Hey there, I suppose I should apologize for this being late.

But I'm not going to. The truth is that I am feeling increasingly unmotivated. Not just with this story, but writing in general. I said from the start that I wrote mainly for myself, but somewhere along the lines I became irreparably entangled in this electronic social mess. That, in conjunction with personal life matters makes for a very poor writing potion.

Writing is a great stress reliever, don't get me wrong. But I feel myself stagnating. I wanted to continue to write in the hopes that I would get better, but it doesn't really seem to be the case. Maybe I can try again fresh. Maybe I just need a break.

What does it mean for this story? I can't really say at this point. I held up my end of the bargain and did one complete fic, and you can expect at least another two chapters after this one because they're already written. After that... well... my mood is going to have to improve pretty drastically to expand on the ideas in my head being buffeted around by unproductive thoughts.

But still, for the few left, thanks for sticking with me, and I'll try to work myself back up to finishing this once off at the very lest.

"What were you expecting? An all-encompassing answer to our problems? Universal treatise? Divine illumination?"

"Hardly," Glynda grumbled, fingers massaging her temples pounding like drums. "Just something more substantial than what amounts to blaming it on magic."

The holographic image of General Ironwood shrugged heavily, mimicking the exhaustion on her own face.

"I'm sorry, but that's what you're going to have to accept. At least for now. You have all the data we do on the samples. It's obvious there's a correlation, and follows that there's also a rational explanation for it as well. But you can't ask for us to rewrite known science overnight. In the absence of a process it can look like magic, but I can assure you that it's not."

"Sure, now prove to me the rest isn't either." Glynda shook her head and Ironwood slumped down into his chair and leaned his head into his robotic arm.

"The truth is we really can't. For now, all we have is Ozpin's gods creating the world as we know it. They wrote the rules for us. They might have rules themselves, but they're as of yet a mystery."

"They throw the dice and leave us to deal with the consequences." She grimaced, trying to remember the taste of something good to rid herself of the sour scowl.

"At this point, it's better if we just deal with the results, rather than try to explain why."

"You give me results that say both Naruto's pre-transformation samples and Sasuke's current one's are showing inexplicable, spontaneous decay." Her hands slapped the table, shaking the image of the general, but not the man who could understand her current frustration. "And you expect me to be happy with that?"

"That is correct, but you don't have to enjoy it." He sat up straight and met her eyes. It was the least he could do when delivering the bad news. "Even on the microscopic scale, we can't find a good reason for it. We ran some backscatter atomic tests and they showed no perceptible difference. Resistivity, radioactivity, Aura capacity, all within normal ranges. But you already expected this, didn't you?"

"Yes," She admitted. "But I was still holding out hope that you and your resources would be able to find something that I couldn't."

"I'm sorry." He meant it. It was a record, she had never heard the man apologize so much in a single stretch. "We are dealing with something that is beyond human ability to analyze. All signs point to it being an atomic-level difference, too small for us to see."

Or, perhaps too large, couldn't see the forest through the trees. And yet, that never stopped them from trying.

Man's reach exceeded his grasp. And Man's grasp exceeded his understanding. Glynda mused dismally on this paradox rather than on the immediate problem, but found even those implications equally troubling.

"So, we can't do anything but wait for him to die?"

"We'll still keep working." Ironwood said sternly. "We're not going to simply give up. I've got a good portion of my personal R&D on it, and we have been flooded by volunteers who want to study the phenomena. They don't know what they're working on, of course." He amended quickly as Glynda lurched forward in her seat.

She let herself fall back into the cushioned velvet before heaving a sigh and running a hand over her weary face, trying not to feel the crow's feet she was sure were worming their way onto her previously unblemished looks. She wasn't half so vain, but it was still hard to ignore time's ravages.

"I'm sorry." She sighed. "I really should let you just do your job."

"That's alright." He assured her. "It's prudent to ask. We all have to keep one another in check these days. None of us are infallible."

"Or immortal."

"True," He chuckled grimly at the bitter shot at Ozpin, who despite his assertion, had yet to reappear to them. It was hard to admit that he wasn't coming back. They both intuitively knew that it was up to them, and perhaps a handful of others, to handle things now. And though they wouldn't admit it, it scared both every day.

"And…" He roused himself from his musings as her quiet voice broke the silence. "what about the… other matter?" She tried to control the shaking in her voice with a cough, but gave up as she realized the gesture was useless against that man.

"Well, the good news is that we can see what is wrong." The General picked out some keys on his end, bringing up displays on either side of the connection which showed the same collated information.

"And the bad news?" Her voice was firm and businesslike now. Waiting to ask had been the hardest part. She was used to dealing with bad news, but had a hard time keeping up hope.

"We're just beginning to analyze it. We still have a long way to go." He pulled up another window on both their displays which ran through countless rows of gridded data that looked vaguely like DNA sequencing. "Our people are convinced that what is happening with Ms. Rose is entirely explainable within our current capacity. But it's still a slow process cataloguing the modified genes and differentiating the human from the Grimm. The only saving grace is that the Grimm part is such a small part of the mutation that we can easily recognize it when we find it. But finding it is like finding a needle in a haystack."

"So it's just a number-crunching problem then? I though you had enough volunteers?"

"I'm not letting this data out of the top-secret military circles." Glynda's eyes widened momentarily before she understood.

"I see…" Ironwood nodded sternly.

"It's not a simple matter of confidentiality or propriety. While Naruto and Sasuke's DNA could potentially change our entire concept of the laws of physics and chemistry, Ms. Rose's is changing it, as we speak. As I said, each piece of Grimm DNA is easily recognizable, but it's because we've never seen it before now. I don't want anyone having that information. Not yet."

