Ruby hobbled into the cave, the rain parting like a curtain for the entrance of two warriors who were on the last three legs between them.
The cave wasn't particularly deep, but it was enough that they could hide from unwanted eyes and more importantly, the rain which had again become torrential. They hadn't bothered checking on whether any animals used the cave as a home. Neither did they care at the moment. The creatures would either be pleasant neighbors to them, or dinner.
Ruby had no shame in admitting that she collapsed once she was sure she and her 'ally'- for a lack of a better term- were safely tucked away from the deluge. Though she would have a tiny bit of shame in admitting that she found the additional body heat to be a welcome comfort. And with its loss, remembering how she was drenched to the bone and shivering worse than Zwei when they told the little pup they were going for a walk.
"I'll start a fire," Detaching himself from her shoulder, Naruto sat himself against a wall where he gathered strength to move again.
"You can't move on that leg," Ruby berated as she copied him, only without the intention of moving once she was comfortable. "And what are we gonna use for the fire, anyway?" The blond didn't respond, simply forcing himself to stand while swallowing a grunt of discomfort. Using the wall for support, he limped around the perimeter of the cave, "I said you can't move on that leg," Ruby scoffed.
The blond ignored her, much to her ire. Ruby supposed she should stop him, but her body was telling her that that wasn't an option in present conditions. That, and she silently wanted to see her immortal bane taken down a peg. So, Ruby could only watch as the mask-less teen shambled around the cave, scraping up small sticks and twigs until he had a humble little pile.
With a sigh of resignation, Ruby slowly reached for one of the bullets on her belt- one of her last- pulling it out and slowly began taking it apart. In the meantime, having finally decided he had enough, Naruto set the pile between them. Then he stared at it, as if hoping it would light on its own or perhaps underneath his irrefutable gaze.
"I got it," Ruby stated as if reading his expressionless face. She opened her hand to reveal the disassembled bullet and a fingernail-sized Dust crystal in her hand. Without any hesitation, she threw it into the pile, coaxing a small eruption of flame and soot from the center of the teepee that the blonde had built.
Slowly, with much reluctance and discomfort, Naruto leaned against the cave wall while keeping Ruby within his immediate vantage. Something the crimson wearing girl reciprocated, trying to emulate the scrutiny of her blonde counterpart.
This frail détente probably wouldn't last longer than the feeble fire between them. In fact, Ruby wasn't entirely certain why she had tacitly agreed to it, other than to understand why he had made the offer of sparing her in the first place.
She realized that it wasn't simply a matter of poor lighting that she couldn't see what lay behind those frozen blue eyes. Before, she had simply assumed that there was nothing, an abyss without a bottom. Now, she understood that was not true. She simply hadn't wanted to see something there.
All her life, she had wanted to be a huntress, a hero. It had always been about good versus evil, human versus Grimm. She knew of course about the wars between the Kingdoms, conflicts between humans and Faunus. But those had all been in the past, and she was living for the future. Never did Ruby think she would have to fight another person.
She never thought that she might be the bad guy.
Shaking her head like the wet dog she felt like, Ruby banished this crazy thought from her head. She wanted to laugh at her silliness, at the absolute insanity of the idea. But she also didn't want to give the impression that she was off her rocker- well, any more than she probably already was. At least she wasn't a murdering psychopath. That had to count for something, right?
"Don't."
She froze, struck with the feeling that words came from inside her own head. Already he was in her dreams, could he read her mind as well?
"Don't take off your cloak. Even when wet, wool will retain heat so long as you're out of the wind."
Ruby blinked in the flickering light and realized that her numb fingers had wandered to the clasp of her cloak. Chagrinned that her mind hadn't known what her hands had been doing, Ruby blushed and wrapped the sopping garment tighter around her shivering shoulders. It was warmer, marginally.
While she had been distracted by her own thoughts, the assassin hadn't stopped monitoring her even if his cold eyes were fastened shut. They really were different, and she wasn't sure what to make of that.
Continuing to watch, she could just barely make out the tiny tremors wracking his body. They had been hidden behind crossed arms and in the flickering firelight, just like the look of discomfort had been hidden behind his perpetual scowl.
He was trying to hide the fact that he was human, shutting himself off as easily as he closed his eyes.
A droplet of water fell from her hood, looking just like a tear.
Ruby burrowed further into her wet blanket and forced herself into darkness before the fire died completely.
Before she could admit that they weren't that different after all.
"So, along with failing the mission, your captain managed to go and get himself killed," Though scoffing and shaking his head, there was a cruel smirk forming between the man's wrinkles as if he knew this outcome from the very beginning.
