Hey folks, been a while I know, (Like a full year yikes!) but here is another update.
For fun I just wanna give a few mental images to help everyone imagine the settings and things better. Such as Konoha in this story is far closer to Konoha in the Boruto movie than Naruto series. At Least in size. Fire country's regular military largely looks like the Rebel Pathfinders from Star wars, their flak vests are vaguely similar to the ones used by Konoha chunin and Jonin however the Shinobi versions again are more in line with the Boruto version, lacking the Uzumaki symbol on the back instead having individual clan markings there and clearly being made bulky enough to stop kunai and shuriken, and with luck a slash from a grim's claws. At least the smaller grimm that is.
Anyway that's just some mental images to keep in mind.
Last thing to add, there will be a long segment of expository dialogue in this chapter that informs some of the altered lore of this combined Elemental/Remnant world. I hope I formatted it in a way that is easy to pick up but also not completely breaking of immersion.
Shinobi District Hospital
Hidden Leaf
Land of Fire
Sakura sighed loudly as she sipped on her bottle of water. It had been a more active day today than usual. The docks built along the large river that ran from the Hidden Leaf to the coastline ports had an accident in the shipbuilding portion of the district. The injuries from the accident were bad enough that several civilians were brought to the Shinobi hospital rather than the one of civilian ones. That was actually fine with her. Beyond the occasional injuries the shinobi suffered from either missions or training, the hospital had been slow since the end of the war.
She knew she should be more grateful that it wasn't like it had been back then but still she couldn't help but feel like all her training and time spent studying was a waste if she didn't have any patients that needed her. A couple years ago she had been elbow deep in saving lives but now she spent more time going through files than actually practicing her profession.
Still, she knew it was better this way. She couldn't imagine the younger shinobi having to deal with the same issues that her generation had to when they were their age. Sure the difference was only a few years, but it had been enough to separate them when in the actual conflict. Nobody in the leaf was going to send children into that war knowing the casualties would be high. She had lost several friends on the battlefield, and seen others change from the stress of it. In the end though it led to the League treaty, all five of the Greater Elemental Nations were officially at peace for the first time since the First Shinobi War. That meant her job was far more in paperwork, but just the brief memories of the last war reminded her not to forget why this was so much better than it was back then.
"Hey Sakura, did you hear about Naruto?" Sakura looked up to see Ino infront of her. Her blonde friend was still the beauty she had always been, however since the war the barely perceivable bags under her eyes could be seen.
"What do you mean? What happened to him?" Sakura and Naruto had been friends since they were children. Usually both arguing with one another, or her pulling him and Sasuke off of each other in a fight, still though he was likely her closest friend.
"His team just got back this morning, but." Ino paused for a moment biting her lip. "Well, he evidently didn't return with them." Ino said, a little bit quieter than before.
"What do you mean he didn't return with them?" Sudden worry creeping into her throat.
"I dunno the whole story but I mean if he was killed they would have looked like they were in a fight so he surely isn't dead. I mean this is Naruto we're talking about, so maybe Lady Tsunade could tell you more. I just thought you already knew something happened."
Sakura nodded and discarded her meal tray before telling the desk staff she would be back later. She wasn't absolutely needed for monitoring the earlier patients and if something big happened she could easily be reached with a message. Taking to the rooftops like other shinobi, she made her way quickly toward the Senju compound. Usually Tsunade would be there if she wasn't visiting her family at the palace.
Sakura had spent her life surrounded by the Shinobi of the Hidden Leaf. Her father had been a soldier in the Fire Country regular army and eventually earned a reasonably high ranking position that placed him in the capital where he met Sakura's mother, the only child of a small but well off merchant family. The two knew that to truly surpass them in life Sakura would need to become a shinobi, so after taking the necessary tests to ensure it was safe, Sakura underwent the process to do just that. She had always worked hard, those coming from civilian families rarely excelled as Shinobi, but somehow Sakura had caught the eye of her classmates. The Uchiha's second son and the Crown Prince himself. The three of them had quickly formed a bond. Sasuke told them it was because she worked hard enough to earn their respect, which always made her smile at the thought of her two teammates considering her their equal. Even though she was far and away from that in combat abilities, she proved to herself and others time and again her usefulness as a support fighter in their team during the academy and after they became genin. That was when she met Lady Tsunade, Naruto's grandmother.
Tsunade Senju was a controversial topic to most citizens of Fire Country. She was an alcoholic and gambling addict and had refused to take her place as ruler of their nation choosing instead to allow her Regent when she was a girl to continue to rule until her son was of age. That of course was another thing that many had considered an odd choice. Rather than have her son be known as Minato Senju, she instead had him take his father's name, making him the first Namikaze in line for the throne. Sadly Tsunade had never married the man, he was killed a few weeks prior to their child's birth. Which of course helped her along to becoming the well known drunk gambling addict she was.
