FicWad

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Star Wars. Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, and Star Wars belongs to George Lucas.

Thoughts are in italics

Chapter 8:

Naruto’s return to consciousness was slow and painful.

What happened? I am feeling a weird duality thing going on. I feel simultaneously great and like crap. Everything hurts and my eyes are all wet and crusted shut, but it feels like a great weight has been lifted from my mind. What the hell did I do last night… oh. I can’t believe I fell apart like that. What am I… a civilian? Guess I better get up and check the damage.

With a grunt, Naruto sat up, opened his eyes and groaned. The room looked like a disaster zone. Everything was either smashed, dented, and/or had holes in it. Naruto laid back down with a sigh.

Naruto knew the most intelligent thing right then was to sneak out through the window or something, but Naruto did not particularly want to be responsible for ruining another business. Especially as that receptionist seems to have enough problems, and she would probably be the one blamed for this by her boss. Also, since the destruction was not necessary, and his screw up, he felt should take responsibility for it.

Let’s see if I can fix this place up a bit.

Few hours later, the status of the room had been improved and upgraded to a piece of crap.

Guess that is the best I can do.

Naruto thought about leaving a note, but decided not to.

I mean, what could I say?

“Sorry, had a mental breakdown. My bad.”

He decided to just leave the rest of his credits on the table.

That should be good enough.

Now without a convenient distraction to occupy his attention, Naruto was forced to turn his attention onto his personal status.

Ok, while everything hurts, it appears to be mostly psychological. In terms of my emotions, they were all brought to the surface. Especially my anger. Right now it is just snarling. It is like a beast barely being held down by chains. Great, like I need another monster in my head. Now I got two. Maybe I should start charging rent. I don’t know if it is a good thing or a bad thing my fury is now so constantly present in my mind, but too late now. And… I just realized… I haven’t been wearing any shoes.

It’s true. Naruto had been so pumped up on adrenaline ever since he first woke up in the alley that he did not even notice. He would have grabbed shoes along with the rest of their clothes when he robbed Marcus and that guy from the alley, but, (if Naruto remembered right), the Twi’lek had no shoes, and the Cook had really bad foot odor because of some fungus that was growing on his feet. On the latter, Naruto had thought taking the shoes was not worth it.

Well Naruto needed shoes, so he pulled a piece of trash from the refuse pile he created cleaning the room, and got ready to perform a Henge.

As previously stated, there are two types of Henge. An illusion way, and a physical transformation. The physical variant required a lot more chakra, but as at the moment Naruto had a lot of Chakra, so he was not concerned about that.

The technique’s difficulty and degree of chakra expenditure depended on two factors. Those factors were 1) The degree in which the original object is different from the intended target in terms of size, texture, weight, composition, etc, and 2) the length in which you hold the transformation. Naruto could hold a small transformation, for example in this type of situation, for days.

Wait, I should wait until right before I leave before I do the transformation, that way I save energy. So is there anything else I need to do here?

Naruto’s brow was slightly sweating, so he instinctually went to raise his hitai-ate so he could wipe it. Only to remember he no longer had it. That revelation sent a pang through Naruto’s heart.

He was not upset about losing the headband, but rather what that headband represented. In particular, what it represented to him. It was the first time that anyone acknowledged that he had any kind of worth. The first time anyone acknowledged him clearly as not a pathetic waste of space or some type of monster. It validated his existence, gave him a concrete reason to continue living. And Iruka-sensei gave it to him. He gave Naruto the hitai-ate from his own brow. The metal was slightly dingy, the cloth was worn, and it had a few dents. It was perfect, and Naruto lost it.

The missing hitai-ate made Naruto remember a person he had lost. A person most precious to him.

Iruka-sensei, I never told you how much you meant to me. You were my father, my brother, my family, my whole world, and I never told you. I always thought that I had time, but I guess I didn’t. I thought you knew, but I don’t know if you really knew how much I loved you, and love you still. Thank you for everything you have done for me. Thank you for seeing me as I really am. Thank you, and I promise you will be avenged. I will not allow this crime to go unpunished. The things I will do will be for the sake of so many people, but I am doing it especially for you. Justice will be done.

Seconds later, wearing a new pair of shoes, Naruto walked out of the room.

And may Kami have mercy on anything that gets in my way, for I won’t.

