Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shinobi Odyssey ❯ Chapter 1: Encounters ( Chapter 1 )

Shinobi Odyssey

 

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Stargate SG-1.

 

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“Normal speech.”

 

“Speaking in a foreign language.”

 

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Naruto's World: The Land of Fire, Seventy-Five Kilometers Outside of Konoha

 

The group of eight Konoha shinobi stopped on the rooftop to listen to Kakashi explain the plan for locating Sasuke.

 

“We'll start by searching everywhere in a five kilometer radius using this roof as our center point. If we don't come up with anything, we'll relocate, search another five kilometer area, and, well, repeat that until we find our targets,” Kakashi said.

 

“Five kilometers? But our wireless equipment won't work if we split up that far,” Sakura yelled. “We'd be in danger if something happened and we were alone! We should go in teams of two at the very least. That way if we encounter any enem..”

 

“Relax, Sakura,” Yamato interrupted the pink-haired teen's outburst.

 

A puff of smoke erupted around Kakashi. The smoke revealed Pakkun and the rest of Kakashi's nin-dogs.

 

`Your voices combined with our ears will work much better than those wireless headsets, and our noses will detect danger well enough in advance to get you plenty of backup,” Pakkun said with a hint of annoyance.

 

“Here's how our patrols will work,” Kakashi continued with the explanation. “Each person will have two of my ninja hounds as bodyguards.”

 

`Two? Wait..but then,” sputtered Sakura as she quickly grasped that the numbers didn't work out. Kakashi had eight dogs and there were eight ninjas on the mission.

 

Kakashi just smirked under his mask, then said in a voice that left it unclear if he was speaking to his hounds or Sakura, “Be nice to them, okay?”

 

“Hiya, Sakura-chan.”

 

Sakura was startled when she saw it was one of Kakashi's wilder looking hounds looking that had spoken. Her surprise quickly turned to annoyance as one of the other hounds walked up and said, “Man, why do you always have to pick the noisy girls?”

 

“I'll go with Shino,” another hound called out as two of them walked up to the quiet teen.

 

Two of the other dogs slowly circled Sai.

 

“Hello,” Sai said only to be answered with a growl from one of the dogs and a suspicious look from the other.

 

“Hey,” Naruto said with a hint of agitation. “What about me?”

 

“Being a jinchuuriki, they'll be targeting you. Since Akatsuki may attack you first, you'll team with Yamato for backup and Hinata for her scouting abilities,” Kakashi answered.

 

“And Bull, since he's loud,” added Pakkun nodding toward the large bulldog as he jumped onto Kakashi's shoulder.

 

Naruto flinched slightly, partly from the loud woof Bull let out in response to Pakkun's comment, but mostly from Kakashi mentioning him being a jinchuuriki. He'd had to tell Team 8 about the Kyuubi before they left Konoha, but after years of keeping the secret from his friends it felt strange to be talking about it in front of others.

 

However, Naruto relaxed noticeably as a quiet voice said, “L-let's do our best, Naruto-kun.”

 

Naruto turned to around to see Hinata who was pressing her fingers together nervously under her rain cloak and blushing. Naruto's eyes lit up with a smile as he replied, “Right!”

 

“Kiba has Akamaru, so he doesn't need any of my hounds, and I'll just take along Pakkun,” Kakashi continued speaking to the group. “All right guys, remember that trailing Sasuke's scent takes priority, Akatsuki comes second. And regardless of which target you find, your mission is only to determine their location and report back here immediately.”

 

The group scattered at Kakashi's signal to begin the search.

 

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A Short Time Later With Naruto's Group

 

“Having a problem, Hinata?” Yamato asked when he noticed the young Hyuuga girl limping slightly.

 

It was just starting to rain again and the three ninjas and one ninja hound were walking down a country road bordered by power lines on one side.

 

“S-sorry, Yamato-sensei, I think my new sandals are starting to cause blisters on my feet. I guess they aren't broken in yet,” Hinata answered.

 

Yamato responded, “Don't worry about it, Hinata. There's an old abandoned monastery right before we get to the next town where we can stop. Besides, it's almost time for Naruto to start bugging me about a ramen break.”

 

“Actually, I was going to wait about ten more minutes before I started whining,” Naruto played along.

