Disclaimer- I do NOT own either Naruto or RWBY series, NOR their characters.
A/N: It's been a while, sorry for the late update. I hope everyone is doing well in these times.
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Ch. 28
The group had been walking on a trail as they had found a farm where they would be able to stop and rest.
"Even though, it's snowing, it's not as cold as I thought it would be." Yang said
Miss Calavera was riding on the bike which they had placed Itachi on.
"It's the boy." She said as Yang looked at her. "Even unconscious, he is radiating heat off his body for us." Yang looked down at Itachi before bringing her bike to a stop by the entrance.
"How long have I been out?" They heard
"Itachi?!" Blake ran up to the bike. "Are you okay?"
"Not long kid." Qrow answered his question. "We just found somewhere to stay."
Blake took hold of Itachi and helped him off the bike as he looked around. "I don't sense any living creature."
"You think everyone left?" Ruby asked
Qrow tried opening the door, but it was locked. "Stay on guard." He kicked the door open as most ran in, weapons ready, but nothing happened.
"Close the door already! It's cold enough in here as it is." Miss Calavera walked inside.
Ruby and Oscar pushed a piece of furniture in front of the door, keeping the cold wind from blowing it open.
"I saw a chimney from the outside, maybe we could get a fire going?" Blake said still holding onto Itachi.
"Please. I'll look for some blankets." Weiss said trying to avoid eye contact with them as she turned away.
"Yang, go with her." Qrow told his niece.
"I'll light the fire." Itachi stated as Blake helped him to the chimney. He slowly moved down as he sat next to it as he held a single sign before a small stream of flames blew from his mouth and lit the wood in the chimney. "Go and help the others, I'll be fine here." Blake nodded.
Shortly after Blake left, Oscar had come to sit by the fire. "I wanted to Thank you."
Itachi moved his head to look at the boy. "I haven't done anything to be thanked for."
Oscar shook his head. "You took a punch meant for Ozpin, knowing that I wo-" He was cut off by Weiss's screams from the top floor and the next instant, Itachi had disapeared from his sight.
"Weiss!" Itachi had appeared in front of the two hyper ventilating girls, his kunai in hand as he looked for an enemy, but only saw two corpses on the bed. "What happened?" He asked himself but then he felt his strength leave him. "Shit..." He dropped to his knees and was about to fall, but felt someone grab hold of him from behind, keeping him up. He looked down at the pale hands gripping his shirt. "Thank you." He didn't get a reply but felt the hands grip his shirt harder as he lightly sighed as the others had come in.
Blake and Oscar helped him back downstairs and next to the fire as the others followed after. Weiss had taken a spot directly in front of the fire as she shivered. Qrow had left the house to inspect the rest as they waited silently. Blake had grabbed some blankets and placed one on Weiss's shoulders who gasped at the sudden touch, but calmed down. Blake was about to place the blanket over Itachi but he shook his head.
"I'm fine." Itachi said placing a hand near the fire as it grew slightly. "I'm plenty warm."
Blake narrowed her eyes. "You should still be covered."
They heard the door open and the winds blowing as they turned to look at Qrow who walked up and kneeled in front of the fire. "It's the same in every house, bodies in every bed, in every home. It's like the whole estate just went to sleep and never woke up."
"Then we're not staying here, right?" Weiss asked.
"We don't have a choice, the storm outside is only getting worse. We'd freeze to Death before we made it anywhere." Qrow answered.
"Well, might as well get comfortable." Miss Calavera said walking up to a book case.
"Yeah, fat chance." Yang said.
"Okay, then let's do something." Ruby said getting their attention. "If this place wasn't abandoned it might have supplies we could use."
"Yeah, maybe even a car." Oscar said.
"I'll do another sweep of the grounds." Qrow stood and walked away. "No one else goes anywhere alone."
"Yang and I can search the other buildings for vehicles." Blake said
"Fine, whatever gets me out of this house." Yang stood from the couch and walked away.
Blake looked back at Itachi. "And don't you even dare move from there."
Itachi chuckled lightly. "It's not like I currently can. Don't worry about me."
