Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Halo, or RWBY.

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Black Steel

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Chapter One

Everything was...quiet; deathly so. The streets were empty of other life forms, inoperable vehicles flipped over and wrecked all along each stretch of building-flanked road. Bullet holes and scorch marks littered the concrete surfaces everywhere in varying degrees; small ones from pistol-type weaponry, large ones from artillary-based cannons, wide sprays of dozens of holes from assault rifles, clusters of larger ones from shotguns, deeply penetrating ones from sniper rifles, debris scattered from explosions. Fires still burned in various areas, remnants of vehicular fuel supplying them or the structures some of them burned within doing the same.

The battle had ended not too long ago, maybe by a few hours, and yet he hadn't run across a single corpse; human or otherwise...

There was no point in trying the radio; the communication towers and relay stations were the first to be taken out. The enemy had struck fast and hard, taking out their communications first and then sealing off their escape routes; specifically, destroying their Pelicans and other forms of aerial and exo-atmospheric transportation. His handler had thrown him into a room and sealed the blast door to ensure that at least one person survived to tell the tale. Not much of a tale to tell, really. It was no different than their other battles. Still, he knew what had attacked the UNSC base...

"..." The Spartan looked up silently as a Covenant Type-52 Troop Carrier, also known as a Phantom, flew overhead, seemingly oblivious to the lone 'super soldier'.

Unlike other Spartans, he was clad in a much heavier suit of MJOLNIR armor than the standard-issue Mark-VI and its variants. When he had been issued the suit shortly after completing his training, his handler had said it was a suit of MJOLNIR Mark-VII '445 Super Wide' armor, though it had a special designation unique to it; 'Olympus'. He also discovered that he had been bred specifically for the suit, being the sole SPARTAN-VI to not only survive the unique surgical and biochemical procedures out of a little under fourty 'applicants', but also because there had only been one Olympus suit ever made; had the others survived, the one to gain the Olympus suit would have been made commander over the small company of SPARTAN-VIs.

From what his handler had told him in the past, they had already been planning on appointing that position to him from the very start due to his 'uniqueness'...

Apart from being far more heavily armored and weighing in at point-seven-five tons, roughly fifteen hundred pounds, the Olympus suit was aesthetically similar to the standard Mark-V MJOLNIR suit; weighing in a little under three-hundred pounds on his own, the Spartan's weight combined with the weight of his armor put him at an approximate total weight of eighteen hundred pounds.

So much weight would have slowed other Spartans down to a brisk lumbering gait from the suit's incredible mass, but he had been bred to be stronger than previous Spartan generations. Thus, he was able to run while wearing the suit, but he could only reach a maximum speed of twenty-one-point-six miles per hour on his own power without injuring himself. From what his handler had told him, it was actually faster than what they had originally estimated, which had only been an average of fifteen miles per hour without causing injury.

The suit was painted a glossy jet black, the helmet bearing a mirrored and polarized ocean blue sliver of a visor that ran across his eyes from one temple to the other. The left side of his armored chest bore the numeric designation '4-1-9' in white. The armor covering his upper body was much heavier and bulkier than standard MJOLNIR armor, the collar rising up a few inches along the back and sides to better protect his neck with an armored 'lip' in the front about where his chin would be. His biceps were encased with a light armor shell while a broad shield-like plate was mounted to the bands, allowing the thick plates to completely cover his biceps and shoulders without limiting his arms' range of motion. His forearms and hands were heavily plated as well with only his index fingers and thumbs left unarmored to keep from interferring with any gun he used while the rest of his fingers were lightly plated with more of the black metal.

His helmet was slightly bulkier than normal from thicker armor plating and more devices built into it, most of them being sensors and communications devices. The heavier-than-normal armor around his midsection, waist, and legs left few 'weak spots' where his black undersuit was exposed without limiting his range of motion too much outside of the suit's immense bulk and weight, allowing him the base movements of any other Spartan. He also had more magnetic strips built into his armor to carry more things such as more ammunition, multiple large weapons, extra equipment, and so on.

