Chapter 22

After five whole days of being home, Yang could say with a fair amount of certainty that she was starting to grow bored and not just because there was really nothing to do on Patch besides hunt the weaker packs of Grimm. Her dad was being the biggest overprotective papa bear in the history of fathers the world around, which she could understand even if it was starting to get on her nerves, and if she had to watch Ruby stripdown and reassemble her weapon one more time then she was gonna scream! She would gladly admit that her time at Beacon, with her team, had helped her branch out as a person and staying away from that level of daily excitement was like Ruby suddenly cutting off her sugar addiction overnight. Most importantly, above all the other things that was slowly dragging her into the ever endless abyss of boredom, Yang spent the last five days waking up alone! She nearly freaked out her first morning just because she was so used to Naruto being there with her.

The worst of it was just how frustrated she was getting, which meant her temper was starting to flare up, and that meant her poor old punching bag was getting the shit knocked out of it. Even without her semblance, Yang was still making her 100 lbs bag swing back and forth and already had to duct tape it back together once since she got back to Patch. Each blow could have snapped a normal man's rips, without aura of course, but unfortunately it was her bag that had to suffer instead. It's what happens when you combine her dad's strength with, from what she's heard from her uncle Qrow, her mom's temper.

"At this rate we're going to have to buy you a new one," Tai spoke up from where he sat on the back patio, watching his daughter pound away at the bag while sipping on a nice cold glass of ice tea, "I don't think I've seen you this worked up since when you first crashed your bike."

Instead of responding right away, Yang delivered one more combo of rapid punches before reeling her fist back and sending it forward like a bolt of lightning. Not really to anyone's surprise, Yang's punch made another hole in her already beat up bag, but what she didn't expect was for the chain holding it up to break and send it halfway across the backyard before skidding to a stop. Yang just stood there with her fist still stretched out, her eyes a bit wider than normal, and breathing a bit harder.

Letting out a long and deep sigh, Yang made her way over to the porch while unwrapping the bandages around her hands, "I guess I'm just not used to being cooped up here at Patch anymore. Not that I don't like being home, but..."

"But at Beacon there's always something to do, between training, fighting Grimm, or hanging out with your team. I remember, I went through the same thing you did my first time back home," Tai said as he reached over into the water cooler and pulled out a bottle of water for Yang, tossing it to his eldest daughter.

"Yeah," Yang said, twisting the cap off the bottle before downing it in almost a single gulp, "Something like that."

"Could it be you miss your boyfriend?" That question more than caught Yang off guard, not to mention her first thought was that Ruby ratted her out!

"What did Ruby tell you?! It's all lies!" Yang shouted, only to then notice the smug grin Tai had in the way he crossed his arms.

"Well at this point I don't think Ruby had to tell me anything," Tai said smugly, only to adopt an all too serious father face a split second later, "But I just want to let you know to be careful. Trust me, I know better than anyone else how things can develop on the team. You spend all your time fighting Grimm together, growing closer, and the next thing you know you're in some rather complicated situations."

"No no no no! I do not want to hear how you and mom hooked up!" Yang shouted as she covered her ears and turned away, missing the way Tai's expression softened, "I'm gonna go fix my bag, or go get another one from the shed."

Sadly for her, Tai wasn't quite done yet, "Just please promise me you're being careful. I don't care if you get into a relationship, be it with a boy or a girl, I just don't want to see you hurt."

"None of them are like mom, I'm not like mom. We won't abandon each other," Yang said without turning around, although the way her fist clenched already said enough, "And he does make me happy. It's like I found the missing piece to my puzzle, as stupid as that sounds, another half to make me whole."

With that said, Yang took off towards the shed as Qrow walked out onto the back patio to join his brother-in-law. Surprisingly, instead of his usual bottle of alcohol, Qrow was also sipping on a glass of ice tea but with the lemon shoved inside of it. He was also wearing a tank top with a pair of baggy pants instead of his usual Huntsman outfit, which wasn't necessarily bad but just a bit out of character.

