Hi there, Jakespeed207 here! This is a story that's been thrown around my brain a lot, but I finally had the time and resources to make this chapter. Now, I've actually been putting a lot of thought into this story, and I can see myself taking it far. I'm aiming to take it all the way to Dead Space 3 (you'll understand why by the end). Now, a few quick notes before you begin, and THESE ARE IMPORTANT IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND THE STORY!

1) The Naruto in this story is a bit more respectful. I made him following the description, "Knows what respect and etiquette are, just decides not to use them due to the populace's attitude and actions".

2) Hinata is somewhat less shy here. I'm not completely competent in writing out a shy person, but I did my best.

3) Hanabi is a little more than a year younger than Naruto and Hinata in this story. Meaning, if Hinata is 13, Hanabi is between 11 and 12 years of age.

4) The events of the beginning of Dead Space 3 (not the prologue), when *spoiler if you haven't played DS3 yet* Danik releases the Marker of New Horizons, where Isaac lives, happen much earlier than in DS3. Say, two to three years before. This means that the time between when Isaac and Ellie parted ways and when Norton and Carver come for Isaac is a lot larger. The reason being I want to have Ellie be alive in this story, but I also want Naruto and the team to be grown by that time, and I can't quite do that with how little time there is between the breakup and the rescue mission. Does this mean I plan for Naruto to go to Tau Volantis? ... Most likely, yeah.

5) The descriptions of the RIGs, Suits, Tools, and Weapons come almost directly from the Dead Space Wiki. I hold no claim over them. Well, technically I hold no claim over anything but the story idea.

6) If you're a little confused about the ending, go to the Dead Space Wiki and read the entire description of the Black Markers. You'll get the idea then.

And now, ze disclaimer: I, in no way, shape, or form, own anything related to Naruto or the Dead Space franchise. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto and EA and Visceral Studios, respectively. I only lay claim on the idea, and even that's a bit of a longshot.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

In the forests outside Konohagakure, Naruto Uzumaki, jinchūriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune and finalist in the Chunin Exams, was currently cursing up a storm while sitting in the shade of a large tree. The reason? Well, why don't we let him say it.

"Kuso!" Naruto growled for the umpteenth time between gritted teeth, "What's so special about Sasuke-teme that Kakashi-sensei decided to just leave me in the dust?! I'm facing Neji fucking Hyuuga. Unless I get stronger, I've got no chance!"

Naruto wasn't stupid, no matter what he showed others. He just got too used to pretending to be so in classes. He figured that if his own teachers were going to be hateful jackasses, why wouldn't his sensei be? It seemed he was partly correct.

After another minute of grumbling, Naruto stood up, a mask of determination on his face.

"Fine then... if he doesn't want to train me, I'll do it myself! Away from this godforsaken village!"

With that, Naruto dashed out of the forests and into the village, heading straight home. There, he got his biggest, and only, backpack and packed all he could, from extra jumpsuits to instant ramen packets to soap and a toothbrush. Once the backpack was full, he then ran to the Hokage Tower, drawing odd looks along the way.

Slipping past the secretary, who was thankfully to busy to notice him (not that it would have made much difference), Naruto walked up to the Hokage's room and knocked for once in his life. Hearing the customary, "Enter" from the Hokage, Naruto slowly walked into the room.

Hiruzen Sarutobi, third Hokage of Konoha and known as the second God of Shinobi, was understandably troubled when he saw his pseudo-grandson Naruto Uzumaki enter his room. For one, the boy actually knocked instead of barging into the room like he usually does. For another, his face was practically expressionless, with none of his usual hyperactiveness showing through. And finally, he had a rather large backpack on, its shape suggesting it was filled to the brim.

"Naruto-kun, how can I help you today?" Hiruzen asked with his trademark grandfatherly smile.

Naruto barely smiled before responding, "Hokage-sama," and there's a fourth reason to worry the Hokage, "I want to ask you for permission to go outside of Konohagakure to take a small training trip for the Chunin Exams."

Hiruzen's shock was palpable. "Why would you want to go out of Konoha to train, Naruto-kun? Wouldn't you be able to train perfectly fine here, with Kakashi, maybe?"

Naruto's expression darkened at the mention of his sensei. "Doubtful. For starters, Kakashi-sensei is currently training Sasuke, literally telling me that he 'needs more training in order to beat Gaara', which is true, but he completely threw me to the wind despite the fact that I'm facing Neji Hyuuga, who's considered a prodigy in and out of the Hyuuga clan. I'm the dobe of my class, Hokage-sama, and I know I'll be hard pressed to beat him, especially if I don't train. Plus, it's not just me. He seems to pay a lot more attention to Sasuke than to me or Sakura-chan. Adding to that, I can't really trust anyone else to supervise my training. I don't want them to sabotage my training somehow, and I'd rather not bother you for training."

Hiruzen was left in the balance between anger and sadness. Anger at Kakashi's complete disregard of his pupil, and sadness at the fact that the populace of Konoha was still so hateful towards Naruto.

