I'll be honest, I didn't think I'd actually be able to pull out another chapter. Originally I was debating, leaving this as a one-shot but I couldn't help but not try. I won't promise a consistent schedule due to other responsibilities, but I'll definitely give it a shot.

Next I just want to give my thanks to Potterheadfan7 for beta reading this and cleaning up some of the clutter I had. Go give some of his fics a shot. I think some of you might enjoy them.

Thanks for reading this and let me know what you think down in the comments!

A Maelstrom of Hope

Summary: Thrust into the distant future and from one war to another, Naruto finds himself helping a resistance, trying to usurp the false image of peace Neo Arcadia has crafted.

Chapter 1: The calm before the storm.

He was gone. After Ciel gave Naruto the rundown, the blond excused himself saying he needed time to think about the situation he found himself in. It had been a few hours since then. Ciel couldn't blame him, the situation they were in was horrible and it was clear the blond wasn't from around here.

That begged the question of where he came from, but that thought died down as quickly as it came. He was no longer inside the base. She felt a pit form in her stomach when she thought of the blond wandering outside lost and confused.

When she made it back to her room, she was met with the sight of her many research papers thrown about and her clothing tossed into a pile in the corner. She needed to clean up, but there was never enough time. Day by day they were slowly being overwhelmed by Neo Arcadia. More innocent reploids were being retired and as much as she wanted to help she knew the resistance couldn't do much to stop them.

She released a sigh. Everything felt so hopeless.

"Ciel… are you okay?"

Hearing the concerned voice of her dear friend. She quickly wiped away the tears forming at the edge of her eyes and put on a strained smile. "Y-yeah I'm okay, Passy. I just wish I could do more."

Ciel felt a little sensation on her shoulder. Passy was hugging her.

"You've done more than enough for us Ciel."

Had she? She didn't know anymore. After all, everything was her fault, to begin with. Before she could continue her downward spiral, a knock on the door interrupted her.

"Come in." It was probably Alouette, she knew how much the young reploid cared for her.

But, much to her surprise it wasn't her, or any of the other reploids. Blue eyes locked onto the grinning image of a blond with whisker marks on his cheeks.

"Yo Ciel! I'm here to join the resistance!"

Ciel openly gawked in surprise at the blond standing in front of her. She thought she may have misheard him. "C-come again?"

"I wanna help out. Let me join the resistance."

Oh good, she wasn't going crazy. "W-what, but why? You have no stake in this." Don't get her wrong, Ciel would love to have Naruto's help, but it would also make her burden that much heavier. She'd essentially be using him as a weapon against Neo Arcadia.

Seeing the hesitation and reluctance of Ciel only strengthened Naruto's resolve to help. "You're right, I don't have much at stake here, so just go ahead and think of me joining as my thanks for the ramen." He finished with a wide grin and a thumbs up.

Ciel and Passy widened their eyes, at the sheer absurdity of the conversation. He was willing to help them over a single cup of ramen? Ciel felt a warmth blossom within her bosom. It started as a small giggle, before eventually turning into full-blown laughter. Once she regained her composure she couldn't help but ask, "Are- are you serious Naruto?"

With a confident smirk, Naruto replied. "Completely."

There it was again, that infectious feeling of hope the blond was radiating.

"I think you should let him join Ciel."

Ciel glanced at the flying cyber-elf by her side.

"Just looking at him, I feel like he'll do a lot of good for us, and maybe the world. There's something special about him. I can't describe it, but it feels familiar."

Hearing those encouraging words from her dear friend, Ciel made her decision and met Naruto with equal determination. "Welcome to the resistance Naruto. I hope you're prepared because we've got a lot of work to do."

With determined eyes, Naruto replied. "I'll do everything in my power to keep you guys safe. That's the promise of a lifetime!"

Ciel couldn't help but truly believe he would be able to change everything.

~AMoH~

They were like an ocean of machines. Mavericks. The real things, not the fake title that the resistance was assigned. Naruto found himself staring in disbelief at the sheer amount of destruction being wrought outside of the Eden Dome. Ciel told him it was horrible, but the blond didn't understand just how bad it truly was. It would also explain why he couldn't enter sage mode during his fight with Anubis. There was practically no nature left, from what he could see. All he could see was an empty wasteland. He'd have to try and enter sage mode once again later and see if he could sense anything. For now, he had a mission to accomplish.

