'Really… this child…'

Naruto raises his head, moving his hand to cover the gash through his mask's right eye. The wound is still there. The bleeding has stopped, the pain has dulled and his face has been stitched back together, but he can still feel it, aching and burning and itching as though something is eating away at it. Probably the same something stopping it from healing completely.

He glances downward at his hand. It is much the same as what he feels beneath his mask, a bloody gash over his palm, steaming, smoking and burning with tiny, rose petals flittering out from the open skin.

'Is it a semblance?' Naruto clenches his hand into a fist. His lone eye drifts to the girl staring at the huntress with starstruck eyes. 'No… she… doesn't seem like the type to have a semblance like that. Besides…'

He has other things to worry about. For one, the woman currently trying to set him on fire with her eyes from across the street. Luckily for him, she is not one of the two remaining Uchiha, so all her glare does is make him just a bit angry that the dumbass to his side did not take the chance to get away while he could.

Regroup. Don't get distracted, Naruto tells himself. First deal with the woman who looks like she wants to tear him a new asshole, then worry about his eye and hand.

"So, uh…" he calls out somewhat hesitantly. The huntress narrows her eyes. "It's been a while, hasn't it, Goodwitch? Haven't seen you since the last time I was in Vale!"

A sheepish chuckle. "You… wouldn't happen to still be angry about that whole business with the ramen, would you?"

Her response comes in the form of her flicking her riding crop to the side, an invisible force hurling Naruto across the street, slamming him into and through a nearby building.

There is a moment as Roman Torchwick stares at the smoking hole in the wall.

"You have no idea how long I was waiting for that to happen," the man mutters.

"Now, as much as I would like to stay and enjoy some more catharsis by proxy," he says, taking out a red dust crystal and raising his cane, an aiming reticle popping out of the bottom. "I've got a ride to catch! So, this is where we part ways!"

He throws the dust crystal and takes aim. The red stone curves an arc through the air. A flare shoots from the bottom of the cane, whistling through the street, straight on a course to hit the dust crystal as it falls before the huntress.

She does not even raise her hand. She does not need to. A mere glance causes both the flare and the dust crystal both freeze mid-air, hovering mere inches away from each other with a purple glow surrounding them.

Glynda takes the dust crystal into her hand. A mere glance at the suspended flare causes it to shrivel up into nothingness.

The mobster stares with wide eyes. His cigar falls from his lips. The huntress turns her gaze on him and Roman slowly raises his hands up in surrender, letting out a sheepish chuckle. "Haha… surprise? That, ah… went a lot differently in my head."

She takes a moment to identify him. "Roman Torchwick, you are under arrest. Come quietly…"

Glynda flings the dust crystal into the building where she had launched the masked nuisance. Raises her arm. Clenches her hand into a fist.

And the building explodes, its windows shattering, the door splintering, flames blasting through the brick walls as the piece of fire dust ignites into a massive ball of heat and force. It begins to collapse in on itself, only for the falling mortar and flying glass to slow to a stop. The building freezes in time. Billowing smoke escapes its crumbling frame. Fire leaks out from the broken walls, heat and smog beginning to fill the street.

Then, her arm falls and the building falls with it. The ground breaks apart, rippling like water, swallowing the fire and the smoke and the entirety of the flaming building like a pool of quicksand, the stone moving with a mind of its own as the crumbling structure disappears into the earth, leaving only an empty lot in its place.

The crime lord stares at the spot where a three story building once stood.

"… or you will be punished to the fullest extent of the law."

"Now, now, no need to get violent," Roman says, his voice coming out a couple pitches higher than he'd have liked it. He lowers himself onto one knee, making sure not to make any sudden movements. "We're both reasonable adults here. Between you and me, I totally understand your level of reaction to that masked moron. Honestly, the boy has some special kind of talent for getting on people's nerves. Definitely justified."

The street behind the two females cracks.

"But me and you? You and me? We're both civilized, attractive, not prepubescent adults here, so I don't understand why we can't just talk this out and-"

Flames smash through the asphalt, flickering red and blazing yellow erupting into the sky. The masked boy bursts from the flames, two tails of golden fire trailing behind him, his left eye a bloody red and the sniper-scythe pulled back.

The huntress whirls around, throws out her hand. The scythe blade lashes forward. The air trembles as his swing meets an invisible blast of force, the shockwave throwing him back. He flips, lands, digs his tails into the asphalt to catch himself, carving two gouges into the street. His boots skid to a stop. Aura floods his legs and feet. A thunder crack of wind launches him forward, his takeoff smashing two tiny craters into the street, as though someone had set off a pair of miniature explosives under his feet.

A blur of gold and crimson. Aura and wind propel him to superhuman speeds, a speed that could overwhelm even the most battle-tested of hunters.

But the woman before him is no ordinary hunter.

Her arm snaps up. A circular barrier of purple runes and seals appears before her. Naruto crashes into the barrier, his shoulder meeting the glowing purple with a force that shatters the ground beneath him. The purple runes vanish. Their master snaps her hand up. The shattered ground rises up, sharpening into a volley of stone daggers. Naruto dashes backwards on a burst of air. The stone daggers shoot after him and a blast of wind smashes through them, crashing and dissipating harmlessly against another glowing, purple barrier as he leaps upwards, over the barrier, swinging the sniper-scythe downward with enough force to slice a grown man in two.

