getting in the way. 'It also probably helps that they are easy on the eyes, so to speak.'

His attention quickly turned back to the operating table as it seemed that the doctor was finished closing the wound on Tann's neck. Naruto reached forward and touched the back of her neck with his hand, as he had earlier with her sister. After a brief moment of using the Force to examine the wound and work, he retracted his hand, satisfied that nothing was amiss. Locking eyes with the very nervous doctor, Naruto asked a single question, "What do you keep behind that door?" Naruto indicating over his shoulder with his right hand as he didn't want to break eye contact while he tried to learn more about the room beyond the door.

The physical response from the question was instantaneous. 'He's scared, even more scared of me when I suggested operating on him. Since he's not talking, I guess I'll have to see for myself,' thought Naruto before turning and heading to the door. Ignoring a shout from the man to stop and not go in there, Naruto pushed the control panel for the door and it opened instantly.

It wasn't just the smell of body odor or excrement that stopped him in his tracks, but the view he had from the doorway of the rows of pens, stacked four-high. Nearly ever cage was filled with a humanoid, with their total number ranging in the sixties or seventies. They varied in age from very young to no more than middle-aged adult, though for some species it was hard to tell. The cells were just high enough that they could sit inside of them but not high enough for them to be able to stand up. While the sight and smell alone of such a scene was something he wasn't prepared for, it was the feelings coming off the people in the cages that hit him the hardest. Crushing despair, hopelessness, and other foreign emotions were coming off of every being in the large room and it was overpowering. He could feel that many were more willing to die than to become slaves.

Naruto's mind retreated inward as he tried to push the emotions out his head. Everything had been fine before he opened the door but now he was bracing himself against the door frame for support. During his own life, he had never felt despair or lost all hope. It was therefore not something he could easily deal with when confronted or perhaps bombarded with such feelings. Plagueis had taught him to control and harness his emotions but he had never felt like the slaves were feeling so he found no way to get them under control.

The only thing that brought him out of his state, was his bodies reaction to an external stimulus that he was familiar with and knew what it meant. An alarm was going off. With adrenaline pumping and awareness coming back to him, Naruto turned to determine the source of the noise and quickly found it. The doctor had taken the opportunity to run towards the other door and pushed the alarm button before trying to leave. What he hadn't counted on was that Naruto had disabled the door before they entered so he couldn't run away.

Panicked, the doctor turned back to the room and his captors. For a brief second he realized that he was trapped again but decided to act instead of give up. Practically lunging to the nearest counter, he opened one of the drawers and pulled out a weapon that he remembered was hidden there.

Naruto saw the weapon, realized the danger, and his body reacted by pulling out his sword to block what he assumed would be a blaster bolt. The weapon was fired not a second later but instead of a bolt of plasma, the weapon fired with a bang, but softer in volume than a projectile weapon. A pellet left the gun at high speeds, much faster than Naruto could feasibly dodge. He moved to deflect the projectile but when the pellet was a few feet from him, it did something that he certainly wouldn't have expected. It exploded.

Thin durasteel flechettes inside of the pellet were launched at him at supersonic speeds. They moved so fast he could barely make out anything at all, especially with the small explosion distracting him. The small 12 millimeter projectiles spread out and while his sword was positioned where the weapon had been aimed, it only managed to stop a few.

The first needle-like flechette to impact either hit the sword or imbedded themselves in his fingers gripping the handle. The remaining darts flew beneath his guard and primarily hit his forearm and then shoulder. Several passed by his neck and at least one outliers went into his chest. Trails of blood came out of his arm as the thin flechettes pierced right through skin, muscle, and even bone. Most had passed clean through him save for the ones in his hands which had impacted the tang of the handle, preventing them from exiting his fingers and stopping their movement.

It all happened in an instant and Naruto was left with the feeling of incredible heat where the injuries had occurred, right before the intense pain started. The henge he was using gave out immediately, shrouding the area around him in white smoke as his larger figure disappeared and showed his shorter body. Though the doctor was distracted for a second, the pain caused Naruto to stumble and grab his forearm to stop blood loss and he lost the moment of opportunity. Looking up, he found that the doctor was sneering and about to fire again. His eyes widened at the immanent danger because he didn't know what he had just been attacked with, nor how to properly defend himself.

Before firing again, the doctor's head jerked to the side and his arm went wild as he stumbled and almost fell. He struggled to determine what had happened and tried to aim his weapon to fire again but he couldn't see the large white blade sticking out of the side of his head, nor understand that he was dying. The doctor collapsed to the floor a moment later and didn't get back up again. Juugo didn't immediately collect the Tulrus tusk knife that he had gotten on Mustafar but instead went to Naruto to check on his wounds.

Warm blood poured through the fingers of Naruto's left hand, which were applying pressure to the terrible wound on his right forearm. 'I'm losing a lot of blood', he realized and his mind struggled to determine what he needed to do next but the decision was made for him as Juugo grabbed him, pulled him to his feet, and ushered him over to the operating table.

Laying his arm on the table, Naruto looked around and struggled to figure out what he needed in order to take care of his injuries and where to get it from. 'Why can't I think...I'm going into shock.' he realized and began trying to calm his mind so he could take care of himself. He knew medical ninjutsu wasn't going to work, especially without the use of his right hand.

"..I need..." and before he could finish the sentence, Juugo had taken over applying pressure on his arm so that his hand could be freed to begin treatment. Looking to the supplies at hand, which the doctor had just used, it was readily obvious that it was insufficient for his injuries. Before he could go and start searching through the operating room, both Ann and Tann moved into his view. Their arms were full of medical supplies that they had just pilfered from the drawers and cabinets along the wall. They both dumped the supplies onto the table and Naruto began sifting through it as his blood began pooling on the table. Items were pushed aside and some fell to the floor as Naruto picked out what he needed.

He thought about a pain reliever but he wasn't sure how much to give. He watched when the doctor had administered a local anesthetic to the girls but he had no idea how much to give himself, 'And I can't run the risk of giving myself too much of any other drug.' Forgoing pain relief, he grit his teeth began to work on his arm. Despite the pressure Juugo was applying, he was still bleeding heavily and knew that the projectiles must have hit one or both of the arteries in his forearm.

With the alarm sounding, it was only a matter of time before Jabba's guards in the facility went to work on the door, 'And I expect reinforcements to be coming from his Townhouse.' Naruto thought as he worked as fast as possible to stop the bleeding and patch himself up enough for them to start working on escaping.

x-x

'Bomb carrying clone to Boss. You still there?' said the henged clone in his mind. The connection between himself and the original had been severed and had yet to be reestablished. 'I don't know what that means.' Thought the clone as he analyzed the situation.

Everything had been going smoothly as people had all filed out of the room minutes ago after Suigetsu left with Jabba. He was then put 'on-hold', so to speak, as something was going on at the slave station but the connection was abruptly terminated. 'Does that mean that he's in trouble and needs me to act?' Unfortunately he just didn't know and the plan had involved him getting a signal before finding somewhere to set off the bomb. His analysis however was put on hold as he heard footsteps approaching.

Walking back to what he guessed was called the throne room, Jango found the body of the young man still on the floor. No one had bothered removing or disposing of it, which actually fit his purposes. Something was bothering him about the situation and he had doubled back to get a closer look at the body, even completely ignoring the alarm that had been sounded at the slave station in favor of satisfying the questions that he had.

Reviewing the scenario of the past day and half in his head, just gave him a headache. 'Some brat who no one has ever heard of and who doesn't appear to be working for anyone, shows up and tries to kill Jabba the Hutt. Putting aside how stupid such an action is, he nearly succeeds, wounding the Hutt, and then kills a large number of guards and mercenaries before seemingly disappearing completely. And if that isn't hard enough to believe, another brat who nobody knows or has ever heard of, shows up having killed the first and claiming the bounty.' He thought and shook his head at how much it sounded like a spacers tall tale and not something that he knew had just transpired.

Someone so skilled at such a young age was uncommon enough, but two such people at nearly the same age showing up out of the blue, that was a little much for him to swallow. The appearance of the second individual was actually more disturbing to him than the appearance of the first. 'And that Wookie sized sword that he carries around. Can he even lift that thing on his own?' He questioned as he reached the body he wanted to look at. Stopping and glancing around the room to see if anyone was watching, Jango knelt down to get a better look at the body and confirm that it was indeed the person that he had fought.

'Oh shit.' Thought the clone as he held his breath and remained completely still. Cut off from the original, he couldn't use any Force powers and if the person there did anything to his body, not only would the henge be dispelled but so would he, and then the bomb would be useless until the original detonated it by remote, 'Of course that is only if this person doesn't disarm it, or if the signal from the remote can even reach here from the below ground slave station.' Thought the clone as he considered his options.

'Besides the obvious injury, I don't see any other wounds.' Observed Jango as he looked over the damage to the corpse. Considering that he had his visor on during the entire fight and was looking in infrared, it was difficult for him to tell if the face matched. 'No defensive wounds.' he noted and he realized that he didn't see the sword that the boy had been carrying. It wasn't on the body and it wasn't on his killer. 'Nothing was mentioned about the other teen or the dancers that could have all been working with him.' He also noted and found this even more strange.

Though he couldn't be sure, his intuition and experience was telling him that the person who came to collect the bounty was extremely dangerous and probably did kill the person that was dead before him. 'The two botch the job of killing the Hutt so another is sent to clean up. They know each other and are caught by surprise without enough time to even fight back.' He reasoned but knew that the hypothesis had flaws in it. 'Three people all around the same age, probably trained together, but I have no idea who could train them to do what I saw.'

'This also means that Jabba might still be in danger, though the new one seemed far more interested in acquiring the bounty and I don't know anyone who accepts such a high payment in just weapons. I don't know if he is more or less dangerous than you.' Jango thought while looking at the body and decided that going to the armory and watching the new kid very closely would be a good idea. However before he could stand, a hand from below struck him in the neck. The swift blow went right underneath the bottom of his visor and higher than his chest plate, straight into his throat which was only protected by armor weave.

Choking because of the attack to his larynx, Jango fell over from his crouched position and was enveloped in smoke. Getting to his feet and into a fighting stance to protect himself from further attack, Jango was surprised to find the body missing and nobody in his immediate vicinity. He caught motion heading down one of the hallways and looked between the running person and where the dead body had once been before he started to realize what had happened.

"You gotta be kidding." he forced out between coughs and took off in pursuit.

x-x

Finished with final spray bandage on his arm, Naruto used a hypoinjector to give himself some of the painkiller that was on-hand and he then gave himself a stimulant to counteract some of the effects of the painkiller in case he used too much. With Juugo's help, he had managed to stop the bleeding from the artery, or at least lessen the flow, and stop the rest of the bleeding with a heavy application of coagulants and the spray bandage. His hand proved slightly difficult as the very small senbon-like projectiles had pierced his fingers and pinned the bones in his hand to the handle of his sword. Juugo had to wrench his hand from the sword and removed them with forceps but it was clear from the damage that he wouldn't be making handseals anytime soon.

