Chapter 22

The Lost Girl

Seven months. Seven long, hard, miserable months.

That was how much time had passed since Order 66 had been carried out, marking the end of the Clone Wars…and the beginning of a complete, unconditional purge of the Jedi Order from the face of the galaxy. The Chancellor had declared the Republic an Empire, with himself as its first Emperor…to the thunderous applause of the Galactic Senate. No one had questioned his declaration. No one had asked why. No one had asked for a trial against the Jedi for their actions so that justice could speak for itself.

Nobody cared that those "Jedi" that were killed in the Enclave were mostly children and teenagers, not even Jedi yet. During the course of the Clone Wars, most of the Jedi Knights had been casualties of war, with only a few hundred over the age of twenty still alive at the time Order 66 was executed. If one took a closer look at the casualty listings of the Clone Wars, nobody had suffered more than the Jedi Order: tens of thousands dead in a war which lasted three years.

Nobody cared; they were just happy that the war was over. Like a herd of nerfs or banthas, the docile masses blindly accepted the dogma that the new Empire was spewing: that this war, engineered by the Sith, was entirely the fault of the Jedi Order. They blindly accepted this false truth, and ignored the images of the dead and dying lying in the corridors of the temple. They ignored the bonfire of dead Jedi, corpses thrown into the flames as the interior of their temple was completely decimated, ransacked and burned.

"Serves them right," a young girl had overheard some people scoffing, finding herself both shocked and dumbfounded by what these people said about her and her own ilk.

At first such words had shocked her. Then they angered her. Then…they enraged her. The Jedi had fought for the Republic for thousands of years. They had defended her from thousands of threats both within and without, and now, after so many millennia of faithful service they were simply thrown to the side, drowning in their own blood and forgotten? So many friends' lives wasted over a cause that nobody else seemed to take seriously?

These hopeless questions only served to enrage her further. So many friends had died on the fields of battle, fighting for the Republic and all that she stood for. They had died in pools of their own blood; they had been shot, stabbed, blown up, their corpses desecrated and their memories forgotten by everyone except for the Jedi…and now even the meagre monuments erected for their dead had been pulled down.

There was nothing. They had destroyed every trace of the Jedi Order she knew and loved…they regarded the Jedi Order as an epidemic that had to be sterilized and burned away.

"Ahsoka," called the young woman's travelling companion.

Hearing her name brought her from her dark thoughts, and with a shaky breathe, Ahsoka Tano looked over to the stream of light coming from the opened door, "Yes."

Her voice didn't sound nearly as strong as she wanted it to be; it actually sounded shaky and gravelly. She hated the sound. She wanted to get stronger, to withstand and conquer the darkness in her heart and soul, but it was hard. Every time she tried to meditate all she felt was betrayal, anger, and above all else…hate. She felt the things that pulled one towards the dark side.

She hated it.

"We may need to move soon," the man stated in a gravelly voice, head tilting to the side as he studied her, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Rex," Ahsoka replied as she took a long, shaky breathe, "I'll be out in a minute."

Rex nodded, but hesitated for a long moment, as if thinking about whether he should leave or stay, before backing out of the room, closing the door behind him. Ahsoka looked at the closed door, taking several calming breathes before she attempted to continue with her meditation, to try and purge all of these dark thoughts from her mind, but it was a losing battle.

At this moment, there was only one person stopping her from going crazy. She sometimes wanted to laugh bitterly that her saviour had been one of the Clones so determined to destroy them. Rex was a Captain of the 501st Legion. The two of them had worked together on so many missions that he was more than a simple soldier to her. They had actually become friends, and that friendship was what saved her when Order 66 was given.

Rex had defied orders; instead of turning his blaster on her, he had turned it on the unit of clones aiming their guns at her. Together they had decimated the unit so intent on killing her, and were able to escape from the planet. She later learned that she had been charged with desertion from the armed forces and being a double agent for the separatists, feeding them important strategic information.