She raises her riding crop. His swing is stopped, the sniper-scythe frozen in space. One of his tails whip around, wrapping around her wrist, yanking it to the side and throwing the riding crop from her hand. The force locking the sniper-scythe in place disappears. Naruto falls, lands in a crouch. He bursts upward, a swing of the sniper-scythe forcing her a step back. The scythe-blade lashes forth in a flurry of red and gold strikes, his form learned but very clearly out of practice.

She dodges each swing with minimal effort. Not a hint of worry mars her expression, the huntress's face a cool mask of professionalism. Without even raising her arms, despite the pencil skirt, the scythe-blade fails to reach her. Her semblance alone is enough to keep the weapon from finding its mark as jade eyes wait and watch for an opening.

They find one. He overextends on a swing. Her hand snaps out and again the sniper-scythe freezes, frozen in space. Her other hand motions to the side. The riding crop flies back into her hand. Golden tails smash against the street, sending chunks of shattered asphalt flying towards the huntress.

Without even looking, she raises the hand holding the riding crop, index and middle finger extended.

The stone stops. Breaks apart, sharpens into a wall of daggers. The wall descends on him, forcing him to leap away, the stone shards burying themselves into the street. She whips the riding crop downward and back up, a giant chunk of asphalt ripping itself free from the ground and becoming a flock of spears, each easily six feet long.

Naruto tosses the sniper-scythe into the air. Slaps his hands together, his fingers blurring into motion. The spears shoot at him and he catches the sniper-scythe, driving its blade into the street.

A wall of screeching electricity leaps upward from the blade, smashing the black spears into ash, stopping them from reforming, and descending on the huntress. A wave of her hand causes the lightning to circle around her and back again, gathering into a sphere of wind and lightning. The orb balloons to the size of a small car, wind condensing around an eye of crackling light, tendrils of electricity arcing through the outer layer of the sphere.

A flick of her wrist launches the orb of storms, the ball of wind and lightning barreling down the street. Aura flows to his feet, to his free hand. He holds up an arm, catching the orb as it crashes into him, a stream of wind aura protecting his palm, bringing the sphere under his control. And into that stream he releases a single spark of flame, the spark catching, igniting, blooming into the sphere and devouring the wind to become a globe of bubbling red and snapping yellow.

A pulse of wind sends the giant ball of electrified fire roaring right back down the street. The huntress jabs her riding crop at a nearby fire hydrant, an invisible blast of force blasting the hydrant open. Water erupts upwards, spraying into the air. She traces a spiral with her hand, the water gathering, gushing into the street and swallowing the fireball, burping out steam and sparks.

The riding crop snaps forward. At her command, the waters surge forward, a tidal wave to crush the masked boy. A single, wind-enhanced slash splits the wave in two. A blast of super-compressed air follows, stripping the pavement from the street, forcing her to release her control over the torrent of water and summon a barrier. Naruto disappears into a swirl of golden embers. The blast slams into the barrier with a thunderous crash, releasing a shockwave that shatters every window of every building around them, becoming a harmless gust as it passes by her, ruffling her hair.

The huntress drops the barrier, finding only a slightly flooded street with not a person in sight before her.

There is a brief lull. Having taken shelter in the dust shop, the thugs poke their head out to see if it is over.

The red-hooded girl peeks out from behind Goodwitch.

Naruto reappears on her other side, next to Torchwick.

The huntress and the boy in the grimm mask stare at one another, each waiting for the other to make a move. She raises her riding crop. His muscles tense. And that tension drains as she whips her riding crop around, the cracks and craters and other damages to the street behind her all repairing themselves before his very eyes.

'Ah, that semblance really is just satisfying to watch,' Naruto muses, the water swirling back underground as the fire hydrant puts itself back together. He looks to the wielder of said semblance. 'Now, if only I could find a way to get her to stop trying to turn me into a pincushion with it…'

"Jesus Christ," Roman Torchwick finally finds his voice, sounding horrified and amazed in equal measure. "What the hell is in all of that ramen you eat?!"

Naruto shrugs, offering a hand. "Still enjoying the show?"

"'Enjoying' isn't exactly the word I would use," the mobster grumbles, taking his hand with a grimace.

"Shame."

He pulls the man to his feet. A lone, crimson eye turns to the huntress.

"Old hag."

Her gaze becomes that much sharper, lips wrinkling into a frown. "Demon Fox."

"I don't suppose you'd be willing to take a raincheck on the whole 'us beating the tar out of each other' thing?" he asks, holding out a hand as his tails flick behind him. "I've got to make sure pumpkin head and the goon squad get home safe and sound. You've got to babysit wolfie over there. As much as I love watching that semblance of yours in action, I'd say it's in both our best interests to just call it a day."