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On the way out of the hotel, Naruto expected the receptionist to be hostile because of the noise. He was actually surprised that he did not end up waking up in response to some security team trying to arrest him. The receptionist it turned out had no idea what he was talking about. Apparently all the rooms were sound-proofed. When the receptionist asked what Naruto was talking about, he (while leaving) said that he had a nightmare the previous night. That is true in a sense. The sense an ocean is a little bit moist.

Now Naruto walked down the street, his mind tackling his newest issue.

I have decided I am going to be a bounty hunter, now I got to find someone to work for. I have no idea how to get clients. The village handled all that; I just did the missions that were assigned to me. Ok, calm down, and gotta think. What would Ero-sennin say in this situation? What helpful advice would he have? Ok think, think, channel my inner Jiraiya. He would say that… I need to get laid. Wow, that was completely no help. Thank a lot Ero-sennin! Ok, who else might have a good idea of what to do here? Um… think, think, I got it. What would Tsunade-bachan, (Old Lady Tsunade), say?

Tsunade shared a squad with Jiraiya when they started their ninja careers together. They along with a ninja named Orochimaru came to be known as the Sannin. They were the Legendary Three Ninja. Unfortunately the group long ago broke up because that Legendary Three became a Legendary Two when Tsunade retired from active duty and, (with permission), left Konoha because of emotional trauma she suffered during the Second Great Shinobi War. Shinobi was another term that referred to ninjas. In particular it referred to male ninja. However, it was commonly used to refer to both genders. Later that Legendary Two became the Legendary One, when Orochimaru was revealed to be a traitor, as he was abducting and experimenting upon civilians and fellow ninja. He was forced to flee from the village, and has been unsuccessfully hunted ever since. Since a team cannot consist of one person, that was pretty much the end of that squad. In contrast to his former teammates, Jiraiya stayed loyal and on active duty, and was soon regarded as the greatest spy-master in the world, with an intelligent network spanning the globe.

When the invasion started, the Third Hokage (who was the Sensei of the Sannin) recalled both Jiraiya and Tsunade back to Konoha, Jiraiya who spends most of his time outside the village, and Tsunade having left Konoha when she retired. Tsunade was quickly and somewhat reluctantly put back on active duty.

However, Tsunade did have two serious faults, (three if you consider vanity, she had a constant permanent illusion set up on herself that made her look 20 years old). As a result of the emotional trauma she suffered during the Second Great Shinobi War, Tsunade was a heavy alcoholic, and a compulsive gambler. Worse of all, she had the worst gambling luck ever, and was therefore constantly in debt.

Naruto did not know Tsunade or her first apprentice Shizune that well for they were in the medical corp., Tsunade being possibly the greatest medic-nin who ever lived. She had a lot of other talents as well. She also had super strength, which in addition to her temper made her a very very scary lady. Naruto got along pretty well with them, despite rarely seeing them. Naruto also knew Tsunade was pretty smart, so he thought she might be able to help him.

So, what would Tsunade-bachan say? Think, think, think… um…. she would probably say something along the lines of… follow the money. Now that is actually pretty good advice. A person got to have a lot of money to afford a bounty hunter. Also, rich people are often powerful people, and powerful people often have enemies. A person with enemies is going to need a person like me to protect them or destroy their enemies. I also think I am also going to have to find someone of a flexible morality. As according to those datapads I read, I would be considered a child here. So most law abiding people will probably not hire me because of that. Especially not for bounty hunting work. So I need someone rich, powerful, and not very ethical.

Suddenly, Naruto’s hand snapped downward and casually grabbed a hand that was reaching towards his empty credit pouch. There was an awkward silence for a few seconds then Naruto started laughing.

Out of all the problems that Naruto imagined himself having, being stolen from was not included in that. Also, Naruto was probably the worst possible mark for anyone to steal from, for multiple reasons. The whole idea of himself being robbed seemed absurd to Naruto.

The pickpocket was a human around 2 - 3 years older than Naruto. His baggy brown clothes practically hung off his tall lanky frame. His pants were so large that the only thing keeping them up was a coil of rope, which was being used as a belt. On his head rested a flat cap. The pickpocket at the moment was getting nervous as 1) His attempted mark effortlessly caught him, 2) his attempted mark would not let go of his hand, and 3) his attempted mark was still laughing. He started to chuckle awkwardly and nervously as he looked for a way to escape.

