"If you cannot learn to forgive, you shall stay imprisoned with the unforgiven. Let go of what was and live in the present."
As she woke up, the girl felt submerged by dirt. Wait, no. Sand. She reached up and felt the first sign of the surface. She pulled herself out of the foot to stand and saw the orange glow of the day on the horizon. It was almost night.
She was by an oasis and a few trees. After she dusted off the sand, she noticed some wrappings on her. Like thin layers of wood or something. Weird. Why the hell did she wake up in the sand?
"Where am I supposed to go?" She asked herself. Her sorrow eyes narrowed as she looked around. Sand. Sand all around, except for the patches of grass by the oasis. How does something like this stay around here without drying out?
Noticing she had a bag around her neck, she looked at it. A small box of matches and an empty canteen. She took the canteen out to fill with water from the small lake.
"How are you going to tell me to help someone, and not tell me who it is?"
She felt lonely in this desert. Her eyebrows squinted in frustration. She's… Ruby. Ruby Rose. Fourteen? Fifteen? She's not sure, much like how she's not sure where she is. But, one thing is for sure. She wants to go home, wherever that may be.
Taking that first step, her foot pressed a red lily into a sand and left it behind her.
Almost two years later, her head throbbed. Her heart shattered as she remembered everything. Her life was just a plan C for this... thing that took on her image? Like some fucking mirror? She should have recognized the tree wrapping from when she first woke up in the sand.
Ruby sat in the white part of the void as the darkness slowly came from all sides. Behind her stood the two other Rubys she saw from the Waterfall of Truth. She took the liberty of giving them specific names as they pestered her.
"So, what now?" The Remnant Ruby asked. She wore that corset outfit from her days after Beacon falling.
The Ancestor Ruby frowned and shook her head. This Ruby was a lot shorter and smaller than the others. "Was is there to do?"
"Why are you two even here?" Ruby asked.
They both looked at her back. She held her knees and looked at her feet, just like when she cried into them when that mysterious "man" talked to her in the void.
"Well, where is here?" Remnant Ruby asked.
"Same place we've always been. This is our landscape, just not filled with darkness to block our memories," Ancestor Ruby stated.
"Shouldn't I be dead?" Ruby asked as she looked over her shoulder. The Grimm Ruby was attacking, but extremely slowly. Although she's not really a Grimm, she will call her that. It fits.
"Time is relative. We're thinking," Remnant Ruby said.
"But even thinking takes a lot of time," Ancestor Ruby exclaimed.
Ruby looked back to her feet. "Shut up. You two are making my head hurt."
"Our head," Remnant Ruby blurted.
"Whatever!"
Ancestor Ruby leaned towards Ruby, "Why can't we use that... Chakra? Or whatever?"
Ruby looked at her arm seal. "Because it was only with that parasite that I was able to conjure it up. Basically mixed it for me. It wasn't until the Sage taught Ninshu that people with it were born."
"But, aura? Our grandmother had it!"
"She used her lifeforce to make a barrier for me. The tree kept me alive, and when it withered away, part of it kept me alive until Zetsu found and implanted me with his..."
Remnant Ruby cringed, "Offspring. Ugh, gross."
"Yep. And that's what been keeping me alive. Her. Same with the Grimm, but not to the same extent."
Thinking back, there were a few instances where her presence was there. Like the time she thought she saw Nekena on the Island of Haze and her own voice talked to her. Or when Nagato brought her voice, and she heard herself tell her she wasn't done yet. It's also possible that when she passed out at the Sea of Fog, it was Grimm Ruby who brought her to shore.
"But why did she wait until a few years ago to wake us up?" Remnant Ruby asked.
Ruby held her knees tighter. "Don't know. Maybe she sensed Naruto? Or it's because the Akatsuki begin their move? She was probably supposed to activate in case her "father" died but when we came into range of the Sage, she took matters into her own hands."
"Lame," Ancestor Ruby blurted.
Remnant Ruby frowned, "I can't believe all my friends are just fake."
"They are not fake!" Ruby angrily shouted. As she frowned at her Remnant self, the other two looked at her with curiosity. She leaned her head back towards her knees. "They're not fake. They're not," she whimpered softly.
Ancestor Ruby nodded to agree. "Alright, Rubes. But I don't get why our dream, uh, life, was so different."
Ruby looked around, they all resided in the part of the void that was bright and white, surrounded by darkness. "Well, our moon was broken. It wasn't completed, or something. So, it wasn't exactly perfect. Dreamed of Kaguya being Salem, and all of my friends being there with me. Dreamt of a futuristic world with music and food, and everything I wanted life to be like. I think grandma's barrier also had something to do with it."
