Many of the citizens of Kuo Kuana were not accustomed to seeing giant Nevermore.
Naruto could practically feel the stares from where he was standing. Maybe landing Apollo atop the Belladonna household wasn't the greatest idea, but he was pretty tired. He'd expected most of the citizens to be asleep by this point.
Naruto had, of course, neglected to consider the nocturnal faunus. Which, to be fair, he hadn't realised would be quite so many.
He ran a hand down Apollo's beak as he slipped off his wing, letting the avian summon disappear as he dropped down from the rooftop.
Shirdal, sitting comfortably in the outside courtyard, gave a quiet squawk as Naruto landed next to him, giving the Griffon a quick scritch as he dismissed the Griffon as well. The attention he was getting in Menagerie just wasn't worth having them out for long.
"Pleasant flight?"
Naruto looked up at Blake, the girl leaning against one of the posts that supported the wooden awning.
"Yeah, a little bumpy, but Apollo doesn't have a saddle. How was yours?"
Blake shrugged. "The first one was fine, the second one, not so much. Dad doesn't seem to like heights all too much."
Naruto let out a quiet laugh, quickly smothering it. "Don't let him know I laughed at that, he's terrifying."
Blake shook her head somewhat. "Come on, you look exhausted. There's a spare room set out for you."
Naruto was more than willing to follow his teammate as she led him through the hallways to a room with the most appealing bed Naruto had ever seen.
"Get some sleep, Naruto."
Naruto just nodded. He was more than willing to follow her orders, and as Blake closed the door, the blond teen was quick to unequip his gear and practically slump into the bed.
Sleep would come very, very quickly.
Morning broke, bringing with it the dawning sun, and Naruto woke with a start, hand gripping tight on the loose sheet that he'd somehow partially covered himself with in his sleep.
He released his grip delicately. These were not the kind of sheets to treat roughly, that much he could tell, and he was a guest atop that. If he'd torn it, well, he wouldn't be proud of it.
Instead of worrying about that any further, Naruto stood up from the comfortable bedding. A sliding door led to a modest bathroom, and he quickly turned on the shower, shedding what little clothing remained on him and stepping in under the warm water, relishing in the feeling.
He hadn't exactly been 'filthy', considering the vast majority of his time had been spent underwater, but he was almost completely encrusted in salt, and it left him feeling almost like a stale loaf of bread, a feeling he was more than happy to rid himself of, with a very liberal application of household comforts.
He took an extra moment to simply soak, his mind wandering. There was a waiting notification, there had been since last night, but he didn't want to look at it.
He knew what it was already, and he was dreading what it contained.
He cut the water off, stepping out and towelling himself off, running one hand through hair that had been getting longer and longer. He was going to need to get a trim at some point, though he wasn't sure when. Perhaps he'd save it for another time, he needed to stop seeking distractions from his own semblance, and the knowledge that came with it.
"Screw it," Naruto remarked under his breath, facing the mirror and bringing up the notification.
[Quest Complete!]
[Dungeon Crawling: Expert]
[Clear the first five floors of any dungeon.]
[Reward: 1 Materia Crystallum]
Naruto wasn't concerned with that. It wasn't what he was dreading.
He waited, and then waited a moment longer.
The notification he was waiting for never came.
His eyes opened wide, and he quickly dove into his quest log, scrolling through.
[Hunter Bounty: Hallowed Quay]
[Discover what happened to the inhabitants of Hallowed Quay.]
[In Progress]
Naruto felt a sigh of relief reverberate through his entire torso as he exhaled. If they were dead, it would have failed the quest, right?
He didn't know, but at least it was something to go off of. Better than simply believing they were all dead, at least. Better for general morale, and his own emotions.
He still had a chance, or so he thought, at least, and that was what counted.
Naruto looked at his hand, at the new item he'd received from the previous quest. The Materia Crystallum, as it was called.
It was quite strange to look at, now that he thought about it. Like a cube, of sorts, made of something he didn't recognize, little spines of various kinds of Dust spiking off in all directions.
He didn't really know what it was, and yet he did, in a sense. He could feel it's pull, a pull towards a certain part of his semblance, and it was an incredibly strange feeling.
Intrinsically, he knew exactly what this item was for, even if he couldn't quite put it into words.
There was a pull that almost felt like it was dragging his Elementals out from wherever they stayed.
Naruto stowed the Materia Crystallum in his inventory quickly. This bathroom was definitely not big enough to fit him and an Elemental, let alone all of them.
