Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction ❯ Shots in the Dark ❯ Star 4 ( Chapter 15 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: Jim Ohki 
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.06.2014 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.2K | Visits: 762 | Status: Completed
Non Anime: Harry Potter - Series Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Adventure / Action | Type: Crossover | Uploaded On: 10.06.2014 | Pages: 5 | Words: 7.2K | Visits: 762 | Status: Completed
Disclaimer: I make no claims at ownership of any copyrighted characters, places or events used herein. The only thing I make a claim to is this fic, which originated in my head and any original characters created by me herein. The following was made for public consumption at zero profit, and is not for sale except to the owning companies. Yes, I dream big.
Special Notes: Look at my profile from time-to-time, as major delays are posted there.
Star Sage, Part Four
By: (Driver) Jim Ohki
P7D-334; Unpopulated Forest Moon "Endor"; 0800; Nine Months After Disappearance
Two hundred seventy days have passed since his world was turned on its’ head. Naruto Uzumaki had learned much since first going through the Stargate, even if it wasn’t under his own power the first time.
At the top of that list was having his heritage confirmed. While he would not willingly admit it, he was aware that he was dim and slow on most subjects that had nothing to do with being acknowledged as his own person. He had always had hunches and gut feelings about his parents, however too many instances of his Jiji Hiruzen Sarutobi dodging his questions in his youth had led to him simply not asking.
Another on his list of things he would never admit was the sheer disappointment he felt in himself when he had the truth shoved quite literally in his face. It was only in the depths of his own mind that he admitted he wasn’t that great a ninja when confronted about his life by his parents. He had seen, just for a moment, that they were upset by his lackluster performance at the time.
Having the chance to guide their son as nobody else really had – those having the chance earning the eternal ire of Kushina in the process for failing miserably- the pair had brought him up to speed and then some in being a Shinobi. The process was helped by the unintentional mind-meld that the four souls in one body had undergone, giving the younger blond a true idea of what it took to reach the upper echelons of his chosen profession.
Coupled with all of that was his increased knowledge in fields that weren’t even found on the world of his birth. Having made a few new friends in a different place had only helped as they weren’t about to leave a young man in the lurch, not when he was willing to learn at any rate.
His renewed drive to become the best so that he could protect what was precious to him was just what the echoes of his parents wanted to see. His other tenant offered no real opinion on the matter, having spent the past couple thousand years roaming around as a beast of destruction.
She had a lot of anger issues that needed to be worked through before being able to tolerate the rest of humanity. At least, those humans on the world of her exile as she had no beef with the rest of the Galaxy at large.
As a downside, the isolationism of the past eight months was starting to really wear down on Naruto. There were only so many things one could talk about with three other beings in that time, at least insofar as the non-personal. He was craving interaction with others again, just to break the monotony.
The last time his friends from Earth had visited they had begrudgingly told him of the threat of the Ori on the horizon. The Galaxy was in a state of flux with the demise of the Goa’uld Empire. Nearly every race that had space-faring capabilities were in the midst of massive land-grabs, butting heads with other races as resources previously thought untouchable were suddenly up for the taking.
He was thankful that his home was out on the Rim, far enough out of the way that nobody knew it existed let alone wanted anything from it. At least, that’s what Sam had told him. He had a long way to go in regards to Astrophysics and Astro-navigation.
While on that thought, there was the Communal Mind Link to the other eight Bijuu and Hosts to take into consideration. Yugito and Matatabi had gone off the grid for a while, having to escape being sold-out by the Kumo Council to what she had called the Zombie Brothers Kakuzu and Hidan.
It was the first clue that the fighting he had heard about in Ame was over and just who had won. The duo were surprisingly open about their leader bearing the Rinnegan, not at all afraid of divulging the information thinking that they had their target captured.
The timely intervention of Kirabi and Gyuki on the other hand put a stop to that notion. Together the pair of Jinchuuriki managed to flee to Konoha, surprising the Godaime out of five years of her life. She almost had a heart attack when Naruto was brought up; revealing that they knew who he was, that he was alive, and that they knew just where he was.
It goes without saying that they were now guests of Tsunade Senju, indefinitely. Hearing that the Akatsuki were on the move again was not a good thing as far as she was concerned.
He never heard the end of it from her either. Every check in now involved some sort of complaint about that group and a warning that he had better be training his ass off or she would beat him into the ground until he could best her in combat.
É was not amused in the least to have lost his brother and surrogate niece. It was a distraction he didn’t need, having to clean house with his Council, when there were bigger concerns that dominated his attention. Especially infuriating was where the pair had gone, shifting his attention from Iwa to Konoha.
The more Naruto dwelled on the goings-on at home, the more he was glad to be away from that mess. He knew, thanks to the others, that the political climate was nearing its’ worst level since the beginning of the Third Shinobi War. It would take but one engagement, one battle started over something insignificant, to ignite the Fourth War powder keg.
To think, he still wanted to be Hokage. Yeah, he was out of his mind.
Coming out of his thoughts, he took a look around the camp that had been his temporary home. There was not much else he could learn without the experience to go with it, so it was time to venture forth into the Galaxy. He had purposely ignored the subject of what arrangements awaited his return for the fact that he didn’t know what to think of it yet.
“Damn it,” he grumbled, cursing his attention span of a goldfish. Now that he had thought about it, even if but for a moment, the issue clogged his poor brain with traffic.
“Blast it all,” he continued to complain to nobody, not particularly caring if his tenants voiced their opinions. It was a strange feeling for the lonely boy to be so mad at somebody he couldn’t talk to them civilly. For the waves of hurt that came out of his gut in a continuous basis he could also feel some gratitude for keeping his mouth shut when nothing good would come out otherwise.
Well, nothing said Anger Management quite like getting into a fight and blowing shit up.
Naruto’s World; Hidden Oto Facility; Same Time
While there was plenty of public destabilization, people like Orochimaru worked tirelessly in the background to get what they wanted. War would be a great chance to profit in resources, materials and personnel while pinning the blame on somebody else. Granted, the man had very few fears and would gladly walk around with a sign over his head that said ‘I DID IT!’ if it wouldn’t go against his current need for secrecy.
His primary project of late was Sasuke Uchiha. The revenge-driven boy was such a malleable pawn in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t even funny. Truth be told, it was actually sad just how the youth could be manipulated into doing as instructed with simple phrases involving killing his brother.
The Snake Sennin narrowed his eyes as he reviewed a report from Kabuto. There was an extra seal on the boy, one of Danzo Shimura’s variants of the ANBU secrecy seal. Having been a Konoha-nin at one point he himself had at least four such seals on his person.
There was a fairly fatal flaw in the design of this particular piece of security. While it was excellent at preventing the person affected by it speaking of whatever was locked away, it did not prevent them from willingly writing anything down. Every Secrecy Seal in existence had a flaw such as this, as it would require tampering with the mind itself to actually seal the memories of whatever it was that somebody wanted hidden.
Well, time to investigate what was so important that a Gennin needed such a seal.
“What do you want?” the child of many words gave his patented deadpan stare at his “Sensei”, not liking that his training was interrupted. He knew his position was fairly secure, what with the White Snake needing his body.
“I see you still respect no-one,” Orochimaru had to restrain himself from taking the boy’s head off where he stood for such insolence. “Bah, that doesn’t matter right now. What I want from you is just why you have a Grade Four Secrecy Seal on the back of your head,” he held up a hand, stalling the boy from flapping his jaw and making things worse. “I know you can’t speak of whatever it is. However, you can write me a . . . report, if you will . . . on the subject in question. Do this for me, I’ll see about getting you some high quality training targets and maybe some females to practice restoring your clan with.”
Talk about going for the jugular. More training to kill Itachi and some disposable female flesh to figure out what he was doing in that department?
“Where’s the paper?”
