CHAPTER SEVEN: FIRST BATTLE AND A NEW HOME.

BASE TROY: BORDER SPACE( FAILED TERRAFORMED MOON)

So far everything has been quiet. The Gamakichi was functioning properly and they were almost at their destination. Everyone had settled into a routine of sort over the past few days, with most of them choosing to ignore him while the rest just threw their selves into the various odd jobs that arose around the ship. The only people who had spoken to him so far was Shikamaru and Konohamaru for obvious reasons.

Konohamaru for some reason still worshipped the ground he worked on even after everything that happened his once if not current student did not harbor the same resentment as every other person on the ship. Shikamaru was a little hard to decipher, to be honest naruto felt as if this guy was just to lazy to disturb himself about hating naruto for anything was so ever, that and the fact that Shikamaru was not someone that let his emotions rule him. Safe to say naruto felt that everything was up to a great start. Except of course he had to sleep on the floor since Hinata had taken the bed.

In the three days of travel through space hinata had not once left the room they shared neither had she spoken a single word to him. He was sure she was probably avoiding Menma, but he could hardly be sure. A lot has changed over the three years he had been away so he can't exactly say he knew how his former friend and wife's brain worked anymore.

Wife, that title scared him so much, more so for the fact that she was only bearing it out of a sense of duty. Naruto loved her but not as much as he once loved Sakura, but he was willing to give her everything, all of his heart and all of his soul duty be damned even if it was that kind of thought that gotnhim in trouble in the first place. He was going to make sure he loved her just as much as she loved him, if not more. Even if she never grows to care for him again, he was not going to stop caring for her. It was his solemn promise and he would stick with it to the end.

Naruto cut his train of thought as he walked into the cafeteria, as usual everything went silent, first of all the commander of a ship was not supposed to be eating or mingling with the rest of his crew to create a clear image of authority, much so if the commander was naruto someone who was loathed and hated by almost every resident of his ship, it was expected that things won't be easy at all.

Lunch was a somber affair, quiet and lonely. Naruto was someone who excelled better when he had the people he loved beside him, it made him stronger, but naruto did not mind this loneliness he had lived with it for three years with nothing but his memories and garden shears for company. Regardless this feelings can be settled at a latter date, for now he had to get to the bridge.

Everyone stood at attention once he arrived, even hinata was there which was a surprise to him, because he thought she would hide out in her room for the duration of the whole trip.

" Ten-Ten status report."

His crisp and curt tone left no room for insubordination or slacking off.

" sir I have ran a full specs analysis on the Gamakichi sir. In my opinion he's a wonderful specimen and one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen, the things he could do. The things he might be able to do if I get my paws on this bad boy, I can only help but shudder at the possibilities.

" lieutenant Ten-Ten while I don't want to rain all over your fan girl mode, I can see you have an unhealthy obsession with Gamakichi, while that is cute it still doesn't tell me what I want to know."

The surrounding officers tried and failed to hide their amusement at Ten-Ten predicament and embarrassment. She was red in the face as she had exposed her secret of being an extreme tech head.

" sorry sir. My analysis on the Gamakichi has brought a lot of things to my attention sir, one of which is mainly the fact that the Gamakichi is incomplete sir."

There were gasp allover the place, even naruto had a look of surprise as he sat on his captain's chair. When the murmurs of surprise died down Ten-Ten continued.

" the Gamakichi was built with room for improvement sir, though I think this was done on purpose. Something else has come to my observation sir, though it is something I don't ink should be spoken in such an open space sir."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, if she had discovered something that was so case sensitive she needed privacy to report then this most be serious. Naruto was already chiding himself for having her give him reports in the bridge where anybody could be listening in.

Naruto led Ten-Ten and the rest of his officers to a conference room, which honestly naruto had no idea existed till the need for it arose a few minutes ago. Once everyone was seated he nodded to her to continue her report.

" yes sir as I was saying something came to my observation. The Gamakichi is more than just a ship sir…it's a mecha."

