The moment Ino became aware of her surroundings, a sign that Jiraiya-sama had assured them would only happen when they were being awakened from her stasis, she was aware that something was wrong.
Pain arced upwards from her right leg, and she could hear multiple people moving around her whose chakra barely alerted her of their presence. Remembering that the layer of earth around her would remain in place until she broke it, Ino tried to sit up.
The moment the earth around her started to fall away she lost control of her senses, waves of agony slamming into her with such intensity that she couldn't help but scream and thrash. The people around her tried to hold her down, speaking in a language that she didn't recognise as they held strange devices and items towards the lower part of her body, but given they were only civilians they didn't have a chance as she first sent one and then two of them stumbling backwards.
"Ino-chan!" His appearance at her side was like going from the occasional rain drop hitting her head to being underneath a waterfall, his chakra rolling over her and helping calm her down enough that she was able to process what was going on.
"Naruto, the pain..." Was this an unexpected side effect of the stasis? Was her pod defective?
Another wave of pain hit her as three of the civilians grabbed her right leg and held it down, Naruto grabbing her before she could do something to get them to stop, face devoid of the warm grin that was so often associated with him. One of the people holding her leg said something in that unknown language once more, and Ino was surprised when Naruto nodded before speaking to her once more.
"Ino-chan, you were injured whilst in stasis, we're going to get you fixed up, I swear on my nindo! But the doctors can't operate on you whilst you are struggling so much..." Naruto's words filled her with a strange emptiness, and lifting her head for the first time Ino stopped Naruto preventing her from looking down at her lower half with her best attempt at a stern look in these circumstances.
As she was able to see why the civilians were holding her leg down for the first time, Ino's desire to mentally destroy them for the added pain they were causing her rapidly disappeared, as the bleeding stump of her leg became the only thing she could see.
"What..." The trained part of her consciousness kicked in as another spurt of blood was ejected from her wound, counteracting the woozy feeling that was pervading her system, which she knew was because of her losing a large amount of blood.
"Talk later Ino-chan, I need you to trust me!" Naruto looked at her, in a way that she knew won him far too many arguments with the few surviving women of the ninja forces, and she nodded weakly.
"Do it now!" Naruto's shout/order seemed to be more than enough to kickstart the civilians into action, the two holding her leg down shifting to presumably stop the bleeding as Naruto kept a firm grip on her shoulders, keeping his eyes locked with hers as she felt them start trying to clean up her amputation.
"Stay with me Ino-chan, I'm here as I promised..." Naruto's constant talking was reassuring even as the pain intensified, and Ino lost track of time as she drifted into and out of consciousness with the pain.
She knew she should be more alarmed at the situation than she actually was, but Naruto could explain everything when the operation was over, especially what sort of bloodline caused the blue Kisame wannabe woman in the corner...
!"£$%^&*()_
Jane knew she didn't have to be here as she waited outside Ambassador Udina's private surgery for the revival of Naruto's friend finished, in fact Naruto himself had reminded her that there were several rather important things for her to be doing instead with the hour and a half she had been stood there, but Jane had seen the worry on his face and knew that having a friend there afterwards would be of more reassurance than he was prepared to admit.
The sound of a door opening made her look up from the draft of the Council report she had just finished writing, which made no reference to Mari or Ino in the action summary of their interaction with the Thorian. Whilst the Council would be informed of the latter's appearance in her verbal report, Jane was more than happy enough to admit she didn't trust her new employers not to end up leaking the information of what Naruto's friends sealed forms looked like to other Spectres.
If their reluctance to pass on Saren's Spectre operation data along wasn't enough, the fact that they had given the bastard access to the Eden Prime data was the cherry on that particular shit cake. But she could deal with that later, an obviously drained Naruto nearly collapsing into her greeting embrace as she went to greet him, allowing her to guide him back to the large White leather executive sofa she had been waiting on.
"Is she okay?" For a moment Naruto didn't respond before a tired smile appeared on his face and he leaned back, inadvertently pulling Jane into a leaning embrace, not that she minded as she looked up from her head's new resting place on his shoulder.
