Soulbound
The Chthonic Professor
Summary: "Y'know, after everything that's happened, I really didn't expect we'd be going to back to school again." Naruto squinted up at Beacon Academy's tall spires. Sasuke, standing by his side, chuckled. "It's almost fitting, really. After all this time, you'll finally receive some much-needed education." Naruto's indignant "OI, TEME!" could be heard from the outskirts of Vale.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY.
Warning: Slight bending of timelines, in order for the story to work. Characters were all sixteen years old when the war took place, and have only recently turned seventeen or have yet to turn seventeen.
-.-
Chapter One - Winter is Coming
-.-
Blue eyes practically glowed in the darkness of the night, alight with annoyance and frustration. They stared out from behind a white porcelain mask, the haunting visage of a snarling fox painted upon its front in bright orange. The owner of the pair of eyes was a young man. Though only sixteen, no man who carried himself with such confidence; confidence born of battle and experience rather than arrogance, could be called a boy. The blue of his eyes and the startling orange upon his mask were the only sources of colour on his body. The rest of him was hidden beneath an ankle-length black cloak, a grey protective vest, a sleeveless black form-fitting tank, a pair of black combat pants, and a pair of black toeless sandals that reached halfway up his legs. His arms were protected by a pair of grey greaves and a weapon's pouch was taped to his left thigh.
This was the standard uniform for Konohagakure no Sato's Ansatsu Senjutsu Tokushu Butai, the Anbu Black Ops: Special Assassination and Tactical Squad.
Concealed as he was up in the branches of the trees, the young man would have been completely invisible to the naked eye were it not for the shattered moon overhead illuminating his eyes in the darkness. The owner of the blue eyes huffed, clearly aggravated by something. He reached up with his left hand, pressing softly against something lodged in his ear with two fingers.
"Buta, Usagi, Karasu, report."
For a moment, nothing but the soft crackle of technology echoed in the young man's ears.
"Buta reporting," A confident female voice came over the military-grade communications radio. Unbidden, the image of long, luxurious blonde hair and a pig mask came to the young man's mind. "My area's clear, Kitsune-taichou."
"Usagi reporting," This voice was also female, but it came over the radio far softer than the first. This time, long blue-black hair, pale lavender eyes and a cute rabbit mask came to mind. "My area is clear as well, Kitsune-taichou."
There was silence over the radio for a couple of seconds.
"Karasu reporting," Was finally heard, a deep, smooth male voice coming over the radio. "I only just finished clearing out my area, I encountered a low concentration of bogies." There was a hesitant pause, as if Karasu wasn't sure whether or not he should continue. "Permission to speak freely, Kitsune-taichou?"
Blonde eyebrows rose up nearly to his hairline behind the young man's fox mask. Karasu was rarely so formal with him. They'd known each other for years, after all.
"Permission granted, Karasu."
Once more, there was a moment of silence over the radio as Karasu gathered his thoughts.
"Naruto, what the fuck are we dealing with here?"
If Naruto was surprised by his friend's sudden change of tone, he didn't show it. He sighed softly, leaning against the tree trunk beside him from where he was crouching up in the boughs of a tree.
"Honestly, Sasuke? I'm not even sure." Naruto ran a hand through his unruly hair, ruffling it up slightly. "These things have been popping up all over the Elemental Nations for the last couple of days, and they're multiplying faster than we can kill them. They don't exactly pose a danger to us shinobi, even a squad of Genin could take on a couple of these things, no problem. Civilians, however…" He trailed off, letting his team's imaginations fill in the gaps.
There was a harsh puff of air from the other end of the line. "If we could figure out what these things are, then maybe we'd be able to do something about them." Sasuke ground out, sounding as aggravated as Naruto felt.
"Yeah, and that's the crux of the matter, isn't it?" Naruto voiced, far more cynical than he was normally as the remains of his most recent kills slowly faded away into black smoke.
He sighed, lifted his mask, and pinched the bridge of his nose with his left hand. Standing up straight on the tree branch he was currently occupying, Naruto gazed out over the treetops of Hi no Kuni's Great Forest.
"Usagi," He finally called out, fingers pressed into his radio once more, "Think you can see if any more of these things are nearby?"
