"Padawan Naruto, what are you doing here?" Shaak Ti asked as she reached for her Lightsaber. Aayla did the same. Naruto however raised his hand.
"Wait, I am not here to fight, I just came here to find some information." Naruto said. That was not the right thing to say. Shaak Ti and Aayla activated their Lightsabers. Naruto gulped. He might have been a Jedi, but a Jedi without their Lightsabers were not as powerful as they seemed.
"What kind of information ?" Aayla asked as she pointed her Lightsaber at him. Naruto just pulled out a data pad.
"Are you aware that the Clones have inhibitor chips in their brains?" He questioned as both of the Jedi's raised an eyebrow, this was the first time they were hearing about inhibitor chips. Naruto took their silence as a no. He handed Shaak Ti the data pad by using the Force.
"That data pad has information that the Jedi would love to have. You see, the Sith have been plotting for quite a long time and all of it has been done under your nose. Those chips inside those Clones have an order… called order 66 and its job is to have the Clones turn on their Jedi comrades. You can even find the chips inside the Clones." Naruto said, shocking the two. They read the information on the data pad and could not believe it. It was all true, at least the chip part.
"What about the Sith?" Shaak Ti asked. The two Jedi noticed Naruto tense up.
"It's the old man, Palpatine. He is the one plotting this. Look, do not do anything rash just yet. I have plans to stop him, but I recommend you have these chips removed from your Clones discreetly and not by the Kaminoans, they are with Palpatine." Naruto explained.
"And what are these plans?" Aayla asked, curious to know what these plans were.
"Build an army and kill Palpatine." Naruto said, shocking the two.
"Naruto, that is not the Jedi way." Shaak Ti said sternly.
"I know, but I am not a Jedi, remember…" Naruto reminded them, causing them to look down. Shaak Ti because Naruto was like a son to her, she was the only one who he wasn't so cold to like the rest and Aayla because she had a crush on the fool, but the order would not allow relationships, so she kept it hidden. He being expelled hit her hard, but she refused to believe that he led his own troopers to their death.
"I am going to become Mandalore, I am going to lead Mandalore to a greater future and I will be the one to save this Galaxy from the Sith. Not the so-called Chosen one the Jedi's believe. If we are to save the Sith, then we must act and destroy the Sith, but even I know that my own army won't be able to stand up to the Republic or the Separatists. So I have to ask you two… will you help me." Naruto asked them. This was not part of his plan, but he figured that he would need as many allies as he could get, even if they were Jedi's.
"You know we can't do that Naruto, but we can take this information to the Jedi council. We can bring down the Sith with this and maybe even allow you back in the order." Shaak Ti said. Naruto gritted his teeths.
"No, the council… they will only make a mess of this. The Jedi would be seen as murders of an old man who leads the Republic and that old man knows it. Someone else must kill him and take the blame, not the Jedi and even if the Jedi did bring him down, I will never join the order." Naruto responded. He would not and will not go back to the order.
"Naruto, please… we can stop the Sith…" Aayla begged, but it was useless.
"I will bring down the Sith. The Jedi's believe too much in Anakin Skywalker to a point that his ego has grown unchecked. I won't sit back and wait for that fool to bring balance to the Force, I will do it myself." Naruto said. Shaak sighed; Naruto was hard headed and would not listen.
"Is this the only information you found and took?" She asked him. Naruto nodded. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath.
"Then you must leave now. You haven't committed any crime since you were a Jedi and I was not aware of you being expelled, but you must leave now." Shaak Ti said. Aayla looked at her, shocked.
"Master Jedi! Why would you allow that?" Aayla questioned. She wasn't mad, in-fact, she was quite happy about it, in-side that is.
"I have my reasons…" That was all Shaak Ti said. Naruto thanked her and walked past the two.
"You think that was the right choice?" Aayla asked. Shaak Ti had a thoughtful look on her face.
"I don't know, but what I do know is that he will be a big player in the future… only time will tell…" She answered. She didn't know what the future held, but she was going to get those chips out of her troopers head, Aayla was going to have the chips removed as well. They wanted to tell the Jedi council, but like Naruto said, they would make things worse. For now, she and Assyla would do what they could.
