2/2

Being forced to watch all of the Star Wars movies by Clint, Naruto couldn't help but have his own ideas of how space travel worked. When Martinex had told the blonde that Hiberlac was nine galaxies away, Naruto immediately figured that they were going to go into hyperspeed or warpspeed or whatever it was they used to travel. Which is why he waited, bouncing on his heels in excitement, for Stakar's crew to set the coordinates in for the rocky planet of Hiberlac.

"Boxia, what's the approximate time of arrival?" Stakar barked out, lounging in his captain's chair.

Boxia, a strange looking creature with pink reptilian like skin and a pair massive lime green eyes turned towards his captain, his words in a low pitch, "TOA is approximately seven hours, Captain."

"How many jumps?" Skakar asked.

"Seventeen, sir."

Naruto looked over at Tara, puzzlement on his face, "Jumps?" He asked.

Tara didn't bother looking away from her station as she spoke, "Jump Points are portals, meant to help with interdimensional travel. In the simplest way of explaining it, the Jump Point creates a small makeshift wormhole that shortens the distance between points A and B. It's the quickest way to get anywhere in the galaxy."

"Oh." Naruto said. After a moment of thought he continued, "So…no warpspeed or anything like that?"

Tara looked up at Naruto, "You mean like traveling at the speed of light?" When he nodded, she said, "Don't be stupid." Turning back towards her screen, she addressed her father, "Captain, the Jump Point is just over two hundred and seventy-five klicks ahead of us."

Stakar looked down at his helmsman, a rather small creature, it's face and body resembling that of an insect from Earth, "Hgsom, let's get a move on."

"My thoughts exactly, Captain." The man spoke in a thin raspy voice. Reaching his three fingered hand over to the throttle, Hgsom cranked it forward causing the ship to blast from her lazy cruise to a full speed zoom across the stars. Naruto made to instinctively grab ahold of something after the sudden increase of speed, only to realize that his body hadn't lurched at all. Looking around, Naruto could see that no one else seemed to be effected by it.

"The cockpit is stabilized thanks to anti-gravity, you shouldn't ever feel the effects of how fast we're going, otherwise we'd have all passed out by now." Martinex explained from his spot behind Stakar's chair, the two of them being the only ones standing in the room.

Naruto nodded, still taking a careful first step before making his way over to Stakar and Martinex, "So, what's the game plan here exactly?"

"You, Martinex, and myself will be going down to the surface. We'll be having Tara waiting in her M-Ship to pick us up in case things go south. Martinex and myself are the only ones that could take this thug on long enough not to die after a few minutes, so there's no point in sending down an entire squad. Should Blastaar be too much to handle, we retreat. There's no point in killing ourselves when we can escape and just send in the Nova Corps to do it." Stakar explained, "And if we take him out, drinks are on me."

"Jump point in ten klicks, Captain." Tara said.

"Captain," Hgsom said, his eyes still up ahead paying attention to what was going on in front of him, "are you sure that it's a good idea for only the three of you to take on the 'Living-Bomb?' I feel that this entire endeavor is foolhardy."

"I might not be in my prime Hgsom, but I can more than handle myself, the same goes for Martinex. As far as the kid, I feel like he'll be doing most of the heavy lifting." Stakar said, almost dismissively.

Naruto decided to speak, "Oh I can handle myself, trust me." Giving Martinex a friendly pat on the shoulder as he walked over to Stakar's chair to get a better look at the person he was talking to.

"Sorry if this comes off as rude," Hgsom said, his eyes still forward, "But I don't."

"We're about to hit the Jump Point, Captain." Tara informed.

Naruto looked out the front window in interest, waiting to see this "Jump Point." He was pleasantly surprised to see what looked like the opening of a honeycomb open up in front of them. Naruto could slightly see through the hexagon shaped wormhole to the planet on the other side. Just as they passed through, Naruto had to squint at the shocking change of darkness to daylight.

"So this is Hiberlac?" Naruto asked, "It's beautiful." He observed.

