Hello my faithful readers!

Well it seems this story got more good feedback than I thought! And it seems a few of you really want the second chapter. Well, wait no more!

I'm really sorry this took so long, but when it comes to writing, you need to be inspired to write. You can't just force it out. And inspiration for this story was strangely lacking, but I still tried. At any rate, it's done!

I'll reply to some of my reviews for this story first:

Nik0laiCarpathia:

I couldn't agree more. I have started a decent story in this category. With no offense to scrin and steel talons rule, I cannot stand stories that have no structure, improper grammar and spelling, and honestly, no real direction. His story lacks all of those things. Now while he has said it's his first story, I would honestly expect better. I find reading other stories helps me to structure my own.

As with putting Mercer's Progeny on hold in favor of this story, I am heavily considering it, as I have had no new strokes of inspiration for it.

star knight012888:

As much as I like the NaruHina pairing, it will not be the pairing for this fic. I won't spoil too much, but Naruto has left the village for now. Any feelings he had for anyone there have been all but vanquished with Mizuki's realisation.

Fayneir:

Worry not. This may well be turning into a DarkNaruto fic. Especially with joining NOD. Nyehehehe.

And Shadowedvoid, I thank you for your addiction to my story! Lol.

To the rest of you, thanks for your support! Very sorry this took so long!

ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

"C'mon you freakin pansies! Get your gear together!" Called the voice of a gruff male, who looked to be in his early thirties at least. His blonde-brown hair fell to just below his jaw line, and the lower half of his face was littered with stubble, an obvious sign of a field soldier who hadn't seen much time to himself lately.

The dozen or so Soldiers around him hurried about, gathering their field uniforms, weapons, and any other provisions they may need on this scouting mission. If there's one thing that Kane enforced, it was never to think you were over prepared.

"Sergeant Ahjay, sir!" a voice behind the newly identified Ahjay rang out. Ahjay turned to face the soldier who had addressed him.

"What is it, soldier?" He replied in a tone that reinforced his position as Sergeant.

"We're ready to move, sir! Four Militants and Four Shadows, sir!" The Militant replied.

Ahjay nodded. "Good, now we need to wait for Kane's briefing on-"

"Wait no longer, my children."

Everyone in the room snapped to attention as the charismatic figure of Kane strode through the door, a slight smile on his bearded face. Kane looked about the assembled men with that familiar sense of pride, as he strode toward Ahjay.

"Ahjay." He spoke in a calm voice.

"Sir!" Ahjay responded in a similar manner as the soldier he was speaking to only moments ago.

"Your men are prepared quickly, as always expected. Your skills as a Sergeant serve you well. You are aware of your mission, yes?" Kane responded in his questioning tone. All who hear that tone know immediately that Kane wants answers. No room for discussion. Ahjay nodded in acknowledgement.

"Yes sir. The 'base' was recently brought back online. We are to find out who, or what has caused this, and bring them back to you, alive. Eliminate any who try to impede the mission." Ahjay reeled off the details of the mission.

Kane nodded slowly, pleased with Ahjay's response. "Very good Ahjay. Also, when you have recovered the person, or persons, responsible, have the base destroyed. We can't risk this happening again." He said in a low tone.

Ahjay nodded in understanding. "Yes sir. We'll blow it to hell after we collect the cargo."

Kane smiled. "Excellent. Do not fail me." he finished with a mild frown, before turning around and striding toward his command room. Ahjay wiped away a little sweat as Kane left. Sometimes, he could be a little daunting. But Ahjay knew that that's how Kane was. He didn't form the brotherhood of NOD based on being nice.

Ahjay turned to his assembled compatriots.

"Alright ladies, let's MOVE!"

An hour later...

Ahjay's squad moved in a tight formation toward their objective. Ahjay and the Militants were outfitted with the same portable stealth tech possessed by the Shadows, so as to not attract attention to themselves. Thankfully, they encountered no Konoha patrols. As much as Ahjay loved a good fight, he knew they could be easily swarmed by these ninjas. After all, it was the reason they pulled out of this area: They were ill equipped to battle the locals, and as such, needed to develop better weaponry and return.