Despite all that though Tsunade Senju was considered among the top ten most powerful and dangerous Shinobi in Fire country, easily achieving the coveted S-rank position few others obtained. Even now, in her more advanced age she was feared and respected for that fact. What made her Sakura go to her though wasn't her combat skill. Instead it was her zealous dedication to those she called family, which now included Sakura, and her skill in the healing arts. Once again something Tsunade was unparalleled in.
So knowing that Tsunade would likely be up to date on the going ons with Naruto she raced to the woman's usual place. A comfortable wicker bench under a shade tree. That was where Sakura found her too. Passed out with four empty Sake bottles and an open book laying around her.
She was really enjoying her retirement it seemed.
"Lady Tsunade." Sakura prodded her gently on the shoulder eventually getting the older woman to slowly open her eyes and shoot a mild glare her way.
"What do you need, Sakura? Shouldn't you be at work, I heard a few patients from that accident were handed to you today." She growled while slowly sitting up.
Rolling her eyes at the grumpy blonde before her Sakura cleaned up the small mess her old teacher had made. She chuckled a little as the retired shinobi ran a jutsu to help alleviate the fuzziness she was likely suffering from. A prize won from her habit of non-stop drinking.
"I was just curious if you had heard anything about Naruto and his team. I heard his team returned but he wasn't with them. Do...do you know if he is okay." Sakura asked, a bit of worry entering her voice toward the end. Naruto was in actuality closer to family than either would like to openly admit. He had been like the younger brother on her team, one she had become extremely proud of over the years, but still she couldn't help but worry about him when he did such things as take missions for the Queen's personal ANBU branch, the so-called Hunter Corps.
"What mission? Last I heard from the brat he was personally training Narumi to try out for his unit." Tsunade was much more alert now, having heard her grandson had been evidently on a mission and not returned. She would be having words with Kushina if that was the case. Queen or not, the red-head was still the same little girl she had primarily raised in the blonde woman's mind. As much as said redhead wanted to deny it.
"C'mon." Tsunade said adjusting her attire and taking off onto the rooftops with Sakura wordlessly following.
It wasn't long before they had arrived at the royal palace gates. Simply seeing the agitated Tsunade coming their way sent most of the guards scurrying to clear a path for her. Most being the operative word however.
"Lady Tsunade, Lady Sakura, how can I help you two? Here to check up on the twins or Narumi perhaps?" The poor fool remaining in their path asked with a friendly smile. Tsunade brushed past the young man as she walked into what was her lifelong home until she moved to the old clan compound to make room for Minato and Kushina's seemingly ever expanding family.
"Kid, take the day off and find a book about reading the situation. You need it, badly." Tsunade snarled as she crumpled the lock to the antique gate and shoved the steel obstacle aside with a flick of the wrist. It was especially impressive as the guards had to use a motorized pulley system to slide the gate in and out of the path and Tsunade had essentially just knocked the thing off the track. That would take a bit of work to fix.
As Tsunade continued on Sakura hesitated briefly and shot an apologetic smile at the guards who all stared after the blonde on the warpath. "Um, I think one of you might give His Majesty as well as Her Majesty a heads up that Lady Tsunade is here, looking for Naruto." With that she took off after her teacher.
The guards blinked briefly before Sakura's words caught up to them and the older guards cringed heavily from the situation. They soon began scrambling to set the gate back on track and more importantly send a warning to the King and Queen that the King's mother was on her way up wondering where her favorite of the royal children was.
As the grunts at the palace gate ran around like chickens with their heads cut off the pair of medical prodigies strode through the palace grounds with purpose. Tsunade had been agitated earlier, knowing her son and daughter-in-law were up to some hairbrained scheme again involving Naruto. Now however noticing the Royal Guard, including the Guardian ANBU, one of the three main divisions of the ANBU, all but fleeing from her, she was growing furious. That meant they knew something about her family before she did.
"So help those brats if something happened to Naruto or Narumi I will treat them like I did when they were kids. Crowns on their head or not. Sakura, take note of the thorniest bush in case I have to have them pick out switches to use." Tsunade barked out causing a slight flinch in the guards and sending her student stumbling while blushing and stuttering at the mental image of Tsunade spanking the King and Queen like misbehaved children.
Rounding another corner the pair came to a halt just outside the Royal apartments. Mikoto Uchiha was there, meaning Kushina was nearby. The two women were best friends and Mikoto had been her assigned bodyguard since they both were fresh genin as was a tradition for many members of the Uchiha and Royal families when graduating around the same age. It was a damn good thing the pair got along so well.
Perhaps not in this situation though.
"Hello Lady Tsunade, and Sakura it's always good to see you sweetheart." Mikoto smiled at the pair as they came to a stop.
"Move Mikoto I need to speak with Kushina." Tsunade glowered down at the slightly shorter woman.
"I'm afraid you will have to wait, she is...comforting Narumi at the moment. Her initiation mission for Kushina's division went very badly." Mikoto said while blocking the path to the door.