 

Hinata smiled at Yamato and Naruto's attempt at humor, but she noticed Naruto looking at her and started blushing.

 

“Sorry if I was staring, Hinata, but you have a really pretty smile. You should show it off more often,” Naruto said with a sheepish grin as he rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, not exactly sure why he felt embarrassed.

 

“T-t-th-thank y-you, N-naru-naruto-kun,” Hinata managed to stammer out as the blush spread to her entire face.

 

`Hmm, I thought Sakura said she had almost quit stuttering. I guess I misheard her. Hinata still gets all red in the face like she use to, too,' Naruto thought. `It's kind of cute, though.'

 

The normally stoic Yamato fought back a grin of his own as he joined the club of people who figured out how Hinata felt about Naruto before Naruto. `I wonder if Kakashi-sempai was trying to play matchmaker,' the older shinobi thought with a chuckle.

 

A few minutes later Yamato lead the group down an overgrown path that veered off the main road. After a couple of minutes of walking they saw a large stone building with a red tile roof.

 

“Why'd they abandon this place?” Naruto asked as they reached the front doors of the monastery. Rather than answering Naruto, Yamato simply opened one of the large oak doors.

 

“Ah,” Naruto said. While the structure looked intact from the front, when you entered the structure, it was obvious that the back two-thirds of the building had burned and collapsed. “I guess the monks decided it was easier to build a new monastery somewhere else, huh?”

 

“Is it safe to be in here, Yamato-sensei?” Hinata asked.

 

“The roof over the front of the building is still sound so it should be okay,” the older ninja replied. “Naruto, why don't you start lunch, while Hinata takes care of her feet. I'm going to take Bull and make a quick sweep of the area.”

 

“Sure thing,” Naruto replied as Yamato and Bull left.

 

Hinata looked over at Naruto as he dug around in his pack looking for what he needed to fix lunch, namely instant ramen, a pot, and his camping stove. She had just taken her sandals off and gotten some medical cream out of her first aid kit to put on the raw spots her sandals were rubbing on her feet when she realized Yamato was leaving. `I'm finally alone with Naruto-kun. Okay, I can do this. I just need to take a deep breath, relax, and then speak.'

 

“N-n-na-nar-uto-k-kun,” Hinata squeaked out with even more of a stutter than usual.

 

“You okay, Hinata,” Naruto asked.

 

Hinata just nodded, before trying to continue, “N-naruto-kun, I…”

 

“Oh, do you need me to help you with your feet?” Naruto interrupted when he saw the open first aid kit on the floor and the jar of medical crème in Hinata's hand.”

 

“Umm…”

 

“No problem, Hinata,” Naruto said as he grabbed the jar out of her hand and sat down in front of her. He propped Hinata's left foot up on his own leg as he opened the jar.

 

“Cool, this is that same medicine you gave me at the Chuunin Exams, right? That stuff worked great on me, so it ought to fix you right up,” Naruto said as he started to gently rub the crème into the pale skin of her foot.

 

`Naruto-kun…touching…me,' was the only thought Hinata could manage as she secretly reveled in the feeling of her crush's strong hands massaging her foot.

 

Her heart was pounding so hard it felt like it would leap out of her chest. `I will not faint. I will not faint. I will not faint,' Hinata willed herself to remain conscious. Naruto, completely oblivious to the effect he was having on the shy girl, continued to rub her foot while telling some story about `Ero-sennin' and feet that she only caught bits and pieces of.

 

By the time Naruto started working on her right foot, Hinata had regained enough of her composure to try to speak again.

 

“N-naruto-kun, I have something I want to tell you,” Hinata managed to say in a loud (for Hinata) voice.

 

“Huh? Sure thing,” Naruto replied with a warm smile that made Hinata's stomach do back flips. “What do you want to tell me?”

 

“Naruto-kun, I…”

 

BOOM! The sound of a loud explosion rang out, followed by what sounded like fighting and people yelling in the distance.

 

“NARUTO! HINATA! GET OUT HERE!” Yamato shouted from outside.

 

The two teenaged shinobi scrambled to get their gear together and ran out into the rain to where Yamato and Bull were standing on the crest of a hill overlooking the small town in the valley below. They could see smoke rising from several fires within the town's walls and panicked people running about. Groups of strangely dressed men carrying staffs were working their way through the streets, occasionally entering a home, only to emerge moments later shoving the home's occupants out into the street and toward the town square.

