"No, it's more like this energy that you always feel," Naruto tried to explain. "But you don't really notice it until you use it. Try to focus on yourself and how your body feels."
Blake groaned, "I'm trying, but it's just not working. I can't tell what I'm supposed to be feeling for!"
Naruto sighed inwardly. It had been hours, and Blake hadn't even begun to feel her chakra. Assuming she even had chakra to begin with. It was looking more and more like she didn't with each passing minute. But… "Don't give up, Blake! It just takes time. You can do it."
"I'm trying!" she complained. She opened her eyes and glared at him, "But there's nothing special I'm feeling, just my aura." Blake sighed. "Maybe we should just work on this next weekend or something."
Naruto shook his head, "I think we should keep going. You'll get it sooner or later." He decided to voice a question he'd had since Blake had first asked him to teach her, "So, how come you wanna know about using chakra so badly."
Blake looked away hastily. Naruto raised an eyebrow. "I just want it so that I can fight Grimm." That answer sounded practiced. And if she didn't want to tell him the actual reason… Well, that could only mean that it was something she knew was wrong, right? Or maybe it was personal. If it was something personal, that would be one thing, but if it was something that was wrong or evil, Naruto didn't think he should keep teaching her.
What to do, then? He didn't want to go back on his word, but Blake was being suspicious with her answers. Oh well… If it came down to it, maybe he could stop whatever evil thing she might try to do. And besides, he'd seen her fight Grimm, so it wasn't like she was entirely lying.
"Aright, back to work then!" Naruto ordered. He, of course, had his own reason for teaching Blake chakra: To see if Sage Mode was screwed up even worse or not.
Blake begrudgingly closed her eyes again. Soon, she let out a shocked gasp, "I feel something!"
"You do?" Naruto asked excitedly. "What does it feel like?"
Blake frowned, "It… It's just my Aura. I thought I had it that time."
Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, and she opened her eyes in surprise. "Don't sweat it. You will get it. I'm sure of it, Blake. It took me years to get to where I am now."
"But where are you know?" Blake asked. Naruto cocked his head and frowned. "I mean, how strong are you, really? You didn't even flinch while you fighting any of those Grimm. Most people, even among students, are nervous when they fight, because they know they could die if they make one wrong step. But you, you just fight like you know you'll win. I've only seen professional huntsmen fight like that."
Naruto rubbed his head, "Well, you know, I trained a lot in my village." Ozpin's rules came back to him, but he couldn't remember anything about not showing off. Just keeping his home a secret.
"Can I see how strong you really are, Naruto?" Blake asked, a touch of confidence creeping into her voice. "Can we fight just for a little bit?"
Naruto's eyes widened slightly. He didn't have a big problem with the idea, but why did she want to? Couldn't he just show her? Not to mention, he needed to figure out Sage Mode, so he didn't really want to use it against another person. What if he accidentally hurt her? Nevertheless, he nodded, "Sure, I guess we could."
Blake smiled, "Great! I want to see what your chakra can do."
Only a few minutes later, Blake and Naruto were standing on opposite sides of the training room. Blake called to Naruto, "I'm ready!"
Naruto called back, "I am, too! Let's go!"
Blake took off running at him, switching her sword over to its gun form. Before she could fire off a shot, though, Naruto was right in front of her. He ducked, sweeping a leg under and knocking her off her feet. With a shocked look on her face, Blake flipped away right as Naruto brought his elbow down where he gut should have been. Instead, his elbow passed through a sort of vaporous clone. This must be her Shadow Clone semblance.
He jumped back right as a hail of bullets rained down where he had just been. He landed against the wall and launched himself towards Blake, who used another shadow clone to launch herself upwards, out of his attack. He grinned, making a shadow clone of his own. He jumped off of his clone, but didn't disperse it. Blake looked shocked, even as she tried to slash at Naruto with her sword. He grabbed her arm to stop the swing, then flipped over and used his foot to launch her into the ground.
She hit with great force, even cracking the ground around her. She held up her hand in a gesture of surrender, and both Naruto and his clone stopped in their tracks. Naruto dispersed his clone and walked over to her. "Are you ok?" Naruto asked, crouching next to her.
Blake nodded, groaning in pain all the while. "I didn't expect that… You're way stronger than I expected you would be. Why are you a student here? You could just take the huntsman test as you are."
Naruto looked away, "Just, you know, I think I can get better here." Ozpin's rules, yet again, cropped up in his mind. Besides, he didn't really want to be a huntsman, and he did actually think that Beacon might be a good place to improve his skills. Especially if there was any chance of him ever fighting Pain. Or any of the Akatsuki, for that matter.
