A/N: Alright ladies and gentlmen, I'm alive! I've been better given all the problems I've been going through, but I'm still breathing. Still kicking. I've been on a Mass Effect craze as of late as I'm sure you all noticed; its just my way of coping with life atm. Not only has my stupid heart failed on me again, but I've been suffering through the loss of several family members. Add to that the state of my joblessness and the school bills that keep racking up, and I'm in a bit of a tight spot at the moment. Yet here I am, fighting this damned depression, not giving into despair. To all my readers/reviewers who have encourage me in this time, I say this:

Thank you all for you support, and here's hoping I make it through the rough road ahead of me! *Raises glass in a toast* Long live Fanfiction! And in case my health goes south...Love ya'll! Expect an update for Bring Down the Sky to be coming soon!

Well...here ya go! =D

"Jackie, I've done things that would make even you sick...

~?

Invictus

At first all he knew was cold metal on his back and muffled voices. Then he became aware of shuffling footsteps, his shallow breathing, blood rushing in his ears, sweat beading upon his brow. Gradually, this eerie world of sound expanded to blurry figures, pins and needles in his limbs and louder words, though by no means less garbled. It felt like he was coming off of a heavy anesthetic. That or one hell of a genjutsu. As each of those voices grew more distinct, he could hear a man say, "Looks like he's waking up, Warden."

Waking up from what, was his first thought, his mind finally restarting amidst the haze. The last thing he remembered was...

Peace.

Memories came rushing back in a monumental wave, momentarily subsuming him in images of the past.

Redeeming Obito. Crushing Kabuto. Obliterating Madara. Sealing away Kaguya withinhimself. Separating the Juubi back into its nine halves for a second time after the arrogant Uchiha's inteirference, recreating the nine Biju once more. Reviving their respective Jinchuuriki through use of the Rinnegan. Permitting them the impossible choice of reuniting with their partners or living their lives as normal human beings. Resigning himself to a life with her voice constantly in his head; her power constantly trying to take over his body, claim it as her own.

a life devoid of the voice the incessant whispers of Kurama. Peace. Yes, that was what it was called. What he had achieved. Hadn't he?

Taking a society once feared around the world and repurposing it; new faces, new ideals, new everything. Breathing fresh life into the desicated husk it had once been, ressurecting it, for the sole purpose of preserving that peace. What was the name of it again? He probed the darkest depths of his mind, seeking, searching, trying to remember it...

Akatsuki.

Ten years later, his people had happened upon a treasure trove of technology-Prothean, as he would soon learn-and not five years later, they stumbled their way into the stars. He had been upon one of those very first vessels, and together with his crew, had reached what would later be known as as Mass Relay. But something had gone wrong. Those things arrived. Terrible, horrible creatures, pouring out of them. He remembered in bits and pieces, sporadic events threatening to scar him once more. Jumping through the relay. Crashing. And that voice...that damned voice...

We are your salvation through destruction.

That was where memory ended. Anger filled in the blanks. Clearly he'd landed somewhere. But where-or even when-was here?

Satisfied that he at least wasn't an amnesiac, the man looked down...and what he saw there all but turned his spine to ice. What...in the nine circles of hell? Why was he covered in shackles? Why...couldn't he move his body? Why were his hands so charred? What the hell was he wearing? More importantly, why did his chest feel as though an elephant were sitting on it? He took a a deep breath and felt the pressure alleviate somewhat and his chakra flaring subtly beneath his restraints. The world came into its own then, suddenly aware of hair before his visage, those matted blond tresses blotting out his vision for the smallest of seconds as he began to summon forth his power-

That was when he saw the creature. He almost burst out laughing right then and there. It looked some sort of scaly, bipedal chicken! Little did he know that this was a Turian, and the situation in which he found himself was by no means a laughing matter.

A voice, warbling deeply in the way all turian's did, spoke to him, mockingly. "And how are we feeling today?"

Well. This creature seemed to know him somehow. How odd.

"...fuck off."

"Good. It seems you can understand me. I'll have to thank our techs for implanting that translator in your spine." His mouth plates twitched in the parodyxm of a human smile. "Now that we can finally converse I think you'll be happy to know, boy," At this point a soil-brown turian with gold eyes in Blue Suns armor stepped into focus, speaking to him, "that you are the second prisoner aboard the Purgatory deemed dangerous enough for the cryogenic unit. I'm sure the Collectors will pay a handsome sum for you."

'Cryo-what? Collector who?'

He froze in his groggy stirrings as the finals words left the Warden's beak, why the hell was he aboard a prison ship? Was this creature an alien, or something? Had to be. No one in their right minds would create a jutsu like this. Mistaking this silience for fear the turian in front of him chuckled and foolishly continued his little tirade, "Don't worry too much, you're only on board until a proper buyer can be found. Oh, and you'll even have a cell mate, too! Won't that be wonderful?"

The man blinked once in acknowledgement. Trapped he might be, but he wouldn't be a prisoner for long.