 

“Who the hell are those guys?” Naruto asked.

 

“I don't know, but I intend to find out,” Yamato answered.

 

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After Yamato sent Bull to fetch Kakashi and the others, the three-person team easily slipped unnoticed over the stonewall that surrounded the town and the ancient castle located on an adjacent hill. They then began to work their way through the now deserted streets toward the center of the town where the invaders had gathered all the townspeople.

 

Along the way, they came across the bodies of a small number of townspeople who had tried to fight off the attackers with whatever makeshift weapons they could get their hands on. Yamato motioned Naruto and Hinata over to the body of an older man that still gripped a pitchfork in one hand.

 

“Raiton jutsu?” Naruto whispered when he saw the still smoldering circular burn mark on the dead man's chest.

 

“I'm not sure. It looks similar, but I've never seen a jutsu produce a wound exactly like this before,” Yamato answered with a frown on his face. “Hinata?”

 

“There is no residual chakra signature, Yamato-sensei,” Hinata answered as she examined the wound with her Byakugan activated. “Whatever killed this man wasn't a chakra based jutsu.”

 

“Can you see any of the attackers?”

 

“Yes, I can just make out two of them at the edge of the square. They don't seem to have developed chakra systems, but there is something odd about their bodies. We're too far away for me to make it out clearly, though,” Hinata answered before deactivating her Byakugan to conserve chakra.

 

“Well, these guys don't exactly act or move like shinobi, so that's not a big surprise,” Naruto noted. “Could those staffs they all carry be some kind of weapon that did this? They sure don't look like a spear or any kind of pole weapon I've ever seen.”

 

“Possibly. I don't like this situation, so stay on your toes,” Yamato said before he motioned for them to move out.

 

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Five of the Jaffa leveled their staff weapons at the mayor and four other town officials who were lined up on their knees in front of them.

 

Kol'na, the Jaffa leading the raid, stepped forward and shouted to the cowering villagers, “This is what happens to those who defy the will of Lord…”

 

“HEY, IT'S KIND OF RUDE TO COME INTO SOMEONE'S HOME AND START BEATING THEM UP! IF I DIDN'T KNOW ANY BETTER, I'D THINK YOU WERE TRYING TO COMPENSATE FOR SOMETHING!” a loud, defiant voice interrupted.

 

Kol'na turned and saw a teenage boy dressed in orange and black cloths standing with his arms crossed on the roof of one of the shops that bordered the square. The Jaffa ground his teeth. He couldn't understand what the boy was saying, but somehow he could just tell he was being insulted. Kol'na blasted him with his staff weapon, but was surprised when the teen vanished in a puff of smoke instead of dropping dead.

 

“YOU MISSED!” two hundred ninety-nine identical voices yelled out in unison as the rest of Naruto's shadow clones suddenly revealed themselves.

 

“Open fire!” Kol'na shouted in alarm to the rest of the Jaffa as an orange tidal wave of shadow clones charged into the square.

 

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`This is bad,' Yamato thought to himself as he covered a group of fleeing civilians. Naruto's initial attack had done it's job by distracting their opponents long enough for him and Hinata to get the civilians out of the square, but the scattered armor-wearing warriors had quickly reformed into smaller groups and gone on the offensive. Those groups were now trying to fight their way past the three shinobi to the civilians. They'd suffered heavy losses at the hands of Yamato, Naruto, and Hinata, but they didn't show any sign of giving up.

 

Yamato was concerned about how well the two teenage close-range specialists under his command, especially Hinata, were faring against the long-range weapons of their remaining opponents. Every time Yamato had caught a glimpse of her, the young Hyuuga heiress had been using either her clan's Kaiten or her own Shugohakke to shield herself and the civilians from the blasts of energy fired by the warriors' staff weapons. `Chakra depletion isn't an much of an issue for Naruto, but Hinata has to be running low by now.'

 

Yamato suddenly spotted Hinata again several blocks away. She was kneeling on one knee with her hand against a wall seemingly trying to catch her breath during a brief lull in the fighting. She didn't appear to have her Byakugan activated, as she wasn't reacting to the group of warriors who were stealthily approaching her position from around the corner of the building she was leaning against.

