"Hey! I'm back!"
Ruby bustled up to the rest of her team and their two tag-alongs bearing an intentionally non-descript paper bag the might have been carrying groceries if they weighed as much as gold bricks.
"Finally!" This exasperation was voiced by Weiss, who had been rather impatiently waiting for their young team leader to return from whatever mysterious errand it was that had her disappear so inexplicably upon first entering the city proper.
They had all descended the hill to the city of Vale per the suggestion of Weiss, of a day out on the town. Though it was quickly revealed even before they departed, that the true nature of this excursion was to garner information on potential contestants who might be arriving that day for the upcoming Vytal festival.
Admiring the girl's underhanded methods which he merely deemed 'preparedness', and happening to be within earshot of the conversation which had escalated in volume over several tables at breakfast, Sasuke uncharacteristically offered both his and his partner's companionship on this excursion. Neither the two of them were wholly familiar with the layout of the city, despite having been dragged throughout the streets a few days hence, and having cause some unintentional grievous damage those months prior. Though they had both obtained firsthand experience as to the durability and ingenuity of Vale's construction, they were much too preoccupied to learn the placements of buildings which may or may not be there in the anteceding minutes.
"Oh, come on, you weren't waiting that long." Ruby replied as she regained formation with the squadron of students.
"It's not about how long we waited. Although, what were you doing anyway? It's the fact that the ship that's supposed to be carrying contestants from the other nations is about to arrive soon. Seriously, what was so important that you just had to rush off like that?"
Ruby cheekily placed her index finger on her nose and stuck her tongue out a playfully short distance. "Secret."
Frustrated at being so handily shut down, Weiss huffed and proceeded to march them towards the docks.
While the majority of team RWBY was fixated on relaxing and enjoying the day out while accomplishing the task their ersatz leader had assigned them, Naruto was clearly preoccupied and kept his normal motor mouth on idle as they strolled along. Upon being briefed by Sasuke, who had been paying far more attention on the cultural aspects of their new residence, on the nature of the Vytal festival, he had been struck by an uncomfortable nostalgia and apprehension. Though this world seemed to contain individuals more level-headed than his own, he was still concerned at the potential homicidal characters this festival might attract. Sure, Gaara was pretty much his friend now, but he wasn't entirely confident in being able to pull off such a trick again.
This wariness was ignored by the female members who were preoccupied in their own little spat, which terminated soon enough upon arriving in the colossal white shadow of a cruise liner moored at the entirely too rudimentary wooden docks.
While Weiss and the rest of RWBY watched the egress of normal passengers emerging from the gangway, Naruto and Sasuke caught the deck-muffled voices of an argument emerging from the ship's hull near the rear. This preceded a yellow and white blur that vaulted over the railing and onto the weather-worn docks.
"Hey, you! Stop! No-good stowaway!" A man clearly garbed in uniform of the ship's crew yelled as he stumbled out of the porthole in pursuit of the unidentified humanoid blur.
"Hey!" The blur shouted back to the offending man. "I'm a great stowaway! A no good one would have been caught!"
Naruto silently applauded this logic, as he watched the approaching form of a young man that had he been a few years younger, could have passed with minor alteration for Naruto's replacement. Until he saw the whip-like tail emerging from the young man's roughed blue jeans, Naruto was struck with the eerie notion that this could be his analog in this world. Would the moment the two saw one another cause some sort of nexus to open up and swallow the observers into an incongruous non-reality?
This fear was blown off rather quickly with the gust of wind as the young man leaped passed them, his eyes briefly caught Naruto's yet did not even seem to register their alikeness as his gaze was quickly diverted to the black-haired beauty of their party. He winked, and Blake shivered. She recognized the similarity between the two, and it was creepy.
"Do you think he's going to be participating in the tournament?" Yang questioned as the stowaway rushed passed.
"No way! Someone like that- hmmm.. actually, yeah! Go after him!" Weiss's pronouncement reversed halfway through as she began her pursuit of the fleeing Faunus. The rest of the group was hot on her coattails.