"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry about that. I wish these people could see the truth-"

"It's alright, jiji" Naruto cut him off softly, "I'll change their views someday, somehow. But for now, please give me this wish."

Hiruzen smiled and nodded. "Of course, Naruto-kun. However, there will be a few stipulations."

"A few stripu-what-now?" Naruto asked, face scrunched up in confusion.

"A few rules, Naruto-kun," Hiruzen chuckled, holding up one finger, "First, no traveling outside the Land of Fire. The country is big enough to begin with, and you'll find that other countries may not be very friendly towards Konoha ninja."

Naruto nodded, happily agreeing with that.

"Secondly, I expect a report of your status and whereabouts every Wednesday, understood? If I fail to receive one, I will assume that you've been captured and shall send a group to find you and bring you back."

"Understood, jiji," Naruto nodded again.

"Good," Hiruzen said, then reached inside a drawer for a travel passport and filled it out with Naruto's info, his signature, and the Hokage's seal of approval.

"Is it just going to be you on this trip, Naruto-kun?" Hiruzen asked after handing him the passport.

Naruto was about to answer that yes, it would be, until a stray thought passed through his head.

"Actually... Is it possible you could summon Hiashi Hyuuga here, jiji?"

Despite being surprised at the request, Hiruzen nonetheless acquiesced, calling one of the guards to bring the head of the Hyuuga clan. During the waiting time, Hiruzen made sure Naruto had everything necessary for the trip, which included giving him a current map of the elemental nations.

After another minute, the guard teleported back into the office with Hiashi in tow before disappearing once again. After giving a passing glance to Naruto, he bowed and says, "You called for me, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen smirked and said, "I was not the one who asked for you, Hiashi. It was Naruto-kun here."

Hiashi raised an eyebrow and turned to Naruto. "And what can I help you with, Uzumaki-san?"

Naruto merely locked eyes with the man before bowing, an action that shocked the hell out of Hiruzen and the guards. In an even voice, Naruto said, "Sorry to trouble you, Hiashi-sama, but I am about to take a training trip outside of the village and I wish for your daughter Hinata to accompany me."

Hiashi studied the young man for several seconds before replying, "And why exactly would you want my daughter, the weakest of our clan, to go with you, Uzumaki-san?"

Naruto responded by straightening up and locking his now steely eyes with Hiashi's. "Because, as I'm sure you know by now, I am fighting your nephew Neji in the finals. Thus, some training would be beneficial, and who better to train with than someone I already know and trust? Plus, I am sure that it would be beneficial for her as well. She's an incredible fighter, and I believe all she really needs is a confidence boost."

Hiashi actually moved closer to Naruto before saying in an unreadable voice, "And you believe that you'll be able to give her said confidence, do you, Uzumaki-san?"

"I won't know until I try," Naruto responded, glaring right back at the man, "But she responded well to my praising of her during the Preliminaries and fought as hard as she could, so I'm willing to help her with that!"

Hiashi kept his stare against Naruto's a little longer before surprising everyone and actually laughing out loud. At Naruto's incredulous look, he responded, "Fine then, I shall allow it." He moved closer to Naruto and said, in a nasty voice, "Do prepare to be disappointed," before straightening and saying, "I shall send her over to the northern gates," and finally leaving.

Naruto stood there for a few seconds before shaking his head in anger and saying, "Does Hinata-chan have a travel passport, jiji?"

Hiruzen filed Naruto's suffix use for future thought and answered, "Yes. All children of clans have them."

Naruto nodded and said, "I'll be going then. Thanks, jiji!"

With that, Naruto left, and Hiruzen was left sitting back on his chair, his anger at the populace of Konoha mounting.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

Naruto stood at the northern gates, leaning against one of the huge doors. He was practicing a skill Iruka told him about, where he would focus on his chakra and spread it around him, using it as a sort of radar. The farther he could spread it, the better his control would be, while the more chakra he poured into the technique, the more details he could 'see'. Therefore, with his terrible chakra control but massive chakra reserves, he could almost count every hair on a person's head but he could hardly sense anything 10 inches around him.

Thanks to this, he could sense when someone approached him. It was a girl, perhaps a year or two younger than him. She seemed to be studying him, her face a mask of confusion and a little frustration. While he could tell she wasn't Hinata, she resembled her a little and her chakra was somewhat similar.

"Anything I can help you with?" Naruto said, startling the girl and making her move back, out of his range. He finally opened his eyes and looked up only to now notice Hinata standing there next to the girl, her blush as prevalent as her curious expression. Hinata was in her usual attire consisting of a bulky cream jacket and blue pants, with the addition of a white backpack with flowery patterns. The girl next to her had the same eyes as she did, the trademark silvery eyes of the Hyuuga, but instead of Hinata's blue hair, hers was brown and long, reaching waist level. She had on a tank top under a black vest, and was wearing matching black pants and sandals. She also had a backpack, although hers was a light blue color. She was looking at Hinata quite determinedly.