Glynda smiled despite the situation. It seemed that the General was beginning to understand that there were things too volatile to hammer into a weapon. She doubted Salem even knew how her powers over the Grimm worked. And if there was some chance she could get ahold of the research and figure it out before them, all would be lost.

"I see you have things handled. My thanks again, General."

"No need." He gave her a sorrowful smile. He wished he could bridge the gap between to comfort the woman he commiserated with so heavily. But he was still not sure on where the two of them stood beyond allies. "Please take care of yourself." He tried being a little friendlier anyway. "You look like shit." … and once again his soldiering mouth betrayed him.

He saw her eye twitch and thought that she was about to reach through the electronic connection and strangle him. He immediately regretted the sarcastic remark and considered severing the call and making a run for the nigh-impenetrable hills around Atlas to hide.

As soon as he began considering if he had time to pack his bags before fleeing, he heard a staticky chortle resonate from the other side of the hologram.

"Yeah, suppose I do." She shook her head and noticed a red flashing button on her desk, indicating she had another call. "You don't look so hot yourself." Her hand hovered above that button. "Take care of yourself, too, alright?"

"Of course." He nodded, and she gave a curt one back before clicking over to the other incoming call.

"Ms. Nikos." She greeted with the same nod she used to dismiss the general. "Status report?"

"Hello again, Ms. Goodwitch." The smiling redhead beamed out at her from the display, the sunny disposition and background making the desk-bound woman blink from the transition. "Everything is proceeding as good as can be expected. Most of the students have re-occupied the campus and dorms, and most of the maintenance staff have returned once word got out of the bonus incentive you offered."

Glynda nodded, not lamenting the loss of those funds for such a cause. While she had been busy trying to minimize their economic impact on Vale during the reconstruction, she had not had time to keep up with the deluge of foreign relief efforts, which had raised significant amounts to help get Beacon back on its feet. That surplus wealth would now be put to good use.

She supposed she also owed Qrow for catching that little detail as well, before it slipped into the pockets of Vale's administrators. She couldn't blame the politicians for being corrupt. It was human nature, and at the moment, greed was working to their advantage.

"And Mistral's council?" Pyrrha's immutable smile twisted heavily as she tried to find a good angle to present.

"Well… there are quite a few of them that aren't too happy about what we're doing, calling it a covert takeover by Vale. But it seems to be balanced out by the others. Or at least, the arguments are delaying any action from being taken."

"Let's just hope that it does so long enough for them to get up and running again. Speaking of: what's the progress on the teachers?"

The Amazon's smile brightened marginally while her hand made a 'so-so' gesture.

"Slowly, but surely we're winning them over." Her confidence was palpable over the pixilated image. The effort to round up the professors and technical staff was something she could actively contribute to. Her fame made it all the easier to wean help finding them, and her endorsement went a long way as well. It was one of the few enjoyments fame brought her lately.

"Glad to hear it." Glynda's slowly nurtured smile took a leave of absence as she broached the next topic. "And Lionheart?"

"I'm afraid he cannot be found."

The headmistress's eyes narrowed. While it was perhaps more convenient for them in the immediate, eventually they would need a new headmaster. She had nothing against the man, and wondered if his exile was self-imposed, or if someone had 'convinced' him to become scarce. Either way, she would have preferred him on their side, however reluctantly.

"I see. I'll begin looking for a replacement." Pyrrha looked mildly troubled by the easily made decision, but did not protest.

"Any news of the other teams?" Glynda ventured tentatively, and the other woman's bright disposition was immediately reignited.

"Oh, yes! Naruto and Sasuke showed up along with Qrow a few days ago, and we just got a message from team RWBY that they finished as well, and will be stopping by here to lend a hand tomorrow."

Goodwitch let loose a cautious sigh of relief at the news, hoping that Pyrrha didn't notice her worry. She had been nervous when the two younger teens failed to report in on time, and was only left with a sketchy note from Qrow explaining their absence. She was fine giving the man leeway to do what he thought was necessary, as long as it produced results. That is, as long as he didn't drag anyone else down with him. For his sake, she hoped he had something to show for this little stunt.

"I see. That's good. Well done, Ms. Nikos. You may pass my congratulations on to the rest of your team."

"Thank you, Ms. Goodwitch." Pyrrha gave a shallow bow. "I will do so. It was really Jaune that managed to put everything together."

Glynda couldn't help the light snort that made itself known, and she shook her own head in simple acceptance. She would admit that she was wrong about that boy, and might even be strong-armed to admit that she was a little proud of his progress.

Still, he, as well as the rest of them, were just a drop in the bucket fighting the growing fire. She didn't have the heart to tell her that this success was barely keeping them above water, and any slip up would send the world tumbling back into total war.

"Well then, let him know he has my thanks."

"Will do." Pyrrha's smile got even brighter. "Oh, and Ms. Goodwitch?"

"Yes?" She asked, curious at the addendum.

"You really don't look too well. Please take care of yourself?"

"Goodbye Ms. Nikos."

With that she severed the connection completely and basked in the blanket of silence which she pulled over herself. The room was dark, too, the sun having set long ago during her conversation. What hour was it, anyway? Did she even care?

She sat there for a while, relishing the timelessness and the unhurriedness she could finally afford to appreciate. Then she stood up, growling as her body let out several displeased pops and groans as she lifted herself out of the too-comfortable chair.

She blindly walked around the desk and into the middle of the empty room, the convoluted mechanics turning slowly somewhere above her. She let her eyes become adjusted to the darkness, to the minute presence of stars somewhere outside her window.

Things were going well. As good as they could hope, anyway.

But what did that mean to them, for them?

They meant to make the world a safer place, a better place. But still, it was a difficult concept to grasp for a woman born of its imperfections. What did it mean? A world without Salem, Emerald, or anyone else seeking to create a disparity of power. A time of unity.

