An unspecified amount of time later.
Naruto twisted his head to one side and then the other, his spine letting out loud cracking sounds with the motion. "Finally, I was seriously starting to think that this day would never end."
"It was unusually tiresome." Xanna agreed, sprawling in her throne and looking about ready to take a nap then and there.
Neither one of them were physically tired, but they'd been sitting on their thrones and dealing with various issues for practically the whole day. Despite having established a working governmental infrastructure of sorts, it was still far from self sufficient and often needed input from them, not to mention that some people insisted on dealing with them directly even when there was no need for it.
They'd even needed to get a secretary to organize a schedule for them. Naruto struggled against himself mightily not to seduce her out of sheer principle. The woman was happily married and he didn't want to screw it up for her, he had some standards.
Speaking of off limits secretaries, Naruto spotted her approaching right then and by the uncomfortable expression on her face, he could already tell that he wasn't going to like what she had to say.
"What is it Hoshi?" Naruto asked when she came close enough, not bothering to straighten up from his lazy slouch.
Dark haired and dark eyed, Hoshi came from the same culture as Setsuna and felt the same sense of obligation towards them that most of her people did. Probably had something to do with their overdeveloped sense of honor.
"Heika," She began, addressing both of them. "one of the city guard is here to speak with you."
"Can it wait until tomorrow?" Xanna asked boredly, obviously not in the mood to deal with anything else this day.
"He claims that it is important." Hoshi answered.
"But is it actually important, or is he just claiming that it is?" Naruto asked.
Hoshi hesitated a bit before answering "I could not say."
Xanna snorted at the evasive answer that basically meant she wasn't sure but didn't want to make a judgement on the matter. "Fine, bring him in."
The guard walked in, but he was not alone. Oddly enough, he was prodding along two other men, both of which looked very nervous.
"So, what's the problem?" Naruto asked, sounding incredibly disinterested. He was already daydreaming of how great a bath and massage would feel right now.
The guard apparently didn't notice the bored tone and spoke firmly. "My lord, my lady. I discovered these two deviants having sexual relations...with each other!"
Naruto groaned loudly and face palmed forcefully enough to make the sound echo across the throne room.
"I told you it was going to happen." Xanna said, her previous boredom replaced by cheerfulness.
"I thought for sure that people would know better after seeing the way we act." Naruto continued to groan.
"You are too optimistic."
The guard was by this point puffing his chest out proudly, while the other two men were breaking into cold sweat.
At long last, Naruto sighed and turned to look at the guard. "Do tell how you discovered this."
Somewhat confused as to why this was important, the guard began to explain. "I saw them acting strangely when they walked past my post, holding hands and such. I discreetly followed them and saw them kissing and disrobing as soon as they arrived at one of their homes."
"So to summarize." Xanna said while Naruto was busy pinching the bridge of his nose. "You abandoned your post in order to follow two adults to their home and spy on them."
"W-Well yes, but..." The guard blustered, thrown off by this new slant on events.
"Then you trespassed into their home and apprehended them without due cause." Naruto continued, having finally stopped looking obviously exasperated.
"But I..." The guard trailed off, getting the feeling that he may have badly misjudged the situation.
"That was very unyouthful of you." Naruto spoke over him. "Wouldn't you say?"
This time it was the guard who broke out into a cold sweat, his mind frantically trying to find an answer that wouldn't result in having to run around in a suit of skintight, eye-gougingly green spandex.
Xanna shook her head and stood up. "I'm going to take a bath, handle this quickly and join me husband."
"Report to me three hours before sunrise tomorrow morning." Naruto told the guard, now grinning menacingly. "We're going to kindle your Flames of Youth into a roaring inferno!"
The unfortunate guard looked as if someone had killed his favorite dog as he trudged out of the throne room, already resolving to never again assume that the Emperor and/or Empress would disapprove of something.
When the guard had left, Naruto sighed and muttered to himself inaudibly about people wasting his time.
"Um, your majesty, what about us?"
The hesitant question halted his exit and he looked at the nervous gay couple that apparently didn't know if they could leave or not.
"What about you?" The horned man asked, slightly puzzled. "You haven't done anything, you're free to go."
"You mean you don't care that we..." One of them trailed off, unsure if he should finish that sentence.
"You couldn't make us care about your sex life if you tried." Naruto said flatly, speaking for both himself and Xanna. If they'd been two women, he might have made some saucy comments, but since it was two men there was absolutely nothing of interest for him going on there.