Konoha; Hokage’s Office; Same Time (1130)
The feeling of doom brought forth a shiver from Tsunade Senju. Somewhere, something terrible had just happened and she was powerless to stop it.
It had to be that damned Uchiha menace. He must have found a way around the measures to keep the Stargate under wraps.
Which ‘he’, she dared not think about. Sasuke was already declared a Nuke-nin, even though he wasn’t a traitor as he hadn’t done anything to harm the village to that point. If he finally took that step to enter the realm of treason though . . . there was no longer a choice in the matter.
Sasuke, and by extension the Uchiha Remnant, must die. Oh, was Itachi going to be upset when he learned of his little brother’s stupidity.
All right, time for Plan B. Once she thought of Plan B at any rate. Things with Plan A had been working well enough that a back-up wasn’t believed to be needed. So much for that belief.
Fuck this shit, she needed a drink . . . from a keg or another never-ending supply.
“Gaki, the window just got a lot smaller,” she mumbled as she rifled through the drawers in her desk, looking for a fresh bottle of courage.
With Naruto, Location Unknown
“Son of a bitch,” even being half of the galaxy away from his home, Naruto just knew that the clock had accelerated. “Fucking douche-bag Uchiha dildo cum-dumpster!”
In the back of his mind, he could feel his mother frown deeply at his rather colorful metaphors. It mattered not for he knew just who was to blame for this latest bout of paranoia. His former teammate was in the process of making life for Konoha infinitely more difficult, just so he could ‘be trained to kill his brother and restore his clan’. The blond had his own targets of his ire, especially the masked Uchiha but he wasn’t about to sacrifice everything just to accomplish that goal.
Besides, Clan Restoration is near impossible when one has the personality of a rock. It’s much better to make friends and nice with other people than to give the brooding look before demanding everything be handed over on a platter.
Naruto didn’t understand nor truly cared for the subtle nuances that revolved around Sasuke. All that mattered was while the blond had done everything short of dying to get where he was the kid with a mallard for hair merely had to show a little interest and it was given free of charge. That’s what got under the skin of the blond was the complete ass-kissing the Civilians did to his teammate and that said person took their generosity for granted by running to a ‘source of power’.
Bah!
He just knew that upon his return home Sakura was going to be in his face, begging him to bring the wayward Uchiha back. If he hadn’t have been in the wrong place at the wrong time his previous personality might have just fallen for such a request in a bid to ‘impress his crush’.
Thank Kami for the miracles that were from Earth!
Pushing the irrelevant issues to the back of his mind, he focused on what he was looking at from the cover of the tree-line. This planet was more forest than anything else, at least from what he had observed from the ‘Gate to his current location. Nestled in-between hills was a quaint village that he could image being a rather nice place to live.
Before the Ori came, at any rate.
What buildings he could see were aflame, as the townsfolk watched from a central square. Guarding them were a detachment of human Ori troops, each grim-faced at the senseless destruction brought forth by the Prior. Even from where he was, he could tell that the guards found no joy or pride in laying waste to a weak opponent, no matter if they were civilians or not. It was something to make a note of, even if they followed orders without hesitation.
On the other side of the burning village were the rest of the platoon, fanned out in a search and capture formation. Apparently whatever passed for a militia on this world had put up a resistance when the Prior came preaching about Origin, which earned the standard response from the hands of the Ori when refused.
Well, this wasn’t going to fly.
While the Prior moved into the central square to once again ‘bestow wisdom on the barbaric masses’, Naruto moved to the west side of the village in an attempt to find out if the platoon of six hundred was alone with a single Prior or if they had a ship parked nearby. Sending in clones disguised as some of the local birds –a trick that impressed his parents, for they had never heard of a solid Henge before- he scouted the surrounding forest.
Within minutes he had his answer, as Clone Two-Fifteen overheard a conversation between a few of the grunts. The ship had dropped them off here before moving on to a neighboring system to drop another platoon commanded by a Prior. The Ori were in the midst of their own land-grab, seeding the edge of the galaxy with either converted or conquered planets. Their beachhead was actually a distraction to keep the Tau’ri busy in another sector of the galaxy.
‘All right, SITREP,’ Naruto hunkered down to think this through. ‘Behind enemy lines, no hope of reinforcements against at least a battalion of grunts and fifteen Priors spread out over just as many planets. The regular troops will be no problem, it’s their platoon commanders that I’m worried about. Their powers are almost like back home, focused mostly on Fire . . .’
“Fairly straightforward, except for the civilians,” Minato leant his battle experience to his son. “With them in the midst of the enemy, casualties will be high if they used them as meat-shields. Overwhelming numbers might work, but with reinforcements nearby and no idea if those Priors can communicate without technology a fast, precise strike is needed.”
“If you can, separate the Prior from the rest them hit him hard,” Kushina offered her input, gazing through his eyes at the scene and forming her own battle plan. “Using your own power, not found on this world, should get his attention and leave the civilians alone.”
Naruto took their words in to consideration, waiting for the searchers to come back so as not to have an enemy at his back. His caution was rewarded by the appearance of a second Prior than had been leading the search parties.
‘Crap, at least two of them per platoon?’ he had to rethink his strategy now, as two with an unknown extent to their powers was a bit more than he was willing to take on.
At least, until the Lead Prior got ahold of the village leader’s teenage daughter. In the blink of an eye she was naked, even though the Ori preacher hadn’t moved his hands.
Heads in the village snapped to the west as a feeling of dread and death slammed into the people. None were spared the wrath of whatever was in the trees, causing even the Priors to be unnerved.
The leader of this planetary operation flew off into the forest on the other side of the village, his previous place taken by a blond boy wearing a black tracksuit trimmed in burnt orange. His left fist was still extended in a punch follow-through, revealing who had just attacked the Prior.
“Kill him,” the second in command gave a disinterested air, even as he turned to see if his fellow had survived the surprise attack.
“You first,” the voice of the boy set hairs on end as the grunts took aim with their weapons. Something was not right in this situation, what that was continued to elude them however as the young man went into action.
“On your flank!”
“By the Ori he’s too fast!”
“Secure the perimeter, we’re being overrun!”
Bellows of pain, crunching of bones and the sounds of battle took center stage as Naruto seemed to skate on the ground, moving from enemy to enemy. The townsfolk had run at the first signs of combat, even the naked girl forgot her modesty in the face of a person no older than she was laying waste to the invaders.
His speed was surreal to the remaining Prior, having confirmed that his fellow had died of a broken neck. It was unknown if it was the rather forceful takeoff or the tree his body was propped up against that had done the deed. Either way what he was seeing was not something that even his Masters had come across in their eons of existence. This boy . . . he must be taken alive and studied.
The surprise having worn off, the now halved platoon managed to form ranks and push a counterattack. A couple of the ‘less brave’ grunts completely disengaged to make for the ‘Gate to call for reinforcements, and if they encountered the civilians capture them for living shields.
“Kage Bunshin,” the blond went from one to one hundred, ten of which took off to secure the ‘Gate. The rest formed squads of their own, letting loose with what metallic weapons they had. The original had not been idle while his duplicates worked, flowing through another set of hand-seals. “Tajuu Kunai Kage Bunshin.”
The sun was blotted out completely as ninety kunai became ninety thousand points of moving death, a wall of metal so dense that even those shooting at it couldn’t punch through to the other side. Of the remaining forces, two hundred eighty died a horrific death as their bodies were pierced so many times as to completely shred them into piles of unrecognizable flesh covered in blood.
The surviving Prior had seen enough and decided it was time to enter combat to subdue the boy. His secrets could make their soldiers nigh invincible to this galaxy’s barbaric heathens. He barely had time to call on his power before the blond noticed what he was doing, almost as if he was tipped off by an extra sense.
“Tell your friends about me!” Naruto barked, having closed in to striking range to drive a Rasengan into the enemy’s gut. He took notice that without a surprise attack the Prior’s could mount a defense that absorbed silly amounts of damage before failing. Still, he finally punched through sending the pale man flying off into the trees. No doubt he’d survive that, thanks to his Ori given powers.