She had been lucky. Cody had been Obi-wan's friend, and he gunned the Jedi Master down. Bly had been Aayla's friend, and he gunned her down. Barriss and Luminara had saved countless clones from death, and those very same clones thanked them by gunning them down. Yes, she had been very, very lucky.

The clone she considered a friend had been Rex. That had been the only difference, and Rex's decision had been a costly one. He was as much a traitor to the new Empire as she was, and the fact that he was a member of the infamous 501st Legion, the chosen Legion of Darth Vader, made his betrayal all the more unforgivable. His former comrades would hunt him to the ends of the galaxy to rectify such a smear on their Legion's reputation.

She owed him her life. For this reason alone, she would keep herself together. She would not become a burden. It was for her sake, as well as his. The two of them would stick together and they would do what so many of her brothers and sisters could not: they would survive.

Ahsoka took one last deep breathe, stood up and walked to the other side of the room, opening the door and walking through it to the main room. The place they were held up in was based in a slum of the capital city, the apartment they had rented was dirty and infested with vermin, but in these slums it was easier to disappear from Imperial troops.

Rex stood in the centre of the living room, checking the cartridges of his blaster pistols before putting them into their holsters. His charred and cracked officer's armour was covered by a dirty brown cloak. His helmet had been lost months ago, and he looked worn and tired but willing to continue until safety was found.

"Your orders, Commander?" he asked simply.

She flinched at the word, "I'm not a Commander anymore, Rex…and I'm in no position to order you around."

"With all due respect, ma'am…" the former Captain replied with a smirk, "…as far as I am concerned you are still my Commander."

"Thank you, Rex," Ahsoka thanked him with a smile, meaning every word. "You've lost so much in protecting me."

"Not all clones are mindless killers, ma'am," Rex replied, "but if I had to choose between the Commanders I've fought with and those who have never tasted a fight, then I would choose the former any day. I know you, ma'am, and I know the Jedi I've served with. They are not capable of what they've been accused of, and I will believe that until my dying breathe."

It felt so refreshing, to talk to somebody about her dead friends and not hear them being mentioned as monsters and traitors. Rex was the only thing keeping her from falling over the raggedy edge, "Thank you Rex. Let's go."

"Yes ma'am."

"How many times do I have to ask you to call me Ahsoka, Rex?" she asked.

"At least once more, ma'am…as always," Rex replied with an amused smirk.

Ahsoka laughed; a hollow sound that Rex didn't like. Her eyes, once full of mischief and youthful life, now looked so dead that it was terrifying. She was only sixteen, and she had those dead, lifeless eyes. Rex didn't like it; not one bit. He prayed to whoever was listening for someone to come…anyone to come…and put some life back into those once vibrant blue orbs.

"Thank the Sage."

Celeste looked over at her friend with a bemused look and a sigh, "Naruto, seriously, we're on solid ground again so stop complaining."

"I hate long space flights," the blond whimpered as he fell on his hands and knees and kissed the sun baked concrete ground, "I truly hate them. Being cooped up in such a small space is against my nature."

"We were only travelling for two days," Celeste replied, folding her arms and shaking her head. "Force preserve me when we have to travel for a month. I'll probably be nurturing very un-Jedi like thoughts of physically harming you."

Naruto gave her a slightly befuddled look before breaking out into a smile, "For a second there I thought you were going to say 'killing you'."

"That's next on my list," Celeste murmured as she walked down the landing ramp, Naruto in tow.

"Why isn't Aayla coming with us, again?"

"Divide and conquer, my friend," Celeste replied as she walked, "Aayla will be taking care of this bird. You and I will be stocking up on enough provisions for six months... though with you in mind we may need to stock up for twelve."

"Thanks for that," Naruto replied, with more than a hint of sarcasm.

"It's not my fault your stomach is bottomless," Celeste countered.

"Touché," Naruto conceded with a sigh.

"And we're going to have to get restocked on clothes and other necessities," Celeste added as she took out a long list that both she and Aayla had devised during their two days on the Will of Fire, "Let's see…clothes, camping gear, food, water... did I mention clothes?"

Naruto made an exasperated noise, "I know where this is going."

