Ozpin and Ironwood struck imposing figures, standing at the window. The two men gazed out over Vale and it's accompanying armada, courtesy of Atlas.
The elevator dinged, signalling the approach of the third person required for this meeting.
Goodwitch let him in, opening the door to the office as the two most important men currently residing in Vale turned to face him.
"Mr Uzumaki. Glad you could make it," Ozpin greeted with a courteous nod, and Naruto nodded in greeting.
"Mr Uzumaki. We didn't get all that much time to speak before, but I am glad we have more time to speak now. Shall we get started, Oz?" Ironwood said, taking a stance to the side of the headmaster's desk.
Ozpin nodded as he took his seat behind the desk. "Please, take a seat Naruto."
Naruto did so, placing himself in the seat.
"I want you, Mr Uzumaki, to tell the General and I exactly what happened on your assignment. Start to finish, leaving nothing out."
Naruto looked between the headmaster and the general. "Everything, sir?"
"Do not worry, Mr Uzumaki. The General is a close friend, someone I trust implicitly, and someone who is aware of the existence of the System, though not of its… current iteration."
Ironwood's eyes widened almost imperceptibly.
Naruto, however, nodded, and began to tell the tale.
It took a lot of time to tell the whole story, minus some parts that had no bearing on the situation.
Ozpin spent the entire time nodding along, face unchanging, and Ironwood changed from surprise to shock to concern and back again.
"This giant Grimm worm, what did you say it was called?" Ironwood asked, scroll out.
"The Shai-Hulud, sir," Naruto answered. "I've never heard of any kind of Grimm like that before, though."
Ironwood hummed in thought. "I'm not surprised. I haven't, either. Potentially an Ancient Grimm. This may require mobilisation."
His calmness was more than just professionalism. The man truly believed he could kill this thing.
"Now, James, let's not be so hasty. If your men fail to kill it, you will have only succeeded in providing the beast with a target. Considering it's… capabilities, it might be smarter to simply leave it be for now," Ozpin said, standing and turning to the window.
"Oz, you cannot be serious. If we leave that thing alone, it may just decide to do that on its own!"
"Do you have any way of killing it, James? Any way of preventing it from escaping? How about the White Fang? Do we wish to warn them of our knowledge of where they are located?"
Naruto was a little out of his depth.
"And what would you have us do, Ozpin? Wait until it feasts upon Vale?"
Ozpin turned to Naruto. "Mr Uzumaki. Do you believe your team and RRYN would be capable of eliminating this threat?"
Naruto paled. "Us?"
Ironwood was equally enthused. "Ozpin, you must be kidding. They're first year students. I don't care what their semblances are!"
Naruto ignored the roiling fear that threatened to rise from his core, swallowed it down, and prepared to speak.
"Sir, I don't think we could kill it."
Ozpin gave that hidden smile of his, as imperceptible as ever. "Are you certain, Mr Uzumaki?"
Naruto nodded. "It nearly killed us the first time, and it wasn't even trying. I think it was just passing by, really, it probably only gave us a half-hearted try."
"See, Ozpin! We can't let this thing do as it wills, it must be eliminated!" Ironwood exclaimed, gesturing out the window. "It may take a few weeks to mobilize a strike-force capable and specialized enough to deal with it, but it's better than sending your students in to die!"
Ozpin nodded. "I'm afraid I didn't quite understand the true threat this Shai-Hulud posed. If it is as fearsome as you say, Mr Uzumaki, I would still ask your team and Ms Rose's team to accompany the General's strike-force into combat, as ancillary support. I doubt the good General will require it, of course, but your semblance does give us a… unique informational advantage, in a sense."
Naruto nodded. "I can't speak for RRYN, but Team AWBN would be happy to provide support to the Atlesian Military, sir. I just don't think we can take it head-on."
Ozpin nodded once more. "Apologies, Mr Uzumaki. Sometimes I get ahead of myself, is all. I forget that you are still a first year, despite what you are capable of. Now, you may go. The General and I still have much to discuss, but it would only serve to bore you."
Naruto stood quickly and nodded, his polite but rapid farewell briefly acknowledged as he quickly stepped out of the office and straight into the elevator as fast as he could.
As the elevator door closed, Naruto let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.
Well, silver lining, they wouldn't be facing the worm alone.
Another blow landed on her arms, sending her staggering back, Aura flaring. A gunshot sounded behind her, the whistling of the bullet through the air loud as it passed by her left, striking the Ursa in the head and tearing black flesh from white bone.
Yang had already moved on as the corpse of the Ursa, her fist impacting against a Beowolf with enough power to separate it from its own limbs. Somehow. Yang wasn't paying it all that much attention.
Instead, she was swivelling around, keeping a wary eye out for anymore of the monsters.