Sasuke, Sakura and Sai all flinched at the legitimate criticism, unable to say or do anything but nod stiffly as they listened to Gin talk down to them about their latest mission and its failure.
"Will your team ever not be a disappointment?" The intelligence master sighed. "I know you think I didn't appreciate him, but Kitsune was a resource we could ill-afford to lose- no matter how many times he managed to bungle an operation. We've invested far too much training and… resources into him."
"Our record speaks for itself." Sasuke stated matter-of-factly in his best impression of their absent leader. "And there are those who would disagree with you on Kitsune."
Gin squinted dangerously at the second in command of team Kasai who openly mocked him with the insufferable attitude of Kitsune. But Sasuke didn't care about arguing with the man, much less what he thought. One of his teammates was missing and another was having an internal crisis because of the last interaction they had with said missing teammate. He was not in any mood for Gin's shit today.
"Watch your tongue, boy," Gin warned.
Nodding curtly was as far as Sasuke's head reached the floor as he refused to bow. Gin snarled silently but reminded himself of the small victory he had won. "So, with Naruto dead, I take it you'll be the new team leader." He surmised, less satisfied than he thought he'd be.
"He's not dead,"
"Excuse me?" Gin's attention was switched over to the sole female whose opinion had been hidden behind unwashed pink tresses for the entire duration of the debriefing.
"He's not dead," She repeated in a tone that was more moribund than she suggested her commander was. "His body was never found, so until the area is thoroughly searched, there's no way to determine his status other than MIA."
"Wishful thinking will get you killed, girl," Gin sneered. "Though I shouldn't be surprised. That boy was always biting off more than he could chew, trying to prove he could fit in. More like making believe, rather. I guess he instilled such arrogance to the rest of you.
"I had hoped that we could salvage something from this… experiment. But it seems that in addition to everything we expended on Kitsune, he managed to corrupt three other potentially decent operatives. That's what you get for trying to get a trained dog to think independently."
"With all due respect," Sasuke growled, each word intimating that absolutely no respect was due this cretin. "The team and I would appreciate you not referring to us as if we weren't here. Also… quit referring to Naruto as if he were dead."
From the beginning, Sasuke's appeal had been less than a request and more like a demand. But by the end of it, he was practically threatening the head of intelligence- an action which could be interpreted as sedition.
The man who fed on their pain chose to ignore this, focusing only on how much blood he could squeeze out of the open wound.
"And you all keep acting like he was a person. If you ask me, that thing is better off dead."
SNAP!
With murderous eyes focused solely on Gin, Sakura broke rank and took a step towards the man intending to cave in his skull. But before she could commit treason, a hand landed on her shoulder. She turned to see that the offender was Kakashi. His presence and reassuring look slowly allowed the girl to calm herself down before she did something regrettable. However, she continued refusing to acknowledge this guilt, in addition to the tears that were welling up in her eyes.
"Gin," The assassin's original 'trained dog' started frostily. "I would appreciate it if you didn't go on about my student's demise."
Translation. Keep your tongue in check or I will remove it.
"Say what you want Kakashi," Gin allowed with a sneer, because he couldn't actually do anything else. Unlike the teens, the senior agent was only an imperceptible step below him in the hierarchy. "-Doesn't change the fact that your students failed the mission."
"And I had some questions about that."
Gin paled at the new voice that entered the conversation, one which could do more than speak to him on a level. This particular voice could choke him with the timber alone, to say nothing of its owner. Appearing from the shadows was 'Kage' himself. And he did not look happy.
"Kage-Sama," He whispered hoarsely, regretting his seated position and beginning to feel the same for everything he had said so frivolously.
"I just read the mission report- which wasn't examined by me prior, I might add." The man began with a blow that was already damning, but didn't stop there. "I immediately find it odd that the instructions required them to engage the target on an airship with no real means of escape, and that the intelligence report failed to mention the high risk of civilian casualties," His gravelly voice continued to bury the man before him, cutting off Gin's oxygen. "Then there's the interesting coincidence that the Huntsman team they ran into was the same one form their support mission with Shiva,"
With each word the air got heavier and heavier. The light in the room seemed to dim more and more, overtaken by the shadows.
"Now, normally a lot of this can be written off as incidental. We live in a small world, after all. Perhaps it was even necessary, depending on the value of the target and the prior conditions. All of these factors would, of course, be up to the discretion of the intelligence department head… however," If looks could kill, Gin would be dead one thousand times over, locked away in the bowls of the earth and forgotten by time.