"Thank you your majesty!" They chorused, happy and relieved and then quickly left.
Naruto rolled his eyes behind their backs and muttered under his breath as he went to join his wife. "Morons, what the hell are you thanking me for? Not giving a shit? Why don't you go thank those cats we stole from Bastet then, they don't give a shit if you like to swordfight with your dicks either...I need to stop talking to myself."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
More time passes.
Akitsu smiled to herself slightly as she carefully dragged the brush over the canvas. It was turning out to be her best work so far and she already felt proud of it even if it wasn't done yet.
Naruto and Xanna were often busy and she didn't want to bother them, but she had admittedly been terribly bored when one of them wasn't around to spend time with. She was glad that Xanna had gotten her to reveal this little hobby, even if it had been scary and embarrassing at the time.
"It seems you will soon be finished with that one."
Akitsu wasn't startled by the sudden voice, even though there had been nobody there as far as she knew. She had never been one to startle easily and it was hardly the first time that she had failed to detect one of her two favorite people approaching her.
"Ah...yes, a few more days." She answered while Xanna sat down next to her.
"You've been getting up quite early lately for the sake of this painting." The horned woman commented lightly and let off a small chuckle. "I've had to deal with Naruto's early morning lust all by myself."
"Sorry." Akitsu said, nibbling on her lower lip. She knew that Xanna had no problem dealing with that particular issue alone and she wasn't actually sorry for making her do it. She was more sorry to be missing the fun, but she really wanted to finish this painting.
"Will you be giving this one away as well?"
Akitsu had taken to giving away her various works some time ago. Naruto and Xanna never made any effort to exclude her from various conversations on how to encourage further progress even though she didn't really have anything to contribute most of the time. One day she had thought that maybe someone would be inspired to make their own art if they saw hers.
Oma had been there too and had encouraged it, claiming that the development of art was an important cultural milestone. Xanna had liked it too and from then on most of her work had started being displayed for all to see. Anonymously though, because she didn't want the attention.
"No...not this one."
"Oh? What is so special about this one?" Xanna questioned curiously and peered at the canvas.
It was a very well made painting of a sunrise over a distant mountain that was visible from the balcony they were currently on. No doubt the reason for Akitsu's recent early mornings was to catch the exact moment it happened and capture it in as much detail as possible while it happened.
"A gift. For you and Naruto." She said simply, adding another bit of color to the nearly finished painting.
"A gift hmm?" Xanna said musingly.
They received gifts fairly often these days, but most of the time it was by someone or other that wanted something in return, their kinder disposition if nothing else. It was one of the perils of being in a position of rule, she knew.
But Akitsu had no such ideas in mind, she just wanted to give them something. She was sweet like that.
"You are getting old Akitsu." She continued, seemingly out of the blue.
Akitsu put down her brush and looked at her hands, noting once again that they were not as soft as they used to be. As a Sekirei, she didn't look as old as she actually was, nor was she suffering from any infirmities yet, but it was bound to happen eventually. Her light brown hair now sported the occasional grey strand and there were some wrinkles on her face. Her prodigiously large breasts, having long defied gravity, also seemed to be getting tired of the struggle bit by bit.
Neither Naruto nor Xanna had ever mentioned these things, but Akitsu had been perfectly aware of them from the very first wrinkle and grey hair. She had done her best to pay it no mind and simply enjoy what she had, but no matter how cute she acted because it invariably drew Naruto's attention, there was no denying the fact that she wasn't a beautiful young woman in her prime anymore.
"Yes." She replied simply and waited to see what would happen next.
She wasn't going to fall apart at the fear that she might be cast aside as she might have done years ago. Despite the miserable start of it, her life had turned out far better than expected. She had never gotten the Ashikabi that she had wanted so desperately, but she had gotten something far better instead.
She would have been content just to have someone who wanted her for something, anything at all. The many years of happiness she'd gotten instead were more than she had once been able to imagine.
Naruto would never send her away, this she knew. Xanna might though, in which case Akitsu knew what she would do. She could not, and more importantly would not, go back to that lonely existence. Her life had been happy and she'd had a long time to think of what courses for it were acceptable to her.
Losing Naruto and Xanna was not acceptable.
"How is it that you have never asked us to restore your youth?" Xanna asked.
"It does not matter to me." Akitsu replied honestly.
"Is that so?" Xanna prodded rhetorically even though she had suspected that to be the case, reaching out to the unfinished painting with her hand, as if to touch it.
