Disclaimer: Naruto + RWBY + Princess Mononoke - I own none of them
Story Start!
She escaped.
Blake Belladonna, now ex-member of the White Fang, had successfully escaped her former group and was walking through a forest of red trees as she went to her next destination. With a white crop-top on with a black corset, a black scarf and armwarmer, white shorts, and black to purple stockings that went into black boots, she had a theme. Pale skinned and sharp yellow eyed, with her long black hair and black ribbon, she gave off a very cat-like appearance as she moved with swift grace with each and every step.
"... I've got enough to stay at a motel long enough to apply for Beacon, I shouldn't have any trouble getting in... and some changes of clothes, and my other needs." Blake said to herself as she mentally did a count on her lien, money, that she had in her bank account. She knew that she had more than enough to stay comfortable for a couple of years, but she didn't want to have to go back home.
Though, before she made any plans, she needed to get out of this forest, as it were she would be hiking for at least another day or so. Considering when she cut the train line, she had not been a registered passenger, it would have looked bad for her to get off the train without a pass with the real passengers. So, a couple dozen miles before getting into the Kingdom of Vale, she jumped off her train and started to walk.
"I might have jumped a bit earlier than I thought." Blake amused herself to cut the tension to herself, nobody was around to see her joking, so it was fine. She became serious though when she felt eyes on her, her spacial awareness and training allowing her to sense something was nearby her.
Her hand went up to her sword.
Firmly, one by one, her fingers wrapped around the hilt of her weapon and she started to draw her sword, her other hand reaching up to grab her sheath.
"If you unsheath that weapon all the way, you will die today."
Blake froze, both her steps and drawing her weapon, when she heard a deep male voice speak to her from the trees. The red trees would russle, but they revealed nothing that even her eyes could see that was strange. Nothing hiding among the leaves, she looked to the bushes, and saw nothing there as well. The second she thought that she would see something, it would be gone in a flash. She heard footsteps though, and they were both silent and deep, meaning that though silent, she was dealing with something that was far larger than a human was. A voice, meaning it was intelligent, meant that she wasn't dealing with a monster.
"Sheath your weapon, human who smells of cat." The voice spoke as a red eye peeked out from behind a tree, a red eye that was stripped by white. She started to get a look at the large creature, but the second she started to make it out, other than long pointed ears and reddish orange fur, the creature hid itself behind the tree.
Okay, she was dealing with a monster.
Also, a monster that just called her human.
"I'm no human, I'm a Faunus... A Cat Faunus..." Blake could taste the hate for humans that the word was spoken with. Knowing that she might be saving her life, or helping her chances, she removed her bow and showed the creature, or creatures, around her the cat ears that she possessed on her head.
"Your race makes no difference, humans and faunus are both exactly the same. You might look like a creature of nature, but your kind still do nothing but destroy it."
Should Blake be happy that she was face to face with a creature that treated both humans and faunus exactly the same, or scared that the creature seemed to hate both of them with equal animousity? It was equality, but right now, she could do with some preferential treatment towards her race.
"... I've never in my life done anything to hurt nature, to my knowledge, and I have no plans to do anything to this forest... I just want to go to where the others like me are." Blake wasn't sure if the monster had a concept of Kingdoms or cities, but she fully sheathed her weapons and put her hands on the back of her head. She would try and talk this out as peacefully as she could, and her actions seemed to do something for her.
A large fox came out of the bushes, a darker orange fox than she saw before, she took her weapon off her body and let it fall to the ground, before putting her hands back on her head. Her action drew out a second fox, the same color as the one she saw before, but fluffier in the face.
These foxes were taller than she was standing up, foxes didn't grow that big, and that was completely frightening.
A third fox, the tallest fox being larger than 7 feet tall, somehow being able to still hide from her eyes at that height, snuck out from behind a tree. This fox had an odd number of tails too, more than a single tail. More odd than that, there was a person riding on the fox's back.
Okay, while none of this made sense, it made sense if the voice belonged to this person. He wore a loose white shirt that didn't cover his arms, with a second black cloth wrapped around his chest underneath the white shirt... a shirt that looked like he made it himself. He was wearing a near-knee length kilt (she didn't know if she should think of it as a skirt or not, since she knew a lot of tribal people didn't wear pants), and shoes that were made of leather, appearing to be home-made as well. With a white-fur cape that went over his head, held together by a necklace of large fangs, his face was covered by a red, wooden fox mask with black markings around the eyes and black whisker marks.
"You'll never return to this forest if you leave?"
Wait, that voice wasn't the same, and this male voice was softer, younger sounding than the deep, demonic sounding voice from earlier. This voice sounded like it was coming from the teenager that was riding on top of the largest fox. Blake stiffened, desired to lunge for her weapon, when the foxes all started to circle around her. The boy wielded a large fanged dagger, and a spear with a similar design. The dagger at his hip, and the spear pointed at her.
"Human-" Blake wanted to correct the massive fox as it spoke of her like that, but decided correcting the fox would lead to a fight. She didn't like her odds, while she was confident she could escape, she was worn down by her last fight, and tired from hours of walking. "-my son deems you honest it seems." The largest fox spoke as it sat down in front of her, and the boy slid off of his back, landing on his feet.
