Wow, the response to the last chapter was amazing. This story now has over 100 reviews, which I did not expect nearly this quickly. Thank you to all of you who have left reviews so far, especially those of you who have left longer ones. Those really help me refine my writing so I can produce a better end product.

As far as this chapter goes, I don't remember having a massive concussion when I first wrote this chapter, but I must have had one, because man, this thing was rough. I had to almost completely rewrite the first action scene, along with most of Jiraiya and Luminara's dialogue. A reviewer pointed out that I made Jiraiya seem too serious in the last chapter, so I tried to correct for that. Let me know how you think I did.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Chapter 9

"Naruto, you're sure you can't just carry us out of here?" Ahsoka asked. "I mean, you can walk on walls."

"Ahsoka, we fell over a dozen kilometers, and not all in a straight line," Naruto said. "I don't know where we are, and half the holes Gamahiro made collapsed behind us. Those walls are unstable, and my chakra control still isn't the greatest. I can't make that climb while carrying you and the cat."

Ahsoka sighed, but nodded. She had been expecting something like that, but it didn't exactly make her feel any better.

"Speaking of the cat, Ahsoka, are you gonna carry that thing this whole time?" Naruto asked, glaring at the Loth-cat on Ahsoka's back. She had fashioned a sort of sling out of her outer robe to carry the thing in.

"Well, yeah," she said, as if it should have been obvious. "His leg is still hurt, and we can't just abandon him down here. He'll die."

Naruto privately considered that this wouldn't be a bad thing, but he wisely said nothing.

"We should give him a name," Ahsoka continued. "We can't just keep calling him 'the cat' all the time."

Naruto grimaced at the idea, but didn't argue. He knew Ahsoka well enough to know that it hadn't really been a suggestion, more of a polite statement of how things were going to be. Looking at the black furred demon, his mind flashed back to another cat he had known; one that had also taken pleasure in inflicting pain and misery upon him.

"Tora," he said with finality. "We'll call him Tora."

Ahsoka smiled brightly at him, pleased he hadn't tried to argue with her, before resuming her trek across the trash covered ground. They had been wandering for nearly 30 minutes now, looking for anything useful in the detritus. Ahsoka had figured that there must be a comm unit, an old service droid, maybe even an old speeder somewhere around in the trash piles. Anything they could fix and use to escape, or to signal for help.

Naruto, meanwhile, was growing increasingly antsy. Out in the darkness, he could hear… something… following them. A lot of somethings, in fact. He suspected Gamahiro had scared them off at first, but with the fearsome toad long since departed, whatever was stalking them was growing in confidence. Frowning, he moved closer to Ahsoka.

"There's something out there," he said, his voice completely serious for once. "They've been following us for a while, and they're getting closer. They'll probably attack us soon. Take this."

He held a kunai out for her. It wasn't much, but it was all he had to arm her with. Ahsoka took it from him and gave it a practice twirl, testing the weight. She had learned some knife fighting in combat training at the Temple, and Naruto had shown her a bit more. She hadn't expected to have to use those skills quite this soon, however.

"Where are they coming from?" she asked. Her voice was a little higher than normal, but it was steady. She ran through a few Jedi calming exercises to quash her growing nervousness.

Naruto pointed to their left, where multiple piles of debris cast eerie shadows in the light from their flashlights. Ahsoka thought she could see faint movement in the darkness, but couldn't be sure. Reaching out with her Force senses though, she could feel a mass of hunger and vicious curiosity moving towards them. Whatever those things were, they definitely weren't friendly.

Meanwhile, Naruto's mind was whirling into overdrive. Falling back onto his old lessons, he quickly ran through what he had with him that might be useful. A half dozen kunai. A single roll of light ninja wire, for pranks. His basic medkit, which he always carried with him. And whatever he had in his pockets from yesterday.

His eyes lit up as he thought of that last one. Yesterday he'd had a lesson with Jiraiya on sealing. He still had the various practice seals he had scribbled on scrap bits of flimsi stuffed in his pockets. One of them in particular might come in handy right about now.

It was meant to be a basic lighting seal, one that emitted a steady glow as it used the chakra he charged it with. Jiraiya had him practice his basic sealing with it because it was unlikely to do anything too horrible if it went wrong. His first few attempts at it, however, did not produce a stable light. Instead, they'd used up all the chakra he gave them in a fraction of a second, turning into inadvertent flash bombs.

Whatever creatures that were going to attack them lived down here in the gloom. They would likely be very sensitive to light. However, he only had one of the seals with him in a usable form, and no time or supplies to make more. He would have to save it for the right moment.

As all of this flashed through his mind, their stalkers had crept close enough that they could hear them skulking in the dark. A sensible plan would probably have been to run away immediately. However, neither Naruto nor Ahsoka had any concept of being intimidated or retreating. Not without a fight. Therefore, with an unspoken agreement, they readied their meager weapons and prepared to meet whatever the darkness had for them head on.

"Here they come," Naruto said, gripping a Kunai of his own as he clipped the flashlight to his flak vest. "Get ready."