"Hai, Kitsune-taichou." He received as a curt reply. The sound from the radio cut off, only to return moments later. "Sighting confirmed, I have eyes on a large group of bogies several kilometres west of your current position, taichou."
"How large?"
"… Several times larger than anything we've encountered thus far, Kitsune-taichou." Hinata's soft voice crackled over the radio after a short pause.
Naruto didn't even take a moment to sit down and think over his decision.
"Alright, Usagi, I want you to lead the other two over to my position using your radio. Keep your eyes on the bogies, I want to know the moment the situation's changed."
Receiving three iterations of 'roger that', Naruto clicked off the radio in his ear and slumped sideways against the tree. With a grimace, Naruto reached out with his left hand and grasped the stump of his right arm.
The phantom pains were back again, and as Naruto had slowly come to learn, that never meant anything good.
-.-
It had taken no more than ten minutes for squad member Usagi to lead Karasu and Buta to Naruto's position. All four members of Unit Seven were hidden beneath the standard-issue black cloaks the Anbu Corps was known for. Their hoods were up and their masks on, hiding their features from the world. Despite this, all four knew exactly what the other three members of their squad looked like beneath their masks.
They'd all gone to school together, after all.
Though none of them could claim the title of youngest Anbu in history (that title belonging to Karasu's older brother, may he rest in peace), they did hold the title for youngest Anbu unit in history. With a combined age of 64, the oldest and youngest members of their squad were only sixteen years of age. Karasu's seventeenth birthday wasn't for another two months, and Usagi's would come only days before the new year.
Despite the fact that there had never before been an Anbu squad with so many young members, they were widely recognized amongst the Corps as one of the most successful squads anyone had seen to date.
Looking into the eyes of his teammates, of his friends, Naruto was proud to admit he could say the same. They'd only been a squad for a couple of months. Formed only weeks after the end of the Fourth Shinobi War at the urging of the Rokudaime Hokage, there'd been an outcry amongst the higher-ups of the village due entirely to the presence of a single member of their team. Before the war, the outcry of Konoha's esteemed Council would have been due to Naruto's presence on the team. For years they'd hated his guts and his status as the container of the Kyuubi no Yoko.
Now, after the war, after Naruto was recognized as a hero across the entirety of the Elemental Nations, the controversy of his team's formation had nothing to do with him. Well, at least, not directly.
No, the controversy had to do with the fact that Uchiha Sasuke, last surviving member of the once-esteemed Uchiha clan, would be taking the position of Karasu upon Anbu Unit Seven. After everything he'd done before and during the war, Konoha's Council had wanted Sasuke executed on the spot. They believed him to be unstable, a menace to society that needed to be put down.
The Rokudaime Hokage and Naruto had very different opinions. They were his sensei and his teammate, his mentor and best friend, and they'd seen the changes Sasuke had gone through since the end of the war. The steps he'd made towards redemption. It had been a calculated move to place Sasuke on Anbu Unit Seven. It allowed the broken young man the chance to reconnect with his old friends, no matter how shallow their bonds had once been, and simultaneously kept him away from the eyes of the civilians. It was a move that both protected him, and allowed him to take the first steps towards healing himself.
Not to mention the fact that it kept him occupied. Kakashi didn't want to imagine the kind of havoc a bored and irritated Uchiha Sasuke could wreak.
With Sasuke's inclusion to Unit Seven as Karasu, alongside Yamanaka Ino as Buta and Hyuuga Hinata as Usagi, Naruto was looking at one of the best Anbu squads ever formed. They'd only been together for a couple of months, and already they were beginning to pile up quite the number of high-profile missions. Looking into the eyes of his teammates and friends, some of the best shinobi the village had to offer, Naruto couldn't help but feel they were about to be way in over their heads.
It was a gut feeling, something he hadn't felt in a long, long time. Something was wrong. They'd been running across these odd creatures for the last two weeks, ones that faded away into black mist the moment they were killed. They weren't very difficult to kill, and after a short while, many shinobi had begun to write them off as threats. Naruto and Kakashi believed otherwise. It was for that reason Unit Seven was out in the forest at this very moment.
This was the calm before the storm. He could feel it. Something was coming, and it was coming soon.
-.-
A low humming noise suddenly brought all four members of Unit Seven to a standstill.
