There was a niggling feeling in the back of his mind. Something was trying to tell him something, reaching out to try and convey something, but it was almost as if there was some kind of obstacle, so kind of wall that was keeping it from clicking.
Naruto had known something was tugging on that mental drawstring for a few days now, but he'd been shrugging off the feeling, hoping it was just nerves, or something that wasn't as significant as he was beginning to believe it was.
It had to be his Semblance, there was no other explanation, not that 'Semblance' was a good explanation to begin with. Surely he could try and narrow it down, but right now wasn't the greatest locale to be doing some soul-searching, standing as he was just outside the entrance to the landing platforms in the snow.
Instead, he allowed the feeling to lead him in a direction by simply beginning to walk, not technically choosing a direction, but allowing himself to pick at random. He couldn't exactly explain why he was doing as he was, but it seemed to be working.
Well, as far as he could tell, anyway. The feeling was growing not necessarily stronger, but it was growing more consistent, like an ignorable itch becoming more frequent.
He rounded a corner chosen at random to a small, snow-covered park, and he felt that feeling redouble in intensity as his eyes strayed over a small stone dais, atop which a marble statue sat unmoving, depicting a tall man holding what appeared to be some kind of rapier.
Naruto didn't recognize the statue, but he approached it regardless, reading the small plaque at the bottom of the dais. "Dedicated to the first Defender of Mantle, Calidus Uzumaki, may his spirit live on."
Naruto stared in momentary shock at the statue once more. Either this was one hell of a coincidence, or Naruto was related to this man, whoever he'd been. Considering his knowledge on his own lineage was severely limited, this was a definite surprise.
The feeling was still present, though, practically begging for him to do something, but he wasn't entirely sure what that something exactly was. He closed his eyes for a moment, before understanding dawned.
He knelt down in the snow, facing the statue, and opened his inventory. A handful of Lightning Dust Powder joined a Grand Soul Orb in his palms as he closed his eyes, focusing inwards.
He felt the Dust Powder begin to spark and shimmer in his left hand as the Grand Soul Orb in his right hand vibrated with increasing frequency, and all of a sudden everything went a solid white, as Naruto felt reality itself leave him alone.
Not quite as alone as he'd first thought, though.
"The heir arrives at last. Speak, boy, ask your questions."
Naruto opened his eyes to the whiteness, a golden spectre standing in front of him. The figure was faceless, formless to all but its male figure, with a definitively masculine voice, and what Naruto should have asked was what it had drawn him here for.
What Naruto instead asked was a little less dignified, but no less important. "Who are you?"
The golden wraith cocked its head to the side for a single moment, before recovering. "I do not know. My memory is all but fragments, splintered across the cosmos. Who I am is no longer."
"Do you have a name?" Naruto queried. "I need to refer to you as something, surely."
The figure nodded. "I do indeed, Heir of Uzumaki. My name is Alsius."
Naruto paused. Seeing as where he'd begun this conversation, he'd been expecting the name Calidus. "Why did you bring me here?"
The figure, Alsius, shook his head. "I did not bring you here, Heir of Uzumaki. You brought yourself here, to ask a question of me. Now, again, what did you wish to ask?"
Naruto tried to wrap his head around the thoughts that were swirling within it. "I need to know why I came here. What the question I had to ask is. But I can't remember. I don't even think I ever knew."
Alsius knelt down to Naruto's level. "I understand, Heir of Uzumaki. You have a goal, yes? An objective to accomplish?"
Naruto nodded.
"So your question concerns that goal. How to achieve what you seek convincingly…" Alsius trailed off, lost in thought. "I would ask of you only a moment of patience whilst I recover what I require, my memories are harder to track down with every passing moment."
Naruto was more than willing to give the man the time he needed, and was more than content to watch as flickering golden light flitted towards the glowing spectre.
When Alsius spoke again, Naruto listened intently, enraptured. "I was once the Defender of Mantle, known to all as the Second Defender. I had trained all my life for the position, and was appointed it by the then King of Mantle and his closest advisor, the First Defender, Calidus, whose statue it is you knelt before."
A brief flicker of reality phased through, and Naruto could see the statue once more clear as day, before the whiteness of unreality swallowed it yet again.
"I had spent so much time training under Calidus that when he finally felt that I was ready, I was more than capable of defeating armies of Grimm. However, this was not strictly because of Calidus's teachings. Instead, it was because of his teachings that I unlocked my inner potential."