"Unless my old age is finally getting to me, I'm fairly certain that we still have a rule about just who can and can't be sent on an overt mission." The words couldn't have been louder had the ancient book of Assassin's laws been thrown down on the floor, and Sakura felt the unshed tears evaporate under a blush of anger and vindictiveness. "Barring extenuating circumstances, anyone less than 'Jonin' is forbidden to remove their mask for a mission. Yet here they are on a bullhead full of huntsman without the protection of anonymity!
The rage in Kage's voice was clear. Gin attempted to take a step back but found himself unable too. In fact, he found himself unable to breath.
The shadow leaned in, loomed over the pale man with his all-encompassing presence. It actually seemed as if the shadows were gathering, his included as it was swallowed by Hiruzens.
"I never wanted to see that boy's face on a wanted poster, but now there's a face I want to see even less. We are the shadows, Gin," The leader crushed the pipe between his teeth as the darkness consumed everyone in the hall. "And I think you need a reminder as to what that means…"
'Hey this is Ruby I can't talk right now but-wait no Zwei, leave that alo-BOOM!"
"Oh no the roofs on fire again!"
"Ruby are you experimenting with Dust in the house again!"
"Run Zwei!"
"Arf!"
Beep!
Yang punched the button, ending the call before she had to listen to the silly voicemail once again. She had lost count to how many times she had called her sister, but clearly it was too many if her frustration was anything to go by. Plus, the result was always the same every time:
Immediate voicemail. It had been that way since they had all arrived back at Beacon. Blake was sitting next to her with a comforting hand that she didn't care for. But Yang also understood what her partner was trying to do, and so didn't stray away from the rare gesture. For all her façade of calmness, Weiss was walking a hole into the floor of the breakroom where the three teammates along with JNPR were sitting.
Jaune had decided to stay as a sign of support for the situation. He wasn't doing a good job in hiding the fact that he was worried about his first friend at Beacon. Even the ever-vibrant Nora was as still as a statue, making the rest of them adopt her restlessness.
They had all just finished retelling their individual accounts of what happened on the Airship to one another after doing the same with the authorities. Unfortunately, no one had been able to get a good look at any of the assassins' faces so they couldn't identify them on the street. The cameras had also been mysteriously (thoroughly) destroyed along with all data within the last 24 hours. The assassins were still essentially ghosts.
Just like always had been.
"I'm going to kill them." Yang broke the silence with a whisper.
"Then you'd be no better than them." Weiss countered automatically. Not pleased with this easy dismissal, the blonde brawler growled at the heiress who didn't flinch from the intimidation. "I'm worried about her too."
"Are you?" Yang scoffed and narrowed her eyes with suspicion at the prim girl across from her.
"And what does that mean?" Surprised by this hostility in their time of mourning, Weiss found herself almost offended by the accusation.
"Well it's just that every time I look up, the only thing you seem to be doing is putting my sister down," Yang scowled, openly directing her ire to her teammate. "And don't think I don't know about the petition for a change in leadership,"
"That was at the beginning," Weiss defended without remorse. "I've long since abandoned that request."
"But you still don't treat Ruby like a leader!"
"And you do?" This hissed rebuff making Yang pause. "You coddle that girl and go along with whatever hair brained scheme she thinks of. Yet in the times when she tries to do something befitting of a leader, you want to blow her off!"
"That's not true!" Yang growled.
"Really?" Weiss mocked, seeing the feeble defense laid before her. "Because I recall Blake and I being there when she wanted to try different Dust effects on our Semblances, but you were nowhere to be seen, probably off flirting with yet another pea-brained boy you've lead on."
The rest of the room watched as the two argued over trifling things, past actions and personal eccentrics that by all accounts should have no bearing on their current situation. But collectively, the observers realized what was happening. The hurt could be heard on both sides, and the two didn't know any other way to release it other than to hurl it at someone else. So, attack they did, until their emotional bulwarks were worn down to the bricks.
"She's my partner!" Weiss hissed.
"And she's my sister!" Yang snarled, her eyes flashing red.
Ice and Fire met as the two glared at each other. Their Auras flared and fed off one another, creating a cloud of steam which obscured the voices of reason trying to talk them down.
Knock, knock.
Everyone turned to the open door of the break room to see Cardin standing in the transept with a bundle in his arm.
"What do you want?" Pyrrha scowled, forgoing her usual pleasantries. The hostile tone seemed to reactivate Nora as her eyes lit up with manic anticipation and refocused on the team leader. The implicit promise of violence might not bring Ruby back, but at least she could feel like she was doing something if she were breaking Cardin's legs.
"You. If you're here to start any shit, I am not in the mood." Yang gave fair warning, knowing that she would overreact if provoked. It was clear from the similar glares he was being given that she wasn't the only one to think this way.