Something for his to-do list, he supposed.
His to-do list was probably a mile long, with a thousand things he'd forgotten.
Naruto stepped out of the bathroom after equipping his typical clothing, sans his coat, and withdrew Crocea Mors, both sword and shielth, placing them on his hip like usual.
There was absolutely no doubt that Naruto was stalling. Leaving the room was not what he was stalling, but going outside, going shopping for supplies…
It was blatantly obvious that many, many people here didn't like him. Some, brazen enough to pick fights with him, others content with wary staring.
That was all fine, though, he could deal with that.
It was the potential of shopkeepers refusing to do trade with him that was worrying.
Naruto opened the door to his temporary residence, stepping through and closing it behind him.
He wasn't quite sure what he was doing, in the household. Was he supposed to speak with the Chieftain, was he supposed to try and find Blake?
He decided his best option was to just go and enjoy the morning sunlight on the front porch, and so that was where he was headed.
Apparently, he wasn't alone in that idea, though he'd been beaten up by someone who appeared to be far more familiar with the terrain.
"Good morning, Naruto."
Naruto's hand found the back of his head. "Uh, morning, Mrs Belladonna."
The woman laughed gently, gesturing for him to continue out the door. "Please, call me Kali. You helped bring my daughter back to us, it's the least I can do in return."
"I didn't, though. I just tagged along, really."
He turned his head to stare out over Kuo Kuana as the bustling day began, already Naruto could see people ferrying things back and forth.
"Still, you had your hand in it, even if you don't know it. You're her team leader, right? You may have helped her realise what she wanted to do far earlier than you suspect."
Naruto let out a short laugh. "If anything, it was Blake, Weiss and Pyrrha that were helping me, not the other way around. Our early weeks were complete chaos."
Kali let out a laugh. "I can imagine. Let me guess, Blake spent most of it feigning disinterest and reading?"
Naruto couldn't wipe the grin off his face. "You know her so well."
"Then I guess, what with Blake and the Schnee girl being partnered up, you had no small amount of chaos to handle."
Naruto nodded. "Less than you'd expect, but that was mostly just in comparison to everything else I had going on. Maybe for some it might've seemed extreme, but I'm used to dealing with 'individuals', let's say. Seven sisters and all that."
Kali's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Your mother must be one tough woman."
"She was a Huntress for a long while, before she and my father settled down in a little settlement near Vale, and raised us there. She always said the bigger the family the more the love."
Kali gave Naruto a gentle smile. "She sounds like a lovely person. I'd love to meet her."
There was a slight message hidden underneath that, and if it weren't for Naruto's significantly increased Charisma stat he never would have picked it up. He considered his words for a moment, before picking the ones he wanted.
"I'm sure the two of you would get along remarkably well. I'm sure Blake would be glad to hear that her friend's mothers were getting along."
It was a tad bit more direct that he'd really intended, but it seemed that Kali wasn't offended, far from it. Instead, she gave him a sly smile, the twinkle in her eye clueing Naruto in to the fact that she may not give that line of conversation up anytime soon.
"Well, this has been an interesting conversation, Naruto, thank you for bearing with my ramblings. Would you care for some breakfast? I was just going to wake Blake and Ghira up and make some, you're more than welcome to join us."
Naruto nodded with a polite smile. "I'd like that, thank you. To be perfectly honest, I am a little hungry. Not much time to eat when you're underwater."
Kali led the way back inside the house, Naruto following her. "So I heard. Ghira told me all about what he understands of your semblance, I hope that isn't a breach of trust. I promise not to speak to another soul about it, if that makes you feel any better."
Naruto had already expected as such. "I'd appreciate that. It's safer for everyone involved that the details don't get out there anymore than they already have."
"I do need to ask, your semblance doesn't give you any ability to… manipulate people, does it?"
Naruto stalled for a moment, both physically and mentally, before he decided on honesty. "It does, I'm afraid, though I haven't ever used it on anyone who didn't truly deserve it. It's incredibly dangerous in the wrong hands, so I try to make sure that my hands are the right ones."
Kali looked like she was in deep thought for more than a moment, before that easy smile reappeared on her face. "Well, I'm glad to hear that. Blake trusts you completely, though she's made mistakes with her trust before. You can understand why I'd like to triple-check who she puts her loyalty in."
It was the words from Kali that made Naruto understand something that he'd sorely misunderstood upon his arrival in Menagerie.