If other Spartans were sometimes referred to as living tanks by marines and ODSTs, the Olympus-clad Spartan was a mobile monolith of war and had repeatedly proven himself as such in the brief two years he had been 'active'...

"We should get moving." His AI partner commented from within his heavily plated shell of a helmet.

Despite the visor's abundance of physical 'blind spots', special sensors built into the helmet and parts of his suit 'filled in' those areas with holographic outlines of every discernable object within his field of view; he could see even the ants crawling across the ground in his 'blind spots' with the HUD's automated zoom-in/out feature that linked with his eyes via the Spartan Neural Interface that had been surgically impanted in the back of his head as a child.

Unlike the 'simpler' version used all throughout the UNSC, his HUD was a little more unique, feeding him data on numerous things tied in with the suit and even more things that the suit's sensors automatically scanned. It had been...severely disorienting when he had first put it on.

Without showing any sign of him even hearing what his AI partner had said, the heavily armored Spartan started walking again, his 'standard-issue' M739 SAW light machine gun grasped firmly in his armor-plated hands as he gradually sped up into a slow jog. His footfalls were like mountains crashing together, the shallowest of identations of his plated footprints left behind in the ashphalt as it cracked slightly from the sheer weight concentrated into singular points upon its surface with each hasty step. Since his AI partner had tagged one of the Sangheili Zealots aboard the Covenant Phantom as it passed overhead, he knew their goal wasn't too far from his position; one-six-five meters from his current position and steadily declining.

"There's a break in the over-pass up ahead." His AI informed him, making the Spartan narrow his eyes slightly before immediately issuing the subconscious mental command to his armor through the interlinked subsystems of his undersuit and armor via his SNI. Immediately, the thrusters built into his armor behind his shoulders warmed up in preparation along with a couple smaller ones scattered across his heavily armored frame.

Reaching the edge of the broken bridge, the Spartan jumped as high as his armor would allow while the thrusters fired at full power, carrying him across the thirty foot gap to the other end of the bridge. He was airborne for less then three seconds before he touched back down quite heavily on the other side, the Spartan left hunched forward slightly from the weight shift of his momentum being abruptly halted while the thruster jets returned to their inactive states.

Upon reconnecting with the ground, the shock absorbers scattered throughout his suit soaked up the kinetic energy of the impact before using that same energy to replenish any lost energy in the suit's fusion cells, its primary source of power. So long as it was in constant use, the Olympus suit's fusion cells would last almost two to three times longer than those that powered other MJOLNIR armor models.

Only a second after impact, the lone SPARTAN-VI was mobile again, SAW still cradled in his hands. The only sound in the immediate area was the Spartan's own thundering footfalls as he 'jogged' down the road in the direction of his current objective.

"One-two-one meters from target. ETA four-five seconds." The AI vocalized despite the information being displayed on the Spartan's HUD. Not even twenty seconds later, he encountered enemy resistance.

He didn't even blink as he back-handed a lunging Covenant Spec Ops Sangheili 'Elite' with his left hand, an Energy Sword grasped in the alien's right hand. Weilding his SAW with only his right hand, the Spartan kept running, mowing down the Covenant forces that got caught in his path with bursts of armor-piercing rounds that he had been issued to go with his weapon; he had been meant to be both an immovable object and an unstoppable force, though the cost for him and the suit alone was greater than the cost of four SPARTAN-IVs and their armor together.

Thus, he was the only one, both because he had been the lone survivor of the 'failed' SPARTAN-VI Program's augmentations and also due to the SPARTAN-VI Program's incredibly high cost...