"Our mother still died," Remnant Ruby sadly stated.
"No one can replace her," Ancestor Ruby added.
"Yet, I blamed her… I'm sorry, mom," Ruby said.
Ancestor Ruby placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder, "But, we can't give up!"
"Yeah! We can fight her! Together!" Remnant Ruby cheered.
This is her mindscape. The Sage's body isn't but a manifestation, so the Grimm Ruby was attempting to steal his chakra, and come back to Ruby's body. But she can't do anything while Grimm Ruby is controlling her.
Apparently, chakra is like a network between all living beings. Hard to explain but that's how the Sage came to be at this moment. Through Madara's body, which had both Indra's and Ashura's chakra, he was able to find a link and exert himself.
Even if Ruby somehow does get control, she still has the physical one to take care of. But that's next to impossible with how much power Grimm Ruby has over her.
Ancestor Ruby laid her head on Ruby's knees, "I miss Weiss, and Blake, and Yang. And.. everyone."
"I miss Jaune and Nora and Ren and Pyrrha."
Ruby glared to the side, looking away from both of them. "I miss… everyone."
"Especially Naruto, huh?" Remnant Ruby teased.
Ancestor Ruby started to pull on Ruby's elbow, "Come on. Let's do this!"
"No."
"We're not quitters. Well, at least, I'm not," Remnant Ruby arrogantly stated.
Ruby jerked head up and gave a ferocious glare. Did.. she just sass herself?
"What is that suppose to mean?"
Ancestor Ruby felt the tension and let go of Ruby to back up.
"Well," she pointed to the Ancestor Ruby. "You killed yourself!"
Ruby stood up as Remnant Ruby pointed to her.
"And now you want to do something except whine and complain?" Remnant Ruby asked.
Ruby stared at both of them. They were like two shadows of her two lives.
"I have never given up. That's why I ate the plant! Better to die than let them just take me to experiment on!"
"You should have fought harder!"
"Go! Both of you!" Ruby shouted. Like that, they were gone at the speed of a blink. Ruby made a heavy breath and she let herself fall to the ground. "I'm sorry, everyone."
A hand grabbed her wrist. She scoffed. "What, is there another Ruby?"
She smiled, and looked up to the ground, only for her curved mouth to immediately drop. Both of her eyes watered as goosebumps pierced her skin as giant tear stream rolled over her cheek.
"Mom?"
Her warm, gentle smile matched her soft, silver eyes. Honestly, she looked just like older Ruby.
"Hey," Summer said.
"Mom!" She cried. Her face cringed as her eyes shut. Her high-pitched voice changed returned. "I miss you so much! Those men, they came for me, and then I ate the-"
She made a hushing sound to quiet Ruby. "I know. I've been watching all this time."
Ruby gazed up, "All this time?"
She nodded. "You've been doing great. Everyone is proud."
"Yoru…" Ruby smiled as she rubbed her face. "But, how are you here?"
"Your eyes have always been keen, Ruby. Not just able to see aura but who a person desires the most."
Ruby widened her eyes. When she saw Gaara as a kid, twice. Matsuri badly wanted him back, so she saw him in the dark hallway. Then after their encounter with Itachi, she saw him again. Naruto felt like kin to him, wanted nothing else to save him.
She then saw Koukai in Karin's shop. Yoru must have wished to see him. Then in the Land of Waves, she saw Yoru when she was water training. Koukai's desire.
"So, why not who you desire most?" Summer inquired with a warm smile.
"But, I'm not just seeing you. I'm talking to you."
"Chakra is an energy that connects two worlds. After you died and saw me, I was able to connect to you here in your mind. I needed to tell you something."
"Tell me something?"
Summer nodded, "You need to learn how to forgive."
"Forgive? But, I don't blame you for-"
She shook her head as she maintained her smile, "Not that."
Ruby widened her eyes, "Joshua? I-"
Summer, once again, shook her head.
"Yourself."
"Myself?"
"You need to learn how to give yourself another chance."
"But, what can I do? She has all the power in the world here."
"You have friends, don't you?" Summer asked as she pulled Ruby in for a hug.
"I do," Ruby said with a smile as she felt her mother's hug, one last time as she faded away. She can still imagine tasting her cookies, the craving that can never be filled, no matter how many she ate.
Standing up, she realized the other two Rubys returned. They smiled at her, and this time, she smiled back.
"Finally ready?" Remnant Ruby asked.
Ruby nodded and held her hand out. They placed theirs on top of hers. Their image and bodies faded away, going into Ruby to accept them as a part of them. She looked behind her, in a brief moment, she saw only a single waterfall, instead of two.