Blake narrowed her eyes. "Telling me not to worry only makes me worry more." She whispered and followed after Yang.
Itachi looked to his left, watching the light of the flames shine on Weiss's face. He was about to speak but Weiss had gotten up and walked away. Itachi sighed.
"Give her time." Miss Calavera said looking at the books. "It takes some people more time to process everything." She grabbed a book and walked back to her seat. "You keep that fire fed, and I'll find us a story to read before bed."
"Hn." Itachi looked at Oscar who blinked a few times before looking around then back at Itachi. "You're taking this quite well." Oscar rose a brow. "Learning about my past."
Oscar sighed and sat down near the fire. "I really don't know what to think." Oscar stretched his arms out, keeping his hands warm. "There are things I don't agree with what you did, but in the end everything was done for the greater good, I guess?" Oscar shook his head. "If you hadn't done what you did, how many more lives would have died? But then again, was there really no other way?"
Oscar faced Itachi. "There was, but it took so long for me to realize what it was...In the end, I was nothing but a failure."
"I wouldn't sa-"
"I failed my bestfriend who gave his own life." Itachi began not taking notice of Ruby and Weiss standing behind the wall before entering the living room. "He asked me to save both the village and the clan, yet what do I do? I get rid of one to save the other...I failed him, I failed the people I cared about the most...my friends, family, the clan, and even the village..." Itachi looked down and placed his hand by the fire giving it more flames. "I failed my brother...I set him down the path of an avenger, told him to hate me, to use his hate to grow stronger, so that he could kill me, avenge the clan, bring down the murderer who made his life a living hell. I took his happiness away, I took everything that mattered to him away in a single night."
"Would you go back in time and take it all back? If you could?" Oscar questioned him.
Itachi looked at the boy. "Even if I had managed to stop the Uchiha, it would have only delayed the inevitable, they would have still felt under scrutiny by the village and history would eventually repeat itself." Itachi replied to which Oscar looked at him in question. "Peace under an illusion is not true peace. Unless the hatred on both sides were to cease, then maybe the Uchiha and the village may have been able to truly live with one another."
"And what if you had taken the side of your clan?"
Itachi looked up at the ceiling. "Whether the Uchiha came out victorious or not, the surrounding nations would have taken advantage of the civil war to attack and cause another great war." Itachi looked at him. "No matter which road I picked, The right, where nothing is left, or the Left, where nothing is right. In the end, I would always end up the bad guy, the villain, the Failure."
"I don't think so." Ruby came out from around the corner holding canned food. "I don't think you're a failure, I think you are a hero." Itachi chuckled. "I'm serious, in the end you managed to save not just the living, but the dead as well." Ruby kneeled in front of him. "Even if those people don't know what you did for them, we do, and to us you are no villain, you are not evil, and you are not some senseless murderer." Ruby grinned and took hold of his hand. "You are our friend, our family, and to some girls, be it fangirls or those two, you are the one they love."
Itachi lightly squeezed her hand. "Thank you, Ruby."
"You think you can move yet?" She asked him.
"I will need more time before my strength returns." Itachi replied as she nodded. "I had spent the little I had gathered earlier."
"When you thought Weiss and Yang were in danger?" Oscar questioned.
"Yes."
"Well if you can't move much yet, I'm sure Weiss or Blake could feed you." Ruby smirked.
"Blake will most likely volunteer, even if I do not wish to seem so incompetent." Ruby's eyes slightly widened as she turned her head slightly. "It seems Weiss does not wish to be near me at the moment." Ruby looked down at his hands. "Be it out of trying to understand my past or out of fear, the latter seeming to be the most reasonable at the moment."
"I-I see." Ruby said as she stood "Well, let me get these to the kitchen, Weiss must be waiting on me." She walked away and out of the living room and as she turned she saw the white haired girl looking down, her bangs covering her eyes. "Weiss..."
The door opened, Yang and Blake walked inside as they looked at Weiss.
"Are you okay?" Blake asked
"Did something else happen?" Yang asked Ruby
Weiss looked at Blake and smiled. "I'm fine, just don't like the house is all."
