Happy February, everyone, and welcome to another chapter of this story. As usual, it took longer than I would have liked to get this out to you. I've been stuck writing and rewriting the same section of chapter 41 for weeks now, and it only just started to come together in the last few days. I also got a new job, with very different hours than I was used to, so that took some time to adjust to. Fortunately, I have adjusted, my writers block is gone (for now), and I can finally edit this and post it.

In somewhat less good, but not necessarily bad, news, I've decided to split chapter 40 into two parts, so the Clone War era will now start in chapter 42. I tried condensing as much as I could, but it got to the point where I was just writing a summary of my own story, rather than the story itself. I didn't like that, and while I always make an effort towards further concision, there comes a point where I have to actually give the story the length it needs. A better author than I could probably have managed it, but you all are stuck with me.

Thank you to everyone who left a review last chapter. Most of you seemed supportive of the slower pace I'm taking with Naruto and Kurama's friendship. Like I said, they've made some progress, but there is a ways yet to go. As for the flamers, your increased effort did not go unnoticed. I know you guys don't get a lot of love on this site, so I just wanted to let you know, I see you. In your own pedantic, pea-brained way, you're making progress. Well done.

Show whatever support you can for Ukraine. Every bit helps. With that, onto the chapter

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Chapter 38

As Naruto approached the doorway to the Temple entrance hall, the stone block automatically slid back into the ceiling. After so long in the cave, even the dusty half-light of the entrance hall stood service for the noonday sun. When he emerged, blinking, from the tunnel, he saw Mace sitting on the floor, waiting for him. His master looked tired, but he could feel the happiness and relief through their bond. He stood and moved forward to greet Naruto.

"It is good to see you back, Padawan. Did you find balance?"

Naruto hesitated before answering. "I'm… not sure, master. I think- I think I'm working on it."

"Oh?"

"I learned something, or maybe I figured something out. I didn't like it, but it was something I needed to know."

Mace looked at him expectantly. "And what was this you learned?"

Naruto grinned under his mask and scratched the back of his head. "That the universe might not revolve around me."

At first, Mace just stared at him, expressionless. He could feel the amusement bubbling up below the surface, though, and sure enough, a genuine smile broke through Mace's near-constant reserve. The man even laughed. It was more of a grunt really, or a bark, but it was the most overt sign of humor Naruto had ever seen from the man, and he couldn't help but join in. It felt like there had been steel bands wrapped around his chest, and only now could he finally breathe again.

"Well, that is an excellent lesson to learn, and you have come to it sooner than most." Mace clapped him on the shoulder and squeezed. "I'm proud of you. Few Jedi have to face such a trial at your age, and fewer still would rise to it as you have."

Naruto gave him his biggest eye-smile and bowed. "Thanks, master, but we'd probably better get out of here," he said, thinking of the Kyuubi. He could feel his impatience to test if his modification to the seal had worked. If he was being honest with himself, he was eager to test it as well. It was the most ambitious he'd ever been with sealing so far, and part of him still wasn't sure if he'd gotten everything right. Mace must have picked up on his impatience, but he didn't ask him about it.

"You are right. No doubt Master Fay is growing impatient, waiting for us out in the cold."

"Can she even get impatient?"

Mace considered the question for a moment. "I am not sure." He gave Naruto a pointed look. "Do you want to be the one who finds out?"

Naruto grimaced and shook his head. Fay may have been the very picture of Jedi serenity and calm, but there was… something about her. Maybe it was her age, maybe it was her power, maybe it was something else entirely. Whatever it was, every instinct told him she was not a woman to cross, even accidentally. The fact she was a devout pacifist did nothing to quell the feeling. If anything, it made her far more terrifying. She wielded words and expressions the way lesser beings wielded blasters and grenades. To compound matters, she was a healer, and Tsunade had left him with a very healthy respect for that profession. Anyone who knew how to put your body back together also knew how to take it apart, and that was knowledge to be wary of. He liked Master Fay. She'd been nothing but kind and understanding with him ever since he'd woken up in the hospital on Ansion. He really, really wanted that state of affairs to continue. Through their bond, he sensed Mace's sentiments echoed his own.

"Indeed," the older man said, and gestured towards the exit. "Together, then."

Naruto straightened his shoulders and walked to stand next to his master. "Together." As one, they reached out to the Force and triggered the mechanism to raise the Temple. Like before, it took both of them working in unison to activate the ancient Force lock. For a moment, nothing happened, and then the whole room rumbled and slowly rose. Dust sprinkled from the ceiling and bedrock slated past the doorway until the sun flooded the room. He must have been in the cave longer than he'd thought if night had already come and gone. Naruto squinted as his eyes watered in the sudden brilliance. The sting was worth it, though, for the warmth that accompanied the light. It brushed away the chilly cobwebs that permeated the bones of the Temple.

As he stepped out into the brisk dawn air, the smell of Lothal's ubiquitous grassland filled his nose and the icy fingers of a morning breeze ruffled his hair. Deep within his mind, he heard a sharp, rumbling intake of breath, as if a great pair of bellows had been pumped. The seal on his stomach tingled with a faint warmth, and he could have sworn he sensed a mix of surprise and happiness that wasn't his coming from within him.

'So the new seal works, huh?' He thought, directing the question inward. A surly grunt was the only response, but it was enough. He smiled beneath his mask. It wasn't much, but it was a start.

Master Fay was still where they had left her, standing a little ways away from the Temple. She was facing the rising sun, her eyes closed, and might have passed for a statue if not for the warm glow of her Force signature. A pair of Loth-cats were curled around her feet, and another had draped itself across her shoulders. They hadn't taken more than two steps out of the Temple before she turned around. She smiled when she saw them, and the Loth-cats ran forward to nuzzle at Naruto's legs. He reached down and scratched them behind the ears, eliciting purrs like passing starliners. Fay laughed softly at the felines' antics.