 

“HINATA, LOOK OUT!” Yamato called out. Hinata jerked her head up just as a small metal ball rolled to a stop in front of her. The ball gave off a blinding flash of light and a thunderous noise that nearly blinded and deafened Yamato even as far away as he was. When he could finally see clearly again, the ANBU captain spotted ten of the warriors fleeing toward the castle. The one who had given the order to open fire on Naruto's shadow clones was leading the fleeing warriors with an unconscious Hinata thrown over his shoulder.

 

“I'M ON IT, YAMATO-SENSEI!” Naruto yelled. Yamato turned toward Naruto's voice and saw him form a wedge of twenty shadow clones that plowed straight into a large group of warriors that were between him and Hinata. The blonde followed right on the shadow clones' heels. Within a couple of minutes, he'd managed to fight his way past his opponents and was chasing after Hinata and her captors.

 

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Yamato skewered one of the strange enemies using one of his Mokuton techniques, but had to take cover as two more fired blasts from their weapons. However, before he could retaliate the two armor wearing warriors were launched through the air by a kunai with an explosive tag attached. Turning toward the direction the kunai had originated from Yamato spotted the rest of Team Kakashi and Team 8 approaching.

 

“What's the situation?” Kakashi asked as he leaped off a rooftop to land next to his former-ANBU colleague.

 

“When we arrived, we found that around a hundred of whoever these guys are had rounded up the civilians in the town square, killing a several of them in the process. We engaged them while I sent Bull to find you. Right now, there are only thirty or forty of them that haven't been killed or incapacitated.”

 

Yamato and Kakashi steadied themselves as Sakura punched the ground, causing a wall to collapse on top of a small group of enemy fighters, crushing them where they stood.

 

“They don't appear to have the ability to use chakra, but their weapons are fairly powerful and they fight well as a unit. Also, according to Hinata, there is something strange about their body structures.”

 

“What did she see?” Kakashi asked.

 

“I don't know. She never got a chance to tell me. She was protecting the last of the villagers as they fled the battle, but some kind of device that emitted a bright light and unbelievably loud noise went off right next to her and knocked her out. About ten of these guys grabbed her and ran off in the direction of the castle,” Yamato answered as he nodded toward a historic castle that had been turned into a tourist attraction on the hill overlooking the town. “Naruto took off after them a couple of minutes ago. I don't think he'll have a problem defeating ten of them by himself and recovering Hinata, but it might be a good idea to send him some backup just in case.”

 

“Sakura! Shino!” Kakashi called out. The two chunnin quickly made their way over to the two older men while dodging blasts of energy from the strange staff weapons.

 

“Yes, Kakashi-sensei?” the pink-haired teen asked.

 

“Hinata has been captured by a group of ten of these guys. They ran off in the direction of the castle. Naruto is in pursuit. I want you two to back him up. Shino did you plant your insects on Naruto and Hinata?” The quiet chunnin nodded yes in response. “Good, then you shouldn't have any trouble tracking them.”

 

The two chunnin took off in the direction Naruto had run.

 

“You're worried about Hinata, aren't you, Shino?” Sakura asked a few minutes later as the pair sped through the treetops. Shino was normally difficult to read, but some how Sakura could sense that he was more tense than usual. He was just giving off a `worried vibe' as Ino would say.

 

“Yes, Hinata is my teammate and my friend,” Shino answered.

 

“Don't worry. Naruto won't let anything happen to her. He may be too big of an idiot to realize Hinata likes him, but he still considers her one of his precious people and won't let her get hurt,” Sakura said reassuringly.

 

“How long have you known?” Shino asked.

 

“That Naruto can be an idiot? Since the day I met him. That Hinata likes Naruto? Since that first Chuunin Exam we all took together,” Sakura answered with a small smile.

 

“Hinata still worries that she'll lose him to you.”

 

Sakura sighed. “She doesn't have anything to worry about. I mean, I think he's a lot more handsome since he came back, and I do `love' him, just not in that way. Naruto is kind of like a cross between my best friend and the annoying little brother I never had. To tell you the truth, I think he feels the same way about me now. Naruto still hints at us going out on a date every now and then, but he doesn't seem serious about it anymore. I think he does it to tease me more than anything else. Besides, Naruto and Hinata would make a cute couple.”