Energy Crystals or E-Crystals for short, were an energy source that almost anything with an inkling of technology relied on as a power source. So it came as little surprise when Naruto found out that reploids would consume them as a food source.

The resistance was beginning to run low, and Naruto immediately accepted the mission the moment Ciel asked him to help gather some more. There was a mining facility inside of Neo Arcadia, but Ciel didn't want to attract any more attention to the blond than necessary. With the destruction of Anubis, no doubt scouts would eventually be sent to the desert.

So here he was, outside of the safe zone of Neo Arcadia watching the rabid mavericks assault and destroy each other and anything in sight. He also had one more objective, to install a portable transerver somewhere nearby so he wouldn't have to run outside the dome next time. Thankfully it wasn't too complicated, all he had to do was press a couple of buttons in a specific order and it would work. At least that's what he thought if the instructions Ciel gave him were to go by.

When he found out that it was a flying thunder god marker, Naruto gaped in amazement. Even Kurama was surprised that humans and reploids were able to discover the ability of teleportation with just technology alone.

Only unlike his dad's actual markers, the portable transervers were not able to be used for combat. With his dad's markers, he was pretty sure they could be used instantly, while the transervers take a little bit of time to charge up and go. Even so, it was still impressive. There was another function to them as well, but Ciel told him to not worry about it for now, he wouldn't be able to use it anyways.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Naruto looked on with grim determination before calling out to some of the many, many rabid mavericks.

"Hey, tin cans! Get over here so I can take your crystals!"

Hundreds of red eyes turned to face the blond.

"Oh, crap. I didn't think I'd attract that many."

"Real smooth brat."

"Shut up Kurama."

"Okay. Let's see how you do without my help then."

"No. Wait a min-"

He was too late. The connection was cut. And just like that, the ocean of machines all charged toward a single blond.

~AmoH~

It had been a few days since Naruto officially joined the resistance, and yet Ciel couldn't help but worry for the blond. Truthfully she didn't think she'd ever stop worrying about his safety, powerful he may be; he's still a human. She just hoped he wouldn't do anything too reckless. If only she knew.

"Ciel, the equipment I've been making for Naruto is complete."

Seeing her long-time friend, Ciel gave him a grateful smile. "Thank you Cerveau. Once Naruto returns I'm sure he'll be incredibly happy with them."

"He'd better, I put my best effort into crafting those you know."

Ciel let out a small giggle, she knew Cerveau was feeling just as worried about the blond as she was. As the resistance's chief engineer, he made sure all of his works were always top quality. This was their chance to turn things around for the reploids after all.

With one hand rubbing his chin, Cerveau said, "Still… I've only known that boy for a few days, but I can already tell he's the reckless type."

"Please don't make me worry more than I have to. He should already be outside of the Eden Dome at this moment."

Cerveau paled at that. There were hundreds of thousands of mavericks out in that wasteland. "W-what the heck is he doing out there?"

"I'm having him gather enough energy crystals to hopefully last us a few months at most."

"Why not have him take over the nearby factory?"

"It's still too soon to send him on that mission. With the destruction of Anubis Necromancess, a member of the scorched earth squadron, Fefnir has no doubt already contacted the other guardians."

Understanding her reasoning, Cerveau let it be.

"More importantly, I'm also trying to have him set up a portable transerver out there. If we can get a constant connection, from here to there, then maybe just maybe with his clones we can clear out a small area and use that as a backup base in the event the worst happens."

Cerveau found himself amazed at just how far ahead Ciel was thinking of the situation now that someone like Naruto was around. He briefly wondered if she would continue her search for Zero. Shaking his head, he filed that thought away for later; there were more important things to worry about than some old legend who may or may not exist.

Like the upcoming batch of innocent reploids being sent to the disposal center. His eyes widened in realization, it was around that time again."Ciel. It's almost that time again…"

Ciel immediately understood what he was talking about, and her smile eventually began to thin. "I know. That's why this time we'll shut it down for good," she said with conviction.