They'd been stalking a large group of these odd, wolf-like creatures - larger than any they'd encountered before. They were tired and worn-out, having been hunting groups of these abominations for the last couple of days. This would be their last extermination run, and then they would return home to deliver their report.
Their hunt had taken them nearly one hundred miles south-east until they'd reached the innermost tip of Hanguri Gulf. Naruto, still under the guise of Kitsune, had been planning on having his squad trap the mindless beasts up against the nearby shore, where they would be exterminated at range with a number of elemental techniques, provided by himself and Karasu. The group of creatures had made their way to a simple clearing in the trees, apparently taking a moment to rest before moving on to parts unknown. Naruto was just about to initiate the first phase of their plan, which involved Unit Seven herding the creatures towards the water, when a low humming noise caught his attention.
His head snapped up to stare at the sky through the treetops, the sudden movement startling the rest of his squad slightly. It was a low, constant noise, something he was only picking up on the edges of his senses. There was something about the noise that set Naruto's teeth on edge. He wasn't taking any chances.
"Usagi," He ordered, tone of voice firm and unrelenting, "Activate your Byakugan and scan the area for anything suspicious."
"Hai." Usagi responded softly. Her body stilled, and Naruto knew she was already scanning the surrounding area with her family's bloodline.
"Kitsune?" Buta turned to him, the questioning tone of her voice all he needed to know what she was asking.
"I've got a bad feeling about this…" He intoned softly. Karasu and Buta both stiffened where they were crouching among the tree branches. Normally Naruto wouldn't have said something so ominous-sounding, knowing how on-edge it would make his teammates, but there was something seriously wrong with this whole situation. He just couldn't put his finger on it. Thus, his paranoia finally won out over his personal feelings, and he put the rest of his squad on high-alert.
"Taichou." Usagi's soft voice broke the silence, drawing the attention of her squad mates. She was staring off into the distance, bloodline still activated. "I… don't know how to describe what I'm seeing." She muttered softly. "I've spotted a number of flying grey ships. They seem to be piloted by people."
For a long moment, the rest of Usagi's squad mates could do nothing more than stare and blink at her in surprise. Then Naruto tensed, memories flashing through his mind.
"Are they affiliated with the Land of Sky?" He asked, voice sharp. "Or the Land of Spring?" Hinata shook her head.
"I can't find anything that may affiliate them with either of those countries, Taichou. They're unlike anything I've seen before. It is difficult to tell from such a distance, but they seem to run on some sort of synthetic energy." She was still staring off into the distance, watching the ships with her keen eyes.
"Synthetic energy?" Naruto questioned, brow furrowed. His mind whirled, trying vainly to piece together a coherent picture of the current situation.
"It is difficult for me to describe…" She hesitated for a moment. The humming sound was slowly growing louder as the ships continued to approach their position. "I can see the energy with my Byakugan, and yet…" She trailed off, her own brow furrowing. Despite the fact that both had their faces covered, they could read each other's emotions through the tenseness in their shoulders.
"And yet?" Naruto prodded, trying valiantly not to get annoyed with his gentle teammate. The phantom pain from his missing arm was making him irritable, but he didn't want to take it out on Hinata. She didn't deserve it.
Despite the fact that Hinata had her Byakugan active, and could most likely see him while simultaneously keeping an eye on the approaching ships, she still turned her head to look him in the eye.
"And yet, despite the fact that my Byakugan can detect this odd energy, I can not detect a single trace of chakra in any of the vessels. Not even in the humans piloting them."
The silence that descended upon them was deafening. Hinata wasn't the type for practical jokes. Naruto knew she was being serious as can be, especially since they were on a mission of such crucial importance. Yet, even then, he found himself doubting her claim. For her to be unable to detect a single hint of chakra within any person at all, let alone a number of different people… well, you could forgive him his skepticism, could you not? Thus, despite his faith in both her person and her skill, Naruto still had to ask.
"Are you certain, Usagi?" He tilted his head just enough to put her within his peripherals while keeping his eyes on the distant horizon. The odd buzzing sound that filled the air had gotten louder. The flying machines were approaching, and would soon be upon them.
"I am certain, taichou." She responded, voice quiet, but firm.
Of course she was certain. Well, now he had a decision to make. These flying contraptions would be upon them any second, and they were headed for Konoha. On one hand, Naruto could turn the squad around and race the flying machines back to the village in order to deliver a forewarning to their Hokage. On the other, he could attempt to make contact with the flying machines and their pilots as they passed overhead, determining their motives. There were benefits and disadvantages to both options.
