AN: I don't own Naruto, or Star Wars

I know I wrote on my profile about a Naruto Star Wars crossover so here is the first chapter. I'm not sure how often I will be able to update this because I am busy with my other story, but I wanted to put something out because I've had thoughts of this story on my mind for a while. I also don't know exactly where this story is going so I am hoping to get whatever suggestions and inputs anyone can provide.

Enjoy

Timeline:

(BBY – indicates years before the Battle of Yavin)

57 BBY – Obi-wan Kenobi is born

54 BBY - Darth Maul is born

52 BBY - Palpatine fails to be elected as senator for the planet Naboo but, after having his competition for the position assassinated, becomes senator.

51 BBY – Current Year

x-x

Chapter I: The blinking light

LiMerge Power building on an uninhabited planet in the Mid-Rim, somewhere near Naboo

(LiMerge Power is a company whose building Sidious used for his secret hideout on Coruscant and was seen in the movies, I'm making it a Sith owned company)

x-x

A dark cloaked figure walked slowly down a long shadowed hallway. The surfaces of the hallway, the walls, ceiling, and floors were all made of metal. The hallway wasn't decorated or in anyway elaborate, but rather cold and sterile. Passing by various doors, the man's thoughts wandered to the memories that he had of the place. Though he had been born on Naboo, he had spent years training and learning the intricacies of the dark side of the force in that very building.

He remembered when his Master had first offered him a chance to become something more than he could ever be alone. He remembered when that same man had become his Master started his training. Darth Plagueis was his Master's name and in time Plagueis bestowed upon him the name of Darth Sidious. During his apprenticeship, every pleasure was denied, everything he loved was taken away, every fear he had was thrust upon him, and every weakness he had was taken advantage of by that same man. He always hated him for it but that training had made him a powerful Sith.

He had learned to immerse himself in the dark side of the force. Learned to harness the power that the dark side held and to wield his emotions to his advantage without letting them control him. Plagueis had taught him everything that he knew. He was also given access to ancient teachings and writings that made him even more powerful as the years went on but things could no longer remain as they once were.

Plagueis' obsession with mastering death was not something that he was previously concerned over. Nearly every Sith before his master had been obsessed with conquering death and extending their lives indefinitely. It was even something that he himself was concerned over but certainly not to the same degree as his Master.

Plagueis' research had changed over the years when he decided that the transference of one's essence did not appeal to him. The Sith Lord had therefore sought an alternative method which led to his research into the manipulation of midi-chlorians.

Midi-chlorians were intelligent life forms that lived inside the cells of all living things. In beings with sufficient numbers present in each of their cells, they allowed for the detection and manipulation of the Force. Plagueis was originally experimenting with the manipulation of midi-chlorians, through Sith Alchemy, in order to promote spontaneous cell growth. This could be used to prevent the cells in a being's body from deteriorating with age and even produce new cells which would extend a person's lifespan indefinitely.

Sidious had been rather interested in these experiments as it would be preferable to extend a person's lifespan using these methods than to transfer the essence into a clone body every time the clone grew old. Despite having planned to kill his Master for many years, Sidious was content to wait for Plagueis to finish the experiments. Plagueis would eventually teach him what was discovered through the research and then he would kill his Master and use the research to great affect.

It was something that every Master and Apprentice of the their Sith Order did. Eventually one would kill the other as was standard among the adopted Rule of Two. The master might kill the student and find another, better student or the student might kill the master and replace him as Sith Lord and then start training an apprentice. It was necessary to keep their line going. Only the strong should survive and weakness was cut out as they moved toward their ultimate goal of the Sith ruling the galaxy. It was therefore obvious that Sidious noticed over the years that Plagueis had shifted focus from the primary goal of the Sith, to focusing solely on his research.

Sidious watched his Master through hidden surveillance devices and monitored all activities. So it was easy to noticed his Master's complacency. Plagueis was no longer so concerned over the goals of the Sith or what Sidious was up to. Plagueis wasn't even aware that Sidious had recently taken a secret apprentice and was plotting against him.

However, it wasn't until Plagueis began talking about creating new life with his research that Sidious truly became worried. Plagueis seemed determined to use his midi-chlorian manipulation technique to spontaneously create new life, specifically a child. Plagueis had theorized that a child born in that manner would have a greater midi-chlorian count, a stronger Force ability, and more powerful connection to the Force than any other being.

