This is a fanfic. BUY THE FUCKING MERCHANDISE!

Opening his eyes, Minato found himself listening to a familiar piano tune.

Blinking, he rubbed the orbs that were in his skull before pushing himself up off a bench. Last time he could remember, he had fallen asleep inside of his new room at Beacon Academy with his team. But now… his settings were different. Instead of a dorm room… he was inside a funeral home.

A funeral home that was covered almost entirely in velvet blue.

"Welcome back, Minato."

Slowly turning his head, he did not feel surprised when he saw a familiar person sitting right next to him. It was rather expected that she would show up whenever he would appear. "…Mother." Minato nodded his head curtly.

Salem stared out of the corner of her eye. She eventually gave her son her full attention. "It has been a while since we have last seen each other." She replied with fingers folded over one another. "…How have you been? Perhaps… any interesting recent events?" There was a slow delivery to her words as she struggled a bit to figure out what to say.

"…Not bad." Minato eventually decided to reply with. "Recently finished the initiation test at Beacon Academy and passed."

Salem's eyes narrowed slightly. "Beacon Academy you say?" She asked.

Minato raised a brow slightly at his mother's reaction. He nodded his head in confirmation. "I also became a leader of a team, Team ARNN." The boy added.

"…I see…" Salem managed to muster up. The two then sat in silence for a few seconds. "Beacon Academy… that is the one where Ozpin is the headmaster, correct?" She then asked.

Blinking, Minato slowly nodded his head. "Yes." He answered straightly, wondering why his mother of all people would sound hostile just by saying a name alone. Well, hostile to him. Others may depict her tone has neutral.

The white-skinned female put a hand to her chin. "Has he approached either you or the Win-" Cutting herself off, she saw that Minato had already opened his mouth in an attempt to correct her. "Has Ozpin approached either you or Yang yet?"

Minato shook his head in response to her question. "No, he had not." He answered.

From his answer, Salem was confused at Minato lack of confusion. "Are you not going to ask why I ask such a question?" She asked while angling her head in curiosity.

"No." Minato said while shaking his head once more. "We were given an explanation to our situation already. Such words included to try and make sure that of all people, Professor Ozpin would not find out about our identities."

"It is important that he does not know about… Yang's nature." Salem at least didn't need to correct herself. "But what is especially crucial that he does not figure or find out about your relationship with me."

…Well, Minato could suppose that it should have been slightly obvious. With Yang's mother saying how not to trust Ozpin while being against Salem, it would imply that the two of the latter would be enemies. Still… "Would it really be that bad?" He asked.

After all, Minato was trying to become a huntsman. At first, it was because he felt like it was a way to keep an eye on Yang while he also felt like he didn't want to do anything else. But recently, due to his mother being a factor along with Yang being the Winter Maiden, he felt the responsibility to becoming a huntsman grow even bigger. Would Ozpin still react poorly just because of his relationship with his mother?

Salem knew what Minato was thinking as she only confirmed his suspicions. "Unfortunately for you, he would." She slowly brought up a hand to her chest and looked forward. "Look at me, Minato. I am an evolved Grimm who had had countless years to learn and develop my abilities. A monster and calamity trying to end human and Faunus-kind, as it is in my nature."

"…Didn't seem like that when you first developed your conscious."

Her eyes widened and snapped her eyes back towards who son. While she was surprised, Minato just stared neutrally towards the woman. "…Perhaps." Salem eventually said. "But still, imagine what he would think about someone birthed by me."

Looking down in thought, Minato took a couple of seconds to eventually nod.

Getting up to his feet, Minato turned his head to take one last look at his mother. They both knew what he was going to do next, so Salem nodded her head. Minato nodded back.

Walking towards the exit of the room, Minato could feel his consciousness be pulled away from the area.

Y13

"…Is he dead?"

Nora's question caused Ren to sigh while Pyrrha kept a concerned look on Minato's unconscious body.

With morning having come out, their first day of school was to begin immediately. There were no break days or time to settle in. All teams that had survived the initiation had been given a schedule of what classes they would be attending and when.

Their first day consisted of Grimm studies for about a couple of hours. After that came lunch. Then was history. Finally, combat class. It seemed rather straight forward.

"Nora, I don't think he would have died overnight." Ren notified the ginger who was standing right next to the bed but bending right over the body in curiosity.

"But what if someone came in to kill him? Like an assassin attempting to poison his target?!" Nora speculated, scotching over to the other side of the mattress, not minding the looks that she was receiving. "Or maybe somebody cursed him into an eternal slumber!"