"You're a fool if you think I will allow you to simply walk away," she snaps at him. "Arson. Murder. Theft. Kidnapping. Rampant sexual harassment. For years you have been a plague on these lands, coming and going as you wish, doing as you wish, taking as you wish with no thought of the consequences of your actions. Yet, for whatever reason, the powers that be have deemed your continued freedom less of a concern than whatever matters happen to be on hand."

"No more," her eyes narrow. She raises her riding crop, arm over her chest with the tip pointed behind her. "Tonight, I will have you pay for all of the suffering you have wrought. Surrender, lay down your arms and come quietly. You may be little more than a child in a mask, but if you continue to resist, I will show you no mercy."

Naruto barks out a laugh. He glares at the huntress, his lone eye a molten pool of contempt and crimson.

"You call that mercy? Trying to electrocute me in boiling hot water? Trying to impale me, collapsing an exploding building on top of me?! I see! Of course, it all makes sense! After all…"

A tremor makes its way through the street. The air around him begins to spark and combust, coils of crimson-gold flame spiraling upwards.

"You are the brave huntress, risking your life to protect the innocent! That little girl! This old geezer! Of course, how could anyone say you are anything but a hero?!"

An inky darkness creeps across the white of his only remaining eye. His pupil becomes a fissure of shadow in the pool of crimson, the heat in his heart feeding from the pain in the right side of his face, from the flames pouring out from behind the seal on his stomach. A third tail takes form behind him, strips of shadow running down the length of each tail.

"And I… I am the Demon Fox! A monster who has taken oh so many lives, bloodied himself from head to toe in crimson. My very existence is dyed in dripping, gushing red! At the feet of someone like you, how else can I repent but through death?!"

"That's your mercy, isn't it, Professor Goodwitch?" Naruto sneers, holding the sniper-scythe at his side, the coils of flame beginning to wrap around the blade. He lets out a bitter chuckle. "Though, you aren't wrong! In this world, death is its own mercy. Alas, I'm afraid I'm going to have to tell you to shove your mercy up your ass."

"I may be a child in a mask! But I'm a child in a mask with the power to blow you and this entire fucking Kingdom to smithereens! All I have left is this life of mine! And after all the crap I went through to get this power, everything I've sacrificed, everything I've lost, you better believe I'm going to use all of this power to make sure I don't lose anything else!"

He grits his teeth. Bites down on his tongue and his anger. He brings his hand to his mask, pressing it over the gash to smother the pain gushing from his ruined eye. It takes a monumental effort to calm himself down. He hadn't even meant to release a third tail. It had been a combination of the huntress's words and the pain from his un-healing injuries that had coaxed it out all on its own.

For whatever reason, she says. What a joke. He'd even laugh if it didn't feel like someone was pressing a clothing iron up against his face. There is not a doubt in his mind that she knows damn well why Vale has always tried to keep their hands clean of anything involving him. Naruto looks to the huntress, the woman appearing slightly taken aback by his sudden outburst. And that is nothing to say of the girl at her side.

He takes a deep breath and lets out a sigh, the flames surging through his body no longer feeling like they are about to run away from him.

"Now, then…" he lowers his hand. Glances up. Above, a news helicopter hovers far in the distance. "Neither of us can fight without reserve, but if you won't back away, neither will I."

"Glynda Goodwitch, Right Hand of the Wizard. Elite Combat Instructor of Beacon Academy... Why don't we put on a show for the viewers at home, you and me? I'm actually getting kind of excited… it's not every day you get a second chance to fight one of the people to have faced the Fourth Hokage in battle and lived. Though, that really isn't much of an achievement is, it?"

Taunting, biting, full of spite and bitterness. The jovial, light-hearted tone from before is nowhere to be found in the masked boy's voice as he addresses the huntress.

"Namikaze never did have the greatest track record of actually finishing his opponents."

Her expression turns thunderous. "Insolent child… the Fourth was a good man who gave his life in protection of his people."

"That mask…" her off hand clenches into a fist, rage clouding her gaze. "The beast to which you owe your namesake… even those tails… it is as if you tailored your very existence to spit on his sacrifice. That name… you have no right to utter that name!"

"Kukuku…" Naruto chuckles. "You know, I almost forgot how much you guys like to ride that guy's dick here in the Kingdoms. It makes enough sense I suppose. There really wasn't ever a more 'huntsman-like' shinobi than he was."

"Even the way he died, throwing his life away fighting the grimm-!"

The riding crop snaps forward, a loud crack echoing from its tip. Naruto raises his arm across his chest, the sleeve on the back of his forearm exploding as he swings his fist back around, an invisible blast crashes into and through the wall of a building behind him.

"Whelp, I'd say I have successfully gotten her attention," Naruto muses, looking to the slight bruise over his forearm. In a matter of seconds, the discolored skin shrinks, fading back to its usual parlor. He glances back at his employer. "I would suggest you make tracks, Torchwick. If the Right Hand is here, the Great and Terrible himself probably isn't too far behind. I can buy you some time… but I don't know how much."

It takes the mobster a second to get over his shock. Half from the sheer power he can feel rolling off the boy almost a good foot shorter than him, half from the shock of said boy actually using his real name.