Alright for the moment, Naruto knew that getting to Kabuto, Karin, or a medical droid was top priority for him in the next hour. 'It was stupid to put both med-nins on the same team.' He realized and was determined never to make such a simple and costly mistake again.

Examining the wounds on his shoulder, he found no projectiles in the wounds and the bleeding wasn't very significant, so he had Juugo patch up both sides of the wounds with spray bandages. Carefully removing his cloak and ninja flak jacket, he found three blood spots on his chest. 'They went right through the armorweave.' He realized and was actually impressed by the shear penetration of the weapon. He wracked his brain to remember if Plagueis had ever told him about such a weapon and did recall learning about something called a flechette launcher.

Using the Force, he determined how bad the puncture wounds were, 'My lungs were pierced but the hole is small and shouldn't be too much of a problem. I don't think air can get in and deflate my lung. The other holes are right through my shoulder, I won't be able to even rotate my right arm for a little while, but even if I could, with the damage to my hand and forearm it won't make a difference.' He analyzed and someone had quickly sprayed the wounds with more bandage.

Once he had gotten his clothes and cloak back on, sparks began flying from the door that led back to the rest of the clinic. It was obvious that the guards on the other side were using a fusion cutter and that they would only have a minute or so before a fight would break out. Looking towards the still open door where the slaves were being kept, Naruto realized that there might be another way for someone to circumvent the locked door of the operating room.

"Do you know if there is another way out of here?" Juugo asked and Naruto shook his head as he wasn't sure. Fleeing the operating room seemed to be the best course of action at the moment, unless they wanted to fight their way out of the building and through an area of the city almost completely owned by Jabba. 'Further into the facility it is.' Concluded Naruto as he quickly walked to the door he had opened. Once inside, he confirmed that two more doors were along the wall, which meant that their were either two more operating rooms or just additional access to the front of the facility.

"Secure those doors." he ordered to the two Twi'lekk dancers and they quickly moved to disable the other entryways into the slave holding area. All eyes were on the newcomers to the room as they certainly didn't look like they worked for Jabba. For Naruto it was a nice change, as with attention focused on who he was and what he was doing there, he didn't have to worry about how they had been feeling before.

Ignoring shouts from those still trapped in cages, Naruto calmed his mind and extended his senses. It was hard, but not because of the slaves, more because of the cocktail of painkiller and then stimulant that he had taken. 'There isn't anyone above or below us but I can feel something beyond the far wall...and about seven people waiting for the doors to be broken down behind us.' He discovered and began thinking about the best course of action for an escape.

'I could use Juugo to make handseals and try to move through the floor, but trying to move all four of us at once would be difficult and dangerous.' Naruto thought as he began coming up with eliminating other strategies but something else came to mind that might be better, 'I'm surrounded by slaves that want to be let out...so why not let them out.' He realized and reaching down with his left hand, he unsealed one of his discblades and handed it to Juugo.

"Your bone knives won't cut through the locks on the cages, but this will." He explained and Juugo readily took the weapon, moving to free the slaves. Drawing his sword with his left hand, Naruto began cutting the locks off the nearest cages. Their actions were greeted with shouts and exclamation from those in the cages who were being freed from bondage. Leaving the locks on the higher levels for Juugo, Naruto pulled out his communicator and started trying to reach Suigetsu or HK. After several unsuccessful attempts, he realized that all transmissions were being jammed. 'Probably started after the alarm went off. I won't be able to tell where Suigetsu is until I get within range of him.' Naruto reasoned and decided to try something else.

With his connection to the Demon Brothers, Naruto attempted calling out to them for assistance. The plan was for them to be ready with a skiff near the edge of town to pick them all up they shouldn't have been very far. Unsure of his success, he returned to planning what to do next. 'We're currently underground but I could make a nice hole through to the surface, however, we could run into anything out there.' Thought Naruto as he continued calmly analyze the situation and search for the best strategy.

'There were sentries on the roof of Jabba's buildings, I can still feel them there and no doubt the alarm has sent a good portion of those in Jabba's employ to this building in response. However, Jabba's main complex and this building are close enough that they could be connected either through underground structures or perhaps I can just make a tunnel.' He concluded and tried to figure out where best to make such a tunnel while his body continued to break locks on cages.

'While Jabba's men are headed into the clinic, we'll take a shortcut through his complex and get a ship. If it's just the four of us, we should be able to slip through relatively unnoticed. At some point I'll make an escape route for the slaves. They'll take off through the city and give us an added distraction while we try to find a ship or I feel someone familiar. Until we receive a signal from Suigetsu, I'll have no idea where in the complex they are and with the jamming signal I won't be sending out any communications until it's down. If the Demon Brothers get here first, then we'll just meet up with them so I can get back to our ship and get healed.' He concluded and glanced down to his arm which, after the painkiller, was only a dull ache.

With Juugo, Ann and Tann just finishing freeing the rest of the slaves, Naruto chose which wall he planned to use. Looking to Juugo he said, "Get ready." The orange haired young man took him very seriously and pulled out both of his knives from Mustafar. "Where exactly are we headed?" Was the questioned he posed to Naruto in response to the younger blonde's intense staring contest with an area of the far wall in the room. "That wall is about to become a door and if there are similar structures beneath the buildings outside of Jabba complex, eventually they could lead us directly into it." He replied and was unaware that everyone in the room was listening to him. Sheathing his sword and forming a Kinetite in his left hand, Naruto threw it at the wall.

x-x

In unison, the heads of both Meizu and Gozu jerked up as the felt something. Though no clear message had been given, they both jumped into the skiff and headed into Mos Espa, directly towards the large complex owned by Jabba. They were supposed to receive a signal through the communicator but both were getting a bad feeling and almost an urge to head out.

x-x

Blocking all of the security measures that he could with the Force, Naruto and a group of over twenty former slaves quickly moved through the halls of Jabba's upper complex. After blasting through several walls of the underground levels, they finally made it into Jabba's main building. Although he gave all of the former slaves a chance to escape, only about two thirds had taken the opportunity and escaped through an opening outside that Naruto had inadvertently created. With good cover and few guards in the area, he told the group to slowly make their escape and they parted ways.

The others had remained and were determined to go with him. At first Naruto didn't know why but after gleaning information from a few of their minds, he knew that everyone present had an idea of who he was, a newly infamous person called 'Rasen' who had tried to kill Jabba the Hutt. Apparently that name and bounty was known even amongst the newly arrived slaves, despite the fact that the events only happening the previous day. 'They think I'm heading to finish Jabba off and foolishly want to come with me.' He gathered from the gleaned information as they moved down a hallway.

'I can't protect them from their own idiocy, though I do find it interesting that they are following someone as young as me on something so dangerous. Must be the power that I displayed or maybe they just hate Jabba to such a degree that they are willing to face death in order to kill him. They had a chance at freedom and it's too late for them to back out.' He thought as he slowed and waited for the guards to come around the corner. Likely they were responding to the commotion from his Kinitite attacks but would have trouble coming after them considering the winding path he had taken through the underground structures. 'I should probably be more concerned about what Jabba has ahead of us.' Naruto suddenly thought but calmed himself and waited for the moment to attack.

The first guard was walking slightly ahead of the second and evidently they didn't suspect any opposition as they sedately approached the hallway intersection. Naruto moved quickly and lopped off the hand of a guard that was holding the vibro-axe. Instead of finishing the surprised guard, he walked right on by. He was short enough that his figure was hidden by the first large Gammorean so the second didn't even see him coming until his sword was already piercing it's neck. Juugo quickly swung his knife and cut the throat of the first guard.

Naruto expected outcry or at least gasps at the brutality of what they had done from the slaves but they surprised him when nothing was said. Two members even stepped forward and picked up the dropped weapons, intent on using them in the near future. Surprised but mindful of the present situation Naruto lead the group down the hallway and extended his sense to find three other guards motionless ahead of them.

Stopping as they neared another intersection, Naruto crept to the corner and inched his body around to get a view down the hall of the guards while exposing as little of himself as possible. 'Are they guarding a doorway?' He questioned as he peered around the corner. From his vantage point, he couldn't make out a door but because he could feel three life-signs and only see two guards, he reasoned that the two were guarding a door and that the third was inside.

"This shouldn't be too hard, how's your throwing arm?" Naruto questioned of Juugo and the orange haired teen turned to ask, "Kunai or shuriken?"

Remembering from their training in Snow Country that Juugo wasn't particularly skilled with throwing kunai, 'Though he is good with those Tulrus blades,' Naruto admitted before answering, "Shuriken."

"I've gotten better." was Juugo's optimistic reply.

"Good enough." said Naruto before removing two shuriken from his thigh holster and putting wind chakra in them. He didn't sharpen the chakra but merely infused it into the weapons so Juugo would have an easier time handling them. Taking the chakra infused weapons from Naruto, Juugo moved closer to the intersection and inched around the corner wall before throwing the two shuriken.

Acting quickly, Naruto formed a single handseal and sharpened the wind chakra in the projectiles before then using the Force and guiding them to their targets. The shuriken took an arced path down the hallway to catch both guards who were standing almost side-by-side. One shuriken may have been enough if it had been thrown straight and the guards didn't move, but two projectiles insured a more certain outcome as Naruto could guide both independently from all his practice with the discblades.

The two guards did not have time to react as the shuriken nearly cut their heads off and embedded into the wall behind them. Quickly running down the hall, Naruto directed the slaves to form positions around the door. Two others picked up the blasters from the dead bodies and several kept lookout down the long hallways while he went for the door panel. Finding it locked, he was about to try and slice through it when Ann and Tann brushed past him and began working on it.

Realizing that it would probably take them less time than him, especially without the use of his right hand, he gave them space while focusing back to the individual inside the locked room. 'This might be a security station or some kind of checkpoint but I don't recognize the writing above the door. It must be important if Jabba keeps guards stationed outside but the person inside seems rather calm. Does he not even know that the guards are dead and that we're breaking in?' He wondered but focused back on the situation when it seemed that the two sisters were close to getting the door open.

Looking to him for a signal, Naruto nodded and prepared to throw his sword at the person inside. His heartbeat quickened and he took a breath before the door opened instantly. While the plan was straightforward, Naruto stumbled slightly in his execution. He had expected to come face to face with an armed guard but instead he found a Gamorrean lounging in a chair in front of several monitors showing camera feeds, presumably the immediate area of the complex. However, what made him stumble was the fact that, "He's asleep," Juugo blurted out and the others who were also at the doorway just stared. A few of the former slaves even crowded around to get a view of what had made everyone stop in their tracks.