All of a sudden, the shadows were bursting with movement. A dozen large, foul smelling rodent-like creatures burst out of the dark. They were roughly 3 meters long, with gray, wrinkled skin. They had massive incisor teeth, perfect for tearing into their chosen prey.

"Hive rats!" Ahsoka shouted. "And, oh Sithspit-"

Right behind the rats was a group of hideous humanoids. They had no eyes, with skin covering where their eyes should have been. They looked diseased, their skin covered in welts and boils. Some wore half rotted loincloths and carried clubs. Others were more animalistic, running on all fours and snarling.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."

With a poof of smoke, 50 clones appeared in front of Naruto. They leapt forward with a wild battle cry, followed by Naruto and Ahsoka.

Ahsoka jumped on the back of the nearest hive rat, gagging a bit at the smell. The beast shrieked with rage and bucked wildly, trying to dislodge the sudden weight. She held on with one hand tangled in the rat's sparse hair, while the other hand raised the kunai Naruto had given her. With all the strength she could muster, she drove the knife into the base of its neck.

The hive rat squealed in pain, thrashing from side to side. Its black blood splattered all over Ahsoka's face and chest. She spluttered, spitting some of the nasty tasty ichor out of her mouth. Again and again she stabbed the rat in the neck.

"Just… die… already," she grunted.

Finally, with a last rattling breath, the hive rat keeled over. It's blood pooled rapidly beneath it, spreading across the ground. Ahsoka hopped off its back, trying to ignore the sensation in the Force of the rat dying. She could feel its animal fear and pain, but she pushed them aside as best she could. Naruto still needed her help.

The masked boy in question was busily fighting the zombie-like humanoids while his clones butchered the hive rats. The mutated horrors were persistent and fast. He had to give them that. Still, they weren't very smart, and their twisted bodies made them clumsy and easy to outmaneuver.

Ducking under a club swing, he slashed at the nearest one with his kunai, slicing along its belly. The creature screamed in pain and terror as its intestines spilled out of the foot-long gash in its abdomen. Naruto had no time to be disgusted by the gruesome sight, though, as he had to immediately move to the next one.

This one tried to tackle him, rushing forward with its arms outstretched. He flipped over the clumsy charge, landing behind it as it slid to a stop. Naruto turned quickly and buried his knife in the back of the thing's head. It twitched once before collapsing in a boneless heap.

Naruto wrenched his kunai out of the fresh corpse and looked around. It didn't look good. More and more of the awful looking eyeless things were swarming out of the gloom. Their shrieks and snarls filled the air over the shouts of his clones.

Cursing under his breath, he created some more clones and charged his attackers. The next few minutes devolved into a blur of noise and movement. Stab, duck, slash, dodge became the only things in his mind. His kunai ran black with the blood of those monsters he had slain. His clothes and hair were matted with dirt and gore. Naruto was grateful for his mask keeping any of the foul mixture from getting in his mouth.

Finally, after a dozen hive rats and blind humanoids had fallen to his blade, he had to retreat. He flipped back through the air to gain space, landing near where Ahsoka had been. He couldn't immediately see her, though.

Feeling for Ahsoka's presence with his still underdeveloped Force senses, he glanced over to her. He was just in time to see her drive her knife through a hive rat's eye. The beast wailed and writhed in pain. Its thrashing knocked her over before it ran off into the dark to lick its wounds.

"Ahsoka!" he shouted when he saw her fall.

Rushing over to his friend, Naruto was relieved to see that she was unhurt. As she picked herself up, he had an idea.

"Ahsoka, Force push, on my signal," he yelled.

Seeing her nod, he threw his kunai at the horde of beasts being held off by his clones. He sped through the hand signs quickly, praying that this would work.

"Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu."

His kunai multiplied into more than a hundred, filling the air with sharp metal.

"Now Ahsoka," he yelled out.

Thrusting her hands out in front of her, Ahsoka dug deep. She'd always had a strong connection to the force, and it showed now. With a shout of exertion, she pushed the cloud of deadly knives, accelerating them to blinding speeds.

With a wet tearing sound, the Force assisted kunai slammed into the crowd of hive rats and blind mutants. The knives ripped the foul things to shreds, spraying blood and chunks of flesh and entrails into the air. Piercing shrieks of pain and fear echoed through the murky undercity, before fading into death rattles.

"Nice job," Naruto said, turning to her. "That was great."

"Thanks," she said, panting from the exertion. "That was a good ide- oh come on!"

Following her gaze, Naruto turned back around and saw what had prompted her outburst. More of the creatures were now scrambling over the piles of junk. He estimated there were at least twice as many now as in the initial assault.

Seeing that, Naruto finally had to admit it outmatched them. It galled him to even think about it, but retreat was their only option. Staying where they were meant certain death unless he used the Kyuubi's power, and he wasn't about to even consider doing that.

"We have to run," he shouted. "There's too many of them. When I tell you, shut your eyes."

"Why?" Ahsoka shouted back as she pushed one of the humanoid mutants off of her.

