She was falling.
Within a pitch blackness like space she was tumbling- downwards, upwards, it was all the same without anything to ground her- not yet at rock bottom, then. But without something to fall towards, she wasn't sure if she'd ever stop. If this was a dream, she'd never wake up.
But this wasn't a dream.
It all came back to her in a flash of pain like one of those searing white lightning bolts dancing around her. Ruby had never been more thankful for Aura until she felt her back hit the branch and cleave through it easily. This first twig was her warning, her wakeup-call mere moments before she hit stiffer resistance.
The slight jolt provided by the tree limb allowed her to spin around so that her feet were between her and ground zero. And then with some Aura to her legs and a quick application of her Semblance, she began to autorotate like a sawblade. The soggy mud absorbed the rest of her momentum, and she rolled an immeasurable distance before coming to a complete stop, finally.
Amid panting breaths and the screaming agony her legs were in, she heard another crash not far away. The atrocious sound mixed in with the rain so that it reminded her of freshly washed meat hitting a cutting board, and she repressed a wince at the mental image. Clearly, whatever it was hadn't braced herself like she had.
Somehow, she knew what it was. She knew who it was, even before looking up slowly and with inexorable weariness to see the other figure somehow amble out of the heavy rain. Then lightning danced through the sky, illuminating their face.
Kitsune stood at the end of the trench she had formed. His mask now bore lightning-bolt cracks and there was water streaming from the eye sockets which stared at her with something other than his usual hollowness.
Him
Ruby charged without hesitation or her Semblance.
Her
Naruto leapt at his red-caped bane with fingers extended like claws; his intentions unclear even to himself at this point.
The two collided mid-air with a crack of thunder, Naruto winning out and falling on her with his fist. But Ruby wasn't having it and she brought her knee to his gut.
Always her
Taking the opportunity, she escaped from under the slightly-taller blond whose original hair color was lost in the filth coating them both. She attempted to kick him in the face, but Naruto grabbed the offending limb and twisted it ruthlessly. Ruby shrieked in pain- in rage.
Always him
Finally remembering her Semblance, Ruby leapt away from his grasp only to rebound off the soft ground like a trampoline and come back to tackle him again. Unlike on the ship, though, this time Naruto was more than ready. He absorbed the momentum, which was all velocity and no mass, and used his own dense muscle to slingshot the red-caped girl towards a sturdy trunk. Drenched and wrung-out though she was, the little bird could still fly and reoriented herself once again so that she alighted safely on the ground.
Always
Ruby felt her whole body shaking, but not from the icy rain which soaked her through to the bone nor even from fear of death. Held in place, every molecule of her body vibrated as she focused her semblance for a powerful burst in speed. Droplets boiled as soon as they touched her skin, steam rising which looked like a pair of wings on her back.
Always
Uncaring for the nature of this pause, Naruto took the moment to redo the strap on his arm. The precaution replaced, he began channeling aura throughout his entire body which produced a faint orange halo and made him look like a spirit risen from the dead. Again. And again.
ALWAYS
She ground her teeth and clenched her fist.
ALWAYS!
He flexed his muscles and narrowed his glare.
ALWAYS!
Lightning struck the earth.
"YOU!/You!" The word escaped both teens lips simultaneously. One a roar of righteous fury, the other a whisper dripping with venom as they charged at each other to finish the score once and for all.
Neither of them realizing that they and their spiteful emotions were not alone.
Neither noticed much of anything, the fleshy impact and earthly pain it caused they shrugged like the rain on their backs. The cold which nipped their skin and aches eating at their bones were so inconsequential compared to the existential battle they waged.
What were they fighting for? In the daylight they would grope around blindly for the words, sit dumbly in front of the blank page of an after-action report. The battle they waged was for a concept that could fill volumes of books, lifetimes of discovery and yet be distilled into one, panting breath:
Life
Everything else stripped away, instincts took over and they were no longer fighting as humans over lofty morals. Instead, dueling as animals over that very basic concept.
Picking herself up from the rebound on all fours, Ruby craned her neck against the deluge of rain and glared through the waterfall of black hair flowing over her forehead. Behind the snarling mask, he was doing the same.
But! What was that she saw just now? Trying to stand up on two legs like a human, the monster had stumbled. A limp- a crack in his defense like the one bifurcating the fox mask. He was fallible after all.