Tsunade's glare at the Uchiha woman intensified as she was blocked from access to what had essentially been her home until recently. For her part Sakura couldn't help but chew her lip. She had thought she was used to not only Tsunade's but all of the Royal family's antics by this point yet still the woman beside her could put her on edge with little more than her glare. It spoke wonders for Mikoto as she was not even flinching.
What didn't help matters was that Mikoto was the matriarch of the Uchiha clan and mother of Sasuke, Sakura's fiance. The woman had only ever been nice to Sakura, still she was considered among the three deadliest kunoichis in the Hidden Leaf. The only proof needed was that she still held the honor of being the current Queen's bodyguard.
"Mikoto, where is my grandson?" Tsunade growled. Sakura chomped down a little harder on her lip, enough to cause slight pain even as she braced for the snap of Tsunade's legendary temper. Naruto was Tsunade's favorite of her grandchildren. She loved them all but with Kushina's workload on top of raising the younger three kids Tsunade had watched over Naruto for a great amount of his life, and everyone could easily see her motherly instinct was just as strong as it had always been.
Tsunade might have been a drunk gambling addict, but she was also the mother of the current King of Fire Country, the surrogate mother of the Queen of Fire Country, adoptive mother of her actual sister-in-law, and had largely raised not only Naruto but also Sakura as her parents couldn't truly fulfill the requirements a young kunoichi needed. They just didn't have the same lifestyle to properly guide her.
So with one of her kids appearing to be endangered, Tsunade looked about to kick Mikoto through the door. She more than likely could too.
"Lady Tsunade, I don't know where he is. I just know that his team came back from Narumi's initiation mission and he was missing and Narumi looked confused and extremely upset. Let Kushina calm the poor girl down before you tear your way through here and make her even more upset if...if he was lost." Mikoto calmly explained.
Sakura breathed a sigh of relief as Tsunade gradually calmed. She was still a hairsbreadth from going on the warpath but she knew better than most when someone needed comforting. So instead she pivoted and began marching off toward the ANBU wing of the palace, with Sakura again a foot behind her.
"Uhm, Lady Tsunade, why are you goin-" Sakura began only to be cut off.
"We are going to grill that lazy Nara of his second in command for details. I don't care if I have to run it like a battlefield interrogation he will spill." Sakura went back to chewing her lip. Tsunade's anger at being kept out of the loop over what was going on had twisted to growing fear of what might have happened.
The pinkette had to shake her head to get rid of the thoughts running through it. There had been many times during the war that friends and comrades would go missing for weeks on end. Communications were spotty in peacetime, in war it could often be impossible to get word of each other's well being. Multiple times those weeks had ended with her friends coming back roughed up but not truly worse for wear. Other times they had found friends corpses left where they had fallen, the thought of Naruto ending up like that had hit her several times during the war. He had been a front line officer so it was always a possibility. Now though, times were supposed to have changed and become more peaceful than ever before in their history. She hadn't lost anyone close to her since the war, and silently prayed it wouldn't start today.
Beacon Academy Infirmary
As Naruto had planned Weiss awoke in the infirmary less than an hour after getting knocked unconscious. Around her the rest of her team sported ice packs in various locations and a set of solemn expressions. Which she adopted after remembering the spar they had just had with the Shinobi.
Weiss could acknowledge that she was somewhat of a prideful individual, and as with most prideful people usually, her first reaction was to blame another for what had happened. That lasted all of a second before she let out a sigh catching her team's attention and she recalled spending the day up to the fight poking and prodding the boy believing he was some sort of weakling putting up a false front. She had encountered a great many people like that in Atlas.
In fact the majority of young men and women in Atlas did their best to present themselves as the peak of whatever field they held interest in. Most were easy enough to pick apart by observation alone. Naruto was different though. Sadly Weiss hadn't seen that until she learned the hard way. A few insecurities she had previously put to rest now bubbled up at the thought of how easily she was defeated until someone took her hand.
Surprised by the sudden action Weiss gazed over to see her partner sharing a small understanding smile with her. Again, as a prideful individual Weiss felt the initial urge to yank her hand away and scoff at the thought of needing Ruby to comfort her. Thankfully their short time together as a team had helped her to push past that ingrained urge and simply send a small smile back as she squeezed the younger girl's hand.
"I'm glad you're awake. I was worried when he hit you in the head." Ruby said softly.
"Th-" Weiss began before wincing by the sudden pain reminding her of her blow to the head. "Thank you Ruby."
"We underestimated him terribly." Blake said, drawing the smaller girls' attention.
The group remained silent after that, though Weiss felt slightly better because of what Blake said. She hadn't been alone in expecting victory in the fight. While the fact they were easily beaten stung almost as badly as the new knot on her head, it wasn't so bad when sharing in their defeat with their team.
"Do you think all shinobi are like that?" Ruby asked. The other girls looked her way a little surprised by her question.