"A semblance…" Naruto interjected.
"Try as they might to reason that it was just that, my semblance was merely a part of the latent abilities I'd acquired. No, I'd gained the System, just like yourself."
Understanding dawned on Naruto. "You're a prior wielder."
Alsius nodded. "I am. I was given access to an array of powers that struck fear into the hearts of my enemies, and hope into the hearts of my allies. I was far more powerful than any of Mantle's warriors, even Calidus, but I would always hold him above me, simply because talent does not trump experience. However, my life story is not what I speak to you for."
Naruto, despite being entirely entranced by Alsius's life story thus far, nodded.
"The System was, in essence, in its infancy when I was given access to it. Every time it is given to someone, that someone either becomes a great hero, or a terrible villain. Unfortunately, it's most often the latter. In fact, it is always the latter, eventually. It was raw, unfiltered power, without morality, and that is often the most dangerous of poisons. A great man once said that 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely', and there has never been a truer statement about mankind."
Alsius gestured behind him, and the whiteness of the unreality flickered in and out, revealing golden windows to various sights.
"I was known as a great hero, but no man can remain a great hero without great sacrifice. I was too strong, too powerful, and I wanted more. I would become more. I took great pride in my skills, and I pushed myself constantly, harder and harder, day in and day out."
Naruto watched the memory play out, a leather-armored Alsius, hair white as snow and sword as devastating as any force of nature, carving swaths of Grimm into ash with single swings.
"Something everyone says is that power always comes at a cost. The greater the power, the greater the cost. I became unkillable, undeniably powerful, and there was nothing I could not do."
Naruto watched as Alsius swung his blade and split a mountain in the distance, Grimm simply ceasing to be from the mere shockwave.
"The cost was greater than anything I could have believed. I became unstoppable, and the cost was that I could not stop. I sought power, sought control, and that lead me to seeking war, seeking chances to prove myself. I would start conflicts just to prove I could end them, fight and kill for the honor of fighting and killing. I became the greatest warmonger Remnant had ever seen since the days of yore, and all it cost was my humanity."
Naruto watched an older Alsius, much paler, veins so dark they were almost black, as he fought with a blurred figure, meeting his strength with strength of his own.
"When I was finally defeated, it all came crashing down, and I truly realized what I had done. I had been so blind, so power-hungry that I had thrown away what power I'd ever had. I hadn't sought true power, I'd sought the rush. And, in that moment, my dying breath, I realized that truth. No man can remain a great hero without great sacrifice. That day, I died a villain, and Calidus Uzumaki died a great hero."
The memory faded, and Naruto looked back to the golden figure of Alsius, whose form had become that of the younger, human Alsius he had seen in the first memory. "I wish for you not to follow in my footsteps, wielder, but I also wish for you not to follow in the footsteps of your ancestor, either. So, I gift to you a single piece of knowledge, all I can affect from where I belong. It is up to you how you use it, how it carries you from here until your end. I am not the only prior wielder, nor am I the only one with a gift to give. Take my warning, and take this gift of knowledge. Do with it what you will."
The whiteness of the unreality faded in an instant, leaving Naruto kneeling in snow once more in front of the statue of his ancestor.
"Good luck, Heir of Uzumaki."
[You have completed a communion!]
[You have unlocked a new ritual!]
After the number of bombshells that had just been dropped on Naruto, he needed something to calm him down, to refocus his mind from the cascading mess it had become.
So, Naruto was shopping for supplies. Specific supplies, ones he'd more than likely have need of during their little planned 'escapade', despite none of it being little in any aspect. Right or wrong, this escapade was going to be newsworthy.
He could only hope it wouldn't be the kind of news that began with 'crime foiled'.
He nodded thanks to the cashier as he dropped the medical supplies he'd just purchased into his inventory. Never knew when some simple medical supplies would come in handy, but he'd mostly purchased it for the blood transfusion kit that it came with.
He moved on, searching various storefronts for anything that might catch his eye as he took his scroll out of his pocket, dialling the number for Jacques Schnee's secretary.
It took only a minute to book a meeting, pushing his Charisma to its limits to get himself a timeslot later in the afternoon, in Jacques' own office.
It was a risky play, and there was a hefty chance that it would come with its own selection of issues, but Naruto needed to be there for the event. It would help cast doubt over his involvement, if there even was any, and it would at the very least give him a chance to check if Weiss had changed her mind.
