Disclaimer: I Do Not Own Naruto Or Halo

(The ARK, Year, 2558)

"Explain how you found him again Sergeant."

(Flashback)

"Sir this is it. The beacon signal is right below us."

Appearing on the dashboard of a UNSC Warthog, smart A.I Isabel smiled at the two marines she had come to call her friends. Three months since her creation and deployment on installation 00 or the Ark had given her more than enough time to become acquainted with the scientist-soldier and other crew members of the expedition and she loved every second of it.

Maybe she would never be held in the same reverent regard as some of the more famous military A.I like Cortana but that was okay, she was more than content with running logistics on the Ark.

"Alright, men gear up! No telling what's down there with one of our own so watch your sixes." Marine Sergeant James called out as he pulled Isabel's data chip from the Warthog before hopping out himself his armored boots thudding softly in the dirt.

"Top priority is the search and rescue of any crew members alive on the 'Will Of Fire'. They gave up a lot for all of us so let's give them a warm welcome to the future." James said only half jokingly to break the somber mood that began to fill the air.

At the young age of only twenty-three, he had been but a recruit fresh out of training when the Covenant had invaded Earth and nearly destroyed Humanity's home world. If not for the Master Chief and the brave men and women aboard the two Charon Class Frigates that had followed the Prophet of Truth to the Ark where both the Forward Unto Dawn and the widely lesser known 'Will Of Fire' had met their ends.

The 'Will' being operated by a lone ODST Captain had stayed ground side after its engines had failed and held off the remnants of the Prophet of Regrets fleet as the 'Dawn' made its escape back through the portal to Earth carrying the Arbiter and the Master Chief but only one had made it through.

Now he and his team after nearly five years had found what could be the wreckage of the 'Will Of Fire' and with the Master Chief being found alive just months ago he held a small amount of hope that when they found the ship the ODST Captain would still be alive.

"Isabel how long until we can get mining equipment out here?" James asked kneeling in the dirt. Just below him laid either the tomb a war hero or someone who had been waiting a very long time for a rescue.

"We might not need to Sergeant." Isabel's voice said as her avatar came to life above her data chip.
"The Forerunners built these worlds out of Sentinels just like on Onyx. Underneath us could be completely hollow. Give me second...Yep, just like I thought. The Ark didn't bury the 'Will' it swallowed it for all intensive purposes."

James frowned at the A.I's words. Swallowed? He didn't like the sound of that. "Is there any chance there could be survivors on the ship?"

"Of course. The Ark wasn't trying to destroy the ship. It was trying to save it. As we know the Ark is a safe haven from the Halo arrays when they fire. If the 'Will Of Fire' hadn't been moved to inside the outer layer than whoever was on board would not have survived." Isabel explained tapping her chin with her index finger.
"We should signal the team at the control room and see if they can get this area to open up."

"If you think it will work Isabel," James said in agreement. He had worked with Isabel lone enough to trust the A.I judgment.

For the next two seconds, everything went quiet as Isabel communicated with the control room leaving the Marines to wait anxiously for Isabel's answer.

"Well opening up an area large enough to fit a Frigate isn't going to be happening. Control doesn't have that kind of power of the Ark yet." Isabel said as her avatar came back to life a bright smile on her face. "However from the readings, I'm picking up there should be a crack in the Ark a few miles from here that we can use to get to the ship."

Before Isabel had even finished James was already on his feet shouting orders. "Mount up marines we're moving out."

"I'll have base send a pelican to the location. No telling how far down this 'crack' goes." Isabel announced as James placed her chip back in the dashboard.

The corporal in the driver seat hit the gas and the Warthog lurched forward kicking up dirt behind them as the heavy treaded tires spun.

(Flashback)

"And then when we got to the ship we released him from cryo and brought him back here. What's going on Admiral? This guy is a war hero and you're treating him like a criminal. It doesn't make any sense." James said respectfully but his tone was concerned. It hadn't been more than four hours after they had sent the message back to Earth through the portal that the Captain was alive and at their outpost being check over by their medics before ONI spooks had shown up and started questioning everyone that had knowledge of the Captains survival.