"Hello, Hinata-chan," Naruto said, straightening up and moving closer to the two.

"Ano... H-hello, N-Naruto-kun..." Hinata responded shyly, "Tou-san said t-that y-you asked f-f-for me?"

"Yes, I did," Naruto nodded, "To cut right to the chase, I'm going to take a small training trip out of the village, and I don't want to go on my own. I need training, that much is certain, and my sensei decided to train Sasuke-teme instead of me. That's why I'm asking if you'd like to come with me."

Hinata was understandably shocked, yet at the same time elated. Her crush wanted her, out of anyone else, to come with him on a training trip?

"Ano..." Hinata had to ask this, out of pure curiosity, "W-why me, N-Naruto-kun? T-there are s-so m-m-many others y-you could ask t-to go with... you..."

Naruto, noticing her go slightly deeper and deeper into her jacket with every word, walked up to her and placed a hand on her shoulder, making her snap her head up to meet his eyes. Hinata was a little startled at how close he was. If she had been just half a step closer, she could have hit him with her head when she looked up.

Naruto's gaze softened as he looked at her, making her blush increase. With a small smile that she reciprocated, he said, "Hinata-chan, I chose you out of anyone else because, unlike many in this village, you're one of the only people that haven't put me down for any reason. You've always been nice to me. I chose you because I know that this trip could do both of us good, both as training and as time away from any upsetting factors. And I chose you because... I trust you."

Hinata was tearing up by the end of his explanation, which made her do something rather bold: she moved forward and hugged him tightly, smiling like a giddy schoolgirl. Naruto chuckled and hugged her back, before releasing her and saying, "Now, care to explain who's the shrimp that's trying to bore a hole into my skull with her eyes?"

There was a twin 'eep' sound from both Hinata and the girl, which was followed up with Hinata attempting to explain, "T-t-this i-i-is-"

"I'm Hanabi. Hyuuga Hanabi. Hinata's sister," the brunette interrupted.

Naruto looked at the two of them: Hinata blushing up a storm and looking down, and Hanabi looking at him determinedly but also having her own blush.

Finally, he chuckled, startling both girls, and said, "I didn't know we were having any stowaways."

Both girls blushed (or in Hinata's case, blushed even more) until he said, "I do hope you have your travel passport and necessary things in the bag, Hanabi-chan."

Hanabi blushed a bit more at the suffix, but nodded nonetheless.

"Did you ask Hiashi permission to go?" Naruto asked seriously.

Hanabi grinned sheepishly and said, "Well, I left him a note..."

Naruto and Hinata both stared at her incredulously. Hanabi ignored them and continued, "He should be finding it around three... two... one..."

"HAAAAAAANAAAAAAAABIIIIIIIIIIII!"

The incredibly loud yell startled everyone in the vicinity, and forced Naruto to chuckle.

"Oh well, no time like the present, I guess. Let's go!"

Quickly showing their passports to the gate guards, the trio dashed into the woods, surprising the guards with their speed and agility.

Minutes later, a disheveled and seething Hiashi Hyuuga returned home from the Hokage Tower, promising a long month of punishments to his youngest daughter.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o

It had been three days since they had left Konoha, and for Naruto, Hinata, and Hanabi, it had been time well spent. They had spent the first day simply moving, aiming to get as far as they could from Konoha while keeping track of how long it would take to get back. The second day was spent on coming up with a training routine that they would follow while still moving. They had finally arrived at their destination on the third day, a few miles from the border at a point where not many patrols would pass.

Naruto walked back into camp with a dead deer on his shoulder. The two girls, having been sitting on opposite sides of the campfire they had built, looked up as he sat down, put the deer in front of him, and swiftly began to skin the animal. Mere moments later, he had a few pieces of meat hanging over the fire, slowly moving them so as to cook them well.

"You know, I'm still surprised when I see you do that so quickly," Hanabi commented.

Naruto shrugged and responded, "I hunted quite a bit as a kid, so I already know about hunting and gathering. The cooking comes from Ayame-chan and Teuchi-oji, who taught me some cooking skills when I told them I was living alone. "

Hanabi nodded while Hinata just watched the exchange. Minutes later, the food was done and the kids ate like kings and queens, bantering back and forth as Naruto and Hanabi took it upon themselves to help Hinata with her self-confidence issues.

After they ate, the three merely sat around the campfire, content smiles on their faces and expectant glints in their eyes at the training they would undergo together. The peaceful time, however, was shattered when they heard resounding boom, powerful enough to shake them all.

"Hinata-chan, Hanabi-chan, Byakugans on, now!" Naruto quickly ordered.

The girls quickly went through the necessary hand signs and activated their doujutsu. With the 359° view, Hinata quickly spotted the problem.

"Naruto-kun, up there!" Hinata called out stutter-free, pointing somewhere behind Naruto. The blonde turned and noticed what looked like a bright light that seemed to be getting bigger and bigger...