The silence was expected, even naruto was so surprised he had to lean back on his chair. It absolutely did not make sense. Why would there be a mecha this big, piloting this would be really hard as it would cause a strain in the cerebral cortex of any body stupid enough to pilot it. While most mainstream mechas only needed special augmentation and a pilot proficient with its controls, specialized mechas like the one used by all his officers need to share a direct connection to their pilots mind.

Each and every of the specialized mechas have an A.I of their own, though non of them are as advanced as Kiba's Akamaru, but they are able to help their pilots move their mechas almost as if they were moving their real body. Kurama on the other hand is more than just an A.I at least as far as naruto was concerned his mecha was a freak of nature from a bygone era that nobody knows anything about.

Akamaru can think and fight without its pilots help, Kurama can pilot his own pilot, not to mention have extended conversation, show emotions and show every visible strain to be found in a human. Gamakichi therefore was an enigma.

" so you are saying Gamakichi was made in such a way, that if someone was stupid enough, they could combat pilot a ship that on its best day is as big as a freaking village, and am not talking about a small village either.

" yes Menma that's what's I am saying, though you are all missing something. The Gamakichi is built to handle more than one pilot. I discovered consoles of sorts that would connect a pilot and his mecha together directly to the gamakichi's mainframe. There are nine of this ports or consoles, and each of them must be occupied to completely take command of the ships battle system, and other facilities. I discovered that it links the mind of all nine pilots, in other words, you all become one person for the duration of the run. But I have no idea what the after effects of such a venture will be or how long lasting and damaging it could be to you or the ship.

There was a lot to think about, but for now the issue of Gamakichi being a big ass mecha can be put aside for now. Without further investigation and test naruto knew this could be turn out bad if they chose to place their focus on this part of the ship.

" so Ten-Ten anything else you need to tell us."

" yes sir, the ship is retrofitted with ionic steel plated Absalom V. We all no the element is quite flexible and has quite the passive ability of absorbing and storing energy in large amounts. The whole ship is made from it sir, and while its defense may be question, I discovered traces of other elements on the Absalom v frame of the ship. For lack of a better word the ship has a skin of synthetic metal that can on command harden to be as tough a titanium IX or as soft and malleable as tofu. Also the Gamakichi is not built for speed in regards to long distance travel or in a fight. While the Gamakichi is fast, it can only make its movements in short bursts or jump. The Gamakichi is built for sprinting not a marathon. But apart from that it has one if not the most advanced navigation and targeting system I have seen. And its aft guns a powered by a separated ionic system that also takes care of life support in the cargo hold, I have not been able to fully analyze it functions sir. The main weapons system and the big ass cannon under the gamakichi's gut is ran and powered by a single isotope that on its own carries out a multiple of chemical reactions from splitting atoms, vibrating molecules and sometimes stopping their movements. Sir it controls the molecules it absorbs constantly from either the light from the stars or the energy developed by friction to create a singularity in space and use it as a weapon. Sir it can fire things from a as mundane as ice, to as world destroying as a black hole. The Gamakichi is a dangerous card in this war sir, and if you want my advice sir, I think we should keep him and his capabilities a secret for as long as we can."

The Gamakichi is strong, naruto knew that, but now that he knew how strong the seriousness of the mission entrusted to him began to weigh him down. He was not trusted but he was given access to a power that could and very well change the course of this war with the uchiha's. There was no going back and with a card as powerful as his ship, he doubted there is not an outcome he could not achieve on the battlefield.

" thank you Ten-Ten for your diligence, as for your advice I think you are right, so effective immediately we're going dark, I need all communications device, relay antenna and even game consoles to go off. Nobody, and I repeat no body is to make any sort of contact neither receive any. Ten-Ten make sure you deliver this protocol to Gamakichi when you run his systems check in five minutes. Also Shino how goes your cataloguing of the nanites on this ship and their effectiveness and uses.