Time to get out of here . . . but first, where’d those civilians get to? He wasn’t about to leave them behind to the ‘mercy’ of the Ori’s followers, not when they had much of nothing left thanks to their village being torched.
A clone report revealed that the ‘Gate was secure, the rest of the invaders having died a non-heroic death trying to either impose the will of their masters or escaping to get reinforcements. The missing people were also found, having the same idea to run to the ‘Stone Ring’.
Unsealing a gift from Sam in the form of a tablet, he turned it on before using the rather simple program to get the Dialing Address of Earth from this backwater world. Since he was still learning about all things Space Related he had no hope of figuring out the sequence without assistance.
Earth; SGC; Five minutes later
“Incoming wormhole; unscheduled off-world activation!” Walter barked over the alarms, fingers dancing in his keyboard bringing up the IDC, communication and automatic defense programs. The Iris was a closed circuit, isolated piece of their security that more often than not was a waste of space as it was. Too many beings across the galaxy had found ways around –or quite literally, through- it to rely on it alone.
“Anything?” General Landry demanded upon appearing from his office. He gave a mental tip of the hat to the engineers that had the brains to make it easy to get into the Control Room from upstairs. Definitely smarter than your average bear, that group.
“IDC checks out as Naruto’s, sir,” the long-time Sargent, nicknamed the Gate-Keeper for his tenure at the helm of the Controls, had muted the alarms as soon as his boss appeared eliminating the need to be louder than them. “Text message coming through.”
Not having to give the order to see it, knowing that the men and women of the mountain were a well-oiled machine that would put SEAL, Delta and Green Beret teams to shame was nice. His eyebrows made an attempt at freedom by trying to leap off of his face they shot upwards so fast, before he started barking orders.
“Open the Iris; call in all available Med and Security Teams! Get SG-One in the conference room ASAP!”
As soon as the green light was sent did a panicked village worth of civilians come pouring out of the ‘Gate. It was not missed by any that one female was wearing the blonde’s top half of his modified tracksuit, barely giving her any modesty. The boy himself was the last to come through, no less than five small children clinging to his body like barnacles.
“Close it!” barked Landry, seeing the serious face of the teenaged boy for the first time. He had no need to elaborate on his order as the Iris slid shut without delay. “Get these people situated and looked over while we debrief.”
Leaving the work to his faithful –and competent- personnel the General climbed the stairs to the conference room one level above. He had the stray thought to call them Minions, but they were too good at what they did and free-range thinking to be categorized as such.
Even if they did his bidding, mostly without question if what he wanted done wasn’t completely insane.
Naruto’s World; Cavern in Tsuchi no Kuni; Same Time
While the intrepid hero was bringing news that nobody liked to the people of Earth, a meeting was taking place between certain individuals.
“This is unacceptable,” the man once known as Nagato nearly gave into the urge to growl at his Minions.
His ire stemmed from the fact that every time they attempted to nab a Jinchuuriki at least two others would show up out of the blue, rescuing their ‘sibling’ before vanishing into the unknown. Well, that belief wasn’t entirely accurate as there was one place Zetsu no longer had access to.
Konoha had changed since the Kyuubi was apparently lost. Even the agents of Sasori were found, every person of power having to go through a check-up by Jiraiya for foreign seals. Having battled the puppeteer he was well aware of the methods he used.
What a fine time to be without Madara, who had vanished into the unknown after their intense battle.
“Yeah, well . . . what do you want us to do about it?” Kisame barked, looking put out to be dealing with this group again. Really, he was content to wander around and cause some chaos out of boredom. Instead he was here, having to listen to some rather petulant whining. By the Swords this was getting old!
“How about succeed for once?” the barb displayed just how unhappy the leader of Akatsuki really was. “There is no choice in the matter anymore. The majority of the Bijuu are now within the walls of the one place we cannot see into. Only the pair from Iwa are currently traceable to Zetsu, who has reported that they now travel together and are loitering near a major border outpost of Konoha. There is no doubt that they have worked out some system to be able to get reinforcements quickly to wherever we appear.”
Itachi didn’t show it, didn’t even think about it but he felt a bead of sweat travel down the back of his neck. This was a dangerous game he was playing.
“So how do you plan to draw them out?” Kakuzu rumbled, wanting to get to the point of this waste of time.
“We will ignite the Fourth War,” Pein looked like he was talking about the weather, not sparking a war that could claim many. He ignored the rest of the group, even Konan, giving him the look of disbelief. “An attack in the right area would get Three of the Five embroiled in combat as a distraction before attacking Konoha itself.”
The ever silent Konan watched as the last of her childhood friends went completely mad. On the outside, she was perfectly still as to give away nothing. The inside was a different matter entirely as her mind went into overdrive. Enough was enough and she wanted out.
Hokage’s Office; One Year After Disappearance; 0800
“Ah, fuck me with a kunai,” Tsunade cursed, reading the latest intelligence reports. It had been very fortuitous that a few of the Akatsuki membership were highly dissatisfied with their leader to the point of ‘leaking’ their plans.
That had started three months ago, and so far her gut instinct to share the information with the other villages had paid off. It was now fairly well known that the rogue’s gallery was trying to ignite the Fourth War, which foiled most of their attempts as whenever they would show up all sides dropped their issues to unite and fight them off.
Orochimaru, always one for good old fashioned chaos and mayhem, had made peace with Akatsuki. Well, more like offered his services for their cause at a rate any human with morals would refuse. Being that this group wanted the Bijuu for something rather nefarious spoke of a distinct lack of those morals.
She even knew of the Gedo Mazu and what it really was. Well, what is was speculated to be for if it was indeed the body of the Juubi then the tale of the Rikudo Sennin sealing it in the moon was wrong.
Now the group had changed tactics. Konoha was their sole focus, and for more than just the Jinchuuriki in their midst.
“Get me Shikaku Nara, Dragon and Ibiki Morino!” she barked at her assistant for the day, Hinata.
Shizune had the rather brilliant idea to cycle those in the village that were aware of Naruto’s survival through the Hokage’s office. This was so that if one wanted to they could talk about the boy, see if he sent any messages or send him something. It was rather hilarious to watch a disgruntled Gamakichi lug a sealing scroll loaded with bowls of ramen off to who-knew-where.
Tsunade came back to reality to when the people she sent for entered her office.
“There is something the three of you need to be made aware of,” she began once she was certain her office was secure. As she had been speaking a photograph of the Stargate was slid across the desk. “We have run carbon-date tests on this thing eight times, each has come back with a result of twelve million years give or take. What you’re looking at is a door –a door to other worlds.”
“Naruto Uzumaki lives then,” Shikaku gave his patented squint-eyed look at the Hokage. “It all makes sense now.”
The other two Jounin had to do a double take of the picture; it was taken in Yuki no Kuni if Koyuki Kazahana floating around in the background, fretting a bored looking Kakashi was any indication.
“This is only part of the whole,” the blond Senju had kept her neutral expression intact. “Yes, Naruto is alive. Team Seven was not alone on the Glacier. From what the Daimyo has told me he fell into a crevice that had opened up directly in front of him. However, when the ice melted revealing this,” she tapped the photo for emphasis, “he was nowhere to be found. Roughly a week later Gamakichi popped up in my office looking as befuddled as a toad can, with a message from the knucklehead saying he was fine. One thing I have not really understood was the cryptic reference to the First Ones-.”
“They do not exist,” Shikaku suddenly looked fierce and ready for action. “They never have-.”
“Bullshit,” the head of T&I cut across the lively Nara. “My family might not be at Clan level but we have been around long enough. Everything we have on them is rather vague, to the point that unless we came across something new that related specifically to them we didn’t feel the need to mention them.”