... and it was heading right for them!

"Move!" Naruto yelled, grabbing all three of their packs and pushing the girls to the side in one swift motion, and not a moment too soon.

As soon as they hit the ground, they could feel the earth-shaking collision between the meteor and the ground. It tossed up a lot of rocks, so Naruto quickly stood in front of the girls, punching and kicking every reachable rock away while the Hyuuga sisters kept an eye out for any other surprises.

Finally, the rumbling stopped and the three heard what sounded like another collision a number of yards away. Still shaken, Naruto helped the two girls up and handed them their bags, then walked back to where their camp had been.

Instead of a campfire and three logs around it, all that was left was a long trench that the meteorite had dug when it hit the ground. It seemed to head east, leaving a path of destruction and two toppled trees.

Naruto quickly jumped onto the nearest tree, startling the girls, and followed the path that the meteorite had left. With a twin cry of, "Naruto-kun, wait!" the girls chased after him.

What they found several yards away shocked them. Instead of the chunk of rock they had expected, there was a large metal... something leaning against a tree. The parts that weren't broken or scratched on the outside were painted blue; it had three large, hollow cylinders on its back end; and in the front they could see a large, shattered glass pane.

"W-what is it?" Hinata asked, half in fear and half in wonder.

Neither of her companions had an answer for her.

Instead, Naruto walked up slowly and looked all around the metal thing, taking note of everything he noticed. After doing two full circles, he noticed that there was an outlined rectangle on one side, like a door, but without a doorknob.

"Hey, I found something," Naruto called out. When the girls arrived, he pointed at the knob-less door. "See if you can find anything around that can open this."

"Like this, Naruto-kun?" Hanabi asked, pointing to what appeared to be a button next to the door.

Chuckling slightly, Naruto nodded. "Yes, like that, Hanabi-chan. How'd you spot it so quickly?"

In response, Hanabi simply pointed at her eyes, which still had the Byakugan activated. Naruto nodded with a small "Ah" and motioned for her to do the honors.

As soon as Hanabi pressed the button, a small hiss came from the door and it began to fall forward, falling to the ground with a crash.

"Well, that's pretty ominous," Naruto commented, making both girls sweatdrop.

Carefully approaching the entrance, Naruto flicked out a kunai from his waist pouch and held it in a reverse grip. Slowly, he stepped inside the metal thing, looking all around for any trouble. Instead, he spotted something that stopped him in his tracks.

"N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata stuttered from right behind him. Hanabi was also approaching from his right. When they spotted what had given Naruto pause, they stopped dead in their tracks as well, and Hinata let out a small shriek.

There on the ground, looking quite dead and lying on a pool of blood, was a man. He was wearing what appeared to be an armored suit, but it looked more advanced than anything they'd seen before. What truly shocked them, however, was his face. His expression was frozen in a mix between pain, shock, and anger, and his stomach was sliced open, from which his internal organs and some small tendrils seemed to be coming out from.

Slightly to the right of the man was an upside-down... creature. It had a body shape similar to a bat, but much larger. Its skin was leathery, and the underside of its 'wings' was much darker, almost blood red. It was clearly dead, much to the relief of the two ninja and one ninja-in-training.

Before any one of them could decide what to do with the man, a bluish screen suddenly popped up above him and in front of them with a burst of static, startling the three. In it, the man was standing, his arm wrapped around his middle, where they could see a lot of blood coming out. The man seemed to be panting in effort, and when he looked up, his face was contorted in pain and converted in a sheen of sweat.

"I'll leave this for whoever finds me..." the man began, "My name is Isaac Clarke. I'm a... systems engineer from what used to be the CEC, and just recently escaped the New Horizons Lunar Colony... located on Earth's moon... There's... nothing left... I'm sure to bleed out soon... This is something... even a large med pack... can fix... but I know... the infestation hasn't... stopped. New Horizons was... overrun by... Necromorphs... before I managed to escape... The information about it... is in the database... of every suit... in the ship's store... Please... make sure... there aren't any more... outbreaks... finish the battle... and... save the galaxy... my time is done... I'm sorry... and I... love you... Ellie..."

The man suddenly collapsed, and the video finished moments later. The three young ninja simply stood there in shock.

"What..." Hanabi broke the silence, "What was that?"

Naruto shook himself out of the shock and put things together. "It seems as though there was someone living in outer space, on the moon of a planet. Some serious shit must have happened, and this Isaac had to escape from the moon. But... necromorphs... never heard of those. Have either of you?" When they shook their heads, he continued, "He sounded pretty serious when he talked about stopping the outbreak and saving the galaxy, but..."

Hanabi shook her head, "Even if it's all true, we can't actually do anything about it. There's no way we can reach the moon!"

Naruto nodded and stood, finally noticing the store that Isaac had mentioned across from him.

"Hey, check it out," Naruto called out, bringing their attention to him, "It's the store he mentioned."