"I just came to bring this to you." With the poise he should have had when facing the Ursa, Cardin calmly walked over the coffee table in the center of the room. He ignored the barrage of glares on his back and approached as if he were a criminal in a standoff, carefully placing the bundle down and backing away.
As the cloth unfolded, Yang's eyes widened when she realized what it was.
Crescent Rose.
Her breath hitched as she could feel tears pool in her eyes. She stormed out of the room without a word to anyone. Though she was the one closest, Weiss didn't have the will to stop her. None of them did. So they simply sat there in silence, no longer caring for the ginger-haired teen's presence. He left with this silent que, and they still did not stir as the door clicked shut behind him.
All the while, Crescent Rose laid on the table as if mocking them for their failure.
Despite how long the prior day had felt, Ruby found herself waking up unreasonably early the next morning along with the first gay chirping of blue jays. Freshly washed sunlight streamed into the cave and pried open her silver eyes. But at the same time, the gentle rays were finally drying out her cloak and warming her frozen flesh, allowing her to really rest at long last.
But there was no rest for the wicked, and Ruby felt the cold stare upon her like ice cubes in the middle of her back.
Straining to move the bags under her eyes, she turned over and looked up to see Naruto walking back into the cave with an armful of potential firewood which he placed onto an already healthy pile. Once allowed to dry, that would last them two to three days. That could be helpful if they were to be stuck out here that long. Several days ahead was a period Ruby didn't even want to think about, and she found it hard not to be grateful.
…
…
…
Wait.
If Ruby wasn't awake before, she definitely was now.
"How are you walking?!" She shouted, bolting upright and running into the unprepared boy's personal space. On instinct, Naruto's hand darted behind him and reached for his pouch to take out a knife but found it missing.
Right. All remaining weapons had been confiscated and set aside as a safety measure. Ruby was paranoid that he would kill her in her sleep.
She was right to be paranoid.
"What?" Armed with nothing but a sigh, Naruto let the reality of what had happened settle.
"Your leg," Ruby stated tentatively as if unsure of the facts as she double-checked them in her head. "It was broken yesterday. You shouldn't be walking!"
"I see," He nodded in simple affirmation.
Then without another word, he walked past the expectant girl to set the wood down on the growing collection.
"Don't ignore me!" Ruby shouted indignantly, stomping her foot against the solid floor. "That thing snapped! I know it did!" Confirming this to herself with a nod, Ruby folded her arms and stared at him with a hint of smugness that he patently ignored.
"Do you always yell?"
"I'm not yelling." The weaponless girl hissed, aware how petulant she probably sounded and trying to tone it down.
"You're not?" Stopping whatever it was he was puttering about, Naruto was genuinely taken aback for a pause in which he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration. "Right," He agreed at last. "I forgot the standard was different for females."
"EXCUSE ME?!"
He was then subject to a ten-minute tongue-lashing in which most of the terms spouted from the (now) demonic looking young woman's mouth (filled with sharp teeth) bounced right off his stony (bordering on bored) demeanor. Having experienced firsthand his pink-haired teammate's harangues (both as the target of her ire and as unfortunate collateral) Naruto knew the best thing to do was remain silent and semi-alert for important points and potential bodily harm.
"…AND ONE MORE THING-!" Ruby didn't actually have one prepared, having come to the end of her speech parroted from her father's soap operas and sister's farewell speeches to ex-boyfriends. "-AND… I'm not really helping my case, am I?"
"Not likely." Naruto replied without missing a beat
"Yeah, sorry about that…" Having let some of her other disagreements bleed over into the redressing on Misogyny, Ruby did feel a tad guilty for misplacing her anger. "But still, I find it a little surprising that you of all people have a prejudice against women."
"I don't," It was in fact ironic that this would be the first argument he took offense at. "Male, female, humans, Faunus, they all bleed the same."
Ruby blanched, but otherwise didn't have anything to say against this.
"However," Naruto continued, calm air returning as he went back to the laborious task of making fuzz-sticks with a stone chisel, items which they would need later if they were to conserve their remaining Dust. "There are minor differences in the placement of organs between the sexes. And things tend to get even more complicated when it comes to the Faunus sub-species, especially within the reptile and avian genre…"
"I get it, I get it!" Ruby protested, making note of her elevated voice and quickly deescalating it. "I meant skill-wise how some people view women as inferior to men."
