Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Chapter 1:

Uzumaki Kushina's entire being was already in agony, both from running on the fumes of her chakra as well as having the entirety of a biju ripped from its seal, so having one of the Kyuubi's massive claws pierced through her upper body wasn't so bad. It still hurt like a bitch though but Kushina was close to fully fading at this point so there was more of a numb coldness than anything else.

All she cared about was her son. Uzumaki Naruto. Not even an hour old, with cute little marks on his chubby cheeks and a tuft of yellow hair. He was currently asleep in the crib her husband Namikaze Minato had summoned for a...certain ritual. She was far too weak; resealing the Nine-tails within her would only see it free again the moment she expired. Minato was in the same boat, impaled behind her as he too jumped in to protect his newborn. And as much as she abhorred the idea of putting her baby through the same hell she had experienced...young Naruto was the only one left who could keep the monster at bay.

Minato would seal only the yang half of the beast in Naruto. Minato would take the yin half unto himself, dragging it to the afterlife with him as well as crippling the Kyuubi in the process. It would take a forbidden sealing method that would literally attach the two halves to their own souls in exchange for Minato's own...but he was dying already anyways so there wasn't anything to lose. The second half would be safely locked away within the stomach of the Shinigami itself and it would give the fox an incentive towards keeping the boy alive:

If Naruto found himself heading to the afterlife sooner than intended, so would the rest of the beast be dragged right along with him while it was trapped within the boy's body.

"-and know...that we'll always love you..." With nothing else to say, Kushina waited for her husband to give his own advice to their son while he molded the necessary requirements for the Shiki Fuin. Yet he remained silent among the Kyuubi's deafening growls and the faint sounds of Konoha off in the distance. "Mi...Minato?"

The woman felt him slump against her and the last bit of her hope died along with it. They had both jumped in the way when the creature tried to crush their child and the claw had stabbed through them both, centimeters from poking the baby with its tip. The entirety of the fox was now paralyzed thanks to Minato's quick thinking and skill in fuinjutsu activating the moment the monster touched him. Yet most of their organs were completely destroyed. It was only thanks to her Uzumaki vitality and probably a miracle that she had hung on this long. Kushina belatedly realized Minato didn't have the gift of a bloodline to see him through.

The tears already flowing down her cheeks doubled in intensity at the understanding that the love of her life was already gone.

She couldn't hope to pull off such a chakra-driven technique the way she was now. No one else knew it although Minato had seen fit to include its instructions in the Forbidden Scroll; yet mastering such a skill while the biju was once again free to attack the village was impossible. Countless more would die tonight and, even after all the new family had done to prevent it, Konoha's destruction seemed nigh.

Her vision was fading fast but the Uzumaki struggled to keep her sight on her one and only child. She had been so excited and nervous when she had discovered she was pregnant. The actual pregnancy had been a nightmare, and the delivery was entirely unethical due to the fact her own seal weakened at the birthing (plus the pain! Oh, she didn't know what was worse...losing the Kyuubi or pushing out a baby!). But there he was...her child...her son...

Another soon-to-be casualty of the night.

Kushina was feeling tired. So very tired. She could barely keep her eyes open at this point and the massive nail within her was beginning to fidget. Minato's seal was meant to last only a brief amount of time and give him the means to finish his preparations.

She no longer had the strength to even lift her head anymore. It was so cold. All color had drained from the world and the bastard fox's screams were nothing but dull murmurs at this point as it continued to struggle, far more than it should have been. Something was happening but Kushina didn't care. She didn't care about the ghastly and monstrous figure hovering over them either, unseen by all as its fanged mask stared down the Kyuubi unflinchingly. All the mother cared about was the safety of her son.

And a moment later, she was unable to care about that as well.

Doctor Citrine had seen many things over his career as a doctor on the small island of Patch located just outside the Kingdom of Vale. The Creatures of Grimm were not as bountiful here as they were on the continents, but that did not mean the vicious monsters were no less deadly. Their city was large but more than half the island was still considered 'the wilds': land given free reign by the Grimm. Only the brave or stupid chose to live outside the relative safety of Patch. Most were surprisingly secure and protected themselves quite well.

And then there were those like these poor bastards.

Citrine felt like he needed a cigarette after so much time in surgery, and the man hadn't smoked in twenty years. He sighed, feeling as though his already pale hair was going to turn further gray after that additional stress, and inhaled one last breath of fresh air before returning to the sterilized environment of the hospital.

A family, or as far as they could tell. One man, one woman, and a child that resembled them both in some way. While the boy was relatively fine and currently resting in pediatrics, the parents were another story. The Grimm had gotten to them. There was no doubt about it. Both were ripped wide open and it was a miracle they were still alive...for however long his efforts bought them.

The man had been a hairsbreadth away from meeting his maker when the Hunters brought them in. They fixed him up the best they could but it was a coin toss whether or not he survived the night. The mother was the same way but she'd been surprisingly vocal while unconscious, speaking gibberish but uttering the same words over and over.

Citrine didn't know what a 'Naruto' was or to a lesser extent 'Minato' but the poor redheaded woman somehow kept saying it in her deliria as she faded in and out in the ICU.