"How good of you to join me for the sunrise. You two look well for having spent the night in a cave, far from the refreshing open air." The icy rime coating the grass and rocks left no doubt as to just how 'refreshing' the night had been. She didn't seem annoyed, though, just teasing.

"So, Naruto, seeing as you are neither dead nor insane, I assume you found some measure of success in the Temple?" Her smile faded, and she gave him one of her disconcertingly perceptive looks. "Do you have an answer for me?"

"Yes, master. I thought about it, and I don't hate him. I can't."

Fay tilted her head. "'Him'? It sounds like you did more down there than just think. Dare I ask?"

"Well, I talked with the Kyuubi, and I realized he's not as evil as I used to think. He just wants freedom, and I can't really blame him for that. We came to an understanding, more or less."

"An understanding? What aren't you saying, Padawan?" Mace asked. He'd always had a talent for telling when he was leaving something out.

Naruto winced. "Well, I may have… alteredthesealtogivehimaccesstomysensesandagreedtolethimfreebeforeIdie." A chorus of blinking was the only initial response to his rapid fire answer. Fay laughed, but Mace gave him a flat stare and he chuckled sheepishly.

"Sorry." He took a deep breath and started over. "I altered the seal to give him access to my senses, and I agreed to set him free before I die."

As it turned out, saying it such that the two Masters could understand him didn't help matters. Mace took on the blank expression that he'd learned meant he was so surprised he didn't know how to react. Fay's smile stayed in place, but the rest of her face seemed to draw away from it, leaving it alone to fend for itself. Naruto braced himself for the incoming lectures. It didn't help when he heard deep laughter in his head.

'Oh, sure, laugh it up, why don't you? I thought you were back to ignoring me.'

'I'd feared that seeing the world through your eyes, hearing you prattle on, would prove a greater torment than my isolation. But this… this is entertainment at its finest. I get to watch you make a fool of yourself whenever I wish.'

Naruto felt a vein in his temple throb. 'I'm not that bad, ya damn furball!'

'Hahaha. It's like watching a bunny hop into a band saw. Repeatedly.'

Before he could wander further down the labyrinth of back-and-forth insults that was a conversation with the fox, Mace prodded him through the bond and demanded his attention.

"Naruto, you altered the seal?" His shock had abated, and a fierce intensity had taken its place. "You made a deal with the Kyuubi?"

Naruto squared his shoulders and looked his master dead in the eye. "Yes, I did."

"Tell me everything," Mace ordered. It wasn't an angry order, such as Naruto had often heard when he'd broken one rule too many, nor was it worried, like when he made a mistake in battle that nearly cost him. No, it was calm, in the way glaciers are calm, and every bit as inevitable. He nodded and started talking.

As always, Mace listened without interruption. Even when he talked about his newfound empathy for the fox, his master didn't so much as twitch. Fay, too, sat quietly as the words poured forth. Their silence became a void he sought to fill. All the while, he could feel the Kyuubi's amusement in the back of his head. Apparently, his fumbling attempts to explain his rather impulsive actions were every bit as amusing to the fox as his blurted confession had been.

'Hey, I guess laughter is better than death threats,' he thought to himself.

When he finished, Mace said nothing and stared at him intently for several seconds. Eventually, well after his gaze had become unnerving, he nodded and relaxed. "Very well."

Naruto nearly fell over from mental whiplash. "Wait, that's it? I thought you were upset." He'd known when he did it that Mace wouldn't approve of his cavalier approach to the seal on his stomach. He'd been prepared to defend his decision, no matter what. What he had not been prepared for was Mace just accepting it, no questions asked.

"Naruto, eventually you are going to believe me when I say I trust you," Mace said. "I have trusted you with my life and the lives of millions of innocents before. That trust has not changed. Your relationship with the Kyuubi is, as far as I am concerned, no one's business but your own. If you say that you have made a deal, and that you trust him to uphold his side of the bargain, then I believe you. If you want my advice, I will give it to you. If you wish for me to hold my tongue, I will do so. All I ask is that you keep me updated with any further developments."

Naruto gaped beneath his mask at his master's words. He had to squash the urge to hug the man. Mace was not the sort to appreciate physical gestures of their friendship. Instead, he packed all his gratitude and happiness into a sort of mental package and sent it along their training bond.

'Thank you, master.'

Mace nodded almost imperceptibly. 'You are welcome, Naruto,' he replied the same way.

"It was very compassionate of you to make such an accord with the Kyuubi," Fay added. Her soft voice was warmer than he'd ever heard it. "Recognizing injustice, even when we ourselves have been wronged, and correcting, takes true strength. It is the mark of a great Jedi, and I am very proud to see you uphold your ideals so well."

"I- thank you." Praise from Fay didn't strike quite the same personal chord as did praise from his master, but it still moved him to have the support of the wise Healer.

"Of course, you will still have to inform Jiraiya of how you meddled with the seal," Mace added before he could say anything else. "I'm sure he will have his own opinions on the matter."

The joy left Naruto like air from a ruptured starship. He shivered in anticipation of his godfather's reaction. "I'm doomed," he groaned.

"May the Force be with you." Mace's voice and face were the very image of dignity and seriousness, but Naruto could sense the dry humor behind his stern facade. He supposed it was the least he deserved for springing something like this on him so suddenly.

"If you've finished tormenting your apprentice, Master Windu, I suggest we get moving," Fay said drily. "My ship is a far more comfortable venue for conversation than this, and I'm sure Naruto's friends are eager to see him again."

Naruto perked up at the thought of seeing Ahsoka and the others again. "Can I fly the ship?"