Soon, they came to the entrance of one of their most top secret hideouts. Ahjay steeled his nerves before activating the hidden door with the device constructed by the tech department, all the while keeping a sharp lookout. These ninja were sneaky, as should be implied by their titles.

As the doors slid open, not a word was spoken, nor a movement made. All present were smarter than to alert any possible patrols. Even with their stealth technology, they didn't need to attract any unwanted company. As the door opened, the nine soldiers descended the stairs, Ahjay at the front. The door slid shut behind them as they reached the second door leading into the proper base. As Ahjay turned to input the code to enter, he frowned.

"Dammit! The freakin' number pad is fried!" He growled out, before reaching for his device and activating the door override. "Those tech-heads sure know their stuff. Makes my job a hell of a lot easier." he said more to himself with a smirk.

The device beeped several times, before flashing a green light, and causing the doors to slide open silently. Deactivating their stealth, the men readied their weapons and headed inside as the main room lit up.

They saw... nobody. The computers were not active, as expected, yet there was nobody else present. That didn't necessarily mean they had packed up and left. Ahjay turned to his men.

"Alright ladies! Split up into pairs, one Shadow and one Militant each. One pair each will search the mess hall, the armoury, the under-construction vehicle bay and the soldier's quarters. I'll search the leader's office. Anything unusual, report it to me immediately. Are we clear?" His tone left no room for argument.

A unified "Yes sir!" was his response. Ahjay smirked.

"Alright then, move!"

And so they split up. Ahjay headed toward the office, while the designated pairs headed for their assigned rooms.

Ahjay had been searching the office, only finding slightly muddy footprints on the ground. Come to think of it, he'd seen them outside too, leading into the office he was in. He strode toward the desk, and turned his sight to the computer, reading the words that all abandoned Nod computers display if someone tries to use them without proper permission.

He was about to salvage what he could of the hard drive when he received a message on his communication headset. Raising his hand to his ear, he pressed his finger to it and spoke.

"What do ya have for me?" He spoke into the headset.

"Sir! We've found someone in the soldier's quarters!" The raspy voice of a Shadow replied on the other end. Ahjay's attention was caught at this statement.

"Good work. I'm on my way." he replied before cutting the link and striding out the door, heading toward the soldier's quarters.

When he arrived, he saw that the Shadow was facing the intruder, with the Militant checking the rest of the quarters. When Ahjay got closer to the Shadow, he got a proper look at the intruder. And words couldn't describe his shock when he found out they were...

"A kid? A freaking kid managed to break in to our base? How the hell did he get past the damn door? Or find the entrance for that matter?" Ahjay questioned out loud. The Shadow was running a diagnostic on the boy, after which he stood up and faced his Sergeant.

"Sir, with all due respect, I do not believe this is an ordinary boy. He is emitting some kind of... energy. It is incredibly powerful and malicious... Something about it just radiates... for lack of a better word, evil. See for yourself, sir." At this point, the Shadow handed the diagnostics device to Ahjay, who took it and studied the small screen. His eyebrows shot up when he saw the readings.

Ahjay was more than a little curious now. Several thoughts were running through his mind.

'Incredible. This kid actually shows signs of that Chakra energy we found last time. But this much? How is that even possible? The readings we received from some of those older guys in the vests weren't even half this... Kane will want to see this.'

The Shadow turned to Ahjay again. "Orders, sir?"

Ahjay looked up from the diagnostics device, and regarded the Shadow. "He seems to be sleeping now, but just so he doesn't wake up, give him some of that sedative. Can't have him causing a ruckus and drawing attention to us when we try to cart him back to the rift portal." He ordered.

The Shadow nodded. "Understood sir."

He produced a small syringe from his field pack, and leant down to the sleeping child, quickly jabbing the needle into his neck and injecting the powerful sedative. The boy twitched only slightly before setting into a deeper sleep. At this point, Ahjay noticed that the boy was rather tense when sleeping before. No matter, the boy would be interrogated later.

The Shadow hefted the boy onto his back, carrying him piggyback style. Ahjay was turning to find the other Militant present when said Militant walked up to him, carrying a large green cylindrical object.

"Sir! I discovered this while searching one of the rooms. It seems the boy brought it with him and hid it away. He didn't do such a bad job either. It was well hidden." The Militant explained.