Ruby looked in between the two. "Nothing happened, we just found some food and are heading to the kitchen to prepare it."
"Can you two even cook?" Yang questioned "I mean, cooking has always been...Itachi's thing..." Yang looked over at Itachi who was still sitting next to the fireplace, eyes closed as she sighed. "How's he doing anyway?"
"He's okay, he used up the little strength he had earlier, when he thought you and Weiss were in danger, but he said with a goodnights rest he should be good to go by morning." Ruby told them as she smiled knowing that Yang was slightly worried about his condition.
"Good." Yang said.
Later that evening
Everyone but Qrow was sitting near the fireplace as Oscar walked up to Miss Calavera.
"It's a diary?"
"The head of this household, Bartleby." She began to explain. "Apparently, he and several other families founded this settlement to try and live on their own. It sound like it worked, atleast for a spell."
"Grimm?"
"Just one of many hardships, slowed down their farming, made everything harder. Quite the shame, he seemed like quite the ambitious fellow. Always thinking of new schemes to overcome the odds."
"Hey guys, Qrow said we should get some sleep." Ruby walked into the living room. "We're gonna head out early tomorrow."
Miss Calavera huffed. "The last thing you'll catch me doing is letting some kid tell me what to do." She sat down on a chair near Itachi. ""Go to bed" Pfft." She said in a mocking tone as she turned on the lamp next to her.
"Thank goodness." Blake said as she and the others began grabbing some blankets. Blake grabbed a blanket and sat down next to the sleeping Itachi as she leaned onto his shoulder, feeling him adjust as he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her close to him as she covered themselves with the Blanket. "Goodnight." She whispered as she took hold of his hand in hers.
Weiss lay closest to Itachi and Blake as she took a few seconds to look at the two before turning to look away.
It was early morning when Itachi woke up from his slumber. He looked around, everyone seemed to be sleeping still. He looked down to his side seeing Blake having slept on him. He slowly and carefully carried Blake and set her in with Weiss. He grabbed the extra blanket and covered the two girls with it. He looked at Miss Calavera as he grabbed an extra blanket on the couch and wrapped it around the older woman before turning the lamp beside her off.
"You should be sleeping, to restore your strength."
Itachi walked over to the fireplace, the fire had gone out but he lit it back to life. "I'm fine now, Miss Calavera." He looked at the woman who was struggling to stay awake. "You should go back to sleep, you need your rest more than I."
"You have jokes now." She watched as Itachi stood, his eyes turning crimson. "Where are you going?"
"To put the dead to rest." He replied walking up the stairs as he entered the room where the bodies were as they disappeared in a vortex. "Onto the next house." Itachi walked back downstairs walking past the sleeping bodies of his friends. "I'll be back."
"Be back by sunrise or they'll worry." Miss Calavera lazily said as all she heard from Itachi was a grunt.
Itachi had gone to every home and retrieved the corpses as he now stood near the edge of the estate. He flashed through some hand signs before slamming his hands on the ground as many individual holes opened up in the ground where he placed a body inside each one before closing the holes. He looked around and found some wood laying around as he stabbed the wood into the ground above each grave. He moved back and away from the graves as he bowed his head. "May you all rest in peace."
The sun was beginning to rise above the trees as he was about to head back to the house, when he saw something in the corner of his eye in the forest. He flash stepped into the forest and his crimson eyes met with red. He narrowed them as he grabbed his katana and with ease sliced the grimm into little pieces before it turned to ash. 'Maybe I'll take a look around the forest for other grimm.' He looked back at the house before running deeper into the forest.
An Hour Later
Itachi sighed. He had searched around the forest but found no other grimm, he had found some water canals but they were sealed off so he made his way back thinking everything was fine, but something was telling him differently. He looked up at the shining sun and mentally kicked himself for not keeping track of time. When he made it back to the estate, he found Oscar replacing the tire on a flat bed that had been connected to Yangs bike.
"Where are the others?" Itachi asked the boy.
