"100,000 credits? I can imagine the Council weren't very happy with the bill..." Naruto was leaning back against the wall in her room, having caught up with her when she returned to the Normandy from whatever business he had been busy with.

"No they weren't, but it's not like there was a lot they could do other than authorise the payment as Pallin was the one who had reported the results of 'Operation Sting' to them." So now she had more money than she had ever had before in her life, even with the outlays such as fuel and supplies to replace what was used on Eden Prime.

"And if this doesn't get them to release Saren-teme's files to us, I have some other targets for us to hit tomorrow morning, automatic data transfer my ass. Speaking of today's work..." Naruto walked forwards and held out a data pad, Jane taking it in mild confusion only to find a manifest of goods ranging from medical supplies to weapons.

"I had a bunch of henged clones follow behind me and Wrex and they took everything that wasn't nailed down..." Getting to the part where things like turret remnants were included, Jane got the feeling that Naruto was being sarcastic about the nailed part. "All of the obviously illegal stuff I handed into C-Sec, the rest is being held in your newly acquired warehouse area, one of the smugglers had the deed."

"And the warehouse owner was comfortable with you signing the deed over on my behalf without the smuggler even being charged yet?" She had a suspicion about how Naruto had pulled that off, which was confirmed when he reached up and scratched the back of his head a little awkwardly.

"Well, I might have had a clone henged as you tell him exactly what we had hit on the citadel so far, and how it would be a shame if we searched certain areas of his warehouse that I had found were owned by some of the other people we hit today... The Turian was pretty damn quick to help us sign things over after that." Shepard couldn't help but shake her head at the rather heavy handed approach Naruto had used in intimidating the warehouse owner, but it wasn't like he had done anything illegal, other than pretending to be her so that all the other illegal things became legal of course.

"Well, the smuggler will eventually petition for his damn space back, assuming he doesn't mind pissing me off to do it, but having somewhere to store things such as these in the meantime will be very useful. But seriously Naruto, I am going to need you to start telling me BEFORE you do things like this, especially if you are going to pretend to be me to do it." Jane didn't mean to be harsh with him, after all this equipment would allow her to outfit another strike force if she needed to and still increase her money by a noticeable amount.

But she needed to make sure that she wasn't going to catch any flak for what he was doing whilst he was henged as her, if the Council knew about his transformation abilities then they would probably lock him up in a dark hole and throw away the key. It bypassed most basic security on the Citadel and could allow him to incriminate almost anyone, which would doubly worry the Council given his rather cool attitude towards them.

"Hai taichou, I'm sorry. I will definitely check in with you if I can in future!" Not exactly a straight up promise but it would do for now, the results far outweighed the potential cost.

"Commander? The Council are on the line and they say it can't wait. Shall I patch them through or are you going to the meeting room for a face to face chat?" As tempting as it was to see their faces if this was the meeting she thought it was, Shepard couldn't be bothered to traipse up there for what would undoubtedly be a very short call.

"Patch them through Joker, I doubt they will be long..." And of course there was the other advantage, Jane thought to herself as she moved to her chair whose position was optimised for audio quality, a bit of back up never hurt anyone.

"Ready to go Jane-taichou?" Naruto had moved up behind her with his usual silent footstep, the young ninja obviously just as eager to hear what the Council had to offer.

Seeing the call was from three separate lines, not surprising given the time of day, Jane had an amusing if slightly unrealistic thought even as she pressed the accept button.

Would the other two believe her if she claimed she couldn't connect to the Turian Councillor due to 'technical difficulties'?

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"We are full Commander Shepard." The words from Pressley would probably surprise most people who had seen the Normandy, the ship whilst small for a frigate was still large enough to fit an entire marine detachment and their transports on top of it's normal loadout, it was almost the same size as the MSV Ontario that was currently floating across the readouts in front of her.

"So we have filled the cargo bay? Not surprising given that we picked up those two troop transports and several tonnes of thresher maw meat from Edolus..." It would have passed most people by that any part of a thresher maw was useful, but after an offhand comment from Wrex about the meat being a sought after Krogan delicacy, Jane had saw an opportunity.

"Not just the cargo bay, that has the transports and the light Mako you got from those pirates along with the meat and some of the weapons, but I am talking most of the rest of the space on the ship as well. I have already had to fill half the engine room and the Med-bay supply room with the weapons and other equipment that your teams have acquired, not to mention the thresher maw acid that Naruto was so determined we harvest!" Ah, so a different level of full to what she had thought he meant.