"No, at least I don't think so." Yang said as she stepped closer and put a hand on Ruby's shoulder. "That guy in the woods wasn't near as skilled as the girl, just stronger and more durable. I think Naruto and Narumi are like you Ruby, prodigies."
"Still, he is going to be insufferable now. He was annoying before now with this he will be all like 'I told you so.' and hold his victory over our heads." Weiss growled. The thought of him being smug made her even more annoyed than before.
"Maybe." Blake said though she seemed a little conflicted on the whole thing.
"Did you notice how different he was in the training arena though?" Ruby asked, causing the others to give her questioning looks. "It was like he was a different person. Think about it, you saw it too right?"
The other girls quietly thought about the change. It was like the pompous and annoying boy they had dealt with throughout the day had just disappeared and a completely different person had decided to wail on them for a few moments.
"That is because it is likely how he is trained, ladies." A voice surprised them. In the doorway Ozpin looked at them with an unreadable look before a small smile passed over his face and he let himself into the room fully.
"Here, these are mostly water but have some additives that slightly speed up healing and help lessen any aches or pains." He said handing out four tiny clear bottles.
"Thank you." Each of the girls said softly in turn.
The room fell back into silence briefly as Ozpin watched the girls slowly down the water before he nodded his head in approval.
"Well done in your spar today Team RWBY, I am quite pleased with the outcome." The headmaster said with a grin.
The girls looked at him as if he was insane causing the man to nearly chuckle at their expressions. They remained dumbstruck briefly before sharing a few glances as if silently communicating.
'Good. They are growing closer through trials like this. Exactly what is needed of them.' The man thought.
"Sir, how can you be pleased with the outcome?" Ruby asked for her whole team.
"Ruby, girls, did you all really think I would let someone I had no idea at all about to interact with you all the way I have? That I would just through you to an unknown?" Ozpin asked with the slightest scolding in his tone.
"But, it was like he changed at the drop of a hat. How could you have-" Weiss began to argue before groaning and laying her head back softly against the pillow. The drink had helped but not completely removed the throbbing in her skull.
"You know I have encountered a great many shinobi in the past actually." Ozpin pointed out getting a round of shocked looks from his students. "Granted, not near as much as I would like, however I have encountered far more than just our young Prince." He said with a bit of a cheeky look.
"Then why did you let us spar him if you knew exactly what would happen?" Yang asked in confusion.
"Ah, you seem to misunderstand. I did not know exactly what would happen. Perhaps he would refuse flatly. Maybe he would attempt to escape. Maybe he would have been astonishingly weak for someone of his position. All of those were possibilities, but I was there to ensure that those possibilities didn't include him harming you four." Their headmaster explained.
Instead of understanding looks he got a new round of disbelieving stares before the girls all slowly turned to look at their friend in the bed and back to their school master. At this he only sighed.
"Girls, what I am about to tell you is something you will have to come to acknowledge as the reality of the world you are working to involve yourself with. If you consider a few bumps and scratches and a free nap as harmed, then you don't belong here." He said harshly taking the girls back in surprise.
"Don't mistake my meaning. I want all of you here, and I think you will do very well, however look inward now and think. If you can't take a beating in a sparring match, how will you handle your first mission? How will you be prepared for finding the victims of our enemy? These sort of questions should be the ones in your mind as you think on your future as huntresses. That is why I said I am pleased from the outcome." He said with a small grin once again growing on his face as he stood.
"You don't learn nearly as much from winning every fight you are in girls. As a teacher, getting you to learn as much as possible is part of my goal." He bid them goodbye and slipped quietly out leaving the girls in silence to stew in thought.
After a long period of silence however Yang finally couldn't help herself.
"Why is he such a weird dude." All she got were flat stares in response, though the other's couldn't help but partially agree.
Beacon First Year History Course
It had been a day since Weiss had been released from the infirmary and returned to classes. All of team RWBY had been happy to learn that Headmaster Ozpin had given them a release from homework on the classes they had missed with Yang joking that Weiss should get knocked out more often leading to the white and yellow portions of the team to dive into a catfight that ended as soon as they remembered just how achey they still were.
Classes, had largely returned to normal, that is as normal as having the shinobi joining them would allow it to be. Surprisingly, at least to Weiss, Naruto hadn't attempted to embarrass or even remind them of the spar a single time. He had hardly spoken and never even to their team, it was as if he was distracted by something at all times. Still, when he did see them a simple nod was all they got in acknowledgement before he returned to whatever he was doing before.
Funnily enough, the fact that he hadn't taunted them about his victory affected them all the more. Each differently of course. Ruby, was a conflicted mix of depressed and determined to become a better fighter. Yang was slowly getting very pissed off at her fellow blond as he seemed to ignore them. Weiss shared her mindset taking his passive behaviour as considering them lower than his worth to interact with. Blake on the other hand was equal parts relieved and sad that the boy seemed to have no interest in Team RWBY what-so-ever.