"Just standard procedure Sergeant. There is a lot of red tape to go through when someone comes back to life." Admiral Serin Osman said flipping through the files on the metal table between her and Sergeant James. Which was true but the part she was leaving out was that Colonel Ackerson had placed a fourteen-year-old child super soldier in the ODST's. Why the head of the Spartan-III project did that she had no clue and since the ink under the black ink was even more black ink and with the Colonel now KIA he wouldn't be answering any questions about the only hyper lethal ODST in the UNSC.

Closing the file on the table she stood up motioning for the Sergeant to follow her. "Thank you for your time Sergeant, that will be all."

Leaving the room she started down the short hallway to the next room that other room that she had taken over as an interrogation room for the duration of her stay on the Ark. Opening the door to the room she stepped in closing the door behind her. Staring at the single occupant of the room she rolled her sleeves up displaying the scars of her 'augmentations' before taking a seat across from the Captain hiding the slight surprise she had at seeing almost glowing blue eyes staring back at her. "ONI's file said he had blonde hair and violet eyes. Must be a side effect of the augmentations."

It wasn't common but also not unheard of for Spartans both II and III to have slight changes in their appearances after being subjected to the augmentations. Pushing that to the back of her mind she opened the file she brought with her reading the contents out loud.

"Captain Naruto Uzumaki of the UNSC. Born on Reach?" It wasn't a question but she changed her tone so it sounded like one. "You snuck into a refugee camp and volunteered for the Spartan-III program and then you went on to fight against the Covenant for fourteen years. Seven if you don't count cryo-sleep and even then sixteen years of near-constant fighting is quite something. Fumirole, Sigma Octanus IV, Reach then Earth and finally right here on the Ark. And that's just a few in here, quite impressive."

Looking up from the file Serin waited for Naruto to say something but after a few seconds, she sighed closing the file. "I have complete access to all ONI files Captain on the orders of Admiral Parangosky. Anything you've done or Colonel Ackerson did I already know about, everything accept you being placed in the ODST's. It's not in any files and it is also where your Spartan-III record ends."

"Then ask Colonel Ackerson," Naruto said, his voice gruff. He had been around enough spooks during his time training to be Spartan to know if this Rear Admiral Osman had the clearance she claimed she did the Colonel would have no choice but to answer her questions.

"I would but he was killed during the joint battles against the Covenant Loyalist. And so did any knowledge of his on your mission. Or at least until the Scientist stationed here picked up the 'Will Of Fire's' signals. Now I am ordering you to tell me why Colonel Ackerson had you infiltrate the Marine Core?" Serin demanded abandoning the laid back approach she had at the beginning of the conversation.

Naruto frowned at the insinuation that he was spying on other members of the UNSC. "ONI is the only people spying on other branches of the UNSC Admiral. So you can keep your accusations to yourself."

"Then explain what a Spartan-III is doing as an ODST captain?"

"Nothing like what you're thinking. The Colonel may have been a jaded but he was still loyal to the UNSC, all of it." Naruto stressed before sighing. No matter how much he didn't want to relive the circumstances that had put him in the ODST training camps on Mars, the ONI spook did have rank and he had been given an order. "I was ten when the augmentations began for Alpha company."

(Flashback)

"Listen up trainees! Today is the day all your hard work pays off. Today you receive the means to defeat the Covenant and protect humanity." Master Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez stood before the three hundred children that he had helped train. They would become humanity's sword and shield against the Covenant.

"Today you become Spartans!"

"The Colonel had pulled some strings and had gotten me off the front lines for a time so I could see the other trainees, the family I never had, achieve their goal of becoming Spartans while I faded into the shadows so to speak."

Serin raised a hand to stop Naruto's story. "You were already on the front lines before Alpha Company received their augmentations? For how long? And why? Your file said you were already the youngest member of Alpha Company. Being on the field before augmentations would have put you at around nine years old. And un-augmented, you would have been slaughtered against the Covenant."

