Spirit of the Fox

Captain James Cutter stared off into the never ending darkness of space, despite the fact he saw a nebula in the distance, it did little to comfort his spirit. He looked around the now emptied control room and was in preparation for cryogenic freezing.

He was far from home. He felt in his old bones, he was about to walk out of the bridge of the Spirit of Fire when Serena's image came up.

"Sir, detecting anomaly" this made Cutter sigh as he adjusted his UNSC cap, Turning he faced the hologram that was a woman that looked to be about twenty and had a long sleeved white shirt with black pants.

"Odd, a UNSC signal" a puzzled tone sounded out while Cutter looked at Serena "Explain, the UNSC doesn't go out this far, at least"

"It's an older code sir" informed Serena "Much older, searching database." She paused for a moment before responding "A colony ship" surprise on her normally stoic features.

Cutter's eyes widened a margin, this meant that he had a chance of getting an FTL drive and getting back to Earth! Not to mention that it would increase humanity's hope against the onslaught of the Covenant.

He looked thoughtful for a moment and asked "What about Covenant Ships?" he asked next as he narrowed his eyes in the slightest. Serena paused "None detected, sir"

At that, he let out a sigh of relief "Wake up the rest of the crews including Red Team, this may just get us home" he muttered the last part and went to greet the "Good Doctor"

(Ten Minutes Later)

Cutter entered the cryogenic chamber that held the crew he lead, making his way with slow steps, he stopped on one that said "Professor Anders" with a heavy sigh, he pressed in the code and stepped back as the sleeping casket awoke and hearing a groan as she stumbled out of the cryogenic casket.

"Doctor" he greeted, balancing her a bit with a slight smile that tugged at his features. Anders wiped her eyes "Captain.." she started "How much time has passed?" she asked first while Cutter shrugged "A few hours" he remarked while Ander's looked at him oddly.

"A few hours, sir-"

Cutter held up a hand, stopping her from talking "Go to the bridge, Serena will tell you what you need to know. I'll be getting Red Team out, this one is serious" he informed her while Ander's paused and nodded before walking out of the chamber.

Cutter turned his attention to three lone cryogenic chambers as they opened up, three green figures stumbled but straightened out, it was Douglas-042, Jerome-092 and Alice-130. Red Team was made up of three Spartan II's.

"Sir" greeted Douglas with a salute, and a stiffened spine as Jerome and Alice did the same.

"At ease" Cutter signaled as their stances relaxed, he spoke up "I have quite some news for you all, follow me, Serena, what's the status on the rest of the crew?" he asked through the Battle-Com. The AI answerd "Most on the upper levels are already up and about, getting started with the lower levels just now"

Cutter nodded as he began to lead them out and to a hallway "Not just minutes ago, we detected a distress signal, weak but there. A UNSC colony ship" he explained as they reached an elevator "An early one in the 2100's, we still can't get a positive scan what with what damage we now have on the Spirit of Fire".

"Possiblity of an FTL drive, sir?" questioned Alice.

Cutter nodded while the Spartans contemplated, having a chance to help the UNSC fight the Covenant. Something like this was too good to pass up.

Exiting the elevator, they passed by personnel getting ready for orders at their stations including battle in necessary.

Entering the bridge, Serena appeared with a slight smirk on her face at the sight of Red team "Captain" the AI greeted while Cutter gave an acknowledged nod "Serena, you've had enough time for a more through scan, what did you find?".

Serena started "Low level energy signatures from the colony ship, not enough for a fully functional ship, but the FTL drive might be intact".

"What about Covenant presence?" was the next question from Cutter, looking at her with sharpened eyes despite his age.

"Relatively small, I'm currently detecting three drop ships, more than likely a scout patrol. But the only downside being no known return date for the Cruiser"

Cutter frowned for a moment and looked thoughtful for a few moments, Serena's image flickered as he spoke up "It's a risk we'll have to take" he said finally, looking at a Lieutenant "Tell several squads to suit up, taking out the bases is our first priority".

The Lieutenant saluted and nodded before rushing out of the room, Cutter turned to Red team "You'll be down there within the hour, godspeed" he got salutes were given before they left the room and he sighed aloud at the situation, Serena quirked slightly "Something wrong, captain?"