Akitsu saw the clawed digits going for her latest work, knowing that they would easily cut through the canvas or smudge the still wet paint. She'd put a lot of work into that painting and didn't want it to be damaged.
"Don't touch." The Ice Sekirei chided, gently slapping the hand aside before it could reach the canvas. It was not the first time that the horned woman had done something like this to provoke a response from her.
"Have you truly never wished to be young again?" The horned woman asked, pretending that nothing had happened just now. "Naruto would not have denied you if you had asked you know."
Indeed, he had been waiting for it for some time and had started becoming confused as to why she wouldn't ask. He had eventually deduced that Akitsu simply didn't care about her own appearance, but he had still expected her to ask for it, if for no other reason than to look pretty for them.
"He seems to like old ladies." Akitsu replied in the toneless voice she had perfected long ago. Naruto had once called it her poker voice.
Xanna grinned in amusement as she caught the light barb aimed at her own age. Akitsu could be pretty cheeky outside the bedroom. "And what if I told you that you are beginning to become unattractive to us."
"I am yours." Akitsu said with the self assured certainty of someone that has their life entirely figured out. "If you liked me better when I looked young, then make me young again."
Xanna hummed to herself and then laid a hand on the Ice Sekirei's cheek, taking away the years until she looked to be twenty again. "There we go, you will be staying with us for a while yet."
Akitsu smiled as she felt her youth returning, happy that she would have more time to spend with them. Then it faded as she remembered an unvoiced thought from years ago.
"Ah...I do have one request." She said, some of her hesitant manner returning now that she had to ask for something.
"Do tell." Xanna was honestly curious what the request would be. Akitsu had never really asked for anything in the entire time that she had been with them. Nothing of any significance at any rate.
"If you ever get tired of me...could you please kill me in my sleep?"
For a few moments, Xanna was genuinely surprised by the odd request, but it quickly made sense. Akitsu had no fear of death, knowing full well that there were many worse things than dying that could happen to a person. Being left behind was one such thing for the Ice Sekirei.
"If you wish." The horned woman agreed. It was a simple request and perfectly understandable considering what kind of person Akitsu was. "To have such clarity of mind...you've grown up quite a lot from the broken girl you used to be, haven't you?"
"Ah...I had to, or mistress would punish me even more." The Ice Sekirei said with a bashful submissiveness that masterfully concealed the giddy elation bubbling inside her. She was going to have this happiness to the very end with no chance of ever losing it! Life was perfect.
Xanna arched a lazy eyebrow over at the other woman and snorted lightly, amused at the deliberately misleading wording. "I was intending to make you sweat at the idea of abandonment, but you went and ruined my fun by being so composed."
"Mistress is cruel." Akitsu said to herself, nodding happily.
"If you are attempting to manipulate me into making tonight more 'interesting', you are not succeeding." Xanna stated with a sniff.
"Mistress is cruel." Akitsu repeated with the exact same tone and happy nod.
A pure white eyebrow twitched slightly. Akitsu was not normally so cheeky, but she was apparently in a tremendously good mood due to the implicit knowledge that they wanted to keep her around for at least a while longer.
"Perhaps I should give you a break then?" Xanna mused out loud, seemingly speaking to herself. "Allow you to recover from satisfying mine and Naruto's dark lust?"
Akitsu frowned almost imperceptibly. She loved it when they used her to satisfy the aforementioned dark lust. After so many years of almost nightly sexual ecstasy, being abruptly cut off from sex would be torture.
Determined to put an end to any such ideas, Akitsu reached over and firmly pinched the other woman's nipples, sending a shock of frigid energy into them at the same time.
Taken genuinely off guard by the move, Xanna yelped and toppled backwards with far less dignity than was normal for her.
"Akitsu..." The horned woman growled darkly as she picked herself off the ground, staring at the absurdly innocent face of the Ice Sekirei.
Akitsu quickly walked back into the palace, letting out a muffled giggle as she went. She had to go pinch Naruto's nipples next.
For a minute, Xanna simply stared contemplatively after her, wondering where that had just come from. For the entire time that the Ice Sekirei had been with them, she had been perfectly respectful. Though time had given her the confidence to be a bit cheeky sometimes, she had never done anything even remotely as bold as that nipple pinch just now. That was more like something that Naruto would have done.
"So that is how it is?" She finally chuckled to herself in realization. "When all fear of death has passed, all that remains is the joy of life."