He doubted that was ever going to happen, it took practically world-shaping events to convince Weiss of anything otherwise, but then again, the past year or so had been nothing but world-shaping events.
A Dust shop caught his eye, and he quickly stepped inside, noting the automated interior. No cashier, no staff that he could see whatsoever, aside from a single AK-200 standing alert in one corner.
Instead of a cashier was a tablet, menu completely digital. It certainly made for a faster, less personal experience, and knowing what he knew about the SDC, that might have been a good thing.
He purchased a single unit of Light Dust Powder, knowing it was necessary for his plan, stowing it rapidly in his inventory along with quite literally everything else he owned, already departing the store for his next destination.
His next stop would be, hopefully, his last stop before he had to go up to the Schnee Manor, and he couldn't lie and say there wasn't an underlying tension and anxiety flickering about in his head. He wasn't one to succumb to nerves, at least, not thanks to System Mind, but that didn't mean he didn't feel them, just that they didn't affect his clear thinking.
So many things could go wrong. In fact, there were so many possible failure points to his plan that it was practically more opportunity for failure than success, so his odds weren't exactly great. Then again, he'd never really had a plan that had great odds. All things considered, at least he had a plan this time. Not one he could coherently detail out step by step, but more of a series of hopeful ideas that may or may not link together, held together by duct tape, wishes, and impending improvisation.
Man, was he thankful Atlas had a burgeoning artisan hobby scene. The 'local' workshop wasn't empty, but it wasn't so busy that Naruto couldn't find an empty table to set about working at, and it was noisy enough that everyone in there was too busy focusing on their own amateur creations to even bother with paying attention to the blond teenager that had stuck some bolts of cloth onto a table, staring at them with an indifferent depth.
He wasn't looking at them in truth, instead focusing on a list of potential craftable items his semblance was floating in front of his eyes. "C'mon, please have what I'm looking for…"
He found the items in the list, quickly selecting them and focusing, hands moving on their own as he began the crafting process.
It took less than ten minutes before he was holding the finished products, two Traveller's Hoods and four Traveller's Cloaks, which, according to their descriptions, would conceal the identities of the wearers.
He dropped them into his inventory, moving onto part two of the Crafting setup he needed. A much shorter, easier process than the prior stitching and weaving, Naruto skillfully combined Alchemic Reagent, Light Dust Powder and a single Nigredo into something new, almost a direct inversion of the Nigredo he'd used as an ingredient. Instead of the crystalline black formation it was instead a brilliant, pure white formation. He only needed the one Albedo, however, so he placed it in his inventory with everything else.
He may have only spent a short amount of time within the open workshop, but it was more than enough for what he needed. It, despite what he'd thought earlier, was not his final stop, however.
No, his final stop was a large open area just beyond a nearby alley, where he could do some less than subtle things unobserved.
Like, for example, summon Maya forth, and hand her the two Traveller's Hoods, as well as a pair of the cloaks. "Take them to Blake and Ilia, and try to stay hidden."
His order would be easily followed, Maya was by far the sneakiest of his summons, a remnant from her Bashenga heritage. Atlesian soldiers rarely had Aura strong enough to pick out her presence.
As Maya loped off, Naruto turned his attention to two more summons, using Terrakinesis to prepare the ritual circles he was about to summon them into.
The first was Cadejo, happy as ever to be brought forth, patiently sitting in the center of the circle, tail wagging.
"Hey, buddy. You ready to become something more?"
The question was a hard one to ask, because there was something saddening to give up the potential for dog-piles like he'd had in the past, but at the same time there was something more to it.
Cadejo seemed to consider the question for a moment, before backing away from the circle, sitting outside it. Naruto paused, letting out a sigh that was partial relief. "It was your call. Good boy, c'mere."
Cadejo rounded the ritual circle and sat at Naruto's side as he looked at his list of summons, thinking deeply. His first option had summarily refused, and he couldn't exactly blame him, so instead he needed a second option. Not that they were any less or more worthy, of course, he'd never treat his summons as such, but one that would prove to be as capable as he needed them to be in these particular circumstances.
"Ouroboros. You up for it?" He asked, and the snake-summon slithered forth from a cloud of shadows, onto the ritual circle, coiling up in the center.
That was consent if Naruto had ever witnessed it, clear as day, and so he placed a Nigredo within, placing both hands on either side of the circle, eyes closed as he channelled magical energy through his veins.