Ahjay smirked. "Hot damn! Looks like the kid brought a scroll of valuable information! How very thoughtful of him! We'll take it back with us, see what can be learned from it." The Militant nodded at this.

Ahjay raised his hand to his headset once more. "Alright men, we got what we came for! Plant your charges in the designated areas and set them for remote detonation! We don't want to be anywhere near here when these go off! After you complete your objective, assemble in the main room and prepare to head out!"

A resounding "YES SIR!" was heard through Ahjay's headset, as he returned to the main room to await his men.

The final Militant stepped up in front of Ahjay and saluted. "The final charge is in place, sir!" He said as Ahjay nodded to him.

"Good work." Ahjay started. "Alright then, let's haul ass back to the base! Move out!"

And with that, the men started up the stairs. Ahjay watched closely as the Militant carrying the scroll walked past, followed by the Shadow carrying the orange-clad boy.

Ahjay had to frown slightly. Where the hell did that kid get such a ridiculous looking jumpsuit? Was the kid a road worker in training?

Ahjay snickered slightly at his bad joke, before following the men up the stairs.

Once they were back outside, they immediately made for the portal not far away, but not before reactivating their stealth gear.

After reaching the portal, Ahjay watched as his men entered, still carrying their findings. After they had all gone through, Ahjay pulled out that same device he had used to hack the door, and input a different code. The device beeped three times, and...

KA-BLAAAAM!

Ahjay almost lost his footing as the base and all its contents were consumed by the blast. Once the rumbling ceased, Ahjay leapt through the portal swiftly to avoid the patrols that would be sent to investigate, as the portal slowly drew itself shut.

Moments later...

Several Konoha Jounin arrived at the scene of the apparent explosion, only to find a large pillar of smoke rising into the sky. One of the Jounin, a man wearing a navy blue face mask covering up to the bridge of his nose, a slanted forehead protector covering his left eye and a mess of silvery hair standing upwards atop his head, received a message through his headset.

"Kakashi-san, is there anything there?" an elderly yet strong voice sounded over the headset. Kakashi sighed and tapped his headset.

"Negative, Hokage-sama. Nothing here but a lot of smoke. There isn't even any debris. It was a very specific explosion, from what it seems." Kakashi replied lowly. An exasperated sigh was heard through the headset.

"Very well. Scout the surrounding area and report back with anything you find." The elderly voice commanded.

"Hai, Hokage-sama." Kakashi replied. And with that, he and the three Jounin with him vanished.

Back at his tower, the Hokage sighed as he clasped his hands together in a small ball, leaning on his elbows. He glanced at a document in front of him labeled "Classified", yet peeking out the side of it was half of a photo of a red insignia. Bearing a scorpion tail.

"First our secret scroll is stolen, then this explosion. Not to mention Naruto is nowhere to be found. This can't be simple coincidence." The old man muttered to himself.

"Naruto... where are you? Please be safe, wherever you've gone..."

Back in our world...

Kane stood over the boy restrained on the medical table. He turned to his chief of medical staff. "When will he wake up, doctor?" He questioned the man.

The doctor shifted his glasses slightly. "He should be awake momentarily, Lord Kane." He replied in a subordinate tone. "We ran a diagnostic on his brain, primarily memory, and found some interesting things. We'll need to question him to get the proper answers though. According to his vocabulary node, he only speaks Japanese, so we have been implanting our language through neural transmission while he's been asleep. When he wakes, he'll speak our language." The doctor finished.

Kane nodded slightly. "Excellent work. And the scroll?"

"Being analysed and translated as we speak." The Doctor replied.

Kane allowed a small grin. "Excellent. Now, my young friend..." at this, he turned to face the boy's sleeping form. "What secrets do you have for us about your world?"

Wow. I'm horrible. All this time, and this is all I can offer? Shame on me! SHAAAME!

Anywho, I don't know what to say. I still have inspiration for the story, and I have a couple of other ideas in the works for some other stories. One of them being completely original. As in, NON fanfic!

Keep an eye on my profile page, I'll try and update there, but my work shifts have increased now, and my time for writing is becoming less and less... -crying face-

Anywho, review! I need them to live! If I was a vampire, reviews are the blood I feed on! Or something...

Ciao!

- Mr Skull