It was obvious to Sidious that if Plagueis created such a child, then there would be no need for the current apprentice and therefore his life might be in danger. Sidious felt threatened at the potential of that child. He became paranoid over what his Master might be planning and could no longer sit idly by and let his Master finish the research.

Did Plagueis know about his secret apprentice? How long had his Master been planning to replace him? Was his Master one step ahead of him? Had Plagueis been manipulating him into a false sense of security? All of these questions kept going through his mind, even when he tried to force them out. Thus, his prior planning would need to come to fruition much sooner than originally planned. He would kill Master Plagueis as soon as he could.

That was the reason for his current visit.

'Soon...soon I will take my rightful place and begin setting my plans in motion. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.' were the sadistic thoughts going through the cloaked man's head as he smiled and continued making his way down the hall to his Master's quarters.

Sidious glided soundlessly through the dark throne room that his Master always used and to the adjoining personal chamber. All security measures in the facility had already been disabled. The few security droids in the building had also been deactivated. The stage was set for the final act with Plagueis and his ascension from Apprentice to Master.

Reaching into his black robes, Sidious removed a dagger from its hidden sheath. He had chosen a simple weapon in which to kill his Master. Plagueis always had a fascination with the arcane and it would be fitting for him to be killed with such a simple weapon. The dagger wasn't a vibro-blade but it was a strong curved blade, adorned with a large gem at the pummel and gold inlay along the blade with a comfortable handle. Sidious had planned out every detail extensively before this moment. He knew that he might not be able to face Plagueis in real battle and remain unscathed. While Plagueis may have become complacent with the goals of the Sith, the Muun's Force ability and knowledge of the dark side hadn't diminished. Plagueis would have been a difficult foe for him. Perhaps too difficult.

Therefore, Sidious had decided to rely on stealth and treachery to eliminate his Master. He would arrive on the planet undetected and slip into the building without letting Plagueis know he was there, which he already had. Then he would make his way to his Master's chambers, which he was in, and open the door to proceed with his plan, which he was about to do.

Reaching down to the control panel on the door, Sidious pushed the button to open it. The door opened almost instantly and with far too much noise for Sidious' liking but there was nothing he could do. If he used the Force to open the door or cut it with his lightsaber, it would most likely alert Plagueis. Sidious was after a victory with no fighting involved and he had to mask his Force connection in order to escape detection by his Master.

Walking through the opening and over the threshold of the room, Sidious admired the objects and trinkets that his Master had collected. 'Master Plagueis always did have good taste.' He passed through the main room without a sound and headed for the bedroom. There was no door linking the main room to the bedroom, just an open passageway. Entering the bedroom, Sidious couldn't help but produce an evil smirk at the sight of his helpless Master. Of course he had already foreseen this moment several days ago but he still liked the thrill of victory. His paranoia had been unfounded after all. Plagueis knew nothing of his plotting. There was nothing his Master could do to escape death.

Approaching the bed, Sidious eyed his Master one last time and decided on exactly where to stab with the dagger. 'Should it be once or multiple times? Should I aim for an area that will instantly kill him or an area that will allow him to wake and see his killer?' debated Sidious gleefully as he enjoyed the power he had over his once great Master in the moments before the act. He had never felt more alive.

Sidious decided to aim for a fatal area with a single strike and allow Plagueis to wake and see his murderer. He also wanted to see the reaction of the gray skinned Muun and feel the life drain from him. Sidious only hoped he could finally see fear in the eyes that had denied him everything and made him feel inadequate.

Lifting the dagger up, Sidious let the emotion flow through him. He felt rage, anger, passion, fulfillment, and a sadistic triumph. His smirking face altered. The mask that he wore as Palpatine fell to reveal a hideous twisted visage. The once smooth face was far paler then it had been. The smirk became an insane smile filled with cruelty. His eyes became a sulfuric yellow filled with nothing but malice. The emotions threatened to overtake him and he yelled out in triumph as he plunged the dagger into his Master's chest.

Sidious quickly removed the dagger a moment later and looked at the face of his Master as he backed up slightly from the bed. Plagues' eyes had opened and he was trying to figure out what was happening. Sidious could see the pain that his Master was in and feel the Muun's confusion but didn't speak to him, only smiled with unrestrained delight at what he had done. A very brief moment passed before Plagueis' eyes widened as he realized what was happening.

