"Talking in English"

("Talking in Japanese")

"Kurama talking while outside of Naruto's mindscape"

"Kurama talking within Naruto's mindscape"

'Thinking or Naruto talking to Kurama with thoughts'

'Kurama Thinking'

Flashbacks

Disclaimer: See first chapter.

Chapter 4: A Shining Beacon

It had been five days since the incident with the Huntress and Red, and Naruto was all set to begin his third and final year at Signal in two days.

He had spent the last five days coming to terms with the fact that he was now a killer. It may have been to defend someone, and it may have been an accident, but it was still his first kill, and he knew from his time in Konoha that the first kill was always the hardest.

For once, Kurama was actually very helpful, giving Naruto a high-level Raiton Jutsu to learn. Naruto threw himself into his training for three days, trying to forget what he had done.

Of course, it is impossible to forget something like that, and Naruto eventually had to consider the fact that he had killed someone. Two days of actual coping later, as opposed to ignoring the problem, and Naruto had come to accept that he had done what was necessary. A Shinobi had to be able to take a life for the sake of the village, and a Huntsman had to be able to take a life for the sake of the lives around him.

"You should be thankful that you got this nonsense out of the way, fool," Kurama had told him. "This way, you won't freeze up getting your first kill during an actual mission. Besides, the man you killed was worthless. He was weak and deserved what he got."

'To me, no one is worthless, sensei. I was called worthless once, and look what I'm capable of now.'

At the moment, Naruto was water walking to Signal Academy. He needed to pick up his schedule and claim a locker for his final year, and that had to be done in person. While walking on the river, he gathered himself so that he could continue acting as though nothing had changed. He may have accepted his first kill, but he doubted many others would so the same, and he didn't want anyone knowing that something was wrong.

As he walked into the entrance of the combat school, Naruto looked around to see if there was anyone he knew around. When he saw who was waiting just to the left of the entryway, he immediately paled.

The Huntress from the rooftop stood with her rider's crop at the ready, prepared to counter any attempts at escape. "Well hello there, Mr. Uzumaki. Did you enjoy your little escapade earlier this week?"

Naruto swallowed to clear his throat. "Um... yes?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Now you are coming with me, and there will be no escaping this time. Any attempts will warrant severe consequences. Do I make myself clear?"

Naruto swiftly nodded "Clear as crystal."

The Huntress, who Naruto learned was named Glynda Goodwitch, escorted Naruto to a nearby police station, where she began to give him a lecture.

"I hope you understand the severity of your actions, Mr. Uzumaki. You interfered in an active combat situation, and put yourself in a great deal of danger. You could have been killed or caused the death of someone else!"

At that point, Naruto flinched visibly and couldn't help but respond. "Actually, I'm pretty sure I saved a life by getting involved! You should be thanking me!"

Goodwitch narrowed her eyes at him. "What in the world are you talking about?"

Before Naruto could answer, the door opened and a silver-haired man with a cane and a mug of coffee walked in and said "I think I can answer that question for you, Glynda."

With that he pulled a Scroll out of his pocket and played footage from a surveillance camera of Red's fight with the thugs. "Oh, so that's how you guys found me," Naruto commented.

In the video, an injured thug had just gotten ahold of the shaft of Red's scythe. Goodwitch commented "I don't see how-"

Her response was cut off by the sudden appearance of a figure in the background throwing a glowing kunai. The figure disappeared and the man who was about to strike down Red was suddenly without part of his arm. Naruto managed to stop himself from flinching this time, but the silver-haired man seemed to notice that something was off.

"Allow me to slow this down a bit."

With that statement, the man with the coffee mug rewound the video a few seconds and replayed it in slow motion. When the figure appeared in the background, he paused the video and zoomed in on a perfect picture of one Uzumaki Naruto, glowing kunai in hand.

There was a surprised intake of breath from Goodwitch. "I think I see now what you mean."

The man then turned his eyes to Naruto. "So, Uzumaki Naruto, student at Signal Academy. Where in the world did you obtain such an... interesting skill set?"

Naruto sighed and said "I had a couple of teachers outside of school who knew a thing or two."

The man took a sip from his mug and raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really? And where would one find these teachers?"

Thinking of Iruka, Jiraiya, and Kakashi, none of whom he would ever see again, Naruto stared at his hands, which were clenched in his lap. "They're... not around anymore." He supposed that Kurama was still around, but he couldn't exactly tell them about him…

The expressions of the two adults softened slightly, and the man set his coffee mug down. "I'm sorry to hear that. However, I can see that you are not letting their teachings go to waste, which brings me to my next order of business. I think that Signal is perhaps not challenging enough for you. Would you perhaps consider pursuing an education on a more suitable level?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "If an opportunity presented itself to me, I'm sure I would probably take it."