"Hmm." Fay pursed her lips. "Well, I suppose I did say something to that effect, didn't I? However, it occurs to me that this venture must have seriously disrupted your training. I'm sure Master Windu had things he was planning to work on with you. Is that right?"

Naruto waved his arms. "No no, I'm sure everything is-"

"Actually, Master Fay, I was just thinking the same thing," Mace said, much to his dismay. "I wanted to work on your situational awareness this week. You still rely too much on your eyes and ears over the Force. A Jedi must make use of all their senses equally. In fact, there is an exercise my master used to have me do which I think would work perfectly here."

Naruto sighed in defeat. There was no escape, not now that they'd ganged up on him. The more he tried to wriggle out of it, the worse it would be for him. "What is it?"

"A race against the clock. You have to get back to the Dawn Wind in three hours. If you do, then you can fly back to Coruscant. If not, you will spend the whole trip meditating on impulsiveness."

He blinked in surprise. Three hours? That was nothing. He could make it back to the ship in a third of that time without trouble. 'Wait. That is too easy. That means…'

"Without touching the grass," Mace continued. "You'll have to leap from rock to rock the whole way. If memory serves, that should just be possible."

Naruto nodded miserably. He'd been right. It had been too good to be true.

"Oh, and you'll be blindfolded."

"…" He couldn't even find words. Fay was definitely laughing at him behind her serene expression. In a way, he was impressed. It wasn't often his master played a joke on him, but when he did, he was as ruthlessly effective as he was in every other aspect of his life.

"That's… a little extreme, isn't it?" He asked. A tiny smile tugged at Mace's lips for a moment as he tore a piece of cloth from his sleeve to use as a blindfold.

"You are a Senior Padawan now. The youngest Senior Padawan in centuries, I might add. Get used to it."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Two hours and fifty-six minutes later, a bruised and panting Naruto stumbled up the boarding ramp of Fay's yacht. He tore the blindfold from his face and rushed into the warm interior of the ship. Mace and Fay were already waiting for him when he got there.

"Congratulations, Padawan," Mace said. "You made it with four minutes to spare."

Naruto just nodded and sank into the nearest chair. The race hadn't been the most exhausting exercise his master had ever assigned him, not by a long shot, but it hadn't been a walk in the park, either. He'd had to use the Force constantly for almost three hours; to navigate back to the ship, to sense where he had to jump, and for the jumps themselves. Some of the rocks had been over one hundred meters apart. It had been like playing two different games of dejarik simultaneously, while also performing an intense workout. His legs burned and his brain felt like the inside of an old boot. Despite that, though, he'd enjoyed it. After a week of recovery and meditation, of endlessly living in his own head, the simple joy of facing a challenge and overcoming it was as refreshing as a dip in a cool, clear spring. Not only that, but he had a prize to collect.

"I'm going to get cleaned up, masters, then we can take off." As he walked to the refresher, he looked back at the two of them. "I look forward to seeing just what your ship can do, Master Fay." She didn't react, but Mace winced ever so slightly. Naruto chuckled to himself as he left.

After a quick sonic shower and a change of clothes, he headed up to the cockpit and prepped the ship for takeoff. Just before he launched, he saw something through the viewport, out on the plains. It looked like an enormous wolf, with a white Loth-cat sitting on its head. The two creatures stared right at him, as if they could see through the transparisteel and into his soul. The Force flowed around them in a way he'd never felt before. It was as though they were an extension of the planet itself. He got the sense that something more than just a pair of animals was watching him, though he couldn't say what.

Whatever the case, he didn't have a chance to dig deeper. After a few seconds, the wolf creature turned and vanished into the grass, and the strange feeling in the Force disappeared along with it. When he mentioned it to Fay, she only shrugged. "It sounds as if it could have been a Loth-wolf. They're commonly thought to be extinct, but I've heard rumors some still survive. There are stories that say Loth-wolves had a deep connection to the Force, and to the origin of the Temple here."

"The Temple?"

"Indeed. Supposedly the site of the Temple pre-dates the Jedi by millennia. No one knows the whole story, but the Jedi artisans who built the Temple wrote that they merely added to an existing structure. Records are sparse, but they suggest an earlier sect of Force users had a shrine on that spot, and that Loth-wolves were significant to them in some way. All I know for sure is that there is more to the Temple than what you saw. It only grants you access to what you need, though, and no one is sure how deep the structure goes. I wouldn't dwell on it. If the Force has something to tell you, you'll know. For now, focus on getting us back to Coruscant. Preferably without too much fancy flying."

He smirked, even though she could not see it. "No promises, Master. No promises."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Asajj Ventress was not a patient woman. Waiting did not come naturally to her. She was no ambush predator, content to lurk in the shadows until some vulnerable morsel came along. No, she would much rather run her prey to ground and revel in the fight, in the kill. All her life, she'd believed hiding was for the weak. However, her master had ordered her to wait, and that was the end of the matter. She dared not disobey her master. Mercy was also for the weak, and Count Dooku was not weak. Not at all. She had the scars to remind her, in case she ever forgot.

Behind her, a hulking figure stepped out of the shadows. The Gossam commandos shifted uneasily as it walked by. Despite its bulk, the figure made no sound when it moved.

"How long?" Its voice was heavily modulated, and sounded like gravel being crushed. There was no emotion in that voice. She closed her eyes and stretched out her Force senses. The two Jedi she'd been sent to follow hadn't bothered to hide their Force signatures once they'd grabbed Aurra. They weren't even on the lookout for someone trying to find them with the Force. Typical Jedi arrogance, assuming that they were the only Force users around. Her master was right. Centuries of peace had left the Order fat, lazy, and complacent, a withered shadow of its once-vaunted self. That was the great trap of the so-called 'Light' side of the Force. Now, that trap would close around their throats.

