Naruto slammed into the tree behind him with a painful grunt. Slowly he straightened himself to look up at his opponent. He moved just in time as the blade came down onto him.

He recovered quickly and moved forward to strike the assailant. They easily deflected his shot and kicked him back once again before charging. He pulled out his trench knives to get in close. This proved futile as his opponent would block and deflect most of his attacks. He wouldn't deter however and continued with his onslaught.

Finally, one of his attacks struck true and Naruto watched as the assailant's throat split open. Imagine his surprise when the wound closed itself and they continued fighting as if nothing happened.

They swung their weapon before the blond could react and sent him flying across the field. Naruto flipped through the air and ran into the fray once more.

He stabbed them in the heart. He slit their neck. He bisected them down the middle. No matter how many times he managed to actually kill them when he was lucky enough to get a hit in they just got back up.

"Why?" Naruto asked as they leapt into the air and slammed him into the ground. Naruto tried to get up but

"Why won't you die?"

Ruby Rose did not give him an answer as she kept the barrel on his face.

"Answer me" He said. His voice as neutral as always. Slowly the girl reached up and grabbed her face. And Naruto watched with fascination as the face slowly peeled back revealing someone else under the skin.

Himself.

Finally she…he spoke.

"Not again,"

He fired.

Naruto's eyes burst opened having awoken from the strange dream. He couldn't fathom what had happened within it. His reaction, the face underneath. All of it puzzled him.

Well it was just a dream. None of it affected his reality.

The niggling feeling at the back of his head told him otherwise.

CLARITY

You couldn't afford to take your eyes off the target.

This was especially true in a premier academy like Beacon, as Ruby was discovering. As soon as she thought she had one problem pinned down, another one slipped from her control. This wasn't like the preordained home-life that she'd been used to, where everyone got along hunky-dory and problems could be solved in the span of a 30-minute episode. This was like herding cats (an ironic comparison she wouldn't discover until later).

First, there was school. But not just school, because it consisted of homework and classwork, study and practice, the practical and the totally-mind-numbingly-boring-hitting-your-head-on-a-desk-in-order-to-stay-awake (oh, and maybe take some notes while you were at it?). Thank Dog they were going to have a field trip soon.

Then there were the things which happened in the peripheries which were no less important than the scholastic workload.

It seemed that every time she turned her back on them, her team devolved into their old dysfunctions. Her partner was satisfied so long as Ruby kept her nose to the grindstone. But then her sister tended to go a little bit stir-crazy without Ruby to serve as a foil (and they called her the needy one). Then there was Blake, who made it abundantly clear she was perfectly satisfied on her own- except when it came to sniping at Weiss who, frankly, made herself a target for criticism all too easily and without realizing most of the time.

And that was just her team.

Ruby had managed to put the whole murderous Assassin thing out of her mind for the moment, but she could hardly consider herself a good person if she were to keep ignoring the obvious plight of other students- and fellow team captain, especially.

Where Jaune had been perking up in the afternoon following the 'Lunchroom Incident', the next day he went right back to his passive-aggressive moroseness. Except this time, he seemed even more resigned to be miserable. If this fact wasn't abundantly clear based on his attitude, Jaune had taken to hanging out with Cardin of all people! And despite her best hopes, even Pyrrha didn't seem able to pick her partner out of this slump.

"I don't have time for this."

Honestly, she simply didn't want to. It really felt like none of her business, like she was intruding on the autonomy of several foreign entities with this one act. But could she really just sit back and watch while she had the power to do something?

"No."

With a deep breath through her nose, she knocked on the door which looked exactly like her own team's dorm but was somehow infinitely more menacing. The sound her knuckles made was like a gunshot to her nerves even while she was worried the room's occupants might not have heard her past the ruckus emanating from inside.

No such luck.

Before her second-thoughts had time to act, the door swung open with a bang and a shadow eclipsed her from the looming figure inside. No turning back now.