With a determined smile, she grabbed her scythe that Grimm Ruby so graciously unsealed for her. Who needs chakra, anyway? She has a scythe!
Her mindscape unfroze, and Grimm Ruby instantly started to taunt her.
"What's that look?" Grimm Ruby asked with an arrogant smile. "Don't think you can actually defeat me."
"Me? No."
By her side, Weiss came to be with the same, high-quality outfit she wore to Tenji's, but along with her rapier from Remnant.
Her anti-social friend Blake appeared to Weiss' side as she wielded her Gambol Shroud. Although she had her cat eats from Remnant, her outfit was the same Ruby first met her in Land of Ancestors.
And then lastly, Ruby's beautiful sister emerged by her in the same kimono she died in. Except, she had a robotic arm and her gauntlet.
She only wished these were the real them. But, she knew they would want to be here for her, just like any other time.
Grimm Ruby took a step back as she held Crescent Rose in front of her for a guard. "Even if you manage to beat me here, you won't stop me in the physical world! I'm attached to you!"
Unknown to her, Ruby had a plan for that.
Weiss leaped forward, swayed her scythe, and made dozens of glyphs for the three to run ahead. Yang took the lead and smashed the ground right at Grimm's Ruby's. Grimm Ruby jumped away but Yang cuffed her hands close to the ground. Blake jumped on her hands for Yang to toss her up.
She used Crescent Rose to block Blake's kick and used the massive scythe to hit her back to the ground. However, Ruby came flying from behind. Grimm Ruby twisted around and blocked Ruby's scythe.
With her free hand, Ruby held her palm towards Grimm Ruby. A sudden burst of light emitted out of it to knock Grimm Ruby back. She tumbled backward before she stood up. Grimm Ruby pulled up Crescent Rose and blocked Yang's punch.
Weiss thrusted her rapier to make a glacier of ice around Grimm Ruby. But it quickly shattered in all directions. Blake attacked with multiple swings with her sword and sheath but Grimm Ruby used a black mass out of her hand and knocked her back.
"Enough of this! Your mind, your body, your soul, everything is mine!"
She placed her hand on the ground. The same black mass that she was made up of poured out and begin to paint the ground black as it slowly enlarged its radius. Ruby remembered the vision from the Waterfall of Truth. They do not want to touch that, or it won't ever let go.
Yang used her gauntlets to shoot shells at her. Weiss pointed her scythe towards her, making streams of colorful light and dust come at her like heat-seeking missiles.
But the dark vaporized all the shots as it neared them.
Weiss used her rapier to make multiple glyphs for them to stand on. But Grimm Ruby came like a dark and struck Weiss to the black mass. The mass wrapped onto Weiss, making her and the glyphs disappear.
Ruby strike her scythe into the black mass to let her stand on it, a few feet from the ground. But Blake and Yang disappeared as they dropped to it.
"Your friends are gone, just like before," Grimm Ruby taunted as jumped onto Ruby, pushing her to the black ground. She wrapped her hands around Ruby's neck and began strangling her. The black mass latched onto her body.
Ruby couldn't help but shake the thought of symbolism, or metaphor, or the horrible, dreadful foreshadowing that if she dies here, something that looks just like her would have killed herself.
But, unlike the time she was fighting the replica of her during the Gaara's Rescue Mission, she didn't want to leave this world, for this was a beautiful one.
"Get out of my head!"
Even as the black mass tried engulfing her, Ruby pried Grimm Ruby's fingers away.
"Stop resisting! It's all over!"
"Shut up you damn mirror!" Ruby yelled. Her silver eyes turned a different shade, a lighter one. A burst of white light came out of them and knocked Grimm Ruby away.
"How are you able to use your eyes without any chakra?!"
The black mass around Ruby dispersed from the light so she could stand up.
"My eyes never required chakra. They're fueled by the love I feel for the people that helped me come so far!"
Ruby walked towards Grimm Ruby. Each step emitted a light and killed off the darkened ground, like ripples of light from a pebble skipping on water.
Grimm Ruby grunted as she whipped her arm at Ruby. A tentacle of black mass-spring out at Ruby, but she merely held her hand up and made it disappear.
"This can't be happening! You're just a stupid, little girl! You can't even produce chakra!"
Ruby grabbed Grimm Ruby's wrist and held it up. She remembered when she first met Naruto. A single person can't do much, but when they're two? Or hundreds of people supporting her every inch of the way? You can do some pretty amazing things.
"They believed in me. I should believe in me, too."
From her eyes, a light shined through all of the dark void.
Ruby made an angry roar. Finally, back to the real world. She used her free hand and dug her fingers into Grimm Ruby's mass that connected between her arm and the Sage's. Her eyes closed as she tried to peer the black flesh away from The Sage. It hadn't even been a full minute since her emergence, or when the Hokage were suddenly pushed back.