 

The two teens continued on in silence for a few more minutes.

 

“Shino,” Sakura said without looking at the other ninja.

 

“Yes?”

 

“If you breath a word about me thinking Naruto is handsome to anyone, I'll hose you down with insecticide and castrate you in your sleep,” Sakura said in a calm, even voice that sent chills up and down Shino's spine.

 

The normally fearless and unflappable teen let out an audible gulp. “Understood.”

 

“I think we've almost caught up to Naruto,” Shino added in an attempt to change the subject.

 

Sure enough, Shino and Sakura passed the dead bodies of four of the strangely dressed and armed men that had attacked the village. One of them had clearly been killed by a rasengan to the chest. A minute later, the two Leaf ninjas topped a ridge behind the castle and saw an amazing sight. A large ring sat perpendicular to the ground at the top of a small marble set of steps. Inside the ring, a shimmering pool of water seemed to be defying gravity, as it, like the ring that contained it, was also perpendicular to the ground. An unusual looking pedestal with a small dome made out of some kind of red crystal sat a short distance away from the ring. As Sakura and Shino began to run down the hill, they saw one of the attackers run into the pool with an unconscious Hinata over his shoulder. He was quickly followed by three more. Sakura watched as Naruto caught up and leaped into the pool right behind the four men. Then the pool simply vanished in a brief flash of light, leaving no trace of the men or Naruto and Hinata.

 

“I think we need to get Kakashi-sensei and Yamato-sensei,” Sakura said as she came to a stop and stared wide-eyed at the ring while her mind tried to process what she'd just seen.

 

“Agreed,” Shino replied.

 

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“It doesn't look like they're planning on going anywhere,” Carter sighed as she handed the binoculars back to Colonel O'Neill.

 

SG-1 had been on a standard scouting mission to a supposedly uninhabited planet only to discover a Goa'uld had apparently set up shop on the planet. A fact the team quickly learned when they spotted a landed mother ship and a new base under construction. They'd then tried to make it back to the stargate only to see a force of around one hundred Jaffa go through it while fifteen remained behind to guard the stargate. That had been four hours ago, and SG-1 was still hiding in the same spot watching the fifteen Jaffa.

 

“Anyone got any ideas?” Daniel asked.

 

“I have none, Daniel Jackson,” Teal'c answered.

 

“Colonel?” Sam asked.

 

All three turned to look at Colonel O'Neill. “We keep waiting. Hopefully they'll leave after the rest of the Jaffa come back through the gate. If not, we'll wait until night and take them out.” O'Neill paused for a moment before turning toward the Jaffa member of his team. “Hey, Teal'c, why would they leave a guard force behind for this side of the gate, anyway.”

 

“Most likely, the force we saw go through the stargate was a raiding party sent to capture humans to serve as hosts and slaves to help build the base,” Teal'c answered thoughtfully. “If that's the case, the Jaffa on this side are here to process any prisoners the raiding party might send back, not guard the stargate.”

 

Colonel O'Neill was about to respond when the stargate started to activate. As soon as the event horizon of the wormhole formed, Jaffa started running out of the stargate. The third Jaffa to exit the stargate was carrying an unconscious teenage girl with long dark hair over his shoulder. Three more Jaffa appeared, but, as soon as the sixth Jaffa exited, he was hit from behind and knocked out by an orange blur that came out of the stargate just before it closed. The blur then shot straight toward the fifth Jaffa. The figure slowed down just enough for the members of SG-1 to make out a blonde-headed teenaged boy dressed in an orange and black outfit. When he reached the fifth Jaffa that had exited the stargate the boy slammed his fist into the taller man's face with unbelievable force causing the Jaffa to collapse in a heap. The teen then threw a knife out to each side striking two of the Jaffa who had been guarding the gate in their throats. He then yelled out something as a glowing, spinning ball of light formed in his right hand. The boy slammed the ball of light into another Jaffa who had turned to fire his staff weapon. When the ball of light struck the Jaffa it sent him flying backward at an incredible velocity before slamming into three more Jaffa. The boy made a gesture with his hands and yelled out something else, and suddenly dozens of duplicates of the boy appeared out of thin air. The duplicates managed to take out seven more. By this time, five of the six Jaffa who had not been killed or otherwise incapacitated recovered enough to begin firing back with their staff weapons. The barrage of rapid-fire staff blasts mowed down many of the copies, which vanished in puffs of smoke when hit. However, one blast managed to get through the strike the original in the side just below the ribcage. Despite the wound, the boy somehow managed to throw one last knife at the Jaffa carrying the girl before collapsing. The knife struck the Jaffa in the back of the thigh and caused him to drop the girl and fall to the ground clutching the profusely bleeding wound. However, after the boy collapsed due to his injuries the last of his duplicates vanished in clouds of smoke. The surviving Jaffa began to cautiously move in to finish off the teenager.