Her nails which dug into mud sought to do the same to his flesh- to tear that ugly mask apart like every other monster she had ever encountered. She pounced, flitting along the soaked earth like a banshee.
Sandaled feet sunk into the muck as he slipped back into a defense. She was fast, but taking away her scythe took away a lot of the potential damage. He would meet her almost-illusory attack head on.
He was ready- except for at the last second when she veered off to his left and shot right past him. He turned to reacquire his target and-
Crack!
Though the assassin was trained to overcome inhuman amounts of pain, he was still very much a mortal being and there was only so much his body could take before it gave out on him. Without a Semblance like Ruby's to slow him down during the fall, his hardened bones had taken most of the impact. Not hardened enough, apparently, as the preexisting fractures compounded and his leg collapsed.
Had she done this on purpose? He didn't have to wonder long as before the thought could even manifest in his adrenaline-addled mind, the girl had come around and thrown a kick which hammered on that same weak spot.
Snap!
No cry came out even as the bone was forced from its fleshy sheath. The ragged Rose then disengaged and took a step back, trying to remain detached as she observed the damage she caused. Meanwhile, Naruto took the reprieve to brace himself physically and mentally. Should she attack again, he would only get one shot.
Realizing she had the advantage, Ruby blurred forward once again. As bad as she herself felt, one well timed punch in the face should put her foe out for good. She wasn't expecting him to lunge for her on his mangled leg. And before she could even understand what he had done, she was flying back dizzily once again.
As he anticipated her charge, Naruto reacted before her attack could go all the way through. The move was meant for weapon users but could be just as effective in hand to hand scenarios. At the last second he had pivoted to the side and grabbed the offending fist before she could fully extend. He then pulled her forward and proceeded to wedge his one good foot underneath her for a sweep. Ruby launched off his leg like a ramp, landing hard on her back and felt her arm cry in pain as it was contorted at an inhuman angle.
Fortunately for her, Naruto's leg physically could no longer support them and he fell to the ground with her. The two found themselves rolling further and faster, down a hill as they wrestled for dominance. But once again, in a battle for brute force, Naruto was once again the winner.
The body which fell on her was anything but forgiving. Every natural point and bony knob bit at her; elbow, knee, knuckles, all pressed down on her with the larger boy's full weight. It almost felt like she was drowning under the rain of blows, and her hands reached up to claw at the surface. Her fingers slipped through thin air and soft flesh for a while before finally latching onto something solid, like a plank of wood, and she tried to pull herself up.
Feeling he was about to be unmasked, the Pavlovian need to prevent this overrode all Kitsune's previous directives. He stopped wailing on the girl and tried to tear her hands off his identity which was already falling apart.
Crack!
Another sound like breaking bone but nowhere near as loud. And yet, they both heard it clearly above the rumble of thunder, and again it seemed to pain the young assassin as he realized that his flesh was exposed to the elements- and to her.
Even though she had seen it back on the ship, she hadn't remembered anything but his eyes. Now half his face was free, blond hair parting to the side like a picture frame and forcing her to focus on it. Raindrops ran across lines which incised in his pale cheek. His lips were cracked with icy clouds puffing into the air. And then there were his eyes... they were just as cold as always, but she almost didn't recognize them with all the hate in there.
And in that split-second, she decided that she hated them back! She couldn't stand the sight of them-
She was going to remove them.
"Agh!" Calling out more in surprise than pain, Kitsune reeled backwards as the closely cropped fingernails raked across his exposed flesh. "You-!"
He made to push her away, but then the rabid girl bit his hand. The unexpected actions unbalanced him enough that Ruby could finally wriggle her way out from underneath and scurry away- but not before sending the boy a parting mule-kick as he lunged desperately after his escaped prey.
Prey? No, that would be disrespectful to them both. Begrudgingly he had to acknowledge his enemy's ability to get under his skin, both literally and figuratively. She was his enemy, a new category he'd had to create solely for her. Not a distraction nor target, not civilian, not an ally or one of those others like Gin who tried to manipulate him into doing things he didn't want to. No, she made him want to do things that before he'd never even considered…
Like eviscerating her. Or perhaps tearing that contemptuous look off her face-
Wait a second…
That thought could wait, as the girl's pitifully conflicted expression might have saved his life. It was that look which reminded him of his surroundings, discovering the Ursa about to take his head off.