Once a year, Neo Arcadia would gather all of the reploids that were labeled as mavericks and take them to a retirement facility. In short, they'd be sent to their deaths.

Their conversation was cut short when Milan entered mission control with a cheer and announced the return of Naruto. "He did it! He made it back!"

Feeling the sheer happiness radiating from their comrade, Ciel and Cerveau both gave him excited smiles. Things were beginning to look up. Lo and behold shortly after Milan's announcement, the blond himself entered the room. Ciel immediately widened her eyes in concern when she saw the grinning blond covered in blood.

"You're not hurt, are you Naruto?"

Feeling her concern, the blond gave her a reassuring smile. "Nope. I'm just fine! I just really need a shower ya know."

Cerveau, Ciel, and Milan all wrinkled their noses in disgust when they realized Naruto smelled. Fortunately or unfortunately depending on who you asked, Milan stated the obvious.

"Ugh. You reek, Naruto!" Said the reploid began to wave his hand around his nose.

Naruto, with a glint in his eye, smiled deviously and wrapped his arm around the reploid. "Ohhhh. So I stink huh…?"

Milan felt a bead of sweat drop from his temple and then he gulped. Maybe he shouldn't have said a thing because he suddenly found himself in the manly embrace of Naruto. He was given a one-armed bear hug.

"NOOOO STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Milan tried to wiggle out of the bear hug but it was for not. No matter what he did he couldn't escape from the smelly pit of despair that was Naruto's scent.

"Pfft."

"Heh."

Ciel and Cerveau tried to hold in their laughter, they really did.

"OH GOD, THE SMELL!"

Their will crumbled and they couldn't help but laugh as Milan felt his soul leave his body.

Eventually, once everything calmed down, Naruto was ready to begin his debriefing with Ciel when Cerveau cut in. "Naruto, once you're done here, stop by the lab, the equipment I've been working on is ready."

"Already!? Seriously, thank you, gramps!"

"Don't call me old!"

"Sure sure, whatever you say, compared to me and Ciel you're practically an old man."

Cerveau felt like he should slap some sense into the blond, but he only huffed and walked out of mission control with a swirly-eyed Milan. Naruto thought he saw a small smile on the reploids face. Inwardly, he thought to himself. 'Heh. He's just like granny.'

"So how'd it go Naruto? Did you run into any major trouble?"

Naruto shook his head and began his debrief.

~AMoH~

"Hey gramps, I'm here!"

Cerveaus's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. He knew Naruto meant no harm by it so he let it go.

"Welcome Naruto, are you ready to see your new gear?" The reploid asked with slight mirth. He was proud of what he created and was sure it would help the blond in any situation he found himself in.

"Heck yeah!"

Taking that as a sign of approval, Cerveau motioned for Naruto to sit down on a chair before pulling out a medium-sized box. Once opened he pulled out a newly created mechanical arm that would act as a replacement for the blond-haired Shinobi's missing right arm.

"Whoa… is that gonna be my new arm?"

"Indeed it will."

"Sweet! Thank you so much, gramps!"

"Don't thank me just yet. I'm an engineer, not a medical expert and we still have to get it attached."

Naruto visibly paled at that confession.

It took a bit of time, especially once Naruto began to squirm around in protest, saying some nonsense about not needing a new limb. Ignoring that particular issue, Cerveau was eventually able to safely attach the new limb. "How do you feel, Naruto? Do you feel any pain or nausea?"

Sighing in relief, the blond-haired Shinobi responded in a calm tone. "All things considered. I feel pretty good actually." He began to try and move the arm around, it was a little slow, if he had to be honest, but he figured his body still had to get used to the thing.

"It'll be a few days before you're able to move it around like you normally would."

"Gotcha, I'll try and practice with it tomorrow then. The quicker I get adjusted to it, the better."

"Just take it easy for now. With your recent success, we should have a few days to relax before we have to get back to it."

"Will do gramps. Is that everything?"

"No, I still have a couple more things to give you."

Hearing this, Naruto was visibly shaking in excitement. He quickly stopped when Cerveau handed him a pair of goggles and a pair of custom-made earpieces.

"Er. No offense gramps but what are these for?"

"Go ahead and put them on. You'll see."

