Well, here it is. The long awaited first chapter in the Clone Wars era. For those of you who don't know, I moved while I was writing this chapter, which took up pretty much all of my time for about three weeks. Sorry the chapter was so delayed, but it is what it is. It was only yesterday that I finally found my laptop so I could do the last edits on this before putting it out for you. A bunch of people speculated that this story was dead, but I can assure you it is very much alive and healthy. I can't promise never to abandon a story, but I can say I'll never do so without marking it as dead first.
The response to my last chapter exceeded any expectations I could have had, so thank you to all those who left reviews. It was by far my most reviewed chapter to date, eclipsing even the infamous chapter 30. On the subject of the last chapter, though, rather embarrassingly. I forgot to include a pretty important scene and didn't notice until I was editing this chapter together. It's in there now, and explains what happened with Fay and why she seemed to just vanish as soon as they arrived at the Temple. If you have time, please go back and read it.
Before we get into the actual text of this chapter, though, I've put together a quick(ish) summary of the events of Part 1 of this story to catch up new readers and refresh old ones. Feel free to skip it if you don't need a reminder. If you're new and starting here, that's fine, but you will miss out on some character and worldbuilding.
As always, please support Ukraine however you can. Now, on to the story.
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Summary
A few days into their training trip, Jiraiya tells Naruto the truth about his parents and his own role as his godfather. Naruto chooses to forgive him, and accepts him as family. Jiraiya also reveals Tsunade promoted Naruto to chunin after the Sasuke retrieval mission, and gives him a gift from Kakashi containing a standard Konoha chunin outfit, some armored gauntlets, face masks, and a letter in which Kakashi congratulates him and encourages him to represent his teachings on his travels.
Two weeks later, after a training session, a mysterious light knocks both of them unconscious. Unbeknownst to them, on Mortis, the Daughter nearly collapses from the effort of summoning them to help her combat the coming darkness. When they wake up, there are two moons in the sky and the Kyuubi reveals they've been transported 50,000 years into the future. Jiraiya summons the Toad elders, who confirm this, and state there's no way for them to go back to their own time. Unsure of what to do, they set off towards Konoha, only to find the village completely gone. The only signs it existed are the weathered remains of the Hokage monument, now sporting dozens of heads, including both Tsunade and Kakashi. Hoping to find some trace of human civilization, they head towards the coast.
Meanwhile, their arrival caused a massive disturbance in the Force that granted many Jedi visions of the future, as well as the present. Yoda sees the disturbance originated on Tython, and the Council dispatches Jedi Knight Quinlan Vos and his Padawan Aayla Secura aboard an ExplorCorps ship to investigate. After a week of difficult navigation, they arrive and find Naruto and Jiraiya on the planet. Before they can do more than introduce themselves, a group of Flesh Raiders attacks them. During the battle, Naruto almost loses control of the Kyuubi, and is knocked out while distracted. Aayla saves him, but is wounded in the process. Naruto saves her in turn, and he and Jiraiya accompany Quinlan aboard their ship to get her medical attention. Quinlan, using the Force to translate, explains the basics of the Republic and the Jedi, and has a science droid once again confirm they really are from the past. He offers to take them to Coruscant to see if the Council can help them somehow. They agree, and Naruto vows never to use the Kyuubi's power again after the way it nearly got him and Aayla killed.
The return journey takes three weeks, during which time Naruto and Jiraiya start learning Basic, and Naruto befriends Aayla. They also reveal the truth of their former profession as shinobi, which gives Quinlan pause. He decides not to judge them for their pasts, but warns them not to use their skills for evil.
When they arrive on Coruscant, the Yaddle takes them to the Council, and eventually proposes they be accepted for training as Jedi. She believes the Order has become too stagnant and dogmatic. Yoda agrees, believing it the best way of keeping them out of the hands of the Sith. Mace Windu also supports the idea, because he feels the Force calling him to take Naruto as his Padawan. In the end, they propose to give them a year of education at the Temple as Initiates before giving them the Padawan trials. Naruto is assigned to the Clawmouse clan as a new youngling, where he quickly befriends Barriss Offee and Ahsoka Tano, as well as a Viir, the youngest member of the clan. Yoda determines that chakra is simply another way of using the Force, by combining it with the organic energy of a living being, and starts to teach both Naruto and Jiraiya how to use the Force as Jedi do. He also encourages Anakin to befriend and mentor Naruto, and apologizes to him for how he was treated when he first came to the Temple.
Anakin reveals he had visions of his mother dying on Tatooine. Yoda agrees to have her freed and brought to Coruscant. A few days later, Anakin meets Naruto, and they bond over their crappy childhoods. Anakin takes note of Naruto's poor engineering skills, and agrees to tutor him in mechanics.
Four months later, Naruto wakes Ahsoka up early so he can show her an abandoned tunnel system he discovered deep in the Temple. While they're exploring, the floor collapses beneath them, and they wind up falling in the canyon between two buildings. Naruto summons Gamaken to save them just like he did with Gamabunta back home, but they still wind up all the way down on level 1 of the Coruscant megacity; a dark, polluted wasteland abandoned millennia earlier and now populated only by monsters and vicious beasts. After they escape attacks from hive rats and Cthon, they manage to find a dilapidated speeder to fix up and send a messenger Toad to Jiraiya.
Meanwhile, Jiraiya meets Luminara Unduli. During a sparring match, she expresses concern over how emotional he and his godson are, and how dismissive he is of the Jedi Code. After he beats her in the spar and makes a few good points in their debate, she invites him to share tea and discuss his views further. When the messenger Toad appears and tells them of Naruto and Ahsoka's predicament, Luminara takes a speeder with Jiriaya to rescue them.
While they're fixing the speeder, a group of Coruscani ogres attack Naruto and Ahsoka. Naruto holds them off, but is injured in the process. Ahsoka rescues him, and flies them out of level 1. While he is unconscious, Naruto speaks to the Kyuubi, who mocks him for not using its power against the ogres.
Ahsoka wakes Naruto up and splints his broken arm. Together, they manage to navigate back to the inhabited levels, but the speeder begins to fail before they get back to the Temple. Ahsoka makes a crash landing on a nearby landing pad, where they are immediately attacked by a slaving gang. Outnumbered and unarmed, they run and hide in a nearby building. Unwilling to leave the slavers' victims to their fate, they plan a rescue attempt. They infiltrate the slavers' base, and Naruto distracts the thugs while Ahsoka leads the freed slaves out of the compound. She makes it to the landing platform before they're ambushed by a Black Sun patrol coming to collect the slaves. Naruto, using the Force without meditating for the first time, rips up the floor to create a barrier and gives them cover. Luminara and Jiraiya show up to deal with the slavers and evacuate them all back to the Temple.
Meanwhile, Anakin's mother has been brought back to Coruscant, and they reunite. As the turmoil within him fades, Sidious plots to test these new arrivals and get a better idea of their strength. He decides to use Granta Omega as a pawn to study Naruto's power and gauge his potential. Anakin, grateful that Naruto went to such lengths to free the slaves, invites him to meet his mother and have dinner with them.
Eight months later, Naruto is tutoring Barriss in engineering and Jiraiya is teaching a class on how to use chakra for a select few Knights and Masters. Naruto and Jiraiya pass the Initiate trials and the Council sends them to Ilum to find their kyber crystals. Luminara escorts them on the trip. While in the crystal cave, they both face their grief over the loss of their home and their guilt over the unknown fates of their former friends and companions. Naruto also has a vision of the Son, who mocks his desire to serve the Light, and the Daughter, who promises him answers later. Naruto's lightsaber is orange with a copper hilt, while Jiraiya's is green with a wooden hilt.