Why had he ever agreed with Kakashi that it would be a good idea for him to lead an ANBU squad? What had they said at the time, that it would be good experience for the future? That it would help teach him how to lead, so he could be a better Hokage one day?
Sometimes Naruto wondered why he put himself into these situations in the first place. He closed his eyes and sighed.
"Alright, then. Buta, Usagi, make yourselves scare, but stay on alert. Usagi, keep up your Byakugan and keep an eye on our surroundings. We don't need any unnecessary interference." The two young women on his squad nodded their heads in acknowledgement. "Karasu, you and I are going to kill two birds with one stone. We'll accomplish our mission and make contact with these people at the same time. Use some of your flashier techniques to eliminate the creatures in the clearing below. Hopefully that will be enough to attract their attention and halt their advance."
He looked Karasu in the eyes, and a dichotomous Sharingan and Rinnegan stared back.
"We'll see how it goes from there. Unit Seven, move out."
He received three identical replies of "Hai, taichou!" and four black blurs vanished from the tops of the trees.
-.-
Naruto stood side-by-side with Sasuke at the edge of the clearing. Though he was peripherally keeping an eye on the moving masses of black shadow before him, his gaze was trained on the three specks of grey slowly growing in size on the horizon. They waited for nearly a minute, just until the shiny black glass of the cockpits were visible to them, before making their move.
"Sasuke," Naruto muttered to his friend, forgoing the use of both his communicator and his teammate's callsign, "Did you manage to figure out the one-handed seals for that new fire technique you were working on?"
"Yes." No further elaboration was needed. They were on the same page.
"Good. I'll fuel it with a basic wind technique. We'll torch these things in one go, hopefully the flames are flashy enough to draw their attention."
Sasuke wasted no time in beginning a long string of seals, his fingers seeming to flash and blur with the speed of his movements. Simultaneously the boys began to suck in a huge lungful of air. Their chests seemed to expand to unnatural proportions and their heads tilted backwards in perfect synchronicity.
"Fire Style," Sasuke muttered softly through pursed lips, hand coming up to move his mask away from his mouth, "Brilliant Flaming Dragon." The moment the flames left his lips, Naruto began pouring a slow stream of oxygenated wind chakra from between his lips into the flames, feeding the fire for Sasuke's technique. In moments there was a dragon made of whirling red-hot flames tearing through the clearing in front of them. Trees blistered and popped. Sap boiled in an instant. Grass burnt black and the ground cracked violently beneath the intense heat. The creatures of darkness screamed in agony, erupting into plumes of black smoke at an incredible pace.
The great flaming dragon whirled twice around the clearing, hunting down its bone-masked pray like a bloodhound on the scent. In nearly no time at all the clearing was empty save for the unnatural mass of flames. With a small grunt of effort, Sasuke twitched his hand and furrowed his brow. The fiery dragon twisted and looped around before shooting up into the air where it exploded into a quickly-dispersing mass of fire. The heat licked at their exposed fingers and dried their eyes through the small slits in their Anbu masks.
Naruto grinned in spite of the fact that nobody could see his face. He may have been through war, and he may be the captain of a successful squad of assassins, but he was still Uzumaki Naruto at heart. Sasuke's new technique was cool, and that was exciting to Naruto. He couldn't help himself.
It also helped that Naruto knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that his rival was sporting that thrice-damned smirk behind his own porcelain Anbu mask.
Turning his sapphire eyes - dancing with the fading remnants of Sasuke's wicked-hot fire technique - away from the clearing, he searched the sky. His gaze was intense and imploring as he searched for a sign of the consequences of their actions. His wide grin fell into a grim smile as he found them.
"Well," Sasuke quipped, his voice already dripping with sarcasm, "It looks like that got their attention, alright."
Naruto could only hum and nod in agreement.
His arm was aching again. Things were about to get interesting.
-.-
Together, the four of them watched as the flying ships came to a halt, high above the torched clearing. It only took moments for one of the ships to split off, descending to ground level. So close to the flying ships now, Naruto realized just how loud they were. The baritone hum of the ship's engine was drowning out his thoughts and beating on his eardrums.