"I certainly hope so." A silken voice sulked in the back of his brain. "You forget; so long as you remain trapped, then so do I. This is unacceptable. Escape at once!"

'Oh, good.' the blond groaned as Kaguya made herself known for the first time in what felt like an eon. 'You're still here. How I've missed you.'..

"Sarcasm does not become you." he could just picture her pretty little scowl.

'Neither does your lack of wit!'

Behind the turian who loved to hear himself talk, he could see a large mechanical arm slowly pulling a tube of frosted metal out of the cryo-unit.

Imagining the type of horrible criminal he would no doubt be sharing a cell with, he was vaguely surprised as the mist cleared to reveal a woman a head shorter than him and covered in tattoos. She looked a handful of years younger than himself and her head was shaved. She started to stir just as he had, but before she became aware of the change in her imprisonment a collar similar to his own was clamped over her neck. Her eyes shot open as she came to the realization he did when his own collar was applied and a hoarse voice let out a loud stream of vulgar curses. Had he been a green genin still, the man might have blushed at some of them.

As it were, he merely arched an eyebrow.

The Warden snorted next to him and said, "Beautiful, isn't she?"

"Fuck you!" she shrieked!

"Can you believe," the Warden continued merrily, "That she's been like this sinced ay one? Completely unbreakable. Marvelous, Subject Zero. Absolutley marvelous." When he moved to stroke her face, she tried to bite him.

"My name," the woman hissed, "Is Jack!"

"I don't care what your name is." the turian remarked dismissively, dead eyes swiveling towards Naruto. "Bind him."

With a wave of the turian's talons the rack he was strapped to was lifted by the large arm and shortly brought to the tube. A second's pause passed before the rack was slotted into the tube, mechanical clamps locking it into place. The woman snapped out of her tirade as she realized that he was detained facing her. Full lips quirked down into a scowl. "Don't get any funny ideas, fucker."

The man raised his eyebrows at her and asked the cliched question, "What are you in for?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, hazel orbs angry and intense. "All kinds of shit. You?"

He shrugged as best he could in the restraints and said, "I honestly don't know, I feel like half my mind is missing." A hoarse laugh leapt from his lips. There it was. He could feel his old strength returning. "Could have something to do with all these voices in my head. That ,or the fact that I've killed an entire godamn planet." By action, or inaction, he had doomed his people. But none of that mattered now. He could feel a hot, heady warmth blooming in his limbs as his chakra began to move within him and a pleasant, almost euphoric feeling flow down his spine as his coils were stressed. Just a little longer...

"Bullshit."

"I don't see anyone of the bovine persuasion around here..."

She snorted at his poor joke and frowned at the sudden drop in baritone but said nothing as the Warden walked up to the two of them, sneering in his mirth, "I'm sooooo glad to see the two of getting along." A clawed hand reached down to carress her cheek. "It wouldn't do to have your bunk mate try to murder you in your sleep, and I do hope you sleep well." As the tube settled into the cryo-unit all vestiges of light vanished and a brief, sharp pain bloomed from the spur on the back of his neck before the odd hum of his cell began to fade away. But it did not die. His eyes remained open, his senses alert, if slightly muddled.

Deep in the darkness, Naruto smiled.

"Only one sleeping here will be you, warden." Grimly, he released the hold of his body, no longer containing the entity he'd worked so hard to restrain. The effect was as immediate as it was terrible. Kaguya's shouts of joy were possibly the most terrifying thing he'd ever heard in all his life. He suppressed a shiver at the cold creeping up on him-the numbing sensation as she took almost complete control of his form. It wasn't his body anymore. Suddenly, it was hers. And the Rabbit Goddess rejoiced.

"FINALLY!"

Sapphire eyes snapped into a rimmed, violent violet. Veins bulged on either side of those orbs, the once purple rinnegan staining within just a touch of white. Horns sprouted from his head, his blond hair bleaching itself white as he gave himself to the entity sealed inside of his very soul. Power coursed through him. Changed him. Empowered him. Flooded his deadened limbs. Shredded the shackles, that bound him. One arm came free in a flurry of fling steel. That was all it took. A single arm-then a leg-then another arm and then he was loose, standing in the black. She smiled up at the hatch that still barred her passage.

A slim, manicured hand cannoned upward with all the force of a typhoon.

Warden Kurill, still standing on the tube, never saw the blow that killed him. One moment he'd been crowing proudly over his sealed prisoners. The next, he was looking up at his legs, the severed half of his torso flying away in a spurt of blood and bone. Bifurcated, dead before he hit the ground, his upper and lower torso flopped lifelessly on the deck. Kaguya emerged from the hole, white eyes glancing piteously down at the still form off the turian she'd killed. A cruel smile quirked her face as she beheld the dumbstruck guards, gawping at the demise of their leader, at this woman in rags who stood before them.