"Not long," she said. "Perhaps an hour. Get in position." The figure said nothing, but melted back into the shadows like smoke. There was no obvious sign when it left, but she suddenly noticed the absence of a presence she hadn't even realized she'd felt.

Despite herself, Asajj grimaced. She hadn't known what to expect when Dooku said she would meet a contact of his on Nar Shaddaa, but it certainly hadn't been this. How her master had won the loyalty of such a being, she had no idea, but even she found him slightly unsettling. He hadn't said more than twenty words the whole time, but he gave the impression of restraining from killing everyone he saw only with immense difficulty. It was enough to put even her on edge, though she would kill anyone who dared suggest it. Despite his emotionless demeanor, he was undoubtedly skilled, and he'd taken the job without question. She looked forward to seeing him in action.

The time passed slowly, each moment dripping by with staccato monotony. She ground her teeth at the relentless waiting. It was torture, being able to sense her prey, but not chasing them down. Worse was knowing she wouldn't even be able to enjoy the fight. Dooku had been very explicit in his orders. She was to grab Sing, let them see and sense her, and then exfiltrate immediately. The Jedi were to survive. Rage bubbled in her gut at the thought of leaving Jedi alive on purpose. She was better than them, and it was time she proved it.

'Soon,' she told herself as she clamped down on that traitorous thought. 'Soon we won't need to hide anymore, and when that day comes, legions of Jedi will lie dead at my feet. He promised me.'

Another platoon of sullen minutes trudged by before she felt her targets get close. It was strange, though. The two Jedi shone clear as day, or at least the day on a less polluted world, but she couldn't sense Sing at all. She knew the assassin was with them; her probe droid had confirmed it, but it was as though Aurra Sing had ceased to exist in the Force. There were several methods of preventing a Force-sensitive prisoner from using their powers, from Force-suppressing drugs to Sith binding manacles to certain force fields. Even simple stun cuffs could manage it, if properly calibrated. However, all of those methods worked by disrupting the victim's focus, so they couldn't concentrate long enough to manipulate the Force. What's more, they were either unreliable, in the case of drugs, force fields, and stun binders, or required exceedingly rare items, such as ancient Sith restraints or Mandalorian Sarcophagi. She'd never heard of a way to cut someone off from the Force completely, such that no one could even sense them. The prospect was sickening. The Force was the source of her power. It was what made her better than the mewling throngs of lesser beings. It was everything. The thought of losing it terrified her more than anything Dooku had ever done to her.

She allowed that fear to fill her, and let it kindle into anger. She would never let such a thing happen to her. The heady mix of rage and terror pumped through her system like a drug, sharpening her focus and fueling her strength. Her fingers itched to grasp her lightsabers and her blood burned with energy. She fed the rush, building her anger and bloodlust into a pyre of the Dark side, until she felt as if she might burst from the power coursing under her skin. The world exploded into crystal clarity, and she sensed the time had come.

"Now!" She cried into her comlink, and the trap slammed shut.

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

Jiraiya was less than fifty meters from the doors to the hangar when he felt it. The constant prickling sense of danger he'd been feeling in the Force ever since they'd set out for Nar Shaddaa spiked into a dozen klaxons blaring in his head. His lightsaber flew into his hand almost of its own accord, and he flicked the activation stud without a second thought. The mouth of the carved toad snapped open and the emerald blade surged into life. The sudden noise and light drew the attention of everyone on the street, but he didn't have time to worry about that.

"Get down!" He roared. It was all he had a chance to say before a volley of blaster fire took up all his concentration. Screams of terror and pain echoed off the buildings as people ran from the sudden rain of death. Speeder horns blared as their pilots veered out of the way of the sudden war zone. The chaos was so much white noise to Jiraiya, though, as he immersed himself in the Force. Next to him, he saw Luminara's blade sweeping through the air and felt her draw on the Force for energy. With one hand, he grabbed Aurra by the back of her neck and shoved her behind him. Whatever the reason for this attack, if she got killed, then their entire mission would have been for nothing.

It only took him a moment to locate the source of the shots. Across the chasm that separated one block of skyscrapers from the adjacent one, he could just make out a dozen or so small figures crouched in the shadows of an empty landing platform. They would have been completely invisible if not for the flickering glow of their blaster rifles.

"On that platform," he said. "One o'clock, two hundred meters."

"I see them," Luminara grunted as she somehow parried three shots at once. "We're too exposed here. Get to the ship. I'll cover you."

There was no time to argue. He was closest to Aurra, and getting her safely to Coruscant was the most important thing right now. Besides, Luminara would probably have castrated him if he suggested she go first just because she was tired. He grabbed Aurra by the shoulder and dragged her with him while Luminara moved to block any incoming fire. A few bolts snuck by her defense, but they impacted harmlessly against the pavement. With the Force reinforcing his muscles, he covered the fifth meter gap to the hangar in two seconds, even while dragging Aurra behind him like a sock puppet. Once he was through the door, Luminara fell back towards his position, blocking incoming blaster bolts the whole time. He ached to rush out and help her, but that would mean leaving their prisoner to her own devices, and he couldn't risk it. For what felt like hours, she walked backwards, fending off an ever-growing onslaught of fire, until she finally stepped through the door and behind cover. As soon as she was in the hangar, he grabbed Aurra and they sprinted towards the ship.

"I'll get the engines started," she shouted. "You secure Aurra in the hold. If we hurry, we'll-"

BOOM!