They were getting closer to it. At least it seemed like it. Now all they had to do was not backslide in their progress. But the real question was: progress towards what? A society where Humans and Faunus stood united? One without conflict? What would that pinnacle look like, and would they know it when they saw it?

A peaceful world was one where the only struggle was against the internal chains holding each of them back from achieving Nirvana.

But that's what scared her.

A world after war was a world after history, where everything worth noting was already written. A time when people no longer needed gods to tell them what to do. A world where they had killed the gods.

Maybe they already had.

Pyrrha shook her head in unaffected humor as she was abruptly hung-up on. She pushed back from the public terminal in Mistral's CCT, letting the operator know she had finished. She didn't get up right away, and waited there, staring at her ghostly reflection in the blank screen.

"She does look tired." The woman said, her voice carrying its own weariness. She swiveled around in her seat to face the person behind her too short to be reflected in the screen. "Are you sure you shouldn't go back and take over for her?"

"Yes," She repressed a shiver, still so unused to hearing the slight chorus of voices every time he spoke. "Despite how hard it may be, it is better if I continue to remain known to as few people as possible. As sure as I am that the job is indeed a hard one, I know of no other person more qualified than her right now."

She frowned at the youthful visage she kept trying to assure herself was Ozpin. If it were the headmaster, would he really be this cold? Perhaps death and rebirth had made him more cautious.

"I trust Glynda to do a good job." The possessed Oscar stated as he clasped his hands behind his back and bowed his head in a somber gesture that belied his youthful appearance. "Hopefully better than I did." He snapped out of the somber mood so fast it made Pyrrha question if she had seen it, as he looked at her with a sly smile that once again made her believe the man could read the world.

"In any case, I believe I will be of more use here. It seems we are still short a headmaster, and despite your recent success, you all could do with some training."

As if the statement were a command, Pyrrha stood up from the wooden office chair with a smile and a spring.

"I would very much enjoy that." She said as she fell in with the much shorter man, making their way out of the building. Her smile tilted slightly in the cheek. "That is, if you think you can still keep up."

"Mmm." Ozpin/Oscar hummed obsequiously with the same self-assured smile, his mind elsewhere. "I'm hoping we all can. You say Naruto and Sasuke have arrived?"

"Yes." Pyrrha nodded. "They showed up with Qrow a couple of days ago. Team RWBY is also due in tomorrow evening."

He said nothing, and Oscar was silent as well as he struggled alone to make sense of all the players whom he had only heard of. Ozpin carefully hid his inner thoughts from both during the short walk to the elevator.

Things had changed, far more than he could have guessed in his absence. It was not yet clear if it was for the better or worse, but it was undeniably different, and begged a careful hand. There were still many questions he wished to find answers to. Without the duties of a headmaster, it seemed he would have a scant bit more free time to pursue them.

Pyrrha was slightly off-put at the silence she received, a little wary of the secrets she now knew the man possessed. But the combination alto-tenner voice broke her from mulling over it.

"By the way Ms. Nikos, have you seen my cane?"

The way she flowed through the crisp morning air, burst in motion like ripe dewdrops pealing off from waxy leaves. The way her sultry shadow beckoned him, the way the light played with her gem-like eyes, it was all so… familiar.

And the way he was hiding in the underbrush nearby, paralyzed by her image, mired in thought and unable to approach. That was familiar, too.

It was wrong, though. He knew without having to be told. It wasn't how the memories played out. He should not be the voyeur in this scene. Besides, it wasn't his memories to begin with. Or were they? At what point did he stop being Uzumaki Naruto, and start being Naruto Uzumaki?

When had he learned to mistrust his own knowledge? Furthermore, when had he begun to depend on the memories of his previous iteration? Naruto version 1.0 made many mistakes, more than any man, woman or child he knew of.

But more to the point, when had he become so timid? That wasn't part of either selves. And it wasn't helping him solve the immediate issue between him and Ruby.

"Hey Whiskers!"

"Gaaah!"

Naruto sprung backwards like a toad, planting himself into another bush. He blinked as the cheeky grin hovered over him, casting a shadow on his face which was stretched as tight as a tanning hide.

"Geeze, what's got you so high strung?"

He could think of a million appropriate reasons why he should be so nervous, but none of them he wanted to share with the grinning blonde. He grumbled irritably as she offered her hand to dislodge him from the scraggily entrapment.

She flicked him to his feet and he dusted off his disheveled clothes, noting the many tears which had caught in the thorny bush. He foreswore to replace his limited wardrobe at the next opportunity. But he had others issues more pressing, the current one rearing its ugl-err, beautiful head and quirking an expecting grin.

"Hey Yang." Naruto forced a smile at the sudden appearance of the blonde boxer, and struggled to find small talk. "So… I guess you guys came in early?" They had been due in that evening. But he already knew they had arrived sometime the night before. He had been working on a safe way to approach Ruby, as well as working up the courage to do so. Why did it seem so hard to formulate a battle plan?

Yang herself could see through the waffling small-talk. She arched an eyebrow, wondering what was wrong. She wasn't one to mince words, though.

"Um, duh. Sooo… care to tell me why you're watching my sister from the bushes like a stalker?"

Rather than the blubbering mess of denials she hoped to cause, Naruto worried her by averting his gaze and clenching his fists.

"I'm… sorry. I'm not trying to be weird or anything. It's just…" A half-sigh half laugh caught him off guard.

In truth, Yang knew the young man was incapable of possessing ill-intent beyond the occasional prank, and was simply looking forward to teasing her favorite target. Especially when she could recycle the ammunition later against her sister. But the dejected look on the boy's face as he ground his teeth to dust was the equivalent of a cold shower for that desire.

"What's the matter Whiskers? Why don't you just talk to her?"