"Hey! I've got two sets of clothes to my name! One is the battered suit of armour that I slept in for four…thousand…years…" she made it a point to pause between each of the last three words, jabbing her finger into Naruto's chest with each pause, "…and the other is what I have on me," Celeste finished, drawing Naruto's attention away from her prodding finger and to her cream-coloured tunic, pants and black leather ankle boots Crys had given her, "You may be more than happy in wearing one change of clothes for your entire life…but Aayla and I actually need a wardrobe's worth of clothing…and now that I think about it, so do you."

Naruto sighed, "This is going to take a while."

"Damn right fly-boy and I need your measurements," Celeste chimed.

"This is also going to be expensive," Naruto added, remembering a similar situation with Sakura and Ino in tow. He lost a lot of money that day.

"We have ten thousand credits in the bank," Celeste countered wryly.

"Thank you, Sage, for bestowing upon us the blessed secret of storage seals," Naruto murmured, but knew that his friend heard him.

"What are you talking about?"

"Believe me, what I'm about to show you might be the coolest thing since sliced bread," Naruto replied, rubbing his face with his free hand as the two of them walked out of the landing area where the Will of Fire was docked and into the offices beyond. He leaned over, and whispered their basic ability into his friend's ear, and with each word he said the more Celeste's face lit up.

"You're right; that does sound like the coolest thing since sliced bread!" she exclaimed happily as they walked before looking up at him again with a pout, "When are you going to teach me on how to use them? No, scratch that, when are you going to teach me how to make them?"

Naruto sighed. He had always had an idea that the storage seal was created by a member of the fairer sex. He just knew it in his very bones.

"When we reach Boz Pity and I show you all of the basics, then I will introduce you to the art of Fūinjutsu," he answered in a rather pathetic and defeated tone of voice.

"Now that I can't wait for," she said with a wide smile, not caring at how pitiful he sounded.

"Women," the blond muttered under his breath, "I know I'll regret teaching her this, I just know it."

Aayla descended the ramp way, stepping into the glow and looking up at the midday sun, slender hand rising to shade her eyes from the harsh light. The young woman admired the patch of cloudless blue sky for a moment before stretching, getting the kinks out of her muscles as she looked around. Naruto and Celeste should have taken care of paying the docking fees, so all she needed to do was guard the ship.

The young woman wouldn't mind a few hours of relaxation while Celeste dragged Naruto around, maybe she could take out a deckchair and laze around in the shade, or she could jump onto the dorsal section of the ship, find a nice smooth flat surface and sleep under the soft warmth of the autumn sun.

Having made her decision, the young Twi'lek looked around cautiously. Once she was sure no one was in the landing bay to see her, with a flexing of her legs, she jumped high with the aid of the force, making it several meters up and landing gracefully of the armoured hull of their ship with ease. She walked along the circumference of the dorsal section, found a nice, smooth spot and lay down on it, putting her hands behind her head and crossing her legs as she got comfortable, smiling as she allowed the sun's light to caress her cerulean skin.

Space was a cold, harsh place with no heat; even in a starship one could easily miss the natural light of the sun or the gentle embrace of the wind. Aayla really enjoyed these simple pleasures that nature offered on most habitable planets. She often missed them when she was on long spaceflights, and during the war, she never had the time to enjoy or miss them, as she was always busy running…fighting…surviving.

The young Twi'lek did not smile, but she felt that her memories of that time didn't hurt nearly as much as they used to. She had come to terms with the loss of her friends and knew that they weren't really gone. They would live on in her memories, and she knew that somehow, someday, she would see them again. Naruto had taught her that.

She wasn't sure when she nodded off, but her next memory was awakening to the magnetic hum of a blaster. Her eyes snapped open to look down the barrel of a military-grade, long-barrelled blaster pistol aimed right for her face. She looked up further, her blood running cold when she noticed the white armour of a clone trooper. Granted, this particular suit had seen better days, as it was chipped and cracked in places, and it was missing its helm, but she knew that armour anywhere. The face that was exposed, the very same face shared by millions of Clone troopers, only added to her trepidation.