Jane wasn't really offended by the slightly accusatory tone in Pressley's voice, she had been a hoarder for years and a miser for even longer than that, the only time she let things go was for money. And if she wanted to try and justify it objectively, considering the amount of supplies that many of the Terminus pirate bases had, if she had left them there she was just facilitating another groups easy start in their shady careers.

"Back to the Citadel then Pressley. Whilst we could try one of the local colonies I think we need to get the bodies back to Kahoku as soon as possible." Pressley saluted and moved away to give Joker the new order, leaving Jane to open her own comm channel to the member of the crew that would be most likely to help her a little further.

"Garrus, can I talk to you regarding the Citadel for a minute please? Where are you based now?" The question was as much for her own benefit as it was being polite, Garrus had originally taken up residence in the cargo bay along with Ashley and Wrex, but if they were as full as Pressley was alluding to then she doubted that was still the case.

"I'm currently in the mess Commander, though Wrex wanted to talk to you about our sleeping arrangement anyway, so do you want meet us here?" Wrex had probably been much less polite about the damn thing, but Garrus was remarkably soft spoken given his dossier and experience in C-Sec.

"Of course, we are heading back to the Citadel now so that we can clear the hold sooner rather than later, but I guess this is more of a question of long term cargo space?" There was a grunt of approval, probably from Wrex, as Jane tried to think of a way round the problem.

"I will be down in a moment Garrus, I just need to contact someone with an idea I have just had..." The Ontario was slightly damaged from the Gardian laser fire used to disable its engines, and though it would be stretching things a bit thin given the Normandy was already running a light human crew, she had someone who excelled at dealing with manpower issues.

"Naruto, how do you feel about learning to crew a ship?"

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It had not been an easy return to the Citadel, but with Pressley piloting the Ontario and two other crew managing Naruto and his clones it had been a lot easier to pull off than she had thought it might be. Alerting the Alliance to the damage to the Ontario's engines, Jane was pleased to hear of a quick response allowing her to use one of the shipyard docks to land the Ontario for repair, whilst the Normandy landed and most of the crew were involved in unloading the various equipment and items from it.

Garrus had known exactly who they could sell most of the good weapons and armour to, C-Sec in fact as they were constantly having to obtain new equipment to replace broken, stolen or lost equipment of their own. Executor Pallin had been remarkably reasonable about the whole thing as well and Jane had walked away with a confirmation of sale and C-Sec crews already on their way to take the items away from the Normandy docks.

The thresher maw meat had been a bit more difficult to part with, taking Naruto a couple of hours to find several restaurants and bars in the lower wards that catered quite heavily towards Krogan, though once she made them aware of quite how much Thresher maw meat she had there was quite some competition between them to take it off her hands. Supposedly Thresher meat was quite hardy when it came to preservation and difficult to get hold of, so the restaurants were obviously trying to buy up the meat to give them stock for some time to come.

So she had made more than enough to pay the Alliance for the repairs to the Ontario, as another ship was very quickly agreed to be the best solution for their cargo problem, but now she had to consider getting a crew for the ship. She had asked the others and most had been unable to help, though Tali had raised the point that there were dozens of Quarians on the Citadel that would jump at the chance for work, even if it was something as menial and crewing and running a salvage ship in the wake of the Normandy.

"They have all been truthful as far as I can tell Shepard-taichou, though with their masks on all the time it would be quite hard to tell if they didn't exaggerate every little body gesture to make up for it." Which had lead to where they were now, Tali having spread the word that they were looking for a crew and would accept Quarians meant that the office Naruto had given the address for applicants to go to had been packed by the time Jane had arrived to see who had turned up.

She got the feeling that the office was probably another one of the things he had 'acquired' during his time on the Citadel, but given he hadn't told her anything about it other than it was legally rented out, Jane didn't push any harder given it meant that they didn't have to use the Normandy's hangar.

"Well I think we only need 20 to crew the ship and collect the salvage, so we are going to have to pick out the best. You and Tali got any recommendations?" Naruto nodded slowly and pointed over to a group that Tali was stood with off to one side, maybe 30 or so of them.