Oscar jumped in surprise. "You scared me there." Oscar let out a yawn. "I don't know, maybe back inside the house, when I came back the girls were gone, then the old woman left too." Oscar looked at the sled Itachi was dragging which held some tanks. "Where did you get the sled? And what are those?"
"I found it in the back, and propane tanks." Itachi answered as the boy rose a brow. "Thought I could cook something up on a grill before heading out." Oscar nodded slowly as Itachi walked past him, but stopped when he noticed the diary Miss Calavera was reading. He picked the diary up as he began reading the page she had left off before turning it to the next as his narrowed. "Oscar get that thing on fast."
"What?" Oscar asked as he watched Itachi grab two of the tanks and open the valves before dropping them down the well. "What's going on?"
"We have company." He replied grabbing the others before dropping down the well and landing perfectly on his feet before performing and earth style jutsu to seal off the well. He looked around, his Sharingan coming to life as he ran towards the fluctuating aura signatures as he tossed the tanks in different directions after he had opened the valves. He stopped when he saw a sea of black blocking his way, but then a bright white light shone in the darkness as many of the grimm had disappeared. He ran as fast as he could, removing the heads of any grimm that came his way as he landed in front of Ruby and Miss Calavera. "Earth Style: Earth Wall Jutsu." Itachi slammed his hands on the ground as a wall of earth elevated from the ground, giving them some time. "Hurry up and get going!" He ordered.
"You don't have to tell me!" Yang punched the cellar doors as they ran up into the house. "What?! We're back in the house? Are you fucking kidding me?!"
Itachi looked back into the underground as he could see the grimm beginning to crack the earth wall. "They're pushing through. Hurry and get out of here, I'll deal with them and meet with you guys on the road."
"What do you mean you'll deal with them?" Blake asked as she grabbed onto his sleeve. "We all have to get out of here. I'm not leaving you behind with those things."
"Get off of me! What's wrong with all of you?!" A drunken Qrow questioned.
Itachi looked back for a second before feeling a hand take hold of his leg, but he sliced the hand off and when the grimm showed it's head he chopped it off before kicking it to Qrow who caught it before dropping it with wide eyes. Itachi took advantage that Blake had moved away from him as a wall of earth appeared behind him, cutting them off from each other as he heard banging on the wall before it stopped, thanking Yang for dragging Blake away. Itachi jumped down and stabbed the large wine barrels as the liquid began gushing out. The earth wall crumbled as the grimm began to corner him, they shrieked as he fell to his knee. He closed his eyes and focused as he then smirked.
"Finally, they are a safe distance." The grimm reached to him as flames lit around his body, he stood, the grimms shriek doing nothing to him. "Quiet down." The flames spread as the grimm began to turn into ash as explosions began to erupt all around them.
With the others
They were not far from the estate as Yang stopped, seeing as the trees were shaking even though there wasn't any strong winds blowing as the snow fell off of them.
"Why did you stop?" Weiss asked.
"The ground is shaking."
They then began to feel the shaking and could hear explosions happening underneath the estate before she started driving once more. "What is he doing?" Qrow questioned.
"I think I know." Oscar said as they turned to him, Yang listening in, keeping her eyes forward. "He had some propane tanks which I assume he scattered underground." He explained as they followed. "His semblance is fire related, so I'm assuming he needed us away so he could cause a chain of explosions and bury whatever those grimm were underground."
"What were those things anyway?" Blake questioned.
"The Apathy." Miss Calavera said. "They're not strong, or ferocious. They drain your will to go on. Bartleby's estate was hemorrhaging money towards the end. He wanted to cut costs on Huntsman protection but, in order to do that, he needed everyone calm. Always."
""Managed to get two away from their pack, hike back was miserable, but got the bastards in the cellar. Wife thinks I was out sealing the waterway entrance, I'll do it tomorrow, and tell her the truth once these things take the edge off everyone. I'm tired."" Oscar read from the diary.
"The next page proves that he did, but not before the rest of the pack followed their missing pair all the way home." Miss Calavera stated.