"Just trust me," Naruto yelled back. Not waiting for an answer, he pulled the defective lighting seal out of his pocket. He wrapped it around a chunk of duracrete he scooped from a nearby pile of rubble and poured as much chakra as he could into the seal without it combusting. When it was ready, he chucked it high into the air.

"Now, close your eyes," he yelled. He shut his own eyes and formed the snake seal. Just as it had yesterday, the flawed seal instantly did its best impersonation of a miniature star. Even through his eyelids, the light was still bright, and he could hear the foul creatures around him squealing in sudden agony.

The flash lasted only half a second, but it effectively paralyzed the approaching horde of predators. The instant the light faded, Naruto opened his eyes and looked for Ahsoka. He saw her standing a few meters away, blinking spots out of her vision.

"Come on, let's go," he yelled as he sprinted away from the stunned beasts.

Wordlessly agreeing with him, Ahsoka took off as fast as she could. Adrenaline worked its magic in her, as for once she was actually keeping ahead of Naruto. Glancing back, she saw him create another group of clones on the fly, sending them to slow the ravenous pack of monsters down as they shook off their pain and surprise.

"Where are we going?" she shouted.

"I don't know! Away from the things trying to eat us."

Gritting her teeth, Ahsoka looked around desperately. If they were going to survive this, they would need something to give them an advantage. As she scanned ahead, she spotted a potential option. Mind racing, she quickly assembled a plan in her head.

"That tunnel up ahead," she yelled. "Can you collapse its ceiling?"

"Maybe," Naruto replied from behind her, immediately guessing her plan. "But that could kill us."

"You got a better idea?" she yelled back.

It seemed he did not, as he didn't reply. Taking his silence for agreement, Ahsoka changed course. She led them into the tunnel, silently hoping that the Force wasn't leading her astray. She could hear the howling of the beasts as they gained on them, but it wasn't too close for her plan to work. It seemed Naruto's clones had done their job of slowing down their pursuers.

"Go now," she said, judging that they were far enough into the tunnel.

Naruto immediately created a dozen clones without breaking stride. Working together, each clone soon had a blue ball of spiraling energy hovering in their hands. Moving as one, the clones raced up the walls of the tunnel until they were standing upside down on the ceiling.

As soon as they were all in position, the clones drove their Rasengan into the cracked duracrete of the tunnel ceiling. The blue orbs tore into the already weak structure, compromising it even further. When they detonated, that finally proved too much for the ancient ceiling. With a deep rumble, the duracrete gave way, collapsing down onto the front of the horde of hive rats and mutants. Their dying screams vanished amidst the deafening boom of the rubble hitting the floor.

Naruto and Ahsoka kept on sprinting, desperately trying to outrun the collapse of the tunnel. Just when it seemed that they too would be crushed beneath the falling debris, the end of the tunnel came into view. With one last burst of speed they managed to leap out of the crumbling tunnel into another wide open cavernous space like the one they had just left. Behind them the last of the ceiling came down, cutting off any possible route back that way.

"That… was… too close," Ahsoka said, gasping for breath.

"It was… your plan," said Naruto, also somewhat winded. "At least… it worked."

"Why didn't you use the Force…to bring down the ceiling?" Ahsoka asked.

"I still can't use it to do stuff like that unless I'm meditating," Naruto admitted. "When I'm on the move, I'm better off channeling it as chakra for now. Master Yoda said I had to 'find peace within myself' before I could use the Force like a Jedi."

The two paused for a moment to catch their breath. Ahsoka checked Tora had made it through unscathed. The Loth-cat had somehow contrived to fall asleep during their battle, as if the life-or-death ordeal was utterly unworthy of its attention. While she checked over the sleeping feline, Naruto noticed her hands were trembling.

"Hey, that was a pretty good plan," he said, patting her shoulder. "You probably saved all our lives."

She looked up at him and smiled weakly. The shock of her first battle was wearing off, but the memory of the blood and gore still bothered her. The creatures may have been trying to kill them, but their deaths had still been the first she had ever experienced.

When she had killed the hive rats, she had felt their deaths in the Force. Vicious animals they may have been, but they still had felt fear and panic as their lives slipped away. Still, she thought, they had done what they had to. She wasn't going to let herself be killed in some dark hole by monsters.

The sound of cursing pulled her out of her thoughts. Looking up, she saw Naruto waving his arms about and letting out some of the most impressive swear words she had ever heard. Some of them were even new to her.

"What's up with you?" she asked.

"I'm an idiot," Naruto said. "I forgot I could summon a messenger toad to send a message to Jiraiya-sensei."

"You forgot WHAT!?" Ahsoka screamed. "You're telling me you could have sent a message for help an hour ago, but you forgot?"

"Look, I'm sorry okay!" Naruto yelled back. "I haven't been working with the toads for very long, so I forget what they can do. I just- arrrgh."

Clenching his fists in frustration, Naruto turned and kicked the nearest pile of trash. As the debris flew into the air and clattered back down, he seemed to almost deflate. His shoulders slumped and his posture folded slightly.

"This wasn't how this day was supposed to go," he said miserably. "This was supposed to be special."

Ahsoka calmed herself down upon seeing Naruto so dejected. Walking over to him, she tried to offer him some comfort.