"Tali-chan says these ones have particular skills that you would be looking for Shepard-taichou, whilst all Quarians have experience ship side these actually served on ship crews in various fields." Jane nodded, though it did pull at her heartstrings to see so many people who were obviously so desperate for any kind of work that they responded to what was essentially a vague word of mouth job advert, especially given she would be sending most of them away without anything.

"Everyone, thank you for coming to the interviews. As we have kept you for some time, food is served! The tall blonde woman that made that announcement, who looked suspiciously like Naruto but female without the whisker marks, announced this as she and two other people brought in packs of dextro paste.

The Quarians seemed torn between caution and shock, obviously not used to this kind of hospitality from someone other than their own race. It took Tali walking forwards, and rather awkwardly feeding one of the packs into the complex apparatus that worked to move the food to her mouth without breaking sterilisation, to make the other Quarians realise that this wasn't some kind of trick.

Jane turned a knowing glance in Naruto's direction, the young man merely shrugging as the two understood exactly why he had gone out and bought enough food to feed 200 people on a whim without the need for words. Now knowing his past as an orphan, one that was not well liked if the story regarding this Mizuki was anything near the norm, Jane saw his actions in a different light.

Despite his obvious reluctance to get close to anyone other than herself, it was the things like this and when he stood in front of Tali at the Council, that revealed that despite his irritating and sarcastic humour he was not only a genocide survivor as he wanted to portray himself. Watching as he blushed and stammered a protest as Tali glomped him, the young Quarian also seemingly in on the secret of where the food had come from, Jane couldn't help but smile as a fellow orphan struggled to accept the probably unexpected affection and appreciation.

Now she knew exactly what to do the next time he tried to goad her with a comment about trying to date her...

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It was quiet aboard the Normandy, something Tali was still not at all used to as she walked the halls aimlessly, a mixture of excitement and longing mixing in her stomach and preventing her sleeping for the moment. The giddiness of being able to help some of her own people on their pilgrimage, even if it was only on Shepard's behalf and only 23 of them, was something that gave her a warm feeling that she really didn't want to try and shake any time soon.

Though, with that feeling came the longing that she couldn't help but feel even though it made her feel extremely guilty every time she thought about it. Despite all that Shepard had done for her in taking her on her ship and letting her be part of her team, Tali could tell that Jane didn't trust her anymore than she seemed to trust Garrus or Wrex. Whilst most Quarians weren't very good with facial expressions or body language, her father had been very insistent in her learning some psychology before leaving the flotilla and the signs were there, even if Shepard didn't realise she was doing it.

It was understandable, they had only met a week ago after all, but it was the sort of feeling that subconsciously filtered down throughout the rest of the crew. The feeling of distrust was painfully clear to her, and was one of the reasons she kept herself to engineering during the 'day' when most of the crew were active, Engineer Adams was a lot nicer to her after she helped with the engines a few times.

So now that there was another ship accompanying Shepard, crewed by her own kind who were beyond thankful at the opportunity she had offered them, Tali couldn't help but want to request permission to join them. The feeling was quickly squashed once more though, after all there were the upsides to being on a ship like the Normandy, especially given its rather exotic crew...

"Tali-chan, are you okay?" The sudden question brought Tali tumbling to a stop, both mentally and physically as the subject of her thoughts spoke to her from where he was doing pull ups on a makeshift work out area in the corner of the cargo bay.

"Ah, yes Naruto. Sorry, just lost in my thoughts..." Her subconscious must have been following her thoughts more than she could have imagined if her feet had taken her to the one place that Naruto was likely to be found.

She only hoped that he couldn't tell she was embarrassed, doing her best not to exhibit her embarrassment physically as was standard between Quarians, doing her best to think of something to talk about quickly before she got any worse.

"No need to apologise Tali-chan, I do that a lot, especially when I think about ramen..." Swinging himself forwards, Naruto let go at the apex of his swing and flipped through air and landed less than two feet of her, causing her to jump slightly in shock as he stood before smiling apologetically.

"Ah, sorry Tali-chan, I should probably have given you a little warning there..." For the second time in a minute Tali's mind stopped thinking ahead, as she couldn't stop herself taking in the image in front of her.