There was a flash, a cloud of dark fog, and the sound of sudden, rapid breathing, lungs filling with air only to exhale moments later, slowing to a more normal pace as the fog faded.
In Ouroboros's place was a tall, slim man with short, doppled blond and white hair and piercingly blue eyes, whose neck was covered in a pattern of white scales, a forked tongue flickering out every so often to taste the air, even if it wasn't strictly necessary, seeing as Ouroboros was now very much human. Or at least Faunus, but that wasn't strictly true either.
He was also completely naked, but Naruto had prepared for that eventuality, handing his first Sentient Bound Soul a bundle of pre-bought clothes. "Here, put these on."
As Ouroboros silently set about dressing himself in his new outfit, struggling momentarily with how to use his newly acquired limbs, Naruto turned to the other ritual circle, intent on performing a second identical ritual.
He called forth Alcmena, the heron-like summon reduced to her Minor form to fit in the space, delicately sitting atop the circle.
"Are you ready, Alcmena?" Naruto asked, and Alcmena gave a very distinct nod, so Naruto closed his eyes once more.
He felt the power of his magic flow through him into the ritual circle like a pulsing heartbeat, and even with his eyes closed he knew he was submerged in that dark smoke, thick yet completely breathable in a strange way.
When he opened his eyes again, he was quick to avert them, already passing a bare Alcmena her clothing he'd acquired prior. When she was dressed, he looked back towards her, and found himself grinning, and whilst his expression was different to her own, he knew the feeling behind it was the same.
She was slender and pale, like Ouroboros, with eye color to match, but that was about where the similarities ended. Shoulder-length auburn hair cascaded over slight shoulders, but the biggest difference was in the animalistic heritage. Where Ouroboros had only a minor amount of scales on his neck, and the forked tongue, Alcmena had a set of bronze-feathered vestigial wings mounted between her shoulder-blades, and she'd already skillfully torn through the white long-sleeve button-up to give them breathable access to the sky.
"This feels rather strange," Ouroboros announced, the words sounding somehow both regal and strained, as if he was struggling to speak with his tongue the shape it was. "Limbs are a new experience."
"Having arms is certainly new," Alcmena remarked, flexing her fingers, wiggling them back and forth. "It's quite novel."
Naruto couldn't help the grin on his face. "Do you think the two of you are ready?"
Alcmena flexed her wings, stretching them further than her own arm-span. "I believe I am ready for whatever you require, Master."
Ouroboros echoed her sentiments with his own. "I am prepared for whatever we shall face, Master."
Naruto held back a snigger at the way Ouroboros turned any 's' sound into an extended hiss, instead checking his inventory once more. "Here, you'll need these."
He handed them one of his earliest additions on the day's shopping expedition each. The AP-110, or Atlesian Pistol-110, wasn't a particularly powerful weapon, chambered as it was in nine millimeter, but it was still a cheap yet reliable option, and, even better, it was also rather untraceable. It was hard to track down a specific firearm when every single person in the Atlesian Military was assigned one on their first day of basic training.
Or so said the somewhat-shady dealer who'd sold him the two handguns. He was inclined to believe the man, of course, even if that was really all he was inclined to believe him on.
Even as unused to their new appendages as both Ouroboros and Alcmena were, they still took the firearms with practised ease, checking both the magazines and the chambers fluidly. Obviously they took advantage of Naruto's own Firearms Proficiency skill.
Magplate holsters built into the clothing by default, courtesy of any and all Hunter-grade outfits, took the pistols with well-trained efficiency, and now that both Alcmena and Ouroboros were armed and outfitted, he passed them the last of the items.
They took the Traveller's Cloaks and hoods with less enthusiasm as the firearms, but still put them on.
"I may have to take it off if I try to fly, Master," Alcmena stated, stretching her wings beneath the cloak. "My wings can barely move without completely distorting the cloak."
Naruto nodded. "Do what you need to, your faces aren't exactly covered either way. Besides, if someone is spotting you while you're flying, we're in bigger trouble."
Alcmena was quick to concede the point, not that there had been much contesting to begin with. "We'll be ready when you are, Master."
Ouroboros accentuated her point with a simple nod.
Naruto felt his grin drop somewhat, replaced with a firm determination. "Meet up with Blake and Ilia, and wait. You'll know when to approach when the time is right."