"… And here I was worried you wouldn't have to work for all of that lein I paid you," he says with a shaky smirk. Roman fixes his hat. "Do get in touch if you manage to get out of here alive. I happen to know of someone who would be more than appreciative of your particular skills and talents."

"Is that right?" the masked boy drawls with a mental fist pump. "Well, I'll think about it."

Glynda narrows her eyes. She raises her off hand, a miniature barrier of purple runes buzzing to life over her palm. Naruto flourishes the sniper-scythe, the flames spreading from his hand, creeping up the barrel and over the blade, sheathing the weapon in a cloak of flaming gold.

He clenches his teeth, the wound under his mask burning like a branding iron pressed up against his face.

"Go!"


Of Heroes and Monsters

Chapter 4: No Good Deed


"Neither of you will be going anywhere," the huntress hisses.

She holds out the hand with the weird, glow-y runes. A low pitched whine fills the air and the entire street behind the two criminals begins to rise up, forming a wall-

The masked boy disappears. Ruby Rose blinks. It is almost like one of those effects from a horror movie, where one second the monster is standing there and then the next he has vanished without a trace. One moment, there is a boy in a grimm mask with three tails of flaming gold standing next to the man in the bowler cap and the next, there is only the man in the bowler cap, a swirl of fading embers the only trace of the masked boy remaining.

Jade eyes widen. The huntress throws up both her arms, a circular barrier of purple runes appearing in front of them.

And a shockwave almost throws Ruby off her feet as a hand slams into the barrier, the Demon Fox in all of his fiery, golden glory appearing before them, his tails fanned out behind him and a windstorm of force trailing in his wake.

"Didn't I tell you…?" a guttural growl comes from underneath that horrifying mask. The huntress winces, falling back a step as his fingers dig into the array of purple runes, cracking the barrier like glass.

"Your opponent is me!"

With a sound like fracturing ice, the barrier shatters. The barrier that had stood up to the masked boy's attacks again and again shatters, and he lunges forward, Crescent Rose poised to take the huntress's neck.

The huntress dodges the swing with an almost casual air. She steps to the side and brings down the arm holding the riding crop in one smooth motion. An invisible force smashes the masked boy against the ground. The street erupts upward into a spike, impaling him through the stomach. Another swing of the riding crop releases that same warped crack as before, an unseen blast of telekinetic energy crashing into him, launching him across the street, into and through the upper-half of the wall behind the man in the bowler cap.

It all happens in the span of less than ten seconds. And in next, a very familiar gunshot rings out from behind the remains of the wall as a blur of gold smashes through the bottom half and in an invisible force throws Ruby to the side. The huntress summons another barrier and immediately dives to the side, the masked boy slicing it in two with a single swing, his tails forming into a monstrous, three-fingered claw as he flies past them, the claw slamming into the street to stop his forward momentum.

'What is even happening?!' Ruby thinks to herself. 'I… I can't even keep up with them!'

Where did it all go so wrong? All she wanted to do was read the latest Weapon's Monthly and enjoy the last few days of summer before school starts. Then again, it was actually going pretty well. Sure that guy tried to mug her, but he was a total push over. Kind of lucky that he did, actually. If he hadn't, she probably wouldn't have even noticed the place getting robbed. That would've been embarrassing.

But she did notice. And as an aspiring huntress and a good civilian, there was only one thing to do. Things were going pretty well.

Then he showed up and proceeded to put his foot somewhere between her lungs and colon. Which, in a sense, is also kind of lucky, considering, from what she is currently seeing, he very well could have simply opted to put his foot through her lungs and colon and saved himself the trouble.

And an eye.

Shockwaves and explosions echo through the street, purple and gold clashing against each other with boundless skill and overwhelming strength. Spears fly. Gunshots crack. The very world bends to the huntress's command, shaping itself into spears and arrows and invisible blasts of force, conjuring barriers of luminescent violet. Even so, the meteor of gold smashes through them, slices them to bits and crushes them with absolute power. For the moment, they appear to be evenly matched. For the moment, the huntress is able to keep away from the crimson scythe blade and golden tails, flipping and dodging with a surprising agility and flexibility for her uptight appearance.

But slowly, ever so slightly, the huntress appears to be tiring. Her movements are less sharp, less crisp, beads of sweat beginning to drip down her brow. Meanwhile, even as he takes injury after injury that would easily put any other fighter down for the count, the masked boy seems only to accelerate, moving with a speed that makes even her semblance look as slow as a turtle in comparison, his clothing taking the brunt of the damage as his wounds seem to heal as soon as they appear.

All except for his eye and that slight cut over his right hand.

The man in the bowler cap and the thugs and probably even that old man are long gone. And she probably should have been too. But…

But…

It paralyzes her. Shakes her to the core. Not just the realization of how easily the masked boy could have turned that vision of her death into a reality, but that he chose not to, laughing and joking with her even after she sliced out his eye.

That he, the criminal, is fighting a desperate battle against the huntress to give his comrades a chance to escape.

That she, the huntress, is the one trying to bring about his death. That she came here to kill him.

