A/N: And another update! Slower than I intended, but certainly better than last time.
Big thanks to TehUnoman for beta reading this.
Enough sugar and cream to make most people cringe and grind their teeth hit the spot just right as Ruby sipped at her coffee, tapping away at the scroll balanced on her lap with her free hand. Despite keeping her hands busy, Ruby couldn't quite hide the nervous energy that was filling her, bursting out in the way her feet tapped the wall she was sitting astride.
It had been a full week since Team RUBY had been formed, and Ruby felt about ready to burst from all the information that had been stuffed into her head in those few days.
Monday through Wednesday had been packed full of lectures, workshops and seminars for the entire team, from academic subjects like History or Math to Huntsman specific ones like Grimm Studies and Aura Theory. Thursday had almost been a day off for most of the team, just a lone lecture in the middle of the day for Naruto, Blake, and Yang; but for Ruby it had been packed full of enough leadership specific classes to leave her head spinning.
And now, Friday. Friday was odd; the team had no classes scheduled, but it still wasn't a day off. Instead Ruby, as leader, was to organise a day of physical and combat training for her team as she saw fit.
The thought was oddly intimidating. Beyond her own workout routine, specialised for the speed, reflexes, and arm strength that she needed to wield Crescent Rose, Ruby didn't know a whole lot about physical training. Yang had always been the one who had taken after their father there, learning so much about the human body and how to train it that she had always joked if she ever washed out of hunting she could always open her own gym. Heck, she had pretty much custom designed Ruby's training regime for her.
Unfortunately, the flurry of classes hadn't given Ruby much time to ask Yang's advice. So she had spent last night putting together a plan that she hoped would do until she could come up with something better, while also helping the team to (hopefully) bond a bit.
God knows they could use some of that. Ruby sighed at the thought; it was frustrating, Team RUBY had the makings of a great team, she could feel it. Every now and then the various members would mesh in a way that worked perfectly and just felt natural. It never lasted though, and Ruby despaired at the thought that trying to pull these fragmented pieces together was her responsibility.
Ruby's scroll beeped cheerfully as an alarm sounded, informing her in bold letters that it was now 9:30. The redhead gave herself a few more seconds to mentally prepare before flicking the messenger app open and sending off a trio of prepared messages, calling her team to meet. The scroll beeped as the messages were sent, and Ruby minimised it with a flick of her wrist and set off towards her destination
As well as the various academic facilities that it boasted, Beacon Academy came equipped with the largest training center that Ruby had ever seen. The training center was housed in its own complex and separated from the main campus by a wide field, which was ringed by an impressively large running track and pockmarked with battle scars from sparring students.
It was here that Ruby was making her way to meet her team. To her surprise, as she approached the building Ruby, found that Naruto had beaten her here and was sitting on one of the benches outside, staring off into space.
As she approached, Ruby eyed Naruto carefully, trying to gauge his mood. After the good start to the week, Naruto's behaviour had been unpredictable recently. At times, the ninja seemed friendly and open; joking about with Ruby, eagerly learning everything he could, and generally being a model teammate. His mood seemed to fluctuate wildly though, and at other times he seemed strained, tired, jumpy, and sometimes downright nasty if someone caught him unaware. The latter was particularly true early in the morning.
He seemed to be in a slightly better mood than the past few days from what she could see. Tired, slightly dazed, and not all there, but not particularly ill-tempered, so Ruby made her way over with a wave that he didn't even seem to notice.
"Good morning Naruto!" Ruby chirped as she got closer, hoping that if she threw enough happiness at him it would be infectious. Naruto jerked up in surprise and began glancing around wildly, one hand darting towards one of the knives Ruby had noticed him hiding around his body, until he saw that it was her and relaxed a bit.
"Oh, uh, morning Red," he called around a yawn.
Ruby sat herself down on the bench near the ninja, trying to hide her frown as she got a good look at him. This close up, she could clearly see the unfocused glaze to his eyes, and the dark bags hanging under them. After a few seconds she realised that she had been staring when Naruto raised an eyebrow at her questioningly. Ruby flushed and stammered, "A-are you alright? You look uhh, well-"
"I'm fine." Naruto cut her off. When Ruby continued to look at him sceptically he sighed and continued. "I've not been sleeping too well recently. I can burn chakra to stay awake, but that doesn't stop me from feeling like shit. It's nothing serious."
That wasn't news to Ruby - Naruto's nightmares were vocal enough that the entire team knew about them by now - but it was the first time that he had actually mentioned it to one of them, rather than trying to pretend it wasn't happening. Progress!
"Missing home?" she guessed. Ruby was feeling more than a little homesick herself, and Patch was barely a day away from Beacon in an airship. Naruto had mentioned offhand once that it had taken weeks for him to get here by airship; Ruby couldn't imagine what being that far away from home must feel like.
There was a long moment of silence before Naruto answered, long enough for Ruby to just start worrying that she shouldn't have pushed. "Kinda. I do miss Konoha, but it's a bit more than that. I…" Naruto paused and looked conflicted, as though he wasn't sure whether to keep talking or not. Before he could decide, the choice was made for him as a bright voice cut through the quiet.
"Hellooooooooo!" Yang's voice came from down the path and Naruto's mouth snapped shut, a sour look flitting across his face for a moment. Naruto and Yang had continued to butt heads pretty much all the time they weren't ignoring each other, and it tended to be just a bit too heartfelt for Ruby to be comfortable with.
Ruby had never felt so annoyed at the sound of her sister's voice. As soon as she appeared walking down the path towards them, Naruto closed right back up; whatever he had possibly been about to tell her lost to the wind. Instead he looked past Yang and raised a hand to the black-haired girl walking quietly a few feet behind her, which Blake hesitantly returned after a second.