As for Naruto, Team RWBY was little more than background noise at the moment. As far as anyone could tell, at least for Doctor Oobleck, Naruto was simply settling in for the wait till his homeland's diplomatic party arrived. As was the usual with shinobi however, Naruto's actual attention was working away at something hidden underneath what he seemed to be hiding. Effectively underneath the underneath.
For Naruto, while he was in history class, the continuous stream of information from his wave of transformed clones took a hefty amount of his brain enough that he could play the part of an efficient shinobi biding his time to make his move while pretending to wait for back up to arrive while pretending to be a stuck up prince bored in class. When the truth was, he had already begun his move.
It seemed Beacon's security was far better than even his parent's and team had planned for. The basement had taken an extremely long time to breach without raising alarms, at least for someone like Naruto it felt like a long time. Added on to that he had discovered that the basement was not in fact the lowest level of Beacon Academy. What lie below, he couldn't yet say. However his clones had been able to figure out that there existed three more levels below the one he now had gotten access too.
According to the intel given by the mysterious client his parents were dealing with, their target was somewhere on campus, and to be certain he was digging in the right hole, Naruto had sent his clones all over campus disguised as everything from flies to ants to leaves caught in the wind. He was making good progress on fully mapping the place out by now. That being said, he could almost say for certain, while there were a surprisingly large amount of high security areas, such as the top of the central tower or most of the CCT building the only place that continued to make sense was in fact the sub levels the academy had hidden below.
Now it was just a matter of finding a way in and completing the mission.
"Hey, Prince Charming!" An annoying voice called out drawing him back out from his thoughts.
Looking around Naruto realized that the whole class appeared to be looking at him. It took a moment but clearly he had missed something, causing him to curse at himself for releasing too many clones at once again.
"I said-" The annoying boy began, aggravating Naruto more and causing him to snap uncharacteristically.
"I heard what you said, school boy, are you going to tell me what it is you want or are you going to keep trying to bother the guy who crushed your classmates in here that could kick your ass while blindfolded." Naruto growled out centering his red eyes on the idiot.
The class tensed more than it already had with the suddenly angry looking Naruto standing from his desk to fully face Cardin.
"Well?" He asked the auburn haired boy. One that actually loomed a head taller than himself and was of a fare thicker build with clear muscles.
Cardin's surprise at Naruto's sudden anger rolled away to reveal a sneer on his face as he locked eyes with him. Both boys were silent for a moment as even Doctor Oobleck watched on, though he was more curious about how the situation would resolve itself than anything.
"Oh, don't mind me I was just making sure you were participating. The teacher is talking about your shithole part of the world right? Shouldn't you pay attention?" Cardin said keeping his sneer. The tension dissipated with his petulant words as it became clear both boys knew who would win if they actually fought.
"I think I know more of my 'shithole part of the world' than everyone else in this school put together." Naruto commented with an eye roll moving to return to his seat.
"Actually young Naruto, that is an excellent point. Perhaps you can educate all of us. Come on down here please." Oobleck said suddenly seeing an opportunity to drag more information about the Elemental League out of the boy.
Groaning internally Naruto shot a smile toward Oobleck that made the man chuckle faintly realizing he might be paying for this later. Either way though the history teacher planned to stay the course. Without any other real choice beyond being a complete ass and refusing, which could lead to issues between him and Ozpin's crew, Naruto slowly made his way to the front of the classroom.
"What exactly did you have in mind?" Naruto asked with a sigh.
"How about a recent major event. The Fourth Shinobi war? Little is known about that outside of that it occurred recently and had far reaching ramifications. Perhaps you could enlighten us to what started the conflict, who was fighting, and what were those ramifications exactly." The man said as he took a seat at one of the free desks and opened his own e-scroll to take notes.
'I am so not forgetting this DeePee!' Naruto mentally growled at the man before looking around the room at the expectant looks of the students.
"I guess, it's not like we are trying to hide it from anyone, most people coming into the League for trade don't really care much about the war so that's probably most of why you all know so little." Naruto began getting a small disbelieving snort from the green haired teacher getting a glare from the blond before he was waved forward to continue.
"Alright, to start with I guess the best thing to point out is the politics leading up to the war. There was a lot that led into it. War isn't something that is started on a whim if your leaders have any moral integrity at all. After the third shinobi war things in the Elemental Nations had slowly split. The majority of power is situated in a handful of larger nations surrounded by medium and small buffer states. It's been like that since the end of the second shinobi war. Following the third however things were different." He was surprised when a map appeared on the screen behind him from, what he could only assume was Oobleck's e-scroll.
Using the map to point things out a little made things easier on him so he simply nodded in thanks to the professor before continuing what he realized was turning into a lecture. He would need to tell Iruka all about this when he got home, the man would get a kick out of the thought of Naruto lecturing a class like he had complained about Iruka doing with him and his classmates.