He watched them disappear around the alley corner, Ouroboros still struggling a little with getting used to having legs for the first time in his life, before he turned back to Cadejo, scratching behind the wolf's ear.
"You didn't want to become Sentient just so you could get more ear scritches, huh?" Naruto asked rhetorically. "Sneaky."
If Cadejo had tried to disguise that fact, it hadn't worked. The tail wagging frantically gave that away instantly.
"C'mon, let's go meet a racist, controlling CEO and pretend to sell him some stuff."
Schnee Manor was big. Too big. Way, way, way too big. Exorbitantly, even.
Naruto didn't have to guess if it would never match up to the size of Jacques Schnee's ego, he already knew the answer to that one.
Already he could see servants darting about, dark shapes flitting past window to window, as the private shuttle cruised through the air, landing procedures underway. He was, of course, alone aboard the aircraft, having been specially requested to transport him as a gesture of goodwill from Jacques Schnee.
Naruto doubted anything the man did had anything to do with goodwill, this was just a simple beginning to a long-winded scheme to butter him up. Naruto was no businessman, but he wasn't an idiot, either, and technically he was quite a bit better at social manipulation than most people he met on a day to day basis. Whether or not he was better than Jacques would remain to be seen, but if all went to plan, Naruto wouldn't even have to worry about that, either.
He stepped out of the private shuttle, taking a deep breath of fresh evening air, mentally preparing himself. And magically preparing himself, as he engaged his Allure buff, the feeling of boosted charisma was hard to explain, yet it washed over him all the same.
He was certainly going to need it soon enough.
He hit send on his scroll, pocketing it as he reached the front doors, watching as they swung open to his presence. Of course, they didn't do so automatically, that would make Jacques Schnee seem poor. Instead, Naruto could see snappily dressed attendants, albeit armed, pushing the doors open.
Already Naruto was analyzing the extent of their equipment, checking levels and casually examining points of access, even as a more maid-like servant led him inside, offering to take his coat.
He turned the woman down with a genuine gesture, taking in the sights. Even the Schnee foyer was immense, the staircase leading up to a second flight overly expansive. For a building so consistently empty, it felt paradoxically oppressive.
A portly man descended the stairs, his snappily dressed suit standing out. "Ah, Mr Uzumaki, yes? I'm Klein Sieben, head butler of Schnee Manor, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. If you would be so kind as to follow me, Mr Schnee is awaiting your presence in his office."
Naruto gave the man a smile as he began keeping pace up the stairs, footsteps an echoing staccato as they reverberated off the marble tiles.
The head butler was silent as he led Naruto down various hallways, and Naruto registered each turn into his own internal map, memorizing intersection after intersection, until one particular door was opened, and he was led inside.
The office was well lit, but the dark wood shelves and floor seemed to absorb it, making it seem dimmer than it was. The man himself sat behind a similar wooden desk, though as Naruto entered, he stood up, stepping around it and passing it by, up to a mirroring pair of couches.
"Mr Uzumaki, a pleasure to finally have our proper meeting. I do hope you've brought what you so delicately teased during our last meeting," Jacques greeted, and Naruto shook the offered hand.
"I think you'll find the wait worth it," Naruto said with an easy-going grin. "It's a new material that's lighter and stronger than steel."
Naruto could see Jacques' eyes widen almost imperceptibly, mouth opening as if he had something to say.
So, instead of letting the man flounder, Naruto moved on effortlessly. "Honestly, if it wasn't so specific and so complicated to get a hold of, I'd've gone straight to the Atlesian Military with it. As it is, I need more of a production kind of support. Something I've heard the SDC is skilled at."
Jacques recovered quickly, taking a large Scroll and sitting down on one of the couches, as Naruto took the other. "Lighter and stronger, you say? Do you know by how much?"
Naruto shrugged. "I don't have a concrete number for you yet, it's been a recent development. I've got people working on determining that now, of course. It is significant enough that it could eliminate a significant amount of design complications in various equipment. Larger Paladins, faster Knights, even faster Bullheads or Needlepoints. Just the military applications are near limitless, and that's not even taking into account the civilian market."
There was a moment, where Naruto noticed that all common sense in Jacques Schnee was replaced with pure, unbridled greed.
It was interrupted by an explosion that rocked the building.
Jacques dropped the tablet as he stood, panic and anger on his face. Naruto stood at the same time, drawing Predator.
Showtime.