"What does it take to get some good food around here!?"
General Ironwood sighed another lengthy sigh, having easily lost count of exactly how many sighs he'd sighed so far.
Talking with Roman Torchwick was an exercise in futility, it seemed. And seeing as he was a criminal of the Valean justice system, he couldn't use more… Atlesian methods of persuasion, not without express permission from the Vale Council.
So, he was stuck with trying to whittle down what will Torchwick had, through boredom and repeated questioning.
The problem was, Torchwick knew all that. He knew exactly what was happening behind the scenes.
It was endlessly frustrating.
"Torchwick, I am moments away from simply disagreeing with the Vale Council and handing you over to Captain Bison here. Just tell me what I want to know, and you can go relax in a comfortable cell, with good food, and a nice cigar."
Torchwick shook his head with so much condescension that Ironwood was almost willing to perform the 'enhanced interrogation' himself. "Why, General, it sounds like you're getting frustrated with my lack of cooperation. Is it such a big deal to you, my petty crimes? I'm just a thief, no one in particular. What could I possibly know?"
Ironwood gave into temptation for a single moment, grabbing Torchwick by the back of the neck and pulling him forwards, slamming his head into the metal table with a resounding thud.
"Either tell me what I want to know, or shut up! I've had enough of your bullshit, Torchwick!" Ironwood shouted, releasing his grip in order to slam both hands on the table, standing as he did so.
Torchwick just smiled that damn smirk of his, meeting the General's eyes as his nose mended the break slowly, Aura stitching up the wound. "And spoil the fun, General? No, I don't think so."
James Ironwood could feel his eyebrow twitching, out of his control. "Take him away, Bison. Have someone drop his dinner, by accident."
Captain Bison nodded, the burly man hefting Torchwick to his feet and manhandling him out of the interrogation room, back to his cell.
"I swear, if the Council don't give me permission, I'm going to beat it out of him myself. Call it an escape attempt," Ironwood muttered to himself, alone in the room.
Or so he thought.
"And where would that get us, James?"
Yet another sigh left Ironwood's lungs. "Oz. To what do I owe the surprise visit?"
Ozpin placed his mug down on the table, wary of the bloodstain. "I felt it apt to visit, to see how your interrogation was proceeding. It appears it is going about as well as I had expected."
"The crimes he's committed, it would be a death sentence in Atlas."
Ozpin nodded along with the General's words. "And yet, you wonder why Atlas is seen as so backwards, despite being so advanced. Perhaps it is the brutality of the systems the Atlas Council has in place that gives it that reputation."
Ironwood looked up at Ozpin, staring into his eyes. "And exactly what would you have me do with him, Ozpin? Keep him locked in my brig until he dies of natural causes?"
Ozpin had to concede that point. "Regardless, that was not the original intention of my visit. I have come to ask a favour."
"I'm listening."
"I need you to bring in your most trusted operative, as I have. Our enemy stirs in the dark, and their next move is coming. We need our allies here, James. Where they can help."
Ironwood nodded. "I'll send for her. She will arrive within the week."
Ozpin nodded. "Thank you for your time and consideration, James. A pleasure, as always."
And with that, Ozpin left the cold interrogation room.
Once again leaving General James Ironwood alone with his thoughts.
Morning had led to a veritable torrent of a to-do list. Naruto was a little overwhelmed with the extent of which he had planned, but he moved onto the first on the metaphorical list.
Breakfast. The first thing he was going to do was eat breakfast. He'd certainly maintained his appetite from before dinner the previous night.
He'd then had his to-do list summarily cut down in size as he met Ruby in the cafeteria, already halfway through her breakfast. Pancakes and maple syrup with a healthy, or unhealthy, amount of strawberries atop the stack.
The reason his to-do list had been cut down was because Ruby had taken it upon herself to give her father a call about delivering her workshop to Beacon.
"And your dad is fine with it?" Naruto asked, as he sat next to her, his less-laden pancakes still looking more than appetizing.
"Mmhmm," Ruby hummed through a mouthful, before quickly swallowing down the delectable mapley goodness. "He said he'd send it through with someone, and that it'd be here in a couple days! Course, my stuff is a little outdated, now, so we may have to get some new equipment, but it won't end up costing an arm and a leg!"
A stray thought crossed Naruto's mind, and he vocalized it without meaning to. "I could sell my organs on the black market."
Ruby did a literal double-take. "What?!"
"Huh? Did I say that out loud?"
Ruby nodded, a concerned expression on her face. "Please don't tell me your budgeting is so bad you need to start selling body parts!"