Jumping up and swatting an Elite 'Ranger' out of the air when it tried to avoid being crushed under the 'stampeding' Spartan's feet by taking to the air with its jet pack, the black-armored 'super soldier' continued on his charge without even breaking stride. Plasma shot splashed against his heavy-duty shielding, gradually wearing it down, but the kinetic energy built up from his run was already charging up the auxillary shields, which would buy him enough time for his primary shields to recharge. Jumping up slightly again, the Spartan crushed the front end of a Covenant Ghost under one armor encased foot, shooting the Unggoy 'Grunt' driving it as he landed on the Type-32 Rapid Assault Vehicle. With his next step, he touched back down on the ground just beyond the wrecked hovercraft and kept running.

"Six-one meters from target. ETA two-two seconds." His AI intoned as the Spartan decimated the crowd of Unggoy, Grunts, just ahead of him with his weapon while grabbing another Sangheili by its throat in his left hand, crushing its neck with one full-strength squeeze before throwing it out in front of him, effectively 'blocking' the acidic green projectile of a Hunter's Fuel Rod Assault Cannon. Raising his SAW after reloading it with a fresh drum mag, the Spartan didn't give the Mgalekgolo the chance to charge up another shot, immediately opening fire on the five-ton collection of worm-like creatures and heavy armor plating.

Taking too many hits, the Hunter was unable to move in time to avoid the shoulder-check to its side that was strong enough to knock it over and through the wall beside it, though the Spartan still stumbled slightly from the impact due to the Hunter's considerable weight. The Spartan didn't hesitate in the slightest as he was faced with a reinforced concrete wall in front of him; his target was just beyond it. Emptying the last of the rounds his rifle currently possessed into the wall ahead of him, the Spartan reloaded his SAW just in time to shoulder charge the damaged section of the wall, busting his way through.

It was only then that he came to a stop, finding the target of the Covenant's interest. An active piece of Forerunner technology; it appeared as a ten foot diameter ring of silvery metal with a fiery orange energy lining the black void that filled in the 'space' inside the ring, looking like a portal of some sort...

Before the five Sangheili Zealots in the room could react to his presence, the Spartan had already raised his SAW once more and opened fire on them, taking two down before the remaining three charged him with their Energy Swords. The third and closest Zealot was mowed down at point-blank range before the Spartan used his rifle to deflect the fourth's weapon to the side, only to drive his shoulder into the Sangheili's chest and knock him back. He then used his rifle like a blunt weapon, bashing the fifth Zealot in the side of its head hard enough to knock it to the floor before shooting and killing the split-jawed alien.

When the fourth got back up and lunged at him again, the Spartan turned to the side to avoid the lunging stab, only to drop his elbow onto the Sangheili's back, sending the Zealot crashing to the floor. Without a word or the slightest bit of hesitation, the Spartan lifted his left foot before stomping down on the Zealot's helmeted head, crushing the armor-shelled item and its contents like a rotten melon...

"Must you be so...brutal?" His AI questioned apathetically, but their question was ignored as the Spartan stepped toward the Forerunner artifact that was surrounded by UNSC sensors and other such scientific tools, reloading his SAW before mounting it to his back as he moved closer.

"What is this?" The Spartan finally inquired, mostly just thinking out loud while glancing to the side and spotting the holotank pedestal with a computer set beside it.

Before his AI partner could answer the question, the Spartan reached up and retrieved the Data Crystal Chip from the back of his helmet before slipping the card into the appropriate slot on the pedestal. A moment later, the AI's avatar formed in dark red light; a young woman made of bright red light bearing dark red 'technological' markings all over her form, her wavy waist-length hair cascading down her back and down in front of her shoulders while some of her chin-length bangs fell in front of her left eye. She was clad in a traditional Japanese yukata that was a similar shade of red as her 'body', the obi sash around her waist being about the same dark shade as the markings decorating her face and hands.

"Kurama..." The Spartan murmured, his tone being all the AI needed to know what the Spartan wanted.

"Just a moment, Naruto." Kurama responded almost casually as she started accessing the isolated UNSC data base that had been devoted solely to the Forerunner artifact.