The last member of Team RUBY was hard for Ruby to describe, in part because she seemed to go out of her way to avoid talking to them more than was necessary. Naruto seemed to be bonding with her a bit over books, and Yang seemed to be having some small progress through sheer force of will and repetition, but so far Blake had been not only resistant but also hostile to most attempts to break her out of her shell. When she wasn't quietly reading with Naruto or playing the annoyed straight-man to the chaos that was Yang, Blake was usually found in the nearest corner with one of her books.
Blake took a perch on the bench opposite Naruto, and Yang spun on her heel, letting herself fall to lean against the wall. "So, we're here. What's goin' on, oh sister O' mine?" Yang asked.
Putting Naruto's thoughts aside, Ruby rose from her seat with a grin and moved so that she was facing everybody.
"Weeeeeeell," she started, "We're supposed to use Fridays for physical training and stuff-"
"Aww man, I thought we had another free day." Yang complained, wincing as Ruby kicked at her shin and glared playfully.
"Don't complain, I don't even get one day off," she muttered, "Anyway, today is our training day! Now, I thought it would be a good idea for us to get together and go over team stuff. Get to know each other and how we fight, practising team movements, helping each other out, that sorta thing."
Before Ruby had even finished speaking, she had noticed Naruto and Yang giving each other sour looks at the thought of spending an entire day with the other. Suddenly realising that this was going to be harder than she had though, Ruby tried to soldier ahead.
"We've all got our basic routines and none of us really need the others to help with that, doing that stuff today would be a waste of the only free day where we aren't going to be swamped with homework. We need to work on our teamwork if we want to do well out in the field, and this is the best time to do it," she continued, trying to put on her best 'inspiring leader' voice.
It seemed to be moderately effective. After a moment, Naruto stopped glaring at Yang. "Alright, what've you got planned for us then?"
Beaming, Ruby laid out her plan, "I thought that to start off we should just split up into our pairs, start thinking of ways we can combine our skills and stuff." Naruto and Yang both perked up a bit at that and Ruby smiled, getting a bit of her confidence back.
The training center featured dozens of expansive indoor arenas that they could use, along with specialised training rooms of almost every shape and type. When the team quickly split up into their partnerships and began wandering the building in search of a room to use, Naruto and Ruby ended up claiming one of the larger arena style rooms.
"Wow, Beacon has plenty of toys," Naruto remarked with a whistle as they entered the room. As well as a section lined with reinforced foam for sparring, each room had a miniature gym's worth of training equipment, targets for ranged practise, and a full set of combat robots to spar against.
"Yup," Ruby agreed, gazing around the room. "There's a reason people come from all over Remnant to attend Beacon. There's all sorts of expensive training equipment we can use; big arenas like this, all sorts of outdoor ranges, combat robots to fight against, there's even supposed to be an awesome holographic projection arena somewhere around here." Ruby's eyes were growing a bit starstruck and she paused, clearing her throat as she caught herself.
"Anyway, so, uh, yeah. Training." Now that they were actually down to it, Ruby's mind had gone blank. All the ideas that she had been mulling over earlier had run straight for the border now that she actually needed them.
Naruto's eyes glinted with humour as he noticed her discomfort. "Yup, training," he teased unhelpfully.
With a groan, Ruby dropped her head down into her hands.
After a few painful seconds, Naruto's straight face broke and he grinned. "Shall we start with a spar?" he suggested, "I didn't really see much of how you fought in the initiation, was more focused on the big scary monsters. It's always easier to actually show someone how you fight than to try and describe it to them."
"Sounds good to me." Ruby said, latching onto the idea. After all the public speaking she had forced herself to do earlier, letting her sweetheart do some talking for her sounded wonderful.
With a flourish, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose from her back and unfolded the scythe into its full form. Naruto drew his sword and held it in a backwards stance, free hand hovering forwards as he watched her intently.
The room was silent as a grave for several seconds as they both slowly began to walk in a circle, each sizing the other up. Ruby always worked better on the attack so after a few moments she decided to take the initiative, pulsing her semblance to dash forwards and deliver a simple horizontal swipe.
Predictably Naruto ducked the swipe. She had been expecting that though and kept the motion from her first strike moving, spinning her entire body into a diagonal-uppercut slash while Naruto was still crouched. Sparks flashed through the air as Naruto parried the blow aside, keeping the flat edge of his blade flush with his arm and using it to push Crescent Rose's blade just above his head.
The exchange continued for a few more seconds, Ruby keeping her scythe's momentum rolling around her body and delivering a stream of quick blows that Naruto either dodged or pushed aside, until Ruby finally got one of her blows inside Naruto's guard. This time the blade came so close to Naruto that Ruby could see his hair ruffling as it passed as the ninja bent over backwards to dodge. Before she could follow up though, she found herself abruptly on the defensive as, rather than rising, Naruto balanced on his hands and delivered a quick combination of kicks that shook Crescent Rose's handle when she blocked them.
Ruby jumped back and Naruto flipped back to his feet, taking the same position as before. "Not bad," he commented with a grin. Ruby returned the grin, before abruptly dropping Crescent Rose's barrel down and preparing to fire.
That was a mistake. Before she could pull the trigger Naruto had darted up close, and this time Ruby found herself on the defensive, spinning her weapon rapidly to block the storm of quick strikes Naruto was sending her way. Ruby was so focused on the strikes that she almost didn't notice when a second Naruto came from behind her! She was forced to drop to the ground to dodge the second's sword, firing Crescent Rose at their feet and using the recoil to throw herself clear.
She quickly rolled to her feet and spun around as five Narutos, all with identical grins on their faces, rushed forwards towards her. The numbers were intimidating, but the copies seemed to fight with more simplistic tactics than the original and Ruby was able to keep them at bay with wide slashes. She remembered how fragile the clones he had used in the initiation had been and began aiming to just catch them with any strike she could, weak or strong.
Soon enough, the numbers began to fall. One clone burst into a cloud of smoke when a rifle round clipped its side, while another was unfortunate enough to get Crescent Rose's blade shoved right through its chest. The last one made Ruby wince and pause for a moment until it burst into smoke, a horrible thought flashing across her mind for a split second that it was the actual Naruto she had just stabbed.