 

“Ah hell,” Colonel O'Neill growled as the shock of watching a lone teenager take down fifteen Jaffa in spectacular fashion in less than ninety seconds wore off. “Daniel, dial the gate. Teal'c, grab the boy. I'll get the girl. Sam, cover us.” Sam, Jack, and Teal'c rose as one and began firing at the surviving Jaffa as Daniel sprinted for the DHD. The five Jaffa still standing quickly fell in a hail of bullets and staff blasts.

 

Teal'c reached the boy and was surprised to see him attempting to stand despite the serious wound. The boy saw the Colonel and Major Carter kill two of the remaining Jaffa with short bursts of automatic fire from their P90s, Colonel O'Neill carefully scoop up the girl, and then both members of SG-1 start moving toward them. The teen turned to Teal'c with a grateful smile on his face before collapsing into the older man's arms.

 

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Earth: Stargate Command

 

“Unscheduled off-world activation,” Sergeant Harriman called out over the public address system.

 

“What have you got, Sergeant?” General Hammond asked as he entered the control room.

 

“It's SG-1's IDC, sir,” the glasses-wearing sergeant replied.

 

“Okay, open the iris.”

 

A moment after the iris opened Daniel ran through the gate holding up two fingers and yelled, “Medics!”

 

“Med-team to the Gate Room. We have two incoming wounded,” rang out over a speaker in the infirmary.

 

A couple of minutes later the rest of SG-1 came through the gate carrying the two teens who were quickly passed off to Dr. Fraiser and the arriving med-team.

 

“Janet, we've got one male, in his mid-teens, with a staff weapon blast to the abdomen, and an unconscious female of about the same age. We're not sure what happened to her,” Major Carter called out when she saw Dr. Fraiser.

 

Looking at the wound on the blonde-haired teen, Dr. Fraiser ordered, “Okay, the boy's condition is serious but his vitals are stable. Get him to the infirmary and take some X-rays to check for internal injuries. Let's take a look at the girl.”

 

One of the medics had pulled out a penlight and opened one of the girl's eyes. “What the… Dr. Fraiser, you need to take a look at this!”

 

Dr. Faiser looked up from where she had been taking the girl's pulse and was stunned to see that the girl's eyes was unusually shiny, almost like they had a reflective layer similar to the tapetum located behind the retina of a cat's eyes that allows them to see well in low light. However, what shocked Dr. Frasier the most was the pale lavender color of the irises and the apparently lack of pupils. “Whoa! Now, that is different!”

 

“What is it?” General Hammond, who had just entered the Gate Room, asked.

 

“Sir, I'm not sure. It looks like she was just hit by a Zat gun or Goa'uld shock grenade, so she should be fine, but her eyes have a highly abnormal physiology,” Dr. Frasier answered. "It could be a mutation or some kind of medical condition. I'd like to get her down to infirmary to give her an MRI and some other tests, just to be on the safe side."

 

The general simply nodded his approval and said, “Keep me informed.” Dr. Frasier and the medic moved the girl to a gurney to take her to Sick Bay.

 

“Colonel, what happened?” General Hammond asked as he turned to the members of SG-1.