It was almost startling to hear the sudden all-encompassing silence that descended on the clearing when the ship's engines cut out. Only the faintest sounds of movement could be heard from within the ship, and only by Naruto's enhanced senses. Then, with a quiet hiss of pressurized hinges, a door slowly unsealed from the back of the ship. It descended until it hit the blackened soil beneath with a soft thud.
A woman emerged from within.
She was startlingly beautiful. Her hair was a shade of white that reminded Naruto painfully of Jiraiya. She had a face like a porcelain doll, and skin just as pale. Her eyes, like twin chips of frigid ice, scanned the clearing. Naruto could tell at a glance that this was a sharp woman. If it wasn't for the way that she carried herself like a samurai, he would have thought her a shinobi with the scrutiny at which she examined her surroundings.
She was also carrying a saber on her hip. A rather impractical weapon for a shinobi, but one that nonetheless required skill to wield. It was quite the foreign weapon, Naruto doubted many of his friends would even recognize it for what it was. It was only his years traveling with his godfather that had given him knowledge of such esoteric weaponry.
This was a dangerous woman, shinobi or not.
But Naruto and his squad were far more dangerous than this woman could ever hope to be.
-.-
When Winter's crew spotted the massive gout of flame, she knew immediately that they'd struck gold.
At first, she'd had reservations about being sent on a scouting mission to an island that, until just months ago, was nothing more than myth and legend in their ancient history books. It was highly unlikely that there would be any form of civilization able to survive so long against the Grimm without the advances in technology experienced throughout the rest of Remnant. In the unlikely chance that some form of civilization did manage to survive, they were likely to be nothing more than savages, incapable of intelligent communication.
She'd come only because it was a direct order from the General, and because he'd trusted her to go in his stead as his personal representative.
However, having witnessed the draconic gout of flame, Winter's reservations were rapidly dwindling. Something so intricate could only be achieved through skilled Dust manipulation. This meant that not only were there civilized people on this mysterious continent, but that they likely had extensive knowledge of Dust manipulation, and could potentially be an asset to the four Kingdoms of Remnant.
When Winter had ordered her pilot to land their Bullhead in the centre of the torched clearing, she'd done so in the hopes that it would send out a message of peace. She emerged from the Bullhead alone and with her weapon sheathed.
Even though Winter was an Atlas Specialist at her young age, even though she had her guard up in this new, foreign land, and even though she'd been expecting to make contact with unknown peoples, she was still completely floored to suddenly find one hand restraining her sword arm and another holding a knife to her throat.
"Make any sudden movements and you'll find yourself breathing from a new hole in your neck."
The voice was surprisingly cheerful and casual, distinctly female and, most surprisingly of all, rather young. From the sound of it, her assailant probably wasn't any older than Winter's younger sister, Weiss.
Slowly, Winter raised her arms to chest level with her palms open and fingers splayed. She swallowed harshly, feeling the blade shift slightly against her neck. There was a drop of sweat running down her temple, the lingering heat from earlier combining with her sudden nervousness in producing such a physiological reaction from her.
Winter's attention was on the young woman behind her, so she only noticed there was a second assailant when he cleared his throat, his face only inches from her own.
She wasn't proud of it, but Winter let out a startled shriek when she finally focused on him. His face was hidden behind a porcelain fox mask. It was decorated with tribalistic orange swirls and a snarl like something you'd find on a Grimm. His body was hidden beneath a formless black cloak.
He was also, Winter noticed belatedly, nearly an entire foot shorter than her.
His short stature did nothing to prevent her nervousness from suddenly tripling. He hadn't even spoken yet, but he commanded attention unlike anything she'd ever encountered. Not even the General had such a terrifying presence.
"So," The man in the fox mask drawled, "Are you gonna tell me who you people are and what you're doing here, or are we going to have to do this the hard way?"
Winter blinked dumbly at him for only a second before she regained her composure. Something surprisingly difficult to do with a knife against one's neck.
"Specialist Winter Schnee," she introduced herself, "Representing General James Ironwood, of Atlas. We're on a mission to confirm the existence of a landmass, roughly the size of the continent Anima, that appeared suddenly in the waters off the East coast of said continent, as well as make contact with any potential civilizations that may or may not live on this landmass."
Silence filled the clearing.