Tara shook her head, "This is Berhert. Hiberlac is still another sixteen jumps away."

Naruto deflated slightly, "Oh."

-x-

Naruto's excitement over the fact he was traveling in space slowly died down. Jump Point after Jump Point. Klick after klick. Naruto eventually realized that as an observer, space travel lost its luster after a while. In hindsight that made a little sense, considering the fact that Naruto was practically the definition of a hands on kind of guy, and didn't really enjoy just watching. Maybe when they got to Xandar he could buy a ship, but until then Naruto was forced to stand there and look pretty while the crew safely traveled through the cosmos.

"Captain," Hgsom called out, "After this oncoming jump, we'll have arrived at our destination."

Stakar nodded, "Martinex, Naruto, let's go. We'll get off on the cargo ramp." Looking over at his daughter he ordered, "Prep your M-Ship Tara, and keep an eye out for us, you'll be our bird's eye view."

"Of course, Captain." Tara said, giving a Ravager Solute as she did.

The three men walked out of the cockpit, the two Ravagers leading Naruto to the cargo hold. The three could feel the ship blast through the Jump Point, and the intercom stationed throughout the ship blared out Hgsom's voice, "Attention to all crew, we will be landing on Hiberlac in approximately fifteen minutes."

The battle ship landed down on the surface with relative ease, with Naruto, Martinex, and Stakar making their way to the cargo hold. Stakar silently prepped his two hand guns, while Martinex simply stood off to the side with his hands folded over his chest, "So how exactly are we gonna find a single guy on this planet?" Naruto asked.

"My contact sent me his coordinates, he's a few miles away." Slamming his hand down on a large red colored button, an alarm began to blare with a flashing light swirling around. With a loud hiss, the ramp door began to swing down. Covering his eyes with his hand, Naruto couldn't help but whistle in appreciation at the sight before him. The bright orange rocky surface contrasted beautifully with the purple colored sky and grey clouds. There didn't appear to be any kind of foliage or bodies of water, reminding Naruto a little bit of Mars in that respect. Descending down the ramp, Naruto couldn't help but notice that it wasn't as humid as he would've thought, probably around 75 degrees, at the most.

"So, lead the way Captain." Martinex said, standing at attention, waiting for his captain to give out his orders.

Stakar began to walk forward, a small device in his hand, the screen showing what looked to be a map with a flashing blimp off to the left side, "We've got a six-mile trek ahead of us, that's where he was supposedly spotted. Then we have to actually track him down. Which shouldn't be too hard, probably."

The walk was a quiet venture, the three of them not really in the mood to make small talk as they kept on the lookout for the Living-Bomb. Stakar lead the charge, one gun held at the ready, chumping quietly on a thick chekka cigar. Martinex stood at his captain's right, which made sense what with him being his right-hand man. Naruto trailed slightly behind the group, taking in the sights more than anything.

Finally making their way up a rather steep hill, the three of them finding themselves on a surprisingly flat plateau. In the middle of the plateau sat a single figure, obviously large in stature. "Welp…that was easy." Naruto deadpanned, the trio obviously having found their score.

The figure seemed to have heard him, his once lax form now straightening in attention. Slowly he got up from his sitting position, standing up at his full stature. Turning around, the three could one hundred percent confirm that the being before them was Blastaar the Living-Bomb Burst. Even from twenty or so yards away, Naruto could tell that he towered over them. Looking all three over, Blastaar snorted out of his nose, causing a visible gust of steam to blast out.

"You must either be very unlucky, or very suicidal. Either one, you all are going to die here today." Blastaar's deep baritone voice ground out.

Naruto smirked, "Oh yeah? Well, bring it on Mufasa." When Stakar and Martinex looked at Naruto in confusion he sighed, "Now I totally get why Clint would get so annoyed when I didn't get any of his Earth related references. That would've killed on Earth." Having enough of the banter, Naruto charged towards Blastaar, his eyes glowing gold with his pupils taking on the form of a strange looking cross. His fist drawn back, Naruto appeared within Blastaar's personal space in a near instant, his fist slamming into his jaw so hard that the impact sent a shockwave that crumbled the ground beneath them into a decent sized crater. The Living-Bomb was sent bouncing along the plateau, before collapsing in a cloud of dust.