The hero trying to destroy. The villain trying to protect. It is wrong. It is all just wrong, and she cannot help but watch, cursing her own powerlessness and inability to do anything to correct the wrongness in front of her.

A crash. The street shakes beneath her feet. A flick of the riding crop sends the masked boy careening into the street, his haori and shirt in tatters to the point where Ruby isn't sure where she is supposed to look. In an instant, he flips back onto his feet. The asphalt shatters as he becomes a streak of blazing gold on a course to run straight over the huntress.

A trio of violet barriers take form to bar his path. He smashes through the first two on his momentum alone, a flail of his tails breaking through the third. The flaming scythe blade of Crescent Rose slashes at the huntress and she tilts her body back, letting the swing pass over her. She jabs the riding crop at the back of the sniper-scythe, forcing it to the ground, the street opening and closing around the top of the scythe head.

She brings up her other hand. He whips around, his tails wrapping around his other arm, forming a massive blade about his forearm. A slash forces her to defend, the golden blade scrapping against a miniature circle of violet runes.

"Hmph-!"

With a grunt, he rips the scythe blade free of the street, bringing it down in an overhead slash. The huntress flips backwards into the air as the swing smashes a crater into the street. Instead of falling back to the earth, she hovers in mid-air crossing both arms over her chest.

Golden tails flash forth, splitting apart into a trio of flaming spears. She doesn't dodge. Maybe because of the huntress's aura, her semblance or maybe for some other reason, the spears veer ever so slightly off course, only slicing her shoulder, side and cheek instead of impaling her down the middle as her hands snap forward, a sound like a cannonball being fired from a canon resonating through the night.

The masked boy is crushed into the asphalt. A purple glow engulfs the street. Great slabs of pavement smash together, burying those golden tails deep beneath them, forming into a coffin of stone and sinking into the earth as a seal of purple runes spreads over them, spires of ice sprouting from the runes, stabbing through the coffin and entrapping it in ice.

Then, the sky shivers. The air pulses. A sound like nails scrapping against a chalkboard amplified a hundredfold fills the street, the frozen prison shattering along with the entirety of the street, stone and ice falling apart as though cut to pieces by a hundred invisible blades. Even her own footing is slices to pieces and Ruby begins to fall as the street caves in on itself.

Jade eyes snap to her. A force takes hold of her and the huntress swoops in to grab her. She takes to the sky as night turns to day and three, massive tails of glowing light emerge from beneath the rubble, each easily three stories tall, each forming into a giant, clawed hand at their ends, and each lunging for the huntress.

She flies around them, panting ever so slightly, landing on the roof of a building. The hands smash into and through the building and the huntress flies higher into the air, holding Ruby under her arm.

She draws the riding crop back. A giant seal of purple runes appears above them, one large enough to cover the entire intersection. Stone and rubble rises, the entire street taking into the sky and forming a legion of spears. The temperature drops. A chill crawls over her skin. A second seal appears before them, a blue-white crystal shatters and the moisture in the air condenses, a second swarm of frozen daggers forming rank in front of the spears of stone.

The riding crop falls. The storm of ice and stone descends. Daggers and spears, blue-white, grey and black, fall like rain, stabbing into the glowing hands. Slowly, the hands begin to fall beneath the weight of the rain of stone, collapsing back underground. The light vanishes. The huntress flicks her riding crop again, the street reconstructing itself, restoring itself to a pristine state in a matter of seconds.

Panting and sweating ever so slightly, the huntress hovers over to the roof of another, nearby building. She sets Ruby down and kneels over, putting her hands on her knees as she gasps for air.

"Is…" Ruby takes a moment to adjust herself, looking around. "Is it over?"

"In your dreams, wolfie."

The voice comes from behind her. She almost trips and falls over nothing as the source of the voice appears behind them in a flicker of golden flame.

He looks just the same as when she first saw him. No gouge in his mask. No tattered haori. Not even the slightest sign of exhaustion or fatigue. With Crescent Rose hefted over his shoulder, the White-Faced, Gold-Tailed, Demon Fox regards them with amusement.

"Yo."

He gives them a wave. Ruby steps in front of the huntress, the older woman obviously in no shape to fight another battle against the seemingly immortal Demon Fox. And the huntress grabs her shoulder with a surprising amount of strength, shoving her behind her.

"Stay behind me," she says, trying her hardest not to let her exhaustion show.

"So I'm just going to go ahead and say it," the masked boy says. "Seriously? You can fly? Since when can you fucking fly? Whoever trained you must have really taken that whole 'Good-witch' thing and ran with it. By the Sage, that semblance of yours is so cool! I mean, I can fly too, but when I do it, it's really a lot more like me kind of hovering there, you know?"

The huntress says nothing. Ruby stares at him, trying to figure out just how someone supposedly her own age can fight a huntress and come out the other end totally unscathed.

"It's not like me, cause you know, White-face," he touches his mask. "Gold-tailed. Oh, I have fun with that sometimes. But really, it's like they couldn't decide what to call me and just shoved it all in. "That way, surely anyone who has heard of him will be able to recognize him on sight!" I bet those old geezers were all like that, patting themselves on the back. Lot of people just call me the Demon Fox. Or the White-Gold Fox… but most just go with Demon Fox."