'I'm getting careless,' Aayla realised as she silently cursed to herself. To have a clone sneak up on her and aim his weapon before she noticed? She had to be losing her touch; she knew Naruto would never have let this happen to him. She took a little comfort in the fact that his suit was adorned with the blue stripes of a clone captain, meaning that he likely had greater restraint than the average clone trooper, and wouldn't kill a person needlessly, or just to sate bloodlust like so many rank-and-file clone privates…who were really little more than killing machines with just enough of a mind to obey orders and adapt to battlefield situations.

He spoke, "I apologise, ma'am, but we're hijacking your ship."

Aayla blinked in confusion, realising a moment later that he didn't seem to recognise her. She had no confusion in that if he did know who she was she would probably already be lying dead on the dorsal section of the Will of Fire.

A female voice filtered to Aayla's cone-shaped ears, familiar, but she couldn't place it, "Rex, did you find anyone up there?"

"A member of the crew, I believe," The clone named Rex replied, his eyes not leaving his captive.

Aayla had risen, propping herself up on her elbows but not making any sudden movements. Carefully, painfully slowly she reached for the small of her back, middle and index fingers clamping around a kunai hidden in her belt. She gave no outward sign of the weapon she was preparing, waiting for her assailant to focus his attention elsewhere.

She only needed a moment.

He wasn't an officer for nothing, though. She was surprised when his gun moved a few inches closer, not far away from the tip of her nose. "The weapon on your back: take it and toss it aside…slow and easy."

Aayla frowned, but with a motion from her assailant's blaster pistol she slowly withdrew the kunai, held it up in plain sight, then tossed it to the side, listening to the clank as it hit the armoured hull and skidded across the surface to a stop.

Rex watched her for a moment before reaching down, grabbing her roughly by her bare arm before hauling her to her feet and forcing her to walk. Aayla made it two steps before she moved, spinning around with blurring speed with a waist high kick, forcing the blaster from the Clones grasp and sending it flying through the air. She spun on her pivot foot in a full circle, striking the newly identified "Rex" in the gut with a reverse roundhouse kick.

The clone staggered under the strike, but held firm and grabbed hold of her extended ankle, giving it a sharp twist. Aayla went with the flow, spinning her body with the twist, bringing her other foot up for a kick to the face. The clone ducked and the Twi'lek woman spun in midair before landing on her feet, bringing her hands together for a seal.

There was a snap and an emerald blade of light exploded through her chest, Aayla's eyes widened as she slowly turned to see the face of her killer. The woman was young, and a Togruta, but she was also hooded and cloaked, the shadows obscuring her facial features. The woman looked right at her and flinched suddenly, speaking in a shocked and horrified tone.

"Aayla?"

She vanished in a puff of white smoke, temporarily blinding her two assailants. When the smoke cleared, all that was left in her place was a steel crate. The clone and force-sensitive looked at the crate with wide-eyed shock. It was then that Aayla pounced, landing behind Rex and taking his feet out from under him with a leg sweep followed by a kunai pressed lightly against his exposed throat.

Aayla looked over at her other assailant with narrow, dangerous eyes, seeing that she seemed to be halfway reaching for a weapon hidden in her cloak. "Take it out and throw it to the side, the lightsaber too…slowly."

She did so, reaching into her cloak and drawing a blaster, gently throwing both weapons to the floor. Aayla did not lessen her grip on the kunai, and she didn't allow her orbs to leave that of the female of the two.

"Pull back your hood," Aayla ordered quickly and abruptly.

The woman hesitated before reaching up with two slender, orange hands, and gripping onto her hood pulled it down, revealing a striking young Togruta female, orange skin with white markings, deep blue eyes, short tentacles and hollow horns known as mantrals, showing that this Togruta was an adolescent, a teenager. It took Aayla a moment to recognise her. She was older than the last time she remembered, a few years back, but once Aayla recognised her, the Twi'lek's eyes widened in surprise.

"Ahsoka?"

"Please?"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

"No."