With the assurance that she would die happily in her sleep, Akitsu had nothing left to be afraid of. She could allow herself to be as cheeky as she wanted, completely secure in the knowledge that everything would turn out alright.
"I've gotten soft." Xanna muttered to herself as she made her own way back into the palace.
Before falling in love with Naruto, she would have killed Akitsu for that stunt...not to mention that she would have gotten bored of her a long time ago. She would also have had gladiator pits by now, where she would get to watch those stupid enough to break her laws kill each other for her amusement.
But then she would also have been alone and probably bored out of her mind already, so maybe going a bit soft wasn't so bad.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Hop, time skip and jump.
"Soon we will embark through the Chappa'ai and do battle against the Jaffa of Apophis, enemy to our lord Cronus!" A Goa'uld was saying.
He was dressed in Greek style armor, complete with leather tassels flapping from the bottom of his breastplate and a helmet with a flashy black plume sticking out of it, the type that the commander of a Spartan military unit might wear. His host was a fairly tall white man with dark black hair and grey eyes, with a goatee fashioned in a style that probably made him look aggressive even when he wasn't.
This was Ares, formerly an underling to Zeus and now and underling to Cronus. Having finally gained some measure of favor from Cronus, he had been assigned to lead attacks through the stargate into the territory of Apophis. A task that he felt himself well suited for, as infantry strategies were his forte. At the moment, he was just giving a speech to the warriors that would soon fight and die in his name, knowing that morale was an important factor in attaining victory.
The Jaffa stood taller and had a fire in their eyes at the thought that they would fight at the side of a god. They were determined to demonstrate their worth or die trying.
Ares of course had no actual intention of doing any fighting, unless you counted standing behind them and shouting orders as fighting.
"It's pretty sad how easy it is to manipulate these guys."
Off to the side and slightly behind the Goa'uld, a group of much harder to impress people was lounging, unseen and unheard.
"Do you not do the same thing?" Oma asked pointedly, arms crossed and leaning into the backrest of the comfortable couch that Xanna had conjured for them.
"That doesn't make it any less sad now does it?" Naruto retorted, craning his neck to look at her. It was a bit awkward since his head was sitting in Akitsu's lap.
He was going to say something else but Akitsu stuffed a handful of grapes into his mouth at that exact moment, forcing him to either chew or choke.
"You are supposed to feed them to him one at a time." Xanna said from next to her with obvious amusement as Naruto struggled to chew without making a huge mess of himself.
"Ah...I see." Akitsu acknowledged and started putting more grapes into his mouth one at a time.
The only problem was that she was doing it much too fast, not even giving him time to properly chew one before another was already being stuffed into his mouth.
"Slow down...or don't, this is actually rather amusing to watch." Xanna said next, watching as her husband chewed furiously in an effort to outpace Akitsu's hands.
Blinking, the Ice Sekirei did slow down, though she was confused. Both Naruto and Xanna tended to eat like a pack of starving wolves at the best of times, so this sudden inclination to eat something slowly made no sense to her.
"What are we doing here?" Oma asked with a sigh, sitting on Xanna's other side.
"At the moment we appear to be watching that pompous windbag blow hot air." Xanna summarized, waving her hand at Ares, who had by now taken to pacing in front of the Jaffa while he continued with his little speech.
"Yes, but why?" Oma pressed. "And why are we dressed in togas like the philosophers of Terra's Ancient Greece?"
Indeed, all four of them were dressed in white togas, with Akitsu and Oma having the addition of sandals, while Naruto and Xanna remained as barefoot as ever.
It was Naruto who answered her, having finally managed to swallow the grapes. "The togas and the grape feeding thing is to blend in, we are on a Greece based Goa'uld planet after all. Get with the program."
"I find it strange that you know so much about which civilizations thrived on Terra thousands of years ago." Oma commented, clearly insinuating that she wanted to know how this was possible.
She just didn't want to directly ask how it was possible, because that would only get her a 'fuck you, that's how!'.
"As for why we are watching this guy make an ass of himself..." Naruto continued as if she hadn't spoken. "We're going to play some pranks on him."
Oma simply stared at him, obviously wanting to know why exactly they had come halfway across the galaxy just to play a few practical jokes on a minor Goa'uld.
"Because you need to have some fun and this will be fun." Naruto explained as if she had actually verbalized the question.
Oma simply sighed and closed her eyes. "I will not participate in this childish behavior."