With every second that passed, Winter found herself growing more and more nervous. The mask staring her down was immaculate, the snarling visage of a fox startlingly life-like, and it gave her a serious case of the chills.
Then the man in the fox mask let out an explosive sigh, a hand coming up to rub the back of his neck.
"Just to be clear: you're telling me there's not only an entire continent somewhere to the west of the Elemental Nations, but that we've both been living for thousands of years without knowing about each other?"
"Three."
"Pardon?"
"There's three continents. Solitas, Sanus and Anima. Each continent is home to a Kingdom aside from Sanus, which is home to both Vale and Vacuo."
"And you said you're from…?"
"Atlas. Which is on the continent of Solitas, north of Sanus. The final Kingdom is Mistral, which resides on the continent of Anima, the continent closest to this one."
"Ok. So then, your people suddenly became aware of our continent how long ago, exactly?"
At this question, Winter paused a moment to think.
"Some… several months ago, I suspect. I wasn't privy to the exact details."
The man in the fox mask sighed once more, moving his hand from the back of his head to beneath his mask, where he began rubbing at his eyes.
"This wouldn't happen to coincide with the day the moon shattered, would it?"
Winter opened her mouth to refute his claim, but then paused and stopped herself.
"Actually… that sounds rather plausible."
Once again, another sigh from the man in the mask.
"Great. Just great." He took a deep breath, then released it all in one go. "Buta, you can release her. I doubt she means us, or Konoha, any harm."
In one swift - and entirely silent - movement, Winter was released.
The young woman behind her came to stand beside her partner. They were dressed identically aside from their masks. She was wearing a pig mask, of all things.
"Karasu, Usagi."
With nary more than a gust of wind to herald their arrival, two new people were standing beside the first. Winter had to suppress a shiver. She hadn't sensed any of them. Just who were these people?
"Taichou." The pair echoed each other as they spoke.
"I want the two of you to stay and watch their flying ships. Buta and I will take…"
The girl in the pig mask leaned closer to 'Taichou' and whispered "Schnee-san" in his ear.
"… Schnee-san to Konoha. The Hokage can decide what to do from there."
"Konoha? Hokage? What are you talking about?"
The man in the fox mask turned to acknowledge her question.
"Ah, yes. Konoha is our village. It's led by the Hokage, the most powerful and experienced member of the shinobi corps."
Winter was surprised. As much as they spoke the same language (even if these people had a sharper accent than any she was used to), she hadn't expected them to have any truly significant linguistic discrepancies. She'd only begun to suspect such a thing when these people began calling out to each other in what were clearly codenames. While she'd never heard of the words they were using, she wasn't entirely prepared to dismiss it as a completely different language. Now, however, her thoughts had changed.
"I am assuming that you are a shinobi, then?"
For the briefest moment, Winter caught sight of a pair of blue eyes, bright as the sky, but cold and hard as ice.
"Yes."
No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't suppress the chill running up and down her spine.
The man in the fox mask turned sharply, his cloak flapping violently behind him as he began to stride away. The young woman behind the pig mask turned to follow him with only the briefest glance in Winter's direction. The other two stayed where they were, watching her with shadowed eyes.
Hesitantly, Winter began to follow the pair of 'shinobi' (whatever that meant).
All in all, as rattled as she was by the encounter with these odd people, Winter realized her mission was well on its way to being accomplished. She'd made contact with this continent's indigenous people and was being led to a diplomatic leader. Once she met with this person, she'd be able to discuss potential relations between this new continent and the rest of Remnant. It looked like, in the end, all was still going to plan.
So lost in her thoughts was Winter that she almost ran into the back of the man she was following. He'd stopped just on the edge of the torched clearing, his head turned to the side in a way that left only the right side of his mask exposed.
"Karasu, Usagi," He called, gaining the attention of the latter two members of their little group of four, "I'll ask the Hokage to send a fresh team to relieve you as soon as possible."
Winter watched as the man behind the raven mask gave a single grunt of acknowledgement, while the shorter woman (with a bust unlike anything Winter had ever seen, she noted with slight jealousy) in the rabbit mask gave a quick bow and a soft 'Thank you, Kitsune-taichou' in response.
Then Winter was being led into the forest. The clearing where she'd left her men behind was quickly out of sight.