He couldn't help his frustration from growing and his nails from digging into his palm. How in the hell was he supposed to answer that, let alone explain it? He swallowed the lump in his throat, and wet his cracked lips.

She tried to interpret his silence as shyness. But that emotion and Naruto didn't go together, and so she was left with an even more twisted picture than the one she had already framed.

"What's wrong, Naruto?"

His name coming from her lips was such a shock that it made him gasp for words, floundering at the garbled mouthful that tried to break free. But after a few seconds of nothing useful coming forth and Naruto obviously resistant to telling her, Yang sighed and shook her head ruefully. She looked up and turned to face her sister, just entering the crescendo of her kata. She smiled at a secret only she knew.

"She's amazing, isn't she?"

He sighed at the reprieve and roped his wayward words back in. This was a question he could answer.

"Yeah. She is."

He didn't stumble. He didn't need to obfuscate, lie, dissemble or flatter. There was no denying that despite her previous awkwardness, her random obsession with dangerous objects, her unflappable naiveite- or maybe because of all those things, she was one of the most amazing people he knew. Maybe he was just beginning to figure that out.

But it still didn't help with the other problem.

"So. Go talk to her. Whatever your issue is, I'm sure you two can work it out." Yang planted her hands on her hips and leered menacingly down at Naruto, making him feel like he had reverted to his twelve-year-old self. No matter how he had grown, the charisma card carried by the big sister was something no amount of training could counter.

"It's… not that simple, Yang." He tried to assert, shaking his head in dismay as the topic of their discourse continued to dance obliviously with her weapon. "It's… I'm…" He stared at his palms as if the answer was there. As if they would bear the telltale marks where he messed up their lives.

"Yes, it is." Yang denied with no small amount of accusation which made him flinch.

Yang was getting frustrated. True, she understood that it was a little hypocritical after ignoring her own repressed issues for so long. But it was the simple facts that broke her out of her denial. Simple things like how her self-absorption had almost gotten her sister killed. And how her sister was the most important thing in her life.

She didn't care what the young man thought he was. If he thought he was a monster or freak, it didn't matter. He couldn't judge himself for her sister, that was her job.

Yang had come to terms with all the deception surrounding the two foreigners, sympathized with his trials including the Kyuubi and everything that came after. But that didn't excuse his wishy-washy attitude now. If she could deal with that, he could deal with whatever the issue was now.

"In fact…" Yang began, getting an evil glint in her eyes that paralyzed Naruto with fear. "I think I'll show you how easy it is…"

"Um, Yang, what are you-?"

Despite his extensive skills training to be a ninja, in addition to what both Glynda and Aurelia had drilled into him, he wasn't ready for Yang to suddenly pounce on him, grab him by the scruff of his neck and fling him into the clearing.

"You'll thank me for this later!" He heard her call above his own screams as he flew through the thick woods towards the clearing which held Ruby.

"Well done, Yang." The young woman grinned, congratulated herself and dusted her palms off. She cupped a hand to her hear and listened to the cries of shock and surprise that she had precipitated with heartwarming contentment.

"Ahh… young love." The sounds of pain and destruction continued to echo as she turned her back and trod out of the wooded training grounds.

"Wonder what the others are up to?"

"So… what did you want to talk about?"

Ruby asked the needless question to the young man sitting cross-legged across from her. Despite the obvious tension, the two were picturesquely positioned in that cool meadow. A scuffed and sweaty Ruby gazed expectantly at her significantly more disheveled companion.

"Well…" Naruto began, again trying to formulate words to address the elephant in the room. "I guess I wanted to talk about us…" The hand scratching the back of his shaggy head suddenly tensed, ripping out a good chunk of his hair as he realized the accidental insinuation. "Uh, I mean…!"

But to his great surprise, Ruby just nodded solemnly.

"I think that's a good idea." She had no idea of the ulterior turmoil in her counterpart. Her mind was solely focused on addressing the most obvious issue while the two of them could still tolerate being around one another.

"It's strange that the Kyuubi is letting us talk like this." The mention of the name banished all peripheral thoughts from his mind as Naruto gained an uncharacteristic severity about him.

"Do you have any idea why?" Again, now that he was so close to the keeper of his memories, he delved into the incorporeal cloud to try and salvage any knowledge that would let them get a grasp on the situation. "Did anything happen on your mission, you think?"

"I-" She knew she aught to tell him about Raven and the whole ordeal, but wasn't quite sure where to begin. She smiled slightly, though, remembering the satisfaction that came with her minor victory over the fox's influence. "I think he might have bitten off more than he could chew."

Naruto couldn't help but mirror the smile, altruistic pride swelling in his chest.

"I knew you could handle him." He unknowingly reached out across the short distance to grasp her hand. A gesture that so very recently caused great anxiety, so natural now that it felt like a sin. "I never doubted you for a second."

"Thanks." If only she could be so confident in herself. She still had a long way to go, and still did not know where to begin figuring herself out. "But I still need a way to control it."

She then proceeded to tell him the entirety of the story so that he could weigh in with his own experiences. Even if they couldn't figure out the why and how, they could at least use what they knew to predict what would happen next.

Naruto listened to her words in rapt attention, frowning concernedly as he took it all in. The memories he could now access were awash with negative emotions, clouding his judgment. So he relied on that new part of him, the one that he had been growing to think of as 'fake' in order to remain detached and objective.

In the end though, he could offer nothing new. His experiences with the fox had been equally confused an violent, and the whole exercise only served to make him feel more useless than before.

Ruby saw the turmoil on his face, and winced as Naruto unknowingly clenched her hand. She gave a gentle squeeze back which roused him from his dark wallowing. He looked up at her apologetically, and she replied with a silent resilience.

"Don't worry, I'm sure we can figure this out together." She assured him.