"Hey, don't feel too bad," she said. "Those hidden tunnels were pretty cool."

"That's not what I'm talking about," Naruto said. "I had a surprise for you in the tunnels. I had a cake and a bag of Ronto jerky for you. As a birthday present."

Ahsoka gasped a bit at that. She had just turned 11 last week, but Initiates were not encouraged to celebrate their birthdays or receive gifts. Jedi were not supposed to be attached to material possessions after all. It warmed her heart to know that Naruto had gone to so much trouble to try to make her birthday feel special.

"That… was really sweet of you, Naruto," she said as she gave him a tight hug. "Thank you. We'll just have to get out of here and get that cake before it goes bad. But I'm getting all the jerky."

Naruto returned the hug, careful not to wake Tora. The two of them just stood there for a moment, taking comfort in each other's presence. It felt good to not be alone in such a grim and foul place.

Finally, and somewhat reluctantly, they separated. There was still work to be done, and they were both acutely aware that more dangers lurked in the dark undercity. Naruto found a clear space and quickly summoned a toad. It was just under a foot high, black with green markings on its face and arms. It wore a small yellow vest on its back.

"{Hey there. I'm Kaede. What can I do for you?}"

"{Hi Kaede. I need you to take a message to Jiraiya,}" Naruto said. When the toad nodded his assent, Naruto explained their situation to him. After a few minutes of talking, Kaede vanished in a poof of smoke. He would have to have the elders reverse summon him to Jiraiya, as it was far too dangerous for him to try to make the journey on foot.

"Alright, let's keep moving," Naruto said as soon as the messenger toad had gone. "It'll probably take him a while to get to Jiraiya. We may as well keep looking for something useful."

"Yeah, you're right," Ahsoka said, before sneakily adding, "Bet you I find something before you do."

"Oh, you're on," Naruto said, immediately rising to the challenge. Laughing, the two raced off to search the piles of trash. Their laughter echoed briefly in the undercity, before being quickly swallowed by the darkness.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Jiraiya and Luminara had been talking for well over an hour now. Their discussion had ranged from their own personal philosophies to Jiraiya's past life as a shinobi. It had now strayed into some rather embarrassing territory for the Sannin.

"So you truly used to write pornography?" Luminara asked in a deadpan.

"Hey, don't knock my books," Jiraiya said. "I'll have you know they were the best-selling adult literature in the Elemental nations."

"And you also used to act like some sort of lecherous pervert?" Luminara asked, her voice still completely deadpan.

"I was a pervert when I was young," Jiraiya admitted. "Even as I got older and grew out of it, it was too useful a reputation to give up."

"Useful?"

"Every shinobi has a weakness. Or had, at least," Jiraiya explained casually, as if talking about the weather. "And mine was beautiful women. Everyone knew it, and so my enemies sent prostitutes and seductresses to try and get information out of me. How horrible. Perhaps I should have acted respectable and only dealt with mere assassins and bounty hunters. That would have been so much better, I'm sure."

Luminara looked at him in surprise. She wasn't sure what she'd expected from him when she brought the topic up, but this certainly hadn't been it. Beneath the withering sarcasm was actually a decently reasoned argument. Even so, she wasn't entirely ready to let the subject go just yet.

"And you're telling me it was all an act?" she asked skeptically. Jiraiya snorted at her question.

"I'll admit, I do enjoy the sight of a beautiful woman," he said. She didn't miss the fact that he was looking directly at her when he said it, but she brushed off the implied compliment. Her appearance mattered to her only insofar as it related to her physical health and her professionalism. While being told she was beautiful wasn't unpleasant, it simply did not matter to her. Judging by his appraising glance at her total lack of reaction, Jiraiya had noticed that much.

"It also came in handy while I was working as a spy," he said, changing the subject.

"Oh. How so?" Luminara asked, her tone somewhat mollified.

"No one wants to pay attention to some creepy pervert scribbling in a notebook," Jiraiya said. "They also never asked what I was scribbling as I watched women walk in front of palaces and fortresses. It also made tracking the people spying on me easier. People notice and remember beautiful women, and like I said, my enemies always hired such to keep tabs on me."

Luminara was actually somewhat impressed. It was a remarkably devious piece of forethought on his part. Nevertheless, she resolved to keep an eye on him. Old habits could sometimes die hard, she knew.

Before she could frame her next question, she felt an odd pulse within the Force. It was unlike anything she had ever felt before. Half a second later, a cloud of white smoke erupted next to her. She sensed no danger, but laid her hand on her lightsaber to be safe. Jiraiya, she noted, did not appear surprised or confused in the least.

"{Hey there Kaede,}" he said. Luminara focused the Force to translate his language for her. It seemed they had been joined by a large talking toad.

"Hey yourself. Sorry if I'm interrupting something, but I have an urgent message from Naruto."

"What's the message?" Jiraiya asked, frowning. His godson wouldn't use a messenger toad unless he was out of the Temple, which he was not supposed to be.

"He said that he and Ahsoka were exploring some tunnels when they fell through a shaft and into the undercity. They're stuck on level one, and they're looking for a way back up now. They need help."

