AN: Hello everyone, Druid here with another short story! This idea has been tormenting my head for a long, LONG time and it is about time I just wrote it out. This is a VERY unconventional Naruto x Mass Effect crossover, an experiment of sorts. As with my other short stories, this is also a challenge to authors as well for those trying to make it full-length. I hope it turns out well! Anyway, I will appreciate any constructive reviews or comments. Without further ado, here is the story.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or Mass Effect or any other implied series; this is Fanfiction for a reason.

"Conversation"

"Powerful being talking/Jutsu"

October 9th 2163

Metropolis No. 11, Slums

It was nightfall and rain was heavy... normally this would be the perfect time to go indoors to relax for the day and getting a good night sleep while the raindrops were falling on their roofs.

A little girl around the age of nine was running...sprinting even. In terms of appearance, she was in an appalling state; she was malnourished, her hair was a deep crimson, dulled and soaked by the falling rain, skin was a deathly pale with various bruises and cuts, her emerald-green eyes gleaming is desperation and panic. She was trying to run the fastest her little legs could handle, but why?

Well, it was due to the large number of people, all of them adults were in hot pursuit of this little girl. Most of them brandished weapons, crude ones at that. Something one would get their hands on in the scrap heaps, or lay idle in their storerooms. As such, they were very much rusted metal rods, some of them cleavers and knives. It was very clear to others their motivation for carrying these weapons and chasing after the seemingly harmless child, they were aiming to either kill her or to at least brutally torture.

This leaves to one question, why would they do that?

To start things off, the mob was a group of pro-humans, either too ignorant or too much in denial of the current situation and series of events that have occurred over the many years. Earth was engaging diplomacy with various aliens' races across the Galaxy, and diplomacy means treating them as equals. This without a doubt did not sit well with pro-humanity denizens of earth, believing that humans were the only "natural" and "superior" race in the Galaxy, the inhabitants across the galaxy were freaks, and most importantly "inferior".

One of the things that aliens can perform, from their experiences with their hunts was that aliens were well verse in mass effect manipulation (due to the unlucky few Asari whom by chance came across this part of the city). None of the humans on earth were biotics unless they did implants, and those who are eligible would certainly NOT be here. However, this child, not even in her teens was seen manipulating such energy! Despite being on the poorer side of society, they had televisions, and they read the news. Biotic implants were not performed on children, rather teenagers being the youngest. If that was the case, this child should not be able to use biotics, hence the only conclusion they could reach was that the little "girl" was an alien, a freak and something that needs to be purged from earth.

So...one thing led to another and it surmounted to this moment, they wanted her blood.

Girl's Point of view

She was an orphan for as long as she could remember, memories of her birth parents were practically non-existent. So she was placed in a Government funded orphanage, she tried hard to be useful and to stay out of people's way most of the time. Despite that, she has been victim of multiple painful assaults by the very intolerant residents of the slums of Metropolis No.11.

All she knew was that many people hated her for either existing or some other reason she could not fully understand. She had inkling, as when she was five, she managed to move an object, a can lying on the ground with nothing but her mind, which was perhaps when her personal hell started. She was in the community park; there were many people there, so news would have spread fast. A few days after that fateful event, families, and their children, even her peers in the orphanage started to glare at her, saying hateful words.

Weeks later, the more passionate and proactive residents started going after her physically; the torture, the beatings and the sheer verbal abuse from the adults AND other kids around her only got worse, some had even gone so far as to call her a "demon".

Though as consolation, no one even considered raping her, being pro-humans and their viewing that the child they were tormenting was NOT human, raping her was considered disgusting. She was slightly thankful for that, but there was always a price for something. Potential rape was instead replaced with even more brutal beatings when they caught eye of the poor girl.

She HATED everyone; she hated the families who glared at her in disdain, the violent mobs, even her peers. She just wished everyone would just disappear; she would rather live her life alone where no one would hurt her.

Through the work of fate, or sheer bad luck, perhaps a bit of both; the red-haired girl slipped due to the wet surface as a result from the rain and fell on her back...in an alley way with no way escape. At this point, her terror exponentially increased, she may have been used to all these pain, but every time she was caught it was downright terrifying since the angry mob never did hold back...perhaps just enough to keep her within an inch of her life if they decide to keep her alive for more torturing in the future.

"You run damn fast you freak! Maybe this time we should just cut off your legs so that you ain't gonna give us any more trouble in the future!" Said a bulky man with various scars on his face, he was often the leader of the pro-human mob and was often responsible for instigating the killings of any wandering non-humans, and her beatings. She did not know his name, nor did she care. The man reached to the girl and held her in a death grip, and landed a few very hard punches to her stomach, so hard that she spit some blood out with each strike.