"I need to speak to Cardin

Naruto sat amongst the council in silence. After completing another mission, he had asked for a moment of the council's time to discuss the inquiry that Namekuji had bought to him a few days ago. Now he sat in the room awaiting their response.

"Is this a joke,"

Gin was the first to answer.

"It is not a joke Gin-San," Naruto answered. His eyes met Gin's with ease as the man snarled at him. "This is simply a theory,"

"Well it's not even that," Gin growled. "A childs rampant imagination at best,"

"Well we are dealing with a child," The woman spoke. "So we shouldn't be so surprised," She added snidely. "Especially when it comes from team Kasai,"

Mocking his team was not surprising to him. Gin and Namari (The woman if he remembered correctly) in particular. The others typically stayed silent as they were now. Though he wasn't fooled by their silence. He was no stranger to their hostility towards him.

It was during this that he took in his surroundings. All the council was here. Looking at him with contempt. Well almost everyone. He looked over to the empty seat at the head of the room.

…

There was something wrong with this picture.

"Where is Kage-Sama?" Naruto asked. Whenever the council met the Kage was present.

"Kage has more important issues to deal with then listening to the ramblings of an immature brat," Gin growled.

"I see," Naruto responded making the intelligence gatherer scowl even harder.

"Get out of my sight," Gin commanded.

"Hai Gin-San," Naruto nodded. Than he was gone.

"That kids nothing more than a tool that can't even be used properly," Gin grunted as he exited the room.

CLARITY

It was every bit as horrid as she expected. It was a boy's dorm, after all. But as she'd anticipated, the musk of stagnant sweat and a sprawling slovenliness wasn't the worst part- even if she was horrified to discover the half-eaten contents of a cookie-pack crunching underfoot (they were even more monstrous than she thought!). No, not even the excess of obnoxiously cloying deodorant could conceal her trepidations, any better than it could the almost overbearing stank.

Worse than all of it, was the way they looked at her.

She tried to take her sister's advice and act like her usual airheaded self because some males were gullible and liked ditz- no, wait. Not that advice. The other one. Assert herself, right. Act as if she were meant to be there, as if she owned the room and they were merely lucky that she decided to grace them with her presence.

It didn't work. Ruby was not her sister. She was not as developed as the older blonde. Physically, more childlike (Though not for much longer apparently), but she also lacked the mental fortitude. The ability to wear her skin with the confidence of a lioness who knew she never needed a crowned mane to prove that she was huntress. More like a wounded gazelle, limping willingly into the pack of hyenas.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

Ironically, Cardin's leer did more to placate her than all her mental pep-talk thus far. How could she be afraid of someone who was so unimaginative with his insults?

"You and I need to have a talk, Cardin." Snide chuckling in the background was like crackling timber to the fire fueling her determination. These weren't people who needed to be feared or pitied, just put in their place. "-Alone."

"Oh-ho…" Along with his teammates, Cardin whistled wolfishly at the innuendo only they saw. "Oi! Boys, you heard her. Screw off!"

-Still, if he was to maintain his image as an Alpha, why should he not honor this simple request? He had no reason to be afraid of this scrawny creature.

And still, neither did she. For as much as they pretended to be huntsmen, they were but scavengers. Slinking off with their tails between their legs under that barked command.

"So, Pipsqueak, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Lay off Jaune."

Waiting patiently for her turn, Ruby unloaded her demand like a sack of bricks to the face which made Cardin flinch backwards and blink in surprise.

"I got no idea what you're talking about, Chibi."

"Can we not do this?" Sighing, Ruby had expended a lot of her energy getting worked up for the inevitable confrontation and just wanted to end it as soon as possible. "Something's clearly up with Jaune. You're his bully, not his friend, and yet he's been hanging around you more than his teammates. It's obvious he's not happy, and it's just as obvious that you're behind it somehow."

"Tch, why don't you ask your boyfriend if you're so concerned about him?" It was impossible for Cardin to tell if his jibe had any effect with Ruby's furious complexion covering up any hint of a blush. "-Besides, he's a man, ain't he? If he has a problem, he should bring it up to me himself."