The remaining Narutos, presumably two clones and the original, were now approaching her more cautiously. With a confident laugh Ruby took off, using her semblance to literally run circles around the trio. They turned their backs to each other nervously, watching the cloud of petals slowly grow larger and larger.
Without warning Ruby dove out of the cloud, reducing one clone to smoke in an instant. The other two swung to react but Ruby was in her element, bouncing Crescent Rose off the floor and straight into another clone's face. The original moved to cut at her while she was overextended but Ruby used the force of another shot to counteract her momentum, stilling Crescent Rose and then jabbing at Naruto's thigh with the small blade set into the bottom of the shaft.
She had been expecting some resistance to the blow as it hit Naruto's aura, but it never came. The blade pierced Naruto's thigh and he too burst into smoke, leaving Ruby standing alone in an empty room.
Ruby looked around the room in confusion until a glint of light caught her attention at the last minute. She looked up to find Naruto crouching to the ceiling above her like a spider, sword at the ready. He pushed off, launching himself straight down at her.
Sparks flashed through the air as Ruby just managed to deflect Naruto's stab. The ninja recovered quickly, moving fluidly into a fast paced attack and RUby fell back, Crescent Rose blurring in her hands as she attempted to keep Naruto at bay. Ruby was used to fighting monsters, not humans, and Grimm tended to attack in short bursts of aggression rather than extended flurries like this. Ruby was quick with her scythe, but the large weapon was just too heavy when fighting someone as quick as Naruto - even if he was slower than herself - with such a light weapon. On the offence she could use momentum to her advantage, but on the defence like this the weight began to add up.
Eventually Naruto broke through, sending Ruby flinching back with a yelp as his sword glanced painfully off her thigh, aura managing to block the blade but not the sting. The blow broke her concentration and was followed by several more to her arms and stomach, each hit drawing a small flash of light as her aura blocked as much of the blow as it could. Eventually a strike to the wrist numbed Ruby's hand and Crescent Rose fell to the floor with a clatter. One leg-sweep later she was down on her backside, Naruto's sword hovering near her neck.
There was a moment of silence, before they simultaneously grinned at each other. Ruby's faded fairly quickly as she flopped back against the floor. "I prefer fighting Grimm, they're a lot slower," she groaned, feeling the ache where Naruto had landed blows on her.
"Most things are, compared to a ninja," Naruto grinned, "You're a lot faster with that thing than I expected." He still kept his sword hovering close against her throat, and it took Ruby a second to remember that they were technically still fighting by tournament rules.
She made a vague, groaning noise and dropped her head back. "I forfeit," she confirmed tiredly. Naruto began to open his mouth, when the door flew open with a bang and everything went to hell.
"-and then BOOM! Right in the face. I call it the Yang-a-rang," Yang exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air to punctuate her speech.
For a few moments there was silence, broken only by the tap of their shoes as Blake and Yang walked through the halls of the training center, until Blake spoke, "No."
Yang's face dropped into an over-exaggerated pout and Blake rolled her eyes. "But why? It would be awesome!" the blonde protested.
"Because-" Blake began firmly, face stony in the wake of Yang's pleading eyes, "-momentum is a thing. At best you'd launch me into the sky, at worst you'd rip my arm off."
There was a sigh as Yang deflated like a balloon. "You're no fun," she griped.
After a few moments, Blake relented. "It might work without the explosives," she allowed cautiously.
She might have garnered a less horrified reaction if she had suggested to Yang that they slaughter a litter of puppies, judging by the look in her eyes. "B-but, you need the explosives!" Yang protested, "You can't have a Yang-a-rang without a bang!"
Faced with such destruction of the Valian language, Blake couldn't help but stop in her tracks and drop her head down into her palm. Yang stood off to the side, grinning unrepentantly.
Blake sighed and shook her head, setting off walking again. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Yang pouting as she followed along behind her. "Tough crowd,"
"How do you think Ruby and Naruto are doing?" Blake asked, purposefully trying to change the subject. Denying attention for poor behaviour seemed to work with children, hopefully it would work with her equally childish partner. Hopefully. Something about Yang's knowing grin gave her a fairly hopeless feeling about it though.
For now, she had succeeded in distracting her partner though; at the mention of Naruto's name a sour look ran across Yang's face. And there it was, one of the few things that Blake genuinely disliked about her partner. Overall Blake thought that she had come out pretty well in the game of chance that had decided their partnerships, especially looking at some of the other options such as CRDL. Yang was an exceptional fighter - the several new bruises Blake was now nursing stood testament to that fact - and a lot smarter than her overly bubbly personality sometimes let on, but her irrational dislike of Naruto was a black mark that reminded Blake a little too much of the way many Vale natives acted towards the Faunus.
"I dunno. If he's managed to not kill her, that'd be a good start." Yang muttered, the smile truly dropping from her face for the first time since they had split from the others earlier.
Blake frowned, opening her mouth to speak but aborting the motion. It had been a close call with Naruto on the first day when she had let her emotions talk her into saying too much, she didn't want to potentially tip Yang off as well. "You've been pretty harsh towards Naruto. Not as harsh as some," her mind flickered to CRDL, "but still. What's your problem with him?"
There, hopefully that was neutral enough to not arouse suspicion. She'd managed to avoid linking the faunus into it at least. "I dunno. It's not like I hate him or anything, it's just hard to trust him after seeing all those news videos, and hearing the stories." Yang replied, linking her arms behind her head as she walked and talked. The blonde gave a heavy sigh and continued, "I think I'd find it easier to get over it if he wasn't in Ruby's team, y'know? I've always been looking out for her, it's hard to see her in danger."
"So your dislike of him is just based on his people's reputation, like the faunus?" Dammit brain! The words had slipped out of Blake's mouth before she had really thought it over.