 

“The uninhabited planet…wasn't, Sir. After we got about five clicks from the gate, we spotted a Ha'tak vessel that had landed on the surface and what appeared to be a base of some description under construction. I decided it was better to return home, than risk a confrontation. We got back to the stargate just in time to watch a Goa'uld raiding party of about a hundred Jaffa go through. Teal'c believes they were probably going to capture people to use as slaves and hosts. They left about fifteen guards at the gate. I decided we should wait either for nightfall to take out the guards or until the raiders returned and hope the guards returned to the base with them. After roughly four hours, six Jaffa returned through the gate carrying the girl, who was unconscious at the time. However, the blonde-headed kid was right on their heels and managed to kill or incapacitate fifteen of the Jaffa in about two minutes. One of the Jaffa managed to hit him with his staff weapon. At that point, we intervened and took out the remaining Jaffa. Then we brought the boy and girl back here,” Colonel O'Neill summarized.

 

“How the hell did that kid manage to take out fifteen Jaffa in two minutes?” the General asked.

 

Teal'c answered, “He showed an unusually high degree of skill and speed in his attacks, and a number of abilities that I have never seen before.”

 

“That's putting it mildly, Sir,” Major Carter jumped in. “The boy was able to move at such a high-speed that we were barely able to follow him with our eyes. He also demonstrated an ability to manipulate some kind of energy to make physical attacks on the Jaffa, and he was able to create solid duplicates of himself.”

 

“Duplicates?”

 

“Like a human Xerox, sir,” O'Neill answered. “They could move on their own, and you couldn't tell them apart from the original, but when they were hit they disappeared in a cloud of smoke.”

 

“This boy sounds like he could be potentially dangerous, do you believe he could be a threat?” the General asked.

 

“General Hammond, I believe the boy poses no danger to us or this facility,” Teal'c interrupted. “When he engaged the Jaffa, he fought honorably and seemed solely focused on retrieving the girl from her captors. Also, when the boy saw Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter come to her aid, he appeared to be genuinely relieved. After seeing the girl was safely in Colonel O'Neill's hands, He turned to me and smiled before losing consciousness.”

 

“Colonel, do you agree with Teal'c's assessment?”

 

“Pretty much, sir,” O'Neill answered. “I say we find out what those two kids' story is and then decide what to do.”

 

“Okay, I'll trust your judgment on the issue, but I'm still going to post a couple of guards outside the infirmary, just to be sure. I want all of you to report to the conference room for a full debriefing in one hour,” General Hammond ordered.

 

“Yes, Sir,” Colonel O'Neill replied.

 

“General Hammond,” Daniel called out before the general left the Gate Room.

 

“Yes, Dr. Jackson?”

 

“I'd like permission to wait in the infirmary for them to wake up. We don't know if they speak our language and it would probably be a good idea to have someone on hand to translate so we can avoid any misunderstandings,” Daniel said.

 

“Good idea, permission granted,” the general responded to their resident linguist.

 

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When her senses started to return to her as she regained consciousness, Hinata felt something constricting her right bicep, and a hand grabbing her arm. Her heart rate skyrocketed when she opened her eyes and saw that a man dressed in strange blue cloths was about to stick a needle in her arm. Conditioned reflexes developed during years of training overrode the confusion and fear of waking up in a strange place. She grabbed the man's hand and twisted it while simultaneously pushing it back so his wrist was bent at a painful angle, making him drop the syringe. She followed up by kicking the man away from her and leaping off the bed to her left to put distance between herself and the threat. As soon as she landed, Hinata dropped into a Gentle Fist stance. The man in the blue cloths stumbled backwards knocking over a monitor mounted on a small cart. The commotion drew the attention of another man dressed in a camouflage uniform who ran into the room and pointed a strange device toward Hinata that she instinctually realized was a weapon by the way the he brandished it.

 

“Byakugan!” Hinata activated her bloodline with a quick series of hand seals and prepared to defend herself.

 

The man was startled by the sudden change in the petite teen girl's face as the nerves, veins, and arteries along her temples bulged, giving her face a much more fierce look.

 

“N-n-naruto-kun?” Hinata said in a startled voice when her activated bloodline allowed her to see the blonde lying on a bed behind her that had been concealed by a curtain.

 

“Hinata, it's alright. They're friends,” Naruto said in a weak voice as he pulled the curtain back.

 

Dr. Fraiser and Daniel who had been standing by the blonde's bed stared in shock at Hinata's face as her activated Byakugan came into view. They visibly relaxed when Hinata deactivated her bloodline, and her face quickly returned to a normal, if very confused and worried expression.