"I was getting to that Captain. But it seems you aren't interested in my story so I will skip to the important parts." Naruto laced his fingers together on the table leaning forward onto his elbows.
"Alpha Company was made up of four hundred and ninety-seven volunteers of which only three hundred would become Spartans-III's. Colonel Ackerson said it was to promote competitiveness and while that was true there was another reason for the one hundred and ninety-seven that did not make the cut. Project Rebirth.

"Project Rebirth? That's not in any of Colonel Ackerson files." Serin asked slightly curious. She hadn't actually cared too much about the fact that the late Colonel had put a Spartan in the ODST branch simply because there was no evidence that Captain Naruto had done anything but serve the UNSC faithfully against the Covenant. ONI had done a lot worse, the only difference here was what Ackerson did had not been cleared and now they needed to know why.

However, this Project Rebirth did intrigue her. She had read Halsey's personal journal and new things about the Spartan program her fellow Spartans and the public did not, so the possibility that Colonel Ackerson came up with something even more morally despicable to outdo her 'mothers' work was a very high possibility.

"What is Project Rebirth, Captain?"

"The Project was the Colonel's attempt at stepping out of the Spartan-II programs shadow. No matter how much of a 'dazzling success' the Spartan-III program was, it was still not his. He had come up with the plan and headed the operation but to him in the end, having his work connected to Halsey his so-called rival was something he couldn't stand. So with the extra 'washed out' members of Alpha Company, he started Project Rebirth covertly. Only he and a select few doctors involved knew what it was." Naruto frowned as the memories of his training on Onyx were brought back into the light. He didn't hold any ill will towards the Colonel for doing what he did during the Spartan-III program. Being an ODST during his years in the military he had seen planets glassed and had even stayed ground side long enough to feel the heat of the devasting plasma rays before being evacuated so he knew very well the UNSC needed all the advantages it could against the alien coalition.

However, there were something he couldn't force himself to compartmentalize as something that needed to be done for the greater good. And Project Rebirth was one of them.

"Colonel Ackerson wanted to step out of Doctor Halsey's shadow and his own Super Soldier Program that was more cost effective and superior to the Spartans was the way he was going to surpass her. The left over 'washouts' were never going to be Spartans. We didn't even meet the genetic criteria. Instead, we would be his first test subjects of his new program." Naruto said pausing briefly to lock down the grief and sadness that he felt when he thought about his past.

Instead, we would be his first test subjects of his new program." Naruto said pausing briefly to lock down the grief and sadness that he felt when he thought about his past.
"Project Rebirth wouldn't be like the Spartans we would be better. We would be natural, completely human Super Soldiers."

"Natural?" Serin questioned interrupting the story again to Naruto's growing ire. "I don't understand?"

Suppressing the sigh of annoyance growing in his throat Naruto scrubbed a hand across his face. "I'm not a scientist Rear Admiral so I can't really explain it too well but the gist of it is that while the Spartans go above what should be possible for normal humans with the help of chemicals and bone grafts Project Rebirth was going to be open to all UNSC personnel. Things...didn't go as the Colonel planned though and only I survived the procedures. With almost two hundred dead children on his hands and knowing when ONI looked into their deaths they would discover that none of us had the genetic markers for becoming a Spartan, he would lose everything. So he scrapped it and ordered me to enlist into the ODST's."

"So why did he risk pulling you from the front lines. That's how we caught wind of you, you know. Someone like the Colonel bringing an ODST to the Spartan training grounds raised some red flags." Serin explained she jotted down what she had just learned. Her notes would most likely be in vain because a UNSC Colonel killing one hundred and seventeen kids would never be allowed to be put on official record and while she hadn't learned what kind of augmentations Project Rebirth consisted of with only one survivor the project would never be reopened. "Can you tell me what kind of augmentations you received."

"I didn't."