The Grimm had, thankfully, thinned out as they'd closed in on Vale, but, evidently, there were still some lingering.
Less so, now, as Nora quite literally flattened a Beowolf with her hammer, but still, they'd been delayed.
Delayed enough that it had taken them just under a week and a half just to be able to see Vale's city borders.
They were less than an hour away from Beacon now, though, and Yang was glad for that. It had been too long since she'd had a proper bed, and her hair was a proper mess.
"Yang, we're clear!" Ruby called out from her vantage point in one of the trees, dropping down.
Yang gave her sister a thumbs-up, Ember Celica retracting into their smaller form.
Nora and Ren stepped up to their partners, and Ruby initiated their typical after-fight rundown.
"Are we all good, guys?" RRYN's leader asked, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings.
"I believe so," Ren answered, holstering StormFlower, the weapons disappearing into his sleeves as if it was magic.
"I know I've said this a lot, but it's times like this that I wish Naruto was here. Those Lien drops, I miss 'em," Yang said, staring at the rapidly disintegrating corpses of their fallen foes.
Nora, surprisingly subdued, said nothing. That worried Ruby, but she didn't have time to dedicate to figuring out what was wrong. They could do that when they made it back to Beacon.
"We're really close, guys! Let's get going! Who knows, we might still win this!"
"How did we lose!?" Ruby exclaimed, as she watched Weiss calmly walk towards them.
Weiss's expression was a mix of pride, relief, and something that Ruby couldn't comprehend, though not for a lack of trying.
"You lost because we had a large variety of reasons to move very, very fast," Weiss said. "You should all get some rest, though. We have time to explain everything later."
"Naruto did something again, didn't he?" Yang asked.
Weiss blinked very slowly, almost as if she was considering just jumping off the nearest cliff. "Yes. To be fair, it's not entirely on him, and Blake has a little to do with it, but… yes."
It was at this point that Nora grasped both Ren and Ruby, one in each arm, and hoisted them above her head.
"Wha?" Ruby exclaimed, suddenly off balance.
"We are going to go get pancakes, then we're going to have an actual shower, then we're going to eat more! So decree's the queen!" Nora exclaimed, jogging towards the cafeteria.
Yang quirked an eyebrow, giving Weiss a shrug, and began to follow the rest of her team.
"Yang, I know this isn't your usual role, but try to keep them out of trouble. I've had a long few weeks, I can't keep dealing with the constant shenanigans that everyone seems to inevitably drag me into," Weiss asked, watching Nora carrying a resigned Ren and a struggling Ruby away.
Yang gave a snort of laughter. "What are you talking about, Weiss-cream. All Ren and I do is keep Ruby and Nora in line. We're a team of perfect balance."
At that, Weiss rolled her eyes. "Now that, I doubt."
Yang gave the white-haired heiress a wave as she departed, heading for the cafeteria, just behind her team. "Oh, Weiss, if you see Naruto, tell him he still owes me a fight!"
With that, Yang joined her team, and, in less than five minutes, was once again reminded of the force of nature that was Nora Valkyrie, as she devoured twice as many pancakes as anyone could have possibly thought.
Sword met xiphos as Naruto darted in, and shield met shield, both he and Pyrrha struggling against the other for dominance.
A force pushed him backwards, and he tried to resist, Pyrrha gritting her teeth as she expelled magnetic force.
It lifted him into the air slightly, and that was it for his struggling, as he suddenly found himself flying backwards.
"Damn it Pyrrha!" Naruto exclaimed as he landed hard, rolling backwards.
Pyrrha panted a laugh out, taking a knee briefly. "That… I've never had anyone struggle that much against my semblance."
Naruto gave Crocea Mors a twirl in his hand as Pyrrha resumed her stance.
This time, Pyrrha began the bout, charging in and ducking under Naruto's preemptive slash, rolling to the side and slashing at his shin.
Naruto barely had enough time to leap backwards, just out of reach, raising his shield in time to block the bullets that Pyrrha sent his way.
The moment his shield lowered, he was doomed. Pyrrha had fired the bullets to block his vision. Her blade met his face with enough speed to knock him over, sending him quite literally into a flip.
As his back hit the concrete, he let out a grunt.
"Good to see that at least one of us is still capable of putting you on your rear."
Naruto clambered to his feet with a helping hand from Pyrrha, and turned to the person who'd approached. "Thanks, Blake. Way to make a man feel like he belongs."
Blake gave her leader a pat on the back. "Toughen up. RRYN's back, Weiss sent me to let you know."
Naruto sheathed Crocea Mors. "Is there any particular reason why Weiss didn't just come and let me know?"
Blake shrugged. "She's talking with Professor Goodwitch at the moment, though I don't know what about."