"She's confused, tired and angry about being injured whilst in stasis, but she dropped off to sleep before the doctors could even pump her with painkillers, so with some rest she will be okay enough for me to tell her about the rest of this giant mess we've ended up in..." His grin faded a little before a pained look came over him.
"I've no idea how I am going to tell her about Shika, but she's like you." Jane perked up at the comparison, only to see amusement in Naruto's expression as he finished. "The longer I don't tell you something, the more you will go all moody and angry with me when I do eventually tell you, it's an endearing trait..." He was deliberately trying to antagonise her in order to stop her worrying about him, something she had no problem in obliging him on as she shifted away so she could thump him in the arm.
"And don't you forget it, though I suppose I can offer an amnesty if there is anything you want to tell me..." Whilst she meant it as a joke, the slight wince that crossed Naruto's face made her regret giving the offer.
"Well, now that you mention it, you know those raids that we did on the Citadel gangs..." Jane could feel the urge to break her offer of amnesty already rising, and Naruto hadn't even told her what he had done yet...
!"£$%^&*()_+
Kasumi Goto was glad she had taken the time to do some digging on her newest target before starting her mission, as the list of things to this 'Naruto's' name was both impressive and worryingly lacking at the same time. Prior to 2 months ago he had a record as being a normal marine aboard the Normandy, but the dates didn't line up with the enlistment records that her Alliance contact was able to scrounge up, which screamed that he was undercover or Spec Ops as a minimum.
Combined with the fact that he was a frontline member of Spectre Shepard's frontline team ,despite his supposed average service history and his age, meant that he wasn't to be messed with lightly. When the Normandy returned therefore, Kasumi waited until both the Spectre and this 'Naruto' were on shore with their assault team before probing the Normandy's perimeter defences, best to have the most dangerous members away in case something went wrong...
Blood pooling from the giant wound to Kenji's head, the world disappearing from around her as she rushed to her love's side...
'Live for me little dove...'
Sprinting away as bullets flitted around her, tears streaming down her face as her bloodied hands clenched, fury beginning to fill the gaping hole that had just been torn open in her heart...
The burning anger threatened to well up inside her once more, but she managed to bury the feeling as she slipped between the guards at the Normandy's airlock entrance. Thankfully, the security measures in the hangar didn't seem to be anything special, certainly the Security officer hadn't accounted for the possibility of someone cloaking their way aboard the ship. Now she just had to wait for someone to come back aboard and she could sneak onboard with them, which given the guards changed every hour wouldn't be too long at all.
Kasumi only hoped that the source of the information she was going to steal didn't come back to the ship before she could get in and out, something about him just sent shivers up her spine. She wasn't one to believe in superstition, but the fact she had ignored her instincts only once before meant she was far more prepared to listen to them now, and the fact he had a fully armed Krogan with him only made the potential confrontation that much more important to avoid.
She felt sorry for whoever was going to end up being the Spectre's targets whilst she was on the Citadel, because the pair of warriors had looked ready to take apart a marine battalion as they reached the hangar lift...
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"Draak's down, how is this possible!" The cry of the Salarian bounty hunter Lasarin, who had arranged the group's pursuit of this particular bounty, was followed shortly after by a muffled scream as he to was dragged off into the shadows by their mysterious attacker.
As Fenix shifted next to the only remaining member of their group, an Asari who merely went by the name Vail, he couldn't help but let the feeling of despair affect him slightly as it dawned on him how fucked they were. This was meant to be an easy job, taking down a guy who had pissed off Barla Von, then taking anything of value back to the Volus in question. Even with the concerns of the target's evasion skills, a group of 8 hunters would have been enough to take down an angry Krogan warmaster or two.
They had spent a couple of days gathering intel, which backed up what the Volus had told them about the target, which Barla had rather unoriginally codenamed 'skull' for the motif on his helmet. The information hadn't been easy to get hold of at first, until he had been pointed in the direction of a rather dishevelled junk shop on the lower wards by one of his usual contacts, who swore that the owner was something of a up and coming information broker.