"You're not strong enough," Grimm Ruby exclaimed she kept seeping onto Sage's arm. He must have been paralyzed from that. "You don't even have chakra!"
Ruby's grasp tightened. Her grandmother didn't have chakra, yet… Ruby's eyes shot open, the silver shade turned bright. "Who needs it?!"
A sudden pulse vibrated through Grimm Ruby's mass. "What was that?!"
Ruby shrieked as she thrusted another pulse of her own lifeforce. Just like how her grandmother did to form a barrier for her to survive in. It made the mass retreat from their arms, weakening it.
"You'll kill both of us!"
The shade of silver in her eyes changed to a glossy contrast. Her entire body felt weak, only being fueled by the pure determination. Her eyes, as determined as a certain dandelion's.
"I-"
Ruby pulsated more aura. Her hair-tie broke, making her hair fall.
"Don't!-"
The force made all the bandages on her arms burst and scatter away. It revealed the cuts and scars from the window Matsuri shot her through.
"CARE!"
A brilliant color pulsated out of Ruby's arm. It shot the black mass of Grimm Ruby and the Sage away.
As the Grimm landed, it tried to slowly slither away. But Ruby stepped on it, making it stay. "No! Please!"
Even if Ruby wanted to respond, she felt way too weak. She slowly got out her kunai and fell to her knees. Using both of her hands, she leaned down and stabbed it through the Grimm-mass. It screamed before it dispersed entirely.
Ruby felt dizzy like she hasn't slept in a thousand years. She looked to the moon that lingered from the night and into the morning. Much like herself. She fell to her side, unable to resist. Her eyes slowly forced themselves closed, saying goodbye to the world.
The girl sat in the lightful void, as she's done so many times before. Nothing but an infinite room of beautiful, vibrant colors. But, she was happy with how things unraveled, even if it meant saving goodbye. The light of the area around her started to degrade into an actual void. All the colors around disappeared, one by one. It was obvious how this will turn out.
How old am I?
Where am I?
What's my name?
She's sixteen. Was going to be seventeen on Halloween.
She's in her mindscape. No longer clouded by darkness or tainted by evil.
She's Ruby Rose, no matter what life she had, no matter what anyone says.
Her face was slightly pale like the rest of her body.
She didn't bother to say hello to the void, as only silence would answer back. She just hoped her mother is proud, and that Naruto could forgive for dying. Seems to be what she's best at. But, he'll be fine.
The colors nearest to her blinked out, and the dark horizon snuck up on her.
"I'm long overdue, anyway," Ruby told herself as she held her knees. It's been more than a thousand years, after all. Everyone probably missed her. Maybe she'll see Naruto, again. Someday.
"Ruby Rose," the Sage's voice echoed.
Ruby picked her head up from her knees and smiled. She stood up, rotated, and saw the man stand right in front of her. White kimono and all. "I hope you're really him this time."
"Thank you."
Ruby slightly turned her head away but kept her skeptical eye on the man. "Don't mention it."
The man smiled, "Do you want another chance?"
Ruby furrowed her eyebrow, "Do I have to go to a place very different where the turn of events has gone terribly wrong? There, I will help a person. And only then, you'll send me home?"
He made a small chuckle, "No, no. But, you do need to answer my question. There isn't much time. The aura in your body is seeping out, and if I don't-"
"Yes, yes! Please!" Ruby said with a huge, happy smile.
"Very well."
Ruby made a small laugh and used her palm to wipe her eyes. "Why am I crying?"
"Because." The Sage leaned his hand over to her to gently grab her shoulder. From behind him, she could see the colors return and the dark horizon back off. "You're happy."
And like that, she was rendered into a deeper sleep for someone to wake up. But, this time, she'll have a voidless dream. One of dogs and cookies and strawberries and dandelions and roses.
However, when she wakes up? Well, hopefully, this time she isn't in a scorching, hot desert.
Short chapter but it's the end, okay?! There'll be an epilogue chapter that will be longer. Is there anything I forgot to wrap up? I can't really explain the silver-eyes, the grimm's absorption ability, or Isaac, Esau, and Jacob without doing a second story with an OC. If I do that, should I make a new story or keep updating this one?
I'll be tagging this as finished but I'll still write a new chapter or something from time to time, even if it isn't the sequel. One-shots and all.
I think I finally understand why I'm so bad as past-present tense. I tried keeping it all past tense this chapter!
Review what I did right and what I need to work on! Thank you for all that have been here while I wrote this! I would love to write more RubyNaruto stories in the future!