"Well then allow me to first introduce myself and then present you with such an opportunity. My name is Henzel Ozpin, headmaster of Beacon Academy, and I would like you to attend my school for the upcoming term."

Naruto's jaw dropped. "You-you're serious? This is awesome!"

Ozpin smiled. "So I assume you accept the offer?"

For the first time in five days, a truly happy expression was on Naruto's face. "Of course! Who wouldn't?"

"Excellent. Now then, you will report to the airport this afternoon to board a shuttle to Beacon. Initiation is tomorrow and it is required that you stay the night at the school. The shuttle will be leaving at three o'clock sharp. Don't be late."

Naruto gave his new headmaster a salute. "Roger that, sir!"

A few minutes after Naruto had left, Goodwitch said to Ozpin "Well, at least we know what happened to that man now. You didn't tell him that the man that his knife struck died from his wounds. Are you planning on telling him?"

Ozpin took a long drink from his coffee mug. "I don't need to. I was watching his reaction to your lecture. When you mentioned that his actions might have cost someone their life, he flinched. His subsequent shouting was to cover up his feelings of guilt. Did you notice that despite the fact that the surveillance video never showed him retrieving his knife, it was never found at the scene? He retrieved it after he became invisible again, which would have brought him close enough to the body to see the state it was in. He knows what he did. I think it best that we not mention it to him for a while."

Glynda Goodwitch's eyes were widened at Ozpin's response. She nodded to him and said "I… I wish I had known. I wouldn't have been so harsh with him… Don't you think it's best if we get some help for him? So that he can cope?"

Ozpin shook his head. "He's already begun to come to terms with it on his own. It's best if we let that process complete itself without any interference. That young man is strong. He'll be alright."

-Vale Airport, 2:43-

Naruto had just finished loading up his luggage onto the shuttle and was making his way up the ramp to the passenger area. He was wearing a black t-shirt and blue jeans, his headband and thigh pouch in their usual places. On his belt, he had strapped two sheathes. The sheath on his left side was occupied by Kitsune no Ikari, and the one on his right side by FireStorm. He had left his armor, which consisted of forearm guards, shin guards, and a set of black gloves with metal plates on the back, in his luggage for the moment.

As he arrived in the passenger area, he noticed a girl with long black hair topped by a black bow wearing a black and white outfit who was near the entrance. When she turned her head to look at the new arrival, he noticed that she had amber eyes. He thought he recognized her from somewhere, but he wasn't sure how he knew her.

It wasn't long before the ship took off for Beacon, and Naruto spent most of the ride staring out the window at the amazing view. He heard snippets of conversation going on around him, and heard something about "bee's knees" from a girl off to his right, but he mostly paid them no mind.

After a hologram of Professor Goodwitch gave them a short welcome, and a blonde kid with white armor almost puked everywhere from motion sickness, the aircraft landed and everyone exited the aircraft and headed towards the school. They had been told that their luggage would be brought to the ballroom for them to pick up later, so the new students were free to wander around for a while until the official welcome speech took place in the auditorium.

Naruto quickly got ahead of the throng of new students and began exploring. He found several trees that would be excellent for sleeping in on the nights that he felt like resting under the open sky, and also learned the basic layout of most of the school. As he concluded his exploring, he noticed that it was almost time for the official welcome, so he made his way over to the auditorium.

As he was walking towards the auditorium, another guy came onto the path he was following from a small grassy area. The guy in question wore a light blue long-sleeved shirt, black jeans, and black arm guards. He had what looked like a black spear strapped to his back, and his hair was shoulder length and black as night.

He ended up next to Naruto as they walked towards the auditorium. He nodded to Naruto in greeting. "Yo. You a first year student too? I'm Charles Ebony."

He held out a hand, which Naruto shook. "Is it that obvious? Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you."

Charles chuckled. "Well I figured only newbies like us would be headed to the auditorium at this point. Welcome speech to attend and all that."

Naruto nodded. "Makes sense."

They walked in silence for a minute or so before Charles tried to rekindle the conversation. "So, what combat school did you go to before this? I was at Signal."

Naruto was silent for a few seconds before answering "I was at Signal as well."

Charles's eyebrows rose. "Really? I don't remember ever seeing you in any of my classes. I thought I knew everyone in my year."

"I only completed my third year before I got recruited to come here."

The dark-haired boy stared at Naruto with an expression akin to awe. "Recruited? How in the world did you manage that?"

Naruto shrugged. "I might have burned a robber's arm off and shot a few fireballs at some Roman Torchwick guy."

Charles's jaw dropped. "You're serious? Dude! That sounds like one hell of a story."