"Well, it looks like the rumours you obtained had some truth to them after all..." Vail's calm tone was somewhat counteracted by the way that she looked around nervously with her assault rifle up and ready, using her left hand to signal that Fenix should watch her back.
"Yeah, but a little late for us to realise that don't you think? Think we should try and make a break for it?" The junk shop owner had been a human girl who couldn't have been out of her teens, with the forced cheeriness of someone who was in over their head but knew that letting it affect them would merely make things worse.
Despite this, her information on Skull's location had been far more solid than any of the other information they had gotten, putting him inside one of the larger shop/storage warehouses on the lower wards, which was currently up for sale and therefore not occupied. Paying her 1000 credits, which was twice what she had asked for but was a good way to keep a potential source of information happy, Fenix had been surprised when the girl had grabbed his arm before he could leave.
She had then told him, in the hushed tone of someone who thought that revealing such information could well get her killed, that there were rumours about this Skull character. She said that he had already dealt with 2 other bounty hunter groups and delivered their corpses to C-sec in a grotesque and macabre manner, and it was rumoured that he had been the one behind the large number of mercenaries killed in the aftermath of the rocket attack on the new Spectre.
She had refused to say anymore when he had tried to press her for more information, and he hadn't wanted to risk upsetting a potential new source by getting physical, though as the unconscious body of Lasarin was thrown bodily at his feet from the shadows he felt he should have delved for further details. The Salarin was missing his prosthetic arm, and honestly looked like he had been beaten with said appendage when it had been removed.
"Only 8 of you, I should feel insulted, but that would imply I thought you had a chance at actually succeeding." The voice came from all around them, almost like the target was flitting from one place of the abandoned warehouse to another, but the speed of the directional changes should have made such a thing impossible.
"I suppose you wouldn't be open to offering leniency if we surrendered Skull?" Fenix barely resisted the urge to turn and face his 'partner' as she asked the question that was almost considered heresy amongst bounty hunters and mercenaries.
To surrender as a mercenary would show that you weren't prepared to follow your contract through to the last breath, which is what many of their employers expected without question, so if you were known to have surrendered as part of a contract then your name would be worth mud.
"Interesting, you are the first out of the dozens of people to come after me to ask, I was sure it was going to be the human with you who broke first... Though, I have no time for dealing with you long term, so why shouldn't I just finish you now and save myself the hassle?" The voice shifted from shadow to shadow around them, making it clear that Skull had been more than prepared for an assault if he had this many speakers set up to confuse them.
Despite his professional reservations, Fenix hadn't become a seasoned mercenary by being foolhardy, and he knew that unless they offered something substantial Skull wouldn't waste any time and give them an opportunity to try and come up with an escape plan.
"The location of two unofficial space stations used by smugglers and batarian pirates, as well as all the information I can get you regarding the ex-Spectre Saren..." The offer from Vail was surprising in both scale, as the space station locations were worth hundreds of thousands of credits by themselves to the right people, but also the offer regarding Saren implied Vail had an angle she was aiming for.
"Interesting, though you obviously think you know something to offer me those specific items, and given their value you obviously want something in return as well as your life... Though why you think such items are of any interest to me is quite amusing, as my interests are clearly focused here rather than in the backwaters that you dragged yourselves from..." If possible the shadows around them seemed to darken even further, Fenix frantically going through his own meagre collection of secrets and resources to try and come up with something that could possibly be worth their lives, not that anything he had was remotely as valuable as what Vail had just...
"You work for, or at least have some kind of relationship with the human spectre that's been causing the Council so many headaches since she ascended to the role, and I think that..." It happened so quickly that Fenix barely had time to register the shape appear out of the shadows in front of him before he found himself slammed into the ground with incredible strength, the Skull moving past him to grab Vail by the throat and hoist her in the air with terrifying ease.