"Thanks for not interrupting that," Tai spoke up as Qrow sat down on the chair next to him, propping his feet up on a small box.

"Yeah, well who am I to interrupt a father daughter conversation? So how is the little firecracker, she's been on edge the last few days?" Qrow asked, watching his niece open up the door to the shed and walked inside.

"I worry about her, but after what happened a few weeks ago can you really blame me?" Tai countered.

"Not really, but if she's anything like her mom then she's not just gonna spill her guts about it. She's either going to vent to someone her age that she trusts, or she's going to keep it bottled up until it eventually explodes in her face. Either way, it'll come out sooner or later," Qrow said, still wondering if he was making the right choice about keeping Naruto a secret from Tai; not for the first time he was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

"If I remember correctly," Tai began, his eyes losing focus as he traveled down memory lane, "Summer was the only one out of the three of us that could get Raven to open up, without having to force her."

Qrow let out a bark of the laugh, "That's right, but you two weren't there after the first night she got Raven to open up. I remember Raven just sat there on her bed with this far-off look in her face, like she couldn't understand what just happened. That was one of the funniest things I've ever seen."

"What about that time you thought it would be funny to blame Raven from messing with Summer's weapon? Those two went at it for hours before finally putting it together that it was all your fault," Tai laughed.

"They made my life a living hell for the next three weeks. Summer wouldn't even talk to me."

The two men just sat there after that, basking in their trip down memory lane and all the good times they had, even if they were often offset by the bad times. Despite all the mistakes, all the shouting matches, and everything in between, those are some of the best years of their lives.

"Look at us, we look like two old men talking about things back in our day," Qrow smirked, finishing off the last of his tea.

"Speak for yourself, I'm still in the springtime of my youth," Tai said as he flexed his still somewhat muscular arms, muscles he developed over a lifetime of hunting Grimm and later dealing with two daughters.

"Sure, whatever you say."

It was at this time that Yang made her way back out of the shed, carrying a new punching bag over her shoulder like it didn't weigh a hundred pounds. She at least waved to Qrow, a big cheesy smile on her face, before hanging up the bag and starting to wrap her hands back up for another round.

"Yeah, our little firecracker is going to be just fine."

Blake hated the stereotypes that most people associated with Faunus, mostly depending on what animal traits they happened to be born with. Could a dog Faunus really lick his own balls, does a bird Faunus lay eggs, does a rabbit Faunus do nothing but have sex all day? It was all very demeaning, insulting in almost every sense of the word, and that's what made this whole situation just that much more embarrassing. Because instead of sitting on the family couch like a normal person, she was curled up on the couch like a cat with a now empty glass of milk sitting on the coffee table. It also just so happened that her mom found it cute enough to snap a few pictures when she wasn't looking, even if the loud squeal a few moments later gave the older Belladonna away.

"You look so cute!" Kali shouted as she plopped down on the couch next to her daughter, "This one's definitely going in the family album."

"Mom!" Blake all but whined, her ears going flat against her head as she gave Kali an almost pleading look.

"Now now dear, as your mother it's my right to take embarrassing pictures of you and save them for your future boyfriend and/or girlfriend. Speaking of which, when are you gonna get one of those?" If there was one thing Kali loved doing, it was trying to play matchmaker for her only daughter!

Blake glanced away, looking a bit sad, "Not anytime soon."

"Blake?" there was a touch of concern in Kali's tone; she'd always been able to tell what her daughter was feeling at just a glance, just like her own mother could do with her.

"It's nothing, don't worry about it," Blake tried to brush off her mother's concern, but she really should have known better.

Kali just scooted closer to her daughter, lifting up the younger woman's head to rest on her lap, and began running her fingers through her hair. That was another thing Kali was jealous of her daughter about, having long hair didn't seem to drive her crazy.

"If it makes you feel better, I won't tell your father," Kali said, trying to inject some humor into the situation and the small snort she got from Blake meant that it worked, if just a little bit.

"I just... I just don't want you guys to think any less of me," Blake mumbled.

"We already told you, it doesn't matter to us who you like, boy or girl," Kali tried to soothe her, but it didn't seem to be working as well as it was before if the way Blake started to fidget was anything to go by.