Martinex followed soon after running past Naruto as his hands began to glow in two different colors. His right hand enveloped in a bright orange haze, and the left was swallowed by a shining blue. Extending his left hand out, a blast of ice shot out with heavy force, slamming into the still downed Blastaar. Stakar made a sweeping run around the area, pointing both of his guns at the Living-Bomb, letting loose a barrage of laser bolts. Naruto didn't want to miss out on the fun, his hands flipping through hand signs before taking a deep breath. With a great heave, Naruto released a bolt of lightning in the shape of a spear towards Blastaar, "Lightning Style: False Darkness!" He thought.

The lightning spear slammed into the downed Blastaar, with Martinex and Stakar letting up on their attacks as the three waited for the dust to settle. They couldn't help but scoff in annoyance at seeing Blastaar get up completely unharmed, dusting off any remaining debris on his shoulder rather nonchalantly.

"Is that the best you have?" Blastaar asked, "I've seen Nova Denarians with more fire power than that."

Getting in a battle stance, Naruto said, "You guys think you can keep him busy enough for me to get close?"

Stakar nodded as he finished reloading his pistols, "Of course, we can handle that much." Quickly activating the jet pack strapped to his jacket, Stakar blasted up into the sky, giving him a bird's eye view as he rained down fire on the Living-Bomb. Seeing that his captain was going high, Martinex decided to go low, pointing his right hand as a blast of heat shot out towards Blastaar's kneecaps. The beast didn't expect for the crystal man to shoot out a beam of heated energy towards him, but kept his ground as the attacks hit him. Growing tired of it, Blastaar slowing made his way over towards the one he perceived to be the bigger threat, Martinex. In a burst of surprising speed, Blastaar charged at the first mate. Jumping up into the air while clasping both hands together over his head, the beast made to slam them down on top of Martinex's head.

He was kept from doing it however when he was suddenly swallowed by a very thick wall of water. Looking around in shock, Blastaar found himself trapped and hovering in the air in a sphere of water, the ball being held by a smirking Naruto.

"Water Style: Instant Water Prison." Naruto said triumphantly. Looking over at the shocked Martinex and Stakar he said, "Well…not so instant in this instance considering it took me forever to gather enough water from the particles in the air to use it, but still. I'd give him a couple more seconds before he passes out from lack of oxygen."

Looking back at the now trapped Blastaar, Naruto was perplexed to find that the giant man was smirking at him. He didn't have time to speak, as the Living-Bomb's eyes began to glow a dangerous orange. The water surrounding began to bubble, steam emitting from the top of the sphere before the trapped beast released a mighty roar.

BOOM!

The explosion rocked the plateau, the flat surface collapsing in on itself and tumbling down several stories. The still in flight Stakar was sent spinning a short distance away from the force of the shock wave, and was forced to watch his first mate get sent flying into a nearby rock pillar. Dust and debris had only just began to settle when a figure began to make its way out of the cloud. Swooping his hand outwards so that the dust was pushed out of his face, Blastaar surveyed the damage he had caused. A smirk crept along his face when he saw the shocked expression of Stakar, who was hovering up above him.

"Two down, one to go." Blastar bellowed. Suddenly, his hands began to emit the same kind of energy as his eyes had before, before twin beams of energy shot out from them into the ground below him, the force of it sending him rocketing upwards towards Stakar, who did the best he could to get out of the beast's trajectory as quickly as possible. The Living-Bomb swooped past him, leaving a trail of orange energy in his wake. He wasn't done however, pointing his left hand towards the Ravager Captain, another bolt of energy sent flying right towards his chest.