Yang gave her a sharp, offended, look. "I'm not a bigot," she snapped, "Being a ninja is something he chose to do, not something he was born with. It'd be closer to being unsure about a particular faunus because they were part of one of the terrorist groups or something."
Well, that was the cue for Blake to shut her mouth about that particular subject, especially when Yang continued defensively, "Besides, it's hardly like you two're best friends or anything."
She did have a point there. As they had agreed Blake had spent some time one night that week helping Naruto improve his reading and beginning to learn the basics of his language, but other that that she had been avoiding him as subtly as she could. The blonde foreigner seemed to have a talent for getting under people's skin and getting them talking, making him a dangerous person for Blake to be around.
Plus, as much as she tried to deny it, something about him set her on edge. It wasn't a conscious thing, like Yang, but something deeper. Some little hidden part of her brain - the same part that made her hiss at dogs, drool when she smelled tuna and hate laser pointers with a burning passion - recoiled in fear when she saw him. Something about the way he moved, the way he held himself, or some other thing too small for regular senses to notice, made that animalistic part of Blake's brain scream 'predator!'.
She'd noticed the same scenario playing out with many of the actual animals around the campus. The cats which would linger around their dorm and peer curiously at Blake were nowhere to be found when Naruto was around, and on one memorable occasion the dogs that the airdock security teams used - big, fearsome atlesian shepherds - had whimpered and hidden behind their handlers when Naruto had passed by.
"It's not like I'm anyone's best friend," she defended weakly, realising that she had taken a while responding. Blake only just managed to stop herself reflexively hissing in shock when a pair of strong arms suddenly closed around her.
"Awww, don't you worry Spooky, we'll change that soon enough," Yang crooned, crushing Blake tight against her.
"S- spooky?" the secret faunus spluttered, pushing against Yang in an attempt to free her head from her partner's bountiful chest.
"Yep!" Yang confirmed, finally letting go of Blake and bouncing backwards, "You're all dark and mysterious and stuff."
"I, I don't even…" For the second time in as many minutes, Blake found her forehead making sharp contact with her palm while Yang gave her a shit-eating grin and patted her on the shoulder.
After giving herself a moment to recover, Blake spun on her heel and took off down the hallway again, leaving Yang scrambling to catch up. Soon enough the door to the exercise room Ruby and Naruto had claimed looked before them and Yang's mood dropped again, the blonde frowning as she saw the door. Abruptly Yang overtook Blake, pausing before the door.
Yang waited for a moment before the door, resting her face in her palm and taking a breath. When she was done, she looked up and her face bore the same energetic smile that it had earlier. She tossed Blake a quick grin, before rearing back and planting her boot firmly into the door.
"Oh Ruuubbbbyyyyyyyyy," Yang called, striding through the door as it banged open dramatically. Suddenly, Blake ran into Yang's back as the blonde stopped in her tracks, staring in horror at the scene before them. Ruby lay sprawled on the ground not far from the door, Naruto standing over her and holding the tip of his sword to her neck.
Blake found herself tensing up instinctively, adrenaline rushing through her veins. Thinking quick was a requirement to either host an ambush or survive one, and Blake had plenty of experience with both, so it only took her a split second to take in what was actually happening. Sharp eyes took note of the relaxed posture that Naruto stood in, the weak grip he had on his sword, and the faint grin on Ruby's face despite the razor-sharp blade an inch away from her throat. Before she had even finished reacting, Blake had realised what was actually happening and relaxed.
Unfortunately, Yang was just as quick to overreact to the threat as Blake was to dismiss it; in fact if her reaction had been aimed at a more appropriate target Blake would have honestly been impressed. In one smooth motion Yang opened the door, took in the scene, and raised her arm to deliver a blast that left Blake's ears (both sets) ringing, and sent Naruto tumbling backwards limply.
In a second Ruby was on her feet, face a mixture of shock and anger. "What the hell, Yang?" she shrieked.
Blake could practically see the miniature heart attack that Yang had just experienced written across her face. "I you, he, it looked like he was-" the blonde began to stammer.
"We were sparring!" Ruby snapped indignantly.
"I thought that he'd hurt you!" Yang snapped back
"That doesn't mean you had to shoot him!"
"Oh calm down, it was only a normal slug. It won't have pierced his aura."
Pierced aura or not it looked like the shot had hurt; Naruto had yet to rise from where he had fallen. Face scrunching up in concern, Blake tuned out the arguing sisters and made her way over to Naruto. The colour drained from her face as she got closer, spying the splash of crimson leaking from Naruto's side.
"Guys." the rising panic in Blake's voice cut through the sister's argument and got their attention, "Get over here!"
Both Ruby and Yang zipped over when they heard her voice, their eyes going wide as they took in the form of Naruto, curled around the bloody hole now torn in his side. There was a moment of horrified silence, until Yang finally spoke.
"Oh shit."
The silence was heavy, and almost unbearably awkward. None of the assembled members of Team RWBY, all seated in a rough circle on the floor, seemed willing to take the first step and break the silence, or even really look at each other. Eventually Yang was the one to break the silence with a quiet cough.
"Sooooooooooooo," she began to talk, wincing as three sets of angry eyes turned to glare at her, "Aura and chakra, aren't the same thing?"
"Apparently not," Naruto replied, voice sharp as a blade.
"And, you don't actually have aura."
"Nope."
"So, no protective field."
"Nope."
"So if you get hit by something like a bullet…"
Naruto didn't even answer that with any words, just nodded his head down to where Blake was inspecting and cleaning the gash that the training round had torn through his side.
"Shit," Yang summarised eloquently.
"Yep," he agreed.
"How bad is it?" This time the question was directed down towards Blake, who had just finished wiping disinfectant from the room's first aid kit over the exposed flesh.
The black-haired girl gave Yang an unimpressed glance before she spoke. "Not that bad actually, all things considered. The slug glanced off his rib without doing any damage to the bone, and there's less flesh damage than I would've expected."
Yang's sigh of relief was met with a glare as Blake snapped, "Less than I expected is still significant damage. If your aim had been a little bit different, or if his ribs hadn't somehow held out, you could have killed him!"