She had been designed to hack computer systems of all forms to gather intelligence on enemy movements as well as assist in learning their technology; namely, the Covenant's technology. Not only that, but Kurama was a very calculative and primarily strategic-thinking Smart AI meant for combat, the only AI the SPARTAN-VI Program had been able to get a hold of, at that. It was through her that her Spartan partner was able to access the full potential of his Olympus armor even though he was fully capable of operating it without her.

"It...seems to be a portal of some kind, but...it's not to another location on this planet...or any other in this system, for that matter." Kurama explained, though she sounded just as confused and uncertain as Naruto was by her response.

"Then where does it lead to?" The 'Olympus'-clad Spartan, Naruto, asked calmly, yet firmly as he narrowed his eyes at the portal from within his helmet.

"I don't understand..." Kurama mumbled, mostly to herself as she kept sifting through files and data. "It...doesn't lead anywhere."

"That's impossible." The Spartan countered. "A portal is a gateway, a door. Every door leads to something, Kurama, no matter how minor or insignificant it may seem."

"But that's just it, Naruto." Kurama continued, still going through the wealth of information, explaining as she went. "Apparently, it leads to here. Except...The data must be wrong; that simply can't be."

"What can't be?" Naruto questioned as he heard something outside, instantly turning around and aiming his rifle towards the 'door' he had put in the wall minutes ago. "We're running out of time, Kurama..."

"I understand, Naruto. I'm using the security cameras to keep an eye on everything." Kurama remarked before answering the Spartan's previous question. "It's simply not possible, but...the portal leads back to here...in the past. At least, that's what I understand from the data on the artifact's energy readings."

"Anything else?" Naruto questioned while taking a knee, shouldering his rifle. He could see quite a number of Covenant troops gathering further down the road he had come from; too many for him to repel with him being so limited on ammunition and equipped with only one weapon. That left two options; One, make a final stand and kill as many Covenent troops as he could before they eventually managed to take him down...or Two, find a way off the planet. Kurama seemed to read his mind, becoming fully aware of the amassing enemy forces outside via the security cameras.

"I believe this is one of those times that we must take a 'leap of faith', as it is sometimes said." Kurama remarked from her spot, 'downloading' all of the information on the Forerunner artifact that she could find. "Quickly, Naruto."

'I have a feeling I might regret this in the near future.' The Spartan mused to himself for a moment before standing back up fully and retrieving Kurama, setting her back in her spot on the back of his helmet.

As a burst of plasma shot struck his shields along his left side and shoulder, Naruto turned around and gunned down the Kig-Yar 'Jackal' that had shot him. Using his free left hand, he reached behind his waist and retreived the HAVOK nuclear warhead he had collected earlier. He had figured he wasn't going to be leaving the planet alive and decided to take the nuke, just to take out as many Covenant with him when he finally fell.

"If this is what you say it is, then we need to make sure the Covenant doesn't ever get their hands on it." Naruto pointed out, already starting to type in the activation codes to arm the bomb before setting the timer. "Especially since they're getting desperate now that we're starting to win..."

"My thoughts exactly, Naruto." Kurama commented in full agreement as the blonde armed the nuke and set the thirty megaton warhead on the computer desk.

A second later, a heavy burst of plasma shot sprayed him from the hole in the wall. Turning towards it, Naruto unloaded his SAW in their direction while reaching behind his waist with his left hand again. Grabbing his only two grenades, he pressed the time-release detonators and tossed them through the hole, both explosive orbs bouncing to either side of the 'doorway' while the Spartan unloaded the last of the rounds in his gun into the chest of a Sangheili Zealot that rushed him with twin Energy Swords, but it wasn't enough to kill it.

"Seven seconds until detonation! Get in the portal!" Kurama urgently reminded, her voice taking on a slightly anxious tone.