Cardin shrugged apathetically and sat on the nearest unmade bed as if his unwanted guest wasn't even there. Though he purposefully reached down and adjusted his boxers, knowing that she was.

"This is between you and me now." Ruby asserted, trying not to blanch and run out of the room top speed. She was ready to present her deal. "And I'd prefer to keep it that way, which is why I wanted to be alone. It's for your sake as much as mine."

"Huh?" Scratching his head with the same hand used to scratch his junk, Cardin wasn't presenting himself as being that much more refined than the 'Animals' he loved to pick on.

"We deal, and you get to keep your reputation of being a big tough guy, or whatever."

"That it?" He scoffed, pretending to rub his non-existent stubble. "Doesn't sound like much of a bargain on my end. What else you offering?" This was the hard part, the one she'd been preparing herself for ever since reflecting on the confrontation in the lunchroom. "Hate to say it, but you're not really my type."

Despite this, his one-track mind was appraising her like a prize cow, and making no effort to disguise the fact.

Despite this- despite her humiliation and rage and clenched fists that wanted nothing more than to punch him in his misogynistic face repeatedly until all his teeth fell out so that he had to eat his medium-rare steak through a straw- she knew she shouldn't.

Despite her sister's fussing, she knew how to handle people like this. Force was reserved for true monsters. So, she took a deep breath and answered.

"Me."

"What?" More surprised than when she stood up to him that day at lunch, Cardin all but gawped at her. "You deaf or something, kid? I said that I'm no pedo-"

"-I'll be your victim. You want to tease someone, you want to bully someone, you want to make fun or humiliate someone, come to me." Gaining momentum, her voice took on more the tone of an order than a notice of surrender and she jabbed a stalwart thumb to her heart. "I'll take it on, whatever you got! And so long as you don't bother anyone else, I won't complain. You can tell people whatever you want about me and I won't contradict you. I won't resist, and I definitely won't run away."

"Are you insane? Do you have any idea what you're saying?" As incredulous as he was, there was a good chance Cardin was asking this of himself. Disbelief twisted his lips into a knot, which didn't stop him from running his mouth. "Why the hell would you do that for the Loser?"

"It's not just for Jaune." Because, in all likelihood, he'd be just as upset with her if and when he found out. "It's for all the others who don't speak up. The ones who for some reason or another can't fight back. And yeah, it's for me too. Because I'm not the type of person to just sit and watch as others get hurt."

"Well, alright then." Even with all the buildup of confidence, there was something undermining about Cardin's malicious smirk that made Ruby all the more certain that this had not been a good idea. "So, since it's not just for Jauney boy, you probably don't care about the fact he faked his transcripts to get in here, right?"

If he'd had any bit of forethought, Cardin should have kept his mouth shut and just sat on this information until the opportune moment. He could have accepted the offer for impunity and strung her along for weeks- months even, only revealing the truth after he'd made her life a living hell. Then the self-righteous brat would realize it'd all been for nothing, and that she truly didn't belong.

But Cardin wasn't nearly so patient. He wanted instant gratification, to witness the spark of horror within those blubbery sliver eyes. He wanted to see the hope drain from her face in real time like pyromaniacs want to watch a building burn to the ground. Bring on the desolation!

It was there- but only for a moment.

"So what?" Choking on his own laughter, Cardin had no response to this very simple question and stared at Ruby as if she'd just poisoned him. "I told you this is between you and me now. It doesn't matter and even if it did, it's none of your business."

"What? But-"

"And I'd still do it for Jaune, because unlike you, he's a good person!" Though she had no desire to get anywhere near the older boy, Ruby took a menacing step forward and brandished a finger at Cardin that might as well have been a sword with the way he cowered under it and the opening remarks of her diatribe. "Sure, he might not be the best right now, but he's getting better. That's the whole point of school, isn't it? I mean, why else would we be here? In fact, why are you here, Cardin? As far as I can see, all you want to do is hang out with your buddies and make everyone else miserable. Tell me, what does any of that have with being a huntsman? Do you think being a bully makes you smart, witty? I get better grades than you! You think you're strong? In sparring class you're right there at the bottom with Jaune! The only difference is that he's actually trying to learn and improve himself while you just sit there coasting on whatever butt-kissing got you here in the first place!"