Stood only in a pair of standard fatigue pants, Tali could definitely say that Naruto was the most well built man she had ever seen topless this close, though a rather snide part of her brain was quick to point out he was the only man. Well defined muscles were easily visible on his stocky frame but he wasn't 'hulking' as she thought the phrase was. Her blush faded slightly when she started paying attention to the scars that littered his arms and chest, in some places there were signs of scars formed on top of other scars.

"Tali-chan? Oh right, not really used to people being bothered by this still." Stepping off to grab his plain white t-shirt, Tali mentally complained even as she did her best to recover what little composure she had left.

"So, is there anything you wanted me for Tali-chan? Or would you prefer me to leave you to it? I was done for the night now if you wanted to have a go." Tali shook her head rapidly, having seen Naruto working out in the area on several occasions there was no way she was going to embarrass herself by doing her training with him still there.

"No thank you Naruto, I don't want to try and work out this late at night, would probably mean I would be awake all night. I just wanted to thank you for helping my people today with the Ontario, I know most people would have tried to get a human crew instead. I will just go and work on Chatika a little more." A good save rather than the real reason, but the frown that crossed Naruto's face implied she hadn't pulled it off as well as she would like to think she had.

"Ano, but shouldn't you work on your close quarter skills as well Tali-chan? What happens if someone catches you unarmed and too close for you to sabotage them?" Whilst normally Tali would have taken offence at what was an insinuation that Naruto thought she would be useless in close combat, she had talked to Wrex after their mission on the Citadel and knew that even the veteran Krogan approved of the young man's martial abilities, which was a big compliment from a Krogan.

"I-I would keep them busy until I made enough space to draw my weapon or sabotage them without being caught in the blast radius..." Not the most confident of answers, and being honest with herself Tali knew that if she got into a melee with anyone that had more than a modicum of melee ability, the chances of her getting out of that fight alive, let alone without suit damage, were very low indeed.

"Show me then." Gone was the cheerful expression and relaxed postured, Naruto sliding into a stance she didn't recognise with a deadpan look of concentration on his face.

"But Naruto..." She didn't get any further than that, Naruto moving quickly forwards and throwing a left jab at her face.

It was obvious that he was holding back considerably, the stiffness of his body showing that it wanted to move faster and that he was doing his best to hold it in check, but Tali still only just managed to bring her arm up to block the attack. Even with Naruto pulling his punches her arm smarted as Naruto shifted once more, speaking to her as he went to another attack.

"Your legs are too close together, widen your stance to help with the stability of your defence." It took Tali a moment to realise he was being serious, ducking a roundhouse kick that would have taken her straight out of the fight if it had connected before she did so, smiling to herself despite the situation as Naruto nodded approvingly.

"Do not block attacks if at all possible, deflect or avoid the attack all together to throw your opponent off balance..." And so she ducked and dodged as best she could, though there were still far to many attacks that she had been forced to block, the aching in her arms and legs smarting every time she moved even as Naruto eventually got her to switch to offense, blocking each and everyone of her attacks like it was the easiest thing in the world.

She didn't know quite how long they were at it, not having had her HUD display on in order to conserve her suits energy, but by the end of it she was drenched in sweat and aching from every joint. Despite this though, she felt happy for the first time that evening, as Naruto relaxed and smiled approvingly at her.

"Well done Tali-chan, you have improved significantly there." The warm feeling that had first appeared when Naruto had stepped in to defend her from the council resurfaced at the smile. And even though Tali wasn't sure that she would actually be able to make it back to her bunk, she knew she would sleep well tonight.

And perhaps, as much as her body was already complaining at the idea, she would see if she could turn this into a more regular training session. After all, a few bruises and aching muscles would be totally worth it if somebody did ever try and take her on in close combat only for her to surprise them with her new skills.

That, and another chance to hang around with Naruto wasn't something she would pass up if she could avoid it...

A/N: Sorry, another filler chapter. I know I know, but I think I needed to develop this Naruto a little more, as well as introduce interaction with Tali-chan. I have tried to make her into a little more than a stuttering apologising naive girl which is how she is portrayed in quite a few fics. She does get flustered, and that is one of the things I love about her, but it's not the only thing that defines her.

Also, if you have read Medic Effect, you will see that I have taken my idea of a salvage ship from there. So apologies if it is not original, but I like to think I have taken it in a different way.

Finally, I have rewritten the first chapter of Uzumaki Guardian as I wanted to put a bit more long term plot in there.

Let me know what you think guys!