The Muun attempted to sit up or move his body but Sidious' strike had paralyzed him from the neck down. He then attempted to speak but blood was already filling his lungs. With little option, Plagueis focused on his attacker. The grayish skinned Master was slowly bleeding out and had little time left until he expired.

For Sidious, he drank in his success over his master. He didn't get the fear that he wanted to see in his Master's eyes but the anger, conflict, despair, and disbelief that he could sense in the Muun was more than worth the trade. Sidious laughter rang out in the bedroom as he watched his Master slowly expire, but Plagueis wasn't dead yet.

Calling upon the dark side of the Force, Plagueis attempted to fight back. When calling upon large amounts of the dark side, it was possible to heal injury without having any prior Force Ability in healing. Sidious' laughter stopped when he felt his Master's buildup of dark side energy. Sidious yelled, "NO!" and acting quickly, striking his Master again with the dagger. After the second additional strike, Sidious stopped and looked once again into his Master's eyes.

They weren't the same eyes that he had seen before. They were no longer the eyes of a person realizing that death was upon them and contained something akin to amusement or laughter. The smallest hint of a smile adorned the Muun's face as he slowly expired. A single sound came from Plagueis as life left him and it could only be described as a "Hn" sound.

Confused with what had just happened, Sidious tried to analyze what had caused these emotions in his former Master. Answers came to him when he looked at his hand that was still holding the dagger. He was gripping the dagger as hard as he could and his hand was shaking uncontrollably. He also realized that his heart was beating rapidly and his breathing was ragged. Searching his feelings, Sidious realized why Plagueis had reacted like he had and sneered at the body of his dead Master.

He had shown his Master fear.

His Master was paralyzed before him at his mercy and yet, at the slightest hint of Plagueis fighting back, Sidious had become afraid and lashed out. Plagueis had seen it, felt it and was, in a sense, amused at the weakness of his Apprentice. It was humiliating and infuriating for Sidious. He couldn't believe his own weakness.

Throwing the dagger to a corner of the room, where it hit with a loud clang, Sidious let loose his anger and frustration in the form of Force Lighting on his Master's dead body. While the body was being burnt beyond recognition, Sidious screaming out his frustration and rage in the bedroom of his former Master. It was supposed to be a moment of triumph for him, yet Plagueis had turned it into a moment of humiliation that he would never be able to forget.

x-x

Sidious emerged from the LiMerge Power building and headed towards his ship which was on one of the landing pads connected to the main building. Before he left, he copied all of Plagueis's computer files onto a datacard that he had with him. He also took his Master's lightsaber and set one of the building reactors to overload. Sidious was confident that he already had all the Sith holocrons and texts that Plagueis had so there was nothing else to take but the information on the datacard and the lightsaber as a trophy.

The building itself didn't actually matter to him but he wanted to destroy it entirely and leave no evidence behind. Darth Plagueis the Wise would be nothing more but a memory of another long dead Sith Lord and he would never admit to being the Sith Lord's apprentice nor having an association with him. As the pilot droid took the ship off the landing pad and it began moving away from the building, Sidious watched as the building became smaller.

LiMerge Power was a company that was founded and owned by the Sith after Darth Bane had started the new Rule of Two nearly a millennium ago. It was used as a cover to hide many of their various deeds in the galaxy over the centuries. This facility was rather old and no longer used by the LiMerge Power Company because the planet had already been strip mined years earlier.

The existence of this facility wasn't known to anyone because it was built and operated solely by droids, and no one would look for it or even notice that it was destroyed. Looking to the pilot droid, Sidious demanded to be taken to Naboo and let the droid work out the specifics on how to get there safely by hyperspace while the ship moved out of the planet's atmosphere.

He was trying and failing to reapply his Sith Mask, which was a Sith technique that, with great skill and concentration by the user, allowed them to not only hide any connection to the force but also change their appearance. As it required precise concentration, he was unable to perform the technique until he regained control of his emotions and managed to calm down.

He had come to the planet expecting victory but was ultimately leaving in defeat. He hadn't foreseen this part of his Master's death, he only foresaw that he would kill his Master. He attempted to meditate and forget about what had just transpired but it would take time for him to be able to reach such a state.