Concern crossed Naruto's face, but Pyrrha placed her hand on his back, effectively forcing him out of the training room. "Come on, Naruto, let's go say hi to RRYN. Weiss is fine."
"Yeah, but…" Naruto began.
Pyrrha shook her head. "Weiss is fine. Stop worrying, let's go make sure our friends are fine."
Naruto allowed himself to be lead out of the training room, Blake tagging along as the three walked through the hallways of Beacon.
It didn't take them long to find RRYN. All they had to do was listen for the sounds of tired, emotionally drained Hunters-in-training devouring their second proper meal in some time.
"Hello! How was the assignment?" Pyrrha greeted, stepping through into the cafeteria.
Ruby threw her hands up in the air. "Pyrrha! Blake! Naruto!"
The rest of RRYN waved their greetings, and the three present members of AWBN sat in their typical seats.
"The assignment was just a massive grind. All we did was walk for like, nearly two weeks. You guys beat us!" Ruby exclaimed, as she dug into a plate of pancakes.
Naruto scratched at the back of his head, as usual. "Well, we took a few shortcuts. It wasn't exactly a fair competition, we were probably dropped closer to Vale."
"There you go again, trying to make it sound like it wasn't our fault," Yang said. "We lost. That's fine, you don't need to make out like we're still equals."
"Oh. Sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound condescending, I just meant we really did take some shortcuts," Naruto explained. "I got some new skills, and one of them allows me to manipulate earth. We kind of tunnelled through half of Sanus, pretty much."
"Woah! That's so cool!" Ruby exclaimed, practically bouncing up and down in her seat. "What else!"
Naruto shrugged. "A few skills, some I haven't had time to show off yet. What about you guys, anything interesting happen?"
"Besides Nora deciding that we always need to make sure we bring twice as much pancake mix as we think we'll need, and a new speed-eating record, not much. Mostly just walking through forests and killing Ursa and Beowolves. We fought a Nevermore, that was a highlight," Ruby said, counting the events off on her fingers. "So, what, you guys just dug the entire way back?"
Pyrrha laughed at that. "If only it were so easy."
"Yeah, we kind of took a 'shortcut' through Mountain Glenn. Not sure if we regret that or not," Naruto explained, when the three of them received four confused looks.
"Wait, isn't that the ruined expansion of Vale?" Yang asked, leaning forwards.
"Did you guys fight zombies!?" Nora asked, also leaning forwards.
"Nora, zombies don't exist," Ren reminded.
"That you know of!" Nora said, turning to her lifelong friend.
"Yeah, it is," Naruto said, in response to Yang's question. "It turns out, the entirety of Mountain Glenn is what's known as a raid zone."
"A raid zone? What's a raid zone?" Ruby asked, intrigued.
"It's like a super-hard area. Basically, the Grimm there are much tougher, but have better rewards," Naruto explained. "The place is really, really difficult."
"Don't raid zones usually have a raid boss?" Yang asked, eyebrow quirked.
Naruto nodded. "Yeah. It's… a gigantic Grimm worm."
All four of RRYN sat back, eyes wide.
"Gigantic as in…" Ren began.
"It's difficult to give a relative size, considering we only really saw it either really, really close or from a distance that it was covering quickly. We didn't exactly see it sitting still, or anything. Bigger than anything we've ever faced, Grimm or otherwise, though," Naruto said.
"Damn," Yang said, whistling. "Did you kill it?"
"What?! Gods no, I don't think I could kill anything like that for years! Not without help!" Naruto exclaimed.
"So, what. You just left it in Mountain Glenn?" Ruby asked.
"Not quite. The Shai-Hulud wasn't the only thing there. We found a White Fang hideout," Naruto said.
"Oh," Ruby replied.
"And, we caught a White Fang member," Blake added in. "He's in Atlesian custody right now."
"Ah," Ruby said.
Naruto nodded along. "And now we've been recruited by the Atlesian Military to kill the giant worm, along with you guys, if you're willing. With their help, of course."
"Huh," Yang said this time, though she was echoed by her sister.
"Yeah, General Ironwood said it would take a few weeks to prepare a strike team, but we'll be serving as support. Keeping the worm above the ground, hitting it where we can, that sort of thing."
Ruby listened carefully. She nodded along, paying complete attention. "Well, you've got our help. I don't think any of us object, at least." She looked around at her team, receiving three head-shakes.
Naruto's shoulders relaxed. "Oh, great. I was worried we'd be going in without you guys."
Yang laughed at that. "Who else would be able to make us a heap of Lien by just killing Grimm!"
"Is that all I am to you? An income?" Naruto asked, mock-hurt.
Yang leaned forwards, standing far enough to make Naruto suddenly feel a hell of a lot more awkward. "If you want, you can be my sugar daddy."