A wall of light and sound filled the massive hangar when an explosion tore the dilapidated Rigger-class freighter apart. The force of the blast felt like a blow from Gamabunta and laid them all out flat. Jiraiya's senses gave up under the sudden overload of heat and pain. The universe shut off for a timeless moment, where there was nothing but darkness and silence. Random thoughts wandered around his head like drunken vagrants after the bars closed, kicking at his skull and vandalizing his neurons. It had been a while since he'd been caught in an explosion, and he always forgot how disorienting it was.

Reality trickled back one sense at a time. First, he noticed a ringing in his ears, which then drew his attention to how much his head throbbed, right along with the rest of him. Light returned to his life a moment later, revealing a blur of colors and shapes. Everything was indistinct, but he could just make out a group of shadowy figures approaching through the smoke. His instincts screamed at him to get up, that he was in danger. Time was moving like chilled tar, but with an effort of will, he wrenched his mind back into sync with the rest of the world. Old, ingrained reactions took over, and he staggered to his feet. Adrenaline took a whetstone to his senses, and the world sharpened into painful clarity. When it did, he noticed several things simultaneously.

One, Luminara was still struggling to her feet. He couldn't see how badly she was injured, but there was a smear of blood where she had been lying. Two, the explosion looked to have rendered Aurra unconscious. In a way, that was fortunate, as it meant one less variable to consider. The last thing he needed was her trying to escape while he dealt with their attackers. Third was that the bomb which had destroyed their ship had also ripped a hole in the hangar wall, letting in the noise of the endless air traffic outside. Finally, he noticed the figures he'd seen through the smoke. Five of them were small and reptilian; less than 1.5 meters tall, with wrinkled blue and green skin, stubby limbs, and bulbous eyes. He thought they might be Gossams. Each of them was clad in high end tactical gear and carrying blaster rifles. That on its own would have been concerning enough, but it was the lead figure who captured most of his attention. Unlike her compatriots, she was tall, with humanoid proportions. Very female proportions at that. Her physical appearance was a mere backdrop to her presence in the Force, though.

Jiraiya had felt all manner of beings in the Force since Yoda had taken him as a Padawan, from charitable doctors to corrupt Senators to psychotic murderers, but this was the first time he'd ever encountered a true Darksider. Whoever she was, she radiated icy hatred and cruelty like a star did heat. Even Aurra hadn't stank of such concentrated malice, though if that was due to her weakened condition or her limited training, he didn't know. It reminded him strongly of Orochimaru's chakra, though perhaps not quite so foul. He wasn't sure who these people were or why they were attacking them, but the presence of a trained Darksider spoke to much more than some local gang war. He took in everything in a second and made a decision. For the moment, curiosity took a backseat to his wariness, and he moved to guard the still-dazed Luminara, and not a moment too soon, either. The Gossams opened fire the instant he moved, and suddenly his blade was the only thing between his partner and a violent death. As it turned out, that was exactly what their attackers were counting on.

The Darksider raised a hand, and Aurra's semi-conscious form slid across the floor towards her. Jiraiya was too preoccupied with guarding Luminara to notice until she was already out of reach.

"Damn it," he swore as he batted away another flurry of blaster fire. Whoever the shooters were, they were exceedingly skilled. He didn't have the attention to spare while he defended Luminara, and there was no way he could leave her to die for the sake of a piece of shit like Aurra Sing. Fortunately, the decision quickly became a lot simpler.

"Press forward," he heard from behind him. When he risked a glance, he saw Luminara rising to her feet, lightsaber in hand. Her face was pale and there was blood on her robes, but her eyes were alert and her voice steady. When he didn't move, she shot him a sharp look. "I'm fine. We can't let Sing get away."

Without further ado, she ignited her lightsaber and marched forward. Her defensive style proved more effective against the coordinated fire than his own Form I and she rapidly gained ground on the shooters. While she kept them occupied, Jiraiya took advantage of the sudden breathing room to focus on the Darksider who'd taken Aurra. She was making her escape towards the hole blown in the hangar wall, a hole that opened right into a speeder lane.

"Oh, no you don't." He left Luminara to handle the Gossam and jumped to intercept the bald woman. His leap carried him over the firefight and straight down towards the retreating figure, a rasengan already forming in his hand. At the very last moment, she Force pushed Aurra towards the hole and spun out of the way with a grace he'd only seen from Jedi Knights and elite jōnin. His rasengan missed her by centimeters and carved a shallow crater into the floor before he dispelled it. Two curved lightsaber hilts appeared in her hands, and crimson light spilled across the ground as the blades ignited. In one smooth motion, she completed her spin and swung to slice him in three. She was fast, faster than most Jedi, but still not as fast as him. Her blades met his with a crackle of opposing energy streams. With a grunt, he pushed forward and sent her stumbling back a step. Her eyes widened when he overpowered her so easily, but she only hesitated for a split-second before she re-engaged with a savage cry.

"Move, you fool," she yelled to the now upright Aurra. "Get to the speeder if you want to live." Aurra stumbled off towards the open wall.

In the first three blows, Jiraiya could tell she'd been exquisitely trained by a master of the blade. Her attacks were powerful, swift, and well-timed. She feinted well enough that her follow up stab nearly caught him in the knee. She was even able to redirect the force of his blows rather than take them head on. However, she had a long way to go before she reached mastery. There was a slight sloppiness to her blade work, a lack of precision that spoke to her youth and inexperience. She was very good, better than many Jedi Knights, but Jiraiya had been fighting for almost 50 years. Some of the greatest warriors ever to live had acknowledged his skill, and he quickly set about demonstrating why.

When her next strike came in to decapitate him, he batted her lightsaber away like an errant blade of grass. Her other blade came around, but not quickly enough. With a single downward swipe, he chopped the lightsaber in half. She yelped and dropped the sparking remains of the weapon when his blade scorched her fingers. Before she could follow up with her remaining lightsaber, he planted a spin kick in the center of her chest. Several of her ribs broke under his boot with an audible crunch, and a few flecks of blood sprayed out of her mouth. She went flying right into Aurra Sing's back, and the two of them went sprawling across the floor.