Ghira was not to be feared, but respected. The only person on Menagerie that was truly to be feared was Kali Belladonna, and Naruto knew exactly why. He'd never met someone who could smile so kindly and convey so much threat in the same expression.
Naruto nodded. "Completely. I like to think I'd do the same thing in your stead." He hoped he'd camouflaged his sudden nervousness well enough with the firmness of his voice, but he wasn't completely convinced.
Luckily, Blake arrived to save him from her mother's potential, subtle wrath.
"Morning."
Okay, so Blake's rescue could use a little work.
"Morning, dear. How did you sleep?" Kali asked, turning to face her daughter with a beaming smile.
Naruto sighed in relief.
"It was… nostalgic," she uttered, searching for the right word. "I didn't think I missed it, but I did."
Kali wrapped Blake in a hug, squeezing tight before releasing. "I was just going to wake your father. Stay right here, I'll bring back some tea."
Blake nodded, a misty-eyed smile on her face that she was trying in vain to hide from her leader, and the two of them watched as Kali happily sauntered out of the dining hall, leaving just the two of them to themselves.
Blake, ever the one to recover from emotions quickly, turned to Naruto. "So, what's your plan for today?"
Naruto had to think for a moment, searching for the best way to phrase his ever-growing to-do list. "I think the people from Hallowed Quay are still alive."
That, unexpectedly, was not the way he meant to phrase anything. In fact, it was a completely different topic altogether.
"What? Last night you said-" Blake began, but Naruto cut her off quickly, realising that ending on that wasn't his greatest idea.
"I had a quest to discover what happened to them, right? Well, it hasn't been marked as failed, so I have to assume that they're still alive. At least, there's a chance they might be, and I can't just give up before I find out for sure."
Blake looked a little stunned, but she nodded all the same. "You said you needed supplies, right? We'll go get some, then you can head back to the dungeon."
"That's just it. I had a look at the sixth floor, and the only way down further is locked behind a door that I can't lockpick, the skill isn't high enough level. I'd have to push it up to Level 25 before I can go through."
The both of them descended into thought before Naruto came to an idea that he knew Blake would absolutely hate.
"Blake, you know how to pick difficult locks, right?"
Blake glared at him half-heartedly. "Yes. Infiltration training from my time in the White Fang."
"You're going to hate me, but you might be our only way through to the next floor. How long can you hold your breath?"
Blake stared for a long while, before answering. "If there weren't lives on the line I'd consider ending our friendship."
"Wait, you consider me a friend?"
Breakfast was a fast affair, and Naruto and Blake managed to quickly and concisely explain what they were going out to do.
Well, Blake explained it quickly and concisely. Naruto stumbled through the first sentence and Blake didn't give him a second chance.
Totally fair, of course, he didn't really want to try again anyway. He needed to conserve his Charisma. Which wasn't a thing, but still.
He needed all the talking capability he could get, for today. His grand shopping trip was going to be taxing, in what he could only imagine was multiple ways.
Like monetarily, but that's something he was prepared for. There wasn't much point in having Lien without anything to spend it on.
Ghira had mentioned something about having spoken to a few shopkeepers and suppliers the previous day. Naruto wasn't exactly expecting a warm welcome, but at the people he'd be talking to would actually talk to him. Adding to that the amount of Lien he actually had, he expected he'd be able to proverbially grease the palms of anybody who was less than enthused with trading with a human.
Once both he and Blake had bid their temporary farewells and ventured out of the house, suffering the onslaught of the beginning of what was going to be another warm day, Naruto found himself with a pressing question.
"Where to first?" He asked, cocking his head to the side just slightly. There was a whole array of places to go, but not only did he not know which one would be their first destination, he also didn't know where any of those said places were actually located.
"That depends on what you want to do first," Blake began, humming in thought. "What did you have in mind?"
A lot of things, too many to keep track of so easily.
First thing on his mental list was leveling his Crafting skill, and whilst he had a lot of methods to do so, he latched onto the one he was most familiar with.
"Is there a place that sells raw materials? I think the best way to get my Crafting up is to forge some ingots."
As it turned out, there was in fact, a decently-sized stonework building with an attached wooden structure, a small staircase leading up to the wooden framework.
The store itself was located within the wooden part, and Naruto could see the smokestack of what was an attached forge area inside the stone brick part, so at least he wasn't going to have to track a different place down to actually get any XP from his purchases.
Of course, that was if he could actually purchase anything here, or even be allowed to use the forge. He'd just have to ask, he supposed, as he followed Blake inside.