"You know much little one, far too much for me to just let you go now... And you will tell me what you know in great detail before I finally decide what to do with you..." Fenix tried to force himself to his feet, only for movement from behind him to make him try and raise his weapon in Time to see a Krogan standing in front of him, shotgun butt moving rapidly towards him...
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"That's the lot, I have to say you do nice work when you get angry old man..." Wrex's tone was almost akin to when he had seen the pile of thresher maw meat in the cargo bay after the team first brought one down, though beneath his henged mask Naruto couldn't help but frown at the 'old man' comment.
"You really aren't going to let that go are you?" Since revealing his past Naruto had been approached by the warlord several times, along with Liara, Garrus and surprisingly Tali.
Whilst the three new members of their secret keeping club had asked about various parts of his old society, Tali had just spent time with him and talked about normal things as if nothing had changed, which was a nice steadying influence for Naruto given the wave of memories all the questions brought up. Wrex on the other hand seemed to have taken Naruto's joke about being older than he was to heart, the Krogan using several different titles and forms of address for him now depending on how respectful the Krogan was feeling.
Worryingly, 'old man' was one of the nicer terms...
"Not until you're dead and buried for at least a decade, then I might consider it. But that's not the important thing here, is it Aleena? I still have a contract out on your head, the only one I've never completed..." Surprised that Wrex knew the Asari he was currently holding in a neck choke, Naruto was unsure whether or not he should put her down, though given she knew of his affiliations if not his identity then he probably didn't want to let him try and kill her just yet.
"Really Wrex? That contract hasn't been valid for more than a century, though you were always one to hold grudges. And besides, it was a mercenary named Aleena on the contract right? I go by Vail now..." The Asari seemed a lot less intimidated by the situation now, going so far as to smile in a clearly teasing manner as she spoke to Wrex despite being unarmed and clearly in a bad position.
"You know her Wrex?" Given the conflicting emotions that flittered across Wrex's face it was clear that the two had some history, even before he spoke in the grating tone that was the equivalent of a 'soft tone' for a Krogan.
"You remember that story I told you, the one about the old Salarian space station? This is her. You might as well put her down kid, if she really wanted to fight or escape she could have made this whole thing a lot more difficult for you..." Hearing that, Naruto cast the now named Aleena a look of newfound respect, going toe to toe with Wrex for several days was something even he didn't want to do if he could avoid it.
"Indeed, though that makes her approach here all the more suspicious, such skills and experience would definitely have changed that particular farce..." Naruto gestured behind him as he put Aleena down, towards the other three Turian's, the Batarian and what he thought was called a Drell.
"Well, if you want me to give you a beat down I'll more than happily oblige, I thought you humans knew how to treat a lady..." The moment Aleena's eyes left Wrex the teasing warmth in them vanished as she surrounded herself in the now familiar blue glow of biotic power whilst gingerly touching where he had grabbed her throat.
"Aleena..." There was an authority to Wrex's tone as he stepped between them, and seeing that the Krogan was trying to diffuse things Naruto decided to make sure all of their new guests were unconscious, the sound of a throw slamming into a barrier a moment later making it clear that Aleena was going to be a while calming down.
"We haven't finished you bastard, just because you have Wrex protecting you..." Naruto would have gotten annoyed if it weren't for the fact that Wrex started laughing a moment later, the Krogan grabbing Aleena firmly by the arm and leading them away from the 'fight scene'.
Making sure that all of the bounty hunters were still breathing, Naruto snorted at the memories of their assault, of which he had been warned by his information broker clone well in time. They hadn't even tried to be subtle, kicking in the doors like it was some kind of bad action movie, before storming in as one giant group without any thought for cohesion or covering fire positions.
Such was the ruckus they made that they didn't even notice him drop down from the specially constructed rafters and knock out the first Turian, spiriting his body away in a sealless replacement jutsu before returning to stalk his prey. It was as he took down the next two that they noticed him, though the fact that he slammed one of them through a support beam was kind of a give away. Whilst they hadn't worked well as a group before, they truly shattered now as he dodged the wild bursts of fire in his direction and slipped out of the light of the shoulder torches once more.