"Yeah, so here you can see how the smaller nations all surround the larger ones. Prior to the end of the third war, and during the first and second especially the smaller nations were all reliant on the larger ones for their independence while the larger nations needed the smaller countries as buffers between their similarly sized neighbors. With the end of the third war things changed though. Places like Rain, Grass, and Waterfall had suffered terribly as the main battlefields during the war, but their populations were actually not terribly affected. In contrast, the major nations were practically untouched, however the populations of their militaries had in some cases been nearly halved." He pointed to Earth Country specifically.
"Some casualties in the war were so high that a single battle might see thousands dead. As you all know this also drew the grimm in droves. And again while the smaller nations landscape was heavily affected they avoided much of the grief and hatred from losing loved ones in battle. So following the Third War, Grimm attacks in the major Elemental Nations increased by over 700% making it the sharpest increase since the end of the Great War between the kingdoms." Naruto said.
He looked out at the students and was surprised to see them largely paying attention. Even the hyperactive Ruby and laid-back Yang were listening intently. It almost made him smile slightly. It was kind of refreshing to simply teach people something that back home was completely basic knowledge.
"So anyway, thanks to the increase of grimm attacks the major nations were further weakened, and to better ensure their own stability and safety from say bandit tribes or grimm attacks of their own, the smaller nations increased their militaries sizes and hardened their training, making some of them nearly on par with the weaker major nations. This coupled with lessened interaction through trade thanks to the grimm pushed us all from a system of tight alliances toward isolationist mentalities. That being said some saw the writing on the wall and knew this would lead to a new war eventually. So several bands of peacekeepers were formed, primarily from displaced veterans of the third shinobi war, or from survivors of towns and villages caught in the crossfire. Most would eventually either break apart or be absorbed by local militaries as they resettled in new places. This brings me to the Akatsuki." Naruto said gaining a raised eyebrow from Oobleck.
"The Akatsuki, were initially a peacekeeping force formed by a collection of war orphans from the land of Rain during the Second Shinobi war.. This force would grow and flourish in the aftermath of the Third war because of the need for experienced fighters across the entire region. Initially the group was almost exclusively a peacekeeping force and even eventually included some like disgraced officers from other militaries and young recruits trying to make names for themselves. However a few years following the war the Akatsuki would outgrow it's mission, and require income to maintain the humanitarian mission they initially sought out. So they returned to their roots and began accepting mercenary contracts." He sighed slightly thinking back on the history of the group.
"The group, initially led by a partnership between the war orphans I previously mentioned and a soldier from my own nation thought to be dead, began to change. Their ideology became obsessive and through their many contracts with various smaller nation leaders they began to act as almost a go-between for the smaller nations. This in turn lead to a break in ideology between the two halves of the group. The former soldier, who I'll simply call Tobi as it was one of his aliases, was intent on eventually overturning the political system of the Elemental Nations, some of what he wanted would eventually even be put in place in the Elemental League, however his own personal issues and past made him intent on destroying all of the major nations and rebuilding them in a different image. Opposing him the three orphans wanted to initially act as mediators. From what I understand the group almost split and broke up over this. Instead due to a botched contract, one of the leaders of Akatsuki would be killed by members of their homeland's national military. Using this as an opportunity, Tobi turned Akatsuki into a force to overthrow Rain Country's leadership and begin his plan to revolutionize the elemental nations." Naruto said.
He then realized he had yet to even get to the actual war and internally groaned before switching things up to talk more about major points.
"So shortly after this brief but bloody skirmishes between some of the major and minor nations started occurring, and fearing another shinobi war several minor nations turned to their allies in the Akatsuki, who now led Rain, and formed a secretive alliance. Rather than outright attack major nations, as even when united they lacked the manpower to completely defeat them on their home turf, instead the minor nations began playing the larger countries against one another. Purposefully organizing joint missions that led to major nations shinobi or soldiers coming into conflict with one another. This eventually led to the Iron Country Summit. Also known as the Massacre at Three Wolves Mountain." The group was more intrigued now.
"The summit had members from every royal family of the Elemental Nations present, my Father included. However, as the group began the meeting, Tobi, leading a small force of veteran Akatsuki troops ambushed the leaders inadvertently killing the Iron Country ruler and wounding it's military commander as well as killing many royalty and wounding others from various parts of the diplomatic parties sent. My dad was on the mend for quite a while."
"Wouldn't everyone know that the Akatsuki was behind the whole thing then though?" Ruby asked, disliking this Tobi guy quite a bit.
"You would think, but the thing is Akatsuki were the cream of the crop mercenaries by this point. Practically everyone hired them at some point, major nations included. On top of that, at the same time, Akatsuki launched attacks on all the major nations, acting as if they were fighting as mercenary forces hired by the other side. Chaos ensued. For nearly a month afterward every side rallied forces and tried to pinpoint how best to strike one another. The Akatsuki however hadn't planned for one thing. Since they accidentally killed the only person in Iron country to know of their plan and wounded the man who had power afterward, Iron Country attempted to remain neutral, while only issuing bounties for Tobi and his veteran troops." Naruto explained.