He smiled once again at his foolishness. But this time, a warm feeling accompanied the chagrin instead of dismay. It was yet another reminder that he wasn't perfect, but as long as he had others to cover his faults, it didn't matter.

"Maybe I should learn to meditate?" The solution once again implanted itself in her mind from a foreign source. It could have been one of Naruto's memories of his perverted-master's lessons. But the previously hopeful look on the young man's face was dashed with anguish and gloom.

He couldn't deny that it was probably one of the better options out there. But neither the new version of him nor the old knew anything about achieving that kind of inner peace. He had no way to help her in this endeavor, nor even himself.

Ruby chuckled at the groan her suggestion elicited from the blond boy. She had to admit that she herself wasn't overly fond of sitting still and quiet for hours on end. But she could at least relish in the empathy and find levity in his antics.

After expunging his dismay, Naruto sighed as he resigned himself to the inevitability.

"Fine. So, do you have any idea what to do?" He vaguely remembered Jiraya teaching him how. But he also remembered the man tossing him down a chasm, an option they didn't exactly have here.

Ruby deflated at the realization that she too knew nothing beyond the misremembered time her dad tried to get Yang and her to do Tai-chi.

"Um, excuse me?" The soft but intrusive voice yanked the two of them back from sinking over the edge of despair, and sent them both to their feet.

The unassuming freckled boy they found stumbled back nervously when suddenly confronted with the two of them with their weapons.

"Wait! Please! I'm sorry!"

Seeing the pathetic cry for lenience, they cautiously relaxed their stances. Still, they had both gained a healthy paranoia and didn't dismiss their fears just yet. After all, they had been distracted, but he still managed to sneak up on them without their notice.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked, blue eyes coldly bearing down on the ginger.

"I'm-uh, my name is Oscar." He said frankly, almost as if they were supposed to know the name.

Ruby and Naruto shared a glance letting the other know they were equally lost. More so apparently than this young man deep in the woods. They both looked down at 'Oscar' to see past his hand raised in defense, to his eyes which glazed over, as if he wasn't even aware of the two of them. They both tightened their grips on their weapons, wary of anything out of the ordinary. They almost jumped the poor boy as he shook himself out of his trance and slowly stood back up.

"Um, I guess I'm supposed to tell you that… I'm here to help you gain perspective?"

He sounded as unsure of himself as they were of him, and once again their eyes met, mirroring the same skepticism and confusion. But when they turned back to the young man, his emerald eyes winked something different in a private semaphore, a message that was entirely different than what was on his face.

Naruto sighed, and was the first to put away his weapons. He had no idea what made him trust the young man, and neither did Ruby as she continued to stare at him incredulously. His only answer to her was a weak shrug. Oscar clearly didn't have any weapons. And even if he overheard them and knew their secret, it wasn't like they could kill him for his silence. The kid was strange, the whole thing was strange. But then again, so were they.

Maybe it was strange enough to work.

"Does no one else find this weird?"

Oscar nodded emphatically while Naruto gave a noncommittal shrug. He was just happy that they weren't in a sewer. The dank limestone walls and ominous candle light did little to improve the dungeon-esque atmosphere of the place, but it was at least a change.

And Ozpin just stood there with his insufferable smile.

"You know, it would have helped if you told us who you were from the beginning." Ruby huffed, shooting accusing glances at both the unflappable man and the innocent boy who withered under her glare.

"I do apologize for not coming to you myself," Ozpin said without an ounce of sorry about him. "But I felt that I had taxed young Oscar here a bit too much as of late. He's still getting used to the process."

"I think we all are." Ruby muttered under her breath, crossing her arms petulantly.

"Wait, won't all of us being here be bad?" Naruto questioned, slowly catching on to what was going on and recognizing a bigger implication from his place far behind in the conversation. "I mean, shouldn't what's happening to Oscar happen to Ruby, if we're in her mind?"

The girl paled with that thought and slowly sunk to her knees as the color drained from her face with her mouth frozen in a ghastly cry. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad merging personalities with any one of them, but with three guys and the one of her, she couldn't imagine what kind of slovenly tomboy they would turn out to be.

"Not to worry," Ozpin spoke assuredly, seeing the anguished Ruby. "We are all sharing consciousness at the moment, and are neither physically nor spiritually present in any one mind. Besides, I can assure you that this little trip is merely temporary."

Ruby let loose a sigh of relief, collapsing backwards into Naruto's arms before she could impact the hard, damp floor.

"With that in mind, I suggest we try not to waste any more time discussing our presence here, and work on the task we came her to do."

Rising to the occasion, Ruby nodded seriously along with Naruto as the two fell into a loose formation behind the avatar of the ex-headmaster who seemed to know where he was going. The three of them walked down the dimly lit hallway as Oscar scurried to catch up, all the while lamenting his lot in life.

"Say," Ruby broke the uncomfortable silence as a thought occurred to her. "How did you get a coffee mug in here?"

"Just lucky, I guess." He smiled as the girl blew him a raspberry.

He didn't have the heart to tell her it was empty.

Sasuke was alone on the banks of a river among a field of rocks. The river wound around the southernmost tip of Mistral and spilled out into the flat plains at the base of the mountain upon which it was build. The stone had been placed on the inside curve of one of the large oxbows as a buttress against erosion, keeping the river from cutting back into the lower-class housing which lay just at the foot of the mountainous city. He kept his back to those slums, and sat facing the thick woods which lay just outside the city's protection.

He didn't imagine himself being sentimental, but also could not help making the connection between the lush forest here, and the vegetation back in Konoha. The capital of Anima might have been in its winter, but it was still temperate as the Hidden Leaf Village and the lush forests gestated subtly outside the sweltering heat of summer. The dead leaves and branches decomposing into nutrients which would feed the rebirth in the spring.