In fact, Cardin was no longer sitting but reclined on his bed while the diminutive girl towered over him. Things like height no longer mattered under the unrelenting weight of her argument. What he'd taken for meekness in the beginning had really been Ruby holding herself back, and too late Cardin realized he'd tangled with someone who was patently unafraid of him.

"You don't deserve to be here." Ruby stepped down from her harangue. But reigning herself in did nothing for her voice which still burgeoned with rage that she would not let off the leash. "But the people you hurt didn't deserve it, either. And I still want to make things right, so" She folded her arms reservedly, "The offer still stands."

Scratching his scalp in a daze, Cardin tried to stimulate what brain cells might be underneath that crop of orange hair and figure out what just transpired. Or perhaps, more importantly, what he was supposed to do now.

"You kidding me?" He asked, realizing that she was still waiting for an answer. "Do you have any idea what your psycho sister would do to me if she found out I was picking on you?"

"Coward," Ruby accused, her momentary diffidence being converted to defiance. "Come on, I'm not scared of Yang. How can a 'big tough guy' like you be? Or do you mean to say you don't like getting picked on?"

"That's it!" Throwing his hands up in exasperation only to have them come crashing down on his thighs which were as thick as Ruby's head, Cardin abruptly stood up and stomped towards Ruby. His massive shadow fell on her almost instantly, and Ruby tried hard not to shiver with the chill that it brought. "You win! I'll lay off Jaune, okay?!"

"And the others?" While perhaps she shouldn't have pressed the issue, there was likely no better time. And so Ruby just threw on her best poker face (or Go-Fish Face, since Tai banned poker in their house) and stuck her chin out in daring.

"Yes, yes, just leave me the fuck alone! Shit, you're annoying!"

It was hard to act like she was considering it, just like it was hard for Cardin to act like he wasn't unnerved on a subconscious level. Ruby wanted nothing more than to be out of there ASAP. Not even desiring to pause and demand a payment to the swear jar, she figured she'd cover Cardin on that one.

"Okay," Ruby nodded what she felt was smartly. "-For now!"

Cardin groaned in one-part exasperation and another relief while Ruby carefully held her own gratification at bay, turned on her heel and marched towards the door. Though she stopped and made a point of fixing the older boy with a glare that for some reason or another made him flinch. "Because at the moment, we both have something better to do."

Without further ado she tossed open the door. But before she could step out into the safety of the hallway, the bodies of three eavesdroppers tumbled in through the transept.

In contrast to the actively threatening glare she gave their leader, by that point Ruby had exhausted all of her effort and caring and the look she gave the remainder of team CRDL was stark and without sympathy. If she had been aware of it, she would realize it was a look quite close to the emotionless specter she'd never quite forgotten about.

"…You heard me." Enough of a command on its own, she jerked her head sharply to the sprawled huntsmen who sped into their room with a celerity that Ruby might have been jealous of if she'd been in a place to care about such a thing.

Closing the door on this issue, she stood out in the hallway for a minute. One minute out of what had to be only about fifteen or so- twenty max, to fix a problem that had been plaguing them for weeks. It should have brought satisfaction, a feeling of accomplishment or relief at the very least. But as Ruby sucked the bitter plaque building up between her teeth which ached to be put to bed, all she could think about was how much more was left to do.

She was tired, but she couldn't afford to take her eyes off the goal

"Well what did they say?"

Naruto looked up from his ceaseless paperwork to see his team standing in front of his desk. They had been waiting for him. More accurately, Namekuji had been waiting, hours on end to learn what the council thought about her theory.

"They didn't believe it," He answered as if it had been a predetermined fact all along- which, in his opinion that was never shared, it was.