Together, they crowded around the store, where Naruto, who was in the middle, reached out and pressed the EarthGov logo, which immediately changed and became a list.

RIGs

Tools

Weapons

Items

Database

Exit

Deciding to go from the beginning, as much as the Weapons section called to him, Naruto reached out and selected RIGs. The menu disappeared, and became another list, this one of every suit available in the store, with a small picture of what they looked like, and a description of what RIGs were.

Resource Integration Gear, or RIG for short, is an integrated health management and strength augmentation system that assists users in previously impossible and dangerous environments. RIGs monitor the lifesigns of an individual through a spine-mounted display that serves to indicate the user's general state of health, in real time, as a glowing segmented bar which depletes as the user takes damage, going from blue to green to yellow to red. When the user dies, it emits a "flat-line" sound similar to an EKG, which is loud enough to alert others within earshot of the RIG wearer's demise. Holographic projectors mounted on the wrists can create a two-dimensional display in front of the user, to display whatever they might need to see. The size of the display can vary depending upon the data it is accessing. It can also project a colored line to guide the user to a destination, be it a location or a service like a store or workbench. It is capable of two-way audio and visual communication. RIG users can be individually tracked if need-be, even if dead. Finally, RIGs can be used as a form of biometric lock, only allowing specific RIG users access to designated areas, though such scanners fail to take into account whether the user is living or dead. While civilian RIGs are nothing more than spine-mounted health displays and holographic projectors, certain professions require full-body suits, such as engineers and security guards. These suits come with armor, Kinesis and Stasis modules, an internal oxygen supply for work in vacuums, gravity boots and thrusters for work in zero gravity environments, and three dimensional maps of the area.

Engineering Suits:

Standard

Elite

Forged

Hazard

Security Suits:

Standard

Elite

Patrol

Arctic

Soldier

Zealot

Riot

Prima

EarthGov

Triage

Vintage Suits:

Standard

Elite

Bloody

Heavy-duty

Advanced Suits:

Standard

Elite

Agility

Shockpoint

All suits regain the highest amount of armor and inventory slots. Armor: 25%; Inventory Slots: 25.

After reading through the description of what RIGs are, and the amount of suits stored on the ship, Naruto, Hinata, and Hanabi were shocked. Suits that could track the health of a person and had armor as well? And was that video of Isaac a "holographic projection"?

After glancing at each other, Naruto went back to the previous menu and selected the next option: Tools.

211-V Plasma Cutter

The 211-V Plasma Cutter, also referred to as the "Plasma Cutter" or simply "the Cutter" is a hand-portable mineral cutter manufactured by Schofield Tools. The Plasma Cutter is one of the miner's primary tools of the trade, offering unrivaled reliability in even the most hostile of work environments. Despite its name, this tool does not rely solely on plasma energy. Almost any type of energy can be used with the Cutter, as long as it is inserted in a compacted package or as a continuous stream.

Amount in safe: 5 cutters.

IM-822 Handheld Ore Cutter Line Gun

The Line Gun is a wide-beamed slicer with timed mines. This "gun" fires a horizontal beam of energy, and, like the Plasma Cutter, it is used for cutting down rocks and ore to smaller sizes, though it is designed for more heavy duty ore that the Plasma Cutter cannot cut through. Also like the Plasma Cutter, it can function with another type of energy, although much more would be needed. The Line Gun can release its ammo as a timed mine, which explodes in a shower of lasers, cutting through anything nearby.

Amount in store: 2 guns.

RC-DS Remote Control Disc Ripper

Designed to cut and hack through solid rock, the Remote Control Disc Ripper, more commonly known as the Ripper, is an extremely dangerous tool. In unskilled hands, it's an accident waiting to happen, ejecting incredibly sharp, diamond-coated tungsten blades at up to 17,000 rotations per minute (RPM) to cut through anything in front of it. The blade is attached to a miniature gravity tether. The Ripper's primary function launches a sawblade that hovers in front of the tool for a total of thirty seconds, while the secondary function ejects an un-tethered saw disc at high speed.

Amount in store: 3

PMF-100 Hydrazine Torch

The PFM-100 Hydrazine Torch Flamethrower, or Flamethrower for short, is an industrial tool used in the extraction of various ores and minerals during mining operations. It was originally designed to project a liquid hydrazine flame of 500 to 4,000 degrees Celsius onto the layers of ice that trapped valuable ores within comets. When used against frozen meteors, the flame will cause the solidified water within the meteor's cracks to melt, splitting the rock into pieces without much trouble.

Amount in store: 2 torches

Handheld Graviton Accelerator

The Handheld Graviton Accelerator, commonly referred to as the Force Gun, is a short-range kinetic booster device. Its function in mining operations is to provide blasting power beyond conventional explosive charges, thus making it suitable for precise terraforming applications. Some practical examples may include shattering rocks into smaller rocks, sending rocks between miners in zero-gravity situations, or deflecting wayward rocks away from miners during space operations. Its secondary function releases a short beam of kinetic energy that has a small charge time.