"Well, how the hell was I supposed to know I was shooting at the only person in the whole school who can't shrug stuff like that off?" Yang snapped, feeling rather unfairly put upon. Her teammates didn't seem to agree with her, judging by the chilly silence she received.
"Would it make any difference if I said I was sorry?" she asked weakly, trying to put some humour into the situation. Blake's face didn't even twitch, if anything it somehow grew even more stony.
Naruto though, snorted in amusement. "Depends, do I get to shoot you?" he asked glibly.
"Sure." Yang replied, as though Naruto had just asked her to lend him five lien. The blonde grinned at Naruto's look of shock and loosened one Ember Celia with a faint click, tossing the gauntlet over to him casually and standing up.
"You just put it on and then twitch your thumb backwards like this to fire," she explained, gesturing with her thumb as an example while Naruto slid the gauntlet into place and began to look at it curiously. "The slugs in there now won't get past my aura but they still pack a punch, so give me a warni-"
Rather predictably, Yang's request was interrupted as Naruto abruptly shot her straight in the chest. Blake leaned over with a flicker of concern as Yang crumpled and fell to the floor with a wheeze, lapsing back into disinterest once the brawler began cursing after a few seconds. "Son of a bitch, right in the tit! That's gonna be a fun bruise later," she griped, pulling herself back into a sitting position and gingerly rubbing her chest.
"That was surprisingly satisfying." Naruto said with a grin, tossing the gauntlet back to Yang.
"Yeah, shooting stuff is fun," Yang agreed, sliding it back into place. She paused for a moment, looking at Naruto uncertainly, "We cool?"
Naruto snorted in amusement, "Yeah, whatever."
"That's it?" Blake asked incredulously, "She shot you!"
"Eh," Naruto said with a shrug, "I survived. If I held a grudge against everybody who put a hole in me, I'd not have many friends." Something odd seemed to flash across his face as he said that and his hand twitched upwards towards his left breast, but it quickly vanished.
There was a solid slap as Ruby's head fell into her hands. "It's not even lunch time, and two people have already been shot. I'm a terrible leader," she groaned. Despite the words, when Naruto and Yang both began laughing Ruby lifted her head to reveal a faint grin, and the atmosphere of the room finally began to lift.
"I think it's more the team than the leader, in this case," Blake remarked dryly.
After chuckling for a moment, Naruto glanced down at Blake, "So, am I good?" he asked, gesturing to the wound.
Blake gave him a disapproving look of his very own, "Well, if you insist on not going to the medical ward-"
"Not a chance in hell for a scratch like that," Naruto interrupted, shuddering at the very thought of the place. He and hospitals most definitely did not get along.
"-you should be able to manage. Let me bandage it at least," she finished. Naruto nodded and stayed still while Blake did just that, spreading some sort of cold cream into the wound before pushing it together and getting started.
Off to the side, Ruby shuddered. "I dunno how you can stand doing that Blake," she muttered squeamishly, glancing at the work in progress.
"It's just blood, you'll need to get used to seeing it sooner or later as a huntress," Blake said neutrally, not looking up from her work.
"Yeah, but Grimm usually disintegrate before you get a good look. Makes it feel less real."
Blake's eyes flickered to look at Ruby without moving their head, something halfway between annoyance and pity flashing across them as the redhead completely missed her point. With a brusque movement she tied off the bandage around Naruto's waist. "There, that should help. It's still going to hurt though when you do… pretty much anything."
"Eh, I've survived worse," Naruto said dismissively, glancing down at the bandage before dropping his shirt back down to cover it, "Nice job."
"So, uh, how did you survive that, by the way?" Yang asked, wincing again when Blake and Ruby both snapped their heads to stare at her while Naruto chuckled. "That slug should have messed up an unshielded human a lot more than that," she explained sheepishly.
"Just because I can't create a forcefield like yours, doesn't mean that I'm defenceless." Naruto grinned, folding his arms behind his head, "We can do a lot of the same stuff with chakra that you can with aura. I can focus chakra into my muscles, and use it to increase my speed and strength like you can. I can do some stuff you can't as well; I can strengthen my senses like sight and smell, and I can pump a bunch of energy into my body to harden my muscles and strengthen my bones to take hits. It works better for blunt impacts than sharp objects or bullets-" he paused here to give Yang a look, "-but it still helps. That's why I have a small cut in my side, rather than a big hole straight through my lung."
"You strengthened your ribs to deflect the slug?" Blake asked, eyes widening as she but it together.
"Yep. I can't do a great deal defensively with my muscles, but it works better with the bones. Something to do with the bone marrow acting as a conductor; I dunno, I'm not a medic nin. But yeah, I can make my bones almost unbreakable, cushion my internal organs, stuff like that. I've seen guys get kicked straight through concrete walls head first and shake it off in a few seconds before."
Ruby had been listening intently as he spoke, eyes bright and head cocked to the side as she thought. "What about all that other stuff you were doing in the initiation?" the redhead chimed in, "All that stuff with the air you were doing, and those chains you held the Deathstalker with. You said that wasn't your semblance right?"
"Yep, I don't even have a semblance; no one from my land does, same as aura. I suppose my regeneration is sort of like our equivalent of a semblance, kinda. It's complicated." That was, of course, a complete and utter lie, but also the easiest way to explain it away before it became an issue. "The stuff I was doing with wind was what we call ninjutsu. There are all sorts of different elemental ninjutsu; fire, wind, water, lightning and earth are the most common. Everyone who uses chakra has an element they've got an affinity for, mine is wind. I can do stuff with the other elements, but I tend to overpower it really badly and lose control."
"So, if we see you using something other than wind, we should get out of the way?" Yang asked teasingly.
Naruto's face flashed grim, "Yeah, do. Last time I used a fire technique I tried to set one guy on fire and accidentally burnt down a whole village with a single fireball." In his defence, that had been the Kyuubi's fault more than his - Naruto's control issues were even worse than normal when the fox's ridiculously strong Katon affinity came into play - but the same concept did apply to the other elements.