 

“It's okay, Airman. She was just startled. You can holster your sidearm,” Dr. Fraiser said to the guard who still had his pistol out.

 

As the guard acknowledged the order and holstered his pistol but stayed in the room, Dr. Fraiser turned her attention back to her two teenaged patients.

 

“F-f-friends? W-where are we? How'd we get here? What happened to the people that attacked the town?” Hinata asked Naruto in rapid succession. She was still looking over her shoulder at Naruto, as she wasn't prepared to turn her back on the armed man in front of her just yet.

 

Naruto didn't answer but instead simply stared at Hinata with his mouth hanging open and his face rapidly turning red as a blush spread from his cheeks to the rest of his face now that the curtain was no longer blocking his view of her.

 

“Naruto-kun? Naruto-kun? Hello, Konoha to Uzumaki Naruto. What are you staring at?” she asked. There was still no answer.

 

“What did you do to Naruto-kun?” Hinata yelled in a panicked voice as she looked from Naruto to Dr. Fraiser and Daniel.

 

The woman said something in a language she couldn't understand. However, she could understand the man with the glasses, “I don't think he's acting like that because of anything we did.” The man paused as if he was struggling with what to say.

 

Hinata practically growled at the pair standing over Naruto's bed, “If you hurt him, I'll…” It was at that moment that the air-conditioner in the infirmary decided to kick in and she felt goose bumps run down her exposed back and bottom.

 

“EEEEKKKKK!!!!!” Hinata ripped the curtain down and wrapped it around herself when the fact that all she was wearing was an open-backed hospital gown finally sank in. She then made eye contact with Naruto again, whose face seemed frozen in an expression of astonished wonder. Hinata started swaying back and forth slightly before her eyes rolled back into her head and she fainted from embarrassment.

 

“Crap!” the guard cried out while lunging forward to catch the unconscious teenage girl before she hit the concrete floor and hurt herself. When he looked up the he saw Dr. Faiser checking the boy who had also passed out with a small trickle of blood running down from his nose.

 

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Naruto's World: Hokage's Office

 

“Okay, let me get this straight. Hinata was knocked unconscious and captured during a battle with a mysterious group of attackers, that we now know are not even human. Naruto took off in pursuit of some of the attackers who tried to escape carrying Hinata. You two chased after him,” Tsunade said as she pointed at Sakura and Shino, “and arrived just in time to see some of our mystery attackers escape with Hinata into what looked like a pool of water that was perpendicular to the ground and contained by what the locals thought was a glorified lawn ornament. Then you saw Naruto follow the kidnappers into the pool of water right before it vanished.”

 

“Correct,” Kakashi and Sakura answered.

 

“That boy is going to be the death of me,” Tsunade groaned as she rubbed her temples in a vain attempt to ward off her approaching migraine.

 

Tsunade turned to the scarred special jonin who was also in her office, “Ibiki, have you been able to get the prisoners to talk?”

 

“Oh, I can get them to talk. The problem is I don't know their language and they don't know ours so I have no idea what they're saying,” Ibiki responded.

 

Tsunade looked down at the drawing of the ring and the pedestal that Sai had included in his report.

 

“Sakura, I want you and Shikamaru to see if you can dig up some more information on whatever this thing is and what it does,” Tsunade said as she held up Sai's drawing. “Ibiki, I want you to keep working on the prisoners. Try to find someone who can figure out how to communicate with them. Kakashi, go find my perverted former-teammate and bring him back here,” Tsunade ordered. “Yamato, inform Hiashi of what happened. Dismissed!”

 

Everyone quickly left to carry out his or her individual assignment.

 

Shizune stuck her head in the office door when she heard the Hokage's head hit her desk with a loud thud. “Tsunade-hime, are you okay?”

 

“I'm just friggin' peachy,” Tsunade sighed with her forehead still firmly planted in the middle of her desk right on top of her winning lottery ticket and the latest report on Akatsuki. One of the stacks of paperwork on the desk suddenly collapsed, burying the Hokage's head. 'Yup, just peachy.'

 

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Author's Notes: There you have it, the long awaited first chapter of my Naruto/Stargate SG-1 crossover. Reviews are welcome, but no flames or spam, please.