"Ugh, will you just drop the 'enlightened higher being' crap for a while and enjoy yourself?!" He said with a note of frustration in his voice, tossing a grape at her forehead.
Oma jerked slightly at the impact and opened her eyes but did not otherwise react to having fruit thrown at her. "By humiliating someone else?"
"Yes!" Naruto confirmed, glad that she understood.
"I see nothing entertaining about that." She replied calmly.
Even if it was a Goa'uld that had done countless evil things during his lifetime, she didn't understand how humiliating him was going to accomplish anything. Naruto and Xanna already planned on toppling their empire and killing them, what was the use in adding insult to injury? She simply didn't see what was so amusing about that.
"Truly?" Xanna asked dubiously. "Do you not find his egotistical rambling annoying?"
Oma frowned. Sure, she would prefer not to listen to Ares waxing eloquent about how they would 'sweep away the warriors of the enemy in a storm of fire', but that alone didn't give her any sudden urges to humiliate him.
She wasn't even going to mention that the Goa'uld wasn't the only person with an overly large ego present.
"Maybe a little demonstration first?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "Akitsu, if you would."
The Ice Sekirei stopped feeding him grapes and focused. They had told her to make it subtle and non-damaging, so she was quite limited in what she could do, but there were a few things.
A super slippery patch of ice formed under Ares' foot on one of his passes, making it slide forward uncontrollably.
Surprised, the Goa'uld instinctively pinwheeled his arms as he tried to catch his balance. He did manage it quickly, as the ice patch had been very small, but the damage was done.
The Jaffa looked stunned that a 'god' could have such a mundane thing happen to him, so stunned that they didn't let out a peep.
Ares composed himself quickly, glaring around to see if anyone was laughing at him and then glaring at the ground to see what had caused him to slip when he saw that nobody was. The ice had been disposed of by then of course, so he didn't find anything.
Akitsu giggled a bit.
"See?!" Naruto demanded, staring at Oma intensely. "Wasn't that funny?"
"No." She answered instantly.
"Just think about it!" He continued to demand. "He's claiming to be a god, but a little ice patch nearly causes him to have a pratfall, and everyone knows that pratfalls are proof of mortality."
Oma just sighed and looked away. It wasn't that she didn't understand what he was getting at, but it really wasn't that funny to her.
"You should try it." Xanna said idly.
"Try it, try it, try it, try it!" Naruto started chanting, with Akitsu joining in soon after.
Xanna had no intention of being so ridiculous, but she did stare at the ascended woman with a look that practically screamed 'do it!'. It could have also been saying 'I'm going to eat your babies', but that was a hazard of having creepy looking eyes.
"Alright, I will do it, just stop yelling!" She cried out with exasperation. Honestly, they were worse than children.
Naruto and Akitsu lowered their chanting to a whisper, while Xanna placed a hand on Oma's neck and made some alterations to the body she was inhabiting.
"I have granted you the power of psychokinesis, unleash it upon that worm." She said sinisterly.
Oma took a deep breath, holding tight control over the power she now wielded. It was greater than what she was capable of in an ascended state and massive overkill for the purposes of this little prank. She had a feeling that the horned woman was hoping she would crush the Goa'uld into oblivion instead of just causing him a little humiliation.
"Do it, do it, do it." Naruto and Akitsu continued to chant in a whisper, though the Sekirei looked as if she was just having fun by joining Naruto in on the activity rather than any real desire to see Oma do something.
Oma was glad for having prior experience with such powers, otherwise she would have almost certainly already lost control of it and devastated the area. With great care, she created a small area of solidity in front of the Goa'uld's foot as he paced, causing him to trip.
Unlike the last time, there was no salvaging the situation and he fell forward. He managed to catch himself on his hands to prevent an outright faceplant into the ground, but to the Jaffa it had no doubt looked as if he had tripped over thin air.
There was less shock this time, as something similar had happened not long before, but there was a definite undertone of confusion, surprise and even some amusement.
"Who did that?!" Ares demanded, certain that someone had tripped him.
"Uh oh, looks like he's resorting to blaming others for his own clumsiness, not very godlike that." Naruto commented with a snicker.
"You! It was you who tripped me!" He snarled right into the face of an unfortunate Jaffa that just happened to be at the spot where Oma had placed her little psychic tripwire. "You will die for this insolence!"
"See now what your pranks have accomplished?" Oma asked scathingly, gesturing to the angry Goa'uld that was already raising his kara kesh to painfully execute the completely innocent Jaffa.