They rounded a corner, too quickly perhaps, as the still unnamed young man evaded the obstacle that had appeared in the pursuit team's way while Weiss ran headlong into the unsuspecting girl. The rest of the group skidded to a halt in a mush around the collision. Naruto and Sasuke watched the strangely familiar blond leap away like a parkour runner into the surrounding concrete jungle, while the rest were preoccupied in assessing the damage their white-haired teammate caused. The two decided not to pursue, their interest not exceeding their desire to not attract attention to their gravity defying talents.
"Dammit! He got away!" Weiss yelled out from her grounded position.
"We are so sorry! Are you okay?" Ruby expressed more concern for the other half of the accident, as she moved to help the ginger girl off of the ground.
"Salutations! I'm fine, thank you for asking!" The vibrantly orange-haired girl greeted from her vantage still on their ground.
"Ummm, do you want to get up?"
The question seemed to genuinely puzzle the girl as she thought about it for a cumbersome pause. Eventually, the answer manifested.
"Yes!"
In a graceful move of dexterity, she leapt to her feet from her previously prone position. The rest took an instinctive step back.
"I'm Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Weiss."
"Blake."
"Ruby."
"Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" "Good question." The two blonds of the group received coordinated slaps to the back of the head, prompting a proper introduction.
"Yang."
"Naruto."
"Sasuke." He stated begrudgingly as he returned his slapping hand to its fold.
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Penny reiterated, undaunted.
"Um, you already said that." Weiss pointed out contemptuously.
Once again, an extended pause came from the new girl before she acknowledged the remark. "So I did."
Team RWBY was mildly turned off by this disturbing interaction with the seemingly deranged Penny, and disappointed with their having lost their pursuit target, made to cut the greeting short and resume their journey.
Naruto and Sasuke, having both encountered their fair share of eccentrics, and more alert at the girl's display of acrobatics, were more interested in the bird that happened to fly into their hand, rather than go chasing after the troublemaker who equally well may not be competing in the tournament.
"You're competing in the festival, aren't you?" Sasuke's pointed question came out far more like a statement, but the young woman to whom it was directed was unaffected by its clipped and guarded tone.
"Yes, indeed I am acquaintance! I'm combat ready!" Penny proudly proclaimed as she replied to the stoic boy.
This also seemed to perk Naruto's interest and he regained his usual exuberance. Sure, she was strange, but she seemed harmless enough in comparison. "Cool! Where are you from? What's your fighting style like?"
The retreating team RWBY halted in their fallback at Penny's declaration of intent to enter the tournament, their own interest piqued.
"Wait, you're entering the tournament?" Weiss interrogated.
Unflappable, and perhaps even stimulated by the barrage of attention she was now receiving, Penny chose to address Weiss's simple question first. "Yes, I am, that is what I said!" If she had been any less innocent sounding with her reply, Weiss would have been sure that the girl was mocking her.
"I am from Atlas. But I am afraid I cannot reveal my fighting style, as it is classified information."
Weiss was interested at the information that the girl was from the same kingdom that she herself hailed from, but found it no huge surprise as Atlas was a massive country, and she could easily have neglected to meet their girl before she left to Beacon.
"Ok, I get it. Don't want to reveal your talents before the competition! Well, in that case, I hope I get a chance to fight you in the tournament, I want to see how strong you are. Ice Queen here isn't huge, but you don't even look like her hard ass running into you even hurt- OW!"
Naruto's poorly concealed insult was truncated when Weiss proceeded to smack the boy several times on the head with the blunt side of her rapier.
Reciprocally unaffected by the group's strange behavior, Penny continued to smile unfazed.
"Yes! I am very strong, and I too cannot wait to fight with you in the tournament! It would be ever so much fun!"
Eager to disperse the increasingly bizarre encounter, Weiss attempted to end the back and forth.
"Well, sorry for running into you, but we have to get going. Now where did that vagabond go?"
The rest of the group gave their goodbyes as well, including Sasuke who nodded appreciatively in her direction. "Take care, friend." Ruby offhandedly sent back to the girl as she turned to leave. Nursing the growing bump on his head, Naruto too professed the pleasure in her acquaintance.