"Hello, corpses." she smiled benovelently. They raised their weapons to fire-

She moved and they died. There could be no other explanation for it. Once they were men-and in the next instant they were smears on the wall, armor and all. Kaguya felt nothing for their demise. They were inferior to her. Base creatures unworthy of even the most passing glances. Worms. On a whim she reached down and opened the woman's cage, watching as it began its slow ascent up from the depths. That one had a spark, one she would've enjoyed draining her of if she had the chance. Ah but her time was fleeting. Even now she could feel herself slipping, returning back to the seal.

"Ahh," she sighed, gazing upon her blood-soaked hands. Her hands, not the rough calloused palms of the one who had bound her, trapped her to his very being. She would relish these rare moments of freedom as long as possible. "If only this were permanent." Kaguya used his mouth to smile, her silken voice emerging from his lips. Her lips. "If you'd just create a body for me, we wouldn't have to suffer like this...

'Yeah, well it isn't!' His voice stabbed at her mind, once more reminding her who held the whip. 'And I won't. Assuming control! NOW!'

Kaguya bent double, gasping as the change reversed itself. Male asserting itself over female once more. Bones restructured themselves, snapping and cracking. Horns shrank back into his scalp. Molten gold asserted its dominance over white, the long pale tresses shrinking until they were little more than bangs. By the time the fog had cleared and all six senses were her own, Jack found herself face to face with her cell mate. Her eyes instinctually narrowed in anger, only to widen when she saw his blood-spattered form standing tall and unbound. A low whistle carried past her lips, barely heard over his own hammering heart.

"Holy shit...you really fucked them up."

"You noticed that, too? I thought it was just me. You said you're Jack, right? Name's Naruto, by the way." he introduced, offering his hand.

She stared at him in disbelief.

"I can't shake your hand if I'm tied up, fucker."

"Right."

Naruto laughed and moved to unbind her. But before he could unlock anything more than the collar, she slapped his hands away. "I can do the rest myself." she grumbled. Impatiently he waited as she unbound herself, her small hands wresting themselves free from each shackle one by one. Unsurprisingly, she didn't thank him. Instead she stalked away, hurriedly rummaging amonst the corpses. When she came up with a shotgun, he finally grew weary of her silence.

"Hey!" he shouted, grabbing hold of her shoulder.

"What?" she growled, rounding on him. The shinobi was somehow reminded of a viper hissing defiance at some larger predator.

"I just saved your ass! A thank you would be appreciated."

Jack glowered at him for a long moment. A muscle jumped in her jaw. Then she flung Kurin's assault rifle at him. With fumbling fingers , he caught the large weapon. The red and black stock felt strange and alien in his grasp. Even as he looked down at it, he felt the first explosion. Jack had blown a hole in the nearby wall, thereby securing an escape. Almost immediately, dozens of alarms began blaring, deafeningly. Perhaps that was why she chose to grant his request.

"Thanks." she muttered.

An uneasy silence passed between the two of them. Finally, the tattooed convict gestured toward the hole

"So...you ready to fuck some shit up?"

Naruto felt an old smile tear across his face at the idea of some much-needed payback.

"I was born ready!"

That was when it finally occurred to him:

He had no idea how to fire a gun!

"Erm...

"Now, what?"

He held up the rifle.

"How the hell do you use this thing?"

Jack facepalmed.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!"

A/N: Aaand there you have it! My work continues!

Anywho, I worked extremely hard on this one, so I hope to hear what you think! Will Naruto join up with Shepard? Or will he forge his own path? Pairing is uuup in the air! YOU DECIDE! And on a final note, thank you to everyone offering emotional support in regard to my health woes. Its greatly appreciated! An awful lot is going to change in this story soon! Look forward to an epic prank next chapter...provided my health holds out. So I'll say for all of you...HAPPY SUMMER!

So...in the immortal words of Atlas...

...Review, Would You Kindly? And of course, enjoy the preview!

(Preview)

Illium was not what Naruto had expected it to be. Then again, he wasn't entirely sure what he'd been expecting in the first place. He was still adapting to the alien idea of finding himself flung into a different universe by that relay, a new realm bordering on the strange and the obscure. It helped a little that he had Jack at his side, but beyond that he was almost hopelessly lost in the cultural marvel of the asari-dominated planet. There were so many different species to see, technology to observe, and everywhere he went, he'd found these strange, gorgeous creatures staring at him. At Jack's behest he'd procurred a pair of pants and a shirt to satisfy his own modesy, but even so he felt horribly underdressed as he gazed upon some of the denizens of the spaceport.

No, this definitley wasn't what he'd expected of the asari when he'd first heard of them.

Neither was a Justicar.

Samara had lived for countless years, taken inumerable lives and yet something about her struck him as off. Power radiated off her in waves, something that could best be described as...an aura. There was a prescence to her that could only be defined as a subtle sense of regality, as though she were a queen walking among common peasants. Naruto tried not to stare, but some part of him was instinctually stricken by the sight of this warrior standing before him.

"I sense a great evil within you." she murmurred. "Are you friend or foe?"

Inwardly, Kaguya scoffed.

The shinobi grimaced.

"That depends."

Hope you enjoyed! R&R! =D