While in the caves, Jiraiya also came to the realization that, over the last eight months of their friendship, he's come to see Luminara as more than just a friend.
When they return to the Coruscant, Anakin sneaks Naruto, Jiraiya, Ahsoka, and Obi-Wan out of the Temple to have a celebratory dinner with his mother at her apartment. Ahsoka, unhappy that her best friend will be leaving the clan, vows to get as strong as possible to catch up to him so she can have his back. Jiraiya also tests everyone's elemental affinity. Naruto has wind, Anakin and Ahsoka have fire, and Obi-Wan has earth.
When they meet with the Council, Mace officially takes Naruto as his Padawan, while Yoda takes on Jiraiya. Mace also steps down as Master of the Order, and Yarael Poof takes his place.
Naruto's first off-world mission as a Padawan is to Naboo. A series of disappearances and terrorist attacks threaten to destabilize the election of a new monarch, and Chancellor Palpatine personally asks the Jedi to intervene. When Anakin hears about it, he makes Naruto promise to keep Padmé safe. Once they arrive at Theed palace, Mace assigns Naruto to guard Padmé while he investigates the attacks. During an unscheduled public appearance, a group of people attack the Queen and her handmaidens. Naruto gets them to safety and defeats the attackers, but they all die of some mysterious mental and physical ailment. The feeling of their deaths through the Force traumatizes him, and Mace determines he's developing empathic Force abilities.
An exhaustive autopsy of the attackers determines they were given a drug which left them highly suggestible, but also damaged their brains and killed them when they weren't given another dose. Naruto suspects one of the candidates in the election, Deyne Tapalo, and Mace has him follow him to find proof. After a few days, Naruto witnesses Deyne and a Black Sun operative on a holocall and arrests him. Deyne reveals Black Sun wants control of Naboo, and offered to get him elected king if promised to let them do as they would under his reign. He supplied them victims to drug and use to stage the attacks, which bolstered his platform of increased security and military power.
After he gives up the location of the Black Sun base, Naruto and Mace take a group of Royal Guards to rescue the prisoners still inside. They battle their way through repurposed B1 battle droids and Black Sun soldiers until they reach the control center, where they find Jenna Zan Arbor. Naruto senses the prisoners are being tortured and runs off without backup to save them, while Mace pursues Zan Arbor. She shows him a bio weapon she's built and armed as a failsafe. While he works to disarm it, she escapes.
Naruto finds the prisoners, but Granta Omega ambushes him with three prototype magnaguards. He reveals he was using Black Sun's funding to develop the brainwashing drug to use against the Jedi Order. Naruto stops him from escaping, but is badly wounded fighting the magnaguards. Mace arrives at the last second to save him.
While Naruto recovers, Palpatine has Granta Omega and the Black Sun operatives extradited to Coruscant, and then fakes their deaths to bring Omega to Mount Tantiss. When Naruto wakes up, he convinces Padmé to contact Anakin for the first time since they parted ways.
Two years later, Naruto has grown into a well known and respected Padawan. His former clanmates, meanwhile, are nearing their own Initiate trials. Ahsoka brings Viir to him so he can help her with her unarmed combat. They spend a few hours sparring, and Naruto helps Viir overcome her lack of confidence in her fighting abilities. After they finish sparring, she hugs him and admits she thinks of him as an older brother, just as he thinks of her as a little sister.
After the Clawmouse clan passes their trials, the Council assigns Naruto as their guide on the Gathering for his first solo mission. At the same time, the leader of Black Sun hired Aurra Sing to kill Naruto as revenge for foiling their plans on Naboo and elsewhere. On the way to Ilum,Naruto answers some questions from Barriss and Ahsoka, who reveals no one has offered to take her as a Padawan yet.
When the Crucible drops out of hyperspace over Rago to plot a new jump, Aurra and a group of Death Watch commandos she hired to help her ambush the ship. Naruto gets everyone else to the escape pods, but has to screen their escape and makes a crash landing. Down on the planet, he fights one group of Mandalorians while Ahsoka and the others fight another. Aurra brutally defeats the Initiates and takes them hostage. She offers their lives in exchange for Naruto, but when he goes to make the exchange, Viir tries to save him and the lead Mandalorian (Pre Vizsla) fatally shoots her. As he watches her die in front of him, Naruto taps into Kyuubi's power and loses control.
In the confusion Ahsoka kills one of the Mandalorians and watches as Naruto goes into his Four-tailed cloak and rips the other Mandalorians apart. Only Aurra, Pre, and Gar Saxon manage to escape, though Aurra loses an arm. After he kills the Mandalorians, he turns his attention to her. She tries to calm him down, but he lashes out at her. One of her clanmates saves her from death, but she still takes a wound.
In his mindscape, Naruto hears her calling out to him, and finds the strength to fight against the Kyuubi. With the help of the Daughter, he retakes control of his body, only to immediately pass out from the strain of having his skin burned off. Ahsoka is left alone to tend to her badly wounded companions.
While this is happening, Jedi Master Fay senses the Force telling her to go to Rago. When she arrives, she stabilizes the wounded and takes them all to nearby Ansion for medical care. At the hospital, she separates Naruto and Ahsoka from the others to deal with the traces of bijuu chakra still in their system. The chakra interferes with her healing and disrupts their connection to the Force until she removes it.
When he wakes up, Naruto gives his report to Yoda, Mace, and Jiraiya, who encourage him not to blame himself. Mace assured him Viir's death wasn't his fault, but is concerned by his willing use of the Kyuubi's power. By acting out of anger and deliberately seeking out such dark power, Naruto brushed against the Dark side. He leaves Naruto to meditate on his way forward while he attends a Council meeting to determine the Jedi's response. They decide to send Luminara and Jiraiya after Aurra Sing, and Fay suggests that Naruto face the Ordeal on Lothal to regain his balance.
Sidious, who arranged the entire attack in an attempt to kill Naruto, is displeased with the failure, but still has further plans for Aurra. He orders Dooku to dispatch Ventress to ensure the Jedi do not capture her. She is to take a squad of known Separatist-leaning military commandos, and reveal herself as a Sith-trained assasin, but is not to engage in direct combat with the Jedi. Dooku has her meet with a contact of his on Nar Shaddaa to set up the operation.
When Ahsoka wakes up, she and Naruto find comfort in each other's presence. She orders him not to blame himself for what happened, and she won't blame herself either. He agrees, and then reveals the truth about the Kyuubi and how it was sealed into him. After Viir's funeral, he tells the rest of the survivors. They all accept him anyway, and condemn those who would reject him.
Once he is healed enough to travel, Mace and Fay take him to the Lothal Temple. Once inside, he faces the Kyuubi, who dismisses his anger and derides his ignorance. Naruto listens to the story of how the Kyuubi was first sealed and why it hates humanity so much. In the end, he decides to let go of his hatred for the beast, and encourages it to do the same. He makes a deal, that so long as the Kyuubi doesn't try to take over anymore, he won't take its power and will release it when he dies. As a good faith gesture, he modifies the seal so the Kyuubi can experience the world with his senses rather than be locked in the dark. He warns the Kyuubi, though, that if he tries to take over or hurt his friends ever again, he'll seal him into a black hole. When he gets back to Mace and Fay, they accept his decision to seek a dialogue with the Kyuubi, and head back to Coruscant. Once there, he reunites with his friends. Anakin, who comforted Ahsoka earlier over her killing one of the Mandalorians, offers to take her as his Padawan when he is Knighted.