"I'm a little busy here." The Spartan growled as he dropped his useless weapon since he didn't have another drum mag for it, idly noting the apparent abundance of Sangheili armed with Energy Swords. Honestly, he found it a bit ironic; the first Sangheili he encountered on the battlefield had been armed with an Energy Sword and now what was quite possibly the last one he would fight was also armed with the plasma blades...

Catching the Zealot's hands at the wrists and holding them out to the sides to keep from getting hit with the split-jawed alien's weapons, Naruto was about to go on the offensive when the Zealot kicked him in the stomach, stumbling him back a couple steps despite his incredible bulk. When the Zealot lunged at him again, Naruto kicked the maroon armored Sangheili in the chest, knocking himself off balance while the Zealot was launched back out the hole in the wall.

As he fell back, he felt a certain...weightlessness while passing through the Forerunner ring...and then absolute agony filled his mind and body, unable to even scream as his vision went blinding white. Everything then went black a second later...

As it timed out, the HAVOK warhead detonated, wiping out virutally everything within a one-point-six kilometer radius, the strange Forerunner portal-ring included. In 2589, the UNSC returned to Reach. By 2592, it was back to full military strength and rebuilt. By 2593, for a second time, the once-reclaimed planet of Reach fell to the Covenant Empire when they broke the peace treaty between them and the UNSC, but not without the last Spartan on the planet destroying what they sought, just to spite them...

xXx

"From the beginning, you know the end."

For some reason, that quote kept echoing in his head. What was stranger was the fact that some of his few memories as a child had started to play out in his head, recalling what little he could remember of his mother. Her long dark auburn red hair, her dark indigo-blue eyes, her pale cream colored skin. Many times he wondered what it would be like if he took after his mother's looks, but...he took after his father, having sun-kissed blonde hair and naturally tanned skin. Luckily, he still had his mother's dark blue eyes that were damn near violet instead of his father's lighter ocean-sky blue.

Because both of his parents had been SPARTAN-IVs, he had no other choice than to become a part of the SPARTAN Program as a very young child. Sometimes, that's what Naruto thought it was that determined his survival of the SPARTAN-VI augmentation procedures when exactly thirty-seven other 'applicants' died from the series of surgeries alone. It had made for a very lonely and harsh time for him, being the only one going through the rigours of SPARTAN-VI training and undergoing missions on his own; he hadn't really spent much time working with other Spartans, usually doing solo-operations.

After completing his training two years ago and joining the 'active' Spartan ranks, Naruto had been given full possession of the lone MJOLNIR Mark-VII '445 Super Wide' Olympus suit. What struck him as odd, however, was when he had been given his AI partner, Kurama, just six months ago. Normally, a Spartan wouldn't recieve a Smart AI partner until they had reached a certain rank. Still, if it hadn't been for Kurama, Naruto believed he just might have died at some point during the past three months while fighting back against the Covenant's Second Invasion of Reach...

Now, only sixteen years old, the seven foot tall Spartan had been 'active' since he was fourteen, only two years before Reach had been invaded again. The second battle for the planet had lasted three months. During those three months, he had reclaimed nearly half of the high-priority areas on Reach lost to the Covenant's initial assault when the second invasion began, but he and the UNSC forces with him had been cut off from reinforcements and surrounded by their alien enemy.

They had been forced to fall back to the rebuilt Sword Base, something the Spartan found kind of ironic considering the last time Reach had been invaded. That was when his handler and only friend had sacrificed their life to make sure he lived. He wasn't going to disappoint her...

"-uto! Naruto, wake up!" Kurama yelled in his ears frantically, the Spartan still feeling that weightless sensation as he grit his teeth in pain. "Now's not the time to feel pain, soldier!"

"Sitrep." Naruto grunted out throught clenched teeth, forcing back the agony burning in his muscles and coursing through his veins; whatever that portal had done, it hurt like a bitch on a bad day.

