"Shinobi Odyssey" Chapter 4 Preview Scene #2

Here's the second preview of chapter 4. This chapter should be split 50-50 between Naruto's World and Earth.

“Chevron six, engaged,” Daniel heard Sergeant Harriman call out as he entered the control room.

“What’s going on?” Daniel asked when he spotted Colonel O’Neill standing next to Teal’c and General Hammond.

“Chevron seven, locked.” The Control Room filled with a simmering light as the wormhole formed.

“We’re about to send a UAV to take a closer look at the base and mothership on the planet where we found the kids,” O’Neill answered.

Daniel looked down through the observation window into the Gate Room and noticed the small, unmanned aircraft sitting on the launcher’s rails.

“UAV launch in 10…9…8…7…6…5…”

The propeller on the UAV spun to life.

“4…3…2…1…Launch.” The rocket booster ignited causing the UAV to shoot forward with enough airspeed to stay airborne once it exited on the other side. The UAV left the launch rails and then vanished through the event horizon of the open Stargate, leaving behind only a trail of smoky rocket exhaust to be sucked up by the Gate Room’s ventilation fans. “Receiving telemetry from P3X-4117,” the technician piloting the drone from the Control Room reported a few moments later.

The overhead monitors in the Control Room switched from the screensaver to the video feed from the UAV.

“The targets are a little over five klicks to the left on the far side of a pair of hills,” O’Neill informed the operator.

“Yes, sir.” The technician pressed the smaller of the two joysticks in front of him to the left to rotate the UAV’s camera turret.

Everyone watching the monitors was taken aback when instead of the expected Goa’uld vessel and under construction base a devastated, crater pockmarked landscape appeared. The technician focused in on the center of the area revealing that all that remained of the Ha’tak and stone structure were large scattered piles of still smoking debris strewn among the craters.

“Teal’c?” General Hammond asked.

“General Hammond, The damage appears consistent with an orbital bombardment by Goa’uld motherships,” Teal’c answered after studying the image for a moment.

O’Neill leaned over the technician’s shoulder and pointed at a group of dark specks in the bottom left of the video monitor. “Can you zoom in on those?”

The technician nodded and sent the necessary commands to the UAV. The camera angle shifted slightly and the image zoomed in on the specks just outside of the bombarded area, which turned out the bodies of nearly fifty Jaffa.

“Colonel, are those the same Jaffa killed by the boy and your team?” Hammond asked.

“No, Sir. We were a lot closer to the gate, and there were only around twenty Jaffa. Can you zoom in on a single body, airman?” The camera image changed once again to where all that was visible on the screen was the body of a single Jaffa warrior lying face down in the dirt. He had clearly been struck by a staff weapon blast in the back. The camera panned across several more bodies in the group, all appeared to have been shot execution style in the head or back.

“Okay, airman, you can continue scanning the area,” Hammond announced. After scanning the area for a further ten minutes, the UAV’s cameras spotted several other groups of slaughtered Jaffa but no sign of any survivors or the attackers.

“General, those Jaffa were killed by ground troops, not the bombardment. Whoever did this is probably long gone. I’d like permission for to take SG-1 to the planet for a recon mission,” O’Neill asked. “We might be able figure out what happened. At the very least, Carter should be able to figure out the address of our new guests’ home planet from the DHD’s memory.”

“Take SG-12 with you for back-up. You have one hour to prep your team for the mission,” General Hammond ordered.

“Yes, Sir.”

"Shinobi Odyssey" Chapter 4 Preview Scene #1

Naruto looked up at Dr. Fraiser with his best pitiful puppy dog eyes expression, and then glanced down at the heavy leather straps securing his arms and legs to the hospital bed. His ‘puppy-dog-eyes no jutsu’ worked on Shizune, so he was hopeful it would work on Dr. Fraiser, as well. Okay, it had only worked a couple of times on Shizune before she eventually became immune to the technique, but Dr. Fraiser had never seen it, so Naruto was optimistic. She started to reach toward him. Naruto perked up. This was it! She was going to release him!

Dr. Fraiser’s hand passed right over the buckle of the bindings securing his right arm and reached for something on the small wheeled table that was pulled across his bed. She picked up two of the English-Japanese flashcards off the table and showed them to Naruto, who read them aloud.

“No.”

“Way.”

Naruto pouted, sticking his bottom lip out in an exaggerated fashion. Dr. Fraiser smiled, turned, and walked away without another glance.

Meany! Now his nose was itching, too!

Naruto tried scratching it against his shoulder but couldn’t quite get the itch. Then his savior came to his rescue. A small dainty hand with wonderfully sharp fingernails reached out to scratch his nose.

“Ahhh! Higher. Higher. Now move a little to the left. Oh yeah! Right there! Yeeesss!” Naruto practically melted into the mattress as every muscle in his body appeared to go limp at the same time. He looked gratefully up at Hinata, who was sitting in the chair next to the bed, with a big goofy grin on his face. “Thanks! You now are my new favorite person in the whole world! No! Make that both worlds!”

Hinata laughed but shyly hide her smile behind her hand.

New Naruto Anime Box Set is Out

I somehow manged to miss this until now, but if anyone is interested the Naruto Uncut Box Set, Volume 7 came out back on May 6.