After letting the twitch of his right eye settle, Naruto walked calmly into the room while the others watched from their positions at the door. Moving to the console, Naruto used his right foot to gently push the chair containing the sleeping guard out of the way to give him some space. The snoozing Gamorrean continued a low snore but otherwise remained unphased by the movement or his presence.

Wrinkling his nose slightly at the smell coming from the room, Naruto scanned the monitors and looked through what was being shown. It was immediately apparent that the monitors only showed him a portion of Jabba's entire townhouse and underground levels. 'Likely they are only positioned in my immediate area around this security station. There must be more of these throughout the compound.' He realized while glancing over the feeds.

Before he could turn around and look through the Gammorean's mind, movement on one of the screens caught his attention. Several figures turned a corner and came into view of one camera. Naruto watched them carefully and ignored the members of his group that had decided to enter the room and look around. Juugo moved to stand next to him while the others began looking through the adjoining back room.

"Should we be concerned about them?" Juugo asked without needing to point out the armed men on the screen.

"Not sure yet. I don't have a good map of the facility and can't say for certain where those cameras are positioned. I can't sense them and for all I know, they could be going right around us." Naruto admitted and watched as the ones in the front of the group walked off camera angle. Though he wanted to be able to avoid a conflict with that many enemies, it seemed that may not be the case as they quickly appeared on the next camera in the line of monitors.

"Nine heavily armed combatants and they're probably headed right here." Naruto said low enough so that only could Juugo hear. Before the orange-haired teen could ask about what to do, Naruto asked him to gather everyone inside the door and look for any weapons that were lying around to bolster their group's firepower. Admittedly, he knew he wasn't in good enough condition to take on that many in a tight corridor, 'I could down a few with my discblade before taking them by surprise with Juugo's help but if even one of them gets off a message then we'll need to expect more company and be on the run. Unlike our communication devices, theirs are probably unaffected by the jamming signal.' Naruto reasoned as he searched for the best option. The monitor feed which sowed the door they were inside of was only about six camera's away from the slowly walking group of potential enemies.

'It wouldn't be that bad if we had some explosives.' Naruto idly thought and nearly moved for one of his pouches before remembering that he didn't have anymore explosive notes. Looking up, Juugo had returned but shook his head indicating that their weren't any weapons and he informed Naruto, "Its really just a break-room and bathrooms back there. This is the only room with anything of interest in it."

Preventing himself from sighing, Naruto then asked, "You don't have anymore explosive notes?" It wasn't as much a question as he was relatively sure of the answer before Juugo even shook his head to confirm that they were out. 'What I wouldn't give for...Oh.' Naruto suddenly thought as he remembered something he had forgotten and began reaching out with his mind.

x-x

Being absolutely still, the clone waited and listened from it's position behind the working machinery. Peeking around the corner and looking for a particular bounty hunter, the clone sat tight and waited to hear anything from the original. In panicking and running from the armored hunter, he had gotten lost in the complex and could no longer figure out where he was going.

After a game of cat and mouse, he eventually realized that the reason he kept being found was a result of the bounty hunter using infrared so he had found a piece of machinery that was giving off more heat than his body temperature and was using it as cover. The bomb was all prepped and ready to go but he couldn't decided if he should manually detonate or leave it somewhere and try to figure out what happened to the original.

Peering around the machinery again to make sure his hiding place was not compromised, the sound of a voice caused him to jump and nearly yell out. Doing a complete three hundred and sixty degree rotation, the clone couldn't find anyone near him and then realized that the voice was only in his head and it was very familiar. "Where the hell have you been!" the clone questioned in a voice slightly higher than a whisper before remembering that he merely had to think the words for them to be heard by the original.

'Good, you're still alive.' Was the original's response and the clone quickly shot back a retort, 'You completely forgot about me!' A short silence elapsed before the original spoke again, 'Events unfolded that took me by surprise and I was injured.' Despite that the clone couldn't see the original, it could tell that something had indeed happened and knew the original was not one to exaggerate.

'Fine, whatever.' Responded the clone with a pout, right before asking, 'Where is the target I need to use the bomb on? I got turned around by that armored bounty hunter. He's managed to chase me over a good portion of the complex.'

'He's still alive.' The original commented as he briefly glimpsed an image of the person the clone was referring to. A more serious voice continued, 'Forget the bounty hunter, I need you to bring that bomb here and deal with an armed group before they get to me.'

'Do you know where I am?' Questioned the clone and he received a mental nod from his creator. 'I may not be able to feel you since you're outside my range, but I have a good idea what direction you need to travel in and with a bomb like that, you won't need to get that close in order to be helpful.'

'Alright, tell me which direction to head in.' Responded the clone as he relinquished his hiding place.

x-x

Opening his eyes, Naruto looked to the camera's and found that the armed group had progressed further towards their location while he had been speaking with his clone. Taking a few deep breaths, he noted that everyone he had brought with him was in the same room and looking directly at him. Some looked very nervous and he could feel a steady undercurrent of fear and trepidation throughout. 'Perhaps it's finally dawned on them that they're a little out of their element and following someone younger than they are.' He thought and though it was completely true, he found that he instantly disliked his own thoughts.

Deciding that it might be best to 'rally the troops' or at least keep them from falling apart, he said in a voice that everyone could hear, "You're all worrying too much about the men on the camera. I have a plan and in a few minutes they won't be a problem anymore. Then we'll pry their weapons from their hands and head straight for Jabba. All we need to do is wait, you might as well take a short break."

Ignoring the relieved looks of the group and focusing on the screen, Naruto glanced to his left as Juugo had walked up beside him again, presumably ask a question. While pretending to look over the monitors, Juugo leaned closer and whispered, "I thought we were going for a ship and getting out of here?"

"We are but what am I supposed to do with all these extra people. I could just trick them into leaving but there's no telling what we'll run into on our way to the hangar." Replied Naruto in a calm voice to which Juugo quickly interjected, "We're not using them as shields, are we?"

"No, but I can't guarantee their safety, which is what I told them when they all wanted to stay." Answered Naruto in as low a voice as Juugo's. "And how exactly do you know where Jabba is right now?" Asked Juugo as he looked over the monitors and found that they didn't show very much and certainly not the whereabouts of the large Hutt.

"I have no idea where he is right now." Admitted Naruto and before Juugo could say anything, he explained, "I don't need to know where he is. Since we're heading towards the hangar bays, I'll just have to make sure that Jabba is there too." Slightly confused, Juugo was about to inquire as to how Naruto would do it, when the blonde pointed to a button on the controls panel for the monitors and said, "When I tell you I'm ready, push this button." And with that, he walked outside of the room with the door shutting behind him.

x-x

'Where did that kid go?' Questioned Jango as he slowly moved down the hall with blasters in hand. Both were on the stun setting and he was holding one pointed down the hall before him and one pointed behind him, switching his view between the two as he stealthily moved. Though he had run into quite a few guards and staff employed by the Hutt, it had been several minutes since losing sight of the boy. From those that he had bumped into, he learned that something else besides the alarm sounding in the slave processing area was going on in the buildings but he ignored it as he focused entirely on finding his quarry.

'And whatever it is that he's carrying.' Jango thought as he tried to remember what exactly he had seen the boy holding. 'An improvised explosive?' He questioned and very much hoped that the boy was not acting as a suicide bomber. Whoever he was after, they seemed to be able to change heights or at least appear taller and then shorter, which made him wonder if he was facing a shapeshifter. 'So I may have no idea who I'm really after.' he thought with disdain as he could have already passed the individual; posing as one of Jabba many employees.

Hearing the tell-tale sound of a door opening, Jango instantly turned to the sound with both blasters ready to fire. However, all he found was a single open door of the many that lined both sides of the hallway he was in. 'They were all locked.' He noted and remembered going to that very door and trying to open it as well as looking through the door with his heat vision to find any signs of the boy.

When nothing emerged from the door, he began slowly and methodically making his way to the doorway. It obviously wasn't a faulty switch or short. 'He must be baiting me and set a trap. No one has come out and the door was locked so it must have been opened from the inside.' Jango thought and he remembered seeing heat signatures in the room but had attributed them to the machinery that the utility room contained. 'So he's also managed to find a way to hide himself from my heat vision, clever.' He commented as he moved closer.

Listening before he even considered entering, Jango was able to hear to the hum of various machinery but nothing else. With his back against the wall close to the door, he weighed his options and decided to accept the challenge but would not go in unprepared. Holstering one weapon, his now free hand moved to his utility belt and carefully removed an item which he had purposefully put there in case he had run into 'Rasen' again. Using his thumb, he activated the flash grenade and waited a moment before tossing it into the room.

Turning his head away from the door, he waited for the flash and loud explosion which would incapacitate anyone in the machinery room. The moment the grenade was done, he rushed into the room with both guns drawn. His trained eyes and heads-up-display took survey of the room but identified no targets or threats. 'No other doors to have escaped through.' He instantly noted and looked to the large pieces of machinery, believing that the boy was probably hiding behind one of them, temporarily blinded and deafened.

As he took his first step towards the first piece of machinery, his boot brushed passed something on the floor that he hadn't noticed upon rushing in. It was the a control panel cover, the same style that was adjacent to nearly every door in the complex and operated the opening, closing, and locking. A sudden bad feeling washed over him. Glancing up from the item, he slowly turned to look at the door that he had just entered through.

Sure enough, the control panel face of the door had been removed, which confirmed that the item on the floor had come from the door. In addition to the missing panel, a pair of wires were running from the circuitry and controls of the panel, up the wall, and into a conduit that had been ripped open in the ceiling. It was at that moment that a door opened on the opposite side of the hallway, directly adjacent to the room Jango was in.

Standing in the opening across the hall was the boy and in his hands were the ends of two wires that looked identical to the size and color of the wires running out from the panel. With a large satisfied smile adorning what was visible of the partially concealed face, the boy moved to touch the wire ends together. Jango's eyes widened and he raised his hand to fire a stun bolt.

The bolt however did not reach the boy in time. The wires touched together, completing the circuit, and the door of the machine room instantly shut with the stun bolt harmlessly impacting the hard surface. Before Jango could even make another movement, the open control panel erupted in sparks and the two wires were forcibly yanked from their connection, moving up the wall and into the conduit.

It took a brief moment for Jango to absorb everything that had just happened. 'There's no other exits and he just overloaded, probably fried, the door's control panel.'

x-x

Outside the disabled door, the clone kept a large smile on his face as he put down the wires and picked up the explosive. Before running away, he listened intently and could hear muffled shouts as well as the sound of either someone banging on the door or perhaps kicking the door. "That was great." He said out loud, right before laughing and running in the direction that his creator had indicated.