They'd hit a little bell at the top of the door, the ringing sounding out throughout the storefront, and a young feline faunus answered the sound, darting out of the rear room and giving Blake a wide smile that froze as she caught sight of Naruto.
She couldn't have been more than fifteen, but the sight of a human was not something she was used to, and Naruto could see the panic in her eyes.
"C-can I help you with something?" She asked, directing the question at Blake, although her eyes never left Naruto.
Blake stalled, unsure of what to do, so Naruto figured he'd put his semi-recently-improved Charisma to the test.
"Hey, is there someone a little older we could talk to? I've got a few… complicated questions I'd like to ask."
He didn't, but the young girl latched onto the excuse like an inflatable ring in a tsunami. "Uh, yeah!"
That was all she said before she darted back into the room she'd originally departed from, and Naruto could hear very faint, muffled conversation.
It wasn't long until an older faunus woman stepped out, obviously the girl's mother, fairly more dignified than her daughter. Well, she didn't freeze up upon sight of Naruto, so that was a good sign.
"Can we help you?"
The question was once again directed at Blake, but this time she simply gestured to Naruto, as he took a half-step forward.
"I was wondering what kind of raw ore you had for sale, if you have any. I'm looking to purchase a decent amount, but I'm not picky about what kinds."
The woman stalled for a moment, gaze flicking between Blake and Naruto, before she sighed. "Let me take a look at our stock. Sophie, get me the books!"
The last part was directed at her daughter, and the girl quickly darted out from the room once more, just as quickly returning to the safety of the rear room.
The woman poured over the books for a few moments, scanning down a well-organized list of stock. "Well, we've got plenty of ore. How much were you looking to spend?"
Naruto replied quickly. "I've got nearly a hundred-thousand lien to work with."
The woman looked back at the books for a single second, before her head snapped up at lightning speed, Blake performing her own double-take that was nearly as fast.
"A hundred thousand?!" The two of them exclaimed in stereo.
Naruto nodded, not at all fazed by the idea of spending that much Lien. "Do you have tin and copper ore, along with iron ore? I'll take five-hundred of tin and copper and three-hundred of iron, if that's alright."
The woman had brought out a notepad, and was doing some of the fastest math Naruto had ever seen.
"Well, that'll rack you up about…" She paused, double-checking her math. She glanced up at him again. "About 175,000 Lien, all up. A little outside what you said you had to spend."
Naruto nodded. "Any chance we could lower that? I'm making a pretty big sale."
The woman shook her head. "Big sale or not, you're pretty much emptying out our stock, and my husband won't have any metal to work. Besides, you're lucky we're even selling to you in the first place."
Naruto sighed. "I guess so. C'mon, Blake, I'm sure we can find somewhere else to get some ore."
Naruto turned, one hand reaching out to grab the door handle, when the woman spoke up once more, giving him reason to both pause and hide his smirk.
"Well, let's not be so hasty. Perhaps if you were willing to do me a little favour I could allow you to haggle?"
It was less of a question and more of an open-ended statement, but Naruto was willing to listen. Just because he could afford nearly two-hundred-thousand Lien didn't mean he wasn't going to try and save his money.
"That depends on the favour, I suppose. What is it?"
"Well, up until a few months ago, we used to get weekly shipments of ore from the mines down south, in the desert. My husband would process it and forge it into various bits and pieces, but the majority of it was forged into ingots and sent around Menagerie, to the other settlements. It was a lucrative business, you see, up until one of the miners cracked through into a large cavern full of Grimm. Most of the miners made it out unscathed, thankfully, but until the mine is cleared of Grimm, we're reliant on whatever we can purchase from passing trade-ships, and with recent Grimm activity getting even worse than usual, that's starting to become few and far between. If you clear the mine, I'll do you a deal on the ore. Sound fair?"
Risk himself in combat in an underground location against a bunch of Grimm, for a reward?
It sounded like what he already did for a living.
"Sure thing. If you let me know where the mine is I'll get started as soon as I pick up the rest of my supplies."
[Hunter Bounty Started!]
[Search and Destroy: Dustcairn Mine]
[Clear Dustcairn Mine of Grimm!]
[Reward: Skill Book (The Nature of Nature)]
So, this was what it was like to be a regular Hunter. Naruto nearly laughed. Taking bounties, clearing locations of Grimm.
Every time Naruto thought his concept of reality had finally settled, it found a way to make him realize once more that his life was quite literally like a video game.
At least Dustcairn Mine didn't seem like it was going to be quite so difficult.
He hoped.