"How…"

"Hm?"

His gaze turns to her, both of his eyes a striking, pale blue. Both eyes. Not just one, wreathed in a burning, spiteful crimson. Ruby swallows a lump in her throat. There is a part of her relieved to see that she hadn't seriously injured him after all. But even so, for him to be able to heal a wound like that so quickly, even while fighting against a huntress…

"How are you so strong…?" she asks.

"Well," the masked boy puts a hand on his hip with a chuckle. He looks to the huntress, his eyes flickering red. "You spend six years with people like her trying to kill you every other week, you tend to get that strong. That or you die. One or the other."

He taps his mask around his right eye. "But, as I'm sure you've seen today, I have this nasty habit of not dying when I'm killed. So really, there was only one thing I could do!"

From the casual air with which he explains it to the matter-of-fact tone of his voice it seems like only common sense. As if he had just told her the sky is blue and the grass is green except for when it isn't. Except… except…

"Six years?!" Ruby blanches. That can't be right. There's no way. Because- "That pumpkin head guy said we're the same age, right?! Fifteen, right?! So-"

"Since I was nine~," the Demon Fox singsongs. He looks to the huntress with a dark chuckle. "First person to try to kill me was a teacher too! Funny."

Ruby glances at the huntress, not sure what to expect. Fear? Anger? Pity? Definitely not the open-eyed expression of shock the woman is sending the masked boy.

She looks back to him. "But… why…?"

Her dad is a teacher. Her uncle was even a teacher, for a time. The teacher who had taught her everything she knows, the one who spent so much time and effort to mold the clumsy lump of awkwardness that was Ruby Rose into a capable warrior. For her whole life, a teacher has always been a bastion of knowledge and safety, a pillar to rely on. For someone like that to try to kill him… at only nine…

He lets one arm hang limp at his side. His eyes close and, for a moment, the ever-talkative boy says nothing. Then-

"Because I am the Demon Fox."

His eyes open, a burning, molten crimson.

He takes a step. Hefts the sniper-scythe from over his shoulder, holding it at his side.

"I've answered quite a few of your questions, haven't I?" the masked boy muses. "So, Rose, why don't you answer one of mine?"

She stiffens at hearing him using her actual last name. The discomfort and shock only lasts for a moment, however. Just long enough for her to realize it really isn't that much of a stretch for him to give her the nickname of 'rose', all things considered.

At least it's better than 'wolfie'.

"You said you want to be a huntress, right? So, you can be someone who 'saves those who can't save themselves'?"

He points Crescent Rose off into the distance, in the direction where the man in the bowler cap and his henchmen had fled. "Well, if you're here to save that old man…"

He points at himself with the same hand holding the sniper-scythe. "… and she is here to save you."

Finally, he points the weapon at the huntress.

"Then who's going to save me?"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Ah ha! Trick question. Like hell I need to be saved from a saggy old hag and some little girl who still wears wolf-print panties."

"H-hey!"

"Right, sorry. Not saggy. Still an old hag."

The masked pervert shrugs his shoulder back. Cracks his neck. "Anyway, I suppose I should be making my grand get away now. Stalled for long enough."

Glynda narrows her eyes, raising her riding crop. Ruby stiffens as those crimson eyes look to her.

"By the way, wolfie? You might want to get out of the way."

It appears without warning, coming from right behind them. A sound like a hundred fans all spinning to life at once. Recognition flashes over the huntress's face as she whirls around with wide eyes, grabbing Ruby and throwing her out of the way.

She only has the time to summon another barrier before a glowing, blue sphere the size of a basketball rips through it like a wet sheet of paper, exploding and sending her hurling across the roof, towards the masked boy. He stomps his foot. A wall of stone erupts from the roof in front of him and the huntress slams into it.

"Guh-!"

She tries to raise her riding crop again. A white blur flashes across the roof top, their mysterious attacker grabbing her wrist and slamming her arm against the stone wall before she can do anything. They pulls back their other hand, five ghostly flames flickering to life over their fingertips.

It is the Demon Fox. A second Demon Fox, Ruby realizes as the doppelganger slams their hand into the huntress's stomach.

The flames over his fingers burn through her blouse. Her eyes go wide like a fish. She lets out a wordless gasp, her entire body going limp and the riding crop falling from her grasp. The second Demon Fox releases her and the huntress falls, sliding down the wall, still alive but with her features locked in a pained grimace.

The first… the original(?) Demon Fox steps out from behind the wall, giving the downed huntress a sympathetic glance. "Uwaah, you didn't have to be so harsh about it…"

He looks to Ruby. "See, our original could have just done that from the start, but he's a rather stubborn child."

"He's the type that'd refuse to eat his vegetables, or that'd do something just because someone told him not to or would rather die than use the technique of someone he 'hates' to save himself," the masked boy explains in a jovial tone. "Luckily for him, we clones aren't quite so picky."

"You're both… clones?"

The Demon Fox holding Crescent Rose gives her a peace sign. "Hehe, yup."