After moving a short distance, he heard what he thought were the dulled sounds of blaster fire, which only made him laugh more as the door would definitely hold up against that.

x-x

"Fifty seconds." Naruto announced suddenly in a loud voice as he ignored the many questions about his abilities that were being directed his way. Some of the slaves asked if he was a Jedi and despite telling them no and pointing out that he had no lightsaber, they didn't seem to believe him. 'I'll have to use some mind tricks on them before we part ways.' He thought before someone asked, "Fifty seconds until what?" The statement had stopped the questions about his abilities and confused most of the room as to what he had been referring to.

"A large explosion that will demolish a portion of Jabba's complex and deal with that group on the monitor." answered Naruto in a calm voice. "Where?" Another person questioned, "Not too far away, but hopefully far enough to keep us safe," replied Naruto and he tried to ignore the unease that spread throughout the room at his use of the word 'hopefully.'

"Shouldn't we be concerned?" Inquired one of the former slaves as she and others tried to read emotions on his face.

"I can only estimate it's overall destructive potential and I really don't know enough about this building and how it was made to be sure our area can withstand the explosion." Naruto replied and decided that based upon the annoyed looks and vagueness of his words, that he would simplify his statement, "You may want to move with everyone else to that back room and assumed some kind of crash or fetal position." The statement caused a mass movement and shuffling of feet as everyone crowded into the back room. The only ones that stayed were Juugo and the sapphire colored twins.

"Is this really a good idea?" Juugo asked. "Could we deal with those nine guards without further injury?" countered Naruto and he explained, "I'm injured and the others only have a few weapons that we took off the guards. This option has less variables and we should probably use the bomb before something else happens. Its not a bad plan."

"So it's safe." inquired Tann, with both her and her sister nodding their heads with the hope of an affirmative answer.

"No not really." Naruto said honestly and the three were not thrilled with the news, and were also slightly disturbed by the amused tone that he suddenly seemed to have about the situation. They, however, were unaware of what was going on with his clone.

"Does that mean that the walls might not hold up to the blast?" Asked Ann and Naruto was quick to reply while continuing the countdown in his head, "Actually, I'm more worried about the ceiling collapsing."

"The ceiling?" Was the collective response of the twins and both girls began looking towards the ceiling as if looking for a weak area or perhaps something that might tell them whether or not it would survive the explosion.

"Shouldn't we run and get farther away?" Commented Juugo but instantly knew that if they had time to run or get to a safer place, Naruto probably would have done that already.

"There's no longer any time to run and being caught in the hallway when it goes off would kill us instantly because of the pressure wave. This is what I'm counting on for that group heading our way. We also have the security monitors in here and can keep them locked out until the blast goes off. Fifteen seconds." Commented Naruto and he announced the last sentence far louder than the first.

Seeing the worried outlooks on his closer companions Naruto added, "Don't worry, I'll make sure to detonate a little farther away and perhaps take off one of the additional power paks to lesson the blast. Trust me I have no intention of killing myself, well, apart from my clone which will indeed be consumed in the blast..." and he decided not to continue with that line of thought because neither blue skinned girl had ever seen him make any of his clones or wouldn't understand what he was referring too. "If anything, he's got the right idea." Naruto said while pointing to the guard that was still asleep in the chair, calm as can be, and completely unconcerned with the happenings around him.

It wasn't the best pep talk, certainly not as good as the one he had given earlier, and left the three realizing that they only had seconds left until the explosion, so they went to the back room to take shelter. Juugo concluded that it must be the drugs that Naruto had taken earlier for the pain in his arm, not knowing about the recent humiliation of the bounty hunter.

At the same moment, Naruto was thinking with a slight smile, 'That was pretty funny with the bounty hunter. My clones still laughing about it, so unstable those clones. I wonder what the look on his face would have been when he realized he was trapped in a utility room.' Looking to the monitor, he realized that his clone had appeared on one of the screens.

x-x

Still sporting a large grin on it's face, the clone set the explosive down and began removing one of the power paks, tossing it down the hallway behind him. He was at an intersection of hallways that was larger than normal and circular. The guards his creator had talked about were quite a ways down one of the hallways but he payed them no mind as he activated the explosive.

A loud whining began as the overload of the remaining power paks started, which would set off the explosive from the concussion missile. Forcing his eyes to remain open, the sound stopped and everything instantly went white because of a flash and he was dispelled.

x-x

Walking down a narrow street between slave housing that all looked the same, Plagueis was pleased with the delivery he had just completed. After his experiment put together the droid, he would have a good way of keeping tabs on the boy and determine progress or learn interesting events that might occur which he may normally not be aware of due to his choice of non-interference and lack of any available surveillance devices to place.

Stuck in his thought swhile making his way back to the Vulture, he was taken by surprise when a large explosion sounded. At first he thought it was close but soon realized that it can from across the city. Despite being a borrowed body, he could still clearly feel the thud in the Mustafarians chest as the created shock wave passed over him. Noting the direction in which the blast occurred, mostly because of the smoke rising in the air, he realized what was the cause and mentally frowned.

'I should have just assumed that things wouldn't go well.' He thought while trying to reach Naruto on his communicator. No signal was going through, however, and trying the ship as well as the Demon Brothers produced no results either.

'If someone has already activated a signal jammer, then it must be going worse than I originally thought.' He realized and broke out into a run so he could get back to the ship as soon as possible. The ones that had been left on the Vulture would have no idea what was going on and wouldn't be able to do anything by themselves.

x-x

Reacting to the explosion, it only took HK less than a second to realize that the signal had been given. Taking his newly loaded weapon, he took out the three guards in the armory before they even knew what was happening. Two more shots to disable the security systems in the room and he shouldered the weapon, pulling out his communicator. After two failed attempts to reach Naruto, he knew what the cause was. 'Inner thought: The jamming signal is likely coming from a device or array situated on the roof.'

Searching through the collections of weapons, he chose a scoped blaster rifle and then picked out a proton grenade. Not having extra hands or anything to carry it in, he magnetically attached the grenade to his body so he could have his hands free to use the rifles. Going through his recorded memory of the facility, he identified where the best and most likely access point to the roof was.

"Hey, where are you going?!" Questioned Suigetsu from behind him. HK stopped and turned to look at the Waterbag, "Statement: To the roof to remove the jamming device and to kill any Meatbags that get in my way."

"What about all these weapons?" The white haired teen questioned as he motioned to the two full repulsorlift carts that they had just finished loaded. "Half of this is yours." He added, trying to get the droid to help him as ferrying weapons and explosives through a chaotic complex by himself was not something he was looking forward to.

Though hesitating for a moment, HK responded, "Conclusive Statement: Acquiring all of those weapons will not leave me satisfied later when I know that we will only meet a few Meatbags with which to use them on in hurried transit out of the facility. Taking a few weapons and having free reign of this complex to use them on any Meatbag I can find will be much more enjoyable in the end." And with that the droid left the armory.

"Damn he's wise." Suigetsu admitted out loud as he realized that what the droid was saying was right. 'I guess I'm still naïve, because I'd rather have all the weapons I can get my hands on.' He thought and with that he began pushing one cart and pulling the other as he made his way to the door.

x-x

'Holy shit!' Thought Naruto as he covered his head from any possible falling debris as the ceiling literally seemed to be weeping dust or sand, and a few small stones. The explosion had been huge and his entire body had felt it. Despite knowing that he was still alive, with the memories from his clone flooding into his head, he stopped and checked just to make sure that he had not been consumed by the blast. From his crouched position, he noted the large horizontal cracks that had developed on the outside wall but found the door seemed to be in good shape still. Glancing at the monitors, he noted that more than half of them were just static and no longer functioning. 'Good idea to take that power pak off.' He admitted and took a few deep breaths.

Standing, his eyes widened when, despite the ringing in his ears, he heard a snort. Slowing unsheathing his sword he turned to look at the guard. Though the Gamorrean had woken for a brief second, the green skinned sentient promptly went right back to sleep without ever completely waking up. 'He has no idea how lucky he is.' Thought Naruto as he put the sword back, deciding not to pointlessly kill the guard.

"We're alive!" Came several shouts from the back room and Naruto frowned at the fact that he felt disbelief emanating from the huddled mass. Moving to the door, he pushed the control but found that the usually ultra-fast opening doors he had come to know didn't react well to explosions. The door had instantly screeched to halt without opening more than halfway.

Unperturbed, he ducked under the door and peered down the hallway. The life-signs of the guards were gone and he found them all on the ground less than thirty feet from the door. Looking at the wounds, he found blood still slowly dripping from their ears and likely mouths as well as noses.

Ducking back under the door, he moved to the monitors and took control of all the screens. With the pushing of a few buttons, all of the camera feeds had changed to show a pre-recorded message that was stuck on a loop. It was a short video of himself, standing just outside the door from earlier. Looking directly at the camera positioned at the door, which up until moments ago was still functional, he was making motions with just his hands.

A henged older version of himself was the focus of the video. First pointing at himself, he then pointed at the camera and then motioned across his neck. Despite a language and cultural barrier between himself and the Hutt, he was positive that his message would be universally clear and completely understood by Jabba; 'I'm coming to kill you.'

Briefly touching the sleeping guard in the chair, Naruto got the location to the hangar bay and found an image of what Jabba's ship looked like. 'Once he sees one of those camera feeds, he'll be on his way there.' He thought, confident that Jabba would be at the hangar, but knowing that in order to make it worthwhile, they had to arrive at the hangar first.

"Jabba's not going to kill himself!" He yelled to the former slaves who were still woozy from the explosion. Moving under the door, he was soon followed by the entire group. Walking past the dead guards, he waited as they scavenged any weapons that they could.

Looking down the hallway, the farther his eyes traveled, the more damage he came across. There had likely been other rooms down from them but the walls had not held and all he could see through the openings in the broken rock was collapsed pieces of ceiling. At some point ahead, the hallway just disappeared completely as there was now a drop off.

Walking forward, he reached the end of the hallway and noted the step-down of about three feet from smooth hallway to broken rubble and crater. Seemingly an almost circular area of about thirty meters was missing from Jabba's complex and another ten or fifteen meters beyond that was just completely trashed walls, floors, and ceiling.

It was easy to see where the intersection of the hallway should have but there was little left that was still recognizable. The ceiling in the very center of the blast was completely gone, possibly vaporized or blown onto other parts of the roof. The rest had fallen to the floor, which was significantly lower than it had been before and was composed of dust, small rocks and large chunks of rubble. Smoke emanated from the various spots that were still burning and Naruto idly thought, 'I didn't know you could set fire to rock.'