During this time Jiraiya gets word from Cid that Aurra is on Nar Shaddaa. Though it's technically illegal for Jedi to operate in Hutt territory without permission, he and Luminara choose to infiltrate the planet so they can arrest her. They disguise themselves as criminals and use a tracking Toad to locate Aurra. The assassin is still weak and delirious from her wounds and the bijuu chakra contamination, and doesn't put up much of a fight. Jiraiya places a Force dampening seal on her, and they bring her back to their ship, but Ventress springs her trap. She destroys their ship and snatches Aurra while they deal with the commandos. Jiraiya intercepts and defeats her, and takes one of her lightsabers, but Durge, Dooku's contact, attacks him and gives Ventress and Aurra time to escape. Jiraiya and Luminara fight Durge, but Luminara gets injured and the building they are in begins to collapse, and they both have to flee into the depths of Nar Shaddaa to regroup and plan their next move.
Jiraiya hides them in a shop Toad, and sends out clones that discover the Hutts have locked down the planet. Durge is leading every bounty hunter on Nar Shaddaa in a hunt to find them, and his is one of the only ships authorized to leave the system. Jiraiya initially plans to face Durge alone, but Luminara refuses to let him go on his own and confronts him about his feelings for her. He admits to them, and she admits she feels similarly, and kisses him. Over the course of their friendship, she has come to question the nature of attachment and its supposed dangers. They agree to work together to defeat Durge and steal his ship.
Jiraiya leaves a trail of breadcrumbs to lure Durge into an abandoned industrial area so they don't have to worry about collateral damage. When he arrives, Luminara distracts him while Jiraiya readies Sage Mode. Once he summons the elders and enters Sage Mode, he demolishes Durge with a Cho Odama Rasengan. They steal his ship and escape Nar Shaddaa, but after they leave, Durge begins to regenerate.
Back on Coruscant, the Senate has received word of the Jedi incursion on Nar Shaddaa, as well as the mysterious, lightsaber wielding assassin who attacked them. This has inflamed tensions between the Loyalist and Separatist factions, and cast doubt on the Jedi's neutrality in the dispute. Separatist leaders in the Senate are threatening secession.
When Jiraiya and Luminara arrive back to the Temple and give their report on what happened, the Council suspects Dooku could be a Sith Lord, and in league with Black Sun, but they have no proof to present to the Senate. In order to preserve the peace long enough for them to investigate further, they ask Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and Padmé to figure out how to frame their suspicions without inciting a war. With the help of Mina Bonteri and Chancellor Palpatine, they manage to convince both factions to consent to an investigation of the potential Sith menace. However, Palpatine introduces measures to give the Senate further authority over Jedi activities, supposedly to prevent future "miscommunications." Afterwards, Luminara invites Jiraiya back to her quarters for their first "date", which culminates in them having sex for the first time.
On Serreno, Dooku viciously punishes Asaaj for disobeying his directive not to engage in direct combat and for losing her lightsaber. When he asks her why he shouldn't kill her, she tells him about the seal she found on Aurra Sing. Dooku spares her and contacts Sidious, who demands to study the seal.
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Part II
Chapter 42
One year later
13 GRS (22 BBY)
Padmé Amidala, Galactic Senator, skilled diplomat, and former Queen of Naboo, let her head fall to her desk with a thump and let out a piteous groan. In front of her, a pile of data discs and holodocuments loomed sullenly. Despite the better part of 18 standard hours of work, the pile didn't look to have shrunk much. If anything, she'd swear it had grown. Anyone else in the room at the time would have heard a variety of uncharitable words, in a variety of languages, directed at the inventors of data discs, bureaucracy, and the human need for sleep. Fortunately for her dignified reputation, she was alone in her office.
"Long day?" A voice asked from beside her.
Or at least, she'd have sworn she was alone.
"Aaah!" She whirled around so fast the data discs went flying to the floor. A concealed vibroknife appeared in one hand, even as the other reached for the heavy potted spine fluff she kept on her desk. Whoever dared break into her office would find her a good deal more difficult prey than they could have suspected. They'd-
"Whoa, whoa. I surrender." Sandy brown hair, an easy lopsided grin, and two piercing sky-blue eyes left no doubt who "they" really were.
"Anakin!" She let out an explosive sigh and drew the humming blade away from his body, only to replace it with an accusing finger. "Fierfek. What is it with you Jedi and sneaking up on me? I swear, between you, Naruto, Ahsoka, and Jiraiya, it's a wonder I don't have any gray hairs."
"Hehe. Sorry about that." Anakin rubbed the back of his head in a gesture eerily reminiscent of his little brother. Really, she blamed Naruto for this. He'd been teaching the other Jedi some of the stealth tricks he'd picked up on his homeworld. Still, it was Anakin who'd made her jump this time, and so it was Anakin who got to bear the brunt of her displeasure.
"'Sorry' doesn't clean up the mess you made me make," she said pointedly, gesturing to the dozens of data discs scattered across her carpet. "Those were organized, Ani."
He winced at the look she gave him and hastily reached behind his back. She heard the now-familiar poof of something being released from a storage seal, and then he handed her a gently steaming ceramic mug. "I got this for you." He gave her a pleasing look as she took the mug.
At the first sip, the heavenly smell and taste of fresh caf filled her mouth. She glanced at him from the side of her eye as she swiftly drained half the mug. Once she'd gotten enough of the miracle elixir into her system, she stood up and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek. "Hmmm. You are forgiven."
As usual, he blushed pink when she kissed him. It was adorable, really, how easily she could fluster him. It was a reminder that, for all his strange Jedi powers and elite training, he was still mortal. Still a living, breathing person, rather than the cold marble perfection many Jedi projected.
"How did you even sneak up on me?" She asked as she sipped the rest of her caf.
"Um… I didn't?" She shot him a confused look, and he hastened to elaborate. "I rang your comm, but you didn't answer. I could sense you were inside, though, and the door wasn't locked, so I came in. You just didn't notice. So… tough day?"
She dragged a hand over her face and groaned. "Ugh. I needed this caf more than I thought. It's this conference with the CIS leadership. Planning has been a nightmare from start to finish. They just changed the venue again."
Anakin rolled his eyes and grimaced. "That's the fourth time. Where do they want to meet now?"
"Geonosis." To her surprise, she saw recognition in his eyes. "You've heard of it?"
"Yeah. It's less than a parsec from Tatooine. I don't know much about it, though."
"No one does." She gestured to the mess of data discs still strewn about her office. "I've been trying to find some information on it all day, but there's barely anything. Apparently, the native sentients are insectoid and highly xenophobic. They hardly ever leave their planet. However, there are reports of them having advanced weapons and large-scale industrial capabilities, but nothing confirmed. Still, Count Dooku swore this is the definite venue, so at least there's that."
Anakin snorted derisively, not that she blamed him. It had been her idea to arrange a face-to-face meeting with the leaders of the Separatist alliance, and she still firmly believed it was the best way to find lasting solutions to the problems both sides had with each other. Tensions had steadily simmered ever higher over the past year, but she refused to give in to the warmongering so many of her colleagues indulged in. Nevertheless, the difficulties involved in bringing the various Separatist leaders, who ranged from planetary rulers to corporate titans, to the table were as numerous as they were aggravating. She only hoped it would prove worth it in the end.