It might have been a trick of the light, but Yang's face seemed a shade paler than before. "If you start playing with fire, duck and cover; got it."
"Yep. And lastly, the chains I used were actually fūinjutsu, not ninjutsu." He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the intricate sealing array snaking down his left arm and ending in a 'Chain' kanji on the inside of his wrist, "Similar general concept to the explosive tags - chakra laced ink - just tattooed on my arm and a lot more complicated. Technically it's possible to use the chains without this but, again, my control sucks. This seal helps me focus and actually control them."
"Ooh, that's cool." Ruby leaned in close, peering at the tattoo that had saved her hide a week ago, "Sounds like you can do a lot of different stuff with chakra."
"Yep, and that's not even close to all the stuff that ninja can do." Naruto laughed at their shocked expressions, "Chakra is really adaptable, and ninja make a point of learning as many little tricks we can to surprise people. Wind element attacks, fūinjutsu, and general badassery is a pretty good short summary of what I usually do though. We'd be here for days if I tried to go over absolutely everything."
"Wind, chains, occasionally way too much fire, got it." Ruby said weakly, glancing at the clock. "We should probably move on now, we're behind schedule as it is," she glanced uncertainly at Naruto and Yang, "If we move onto the team stuff now, can I trust you two not to hurt each other anymore?"
"I'll try, but no promises." Yang said, but she was grinning mischievously as Blake sighed behind her.
"That'll have to do," Ruby's lips tweaked into a smile, "Let's get started then…"
Team RUBY had staggered back to the dorm room that night barely able to stand and, to a man, had fallen asleep the second their heads had hit their pillows. Naruto didn't even bother to undress fully, he just shed his outer layers and collapsed into his bed. Ruby might have been unsure of herself starting the day out, but she proved to be a harsh taskmaster once she got into her stride. She ran herself just as ragged as she did them though, which earned her a healthy dram of respect in Naruto's eyes.
Despite the tiring day that had left him exhausted, both mentally and physically, there was no rest to be found in Naruto's sleep that night.
As soon as Naruto's eyes had closed, the visions began. Nightmares and flashbacks weren't anything unusual for a ninja, but these particular ones had been haunting Naruto's sleep for weeks now. They had become routine, but that fact made them no less distressing.
Along with the visions came the alien feeling of not-belonging that always accompanied them. The visions were contradictory, both muffled and distorted but simultaneously some of the most vivid he had ever experienced. It was almost as though he was viewing the memories through a frame of frosted glass, but receiving the emotions directly on a subconscious level. None of the substance, all of the feelings of failure and self-hatred the next morning.
Despite the lack of clarity, some things were always discernible. Naruto had worked with his team for almost two years and, even distorted, he could pick out their voices as they screamed and died. Chief among them was that ever recognisable shade of pink, and a scream that Naruto imagined would haunt him to the end of his days.
Suddenly he found himself back in the room, dripping in sweat and with a half-muffled shout on his lips. For a few moments he stayed still and quiet, letting the quiet breathing of Team RUBY wash over him. Describing his relationship with the team as rocky would be putting it generously, but at this moment he couldn't help but take some faint comfort in the steady, slow sound. Eventually he relaxed and slowly untensed his muscles, letting out a breath he hadn't realised that he was holding.
"That sounded like a bad one."
Naruto jerked in alarm at the soft voice, swivelling his head around wilding until he spotted Ruby, or more accurately Ruby's head. The girl was leaning upside down from her bunk, only the tips of her fingers and her head visible. It was hard to make much out in the dim light, but he could see a look half of guilt and half of sympathy on her face.
"I, I…" he stammered, shocked by the sudden appearance.
The inverted girl raised one finger to her lips in a shushing motion. "Hold on, give me a sec. Hup." Ruby gracefully flipped down from her bunk, landing almost silently on the floor. Neither her or Naruto noticed the faint twitch from Blake's bunk at the sound.
"You're up late," Naruto said nonchalantly, trying and failing to hide the shakiness to his voice and pretend nothing had happened. It didn't work; Ruby made another shushing motion and scampered off, disappearing into the small lounge the first-years shared. Naruto pushed himself up and sat cross-legged, watching the shadow cast through the half-open door dart erratically around the small kitchenette. After a minute she reappeared, bearing two steaming mugs.
"Here ya go, the Ruby-Rose-Nightmare-Special," she said, holding one of the mugs out to him. Naruto had never been fond of the tea that many of the older ninja drank and had taken a similar dislike to the Remnant equivalent, so he tried to refuse. But Ruby was persistent, and as she waved the mug in his face and demanded, "Drink," he smelt something sweet and unusual.
He took the mug gingerly and sipped slowly. Rather than the sharp taste of coffee, he was taken aback by the bittersweet flavour of chocolate, accompanied by a ridiculous about of sugar. The flavour was overpoweringly sweet, and just what Naruto needed right now. He paused for a moment, processing the concoction, before taking a large swig while Ruby nodded approvingly in the background. Naruto looked up from the mug to find Ruby smiling at him expectantly, to which he sighed.
"Ruby, this really isn't something you need to be worried abo-"
"Nope," she interrupted him, popping the 'P'.
"But it-"
"Nope."
Naruto sighed and glared at her, making Ruby giggle. The redhead smiled brightly and looked him in the eye, "I'm your leader, your teammate and, I hope, your friend. That's three good reasons for me to be worried," she said firmly, before gesturing at his bed, "Do you mind-?"
"Sure, knock yourself out," he sighed. He'd heard that tone of voice before, from himself on several occasions. Arguing with her was just going to be more trouble than it was worth.
Clutching her own cup, Ruby hopped up onto Naruto's bed, settling her back against the wall and sipping at her own drink. The two sat in silence, Ruby watching Naruto expectantly and Naruto stubbornly ignoring her, focusing on his hot chocolate. Eventually Ruby gave up and broke the silence herself, "Y'know, this usually works better when you talk."