"Now, where did that dirty Faunus go?" Weiss whispered mainly to herself, unaware that Blake could hear her every utterance, and was growing increasingly incensed at her teammates attitude toward her species, though they were still ignorant to the fact.
"I don't think it really matters." Sasuke, first alongside Weiss shot over to her. "I highly doubt that even if we find anyone else that's in the tournament, that they would willingly reveal any useful information."
Weiss glared at his logic. "It's not just about the tournament, that rapscallion could be responsible for that break-in at the Dust shop."
Sasuke scoffed derisively. "Highly unlikely, the shop was hit well before the ship arrived, and from all the evidence so far, that guy was on the ship the entire time."
"Why are you so quick to always blame Faunus for everything?" Blake had caught up to the discourse, and her ire was growing at Weiss's repeated offenses.
"He's clearly no good!" Weiss religiously stated. "Faunus like that are not to be trusted! I wouldn't be surprised if he was a member of the White Fang."
This particular comment sent more than just Blake on edge. Naruto and Sasuke had been briefed on the Faunus extremist group once when they had their first debriefing, and had subsequently been forced to learn their history entire in the course of their studies. Sasuke had been toying with the idea that the White Fang was behind the most recent strain of Dust robberies. The appearance of this delinquent Faunus could just as easily be coincidence, but Sasuke would not be caught off-guard, and filed all of his musings away in a mental folder.
Naruto was far more emotionally effected by Weiss's spite. In those few seconds of contact, he had bonded with his look-alike. And in the months that they had been in the world of Remnant, he had identified more and more with the plight of the Faunus. Even though in his cover he professed not to be of the species, he found he was starting to receive the same mistrusting and cautious looks while in the city as he received back home in Konoha. Weiss's indiscriminate condemning of not just the group, but Faunus as a whole did not sit well with him, either.
"You can't go generalizing like that. You have no evidence other than the fact that he is a Faunus. If you just go assigning everyone as a threat, you miss the ones who are the real danger." Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who offered this rational counter.
"I do have evidence. He's a stowaway, and a thief. That makes him no good. Who's to say that he isn't capable of something like the break in?"
"You have no right to judge people by their past mistakes." This particularly frost comment came from Naruto, who was by this time increasingly upset with the white-haired girl and her train of logic. Her scorn touched a particularly sensitive area for him, as he himself had resorted to stealing to survive, and was often known throughout the village as a miscreant.
Blake glanced towards Naruto, empathetic to his emotional reaction. This sparked the charcoal of curiosity in Blake, who could not help but wonder how a human such as Naruto could seemingly find such a kindship with the Faunus.
"I have ever right!" Weiss angrily declared. "The White Fang has been tormenting my family for years now. They steal our shipments and have even threatened my family's lives."
"What do you expect? The Schnee Dust Company employs Faunus workers at half the wages of humans, and makes them do the most dangerous work. Of course your family is going to be a target." Blake's vitriol was directed back towards Weiss and her tirade.
"Hey! We are the victims here! The White Fang is nothing but a bunch of thieves, criminals and murderers!"
"Maybe we were just tired of being pushed around by people like you!"
Blake was beyond furious by this point, her emotions controlling her extremities which she was barely able to restrain. But more immediately important, she was not able to restrain her mouth as she attempted to bludgeon the obnoxious brat with her words. And in her rage she had not noticed the comment she let slip until the group slowed to a stop in a loose circle around the dark woman.
All of her friends were looking at her with a mixture of confusion and nauseating realization. All save for the two shinobi, who looked either nonplussed, or increasingly tense at the escalation of the argument.
"Wait," Weiss has finally twigged onto what Blake has just let slip. "what do you mean 'we'?"
"She's a Faunus."
All eyes shot to Sasuke at this frank and callous comment.
"Was that a secret? I thought we were all just rolling with it." Naruto scratched the back of his head, his nervous hands seeking to do something, grasp something, but finding nothing that would help the burgeoning unseemliness.
Blake took a cautious step back, fight or flight kicking in as the adrenaline from her heated argument turned into a danger response.
"Blake-" Ruby began.