"Hey boss, what's the point keeping the freak alive anyway? Let's just kill it now and get it over with like we did to those blue skinned demon-bitches!" Said a member of the mob by his side

"Well where is the fun in that then? We are looking at a little one here, the fact that this freak even looks like a human is spitting at out images, the image of REAL MEN AND WOMEN! We will just teach it a few lessons, and when it has "learned" enough, we can just butcher the damn thing!" Replied the scarred man.

"Hell no! We have been doing this for four years boss, we ain't keeping it here any longer, and this demon needs to die NOW! I ain't taking chances when the thing gets strong enough and kills us!" Said the same member of the mob, a lot of the others making approving noises.

The scarred man considered for a moment, and caved in at the pressure, he looked back at the girl in pain, "this is your lucky day freak, four years of lessons and now school's over...the people think you learned your lesson well, so you finally get to die!" With that he took out a rusty pocket knife, very likely to kill her in the slowest and most painful way possible. She saw the rusty knife going for her right eye.

The girl was resigned to her fate, and just hope the pain would only last for a few minutes before the more comfortable embrace of death took her. She was certainly not expecting some miracle; she highly doubts there was a god to watch over her. She lost such faith on the eve of her seventh birthday, when the SAME man carved painful words on her skin with the same knife. She prayed to any God to save her then, but nothing came to help her, she spent several hours in the alley way, unable to move until the more benevolent passerby called the medical dispatch. At least now, on the eve of her birthday, she could be given death, an escape from this hell.

Before the knife reached to touch her eye, she felt a sudden surge of condensed and very palpable energy and it filled the entire alley way, and in moments the very heavy rain miraculously disappeared. It was filled with so much power it was overwhelming, she also observed the scarred man and the rest of the mob were also affected and they literally froze. It was then she heard a man's voice, calm and controlled, but filled with silent fury and the power to back it up.

"Attacking such a harmless child because she is different, you call yourself humans and yet you stoop yourself so low...pathetic" she turned around, and so did everyone else, to the source of the voice and saw the silhouette of a man glaring at them coldly. Not much could be seen at this point, but they could discern that he wore a long cloak with a high collar; what she assumed was his hair is somewhat short but spiky, almost giving the impression of horns protruding from his head. He wore a very strange necklace, with six red crystals that glowed in the night.

What made her curious, but unnerved the mob was his eyes; it radiated as much power as the man's whole being. It was a deep metallic purple, with four concentric circles, they had unusual symbols as pupils, and had the same shapes as the necklace he wore surrounding his pupil. It was hypnotic, but she knew it was much more than just that.

It was at that point the scarred man snapped out of his state of shock and slight fear; he mustered his bravado and declared rather loudly and arrogantly, "you certainly don't know how things work around here! We are humans and we hate aliens! This "child" you speak of has shown us that IT is a freak, for performing that alien hickey in public! IT deserves what is coming to IT!"

"Leave your wretched pretences, bigotry and motivations to yourself whelp. Condemning something you do not understand...humanity has been very much the same for generations upon generations, it sickens me. Such fear, such hate has painted all of your hearts black...there is no more hope for the lot of you" All the time, the man did not raise his voice, but the girl could clearly detect an overwhelming build up of fury being suppressed, if the insult and harsh words were of any indication.

"Who the fuck are you to judge us, alien sympathiser!?" The man yelled back, moments later he seemed to have noticed the eyes she noticed, the scarred man's face turned murderous, "Wait a minute, your eyes... you ain't human too!" He directed attention back to the mob "well boys! I suppose we will have another freak to purge off our turf. Let's teach him why humans call the shots here!" The rest of the mob snapped back to attention and cheered for the declaration, and started to approach the man in the darkness, intent on bashing him with their makeshift weapons.

In response to the approaching mob, the man in the shadows simply raised his right palm towards them and whispered a word. The mob did not hear it, but for some reason the she could, very clearly in fact

"Shinra Tensei" was what he said...she had no idea what it meant, but she knew something messed up was going to happen the moment he said it.

She was very right, less than a second after the ring-eyed man whispered the word, another large surge of the same godlike energy condensed and spurred to the direction of the mob; it smashed into them crushing bones and organs. The unrelenting force flung every person caught in its range across a great distance, close to 10 metres. She could hear the sound of the falling bodies, and numerous resounding cracks, obviously signifying broken bones. Despite being nine, she was bright and what had just happened in front of her came very close to gravity being manipulated to a point where it could be used as a VERY destructive weapon.

