Chapter Three: Meeting Little Red Riding Hood
Naruto couldn't help to raise a neatly-trimmed eyebrow at the castle-like structure that was Beacon Academy as he stared impassively at it. While the building was a very impressive sight to behold, it was nothing in comparison to the numerous castles in Hoshido. While the building was aesthetically-pleasant to look at, it had little to offer in terms of military advantages for the defenders in case of attacks. With the castle designs in Hoshido, defense was top priority and the structure's beauty was created purely by accident on the account of the building-style that was practiced.
"Perhaps, the builders believed that a building filled with hunters-in-training would be enough of a deterrent for attackers? It doesn't seem logical as the closest kingdom is to the west of Vale, so why did they build a school like Beacon Academy in this way?" The blonde-haired ninja mentally theorized as everybody walked passed him without notice.
It perfectly suited him that people were openly ignoring him as Emperor Gōda expected from his ninja to remain unseen by the general population. The one of the few exceptions to this rule were ninja that are a part of Oniwabanshū as they lived and trained within the imperial grounds. At one point, he had been asked to join the group after saving the royal family from assassins that were working on the behalf of the Four Kingdoms.
"Man, Tsunade-Bāchan really wanted to skin me alive after she learned that I refused such a prestigious request." Naruto mused as he shivered in fear at the memory.
There was a very good reason that Tsunade was considered to be one of the most feared kunoichi in history. The woman was capable of shattering mountains with a single punch and curing a person from any sort of disease that wasn't terminal. However, she had developed a debilitating case of hemophobia after witnessing her lover die from battle-inflicted wounds in the Second Shinobi World War. It was only thanks to him that she managed to overcome her fear for the most part.
The blonde-haired ninja was pulled out of his reminiscing by a sudden commotion that was a few yards away. Naruto turned his attention towards the commotion and found a girl that had black-hair with red tips was spinning around in circles.
"Wait, where are you going?! Are we supposed to go to our dorms? Where are our dorms? Do we even have dorms?" A girl with dizzy-eyes called out as she spun around in circles.
Naruto couldn't help to feel sorry for the girl as she looked out of place in comparison with everybody else. If he had to make an educated guess about the girl's age, the Jinchūriki would estimate her to have just turned fifteen within the last few months. So now that brought a new line of questions to the forefront of his mind. Why a fifteen-year-old would be allowed entry to a school that required would-be students to be at least seventeen in order to attend?
"I don't know what I'm doing..." The young girl said as she managed to stop spinning around in circles.
However, Naruto could tell that she was still reeling from the ordeal and started counting down until she fell. Sure enough, the girl fell backwards into a luggage cart and caused several cases to fly into the air. A girl with white-hair scowled at the first girl. As much as he wanted to intervene to prevent a potential disaster, he didn't want to be anywhere close to a girl that reminded him of Sasuke Uchiha.
"What are you doing?!" the white-haired girl scolded as she glared at the younger girl.
The girl that had black-hair with red tips got up on her hands and gave a quick apology. However, the white-haired girl wasn't in a forgiving mood as she continued to scold the other girl.
"Sorry?! Do you have any idea of the damage you could have caused?" She demanded in a rude and condescending manner.
Naruto frowned in open disgust at the arrogance that was being shown in front of him. It reminded him of the attitude that Sasuke during their days at the academy in Konohagakure, the last member of the Uchiha had acted like everybody in the village owed him.
"Uuhhh….." The girl that had black-hair with red tips said as she picked up a suitcase.
The blonde-haired ninja's instincts told him that something funny was about to happen and it involved those two girls.
"Give me that! This is dust that was mined and purified from the Schnee quarry!"The white-haired girl snarled as she snatched the luggage away from the smaller girl and opened it to reveal the twinkling-sounding contents within.
Naruto's eyes narrowed in anger at the mentioning of the Schnee Company as he noticed the Conglomerate's logo on the back of the white-haired girl's jacket. During the war, the company enslaved countless of villagers and forced them to mine for dust. Hundreds of people died from malnutrition and the horrible working conditions that they were forced to endure. It was even rumored that scientists working for the company had been conducting inhumane experiments on captured samurai and ninja.
Uuuhhhh..." The first girl lamely spoke as she tried to get a word in.
However, the second girl wasn't allowing it to happen.
What are you, brain-dead? Dust! Fire, water, lightning, energy!" The snarky girl scolded as she held out a vial of red Dust and shut the case.
Naruto scoffed at the four kingdom's constant reliance on dust as there was only a finite supply of the stuff in the world. Unlike the businesses in Hoshido that tended to use recyclable material, the Schnee Company was trying to pump as much material out of the earth as possible. Once they were done sucking out the recourses from the area, they would simply move onto the next.
"I... I know..." The girl with black hair and red tips tried to say before she started coughing from the Dust that was being pouring into her face.
With a gleeful smile on his face, the representative of Hoshido was mentally counting down before something happened.
"Are you even listening to me? Is any of this sinking in? What do you have to say for yourself?!" The white-haired girl demanded without realizing the situation that she was facing.
The wannabe red riding hood let out a powerful sneeze that quickly erupted into a full-blown explosion of flames, snowflakes, and electricity right onto the person that was responsible. The bottle that the white-haired girl had been holding flew over the courtyard and at the feet of a girl with a black bow that was reading from a book.
"Unbelievable! This is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about!" The white-haired girl commented in disgust.
Naruto wanted to laugh at the seeing one of the Schnee Company's heiress covered from head to toe in soot.
"I'm really, really sorry!" The girl that had black-hair with red tips said in a tone that showed that she was sorry the incident.