The Salarian started shouting a mixture of random statements mixed with obvious attempts at orders, whilst the rest split off and ignored his attempts at instructions entirely in place of doing their own thing.
"You what!" Wrex's bark caused him to return his attention to his crew mate and his ex-colleague, Wrex looking far more furious than Naruto had ever seen him as Aleena looked down in what must be the universal expression of shame.
The two continued to talk in hushed tones for several seconds more, Naruto content to wait until they were finished before finding out what the Asari could have said to piss off the normally grumpy but emotionally steadfast Warlord, though given the glances Wrex occasionally threw his way it was definitely going to end up involving him sooner rather than later...
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*Roughly the same time, Normandy main deck*
Ducking round a patrolling marine with practiced ease, her eyes sliding right over Kasumi's cloaked body in a manner that would usually make her shiver in excitement, but as the female marine finally moved to enter the medbay she could only resist the urge to audibly sigh in relief instead. The almost static guard systems aboard the Normandy meant that it had taken the movement of the strange group of non-alliance members and almost an hour of hide and seek to get to this point, and she had still only completed one of her objectives.
"This is Sword 2, main deck is clear." The marine clearly was enjoying the rather dull schedule as much as Kasumi was, but as the marine returned to the door and headed out of the room, Kasumi had to admit that the skeleton crew on the ship right now helped in one aspect.
Deactivating her cloaking mechanism and hooking up to a wall socket to recharge, Kasumi could be somewhat assured that no-one would be coming in here again any time soon. The only concern would be if either of the registered medical personnel returned before she found what she needed, which was why she had one of the street kids watching the entrance to the Normandy's hangar, and she would be alerted if anyone came back.
Heading over to the false wall segment that was common on Alliance ships, Kasumi started feeling it's surface for the hidden switch that would open it up and allow her access to the medical records that would hopefully be hidden inside.
Unnoticed by the somewhat distracted thief, one of the books lying on the table next to one of the treatment beds vanished in a small burst of scentless smoke, dissipating rapidly as Kasumi found the switch with a small smirk as the wall shifted forward and to the right...
!"£$%^&*()
"Aleena, wait here..." Wrex was clearly disgruntled with his old 'partner', as the previously fiery Asari did as he ordered without even raising a manicured eyebrow, which meant that whatever he needed to talk to Naruto about was serious indeed.
"I need a favour..." Naruto did his best to control his facial expression as Wrex came out with the sentence he never thought he would hear from the miserly Warlord, only to belatedly remember that he was still henged as Skull so his face wasn't visible anyway.
'Oh, this is going to be good, hopefully it involves you letting me out to play for a bit. Given you were stupid enough to tell your little Spectre woman about our little scheme, I imagine it will be the only time in the next few months when you aren't going to be on a very short leash...' Kyuubi hadn't been at all happy with Naruto's most recent set of revelations to Jane, primarily around his set up with Skull and the other clones aboard the Citadel, though thankfully she hadn't passed the information onto Wrex when she had sent the Krogan to 'accompany' him.
"As long as it doesn't get Commander Shepard anymore pissed with me than she already is..." Jane was currently investigating several jobs that had been passed onto her either personally or through his slowly growing network, the fact that she was doing it without him and sending someone to keep an eye on him was telling about how well selling the information on the gang attacks had gone over.
"No promises, but given it will get you me as your Krant and Aleena's skills against Saren, then unless we end up blowing up the Citadel it should only help." Naruto was now more concerned than ever, both by the promises Wrex made and the fact he hadn't made a joke about his and Jane's relationship, something the Krogan was only outdone on by the Kyuubi.
"Out with it Wrex, you're starting to scare me..." Naruto decided to save both him and Wrex some time and cut to the chase, something that seemed to make things a little easier as Wrex steeled himself before speaking.