Amount in store: 1 accelerator

C99 Supercollider Contact Beam

A heavy-duty energy pulse device, the Contact Beam is used for commercial destruction where a powerful but focused explosive force is needed. The primary fire is immensely powerful but requires a short charging time. The secondary fire delivers a ground clearing-blast around the user. Like the Plasma Cutter, it can function with a secondary source of energy.

Amount in store: 1 beam

The three kids were once again shocked at the tools and their descriptions. These things sounded really powerful. Without further ado, Naruto went back and selected Weapons.

SWS Motorized Pulse Rifle

The SWS Motorized Pulse Rifle is a military-grade, triple-barreled assault rifle with a rapid rate of fire and large magazine ammunition capacity. The Pulse Rifle is the standard-issue service rifle of the Earth Defense Force, and is also common among federal security forces, corporate security officers, and civilians.

Amount in store: 4 rifles

Detonator

The Detonator is a weapon that deploys laser tripmines that sticks onto any flat surface, be it a floor, wall, or ceiling. If the laser sensors are disrupted, the set mines will detonate violently. The secondary function allows one to deactivate deployed mines to be reused.

Amount in store: 2 Detonators

Seeker Rifle

The Seeker Rifle is a riot control device that is meant for accuracy at long-range. It packs a punch but is slow to reload. Zoom in with the scope for even greater damage.

It was just as they finished reading this that Naruto suddenly realized that they were still in the ship, and quite some time had passed. He quickly moved back and said, "As interesting as this is, we need to get moving! This thing made a lot of noise when it crashed and I'm surprised no one's come by to check on it yet!"

"Naruto-kun... i-it's the middle o-of the n-night," Hinata reasoned.

"And we aren't that close to the border," Hanabi followed up.

Naruto put a hand on his chin and thought for a moment. Finally, he said, "Yeah, guess you're right. But still, we should get moving before some patrol passes by. Who knows what they might say or do. This Isaac guy said he left the ship and everything in it to whoever finds it, and that was us three."

The two girls nodded. Together, they talked a bit about what to do before it was decided to get everything from the Store and store it in a couple of storage scrolls both Hinata and Hanabi had brought with them just in case.

"We should also take Isaac's body and give it a proper burial," Naruto reasoned, to which both girls agreed to. After thinking the plan through a bit more, Naruto decided that they should each keep one of the suits on themselves. According to the store they had a lot of armor and could track health, which would prove very useful.

Naruto went first, quickly looking through the options before selecting the Elite Advanced Suit. The screen folded inward and up and a door behind it opened suddenly. Naruto could see a human-sized opening where he could comfortably stand, so he moved forward and carefully leaned back against it.

Suddenly, something closed around his wrists, ankles, and torso, holding him in place. With a startled yelp that the girls reciprocated, the doors closed and a blinding light made him shut his eyes.

"Naruto-kun!" both Hyuuga cried out as the doors closed. Hanabi, being the more impulsive one, was about to jump forward and beat the crap out of the doors until they opened, but Hinata's raised hand stopped her. They watched as a bright light slowly moved down, going from the ceiling and reaching the floor, before disappearing. Moments later, the doors opened again, and Naruto stepped out.

The girls, especially Hinata, nearly fainted in both shock and awe. Instead of his orange jumpsuit, Naruto was wearing an all-black suit which looked to be made of stretchy material. The material itself, however, was hardly viewable due to all of the black, white, and mostly silver tinted armor that was covering Naruto's entire body. The girls, ever observant, noticed a somewhat conical-shaped protrusion coming out of the suit's upper chest area, which had a small screen that was constantly showing information; two different objects attached to the left wrist; and, as Naruto stretched his shoulders, three small, spoon-like things that lifted from his back with the sound of rushing air. Finally, Naruto finished stretching, and looked at himself.

"Man..." Naruto commented, "This thing feels heavy but it's also really comfortable! It might not be orange, but damn, I won't lie and say it isn't freaking awesome!"

Hinata had to giggle at Naruto's reaction to the suit. She watched as he looked at himself a bit more before standing still when two separate metal parts came out from both the front (inside the frontal protrusion of the suit) and the back (the top of the health bar). It proved to be many pieces stacked together, which stopped at Naruto's chin and the nape of his neck before spreading out and coming together to become a full helmet. The helmet was round in the back but came to a pointed vertical line in the front. It had three horizontal openings for sight and emitted an orange light, both of which made the girls wonder how in Kami's name he could see anything.

"This is fantastic!" Naruto called out, checking himself out on one of the reflective surfaces around them, "The light from the helmet is even orange! Awesome!"

Both girls ended up giggling at Naruto's antics this time, which made him focus back on them. "Alright, ladies," Naruto said, "You're up! Hanabi, you go first!"

"What?!" Hanabi yelped, "Why me?!"