Shino looked up from a notepad held in his hand. Of all the people naruto knew Shino was somewhat old school. Technology had advanced to the point where there was no longer any need for paper of any sort, even in remote colonies on other planets, but Shino had the peculiar characteristics of using real paper to do all his writings and reports. Hundreds of years ago the Aburame family owned the most successful paper mills in any part of the galaxy, now they run the most advanced nanite research and manufacturing corporation, a huge change but for some reason Shino was all to willing to hold on to their roots, even when it had become obsolete.

Naruto respected him for that, or it might be Shino was just a weird kid.

" my cataloguing is only seventy eight percent complete sir, so far most of the crew, all have the standard nanite colony in their body along with a master nanite at the base of the skull that is tuned to accept regular updates in regulations with military protocol. The rest all have specialized nanites, most of which are inherited from parents to child while others are retrofitted for personal use. I have not catalogued the nanites running the ship and each of the individual mechas, neither have I gotten to the point of examining the officers for their own nanite systems. I am going to need a few more days to bring the cataloging into completion."

" that's fine Shino, take your time. And remember you work is case sensitive and on a need to know bases, as soon as you are done bring the reports to me and no one else, if the uchiha have planted a spy I will not risk our enemies getting a hold of our battle capabilities."

"If there is nothing else, you are all dismissed"

Everyone filed out, well almost everyone as Menma was still in the room, and clutched firmly in his hands was hinata. Naruto let out a tired sigh as he was not the least bit anticipating the coming conversation and the headache that was sure to come with it.

Hinata could feel tee trail of sweat as it slid down her back, inciting a shiver of unease at the hailstorm she knew was brewing between both brothers. Honestly she had wished she would have been able to avoid this part of the whole thing, explaining to Menma why she was married to his brother was going to be pretty hard. Of all the people she knew Menma was the most stubborn, he would not take no for an answer and she knew naruto would all be to happy to put Menma in a cell.

Once upon a time both boys were the best of friends, naruto grew up with a lot of responsibilities so when he discovered he had a brother who was the same age as him, he jumped all to fast into that bandwagon for companionship. But if everything naruto told her at the infirmary was true then it would seem that all of her troubles and pain would have been avoided if Menma had just opened his selfish mouth. Of course she couldn't be sure if what naruto said was true, Menma had quite the motive for destroying naruto's life.

He would have ended up the heir to the whole namikaze fortune if his father had decided to disown naruto. But a lot of people died and three great corporations where reduced to a shadow of their former self in three years, this prompted what was left the namikaze and what was left of the uzumaki business to merge into one big company that was able to slowly claw its way back up. They were not as powerful as they were before, but now they were more secure.

With the merger Menma was completely eliminated from any sort of inheritance, due to the fact that he was not an uzumaki. Now only Naruto, Neliel and Natsu quite had the chance of Inheriting the massive fortune. But she knew there was always another side to every story told. She does not trust naruto and quite honestly she was not sure she ever will, but naruto was now her husband and contrary to her reputation she had every intention of remaining faithful to him so in that regards, it gave her the incentive to find some common grounds between the two of them.

" do you two want to tell me the meaning of this?"

Menma's anger could be felt, the grip he had on Hinata's hand became tighter. She knew he was angry, and quite frankly she one naruto was also aware of that. But he showed no expressions whatsoever as he chose to respond.

" the meaning of what Menma?"

" why is my girlfriend bearing our family name?"

Naruto trained both his blue orbs at his brother with an intensity that would make the most experienced veteran churn in their seats. Naruto had the look of someone who was playing a game.

" first of all Menma its my family name, her name is now Hinata hyuga uzumaki namikaze. That is my family name not yours. And second of all isn't it quite obvious, she has that name because she is now my wife and quite honestly I do not appreciate the way you are holding her."

Menma was incensed, it was only a matter of time before he blew a gasket and naruto was all to happy to let him go ballistic. Naruto was looking for a reason to lay his hands on his step brother. Hinata had known naruto longer that she knew Menma, and even though she and Menma had a relationship on a more intimate level, she would say both she and naruto knew each other to the depths of the very souls.

" I will hold her anyway that I want, and quite frankly this is not fair, you can't just come back from nowhere you traitor and marry my woman, what the hell was father thinking."