The other people on the street without missing a beat moved to the other side of the street. Other than that one change in movement, the people did not give any other sign they noticed what was going on. The truth was they did, they just did not give a shit.

Normally I would mess with him a bit, but right now I am honestly not in the mood.

“Alright listen up kid”.

“Hey, I am older than you!”

“I can pretty much guarantee that I have been through more, so shut up and listen. I need some information, you tell me what I need to know, I’ll compensate you.”

“Um… ok. What do you need to know?

“First, what’s your name? If I don’t know I will probably come up with some kind of nickname for you, and likely a pretty insulting one. It’s who I am. I’m Naruto.”

“Tyren”

“Well Tyren, now to business. I need to find someone that is rich, powerful, and of dubious morality.”

Tyren immediately responded, “For what reason?”

“Does it matter?”

Tyren replied, “Now that I think about it, I guess not. There is really one person that is the best to go to on Tatooine for doing any type of business, legal or illegal, serious or pleasurable... if you get what I am sayin.”

On the last word, Tyren grunted and thrusted his pelvis forward.

At first Naruto did not have the slightest idea what he was talking about. Since Naruto grew up completely on his own, and practically everyone hated him. Certain topics were never explained to Naruto. He has picked up a lot from just living his life and overhearing things, but he is still very naive about matters relating to sexuality. However, Naruto eventually figured out what Tyren meant. He immediately started blushing, but caught it and stopped it after a split second.

Damn it, I’m a ninja, and ninjas don’t blush. Well, except Hinata, but she’s a special case. She has some kind of weird blushing related medical disorder. As she always seems to be blushing when I see her. That or maybe it’s heat stroke. Konohagakure can get pretty warm.

Naruto immediately regretted thinking about his past, as almost on schedule the depression started setting in. He forced the feelings down, promising to himself he would purge it later when he was alone.

“You want to do business on Tatooine you need to see the crime lord Jabba the Hutt”.

What the hell is a Hutt? Must be a nickname or something.

“Where is he?”

“Oh, start heading out of town, go 1000 kilometers, in a big fortress-like building, you can’t miss it. But you can’t just walk up to a guy like Jabba and demand an audience. You need an appointment first.”

“I have a severe allergy to all bureaucratic crap, I’ll be fine. Thanks for the information, now for that compensation I owe you.”

Naruto reached into his robes and pulled out a large bag.

“What’s in the bag?

“Credits”.

“Where did you get such big bag of credits?”

“What do you mean?”

“No offense dude, but… oh how do I put this gently… you look like a drunk hobo on Spice.”

“Gee… thanks. Truth is I won it a few minutes ago from a guy trying to hustle me”.

“But you were talking to me a few minutes ago, to do that you would have to be in two places at once.”

“Yes, yes I would.”

Ok I guess I lied. I do have enough energy to mess with this guy. You gotta love Kage Bushins.

“Whatever, so you are giving me a bag of credits?”

“Yep.”

“What’s the catch?”

“No catch; it’s your payment for the info.”

“Is it going to blow up, oh by the Maker it’s going to blow up isn’t it?”

“It is not going to blow up, they are just credits, now take it.”

“You open the bag, and point the opening towards yourself.”

“You are really paranoid, you know that?”

“Yes, yes I am. It comes from experience. People can be really messed up sometimes.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“One time a person gave me a bag they said was full of candy, and it was. But that candy was coated in a very potent liquid laxative.”

“What! Why?”

“She thought it would be funny, and from an objective standpoint I guess it was a little bit. However, that was a very unpleasant month for me”.

“A month?!”

“Did I mention it was potent?”

“Wow! So what happened to her?”

“Nothing”

“Nothing? She wasn’t punished for what she did at all!”

“Nope. Naruto… I’m a street urchin; nobody cares what happens to people like me. Anyway, open the bag.”

“Fine”.

Naruto opened the bag towards himself and shook the bag a bit.

Tyren was still a little hesitant but he reached out and took the bag. He looked in.

“Why… why so much? There are probably a thousand credits here.”

“Don’t read too much into this, it is just that you need the money more than I do.”

Also, I know what it is like to have no money

After the Demon fox attack that ravaged Konohagakure, there were a lot of children that were orphaned in the massacre. Naruto was one of them. He sent to an orphanage near the Hokage monument. Things were never exactly pleasant for Naruto there but it wasn’t until Naruto was 5 years old when things went catastrophically wrong.