-.-
The moment they'd entered the forest, Naruto had taken off at a slow sprint. While he kept to the forest floor, making sure to keep in the line of sight of the woman he was escorting, Ino took to following them from the trees. Initially he'd taken off simply because he wanted to return home as quickly as possible, not stopping to wonder whether or not the woman in white would be able to keep pace. However, as she kept pace with him, even while he was running at no more than a quarter of his maximum speed, Naruto found himself testing her. While she was clearly no shinobi, she was also just as clearly a warrior of some kind. That being said, he was curious about what she could do. Without having the option of fighting her to test her limits, this was his only other means of discovering the woman's potential, no matter how basic that discovery may turn out to be.
By the time Konoha's gates came into view several hours later, Naruto could say he was a little impressed. She hadn't complained for a moment about the pace he'd set, and he'd even sped up gradually the longer they ran. She looked to be a little worse for wear, and was trying to hide just how much her chest was heaving, but he was a little more inclined to befriend her than earlier due to her determination not to slow them down and her poise and professionalism, even while tired and winded.
Slowing to a stop a good distance from the gates, Naruto waited for her to pull up beside him. Glancing at her expression from the corner of his eye, Naruto smiled. There was wonder in those twin pools of icy blue as they took in the impressive sight before them. The sun was just coming down behind the Hokage monument, bathing the entire city in a homely orange glow. The six faces of Konoha's Hokage gazed down imposingly, visible high over his home's outer walls. The village itself could be seen through the massive pair of open gates, still bustling with life even at this hour in the day.
"Welcome to Konohagakure no Sato, The Village Hidden in the Leaves."
"It's… beautiful."
"I'm glad you think so."
While the foreigner was distracted by the sight of the village, Naruto covertly gave Ino a new set of orders. There was no visible sign of her disappearance from the nearby trees, but Naruto could feel her chakra slowly fading amongst the rest of Konoha's population.
Naruto was escorting an outsider, and so would have to take her through the village's roads even while dressed in full Anbu gear. It would gather far more attention than he would like, but it was necessary to follow protocol. He couldn't take the white-haired woman through Anbu's secret routes into the village, and there was no way he was revealing his identity to her before stalking through the village. Either way, unveiling who he was at this moment would only garner them more attention in the end. He'd become quite the popular figure in the village ever since the end of the war.
Walking up to the village gates, and only sparing the briefest glance backwards to make sure Schnee-san was following him, Naruto smirked behind his mask. It looked like even after everything that had happened, Izumo and Kotetsu would live up to their titles as the Eternal Gate Guards.
He stopped before the admission's desk and stood there without saying a word, waiting for the two Chunin to notice him. His blue eyes were glinting merrily through his intimidating mask. During the tense couple of seconds it took for the pair of Chunin to notice his presence, Naruto's respect for his temporary companion went up a notch. Most people would have shuffled around, uncomfortable with the awkward atmosphere. Apparently, Schnee-san was a well-trained member of her military. She stood behind him and just to his left as if she was cut from marble, hands crossed behind her back and spine ramrod-straight.
When Izumo and Kotetsu finally noticed him, they both jumped, startled by the grinning fox-mask mere inches in front of them. Naruto had grown to respect his Anbu training far too much to snicker at their expressions, but that didn't stop him from laughing like an idiot in his head. It seemed Kakashi's odd sense of humour had finally begun rubbing off on him.
"A-ah, Anbu-san, what can we do for you?"
"Requesting permission to bring a foreigner into the village. Schnee-san has some vital information for the Hokage's ears only."
Izumo and Kotetsu both glanced at the white-haired woman standing behind Naruto before they looked at each other. Only a second passed, but an entire conversation seemed to take place between the two.
"Permission granted, Anbu Kitsune-san."
With only a brief nod to acknowledge their words, Naruto turned in his heel and marched into the village. Winter followed one step behind him.
-.-
While Naruto was dealing with the gate guards, Ino was rushing across the village's rooftops. She sent a series of small chakra pulses into the tattoo on her shoulder, informing her Hokage that there was an urgent message incoming. When she received the go-ahead to enter the office, she performed a standard Shunshin right through the open window. Materializing before her leader in a swirl of leaves, Ino was down on one knee, right fist to the ground and left fist clenched before her heart.
"Hokage-sama."