Luminara jerked when she heard that. "Level one," she said sharply. "Are you sure?"

"That's what they said. All I know is it was dark and smelly and scary down there."

"What's so special about level one? I haven't studied Coruscant's history yet," Jiraiya said.

"Level one is supposedly a death trap," Luminara explained. "It's the lowest level of the megacity, nearly impossible to access, as near to the actual surface as you can still get. It's infested with all manner of predators and monsters, mutated by the pollution and darkness. Coruscant security won't even mount rescue operations for people who get stuck down there."

Jiraiya stared at her for a few seconds before face palming.

"Trust Naruto to somehow find the most dangerous situation he can and jump right in," Jiraiya grumbled. "I swear, it's lucky my hair is already white, or else it would all turn gray from his antics."

Sighing, Jiraiya shook his head, and then straightened up. As he did so, his whole demeanor shifted. All of a sudden, he was no longer the slightly goofy, overly sarcastic man she had been enjoying a conversation with for the past hour. Now he was a serious and seasoned warrior, his eyes hard and glinting with calm calculation. Seeing him now, Luminara had not trouble believing that this man had once been one of the most feared warriors ever to live amongst his people.

"We need to hurry. They can't stay down there on their own," Jiraiya said firmly, all humor gone from his tone. Together with Luminara, he rushed out of the room.

"Yes. Follow me," she said. "There's no time to get council approval. We'll take a speeder from the hangar and fly to the undercity."

"I thought you said it was impossible to get down there," Jiraiya said. His voice was calm, but the tension in his face gave away how anxious he was for his godson. Nevertheless, Luminara was impressed, and a little surprised, by his cool head. She had expected someone who espoused such views on attachments to be far more ruled by their emotions.

"Perhaps, but we must trust in the Force," she replied. "We may find a way to get to them, or else they may get to us. Either way, we have few options."

Within minutes, they had reached the hangar. Luminara quickly selected a four seater XJ type airspeeder, and primed it for takeoff. A few seconds later, they tore out of the hangar at top speed, Luminara piloting them towards the nearest access shaft to the lower levels.

As they flew away from the temple, Jiraiya re-summoned Kaede, who peered curiously out at the gleaming spires of the metropolis. Catching the toad's attention, Jiraiya handed him a scroll he had pulled from his robes before saying something Luminara could not hear. Kaede saluted them both before vanishing in another puff of white smoke.

"What was that about?" Luminara shouted, straining to be heard over the roar of the wind and the hum of the engines.

"I gave him a basic shinobi survival kit to take to Naruto and Ahsoka," Jiraiya yelled back. "It's got food, water, some weapons, a few tools, and even a comlink."

"The comlink probably won't work," Luminara cautioned. "They're too far down, below all the power lines. There's too much interference."

"It's better than nothing," Jiraiya said grimly.

Luminara had no response to that, and so just kept flying. Soon enough, they reached the huge ventilation shaft that led to the lower levels. As they descended, she silently hoped the two younglings would be alright.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Naruto and Ahsoka had been searching for anything useful for nearly an hour by the time Kaede reappeared, scroll in hand. As soon as Naruto took the scroll from him, the messenger toad dismissed himself, eager to be gone from the dank undercity. Unfurling the scroll, Naruto unsealed and inspected its contents.

"Alright, now we're talking," he said, looking excitedly at the small pile of equipment. "We've got a repair kit, some rations, clean water, fresh medkit, kunai, shuriken, explosive tags, ninja wire, and even a comlink. Sweet."

Sadly, Luminara's prediction proved true. The comlink only picked up static. Groaning in frustration, Naruto passed it to Ahsoka, who pocketed it. Turning back to the rest of their new gear, he resealed the food, water, and tools. He divided the weapons between himself and Ahsoka. He kept all the explosive tags though, as Ahsoka wasn't able to use them.

Now freshly armed and with their confidence boosted, the two of them resumed their search for an escape route. As they looked, they talked to break up the tedium.

"Naruto, how did you know about my birthday?" Ahsoka asked. "I didn't even mention it."

"I asked Barriss," he said. "You were the first friend I made in the Temple, so I wanted to make sure I celebrated your birthday."

"But- why? I mean, getting Ronto jerky on Coruscant. That must have been a lot of trouble," she said, confused.

Naruto said nothing for a long minute. Ahsoka worried that she may have upset him somehow. Just when she was about to voice her concern, Naruto turned to face her.

"I… never got to celebrate my birthday back home," he mumbled. "I didn't have a lot of friends growing up, and no one ever cared when my birthday was. Birthdays are special, and I wanted yours to be special too."

Ahsoka hid a wince at his explanation. She knew that Naruto's childhood was something he didn't enjoy talking about. He freely and eagerly told stories about his amazing adventures with his old team, as well as some of his more memorable pranks, but he rarely, if ever, spoke about what his personal life had been like.

"Besides, I'm Naruto Uzumaki, future Jedi Master. I can smuggle some Ronto jerky into the Temple, no problem," he added cockily.