Serin's pen stopped moving as she looked up leveling a glare at Naruto. "We are doing well here Captain, don't make this harder than it has to be by lying. You won't like the consequences."

"I have told you no lies Admiral," Naruto answered brushing past the threat. "Project Rebirth was supposed to be natural so the normal soldiers would not be afraid to sign up. I'm sure you've noticed that while at the end of the war the rumors had started to decline there was still quite a bit of stigma attached to the Spartans."

"There is nothing natural about super soldiers Captain. That is why they are called 'super' soldiers because they're not normal." Serin said with a slight bit of agitation leaking into her tone as she thought about her own circumstance revolving around the Spartans.
"Now the augmentations you were subjected to, were they similar to Project CHRYSANTHEMUM?"

"You aren't getting it, Admiral, Project Rebirth wasn't like the Spartan Programs. Colonel Ackerson didn't want only a few expensive super soldiers or hundreds of cheaper expendable soldiers he wanted the UNSC to be made up of men and women who were all super soldiers. Since you've read my file you know I've sustained quite a few major injuries in the war and yet none of the doctors or medics noticed anything different about me. Did you never wonder why that was?" Naruto asked as the Admirals eyes narrowed.

That was something both her and Margret had found strange but both had chalked it up to the doctors keeping silent due to it being classified and with most of them, dead thanks to the Covenant tracking down the survivors to ask about a dead man wasn't at the top of ONI's to do list. "We'll have to find them now, though." Serin thought

"Don't bother wasting time tracking down all the doctors who have operated on me, Admiral," Naruto said guessing that was what the spook was thinking about.
"They weren't brought into the fold or anything like that. My body is the same as any other normal human. Nothing coating my bones or organs, everything inside of me is natural. And that's why Project Rebirth failed."

"Captain, get to the point," Serin ordered tired of the vague answers she was getting. "I am going to ask the question I want to be answered and then you are going to answer them to the best of your ability. Why did Project Rebirth fail? How were the other children killed and if you are no different biologically to a normal human what was the point of Colonel Ackerson's experiment?"

Stiffening up as the questions were barked at him Naruto held back the instinct to salute. "Project Rebirth failed because there was only one survivor, ma'am. The other candidates died when they were exposed to the Vita-rays and while I have the same biology as a regular human Project Rebirth focused on pushing the human body to its limits, unlike the Spartan Program that wanted to surpass it. That is why no implants or bone grafts show on my medical files, I did not receive them."

"And what are Vita-rays?" Serin continued her questioning as she finally started making headway. This was what she was looking for.

"I don't know," Naruto admitted truthfully. He was a soldier, not a scientist. "Only the Doctors knew the formula and they were all on Reach when it was glassed."

"Alright Captain that will be all. ONI wants to keep this quiet, which shouldn't be a problem for you but still, orders are orders so until we can figure something out you are being stationed on the ARK until further notice." Standing up Serin snapped to a salute with Naruto mirroring her movements seconds later.
"It's good to have you back, Captain."

While it wasn't everything she wanted to know she obviously wasn't going to get any more information here. Colonel Ackerson had kept his secret project very close to his chest and she doubted Margret was going start an investigation. Project Rebirth was going to be just another failed ONI project that got swept under the rug.

"Thank you, ma'am." Naruto held his salute until the Admiral had left the room before sitting back down in his chair taking the small data pad the A.I Isabel had one of the soldiers on base give to him. It was full of the last five years of history he had missed while frozen and after coming 'back' to life he would need to get caught up with the rest of the galaxy.

"No time like the present." He thought swiping his hand across the screen pulling up the first article of information.

"Alliance on the Horizon. Covenant Separatist share technology!"

Yes, everyone the Humans and the Arbiters Swords of Sanghelios will be allies in this story. I will also be disregarding the Halo 5 plot so no evil Cortana. And also yes people Cortana is now evil there is no debate. She wants to rule the Galaxy with all the other A.I's who decided to betray the UNSC. Sorry to anyone who liked where 343 is going with that but it's not happening here.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think and thanks for reading.