He was once again thwarted by outside interference as a blast of ice intercepted his concussive beam of energy. Martinex followed after that with another blast, only this one being from both hands. The airborne Blastaar couldn't maneuver around the attack in time, resulting him getting pelted and sent flying into another poor stone pillar.

Stakar deactivated his jetpack, landing down with ease next to his right-hand man, "Thanks for the save son." He said, patting him on the shoulder as he did.

Martinex nodded, "Of course Captain." Looking over at the now destroyed plateau he had just been standing on, he couldn't help but grimace, "So what now? We're a man down and I doubt he'll just let us leave."

The captain nodded, "Yeah, I know. We probably could've planned this better."

"Yeah, probably." Martinex agreed.

Their conversation couldn't go any further, as Blastaar slowly made his way out of the dust cloud he had created with his landing. Once giving a snort reminiscing a bull, the beast growled out, "I grow tired of this. Time to di-" Blastaar's death threat was cut off by the fact that Naruto had appeared in front of him in a flash of speed, his leg extended back with steam building along his leg and foot.

"Boil Release: Erupting Strong Foot!" With a mighty swing of his foot, and an added burst of released steam, Naruto's foot rocketed into Blastaar's jaw, sending the juggernaut flying into a nearby cliff side. Not done with him, Naruto dashed towards him giving a quick open palm strike into his sternum as he reared his other hand back, said hand taking the shape of a tiger hand sign, "Daytime Tiger!" He roared, the air around his fist taking the shape of a tiger's head.

If anyone had been impressed by the destruction of his previous punch caused, then they'd have crapped their pants at seeing just how powerful the shock wave was, causing any nearby rock formation to crack and crumble into pieces at least a hundred yards out in diameter.

Picking himself out of the pile of boulders he'd accidently buried himself in, Naruto agitatedly dusted himself off as he spoke to himself, "That was way weaker than what Bushy Brow-Sensei could do, but considering the fact that I don't have to enter the Sixth Gate I'd say that it's a pretty good off-brand."

As he tried to shake out the numbness in his hand, Kurama spoke, "I'm surprised you haven't entered your Six Paths Sage Cloak and just killed this guy."

The numbness now having left his hand, Naruto thought, "Hey, I'm trying to dust off the cobwebs here. That and there's a shit ton of stuff I've been dying to try out."

His danger senses flaring, Naruto jumped over to the side as one of Blastaar's beams of energy blasted into where he was standing. Using his agility, Naruto did a triple back hand spring before landing in a crouch several feet away, right in time as Blastaar landed down where he had been like a meteorite.

Smirking, at the opportunity, Naruto clapped his hands together, "Earth Style: Sudden Quicksand!" Just as the ground beneath Blastaar spilt and cracked under the pressure of his landing, forming a decent sized crater in his wake, the dirt began to soften and loosen. Before long, Blastaar began to sink into the ground. As he struggled, the quicker it was he began to sink. Before long, the beast was neck deep in a pool of makeshift quicksand. Pulling his shirt sleeve up, Naruto applying chakra to his forearm, revealing a wide variety of different seals, each one different in size and makeup. Channeling chakra to a specific seal just under his wrist, a puff of smoke swallowed him. The cloud of smoke was quickly dispersed by a burst of Wind Chakra, revealing Naruto holding a blade in his hand. More specifically, and handless chokuto with black rectangular grip being gripped tightly as he began to channel Lightning Chakra into the single edged blade.

"Why must you use that blasted sword, Naruto?" Kurama asked, obvious agitation in his voice.

His old teammate's Chidori Sharp Spear now activated, Naruto thought, "It's a memento Kurama, simple as that." Pointing the electrified tip of the blade in the direction of Blastaar's skull he said, "Let's see you survive this blastard."

BOOM!