" Menma I will not deny I am a traitor, but you and I both know that my self imposed exile would have been cut a lot shorter if you had just told everyone where I was. Do you remember the night I left, you told you and hinata had feelings for each other, that with me out of the way you both could finally be together. And I gave you my blessings and then I told you to take care of her and love her like I never could. Then I told you where I was going. A place you are quite familiar with given the fact that you were born there. So there BROTHER of mine, I did not come back to marry your woman, I came here to save a woman who I should have loved with my whole heart from a liar, and a cheat. So Menma am I wrong or is anything I said a lie."

Fun fact about the hyuga family, due to years of augmenting and increasing their physical abilities with the use of nanite enhancement drugs and injections, their very genome gained a mutation, much so that this mutation gave them an edge on the battlefield that could only be matched by the uchiha's who have a somewhat similar mutation. This mutation is called the Byakugan, or the all seeing eye. And true to its name the damn eye is all seeing, able to pick out minute details on the battle field and human expressions to properly control a fight. It also gives them a sort of radar like sensation, which means its next to impossible to sneak up on a hyuga.

Hinata was able to read Menma's expressions as easily as a book, even though the twitching of his eyebrows was almost non existent, she was able to notice that trait of weakness. Hinata spent most of the past three years being Menma's lover, she could claim to know him better than anyone so she could say for sure she knew when Menma was lying. The twitching eyebrows could just be a sign of nervousness or anger, it was a universal expression so it meant nothing.

But Menma had a habit of scratching the center of his palm with his index finger whenever he lies and right now he was scratching like there is no tomorrow.

" Naruto I don't know what you are talking about, it seems your years away has made you delusional. Hinata don't listen to him, you kn…"

He couldn't finish the sentence due to the look on Hinata's face. There was no emotion whatsoever, his eyes widened slightly as he realized what happen. Menma was a very smart person, but much like naruto and many other people out there no one can lie to a hyuga, much worse if that hyuga was looking for any sighn of a lie.

" hinata let me explain, its not what you think."

His explanation was cut of as the ships alarm went off,

(Captain to the bridge. An unknown commercial ship has been spotted above assigned base. And to be honest its shooting at us, or more importantly me, of course I can take the pain. But how can such a stupid ship give out fire power the equivalent of a pseudo s class destroyer. Now do you have any treats for me)

Hinata was thankful for the interruption, Gamakichi speaking had saved her and most importantly Menma from a coming shit storm. Hinata was no longer the shy and lovesick girl she was three years ago. That girl died horribly, betrayed and hurt thanks to naruto, now she finds out Menma might have been the person who offered the knife. She had to admit a part of her was flattered that Menma would condemn thousands just to possess her. But hinata was a warrior and more importantly the princess of a Galactic power. She lived, breathe and die for her people. It was her duty, and now that she found out Menma played a part in this whole disaster, she would make sure he experienced pain worse than anything he had ever imagined. Hinata hated being lied too, naruto never lied to her, not in all the years that they had known each other, the blond bastard has been true to her. But Menma lied and let her go through a pain worse than death just for the chance to fuck her. Well she was going to show him and his stupid ass brother what happens when you mess with hinata hyuga, that is as soon as the deal with the fucking ship perched non their doorstep.

Naruto stepped into the bridge and took his commander seat with all trace of the shit storm he just walked out off forgotten and stored away for further processing. Holographic screens of all sorts surrounded him as it showed him the statistics of his ship and all its components. So far they had take almost no damage due to how reinforced gamakichi's shields were. The only thing out of place was relay system in the holding area.

" Sai get to the holding area, there's relay out of place. I need you to go anbu mode find out what is going on there."

" yes sir"

When Sai left everyone was looking at him like he had two heads, they were under attack and he was sending Sai to go check on a relay system, and what the fuck was anbu mode. But naruto ignored them all as he began to access the situation.

" captain Shikamaru, any idea why this unregistered ship is shooting at us?"

" no sir"

"Have you made any attempts at communication?"

" yes sir and the only reply we got was go to hell Konoha dogs."