"Ani, don't be so quick to judge. These talks could be the first step on the road to reconciliation."
He shook his head and paced across the room. "Come on, do you really believe that? It's Dooku. He's a Sith Lord."
"Allegedly. There still isn't any proof, and he's been nothing but supportive of these talks." When he opened his mouth to retort, she held up a hand to stay his words. "I believe you, I do. But Count Dooku isn't the only voice at the table. The other Separatist leaders have legitimate grievances to take up with the Republic. I won't- can't leave them aside because of Dooku."
"They should have trusted the Chancellor!" He threw his hands up in the air, confused frustration etched across his face and body. "He was making progress against all the bureaucracy and corruption, but they didn't give him time to finish. If he'd just had the power to make people hear him, we wouldn't be in this mess."
She sighed, though in her heart she understood his point of view. He viewed the world in such uncomplicated terms. Good, bad. Light, dark. It was another trait he shared with his brother, and one that had propelled them both to become heroes of worlds and champions of those who could not champion their own causes. Yes, it was a point of view she understood, one she even admired. But it was not one she could share. The galaxy was too complex to untangle merely by demanding it be better.
"Ani, I know you and Chancellor Palpatine are friends, but there's a reason the Senate exists." She caught/ his eye as his pacing slowed. "No one can speak for everyone, and everyone's voice deserves to be heard."
He looked off into space for a long moment before he flopped into a chair with a groan. One hand idly tugged at his Padawan braid while the other tapped a ceaseless rhythm against his knee. After a while, he looked back at her.
"I know," he said. "You're right, as usual. It's just… I'm worried. You'll be in the same room as Dooku. There's no way it won't be some sort of trap."
She smiled at his concern. "That's why I've requested a Jedi escort. One well versed in diplomacy, but with extensive combat training and experience against Sith."
It took him a few moments to put it together, but when he did, a grin to rival any she'd seen on him stole across his face. The lights in the room looked brighter, and the colors more vivid. "Really? I'm going with you?"
"You and Obi-Wan, yes." She stood up and planted another kiss on his cheek. "I sent the request this morning. You probably left before Obi-Wan could tell you. So you see, I won't have anything to worry about. Now get out of here. I've still got work to do, and you're distracting me."
This time, he didn't blush in response to her kiss. Instead, he gave her a look that made her heart do a strange dance in her chest. "Oh? And how exactly am I distracting?" His voice was a low murmur, and his eyes held a heated intensity they hadn't just a few seconds ago. It made her suddenly and acutely aware that, since they'd reconnected, Anakin had grown into an extremely attractive man. Her breath hitched and heat suffused her face as now it was her turn to turn red. Without direction from her brain, her eyes drifted towards his lips. Just for a moment, she felt the fiery urge to lean down and capture them for herself. Fortunately, she caught herself before her sudden madness could turn to action.
As smoothly as she could, she reigned in her libido and turned the situation back on the one who'd so unbalanced her. Channeling some of the heat that still paced about her chest, she gave him a sultry smirk and leaned as close to his lips as she dared. Half a centimeter before she crossed the line from teasing into the awful, glorious, unknown beyond, she stopped and whispered just loud enough for him to hear. "Why don't you go meditate on it?"
He gulped and turned a shade of crimson typically seen only in ancient stars. She could practically feel the heat come off his face. "R-right," he stammered. "I'll do that. Yeah. Um, may the Force be with you."
As he walked out, she took a moment to more fully regain her composure before sinking into the chair he'd just vacated. His warmth still clung to the fabric, and it embraced her much as he often had. Despite her efforts, her breath still came a touch quicker than normal. Doubtless, if she looked in a mirror, she'd still see a tinge of pink in her cheeks.
'By the seas, what am I doing?' She asked herself. Her relationship with Anakin had been flirtatious more or less since they started talking once again. At first, it had been harmless; funny even. There'd been no true feeling behind it beyond friendship. She couldn't quite remember when that had changed. Nevertheless, change it had, on both their parts. His flirtations had turned serious first, but hers had followed in lockstep behind.
She'd told herself he was too young for her, and that had been true, at first. Now, though, at 19, and with the maturity of a soon to be Jedi Knight, that excuse rang increasingly hollow in her ears. Lately, she'd tried telling herself it was just too complicated. She was a Senator, while he was a Jedi, sworn against attachment (however lightly he held that particular oath) and bound to duty. The legal and political ramifications could be disastrous for both of them, she repeated over and over as he casually, unknowingly melted her heart or set it pounding. That, too, was likely true, but it seemed such a small thing in the face of how she felt.
'What do I even feel for him?' Now there was as thorny a question as any she'd called me across. They were friends; that much at least was beyond doubting. More than friends; that too was certain. How much more, though? Romance was one aspect of her life she'd left neglected. Her duties, first as Queen and now as Senator, had left her with time for little more than a handful of dates and a few physical dalliances as the sum total of her romantic experience. She trusted him with her life, sought his company when she was lonely or upset, and made time for him to do the same. He'd somehow become an essential part of her life without her even noticing. Still, she hesitated to put a label on the emotions that danced through her mind whenever she saw him, though whether from genuine ignorance or a fear of admitting the truth to herself she didn't want to contemplate.
'How does he feel?' There she was on both firmer and flimsier ground. He was attracted to her, she was sure. She strongly suspected his feelings ran deeper than that, yet he'd never pushed for anything more than what they had now. He'd never explicitly confessed to more than friendship, and yet he'd been the one to deepen their playful teasing into… whatever had just happened. Most of her was grateful that he'd never sought even an admission of mutual attraction from her, but a small part of her wished he would admit what she already suspected, because then at least she'd know. Anything would be better than this floundering uncertainty.
'Ugh, look at me,' she thought as she massaged her temples. 'Reduced to a blushing, nervous mess over a man. Pull yourself together, Padmé. You're better than this.'
With a series of sharp, satisfying pops, she cracked her neck and moved back to the pile of work on her desk. There would be time to dither over inconveniently handsome Jedi later. For now, she had a Republic to hold together, with sheer force of will if it came to it. As ever, duty came before any other consideration.
'Besides, I'll be spending plenty of time with Anakin on this trip. Even with the negotiations, there'll still be ample opportunity for us to talk then.' With that, she shook the image of Anakin from her mind and set to work. To her dismay, though, she only had another hour of peace before the comm on her desk chimed at her. She contemplated ignoring it until she saw the ident code. It was the Jedi Council. She answered the call, and a hologram of Master Yoda appeared over her desk.
"Master Jedi, this is an unexpected pleasure," she said as she bowed her head respectfully. Something about Yoda always made her feel like a child who'd just been called to the headmaster's office. His ancient eyes were a little too knowing, even through a hologram. "What can I do for you?"
"Hrrm, good to see you it is, Senator. Your presence is requested before the Jedi Council. A development there has been."
She frowned. "My mission to negotiate with-"
"Regarding your mission, this is," he said. His tone left it clear he was leaving out more than he was saying aloud. "Explain more, the Council will."
"Of course, Master," she said. What else could she say? When the head of the Jedi Order summoned you to appear before the Jedi High Council, you set a course for the Temple with all speed. "I'll be there within the hour."
"Thank you, Senator. See you then, I will."
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
As she walked up the steps of the Processional Way and into the main hall of the Temple, Padmé couldn't help but marvel at the graceful beauty and grandiose scale of everything around her. A sense of history, wisdom, and quiet power permeated the air around the ancient edifice, and it never failed to leave her in awe. Something about the place made one remember the Jedi Order was centuries older than even the Republic. Though she'd worked within sight of the Temple for years, now, she could still count on one hand the number of times she'd actually been inside.