"Do you want me to threaten you?"

"Celeste, how can you threaten me?"

"With my lightsaber," the former Shadow retorted as she folded her arms under her bust and gave him a sly look.

Naruto sighed. Ever since she had seen him use a handful of storage scrolls to store the huge mountain of supplies they had gathered, she had gotten a bit of a worrying glint in her eye. A powerful and deadly Jedi Shadow she may have once been, but deep down she was still a woman, and he didn't care who argued with him to the contrary, women went completely nuts when it came to shopping.

He had used a total of five storage scrolls to take care of their supplies. One of the scrolls was used for all of the food, another for the drink and water, and another for the tents and camping equipment. The other two were used for a single purpose, clothes, one carried the small armoury of clothes Celeste had bought for herself while the other carried an equally hefty mass of clothes she had bought for Aayla, some under his girlfriend's recommendation: tight leather and so on, but others of Celeste's own sense of style, to which Naruto had to concede one point.

The point was that Celeste Morne's style was pretty bad-ass.

"My sword counters your lightsaber," Naruto countered, leaning down so that he was eye level with his friend, "Seriously, Celeste, you've only started training in the Shinobi arts. I've just finished teaching you the absolute basics. You can't even walk up a wall yet without falling. You're not ready to learn Fūinjutsu."

Celeste huffed lightly, but Naruto smirked when he saw that she had seen his point, "You're stingy, you know that?"

"I do try," the blond countered with a playful smirk.

There was silence for a moment before Celeste spoke up again, except this time it wasn't in a pleading tone for him to teach her Fūinjutsu, or her playful tone when the two of them teased each other. It was nervous and serious, serious because she wanted to know, nervous because she wasn't a hundred percent sure on how he would take her question, "You still owe me an explanation."

"About?" Naruto replied with a raised brow, a little concerned about the suddenness of the conversation change. He knew full well what Celeste was talking about; in fact, he had been waiting for her to ask him this question ever since that moment in the hangar on Nar Shaddaa a few days ago.

"When we were in the hanger, you changed, not just your appearance but also your presence in the Force," Celeste explained as she looked over at him, nervousness replaced by her more inquisitive nature. "It felt like a maelstrom of power and emotion, positive emotion. I admit I have worked with many Jedi over the years that were powerful in the Force, but at that moment, when you activated your…Sage Mode, was it? I felt something of extreme power."

"It's an old art…" Naruto began with an exhale of breathe, "…and not one passed down to just anyone."

He hesitated for a moment, looking up to the sky as they walked down the half-crowded streets towards their starship, almost as if he were holding a conversation within himself as to whether he should continue or not. This was one of the most powerful techniques in his frighteningly versatile arsenal of combat skills. For a moment, Celeste thought he had dropped it, but he spoke up before she could say anything, a melancholy smile adorning his features.

"On my home planet, humans weren't the only intelligent life," he began, eyes taking on a wistful look, as if he were remembering a distant past, "There were many other intelligent sentient beings on my planet. There were so many other races including sentient snakes, slugs, clams, monkeys, dogs, sharks, foxes, wolves, bears, hawks, eagles, dragons and demons even... this technique you saw, I learned from an ancient race known as the Toad Sages of Mount Myōboku. I had been under a battle contract with them, and over time they invited me to their home and taught me this technique. The training was long and dangerous; most don't survive it, but I was one of only a handful who did."

Celeste was intrigued by what Naruto was telling her, "What does it do, this Sage Mode?"

"It provides an explosive increase in all my senses," Naruto explained, "My sight, hearing, sense of smell, touch and taste; they all increase tenfold. I become much faster, much, much stronger, and my stamina goes through the roof. My control rises to the point where I can do even the most difficult techniques I know with the ease that's usually attained from at least a decade's worth of constant training and practise. In Jedi terms, it is the ultimate battle-meditation, but there are drawbacks."

"Drawbacks?" Celeste asked with a frown.