Death, so that life could begin anew.

It was a subtle change, marked only by the rich smell of peat in the air. But back in Vale, the trees were evergreens or, like in forever fall, perpetually in a state of glorious crimson. The eternal seasons which governed that Kingdom left him feeling stagnant, devoid of change, even more so than the months he spent in the barren northern tundra were every day was a new challenge to survival.

Mistral was a happy medium, and he took pleasure in enjoying this brief snapshot, before it was gone.

"There are other places to read, you know."

"Are any of them as good?"

Sasuke looked up from the lush vista to the afternoon sun which radiated down on that little spot and made up for the slight chill in the air. He breathed deeply, smelling the scent of water and earthy humus behind it, so hard to pinpoint above the hustle and bustle of the marketplace and the abject squalor which lay just behind.

"I don't suppose so, no."

Without looking up from her book to appreciate that framed landscape, Blake sat down next to him on his heavy traveling cloak that was spread out on the hard rock. There was a large empty space there which looked inviting, like it was expecting someone.

The only words which passed between the two were the conversations of nature. The river quietly roaring around the bend, and the small trickles of tributaries babbling through the cracks beneath their feet. The spine of Blake's book croaking in protest as she flattened it with her thumb, and the steady tick as the breeze played at the pages.

"I heard about your mission." Sasuke croaked out, suddenly feeling himself out of place. "Do you… need to talk about it?"

The situation between Faunus and Humans was admittedly something he had paid little attention to before. He had easily dismissed it as irrational. Blake was a Faunus, and Faunus were people. But others didn't see it that way. Did he need to think of Blake as more than just a person to understand her? Maybe he was as curious as he was sympathetic.

"Not really." Blake intoned, flipping a page carefully and betraying not a hint of perturbation. "What about your mission?" She broke away from her book at last, turning to him with a dull, yet sly look. "Something you want me to know about?"

He glanced at her, trying to see if he could read the emphasis of the words, but came up empty handed. Was she being sarcastic? Accusatory? Or just messing with him? He lamented his lack of knowledge regarding the female species, and Blake in particular. He couldn't find the motivation in anything she did. For lack of anything else, he thought of it as an honest question, and turned it over in his mind.

"Not really, no." He mimicked her response.

It was the odd truth. Rather than not wanting to talk, he found he simply didn't need to. Their mission had been an abject failure, but he had come to terms with it. The wounds they had were superficial, and the more calamitous consequences could wait until another day.

Despite it all, he was at peace with it.

Blake took his answer with a knowing smile and turned back to her book. Once again they descended into silence, but this time Sasuke felt no urge to break it. The unhurried feeling was foreign to both, but they wouldn't get many other chances to practice. Both had learned that times of peace would never last.

But the feeling of relaxation and contentment stayed with him even as his eyes began to dim. The halcyon scenery before him blurred and shuttered as he weakly tried to stay awake, staving off the sudden unrelenting fatigue. He blinked away sleepy tears which ran down his cheeks. It was too painful to resist any longer.

He briefly heard Blake call out his name as he sunk off into the black abyss.

He felt those tears turn into bloody threads which ran down the rock face. Leaving his body, and weaving themselves into the tapestry of water below, recording the fall of another hero.

"Why is this place so different?" Ruby again broke the silence, discontent and nervous with the lack of conversation in that foreign territory.

As the only one with experience, Naruto began to mull it over.

"That's right. Whenever the fox brought me to see him it was in like this sewer." Ruby scrunched her nose at the thought, suddenly glad of her superior experiences thus far.

"Again," Ozpin broke his own self-imposed muteness, interrupting their discussion. "I think it is a function of the four of us sharing a conscious space. We are not actually in one person's mind nor body, but in a construct that the four of us can understand and contribute to."

The others appraised the monotonous walls with a new angle, wondering what the Medieval stonework said about each of their personalities.

"Or," The reanimated spirit continued, noting their spoiling thoughts. "It could be that something in the seal really has changed, from then and now." This answer brought them little relief.

All four knew when they had reached their destination. For although the scenery had not changed from the unadorned hallway, the atmosphere told them they had crossed a threshold. The rank smell was burnt from the air, and a coldness shook them even as the air seemed to simmer. The hosts of the beast recognized the ominous feeling, leaving the other two with an easy guess

Naruto and Ruby unknowingly stepped forth in sync, fingertips seeking out the briefest contact for reassurance. Ozpin smiled at the courage shown against the physical oppression, and followed not soon after.

Oscar just stood there. He wasn't stupid, and understood that this was just an illusion, a dream, and it couldn't hurt him. But he also wasn't a fool, and knew what fear felt like, and respected the experience given to him from millennia of evolutionary ques.

Ozpin noticed Oscar hadn't followed into the thick atmosphere and darkness that awaited them. He turned and faced the quivering boy expectantly. He couldn't meet the man's eyes.

"You don't have to come with us, understand." The young man flinched with the verbal break in the tension, though it carried no accusation or disappointment.

"This isn't your fight." Ozpin conceded, turning around so his back faced the retreating forms of Naruto and Ruby. Oscar tried to excuse his very rational trepidations, tried to assure himself that it really wasn't his place. "However…" He chanced a gaze at the older man's eyes, and knew instantly it was a mistake.

"You are like me. You can't stand idly by and let others fight alone. Whether you realize it or not, you have already formed a bond that you don't want to abandon." Ozpin smiled, and Oscar already knew what his decision would be. "Rest assured, that bond goes both ways."

Ozpin lifted his empty hand into the air, extending it out at Oscar who was cowering in his boots.

"You don't have to struggle alone, anymore. Not if you don't want to. Come.

"Take the first step."