Naruto did what he was told and was surprised when he looked around the room and found a floating pink little fairy thing. It was glowing with a myriad of colors.

Said fairy looked at the blond with a smile and waved at him. "Hi!"

Naruto just stared, dumbfoundedly at the little fairy, while Cerveau watched this all play out in interest. Other than Ciel, Naruto would be one of the first humans to ever see and interact with a cyber-elf.

Seeing the blond's awestruck face, Passy giggled lightly before introducing herself. "I'm Passy! It's nice to finally meet you,Naruto."

"Oh uh. It's nice to meet you too, Passy." The blond said lamely. Not wanting to sound rude, the blond-haired jinchuriki asked, "What are you? I've seen all kinds of things but I've never seen anything like you."

"That's because I'm a cyber-elf, silly." Passy puffed her small chest in pride.

"A cyber-elf?" Naruto questioned.

Sensing Naruto's confusion, Cerveau tried to explain what a cyber-elf was as simple as possible. "Just think of her as a sentient being of living data."

"Huh, I think I get it."

Naruto was beginning to get the gist of the logic behind their advanced tech.

'She's kinda like a tiny version of a tailed beast.' Naruto slowly speculated in his mind.

Kurama grumbled at the thought of being compared to something so tiny.

"We still don't know where they come from or how they're created. But cyber-elves play an important role in all things related to reploids."

Naruto listened intently to what he was being told. Cyber-elves were completely new to him, but he knew one thing. If they were anything like a tailed beast then people who are obsessed with power or maintaining a status quo would obsess over them and use them for their gains.

"Just so you know, the moment a cyber-elf is used, they perish not long after."

"What!?" This took the blonde by surprise. They'd die immediately after using their abilities!? What the heck!? Then and there he swore he'd try and avoid using cyber-elves in any shape or form. Their help would be nice, but not at the cost of their lives.

Cerveau wasn't too surprised by the sudden outburst, he already had a good read on how the blond tended to act. Passy on the other hand was surprised by the genuine care and concern coming from the blond. "You're a strange guy, you know that."

"Eh? What do you mean?"

"You act as if we cyber-elves have a right to live as well."

"But y'all do," Naruto said without a second thought and Passy couldn't help but feel comfortable knowing eventually she'd be leaving Ciel in the blond's capable hands.

Cerveau went ahead and told Naruto that if he wanted to learn more about the cyber-elves, he'd have to go and talk to Ciel. She was the lead scientist when it came to researching them.

Nodding his head in confirmation, Naruto said goodbye and began to make his way toward Ciel once again.

~AMoH~

Ciel stared blankly at the laptop in front of her, she was stuck on how to continue her research. She had the chance to pursue something completely new, and it was all thanks to Naruto via the energy called chakra! She had some within her as well, if what Naruto said was true. On the other hand, she could just continue what she'd already been doing. Researching the creation of cyber-elves and how to utilize their energy without ending their life.

She sighed as she realized she was still a long way from finding a way to end the energy crisis, and it frustrated her. If she could just find a solution to that problem she had no doubt she could end the war with Neo Arcadia in a peaceful way and the current situation for reploids would get better.

She was driven from her thoughts when she heard a knock on the door. She was curious about who it was because it was getting late. Yet she knew Alouette would never disturb her when she would begin to try and focus on her project. So who could it be?

"Yo, Ciel! I'm back!"

Ah. There was her answer. She didn't even get the chance to respond to the knock before Naruto walked in. He had a new mechanical arm and was wearing some of the standard issue goggles for resistance members.

"Naruto? What are you doing here?" Ciel asked.

"I just wanted to check up on you, and I guess talk for a little bit before heading to bed ya know?" The blond-haired jinchuriki let out as he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. He knew it was starting to get late, but he felt like this would probably be the only chance he could talk to her without any interruptions.

"Oh? What did you want to talk about?"

"Well… for starters I met Passy."

She blinked once, then twice before she realized what he just said.

"What!? How!? You shouldn't even be able to see her at all!?" Ciel assumed, wondering how the young Shinobi was able to see the small Cyber-Elf.

Once again, Naruto surprised her, and the scientist within her couldn't help but bombard the blond with more questions.

"Er…"

"Are you able to see her because of chakra?" Ciel inquired.