"They made their way beneath the estate through the water tunnels, that he sealed up the next morning." Their eyes widened when Itachi appeared out of thin air from a vortex as he sat down next to Blake and Qrow. "His plan worked, it worked too well."
Miss Calavera nodded. "No one was angry, or sad, or scared. No one was anything. And then no one was left." She threw the book into the forest as she looked to Itachi. "You saw my message." Itachi nodded. "It's nice to meet the man behind the mask." Itachi grunted.
"I-I'm sorry for what I said." Weiss began as Itachi looked at her. "About giving up."
Yang slowed down to a stop. "Me too. We can't quit until the lamp is safe."
'Something else.' Itachi looked up to the sky. "It is not any of your faults, it was the Apathy."
Miss Calavera sighed. "I should've known, the signs were all there, but I'd never seen an entire settlement withered away like that." She shook her head. "I suppose my mind just isn't what it used to be...I'm surprised you didn't figure it out either." She directed it at Itachi.
"I've never had a run in with the Apathy, today was my first time." Itachi told the old woman. "I still have much to learn."
"Miss Calavera...How do you know so much about the Grimm? And in the tunnels you knew exactly what to say to make me...to make my eyes do that. How?" Ruby asked her.
She smiled. "Well, isn't it obvious girl?" Miss Calavera turned to look at Ruby. "I had silver eyes."
Blake looked at Itachi. "How do you two know each other? And where were you this morning?"
Itachi separated his gaze from the clouds and looked into Blake's Amber eyes. "I was burying the dead." He answered before looking towards Miss Calavera. "And for your first question, we crossed paths."
Miss Calavera snorted. "You came looking for me, I couldn't believe someone actually managed to find me, just to ask for permission to use the moniker."
"Moniker?" Qrow questioned.
"Let me tell you a bit about my past..."
And there we go! Sorry for the short chapter and for the long wait, but with how the world is right now, and how many people are taking it... I just hope all of you are doing well, and I want you to know that if yall ever need someone to talk to, an ear to listen to you, go ahead and message me and I will reply. We may all be from different race, ethnicity, gender from a different city, state, country, continent, but we will make it through this, someway, somehow.
MorpheusYulia- I like that idea, and maybe they can, I might make it for a little reunion at the last chapter of the story.
Wolf1741- That's what I was thinking, either that or having him cast an illusion over his eye so it would look normal.
Kira-KillerQ- Here's more! And Thank you!
keybladelight- It was Finally revealed! While half of RWBY trust him we do have two that are wary of him. JNPR is next, but it won't be getting into detail like the last chapter. As for having more people know, I think it would be best for it to stay at a minimum of those he trust. And yes, Atlas is curious about Itachi now. And they'll make it to Argus next chapter.
RedBurningDragon- Yes he will. And yeah, I was thinking either a Crow, have him with like some black Angel wings, a Weasel (Cause of his name) or a Cat.
therichardater- I believe he an still use it simultaneously.
Arclight001- Maybe...Maybe not... Who knows? Lol
Xavier Arias Gonsalves- Itachi would feel bad, but he wouldn't be pissed because he would understand that the stuff he did in his past may be too much for some to understand. And no, Ruby will not be the final pairing, Itachi looks at her like a younger sister.
Mr. Haziq- Yes it was. I know, I also remember him going back and forth between the Sharingan and Rinnegan. And yeah, I was thinking more like Black Angel wings would look cool on him lol
Kage-kitsune9001- They'll have to learn to accept him first.
Guest- Yeah, he still gets the finger, but at the very least Itachi made sure Oscar wouldn't take his punch. She'll learn.
Vanitas Brunestud- Sorry about that.
razmire- She really gave them a speech, they'll be thinking long and hard about Itachi. Those were what I was thinking he could be.
Falcon800- Wolf Faunus? Could you explain how? It's not a bad idea, I actually like it, I didn't think of it at the beginning. How do you think he would look like?
andresskorskiruiz- Thank you! And sorry for the long wait but here it is!
0verLrd71- no review is irrelevant, and I'm glad you decided to review. And yes I did decide for him to be the only Naruto character in the RWBYverse.