"What if it's both?" Blake sounded so vulnerable at that moment, it nearly broke her mother's heart.

"Well it's not that strange for someone to like both genders, but you already knew that."

"That's not what I meant," Blake set up so she was looking Kali right in the eyes, "What if I like a boy and a girl, but they're already in a relationship with each other?"

Kali's eyes widened just a bit, a bit of pink dusting her cheeks and what her daughter just said. She'd only heard about this kind of situation in those really smutty romance novels that she knew her daughter liked to read, not that she'd ever tell her that she swiped a few of them while she was gone. Then she remembered that picture she found on Blake's scroll, of those two blondes that were together on her team.

"Your two teammates?" Blake looked away at that accusation, trying to hide the fact that she was blushing now too.

"They like to tease me a lot, about joining in with them, but I can't tell if they're being serious or just messing with me," the young cat Faunus felt like she wanted to cry out in frustration, "And it's so much worse because I actually think I have feelings for both of them. I just don't know what to do."

"Well, I can't say I've ever been in a situation like yours before, but I do think I have some advice for you," Kali said with an uneasy smile, hoping that she wasn't about to ruin her daughter's romantic life.

Blake's head snapped around, her eyes wide with hope, "You do?"

"Just do the same thing I did to get your father's attention," Blake was already regretting this, "Back in the day, he used to tease me all the time to. Until one day I called him on his bluff by actually agreeing with him. I still remember how shocked he looked, I'd never thought I'd see the big bad Ghira stammer like a schoolboy, but in the end that was the beginning of our relationship together."

"That sounds like you pulled it from one of those romance novels," Blake said with a deadpan look; you could almost see the tick marks forming around her face and the way her eyebrow twitched was just too cute.

"Maybe, but that's really how it happened. That week we had our first date, a few months later we got really busy, and then the next year we were married. Not long after that you came into the world."

Blake decided to ignore the fact that her mom just said that she and her dad got busy, not wanting to even mentally picture that, "That's a big leap of faith."

"Sometimes it's worth it. Sometimes you just have to make that jump and hope you fly instead of fall. But who am I kidding, you're my daughter after all. Us belladonna girls get anything we want!" Kali shouted, a big cheesy grin on her face as she pumped her fist into the air.

"Take a leap of faith, huh?" How hard could it be?

"Hey, you two, how's your day going?" Ghira asked as he walked into the room, his massive body just barely managing to fit through the normal sized door.

"Oh, you know, just having some girl talk. Nothing you'd be interested in," Kali waved off, sending her daughter a sly smirk and a wink; Blake's ear twitched slightly in embarrassment but otherwise she managed to keep a straight face.

"You're probably right," Ghira nodded in agreement, he never could keep up with the latest gossip like his wife could and, more often than not, he fell asleep while she was talking about said gossip.

"Now, who's hungry?" both father and daughter suddenly had stars in their eyes.

Naruto grew up exploring places that, by all rights, he had no business exploring in the first damn place. He's wandered into the woods when his mom wasn't looking, snuck away from the tribe to go fishing when they set up camp about half a mile from a lake, and don't even get him started on his first trip into a village that wasn't slated to be raided and later torn to the ground by a pack of ravenous Grimm. Raven liked to call him a slippery little shit growing up, not to his face of course but he still overheard the other tribe members talking about it growing up, but it would be safe to say that his habits of wandering off hadn't really changed all that much. He's told it's supposedly a trait he gets from his mom.

Not, like all those other times, Naruto was casually wandering through the forest surrounding the tribe's latest camp with his original sword lazily strapped to his side while in little more than a tanktop and a pair of jeans; truth be told he wasn't even wearing shoes at the moment. What started as a desire to get away for a bit, with the newer tribe members constantly trying to walk around swinging their dicks about, had instead transformed into just exploring the area. He never did quite know what new secret hiding spots he could stumble upon and it gave him something to do until his irritation settled.

"The fuck?" Naruto asked himself, feeling the soft dirt under his feet suddenly turn hard and far too smooth to be a naturally occurring rock buried in the ground.