"You're slow," the second clone chastises the first clone in a cold voice, his eyes a chilling blue.

"I got here as fast as I could…" the first clone with blazing red eyes whines. "You're just too fast…"

"You wrap up here. I'm going to make sure he doesn't run into any other trouble."

"Sure, sure~."

The second vanishes in a swirl of leaves, leaving both Ruby and the huntress alone with the first clone. The one who, luckily for them, seemingly appears to have inherited the original's lightheartedness.

"Sooo~," the clone begins, drumming its fingers against its hip. "My, er, the original's general policy is kind of like a reverse Golden Rule. You know, the whole 'do to others what you want them to do to you'? Except flipped so it's 'do to others what they do to you'."

'Oh crap,' Ruby thinks as the clone looks to her.

"You cut out his eye." The clone's voice gains a dangerous edge and it takes a step towards her. "Again and again he told you to leave, but you were a bad child and didn't listen."

Crimson eyes narrow, flashing with ill intent. Crescent Rose's blade gleams ominously, the moonlight dancing upon its edge. "And bad children deserve punishment. Are you ready for yours?"

"Wait."

It comes from behind, a desperate plea. The clone turns to find the huntress leaning against the wall, clutching her stomach and struggling to stand.

"Let me…" the woman pants. Those harsh jade eyes look from the clone to Ruby. "What she did… was foolish-"

Ruby winces.

"-misguided-"

Another wince.

"-and reckless. Tonight, she put not only herself, but countless others in grave danger."

"Not entirely untrue," the clone chuckles.

The silver-eyed girl winces again, resisting the urge to pull up her hood and curl into a ball to see if she can disappear.

"… But…"

A sigh.

"She performed well and above what would be expected of a huntress in training." Glynda Goodwitch finishes, her gaze softening ever so slightly. "Please. I will accept whatever punishment you have intended for her."

Ruby stares at the huntress with wide eyes, the sheer exaltation of being praised by the huntress muted only by the thought of just what the masked criminal is about to do to her.

He looks to the huntress. Shrugs. "If you say so."

She closes her eyes in acceptance. The Demon Fox turns to the older woman. He walks over, holding Crescent Rose at his side.

Ruby closes her eyes as well, unable to watch.

And instead of a sickening crunch, a fleshy, smack echoes over the rooftop.

Ruby furrows her brow. Peeks one eye open to find the clone standing behind the huntress with one hand raised as if he just… if he just…

She stares in disbelief, her mouth hanging slightly open.

The huntress's eyes are wide and unblinking. As if she herself is having trouble comprehending what just happened. Or if her brain is having trouble processing the sheer rage and indignation she is currently feeling. One or the other.

"Bad girl." The clone says in a flat tone.

"Did you just…" Ruby struggles to put words to her thoughts. As if she can't even believe what she is about to say. "Did you just spank her?!"

"What? You didn't think I was actually going to rip out one of your eyes, did you?"

Before Ruby can respond, in the time it takes her mind to process that yes, the clone does have a point, Glynda proceeds to whirl around, grabbing the clone's head and smashing it into the wall. He bursts into smoke, Crescent Rose and all, leaving Ruby alone with the woman whose raw fury seems to be currently dying the air around her in a pitch black haze, her eyes wide like saucers and her pupils dilated into tiny little dots.

She lets out a forced chuckle as those green pinpricks turn on her.

"S-so uh… how about that autograph…?"


"Well… that doesn't look good."

His clone had met up with him and they had escaped through the underground passageways that seem to go all throughout Vale. He should probably look into that later. But, for now, there are more important things he has to worry about. Of those things include, but are not limited to, getting the hell off Sanus before Goodwitch hunts him down and strangles him with his own intestines for what his clone just did, finding a place that actually sells ramen in the dead-fricken-middle of the night and figuring out just what the hell that girl did to his eye.

An orange tracksuit with black highlights, decorated with blood red spirals, replaces his ruined haori and work clothes. A knapsack hangs over his shoulder, heavy with the weight of his sole, earthly possessions and the compact form of the sniper-scythe.

In the bathroom of a late-night convenience store, Naruto Uzumaki stares into the mirror. And only one ashen blue eye stares back at him, a curious wound over where his right eye should be. It runs from just above his eyebrow to right below his eye socket, the skin cracked and broken with… tiny, rose petals flittering out of the wound.

He blinks only his right eye. Somehow, someway, the eyelid is not broken. Instead, a line of flittering crimson runs straight over his eye, just offset of the center as though someone had drawn it on his face with a marker.

Moreover, despite having sealed his tails away once again, his right eye hasn't changed back. The sclera is still black. The color of the iris is still a bloody, glowing crimson. The pupil is gone, leaving his eye a crimson dot in a pool of shadow with a line of flittering scarlet down the middle.

It… is healing. Slowly, but surely. The wound on his hand is gone and the cut is already much smaller than it had been initially. But for an injury to persist for this long, even after he had gone up to three tails…

"Uuuugh…"

Naruto groans, leaning against the sink. He closes his right eye. Swings his bag around and fishes out a piece of paper and his ink and brush.