It had also gotten Kurama worked up into a frenzy, something he hadn't yet experienced of the normally calculating and seemingly apathetic Smart AI. Before she could even start to answer him, Naruto learned what was going on...the hard way. As the altimeter subsystem in his suit registered the Spartan's rapid angular descent that would come to an abrupt end in only a handful of seconds, the armor-lock subsystems engaged while his shields kicked into over-drive, drawing on the suit's auxilary power cells kept charged through its kinetic motors to layer a second shield over the first for added protection.

"Aw, fuc-" Was all he managed to get out before...

THOOOM!

Impact.

Nearly two thousand pounds of heavy armor and augmented human flesh hit the ground like a meteor of black metal, putting a decently sized shallow crater in the earth from the collision. It was silent for several seconds as the thick dust cloud slowly started to settle. Sucking in a deep gasping breath as the armor-locks deactivated, Naruto grabbed his helmet with both hands and ripped it off despite the painful protest of his body. Half-rolling to his hands and feet, Naruto desperately worked on refilling his lungs with oxygen amongst his heavy coughing and gasping. It took a minute before he was breathing properly again, albeit a little heavily.

"No more portals..." Naruto groaned quietly between ragged gasping breaths as he put his helmet back on with some reluctance and tipped over on to his side, letting his still-aching body rest for a few moments. "Never again..."

"Agreed." Kurama responded as she regained her usual calm and cool demeanor. After a few minutes of laying there in relative silence with the exception of the quite pings and bleeps inside of his helmet from Kurama running diagnostics on his armor and its many subsystems, Naruto finally forced himself back up on his feet, suppressing another quiet groan as his muscles and bones protested.

"So, you said that portal was some kind of...time machine?" Naruto questioned while taking inventory of what he had left, something that was relatively easy thanks to his armor and HUD; no ammunition, no grenades, only a couple high-calorie ration bars, a couple flares, and his combat knife, which was sheathed on his left shoulder. No guns...

"To an extent, yes." Kurama responded while Naruto accessed the global positioning locator via his HUD, which had a pre-downloaded global map of every known planet from his 'time', and used it to give him an idea of his current location; if at all possible. While he did that, Kurama continued. "Now that we are not in any immediate danger for the moment, I can now examine the information we collected more thoroughly...Hm. That's odd."

"What's odd?" Naruto questioned a little suspiciously, though he was a bit confused by his own investigations; not only did none of the maps have a match to the topographical scans his suit had taken automatically during his fall, but his suit's sensors weren't picking up any kind of signal even remotely close to anything used by the UNSC or the Covenant. Nothing. Something that made Naruto's eyes narrow slightly as he contemplated the potential consequences of going through the portal after the discovery of such revelations...

"Well, it says here that the Forerunner Builder that was creating the portal had been tampering with an innovation upon early-Forerunner Slipspace technology; in essence, he was creating a sort of long-distance teleporter that could cross the galaxy instantaneously." Kurama went on to explain. "However, it seems the portal was deemed a failure and sealed away when the Builder used the portal as a demonstration, only to...vanish. The Forerunner documentation says the Builder was never seen again after that. I'm assuming the Covenant somehow found out about the portal's existence and were probably going to somehow use it against the UNSC, not knowing that it was a 'failed experiment'."

"I wouldn't exactly call it a failure..." Naruto remarked haphazardly, getting silence from his AI partner in response. Undoubtedly, the AI was partly confused by the remark. "We're still alive."

"Yes, well...There's more." Kurama responded a little cautiously, making Naruto's eyes narrow slightly with suspicioun once more. "I don't believe we JUST went back in time, if we even did at all..."

"Explain." Naruto ordered quietly, making his displeasure of Kurama's cryptic responses clear to the AI; now was not the time for her usual vague dialogue.

"I believe we might have crossed into a parallel dimension of some sort." Kurama answered bluntly, getting a heavy sigh from Naruto; things were never simple whenever he got involved. Never...

"Let me guess; that's why my GPS isn't able to pin-point my location and why I'm not picking up any UNSC or Covenant communication transmissions...And let's not forget the fact that there is probably no way back to where we came from." Naruto remarked a bit sarcastically, though a small part in the back of his mind wondered if he even wanted to go back. All that awaited him back there was just war and death...