"Aleena and I, well after that Turian I told you about where we split the body and the bounties on, we may have had something of a raucous celebration. This was a century ago, and with the amount of ryncol I had... The point is we slept together, and whilst I thought nothing of it at the time, it turns out that Aleena was slower than usual on that space station for a reason..." Wheels were slowly turning in Naruto's head as he looked from Wrex to Aleena, whose expression had altered into one of cautiously hopeful.
"You have a kid? Let me guess, someone is holding her hostage and that's why Ms cheerful is here?" Wrex nodded, but before he could continue any further Naruto's head spiked with pain as he received a set of memories from a clone he had only created because he was being paranoid when he first boarded the Normandy, and his paranoia couldn't be paying off at a worse time.
"Someone's infiltrated the Normandy, can this..." His question died in his throat as he saw Aleena's face drop to that of despair, answering his query and making up his mind at the same time.
"Never mind, Wrex, I want the details ready as we are going to make this fast." Seeing Wrex move towards Aleena, obviously to get the information he requested, Naruto reached for his comm piece.
"Joker, alert security teams and put the Normandy on high alert, we have an intruder in the med-bay. Notify the commander, Wrex and I will be going dark but you will have continued shadow support, Naruto out." Given she had made it onto the ship without anyone noticing, Naruto wasn't sure if the security team would be able to stop her without an actual fight, something to be avoided given the potential collateral damage that could be unleashed aboard their ship.
Better to spook the intruder and let her escape with his clones trailing her than have a firefight on the Normandy, then he could deal with them as soon as he did a bit of family reunification. Wonder whether Wrex's Asari daughter is anything like her dad in temperament? With Aleena's volatility though, Wrex's personality may actually have been the better piece to be inherited...
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Kasumi's didn't know how she tipped them off, perhaps some sort of silent alarm on the records stash she hadn't noticed, but what mattered was that alarms were going off and armed guards had stormed the med-bay less than two minutes later. Thankfully they didn't seem to know she could turn invisible, as they moved right past her and into the back room area, allowing her to slip out of the med-bay unhindered, medical details of her target stored safely in her backpack as she tried to work out how she could escape with the only way out of the ship being the docking station that was now definitely guarded.
"No sign of the intruder, though someone has been in here recently, meaning we either just missed them or they have stealth tech. I'll message Joker, the rest of you fan out and guard the maintenance hatches." The one talking was obviously senior, and had some experience given how quickly he assessed the situation, though given he was about to give away her only advantage dampened her appreciation of his skills.
"Joker, this is Lieutenant Alenko..." Even as the three other men with the newly named Alenko started moving away from him and into other areas of the deck, Kasumi thanked whatever god that was watching over her as the Lieutenant unknowingly gave her an escape route, including a guide to show her the way.
Picking the smallest of the moving guards, Kasumi followed her towards the room on the far side of deck to the med-bay, the hatch clearly visible in the wall by what could only be the door to Captain Shepard's personal quarters. Given the exposed nature of the access point Kasumi was not exactly comfortable with what she needed to do next, but the time she would take finding where one of the other guards had gone would leave her at risk of the rest of the Spectre's team returning before she could make an effective get away.
Moving behind the marine in her way, Kasumi moved behind the marine and then deactivated her cloaking device, in order to activate the holo-decoy program she had created and stored in her omni-tool. Thankfully the marine didn't notice her during the 15 seconds it took to jack into the Normandy's systems and take control of the projection systems on the command deck, Kasumi placing her decoy away from the stairs and towards the airlock in order to drag people even further away from her intended escape route.
"Intruder spotted headed towards the airlock!" The shout from what she assumed was one of the bridge operators had its intended effect, the marine moving away from the hatch and towards the stairs just as she had planned, with such a light crew there were not enough marines around to guard the exits and pursue her.
"Everyone hold positions, it's a distraction!" The call from this Lt Alenko, over the ship wide communications system came too late, Kasumi having already opened the hatch and jumped inside by the time the marine turned back around.