Many from the mob were dead from the sheer force of the attack, and from the fall from being flung. Those lucky enough to survive the attack AND had their legs intact gave up and started running as far from the scene as possible. The...God for the lack of a better description disregarded the fleeing members, almost as if they were so insignificant to him. Instead, his eyes were fixed back at the scarred aggressor, who is still holding on to her neck. Said man had his eyes wide in horror, a very reasonable state of being considering the "non-human" he urged his mob to attack were flung back with such ease and some in fact already dead. There was NO WAY he could survive... he would die or at the very least be crippled for the rest of his life.

Unfortunately, the girl's thoughts and observations ended abruptly when her tormenter place herself in front of him with the knife pointed to her neck. Such luck, just when she thought this bastard could finally just die, he just had to take a last resort escape classic, hostage. It was then she heard the bastard talk again, this time his voice laced in fear and panic rather than arrogance...

"S-S-STAY BACK, DO THAT SHIT AGAIN AND I AM STICKING THIS KNIFE INTO THE FREAK'S NECK, YOU WANNA SAVE THE THING RIGHT? JUST STAY PUT AND DON'T MOVE, LET ME GO!"

The ring-eyedman just continued his impassive stare, almost as if considering whether to take the bastard seriously or not. In moments he thought of something, and took action. He pointed his right index finger at the scarred man, and whispered something else, which she could hear as well...

"Raiton: Byakurai", energy accumulated and focused on his index finger, and in less than a second a single bolt of white lightning exploded from his finger and bolted towards and through the bastard's right shoulder. The scarred man wailed in pain and drops both his knife and her person, his left hand now clutching his right shoulder. As she fell to the ground she heard the man whisper another word.

"Bansho Ten'in" She could see the scarred bastard's body being dragged towards him by NOTHING and in moments, had the bastard held by the neck in a death grip.

"There is no hope for you, a disgrace to humanity, a disgrace to life; you will bear the ultimate punishment for the unnecessary deaths you have caused, and the pain and suffering you have inflicted to the innocents...perish." She saw his other hand raised and firmly took hold of the bastard's head, and moments later he made a ripping motion...no that is just impossible.

She then saw it with her own eyes; the man was literally ripping out the bastard's soul from his body and in seconds they were fully separated. The body of the man fell lifelessly to the ground, and the spectre of the man being held by what she was now damn sure was the closest thing to a God. She then saw the spectre slowly disintegrating, with it screaming in pure anguish almost as if being burned by the flames of the Sun itself. It was a haunting sound which lasted in a long ten seconds. By the time the spectre was gone, that bastard who tormented her had literally ceased to be.

Despite her state of awe and fear of the power being demonstrated, the girl remained focused on the form of her very mysterious saviour. Moments after the deed was done, her saviour's eyes diverted back to her; with that she gulped hard. She was still unsure of whether to relax even when her aggressors were gone, she had spent years distrusting others and any act of kindness from any normal person she received would make her suspicious.

Then again, her saviour DID look far from normal...

The pressure and power that saturated her surroundings before had now fully dissipated, and the power radiating from the man was now gone, although his eyes looked the same. It was then he took a few steps closer to her and moved under the moonlight, she could finally see how her saviour looked like in earnest, upon witnessing him she had to hold back a blush.

His hair was a golden blonde, and he was wearing a very unusual plated headband with an odd spiral symbol that looked like his eyes and had horns on it, that explained his hair. His face was angular, and she would hazard a guess that he was at most 30 years old, maybe slightly younger. Despite being barely ten years old, she was a lot wiser and more intelligent for her age, thus she knew the conventions of physical attraction and this man was certainly quite handsome. She did note that under the moonlight, she managed to catch very faded scars on his cheeks, which looked like whiskers, but she had to look hard enough. What he wore was certainly very unusual as well. She was right about the cloak, it was unzipped it was a dark grey in colour with flame patters at its edges; she did not get a chance to look at his back though. Beneath the cloak he wore some kind of light plated armour which look absolutely ANCIENT. Besides of his hypnotic eyes, the last striking aspect of his appearance was his perpetually glowing jewelled necklace, she had a closer look at it; there were six identical jewels which looked like red commas, an odd design...

The man was now within arm's reach to her, and he did just so, he reached for one of her arms which bore generous amounts of bruises and some cuts, his palm now glowing a faint green. She felt herself flinch, was he trying to silence her? Perhaps to kill her himself?

Her eyes widened, as his glowing palm now over her wounded arms was literally healing her wounds faster than any form of contemporary first aid! It did not even hurt; rather it was calming and warm. She glanced back at her saviour's eyes; there was warmth in them instead of the cold apathy shown previously. She abandoned some of her distrustful instincts and relaxed, albeit slightly but it was a big start.

After a few minutes with his palm over most of her wounds, he finally spoke again, though the commanding and oppressive calm voice was now replaced with that of kindness.