The official medical report said that Naruto mauled another child. In actuality, Naruto accidentally bumped a 4 year old kid named Kasuka when in the playground. Kasuka fell down, scraped her knee and started crying.

The orphanage’s matron, who particularly loathed Naruto because she had lost her daughter during the Kyuubi Attack, saw the opportunity and made a big fuss that Naruto had attacked a little girl. She then in collaboration with the orphanage’s doctor falsified a medical report, and said that the only reason Kasuka was currently healthy was because of the doctor’s incredible healing prowess, but immediately after the attack Kasuka had horrible injuries. And it talked about how she would probably have mental scars from the incident, and she would probably repress the entire attack. The situation was worsened by the fact that nobody saw the incident clearly except Naruto and Kasuka. Kasuka who was confused that it caused such a fuss was going to say it was not that big a deal, but the matron bribed Kasuka with all the ice cream she could eat if she stayed quiet. So Naruto ended up being thrown out of the orphanage.

The rumors involving the “mauling” incident damaged Naruto’s reputation even further than it already was. Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, pulled some strings and got Naruto an apartment, where he would receive welfare payments every month.

The problem now was that those payments had a habit of being late, being missing, or being short. Naruto tried complaining to the Welfare offices, but they tied him up in so much bureaucratic nonsense and red tape that Naruto was forced to give up. He then went to Sarutobi, who believed his story and immediately ordered a full audit to be done on that government department. Naruto did not know whether the auditors were crooked, or the people working at Welfare were just that good at covering their tracks, but all the numbers ended up checking out. Naruto never went to Sarutobi about that again. Naruto knew that the Hokage avoided a nasty fallout from this incident, because he argued that Welfare was due for an audit anyway, and how integrity was such a vital necessity for people in government office. And government officials were held to a higher standard. It was a bunch of bull, but the various political and government figures within Konoha just ate it up. So Sarutobi avoided any problems because of him ordering an immediate, unscheduled, surprise audit that did not turn up any results, but Naruto knew he might not be so lucky next time.

Naruto thought about stealing or begging, but decided not to. First, about begging, who would give him money? Second, regarding the stealing, Naruto was scared of the probably excessively cruel, technically legal punishments the Military Police was do to him if he was caught.

So Naruto learned how to really stretch a Ryo. That was the reason Naruto had such cheap tastes in food and clothing. Also why he used to have the slight tendency to mooch off other people. It was also the reason he could emphasize with Tyren.

Tyren stammered, “Th-th-thank you, thank you do much. Nobody ever been this nice to me. You ever need anything; Tyren Helsyn is at your service.”

He tipped his hat in a semi-salute.

Naruto smiled, “Good, now you want a chrono?” Naruto held up a portable timepiece.

“Wow really, that’s real nice of you. Sure I’ll take it and… wait… that my chrono! Give me that!”

Naruto tossed Tyren back his chrono.

Tyren ranted. “Look I don’t know how you pulled that stunt off, but it was luck. That will never ever ever happen…”

“You want a hat?”

Tyren slowly reached up and patted his now hatless head.

Tyren grabbed his hat back.

“The hat must have fallen off or something, no big deal. I dare you to try to take something. It will not work this time. I’m ready for it.”

“You want some shoes?”

Tyren looked down and cried, “Oh come on! You have got to be kidding me! How did he…? Fine you got skills, I don’t. Was there a point to that?”

Naruto gave back the shoes.

“Yes, yes there was. Rule 1 of the book of Naruto; always stay alert and aware of your environment. Decided to throw a little lesson for you in there, help you out, no charge.”

Another reason is because you were getting a little too mushy.

“I’ll see you later Tyren.”

“Actually, as long as we’re trading advice. I gotta tell you something Naruto. You look and smell like crap… no offense. Go clean yourself up a bit at the window for the hardware store to your left. The windows really clean, and probably the best makeshift mirror in the area”

“Won’t the owner mind?”

“Don’t worry about it. The guy has got a bum leg. He starts chasing you, you could outrun him easy. I know what you’re thinking, and don’t feel sorry for him. The guy’s a kriffing jackass. Thinks just because he won a few awards in some war, that he is better than everyone else. Well he’s stuck on Tatooine running a barely surviving business. So guess what… he’s not!”