"Eventually the war would start proper with the Earth Country's invasion of Waterfall Country, a traditional ally of my own homeland, who was staunch enemies with Earth Country. We retaliated by attempting to flank their forces through Grass Country. This was almost exactly what had occurred on this front in the Third Shinobi war. Except this time, the smaller nations were luring our forces into traps. The massive ambushes crippled both countries initial pushes and broke nearly all offensive moves of either nation for the next six months. Similar things had happened to every major nation and soon for us in the major nations it seemed that literally every nation was fighting it's own series of smaller wars. It was pure chaos. Battles would begin one day, be fought and won only for the seemingly same forces to fight again and again. The smaller nations purposefully pitted the larger nations against one another then often disguising themselves as the enemy would launch ambushes in supposedly friendly areas. When we finally realized what was really going on nearly nine months had passed and every side dropped into a stalemate. Deciding to meet once more to try and reach an end to the conflict a new summit was held. This time in the outwardly neutral Rain country." Naruto lectured.
"This summit went about how you expected it did. Those sent, this time not of the Royal families but high ranking diplomats and some of their hardest hitters would again be ambushed. However, in the aftermath of this a spy that had been a part of the Akatsuki and working for my homeland finally gained access to information that could turn the tide in a way few realized. It turns out Tobi had masterminded the murder of his former partner to gain control over Akatsuki leading to the organization falling into civil war. The survivors of the original founders made their way to my homeland where, with help from our spy they gained sanctuary. After explaining everything the Akatsuki had effectively switched sides, causing the war to turn far more one sided as the major nations unified along with several minor nations that had suffered similar manipulations by Tobi over the years. The only holdouts had been Rain, Waterfall, Grass, and Rice Countries. Their armies were bolstered by masses of criminals and former mercenaries from previous wars and after the fighting earlier in the war they could field a force large enough to actually pull victory in a defensive fight. Especially after a campaign of sabotage bombings from a network of traitors futher crippled the major nations." Naruto said before walking over and picking up Oobleck's scroll and typing in a few commands opened up a drawing app to make notes on the board.
Drawing in the fronts and what forces were available Naruto denoted the three divisions created to fight Tobi's army of radicals and criminals. The first, composed of Fire and Wind Country was from the South and East, the second composed of Earth and Iron forces came in from the North and West, and the last composed of Lightning and Water forces came in from the North and East.
In front of these forces however were lines upon lines of defenses and enemy forces. The numbers showed that while collectively the allied nations outnumbered the defenders heavily, each division was fighting a very steep upward battle.
"The rest of the war was pretty straightforward, Akatsuki, surprisingly fought very hard to redeem their name and most of the true Akatsuki are considered heroes of the war now. The war lasted for another nearly half of a year before the last holdouts surrendered. The enemy burned anything they couldn't take and poisoned massive swathes of their own territory whenever they fell back. Not to mention the Grimm in the area had once again increased in their number of attacks. It was a slow slog. In the end the allied forces won, but the cost was massive and Rain, Grass, and Waterfall will probably never truly recover from the damage. Their landscape is broken and their populations have dropped so low that they have started campaigns to invite immigrants from other Elemental League members to move there." Naruto turned off the app and handed it back to Oobleck.
"What about after the conflict?" Oobleck asked politely, though in a noticeably quieter voice after he locked eyes with Naruto. It was clear the blond faunus knew the Fourth war intimately and from first hand experience.
"Uh, well Akatsuki was reorganized alongside the 'Third Summit'. During that the Elemental League was created to prevent similar things from happening again. Essentially a more unified and involved organization of all of the Elemental Nations. The Akatsuki was turned into a sort of border control and joint security force for the League with members from every nation joining. The leaders, or well last surviving leader retired from the Akatsuki but was made Queen of her homeland. She has done a lot to rebuild the destroyed places in the smaller nations. There is a lot of work left though and Grimm attacks are still increased from the war." Naruto informed.
"Excellent thank you very much Naruto. Now does anyone have any questions for Naruto before we end class for the day." Oobleck said as he rejoined Naruto at the front of the room.
"Yeah what did you do in the war?" Cardin asked rudely. The look in his eyes suggesting he was looking for a chance to mock the prince. Naruto glared slightly, but the interested looks from the other students caused him to bite back a smart ass retort.
"I was squad leader during the early days but was a sub-commander in the campaign for Rain and Grass Countries." Naruto explained. Purposefully leaving details out.
While he hadn't gone into detail, the more attentive, or simply empathetic students could draw the conclusion that Naruto was a part of the heavy fighting in the final pushes into the smaller countries.
Just as another student prepared to ask a question the bell for class ending rang and the students began gathering their items to leave. Naruto sighed in relief before doing the same glad to no longer be under the spotlight.
"Naruto, Headmaster Ozpin has requested I guide you and team RWBY to his office for a short meeting." Oobleck said having somehow refilled his thermos once more and begun drinking from it.