"And chakra lets you do all that?" she asked, sitting up.
He nodded, "But I did train for a long time in order to get this strong. You'll get it, too, but don't worry about getting it immediately. Let's just focus on seeing if you can sense your own chakra or not."
'And for that matter, if you have chakra to begin with,' Naruto thought. Well, he lived in hope.
"So, how long did it take you to be able to sense your chakra?" Blake asked, head cocked. Naruto rubbed his head.
As much as it pained him to admit, "A long time. I wasn't very good at anything as a kid." Blake stifled a laugh, even though she looked shocked. "Well, hey, you're still learning!" he countered. "It's difficult."
"Sorry, I just… But, if you used to be so bad, then how are you so strong now? Or are you still weak compared to your village?" Bake asked.
"No, I started getting better a long time ago. I had a good teacher," Naruto trailed off, remembering why Pain made him so angry. "But anyway, let's get back to work." Blake nodded eagerly, standing up and closing her eyes once again.
"God, I'm starving," Naruto complained. Ruby raised an eyebrow, halfway through a waffle.
She gulped down the last of it and asked "How come? Did you not eat dinner last night?"
Naruto shook his head, "No, I got too into training with Blake. We both missed dinner time. Hey, where are they anyway? I thought they'd be with you."
Ruby shook her head, "Nope, they were still asleep when I woke up. Lazier than cats." She laughed to herself, stabbing a fork into some pancakes. "So they weren't there when you woke up?" Naruto shook his head. "Huh, weird. Maybe they're training or something. Knowing Yang, she's probably just working on her motorcycle or something."
"Yang has a motorcycle?" Naruto asked. Ruby nodded, mouth full of pancake. "Wait, and she brought it to Beacon? They let her do that?"
"Oh, I guess not actually. Never mind then," Ruby corrected, nearly choking on pancakes.
"Huh," Naruto grunted, taking a bite of his own pancakes. They were surprisingly good. Nothing, of course, could beat a bowl of Teuchi's ramen back home, but the food he'd eaten here was made really well.
"Oh well, maybe she's just training with Blake then," Ruby guessed. She set down her fork, pancake still on it. "That reminds me, you said you could show me Sage Mode right? And maybe try to teach me?"
Oh, crap. He forgot he said that. He hadn't even thought about it at the time, he had just wanted to boost her spirits after he flattened them. Well, he had promised, after all. "Yeah, I could show you it sometime. And I guess I could try to teach you, but it's dangerous. If you get it wrong, you'll turn to stone."
"A stone toad, right?" Ruby giggled. "That's really weird, Naruto. Are you sure you're not making that up?"
"No, seriously, you'll turn into an actual stone toad!" Naruto laughed. It did seem odd, saying it out loud.
"Well, anyway," Ruby continued, forcing herself to stop giggling. "Could you show me it later today? Like, maybe we could get a few punch bags or even go to the Emerald Forest."
"Wait, are we allowed to do that?" Naruto asked.
Ruby shrugged, "I dunno. We might as well try though, right? I mean, it's not like they'll expel us for it."
Naruto though back to Ozpin, "No, definitely not. I guess we could go. You need to promise to not get too close once I start fighting. I don't want to hurt you."
"Oh, I won't get in the way," Ruby waved him off. "Besides, I'm pretty quick. I can get out of the way if I need to."
He smirked, "I don't know about that. Sage Mode makes me really fast, after all."
"I bet I can still move in time," Ruby challenged.
"I don't really wanna find out if you're right or not, Ruby. Cause see, if you're not, then I might end up punching way too hard. I'm still trying to figure out Sage Mode, uh, around here," Naruto slipped. Good thing he caught himself in time, he thought.
"Alright, alright. So can we go right after breakfast? I wanna start on this, it sounds really cool!" Ruby exclaimed gleefully. Naruto grinned.
"Sure, I don't mind."
Ruby cheered, pausing just long enough to chew her pancakes. "Oh, and also," She started, washing down the pancakes with milk. "Do you have any money? If you do, we can get your weapons forged in town. I wanted to do it myself, but there's no place here to make weapons. I guess they expect everyone to already have their own."
Naruto shook his head, "I'm flat broke." Ruby stared, slowly inching her fork back to her ever-shrinking pancake pile. "What?" he asked indignantly. "I haven't had any time to make money around here."
"But we all just use lien," Ruby half-stated, half-asked.
'Well, not where I'm from. Back home, we used ryu, and I don't have any lien."