Stopped in his tracks for a few seconds by the scene before him, Naruto eventually realized that everyone else had gathered and was crowded behind him. Jumping down to the crater, he ushered them to follow so they could reach the hanger before Jabba left.

x-x

While all of his servants were preparing for a big feast to celebrate the death of the assassin, Jabba was lounging in his large private quarters. Finally he could relax and heal without further incident. In a few days, after the rancor was recaptured, he would even be able to get back to his palace. However, his tranquility was continually being disturbed by matters within his complex. First a group of newly delivered slaves had managed to get free in the processing complex. It should have been put down instantly but despite his head of security and all of his new mercenary guards, it remained unresolved.

The small slave revolt had occurred nearly twenty minutes ago and since then he had received updates that they had blasted their way into his main complex through the underground storage areas. At first this didn't bother him but further updates made him think that his security forces were completely inept. Not only could they not find the group of slaves but guards were turning up dead all over the complex. Annoyed at the tenacity of the slaves, he had come to the conclusion to have their chips activated, but that was before he learned that none of the slaves had been processed. Growing increasingly concerned, he did the only thing he could, which was to throw more men at the problem.

Believing that the problem would finally be dealt with, he tried to sleep. He could feel his body finally relaxing and the pain relievers he had taken finally kicking in. A huge and resounding 'BOOM' instantly changed all of that. Jabba was forced awake and very confused as seemingly his entire complex shook from what could only have been an explosion.

Yelling out for his guards and security, he slithered off his bed and out of the bedroom. Moving to the monitoring station that he kept in his quarters, which showed him nearly every part of his complex, Jabba began looking through security cameras while he simultaneously listened to the chatter on the frequencies his security used. Checking the outside of his complex, thinking he was under attack from the air or perhaps, he looked through the roof camera feeds.

Ignoring his personal guards that had entered the room who had answered his call, Jabba finally found something on the screens. One of the outside cameras showed smoke coming from an area of the roof. Demanding over the communication system to know what was happening from the guards in that area, he only received bits and pieces of information that all pointed to an explosion but none of his sentries reported that the complex was being attack from outside. Checking all notification systems, his eyes widened and he looked through the various alarms that the facility had, noting that many fire alarms had all been set off. A holographic view of his complex showed that the alarms were all in a ring around a large area that was used mostly for storage. Accessing the feeds from that location of his complex, Jabba moved slightly backwards in shock as he caught the tail end of a looping message.

Watching as the soundless message replayed itself over and over, he silently shook as the implications of the message were quite clear. The longer it went on for, the more afraid he became. Switching to other camera feeds in the vicinity, he watched as the screen changed to nine different viewings of the same recorded message all showing up on different cameras. The recording was definitely taken from inside his complex and the corner of the image indicated that the video was time stamped only a few minutes prior. It had been a long time since he had felt afraid for his life and no one individual had ever put such fear into him. That person was dead, he had seen the body and payed the hunter who killed him but now he was back and coming for him.

Pushing passed the guards he had called, Jabba moved out his quarters. The only response to their questions was a loud frightened sound that did little to convey the shear terror he was actually feeling. It wasn't until he came upon someone he thought could help that he started talking sense and demanding to be taken to his personal yacht by as many guards as could be mustered. He even went so far as offering a reward for keeping him alive and getting him off the planet.

x-x

Jumping over a railing and sliding down an incline, HK-47 killed two more guards before taking cover behind one of the many architectural features that dotted the landscape of Jabba's roof. Inspecting what was around him, his targeting program and sensors identified numerous targets and several laser turret emplacements but no signal jamming device. Pulling up the blaster rifle, he zoomed in on several Meatbags that had heard his shots and took them out before they were able to figure out what was going on.

Changing positions, he analyzed the best possible choice for mass destruction and computed that heading towards one of the gun emplacements would be best. The closest laser turret was empty, it's controller having already tasted his blaster, so he ran to it. That particular emplacement was one of two that were situated on either side of the large courtyard at the entrance they had walked through less than an hour ago.

Before reaching the gun, he identified two targets that were heading for the gun on the opposite side of the courtyard. With his rifle, he managed to get one of the Meatbags without slowing himself down but was unable to get the second. Both he and the other Meatbag took the controls of the laser turrets at nearly the same moment but his turret had the advantage and he rotated to acquire a target lock first. As two shots struck the other emplacement, he watched it's destruction for a brief moment before he picked other targets and soon opened fire on anything on the roof which moved. Three more turrets were downed and numerous combatants were killed or maimed by his fire. One Meatbag even jumped off the roof in order to escape his deadly laser fire, which got a short chuckle out of the droid before he heard something from below.

Targeting an incoming skiff, HK stopped from pushing the firing button as he recognized the pilot and passenger as part of their group. Rotating to look over the courtyard, HK's head tilted to the side as he found a unique sight. Suigetsu was moving through part of the large courtyard while trying to pull both repulsor carts. Some individual had started shooting at him.

'Inner Thought: Foolish Watery-Meatbag.' was his thought as he watched the scene. Trying to cart weapons and explosives through what was fast becoming an active war-zone was not a very good plan. Deciding that watching the scene unfold, with a blaster shots eventually hitting one of the many explosive devices on one of the carts, would not be as fun as mowing down everything in the courtyard, HK rotated the turret and lowered the guns into position.

'Inner Thought: Perhaps this act will increase our comradery and make up for when I shot him.' Were the thoughts going through his droid brain moments before he opened fire on Jabba's complex. Switching to alternating fire for the double laser cannon was best as he slowly moved around the building's features in the courtyard, destroying pillars, fountain statues, blasting apart walls and taking out anyone that came into view. Before finishing, he concentrated fire on the bottoms of both the large spires adorning the very front of the building, causing them yo fall over and possibly finish off someone that he had already injured.

Satisfied with his work, HK peered around the control screen and found Suigetsu slowly standing up from a crouched position and surveying the destruction. Turning to him, the fellow group member made a gesture towards him with the thumb sticking up in the air while smiling. 'Inner Realization: That gesture looks different from the one that was given when I shot him. I'll inquire later about whether it is derogatory or not and decide if I should shoot him again.'

Starting to rotate the turret and look for fresh targets, HK stopped as he spotted a sensor device on the control screen. Zooming in, he discovered that with the spires gone, he could now see the complex's sensor array package, complete with signal jammer. Firing several shots, the array was destroyed and he stopped for a moment to use his communicator.

After waiting a moment, the signal was accepted and he asked, "Inquiry: Are you Meatbags still alive?" A brief moment elapsed between the end of his statement and the reply. Despite not being in the same room, HK could tell that Naruto was frowning at him, "Yes...still alive...and I assume you are as well. What about Suigetsu and where are you two?"

Turning to look down at the courtyard before answer, HK said, "Report: The Watery-Meatbag has met up with the two Smoke-Meatbags at the entrance to the complex. I am positioned on the roof."

"You could call us by our given names." Commented Naruto's voice over the commlink before he asked, "I'll.." but before he could start, HK turned to find that a small ship was exiting the facility from one of the hangars and he asked, "Inquiry: Are you currently on a starship?", as he rotated the laser turret and locked on target.

"No, why do you..." but before anything more could be said, the voice was drowned out with laser fire as HK bombarded the ship before it could reach any altitude. One of it's engines exploded before it plummeted back into the hangar and exploded.

"I see." Came Naruto's response as he understand what had just happened, "We're heading for Jabba's ship and could use some support from above."

Looking over the destruction on the roof and satisfied that no other targets were available, "Response: Understood. I will be there shortly and take up a sniping position from above."

x-x

The large explosion hadn't damaged the room or phased him much but hearing the muted weapons fire and other explosions was really getting on his nerves. Making one last adjustment to his handiwork on the nearly destroyed door panel, Jango yanked his hands back as sparks erupted from the panel again. His work was rewarded as the door opened...six inches. 'I knew it wasn't going to be easy but this is getting ridiculous.' He complained while picking up something from nearby to use as a lever arm and force the door open wide enough to crawl out.

Pushing up on the lever arm, he began talking to himself, "When someone asks where I was when Jabba's Townhouse was being demolished, there is no way in I'm mentioned being locked in a utility room." Pushing up as hard as he could, he stopped for a second before tossing the lever and bending down to grab the bottom edge of the door, pulling up as hard as he could, he was rewarded with a screech of metal on metal as the door finally gave a few more inches. Briefly checking to see if anyone was outside, more out of fear of embarrassment than caution, he slipped under the door with just enough room to get himself and jetpack out.

Sitting in front of the door, he leaned back against it and took a few breaths before trying to stand. After a few seconds, he forced himself to stand and began deciding what to do next. No one had tried to communicate with him but given the explosion and fighting he had heard, it was certain that everyone was either fighting, dead or panicking. Not hearing anything happening in his immediate area, Jango headed back the way he had originally come.

This turned out to the be the right choice as the farther he went, the louder the sounds got Eventually, he spotted several individuals that he recognized as being employed by the Hutt. Anxious for any news or update he could get, Jango ran down the hall and managed to stop someone that was headed in the same direction.

"Tell me what's going on?" He demanded from the Gran. The man spoke quickly before pushing his way past and continuing on his way. 'So Jabba's leaving and now everybody is headed for an exit or the hangar.' Repeated Jango as he translated what the man had said.

'Where would I go if I had come all this way?' Jango questioned as he put himself in another person's shoes. Quickly realizing that he should head for the hangar, he got his bearings and took off in the that direction.

x-x

Amazed at the destruction and desperately wishing he could be up on the roof in that laser turret, Suigetsu's attention was diverted as the Demon Brothers arrived in a skiff. "Great you're both here. Help me load these weapons onto the skiff." He said while starting to pick up what he could.

"Did Naruto tell you to take all these weapons?" Questioned Meizu as he didn't remember hearing about such a thing.

"Yes, yes he did." Lied Suigetsu and he quickly furthered the fib, "He also said we could get as much as we could out of the armory and help ourselves to anything else." One brother looked to the other and shrugged. They hadn't been able to reach Naruto by commlink but evidently Suigetsu had spoken with him. It did sound like something Naruto might say so they went with it and started helping load the skiff.

x-x

The main hangar which held Jabba's ship was the farthest away from them and also by far the largest in the complex. They could take a longer winding route but time was short so Naruto took the lead and decided to go through the hangars to save time. The three hangars were all positioned together in a line and a straight shot without any turns should be easier.

Not feeling anyone ahead of them, Naruto opened the door to the first hangar and was surprised to find the burning wreck of what was likely a small freighter but quickly remembered the conversation with HK. Putting his good arm up to shield his face from the heat of the flames he entered the hangar and skirted the circular outer wall, around the downed ship.

Moving to the next door which should take them to the second hangar, Naruto stopped when he felt life-signs on the other side. One was up much higher than the floor, another was lower than that and the third was floor level. 'Must be getting ready to leave. The destruction next door must have caused them to pause, not knowing if they would be shot down as well should they take off.' Naruto realized and tapped the control panel with his sword.