As the shuttle exited the atmosphere of the planet and entered hyperspace, part of the LiMerge building exploded on the surface of the planet. A very small explosion could actually be seen from space on the small planet and there was no one to see it but there were however people who felt it.

x-x

A rumbling that shook the entire ship was what awoke Doro Bas from his sleep. Doro was the owner of a YG-4210 light freighter which he named Forty-Two and was currently working as a gunrunner. He had a crew of four which was all that he needed to run guns for Borvo the Hutt, who controlled the local gun smuggling as well as many other nefarious things in the sector. The tremors worried him as his ship was rather old and also they weren't flying or even in space but sitting on the surface of an uncharted, uninhabited planet. Exiting his cabin, he quickly headed for the bridge.

Several scenario's went through Doro's head as he sat down in the pilot's seat. He wasn't concerned about an attack considering that he had hid the ship rather well inside a canyon, but it was possible that whatever had woken him up was just as bad.

They were waiting for a shipment of guns to arrive on the planet. The shipment would be more than they could carry in their freighter so they would hide the rest of the guns and transport what they could, then come back to transport the rest. Doro had many years of gunrunning under his belt and had used this particular planet for quite a while as a resting spot to hide and ferry guns. Most of the clients who bought the guns from Borvo were in the Outer-Rim or Mid-rim, so having a planet to stash the guns that was right on the border of the two was quite beneficial.

Checking the ships scanner, Doro found that the scanners detected what looked like an explosion at or near the largest of the LiMerge Power buildings on the planet. Doro knew about the buildings and left them alone because then no one would know he was using the planet. Most places didn't have that many security droids for being abandoned and the illegal mining operations had already ceased years prior. It was suspicious but Doro had no intention of investigating the building, at least until now.

'If one of those buildings had been damaged then the security droids might all be damaged too.' he discerned and that meant that they could go scavenging before anyone from LiMerge Power was able to come out and investigate. By the time someone did come, it would be too late and they could damage the area more to make it appear like nothing was missing because it had been completely destroyed. His communications officer came into the cockpit to find out what was going on and Doro told him to wake the rest of the crew. He may be cautious but he wasn't going to let an opportunity for credits pass him by.

x-x

After setting down a good distance away from the building and sending out one of his men to scout on a small speeder bike, Doro and the remaining three crew members waited for news.

The radio crackled several minutes later as the rest of crew sat or stood in the cockpit and waited for news, "psssst...I made it to the building...its mostly destroyed but the top part seems partially intact...it looks like it just fell over after the blast. I'm not picking up anything on my scanner and I don't see any security droids. Over." said the crewman.

The rest of the crew broke out in smiles at what that possibly meant. It was time for scavenging. Doro radioed back, "Stay there, I'll bring Forty-Two closer to the buildings. Over and out."

x-x

Minutes later, Forty-Two arrived on the scene and touched down near the building. Every crew member but the captain left the ship and started looking through the wreckage of the building. Doro stayed with his ship to monitor the sensors and if needed, start up the ship in a hurry and make a quick escape.

He listened to the chatter of his men as they found different things to take back to the ship. His crew had found a small infirmary in one of the rooms and salvaged a medical droid as well as much needed supplies. It seemed the buliding was even outfitted with a bacta tank, which was something that was far too expensive to even consider putting on his ship, but now they had one. Forty-Two's medical bay was rather understocked and the medical droid they had wasn't operating as well as it should be. Doro had more than one complaint about the deficient medical bay from the crew but now they would be set for quite a while.

It wasn't until his men got to what they believed were offices that things started to get really interesting. There seemed to be a rather well furnished apartment in the tower. Whatever artwork and furnishing that his men were finding, he was sure he could sell to someone. Although Doro really didn't understand why a well furnished suite would be inside what looked to be some kind of industrial plant, it was their benefit.

'Perhaps its for a high ranking officials when they visit.' thought Doro but that didn't make sense either as this planet wasn't important enough to warrant having any officials or executives and he was sure the plant itself hadn't been operational or producing anything for years.

x-x

As the crewmen scoured the suite, one of the crew named Vox, made his way into what he believed was the bedroom. While looking through everything that had been thrown around by the explosion and collapse of the tower, he noticed a small opening in the wall. The explosion must have shorted the locking mechanism for the hidden alcove and just opened it part of the way. He forced the panel open and greedily looked to see what he had found.