Now she just hoped that this maintenance hatch led to the outside of the ship, because from there it would be easy enough to lose her pursuers. Still, it had been a lot more difficult than it should have been, which meant that the Normandy had been better prepared for an infiltration that she or Miranda had realised or that she was getting slow.
Whatever the case, Kasumi could only hope that they hadn't got a good look at her before she got out of here, she had enough people after her head as it was...
!"£$%^&*()
"Where are the rest of them Aleena? And where's the target..." It turned out that the Volus that Wrex had been guarding wasn't the only one who had bones to pick with Aleena over the secrets she held, a Salarian crime family on the Citadel amongst others had pursued her once they realised she was still alive after the space station incident.
"The body is nearby with a 'friend', but I want to see my daughter before I bring it in, as I was promised..." Aleena's anger was palpable even to Naruto, currently acting as a corpse under Wrex's supervision, using his somewhat limited chakra sensing to try and keep track of what was physically going on rather than just relying on the bug currently placed on Aleena's armour.
"You are in no position to order us around crone, as much fun as the boss has ordering you around he won't shed any tears if you were to 'try something', so get the body before we decide you need another lesson." The voice of a younger Asari amongst the group of guards, uttering the word crone with the vehemence of someone who understood how much of an insult the word was in Asari culture, very nearly pushed Aleena over the edge into unleashing her biotics.
"If I were to try something outcast, injured or not it would take far more than you four to take me down. Wrex, bring the crate, we better go see Falarin before I really lose my temper..." Naruto relaxed a little as Wrex started handling the crate handler to bring the crate towards Aleena, for a moment he was worried that Aleena was going to forget the plan and start blasting.
"Bitch, hopefully the boss decides today is the day we can finally get rid of you... Krash, open the door and let the boss know his toy is here." That was part 1 of the plan completed at least, whilst Naruto could have infiltrated the place by himself he didn't want to risk getting caught out by himself before finding his target, so the plan they were currently going with was a little more risky, but should have a better chance of saving Wrex's daughter.
Now they just had to hope that this Falarin was the usual overconfident type within his own base and didn't have anyone scan the crate before they found out where the target was being held, though they did have an explanation if someone did realise he was alive, the longer it took for that to happen the better...
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"You're sure you weren't followed?" Miranda would be the first to admit that some called her overly paranoid, but there was just something that was making the skin on her lower back crawl, and it wasn't the cheeky smirk that Kasumi sported as they eyed each other inside the crowded high class restaurant that had been agreed as the rendezvous point.
"Of course, I got out of the hangar still cloaked and then lost myself in the crowds for half an hour just to make sure, couple of pickpockets but I shook them off easily enough. What do you take me for Miranda-chan?" Miranda barely managed to bite back her comment about what she really thought of Ms Goto's overconfidence, mainly because in any other situation she was right, the normal crew would have no idea who they were even looking for, let alone what she actually looked like without her usual hood.
But the normal crew wasn't what she was worried about, and the sooner she got the data and left the Citadel the safer she would feel. They had finished their starters and were just on their main course, which meant that leaving quickly after paying the tab wouldn't look to suspicious for them. She was about to bring up finishing their business, something that she was sure would be better for both of them, when a waiter approached the table with a bottle of wine.
"Excuse me, but I have been asked to send this with compliments of that table over there." Miranda scowled slightly but reigned in her reaction even as she followed the waiter's gesture across the restaurant, no matter where you were or what you were doing there were men who thought that throwing gifts...
Miranda stopped cold as the sight of a fully armoured and armed Jane Shepard stared coldly across the restaurant at her, accompanied by a Turian and another human that she recognised from her research as Garrus Varakin and Kaidan Alenko from the Spectres strike team. How had they found them so quickly? Was this why her instincts had been screaming at her that something had gone wrong.
"Huh, I expected you to react slightly more to Jane-chan than that, I mean even I think she's scary and I am on her team..." The change in tone from the waiter made Miranda look up at him sharply, paying attention to the man's face for the first time even as Kasumi went for one of her machine pistols.