Crouching down and brushing away some loose dirt and twigs, Naruto could only raise an eyebrow at the sight of a yellow brick right where he's just stepped; with many more surrounding it. Now that he knew what to look for, Naruto could make out the yellow brick road twisting its way through the forest. It was overgrown, half of it covered in dirt and even a tree uprooting some of it, but it was a clear pathway leading to somewhere important. Maybe an old village that got destroyed during the great war, gods know there were plenty of those that got trampled by the Grimm.

"Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained," Naruto set off down the brick road, content to walk a few miles down the path to see if it led anywhere close by and, if not, he'd just turn around and go right back to the tribe.

"Come to me," crimson eyes widened dramatically at the familiar voice that echoed on the wind, the same voice he used to have dreams about before setting off into the world, "You're almost there. Come to me."

Naruto's leisurely pace shifted instantly into a dead sprint, determination to get some answers fresh on his mind, and it's because of this he didn't notice the dangerous glowing red eyes staring at him from the shadows of the forest. On and on Naruto ran, going so far as to pump some aura into his legs to gain just a bit more speed, and after fifteen minutes he was rewarded for his efforts. Now about five miles away from where he first stumbled upon the path, Naruto's sprint slowed to a halt when he spotted a rather well maintained cabin in the woods.

The cabin wasn't like those told in the old stories, falling apart with evil long nosed witches living inside and just waiting to gobble up wayward children. In fact, it looked to be recently made and rather well maintained, given the white fence built around it didn't even have so much as a chip of paint missing. Even the rose garden lining the front of the cabin looked almost perfectly maintained, which should have been a problem since the area was too rocky and tough for proper roses to grow.

"Oh, it seems I've a visitor," spoke a voice from behind Naruto, far too close for his liking, and it took all the blonde's considerable will not to lash out on pure survival instinct; he instead chose to turn around and back up at the same time.

Standing there was a woman shrouded in a black traveling cloak, a basket full of herbs in hand. She was beautiful, at least in Naruto's eyes, with a bit lighter blonde hair tied back into a ponytail and only a few strands loose to frame the left side of her face. Her eyes were like sparkling sapphires, if also a bit lighter in color, and they held a gentleness to them Naruto was unfamiliar with. Although, perhaps it's these attributes that confused Naruto the most. By all accounts she was a beautiful woman living in the woods, as strange as that sounds in and of itself, so why the hell did he feel so on edge around her?

"Sorry to intrude, ma'am. I was following that strange brick road and it dumped me out in front of your cabin," Naruto said as politely as possible, struggling to keep his hand away from the hilt of his sword and appear as relaxed as possible.

"Oh," the way she tilted her head let off an air of innocence, "I'm surprised that old thing still stretched back to any of the nearby villages. You must've been paying attention to notice it, with how buried the sections are the further out they go. Oh, how rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Salem, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Naruto eyed the outstretched hand like it was a snake, only to crush down his raging instincts and reach out to shake it, "Naruto Uzumaki, the pleasure's mine!" the added eye-smile was to hide the clearly seen wariness.

"Well, Naruto, you've no doubt traveled a long way just to stumble upon my lonesome home. The least I can do is offer you something to drink. Would you like to come inside and rest?" Salem asked, stepping around Naruto to push open the small white painted gate that led to a path up to her front door.

"That sounds...lovely," Naruto nodded in thanks, only to glance around when he noticed all the normal forest sounds were noticeably absent, "Although, if you don't mind me asking, how are you able to live out here with the Grimm roaming about?"

Salem paused half way up the path and turned to look back at him, a small smirk playing across her lips that sent a shiver up Naruto's spine, "Oh, the Grimm don't bother me at all. I've never had a problem with them."

I know this chapter is a bit shorter than normal, that part was unfortunately planned, but the unfortunate part was how long it actually took me to sit down and write it. The plan is there, I've a big fucking whiteboard next to my desk with all my plans written out, but it's the motivation I find myself lacking. It sucks, but please bear with me.