"But aren't you from Mistral? How did you get here if you couldn't pay for a boat or an airship?" Ruby asked.
"I, uh, paid for a boat from my own village," Naruto lied. Damn, Ruby was questioning him a lot!
Ruby blinked, "Uh, ok, I guess that makes sense." She shrugged and chomped down the last of her pancakes with a loud gulp. "So, can everyone in your village do this Sage Mode thing?"
Naruto shook his head, "I was learning it specially."
"Oh, that's cool. Was it hard to learn?" Ruby asked, leaning forward.
"Yeah, it took me a while to start getting the hang of it. I think I trained for something like two weeks before I mastered it, and most of that was just training and sleeping. It's hard to do. You have to be able to sit perfectly still, sense the Natural Energy around you, and be able to pull it into yourself in perfect balance with your chakra," Naruto explained. "And if you pull in too much, you'll turn into a toad." Ruby giggled again. "But if you don't get enough, it won't work at all."
Ruby was practically bouncing in her seat. "Wow," She mumbled. "That sounds like a lot of work. Is it hard to do once you learn it?"
"A little," Naruto admitted. "But as long as I'm sitting still, I can manage it almost anywhere."
"C'mon!" Ruby cried. "Eat faster!" Suddenly, her bouncing in her seat made sense. Naruto looked down at his half-full plate, and picked up his last pancake.
"Just to let you know, Ruby," Naruto started, taking a bite. "Sage Mode does require you to be completely and perfectly still. You can't move a muscle." Ruby stopped twitching.
"Really?" She asked, almost sounding nervous. Naruto nodded, taking another bite to hide his grin. Ruby sighed, looking down. "Well… I believe in myself!" she declared, voice full of determination, as she proudly looked up at him.
Naruto chuckled, swallowing the last of his pancake. He looked down at his full bowl of cereal and his waffles, and suddenly felt much less hungry, and much more curious to see if Ruby could really do it. Sage Mode was extremely hard to do. Not to mention, Ruby would need a good sense of not only Natural Energy, but also her own chakra. And that was even assuming, after yesterday, that people here had chakra. But still, he could at least teach Ruby to sense Nature Energy, right? No harm in doing that.
"You know what? Let's go now," Naruto ordered, standing up and leaving his food behind. Ruby snagged his waffles and stood up with him.
"Hooraph!" she cheered, mouth full of waffle.
Naruto tried to focus on the odd, almost sickly feeling energy. Taking great care to balance it with his chakra, as he didn't want to screw up the demonstration, he slowly felt the familiar might of Sage Mode spread into him. He stood, opening his eyes and seeing Ruby staring at him curiously. He backed away in surprise, almost backing off the cliff before he caught himself. "Geez, Ruby, don't do that!"
"Sorry, I just think it just looks cool," she admitted. "That's Sage Mode?"
He nodded, "Just watch this." He crouched, setting his hands in a runner's position. He pressed off, and a second later flipped around to dig his heels into the ground in order to stop. The next second, he was back on the cliffside, although admittedly it was closer than before. It looked like a few pieces of dirt on the edge fell.
Ruby was wide-eyed, "Wow… And, I can learn to do that, too?"
Naruto released the energy, leaving Sage Mode, "Yeah. But first things first, Ruby. You need to learn to sense the Natural Energy, and to do that, you need to master sitting completely still."
Ruby pouted, "I know, I know. Is it really as simple as just sitting still?"
"To start off, yes," Naruto confirmed. "Sensing the energy takes a little more effort, but actually drawing it into yourself, especially in balance with your chakra, is the most difficult part."
Ruby nodded as she sat down in the same position Naruto had just been sitting in. He smiled down at her. He was curious if she would be able to sense the Nature Energy. Hell, he wondered if she would even be able to sit still. Although, he managed it, and he wasn't exactly the most patient person himself.
Already, Ruby was twitching. Her knee was bouncing, and her eye was threatening to open. "No movements at all, Ruby," Naruto reminded her. "You have to be completely still."
"I know!" Ruby complained. "I'm trying."
"It's alright," Naruto said. "I'm just reminding you. It will take time to get it down. Just focus."
Ruby nodded again, before returning to how she was sitting before. Naruto sat down across from her, studying her for any movement. It was all minor things, movements everyone always makes. Her arms shaking slightly, her legs twitching as she kept them raised. He was the same way when he started, after all. Sitting still wasn't a hard skill to learn. Hell, even those minor movements didn't need to be completely corrected, just enough so that she could begin to attune herself with nature. He looked past her, down at the forest. This would be a good place to teach her. Nature was in abundance here, after all.