Blake took this as a starting signal though, and like a black lightning bolt shot off into the air, leaping from building to building with cat-like grace.
Naruto, being one of the closest people to her previous position made to jump off after her, hoping to talk some sense into his friend who was clearly very distressed. A strong hand caught his shoulder though, and he felt Sasuke squeeze tight around the shoulder of his ballistic vest. He didn't need to say anything, because Naruto implicitly understood that the other boy felt the woman needed to be alone. Naruto distinctly felt differently, but reluctantly acquiesced, waiting to see what the rest of Blake's closer friends would do.
"Blake!" Ruby called after the retreating black form.
"Let her go."
"No! I can't just let her go off like that! What you said Weiss was incredibly hurtful."
"But not entirely untrue." Sasuke contested, his voice neutral. But the initiated might be able to glance his own internalized struggle at the fizzle of the heated words. "She needs some time alone." Sasuke spoke form his own experience.
The more expressive of the group collectively disagreed with him.
"Please," Ruby pleaded to Naruto. "Help us find her."
The request was all the excuse he needed.
"So, you never told your teammates that you were a Faunus?"
Sun Wukong, the blond monkey Faunus they had encountered at the dock sat in a sunny garden café across from Blake, who was nursing a cup of heavily spiced and comforting tea. It was the first thing close to food that she had had since she departed from her team in the streets of Vale 12 hours prior. Sun took a sip from the miniature coffee cup in front of him and grimaced.
Bitter.
As he reached across the table to the caster of sugar closer to the girl than to him, Blake spoke, more to herself and her beverage than to Sun.
"I was once a member of the White Fang."
Sun blinked as the much too large lump of sugar that he had spooned from the container dropped into his still scalding drink, splashing tar colored drops onto the table.
"It wasn't my choice, I was born into it." She swirled her cup, the foam gently forming ant-sized hurricanes amidst the detritus of cloves and cinnamon. "And it wasn't always bad. It started out with peaceful protests, efforts to support disenfranchised Faunus. But it didn't work. They were always stopping us from helping, starting violence at the protests, and we just keep seeing Faunus treated like trash everywhere. And somewhere along the line, I guess something just broke…"
Blake looked at her on muddied reflection in the cup.
"But you left, right? Because you didn't like what they were doing." Sun surmised, shrugged, and probed his drink again. This time it was still too hot, and way too sweet. He drank it anyway, his mouth already burned and peeling. "Because you wanted to become a huntress, and protect people."
Blake seemed to notice his presence for the first time. Regarding him with those unblinking, cat-like eyes.
"I think that makes you a good person." Sun gave her a subtly glowing smile. Those eyes, though, couldn't see him. They saw someone else behind that glow.
"Thanks…. Sun. I just don't know if my teammates will see it the same way."
"If they don't accept you for who you are, they aren't worth it." Sun's reply was too simple not to make sense.
"But what if Ozpin finds out that I was part of White Fang? What if I get kicked out of Beacon? I hid my identity because I wanted to start over. I'm not sure if I can again." Blake grimaced dejectedly. Her past as a Faunus was no longer an option, and it was starting to look like her new life would come crashing down around her as well.
"What makes you think he doesn't already know?" This jest made Blake stop and cogitate on the offhand remark.
Sun continued to smile, somewhat more somberly. "Life doesn't always give us easy choices. Sometimes it downright sucks. But we just have to pick up the pieces and start over." This was said with such confidence and certainty that Blake couldn't help but feel that her fellow Faunus spoke from experience.
"Besides," His smile brightened a modicum. "Have some faith in your friends, I think they might surprise you. They seem like good people, trust me, I can sense these things."
The words inexplicably gave Blake some soothing confidence with their unwavering assurance, but she still maintained a neutral as look as she could, fearful at investing herself too much in a hope that might not pan out.
"Sun."
"Hm?"
Blake stared right into his slate blue eyes, silently insistent. Sun wondered if he was starting to sweat under the intensity.
"I need your help."
"Ok, with what?" Sun questioned, curious more than skeptical.
"I know that there's a large shipment of Dust coming into White Fang territory. If it really is them committing this string of thefts, they won't be able to resist it."