Jiraiya didn't hesitate to press his advantage. The bald Darksider used the Force to fling a piece of rubble at his head, but he ducked under it with ease. It gave her just enough time to find her feet, though, not that it did her much good. She was on the back foot the moment they crossed blades once more. He pushed forward relentlessly, never giving her a moment to breathe. With every blow, she got angrier and angrier. He could feel her presence in the Force, previously tightly controlled, grow into a wild storm of the Dark side. Her once precise swordsmanship degenerated into near-feral brutality. She seemed to gain strength from her rage, however. As she drew more and more on the Dark side, his blows no longer sent her sliding back across the floor. Finally, she caught his blade in a saber lock. Green and red beams of plasma cracked between them as they each tried to push the other's blade into their face. The mystery woman's eyes burned yellow, and a bloodthirsty grin twisted her face. She wore a look of savage joy as she pressed in to take his head from his shoulders. It was exactly what Jiraiya had been waiting for.

He reinforced his limbs with chakra and kept his right hand on his saber to keep the scarlet blade at bay. In his left hand, he formed another rasengan and drove it into the Darksider's stomach. It wasn't powerful enough to kill (he wanted to ask her some questions), but it was hardly a gentle massage for her organs, either.

"Aaaiirrgh!" Blood and saliva flew out of her mouth, and her face screwed up in agony. The glowing orb of chakra lifted her off her feet and sent her flipping through the air. It was a testament to her training that she landed on her feet, but that looked to be the extent of her endurance. She doubled over and collapsed to one knee, clutching her stomach and retching. Her breath came in heaving gasps. Jiraiya pulled her lightsaber out of her hand with the Force and tucked it into his robe. Her glare was as poisonous as Orochimaru's snakes, but he ignored it. He'd been glared at by genuine artists of dirty looks. Compared to the likes of a Hyuuga or an Uchiha, let alone Tsunade, her glower was little more than a mild squint. He leveled his own lightsaber at her throat.

"Surrender. It's over."

She sneered. "You Jedi are even more foolish than I'd imagined. Over? This is just the beginning."

His danger sense spiked, but it was too late. He had just enough time to turn around before something made of metal hit him harder than he'd ever been hit by anyone or anything who wasn't Tsunade Senju. Not even Hanzo had dealt him so mighty a blow. The world briefly turned into a glowing furnace of pain. He came to when he slammed into the opposite wall hard enough to crack the duracrete. Even with the chakra he'd automatically used to reinforce his body, he felt his entire skeleton creak. Stars exploded in his vision and he slumped to the ground, his head spinning. It took a second for his diaphragm to remember how to do its job and force air back into his lungs.

When he shook the spots from his vision, he was just in time to see Aurra and the mysterious bald woman vanish into a speeder. The vehicle sped off as soon as they were in.

"Kriff," he muttered. That was all the time he could spare to bemoan their escape, though. The sight of the being who had punched him clean across the hangar occupied the rest of his attention. Whoever or whatever it was stood next to the burning wreckage of his ship. It was large, standing over 3 meters high and nearly as broad across the chest, and roughly humanoid. Jiraiya couldn't even guess at a species, though. Thick metal armor covered the hulking figure from head to toe, most of which fairly bristled with various weapons. The design was vaguely reminiscent of the samurai armor he'd seen during his travels in Tetsu no Kuni, but was bulkier and more covering. Not even the being's eyes were visible. The only way he knew it wasn't a droid was the arm that extended ten meters across the hangar to where he'd been standing when it had hit him. Aside from the metal gauntlet covering the fist, the arm was clearly organic. It was made up of countless pink and red tendrils all twisted together, like bare muscle fiber. The whole appendage pulsed regularly, as if to a heartbeat. As he watched, it retracted back into his attacker's shoulder until it matched the length of the other limb.

"Who are you?" Jiraiya asked. He couldn't tell through the helmet, but something told him the being beneath it had just smiled.

"Durge." The voice was masculine, but so heavily modulated as to be almost entirely artificial. No computer could replicate the undertones of malice and anticipation, though. Whoever this Durge was, he was looking forward to what came next. His name was all he said before he fired a wrist-mounted flechette launcher at him.

Much like his godson, Jiraiya had encountered flechette launchers before. They were a common choice of weapon among criminals who expected to run afoul of Jedi. So common, in fact, that he had practiced countering them. He shaped the Force into a broad cone in front of him, and the lethal blades deflected off to either side. It was a difficult technique, and it didn't provide perfect defense, but only a few blades snuck through to cut him. Compared to being turned into shredded meat, he would take it.

"Back off, Durge. You don't want to- whoa!" He didn't even have time to finish his sentence before he had to jump over a handful of thermal detonators. Durge had cooked them perfectly, leaving him no time to fling them back with the Force. The blast blew a hole in the floor, exposing the yawning chasm below. No sooner had he dodged than he was greeted by a storm of blaster bolts. In the split second he'd taken his eyes off him, Durge had produced a pair of large blaster pistols and opened fire right at where Jiraiya had dodged to. For the third time in less than an hour, Jiraiya had to defend himself from a withering assault of accurate fire. Fortunately, he wasn't alone for long.

Luminara had apparently finished mopping up the Gossam commandos, because she came up from off to his left to attack Durge. The hulking bounty hunter fired some sort of rocket at her from his gauntlet, but she shoved it aside with the Force. It blew yet another hole in the hangar floor and made the whole building shake. Then she was on him, like the wrath of the Kami themselves. It was beautiful to behold.