Naruto raised an eyebrow as he looked at Shikamaru. His second in command just raised his shoulders as if to say 'what? I have no idea why they said that.'

" well then that's good enough for me, Gamakichi flank them, Ten-Ten deliver suppressive fire from the I.M.G.S wait for my signal to fire a concentrated blast."

The ship began to move, rapidly approaching the enemy ship at respectable distance. Ten-Ten's suppressive fire had taken a little of the enemy's attack of them as they now had to deal with damage to their ship.

" Gamakichi create a com connection with the unknown ship and begin primary hacking procedures I want to get into their mainframe and I want that done yesterday, move it."

(yes boss. If I do that would you give me a treat?)

" GAMAKICHI! What kind of treat will I be giving to a FUCKING SENTIENT SHIP! HUH"

(I don't know, why are you so mean to me, am telling grandpa jiraiya and am not talking to you anymore.)

Naruto's eyebrow were seriously twitching as he thought of a myriad of ways to murder his father, his grandfather and the ship, they built him a fucking demon. It was almost as if his ship was just a child. For a moment naruto was subjected to glares from all the females in the bridge. It was suddenly ominous and they all had a look that promised intense pain.

(Primary hacking complete, delivering visual of the enemies bridge in 5…4…3…2…1 video feed up and running, resolution up at 200 percent, audio at sixty percent capacity due to faulty equipment in target ship. And I expect an apology commander baka)

Naruto felt he was going to have a headache, and it won't go away for a long time regardless of whatever he does.

The opposing ship was filled with ravagers. They were a group of nomadic aliens that were in all sense of the word mercenaries and more often than not pirates. They always work for the highest bidder, and the current highest bidder was of course the uchiha.

" unauthorized ravager ship, this is commander Naruto uzumaki namikaze, you are in restricted border space. I demand you seize fire, surrender and prepare to be boarded or this is going to get very ugly."

A nasally voice came out from the com's system, the ravagers were a humanoid race with grey skin and feline eyes. In all other aspects they are very human looking except they have smaller lungs than normal and require help breathing from a special apparatus.

" are you going to arrest commander run away. Hehehe under what charges, I have my rights or are you one of those racist nobles who go around hunting aliens in the name of human propaganda and purity."

It seemed this guys did not want to live, but for some reason they were stalling for time, well two can play the game.

" you will be arrested on charges of unauthorized transport of an unregistered ship through restricted Konoha border space and the unprovoked attack of a z class freighter causing harm to the ships relay system in the process. And for that I pronounce you guilty. It is quite obvious you refuse to surrender it was nice meeting you. Ten-Ten fire concentrated IMG blast."

" no wa…wait"

But naruto was not one to wait. This ship could have just been a random pirate ship, but naruto could take no chances. They had no had no luxury of accommodating prisoners, not when their entire mission was shrouded in heavy secrecy. Its unfortunate but hopefully they are more lucky in their next life.

The ion shot tore through space like a hot knife through butter as it impacted the ship. The ion shot was a wave of concentrated energy and electricity that cause a ships main power core to overload and impload. The entire scene was like new year as the enemy ship went up in flames.

There was no cheering or celebrating, everybody there was a trained shoulder so they were above that. Naruto felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up to see Shikamaru looking down at him. The nod of approval he gave made naruto feel like a five year old who just made his first friend.

The ships com system lit up and Sai spoke up sounding injured and winded.

" captain you were right, there are spies in the ship, more than one. All three of them have been cornered in the holding area, but am injured I can't hold on for long."

The und of gun fire cut off the transmission and naruto gained a deathly look on his face.

" Shikamaru take control, Ten-Ten, Lee, Shino and Choji stay here with him. The rest follow me, you too Konohamaru WE'RE GOING HUNTING"

AUTHOR'S NOTE: okay to be honest I should have updated this as soon as possible. But I have been very lazy, not to mention writing with a seven inch phone is such a bitch. So to my loyal readers. I will probably have a new laptop in about a two weeks, so writing will be easier. But of course I would now have to take care of wi fi and such. Anyway guys I need some feedback. Read and review.