“They did exist, a long time ago,” the Hokage pulled out a sheaf of papers. “I could never make heads or tails of these. Most are from Naruto himself, detailing what he has learned on the other side of the ‘Gate. Apparently the toads said something to him, and he made some inquiries of his own. The hard part was getting these translated into our language as where he is using something I’ve never heard of.”
“Impossible,” the Nara Clan Head felt like his brain was going to melt. His forefathers had tried their hardest to disprove the First Ones as boogeymen, tales told to naughty children to get them to behave.
“Somebody had to have built this,” the ANBU Dragon finally decided to contribute to the conversation, tapping on the picture. “Do we have any idea how this was built or what it’s made from?”
“Not much of a clue, to be honest,” Tsunade shrugged while giving a helpless look. “One thing I have learned is that it contains a heavy metal called Naquada. It has energy channeling and magnifying properties, but has an instability to it unlike the metals we use for Chakra Flow. If one were to get a Stargate to detonate on the surface of a planet, it would be an Extinction Level Event. Two thirds of the planet would vaporize in the explosion and the rest would break apart into asteroids.”
“Should we be playing with something so destructive?” Ibiki was the Devil’s Advocate in the office.
“If Naruto hadn’t been . . . escorted through to wherever this Earth is, I’d personally drop the thing in the ocean,” she held nothing back in her response. “That being said, the people on the other side sent several diplomatic teams through in the interests of building alliances and trade agreements. Somehow they have people that can use our language, even if they claim its’ butchered.”
“You’re not suggesting . . .,” Shikaku trailed off, not liking what he was hearing and reading.
“They are not going to approach the other villages,” she was quick to assure the three. “From what I could get out of the lead translator they have had their fair share of danger every time they step through the ‘Gate. Instead, as the Daimyo’s are the regional ‘land owners’ each of those teams is headed for the Capitals to see if they came come to an agreement with the Lords.”
“You did tell them to avoid Oto, yes?” Dragon reminded the others that he . . . she . . . was in the room with them.
“With prejudice,” the sole Senju answered rather darkly. “While we may be at odds with a few of the other powers, I told them directly that we are in open hostilities with anyone bearing a musical note or wearing that ridiculous outfit Orochimaru has for his Elites. I did not go into the reasons behind it other than their leader is a madman who directly attacked us once already.”
“And they didn’t press the issue?” Ibiki was understandably leery about that, for he was a living example of information being important.
“No,” that was all Tsunade was going to say to that, since the teams were long gone by this point. Not a one of them, even the diplomats, complained about going on foot who knew how far which was a surprise.
She, like many others before her, underestimated military training on Earth.
“Now, to the reason for me summoning you,” she continued, pulling the latest intelligence report out of the upper left drawer. “I told you about that thing,” she pointed at the picture, “because it relates to the recent reports sent in from our agents. Orochimaru apparently made nice with the Akatsuki, and directed their attention to us since their attempts to ignite the Fourth War have failed miserably to date. Beyond a shadow of a doubt he has gotten around the secrecy seal on Sasuke Uchiha, who knew about the ‘Gate.”
“Troublesome,” Shikaku grunted. Really, the situation was just fantastic. Enemies on all sides, each just wanting for the right reason to launch an all-out attack. Those ‘foreign’ teams running around complicated things, for said enemies would want to capture them for information and equipment that was different from the norm.
He had no idea how prophetic his thoughts were . . .
Border of Tsuchi/Hi no Kuni; same time
“We are not alone,” one of SG-Eleven whispered, eyes shifting around in paranoia.
“Stand fast,” the Lieutenant Colonel in charge ordered, bringing his FN P-90 to bear as he too looked around.
This team was in an open prairie, gentle rolling hills of grasslands as far as the eye could see. Off to the west a rather barren mountain range reached for the sky, the color of tan usually found in an arid climate.
“Behind-!” another started to bark, before cutting off with a gurgle as a kunai buried itself in her throat.
“We’re surrounded!” the guards had dropped to a knee, presenting a smaller target while the diplomats were flat on the ground.
“Hostiles, shoot them!” was the order given by the leader as his weapon starting barking. Over the noise of four assault weapons he grabbed his radio, hoping it reached somebody.
Stargate Camp
“Bzzzt! *static burst* -under attack! *more static* Two dead- *crackle* -assistance on the border with Earth Country! *intensified weapons fire*”
“Odyssey copies distress call, performing emergency beam-out.”
Needless to say, it was controlled chaos as the sounds of battle echoed out of every radio that was turned on. Most of the natives had no idea what had set off this hive of activity, not understanding anything they had heard.
“It’s just luck on our side that the Odyssey was on her shake-down cruise and stopped by here,” the on-site commander was already reporting to the SGC through the dialed Stargate. “We were attacked for no reason, sir.”
“I understand that Colonel,” Hank Landry’s voice drifted out of the speakers hooked into the computer terminal. “Normal procedure is to pull off-world if the natives get restless like this. We can’t though as we paid those people a lot of money and I’d rather not have to justify the waste to the IOA or Appropriations Committee.”
Blasted politics, always finding ways to make life more difficult!
“Order all teams to withdraw to your position,” the General continued. “Concentrate on Konoha as a whole and her defense, as they did warn us about situations such as these.”
“Yes sir. Anything else sir?”
“Relay orders to the Odyssey to stay put for the time being, so that if we must we’ll take the ‘Gate and DHD with us.”
That wasn’t ominous at all, “Yes, sir.”
The video feed terminated as the Stargate shutdown, leaving the Colonel to the task of sorting this mess out. At least with a ship in orbit they could grab their teams from abroad and drop them in the Base Camp, making it moot to try to get ahold of them via their radios.
SGC
“You’d really do that to us?” Naruto was understandably not happy with what he just heard. “I know we’re probably too war-like for your tastes but-,” his abrupt stop was attributed to the raised right hand telling him to.
“I’d rather not have to,” General Landry lowered his hand, “but if things get any worse I may. We try to deal with planetary governments instead of the factions to avoid situations like this. We’re not going to just give up and walk away, but approach the problem from a different angle.”
“Offer to teach them . . . something,” Kurama felt the need to input on the conversation, even if she earned strange looks from her fellow tenants. “I know jutsu is straight out as they’re too old to begin chakra training, but what about the other aspects you Shinobi are so proud of?”
“And what, exactly, could you ‘teach’ us in that didn’t use this chakra?” Landry was skeptical to what the blond had relayed, as the kid had never been given the ‘full’ work-up.
“Well . . .,” Naruto had to think about what it was that the people of Earth would actually want. Given what he knew of their personalities, anything to do with Torture and Interrogation was straight out. Except for the counter Torture training his parents had been running him through, that always had possibilities. While they had those nifty guns, there was always the chance of being disarmed so improved hand-to-hand was a plus. Knife-throwing basics would be a nice supplement, at least as he knew them. Their information gathering/situational awareness was actually a bit better than the Academy standard, so that wouldn’t help.
“What would you want to know?” he finally threw out there, unable to come up with anything solid. Of course, with his being a front-line fighter anything medicinal had escaped his notice.
The question was completely unhelpful, and it showed in the General’s expression. Really, was it that hard to get a direct answer?
“No, seriously,” Naruto wanted to defend himself. “What is a priority to learn? Our idea of counter-intelligence? Anti-torture methods? How to throw a knife at a moving target twenty meters away without the ‘handle-over-blade’ flipping? Our understanding of Taijutsu?”
Now that caught his interest straight away. One thing Landry had read in the reports was that even SG-One was almost always helpless when captured, rarely using their bare hands to get out of a situation. It was either through luck, stupidity on the enemy’s part, a Tok’ra Agent that was one of the hottest women in the Galaxy, timely interference from other enemies or a platoon of rebellious Jaffa freeing the flagship team.
Oh, were the residents of the Mountain going to hate Naruto . . .