It wasn't that the Jedi didn't allow outsiders into their home. The Temple operated one of the largest clinics on Coruscant, as well as a public museum, and anyone could get access to the famous Archives by appointment. People could also come to ask for the Jedi's aid directly. However, her duties as a Senator had precluded her from idle visits, even to the public sections.
Fortunately for her, a Temple Guard met her at the entrance and offered to escort her to the Council chambers. She agreed, not that she had much choice. Without a guide, she doubted she would find her way through the massive structure in less than a week. The Guard silently led her through the brightly lit stone hallways and into an elevator that climbed for what felt like an age. When she finally reached the entrance to the Council chambers, she found, much to her surprise, both Anakin and Obi-Wan waiting outside the door. Anakin looked at her with undisguised shock, while Obi-Wan merely raised an eyebrow.
"Senator Amidala," he said with a bow, ever the diplomat. "I must confess, I hadn't expected to see you here."
"I wasn't expecting to be here. Do you know what's going on?"
He shrugged. "I can only assume the Council has some new information to share regarding our upcoming mission. Anakin tells me we're to be your escort."
She nodded, but before she could say anything else, a bell chimed and the door to the Council hissed open. Obi-Wan went in first, and Anakin fell into step behind her as they walked into the room. For just a moment, she felt as though she'd walked into a sauna, though the temperature hadn't risen. The air felt thick and heavy, and her scalp tingled like she'd just walked under a live power conduit. Neither Anakin nor his master appeared to notice the atmosphere of leashed power in the room, but to her it was as obvious as a slap in the face. It wasn't frightening, but it was a poignant reminder that the beings seated around her ranked amongst the wisest and most powerful people in the entire galaxy. Then the feeling passed, the air became breathable again, and the pillars of power seated around her became mere flesh and blood. She didn't think they did it on purpose, but to Force null people like herself, there was often something vaguely unsettling about even a singular Jedi. An entire room of the strongest Jedi in the galaxy made for a disorienting experience at first. Nevertheless, she kept her composure and inclined her head to Master Yoda out of respect.
In what felt like the continuation of a day-long trend, she was surprised to see Naruto standing next to Master Windu's chair. He shot her a brief eye-smile as a greeting, but said nothing. Jiraiya, too, was present; standing next to Yoda's seat.
'What is going on here?' She wondered. 'This is more than just some diplomatic update.'
She didn't have long to wait for answers. No sooner had they stopped in the middle of the room than Yarael Poof addressed them.
"Thank you all for coming on such short notice. Before we begin, I have some good news. A few hours ago, Master Fay reported she has convinced the leadership of Denon to reject Count Dooku's overtures."
Padmé smiled at that, as did several of the councilors. Denon was a vital planet, both because of its position at the intersection of two major hyperlanes, and its vast economic power. If it had joined the Separatists, it would have been a political disaster for the Chancellor, and might have fatally weakened her position going into her upcoming negotiations on Geonosis.
Master Poof allowed them all a few seconds to appreciate the rare bit of good news before he continued on. "That said, we obviously did not ask you here simply to tell you that. To put matters simply, our investigation into Dooku has uncovered information you should know. Jiraiya will explain." He gestured with one hand and Jiraiya stepped forward. The white-haired Jedi gave her a respectful nod before he started.
"To catch you up, Senator, for the last year I've been investigating everything Dooku did in his last few years as a Jedi," Jiraiya said. "We needed to know how deep his treachery ran, and I believe I've found something important."
She nodded, her curiosity piqued. Thus far, the investigation into Dooku's potential Sith status had yielded no conclusive evidence. The Separatist faction, and even some among the Loyalists, had started calls to dismiss the entire thing as unfounded. Chancellor Palpatine had resisted, but a year without proof had eroded the initial support for the investigation. If new information had come to light, it could dramatically change the political landscape in the Senate.
"You think he may have already betrayed the Republic before he left the Order?"
"Unsure, we were," Yoda said. "Know now we do that he did."
Jiraiya tapped a button and a list of names, timestamps, and what looked like file numbers projected into the air in front of them. "In the year before he left the Order, Dooku and Master Sifo-Dyas began spending an increasing amount of time together. At the same time, Sifo-Dyas claimed to have a premonition of a war that would consume the Republic. He advocated for preemptive action, even building an army, but the Council dismissed the idea and he stepped down and left on a supposed meditative retreat for a time. He returned, but died on a mission to Felucia shortly after. Dooku resigned just months later, in the wake of Qui-Gon Jinn's death on Naboo."
Anakin and Obi-Wan both tensed and shifted uncomfortably at the mention of the fallen Master, and a pang of old, well-worn grief touched her own heart. Though she'd only known him for a short time, Qui-Gon had made a lasting impression with his selfless bravery, wisdom, and blunt insight. His death had come as the last in the long, cruel train of tragedies that had been the Occupation. She wasn't sure where Jiriaya was going with all this, though, but she kept silent and trusted he had a point.
"When I first retraced Dooku's footsteps from that time, I didn't find anything damning. It occurred to me, though, that he wouldn't be so stupid as to leave a trail in his own name, so I checked again. That's when I found this." He pressed another button and one of the holographic list items flashed yellow. "These are the Archive access logs from that time. According to them, Master Sifo-Dyas deleted a sizable file from the Archive memory."
"But you think Dooku did it?" Anakin asked.
Jiriaya nodded. "I do. Sifo-Dyas wasn't in the Temple on the day in question, and I asked Madame Nu about it as well. She said Dooku spoke with her in the Archives that day, before he went to retrieve a file from the memory banks. Just a few days later, the Council got news of Sifo-Dyas' death."
"Why would he use Master Sifo-Dyas as his cover if he wasn't even in the Temple?" Padmé asked. "It's hardly a convincing alibi."
Plo Koon answered her, his deep voice only slightly muffled by his respirator. "Very few Jedi have clearance to delete anything from the Archives. We believe Master Sifo-Dyas was the best option Dooku had at the time. If he was involved in his death, he knew Sifo-Dyas wouldn't be around to notice his access code had been used. Besides, even Madame Nu rarely checks these logs. Until a year ago, there was no reason to."
"What about the contents of the file?" She asked. "Do you know what he deleted?"
"We were only able to reconstruct a little of the data, but apparently he removed all information regarding a planet called Kamino." He pressed another button, and the list vanished. In its place was a star map, though she didn't recognize where of. With one finger, he pointed at an apparently empty piece of space. "I could only confirm its existence by its mass shadow in the ExplorCorps navcharts. It's well outside the Republic, on the edge of Wild Space. The only sources of information we have are rumors from deep space prospectors, so don't know much about it; only that the natives are reclusive and they supposedly have advanced cloning technology. We won't know anything for sure until Master Windu and Naruto go there and see for themselves."
Before he'd even finished talking, Padmé's mind was whirring with the ways she could use the information in her upcoming negotiations. 'Dooku is the glue holding the Separatist movement together. If I can convince the other leaders he's been keeping secrets from them, it may undermine his power. Even if they don't believe me, Dooku's reaction when I mention Kamino could tell me more.' It was only the first outlines of a strategy, and she would have to rush to incorporate it into her other plans, but it was still huge. For the first time, she could see a potential crack in the impeccable facade Dooku had built around himself. Then the last thing Jiraiya had said actually made its way into her brain.