She must have been exhausted. They'd both been on their feet all day, but she'd also been maintaining a large-scale mind trick for half that time. She'd already fought her way through an entire squadron of Gossam commandos. There was no way she wasn't exhausted. If she was, though, Jiraiya couldn't tell. Durge was easily twice her height and ten times her weight, but she had him on the defensive in an instant. He activated some sort of red energy shields on his gauntlets to block her lightsaber, but it didn't look like it helped much. Every time he raised an arm to deflect a blow, it went somewhere else. In seconds, his armor bore the score marks of a dozen near misses. Eventually, he wasn't able to even manage that much. Luminara sidestepped a push kick, ducked under a wild haymaker, and sank her lightsaber into Durge's chest. The green blade pierced his armor like it was made of silk and emerged from his back in a spurt of steam and molten metal. For a moment, everything was still. Durge stayed frozen in place. Luminara kept her lightsaber impaled through his chest and stood there panting.

"Hehzhehzhehzz."

It took a few seconds for Jiraiya to identify what he was hearing. It wasn't until he saw Durge's shoulders shaking that he realized what it was. The enormous bounty hunter was laughing. He had a kriffing lightsaber burning a hole through his torso, and he was laughing.

"Is that all?" There was emotion in his voice now, but it wasn't anger or pain or fear. No, it was amusement. He found the entire situation hilarious. Something cold wormed its way into Jiraiya's gut, and he opened his mouth to warn Luminara to back up, to duck, to move. It was too late, though.

Durge's arms blurred, and there was a sound like a shovel slapping against a bag of wet duracrete. Luminara didn't even have time to cry out. One moment she had her opponent impaled and apparently defeated, the next he was holding her aloft by the neck. Her right shoulder was obviously dislocated, and her face was already swelling. Durge didn't bother gloating. He just drew a blaster and calmly pressed it against Luminara's temple.

The sight sparked something in Jiraiya, and he moved faster than he ever had before. Before he even realized he'd stood up, he was in front of Durge, lightsaber already in motion. In one strike, he destroyed the blaster pistol and severed the hand wrapped around Luminara's throat. She landed on her feet and ripped the newly amputated appendage from her neck with her good arm. Her eyes were a little glazed, and he could see her legs shaking a little, but she was still alive. That was all that mattered to him.

Durge's only reaction to having his hand sliced off was an irritated grunt. Once more, he moved with greater speed than should have been possible for any non-Jedi and rolled away from the two of them. His severed hand sprouted the same pink and red tendrils Jiraiya had seen earlier, and they snaked towards the fresh stump. Then, in defiance of all the laws of biology, they plunged into the stump, and the hand reattached itself.

'Well, that's just not fair,' Jiraiya thought. 'That's a little too reminiscent of Orochimaru. I thought I was done with shit like this when I left Tython.'

Once his wayward hand was back where it belonged, Durge's fingers extended and bent backwards like armored tentacles to flip open a panel on the vambrace to reveal some sort of remote. He keyed in a lightning fast command, all without looking down or ceasing his barrage of deadly fire. Jiraiya didn't know what he'd just done, but he doubted it was anything good.

He didn't have to wait long to find out. Only ten seconds passed before he felt the hum of a large repulsor engine shivering up his bones. The low bass pulse rumbled through the hangar and sent dust spiraling down from the ceiling. He only had a split second warning before a whole section of wall disintegrated under a withering burst of laser cannon fire. In the instant before the incoming wave of super-heated death consumed all of his focus, he saw the outline of a medium-sized ship hovering just outside the hangar. Naruto probably could have identified it at a glance, but all he could say for sure was that it had multiple laser cannons all spewing destruction into the already battered hangar.

The heavy fire raked between him and Luminara, throwing up smoke and chips of white hot duracrete. Cracks spidered across the walls and floor. They both dodged, but the force of the volley separated them. Like any good predator, Durge went after the weaker prey first. Right now, that was Luminara. He threw a pair of electrified bolos at her that crackled angrily as they spun through the air. She cut the first one in half with a clumsy swipe of her lightsaber, but she couldn't block the second. It coiled around her body and sent tendrils of electricity arcing through her. She screamed once and then fell silent and unconscious on the shattered ground, her limbs still convulsing from the shock.

Jiraiya cursed sulfurously, but he didn't dare let loose with any of his more destructive jutsu. The hangar was already crumbling around them as Durge's ship continued to pour more and more fire into the weakened structure. He worried any more damage would make the whole place collapse. He was safe where he was, as the remnants of the outer wall gave him cover, but the hangar was on the brink of falling to pieces. Worse, Nar Shaddaa didn't bother with housing regulations or residential zoning. The nearby area was a honeycomb of businesses, residences, and walkways. He could sense hundreds, maybe even thousands, of people just in the space immediately around them. If the hangar went down, he couldn't begin to guess how many sentients would die as it smashed its way through everything below. Capital of Hutt space or not, those people were innocent in this fight, and he couldn't go around setting their shops on fire or turning their bedroom floors into a swamp.

Durge had no such qualms, apparently. He launched a whole salvo of micro rockets from his wrist launcher. In response, Jiraiya blasted him into the burning wreckage of the Rigger-class ship with the strongest Force push he could muster on short notice, but it was too late. There were too many rockets to dodge, and trying to block them with a lightsaber would have been exceedingly foolish. Instead, he treated them like the flechettes from earlier and used the Force to direct them away from himself and, more importantly, Luminara. They detonated against the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling. The noise was unbelievable, and splinters of duracrete bit into his skin, but none of the deadly missiles landed close enough to either of them to do any actual harm. At the same time, the automatic fire from Durge's ship finally ceased when the bounty hunter slammed into the wreckage. That was the good news. The bad news was that the latest set of explosions finally proved too much for the battered hangar.