Stepping through the halls he came upon the nurse's station, where said employees looked just as frazzled as he felt. Nurse Lemosa sat at the front desk with her head in her hands, propped up on the counter. She looked up the moment he appeared in front of her before slowly shaking her head. "You look like you need a break," he said.

"Me? I'm not the one who was just in surgery for thirteen hours. If anything you're the one who needs to rest."

"I'm fine," the doctor lied; he was ready to drop at any moment, "I just was outside getting some air. How are the patients?"

"I...can't explain it. Their organs were obliterated and pushed far out of place. How you or Doctor Pine fixed all that damage is beyond me. The woman clearly just gave birth. Her body was still in the post-birthing shock. So much stress and bloodloss should have killed her outright."

"We did the best we could. Both were depleted of aura but, surprisingly, when we used the Dust enhancers to stabilize them, their bodies responded immediately. I'm sure it was only that which allowed us the time necessary to sew everything up and heal the worst of it. The man has a very powerful aura even if it was nearly gone. "

Lemosa rolled her neck before breathing heavily out her nose. "Well, Laverne just checked on the parents. Nothing's changed. That sweet little baby though...I better not find out who put that ink on his stomach. I washed as best as I could but it would not come off." The woman looked quite put off. The idea of it being permanent only put her in a fouler mood. "And then there's this."

Citrine had to peek over just to see what she was gesturing towards. It was the pouch once strapped to the blond man's waist, and a few knickknacks from within. One looked like a license, picture included...yet the words were unintelligible squiggles. "A joke ID?"

"It was the only one on his person. The other pouch was full of pointy objects one would assume was used to fight the Grimm. Yet they look like they'd never be able to stand up against the tough hides of those monsters."

Citrine sighed quietly. "We live on Patch. These sort of crazy cases are supposed to be found in the Kingdoms proper, not a little island nation that's annexed by Vale."

"...what should we do about it?"

"Nothing drastic. Alert the Hunters that we have a strange John and Jane Doe on our hands complete with child. We'll continue monitoring their conditions and hope for the best." The surgeon rubbed his face before turning towards the on call room. "They're both due for additional surgery in four hours. Now that the most life threatening wounds have been dealt with, there's still more to be done."

"And if they die regardless?"

Citrine faced her with a look that clearly expressed she should have already known that answer. "Then at least we tried our best."

"Naruto...," she breathed out, weak arms groping blindly along the starch white sheets. "Minato...Naruto."

The nurses came running as the vital signs of the mysterious redhead spiked two days later. They found her with one eye open, unfocused but searching, attempting to rise out of the bed in spite of all the equipment hooked to her body. Her words were warbled through the oxygen mask but the employees were quite certain of what she was saying. The older woman didn't say anything else.

She continued to struggle even as they increased the amount of sedative in her IV flow but the weakness in the redhead's body easily allowed the nurses to keep her in bed. This would continue on for some time as the nameless one swam in and out of consciousness. But the next event never steered away from the last. At least, until, one of the nurses had the idea to bring the baby up. His time in pediatrics had done well for the infant...but keeping a newborn separated from a wanting mother was detrimental to both of them.

By the time Lemosa herself returned carrying the cooing infant with the bright blue eyes and disheartening scratches on his cheeks, the woman was awake again with her arm extended towards the still unconscious male one bed over. Well that was new; never before had she been so aware of her surroundings.

The redhead's mask was off and in spite of her tired, wheezing breaths, she continued to try and pull herself over. "Minato!" she would say almost frantically from the half-sitting position, with a string of other words Lemosa and her peers could not understand. But at their arrival she turned her head with violet irises underlined by dark circles...only to have them widen while she began to shake. That word 'Naruto' was said plenty of times again as she reached out, never taking her eyes off the yawning babe in her arms.

Professionally Lemosa knew it was a bad idea to hand a weak little baby to a woman who had undergone multiple surgeries and clearly had no strength...but things were starting to make sense now that at least one of them was lucid. Minato had to be the name of the father...and Naruto the son. Drawing closer Lemosa forced herself to smile before setting her hip on an empty spot of the bed next to the mother, carefully handing over the baby and repositioning the other female's arms to a proper position. The lady didn't even care. All she cared about was the little bundle making noise in her embrace.

Lemosa's smile turned genuine as the redhead's eyes grew misty and she began to quake just a little bit more, whispering to her son before pulling him close as the tears finally began to fall. Occasionally she would glance over to Minato before rubbing her face against the tiny cheek of her child's. It was an endearing sight that raised Lemosa's spirits just a little bit more. The medical profession could be an incredibly bleak and heartbreaking place to work...but there were times like this where the negatives evened out and reminded the veteran nurse why she wanted to get into medicine in the first place.

All Kushina knew during this time was that this was some sort of hospital. Her body was incredibly sore even with all the drugs pumping into her body. Things just weren't adding up though and with everything affecting her, her mind was unable to properly process it all.

However! Through it all there were two things she needed more than anything else in the world.