Naruto paled faster than a bleeding anemic.
"Nope!" Ruby cried out, grabbing her sister by the collar and heaving her backwards. "Nope!"
Yang stuck her tongue out at her sister. "Spoilsport."
"So, now what?" Ruby asked. "We just wait until the General asks us to go?"
Naruto shrugged. "I don't know?"
They received their answer rather quickly as Weiss burst into the cafeteria, a panicked look on her face.
"Weiss? What's wrong?" Naruto asked, standing up.
Weiss pushed right past him, stepping up to Yang.
"I need your help to organise the Beacon Dance."
Suddenly, Naruto was certain he needed to spend all of his stat points on Charisma.
Weiss had practically dragged Yang off, not that the blonde was complaining all that much, and the rest of AWBN and RRYN had broken off to do various things. Ren and Nora had claimed to be planning an anti-zombie defense system, whatever that entailed, Ruby had to go speak with Professor Goodwitch to notify her that they had finished their assignment, though Naruto suspected the woman was quite aware, Pyrrha had decided to tag along with Weiss and Yang, to offer her experience, and Blake had slinked off, most likely to the library.
This, unsurprisingly, left Naruto alone.
It was a state of being he was somewhat used to by now, and a time where he could make the absolute most use of his semblance, without having to worry about explaining what was happening, or worrying about potential collateral damage.
It also gave him time to think.
A lot of time to think.
He was, as expected, down at his little clearing, looking around for any Grimm that felt like trying their luck.
None seemed to be prying for his attention, but that was fine with him.
Naruto had seventy-five stat points waiting to be used. That was a lot of points. The problem was, what did he spend them on, or did he even spend them? Was it worth saving them?
Now that he though about it, maybe he should spend the day organising everything. His inventory was probably still a mess too, now that he thought about it.
Now that he thought about it, didn't he still have some strange box in his inventory.
It took him less than five seconds to bring up his inventory screen and grab that box out, checking it over.
The 'Small Mysterious Lockbox', as it was called, seemed to be about the same size as a shoebox, perhaps slightly smaller, and it had been sitting in his inventory for over a month at least.
After about fifteen more seconds of Lockpicking, Naruto managed to crack it open.
100 XP for Lockpicking, and something else was the result of opening the box.
"Uh…" Naruto said to himself, staring into the box.
Another skill book. It seemed as if Naruto was swimming in them now. A quick Observe told him exactly what it was.
"'Ancient Chemistry'?" Naruto said aloud, reading the title.
Well, exactly what it's name was. What the skill it would give was was a mystery to Naruto, but at least he knew it would be somewhat related to chemistry.
He opened it, and this time, he didn't even bother to read anything, just skipping page after page until he reached the blank set. A quick press of the 'learn' button, and Naruto had a new skill.
[Skill Learned!]
[Crafting (Active): Thanks to the System, you are now capable of crafting items, of which quality is dependent on Crafting skill level. Crafting has multiple sub-skills under the list which can be learnt. Quality, quantity and time spent are all improved upon leveling Crafting. Level 1; XP 0/12.]
[Crafting Subskill; Alchemy Learned!]
'That's interesting. Only thing is, how do I do Alchemy?' Naruto thought, before noticing a tab under the crafting skill.
He tapped it, and up came a menu, floating in the air in front of him.
A lot of greyed out, untappable options appeared in front of him, and Naruto sighed. 'More experimentation required, I guess.'
The Alchemy tab, the only option not greyed out, was quickly tapped, Naruto's finger meeting non-existent resistance.
More greyed out options greeted him, but this time he was told he needed access to a chemistry set to perform any actions.
Another thing he couldn't do. At least Naruto knew where to find a chemistry set. Professor Peach's classroom had a few he could use.
And he had that Stamina Potion, so he could try and replicate it. Or, at the very least, learn about how Alchemy worked.
Now, though, it was out of the question, so he put it aside, mentally adding it to his to-do list.
Man, he had a lot of work ahead of him.
And a lot of time to kill, too. That hadn't taken nearly as long as he'd thought, though that was mostly because he'd put Crafting aside.
Lockpicking had leveled to 3 from the lockbox, but that was one of those skills that really wasn't all that important in a fight, and Naruto knew there was a massive fight coming up.
What was it that Ruby had said earlier? A massive grind?
'I guess that's what awaits me,' Naruto thought, as he paced around the clearing, deep in thought.
He needed to prepare. That meant gear, that meant training skills, it meant making sure that he and his team were prepared. It also meant making sure that RRYN were prepared as well, but he knew that Ruby would be on top of that.
So, for now, Naruto decided to set up a training regime.
In the distance, high above Naruto, red eyes watched his every move.