Naruto shrugged, "Why not you? Come on, we're wasting moonlight!"

Hanabi huffed in annoyance but made her way to the store anyways, the screen of which had already unfolded and was showing the menu again. Scrolling over the choices, Hanabi decided to go for the Elite Security Suit. The screen once again folded up and the door behind it opened. Hanabi threw an uncertain glance towards the other two. Hinata looked just as uncertain, but it was hard to tell Naruto's emotions due to the helmet. As if to placate her, Naruto gave her a thumbs-up and motioned for her to go for it. With a determined nod, Hanabi carefully made her way inside and leaned back on the cushion.

Immediately, the same straps that had held Naruto down strapped across Hanabi's wrists, ankles, and torso. The door closed again and the bright light from before traveled down from top to bottom. Hinata looked a bit apprehensive, but a hand on her shoulder from Naruto calmed her slightly.

After two seconds of inactivity, the doors opened with a hiss and Hanabi stumbled out. The suit she was wearing was similar to Naruto's, but it was a bit more basic and round, and the armor pieces were mostly a metallic grey, with some parts around the neck and wrists having a checkerboard pattern painted onto them. On her left bicep, a thick piece of armor had the words S.W.A.T. printed on them while "1002" was printed on the other arm. Her hair, being much longer than Naruto's or Hinata's, was actually stuffed inside the suit when it was put over her clothes, but she didn't seem to mind. Finally, at Naruto's instruction, she kept her head still as the segmented helmet pieces popped out from the front and the back of the suit and came together to form the helmet itself. The helmet was rounder than Naruto's and had a thick piece of armor on the forehead, which had a painted checkerboard pattern like most of the armor. The light coming from the two wide visors of the helmet was a light brown.

"Wow..." Hanabi commented, stretching slightly, "This is amazing... I would have thought, with so much armor, it would feel really bulky, but it doesn't feel that way at all."

"I know, right?" Naruto said, grinning under his helmet. He turned to the last member of the trio and said, "Well, Hinata, you're up."

Hinata nodded shyly and approached the store, quickly reading over the choices. In the end, she decided to go for the Agility Advanced Suit, since she was a very flexible person. The process of putting the suit on was the same as it was for the other two, and when the doors opened and Hinata stepped out, Naruto had to look away for a moment.

Simply put, the Agility Advanced Suit fit on Hinata like a glove. Despite the fact that it was just a recolored version of the original Advanced Suit, like Naruto's, it went well with her developing figure, and with Naruto being a prepubescent teen who had already read his fair share of adult magazines he found around the neighborhood... well, you get the point.

Both Naruto and Hanabi watched as Hinata stretched, turning in ways that neither of them could with their suits, though this was understandable if hers was really meant for agility. After getting used to the suit, Hinata stood still as the helmet assembled around her just like Naruto's had. Instead of orange, however, the light coming from the slits of the helmet was a lavender color, which didn't clash too badly with the suit itself.

"Alright, I think it's time to start taking things out of there," Naruto commented, with the girls agreeing. They quickly brought out the four storage scrolls the girls had brought, with Naruto once again praising them for their foresight, and lined them up.

They'd go as such: Naruto would use a shadow clone to take out the other suits, and then Hanabi would grab them and store them once the clones took the suit off or dispelled. For the tools and weapons, Naruto would simply hand them to Hinata, who would store them in two separate scrolls. The items he would give to Hanabi, who would use the last scroll for it. The database would be downloaded to their RIGs, so there wasn't any need to do anything with it.

Naruto quickly began, starting off from the top with the original Engineering Suit. As the clone stepped out, Naruto had to admire how he would look in it. Soon, however, a problem arose: how to take off the suit. He didn't want the clone to pop yet, lest the suit disappear as well. Finally, however, they spotted a section of the suit near the side which could be opened. The clone quickly climbed out of the suit and allowed Hanabi to store it before selecting the next suit and stepping inside.

The process continued until they reached the Advanced Suits, which seemed to have no openings to exploit. In the end, Naruto decided to tell the clone to disappear, which it did. To their slight surprise, the clone turned into smoke but the suit itself remained, merely flopping to the ground. Right then, however, all of them could hear a buzz right before a continuous noise erupted from the suit. Realizing that this was the noise that the RIGs made whenever someone died, Hanabi quickly stored it to stop the sound.

Once the suits were safely stored, Naruto moved on to the tools, studying each one as it came out before passing them on to Hinata, who would carefully store them. He really wanted to try some of them, but he knew that he would need some serious training for him to be any good. The weapons were the same story.