That was Pyrrha decided to interrupt Nora's fantasy so they all could stay on track. "What if we try waking Minato up?" She asked, adjusting her uniform. "Surely that could provide the answer to our questions."

Having both Nora and Ren's attention, the red head blinked when the ginger breathed right through her teeth. "Yeah… About that…" Nora strained out. "Our team leader may seem like Ren," That statement caused the named boy to raise an eyebrow at the comparison. "But Ren at least doesn't mind being woken up by me. Minato here on the other hand," She held an open hand in the bed's direction. "Looks like he will kill anyone that interrupts his sleeping."

"…Are you sure that he will do that though?" Ren deadpanned. "All we just have to do is give him a quick nudge to see if it startles him out of his slumber."

"Too late, I'm already awake."

All three teammates looked down. In their sights, the blue-haired boy had both of his eyes open and locked onto the ceiling. With his blank look, his head slowly rolled towards the side that Nora was on and his eyes fell upon her body.

Unfortunately for him, Nora's bed was right behind her and that's where her weapon was sitting.

"ZOMBIE!" Nora screamed in horror, grabbing the handle of what she wielded. "KILL IT WITH VIOLENCE!"

Y13

The screamed of Nora followed by the noise of shattering wood was what woke Team RWBY up from their slumber.

All member jolted out from under the sheets, a couple a lot more alert than others. A certain white-haired teenager snapped her head over to the door and glared. "Does she know anything about keeping the volume down?" She growled as she begrudgingly crawled out of her bed and fumbled her way to the bathroom.

Blake also was vocal of her displeasure but was quieter about it. "Nora should at least know not to disturb her neighbors early in the morning." She frowned while rubbing her eyes.

Yang however was one of them who remained silent. Slipping off of the mattress, she walked over to the door and swung it open. With a couple of steps, she had crossed the hall where all the dorm room doors were located and found the one that belonged to Team ARNN. Rapping on the door with the back of her finger, she put it down soon after.

"You guys away over there?" Yang asked jokingly. "I can't tell with all of your screaming."

A second passed before the door opened to reveal that Pyrrha was the one who answered. "Sorry about that." The red-head blushed in embarrassment. "It's just that Minato wasn't waking up and then he suddenly was awake which startled Nora…"

Blinking at Pyrrha's report, Yang leaned over to see past the girl in order to assess the event that had been described. Indeed, it was what Pyrrha had revealed.

Panting in both horror and relief, Nora was bent forward with both hands on the handle of her weapon that was in its hammer form. At the end of the heavy, blunt end of the object was Minato's face while the rest of the body had been smashed right through the bed frame and quite possibly the floor.

To that scene, Yang whistled. "Wow, first Weiss and Ruby falling on top of you. After that is Nora throwing you across an open field. Now your face has been smashed in and your body clean through solid wood. The beginning of Beacon has not been so kind to you, huh?"

"You could say that." Minato agreed with the blonde's assessment as his eyes had traveled down to look at her. "Good morning by the way."

"Morning." Yang waved. She then grinned. "Guess this means we're sleeping in the same bed again until the headmaster gets a new one put back and the floor fixed."

"Yes, it does seem like that." Minato then looked back up towards Nora. "Nora, could you please take your weapon off me?" He asked the ginger. "I need to quickly shower and change before breakfast. What time is it anyways?"

"Ah, sorry." Nora apologized, looking in a direction that was away from Minato as she lifted her hammer up. At least she looked like she regretted what she had done. "I didn't mean to hurt you… You just startled me, that's all."

"Hah!"

As Minato had climbed back up to his feet, grabbed his uniform, and slipped into the bathroom, the rest of the members of Team ARNN turned their heads over to Yang who had laughed at Nora's words. "That? Hurt him?" The blonde asked. "I mean – yeah – he can still feel pain. But it is next to impossible to hurt him so badly that it causes him discomfort. Let me tell you about the one time I punch him in the dick as hard as I could."

"You don't need to tell them that story, Yang." Minato interrupted. "They got the point."

Y13

Ruby was being awfully quiet and unfocused… That mood was making Weiss extremely annoyed judging by the look on the girl's face.

Sitting in Grimm studies was… odd to say the least in Minato's mind. To Yang, it was completely boring. Their teacher, Professor Port, being awfully jolly and boisterous despite his middle-aged look, was constantly getting off topic. One minute he would be describing the many Grimm that they would face, certain facts that one would not find in a textbook, and the next few he would be going on about stories of the many adventures he had been on.