"Oh," The pinkette responded dejectedly, having had hope and therefore something to lose. "So, they explained to you what we were missing?"

"No," The blond responded in the same monotone and Sakura frowned at the response which felt like a dismissal.

"What do you mean?" Pressing the question, she leaned over his desk and cast a shadow over his sentence so that he would be forced to give her due attention. "They didn't say anything about why the connections couldn't be possible?"

"No," The team leader repeated, not getting annoyed. Naruto was never annoyed.

"Wait, so they didn't supply you with anything- not even a hint as to why it isn't even plausible." Rewording the statement did nothing to reconcile the fact in her mind and did nothing to give the blonde any more peace and quiet. Mouth as tight as his grip on the pen, he nodded again.

"They didn't see a need to."

See a need to. What the hell?

"Naruto, what exactly did they say?" Any pretense of formalities between captain and subordinate were tossed out the window they didn't have. Next would come the innocent slab of wood between the two.

"They said it was a childish imagination run rampant at best, with no substance to warrant further action." The stoic teen summarized sleepily as if one of those many pages on the desk was his notes on the meeting.

"They what!"

The room flinched as Sakura hissed, her fingers straining the poor piece of furniture under her grip. Hearing these telltale signs, Sasuke and Sai took one look at each other and promptly took 2 steps back from the impending disaster. They did not want to be on the end of their teammate's ire. They had learned well enough from the last time.

"What do they mean 'no substance'?" She growled whilst in the background, both male teammates were miming gestures to their captain to diffuse the situation. "Something's going on."

"Apparently not."

Sasuke palmed his face while Sai took another 5 steps back, putting him at the far end of their billets and wishing he could sink into the wall like he'd once seen one of their associates do. Their captain's bluntness was going to get someone killed one of these days. Likely, himself.

"What you're saying is that they didn't even humor it," Straightening up, Sakura shook her head in disbelief. "That doesn't make any sense," She continued, folding her arms so that her clenching fists could knead something without damage. "They're supposed to heed the words of any agents that call it to their attention. Not so much as giving us a reason-"

"That's true," Offering his two cents in hopes of placating the beast, Sai spoke up from where he was half-hidden behind a bunk. "Especially now since we're still coming together as a branch, it is crucial that all information be centralized and properly assessed. If it was a known rumor, they should have provided the source so that we could properly deal with it."

"-So it doesn't make sense that they would just…" Pausing mid-stride, Sakura found one of their usual hang-ups. "It was Gin, wasn't it?"

"Tch," Sasuke growled while Sai grimaced from his hiding space. It didn't help when Naruto nodded in confirmation.

"Unbelievable," Sakura huffed, trying very hard to keep her animosity directed at their metaphorical oppressor rather than her leader who took this all in with apathy. "That guy takes every chance he gets to discredit us, doesn't he? I mean, it would be one thing if there was an explanation. But since he's in charge of intelligence, he thinks he has all the answers."

"It does seem that way," Setting down his pen and raising that hand to his forehead, Naruto reluctantly agreed with the noise that was keeping him from his job.

"But this is still information!" Stomping her foot began a fervent pacing of the room- which constituted all of two steps before she had to make a breakneck turn. "Possibly valuable information that could help us in the long run. But no! He just doesn't want to believe it because it's us!"

"Should he?" Every eye drew on Naruto and that tiny chamber seemed to reflect each of their fluttering heartbeats so that it was like a live-fire CQB drill in their bedroom. "I wasn't able to provide any sufficient information. By all accounts, it was just a supposition based on a gut feeling."

"Based on experience!" The young teenager ranted, ignoring her own self-imposed rules and raising her voice at her commander. "We've been on more missions in the area recently than any other- hell, we have more field experience in general than most of our generation. Surely, we know what we do and don't see. I mean, those are way too many coincidences for there not to be something!"

With a deep breath Sakura centered herself again, trying very hard to find a silver lining. She was the only one who would. "At least I can count on my captain to believe there might be something,"

"I never said that."