Cutter paused his thoughts and glanced at the glowing hologram "Just that I have a feeling I just can't shake" he muttered to himself, he couldn't be more right as he watched the planet, ever safe from the Covenant.

(Planet Surface)

(First POV)

Over a year of fighting and I'm still alive. Kami, how I hate that. Over a year and I'm the only one left on this godforsaken rock of a planet.

Oh, so you know that I know about the existence of other worlds? I do, yeah. Back when I was younger bout six or eight if I remember correctly, I was hiding from a small group of villagers that wanted to kill me. Had to admit, scared the living hell out of me.

I discovered a vast metal home underneath the Hokage Monument. It was suprising also when I met Kyuubi no Kitsune, at first I was scared of such an immortal being but then I learned that the fox was a guardian of the countries, a sort of buffer of power that balanced out the chaos in this world. He deigned to teach me different jutsu as well as the technologies that it had learned of over the vast amounts of millennia it had both learned and taught.

During this time, I hid most of my strength and began to act like a fool that loved ramen. But over time, I couldn't take all the insults and the degrading looks and the scarce attacks. I confessed to the Hokage that I wanted to leave, at first the old man was reluctant to let me go, but I pointed out why should I defend a bunch of fools that want me gone and dead rotting in a ditch? That stuff hit him hard.

With some farewells and a few gifts, I left Sarutobi Hiruzen. Over time, I learned of fuuinjutsu under Kyuubi-sensei and set up a summoning array in the ship that was left behind in the Hokage monument, supposedly left behind hundreds of year ago.

I mostly traveled across the Elemental Nations and learned jutsu and practiced hand to hand combat styles. I worked as a mercenary for most of the time and never really used the technology on hand.

But that all changed after the day I killed Pein, the leader of the Akatsuki. While Konoha was left in rubbles, they attacked, they did so with no provocation. The alien alliance known as the Covenant. We were given no quarter as most of the world was scoured for our kind, like a god damned hunted animal. I hunted them back.

During my travels, I visited Yukigakure no Sato. Here I learned mechanics and designed an exoskeleton that would assist me in battle, it would be able to "Disappear" and sealed into a special tattoo that was on my back. The exoskeleton had an array upon array of seals, many were strength enhancers and when added with my body increased it tenfold. Next it had a HUD (Head up Display), capable of analyzing enemies and weapons used, I also combined it with some technology on the ship to make nanomachines that would repair the suit. It also consisted of a light bending seal that would make me invisible as good as the Covenant. It also had a language translator in case I wouldn't understand any others, even the Sanghelli as their called. I also made my own weapons, such as a sniper rifle (Think Intervention sniper rifle)

For my name, is Naruto Uzumkai Namikaze, last Shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato. And Hanyou (Half Demon), last Knowledge Keeper of Kyuubi no Kitsune, and this is my story.

(Author POV)

Naruto sat in the rain, under a tree as a trench coat clung to his being, it was hooded hiding his face but let his eyes dimly be seen. He thumbed a necklace between his fingers with a sad smile, it was the necklace Tsunade had given to him when he convinced her to become Hokage during his travels.

The green crystal reflected some light for a moment. Naruto also had some bodysuit under it as he wore the exoskeleton that clung like a second skin. It had a black design with a dark red shoulder section along with a dark red section on his thighs (Think Gray Fox – MGS). He had strapped to his back a daito that had the manji symbol for the hilt and a chain that hung off of it, it also had a black handle with bits of red in it.

His Intervention sniper rifle had a silencer and was decaled with a dark green design, the scope could be switched with an ACOG scope.

His helmet with a single red eye was set to the side as he sighed aloud, he had spiky blond hair with two chin length tufts that framed his face along with a slanted face, no whisker marks and he had canine teeth that jutted from his upper lips along with slit blue eyes. Next, he stood at a height of 5'9 and had his hair fall down to his shoulders.

When he learned that his Otou-san was the Yondaime, he was quite angry at the man for ruining his life. Had to admit, while he understood the actions, he was still angry at the man, but deigned to focus on other problems to ponder his thoughts on his parents.