Naruto asked, “Why is there a celebrated war veteran on Tatooine, who is barely scraping by?”

“Don’t know, and honestly don’t really care. Now dude, please fix yourself up.”

“Ok, see ya”

“Bye Naruto”

It took Naruto only a few moments to find the proper window, it really wasn’t that hard. The sign for the hardware store was extremely big and noticeable. Naruto walked close to the window and looked at his reflection.

Yikes, Tyren wasn’t exaggerating, I do look horrible. Looking like this, even I wouldn’t hire me.

Naruto’s hair and face were covered in some weird muck, an unknown substance whose exact nature Naruto did not really want to think about. His usually spiky blond hair was so laden down withso much various types of filth that it both laid down flat and appeared brown. It also was extremely long and tangled. His eyes were blood shot and sunken in. His robes were splattered with some of the same muck that was on his hair, as well as they fit him like a clown suit.

Naruto tried to clean himself up. He scooped/scraped out the worst of the gunk. For his robe he managed to improve it slightly by folding and tying off the extra fabric. For his hair, he tried untangling it, but eventually decided screw it and just chopped of about a foot of it using one of the vibrating knives he obtained earlier.

With his appearance as good as he felt he could make it. Naruto headed off to Jabba’s palace.

It took only a few minutes for Naruto to reach Anchorhead’s borders. It was then that Naruto started to feel really uncomfortable. He had been getting steadily more and more uncomfortable the closer he got to the town’s borders. He felt like he was burning, and he kept getting bursts of anxiety, but as soon as Naruto tried stepping on the sand that the real problem happened. When he stepped on the sand, his mind flashed to a vision of him being buried alive in sand and the sand flaying the flesh from his bones. He heard screaming, and it took him a moment to realize it was him that was screaming.

Naruto gasped and tried to calm down. He succeeded after a few minutes, and then glared at the newest bane in his life. Though even staring at it too hard made him nervous. And he fully admitted that to himself, he had learned the folly of bottling up his emotions. He also took the time to purge his previous depression, which helped … a little.

Come on man, there is nothing to be afraid of. Before I was injured, not ready for the desert, and I had no idea where I was going. Also, there was a bad sandstorm going on. Now, I am healthy, strong, experienced in traveling the sands, I somewhat know where I am going, and the weather looks temperate. I can do this… I can do this. Just start moving.

Naruto hesitantly stepped forward and placed his foot onto the border between where the city of Anchorhead ended and the desert began. Panic erupted through Naruto’s mind, but instead of retreating back, he took a step forward.

Journey of a thousand kilometers starts with a single step.

He then took another step forward. The fear rapidly began to fade, and Naruto grinned. And he started to run.

Naruto used minimal amounts of chakra on his trek, as he wanted to conserve as much energy as possible for when he met Jabba. He didn’t want to be all worn out when he introduced himself to an apparently really powerful person. He knew if he used chakra he could have cut the couple hour travel time in half, but he really wanted to be at his best both mentally and physically when he encountered the Hutt. He did however use one chakra based technique. It was a derivation of a common technique in Konoha known as Water Walking.

Water Walking and Tree climbing were two commonly taught techniques in Konohagakure as well as in other ninja villages. Though other villages obviously because of sometimes drastically different terrain had to adapt the techniques to their own unique environments. With Tree Climbing, you learned how to walk up shear surfaces such as trees, and with water walking it is pretty self-explanatory, you walk on the surface of water. These techniques had many applications and were extremely useful. The essential technique of tree climbing was the ability to cause your body or another object to stick to another object. Water Walking on the other hand was the ability to cause your body or an object to repel another object. And Naruto was using at the moment the second one. Now instead of walking on the surface of water, he ran on the surface of the sand.

He really tried to prevent it, but Naruto’s mind sort of wandered off about half an hour through the journey, and his body was pretty much running on autopilot. Look, Naruto loved to run, to feel the exhilaration of movement, the freedom, and the speed, but it sorta helped if there was something interesting to look at. The desert was mind numbing and boring. Naruto realized that boring was not necessarily bad, because exciting can be a bad thing. However, that knowledge did not help him now deal with the monotony. The terrain was wide, open, and ignoring a plethora of low sand dunes, extremely flat. Naruto was not worried about running into anything, as the desert was so open he would see anything coming several kilometers ahead of time. So there was really nothing to do but think.