Everything in the hidden compartment had been shoved to one side but he sifted through to find anything of value. He came across several items that looked like they could be worth something: a few old scrolls and tomes, an object shaped like a pyramid that fit in his hand, another object shaped like a cube that also fit in his hand, and several small locked boxes.

The boxes looked the most interesting as they were in containers that could take a beating and he couldn't get them open. If a person hides something in a secret compartment and then locks it away in a container, it must be worth something.

Unsure of what items were valuable and what weren't, he decided just to take everything. Once the crew were done scrounging through the building and debris field, Doro flew the ship back to the meeting place for the arms shipment. They may have found some expensive items in the building but he wasn't going to miss his shipment. If there was one thing that he learned doing business and smuggling with shady and dangerous people, it was that you don't keep them waiting or lose their shipments.

x-x

Five days later

The ship is supposed to be near the Moddell System

Actual whereabouts, unkown

x-x

Doro's eyes opened as he heard the unmistakable sound of blaster fire. He got up from his bed in the captains cabin and quickly retrieved his heavy blaster pistol that he kept on the nightstand. His grogginess was quickly gone and he moved to the side of his cabin door and smacked the panel. The door opened almost instantly.

While not exposing himself, he aimed the weapon ahead of him and peered around the doorway and into the adjacent hallway. If there was blaster fire, there was no way he was going to just run out into hallway. Moving into the archway of the door, he peered down the hallway. He couldn't see anyone. Had they been boarded?

'Pirates or raiders, maybe.' he thought. They might be after his cargo as it was worth a hefty sum of credits. He couldn't hear much and there were no further sounds of a firefight, so he moved out of the doorway and crept silently down the hallway. He stayed to one side so he could use the bulkheads and walls for cover. Passing by the crew cabins, he found the doors open and the beds vacant.

He finally made it to the ships lounge and peered around the corner with his blaster aimed out in front of him. What he saw shocked and puzzled him enough that he paused. He saw Vox standing in the middle of the lounge while holding another one of the crew up in the air by the neck with just one of his arms. The man he was holding was turning blue and Vox seemed to be smiling maliciously at the sight.

Stepping out from the hallway, Doro said, "VOX, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"

Vox turned towards him but the mans ordinary green eyes were replaced with a sulfuric yellow that showed nothing but madness. With a twitch of his arm, Vox snapped the man's neck and then tossed him clear across the room. The dead crewman smacked into the inner hull with a terrible sounding thud.

'What the hell's going on.' Doro thought as he had just seen Vox throw another person across the room which was an incredible show of strength that he knew Vox wasn't capable of.

Vox moved at Doro and the captain fired a shot at the mans chest. The blaster bolt hit and caused Vox to halt for a second. It was then that Doro noticed that Vox already had several blaster burns on his chest. The deranged crewman had already been shot more than once and most were fatal wounds.

Vox seemed rather unfazed by the shot. He looked down and smiled, then looked back at Doro and charged him again. 'Oh shit!' Doro thought and fired as many shots as he could. He wasn't really concentrating on aiming as he was too terrified of the situation to think straight.

The pair collided and fell to the floor. For a moment nothing happened but then Doro shoved Vox's body off of him. He stared at the body as if it were going to come back to life. Two of his shots had hit Vox in the head but he wasn't going to take any chances.

Keeping his blaster trained on Vox's head, he used his free arm to help pull his body towards the wall to get off the ground. He wasn't injured but he wasn't going to take his eyes off of Vox's body. Once he was standing and steady, he debating about what to do. While looking at his presumably dead crewman, Doro finally noticed the necklace that Vox was wearing.

He decided that it must have been part of what they scavenged from the planet where they got the guns several days ago. The necklace was actually glowing slightly but began to fade. Just looking at it however was giving him the creeps. 'Whatever that necklace is, its bad news and I want it off my ship.' he thought. Walking forward to Vox's body, he grabbed one of the legs and dragged the corpse to one of the escape pods.

Locking the body in the pod made him feel much safer. Two of his crewman were already dead but two were also unaccounted for so he began searched the ship for the remaining crew. He hoped they were still alive.

Unfortunately that wasn't the case. He soon found them both dead in other parts of the ship. One in the cargo bay and one near an escape pod. Doro moved their bodies into another escape pod as he really didn't have any other place to put them. The infirmary only had a single bed.