Naruto shook his head before getting up from the log, he heard several ships coming down and raised a brow as he picked up his helmet and went to the edge of the cliff to eye more than three drop ships come down.

He raised a brow in surprise, more humans. He looked to the sky as the Pelican drop ships took off into the atmosphere, he zoomed in using chakra enhanced eyes to see Three armored individuals at least seven feet tall.

They had green design but the leader appeared to be the one with the red stripe.

Naruto put on his helmet with a slight hiss sounding out, with a click it was on straight and he smirked under it "Game on" he rasped in a metallic tone as the eye glowed red.

As he disappeared in a leaf shunshin, he decided to observe the fellows for now.

(Red Team Base Camp)

Jerome idly pondered why the Area his team and Marines were dropped off into a ruined village area, granted it looked like 1980's style buildings, but hey, buildings that were small enough for a village. He glanced at two Warthogs dropped off with Fifty Caliber machine guns on the back.

Next he looked at a group of Marines setting up some defensive positions, he had to admit they were lucky that the Covenant didn't detect their arrival.

He called up a small squad of marines consisting of six members. "Alright everyone, listen up!" he spoke loudly and calmly "This'll be a routine scouting mission, no enemy contact. Is that understood?".

"SIR YES SIR!" they chorused before suiting up with either M7SMGs or MA5b's for their main weapons along with the usual M6C Side arm, two had at least SRS99 C-S2 sniper rifle in case for long range. The last member had a M19 SSM Rocket Launcher just in case for vehicle encounters.

"Fuck man, why can't we get any action?" whined a new recruit by the name if Micheal Sanders, he was from New York by the look of it as he checked his pistol a few times and holstered it.

"My friend, if you haf not forgotten, ve have no FTL drive for te ship" pointed out a female of Russian descent, she had pale, creamy skin and seemed to be a bit experience Ainya Bovia was her name as he put on her Ch252 helmet and turned on the black polarized visor, running her checks on the sniper rifle, she looked content.

"Get it through your head green horn" remarked John Remington, he looked to be a mixed nationality of American and German from the UNSC stronghold, Reach "We're not on a pleasure cruise boyo, if you wanted action, go kill rebels like the rest of the grubs" the last part was gruff a little while he frowned at that jab to the past.

"Meh, so much tension" muttered one as she sat on a box of ammo and adjusted the sights of her M7 Caseless MachineGun, she appeared to be of South American descent with a slight hint of Hispanic.

"Alright, I'd rather not piss off the jolly green giant over there" remarked Paul Lopez, named XO of the current mission, he was an experienced ODST who had a scar on his lower lip and appeared to be in his late thirties to forties.

Micheal rolled his eyes while Paul chose to ignore his rolled eyes "Gear up, we go in two. And I want to get off this planet as much as you all do" he sighed before slipping on his Helmet and turned on the polarized visor.

John shrugged and checked the ammo for his MA5B before inserting it and with a click, he had a content look on the face before they piled into two Warthogs and drove off.

Jerome knew that they would need more support later, he shook his head before walking over to Douglas to query of some Falcons that could assist. His motion sensor caught some movement as he swiftly looked to the left side of the forest, he noticed some rustling but it died down. The motion sensor went silent as he paused.

"Jerome? You alright?" questioned Alice, taking in his body language and interpreted it as tense for combat.

Jerome paused and said "Nothing" he turned away and began to report to his fellow Spartan.

(Forest Outskirts-Ten Minutes Later)

The two Warthogs went silent as the team crept through the forest, moving in a spread formation to cover their flanks.

Micheal tensed a bit as they came upon a cliff edge overlooking a Covenant base.

"Holy shit" muttered John to himself, staying calm for the most part as he watched several vehicles stop a patrol and park.

"Huh, might need a Spartan for this shit" the recruit said quietly as Paul took out a pair of binoculars and eyed the main base, some infantry along with Elites, Grunts and he even spotted a small team of Hunters, a small frown built on his face as he contemplated how much assistance they'd need here.

None of them noticed a shimmer coming up behind them and silently, an Energy Sword came on, shpwing it was an Elite, the Major growled slightly at these humans trespassing.

The Elite was about to run his blade through the one known as Micheal, he was then yanked upwards by some unseen voice. Micheal turned and brandished his MA5B, scanning the vicinity.