Ruby groaned, slumping down, "This is so boring."
Naruto nodded sagely, "Yes, it is. But remember, you can't sense Nature Energy unless you can sit still. I forgot to mention this part, but the idea of sitting still comes from attuning yourself with nature. And nature is all about stillness." He tried to think of how else the old toad sage had described it to him, but it had simply been too long since he'd heard it.
"Alright, I'll try again," Ruby grumbled. Naruto had to give her credit, at least she could suck it up and try. Ruby, yet again, returned to the meditative position Naruto had shown her.
Ozpin studied the students through the cameras. Naruto seemed to be watching Ms. Rose as she sat still. Unfortunately, he couldn't hear their conversation, as the camera was too far away, but what he did know is that just a bit ago, right as he checked the cameras around the campus, he had seen an afterimage of Naruto on three of them at once, right before he spotted Naruto on his current camera. He thought he caught a glimpse of the ninja leaving his so-called Sage Mode, but he wasn't sure.
But, assuming he did, did that mean that he was teaching Ms. Rose about it? Ozpin cursed himself for not being more specific with his rules to Naruto. He should have said that the ninja couldn't tell people about his Sage Mode. All he'd said was not to reveal where he was from. Even so, perhaps, Ozpin thought, he might be able to learn Sage Mode through watching this assumed training session. Although, that would likely be unnecessary. He could probably, with the leverage he had, get Naruto to tell him how it worked. From there, he could figure it out himself.
Still, Naruto teaching someone, especially a student, was irritating. It meant more people with access to what Ozpin could tell was an immensely powerful ability. To think, in all of his lives, Ozpin had never even accidentally come across this Sage Mode. Then again, perhaps it required very specific conditions to be met in order to activate.
While he was lost in thought, he heard his scroll go off next to him. When he checked it, he saw it was a message from Qrow. Eager to know what those lights had been, he opened it. As he read it, he became more and more confused, before he finally stood up and stared out to the distance.
The message read: 'Issues with the CCT. My last message was from two weeks ago, give or take a few days. Those lights ended up seeming to be nothing, except for the fact that ever since then, Atlas has been reporting increased Grimm activity. I've checked other locations, and it seems to be the same in Vacuo and Mistral. Haven't been able to check Vale yet for obvious reasons. I'll update you once I learn more.'
Two weeks… That lined up almost perfectly with Naruto's arrival at Beacon. And now that he thought about it, Ozpin did seem to remember reading in the news that Grimm were getting restless around Vale.
Ozpin remembered that Naruto had been hiding something from him. Something about his village. Or maybe, Ozpin now thought, about himself. But if there was increased Grimm activity everywhere… What could that mean? Were there others from Naruto's village? No, that wouldn't make sense. Why would Grimm care about other almost normal people?
Ozpin returned to his seat, sending a message back to Qrow, 'Investigate mainly the cause of the lights. If possible, find out if they were meteorites or something similar. Inform me instantly if you discover either of these things.' As he sent it, he wondered. Was he giving away too much? Was he not telling Qrow enough? Ozpin shook his head. He did what he needed to. And besides, Qrow enjoyed the work. Ozpin knew that much, at least. So, he hoped that Qrow would give the investigation his all.
"Alright, Neo," Torchwick began. "It's simple enough. Cinder wants us to keep an eye on some kid. His name is Naruto Uzumaki. Apparently, he should be dressed in all orange most of the time, and he'll have bright blond hair. Of course, besides that, Cinder hasn't really given us anything." Neo scowled. The pair rounded the street corner, passing by the burnt out lightposts of the dark backroads.
"Yeah, I know. Anyway, point is, and I'm sorry, I need you for this job." Neo looked up at him, head cocked. "See, there's no way I can go to Beacon. I'd get arrested in a second. So, I need you to become one of the students there. It should be simple enough. Just get rid of one of them, and take their place. I don't really care how to do it. Just, don't get caught, ok?"
Neo nodded, smirking. Her normal clothes transformed into a Beacon uniform, before reverting back to normal. Torchwick smiled, "Right like that, yeah. You might wanna be choosey about who it is. No idea who this kid likes and who he hates, so just try not to pick one of his enemies. No doubt, our oh-so-great queen Cinder wants more than just his activities monitored. She'll probably tell me that they need dirt on him next. I'm counting on you, Neo."
And another one down, another one down, yada yada.
This time, I don't really feel like nor have time for reviews. I'm sure some people will enjoy this. Which is good, because I'm absolutely going to tick some people off next chapter. Or maybe the one after. Or even after that.
Anyway, I'll see you all then.