Naruto just grunted in response, keeping as much of his focus as he could on his mug. Showing weakness like he was right now to someone he knew as little about as he did Ruby went against every piece of ninja training he had ever received, talking even more about it was the last thing he wanted to do right now. Unfortunately, ignoring Ruby didn't make her go away.
"Alright, I'll start-" Ruby sighed, "-who's Sakura?"
The silence coming from Naruto somehow got even more chilly as he tensed and glared at Ruby, the younger girl flinching back from eyes that suddenly seemed to have little flecks of red drifting through them. "How do you know that name?"
"I… you were talking in your sleep," Ruby replied. After a few more seconds staring at her, Naruto deflated and flopped backwards, leaning his head against the wall and no longer meeting Ruby's eyes.
The silence stretched on, until Naruto finally spoke again. "She was my partner."
"Did… something happen to her?" Ruby asked, fidgeting with her fingers and making no attempts to meet Naruto's eyes either.
"She died," he snapped, his words ending with a harsh, final note. Ruby's expression was almost heartbreaking, but he kept his face hard, trying not to show the cracks widening in his facade as his mind drifted back to the dreams and the memories behind them.
"I'm sorry," she muttered after a few seconds, "I just wanted to try and help."
He sighed, face softening slightly. "I wish that you could help me somehow. It'd be nice to get a proper nights sleep for once."
Ruby perked up a bit, "It's gotta be possible, we've just gotta figure out how. When I was younger I had a lot of nightmares after…" she broke off, coughing and giving Naruto a nervous glance, "Well, yeah, I had a lot of nightmares."
"And how did you deal with them?" he asked, humouring her.
"Yang," she said simply. "I'd wake up crying and Yang would always be there for me. Some nights she pretty much just slept in my bed with me, keeping me company. Buuuttt…"
"I don't think that would work for me," Naruto finished, casting a glance over at Yang's sleeping form.
"Yeah, not unless you somehow make Yang really like you." Ruby giggled, pausing for a moment as her grin became a grimace, "Actually, eww, no. Don't do that, let's scrap that plan all together."
Naruto's face cracked into a small grin, "Hmm. I might just take that as a challenge," he shot back, waggling his eyebrows. The ninja couldn't help but laugh softly at Ruby's horrified glare, and after a moment she began to join him.
Eventually, the awkwardness of the encounter began to fade. Ruby stayed on safer topics, and the two spent half an hour chatting about schoolwork, Grimm, weapons and pretty much anything that wasn't Naruto's dreams. By the time Ruby had a sentence interrupted by a huge yawn for the third time in a minute, Naruto had actually started to relax a bit.
"I'm gonna head back to bed, you gonna be alright?" Ruby mumbled around her yawn, casting a quick glance at the clock.
He nodded, "Yeah. I just need a bit of time to clear my head," he glanced down at his mug, "-and let the sugar rush wear off."
"Pfft, amateur," Ruby scoffed, chugging the remains of her mug and grinning. "I already feel tired again."
She slid quietly off his bed and began flexing her legs, preparing to hop up to her bunk. Before she could, Naruto reached out and gently caught her arm. "Hey, Ruby?" he said quietly, "This… helped. A lot more than sitting here thinking about things would have done. Thanks."
Ruby beamed down at him, "Any time, partner." And then she was gone, using a quick burst of her semblance to disappear back up into her bunk as silently as she had descended.
A stray rose petal drifted down towards Naruto and he batted it away, unfolding his legs and turning to lay back down in bed. The movement irritated the still-bandaged wound across his ribs and Naruto hissed in pain, glaring futilely down at the bandages. This was the third time that the Kyuubi's chakra had failed on him recently, what the hell was that damn fox doing?
The thought hit him like a truck, and Naruto's breath caught in his throat as everything suddenly seemed to fall into place in his mind.
Ever since they had begun, Naruto had noticed some strange tinge about the memories attacking his sleep. He had never been able to actually pin the feeling down though.
Now, armed with a target in mind, Naruto gritted his teeth, closed his eyes and plunged back into the memories; and there it was. Lingering around his mind, already fading fast, was the unmistakable tinge of demonic chakra. It was all that Naruto could do to not burst out swearing and wake the whole room up. He should have known that damn fox was up to something after the initiation!
Taking deep breaths, Naruto calmed himself as best he could as he settled into a lotus position. He then closed his eyes, blocked out the outside world and slowly drifted down into his own mind.
Naruto's mindscape had changed remarkably little in the years since he had first set foot here. There were some additions, new doors and passages twisting and turning in the maze that was his mind, but as whole it was still very familiar; an overly large caricature of a sewer, encrusted with grime and sludge, filled with dirty ankle deep water, and oddly lacking any of the smell that would normally go along with such surroundings.
The pipes and passages of the mindscape formed an incredibly complex maze, the water-filled passages twisting and turning around and back onto themselves in ways that made the laws of physics curl up in the corner and cry. Naruto navigated the maze with the practised ease of someone literally walking through their own mind, barely paying attention to where he was going until the passage he was in began to widen out. Eventually Naruto came to a large room, dominated on one end by a mighty set of bars.
Naruto had been the Kyuubi's caretaker all his life, and actively conversed with the beast for almost five years now, but the first sight of it still sent a tingle of fear down his spine as he entered the room. The beast lurking behind the bars was so large his brain had trouble comprehending it all at once, its hindquarters disappearing into the shadows of its cell.
Ears longer than many buildings were tall twitched and swivelled to follow him as he entered the room. The demonic personification of rage and anger lazily opened one glowing red eye and grinned, revealing teeth bigger than Naruto was.
"Well, well, my insignificant little insect of a jailer has deigned to grace me with his presence."