"What are you talking about woman?" Naruto asked back just as scathingly. "You can crush him like a bug, you still have the psychokinesis Xanna gave you."
Oma hesitated. It was true, she did have the power, but millennia of being unable to interfere stayed her hand. She had no time to think of the consequences of such an act, no time to consider what would happen if this unimportant Goa'uld was inexplicably killed.
And that wasn't even considering the fact that the other Ascended weren't likely to distinguish whether she had used her own powers or not. They had been looking for an excuse to punish her ever since she had begun associating with Naruto and Xanna and she couldn't be certain whether the two extra dimensional visitors would protect her.
Having too many things to think about and no time to do it, Oma froze in indecision.
Snorting at her hesitation, Naruto dragged a claw through the air, suddenly making Ares' pants drop around his ankles.
"It's literally impossible to claim godhood with your junk flapping." He asserted with authority, grinning widely as the Goa'uld tried in vain to pull his pants back up. There were even a few titters of laughter from the Jaffa as Ares started shuffling away, awkwardly holding his slashed pants around his waist with both hands.
"No it isn't," Xanna refuted. "you've done it before."
"True." Akitsu agreed instantly. "But your penis is much better, very godlike."
"That's the nicest thing that anyone has ever said about my penis Akitsu. You're such a sweetheart." Naruto said, smiling up at the Ice Sekirei from where she had his head in her lap.
"Enough about your penis, the prey is escaping." Xanna said and continued before he could feign outrage at the notion that there could ever be enough about his penis. "Allow me to show you the true measure of divinity."
As soon as she finished her sentence, Ares froze in his humiliated shuffling escape and began to radiate a palpable aura of horror. Mere moments later, the pants slipped down, revealing that his bowels were blasting out an impressive spray of runny fecal matter.
"Nobody can claim to be a god for so long as they need to take a shit." Xanna declared with the finality of a death knell.
There was a moment of silence before Naruto started howling with laughter, needing to sit up or risk injuring Akitsu by accident. The Sekirei was a bit disappointed that he didn't have his head in her lap anymore, but he was leaning into her as he laughed, which was also very nice. Xanna looked very smugly self satisfied and Oma was simply face palming at the immaturity of it all.
Ares did eventually manage to get away, covered in shit and humiliated beyond anything he had imagined was possible.
Among the Jaffa, silence reigned as they held on to their warrior stoicism. Then someone snorted and a crack was made in the wall, causing ever more people to start laughing.
Needless to say, the planned attack on Apophis was cancelled.
Word of this incident soon reached Cronus, but it was too late to contain it. Enraged, Cronus killed his underling for bringing this humiliation down on the Goa'uld as a whole.
Unfortunately for him, this proved unwise as it caused wild rumors to spread that Ares had shat himself to death, causing serious damage to the image of Goa'uld divinity.
Things did eventually calm down and stabilize, but the Goa'uld had to do some fast talking by saying that they inhabited mortal bodies and were thus still subject to mortal concerns.
Cronus went to immense lengths to cover up the entire dirty incident and eventually succeeded in shrouding what exactly had happened with a multitude of conflicting rumors.
And it all happened because Naruto had gotten annoyed by Oma's all business attitude whenever she turned up. How was he supposed to corrupt her if she was so damn stiff all the time?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The years continued to pass and Naruto continued to raid Goa'uld planets, sometimes raiding the same ones multiple times when the Goa'uld relocated slaves from other planets. He only ran across the Tok'ra once or twice more but paid them little mind aside from sparing their lives instead of killing them.
Predictably, this caused no end of rage for the System Lords and they continued to try tracking him down in various ways. All of those ways failed because Naruto and Xanna didn't play even remotely fair on that score. They might be refraining from using the vast majority of their power in other ways, but they had no such compunction when it came to keeping things secret. Going to open war against the Goa'uld at this point wouldn't be any fun.
There was another race out there that was not as limited as the Goa'uld however, and this race also caught wind of Naruto's activities and became intrigued by what was going on. While the snakes had to rely on a somewhat haphazard way of gathering intelligence, this more advanced species was capable of accessing the memory of the stargates and simply looking up the addresses of the last few outgoing wormholes.
After that, it was simplicity itself to cross reference which of those addresses belonged to known Goa'uld worlds and calculate the position of the target planet.
In short order, an Asgard starship appeared in the Planetary System where Erius was located and parked itself in high orbit after determining that there were no traces of advanced sensors present anywhere in the system.
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