One was her husband who, as she finally started to register the more her Uzumaki body healed, was in the cot next to her looking just as shitty as herself. The heart monitor tied to his chest was slow but surprisingly steady. The next was her son who was just brought in by what was clearly a nurse. Kushina couldn't help it; she starting crying at the sight of little Naruto healthy and whole making those squeaky baby noises all seemed wont to do. The moment she had him in her arms again she joined him in making sound, a mixture of sobs and laughter due to the former jinchuriki being unable to decide on one single emotion. It truly didn't make any sense.

She was alive. Naruto was alive. Minato, despite his current circumstances, was still alive.

And once again, nothing else mattered at the moment.

"Their names appear to be Minato, Kushina, and Naruto. In the three months since Summer Rose found them in the forests outside Patch, it is the most information we've been able to glean."

"Nothing else? Truly?"

"The mother, Kushina, speaks a language unheard of before. It is assumed that her husband Minato uses the same. He was the only one with any sort of identification on his person, yet it too was completely illegible save for the photo. They were no letters I've ever seen before, if that."

"Perhaps the attack also scarred her mentally. It may be that this Kushina, if that truly is her name, believes she is speaking normally while everyone else hears nonsense."

"A possibility. Yet the continuous tests show her brain activity is quite within normal parameters. We've scheduled a psychologist once she regains more of her strength."

"And what of the husband? Has he shown any signs of recovery?"

"He awoke. Once. But he was too weak to do anything other than fall unconscious yet again and the doctors were too slow to gain anything of it. His rate of healing has been rather slow...or, by normal standards, the normal expected rate. Compared to Kushina...I'm not sure if it's a Semblance or what but she had grown stronger far more quickly than a woman who suffered the tail end of a pregnancy and Grimm attack at the same time. She has already shown the ability to walk unaided for brief moments, and she spends most of her time doting over the rest of her family."

There was a rustle of paper. "Additional thoughts?"

"...none of them should be alive."

"Explain."

"Something had disemboweled both adults. When they were first brought in it looked as though a tree trunk had been shoved right through both of them. There was blood everywhere. Kushina's organs were ruptured and displaced but somehow still within the realm of recovery from lifesaving surgery. Minato had absolutely no chance even with surgery, yet he too is miraculously still breathing, proving us all wrong. And the boy; he should have succumbed to the elements long before Summer discovered them which, by the way, was a complete accident. They all should have died, Ozpin. All evidence points towards three corpses, not three new additions to Patch. Nothing about it is adding up."

The young headmaster of Beacon Academy in Vale scratched his chin before spinning around in his chair, peering down at the Scroll that held the long distance call between himself and his old friend Qrow. The silver-haired man hummed before reaching for his nearby cup of coffee. "Well...there are still plenty of mysteries to be found around Remnant. What are the Grimm, truly? Where do they come from? What was the catalyst behind the genetic split between humans and Faunus? So what is one more to add to the list?"

"You always were the calm voice of reason Ozpin. We have a group of unfamiliar guests with a cloud of strangeness hovering about them, and you would rather debate hypotheticals."

"As of right now there is nothing else anyone can do. All that can be done is allow the family to recover and rebuild, and then try again at a more convenient time."

"Indeed." The man named Qrow paused before his voice returned, sounding strained. "I need to cut our conversation short Ozpin. Yang just woke up and Taiyang had absolutely no clue how to deal with a newborn himself."

The professor produced a slight grimace at Qrow's tone. Little Yang Xiao Long was less than half a year old by now and already quite the handful...especially since her mother just up and left one day without so much as a proper goodbye. Taiyang was an excellent Huntsman and provider but caregiver? Not so much. "Summer is not around? I was led to believe she volunteered to assist with the child."

"No...not this time. She's off at the hospital again, hoping to learn more about the others. You know how she is—that woman is far too bright-eyed and inquisitive for her own good. Taiyang told her he'd be perfectly fine and she believed it...which naturally means it's up to me to handle the situation in his stead."

"...I see. Well. I'll leave you to it."

"Will do. Take care, Ozpin. I'll be in touch."

The line ended and Ozpin tapped the screen once, making the large Scroll built into his desk shut down. To say he was curious would be an understatement. While Patch was outside his jurisdiction, that did not mean the headmaster did not keep an eye on the world at large. He was a Huntsman himself you know. Watching out for viable threats and allies was always high on the list. Not to say this family could be either...but it never hurt to check.

Qrow knew him well enough to already be one step ahead.

Just another idea that's been floating around in my head for awhile. Needed a break from everything else, and this was the result. Something new and interesting, or at least I hope.

*Edited Qrow's relation to family, though I'm still rather unconvinced on the truth until Volume 3 hopefully clears some things up.

So how did they get to Remnant? What's going on? What will Naruto be like not wanting for companionship and acknowledgement? Well, I don't think too much different. It sure as hell won't be an OC named Naruto, that's for damn sure.

*Ah, and some interesting news! I've finally got a video up on my Youtube channel, should you have an inkling of interest in that. I just sorta fool around in Minecraft with my buddy...but it's something. The production value is amateurish but hey, we're amateurs. So long as we keep at it we'll get better. And have more unique content.

So thanks for reading, or reviewing, or subscribing, or watching, or whatever else you feel like doing regarding my work. See you next time.