TBC
All right, much shorter than I like but this is a good stopping place. I direct your attention to my profile for the Author’s Notes, since they change with every post. That, and it sets up some interesting scenarios for future chapters.
Two thumbs way, wwwwwaaaaayyyyy up to the readers and reviewers, who without you would make writing completely pointless!
Ja!
Special Notes: Look at my profile from time-to-time, as major delays are posted there.
Star Sage, Part Four
By: (Driver) Jim Ohki
P7D-334; Unpopulated Forest Moon "Endor"; 0800; Nine Months After Disappearance
Two hundred seventy days have passed since his world was turned on its’ head. Naruto Uzumaki had learned much since first going through the Stargate, even if it wasn’t under his own power the first time.
At the top of that list was having his heritage confirmed. While he would not willingly admit it, he was aware that he was dim and slow on most subjects that had nothing to do with being acknowledged as his own person. He had always had hunches and gut feelings about his parents, however too many instances of his Jiji Hiruzen Sarutobi dodging his questions in his youth had led to him simply not asking.
Another on his list of things he would never admit was the sheer disappointment he felt in himself when he had the truth shoved quite literally in his face. It was only in the depths of his own mind that he admitted he wasn’t that great a ninja when confronted about his life by his parents. He had seen, just for a moment, that they were upset by his lackluster performance at the time.
Having the chance to guide their son as nobody else really had – those having the chance earning the eternal ire of Kushina in the process for failing miserably- the pair had brought him up to speed and then some in being a Shinobi. The process was helped by the unintentional mind-meld that the four souls in one body had undergone, giving the younger blond a true idea of what it took to reach the upper echelons of his chosen profession.
Coupled with all of that was his increased knowledge in fields that weren’t even found on the world of his birth. Having made a few new friends in a different place had only helped as they weren’t about to leave a young man in the lurch, not when he was willing to learn at any rate.
His renewed drive to become the best so that he could protect what was precious to him was just what the echoes of his parents wanted to see. His other tenant offered no real opinion on the matter, having spent the past couple thousand years roaming around as a beast of destruction.
She had a lot of anger issues that needed to be worked through before being able to tolerate the rest of humanity. At least, those humans on the world of her exile as she had no beef with the rest of the Galaxy at large.
As a downside, the isolationism of the past eight months was starting to really wear down on Naruto. There were only so many things one could talk about with three other beings in that time, at least insofar as the non-personal. He was craving interaction with others again, just to break the monotony.
The last time his friends from Earth had visited they had begrudgingly told him of the threat of the Ori on the horizon. The Galaxy was in a state of flux with the demise of the Goa’uld Empire. Nearly every race that had space-faring capabilities were in the midst of massive land-grabs, butting heads with other races as resources previously thought untouchable were suddenly up for the taking.
He was thankful that his home was out on the Rim, far enough out of the way that nobody knew it existed let alone wanted anything from it. At least, that’s what Sam had told him. He had a long way to go in regards to Astrophysics and Astro-navigation.
While on that thought, there was the Communal Mind Link to the other eight Bijuu and Hosts to take into consideration. Yugito and Matatabi had gone off the grid for a while, having to escape being sold-out by the Kumo Council to what she had called the Zombie Brothers Kakuzu and Hidan.
It was the first clue that the fighting he had heard about in Ame was over and just who had won. The duo were surprisingly open about their leader bearing the Rinnegan, not at all afraid of divulging the information thinking that they had their target captured.
The timely intervention of Kirabi and Gyuki on the other hand put a stop to that notion. Together the pair of Jinchuuriki managed to flee to Konoha, surprising the Godaime out of five years of her life. She almost had a heart attack when Naruto was brought up; revealing that they knew who he was, that he was alive, and that they knew just where he was.
It goes without saying that they were now guests of Tsunade Senju, indefinitely. Hearing that the Akatsuki were on the move again was not a good thing as far as she was concerned.
He never heard the end of it from her either. Every check in now involved some sort of complaint about that group and a warning that he had better be training his ass off or she would beat him into the ground until he could best her in combat.
É was not amused in the least to have lost his brother and surrogate niece. It was a distraction he didn’t need, having to clean house with his Council, when there were bigger concerns that dominated his attention. Especially infuriating was where the pair had gone, shifting his attention from Iwa to Konoha.
The more Naruto dwelled on the goings-on at home, the more he was glad to be away from that mess. He knew, thanks to the others, that the political climate was nearing its’ worst level since the beginning of the Third Shinobi War. It would take but one engagement, one battle started over something insignificant, to ignite the Fourth War powder keg.
To think, he still wanted to be Hokage. Yeah, he was out of his mind.
Coming out of his thoughts, he took a look around the camp that had been his temporary home. There was not much else he could learn without the experience to go with it, so it was time to venture forth into the Galaxy. He had purposely ignored the subject of what arrangements awaited his return for the fact that he didn’t know what to think of it yet.
“Damn it,” he grumbled, cursing his attention span of a goldfish. Now that he had thought about it, even if but for a moment, the issue clogged his poor brain with traffic.
“Blast it all,” he continued to complain to nobody, not particularly caring if his tenants voiced their opinions. It was a strange feeling for the lonely boy to be so mad at somebody he couldn’t talk to them civilly. For the waves of hurt that came out of his gut in a continuous basis he could also feel some gratitude for keeping his mouth shut when nothing good would come out otherwise.
Well, nothing said Anger Management quite like getting into a fight and blowing shit up.
Naruto’s World; Hidden Oto Facility; Same Time
While there was plenty of public destabilization, people like Orochimaru worked tirelessly in the background to get what they wanted. War would be a great chance to profit in resources, materials and personnel while pinning the blame on somebody else. Granted, the man had very few fears and would gladly walk around with a sign over his head that said ‘I DID IT!’ if it wouldn’t go against his current need for secrecy.
His primary project of late was Sasuke Uchiha. The revenge-driven boy was such a malleable pawn in the grand scheme of things it wasn’t even funny. Truth be told, it was actually sad just how the youth could be manipulated into doing as instructed with simple phrases involving killing his brother.
The Snake Sennin narrowed his eyes as he reviewed a report from Kabuto. There was an extra seal on the boy, one of Danzo Shimura’s variants of the ANBU secrecy seal. Having been a Konoha-nin at one point he himself had at least four such seals on his person.
There was a fairly fatal flaw in the design of this particular piece of security. While it was excellent at preventing the person affected by it speaking of whatever was locked away, it did not prevent them from willingly writing anything down. Every Secrecy Seal in existence had a flaw such as this, as it would require tampering with the mind itself to actually seal the memories of whatever it was that somebody wanted hidden.
Well, time to investigate what was so important that a Gennin needed such a seal.
“What do you want?” the child of many words gave his patented deadpan stare at his “Sensei”, not liking that his training was interrupted. He knew his position was fairly secure, what with the White Snake needing his body.
“I see you still respect no-one,” Orochimaru had to restrain himself from taking the boy’s head off where he stood for such insolence. “Bah, that doesn’t matter right now. What I want from you is just why you have a Grade Four Secrecy Seal on the back of your head,” he held up a hand, stalling the boy from flapping his jaw and making things worse. “I know you can’t speak of whatever it is. However, you can write me a . . . report, if you will . . . on the subject in question. Do this for me, I’ll see about getting you some high quality training targets and maybe some females to practice restoring your clan with.”
Talk about going for the jugular. More training to kill Itachi and some disposable female flesh to figure out what he was doing in that department?
“Where’s the paper?”
Konoha; Hokage’s Office; Same Time (1130)
The feeling of doom brought forth a shiver from Tsunade Senju. Somewhere, something terrible had just happened and she was powerless to stop it.
It had to be that damned Uchiha menace. He must have found a way around the measures to keep the Stargate under wraps.