Sitting down at a table in the lounge, Doro looked around the room, possibly expecting something else to jump out at him but settled into the seat and tried to think about what to do next. He put his arms on the table and used them to rest his head on. Truly he had no idea what to do next.

His entire crew was dead and his adrenaline was just now wearing off, so the realization was just starting to hit him. 'What the hell happened to Vox? What was with that necklace. Are the rest of the things were took from that destroyed building just as bad?' Doro wondered. He had heard many different tales from spacers of strange things happening during space travel. Finding weird objects with strange powers was a part of several stories that he heard but he always just played those stories off as tall tales.

Obviously now he knew different. He would have to get rid of all the items they salvaged, just to be sure. He also would make sure not to touch them in any way. Getting up from the table, he headed to the escape pod and jettisoned the one that Vox was in. The ship was equipped with more pods then they actually needed, so it wasn't a loss. Since they were still at hyperspace, whatever the hell that necklace was would never be able to get back to realspace and never plague him again.

Doro debated on whether or not to jettison the other pod as well. He knew that crew rather well and those four were some of the best he ever had. He decided to wait until he got to the shadow port on Sarafur, which was the planet that they were heading to with the guns shipment. Sarafur was just one of the many names for the planet. It was in the Moddell sector and specifically used by gunrunners as a stopping point and hiding area.

'The ship should be there by now.' he idly thought and headed to the cockpit. He rounded the corner of the hallway and noticed that the door the cockpit was shut. 'That's odd.' he thought and tried to open the door by pressing the adjacent control panel. The door didn't open. This was a definite problem as there was no one else on the ship but him and it didn't make sense that the door would be locked.

Ripping open the control panel, Doro tried to figure out what was wrong. It seemed that the door was locked from the inside but that didn't make any sense. The only other possibility was that someone had tampered with the locking mechanism on the inside to lock when the door was shut. Cursing, Doro tried to everything he could to get the door to unlock but it didn't work.

Heading for the machine room, he searched for the fusion cutter.

x-x

Once he had finished cutting out a a portion of the door, Doro slammed his shoulder up against it and forced the portion of door he had cut to fall inwards where it slammed onto the floor. The cockpit was big enough that the door didn't hinder him from getting in. He jumped in the pilots seat and first determined what the status of the ship was. He looked over all the instrumentation and performed a diagnostic, the ship was fine but they were running low on fuel.

'It shouldn't be a problem though, the ship should be close to our destination and we can refuel there.' Doro thought as he went to check the navigational computer to make sure they were still on course. He looked at the screen and thought perhaps he was reading it wrong. He checked it again but couldn't believe what he was seeing. The ship had already passed their destination. It had then continued on and was now well into the Unknown Region of space.

'What the hell?' was the only thought running through his mind.

x-x

Doro spent over an hour checking the navigational computer to determine if it was working correctly. It was working fine. He then checked all navigational logs to determine how in five days they could have traveled so far. The trip to Sarafur along their specific route should have taken no less than five days and yet the ship had traveled more than one and a half times that distance in the same amount of time.

Looking through the logs he saw numerous course corrections that he knew weren't made by him. The course that they actually traveled to Sarafur was far different than the course they usually took and the one he had plotted five days ago. It turned out that the new route was much faster and they actually reached Sarafur over a day ago but didn't stop. It was obvious that the culprit was Vox, especially with what happened earlier. The man had obviously been possessed by something and then altered the ships course.

Instead of stopping at their intended destination, a new course had been plotted to somewhere else but Doro had no idea where the ship was now going. Was it just a random course that led to nothing or was there something at the end of that course? He didn't know which was worse.

The Unknown Region was how it sounded. It wasn't mapped and no on really knew what was there. The main reason why no one ever went there was due to a hyperspace disturbance that spanned the border of Known Space and the Unknown Region. It made travel extremely difficult, time consuming, and dangerous, so few ever tried.

The region would be like trying to plot a course through an unknown maze, the ship would have to keep stopping and changing course and it was difficult to say what was really out there. A ship could fly too close to something and be destroyed. It was dangerous and spacers stayed away from it. There could be entire civilizations living in secret out in that area of space or nothing at all. No one knew for sure.