"Um…"

"How reliable is chakra as an energy source?" She continues to speculate, causing the Konoha Ninja to scratch his head in response.

"Eh?"

Seeing the confusion on the blond's face, she realized what she was doing once again and backed away with a slightly flushed face. "Oh. Um. I'm sorry about that Naruto."

Naruto waved it off with a chuckle and said, "It's okay. You're a little weird, but I like that about you."

This only caused the young scientist to blush even more in embarrassment. "Does he even know what he's saying!?"

Not because all she could see was the blond's goofy smile. She also began to notice how his whisker marks made him look a little cuter every time he smiled. She was quickly snapped out of her thoughts when the blond continued to speak.

"But to answer your questions, no chakra doesn't allow me to see Passy. It was these goggles that gramps had made." The blond said as he pointed at the orange goggles now hanging around his neck. "Erm…" Naruto began to struggle with how to explain the latter question. He knew there were various uses for chakra, but he had never really considered using it as an outside energy source for things. "I think it's possible, but it would be extremely dangerous, considering chakra is also our life force."

Now this caught Ciel off guard, but in retrospect, it made sense. Nothing was perfect and neither was the solution of using chakra as an energy source.

Seeing the obvious disappointment in his second answer, Naruto grew curious and asked, "Why did you want to know?"

"To be honest, I've hit a roadblock with my research… I was hoping if I learned more about chakra, I could use it to end the energy shortage and end this war peacefully. It was foolish of me to think so."

"What's wrong with that?" Naruto raised a question, wondering what Ciel meant by that.

Ciel eyed the blond confusedly. "W-what do you mean?"

"Maybe it's because I've been called a fool my whole life, but I don't think there's anything wrong with wanting to end the war peacefully. Heck, if I had the option, I would have loved to have ended the fourth great ninja war peacefully." Naruto lamented, wishing he could have found another way to conclude the war without it leading to many deaths on the battlefield.

Ciel widened her eyes at the tidbit the blond just gave her, she knew he was a fighter through and through but this only made her want to know more about her fellow blond. "Can you tell me about yourself and where you're from?"

"Sure!" The blond spoke out without a hint of hesitation and a huge grin.

Before he could begin his tale, Naruto mentioned that he might be from a different dimension which only confused the scientist. Seeing the disbelieving look, Naruto told her a summary about the fourth great ninja war and how it was supposed to be a fight for world peace, only for it to end up devolving into him and his team fighting a mad goddess from the moon who could travel into different dimensions with ease.

That sounded even crazier to Ciel, but she knew she couldn't outright dismiss the possibility seeing as Naruto was physically here and with abilities that she had never seen or heard of before. Once he finished talking about the war, he patted down his new mechanical arm and told her about the fight between him and his brother in all but blood and their clashing ideals of peace. It was what led to him losing his right arm while Sasuke lost his left.

They were able to reconcile after that, but the big question that Naruto didn't have the answer to was how he ended up waking up in that desert. He recalled briefly hearing a distorted sound before blacking out but after that nothing.

Ciel could only wonder what he heard at the time but shook it off as there was a very real possibility that Naruto might not be able to return home. She didn't want to be a downer but she had to ask the blond, "What if you can't go back?"

He didn't wanna think about it, it was clear to see the pain he was expressing, that Ciel asked something personal she shouldn't have. "I'm sorry."

Shaking his head, Naruto told the poor girl not to worry. "Don't apologize, it's not your fault. I know it's something I have to think about… but for now I'd rather put all of my effort into helping resolve this war than thinking about a situation that may or may not be true."

Ciel wasn't sure what to say after that, but she resolved to help the blond through his pain. The two spent the rest of the night talking about various random subjects.

~AMoH~

A few days had passed since her talk with Naruto, and Ciel found herself hacking into Neo Arcadia's information network. It was almost time for her to send Naruto to the reploid disposal center and rescue the poor souls who were wrongfully labeled a maverick. What she read surprised her and left her speechless. They found a large energy reading, coming from an underground lab, and were preparing to send a large force of reploids to investigate the ruins. There was only one thing she could think of that would cause Neo Arcadia to send such a force. The legendary reploid Zero.