The door opened and Naruto instantly threw his sword, impaling the individual standing nearby that was going for his blaster. Noticing that another was sitting in the pilot seat of a large transport ship which took up most of the room, Naruto was about to deal with the third person when he felt danger. Jerking his head back to the pilot, he noticed that something was going on in the cockpit and soon one of the blaster turrets on the ship started moving for his direction.

His left hand shot up and motioned to stop the rotation of the turret with the Force. A few degrees from reaching his position, the turret was halted but the pilot was unaware and proceeded to start shooting. The wall to Naruto's right exploded and while he held the turret, his attention was diverted away from the pilot. On a ladder to his left and above his position was the third life-sign he had felt. Despite not turning looking in that direction Naruto was sure that a blaster had been removed from a holster and was being pointed at him.

With only one good hand and no time to move, he knew he needed help but was unable to call out before he heard blaster fire. Flinching but keeping the turret at bay, Naruto froze for a second, thinking he had been hit, until a body unceremoniously hit the floor to his left. 'HK is here.' Naruto noted and let out a sigh of relief before issuing an order before the opportunity was over.

"Someone go take care of that pilot!" He shouted and two of the former slaves rushed forward, intent on boarding the ship. The pilot noticed the danger he was in and Naruto watched him go for the controls that would likely raise the boarding ramp. Wishing he had a second hand, Naruto mentally gave an order to the volunteers, 'One of you help the other one onto the ramp,' before he switched his focus from the turret to the ramp.

He barely managed to keep it down long enough to watch one of the two be helped on-board before he started to move in order to evade the turret. Reaching back, he simultaneously Force Pushed anyone standing in the doorway to get them farther into the other hangar as he bolted to escape the blaster turret. Knowing that his best chance at survival laid with the individual that had gotten aboard the ship, Naruto split his attention between running and reaching out to the two aboard the ship.

'He doesn't know you made it aboard.' Naruto conveyed to the former slave as he could feel worry coming from her which was not something that he currently needed. 'Keep moving as silently as you can to the front of the ship.' He ordered and he oddly found that, similar to his connection with his clones, he could get glimpses of what the inside of the ship looked like and what the woman was doing.

'Not yet. You may miss at this range. Get closer.' He informed her as he saw a blaster being raised and felt her apprehension over pulling the trigger as well as how scared she was of being caught. 'Wait until you have a clean shot, he's focused on me and the hangar door.' Taking cover behind some crates as blaster cannon fire continued to chase him, Naruto's focus shifted back to inside the ship and as he helped the woman aim the gun and told her, 'You can do this, shoot.'

Before the last of the blaster cannons shots stopped, a muted shot could be heard and Naruto knew that she had been successful. Telling her how to lower to the ramp, Naruto got up from his position and looked around, disoriented. For a second he had forgotten that he wasn't on the ship but inside the hangar. Getting his bearings, he moved to retrieve his sword as the loading ramp touched the hangar floor.

While all the others flooded into the room, Naruto looked up to HK and nodded to the droid before motioning to the next and larger of the three hangars. The droid understood and moved on to scout ahead of them. With sword retrieved, Naruto looked over the damage to the wall due to the blaster cannons. Many parts of the rock were scorched and some parts were missing but his focus was more on the fact that he couldn't remember much of himself running and moving for cover. He remembered more detail about being on the ship and shooting the pilot. It was different than what he did with his clones. He had no real connection to the woman that killed the pilot and barely knew her at all. 'What was that?' He questioned as the experience left him with an odd feeling. Pulled from his thoughts as he realized the group was looking at him, he realized their time was short and they needed to keep going.

"The ones that don't have weapons, get aboard the ship. Everyone else can come with me to the next hangar. If we got here before Jabba, then we can set a trap for him." The words were greeted with agreement from around the room and Naruto took that moment to wave his hand and say something else, "All of you will be leaving on this transport. When you leave, you won't remember that we used any special powers to facilitate your escape or Jabba's demise." The words were repeated by everyone in the hangar, save the three standing next to him. 'Hopefully that actually works.' Thought Naruto before using the commlink, "Is Jabba in the hangar?" he questioned of the droid as he could feel life-signs ahead of them but couldn't determine if Jabba was among them.

"Response: Negative. I see several guards and maintenance personnel but no Hutt."

"Take them out." Naruto ordered and proceeded to walk to the final door as muted blasterfire could be heard. Tapping the panel, Naruto found two dead guards that had recently been shot. Unlike the other two circular hangars, the third hangar was rectangular to accommodate the immense ship that filled up it's space. Naruto estimated that the length of the hangar was about six hundred feet and needed to be that long in order for the five hundred foot space yacht to fit inside. The vehicle was shaped like a trowel or spade and was currently supported by large landing legs. The area near the door was rather empty and they had to walk nearly half the length of the hangar before getting to an area that would provide them cover.

Turning his eyes away from the vehicle, Naruto focused on the room to determine what he had to work with and where best to make an ambush. The area near the door was rather empty and they had to walk nearly half the length of the hangar before getting to an area that would provide them cover. 'Three entrances/exits, one of them we control since it leads to the commandeered ship. So only two that we need to worry about. I doubt Jabba would go through the other hangars.' He believed and looked over the items that covered the floor in that area. Various sized cargo containers and crates were stacked beneath the prow of the ship, leaving enough room for it to take off and land. He couldn't tell if they were just extra supplies or it meant that the ship was not prepped and ready to take off. Two Z-95 headhunters were also on the hangar floor and it appeared they were in the process of undergoing maintenance. One was being partially disassembled while the other was either done or next in line.

Two large and very beat up looking lifter droids were stationed in alcoves seemingly carved into the wall with other small storage and workshop areas, presumably for maintaining the ship and starfighters. 'The roof is three stories above me and there are no other levels or balconies that we need to worry about this time. The walls are solid and go straight up. If we move around the crates and maybe reposition a fighter or lifter, it shouldn't be too hard to ambush Jabba as soon as enters the hangar. The only question that remains...which way will Jabba come from?' Naruto thought as he closed his eyes and tried to reach out in order to possibly feel any approaching groups. The choices he had to choose from were a pair of large horizontal opening doors which were on opposite sides of the room apart from each other near the front area of the hangar.

With his limited range, he found nothing immediately around them. Retracing his steps and overlaying them with a mental map of the compound, Naruto found that they had only penetrated about fifty percent into Jabba's complex. The larger domed areas of the complex, and presumably living areas, were something that they had not come across yet and would have been towards the far eastern end of the complex where Suigetsu and HK had entered through. 'So he'll come from the left.' Naruto surmised while turning to that door and began issuing orders while preparing to lift some of the large objects.

x-x

At a hurried pace, Jabba led a large group towards his personal yacht, the Star Jewel. He wasn't actually leading the group but merely moving as fast as he could and therefore at the front of the party. No one dared outrun him despite their ability to do so. Even with his immense girth and slug-like appearance, it appeared that when the situation called for it, he could move pretty fast.

His closest advisers were almost all with him, along with a number of guards and other hired soldiers that they had passed along the way. Seeing the Hutt running, they had obviously realized that the situation was bad enough for Jabba to leave his own Townhouse so they should probably follow and make sure to leave with him, otherwise they might not get paid. Jabba wasn't going to wait for any more people to show up and would leave with the group he had.

The Hutt had already demanded to know the status of his ship and was informed that it was fueled but not fully stocked for a long voyage. Also, the fighter escort was not all onboard. One had been lost to the desert that morning while two others were still being worked on. Jabba ignored all of the information save for the fuel. He planned for a journey deeper into Hutt space and wouldn't stop until he was safe in his spire on Nar Shadda.

Reaching the hangar door, the Hutt waited impatiently as someone activated the control panel for him. The heavier doors were slow to open and Jabba pushed his way through first. Looking to his large yacht, he smiled as soon he wouldn't have to worry about an assassin. Giving an order to an attendant, the person pulled out a small device and activated one of the ship's access lifts because Jabba was too large and not strong enough to move up the ships main boarding ramp. It was while the lift lowered that Jabba's Majordomo, Bib Fortuna noticed that there were no guards in the room. He clearly remembered that six should have been present in the room along with the mechanics.

x-x

'Let him go and focus on the others.' said Naruto as he mentally gave the group instructions. HK was with them and he knew the droid could deal with the pasty colored Twi'lek, who had realized what was going. Rearranging the items on the floor, they had kept themselves completely hidden until Jabba was already a good distance into the room. Slowly the group came out of their hiding spots and Naruto gave them explicit instructions not to fire. It was best if each person chose a target to shoot at. It would be even better if they chose different targets and everyone didn't start shoot at the same person.

Briefly he contacted each person, looking through their vantage point on the enemy group and assigning them a target. They weren't spotted immediately but Jabba's group was unable to mount an offensive as Naruto gave the mental signal and coordinated blaster fire cut down their quarry. A sword cut through the air and pierced the control panel of the open hangar door, causing it to start closing. The lone Twi'lek did not get far as HK sniped him from on top of a container and then turned his attention to the remaining guards.

Jabba was too large and out of breath from his fierce rush to the ship to take any cover from the shooting and went straight for his ships lift, which hadn't even reached the ground yet. As the last few members of Jabba's group were shot down, Naruto turned his focus to the Hutt and found him climbing onto the lift and trying to activate the controls. Looking to the door to recall his sword from the control panel, Naruto was surprised when he felt Juugo rocket right past him. The orange-haired teen had partially transformed, using chakra boosters to propel him forward and had also changed part of his forearm to that of a heavy axe. The surprised Hutt had no chance of moving and everything from his bottom lip up was removed by Juugo's attack.

'Holy shit, Juugo. That was the clothesline from hell.' thought Naruto with surprise evident on his face. He hadn't expected Juugo to do anything, especially not decapitate the Hutt. While the twitching body collapsed onto the lift, the head was sent into the air and landed just off the lift. Everyone in the hangar moved closer to the body in order to inspect the damage. Possibly to check and make sure the Hutt was dead or perhaps purely out of morbid curiosity. Soon the silence was shattered as people started cheering at the Hutt's death and quite a bit of attention was given to one who had done the deed.

Naruto too went to get a closer look until his attention was diverted as he heard something land near him. He tensed but relaxed as he came face to face with HK-47 who had jumped down from the containers. "Can you prep this ship for flight?" Naruto immediately asked and glanced up at the ship while processed what it was looking at. Normally it would take multiple people to startup such a large ship but he was confident he could manage by himself. The only downside was that it would take a few minutes for the engines and other systems to initialize and he could either prepare the ship or stay outside to fend off any attackers that showed up. However, seeing the bandaging covering Naruto's arm and the way he was favoring it, the droid relented and nodded before shouldering his weapon.