Naruto and Ruby descended into darkness the further they went in the tunnel. But even as the torchlight waned, the burning rage was fanned into an inferno. Their hands sought each other out blindly, unconsciously clamping down to lift each other up by their bootstraps and keep them out of the abyss. But still they pressed forward.

The tunnel lightened and widened simultaneously, spitting them out in a cavernous chamber of incalculable width and breadth. A night sky could have been fit under the stone roof above, reflected into the bottomless pool below. And in front of them, Black on black, was the first familiar thing. The demon fox perched on the solitary pillar which rose from that nothingness.

"It's… bigger than I remember." This colossal specter was a far cry from the foxlike ghoul she had defeated in the cavern of her own mind.

Naruto grinned, bearing his own canines in a smile and squeezing the girl's hand gently.

"You know what they say, the bigger they are…" He shrugged at the vast swaths of empty air between themselves and the trapped beast. Ruby gave him a smile and nod in return.

"Uzumaki Naruto…" The midnight creature shifted on its platform and cracked its glowing red eyes in their direction. "…and Ruby Rose. I, remember you two…" It cracked its maw in a taunting smile, bone-white teeth framing a fathomless black pit behind.

"And I remember you, you bastard…" Naruto growled, readying a diatribe he had remembered and forgotten a dozen times over.

But he was promptly cut off as Ruby shakily took a step forward, putting herself between him and the Kyuubi. He chastised himself silently, clenching his now empty fist. This was her fight now, not his.

"You remember me, Kyuubi?" The girl did her best to keep her voice calm and steady.

"Of course," The beast's grin perhaps widened at the façade of bravery he was being shown. "How could I forget the foolish little girl who made a deal with the devil?"

Naruto kept his mouth shut, feeling oddly neglected and out of place while Ruby allowed herself the tiniest of smiles. This Kyuubi remembered her. It was something familiar, something she had faced before. It wasn't the unknown, and it certainly wasn't a devil.

"Then can you remember how you got here? How did you get sealed inside of me?" What changed, and how could they fix it?

The Kyuubi purred in self-satisfaction, and the action resonated with the stones and through their feet. It understood the questions the girl was really asking, but felt no rush to deliver them.

"Yes, I remember." It paced around on top of the pillar that was almost too small for it, shifting its weight into a comfortable position so it could milk this gratifying situation for as long as possible.

Ruby stood, waiting patiently for the beast to go on and trying hard not to shiver under the predatory gaze.

"Well… are you going to tell us?"

The maw lashed out at them, and they both briefly forgot the creature couldn't move from its platform. Recomposing themselves, they recognized the ferocious laughter for what it was.

"Sure, why not? I find this entertaining."

Once again Ruby had to keep Naruto from sticking up for her, butting in and perhaps dissolving the loose ground they stood on. She turned back to the Kyuubi and reaffixed her fighting face.

"Hmph. I can't understand Shukaku's levity, you humans are no fun to tease."

Behind the girl who was demonstrating the patience of a saint, Naruto found himself occupied with the puzzle whose borders were ever expanding. Rather than interject the fact that he was no longer "human", he concentrated on the wealth of information the beast had betrayed in that little back and forth. It remembered them, and it remembered it's brethren. Did it possess all of its previous memories? It was also in an uncharacteristically good mood, finding their intrusion to be entertaining rather than vexing. He had even more questions than when he entered, but Ruby seemed to be holding her own, and so he bit his tongue.

"Yes, I remember everything from our world." It confirmed as if reading Naruto's thoughts. Maybe it could, if it remembered all the time it spent trapped inside of him. "It took me longer than expected to get everything… sorted out, after our transformation. Of course, I won out in the end. The creatures of Grimm might show intelligence, but are without a will to call their own."

It was clear from the first that the Kyuubi had somehow, and for whatever reason, merged with the legendary Grimm. It went a long way to explaining why it had appeared so disconnected and juvenile before. But it still put emphasis on the most burning question…

"But, why me?" Ruby bowed her head, looking at her feet and her bare knees that glared out at her from just under her skirt line.

"Why is the sky blue? Why is the planet round? Why does fire burn?" It glared down its black snout at the pitiful girl in contempt. "These things are. They happen because that's the way the universe works." Ruby's head snapped back up and the two, non-humans could see the tears brimming in her eyes.

"Then-what about the deal? The exchange? What was any of that for?!" She shouted at the foxlike monster, and it seemed to curl back into its own blackness.

"By the time you got there, it was already too late." It confessed without a hint of remorse for the deception it caused. "None of this was my doing. We are all slaves to the universe we occupy. The one thing we have a say in is our choice to live. In order for me to survive, I had to take on this form, just as he had to become what he is." The Kyuubi gestured a lazy claw to Naruto who didn't notice he was being talked about like he wasn't there.

"And just like you had to be the new container. His body hadn't been formed yet, and the universe couldn't accommodate the influx of my power, so it needed to contain it somewhere else."

Ruby looked back to see Naruto was as confused as she was with the explanation, and the Kyuubi sighed in impatience.

"Think about blowing up a balloon." He could see the empathetic image being formed in both their heads. "Now, think about doing it underwater. That is like my chakra entering this universe. When I was… released, it was like the balloon was punched full of holes. The air had to go somewhere, and unlike underwater, it couldn't escape upwards."

It tried its best to explain it in terms that the two could understand, and it could explain. The truth was far, far more complicated than even it could comprehend, and it neglected to tell them that the universe itself had been slowly eating away at its chakra like oxygen corroded metal. It figured that the they were too preoccupied with other things, and would not question how an immortal being could be 'dying'.

"The next best thing was…"

"A living being." Ruby finished for it in a whisper that echoed in the wall-less room.

"That's not all. Just like my previous container, there's something… special about you, Ruby Rose." She looked up as the Kyuubi gazed solemnly down at her. "Surely you must have realized it by now."