"Hey rook, the hell are you doing?" Paul whispered as Micheal looked over his shoulder "I heard something, a damn elite" at this, the ODST rolled his eyes muttering about delusional rookies.

"Alright, lets get back to base camp, I'd rather not rumble the hornets nest" he got agreed nods while Micheal tried pleading about the elite he heard, as they exited the clearing, an Elite was dropped softly to the floor as Naruto landed silently on the forest floor.

The throat was slit open cleanly as purple blood stained the grass, Naruto stood and hugged to a tree as he watched the base, he glanced at the direction of the Marines and smirked under his helmet, a plan forming in his mind already.

(UNSC Base Camp – Fifteen Minutes Later)

Paul sighed as he reported to Jerome, the leader of Red Team as he was called. He opened up a holographic map "As you can see sir, most of the base consists of a small contingent of Covenant Elites along with a big number of Grunts" he glanced up seeing no change in body language "The main problem will be the Wraith's they've set up, three by the most but our Rocket Launchers can deal with that".

Jerome nodded slowly before looking at the towers "The sniper towers will be the main problem, we'll move in on there and take them by their flank" he informed Paul who nodded, mentally getting together the proper people for the assault.

"I can take down the first Wraith's, Douglas, Alice, you two handle the sniper towers" he got agreed nods, but before he could say anything else, a massive explosion tore through the air as heands snapped and weapons were readied.

"Holy shit!" exclaimed one Marine, Paul's eyes widened slightly "That's the direction of the Covenant base!" he blurted out, Jerome turned on his radio to contact the Spirit of Fire "Captain Cutter, did you order a MAC blast?"

Cutter's voice responded a moment later "No, in fact, it looks like someone else did the job for you" he informed while wry looks crossed Red Team's faces.

"Energy discharge?" asked Douglas, had to admit that was enough to take out an entire Covenant battalion.

"None detected until moment of detonation" responded Cutter, a frown pictured on his face as one could imagine "That's not the way UNSC explosives work as far as I'm concerned."

Jerome nodded as he gestured red team to a Warthog "Colonel" he got the ODST's attention "You've got command of the base, we'll check out Ground Zero" he got a salute from Paul as they drove off, wondering who had done this.

(Covenant Base Camp)

Issw Zomunee saw much in his life time, for over fifty years he had lead his brothers and sisters in battle with great ferocity and honor. That much was true for the Special Ops Elite as his beady eyes scanned back and forth for the figure that had taken down the entire base in less than a few minutes.

Issw activated his Energy Blade and eyed the area, it was charred and debris was scattered from the few vehicles they had brought, the Shipmaster had stated he would return with the promise of more forces to hunt for the last of the humans that had existed on the planet.

Issw heard nothing but his breath as he stepped through the blood of a Grunt, there were a few limbs scattered, weapons thrown on the ground as well as their cartridges.

"Where are you, a coward that fights in the shadow has no honor!" spoke the Elite, loudly enough across the desecrated area.

"Oh?" mocked a metallic toned voice that was cold, the Elite smashed down any shiver in his spine and concentrated "You've killed thousands upon millions of humans, do you call that "Honor?" the tone was sarcastic as Issw growled at the blatant insult.

"It is decreed that you are to die by the Heirarchs, Heretic"

The voice snorted, amused "So shall it be to you" Naruto countered as all went silent.

Issw felt something behind him and swung at air as a human dropped to the floor, wearing some sort of suit as he felt a kick to his stomach, Naruto swept up his right arm and pointed at the Elite's chest "Raiton: Raihoko"

At this a blast of yellow energy consumed the Elite, vaporizing it to nothing more then blood as it appeared to be mist. Naruto dusted himself off as he got up and chuckled, glancing over the area he tapped his chin in thought "Eh, might as well check the database" he murmured to himself before entering the oddly shaped buildings, he found that when you learn about cultures, you tend to be able to point out certain things.

Red Team arrived at the area of the explosion and was quite supposed to find the entire base, dead, devoid of life.

"Wow" Douglas uttered "At least we don't have to fill out the paperwork for this one" he muttered to himself while Jerome chose to ignore that remark and mentally agreed with his compatriot.