Before the droid left, Naruto asked, "Is that a grenade?" Stopping, HK remembered that he had secured the explosive to his leg and had planned to use it before he got his hands on the laser cannon. Demagnetizing the cylindrical bomb, he handed it over before moving onto the lift. Despite the distance from the ground to the ship, HK vertically jumped from the ground to edge of the opening and proceeded to pull himself in.

Watching the droid go out of sight as he entered the ship, Naruto felt pain in his arm and looked down to the bandaged injury. 'Pain killers are wearing off.' He guessed and wasn't surprised as there were many factors, including his own bodies resistance to drugs that were likely at play. Realizing that they needed to get moving and part with the slaves, Naruto tried to get everyone's attention but rather than raising his voice or shouting, he took his sword and ran the tip up one of the lift's struts. The result was a piercing metal on metal screech that instantly caught the attention of all those present and even made him shiver a bit.

"This isn't the time to celebrate. Jabba only arrived here with a small contingent. I doubt that was what's left of his men in this complex. There might be others heading here right now. All of you..." and he motioned to the former slaves, "..should head back to the other hangar and take that ship. It should be ready to go and you can leave this planet." When the group seemed like they wanted to stay, Naruto got creative and used mind tricks to get them to leave.

"Are we taking this ship, then?" Juugo asked as he craned his neck to get a better look at the large vessel. "Yes. We could have gone with them but showing them the Vulture would require more mind tricks and I don't know how much you can use on a given person in a given day. It's best if we go our separate ways and they never see our ship or anyone else from our group. Suigetsu was supposed to collect on my bounty but I have no idea what he ended up doing. We could use money and despite belonging to a dead Hutt, even used and stolen, somebody should be willing to buy this ship or I suppose we could keep it. It's also our easiest way out of the facility without trying to fight our way out." stated Naruto, not knowing that the roof had been completely cleared by HK or that the Demon Brothers were not that far away.

"We need to give HK a few minutes to start up the ship. I need you two to disable those doors," said Naruto as he looked to Ann and Tann while motioning to the two large doors and the smaller door that led to the adjoining hangar. 'We shouldn't need to worry about covering the third door until after the slaves leave in the ship.' He thought as he looked around and determined what was best to use.

"Couldn't we barricade ourselves inside the ship until it's ready to take off?" asked Juugo as he followed Naruto to the middle of the room where the two starfighters were sitting. "We could but if anyone comes we wouldn't be able to shoot them. I'm not sure what weapons that ship has and if we take long enough, or give them enough time, they may be able to disable the ship. HK got this grenade from somewhere and there's likely more where it came from. It sounds bad, but if they're shooting at us, then they should leave the ship alone." explained Naruto as he opened one of the cockpits and attempted to start the first fighter while using only his left hand.

Frowning when he found that the ship wouldn't start at all, Naruto moved to the next one and tried the same start-up procedure. Hearing the fighter start to come to life, he examined the console and found that the display was showing a failure in the propulsion systems, 'But the weapons still work.' he thought and getting off the fighter, he prepared himself and then put forth great effort as he used the Forced to lift the ship just a few inches off the ground, enough to rotate it and aim it at the door opposite the one Jabba had come through.

Right as the two Twi'leks came back from locking the doors, Naruto ushered them to the still open loading lift. Using the Force, he moved a few items onto the lift in order to give them cover and told them to both stay there. The lift was almost equidistant from the three doors and they each had a weapon to use if the situation got that bad. Ignoring Jabba's body, Naruto motioned to where Juugo, who had picked up a blaster from one of the bodies, should take cover and added, "If they get through that door, wait until it opens and shoot this grenade." Juugo watched the item as Naruto set it for armed and then used the Force to make the explosive hover over to the door in question and magnetically latch onto it. Moving to cover the opposite door, Naruto slid into the cockpit of the fighter and waited for either someone to come or for HK to tell them that the ship was ready to leave.

After a few moments of sitting in the cockpit, Naruto became aware of a sound that to him was some kind of alarm. Looking to the communication systems in the ship, he found that someone had sent out an evacuation signal for all personnel still left in complex. It was also at that moment that he started to feel life-signs headed their way.

x-x

Running with a group towards the hangar to catch a ship or at least find a speeder, Jango stayed to the back of the group as he had no idea what they would be facing. It was best to let the foolish go first and observe what happened, not to make the same mistakes. The group skipped one of the small hangars because of the debris inside that was partially blocking the door, they instead headed through the corridors and to one of the doors to the second small hangar.

While someone bypassed the locking mechanism, Jango positioned himself against the hangar wall nearby the door as he also kept watch for anyone coming up behind them down the one corridor. The door and walls were too thick for infrared so he turned to something a bit more rudimentary. Leaning his helmet up against the corridor wall, he increased the sensitivity of his helmet's outer listening devices. As filtered sounds were transmitted into the helmet for his ears, he noted what he believed to the be the sound of starship taking off. 'No idea if it's friend or foe but I'll probably know if they start shooting.' He thought as the door was opened and he made no move to get inside quickly, letting several of the group push their way through.

As they entered, a transport ship was indeed taking off. Being cautious, Jango stayed at the door frame and paid less attention to the starship as it took off as he did to the dead bodies on the ground. With the high walls, the hangar was a good place for an ambush from above. He counted three bodies on the ground and it appeared two were dead by blaster fire and the other through a melee weapon. They looked to be the type of individuals that Jabba would hire but since he hadn't been in the Hutts employ for very long, and because of the large amount of new replacements, there was no definitive way of knowing whose side they were on or even what the ship was doing in the hangar. It had no distinguishing marks and Jabba wouldn't tell anyone what ships worked for him or mark them as his.

From messages he had picked up on chatter over the now open comm system, nobody knew who was attacking Jabba but it was clear that slaves were missing, someone had destroyed the roof emplacements and sensors, and a large explosion had occurred inside the complex. 'I may be the only person left in the building that actually has an idea of what we're up against.' and with nothing else of note in the room and with the transport having no intention of stopping or coming back, Jango locked the door behind them to prevent any surprises and continued on to the next set of doors just as sounds of blaster-fire and explosions began.

x-x

As the doors on both sides of the hangar were forced open, four individuals prepared for an assault but realistically, only two would actually be fighting. With the hangar being so long, Ann and Tann were almost a hundred feet from the doors and unless Naruto and Juugo were pushed back, they likely wouldn't need to shoot. They were primarily there to secure the platform for escape when the ship was ready. Naruto made sure the weapon systems were active on the ship and he knew that Juugo was likely taking aim at the grenade.

Juugo's door was the first to be opened and from his position, the orange-haired teen waited until the door was fully opened. The grenade was placed on the very edge of the one side of the horizontally opening doors so it would remain exposed when the door was open and be right up against the door frame. As armed men ran into the hangar, Juugo fired two shots at the grenade. The first missed but the second hit and caused a large explosion that forced Juugo to completely hide himself. After it was over, he looked up and found that most of the door frame was horribly mangled in addition to the bodies on the ground. The hallway ceiling had partial collapsed along with part of rock above the door, making it extremely difficult for anyone else to enter.

Knowing that Juugo was fine and not feeling any active unfamiliar life-signs behind him, Naruto waited with his finger on the trigger. He had already prepped two concussion missiles, intent on demolishing the entire entrance but needed to wait until the door was open enough for the missles to enter through as he didn't want them to detonate inside the hangar. As the door was unlocked and forced open, Naruto began opening fire with the starship's laser cannons when the door was only halfway open. He only needed a short burst to deal with the few individuals but could feel that more were on their way. Switching to the missiles, he manually targeted the hallway ceiling beyond the door and before firing he pulled the transparasteel cockpit shut just in case.

Despite the short distance, the fast moving concussion missiles were easily able to curve and strike the ceiling, collapsing it entirely and blocking his door. Reopening the cockpit, Naruto could hear a ship taking off. The yacht blocked any view of the sky but he knew through the Force that the slaves had gotten away safely. No sooner than he had jumped out of the ship, then the far door in the hangar had been opened. Confused, Naruto couldn't tell who it was. That far away was outside his sensor ability and at first he thought perhaps all of the slaves couldn't fit on the ship but as soon as he spotted the silver and blue armor of a certain foe in the distance, he knew better and yelled out to the girls to start shooting.

x-x

As two of the more foolhardy of the group entered first, Jango tilted his head to peer out into the hangar from his position at the door frame. One of the yacht's loading lifts was down and touching a button on his gauntlet, the activated his helmet's rangefinder. The small antenna rotated down to cover part of his helmet and he was able to zoom in on the area. Getting over his surprise from seeing Jabba's severed head, he soon spotting two blue heads, complete with leku, and his eyes widened as he recognized the two dancers from the previous day at Jabba's Palace. Looking for other familiar faces, he slightly tilted his head towards the containers in the room and spotted two more. Realizing that he would miss the opportunity if he did not act, he deactivated the rangefinder and moved into the room.

Storming into the room, he quickly analyzed his surrounding in an effort to find cover. With nothing near him at the end of the ship, he activated his jet pack before the shooting started. As a shout was given and the Twi'lek's opened fire from their position over the long distance, Jango gained altitude and maneuvered himself around the rear engines and up onto the top of the ship. Getting a good distance down the ship, he landed and proceeded to run down a portion of the craft's length, looking down at the gap between the edge of the starship and the wall for any place to shoot from and keep the teens from reaching the loading lift. Feeling vibrations through his feet, and from the sounds of the big engines firing up, he knew that the ship was likely moments from being able to take off.

Spotting carved workshop and storage alcoves in hangar wall he judged that they were enough for him to take cover and shoot from. Jumping off the top of the ship, Jango slid down the steep slope of the starboard side before falling to the floor below. Activating his jetpack before touching the ground, his abrupt fall was stopped and the boost give him more forward momentum. He tucked and rolled into one of the alcoves. Though his haste nearly caused him to run into the legs of powered down lifter droid he quickly recovered. Looking to the loading lift, he smirked as he had arrived in time. Taking out both blasters, he opened fire on the Twi'lek's and on the two male teens in order to make them take cover and stop their escape onto the lift.

Looking back and forth between the targets that were still separated by about fifty feet, he began conserving his ammunition as they had all taken cover to keep from being hit. Taking up a better position under the arched entryway of the alcove but against the wall for cover, he continued to keep suppressive fire on the males while they hunkered down in the loading and storage area beneath the long nose of the ship.