It was truly as if a battlefield had suddenly been silenced. The rattling of machinegun heartbeats and the stomping artillery died off as all combatants choked on something especially potent and foul.

"What?" Near rasping, Sakura asked with that toxic air in her throat.

"I never said I believed the theory," Naruto said. "I said that it was plausible, and that I would present it to the council for their assessment."

"So, what, you took it to them because that's what you're supposed to do?" Sakura scoffed, trying to clear the blockage. "-Or was it because I'm your teammate, and you thought you had to placate me?"

"Yes,"

Her tactic worked, but now Sakura felt like she had just been punched in the gut. She looked up at her leader and friend in breathless shock while Sasuke and Sai each stood in mortified silence. This was not going to end well.

"-Which is it?" Pushing through the asphyxiation, Sakura lost control over her other muscles. Her gloved fists flexed and clenched, writhing like a man shot and left to die. "-No, I'm not sure I want to know. Either is just… you were with us, Naruto. How could you not see it? It's real."

She wasn't sure anymore if she was talking about their bond or the facts as they were. Everything was becoming blurred, her vision included as her verdant eyes tried to purge the devastation with rain.

"But you can't. You can't see it just because they tell you? Or is it… because you don't want it to be real?"

Wanting to call her name, both Sasuke and Sai were relegated to a gasp of abject horror. Only Naruto was left with words which were quickly stolen by a Sakura who used them to bury her own pain.

"Namekuji-"

"It's both, isn't it? For us, the Assassins were a place to belong, a family. A murderous, psychotic, dysfunctional family- but one we could be proud of having a stake in. Not for you. This is all you know, and you do what they tell you to do- believe what they tell you to believe. Because what else is there? If what the council has been saying is a lie, everything is a lie."

"Namekuji,"

"But something big is going down. Something way bigger than us- possibly bigger than the Assassins themselves. Are you just ignoring it because that's what they're telling you to do, or is it because you don't want something to be out of your control? Because it doesn't fit into your structured little world? The real world's so much bigger than this place, Naruto!"

Spreading her arms wide, she knocked several papers onto the floor before her fists impacted the wall and a bedpost.

"Namekuji."

In contrast to her outburst which put some dents in the furniture and threw the room into disarray, his near-silent command shook the very foundation- or was that just her legs quavering?

"We're done." There was no denying the command in his voice, and Naruto didn't even save a parting glance as he went back to his disordered forms. "Next time you have a theory, make sure you can back it up."

Somehow still on her feet after that crippling blow, the girl lowered her head and arms, feeling all her strength leave her at her captain's callous words.

"Oi,"

With his teammate in distress, Sasuke shot forward on instinct and put himself between her and the issue. With another move that was more gut than thought, he gripped Naruto's shoulder and forced him to acknowledge his presence.

"Let go of me Taka,"

"Sasuke," Sasuke growled, whatever fear he'd held for their leader easily outstripped by a pent-up annoyance and a feeling of helplessness that he vowed never to experience again. "When not on mission, it's Sasuke,"

"I don't see the difference," The blond responded monotonously, as if the previous conversation had never happened. "Now let go of me." Standing slowly, he repeated the command in the same tone which disavowed refusal.

"Make me," Was Sasuke's eloquent response.

Even as socially inept as he was, within his corner, Sai felt almost smothered by the tension as the two teens stared each other down. Unable to read social ques, yet he regarded the unmoving teens like the most nail-biting of horror novels: muscles drawn taut, fists clenched, eyes focused like razors. Naruto was ready to discipline his subordinate and Sasuke was ready to beat some sense into his captain.

Sai knew that it wouldn't end well for anyone if these two fought. In terms of fighting prowess, no one knew which was truly the stronger. Without a doubt, any fight between the two would escalate and the entire hall would become a battlefield. Heaven forbid if Lonán or Nila got involved.

For once though, Sai had nothing to worry about.

"Now, now you two, that's enough," Better late than never, Kakashi had arrived sometime during the standoff and lightly tapped both teens on the head. "No need to cause a scene." They both acknowledged their sensei, though neither had dropped their guard as they each kept a corner of their eyes reserved for one another.