"Go?" She glanced around as concern for her young friend swelled in her heart. Naruto didn't look at all worried, but his ideas about what was and wasn't dangerous made sense only to him and other lunatics like Anakin and Ahsoka. "You're going to this Kamino? It could be a trap."
"We must," Yarael Poof answered. "If Dooku wished this place kept secret, we need to know why. The Chancellor agreed when I informed him a few hours ago."
Before she could express her worry, Master Windu spoke up. "We appreciate your concern, Senator, but our safety is inconsequential compared to the safety of the galaxy. Right now, our best chance to prevent a war is to expose Dooku as a Sith. Whatever is on this planet may be the key to doing that. Naruto and I are prepared for what we may face."
She wanted to protest further, to argue that Naruto was too inexperienced, too young, too important to her to go on such a risky mission, but she bit her tongue. Ever since seeing him half-dead and covered in blood when Mace had brought him back from the Black Sun base on Naboo, she'd been protective of him. That instinct had only grown when she'd heard about the incident on Rago and seen how it had devastated him. He was too young and bright to see such horror. It hurt to watch any of her friends go into danger, as so many of them insisted on doing with alarming frequency, but she swallowed those feelings and kept them silent. Naruto was a Jedi Padawan and one of the most dutiful people she'd ever met. It wasn't her place to coddle him or decide how he should live, just as it wasn't her place to protect Anakin or Obi-Wan from every peril the galaxy had to offer.
She asked a few more questions, as did both Obi-Wan and Anakin. The other Council members also weighed in on potential strategies to win over some of the Separatist leaders. Many of them had been the Jedi Watchman of systems now following Dooku's banner, and their insights were welcome. In all, it was another thirty minutes before she left the Council chamber and returned to her speeder. She'd have liked the chance to see more of the Temple, but time was a precious resource these days, and she didn't have any to spend on sightseeing. There was a war to avert and a secret Sith Lord to outmaneuver. And to think she'd once worried her life as a Senator would be boring.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
It happened while she was meditating. Or rather, while she was supposed to be meditating. Anakin had told her to meditate, like the massive hypocrite that he was, but Ahsoka wasn't one for sitting still, and she'd been up half the night studying, so she might have gone from meditation to napping. She wasn't sure. Either way, it didn't change the vision.
She'd never had a vision before, so it took a moment to figure out that's what was happening. The Force flowed through her more intensely than she'd ever felt before, and it seemed as though she was standing in a field of gray mist. Light flickered around her, and a flurry of vague images and scenes shone through the fog. Most of them were too blurry to make out, but she caught a few. There was Naruto running through a tunnel. A sense of danger surrounded him before the scene faded into the mist. She also saw flashes of fighting, of some huge battle, though she couldn't make out the combatants. There were lightsabers, though. Then there was a brief glimpse of Naruto and Anakin, swords drawn, facing something she couldn't see. It was only visible for a second, but it didn't look like they were winning.
More and more images flashed before her eyes, coming faster and faster. They were abstract, even meaningless, but they wouldn't stop. A sun guttering out. The Temple standing alone on a barren wasteland. A hooded figure standing at the edge of a cliff. And fire. Fire everywhere, burning houses and forests and planets and stars. All of it accompanied by a background chorus of danger and darkness and mad, cackling laughter. It was too much, and her mind rebelled at the strain of so much information at once. Her head felt like it would split open if it lasted any longer, so, with a wrench of the Force, she tore herself out of the vision and back into the waking world.
Her eyes shot open, and she bolted upright with a gasp. Cold sweat poured down her face and arms, while her heart raced like she'd just sprinted from one end of the Temple to the other a dozen times. A warm, metallic taste filled her mouth, along with a fair bit of pain. She'd bit her tongue hard enough to bleed. It took her a few minutes to get her breathing back under control, and a few more before she felt steady enough to walk. Anakin had taught her a few cantrips for regaining composure, and she used one of them to help. The faint song of her lightsaber crystal, ever present in the back of her mind, moved to the foreground of her thoughts and helped steady the trembling in her limbs and soothe the pain behind her eyes.
'Karking hells,' she thought. 'I'd heard visions could take it out of you, but this is insane. My head feels like a Wookie tried to use it as a bolo-ball.'
The details of the vision were already fading from her mind. It took special training and experience for Jedi to process visions properly, and she was short on both. Nevertheless, she was confident about one thing. Naruto's upcoming mission was going to be a lot more complicated than anticipated. She wiped the sweat off her face and set off to find her trouble-prone best friend.
Finding Naruto wasn't difficult for her unless he was actively trying to hide. She just followed the symphony of his Force signature through the Temple until she came to one of the many meditation chambers scattered throughout the building. It was a long enough walk, though, for the initial burst of frenetic worry to fade, leaving her clear-headed enough to think rationally. She wasn't sure how to go about broaching the topic when she couldn't even remember any useful specifics. Naruto wasn't one to dismiss her opinion, but it galled her she could only offer a vague warning of danger.
'As if he doesn't already know going to Kamino might be dangerous,' she thought. 'That laserbrain would jump naked into a gundark nest if he thought it would help someone.'
The meditation chamber he'd chosen wasn't one she was familiar with, but she couldn't fault his taste. It resembled a miniature version of the Room of a Thousand Fountains. The smooth, polished stone of the hallway gave way to rough hewn floor and walls. Plants covered much of the floor, though they were more orderly than the carefully cultivated wilderness of the larger Fountain chamber. A single waterfall flowed from a crevice high in the back wall and spilled into a twenty meter wide pool that took up half the room. The fading light of sunset, artfully recreated with artificial windows, cast a peaceful orange hue over the entire room. Naruto was in the center of the pool, sitting on the water as easily as if it were granite. An open holocron hovered in front of his face, while several small stones and globs of water floated about his head in lazy patterns. Her sensitive hearing could pick up the cultured tones coming from the little blue figure over the holocron. She didn't recognize the voice, but it was saying something about the Senate.
Naruto himself was sitting completely still. Eerily still, even. With her echolocation, she could detect even the most minute movements around her, and he was just about as close to perfectly motionless as a living human could actually get. He'd been meditating like that a lot over the last year. She found it a little creepy, but whenever she asked him about it, he just told her he was working on a new technique and it was going to be awesome.
She shucked her shoes, channeled chakra to her feet, and stepped out onto the smooth water herself. The cool water felt pleasant against her bare feet, and she took a moment to relish the sensation. She didn't think she'd ever get bored with walking on water. Beneath the crystal surface, she could see the pebbles lining the bottom of the pool, as well as a few fish darting curiously about her toes. Off to her left, she saw the opening of an underwater tunnel disappearing into the gloom. 'This pool must connect to the Flooded Chambers,' she realized. Entire sections of the Temple were wholly submerged, to give partially and fully aquatic Jedi an environment more suitable to their biological needs.
After a few seconds, she tore herself away from the peaceful atmosphere and moved to where Naruto was still sitting. As she approached, the various rocks and orbs of water slowed to a halt and sank back into the pool. He plucked the holocron from the air and tucked it into his robes. "Hey, Ahsoka," he said, giving her a tired-looking eye-smile.
"Hey yourself." She flopped onto the water next to him and leaned against his larger frame. As always, the closeness sparked a flurry of contentment in her heart. She wasn't sure how to broach the topic of her vision, so she latched onto the nearest subject she could see. "What's on the holocron? Something to do with your new mission?"