Jerome got out of the drivers seat as they stopped in the carnage "Spread out, see what you can find" he got nods as he saw Alice place her sniper rifle on her back and took out an M7 Caseless Machine Gun.

Douglas took out dual M6C pistols and scanned the area, cautious of any ambushes. Jerome prodded an Hunter's body, he saw slash marks over the entire things being and raised a brow beneath his helmet, whoever did this was no Covenant or UNSC. Reserving his thoughts, he took a closer look into the pit stop for vehicles and found nothing but burning wreckage as well as ones that were cleanly sliced through, how odd indeed.

"Jerome" cut in Alice through the radio "We've got company" she remarked as she gestured her two comrades over "Motion sensor went off, there's someone in the main building" she glanced at the once artistic base that now looked quite damaged.

"Covenant?"

Alice frowned though no one could see it "We'll find out" she said simply, setting up for breaching, Jerome took one ending of the door and Douglas nodded, he tore it open in a swift movement like paper machete, Douglas went in first, scanning the halls, finding many Covenant Elites and Grunts dead.

Douglas bent down and crouched as he rubbed the teal colored blood between his index finger and thumb "This is recent, not a minute or two ago" he got ready as he took point.

Eventually, they reached the computer room where they heard a very unique conversation.

Gurgling of blood was heard as the Elite coughed "Demon….we shall burn your worlds…" the other scoffed "I'm not with the UNSC, whatever" a shrug was heard "Sides, your bloody "Hierarchs" are a bunch of bad door to door sales men, you know that?"

"Be silent! You know nothing of the great journey!"

"Wow, those girl scouts sold you some nice shit, eh?"

Douglas snorted, much to his amusement at this conversation. "Great Journey…tell me, does that consist of genocide? Sounds to me like this is an extermination rather than a holy war"

The three Spartans tensed "Misguided fool, die or not, I don't care, just tell me how to hack your systems" there was a pause "They don't teach you jack shit about the very technology you use, do they?"

More silence ensured "Fuckin classic, keep the population dumbed so they can't find out the truth, wonderful" the sarcasm was clear as the Elite protested "You know..nothing.." it trailed off and slumped dead.

At this, the Spartans burst into the room, Naruto glanced over his shoulder at them as he continued to download the data in the Covenant base.

"Step away from the computer" warned Jerome while Naruto raised his hands slowly behind his head and reached for his helmet, much to their slight surprise as a hiss was heard and a slight click. The helmet was removed and Naruto sighed aloud, setting the helmet down on the table "So..you're the Spartans I've heard so much of" he turned as the weapons were prepared to fire at him just in case.

"Who are you?" asked Alice, moving closer.

Naruto chuckled as he turned his attention back to the computer "It's rather interesting that you know almost nothing despite having fought the Covenant for more than a decade" he heard clanking of feet and determined they were no more than ten feet away.

"I believe the question is, how much you know about their technology" countered Douglas.

Naruto rolled his eyes "For Kami's sake, you can't kill me" he smirked while answering the unasked question "I'm currently downloading the database, and as far as I can remember, you probably can't reverse engineer their tech, am I right?"

Silence came once again "I'll cut you a deal" Naruto remarked, he could deduce they were exchanging wry glances "Take me to your leader and maybe we can help each other out on this situation".

He turned at last, holding a flash drive and he slapped an exploding tag onto the keyboard "Catch" he tossed it to Jerome who caught it, glanced at the bluish eerie glow it gave off.

"Now" he picked up his helmet and snapped it back on making the single eye glow red "Shall we?" he asked in his metallic tone.

"One last thing" started Jerome as he pocketed the flash drive "Who are you?"

Under the mask, Naruto smirked "Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, resident Shinobi and technology expert" he gave an exaggerated bow as the three exchanged silent messages.

This was gonna be a long fucking explanation.

Authors Note

Hey everyone, this is a new story I wrote due to the Halo Reach that is coming out on Tuesday. The next chapter will consist of Naruto sharing what he can on the Covenant with Cutter and his crew, see you around!

Also, Naruto has lost everything in his life now, so he may be a bit bitter or sarcastic if some want a better look into his personality.