Seeing this with his own myopic focus, the cyclops delivered his offer. "If you want to continue, you could always spar with me."

They moved away from each other before the last word was even out of his mouth. They had both been on the end of a spar with Kakashi, solo and together. It never ended well for them.

-And those were just 'friendly' exercises, which was obviously not what Kakashi had in mind. No matter how good he was at hiding it behind the mask of aloofness, they knew when their Sensei was pissed at them.

Naruto eyed the people in front of him one by one. Sasuke was glaring at him, even though Kakashi was right there he was ready to fight still. Naruto would be happy to oblige. Well… not happy but willing.

Sai seemed relaxed or relieved would be the more accurate term if the blond were to guess. He watched as Kakshi made no step forward, staying neutral in this conflict, though his eyes would linger on Sakura more often than the rest. His eyes traced over to Sakura and something in him took pause.

The shaking of her hands, the slouched shoulders. How she wouldn't look him in the eyes. The slight quiver in her body. She seemed bothered about something. Naruto didn't know what however.

"Let's leave our little knucklehead to his duties so that he may finish up," Kakashi smiled. They knew it was a command. "Let's cool out heads and I'll brief you on your next mission tomorrow morning,"

One by one he watched as they left his quarters so he could get back to work. As he began to work on paperwork once again there was one question that had lingered on his mind about Sakura.

Why had her eyes been watering?

CLARITY

Arguing took a lot of energy. Or maybe it was just the novelty of standing up for herself and others, in addition to all the other new expectations people demanded of her.

In any case, Ruby was not in a position to wonder or even care as she dragged herself the excruciatingly long distance down the hallway from team CRDL's room. It was all she could do to put one foot in front of the other, the speedster concentrating simply on maintaining her sluggish pace.

Focusing so hard, that she almost passed on by the brightly-colored bean stalk who was doing his best to sink into the walls.

She stopped and blinked, looked over at Jaune who also seemed to be noticing his fellow bedraggled leader for the first time.

"Hey."

"Hey."

Would it have but ended there. Alas, Ruby was determined to see things to their end.

"What're you doing out here, Jaune?"

"I could ask you the same thing?"

He really couldn't, seeing as Jaune felt he barely deserved to be there- barely deserved to exist at that moment, he didn't have a right to question the acts of others.

"There's something I need to take care of," Ruby stated simply, in the present tense. "So what're you doing in the hall… in your pajamas?"

Despite being wrinkled, Ruby's Beacon uniform leant her an air of authority, which was what she had been trying to achieve when confronting Cardin. Meanwhile, Jaune's attire only leant more support to the fact that he had already given up on life.

"I, uh…" Unable to qualify his reasons without divulging everything else. Jaune wasn't sure if he was strong enough to confess what exactly it was. But this was proving just as hard. "I think I screwed up."

No crap, Ruby wanted to say but for many obvious reasons, didn't. Instead, what she said was simply.

"No," Sighing in resignation, she joined Jaune against that wall and slid sluggishly down until she was sitting next to him. "If you did, what are you doing out here? You should either be fixing your mistake or working to make sure that it doesn't happen again."

Turning his head in shame, even on the ground, Jaune felt smaller than the young captain.

"And… what if I can't?"

"That's not an option."

"Eh?"

Repeating herself, at the same time, Ruby was reliving her lucid nightmare of that day when she'd failed to protect someone. That man's blood was on her hands as much as anyone else. "We can't afford to give up. Others are counting on us."

Together they looked towards team JNPR's door just down the hall. But Jaune caught Ruby's eye and realized that her gaze was much farther off. Her eyes were also starting to close, fluttering in valiant resistance. It hadn't been a good idea to sit down, in retrospect. But while her mind looked back on the day's events, her dreams were starting to plan for the future.

"We didn't get a choice…" Just like she didn't as her body declared it was time for a well-deserved rest. "-But what we have to do… that's the price for life sometimes, isn't it…?"