When he got to the items, however, he stopped and gaped at the amount of things stored in the... well, store. There were at least a hundred rounds of each kind of ammunition, with the exception of the ones for the Pulse Rifle, whose packs came in a hundred bullets each and of which there were several. Each tool or weapon had a certain maximum amount to a pack: 25 rounds for Plasma Energy; 6 rounds for Line Racks; 50 rounds for hydrazine fuel; 8 Ripper blades per full pack; 25 rounds for Force Energy; 6 rounds for Contract Energy; 100 Pulse Rounds per pack; 15 for Seeker Shells; 10 for javelins; and 8 for Detonator Mines. Isaac had also been very meticulous with the amount of packs he got of each ammo type, getting ten packs of everything. This brought a total of 250 rounds of plasma energy, 60 Line Racks, 500 rounds of Hydrazine Fuel, 80 Ripper Blades, 250 rounds of Force Energy, 60 rounds of Contact Energy (the most expensive ammo that Naruto had seen out of everything else), a whopping 1000 Pulse Rounds, 150 Seeker Shells, 100 Javelins, and 80 Detonator Mines. And ammo wasn't the only thing, as there were fifteen Large Med Packs, twenty Medium ones, thirty Small ones, and five Stasis Recharges.

All of this Naruto passed to Hanabi, who needed Hinata's help to seal it all. In the end, they had run out of space on that sealing scroll and had to use some of the leftover space on the Weapons one. But it was done.

The last thing left was the Database. Naruto decided to skip reading it for now and merely looked at the instructions on how to download it to their RIGs. According to it, they needed to connect their RIGlinks to the store itself to download whatever the store contained in terms of data. He relayed the info to the girls, and they all quickly found how to activate the hologram for the RIGlink. Naruto studied it for a moment, noticing it kept track of the inventory he had, as well as any current missions. It also seemed to have a map, though the map was currently blank as the databank of his suit had no data on the Elemental Nations. Naruto, Hinata, and Hanabi quickly connected their RIGs to the store and watched as the data was stored in their RIGs for future use.

Finally, Naruto exited the store and watched as it became the EarthGov logo once again. He turned to the girls and helped them pack up, then looked at Isaac's body.

"Well, come on," Naruto motioned, "Let's pick this guy up. I'll grab him from the top, you two grab the legs."

The Hyuuga sisters nodded and went with Naruto to grab him. However, as soon as Naruto touched Isaac's head, a powerful spark of energy jumped from the corpse and hit Naruto's forehead. The attack made Naruto fall back with a scream. Hinata and Hanabi quickly went to help him, but froze upon seeing Naruto.

The boy was thrashing on the floor as if he were in excruciating pain, clutching his head and screaming to the heavens. He rolled from side to side, and his helmet's light changed from orange to red for a few moments before going back to orange.

Inside Naruto's mindscape…

A dark entity, locked behind large, golden gates, opened a red, slitted eye. It had sensed the disturbance that had just gone on in Naruto's mind, but when it actually looked, it was frozen in surprise.

Instead of the dank and dreary sewer that the large beast was now accustomed to, the landscape had changed to become something even worse. The cage the beast was in seemed to be on top of a rocky, floating platform, underneath which there was nothing more than an endless abyss. Looking up, the beast could see red, rolling clouds, which were moving quickly past, as though there was a strong wind blowing. Finally, when it looked forward, it noticed that the platform seemed to be circular in shape and past the platform, as if floating on the abyss itself, was a large… construct. It seemed to be a twisting tower of some sort, whose two tips turned and touched at the top. It was black in color, with red sections that twisted around it like arteries. It was spinning at a slow pace, but gradually picked up speed until it emitted a powerful energy wave that rocked everything around it. The beast itself had to hold on to the bars of its cage so as to not be thrown back.

Finally, the wave disappeared, but the construct and the mindscape around the cage remained the same. The beast was utterly confused at this change, its nine tails twisting and turning, as if waiting for something else to happen. When nothing else did, however, it laid back down and merely continued to watch the construct, wondering about the strange occurrence that had just happened.

Back on the outside world…

Hinata and Hanabi had just managed to hold Naruto down long enough to get him to hold still, but his screaming had not stopped. At that moment, a powerful wave of energy erupted from Naruto himself, which blew both girls back and made them roll for a bit before they crashed onto the wall of the spaceship.

Hinata stood up, rubbing the back of her helmet where her head was most sore. She was glad she had the suit; otherwise that blast could have caused a lot more damage. She looked to the side and noticed that Hanabi was leaning against the wall, her hand on the side of her head. Together, they looked at Naruto, who was now laying calmly on the floor, most likely unconscious. Both Hinata and Hanabi knew that, even with the strength enhancement of the suits they were wearing, they weren't strong enough to pick up both Naruto and Isaac, so they merely dragged Naruto into a more comfortable position and sat on both sides of him, patiently waiting until he awoke.

In another part of the Elemental Nations, near Kumogakure no Sato…

A rumbling noise erupted from the seabed of the Crashing Waves Coast, drawing the attention of several sentries. It seemed to be merely a small earthquake, but a team was sent to investigate anyways. As the investigating team approached the coast, none heard the small, demonic whisper that sounded in the back of their heads…

It is time…

To be made whole…

To be continued…

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And that's a wrap! I'll see about continuing the story. Until then, this is Jakespeed207, signing off!