The white-haired girl quickly cleaned herself of soot and shot a nasty glare at the smaller girl.
"Ugh, you complete dolt! What are you even doing here? Aren't you a little young to be attending Beacon?" She questioned after firing off another insult.
It was painfully obvious by now that the white-haired girl wasn't a people's person by any means of the imagination. In many ways, she was reminded Naruto of the terrible attitude that the civilian council had shown towards everybody before the war.
Well, I-I..." The girl with the red hood tried to explain.
The white-haired girl started ranting at the fact that a fifteen-year-old was walking around one of the most prestigious academies in the world like she was a student.
"This isn't your ordinary combat school. It's not just sparring and practice, you know! We're here to fight monsters, so... watch where you're going!" the heiress of Schnee company yelled as she akimbo her arms.
By this point, the young girl that was cosplaying as red riding hood had reached her breaking point.
"Hey, I said I was sorry, princess!" the girl snapped in a tone that showed that she was fed up with the white-haired girl's attitude.
It was at this moment that the girl with bow on her head started to walk over to the bickering duo. With the eyes of a hawk, Naruto spotted that the ribbon would occasionally twitch like something was being concealed by the fabric. It was painfully obvious that the black-haired girl was a Faunus that was trying to avoid detection for some unknown reason by blending in with regular humans.
"It's heiress, actually." The ribbon wearing girl commented as she entered the conversation.
Both the girl in the red-hood and the white-haired girl looked over as the girl with the bow approached them with the bottle in hand.
"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellant in the world." The girl with the bow on her head continued on.
Weiss started smiling smugly at finding somebody that recognized the greatest of her family.
"Finally! Some recognition!" She proudly exclaimed.
For the second time that day, Naruto started a mental countdown until something happened that the Schnee heiress wouldn't like. If he had to guess, the disguised faunas would make a comment about the questionable actions of the company.
"The same company that's infamous for its controversial labor forces and questionable business partners." The girl with the bow commented as she held out the vial of dust.
At hearing about the actions of her father, Weiss went red in the face with absolute anger. The fact that the girl in the red hood was chuckling at her anger was only adding more fuel to the proverbial fire.
"Wha- How dare you- The nerve of... Ugh!" Weiss stuttered before getting up into the girl with the bow's face.
Without any hesitation, she yanked the bottle away before walking off in a huff as her helpers gathered the luggage and followed suit.
With the entertainment over, Naruto started walking over to the girl in the red hood. The girl seem to be socially-awkward to the point that he was willing to make a bet that she wasn't aware of the war between Hoshido and the four kingdoms of Remnant. Besides, it might help him to gain a meeting with the blonde-haired lookalike of Raven Branwen.
Ruby Rose was sitting in the fetal position as her left finger was making imaginary circles in the rock walkway. After Weiss had stormed off in anger at having her family's reputation insulted, the girl that came to her rescue had walked off without bothering to introduce herself.
"Welcome to Beacon…" she muttered to herself in sadness.
She continued to fiddle around with the ground until a shadow covered her form. She looked up to see a young man standing over her with a hand extended out in a friendly manner. What was really odd about the stranger was the fact that he had a mask covering the lower portion of his face. Another interesting feature about the guy's clothing was the black bandanna with a metal plate that was tied around his forehead.
"It looks like you need a hand, little lady." The figure politely spoke as the sun prevented her from completely seeing the fellow hunter-in-training's clothing and other noticeable features.
With some hesitation, she took the offered hand and was hoisted to her feet. The fifteen-year-old was able to get a better look at the rest of the clothing that the young man was wearing and felt a ping of fear in the back of her mind. However, she would admit that his clothes looked kind of cool. In some ways, the clothing reminded her of the uniforms that those dangerous commandos wore in Uncle Qrow's stories.
"Thank you…Uuhhh." Ruby started to say before realizing that she didn't know his name.
In a way that the scythe-user didn't think possible the weirdly-dressed teen smiled using only his eyes.
"I go by the codename of fox." The blonde-haired teen calmly commented.
A giant question mark appeared over Ruby's head as that was another similarity that the guy shared with the shadow warriors in her uncle's war stories. See the confusion in her eyes, fox chuckled in amusement and he decided to enlighten her about his introduction.
"Don't take it personal or anything, but I only allow close friends to use my real name in conversations." He explained to the gothic-looking girl.
What he didn't tell her was the fact that he started doing this after a collaborator had overheard a conversation between him and Rock Lee about a recent mission. The traitorous bastard notified a squad of Atlesian soldiers about Lee's presence in the village in exchange for two-thousand pieces of silver. The squad managed to capture bushy brows and tortured him to death in retaliation for a recent defeat.
"Okay….anyway, my name is Ruby." Ruby introduced herself in a friendly manner.
Unbeknownst the two teenagers, Ozpin was calmly watching them from a video feed in the comfort of his office.
Okay, people. Here's a list of Konoha Twelve that either killed in action (KIA), missing in action (MIA), or still active in the story's universe. I don't want any complaints from you about your favorite characters being killed off as I randomly drew names from a hat. If you guys want to know how they died, then leave it in a review.
Shino Aburame (KIA)
Chōji Akimichi (KIA)
Sakura Haruno (KIA)
Hinata Hyūga (KIA)
Neji Hyūga (KIA)
Kiba Inuzuka (MIA)
Rock Lee (KIA)
Shikamaru Nara (MIA)
Tenten (Active)
Sasuke Uchiha (Active)
Naruto Uzumaki (Active)
Ino Yamanaka (KIA)
With that being said, please leave a review on the chapter. Until next time, Hoorah to Ashes!