"Why?" Naruto asked, a little annoyed. He really didn't want to deal with team RWBY at the moment. While it wasn't too bad, his lecture had left a few memories at the fore front of his mind.
"I suppose we will know once we arrive. An adventure, how fun." Oobleck joked causing Naruto to grin slightly.
"Whatever you say, let's drop my things off and meet them there." Naruto replied and the pair left.
Ozpin's Office
Once Naruto and his ever present escort had joined the others in the tower top office, he was immediately on edge. He still couldn't properly get a read on the man sitting casually behind his large desk, however he had picked up a few cues over his brief stay here at Beacon. There seemed to always be a little flicker of something in the man's eyes when he was planning something. Sadly it seemed to be almost always there, however anytime he seemed to be initiating some sort of scheme to begin with it became far more pronounced.
Naruto had last noticed it just before the spar with team RWBY. Things hadn't gone how the man had exactly planned he was sure, but even then it seemed that they had all fallen into place for him. That idea bothered the shinobi far more than the basic knowledge that Ozpin was clearly scheming yet another way to entwine him with this team of teenage girls.
"Now that we are all here," Ozpin said breaking the mildly tense silence and scanning the faces of Oobleck, Goodwitch, Naruto, and the four girls of Team RWBY. "We can begin discussing things. I can't abide the thought of you five developing bad blood, especially with the looming arrival of more diplomatic personnel from Konoha. It would be unacceptable for our guests falling prey to over-excitement in a spar to sour the initial mood of any talks that may take place."
Naruto's eyes narrowed at the man, before realizing that both Glynda and Team RWBY, all of which had been here a good few minutes prior to himself seemed completely unaffected by anything the man had said. It seemed he would need to reevaluate the level of involvement the students had in their leader's plots.
"Thankfully, I have come to an idea that could help grow the bond between our groups, as well as compensate the girls of Team RWBY for the inconvenience of the other days' events." Ozpin said.
'I really don't like where this is going.' Naruto thought.
"Starting tomorrow, after classes for the first half of team training times, Naruto will help to tutor Team RWBY in hand-to-hand." Ozpin drawled before taking a sip as he saw Naruo's eyes widen briefly before turning into very narrow and angry slits.
"I hope to give you something to spend your time on, rather than wandering around the CCT." Ozpin added when he saw Naruto opening his mouth to complain.
Immediately his mouth clicked shut and he was again on the backfoot. Ozpin was far more aware of his actions than he was pleased with, hopefully he wasn't completely aware of what he had been doing. Still, he couldn't honestly expect him to do as he was asking.
"The four of them don't have chakra, and even if they did I am not about to give out my home's combat skills to strangers." Naruto growled.
Blake wilted slightly at his choice of words, but the rest of team RWBY also seemed uncomfortable with spending more time with the Shinobi and were annoyed by his refusal.
"I don't expect anything of the sort, I simply can acknowledge that you are far and above them in hand to hand abilities and could help them improve their own abilities." The headmaster replied.
With that Naruto was honestly out of arguments to avoid it. He still couldn't wrap his head entirely around why Ozpin was so hard on to have him and team RWBY bond, or if that was even his true goal. Naruto could always flat out refuse but it was clear that Naruto was under far better supervision than he had thought, and him refusing would likely be an opening to have him locked down almost entirely in his quarters or something similar. With his clones in the sub-levels not apparently discovered yet he couldn't afford to surrender his access to the rest of the school. Even his clones only lasted so long.
"Fine. I guess that can be agreeable. Not sure what I will actually be able to teach them." Naruto said with a huff. Playing up his childishness.
"Oh, I'm sure you have plenty to teach them. After all, everyone has already been learning a great deal from you so far." Ozpin said before angling his monitor screen showing a paused video of Naruto teaching Oobleck's class about the shinobi war.
It seemed Ozpin was far better at this game than he had given credit for. The man, and likely his staff were no doubt filing away every little bit of information he gave out. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant. Just like with his clone's activities, Naruto would have to watch himself to keep from revealing anything.
"If that's it, I guess I'll go get ready to head down for dinner." Naruto grumbled, not even turning to look at the girls nearby.
"Have a wonderful night." Ozpin said with a noticeably larger amount of cheek in his tone. At least to those looking for it.
Ichiraku Ramen
Shikamaru and his team enjoyed their meal at Ichiraku rather than the ANBU cafeteria today. Perhaps for the next couple of days too. If anyone asked if they were avoiding the overprotective and violent nature of one Irate Lady Tsunade, they most assuredly were not. They just felt a need to change up the schedule for a while.
Still, perhaps they should stop by the flower shop and pick something up for their brave comrades they had 'failed' to warn. Try and smooth things over.
Whew this took clearly too long to come out. But hey here it is. Not too much happening, a little bit of information about this world's past and new arrangements being made. Yes, that is the title of the chapter. Imagine that.