As he said the last bit, his eyes crinkled into a smile. He adopted what he probably thought was a cool pose, but Ahsoka thought it just made him look ridiculous. She burst out laughing at her friend's antics. The sudden humor contrasted sharply with the grimness of their situation, and was all the more welcome for that.

"You are such a goofball, Naruto," she said between giggles. "But you're also a really good friend. Besides, I know it wasn't quite how you planned it, but I'd say this still qualifies as a pretty special day for me. I certainly won't forget it, at least."

Naruto snorted with laughter at that. At least she wasn't mad at him, he figured. As he looked away from her, his eyes picked something up in one of the trash piles ahead. He squinted at it before grinning to himself. He recognized what that was.

"Hey Ahsoka, guess what?" he said.

"What?"

"I win," he said smugly, pointing at his find.

"What do you mean you- oh, Sithspit," she said, following his finger to the pile of trash. There, partially buried but still recognizable, lay an old, rusty airspeeder. It seemed mostly intact.

"Hahaha!" Naruto laughed. "I found it first, so that means I won our bet,"

"That is so not fair," Ahsoka protested. "I would have seen it first if you hadn't been distracting me,"

"Hey, you're the one who asked me the questions," Naruto replied. "I saw it first, and that means I won."

"But we never even agreed on a prize."

"Well, I guess that just means you owe me one. Now come on, let's see if this thing is fixable."

Running over to the speeder, they began trying to shift the trash off of it. Eventually, with Ahsoka using the Force and Naruto using his clones, they managed to dig the old aircar out and drag it onto a clear patch of floor. Unsealing the repair kit Jiraiya had sent them, Naruto began inspecting the speeder.

"Alright," he said after a few minutes, "I'm pretty sure I can fix it. It's mostly just dirty. I can clean out the engine ports and rewire the repulsor grid to bypass most of the damaged systems. It'll take time, but we should- what? What's that look for?"

Ahsoka was staring at him as if he had just grown a second head.

"Since when did you know anything about mechanics?" she finally asked. "I thought you could barely hold a hydrospanner."

"One of the older Padawans has been teaching me. His name's Anakin. He's a genius with anything mechanical. He's been tutoring me for almost four months now."

"And he taught you enough to fix this rust bucket?" she asked, kicking the side of the speeder for emphasis.

"Yeah," Naruto said indignantly. "At least I think so. There is one problem, though."

"Oh really?" Ahsoka said sarcastically. "Just one?"

"Yes, just one," he said, ignoring her tone. "I can't fly it. He hasn't taught me how to do that yet."

"Well then, I guess I'll just have to fly it," she declared.

"You can fly a speeder?" Naruto asked, somewhat doubtful.

"I guess we'll find out, won't we?" she said cheekily. "I mean, it's not like I can let you have all the fun today."

Snorting at that, Naruto broke open his toolkit and started working on the speeder. 'This is going to take a while,' he thought. 'And who said this part was fun?'

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

'I was right,' Naruto thought. 'This did take a while.'

It had been over two hours since they had found the speeder. Naruto had been busy the whole time, trying to get the engine working. Ahsoka had been working on the flight controls, which had been more damaged than Naruto had initially thought. Overall, though, he was optimistic it would fly. Of course, he was usually optimistic about everything, but he was extra optimistic about this.

"I'm just about done here," he said as he spliced some wires together. "How're you doing?"

"I've still got 10-15 minutes until these controls will work," Ahsoka replied. "But we should be able to fly this thing out of here."

"Hah! Things are looking up," Naruto said. "I knew we'd be alright."

It was, naturally, at this point that everything started to go wrong. Naruto tensed suddenly and looked up. Just as he did so, a series of grunting roars sounded in the distance.

"You just had to jinx us!" Ahsoka yelled. "I blame you for this."

"This can't be my fault," Naruto protested.

"I didn't say it was your fault. I said I was blaming you," she responded archly. Together, they climbed to the top of the nearest trash heap to get a look at whatever was coming their way. When they saw it, it didn't look good.

A pack of five vaguely simian creatures was ambling towards their location. The beasts were each between three and four meters tall, with patchy hair and leathery brown skin. They were all deformed in some way, each one unique and grotesque in its appearance. One had one arm much larger than the other. Another had an oddly sloped skull and an oversized lower jaw, giving it a nasty under bite. All of them looked dangerous.

"Coruscani ogres," Ahsoka breathed. "I thought they were just a myth."

"Well, it looks like no one told them that," Naruto said. "They must have tracked our scent."

Cursing under his breath, Naruto racked his brain for solutions to their dilemma. Latching onto the first idea that sprang to mind, he assembled a hasty plan.

"Ahsoka, you need to go back and finish fixing the flight controls for the speeder. I'll hold off the ogres," he said.

"What? No way!" she cried indignantly. "I'm not letting you fight those things on yo-"

"We don't have time to argue. I'm the better fighter, and you're the only one of us who can pilot that speeder. Go, fix it quickly, and pick me up as soon as you can."

With that, he gave her a push towards the speeder. She gave him a stubborn look, and for a second, he was afraid she would try to argue more. Then she sighed and started to run to the speeder.