"Most likely, yes. However, I don't think it's quite that simple." Kurama responded before the HUD on the inside of the helmet started displaying some of the information the AI had gathered for Naruto to examine himself, only it had been condensed and 'simplified' into a legible format for the Spartan. It did nothing to alleviate the SPARTAN-VI's mild annoyance and ignorance of the situation's full weight. Kurama noticed and decided to further simplify her explanation. "I don't believe it was our 'physical' selves that were transferred by the portal. Not exactly. Much like the Forerunner Composer, I believe the portal 'digitized' our essence and transferred us to a parallel dimension of sorts. Upon arrival, a temporary 'reversal' portal formed and remade our physical selves within the same general time frame that our forms were 'Composed' by the primary portal we passed through back on Reach."

"Regardless of whether that's true or not...What do we do now?" Naruto questioned, nearly getting confused by Kurama's summary of recent events; metaphysics was something he didn't know much about and didn't exactly plan on learning. He was a soldier, plain and simple. Not a scientist. "We're in unknown territory in a completely different dimension, the only form of defense I have is my knife and hand-to-hand skills, no way to contact anyone, and no idea on whether this planet is even inhabited by intelligent life, let alone other humans...or at least alien life forms that don't immediately want to kill me."

"Well, I'm picking up a signal of some kind due North of us. It's coming from a rather long distance from us, but it's a start." Kurama informed her partner. "I can't 'tap' into it because of its strange frequency make-up, but it seems human in origin, so maybe we got lucky. I can't pin-point the source's exact location, but it should be about a two day trek if we don't stop."

"...We?" Naruto growled under his breath, his AI partner staying silent at the Spartan's irritated inquiry. Naruto couldn't help sighing in annoyance as he started walking in the direction Kurama had 'pointed' him in, glaring out in front of him at nothing in particular. "I really hate portals..."

xXx

"Back! The! Fuck! Up!" Naruto snarled out of frustration, punctuating his words with a punch to the large bear-like creature's body that knocked it back a couple steps every time.

Cocking his right hand back, Naruto let his fist fly forward with as much strength as he was able to pack into it, smashing the bone-masked black monster against a thick tree before sending the creature through the tree. Panting slightly as he watched the bear-like beast slowly dissolve and evaporate into black smoke while the tree fell to the side, Naruto slowly looked down at his right hand. That had been a stronger punch than he recalled being capable of. Sure, he'd done similar things to Sangheili Elites, putting them through walls, but the bear-creature was the size of a Hunter and probably weighed about a quarter of one, putting it in the same general weight class as himself with his armor.

"Kurama...What is going on?" Naruto questioned a bit cautiously while staring down at his right hand as if it were an unknown entity...

"I don't know. The gravity isn't that much different from Earth's, but..." Kurama started answering before trailing off for a few seconds. "...I'm picking up a strange energy reading that's...coming from inside your body, Naruto. I can't identify it or even give you a guess as to what it is, but the energy reading is steadily getting stronger, but it's slow-going at the moment."

"Could it be some kind of radiation poisoning from the portal?" Naruto questioned, honestly feeling a little nervous now that he was aware of an unknown energy signature building up inside of his own body.

"I don't think it's radiation, but...I think it does have something to do with the portal. The one we came out of, specifically." Kurama answered, her words doing little in terms of settling the Spartan's concerns. "The energy seems to be helping you, though. The minor fractures in your ribs from hitting the ground earlier are almost non-existent now and there's virtually no bruising at all. Not only that, but it's been reacting with your emotions whenever you get attacked by one of those creatures. I think that's why you're hitting harder than usual."