Which ‘he’, she dared not think about. Sasuke was already declared a Nuke-nin, even though he wasn’t a traitor as he hadn’t done anything to harm the village to that point. If he finally took that step to enter the realm of treason though . . . there was no longer a choice in the matter.
Sasuke, and by extension the Uchiha Remnant, must die. Oh, was Itachi going to be upset when he learned of his little brother’s stupidity.
All right, time for Plan B. Once she thought of Plan B at any rate. Things with Plan A had been working well enough that a back-up wasn’t believed to be needed. So much for that belief.
Fuck this shit, she needed a drink . . . from a keg or another never-ending supply.
“Gaki, the window just got a lot smaller,” she mumbled as she rifled through the drawers in her desk, looking for a fresh bottle of courage.
With Naruto, Location Unknown
“Son of a bitch,” even being half of the galaxy away from his home, Naruto just knew that the clock had accelerated. “Fucking douche-bag Uchiha dildo cum-dumpster!”
In the back of his mind, he could feel his mother frown deeply at his rather colorful metaphors. It mattered not for he knew just who was to blame for this latest bout of paranoia. His former teammate was in the process of making life for Konoha infinitely more difficult, just so he could ‘be trained to kill his brother and restore his clan’. The blond had his own targets of his ire, especially the masked Uchiha but he wasn’t about to sacrifice everything just to accomplish that goal.
Besides, Clan Restoration is near impossible when one has the personality of a rock. It’s much better to make friends and nice with other people than to give the brooding look before demanding everything be handed over on a platter.
Naruto didn’t understand nor truly cared for the subtle nuances that revolved around Sasuke. All that mattered was while the blond had done everything short of dying to get where he was the kid with a mallard for hair merely had to show a little interest and it was given free of charge. That’s what got under the skin of the blond was the complete ass-kissing the Civilians did to his teammate and that said person took their generosity for granted by running to a ‘source of power’.
Bah!
He just knew that upon his return home Sakura was going to be in his face, begging him to bring the wayward Uchiha back. If he hadn’t have been in the wrong place at the wrong time his previous personality might have just fallen for such a request in a bid to ‘impress his crush’.
Thank Kami for the miracles that were from Earth!
Pushing the irrelevant issues to the back of his mind, he focused on what he was looking at from the cover of the tree-line. This planet was more forest than anything else, at least from what he had observed from the ‘Gate to his current location. Nestled in-between hills was a quaint village that he could image being a rather nice place to live.
Before the Ori came, at any rate.
What buildings he could see were aflame, as the townsfolk watched from a central square. Guarding them were a detachment of human Ori troops, each grim-faced at the senseless destruction brought forth by the Prior. Even from where he was, he could tell that the guards found no joy or pride in laying waste to a weak opponent, no matter if they were civilians or not. It was something to make a note of, even if they followed orders without hesitation.
On the other side of the burning village were the rest of the platoon, fanned out in a search and capture formation. Apparently whatever passed for a militia on this world had put up a resistance when the Prior came preaching about Origin, which earned the standard response from the hands of the Ori when refused.
Well, this wasn’t going to fly.
While the Prior moved into the central square to once again ‘bestow wisdom on the barbaric masses’, Naruto moved to the west side of the village in an attempt to find out if the platoon of six hundred was alone with a single Prior or if they had a ship parked nearby. Sending in clones disguised as some of the local birds –a trick that impressed his parents, for they had never heard of a solid Henge before- he scouted the surrounding forest.
Within minutes he had his answer, as Clone Two-Fifteen overheard a conversation between a few of the grunts. The ship had dropped them off here before moving on to a neighboring system to drop another platoon commanded by a Prior. The Ori were in the midst of their own land-grab, seeding the edge of the galaxy with either converted or conquered planets. Their beachhead was actually a distraction to keep the Tau’ri busy in another sector of the galaxy.
‘All right, SITREP,’ Naruto hunkered down to think this through. ‘Behind enemy lines, no hope of reinforcements against at least a battalion of grunts and fifteen Priors spread out over just as many planets. The regular troops will be no problem, it’s their platoon commanders that I’m worried about. Their powers are almost like back home, focused mostly on Fire . . .’
“Fairly straightforward, except for the civilians,” Minato leant his battle experience to his son. “With them in the midst of the enemy, casualties will be high if they used them as meat-shields. Overwhelming numbers might work, but with reinforcements nearby and no idea if those Priors can communicate without technology a fast, precise strike is needed.”
“If you can, separate the Prior from the rest them hit him hard,” Kushina offered her input, gazing through his eyes at the scene and forming her own battle plan. “Using your own power, not found on this world, should get his attention and leave the civilians alone.”
Naruto took their words in to consideration, waiting for the searchers to come back so as not to have an enemy at his back. His caution was rewarded by the appearance of a second Prior than had been leading the search parties.
‘Crap, at least two of them per platoon?’ he had to rethink his strategy now, as two with an unknown extent to their powers was a bit more than he was willing to take on.
At least, until the Lead Prior got ahold of the village leader’s teenage daughter. In the blink of an eye she was naked, even though the Ori preacher hadn’t moved his hands.
Heads in the village snapped to the west as a feeling of dread and death slammed into the people. None were spared the wrath of whatever was in the trees, causing even the Priors to be unnerved.
The leader of this planetary operation flew off into the forest on the other side of the village, his previous place taken by a blond boy wearing a black tracksuit trimmed in burnt orange. His left fist was still extended in a punch follow-through, revealing who had just attacked the Prior.
“Kill him,” the second in command gave a disinterested air, even as he turned to see if his fellow had survived the surprise attack.
“You first,” the voice of the boy set hairs on end as the grunts took aim with their weapons. Something was not right in this situation, what that was continued to elude them however as the young man went into action.
“On your flank!”
“By the Ori he’s too fast!”
“Secure the perimeter, we’re being overrun!”
Bellows of pain, crunching of bones and the sounds of battle took center stage as Naruto seemed to skate on the ground, moving from enemy to enemy. The townsfolk had run at the first signs of combat, even the naked girl forgot her modesty in the face of a person no older than she was laying waste to the invaders.
His speed was surreal to the remaining Prior, having confirmed that his fellow had died of a broken neck. It was unknown if it was the rather forceful takeoff or the tree his body was propped up against that had done the deed. Either way what he was seeing was not something that even his Masters had come across in their eons of existence. This boy . . . he must be taken alive and studied.
The surprise having worn off, the now halved platoon managed to form ranks and push a counterattack. A couple of the ‘less brave’ grunts completely disengaged to make for the ‘Gate to call for reinforcements, and if they encountered the civilians capture them for living shields.
“Kage Bunshin,” the blond went from one to one hundred, ten of which took off to secure the ‘Gate. The rest formed squads of their own, letting loose with what metallic weapons they had. The original had not been idle while his duplicates worked, flowing through another set of hand-seals. “Tajuu Kunai Kage Bunshin.”
The sun was blotted out completely as ninety kunai became ninety thousand points of moving death, a wall of metal so dense that even those shooting at it couldn’t punch through to the other side. Of the remaining forces, two hundred eighty died a horrific death as their bodies were pierced so many times as to completely shred them into piles of unrecognizable flesh covered in blood.
The surviving Prior had seen enough and decided it was time to enter combat to subdue the boy. His secrets could make their soldiers nigh invincible to this galaxy’s barbaric heathens. He barely had time to call on his power before the blond noticed what he was doing, almost as if he was tipped off by an extra sense.
“Tell your friends about me!” Naruto barked, having closed in to striking range to drive a Rasengan into the enemy’s gut. He took notice that without a surprise attack the Prior’s could mount a defense that absorbed silly amounts of damage before failing. Still, he finally punched through sending the pale man flying off into the trees. No doubt he’d survive that, thanks to his Ori given powers.
Time to get out of here . . . but first, where’d those civilians get to? He wasn’t about to leave them behind to the ‘mercy’ of the Ori’s followers, not when they had much of nothing left thanks to their village being torched.