"What is your name child?" It was a simple question, all she needed to do was tell him her name, but despite relaxing ever so slightly she was still tense and hence hesitant to respond. Instead she shyly look at her saviour's face; instead of any form of impatience, he had a slight supportive smile that matched his warm eyes, with that she fully relaxed and for the first time in a long time she willingly responded to someone's question.

"J-just Erza...my n-name is Erza", she could not believe it, she hardened herself and placed a fifteen inch thick wall around her heart, she would hardly say a word to anyone unless forced to and here she was fully disarmed by the warm smile given by the man she knew for...practically thirty minutes. Furthermore, she was stammering!

"Erza, this is a beautiful name. No need to worry child, that man will not hurt you anymore, no one will hurt you from this moment on. You have lived quite a dreadful life, a life that should not be lived by anyone, especially someone like you. Have faith, this living hell will end in time...keep strong and there will always be light in the darkest of abyss." He had an odd expression on his face, almost reminiscing about something.

Erza was puzzled; there was something she wanted to ask him from the moment he started to show sincere kindness to her. It seemed like he did not want anything in return, but she could not believe that for one moment until she knew of his motivation. It was now or never, she had to ask him!

"Why?" with that the man focused on her again, she continued "why are you ...so kind to me? We have only met...I am a freak...I make things move without touching them, I scare people away, people hate me."

The man's face hardened, he responded in a firm voice, "Erza, child, you are not a freak, you are far from it! Do not allow their words affect you, they are foolish, each and every one of them. You are special, an outstanding little girl who will grow up and make a difference in this world and perhaps beyond. I believe you, but you must believe in yourself, even when no one else does."

Erza was shocked to hear those words; NO ONE gave her any words of encouragement or even say anything that remotely indicated she was anything else other than a freak. The emotional backlash from what he said was too great, in moments she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She tried to hold it in but it was too hard, thus the floodgates were opened. She broke down cried on the man's shoulder, venting out all the pent up sorrow and pain she knew so intimately over the four painful years in this personal hell.

The man hugged her; she did not see his soft and almost pained smile when he did so. There was a comfortable silence while Erza cried her heart out, she had no idea how long it took, but in time she calmed down and the man spoke again "you asked why I chose to help you. The answer is simple, it was the right thing to do, and no child deserved such a life and a man like him does not deserve to exist in this world with what he has done... Besides, you reminded me of myself, and someone very precious to me." With that she was curious; she gave the man a questioning look. The man chuckled and responded "that is a story for another time, a time when you and I will meet in earnest again."

Erza fully understood what that meant, he was going to leave! She was once again panicking; she did not want him, a person whom seemed to be sincere to her, to leave! With all her strength, she tried to cling to his person and silently begging him not to go. She did not want to be alone anymore!

"There is no need to worry Erza, we may not be able to meet each other in person in the near future, but I WILL not abandon you. One day we will meet again, it is just a question of time, perhaps when you are all grown up, that is THE promise of a lifetime. I will always be with you child. Grow up strong, grow up brave, and when you are strong, protect others in need, do what is right."

Erza was somewhat relieved that he promised her he will return, she may not know when but she hoped it would be soon. The man ruffled her crimson hair and as he did so she saw beautiful white feathers falling in front of her eyes and her consciousness slowly slipping, he heard him whisper another word that she could not understand, "Nehan Shouja no Jutsu", whatever he did, she felt increasingly sleepy. Before she would succumb to slumber, she looked back at her saviour and asked him one final question, something that she should have asked a long time ago. She asked for his name.

"I am a wandering sage, just call me Rikudou".

AN: There is a Rinnegan in action here (which I firmly believe is not used AT ALL so far)! *gasp* though the description I placed makes it looks different, no? IT is not an Original Rinnegan, but what I felt would be a completed one (or a second stage) useable only by the Rikudou Sennin.

Anyone wishing to see how this Rinnegan looks like, google Naruto manga chapter 510 page 11, and there it is!

Well, what do you think? This is once again another plot bunny that has to be put into a story; this short story will take two chapters. I reiterate, much like the other one-shots/two-shots I have posted, they can also roll over as challenges and are open for any good and willing writer.

Just to let all of you know, the ME universe in my head would be very much AU so there WILL be differences between the events in this short story and ME canon.

I really hope someone will consider making a full-length of this story, most ME/Naruto crossover often place the Naruto-verse as a separate planet and him conveniently being a crew in the Normandy. I did like NeonZangetsu's approach to a Reaper Naruto, but others were practically the same or similar so I got bored. So far...what have we learned from this? Who is the Ripple-Eyed man? Who is Erza? I think it is quite obvious, but her identity will be revealed (or implied) by the second chapter.

Until then!

Druid