I wonder what Jabba’s like? I know he’s rich, powerful, and at least somewhat immoral, but that doesn’t say much. I guess I’ll wait and find out. So how am I going to pitch myself? …I have no idea. I guess I’ll just say I am a bounty hunter looking for work, and I am offering my services. I’ll figure out the details later. Usually my best plans are the ones made up on the spot anyway. It is difficult for me to focus on stuff like long term planning. Though I am better than I was… I’m hungry.

I could really use some ramen right now, maybe miso, or beef, or pork, or… all three.

Naruto frowned as Ramen made him think of Teuchi and Ayame. A kindly father daughter team that owned a ramen stand that Naruto often visited. They were always really nice to him, which was one of the reasons why Naruto ate there a lot. The other reasons being that the food was cheap, he liked the owners, and Teuchi could do things with noodles that would blow your mind. Naruto wasn’t entirely positive whether they actually liked him, or if it was just because he was their most loyal customer. However, Naruto thought they liked him. He didn’t even know if they made it onto one of the evacuation ships. That time, with practically the air aflame around them, was so hectic, so crazy.

Naruto was shocked out of his thoughts when his instincts started screaming. He snapped back to the real world to see a large furry creature ridden by a person in robes and a spiked helmet of some sort that were about 10 meters ahead of him and closing fast.

Crap!

Naruto swerved, his speed great enough that he barely avoided colliding with the large furry animal, which Naruto vaguely remember from his readings being called a Banthra or a Bantha or something like that. He passed so close to the animal that he could have touched it if he wanted to. The force of Naruto’s turn kicked up a wave of sand that actually knocked the figure off his mount.

“Sorry!”

Maybe I should pay attention to where I am going.

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A little while later, the ground started to get rockier, and it wasn’t long before Naruto saw a path that lead to what had to have been Jabba’s fortress.

He came up to the door; it was an extremely large imposing metal gate of some type. Naruto took a brief moment to catch his breath, and then knocked loudly on the gate. A hole opened up and a strange eyeball looking thing popped out.

Ahhhhhh! What is that?! Is it an alien? But it’s made of metal, so is it a machine of some type?

The alien/machine/thing started making strange noises.

What’s it doing? Maybe it’s trying to communicate to me. That or its malfunctioning… or crazy depending on whether it is a machine or not.

“Hello… can… you…understand… me? I … want... to… see… Jabba?” Naruto spoke slowly and clearly, having no idea whether the thing understood him or not.

The thing rattled off a bunch of sounds.

“Do… you… speak… Basic?” Naruto had found out the proper name of Akuma no Boutoku was Basic, he personally was not a big fan of the name, but he supposed he had to use that name when referring to it in conversation with other people.

The device said some sounds, he caught Jabba’s name in there, so he decided that it did understand him.

“So will you let me in?”

It made more sounds.

Naruto made a guess here. He really wished he could understand the weird eyeball machine, (he decided it was a machine), “I don’t have an appointment, but it’s important. So are you going to let me in?”

“No”

Well that was clear enough.

Naruto’s emotions were pretty raw, and he had dealt with a lot recently, so he couldn’t help yelling, “Just let me in you damn eyeball!”

The eyeball in response retreated back into the hole next to the door and closed the hole.

“Shit!”

Naruto knocked on the door again. Nothing happened. He pounded on the door as hard as could for a straight 5 minutes. In the end nothing answered the door, and Naruto’s hand hurt.

This cannot be happening. I am being defeated before I even begin. I am not being stopped now. I got through that Kami forsaken desert for this! I am getting in there. Got to be something I can do. Think, think… I got an idea.

“Oh you have thwarted me eyeball, I guess I will not see Jabba. I know when I am beaten.”

He then casually made his way about 50 meters around the side of the building.

Henge

A tall red haired man with grey eyes walked to the door and knocked. The eyeball machine popped out.

“I would like to request an audience with the most honorable Jabba.” Damn I forgot to change my vocal cords.

The machine immediately tried to withdraw.

Not happening.

And Naruto lunged for the machine, and caught it… almost. He was just a tad slow, and the hole closed on his hand.

Ow ow ow ow, pain pain pain!!