"I wouldn't do that Thief-san." Naruto, because the grin that appeared on the waiter's face as one of his hand shot forward and gripped Kasumi's hand in a grip that made the woman grimace as she tried to shift her hand.
Now, in a different setting, in her Cerberus armour and armed with more than a light pistol, Miranda might have tried something, but from the videos she had seen this Naruto was probably as dangerous in close quarters as a Krogan. More so in fact she realised with a sinking sensation, as this might not even be the real thing that was talking to them, merely a clone ready for them to try and take him out for his boss to unleash hell upon them both.
"Kasumi, stand down, even if we beat him and the Spectre I have no doubt the rest of his team are nearby." Best if she seemed the reasonable one here, especially as the way they had been called out indicated that the Spectre seemed willing to talk things out, otherwise they would both have ended up with sniper rounds to the back of the head on departure.
"I'm glad to see that you aren't just a pretty face, though Wrex will be disappointed he has had to put off a proper family reunion without getting to tear a few heads off. I will insist that both of you have your weapons on the table before I call Jane-chan over here, and then we can have a chat about what to do with the fact you stole Council level information and compromised a Spectre's vessel..." Miranda did her best to keep her face neutral as she slowly and carefully unhooked her pistol from her belt and put it on the table whilst holding the barrel, though it was clear Kasumi hadn't realised quite how sensitive the information had been judging by the paling of her cheeks.
Whilst it wasn't official, the dealing of Council level secrets was carried out by Spectres, and though they weren't told directly, very rarely were there any survivors that had the chance to repent their losses. Even Miranda was caught slightly off guard by the revelation, she had assumed that the information related to Naruto was at best an Alliance secret that the Council had been brought in on, and the Alliance tended to do things far more by the book.
"All clear Commander, I hope you both enjoy your drink ladies..." As Shepard stood and started making her way over to them, Miranda noticed that she had her pistol drawn the entire time, nestled underneath the table and pointed unfalteringly in their direction, her gaze making Miranda wish they had actually managed to uncork the wine bottle before Naruto had unveiled how deep in the shit they were.
If she was going to die, a last drink would have been at least a slightly mollifying gesture...
A/N: Not the violent confrontation between Miranda/Kasumi and the others that quite a few reviewers indicated they wanted, but that is primarily because such a confrontation would be ridiculously one sided even with Kasumi's invisibility and Miranda's biotics. Between Naruto, Wrex and Jane Miranda would have been overwhelmed in short order and Naruto could play cat and mouse Kasumi with his clones to his heart's content.
In addition, Miranda is under standing instructions from the Illusive man to get Naruto into favourable contact with Cerberus, and being caught trying to steal his medical records is bad enough without starting a firefight to try and escape. So, now all she needs to do is work out a way to convince an angry Jane Shepard that she isn't working for Saren or some other criminal entity and that she was just trying to help...
Good luck with that.
Did people like my 'Naruto as Batman' scene? I think that it fits the persona I am building for 'Skull' quite nicely, as well as setting up a confrontation between the Shadow Broker's agents and Naruto as he continues to improve his network on the Citadel, which will start to include more than just his clones as the story continues.
Wrex and Aleena. I will be honest, this idea came out of no-where, and sorry for leaving it somewhat unfinished. But, in my defence, pretty much anything I write will not be as good as whatever people can imagine Wrex going Big Daddy on a bunch of Salarians will be. Aleena will become part of the crew, as well as the main romantic interest for Wrex going forward (Eve will feature later, but I felt their relationship is more 'figureheads for the survival of their species' rather than an instant romantic relationship.')
As for Wrex's daughter, how much like Wrex should I have her act like? Either have it that genes breed true, or that she has had a lot of extranet time to research her father... What do people think? Also, naming suggestions?
This has been a huge chapter that got away from me more than once, so if you see any bits where I haven't quite polished it to my usual standard let me know, and I will see what I can do.
Defias Out!