If the two of them could accumulate how much time was spent on actual teaching… it would be about 15 minutes.

But that was not the real problem in their eyes. Minato had already copied down the biological diagrams that were posted up at the front of the classroom while Yang had liberating them off him some side notes that he had personally taken. But when that was done and they both concluded that they wouldn't be learning much this lecture, their eyes wandered.

That was when their sights fell on Ruby and Weiss.

Ruby was just… staring at a blank page. That would have been a moment for Yang to try and attempt to snap her younger sister out of her trance. But rather than a blank expression to accompany it, Ruby's face was heavy as if she had a lot on her mind. Which she most likely did with the sudden appearance of her mom's diary.

Minato remembered the explanation that was provided to him. Summer Rose, biological mother of Ruby and step-mother to Yang. Yang claimed that Summer was a super mom… which apparently meant being a baker of cookies and slayer of monsters. Well, the monster slaying thing stopped when she had Ruby. At least it did stop until Ruby was around the age of a toddler when Summer suddenly went on a mission and never came back.

With that explanation, it was confirmed that the last mission their mother was on was related to what had been written in that diary. But that begged the question, what was the diary doing in Beacon in the first place? Did this academy have to do with something related to her recon mission? What exactly was it that she was supposed to investigate?

This was Minato speculating about it however. There was a good chance that Ruby or Yang would have gone through the diary last night when he had to go into his own dorm room.

Hearing a bell ring, Minato assumed that was the indication that class was over. After Professor Port dismissed them, Team RWBY and Team ARNN both packed up their things (Ruby being a bit more sluggish than even Minato) before heading towards the cafeteria for lunch.

It was a rather uneventful small period of time. They had arrived at the large eating area, they grabbed some food that the workers had whipped up for them, and then they all found a spot that was perfect for each and every one of them.

At that moment, their quiet moment was ruined thanks to the white-haired individual of the group.

"What is up with you?!" Weiss scowled towards Ruby, who was looking down at her food with a lot on her mind. "You're supposed to be our leader, aren't you? Then why didn't you pay attention in class?!"

As Minato had set himself down, his head turned towards Weiss and his face began to twitch. Once again, Weiss was venting towards the smaller girl. This anger was likely a combination of the frustration she experienced from Ruby yesterday and the fact of how the white-haired girl was not the team leader.

But after enough verbal assault that Weiss was directing towards Ruby, Yang slammed her fork onto her tray and snapped her head over. "Why don't you shut up already!?" The blonde yelled, her eyes turning blood red as she snatched the collar of Weiss. "Ruby has a lot on her mind right now!"

"It's not my fault that is the case, Xiao Long!" Weiss argued back. "I'm just trying to get her to get her back on track and do her duty as the leader of this team! That is if she is capable of acting like a leader at all!"

"What exactly is that supposed to mean?" Yang snarled, ignoring the slaps that Weiss was giving to her hands.

"It means exactly what it means!" Weiss replied. "She is nothing but an annoying child! Too young to normally attend Beacon, coming up with stupid plans for initiation, and now she doesn't pay attention in class! Ruby is too self-centered to be the leader!"

As the argument got more heated by the seconds, none of them noticed that they had gotten an audience from every single student in the lunchroom. Some were even getting off of their seats and heading out, perhaps to grab a teacher to help settle the matter.

Minato looked around him. The other students just watched as they were the only interesting thing going on in the room. Nora of all people looked worried, the same could be said for all of his teammates. Blake stared at Ruby before giving the girl a surprising pat on the shoulder of comfort, but the red-hooded girl didn't even notice.

As the girls continued to argue, no one noticed Minato get off his seat at stroll over. Standing between the, his left hand worked fast. With two swift chop motions, Minato struck Yang's knuckles on both hands before grabbing the sleeves to yank them back.

While the both of them were surprised at the sudden interruption, Yang was the first to recover when she recognized who was capable of such dexterity. "The freaking heck, Minato?!" She exclaimed. "What was that for?! If it's anyone's fault, it's Weiss! She's yelling at Ruby for no good reason without even asking what is wrong!"

"…Both of you are at fault." Minato said with a low voice.

Weiss, who was originally giving Yang a smug look, wore a shock expression on her face. She then felt a vice grip tighten against the back of her head.

With a sudden blur of his right arm, Minato slammed Weiss' face down which split the table in two.

No flames please.