Naruto shook his head frantically, hands waving back and forth. "No, no! It was just a thought. I regenerate, right? In theory…"
Ruby shook her head, one hand coming to rest on the bridge of her nose. "Maybe save that sort of thing for a serious medical injury that you can't heal through normal means. I don't think selling your seemingly infinite organs is a good idea."
"Can we please stop making fun of my stray thoughts and move on to something that doesn't make me sound so weird?" Naruto pleaded.
Ruby laughed at that. "Naruto, you're weird by definition. I don't really think there's much we can do about that now."
Naruto resolved to grumble to himself. It was easier than admitting the truth at least.
"But… you know how the Vytal Festival is starting?"
Naruto nodded. It felt like the preparations had been going on for months now. At the very least they'd been going on since before they first fought against the White Fang.
Man, if that didn't feel like a long time ago.
"Well, I was kind of wondering… do you wanna go check out one of the new weapon conventions they just opened up? They're showing off all the new stuff, and I figured that it's a win-win sort of thing. You get to learn all sorts of new stuff, and I get to look at new stuff!"
Naruto was more than happy to accompany Ruby out to Vale. It had been some time since the last time he'd done so, and he could definitely say he'd enjoyed himself last time. "Sure thing. Do we want to make it a date, or should we invite the rest of our teams, see if they want to tag along?"
Much like himself, Ruby was still getting the hang of this whole dating thing. The very concept seemed to turn her face nearly as red as her cloak, and his off-hand suggestion that this was a date did much the same.
But, to her credit, she forced through it. "I'd… like it to be a date."
Naruto agreed. He also wanted it to be a date. Spending time with Ruby was… comforting.
She made him feel at ease. At peace, almost.
"When do you want to leave?"
He had an hour to train, practice, experiment and understand the System before he'd be heading into Vale. At least, he had an hour to figure out his newest things.
The new skill book and the new title came to his mind in particular.
Naruto decided to start with the new book, pulling it out of his inventory and leaning against a tree, overlooking the Emerald Forest. If he looked down he'd see his little clearing. A peaceful place.
A quick glance over his shoulder in both directions had him free of observation, and he quickly learned the skill.
[You've learned a new skill!]
[Area Acquisition (Passive): Thanks to the System, you now passively pick up loot drops, whereupon they are automatically stored in your inventory. Level MAX.]
Naruto could feel the smile on his face grow wider. 'Now, isn't that convenient.'
Naruto stood up, stretching his arms, and let out a yawn. He was still tired from the previous day, and considering his sleep had been… sporadic, at best, it wasn't too much of a stretch to believe.
When he did sleep, the dreams…
He took a deep breath, the chill morning air crisp in his lungs.
The steps that he'd made, the ones that zig-zagged down the face of the cliffs, they could use some work, now that he looked closely.
They were a little too rough, a little too much like they were hewn with a mangled chisel. He could make them sharper, neater, but it would be so much effort for not much return.
Maybe if he ever had some free time, time that he didn't need to dedicate to the ever-growing list of things he had to do.
Naruto reached the clearing, mind still flitting between things he still had to do. 'New title, Naruto. Look into it.'
His own admonishment helped him focus, and he brought up his status screen.
And hadn't it been a while since he'd looked at it in detail.
[STATS]
[Name: Naruto Uzumaki]
[Title: Huntsman Professional]
[Level: 37]
[XP: 147,276/607,836]
[HP: 500/500 (2.5/s)]
[SP: 1000/1000 (10/s)]
[MP: 860/860 (8.6/s)]
[AP: 4000/4000 (1/s)]
[STR: 37]
[END: 50]
[AGI: 29]
[INT: 43]
[WIS: 43]
[CHA: 28]
[LCK: 26]
[Stat Points: 33]
[Lien: 68,845]
"Whew," Naruto let out, noticing exactly how much Lien he had. "That's a lot of money."
It was, in fact, more money than he'd ever seen in his entire life. Well, despite the fact it was just a number.
It was an entertaining thought that he was his own bank account, though.
Naruto Uzumaki was a lot of things, apparently.
He tapped the subscreen for titles, and decided to once again remind himself of the list he had available to him. Perhaps it was time for a change?
[Titles]
[Huntsman Professional: +40% XP from Grimm kills. (0/100 Ursa Killed)]
[Soul Tamer Novice: All Bound Souls have improved performance. (3/4 Bound Souls)]
[Silver Banker: +30% Lien drop rate. (68.8k/100k Total Lien)]
[Devourer: Devour Grimm to regenerate lost meters. (MAX)]
The last one was his newest title.
One that Naruto would never equip.