A clone report revealed that the ‘Gate was secure, the rest of the invaders having died a non-heroic death trying to either impose the will of their masters or escaping to get reinforcements. The missing people were also found, having the same idea to run to the ‘Stone Ring’.
Unsealing a gift from Sam in the form of a tablet, he turned it on before using the rather simple program to get the Dialing Address of Earth from this backwater world. Since he was still learning about all things Space Related he had no hope of figuring out the sequence without assistance.
Earth; SGC; Five minutes later
“Incoming wormhole; unscheduled off-world activation!” Walter barked over the alarms, fingers dancing in his keyboard bringing up the IDC, communication and automatic defense programs. The Iris was a closed circuit, isolated piece of their security that more often than not was a waste of space as it was. Too many beings across the galaxy had found ways around –or quite literally, through- it to rely on it alone.
“Anything?” General Landry demanded upon appearing from his office. He gave a mental tip of the hat to the engineers that had the brains to make it easy to get into the Control Room from upstairs. Definitely smarter than your average bear, that group.
“IDC checks out as Naruto’s, sir,” the long-time Sargent, nicknamed the Gate-Keeper for his tenure at the helm of the Controls, had muted the alarms as soon as his boss appeared eliminating the need to be louder than them. “Text message coming through.”
Not having to give the order to see it, knowing that the men and women of the mountain were a well-oiled machine that would put SEAL, Delta and Green Beret teams to shame was nice. His eyebrows made an attempt at freedom by trying to leap off of his face they shot upwards so fast, before he started barking orders.
“Open the Iris; call in all available Med and Security Teams! Get SG-One in the conference room ASAP!”
As soon as the green light was sent did a panicked village worth of civilians come pouring out of the ‘Gate. It was not missed by any that one female was wearing the blonde’s top half of his modified tracksuit, barely giving her any modesty. The boy himself was the last to come through, no less than five small children clinging to his body like barnacles.
“Close it!” barked Landry, seeing the serious face of the teenaged boy for the first time. He had no need to elaborate on his order as the Iris slid shut without delay. “Get these people situated and looked over while we debrief.”
Leaving the work to his faithful –and competent- personnel the General climbed the stairs to the conference room one level above. He had the stray thought to call them Minions, but they were too good at what they did and free-range thinking to be categorized as such.
Even if they did his bidding, mostly without question if what he wanted done wasn’t completely insane.
Naruto’s World; Cavern in Tsuchi no Kuni; Same Time
While the intrepid hero was bringing news that nobody liked to the people of Earth, a meeting was taking place between certain individuals.
“This is unacceptable,” the man once known as Nagato nearly gave into the urge to growl at his Minions.
His ire stemmed from the fact that every time they attempted to nab a Jinchuuriki at least two others would show up out of the blue, rescuing their ‘sibling’ before vanishing into the unknown. Well, that belief wasn’t entirely accurate as there was one place Zetsu no longer had access to.
Konoha had changed since the Kyuubi was apparently lost. Even the agents of Sasori were found, every person of power having to go through a check-up by Jiraiya for foreign seals. Having battled the puppeteer he was well aware of the methods he used.
What a fine time to be without Madara, who had vanished into the unknown after their intense battle.
“Yeah, well . . . what do you want us to do about it?” Kisame barked, looking put out to be dealing with this group again. Really, he was content to wander around and cause some chaos out of boredom. Instead he was here, having to listen to some rather petulant whining. By the Swords this was getting old!
“How about succeed for once?” the barb displayed just how unhappy the leader of Akatsuki really was. “There is no choice in the matter anymore. The majority of the Bijuu are now within the walls of the one place we cannot see into. Only the pair from Iwa are currently traceable to Zetsu, who has reported that they now travel together and are loitering near a major border outpost of Konoha. There is no doubt that they have worked out some system to be able to get reinforcements quickly to wherever we appear.”
Itachi didn’t show it, didn’t even think about it but he felt a bead of sweat travel down the back of his neck. This was a dangerous game he was playing.
“So how do you plan to draw them out?” Kakuzu rumbled, wanting to get to the point of this waste of time.
“We will ignite the Fourth War,” Pein looked like he was talking about the weather, not sparking a war that could claim many. He ignored the rest of the group, even Konan, giving him the look of disbelief. “An attack in the right area would get Three of the Five embroiled in combat as a distraction before attacking Konoha itself.”
The ever silent Konan watched as the last of her childhood friends went completely mad. On the outside, she was perfectly still as to give away nothing. The inside was a different matter entirely as her mind went into overdrive. Enough was enough and she wanted out.
Hokage’s Office; One Year After Disappearance; 0800
“Ah, fuck me with a kunai,” Tsunade cursed, reading the latest intelligence reports. It had been very fortuitous that a few of the Akatsuki membership were highly dissatisfied with their leader to the point of ‘leaking’ their plans.
That had started three months ago, and so far her gut instinct to share the information with the other villages had paid off. It was now fairly well known that the rogue’s gallery was trying to ignite the Fourth War, which foiled most of their attempts as whenever they would show up all sides dropped their issues to unite and fight them off.
Orochimaru, always one for good old fashioned chaos and mayhem, had made peace with Akatsuki. Well, more like offered his services for their cause at a rate any human with morals would refuse. Being that this group wanted the Bijuu for something rather nefarious spoke of a distinct lack of those morals.
She even knew of the Gedo Mazu and what it really was. Well, what is was speculated to be for if it was indeed the body of the Juubi then the tale of the Rikudo Sennin sealing it in the moon was wrong.
Now the group had changed tactics. Konoha was their sole focus, and for more than just the Jinchuuriki in their midst.
“Get me Shikaku Nara, Dragon and Ibiki Morino!” she barked at her assistant for the day, Hinata.
Shizune had the rather brilliant idea to cycle those in the village that were aware of Naruto’s survival through the Hokage’s office. This was so that if one wanted to they could talk about the boy, see if he sent any messages or send him something. It was rather hilarious to watch a disgruntled Gamakichi lug a sealing scroll loaded with bowls of ramen off to who-knew-where.
Tsunade came back to reality to when the people she sent for entered her office.
“There is something the three of you need to be made aware of,” she began once she was certain her office was secure. As she had been speaking a photograph of the Stargate was slid across the desk. “We have run carbon-date tests on this thing eight times, each has come back with a result of twelve million years give or take. What you’re looking at is a door –a door to other worlds.”
“Naruto Uzumaki lives then,” Shikaku gave his patented squint-eyed look at the Hokage. “It all makes sense now.”
The other two Jounin had to do a double take of the picture; it was taken in Yuki no Kuni if Koyuki Kazahana floating around in the background, fretting a bored looking Kakashi was any indication.
“This is only part of the whole,” the blond Senju had kept her neutral expression intact. “Yes, Naruto is alive. Team Seven was not alone on the Glacier. From what the Daimyo has told me he fell into a crevice that had opened up directly in front of him. However, when the ice melted revealing this,” she tapped the photo for emphasis, “he was nowhere to be found. Roughly a week later Gamakichi popped up in my office looking as befuddled as a toad can, with a message from the knucklehead saying he was fine. One thing I have not really understood was the cryptic reference to the First Ones-.”
“They do not exist,” Shikaku suddenly looked fierce and ready for action. “They never have-.”
“Bullshit,” the head of T&I cut across the lively Nara. “My family might not be at Clan level but we have been around long enough. Everything we have on them is rather vague, to the point that unless we came across something new that related specifically to them we didn’t feel the need to mention them.”
“They did exist, a long time ago,” the Hokage pulled out a sheaf of papers. “I could never make heads or tails of these. Most are from Naruto himself, detailing what he has learned on the other side of the ‘Gate. Apparently the toads said something to him, and he made some inquiries of his own. The hard part was getting these translated into our language as where he is using something I’ve never heard of.”