Naruto pulled and twisted and finally after a few minutes his hand popped out. He immediately inspected it. It was scrapped pretty badly, and the bones were a bit crunched. So not that bad as far as injuries go. Naruto certainly has had worse. The Kyuubi’s chakra healed it in a few seconds.

No no no no! I have to get in, I have to.

As previously mentioned Naruto’s emotions were really raw, and particularly at the moment volatile. And Naruto has had enough.

Kyuubi’s power exploded around him, as the beast within Naruto roared, and he surrendered himself to the rage. The sane part of Naruto’s mind tried to stop it, knowing the horrible effects the fox’s power had on him, but it was like trying to use a leaf to keep back a flood.

And Naruto roared. A palpable aura of dread exploding from his body. All animals near the fortress started screaming and the smaller ones died, as the larger ones writhed and/or fled. The sand under his feet turned to glass than exploded. Naruto normally clear blue eyes turned blood red and slitted, Naruto’s large canine teeth grew to fangs, his nails changed to claws, the whisker like scars on his face grew darker, and tendrils of red power spiraled around his body like a storm, with Narutoat its eye. With another roar, he reached out and grabbed the door, using a derivation of the tree climbing technique to fuse his hands to the door, and he started to pull up.

At first nothing happened, but as more and more of the Kyuubi’s power came forth, the metal started to scream, as the door was being forced against its gears. Power danced over Naruto’s body and the surrounding area. Slowly a millimeter appeared between the bottom of the door and the ground, then two, then three. With a final screech and snap the door slammed into the ceiling, its gears broken. And Naruto stepped through, the force of gravity pulling the door shut behind him.

Naruto stood still for a second in the tunnel he found himself in and then jerked his hand out and grabbed the eyeball and with a grunt ripped it out of the wall. He then melted it to slag. Throwing the slag aside, he started moving forward.

Guards started to appear. The guards were the same large pig-like creatures that Naruto saw earlier. They were frozen by Naruto fear inducing aura for a second, but they shook it off, and attacked. It was admirable that they were more loyal to their employer than they were scared of Naruto. Stupid as all hell, but admirable nonetheless. The first two that reached Naruto swung their axes, only for Naruto to catch the axes right behind the blade and throw the two guards over his head, where two tendrils of power impaled them to the ceiling. Then the tendrils withdrew and as the guards started to fall, Naruto swung his newly appropriated axes backwards slamming them into their heads, and sending them flying into the door 2 meters back.

Naruto continued to walk forward, the stone hissing and steaming under his feet. The next pig guard who reached him, too stupid to learn from his brethren’s failed attempt, swung his ax. ­

Naruto swung the ax in his left hand out and snagged the opposing blade. He then pulled, yanking the guard off his feet. Then with a swing from Naruto’s other ax, the guard’s body hit the ground, his head landing a few seconds afterwards.

The next two guards were grabbed and choked by tendrils of power, slammed together, and then hurled into the walls of the tunnel.

One guard’s head exploded in a shower of red as two thrown axes collided with his skull, the force picking him of his feet and pinning his head to the rock wall where he hung suspended.

Two of the guards squealed then fled. Tendrils of power instinctively flew at them to snare the fleeing prey, but Naruto forced the power back. They weren’t his concern; his concern was anything that got in his way.

The final guard leapt at Naruto, his ax held high. In response he lifted his right arm, mixed Kyuubi’s chakra with his own, and fired.

Naruto’s chakra had a natural wind affinity, which meant he could perform wind jutsus and techniques both stronger and easier than people without a wind affinity can. Naruto could even perform some wind techniques without any handseals, which were necessary for most other chakra related techniques. The thing about wind, and consequently oxygen; you mix it with fire such as from Kyuubi’s power, and what do you get?

The meter wide gout of flame sprang from Naruto’s palm and collided with the pig guard in mid leap, the force thrusting him into a wall, where he stood suspended above the ground consumed by flames.

It took about 10 seconds for the squeals to stop, but Naruto or more precisely Naruto with a mind warped by demonic chakra, held the flames further. It could be a ploy after all, maybe it was playing possum.

Naruto killed the flames and continued forward. The sound of Naruto’s bare feet, (the henge had long since dispelled), meeting the blood and gore soaked stone resounding all through the empty tunnel, well almost empty.

A person was a Twi’lek, grayish peach skinned in color. He actually looked like he might have been someone important, or at least he would have looked so if he was not frozen in apparent terror. Naruto decided that he could be useful.