He didn't seem dangerous, aside from his weapon.
He had a slim, lithe build that didn't seem to pack too much power to it. He could be her age, maybe slightly younger and still developing. Still, despite his build not being very muscular, he moved with grace and his steps seemed dangerous in how he was able to casually spin his spear in his hand and stick it into the fur on his back.
"I can't promise I'll never be in a situation where I will be here... but I do promise I will try my hardest to never return. I'll never hurt this forest either, that I can swear." Blake stared at him directly in the eyes... in the mask's eyes. He was looking at her, judging her silently. She felt soft fur at her side, as one of the foxes brushed up against her, sniffing her face. It wasn't a hostile action, so she didn't resist it.
The fox yipped, it didn't talk.
"My daughter has deemed you truthful as well."
"Thank you, I'll be on my way then." Blake bowed her head, and she made to reach for her weapons to take them, but she was met with the person putting his foot on her weapons. She was also met with growling as the boy picked the weapons up, and gave them to the darkly colored fox. "... am I not going to be able to leave?" Blake asked cautiously, getting ready to steal her weapons back and fight to escape.
The boy came up to her, and examined her more closely, poking her belly, reaching up to touch her ears gently. She heard the sound of sniffing, before he seemed to finish judging her.
"You can take your weapons back when you're out of the forest... Father, I'll take her out of the forest, and make sure she keeps her word."
Blake sighed in relief.
"Aka, Kuro, go with Naruto to get rid of this human."
Blake really didn't like the big fox, but she was just happy this could end without conflict. The small pokes to her stomach and ears aside, which really wasn't that bad for that matter just annoying, were a non-issue. Any situation that could be ended without violence, was a good situation for her.
'Red... Blake... and a type of Orange...' Blake reached out with her hand to shake Aka's hand.
Orange fox, blackish fox, and a person wearing a red mask, it was obvious who was who in this situation.
"Aka, lets go... human... faunus..." Okay, so the person was Naruto, Blake noted that, as he got up on Aka and gave her weapons to the fox to hold. Naruto seemed to show her enough respect to refer to her by her actual race. "... We will get you to your village." Naruto told her, and she noted that he did have a concept of where Vale might be.
It was the closest human settlement in the area after all.
The largest fox was gone.
"My name is Blake Belladonna... Faunus is just my species." Blake introduced herself, and she noted that Kuro seemed to be getting closer to her. "Can I... ride?" Blake saw Kuro get next to her and lay down. She didn't know if this meant she could get on or not, she still knew she wasn't in friendly company after all.
Helping her, and being her ally were different things right now.
"If Kuro bites you, then you can't ride her." Naruto just noted as Aka moved forward with him on her. Blake looked at Kuro with an uncomfortable stare for a moment, debating if she should risk it or not.
No.
Blake decided against it as she walked forward on her own, walking next to the very large fox and the teen boy. she looked at him, and saw he had yet to take his mask off. She didn't talk to him, she did note that he smelled clean. Not like soap or shampoo, but like herbs and fresh water, meaning he also had a concept of bathing and personal grooming. At the same time, she noticed that for somebody who lived in the forest with giant foxes, he had no scars on his bodyt at all.
"If Kuro bites me, will I be dead?" Blake asked Naruto, since that seemed to be the situation.
"You can't ride her if you are dead, so yes, if she bites you that will be the case." Naruto spoke without much of a joking tone there, if he was joking, she didn't understand his tone of voice. His voice was slightly muffled by his mask.
Blake silently observed him more.
"Have you ever... murdered a human or faunus before?" Blake asked Naruto as she tried to see what his reaction would be to her words.
He ignored her.
"Faunus, why do you have two sets of ears, human and cat?" Naruto asked her, he didn't care to answer her question, but she felt insulted he had the gall to ask her a question in return. If he wasn't willing to exchange information, then why should she respond with information? Blake thought about refusing to answer, but she sighed.
Just because he wasn't answering her, didn't mean she shouldn't answer him, that was childish.
"Faunus are like humans in almost every way, but my species will take on a physical animal trait. I, as a Cat Faunus, have cat ears. I know a girl who has skin that can change color, a woman who can shoot webs from her palms, my father has retractable claws. Faunus can develop any trait... though those with fish tails instead of legs usually have a harder life." Blake knew of some of those who lived where she came from as well. When a faunus and faunus of different types had a child, the child was really a roll of the dice. Both her parents were cat, so she was cat, but a cat and a dog could produce a fish.
"So, you're just humans with extra parts then?" Naruto actually made her happy with that.
That thinking, while dangerous from a person who clearly didn't like humans, was the kind of message she wanted to preach. That Faunus and Humans were so alike, that there was no reason to discriminate between them. They had more in common than they did differences, but it was the small differences that made the biggest hardships for her kind.
"Yes, we're exactly the same as humans. We live, breath, hate, love, and feel. We just have some extra body parts." Blake was happy to say that, proud even, that somebody listened to her.
"Then Faunus are as bad as humans then... you seem like a decent human... faunus. Today, we will guide you from the forest, but never intrude on the territory of us foxes again."
Blake almost responded, but she paused.
Wait?
Did... he think he was a fox?
Chapter End!
I announced I was going to do this, and all day at work I just could not get this idea out of my head.
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