With Naruto:
Naruto boarded his ship and headed back to Mandalore. He leaned back and sighed. He did not expect Shaak Ti and Aayla to be there and now they knew. They didn't join him, but they didn't stop him either. He soon heard a beeping sound and looked at his control panel and pressed the button.
"Naruto, I have some important information." He heard Bo.
"And what's that?" Naruto questioned.
"It's Vizsla, he seems to want revenge against the Dooku, he tried to get some help from a defector, but his plan failed. We found an escape pod and inside of it were two Zabrak, Sith from the Lightsabers they had. Vizsla seems to have some kind of a plan for them." Bo said. After the Death Watch was found on Mandalore's moon, they were forced to retreat to one of their many bases. Vizsla didn't die, but rather escaped. Naruto would let him live, for now. But Vizsla would die by his hands. The man claimed himself to be the son of Mandalore. Foolish! If anyone was the son of Mandalore, it was Naruto. He was the descendent of Mandalore the Ultimate, the ruler of Mandalore. He had the blood of the true Mandalorians. He would be the one to rule Mandalore by the end of the day. His communicator started to beep again.
"What is it?" He asked.
"Sir, our spies have discovered that the Republic has found a strange beast, the Zillo beast." A Command Droid said.
"Don't tell me that you called me because of a monster that the Republic captured." Naruto said in annoyance. The Droid shook its head.
"No sir, the beast is a normal beast. The spies indicate that the beasts' armor is stronger than any known armor, it can even withstand Lightsabers." The Droid reported. Naruto was now interested. If what the report said was true, then his fleets and even Droids would be able to withstand more firepower.
"How many ships do we have ready?" Naruto asked. The Droid went through a data pad.
"We have 6 Munificent-Class and 2 Providence-Class Dreadnoughts." The Droid answered. Naruto thought about it.
"Ready the ships for a recovery mission." Naruto said as the Droid nodded. He quickly entered Hyperspace and quickly met up with his fleet. Landing in the hanger bay of one of the Providence-Class vessels, he made his way up to the bridge. The Droids said the same old roger, roger.
"Have two Munificent-Class enter enemy space first, have the rest stand by." Naruto ordered as two of his ships entered Hyperspace.
Republic Fleet:
"Sir, we got inbound enemy ships." A Clone Officer reported. Anakin looked out the bridge's view port and saw 2 Munificent, he scoffed.
"It's just two enemy ships, have our Cruisers engage and destroy it." Anakin ordered. Munificent were weak ships in small numbers like these.
"What about the transport?" The Captain of the ship asked.
"Don't worry about it, we are engaging the enemy, not the." Anakin said as his fleet of two Jedi-Cruisers chased after the two enemy ships. However, the strangest thing happened. The two Droid fleets began to turn around and started to retreat into the asteroid field.
"Are they retreating?" A Clone Officer said to himself.
"Chase down those ships before the escape, they might be aware of other enemy fleets nearby, hunt them down!" Anakin ordered as his ships went full speed ahead.
With Naruto:
"All ships… attack." Naruto ordered as his ships entered hyperspace and quickly dropped behind Anakin's fleet, near the undefended transport ship.
"Launch the pods." Naruto ordered once again as pods filled with Droids were launched at the transport ship.
"Sir, more enemy ships just entered the battle space behind us!" A Clone Officer said as the ship started to shake because of the enemy fire from the rear.
"This is Zillo transport! We are being boarded by Droids! We are being overrunned! I repeat we are being over-" The transmission cut off as the sounds of blaster fire could be heard in the bridge.
"Turn us around! We need to face the enemy ships and protect the transport!" Anakin ordered as just as his ships were at half-way, the retreating Droid ships turned around and started to open fire.
"Who the hell is in charge of those Droids?" Anakin asked, but got no response from anyone. Whoever was commanding the Droid fleet was doing a great job at it.
"Sir, the transport ship… it's going to jump!" The Clone Officer yelled just as the transport ship entered Hyperspace. Anakin's hand curled up in to a fist.
"Fall back! We are out matched! Ready the Hyperspace." Anakin ordered. His over confidence lead to the loss of a valuable asset that could have been used to save lives.