The Kyuubi's voice somehow managed to shake the room and Naruto's bones with it's volume, yet at the same time seem to come from directly inside Naruto's head. In one smooth motion the semi-humanoid kitsune rose up to its full, astounding height and fanned its nine tails out behind it, looming threateningly over Naruto. Despite the terrifying visage before him, Naruto refused to be intimidated. The Kyuubi was locked securely behind the bars that were the visual representation of the seal binding it within his body; in here, the ancient beast was as close to powerless as it had ever been.
"Yeah, I did. I'm here, what do you want, damn fox?" Naruto was abruptly aware that in here neither he or the Kyuubi were speaking either Japanese or Valian, something he had never noticed when he only knew one language. It was a rather disconcerting feeling, but he did his best to ignore it.
The Kyuubi snorted, "And here I thought that you were just trying to ignore it, but you mean to tell me you have not even noticed? You humans get more ignorant every day. Pathetic creatures."
Naruto fought to stop his frustration bubbling over. When it wasn't frothing itself into an uncontrollable rage, the Kyuubi liked to present itself as equal parts condescending and mysterious. It would lord its superiority over him for a while and be generally infuriating, but eventually it would tell him what it wanted.
"I'm sorry, you'll have to forgive my lesser senses, oh high and mighty furball. I'll have a look around, in the meantime why don't you take a seat, pour yourself a drink and go fuck yourself?" he drawled, voice layered with sarcasm and rising into an angry snarl at the end. Even just standing here looking at the beast, Naruto could feel the effects of its chakra acting upon him, eroding his already fragile temper.
Hitting the Kyuubi's pride was always an easy way to get a rise out of the beast. "INSOLENT LITTLE ANT!" the beast roared, throwing itself at the bars that separated them. Naruto felt the impact, like a punch straight to the seal etched into his stomach. Despite the force there was little the Kyuubi could do but roar, splutter, and scratch at the bars. Naruto turned away, already raising his hand to mock shield his eyes and sarcastically pretend to look around the room.
That plan was abruptly shattered when he saw it. Sitting right out in the open, where he must surely have walked right past it earlier, was a box. It was a hefty thing, all cast iron and thick rivets, wrapped in and fixed to the floor by a tangle of chains.
Naruto's blood chilled in his veins as he took a step closer. Etched in thick lines on the side of the box was a single kanji; 'Memory'. He had never seen one from the inside before, but Naruto knew enough to tell what this was; a memory suppression seal. A specialised seal designed to take part of his memories, part of his life, and lock it away inside his own mind.
He reached out towards the kanji, but as his hand approached there was a sharp crack and he flinched backwards, hand burning in pain. There came a deep chuckle from behind him, and Naruto span around to see that the fox had abruptly stopped its tantrum and was now watching him intently.
"What. Did. You. Do?" he ground out, marching so close to the bars that he could feel the demon's breath ruffling his hair, and staring it right in the eyes.
"Nothing," the Kyuubi replied, settling its muzzle down atop its paws almost like a normal fox might. Naruto began to protest, but it cut him off, "I have done nothing, except draw your attention to it. Search the seal, feel for yourself that it is no chakra of mine that binds you. Pathetic as you are, that task is within your reach."
Doing so revealed that the Kyuubi was telling the truth. The chakra forming the seal was undeniably human, alien enough that he could easily tell it came from a different human, but lacking the tell-tale burning and corrosive nature of demonic chakra. Naruto's hands began to shake as he began to panic, trying to figure out when this could have happened, or what it could mean.
Worst case scenarios began rushing to mind. If some enemy of the village had managed to get so close to him, put something like this on him…
"Who did this? What did they seal? Tell me!" he demanded, turning back to the Kyuubi.
The ground shook as the Kyuubi throw its head back and laughed, "No," it said simply, voice dripping with restrained contempt and mirth.
"Why?" he snapped back, throwing his arms up in the air, "You've thrown these nightmares at me, lured me in here, for what? To gloat?"
There was a long moment of silence as the unusually calm fox stared thoughtfully at him. "Because, I care about what is inside it."
"I could tell you what was hidden, but you would not believe me. I could shatter the seal in an instant, but you would claim the memories tainted and doctored by me if they were not to your liking. No, you will break this seal yourself, and you will know the truth of what you find within."
Naruto took a step bad and gazed at the Kyuubi cautiously. The relationship between him and the Kyuubi was antagonistic, but also fairly stable for the most part, but it still didn't do to underestimate the beast. It provided him power that made him strong and let him protect that which he cared about, but it also hated him and everything that he stood for. Trapped here in his stomach, the beast had little to do but plot and plan.
Still, suspicious as the Kyuubi's insistence about the seal was, he couldn't ignore it. Even at a normal time something like this would be an incredibly serious matter - Kami knows what a foreign agent could have done to him during the lost time - but right now it was particular bad. Naruto had just spent several weeks unconscious in Konoha's hospital. It was clear when the seal had probably been applied and that was far worse than him being ambushed on a patrol he had been forced to forget all about. That spoke of infiltrators in the heart of Konoha itself.
With a heavy sigh, Naruto began to massage his forehead, "You just love making my life difficult don't you?"
"It's one of the few pleasures left to me in this wretched place," the fox admitted, settling its muzzle back down on its paws and closing its eyes.
Indignation bubbled in Naruto's gut at being so clearly dismissed inside his own mind, but he didn't react. Unless a display of mindless rage was your goal, the Kyuubi never responded to insults or threats. Staying any longer was pointless, and he was starting to get a headache just from being here.
Giving the fox one last annoyed growl, Naruto spun on his heel and silently left the chamber. As he went, one great eye cracked open to watch him go, and a single corner of the fox's muzzle curled into a nasty grin.
A/N:
A couple of people have asked me about this now, so just putting my answer out here: The pairing for this story is planned, but I'm leaving it unstated for the moment. The romance isn't going to truly develop for quite a while yet, and knowing what it will be for sure would be a bit of a spoiler in some places.
Plus people guessing is somewhat amusing. That it isn't a harem is as close to an answer as you're getting for now.