Sun nodded, catching the gist of the current direction her mind was headed. "So you want to go there, and what? Catch them in the act?"
"Or prove their innocence."
"It won't necessarily absolve them," He was slightly upset with the suggestion of them, more specifically her, putting herself into harm's way. "but if it will help you reconcile this, I'll do what I can."
Blake reached across the table, gently covering his hand with her own. He felt the subtle ridges and valleys of the tropical landscape of her skin. The mild callouses from where she pushed herself training to protect whatever it was that she held important, convergent faults accenting her perfection rather than detracting from it. A teacup with defects that made it even more beautiful.
"Thank you, Sun." She offered him one of her rare smiles.
He had no words for this, just a troubled smile and a nod.
"Oh, I'm sorry to interrupt, can I get the young couple anything else?"
The moment was ruined by the inopportune but well-meaning waitress, an older matronly lady with only mild crowfeet and a few gray hairs decrying her decline from youthful beauty.
Blake quickly retracted to her own side of the table faster than a cat that slipped into a bathtub. She briefly wondered if it would be a benefit to have fur to cover up her prominent blush.
"We-we're not a couple."
Sun's own blush could have perhaps hidden his disappointment at the reflexive denial.
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I just assumed."
Once the waitress had made herself scarce again, Blake attempted to power through the flustered air that had congealed between them at the interruption. She arranged to meet him again, that night at a given warehouse at the shipping docks. She then finished off the rest of her chai, left a few coins on the table and gave Sun a sidelong glance before she vanished into the waning morning hubbub.
Sun watched her go, seeing her lithe black form melt into the foot traffic and then to wherever it was people went to lay low. He deposited some small bills himself on the table and began to meander off.
He got a few blocks from the café on a bustling thoroughfare, before he turned off into an alley not much wider than his shoulder width. He stopped in the shade and slightly rank smell as he leaned up against the wall next to a dustbin, head down and pensive, not waiting it seemed, for anything in particular.
"We have to tell Ozpin, you know."
Sasuke's copper toned jacket melted in an unknown alloy with the iron red wall of the alley he too was propped against. Neither looked at the other as the street noise undulated in and out of the alley which funneled sound in, but not out.
"Yeah, I know."
Sasuke nodded expressionlessly, but he still turned to the blond man. "It'll be ok." This was a rare proffered gift from the raven-haired boy, but it didn't sooth the trepidations building in his fellow conspirator. And as a shadow passed in front of their shared hideaway, the space was once again occupied by the single individual.
Sun sighed, in resignation, in desperation, in frustration and disappointment, in himself, mostly. There was an obscuring cloud of smoke as Sun lost several centimeters and almost as many kilos and gained in return more clothes, whisker marks and a deeply troubled expression.
Naruto gazed out from his concealment to see part of team RWBY pass across the street, still in search of their wayward fourth.
He was not the best tracker. But canvasing the area with clones and with the advent of simply being a ninja, along with the fact that the girl wasn't trying very hard to hide, Naruto had found her within the first hour.
He was at a loss as to how to approach her, though. Staring at her huddled and scared form from a distant rooftop, he tried desperately to approach the distraught woman. He wasn't sure exactly where he stood with the dark beauty. Where exactly did he fit in this inner circle? Part of him wanted so much to approach her, spill his own guts and commiserate in desolation.
But he couldn't trust. What would happen if he invested himself too much in these people only to disappear from their lives like a midsummer night's dream? It would not only hurt him, but them as well, to be rent apart so callously. He couldn't trust her not to jeopardize their situation and spill their story to the rest of her teammates. He couldn't trust himself not to become attached. And what then, if he couldn't force himself to return to the people he had left with unfulfilled promises?
Meeting with Sun Wukong gave him the opportunity to craft a persona that could approach the skittish Faunus. He had to admit that the man was indeed quite analogous to himself, making it all the easier to assume his identity for this delicate operation.
It was hardly perfect. It had so much potential to blow up into his face. To hurt him, and more importantly to hurt Blake. He didn't want to lie. He hated it.
He hated himself.
But at least he kept his promise.