"Contact General Windu's fleet… we lost the Zillo beast…" Anakin said with a defeated look. How could he let a bunch of Droid's beat him and how was he able to so easily fall into a trap like that? He should have seen it coming! He is a Jedi dammit and he has a good track record of victories against the Droid armies.
"Sir, General Windu is on the line." A Clone reported to him. He nodded and walked up to the communicator.
"Skywalker, what happened?" Mace asked with narrowed eyes. Anakin sighed.
"We were attacked by a Droid fleet…" Anakin said.
"So? You should have been able to handle it." Mace said back.
"Actually… the Droid fleet outsmarted us… and captured the Zillo beast transport…" Anakin responded.
"What? Are you telling me that you lost a single transport ship? Skywalker, you must track that ship down. If they are able to make ships and Droids out of the Zillo beast's armor, the war would be much harder to end." Mace said with an annoyed tone. Anakin had one job and an easy job, but he failed that task.
"Ah, there is a problem with that… we don't know where the ship went. It's like they knew how to shut off any tracker, could be the work of a spy." Anakin said.
"Could be, but do what you can to find that ship." Mace ordered.
"Under stood…" Anakin said as he bowed his head. He was quite embarrassed to be out done by a few Droid ships.
"Let's link up with the main fleet… then we will go from there." Anakin ordered and turned around to look out the bridge of his ship. He needed to calm down.
With Naruto:
Naruto walked up to the sleeping beast and was quite impressed by the size of it.
"Impressive… such large beast, but something tells me that you are more than just a beast." Naruto though as he walked up to the beast's head. Just then, the beast eyes opened and raised its head. The Zillo beast narrowed its eyes on him and growled. Naruto took in a deep breath.
"I am not here to hurt you. You are intelligent and even you want to live like any other life form wants too… I will find a planet for you to live on in peace." Naruto said as he used the Force to calm the beast. The Zillion beasts looked at him and then gave somewhat of a nod and put his head back down. Naruto then sat down right in front of the beast and closed his eyes. There was an old Force power that was long forgotten by the Sith and the Jedi. The Force was in every living being and connected all living beings and long ago, the very first Force users developed a Force ability that allowed them to understand any language or beasts in the galaxy. It was an old ability and was forgotten when protocol Droids started to be used more and more. Using the old ability he opened his eyes.
"I know you can understand me and I will try to understand you… tell me… are you the last of your kind?" Naruto asked. The beast seemed to have a thoughtful look.
"Yes, I am unfortunately. My kind was killed off many hundred years ago." The Zillo beast replied.
"I see, that's a shame, are intelligent being and it's a shame that people fear what they don't understand." Naruto said. The Zillo beast seemed to be surprised that this human could actually understand him.
"I am impressed that you can actually understand me. The Force must be strong with you if you can use an ability long forgotten." The Beast said. Naruto nodded. He then talked a bit more with Zillo beast.
"So tell me Naruto, what is that you are after? You saved me and are just going to let me go like that? It can't be that easy." The Zillo beast said with what Naruto assumed was a chuckle.
"Like I said, you are intelligent. I do want something, your armor. It's can resist fire from blasters and even Lightsabers. I won't kill you and take you armor, but rather, I am asking you if you can give me some of your armor plating. I want to recreate it for my armies." Naruto answered the beast's question bluntly.
"I see… I can give you my armor plating, however you will only get it when my skin sheds, like any other creature, even I shed skin." The Zillo beast answered. Naruto nodded.
"I thank you, as for the planet, one of Pantora's Moon is a perfect place for you. It's uninhabited, so you should be able to live in peace." Naruto said as he stood up. The Zillo beast nodded and watched as Naruto headed back to the bridge of the ship. As Naruto headed to the bridge, he saw many dead Clones, laid side by side. He stopped and looked at the many dead Clones.
"Forgive me…" Naruto said sadness clearly in his voice. He had fought with Clones side by side and it saddened him that he had to kill them. The least he could give them was a proper burial. Their deaths might have been on his hands, but Sidious was the mastermind behind this war, and he would make him pay for every life lost.