"You'd better not die on me, you got that," she yelled over her shoulder.

"I'll be fine," he said in response, half to her and half to himself.

'Alright,' he thought to himself. 'Let's go barbecue me some ogre butt.' He then jumped off the trash mound, flipping through the air. He landed with a grunt a few meters in front of the five misshapen brutes. They stopped, their tiny brains unused to food that ran towards them.

"OKAY YOU BIG UGLY BASTARDS," Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs. "MY NAME'S NARUTO UZUMAKI, AND YOU ALL ARE GOING DOWN."

The dim-witted ogres may not have understood his words, but they certainly understood a challenge when they saw one. Roaring with bestial fury, the lead ogre charged at the small yellow-haired figure before it. Its mind was filled with the need to crush this loud nuisance and prove its dominance over its territory once more.

Its wild charge didn't meet with success, however. Before it had even crossed the halfway point, four Naruto clones burst out of the nearby piles of detritus on opposite sides of the path. Two of them were already nearly done forming Rasengans in the hands of the other two.

In barely a second, the two clones drove their attacks into the chest of the charging ogre. The beast shrieked in agony, the deadly jutsu tearing at its skin and the flesh beneath. With a thunderous boom, the two Rasengan detonated, sending the ogre flying back towards his companions.

"Oh, hell yeah!" Naruto cheered, as the ogres stared on in shock. "That's what you get when you try to- oh fuck!"

His cheering turned to swearing as the ogre, the one he had just drilled with two Rasengan straight to the chest, stood up. It had two angry red welts on its chest and was bleeding lightly, but it seemed otherwise unharmed. It seemed these ogres were made of tougher stuff than the previous predators he had faced down here.

At some unseen signal, the five ogres rushed him as one. Cursing, Naruto threw two handfuls of shuriken at their faces. The metal stars barely even scratched their skin, but they did force them to cover their eyes. Taking advantage of his foes' moment of blindness, Naruto dashed to the side, hoping to draw their attention away from where Ahsoka was fixing the speeder.

Forming his signature hand sign, Naruto created several dozen clones to harass the ogres. The beasts seemed to have gotten over their shock at his powers, however, as they met the clones' charge with one of their own. The two groups clashed in a din of feral roars and hoarse battle cries.

Naruto's clones, despite their superior numbers, were not having much of an effect on the ogres. Their kunai inflicted only superficial cuts, while their taijutsu was essentially useless. Occasionally, two of them would manage to work together to produce a hasty Rasengan, but even those only dealt relatively mild damage to the tough creatures.

Despite their near invulnerability, the ogres weren't truly winning the battle, either. Their toughness and raw strength was countered by how slow and clumsy they were, especially compared to Naruto's clones. Between their small size, natural agility, and limited Force precognition, the clones were able to avoid being dispelled for the most part. This created a brief stalemate of sorts, which gave the original time to enact the second part of his plan.

As soon as he saw his clones engage the ogres, Naruto sank into a meditation pose and closed his eyes. Calming his mind, he reached outside of himself, untangling the Force from his own life force. As usual, the universe seemed to open up before him like a flower, his awareness expanding to include everything around him. He may have only been able to use the Force for the most basic levels of precognition and sensing outside of meditation, but while meditating he was far more proficient.

He reached out with his mind, seeking the minds of his foes. As he brushed past the identical minds of his clones, he found them. The ogres' minds were dim, burning sparks of animal instinct and basic intelligence, all spiky and slimy feeling. Naruto could tell immediately that he wouldn't be able to get them to run away. They were too angry, too hungry, and too vicious.

The more peaceful option being a dud, Naruto went with his second choice. He couldn't convince the ogres to outright flee from the fight, but he could still influence their actions slightly. Recalling his lessons under Master Yoda, he sent subtle impulses into their minds. Move here. Step there. Go this way. That sort of thing. Nothing that they might not have done anyway, but now they did it to the tune of his plan.

Slowly but surely, it worked. The group of ogres, still fighting what remained of the clones, worked themselves over to where Naruto wanted them. Within two minutes, all five ogres stood in between two large piles of metal scrap. Satisfied with his work, Naruto opened his eyes, sighed, and formed a single hand sign.

BOOM.

The two piles of metal exploded, sending red hot, razor sharp shrapnel tearing into the ogres. Naruto had had a small group of his clones planting all the explosive tags Jiraiya had sent him in the two piles during the entire fight. He had effectively created two massive anti-personnel landmines and stuck the ogres right between them. While his initial plan had been to get the ogres to run away, Jiraiya had successfully drilled into him the benefits of having a backup plan. Benefits which included not dying. Jiraiya was very big on the not dying thing.

Naruto honestly felt a little sick at the sight before him. The ogres hadn't died; they were too tough for that. Instead, they were lying on the ground, whimpering in pain and fear, bleeding heavily from countless wounds, most of their skin badly burned. The smell of blood and charred hair filled his nostrils, nearly making him gag. He hated having to hurt them like this. He had felt them in the Force, and they hadn't been evil. Hungry, scared, and angry at their territory being challenged, but not evil.