As soon as Naruto looked at him, the spell of fear apparently broke, and he started to run. He quickly froze again as Naruto send a surge of Killing Intent towards him.

Killing Intent was by far the most commonly used technique of Ninja, as well as a bunch of other people. Everyone uses it, whether they know they are or not. You know that feeling you get when someone who hates you glares at you, or when you glare at someone you hate. That is Killing Intent, though likely the weaker civilian version of it.

There were three components of Killing Intent, or four depending on who you ask. Those components were 1) The willingness to kill, the capability to go about ending someone’s life, not the capability physically but rather mentally, and 2) The desire to do so. People often merged these two into one category. 3) The ability to focus those feelings into a weapon. To focus those thoughts, force them to serve your will, and precisely direct them to your chosen target or targets. And 4) Chakra. Chakrain this case basically served as an aid just making the whole thing easier. It could amplify the emotions sent, it could increase the susceptibility of the target to the technique, and it made the emotions quicker and easier to transmit. Though the technique was technically capable of being done with just steps 1 or 2. So you could imagine why a ninja or any other kind of professional killer would find this technique easier to use effectively than a civilian. And Naruto had an advantage in this area even over other ninja.

The Kyuubi within Naruto was a being of infinite power, infinite rage, and infinite bloodlust. (Naruto was actually curious about how the hell the Fourth Hokage had enough power to seal the demon into him). Even with its mind locked within the seal, the fragments of its mind and malice embedded within its power after a ten thousand year existence, still gave Naruto a huge advantage in the area of Killing Intent. Though by far he was not the best at it, well maybe he was now, but he was the best out of a sample of one.

Killing Intent in some ways was a technique like any other, it could be trained, and it could be strengthened. And Naruto chose to spend more of his time training his other skills rather than this one. However, there were people who dedicated a lot of time to this technique. They were even capable of manipulated other emotions in the victim’s mind as well, not just terror and fear. Naruto could just do fear though, and sometimes determination, which he used a lot when fighting alongside other people during the invasion. Though he never consciously was aware of himself doing the latter one. In the same vein of thought, he could sometimes do happiness when he was really overjoyed, which didn’t happen a lot. As most of the very few moments of pure joy in Naruto’s life were tainted by some sad and/or unpleasant event.

With the Twi’lek frozen by Killing Intent, Naruto moved. In a blur he appeared in front of the target, grabbed his collar, and yanked his head down to eye level. The Twi’lek’s neck already started to blister.

“Take me to Jabba the Hutt”. The voice was harsh and guttural, but still perfectly understandable.

The man sputtered something in another language. Naruto thought it was the one the eyeball spoke, he wasn’t sure, and honestly he didn’t care.

“Speak Basic”.

The Twi’lek swallowed and switched to Basic.

“Wh-what is your business with Lord Jabba?”

“None of your concern.”

“I am Lord Jabba’s Majordomo, it is my business to know. If you do not tell me, I cannot take you to him.”

“Listen friend, I am going to see Jabba. Now that can either be with you or though you. Your choice.

“I will take you to Lord Jabba”.

Without a source to feed it, Naruto anger started to recede, and rational thought began to return. As soon as it did, Naruto realized a very important fact. In addition to the horrible guilt and slight nausea that he felt, he also realized he was an idiot. Not just for losing control and killing loyal guards just doing their job, but also because he had most definitely screwed up his first impression. I mean he busted into the guy’s place, ruined his door, his eyeball machine thing, killed his guards, and likely caused his Majordomo to have a partial mental breakdown. Not exactly the best first impression.

I am such an idiot. Ok, I think I might be able to salvage this… maybe. To even have a chance at saving this, I got to be careful not to say or do anything stupid.

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Holy Shit, it’s a giant slug!

I mean seriously, that thing is huge. I thought it was a nickname. Seriously… wait. My lips and throat are slightly tingly, like they just… vibrated. … I said that aloud didn’t I? Well crap, that is not good. Relax Naruto, maybe I’m worrying over nothing, maybe they didn’t hear me. Just take a subtle look around. Ok everyone is staring/glaring at me, and Jabba looks pissed. Though to be fair on the last one, I don’t know him at all. Maybe he always looks like that. But… well… um… yeah… this won’t end well.

I am so screwed.