He glanced at her sharply. "How'd you even-"
"Anakin told me," she said, waving off any follow-up questions. "Now, what's on the holocron?"
"You're unbelievable, you know that, right?" His words might have been offensive to anyone else, but she knew he meant them as a compliment. "It's a treatise Count Dooku made back when he was still a Jedi. It's about our responsibility to the people of the Republic over the Senate."
She leaned back and arched her brow. "Wait, you're listening to something Dooku said? Why? He's the enemy."
He sighed and looked away. "I know, but for the first few years after I came to the Temple, he was kinda a role model for me." When she just stared at him blankly, he kept talking. "He didn't always listen to the Council. He was always pushing the Jedi to accept new ideas and new beliefs, and he believed our duty to the citizens of the Republic was more important than our loyalty to the Senate."
By the time he finished, her initial shock had worn off, and she nodded slowly. Now that he actually explained, it made sense. "That sounds just like what you believe. But how'd he wind up turning evil if he was so… wise?"
"I don't know." He flopped back onto the water, sending small waves rippling outward. "Something must have gone wrong for him to lose his way so badly. He was a good man. I just hope there's some way to get him to come back to the Light."
For the second time in as many minutes, Ahsoka looked at her best friend with naked shock. She nearly lost control of her chakra and went plunging into the water. "You want to redeem Count Dooku?"
He looked at her with such hopeful determination it left her speechless. "Of course. Everyone deserves a chance, and I refuse to believe there's no good left in him. Sometimes, people get lost. I think it's a Jedi's duty to help those people back into the right path if we can."
As he so often did, Naruto spoke with such casual conviction that she couldn't help but believe him. 'How is he so… good?' She thought with a wry shake of her head. It made her heart swell with affection to see him so determined to find the good even in the worst people. For a moment, she got lost staring at his eyes and the steady, hopeful chorus in the Force that beat within him, until his voice snapped her back to reality.
"Um, Ahsoka? You still there?" His face was suddenly mere centimeters in front of hers, and he was giving her a concerned look. She felt her lekku burn in embarrassment at being caught staring at him like a moron. His proximity brought a strange lurch in her stomach, one she'd been feeling more and more around him. It… wasn't unpleasant. Still, it wouldn't do to act like an idiot.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm fine. Just… you're kind of amazing." She wanted to wince at how corny it sounded, but it was the truth. Sometimes, for all that he was a hyperactive doofus with a ramen obsession and a relaxed attitude towards rules, Naruto could also be one of the most inspiring people in the galaxy.
Apparently, he also was still easily embarrassed, judging by the blush that crept over his mask and the way his eyes widened in shock. "I'm- Ahsoka, don't…" He swallowed and looked her straight in the eyes. Even if she hadn't been able to sense his gratitude through the Force, she could see it in his eyes as clear as Alderaanian crystal. "Thanks, 'Soka."
"You're welcome." She reached out and cupped his cheek with one hand. He automatically leaned into the touch and put a hand over hers. Her heartbeat sped up a little as they sat there, basking in the warmth of just being, and her stomach did the strange lurching thing again. It was hard to focus with so many distractions, and, for just a moment, her chakra control slipped. The water around her splashed and she sank a few centimeters, soaking her skirt and leggings, before she managed to correct her lapse in concentration. The whole thing lasted for barely a second, but Naruto, who could be inconveniently observant at times, noticed anyway. Because he was her best friend, he quickly checked over her to make sure she was alright. Once he saw she was fine, because he was a prank-pulling goblin of a person, he smirked beneath his mask.
"Problems?" He asked in a maddeningly polite tone of voice.
"Shut up," she mumbled, determined to look anywhere but at his stupid face. "I'm fine."
"Really? 'Cause it looks like you tried to take a swim. Maybe your chakra control needs work."
She grit her teeth and tried to list all the reasons it would be wrong to drown her best friend. At the moment, it wasn't a very long list. "There's nothing wrong with my chakra control. Maybe I wanted to take a swim?"
If she'd been looking at his face rather than the ceiling, she probably would have realized her mistake sooner. As it was, his tone of voice was her only warning. "Oh?"
She turned to look at him. "Wait, n-"
It was too late, however. He tapped the surface and channeled a burst of water chakra under her. She hadn't yet mastered channeling chakra while maintaining a connection to the Force, so her reactions were too slow. The sudden pulse disrupted her own chakra flow, and with a startled shriek, she plunged into the pool. The water wasn't too cold, thankfully, but it was still a shock. She kicked back to the surface, where her traitorous best friend was convulsing with poorly suppressed hoots of laughter. The moment her head breached the water, she started yelling at him.
"Kriff! Naruto, you son of a Hutt! What's the big idea?"
"What are you upset about? You said you wanted to swim, so I helped you out." He tried to give her an innocent look, but his facial muscles couldn't quite pull it off. Not when he was trying so hard not to burst out laughing, and without much success.
"Oh, so that's how you want to play this," she said. "Fine." Using the Force, she took control of the water underneath him. Trying to move him directly would be an exercise in futility, but not even he could stay atop the water when it churned into a miniature whirlpool beneath him. He followed her into the cool water, and the moment he stuck his head up, she directed a wave right into his face. His garbled curses were music to her montrals, and she grinned maniacally as he floundered about.
"Oi oi oi, hold your fire, hold your fire," he yelled. "I surrender."
Normally, she would have never considered letting him go until she'd paid him back in full for pranking her, but a soaking wet Naruto made for a surprisingly cute sight. His hair had grown almost back to its old length during the past year, and now hung in dripping locks over his eyes. Overall, he resembled a half-drowned tooka, right down to the air of pathetic pleading, and against her better judgment, she paused in her watery assault. Still, it was always best to double-check. "You promise?"
To her dismay, she caught the devious look in his eyes as he shook his hair out of his face. "Nope," he said, before a wave almost as tall as her swamped her vision.
"Aw, sh-" was all she had time for before the water crashed down on her head. For a moment, it blurred out her echolocation, so it came as a surprise when Naruto appeared right in front of her, laughing uproariously with his arms outstretched to grapple. Never one to back down from a challenge, she dove into the fray with a battle cry that would have been quite fierce if her nose hadn't been full of water. As it was, it sounded more like a kybuck sneezing than any sort of call to action.
Before long, any genuine pugilism in their mock underwater wrestling match faded. Instead, it turned into a gloriously chaotic mix of a splash fight, a grappling competition, and an amped up version of push-pull, but with water. Their laughter echoed off the stone walls of the meditation chamber, which she suspected had never been party to such unmeditative activity before. The thought of what someone like Master Rancisis would say if he could see their antics had her nearly swallow a mouthful of water, she laughed so hard.
Eventually, their friendly duel wound down, though neither of them made any move to exit the pool, or even get back onto the water's surface. As she caught her breath after their last exchange, Ahsoka became suddenly and acutely aware of three things. One, she was very close to her best friend. Two, 'best friend' was rapidly becoming an insufficient descriptor for what he was to her. Three, he was about to go on a mission into the unknown, following the trail of a likely Sith Lord.
"Naruto?" She said. He pushed his hair out of his eyes and nodded. "Be careful on this mission, okay? It could be a trap."
He nodded, his eyes serious. "I know. I'll be fine, I promise." As he said it, he gave her another eye smile that made her feel warm, even in the cool water. "It's me, remember?"
She snorted. "Why do you think I was worried? You attract even more trouble than Anakin."
"Hey," he protested. "You like that about me."