The moment he read it, it disgusted him. 'Eat Grimm to heal? Nope.'
That wasn't something he was ever really going to be willing to do.
To be fair, it was a useful title. It was just a line that Naruto was not willing to cross.
Besides, what would his friends think, what would his team think?
What would Ruby think?
The System was ambivalent to morality.
It was something Naruto had been suspecting for some time now. It was a means to an end, and the end was dependant on the wielder.
No wonder Ozpin had been so careful with him. He was getting a bearing on his character, on who Naruto was, before he decided to make his move.
There was no doubt Ozpin knew whoever had used the System before him. There was no doubt that there had been someone, either. The Headmaster had all but confirmed that.
This training session had gotten far more introspective that Naruto had originally intended.
Naruto backed out of the title menu, quickly noting that he had thirty-three skill points to spend.
Well, as the saying went, when in Mistral…
A quick and dirty fourteen points disappeared into Wisdom and Intelligence, boosting each to fifty, and sending a jolt of electricity down Naruto's spine.
He knew he'd get two new perks, of course. That was how it worked. The notification came as no surprise, and he looked at them.
Mana Pool and Mana Channelling, the INT and WIS perks for achieving fifty in each.
Mana Pool appeared to double his total Mana, much like Mana Tank before it, and Mana Channelling, much like Mana Cognition, doubled his MP regeneration.
So, nothing new, but distinctly appreciated. There was something satisfying about having two-thousand Mana, with a rate of twenty per second.
Naruto was strong, now. Too strong, one could say.
He wouldn't. He'd seen what was out there. It didn't matter how many rounds, or in this case, Mana Bullets, you could put into a target, if the target didn't feel them.
A single Mana Lance did 400 damage at its current level. Even if he could cast them infinitely, it still would've taken over 1100 Mana Lance shots to kill that Shai-Hulud.
He still had 19 points to allocate, now. Only question was, where to put them.
13 points sank into Strength, another shiver down his spine. This time he could feel his muscles flex and strain.
Another perk, too. Fortified Body, which added 50% of his STR to his HP and SP, or the calculations at least. Whatever that meant in the background Naruto couldn't say for sure, but he could say that his HP was now 750, and his SP was sitting at 1500.
That was incredible. Naruto couldn't say no to that.
Not that he would, of course.
The final six points. Naruto decided on something a little… different. He placed them in CHA, the quick six points doing nothing, or so it seemed.
Maybe he was somewhat more charismatic now. He doubted it was that extreme. He was less awkward, now, at least. He'd noticed that, but he'd chalked it up to simply having immersed himself in an environment as social and complicated as Beacon.
He'd certainly managed more than he'd ever managed to do before, at least.
Then again, that wasn't with a giant audience of people watching him in the stands, with even more watching a televised broadcast.
It was fair to say that Naruto was a little nervous about competing in the Vytal Tournament.
It wasn't for another couple weeks at most, of course, but it was still going to be a nerve-wracking experience, he knew.
'One day at a time, Naruto. No need to stress about things that aren't coming yet.'
His thoughts were right, of course. Which was a strange thing to, well, think.
To be fair everything in his life was rather confusing lately.
A quick glance at the HUD clock that always hovered just out of his eyesight unless he wished to know what time it was, as was the purpose of said clock, told him there was still fifty minutes until he'd planned on meeting Ruby.
It was time to multi-task.
Naruto stepped inside his hideout, the gaping door-shaped hole in the cliffside that it was, and noted that the hallway was exactly how he'd left it.
Straight, wide enough for three to stand abreast, with three doorways, again devoid of the doors themselves. One on the right, two on the left.
To accompany the three doorways were three rooms, one which ran parallel to the length of the hallway, and the other two separate, next to each other.
Naruto knew a couple things about basic construction, thanks to some time spent as a workhand back in Domremy when he was younger, and he knew a little something about basements.
Airflow was very important, as was waterproofing.
In this case, waterproofing wasn't quite as necessary, but it would come in handy if he didn't want the hallway to suddenly be flooded.
So he set about raising the ceiling of the entire construct, by two inches.
Once he'd finished that, after about ten minutes, he did the same with the floor, raising it the same distance.
He'd effectively waterproofed the… what was he going to call this place?
His hideout sounded… malicious. Like he was some kind of criminal.
He actually laughed aloud at his second suggestion. 'Arcave. That's the dumbest thing I think I've ever thought of.'
Lo and behold, Naruto dubbed it the Arcave.
Because let it not be said that Naruto Uzumaki was nothing if not an idiot.
The great thing about building, or carving, as it was, was that Naruto only needed one hand to do it.