Silver eyes. It was always about her silver eyes. It was always that half-assed answer. Her fists shook as her clenched fingers dug painfully into her palm. She bit her lip and clamped her eyes shut as unrecognized frustration finally demanded to be heard.

Maybe everyone was right. Maybe she was naïve. She wanted to change the world and make sure people could live happily ever after. But all she had been worried about was fitting in, unthinking of the hard path, the sacrifices which lay ahead.

Normal knees. Being special. If only that were the only exchange she had to make.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, but she couldn't allow him to look at her in her shame. Naruto didn't give up. That hand snaked across her quivering shoulders and squeezed her tight against his chest, so that she could feel his heartbeat across their two bodies.

Thirteen years. Naruto had born this burden that long, without anyone for support. Why couldn't she carry it for a little while? Even though she had other friends to shoulder the load, she kept falling back into denial. She thought she could handle it. She thought she could conquer her darkness. So why was it so hard?

"Why are you still here, Ruby Rose, if I have answered all of your questions?"

"Why are you being so damned helpful all of a sudden?" Naruto growled at the fox who growled back, clearly hostile to this Naruto-that-still-was-not.

"The creatures of Grimm are not evil." It spat. "I am not evil. We are both forces of nature, given form. The Grimm are a result of an imbalance, the same that precipitated my new existence as well as your abomination of a life. I cannot lie or dissemble any longer. I cannot foment chaos as was my want. I am bound to my purpose here, just as we all are." It fell silent and seemed to lose its animosity towards its former host. Its shoulders slumped and the black spikes which resembled fur smoothed back into its anemone texture.

"What…" A quivering voice came from the distraught rose. "What might that be?" She choked out at last.

What was its purpose? What was hers? What was the purpose of life itself?

"That," It heaved a sigh and lay down on its forepaws. "Is something I cannot answer."

"So you aren't really any help at all." It was an accusation, an untrue one. The inky-black fox didn't react to the guilt forced into it.

"I am not an enemy. At least, not in the way you think."

"That doesn't help…" Ruby clamped her eyes shut again, knocking a few teardrops onto her cheeks.

She was failing. She had hoped the fox could give her a clear direction of what to do. Even if it had been adversarial, it would at least be a clear challenge for her to overcome. Now, she alone was the obstacle to their success.

"Ruby…" The whisper of her name spurred her forward, gave her a little more fuel to burn. She could fight, as long as it wasn't just for herself.

"What about Naruto?" She gazed back up at the fox, her silver eyes fringed with red. "What about his memories?"

The fox growled and shifted its gaze just slightly to Ruby's left. It didn't say anything, just narrowed its eyes as if suddenly wary of them.

Then they saw it. Just a flash of light against the impenetrable darkness of the fox's undulating hide. Pale, flailing twigs. Fingers, a hand, an arm.

Ruby and Naruto both gasped as the appendage fought against the inescapable shackles of its prison. It was a worm trying to wriggle its way out of the tar and into the sky. But it was bound by the inescapable gravity. The disembodied arm groped and grasped at the fur that wasn't there, trying to find a handhold and drag itself out of the sea of black kelp.

The fox just continued to stare at their aghast expressions without moving.

"I'm afraid… that I cannot answer that."

"Naruto…!" She drew in a sharp breath as the form desperately clawed its way out of the Kyuubi's body, black, mucky tendrils lashing it and trying to swallow it back up. But not before a face appeared in a silent scream which choked on the oily worms trying to drown it. It was unmistakable.

"That's-!"

"Me." Naruto finished breathlessly.

"I need him. He contains my memories as well as yours, and without it I will be driven to mindless insanity."

"But they're his memories too!" Ruby found the strength to protest in defense of her friend. "I thought you were supposed to be fair!"

"I am nature." The Kyuubi reiterated calmly, and the embodiment of Naruto's memories was swallowed back up by the beast's amorphous body. "All nature wants to survive. Even if he didn't know it, my previous container contained the genetic pattern of the prison he held me in. The same which binds me to you, Ruby Rose. I will do whatever I need to live and be free."

"You said you weren't our enemy," Ruby once again directed the cumulative response of her injury at the fox, who this time managed to look ashamed even without depth to show a frown. "Why can't we be friends? Why can't you help us and let us help you?"

The Kyuubi's eyes were the most reliable thing they could use to interpret its mood, and right now those red-hot furnaces sparked with an unknown substance thrown into the fire.

"I am not your enemy." It repeated after a long pause. "I have told you what I can, and will give you ample warning." It stretched a scraggly paw with a single, hooked claw out towards Naruto, almost bridging halfway across the vastness between them. But it felt like it was grazing his forehead.

"I will be after the last piece to the puzzle, the only part Naruto's memories couldn't provide."

It turned then to Ruby who stood bold, even without Naruto to prop her up. In fact, she took a half-step out of his embrace to approach the claw which moved to her, cocking upwards as if to stroke her cheek.

"Watch yourself carefully Ruby Rose. Do not give in to the darker emotions of humanity. The more you succumb, the harder it is for me to refrain from destroying you."

"I won't let you lay a finger on her!" Naruto shouted out, stepping up next to Ruby.

"I almost pity you, boy." The Kyuubi smiled menacingly. "But, I don't."

It said that it couldn't tell a lie. It really did feel some pity for the creature once known as Uzumaki Naruto, forced to wander this world a remnant of his former self. However…

Its smile grew wider and more bony teeth were revealed. Slowly they noticed that the ambient darkness that took up the rest of the room was encroaching on the fox, and either it or they were being drawn further away. The smile all that remained.

I don't, because we're all trying to survive. Because it was your people that sealed me, and you in turn brought me here. And, most of all, because I am alone, while you are not.