Dropping underneath the sweeping paw, he rolled forward and away from the Grimm. His grizzly wound screamed at him in pain, while the Grimm growled in frustration. There was no way he'd be able to dodge for long with the injury- let alone flee. Another stab of pain as he tried to shift into a fighting stance forced him to realize the totality of his situation.
It didn't look good.
But it couldn't have been any worse than the sight of the huntress he had been trying so hard to defeat leaping in front of him and engaging the Grimm on his behalf. She placed her scrawny body between the two, and presented her back to him.
Bad move.
Her attacks were ineffectual anyway, and Ruby had to admit that she was nowhere near as adept at hand-to-hand as her sister. The only reason she had continued the bout with the assassin was because she had no choice- not that she had one now. But unlike the boy, the bear-like creature was totally unaffected by her frustration-fueled punches.
The Ursa's lumbering attacks were easy enough to dodge, but that seemed to be all she could do. If only she had some sort of blade-
The telltale sound of a weapon being drawn halted her train of thought. Then something sliced through the precipitation and her cheek, finally coming to rest in the beady red eye of the Grimm.
The beast recoiled, giving Ruby enough time to turn around.
The assassin had another of the throwing knives clenched between his teeth while his hands were occupied fastening a spare belt around his leg in a makeshift splint.
"What was that for?! You almost hit me!" She pointed to the shallow cut on her cheek.
He faltered getting up- but it wasn't the leg which was giving him problems. With the deadened expression she had come to expect from him, he glared back at the real pain of his life.
Ruby could have laughed at her own foolishness. She could've- but didn't.
Instead, she regarded her enemy warily as he took a stance with the blade which he lauded over her.
"Grrrrraaaa!"
Arguably less dangerous than the rearmed assassin, Ruby was forced to give her attention to the Grimm which had overcome the distraction of losing its eye and charged at them once again. All but blind, it relied on the strongest of its instincts and homed in on the two sources of foul emotions.
Ruby barely had enough time to reacquaint herself on how to fight Grimm, and then decide that avoiding it was the best option. Leaping into the air above its steamroll charge, she caught a glimpse of the knife handle which was still jutting from the beast's eye-socket.
The myopic creature barrelled past her heedlessly, its blind sights set on the other hot spot of rage. As the Grimm's attention was erstwhile focused on her adversary, Ruby looked back in consideration. Now was the perfect time to run while the two were distracted, however…
He shot out from underneath the falling paw, just barely missing being crushed and managing to drag his knife across the monster's palm. Both black-clad figures had scored cuts in that exchange. But the relative sizes of those injuries were not in Kitsune's favor, and he no longer had the leftover Aura to waste going toe-to-claw with this creature. What should have been an easy kill- an easy posting, an easy mission- let's face it, nothing was ever easy for him.
With this thought in mind, he steeled his unsteady hold around the remaining dagger and prepared himself to do exactly what he knew he shouldn't. Facing the beast's attack head on and channeling all these foreign feelings into his next strike which would be a risky gamble on a normal day. With his current debilitating injuries, sneaking under the Ursa's battering to get at its soft underbelly would be suicide
He found that he didn't care. He found himself moving forward as the beast turned around for another charge.
He found that same, annoying blur darting over his shoulder.
Her boots found purchase on its bony hide, running along it as if it were pavement. The Ursine Grimm turned to look at her with an empty eye socket- correction, it contained exactly what she wanted. Ruby leapt at the handle which stuck just half a fist out of the armored scull. Half a normal person's fist was just enough for her to get purchase and yank the knife free.
As she fell, she slid through the Grimm's daggerlike teeth. Bouncing against the ground, she shot up the way she came and trailed the borrowed weapon behind her.
The Ursa's throat split open, body dissolving into dust which was instantly doused by the incessant rain.
Landing, she looked up to the blade's owner who stared just as intently back. Not expecting anything- least of all gratitude- Yet, if anything, he seemed almost affronted that she had stolen 'his kill'.
Even if it wasn't a human this time, that attitude angered her.