"I'm uh, not sure…" But Jaune was too late to ask for clarification as the young huntress was far away, somewhere where there were clouds to stare at, brooks that babbled words and a rivulet of drool that ran from the corner of her mouth. "Uh, Ruby?"

Jaune looked up and down the hallway, but there would be no one else coming this time of night. No Cardin, no Ozpin or Glynda, Pyrrha was probably still shunning him and not one of his sisters would deign to bail him out this time around. No one would tell him what to do, and therefore he had to decided that for himself.

The question remaining in that dark, empty world ahead:

"Oh man… what now?"

CLARITY

"It won't due for that boy to have independent thoughts." Gin grunted as he sat up and exited the room along with the rest of the decision makers. "That kid's nothing more than a tool- one that can't even be used properly."

"Hiruzen coddles the boy too much." Namari fell into her usual spot by Gin's side. "What's worse is that the attitude seems to be contagious. I am concerned that the sympathy he has somehow garnered might spoil our other useful assets."

"Hm, I wouldn't necessarily be concerned about your other blades getting dulled." A voice and a presence neither of them recognized sidled up in the hallway and interjected seamlessly into their conversation.

"He was forged in the hottest of furnaces, after all. And good stock will always be better than a second-rate steel given an edge. No, I'd think that Gin-dono's assessment is more appropriate. After all, should we really blame the tool if the user gets cut?"

"No, only the fool who dares take on more than his station." Halting in his stride, the Intelligence Director turned to face the man he didn't remember approaching. In fact, he didn't recognize the man at all, despite the fact that he donned the council robes. And despite all this evidence, nothing seemed out of the ordinary to him except for the bland-looking man's temerity.

"You must be new. Therefore, let me give you some advice: blades are like words, and only as useful as where you stick them."

"An ideology to live by," Smiling serenely like how Gin imagined the blond did behind his mask, the strangely innocuous stranger sketched a bow. -Not to him, but somewhere behind him. "Wouldn't you agree, Kage-sama?"

Both Namari and Gin whipped around only to find the darkened hallway, now totally empty.

"Strange," The Director commented without the strangeness really registering. "What were we talking about again?"

"Gin-dono, don't you remember? We just sat through an hour-long debriefing from that blond brat."

"Of course!"

"A horse is a horse, of course," In a corner of the hall that shouldn't have existed, the stranger rhymed idly and adjusted the thick glasses on his ageless face.

"-And a child is a child, no matter how hard you try to forge it into something it isn't. There might be enough iron in a heart, but it is fundamentally unsuited to the task. Even if on its own it has strength to bring together both friends and enemies. Put enough pressure and…

"…It will break."

Stepping out of the fold in the wall and his Council robes, he quickly checked himself and all the pockets in his trench coat. -Then up and down the halls, the tatami mats, the wooden beams overhead, at last satisfied that none had heard his soliloquy. He wasn't supposed to be here after all. Not yet, in any case.

"In any case," Silently he slunk his way from the facility, grabbing his hat off the coat rack on the way out without anyone sparing him a second glance. He doffed the plain brown Trilby with a meticulous precision and recounted the number of steps he had taken to get from his drop-off to the hidden facility.

"In any case, the whole point is to not get cut by your own blade."

And here we are again and just a bit before midnight so that's fun. Anyways we had a lot of unpacking on teams this time around. Mostly how leaders should be to there teams. We see too very different approaches in Ruby and Naruto. And looks like our resident blond has some things to work out with his team in the future. Not gonna lie the next chapter is a bit off a doozy for what me and KERBY have planned but I guarantee that its going to be FUN.

For this one I felt choice was the best chapter name for haw they all choose to interact with their teams so to speak. Ruby chooses to trust her team despite the fractures. Naruto chooses to indulge his team but not trust them despite the fact they've been a team for a long time. And Jaune has chosen to run away although that might not last much longer (wink wink). Anyways that's all for the moment so you know the drill.

READ…REVIEW…and above all else…ENJOY!