"That is absurd." Asserting this with the surety of a doctor diagnosing cancer, Naruto didn't even look away from his work. "Some of our most successful operatives are female. Without preference, both humans and Faunus tend to be more at ease around females which makes it easier to approach targets without alerting them. Personal appearance does not even matter, and in fact, a more maternal and less-threatening set of facial characteristics will more often cause the target to lower their guard and-"
"Does everything have to be about killing with you?"
It was always the simple questions that made him pause. And within the one now, Ruby recalled the first question she had ever asked him. She wondered if back then behind that mask, he had possessed the same pensive and consternated look about him as he did now.
"Yes, I suppose it does." Even the scalloped stone in his hand he was trained to think of as a weapon. He had already constructed a dozen different ways to assassinate the girl with it, and at least half that amount to use on himself should her rescue come before his and they attempt to subdue him. "Since the age of three, I have been raised to be the perfect tool for ending life."
So why not now? Why those six suicide contingencies, when a simple drunkard could have bashed the huntress's brains in? Why was he telling her all this-
"I shouldn't have told you that." He realized while traying to downplay his misstep. "Anything that would reveal details about our structure, operations or training I can't reveal without risking my life or that of my comrades."
"I won't tell anyone." Ruby said to reassure both herself and him.
It didn't make her any less frightened when he suddenly whipped his head towards her, his eyes gleaming like the knives she had squirreled away.
"Why?" Question suddenly reversed, they had come full circle and were now on the other side of rainbow-land, where things were black and white. "Why would you not take advantage of any information that could possibly hinder us?"
"I don't know," Ruby sighed and sat down, feeling suddenly weary despite the energy which had caused her to get up early. "It's what I was taught to do, I guess?"
Dissatisfied with this, Naruto narrowed his eyes until they were like a squint and tried to focus in on her face, looking for any illuminating details.
"You were trained as a huntress at Signal Academy for two years before you were admitted to Beacon," He summarized, "Where you were overseen by Qrow Branwen, one of the most infamous licensed huntsmen for his lack of scruples and underhanded tactics when subduing opponents. You mean to say that nowhere along the line were you trained to take advantage of your adversary's weaknesses?"
The mild blush that had been forming under his intense look quickly drained and her face turned sickly white.
"H-how did you know all that about me?"
"It's public record. Just like the curriculum for junior huntsman academies and their staff. Therefore, I know that it is mandatory in all schools to at least host sparring classes."
"No- I mean, yes! Just sparring, we don't actually aim to hurt one another!"
"Then what is the point?"
The tables were turned again, and it was Ruby's opportunity for a quiet introspection. Silently chewing on her lip, she tried to focus on the rocky ground and not the expectant look waiting for her.
"I am a huntress. We train to protect anyone and everyone. We don't want to hurt people,"
"But sometimes, it is necessary."
"It is," Ruby agreed reluctantly, "But it's not up to us to be judge jury and executioner," She countermined with emphasis on the last word and a pointed look towards the blond. "We arrest them so that they can be judged for their actions," Her eyes narrowed recalling all the previous encounters she had with the normally masked adversary. "We protect, not kill."
"Protect… everyone." He leaned back against the cavern wall and looked up to its pock-marked ceiling as if it were a field of starts. "Even if that person has committed unspeakable atrocities? Even if they have killed more people than you could possibly save?"
That gave the girl pause. There were logical responses to that question, ones which she had surprisingly thought about in the days of existential angst which always followed their encounters. However… there was something more to that question which she couldn't fathom. Was he talking about himself, or someone else entirely?
She glanced over to meet his flat stare and tried to pry something from those frozen eyes. It only took a few seconds to realize this was futile.
"What are you talking about?" She finally dared to ask. Unlike normal conversations, the cautiousness with which she probed was entirely for her own safety. "Something happened, didn't it?"
For a long time, he gazed at her stonily as the wall, not revealing any hints before unburdening himself simply and deliberately.
"I'm going hunting."
And before she could protest, he sortied the cave and leapt into the trees. She sighed in frustration before throwing herself down on a rock in that humble abode they would be sharing for the foreseeable feature.
With nothing else to do, there was all the time in the world to think about what was said.
And here we are with the next chapter. Our heroes have managed to find shelter in a decent spot. Meanwhile their allies are coming to terms with the loss of their friends.
Not gonna lie majority credit for this chapter goes too my boy Kerby. Honestly the only part I did was the confrontation at Beacon, everything else belongs to him this time around.
I chose recover as the title because all sides are recovering from the events of chapter 8 obviously. I'd say more but todays my birthday so I'm keeping it short this time around. Although there is one thing I must point out.
To all the people that felt the need to challenge my statements in my last A/N...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Anyways...
READ…REVIEW…and above all else…ENJOY!