She managed to restrain this emotion. With the knife in her possession, she now held the advantage. Though both combatants were armed, she was the only one with two working legs. Not deluding herself though, she knew that the fight would still be won or lost by a narrow margin. But if she could keep him at a distance she might-
Faster than this thought could be completed his knife flew at her. It had been totally unexpected, and she had been caught off-guard by its audacity. Then again, maybe she was still just thinking in her own terms. Whereas she would have been unable to relinquish her advantage so carelessly, she knew he would sacrifice everything, including his own life, for victory.
Watching the double-sided blade swim through the rain like a ship, she had to admit that he had won.
But never, that he had been right.
"Thunk!"
She blinked. The blond stood with his arm still outstretched as if time had stopped. Another blink, and a curtain of water rushed in to fill the knife's wake. Clearly, it hadn't. So, what had happened?
A familiar groan over her left shoulder told her. And being not dead, she turned around to see the last remnants of a Beowulf's simpering silhouette vanish into the night. Without support, the knife fell and sunk almost soundlessly into the muddy ground where the beast once lay.
She blinked once more, and with the raising of her eyelids there was a black flash, the dagger disappearing in its hand.
Charging past her, the assassin engaged another of the lupine creatures, slicing off its front paw with a back-hand grip before cutting into the jugular of the packmate next to it. When the three-legged creature snapped at him again, he thrust the shiv into the roof of its exposed maw. Two down.
But there were more, she knew this without having to see their glowing red eyes emerge from the forest and fill the spaces between trees. She could tell without having to feel their cold breath on the back of her neck that they were behind her as well.
Pivoting on her heel, she slashed at one snapping its jaws at her. The knife slid through its teeth like they were nothing more than frozen custard, de-fanaging it before it could take a bite out of her flesh. Another of the wolfish creatures quickly took it's humiliated brethren's place though, and threw itself at Ruby. Already on her back foot, she fell onto her rear as the Grimm bounded over her.
Ignoring the beast behind her for now, Ruby faced one that had reared up on its hind legs to swipe at her. Removing the paw, she dissuaded it from doing so again and kicked it aside for good measure.
Just when she thought she had some breathing room, something else touched her back. It wasn't as bony and hard as the Grimm, and thankfully didn't have their gluttony for flesh. At the same time, she wasn't sure if it could be considered a non-threat.
"I'm not done with you. I hope you know that."
There was a very non-Grimm grunt behind her, a more welcome response than she could have hoped for.
The assassin did know this. Doing things out of necessity was something Kitsune- something Naruto understood well.
Naruto had learned never to hope. He calculated the odds and figured that the huntress wouldn't want to end her fledgling career in a place like this. It just made things easier that she was on the same page, agreeing to this temporary truce.
Did that make him the same as her?
Dismissing this idea as ludicrous and unnecessary, he thought no more of it.
He didn't think, just killed.
But even that came to an end soon enough. Meanwhile, the methodical, if frantic, slaughtering of Grimm sapped what remained of his unaccountable rage and let cooler heads prevail. It was this more rational state of mind which let him know what was coming next.
"Surrender."
Breathing heavy still but not perturbed in the slightest, he looked up and traced the knife's edge all the way up to where it met her razor-sharp gaze.
"I cannot."
Surrender was not an option for the likes of them. He still had a trick or two left up his non-sleeve, but for some reason, that too was not an option.
"Why?"
"You've seen my face. One of us must die."
He stood up shakily despite the knife at his throat which remained unwavering.
"Well?" He took a step forward, contact with his thick skin forcing the blade back. "What are you waiting for? I promise you that you will not get another chance."
"I-I don't want to kill you," Ruby protested, solidified her stance and let the tip of the blade sink imperceptibly into the pale flesh. "But I need to stop you! I just want the killing to end!"
"Then do it. I won't stop unless you kill me." Impatient, despite the knife at his throat, it was as if he were an adult lecturing her.
Ruby could feel the condescension and reeled against it- Like a child, denied it petulantly and in doing so pressed the knife a little deeper. She flinched at the trickle of blood invoked by her willfulness.
But neither would back down. And there the two remained, an age-old battle of wills petrifying them in the rain which had softened to a gentle patter in order to hear the end of this confrontation.
It came with a clang of metal as Naruto slapped the knife away in disgust. This opinion directed at both the huntress for being unable to do something so simple, and himself for believing that she was.
In contrast, he would not hesitate with his own strike which came faster than the shadow of doubt. He thrust the knife forward and then-
"Why?"