Even so, they had been a threat. Not just to him, but to Ahsoka. His best friend. There was no way he would to allow her to die down in this shithole. He'd lost one group of friends already. He wasn't going to lose any more if he could help it. If that meant he had to kill these things, then he would just have to do it quickly.

Rushing forward, Naruto drew a kunai in order to end their suffering. As he reached the first one, he jammed the knife into its eye. He felt it stop at the bone at the back of the eye, and the ogre shrieked in agony. With a shout of effort, Naruto hit the pommel of the kunai with his palm. He felt the bone give way, and the knife slid home. With a quick twist, the ogre finally went silent, slumping to the ground. He yanked the kunai out with a sickening squelch and prepared to move on to the next one.

He killed two more of the ogres in the same way. As he moved towards the next one, though, a feeling of overwhelming danger washed over him. He froze, trying to tell where it was coming from. His answer came in the form of a deafening roar, far louder than anything the ogres could have produced.

Even with his paltry Force senses, he still felt the new threat. He couldn't see it, but the screaming in the Force told him it was definitely nothing he wanted to tangle with. He closed his eyes, trying to extend his senses to locate whatever monster wanted to eat him now. It was getting closer, but he couldn't find it.

Unfortunately, in his attempt to locate the source of the roar, he missed one of the remaining ogres struggling to its feet. The deformed creature was on its last legs, half its face blown off and one arm nearly severed, but survival instinct drove it on. Spotting the cause of its agony, the beast forced one last burst of movement from its dying body.

With its remaining strength, it swiped at Naruto with its good arm. The blow was clumsy and glancing, but it still struck with the force of a bomb, enough to send Naruto flying more than five meters. Naruto screamed in pain as he went spinning into a pile of rubble. His left arm broke with a loud crunch from the blow, and he felt his shoulder wrench out of its socket too. As he landed on the scrap, his head struck something hard. Fortunately, his mesh armor kept any of the sharp scrap from impaling him, but it did nothing to cushion the blow to his cranium. He vaguely heard an ugly crack, and his thoughts drifted away. He thought he heard a voice calling his name as his vision went dark.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Just as Ahsoka finished repairing the airspeeder, she heard a colossal explosion from back where she had left Naruto. She rolled her eyes and shook her head at his characteristic overkill. Leave it to him to turn a fight with a handful of wild beasts into a full-blown war zone. Taking Tora off of her back, she put him on one of the seats. She then jumped into the pilot's seat.

'That idiot, making me fix this piece of bantha poodoo while he fights ogres,' she thought as she fired up the engines. 'He better not be dead.'

Somewhat miraculously, after nearly two minutes of coughing and coaxing, the hastily fixed speeder actually lifted off the ground. It rattled and coughed like, well, like an old rust bucket that had been haphazardly repaired by two children, but it flew. It was as she began piloting it towards Naruto that she heard the awful roar. Unlike her companion, however, she could see what caused it.

Emerging from a pit in the ground a hundred meters or so from where she saw Naruto was something she didn't recognize. Whatever it was, it was big. As big as that toad Naruto had summoned. Maybe bigger. It was too dark to see to get a good look, but she got the impression of matted fur, red eyes, and lots of jagged teeth. More importantly, though, the Force was screaming danger to her. Whatever this thing was, it clearly was no friendlier than the other monsters she had encountered down here.

Focusing back on her friend, she was just in time to see him get blindsided by one of the ogres. Its punch clipped his left side, sending him spinning into a pile of debris.

"Naruto!" she screamed, her heart skipping a beat at the sight of her friend being downed. Letting out a stream of words that would have gotten her a month of kitchen duty if Master Leem had heard them, she gunned the speeder towards Naruto's prone form. She could see the titanic beast from the pit approaching, though it didn't seem to be in a hurry. She could make it.

Pulling up alongside Naruto, she hopped out and grabbed him around the waist. Straining her muscles, she pulled him back towards the speeder as fast as she could.

"Come on, come on," she grunted, acutely aware of the approaching monster. After what felt like hours, but was actually only about ten seconds, she had Naruto in the speeder. Sweat dripping down her brow, she jumped in the pilot's seat and gunned the engines. She was just in time. As the speeder shot into the air, it just missed the snapping jaws of whatever had crawled from that pit.

The monster roared in frustration as its prey escaped, but it was in vain. Ahsoka sagged with relief as she clumsily piloted the speeder up towards the ceiling, looking for a way out.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

There we go. Naruto and Ahsoka are on their way out of level one. Don't worry though, their little adventure in the undercity isn't over yet. Not even close. There's a long way between level one and the Temple, and you can trust Naruto and Ahsoka to find every bump along that road.

In case any of you were wondering, that last beast isn't anything in particular. I just thought back to Qui Gon's saying of "there's always a bigger fish" and felt that it applied here too. The zombie creatures are Cthon. They are the mutated descendants of criminals exiled into the depths of the undercity millennia before the Old Sith Wars.

Next chapter will probably be delayed. I'm going on a much needed vacation, and I don't know what the internet situation will be where I end up. I will continue to write though, so even if I can't post there, I will do so as soon as I get back. See you then.