'Keep them from moving until the others arrive to help.' the Mandalorian repeated in his head as he began alternated fire between targets to keep the males from progressing and to keep the dancers from taking out his only backup. 'I have no idea how close he needs to be to use those strange powers but I think I might be safe at this distance.' Assumed Jango as he took an opportunity to change power paks before continuing.

x-x

Cursing, Naruto and Juugo were unable to move from their position behind the last bit of container cover. 'Damnit, this bastards a good shot.' Admitted Naruto as he looked to the scorch mark on his cloak. There was an empty gap between the loading lift and their current position, which earlier had helped them deal with Jabba but now it wasn't helping them get to the ship. He knew that they couldn't both make it without one of them getting injured.

'Should have finished him off.' Naruto lamented at their current situation while he thought back to the chance that his clone had or when he had felt the man's life fading away in Jabba's throne room. His earlier amusement was now coming back to haunt him. Seeing Ann and Tann completely pinned down and unable to shoot back at the men who were running towards the bounty hunter's position, he thought about telling them to just raise the lift and get inside the ship but where would that leave himself and Juugo?

Ignoring the message through the commlink from HK about the ship being ready to leave, Naruto tried to think up a way out of the situation. 'HK needs to pilot the ship right now. Coming to help us would only delay takeoff and provide opportunities for them to stop us or board the ship. We blocked our other exits and unless we want to run up the walls while being shot at or stick to the underside of the ship, I need to think of something else. Those men are getting closer and if they start working together we'll be outnumbered and so will the girls. If I could get a better view, I could maybe throw one of my discblades...' he though until he noticed a glance made by Juugo. Seeing Juugo look at his injured arm, Naruto knew exactly what the teen was thinking. Without proper use of his right hand, he couldn't perform the majority of the jutsu that he knew. However, the motion made by Juugo had given him an idea.

'Juugo's hands still work fine. It'll have to be something C-ranked, though.' Naruto planned and he shouted over the sound of intermittent blaster-fire, "I need you to make three handseals in the order that I give them." Juugo nodded but wasn't sure what Naruto was getting at. His earliest tries at using jutsu were not very successful and the orange-haired teen doubted he could successfully perform anything under the current conditions.

Moving to another area, out of sight from the bounty hunter and slightly away from the shooting, Naruto put his left hand on Juugo's shoulder. Concentrating as much as possible, he told Juugo to make the Ram seal, followed by the Snake and Tiger seals. Feeling Juugo's chakra building, Naruto helped with the nature manipulation as best as he could and instructed Juugo to say, "Suiton: Kokuu no Jutsu. (Water Release: Black Rain Technique.)" however, before Juugo could do anything else, Naruto absorbed the molded chakra from Juugo and then forced the Tiger seal with his injured hand. A faint but dark mist began emanating from Naruto's body and it moved above them to form a very small, semi-transparent but dark cloud.

x-x

Of the original group of seven that had gone through the door to the hangar, only five had made it to the alcoves from the far door. The Twi'leks had evidently picked off or injured two. Making it to the line of carved alcoves they had kept firing on both targets while quickly repositioning themselves from alcove to alcove and moving up until they were right across from the lift. This however was more than enough men for Jango to work with as he started giving orders to the others on what to do. Reminding them of the money they would get from stopping the attack and returning Jabba's dancers, while leaving out the part about how earlier he had seen Jabba's body and severed head, he managed to convince them to follow him. He planned to rush the lift and prevent escape on the yacht before then cornering the two teens in the front of the hangar. Both exit doors appeared to be blocked so there was no where for the males to go and they could take Twi'leks hostage, forcing a surrender.

The dancers were unable to shoot at all and were merely hiding behind the crates on the lift, keeping from being shot. No movements had been made by the teens, which was actually cause for some worry based upon what he knew of one of them, and he had yet to spot the dangerous droid from the previous day. Despite some hesitation, he knew not to pass up the chance and left the safety of cover with the other five. As they took a few steps out from the archways and kept both groups pinned down, movement caused a few of the group to stop as drops of something landed on them. With adrenaline pumping and focused on the task at hand, the ignored it at first until an utter downpour started in the hangar.

Black droplets landed all around them, though they were unaware that it was just around their position. The sudden occurrence was a complete shock to everyone there as such an impossible phenomenon was occurring. It never rained on Tatooine. Though initially caught up in the shock, the whole situation soon screamed 'WRONG' to Jango and he touched his forearm, smearing some of the substance between his gloved fingers. Even with his visor on and unable to see colors properly, he knew it wasn't water that was raining down on them and he guessed what the dark liquid was, 'Oil?' and his eyes widened as he couldn't stop what happened next.

x-x

"Now!" Naruto told Juugo and the teen came out of hiding for a second to fire a single shot with the blaster he had. The bolt struck the ground and instantly ignited the flammable liquid that was raining down on the group of six. Amidst the screams, Naruto told Juugo to run for the lift while he messaged HK to take off. Both Ibonihese natives ran for the lift as fast as they could with Naruto trailing just a little bit behind Juugo.

x-x

Unperturbed by the ignition of the oil with his sealed suit, Jango moved through the flames and emerged while still partially on fire. Scrapping burning oil from his visor he spotted his creative quarry. Using one pistol, with both hands to stabilize the shot, he led the target and fired a single accurate shot.

x-x

Juugo made the jump to the edge of the lift as the ship was taking off and Naruto had just crouched slightly in order to make the higher jump when he caught a flash light out of the corner of his eye. Whatever power he had put in his legs for the jump was completely diminished as bolt of plasma cut through the middle of his left thigh and burned through the top of his right. He watched in slow motion as Juugo lunged to the edge of the lift and stretched out an arm to grab him but their hands couldn't reach. Naruto fell hard onto the smooth but unforgiving ferrocrete floor.

A searing heat and subsequent pain soon made itself known and the intensity made him cry out. It may have been even worse than the wound to his arm and completely drown out the pain coming from his chin due to hitting the floor or the taste of blood in his mouth. In that moment he forgot about the ship and couldn't hear the shouts from those on the lift. He instead focused solely on the pain and the single life-sign that was moving closer. Moving his head slightly, Naruto glimpsed the man slowly walking towards him. Parts of his armor were still ablaze and he would have looked fearsome in anyone's eyes.

'I don't want to die, not when I've made it this far.' Was the only thought in Naruto's head and despite the pain, a newly found rage flooding through him. He focused chakra to his left hand. Four symbols appeared, one on each finger. They each represented an element not related to nature chakra and would unlock the pronged seal over his Jinchuuriki seal. Despite no response from his legs, he managed to push himself up slightly, enough for him to get his hand under his shirt and vest in order to remove the seal he had placed.

He could practically hear the creatures voice in the back of his mind, encouraging him and he kept feeling more and powerful. As his hand neared the seal and he lost all rational thought on the matter, he only looked at the approaching danger and repeated in his mind, 'I'll kill you. I'll kill everything.' For a moment he thought he saw the man hesitate as he looked directly at the masked head. He saw the reflection of someone in the dark t-shaped visor but didn't recognize the yellow, slitted, and dangerous eyes looking back at him. Nor the viscous, animalistic smile that showed no hint of any remorse for the deeds that eyes were planning.

The reflection however soon became blocked as someone else entered his vision. A person or perhaps a creature had landed right next to him and with an incredibly strong punch, had sent the armored adversary flying backward. The person turned and a partially transformed face looked directly at him, 'Do I know this person? He looks...worried?' Naruto questioned as his mind tried to comprehend the situation. Before he could think about it and get angry for the interference, the orange-haired creature had wrapped a brown colored arm around his waist and lifted him up.

Not knowing what was happening, Naruto simply watched the ground getting farther and farther away. Not only had he been picked up but apparently they were flying through the air and he did feel the weightlessness in his limbs with only the arm supporting him. He could also see that his armored adversary was quick to recover but two sets of red bolts were raining down on him, keeping him from a direct pursuit or accurately shooting back as he also took flight. The view soon changed however and he was staring at metal grating. Though muted, he could hear voices but couldn't tell what they were saying.

The anger he had felt earlier was dissipating and he could no longer remember why he had been angry or who it was directed at. Thoroughly confused, the chakra on his hand faded away as the jutsu was unconsciously released. Dull pain returned to various parts of his body and the moment he started coming back to his senses, the pain magnified to such a degree that everything started to go black.

x-x

Leaving the confines of the hangar, HK extended the six maneuvering rods to give him better control of the ship. Glancing to a nearby monitor, he noted that he was short two Meatbags in one of the loading bays. It wasn't too late to land the ship again but it was supposed to be a quick escape. Seeing no other option that didn't violate the programming that had been forcibly installed, he prepared to bring the ship back down, however both suddenly appeared back on the screen with the taller one holding the other.

Seeing that they could continue taking off, HK activated the lift controls for them and the ship continued to gain altitude until it would clear all the buildings of Mos Espa. A sensor warning caught his attention as the ship detected an object approaching fast from the surface. 'Analysis: Not fast enough to be a missile, must be a Meatbag with the jetpack. The Mandalorian.' HK realized and looking back to the screen of the loading bay, he found that the Twi'lek's were definitely exchanging shots with something which only further confirmed what he thought. Without any ventral weaponry, HK quickly went through different options to fend off the incoming Meatbag as the lift was slow to raise and wouldn't close in time to prevent them from being boarded.

Pushing a button for the intercom system, he projected his voice throughout the ship, "Warning: You have five seconds to hold on to something." The message was evidently received as all three heads reacted to the message. With muted words being exchanged, both dancers grabbed on to Juugo right before HK implemented his plan.

x-x

With an unconscious Naruto under one arm, Tann held in his other, and Ann's arms wrapped around his neck, Juugo secured his feet to the metal lift floor moments before the entire ship tilted by more than forty-five degrees to the port side. Holding on and trying to drown out the screams from both girls, Juugo moved out of the way as the containers they had placed on the lift all slid off, followed by Jabba's body. Looking down towards the ground, Juugo watched as the armored man tried dodging all the items.

Jango was doing rather well until Jabba's tail smacked into him and he lost control of his ascent. The weight of the tail and attached body pulled him down until he was able to push himself free. Resuming his pursuit, Jango watched as the ship leveled out and began pulling away as the lift closed shut. He followed the ship and though he was able to catch up and even land on the hull but he couldn't locate a hatch near enough to him in order to board. As the ship accelerated and made a steep ascent off the planet, he was unable to hold onto the sleek hull or activate anything on his gauntlets that would help him. Falling to the surface below, quickly grabbed for a tracer beacon launcher that he had in one of his pockets and fired the device but the engine wash stopped the beacon before reaching the hull. Reactivating his jetpack, Jango aimed for a landing spot outside of the city so he could find his ship and attempt to pursue.

Author's Note: I had a lot more than this but wanted to get something out as the chapter was ballooning to over 60 pages and I wasn't close to being done with it. I hope to have another chapter our much quicker than the time it took this one. I also wanted to thank that the reviewers and private message senders that kept bugging me for the next chapter.