Why. Why was it always the same question with this creature? Did she not understand the way things were- the way they must be? It was clear that they could not exist in parallel. One of them had to die, and if she did not have the moral fiber, the responsibility fell on him.
So why did he stop?
"Before, on the ship, that… power," The pathetic thing could not even face her own demise head on, averting those eyes which had turned from hardened steel to the softest lead. "Why didn't you use it now?"
His grip wavered, and he tried to tell himself that it was from the weeks of sleepless nights preceding this debacle.
"The power you saw… I can't control it."
"So?" As she turned to confront him, Naruto had to admit that he wasn't satisfied with this look either. "You used an ability you can't control on a ship full of civilians and innocents, and not in the middle of a deserted forest?!"
Spreading her arms wide for emphasis gave him the perfect opportunity to end her, and yet he found himself taking a step back in retreat.
The point she made was… true. He could have easily snapped off another restraint and just as easily snapped her neck. Why didn't he? Thinking about it, the lack of answer was as frustrating to her as it was surprisingly to him.
"Well?"
"I…you were never a target," The impassive face contorted as he tried to mold his justification. "You were just... always in the way."
"And now?" He stopped and considered, not only the validity of the points she had made, but all his mistakes thus far. "I won't stop either, you know."
"What?"
"You said that you won't stop killing people. Well then, I'm going to keep getting in your way."
Having already changed his mind about her bravery and cowardice, he was reluctant to dismiss this comment as the stupidity it so resembled.
"Do you want me to kill you?"
"Weren't you listening? I don't want you to kill anyone!"
She huffed at him, folding her arms like he remembered Namekuji doing on occasion whenever she was frustrated that he didn't understand something that should have been very basic. He was unsure of what to do from here and so-
"Why?" He asked his own clarification.
"Huh?"
"You are cognizant of the fact that our ways of life are mutually exclusive."
"Cogena-wha?"
He sighed, realizing that they both had trouble understanding one another.
"You admit, we can't both live. So, why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?"
"What? I never said that!" Finally admitting to confusion, Naruto's stoic visage cracked with a raised eyebrow. "Get this straight- I don't agree with what you're doing at all! I don't like you; I'm not sure, but I might even hate you. But at the same time… at the same time, that doesn't mean I want you to die!"
The rain had finally stopped, the wind died down to allow the concept to echo in the complete emptiness.
"I do not understand." This bewildering girl was making him frustrated again, more misunderstanding evolving with each breath. "How is that supposed to work?"
"…I don't know." There was double the disappointment, with neither satisfied. "I just know that I want to help make a world where everyone can live together in peace and not hurt each other."
"That's not possible."
"-And how would you know?!" What she lacked in a positive answer she made up for in conviction. "Have you ever tried not killing?! Not every problem can be solved with destruction!"
Naruto was struck harder than if she had used her puny fists. It was the same. The same thing Kage-Jiji had said to him.
My boy, someday you will come upon a situation that you cannot hide from and that you cannot simply defeat. It will not go away, and no one, not even I will be able to show you how to overcome it. You must find your own way.
He trusted the Old Man as the one who'd rescued him, taken care of him, and shown him the way forward. At the time he'd said that, Naruto had been unable to comprehend such a thing that could be beyond the powerful man. And so, he'd ignored it in favor of the orders where he didn't have to think, where he could just do.
Now, he could not simply do.
"…And, what else is there?"
Ruby's anger drooped along with his knife; each being replaced by an uncertainty which reflected one off the other. Where the rain had died, a cold wind still blew and raked its way through her drenched body. She shivered under the coldness of his stare which was now looking to her for an answer.
"...It will freeze soon." He stated as if the temperature did not affect him despite the icy color his lips were turning. "If you want so badly to live, I suggest you find yourself shelter."
Struck by this turnaround, Ruby couldn't form any words until after he had begun to walk away.
"Wait- what do you mean?"
"I mean that you better hope that we do not meet again." He called back while limping away. "Because if I should regret this decision, I will not hesitate to use every scrap of that power to erase my mistake, even if I lose myself in the process."
The last part he whispered conspiratorially to himself, not sure if he even really believed it. The seals he wore held back something… malevolent, which he was hesitant to release upon the world. If a time came to resort to that, he could no longer claim to be the lesser of two evils.