“Impossible,” the Nara Clan Head felt like his brain was going to melt. His forefathers had tried their hardest to disprove the First Ones as boogeymen, tales told to naughty children to get them to behave.
“Somebody had to have built this,” the ANBU Dragon finally decided to contribute to the conversation, tapping on the picture. “Do we have any idea how this was built or what it’s made from?”
“Not much of a clue, to be honest,” Tsunade shrugged while giving a helpless look. “One thing I have learned is that it contains a heavy metal called Naquada. It has energy channeling and magnifying properties, but has an instability to it unlike the metals we use for Chakra Flow. If one were to get a Stargate to detonate on the surface of a planet, it would be an Extinction Level Event. Two thirds of the planet would vaporize in the explosion and the rest would break apart into asteroids.”
“Should we be playing with something so destructive?” Ibiki was the Devil’s Advocate in the office.
“If Naruto hadn’t been . . . escorted through to wherever this Earth is, I’d personally drop the thing in the ocean,” she held nothing back in her response. “That being said, the people on the other side sent several diplomatic teams through in the interests of building alliances and trade agreements. Somehow they have people that can use our language, even if they claim its’ butchered.”
“You’re not suggesting . . .,” Shikaku trailed off, not liking what he was hearing and reading.
“They are not going to approach the other villages,” she was quick to assure the three. “From what I could get out of the lead translator they have had their fair share of danger every time they step through the ‘Gate. Instead, as the Daimyo’s are the regional ‘land owners’ each of those teams is headed for the Capitals to see if they came come to an agreement with the Lords.”
“You did tell them to avoid Oto, yes?” Dragon reminded the others that he . . . she . . . was in the room with them.
“With prejudice,” the sole Senju answered rather darkly. “While we may be at odds with a few of the other powers, I told them directly that we are in open hostilities with anyone bearing a musical note or wearing that ridiculous outfit Orochimaru has for his Elites. I did not go into the reasons behind it other than their leader is a madman who directly attacked us once already.”
“And they didn’t press the issue?” Ibiki was understandably leery about that, for he was a living example of information being important.
“No,” that was all Tsunade was going to say to that, since the teams were long gone by this point. Not a one of them, even the diplomats, complained about going on foot who knew how far which was a surprise.
She, like many others before her, underestimated military training on Earth.
“Now, to the reason for me summoning you,” she continued, pulling the latest intelligence report out of the upper left drawer. “I told you about that thing,” she pointed at the picture, “because it relates to the recent reports sent in from our agents. Orochimaru apparently made nice with the Akatsuki, and directed their attention to us since their attempts to ignite the Fourth War have failed miserably to date. Beyond a shadow of a doubt he has gotten around the secrecy seal on Sasuke Uchiha, who knew about the ‘Gate.”
“Troublesome,” Shikaku grunted. Really, the situation was just fantastic. Enemies on all sides, each just wanting for the right reason to launch an all-out attack. Those ‘foreign’ teams running around complicated things, for said enemies would want to capture them for information and equipment that was different from the norm.
He had no idea how prophetic his thoughts were . . .
Border of Tsuchi/Hi no Kuni; same time
“We are not alone,” one of SG-Eleven whispered, eyes shifting around in paranoia.
“Stand fast,” the Lieutenant Colonel in charge ordered, bringing his FN P-90 to bear as he too looked around.
This team was in an open prairie, gentle rolling hills of grasslands as far as the eye could see. Off to the west a rather barren mountain range reached for the sky, the color of tan usually found in an arid climate.
“Behind-!” another started to bark, before cutting off with a gurgle as a kunai buried itself in her throat.
“We’re surrounded!” the guards had dropped to a knee, presenting a smaller target while the diplomats were flat on the ground.
“Hostiles, shoot them!” was the order given by the leader as his weapon starting barking. Over the noise of four assault weapons he grabbed his radio, hoping it reached somebody.
Stargate Camp
“Bzzzt! *static burst* -under attack! *more static* Two dead- *crackle* -assistance on the border with Earth Country! *intensified weapons fire*”
“Odyssey copies distress call, performing emergency beam-out.”
Needless to say, it was controlled chaos as the sounds of battle echoed out of every radio that was turned on. Most of the natives had no idea what had set off this hive of activity, not understanding anything they had heard.
“It’s just luck on our side that the Odyssey was on her shake-down cruise and stopped by here,” the on-site commander was already reporting to the SGC through the dialed Stargate. “We were attacked for no reason, sir.”
“I understand that Colonel,” Hank Landry’s voice drifted out of the speakers hooked into the computer terminal. “Normal procedure is to pull off-world if the natives get restless like this. We can’t though as we paid those people a lot of money and I’d rather not have to justify the waste to the IOA or Appropriations Committee.”
Blasted politics, always finding ways to make life more difficult!
“Order all teams to withdraw to your position,” the General continued. “Concentrate on Konoha as a whole and her defense, as they did warn us about situations such as these.”
“Yes sir. Anything else sir?”
“Relay orders to the Odyssey to stay put for the time being, so that if we must we’ll take the ‘Gate and DHD with us.”
That wasn’t ominous at all, “Yes, sir.”
The video feed terminated as the Stargate shutdown, leaving the Colonel to the task of sorting this mess out. At least with a ship in orbit they could grab their teams from abroad and drop them in the Base Camp, making it moot to try to get ahold of them via their radios.
SGC
“You’d really do that to us?” Naruto was understandably not happy with what he just heard. “I know we’re probably too war-like for your tastes but-,” his abrupt stop was attributed to the raised right hand telling him to.
“I’d rather not have to,” General Landry lowered his hand, “but if things get any worse I may. We try to deal with planetary governments instead of the factions to avoid situations like this. We’re not going to just give up and walk away, but approach the problem from a different angle.”
“Offer to teach them . . . something,” Kurama felt the need to input on the conversation, even if she earned strange looks from her fellow tenants. “I know jutsu is straight out as they’re too old to begin chakra training, but what about the other aspects you Shinobi are so proud of?”
“And what, exactly, could you ‘teach’ us in that didn’t use this chakra?” Landry was skeptical to what the blond had relayed, as the kid had never been given the ‘full’ work-up.
“Well . . .,” Naruto had to think about what it was that the people of Earth would actually want. Given what he knew of their personalities, anything to do with Torture and Interrogation was straight out. Except for the counter Torture training his parents had been running him through, that always had possibilities. While they had those nifty guns, there was always the chance of being disarmed so improved hand-to-hand was a plus. Knife-throwing basics would be a nice supplement, at least as he knew them. Their information gathering/situational awareness was actually a bit better than the Academy standard, so that wouldn’t help.
“What would you want to know?” he finally threw out there, unable to come up with anything solid. Of course, with his being a front-line fighter anything medicinal had escaped his notice.
The question was completely unhelpful, and it showed in the General’s expression. Really, was it that hard to get a direct answer?
“No, seriously,” Naruto wanted to defend himself. “What is a priority to learn? Our idea of counter-intelligence? Anti-torture methods? How to throw a knife at a moving target twenty meters away without the ‘handle-over-blade’ flipping? Our understanding of Taijutsu?”
Now that caught his interest straight away. One thing Landry had read in the reports was that even SG-One was almost always helpless when captured, rarely using their bare hands to get out of a situation. It was either through luck, stupidity on the enemy’s part, a Tok’ra Agent that was one of the hottest women in the Galaxy, timely interference from other enemies or a platoon of rebellious Jaffa freeing the flagship team.
Oh, were the residents of the Mountain going to hate Naruto . . .
TBC
All right, much shorter than I like but this is a good stopping place. I direct your attention to my profile for the Author’s Notes, since they change with every post. That, and it sets up some interesting scenarios for future chapters.
Two thumbs way, wwwwwaaaaayyyyy up to the readers and reviewers, who without you would make writing completely pointless!
Ja!