Which left the other hand free for activities.
Like creating Soul Orbs with Soul Harvest.
Naruto also had a free mind. There was something oddly satisfying about using Terrakinesis to shape out the 'Arcave', as much as he hated how much he loved that name.
Gods it was a terrible name. Suited the place to a tee.
But the fact that he had the capability to think freely whilst he carved and created Soul Orbs meant he could plan out the place.
He knew he'd be doing two floors, that much he'd already considered. But even with the rooms he'd made so far, he had an idea.
He could try for complicated architecture, but what would be the point?
Instead, he was just going to mirror what he'd already made so far, to make effectively four sets of three rooms, and adjust as necessary after he'd finished.
It also meant the total area would be nearly completely square, and made making the basement easier.
He'd effectively mapped out an area in his head, too. His newly boosted INT was definitely a help in that regard, though he was still going to get a hold of some graphing paper. Planning never went amiss with this sort of thing, despite the fact he'd basically started with no coherent plan.
Everything was nice and neat now, though, squared edges, and he'd set up holes for ventilation at the tops of the walls, tunnelling them all the way out to the outside and sloping the exit downwards, so as not to collect water.
It had been nearly an hour now, though, and it was time for Naruto to cut off the construction effort.
He had a date to get to.
It was a normal thing.
Completely normal.
It was a trip to town, to a convention.
It was a date.
Why was the very idea making Ruby terrified?
"Relax, Rubes. It isn't like this is the first time you've gone on a date with him."
Yang watched with amusement as Ruby rounded on her, and the older sister soon found herself hit in the face with a pillow.
"It wasn't a date last time! We were just hanging out!" Ruby exclaimed.
Nora grabbed Ruby from behind, tightening her into a bearhug. "Aw, fearless leader! You don't need to panic! That's all a date is!"
"Pfft, not like you'd know," Yang remarked, another pillow hitting her, this time with much more velocity, courtesy of the resident explosive expert.
"You don't get to say anything! Not like you have any more of a clue," Nora replied with a pout.
"I don't want to sound like I'm panicking, but as the one who is about to actually go out, I feel like you guys should, I dunno, be helping!?"
Yang stretched her arm out from her bed to rest on her sister's leg. "Relax. Seriously. You're going to look at weapons. He's going to look at weapons. That's like, your greatest talking point. I doubt you'll run out of things to say."
Ruby inhaled deeply, and released it after a second. "You're right, sis. You're always right."
Yang quirked an eyebrow. "What'd you do with Ruby?"
Another pillow.
Yang laughed, deflecting it with a lazy wave of her hand, knocking it to the floor. "If you're so worried about what you're going to end up doing, ask Ren! He's a guy, I imagine he'll know what Naruto'll do."
Ren looked up from his seat at the far end of the room, removing one bud of his headphones. "I'm allowed to take part? Since when?"
Nora slumped onto her bed. "Since we needed a guy's opinion on the matter! Duh, Renny! Weren't you listening?"
Ren looked at Nora, expressionless. "You told me not to listen."
Nora sat up. "Exactly! You shouldn't have listened to me tell you not to listen!"
Ren opened his mouth to retort, remembered who he was talking to, and promptly changed his answer. "Of course. How foolish of me."
"So, Ren. What do you think?" Ruby asked.
Ren sighed. "I don't think I quite understand the problem. Do you not trust Naruto?"
Ruby looked appalled at the very suggestion. "What? No! Of course I trust him!"
Ren didn't reply, instead choosing to simply gesture with his hands.
Yang picked up the slack of her rarely-vocal partner. "Ren's right, Rubes. You trust Naruto, Nora and Ren trust Naruto, I trust Naruto, his team trusts him. What is there to even worry about?"
"I'm not worried about him, Yang, I'm worried about myself! What if I look like an idiot, or make a fool of myself, or offend him or-"
Ren spoke up once more. "This is Naruto we're talking about, correct? The guy who stumbles through conversations and continuously scratches at the back of his head when he's nervous?"
Yang gestured at Ren. "Bingo. Naruto's as awkward as you are, Rubes. I get that you're nervous, but this isn't something you haven't done before. Last time was what, ammo and dinner? This time's no different, it's just weapons and lunch."
Ruby took another deep breath, patting down her corset with her hands. "Okay. Okay. Yeah."
Yang stood and hugged her sister. "Go. You'd better not keep him waiting, you know?"
Ruby smiled. "Knowing Naruto, he's probably spent all that time in the clearing, doing something cool with his semblance. Like usual."
Yang gave her sister a shove towards the door. "Go get 'em."