"Well... it's a real drain on my chakra reserves. I can only go for a certain amount of time before I am completely drained," Naruto replied, careful not to tell her that after that limit was reached he would be forced to use the chakra of his prisoner, "It is a powerful mode to be in, but if you don't finish off your opponents before it fades then it is very likely they will finish you, if the drain doesn't finish you first."

Neither Aayla nor Celeste knew about what he carried yet, and he would keep it that way for the moment. If his relationship with Aayla became any more serious then he would tell her, give her a chance to bug out. In his mind he knew she wasn't that type of girl, but his own mind, his fear of losing her was keeping him from telling her. In all honesty, he knew he should have told her on Felucia, but he didn't.

'Why didn't I?' he wondered.

'That's easy. It's because you didn't want to let her go, brother.'

Naruto made no outward signs that his dark half had invaded his mind, no sign whatsoever. He didn't even speak to his dark apparition at first. He simply listened as he began to speak in earnest. He shouldn't be surprised, his dark half had been quiet for far too long.

'I must admit she is quite a special girl…so is the one walking beside you, in fact,'he could swear he could see his dark half smirking in the back of his mind, 'Reminds me a little of that Hyuga girl you fell in love with. What was her name... ah yes, Hinata.'

'You fell for her as well, if I remember correctly,' Naruto replied.

'I suppose you're right. You are me and I am you after all.'

'Want to tell me how to get rid of you again?'

'Think like me; it'll come to you.'

He didn't answer as he felt his dark half retreat back into the recesses of his mind. Naruto was silent for a moment, contemplating what he had just gone through, before a small smile crossed his lips. He raised his head, looked to the sky and smiled, "I see. I'm already on the right path."

Celeste looked over at him inquisitively, hearing him murmur something but not with enough volume to tell what, "Did you say something?"

Naruto looked to his friend for a moment before shaking his head, "Nope…not a thing."

She gave him a strange look before bringing her attention to the path ahead. They had already entered the spaceport, and were making their way through the spacious and half-busy main lobby towards the docking area where the Will of Fire was being held. Naruto looked left and right, knowing that Celeste was doing the same, on the alert for any mercs hired by the Hutts or any other party interested in handing in Jedi to the Empire for credit.

Celeste paid the toll with no difficulty, and they were given the all-clear barely a few minutes after they inserted their application to leave the spaceport. The datapad Celeste handed in was downloaded with the day's space travel information, including how many ships were entering and leaving the system within the last hour as well as the proper AEC and time to enter. It all went smoothly and without incident.

Even that little danger sense Jedi were known to have wasn't making itself known at the moment. It appeared that they were going to be able to leave this hyperspace crossroads point without any difficulty or trouble. No Imperial troops, no Inquisition, no bounty hunters or mercenaries chasing them.

Naruto, however, couldn't help but be suspicious. It all seemed too perfect.

Author Note 1: Naruto and Star Wars are the properties of Masashi Kishimoto and George Lucas respectively, I make no profit from publishing this story.

Author Note 2: It's a day late and I apologise, but my job is now seriously eating away at my free time, and my beta-reader has the same constraints. We will try to keep up with the updates, but no promises on our part. I mean I was supposed to finish at 10pm and I got a call at 9:55pm from some guy who wanted to ask about his sky bill, then after 20 mins of explaining this to him he throws a curveball at me in how to fix his sky record button. I didn't get out until 10:25pm, and I wasn't getting paid for it!

'Spoiler alert for Naruto manga beyond this point. Do not read if do not know!'

Author Note 3: On a different note what about the new chapter of Naruto huh? The whole thing appears to be coming to a climax. My hope is that Kakashi or someone else engages Kabuto and breaks his concentration. The undead Shinobi they conscripted will awaken, some might stay on Akatsuki's side but others would defect. It would definitely make the battle between Madara, Naruto and Killer Bee more interesting, half of the Jinchūriki like Roshi and Yugito would probably change sides, but the rest might stick with Madara because of their hatred of humanity and so on. I'm hoping that happens anyway, mainly because I have a soft spot for Yugito and Roshi. Come on Kishimoto, you've disappointed me a few times already get this one right!