"Whatever… I'll worry about that girl and her freaky eyes later…"

It is a relatively simple seal, one just to mask the appearance of whatever is under it. It won't heal him or let him see out of it again, but at least he won't be walking around with a glowing, demonic eye of DOOM. He fits it onto his face, the rose petals disappear under the strip of paper, becoming a simple scar over a milky blue pupil.

Brushing his hair back, the white-haired boy sighs, takes a moment to check his appearance and makes his way out of the bathroom.

He buys a cheap, energy drink, downing it before he even gets out of the store. Makes his way down the street. Finds the closest bench and proceeds to flop down over it, giving all of no shits who sees him.

His entire body pulses with an aching agony, the waves of pain crashing against him with every little motion. He might not have gone four-tails, but three still takes enough of a toll on his body. Combine that with how he had gone up to four only a few days before, throw in a pinch of having to fight freakin Goodwitch, and the result is his current sad state.

"Damn clones… ugh. Didn't use the Rasengan because I don't need more people coming after me and asking questions…"

It's not because he'd rather burn in hell than rely on anything that fucking piece of shit taught him to get out of a pinch.

Really.

A groan. Breathing hurts. Thinking hurts. Hurting hurts. It's as though someone poured a bucket of slow-acting acid into his veins, letting the mixture spread before taking effect. Like his whole body is one big, sore, cramped up muscle and someone had just gave it a good, hard poke.

Naruto grunts. He attempts to roll off the bench, only to face plant straight into the sidewalk. Another grunt. Pulling his face off the ground, he gets back to his feet, making a quick right straight into the closest back alleyway.

He stumbles through the street. Leans on the wall for support. Deep bags hang under both his eyes, a bead of cold sweat rolling down his brow. Slowly, carefully, he navigates the trash and discarded foodstuffs that litter the ground, making sure not to step in anything that will stick or smell.

"It's just past midnight… I'm hungry and tired… and limping through some shady back alley to escape getting the crap further kicked out of me by whatever it is this week that's made my job go off the rails… huh. It Tuesday already?"

Just what did he do to earn this level of bad karma? Did he piss off some goddess in another life or something?

Probably did, actually.

And speaking of angry, pissed off and absurdly powerful women with, arguably justified grudges towards him…

Something's changed. Before, of the places always sending people after him, Vale was one of the few to actively avoid any potential confrontations. Most of the time, whenever he came into conflict with teams of huntsmen from Sanas, it was both of them being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Even his previous encounter with the witch had been a matter of circumstance.

But this time, it sounded like they had specifically send her out to try to deal with him. For whatever reason, the Council of Vale has decided they can't just leave him to his own devices anymore. And they had even sent one of their most powerful pieces to enforce their will.

Why? What happened? Does it have anything to do with the White Fang? All these questions and more race through his mind, all but short circuiting his brain as he makes his way to one of the only places to get food this late at night. He shambles into a bar, plopping his face down onto the counter. His knapsack hits the floor with a thud. The bartender makes his way over with a frown.

"Sorry kid, we don't serve minors after ten. You got an id?"

Something between a grunt and a groan comes from the mop of white hair. He reaches into his pocket, throwing a handful of lein onto the counter. The bartender eyes the lein with a twinkle of greed in his eye, but still shakes his head nevertheless.

"Nice try, but the answer's still no. No kids under eighteen without adult supervision after ten."

"He is with me," a voice, his savior, comes from behind him.

"Hey, we don't allow outside beverages in here- wait. You, you're-!"

"My apologies. We'll have a large miso ramen, please."

The bartender scurries off to fire up the cooker. The owner of the polite and stoic voice takes a seat next to him.

"It is not often I find a boy with a head of hair as white as my own. Long day?"

"Something like that," Naruto groans. Turning his head to get a look at his mysterious benefactor. "Used to be blond when I was a kid. Anyway, I don't know who you are but tha…nks…"

Messy white hair. Kind brown eyes. Leaf green scarf. The man gives him a slight smile, his light complexion and sharp facial features familiar to just about every man, woman and child in Remnant.

Headmaster of Beacon Academy and one of the most powerful men in the Kingdoms, Ozpin the Great and Terrible looks back at him.

It dawns on him, an understanding of just why the bartender had freaked out. Naruto rolls his face back onto the counter, attempting to become one with the bar.

"Is something the matter?" Ozpin asks in an amused tone.

"Ah, no. Just… contemplating my life choices. One minute please."

'FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-'


AN: Apologizes about the chapter being so late. See, if I was smart, I would have also said to check my profile if the chapter doesn't come out to see if there are any delays. So, for the future, if I am late publishing on my schedule, just check my profile and I'll probably have left some little note there or something. I actually sat down on the day I was SUPPOSED to publish this and hammered out 12 pages like it was a history paper due the next day, but I figured I'd rather delay the release just to polish it a bit. Hopefully it was worth the 24-hour wait.

Personal thoughts and questions:

How are people feeling about the fight scenes?

Does it make sense why Glynda is able to stand up against Naruto? Is it adequately explained or does the power scaling come off as weird?