Staying away, however, wasn't an option as he was already traveling in it. The real problem that Doro discovered was that he didn't have enough fuel to make it back to Known Space. They had enough fuel to reach Sarafur and although they had gotten there faster, the ship only had a specific amount of fuel left and it had already passed the point of no return.

The navigational system was also locked for whatever destination they were heading. The ship was jumping through hyperspace and stopping whenever it encountered an obstacle. It would then readjust coordinates and jump back into hyperspace. Basically it was moving on a preset autopilot and while Doro knew a great deal about his ship, he never tried to mess with the navigational computer in such a way. He was locked out from something that Vox had most likely done and he couldn't change course. The best that he could do was shut down the hyperdrive but that meant that he would just be stuck in uncharted space.

Since the fuel was low, that meant that it was only a matter of time before the ship's power was shut down, which included life-support. It was a situation that he never wanted to find himself in, nor did any spacer for that matter. The most that he could hope for was that the ship would stop at a habitable planet before jumping again and he would be able to get off the ship in one of the remaining escape pods.

He didn't want to admit it, but this was the only option that he had.

Doro packed everything that he could into one of the escape pods. He didn't bother touching any more of the items they had found. He only had to wait a few hours for the ship to exit hyperspace again and he scanned the surrounding area for a habitable planet using the sensors in the escape pod. He was lucky that there was one habitable planet in a nearby system that he could reach. Hitting the jettison button, he was launched away from his ship along with a second escape pod with his other three crew members in it.

As the pods moved away from the ship, he looked at it one last time through the window on the pod before it reentered hyperspace.

x-x

With the ship, deeper in the Unknown Region

x-x

The ship followed the plotted course for some time after Doro had left the ship. It had just come out of hyperspace as it had encountered a gravity well, which turned out to be an entire solar system. It tried to make another jump to hyperspace but the system encountered an error as it didn't have the necessary fuel or power to make another jump. Slowly, the ship drifted towards one of the planets in the system and was caught by its gravitational field.

It was a stormy night in Konohagakure no Sato. The raining was heavy and lightning flashed across the sky with loud thunder following each flash. Ninja were advised not to patrol in the village or on the wall because of the danger of being struck by lightning. They stayed in the guard posts along the walls but they weren't really paying attention to what was happening outside.

Not a single person in the village noticed what looked like a shooting star that night. It fell from the sky but was mostly obscured by the clouds and rain. The thunder also masked its impact. The ships computer registered a crash. The escape pods had already been jettisoned so it shut down every system in order to conserve power remaining power and automatically activated the ships emergency beacon.

x-x

Seven years later, Current year is 43 BBY

During this time skip:

50 BBY - Darth Sidiious Takes Maul to the Jedi temple to watch the jedi, it is one of Maul's earliest memories

48 BBY - Uzumaki Naruto is born, so at this current time he's five years old

46 BBY - Padme Amidala born

x-x

A five year old Naruto peaked around the corner of a building to check and see if the coast was clear. He was wearing black shorts and a white shirt with a red spiral. He only saw a few people walking down the darkened streets, which was good for him. He tried his best to keep to the shadows and stay out of sight as he looked for anywhere that would be safe to hide. Despite being treated nicely by a select few individuals, the majority of the village greatly disliked him and he had no idea why.

For years he had wanted to know why the villagers looked at him like they did and why he was so hated in the village. Just recently he had resolved to stop crying over it. He started putting up a fake smile when walking around the village and declaring how he was going to be Hokage when he would hear their whispers. He wanted to show the entire village that they were wrong about him. He smiled until his face hurt but it never made him happy and he proclaimed things until his throat was dry but it never made him feel any stronger or that he had accomplished anything.

It was during a visit to the Hokage's office that he was informed of the existence of other villages and was shown a map of the Elemental Nations. From that point onward, he had gotten in his head that perhaps there was a nicer place outside his current village, where people did not give him such looks. Expanding on this thought, he began exploring the village, going out further and further from his apartment towards the tall village walls. They were a barrier that he was not allowed to cross as evident when he tried and was taken back to the Hokage tower. What laid beyond the wall, he wasn't sure but the fact was that some were allowed through and people were constantly entering or exiting, while he could not, was something he found very strange. Why would they prevent some people such as himself from leaving while allowing others?