At this point they had entered the auditorium and moved to stand with a few other students. Naruto shrugged in response to his companion's statement. "It's really not that big of a deal. I was just poking my nose in someone else's battle and managed to pick up a little too much attention for it."

As they waited, Naruto spotted a girl clad in white walking up to another girl in a black skirt and a red cloak and yelling at her for something. As the girl in red leapt up into some blonde girl's arms, Naruto's eyes widened as he realized that it was Red from the battle against Torchwick. Naruto considered going over there just to find out who she was, but decided against it.

Ever since the event that had flung him into this world, Naruto had avoided making any close friends. The betrayal he had felt made him reluctant to trust anyone else. There was a chance that Red would go full-on fangirl because of the stunts he had pulled, and that would make it difficult to keep her at a distance from him.

Not to say that he wouldn't be friendly with people, but the furthest he would go in a relationship with someone was the acquaintance level. He would often talk with people and get to know them a bit before dropping most contact with them for a while so that they would gravitate back towards their other friends. It helped that he kept a very intense training schedule that left him little time to make friends or hang out.

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by the start of the welcome speech. Ozpin took the stage and began to speak. "I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills, and when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy in need of purpose... direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Naruto took on a confused expression before turning his attention back to the stage when Professor Goodwitch began to speak. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight, and tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

-Beacon Ballroom, 10:08 pm-

Naruto had just come from the showers and was making his way over to the area that he had laid out his things. He wore black sweatpants and an orange t-shirt for pajamas. He noticed that many guys were choosing to show off for the ladies by being shirtless, and he wondered how people would react if they were to see the scars under his shirt.

Chidori wound aside, Naruto had a moderate amount of scars on his torso and to a lesser extent his arms and legs. During his time in the Elemental Nations, Kurama's Chakra would heal most wounds without scars, but it had limits. Only so much of it could be channeled in a given period of time without harming him, and if he received wounds repeatedly over a short period of time, they would begin to form scars instead of completely healing.

Twice in his life he had been caught by the villagers on one of their "fox hunts." Both of these times had left him with scars from the knives that they had carried with them.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by an orange-haired girl popping up in front of him and invading his personal space. "Are those whiskers?"

Naruto took a step back. "Um... no. They're birthmarks."

A boy with a magenta streak in his hair came up behind the girl, who was still staring at Naruto's whisker marks. "Nora, it's rude to get in other people's faces." He then turned to address Naruto. "Sorry about her."

Naruto shrugged. "It's fine. I'm Naruto by the way."

"Nice to meet you. I'm Ren. And this is-"

Ren's introduction was cut off by the energetic girl. "I'm Nora! I like pancakes!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Ooookay... That's nice. I like ramen."

The unorthodox conversation was interrupted by two voices simultaneously shouting "Oh not you again!" He turned to see the white-clad girl from the auditorium, who he began to refer to in his head as Hyōhime, facing off with a blonde girl who had assets that would make Ero-Sennin drool. Red stood off to the side, and the girl with the black bow sat with a book in her hands next to them.

As the argument between Hyōhime and the mini-Tsunade continued, Naruto noticed that the girl with the bow was wearing something similar to some of the nightgowns that were worn by women back home. He decided that he would definitely have to find out who this girl was. But at that moment, the lights went out, and Naruto decided that sleep took priority at the moment.

As Naruto drifted off, he thought about what this mysterious initiation would involve. Would it be like the Genin exam? Maybe the Chunin exam? Would they have to fight other students? That last possibility reminded him too much of the Blood Mist Village's Genin exam, so he ended that train of thought and fell into a restless sleep.

A/N:

Yeah, sorry the chapter is shorter than usual, but trying to force extra words into it just made it seem flabby and awkward to me. I didn't want to split Initiation into two chapters, so you have a nice, 8000-word-long chapter to look forward to next time.

Alright, so the poll for this story is now closed, since I figure that a week and a half should be enough to get a good handle on the general opinion of my readers. Due to the survey, I have decided that I can come to one of two conclusions: either you share my opinion that having more than one character added to the host world is usually cumbersome and ineffective, or you guys really hate Sasuke. For a while, I thought the poll was going to be unanimous. So, Sasuke gets to stay in the Elemental Nations, and I might have to post the confrontation between Naruto and Sasuke that I imagined in that collection of discarded chapters I was talking about. I haven't actually written it yet, thus the need for the poll, but if I get bored one day, we'll see what happens.

Okay, so just in case it wasn't made clear before, this story will now be updated at least every other Saturday. I may choose to post on what should be an "off" Saturday if I end up with a lot of reserve chapters or I have to skip what should be an update day due to a busy schedule. If the schedule needs to change, I will mention it in an A/N.

Shoutout to all of my readers who have reviewed, favorited, and followed my story. Thank you guys a bunch.

I'll see you all in two weeks.