"Great...Now, I'm turning into some kind of weird 'super hero' character...Just great." Naruto growled under his breath as he started walking North again, having already been traveling for a good twenty hours so far and encountered over two dozen of the weird bone masked creatures; bear-types, werewolf-looking types, bird-types, a giant scorpion-type, and even a few giant double-headed snake creatures. "So...What else is there? Let me guess; I can fly now? Shoot laser beams from my eyes or something?"

"There's no need for sarcasm. I'm just telling you what I'm discovering as I'm discovering it." Kurama retorted a bit irritably herself. "And NO, you can't fly or shoot laser beams from your eyes. Whatever the energy is, it's not causing any kind of problems. From the looks of it, it's only amplifying what you already have; speed, strength, endurance, durability, an apparent self-healing ability...Honestly, I won't know for sure until I can get access to some kind of data base or a computer with access to the information I need."

"...This is getting ridiculous." Naruto muttered under his breath, referring to the situation he was stuck in because the Covenant didn't even know how to pretend to be friendly with Humans. Sure, there was neutrality between them for a little while, but there had never been actual peace. "First, Reach is lost and everyone is killed. Then, I get sent to another dimension because of a piece of broken Forerunner technology...and then I find out that there's some kind of weird energy building up inside of my body. What's next?! Animal people?!"

"Sakura was right." Kurama mumbled in response to her partner's behaviour. "You get cranky when you're confused or stressed out..."

"Shut up..." The sixteen year old SPARTAN-VI grunted out at his AI companion...

xXx

"Man...Why do they bother sticking us up here?" One of the two Vale soldiers complained. "I mean, they've got those automated turrets from Atlas set up all along the wall to take care of any Grimm that try to get through, so why are we here?"

"...Do you ever stop whining?" The other soldier murmured. Just as the first one was about to retort, a Beowolf burst out from the tree line a hundred meters out from the towering defensive wall that encircled Vale. Except, it was flying through the air...backwards. Recognizing the Grimm as a threat, the nearby turrets automatically targeted the beast and opened fire, the heavy calibur rounds tearing the beast apart within seconds. "What the...?"

"Look!" The first soldier called out while pointing back towards the forest just in time for one of the trees to fall over and another Beowolf to fly out from the tree line in the same manner the first one had; like it's predecessor, the second lycan-like Grimm was shredded by the turrets' gunfire. "What the hell is going on down there?"

"I have no...idea..." The second soldier mumbled while they both watched a third Beowolf get sent straight up into the air, making it an easy target for the turrets to tear into before it could make it halfway back to the ground. They then heard the enraged howl of a Beowolf Alpha seconds before watching it come crashing through the forest. Backwards. As it hit the ground and tumbled, a small black figure broke free of the beast and made contact with the ground a dozen meters away from it just as the turrets opened fire on the Alpha. "Wait...Someone's down there! How the hell did they get outside the wall and what the hell are they doing out there?!"

"I don't know, but we need to get a Bullhead out here immediately!" The first one exclaimed as he rushed to call for an airship to 'save' the heavily armored man beyond the wall...

"Fucking mongrel..." Naruto growled under his breath as he pushed himself back to his feet, glaring at the dismantled and dissolving remains of the giant wolf-beast that had been killed by the defensive turrets lining the wall. Seeing as how the guns hadn't opened fire on him yet, the turrets seemed to recognized him as a 'friendly'; that meant there were other humans. Or so he hoped...

"Hey! Don't worry! We've got a Bullhead on its way to pick you up!" Someone called down to him from the top of the four hundred foot high wall of steel and stone. Instead of yelling back up at the man, Naruto simply waved his hand over his head to signal that he had heard the man.

"...What the hell is a Bullhead?" He mumbled quietly to himself, but he figured he'd find out soon enough...

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A/N: As some of you might have noticed, the original Black Steel story was taken down a little while back. I was drunk and didn't really think about what I was doing...and then proceeded to completely screw up the original chapters beyond repair. Thus, I said 'Fuck it!' and completely redid the story...This is what became of it. I hope it's to everyone's or at least most of my readers' liking.