This made him all the more curious about what was beyond the imposing rock. Reaching one of gates to leave the village, Naruto slowed his pace and tried not to be seen. Looking around, he noticed that very few people were in the area and the gate guards seemed to be sleeping. He thought about the situation and decided to go for it. He would probably be safer outside the village than inside and he could come back in the morning. Despite never actually leaving the village before, he got up from his spot and ran for the gate. Some people saw him but few paid any attention as he ran. Making it to the gates, he ran straight through them and kept running down the dirt path.

He wasn't sure where he was going but he knew that for the time being, the unknown would be better than what he was leaving behind in the village.

x-x

Eventually he decided that he couldn't go too far away from the village as he might never be able to find his way back, so he cut into the forest and tried to keep the village walls or even the Hokage Monument in view. Making his way through the trees, he tried to stay far enough away from the village that he didn't have to worry about getting spotted by a guard on the wall.

Naruto stopped every now and then as he looked for a place to hunker down and ride out the rest of the day. He wanted some kind of shelter but he'd only found trees and prickly brush so far. It was interesting to be outside of the village but he thought it would be different. He thought that the trees would be different or the grass and plants but they were all the same. It was a little disappointing and he wished to see something exotic or at least more interesting than constant green.

After an unknown amount of time, he slowed down to a very slow walk. He wasn't tired but he did notice that he couldn't see the village wall anymore. He would have thought more about it if he hadn't of tripped over a root.

His little stumble proved far worse then he thought it would as he was standing near the top a steep slope and didn't even know it was there. He ended up rolling end over end down the slope. Through what little he could see between interchanging hard ground and sky, he found that the slope had a drop-off to it. Panicking, he managed to reach out and snag part of a bush to stop him from falling.

Looking down from his precarious position, Naruto saw about a twenty foot drop to the surface of a lake that was beneath him. It wouldn't have been so bad, however he had no idea how to swim. The bush was still holding his weight so he tried to pull himself up with it but it started to give so he stopped. He then tried to grab the ledge but years of erosion had left it mostly dry and loose soil so he couldn't get a firm grip to pull himself up. Everything he touched just kept on crumbling. Naruto then tried to get some traction on the soil with his feet but it was rather sheer and had no foot holds. His movements did however cause the bush he was grabbing on, to snap and he plummeted to the water.

Naruto yelled out before he hit the water. The cold water was a shock to his system and the height of the fall caused him to sink down into the lake several feet. He had fallen in back first but his body twisted upside down. He was about to start struggling when he saw something. He couldn't see the bottom of the lake but in the darkness a blinking light stood out in sharp contrast. It was red and flashed intermittently. The light immediately caught and held his attention, so much so that he forgot about the situation he was in until he felt the need to breath.

Taking his attention away from the light, Naruto struggled to get to the surface. He kicked and flailed his arms until he finally started showing results and moving towards the surface. He was only able to get a single ragged breath before he went back under the surface. Realizing how difficult it was to try and stay on the surface, Naruto attempted to move himself closer to the wall face. He called for help several times while struggled to stay above the surface but no one could hear him. He expended quite a bit of energy to get to the wall but it was worth it as the surface at that level was rocky and had enough roughness to it for him to grab on and pull his head above the water surface.

After taking many deep breaths of air, Naruto shimmied across the rock face while still in the water until he made it to the opposite side of the lake which was mostly trees. Pulling himself onto the grassy shore he panted and laid there for a while to catch his breath. Despite the traumatic experience, he couldn't help but think that about that flashing light. He wanted to know what it was. Only one obstacle was in his path though, he needed to learn how to swim.

x-x

The next day several porcelain masked ninja found Naruto outside of the village and brought him to the Hokage. Naruto relayed his story to the Sandaime that he wanted to see what was beyond the wall, though he left out the light, and asked if he could learn how to swim saying that he never wanted to experience such a thing again.

The Hokage was glad that the boy was alright and though angry at the gate guards. Far to young to learn chakra control and water walking, the Sandaime promised to get Naruto a teacher to learn the basics of swimming later in the week, as long as the boy promised to stay inside the village. He was glad that Naruto hadn't been too affected by the experience. Similar experiences with drowning usually left a child with a fear of water in general.

Naruto was thrilled about the swimming practice but his mind was still on the flashing light. In that moment he had no idea how much it would change the rest of his life.

Please Review