The Chidori surrounding the chokuto began to elongate, the pointed tip about to drive itself into Blastaar's cranium when another blast rocked the area, this one however no way near as big as the previous one. Naruto jumped out of the smoke, sword still in hand but his jacket now in complete tatters. Looking down at the now flapping piece of cloth that was once his jacket, Naruto's face scrunched up in mild anger as he carefully took off the headband given to him by Iruka. Quickly sealing, Naruto decided to take care of the rest of the pesky jacket. Ripping if off, Naruto shouted out, "You destroyed my jacket asshole! I liked that jacket!"

Blastaar didn't seem to care, having burst out the ground, his hands covered by thick balls of energy. He was obviously angry now, if his furious snarls were anything to go by as he charged towards Naruto. Flipping the sword into a reverse grip, Naruto drove the blade into the ground, "Chidori Current!" he shouted out. As the current of electricity sprawled forwards at the now back peddling beast, Naruto brought his hand out to the side slightly away from his body.

"Are you gonna use that move? Kurama asked excitedly.

"Yeah, I've been wanting to try this out on something other than a tree or a clone for a while now." Chakra began to spin and swirl around his forearm, similar to how the Rasengan forms around the palm. Eventually the swirling chakra began to take form along his arm and hand, forming a spinning cone like shape. Grinning, Naruto called out the name of his technique, "Rasenmori!"

Blastaar was too busy trying to evade the persistent lightning attack to really pay attention to what Naruto was doing, being forced to use his concussive blasts to shoot himself upwards on top of a nearby cliff side. Now free from that infernal attack, Blastaar looked to see the blonde had formed some kind of spinning lance along his forearm. Seeing how dangerous that attack was, Blastaar prepped his concussive blasts to rocket him upwards once again once the blonde got in his personal space, thus forcing him to drive his attack into the wall situated behind him. His plan now set, the Living-Bomb waited patiently for Naruto to charge towards him.

Naruto sprinted towards him quickly, his attack humming in anticipation for its use. As soon as he was an arm's length away, the blonde shinobi drove his rotating lance into the beast's chest. His attack was thwarted however as Blastaar propelled up once again into the air, the beast rocketing several yards up.

Blastaar thought he had successfully dodged Naruto's attack, only for that thought to be squashed when Naruto appeared out of nowhere. It wasn't straight up speed. He'd just…appeared. Almost as though he teleported. His thoughts went no further as Naruto drove his Rasenmori into the beast's chest.

Naruto smirked as his attack landed. Unlike your run of the mill Rasengan slash most of its variations, the Rasenmori wasn't a grind, drill, and burst. This was just a straight up drill and get fucked up. If the attack didn't kill you from the impalement, it did when it grinded into whatever it was touching, say…organs, for example.

The Living-Bomb Burst fell to the ground with a sickening crunch, blue blood flowing from the gaping hole in his chest. Naruto landed next to Blastaar in a silent crouch, giving him a quick once over before turning to look at the stunned Stakar and Martinex. At first he thought they were shocked at his show of prowess, only for that to be proven wrong after catching something in the corner of his eye. Time began to move in slow motion as he turned his head over to the still collapsed Blastaar, the Living-Bomb's hand lifted up and pointing towards him, said hand covered in his signature ball of energy.

Martinex was about to shout out in warning when he felt a sudden presence right in his personal space. Turning around with his hands glowing their respective energies, the first mate was surprised to find Naruto standing behind him, "Ho-how the hell?" There was no way Naruto would've had enough time to get from where he was to where he is, he'd have to have teleported or something. His attention was brought back to Blastaar, as a beam of energy rocketed out of his hand, the attack plowing into a cliff side a couple hundred feet away. When the attack hit, the blast blew the cliff to kingdom come, leaving a massive crater and cloud of dust and debris in its wake.

"Trade secret." Naruto said with a smirk, "I'm glad I prepped beforehand, otherwise that might've gotten a little messy." He finished as he looked at the spiral shaped seal on Martinex's shoulder blade. Stepping forward, Naruto said, "The bastard is harder to kill than I thought he'd be. I think it's safe to say that he can only take one more hit though." As an afterthought he looked over at Stakar, "Are they wanting him dead or alive?"