"Buta." Kakashi acknowledged the young Anbu before him with a small nod. "Report. Did you discover something new about these beasts that have been plaguing the Elemental Nations?"
"No, Hokage-sama. We did, however, discover something a little more… unbelievable."
One of Kakashi's silver eyebrows rose in response. He leaned forwards in his chair, folding his fingers before his masked mouth, charcoal grey eyes trained intently on his subordinate.
"Explain."
And explain she did.
-.-
Walking through the village of Konoha, Winter was amazed by the sheer number of differences between their two cultures. Having grown up as the daughter of Jacques Schnee in the heart of Atlas, Winter had been constantly surrounded by the greatest technological advances in the world. It was these advances in technology that made Atlas the greatest Military power on the planet. To walk through streets that weren't even paved, to not see a single scroll in anyone's hands, to see a total lack of automobiles of any kind, was absolutely incredible. Especially considering how powerful this masked man and his compatriots seemed to be. For them to have gained such strength without any significant advances in technology was both very impressive and slightly terrifying.
Another thing Winter noticed as she traveled behind her cloaked guide was the lack of Faunus. She couldn't be sure if these people were simply discriminatory towards Faunus, or if the Faunus simply didn't exist on this new continent, but she wouldn't make any assumptions until she had definitive proof. It was simply another thing to store in the back of her thoughts, only to be remembered when she gave her report to General Ironwood.
As the sun finally descended from the sky and darkness fell upon the world, Winter and her escort came to a stop before a large cylindrical building. There was a large red symbol with a strange character in the centre adorning the building's front.
"This," Her escort spoke for the first time since they'd entered the village, "is the Hokage's Tower. It's connected to the Academy, where young trainees go in order to learn the ways of the Shinobi." He led her into the tower, up a number of flights of stairs and past a secretary that gave him a respectful bow as he passed.
"The Hokage is waiting for you, Kitsune-san." She spoke with a soft tone, and gave Winter only the briefest of curious glances before she returned to her desk.
'Kitsune-san' led Winter to a door, holding it open for her and allowing her to enter before him. Walking into the spacious office, Winter took a moment to admire her surroundings. The entire back wall was taken up large bay windows, showing an absolutely brilliant view of Konoha's night-life. The walls on either side of her were filled with bookshelves and filing cabinets in an extreme case of organized chaos. There were five pictures on the walls as well, each clearly older than the last. The first was of a stern-looking blonde woman with a bust that couldn't be real and a small diamond in the centre of her forehead. She was the only woman depicted, with the other four being radically different-looking men. The second picture was of a handsome young blonde man with bright blue eyes, the third of a kindly older man with liver spots, the fourth of an intimidating man with stark-white hair and a fur-lined coat, and the last (and oldest) picture was of a man with long brown hair, full-body red armour and a warm smile.
The main focus of the room, however, was sitting right in front of her. Seated behind a large desk piled high with papers was a man. He was far younger than Winter would have expected a village leader to be. If she had to, she'd place him in his early thirties at the most. His eyes were intense, a deep charcoal grey that bored into her from above his interlaced fingers. The man's left eye was cleanly bisected by a neat scar. His silver-grey hair sat beneath a conical red hat with a white triangle on the front.
For a man with most of his face covered by a cloth mask, he was one of the most handsome Winter had ever met. He was also one of the most intimidating.
The door behind her was shut with a soft click, and 'Kitsune-san' came to stand in front of her. Then he dropped to one knee, planting one fist on the ground and clenching the other in front of his heart.
"Hokage-sama."
The Hokage stared down at his subordinate, expression perfectly blank. Winter swallowed heavily. These people were intense in a way Atlas would never be able to replicate.
"Kitsune."
"Requesting permission to relieve Anbu Karasu and Anbu Usagi from their posts guarding the envoy sent with Schnee-san." Kitsune asked without raising his head from its bowed position.
"Permission granted. Have Commander Tanuki send Unit Four."
"Hai, Hokage-sama!"
Without a single indication that he'd moved in any way, Kitsune disappeared from sight. The Hokage turned his gaze back to her. Winter mentally berated herself for straighten her spine even further under the man's militant gaze.
"So. Why don't you introduce yourself first, and then you can explain to me exactly who you are and what it is you're doing on my soil?"
Winter didn't dare wipe the sweat beading on her brow. This was going to be a trying couple of days, she could already tell.