"I said wait!"
Turning to intercept the rapidly approaching voice, he forgot about his wounded leg and it gave out again. It was good that he did not fall, because at that point, he was unsure if he would be able to get back up.
But why didn't he?
"I told you that I'm not done with you." Underneath his arm, the filthy mop of ruddy hair grunted. His weight shifted and the concerted face of the huntress glared up at him.
"What are you doing?" Totally perplexed at the girl's actions, he did not register the warm touch that was not trying to kill him.
"You said yourself, it's getting colder." Half pulling him along, they both stumbled as she tried to match his hitching gait. "There's no way you're making it out of these mountains by then with your leg. And I was out with my team on a fieldtrip when you and the storm decided to ruin things, so I'm not exactly ready for a campout." She tried to conjure up some plausible reasons, not only to satisfy the emotionless killer, but to placate her own erratic thoughts. "I'm guessing that you have at least some basic supplies in that ninja-kit or whatever."
"So, you're offering to trade your labor for my supplies?"
"It's called working together!" Ruby barked indignantly, doubting he'd get the point even then. "And I'm proving to you that it can be done, that there can be a world where everyone can live in peace!"
Her assertion echoed far in the rapidly chilling air. Once the storm had cleared out, the pressure dropped and so did the temperature. Everything was peaceful and quiet except for their out-of-sync grunts as they ambled along the slope.
"Stop." He commanded out of the darkness.
"Look, I'm trying to help, and by golly you're-"
"You're headed down into a valley. If we want to find a cave or overhang, our best bet would be to keep along the ridge and not lose any more altitude."
"O-oh,"
Turning away from him and back up the slope, Ruby continued walking. She hoped that he hadn't seen her blush of embarrassment, and if he did, that he didn't realize it was partly because of how warm she felt with the two of them generating heat in tandem.
He didn't. With his on the cusp of sleep, he only registered the same warmth that Ruby found mortifying and didn't care about where it came from. He allowed it to comfort him like the words of the Old Man.
Why is killing so important, if not for the life it protects? Think, My Boy! We mock the huntsmen for their soft ways, touting death as the ultimate solution. But there is always more evil out there for us to slay, more hate, isn't there? That's because there is something even more tenacious than hatred in this world: life. Life begets more life, yet evil cannot survive without it. Therefore, the root cause of both is something even more powerful- dangerous, but also incredibly beautiful:
Love. This world cannot exist without love.
And in that twilight state, as the slow and rocking pace lulled him to sleep, Naruto looked back on all those foreign feelings he had been consumed with and realized something.
Between those two emotions outlined by his Jiji, he did not know the difference between love and hate.
AND HERE WE GO! The next few chapters are gonna be FUN! First off sorry for the late update but it's been super busy around here. But don't worry there will be another update next Friday.
Now I honestly don't have much to say once again but there are a couple things I feel I need to address from some reviews.
Liongeartech- First off let me start of by reassuring that Ozma cannot beat the Assassins by himself. I honestly have no idea where that conception came from and if you can point it out to me I will more than happy to fix that detail. As for everything else that's fair on the OC points but I don't think so as much on the nerf mostly because you and a few others seem to think this is Naruto in his final forms or at the end of the series form. This is more beginning of shippuden Naruto if that helps. All this being I appreciate the honest criticism as it helps me improve my writing.
Arexis- Now you my friend need to understand one thing this is not Naruto the Last or Naruto during the Ninja War even then by all accounts I have given this is strictly place in the RWBY verse. I have yet to mention chakra or them using that particular power. Did you really think I was gonna send out that version against Ruby and her friends form the beginning? If you want an OP Naruto story that kicks everyone's ass then this not the story for you. And frankly your like the only person that's written a flame so far so its not clogging up my review's as you seem to think my…person…yeah imma go with that one.
Moving on you all have a fair point so let me state it now team Naruto is stricted to the RWBYVERSE rules so they are nerfed so to speak. But let me say that do NOT look at these characters in their final states look at them in their early days. Beginning of shippuden early or even end of original Naruto.
Alright I believe I've address everything I needed to at this point. For now that's all and I hope to see you all next Friday as we see what out favorite assassin and huntress get up to next.
READ…REVIEW…and above all else…ENJOY!