The whole structure lurched, and he could hear the squeal of durasteel shearing. Chunks of the ceiling collapsed and rained down, knocking even more holes into the floor. The hangar as a whole listed into the canyon-like gap between the building it was attached to and the building adjacent. Jiraiya had to use chakra to stick to the floor, or else he would have slid down the sudden slope and into empty space. Luminara was still unconscious, however, and her limp form rolled towards a hole in the floor. Jiraiya lunged forward to grab her, but he missed by a centimeter. She slid right past his outstretched hand and fell into the open void.

"No!" As he watched the hem of her robes slip out of sight, Jiraiya didn't hesitate to follow after her. He flipped around to the underside of the hangar floor and hung there, upside down, with chakra. Luminara had already fallen out of his reach, but he refused to let that cost him his partner.

Ever since he and Naruto had come to the Temple, Master Yoda had theorized it was possible to use the Force and chakra at the same time. They were the same thing at their core, just expressed very differently. There was no reason a Jedi couldn't generate at least some chakra while maintaining their connection to the larger Force. However, in the three and a half standard years since they had started their training, no one had managed it. Switching from the Force to chakra was easy now, but using both at the same time had, thus far, eluded him. Now, though, he was out of options. If he was to save Luminara, he needed both.

Jiraiya had always worked best under pressure. He was a firm believer in learning by doing and in necessity being the mother of all success. Now was the time to put those theories to the test, because saving Luminara was necessary. He had to catch her. It never even crossed his mind that he might fail. He reached out one hand to help his focus, while he simultaneously reached for the Force. The moment he did so, he felt his feet start to slip off the overhang he was stuck too. He divided his focus, keeping half his mind on maintaining his chakra flow while the other half kept searching for the Force. It felt like trying to look down both his ears at once while also playing a musical instrument, but the difficulty of the task was incidental. Necessity was on his side, and that was that.

Everything around him faded. Time stopped. The world went silent. Nothing existed except for him and Luminara. Memories of her filled his mind. Her dry wit, her prodigious skill, her subtle but still stunning smile. He focused every aspect of his being, mind, body and spirit, on saving her, and the Force answered his call. He felt most of his chakra reserves vanish, as they always did when he connected to the Force. However, for the first time, a little remained. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep him stuck to the bottom of the hangar. Conversely, his connection to the Force felt a bit weaker than normal. He didn't have time to figure out what, exactly, he had just done, however. As soon as he had a grasp on the Force, he reached out with his mind and grabbed Luminara. Once he'd stopped her fall, he levitated her up into his arms. As he swung himself back up through the hole, the hangar lurched further into the open air.

'Damn it. This whole place will come down if we fight anymore.' He didn't have time to move before Durge exploded out the tangle of slagged metal he'd pushed him into. Jiraiya grimaced at the sight. It had been hard enough to fight the mysterious bounty hunter with Luminara at his side. On sturdier ground, and without allies to defend, he felt confident he could have slain Durge in minutes. Now, though, with his partner unconscious and vulnerable, and the hangar rapidly falling to pieces, he wasn't willing to risk it. It was time to retreat and regroup. Fortunately, there was no shortage of potential exits. He shifted Luminara over his shoulder and tossed a flash bang and a smoke bomb in quick succession. Blinding light filled the hangar before thick, gray smoke choked the air. Durge must have shot blindly through the smokescreen, because a few blaster bolts sailed out of the murk towards where Jiraiya had been standing. He had long since moved, though, and none of the shots came near him. As he slipped out of the crumbling hangar and into a service tunnel of some sort, he heard Durge yell behind him. His robotic voice carried even over the sounds of the hangar falling apart.

"I will find you, Jedi. Every hunter on Nar Shaddaa is looking for you, but I will be the one to find you. I hope you give better sport when I do."

Jiraiya snorted as he rushed through the tunnel. He'd heard warnings like that countless times in his life. They had long since lost any power to frighten him. "Look if you want, hunter. We'll see who the prey really is."

OoOoOoOoOoOoO

A long time ago, near the beginning of this story, a reviewer asked me if I was going to include Durge. At the time, I said no. He wasn't a character I'd ever found very compelling, and I didn't see a place for him in my plans at the time. Imagine my surprise when he turned up, uninvited, to Nar Shaddaa, and absolutely wrecked everything. In seriousness, I realized fairly quickly while writing this chapter that Ventress could not believably take on either Jiraiya or Luminara, let alone both, and get away with Aurra Sing. At this point, she's weaker than we ever see her during the Clone War. Even at her peak, though, Jiraiya would smash her to paste. Initially, I planned on having some OC bounty hunter be the one to distract Jiraiya, but a quick wiki search led me, once again, to Durge, and thus he became Dooku's contact on Nar Shaddaa.

I'm far from an expert on his character, though, so I've taken what I liked of his canon history and personality and welded it into a character I can work with. I took most of my inspiration for his demeanor from the old, 2D Clone Wars cartoon. I liked his creepy, unspeaking presence in that, so I ran with it.

To be clear, I did not nerf Jiraiya in this chapter. When he thinks he could beat Durge in minutes on more even ground, he's not exaggerating. However, most of his power moves require chakra, and they're all extremely destructive. Refusing to put civilians in harm's way does give the bad guys an advantage, and Durge took it and ran with it. Make no mistake, he's dangerous, and this is far from the last time he'll be making an appearance.

Please, leave a review and let me know what you thought of the chapter. In particular, I'd love to know if my portrayal of Durge was good or not. If you have any questions, make sure you're logged in with PM's and email notifications turned on, or I can't respond. Thank you, and I'll see you next time.