"Dead or alive, it doesn't matter." Stakar answered, "Just make sure to leave enough for a DNA test."

Naruto nodded, "I got just the thing." Channeling a precise amount of chakra into his fist, Naruto held out his unoccupied hand, using his control over magnetism to lift Blastaar up into the air. Bending his knees, Naruto jumped upwards towards the now floating Living-Bomb, his fist nearly overflowing with chakra as he reared it back. Once again in arm's length, Naruto slammed his closed fist into Blastaar's face, "Cherry Blossom Impact!"

While the attack wasn't nearly as strong as most of the others that had been thrown around that day, it was more than enough to finally knock Blastaar out, the massive alien slumping into unconsciousness as he flew through the air. Righting himself in midair, Naruto levitated silently as he waited to see if Blastaar was actually knocked out. Creating a clone, he sent the clone to give him a few testing kicks to the side.

When the Living-Bomb didn't even stir, Naruto threw the clone a sealing scroll, "Here, seal him up. And put a few paralysis seals on him while you're at it, don't want him causing a ruckus when we unseal him on Xandar."

"What are you doing to him?" Stakar asked as the two Ravagers walked towards the clone.

The clone shrugged, "Sealing him away. It's pretty much a pocket dimension that will keep him in stasis until he's unsealed again."

In a huge puff of smoke, the hulking Blastaar disappeared, having been transported into the storage scroll. Wounding the scroll back up, the Shadow Clone tied it together in a tight knot before tossing it back at his creator. Giving a quick thumbs up, the clone dispersed in another puff of smoke.

Descending towards the ground below, Naruto joined the Ravager duo. The three of them stood there, the three taking solace in the fact that it was quiet once again. Unsealing his old headband, Naruto silently tied it around his bicep. Looking back at the two, they could see their confusion over the piece of cloth, "It's my Shinobi Headband, it shows my village affiliation." The two nodded in understanding, the Ravagers using a similar thing with their colors and the shape of their Ravagers Flame emblem, "So…what now?"

Stakar holstered his pistol with one hand while running his hand thought his hair with his other. Looking at Martinex then Naruto he said, "Now…now we head for Xandar."

-x-

Chapter Complete

-x-

Author's Note: I know…it took a little while longer than usual for me to update. In my defense, I had been on vacation for a couple weeks. Now, while my original intent was to update before I went on vacation, it turned out that there were a lot of things I had to figure out for myself as far as this chapter goes such as the Ravagers and their code, the Jump Points, and a couple other things. One of the things that really pushed me to update as quick as I could without sacrificing the quality of the chapter was the fact that people kept reviewing for the sole purpose of asking when I was gonna update. Now, most authors who that seems to happen to get really annoyed by that, saying that it'll come out when it comes out. For me though, there is the fact that it boosts my Review count, along with the fact that it's truly flattering to me that some people find my story so good they have to get on the site and pester me about when I'm going to update. So thanks! For future references though, my update speed is a fickle thing, depending on my work schedule and personal life. I try to update within two weeks, but don't get impatient if it takes longer, because more than likely it's because the chapter is going to be longer in length than usual or I'm busy with shit. Patience is key people. For those that haven't seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, a lot of the things discussed in this chapter probably went over your head. So, if you don't wanna see it because of the simple fact that it's awesome, then you can use this as an excuse! You're welcome. Lastly, I'd like to thank everyone for all the love I received for the last chapter. I got a solid 97 reviews for that chapter alone, with a majority giving it high praise for just how fucking sad it was, hell a good handful of people admitted to crying over certain parts. It was honestly really fun to write, especially the flashback scenes. I wanted to do justice to the characters, especially with Hiruzen and Iruka, both of whom are characters that I feel a lot of authors on this site fail at portraying correctly. I also wanted to avoid bashing of any kind, which to me can really ruin a story at times. Please give me your thoughts, I hope it gets as much love as the last one. REVIEW, FOLLOW, FAVORITE! Let's break 700 reviews people! Love me dammit!"