His words were so ridiculous she giggled. "I suppose." All the humor drained from her face in an instant as she remembered her earlier feeling. "Seriously, though. Don't do anything stupid. I have a bad feeling about this mission. There was a vision, sort of. I don't remember much of it, but it was bad. Something's gonna go wrong. Really wrong. I just- I don't want to lose you."
As she said the words, Naruto gave her a look she'd never seen before. It was intense, but also… nice? She wasn't sure if that was the right word. It brought back that lurch in her stomach and a warmth in her chest. His eyes, so vibrantly, beautifully blue she realized, as if seeing them for the first time, peered right into the depths of her. Words died on her tongue as she looked into those cerulean windows into his soul. Her lips parted, and her heartbeat pounded in her montrals like a drum. She could feel some sort of intense emotion behind his shields, but her senses weren't anything like as acute as his empathy. Before she could even think to ask what was going on in his head, he leaned forward towards her face. She realized what he was about to do, and he gave her time to move away, to turn her head, to do something, but she didn't. She couldn't. Instead, she leaned forward the tiniest bit, and met his lips with hers.
Ahsoka was hardly an expert on kissing. Quite the opposite, in fact. However, as kisses went, she suspected this wouldn't even crack the top ten billion. She didn't know what she was doing, and she doubted he did either. They were both soaked to the skin, treading water, and his lips were covered by a sopping wet fabric mask. It was cold, wet, and more than a little awkward with nothing but the water and each other to brace against. Hardly the stuff of romantic holodramas. Nevertheless, the moment his lips met hers, the rest of the world ground to a halt. She closed her eyes automatically. Her montrals vibrated pleasantly, her lekku tingled, and a warm feeling of happiness suffused her body. The pit of worry in her stomach finally unclenched in the face of Naruto actually kissing her. She leaned in and grabbed onto his shoulders to hold herself steady.
The kiss didn't last long, just a few seconds, but when he pulled back, she felt a little dizzy and out of breath. She could hear the blood rushing in her montrals, and she didn't doubt her stripes were as bright as they'd ever been. It had been one of the most intense moments of her life, and she'd been shot at repeatedly. When she opened her eyes, she saw Naruto's face was flushed and his eyes bright with a mix of emotion. She didn't have his skill at untangling people's feelings, but she definitely saw happiness, affection, and quite a bit of nervousness, too.
"I, uh- sorry. If that wasn't okay, I mean." As he babbled, he kicked back from her a few meters. "I should have asked before… well. Sorry if I-"
"Naruto!" She closed the distance between them again as she cut him off. "Don't apologize. That was… good. Um… really good. I, uh- what does this mean?"
She winced as she said it, but she had no idea what to do in this situation. The Council may have tacitly relaxed the Code over the last few years, but no one had ever taught her how to handle kissing her best friend. Sure, she'd kissed him once before, but that has been on the cheek. She wasn't even sure why she'd done it, only that it had felt like the right move at the time. This, though, was on a whole different, though hardly unwelcome, level.
"It means I'm definitely coming back," he said. "So we can do that again. If you want to, I mean. If, um, that's good…"
She couldn't help but let out a snort of laughter. 'Stars, is this flirting?' She wondered. 'No one's ever flirted with me before. It's kind of… nice, even if he is a massive doofus.'
Before he could start babbling again, she took pity on him. "Yes. We can do that again, I mean. When you get back. I liked it. A lot, kind of."
In front of anyone else, she'd have been mortified to stumble over her words so much. Naruto, though, was the last person in the galaxy who'd ever judge her for something like that. He looked at her with such open delight and wonder that she was sorely tempted to grab his annoyingly cute face and kiss him again. Unfortunately, before she could decide one way or the other, a sharp beep from his chrono broke the spell. He looked down at it and swore under his breath.
"Time to go?" She asked.
"Yeah. I have to meet Master Windu for final preparations in fifteen minutes." He put his hands flat on the water and boosted himself to the surface as easily as if it were solid duracrete. She took his offered hand and climbed back up herself, once more channeling chakra to keep herself atop the pool. Once they were back on actual solid ground, Naruto used a mid-level water chakra control exercise to pull the water from their clothes, leaving them, if not dry, then at least not soaked through. His hair was still a sodden mess, though, and she couldn't help but run her fingers through it a few times. The thought of what Master Windu would think when he saw his Padawan looking like a drowned Nexu cub brought a smile to her face.
When they were both presentable again, Naruto wrapped her up in a crushing hug, one she didn't hesitate to return. Though she'd hugged him countless times before, after their kiss, this one felt special. More meaningful. They weren't just hugging as best friends anymore. She couldn't say exactly what they were, or if it even needed a label, but it was more than they'd been an hour ago, and she couldn't have been happier.
"I wish I could go with you," she murmured. "To watch your back."
"Just wait," he said. "In a month or two, Anakin'll be a Knight and you'll be his Padawan. Then you can come and see all the stupid stuff I do that I don't tell you about. You'll love it, I promise."
She smiled. "And you'll get to see how awesome I've been getting while you've been running around the galaxy doing dumb stuff. Don't forget, Goldie, I'm still gonna beat you to Master."
His laugh rumbled in his chest and made her montrals buzz pleasantly. "We'll see, 'Soka. I'm not gonna make it easy for you. And thanks for the warning. I'll be careful, I promise. You should find Master Plo or Master Ti and tell them about your vision. They might be able to help figure it out." He gave her one last squeeze before he took a step back. "See you later."
"May the Force be with you," she said. As he rushed out of the room, she allowed the little knot of worry that had festered in her all day to relax. He'd promised, and Naruto never broke a promise. Silently, she made a promise of her own. If he ever didn't come back, then she'd just go and get him out of whatever mess he was in. Until then, she'd just have to make sure she was as strong as she could get. For now, though, she headed off to where she could sense the banked coals of Master Plo's presence. He'd know what to do about her vision.
OoOoOoOoOoOoO
And thus we begin the events that will begin the war (that's a lot of beginnings). This might not be the cleanest chapter I've ever posted, as I had a lot going on in my head when I wrote it, and some of the story threads won't come together for a few chapters yet, but it is that rarest of things from me. A chapter with both character work and plot progression. Admittedly, more of the former than the later, but don't worry. There's plenty of both ahead.
Perhaps the request I see most oft repeated, aside from the standard horny pleading for me to add various women to the pairings, is for more Naruto/Ahsoka development. I hope this scratches that itch. I went back and forth a lot over when I wanted them to have their first real kiss. Initially, my plan was to wait until a few months into the war. However, due to the way things are shaping up in the story, they won't have a lot of time together for a while, at least in terms of chapter count, and I wanted to officially deepen their relationship before that happened.
Please let me know what you think of the scene in question. I tried to get the right sense of awkward, high school freshman flirting down as best I could, but that time was a while ago for me. Don't expect either of them to be especially smooth for a while, though. They're both still children, and neither has any real romantic experience. I hate it when relationships between people their age are portrayed as the same as romances between experienced adults. No one's first kiss is some Princess Bride level miracle experience. Its awkward mouth touching with no idea what to do with your hands. Pretending otherwise, to my mind, cheapens the process of actually falling in love, and unnecessarily embarrasses the inexperienced.
Ranting aside, I welcome any predictions or questions you may have. Just leave them in a review and I'll get to them as I see them. Please remember to log in and enable PMs and email notifications, or I can't respond. A lot of guest reviewers left questions last chapter I wanted to answer, but couldn't.
Until next time, enjoy life.