Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Naruto or RWBY franchises. Comments/Criticism is fine as logn as it isn't just hate or flaming.
Thanks for reading and please enjoy
Reality Viewing: Nora's a Mommy
-Chapter 4-
"…And that's about it, sir." Glynda stated with a sigh as she finished filling Ozpin in on the events of the last few hours, including a summarized version of the 'episodes' she had seen so far.
Humming softly under his breath, the headmaster of Beacon idly drank from his ever-present cup as he mulled over what he'd been told. "It's a good thing my meeting ended early then because it sounds like quite the interesting little situation you've all found yourselves in, doesn't it?"
"You don't know the half of it Professor." Wiess said as she flipped through the book the disk had come in, revealing a bunch of information ranging from personal files to maps. Unfortunately though, what it actually said remained a mystery as most of the words literally wiggled across the pages randomly in a chaotic mess of gibberish, leaving only a few stationary (and thus readable) sentences of the barest amount of information.
She had decided to take a look whilst Glynda explained everything to see if she could get anymore insight on how any of this was possible, only to end up with even more question rather than answers. And she wasn't the only one as Ren and Blake read over the whitette's shoulders, their normally stoic faces looking somewhat nauseated as they tried and failed to piece together anything from the moving words.
After a few more moments though, the trio simply gave up as Wiess snapped the book shut and dropped it onto the coffee table in favor of massaging her forehead. "I swear this whole thing just keeps giving me a bigger and bigger headache by the minute, both literally and figuratively."
"Understatement." Blake stated bluntly as she did the same whilst Ren simply nodded in agreement.
"Aspirin?" Pyrrha asked while holding up a bottle of said medication which all three of them gladly accepted.
"I'm still kinda stuck on the 'that's us but not us' thing myself." Ruby said while gesturing to the TV, where the selection menu had just changed to once again show herself running off with Naruto on her shoulders after he threw a pie in Yang's face.
"Ditto." "Same here." Both Jaune and Yang admitted at the same time, the former holding his hand up and the latter snickering at her other self's misfortune.
"I can certainly see why," The headmaster of Beacon said with a nod when the background changed to show his second in command apparently teaching the unusual faunus child the ABCs with an uncharacteristically gentle smile on her lips. And he certainly didn't miss the tiny smile that appeared on his actual second in command's lips upon seeing the scene. "Then perhaps it would be best If we-"
"Keep watching episodes! Way ahead of you!" Nora said excitedly as she clicked the play button on the remote.
-The Grand Un-Veiling-
"…Actually I was going to suggest having the disk taken to be analyzed and possibly determine its origins, but I guess watching one of these for myself first wouldn't hurt either." Ozpin finished casually once the introduction screen appeared, makign Nora giggle sheepishly and the rest of the room's occupants to facepalm or giggle at the orangette's antics.
-Last time-
"We gotta show you some-!" Qrow covered both of their mouths with his hands, effectively muting them.
"Sorry, would love to stay and chat but me and Ozzy here have a job to do." He told them bluntly before pulling his hands back.
"He is correct," Ozpins said as he dusted himself off and accepted his cane from Pyrrha with a nod of thanks, "We have to get going, but may I ask what you all are doing up at this hour, and why is Ms. Valkyrie not present?"
"She's barricaded in the bathroom, giving a bath to a faunus kid she found on campus and now wants to adopt." Blake told them bluntly getting blinks of surprise.
"…"
"… He wouldn't happen to be about this tall, blonde, nine red tails, and love to eat dust, would he?" Qrow asked while holding his hand at hip height, getting baffled looks from all the teens.
-And Now-
"Boo! No recaps! Get to the new stuff already!" Nora yelled while throwing a wrapper at the TV only for it to abruptly change direction midair and zip into a nearby trashcan, promptly followed by Glynda swatting the orangette atop the head with her riding crop. "Ouchie!"
"Behave yourself Ms. Valkyrie."
"Yeah, how'd you guess?" Yang asked, being the first one to snap from her surprise, making Qrow laughed as he took out a flask and took a long draught.
"Because it wasn't a guess, I was the one who brought that little brat here. Which was a major pain in the ass by the way."
"Swear Jar!"
Qrow just stuck his tongue out childishly at Ruby as he took another drink.
"Really Ruby? A swear jar?" Jaune asked with a raised brow as said hooded girl smiled sheepishly with a light blush, which only grew deeper when Blake added.
"She tried to set one up for our dorm as well on the first day, but Yang threw it out the window the moment she turned around."
"Hey, I had to deal with that for ten years at home, I ain't letting myself get bled dry here as well," The blonde in question stated with a shrug. "Besides I'm seventeen, I'll speak however I very well please thank you very much."
"Don't we know it." Wiess grumbled under her breath, remembering all the many vulgarities that would spill forth from Yang's lips whenever she got mad or in a bad mood for whatever reason. Although she did noticeably restrain herself whenever Ruby was in the same room, whether out of habit avoiding having to pay up at home or just not likely cursing in front of the raven-redhead was unclear.
While on the outside he was the perfect picture of calm and collected, internally Ozpin was palming his face with a sigh. Why couldn't he have a single hunter or huntress that didn't have some odd quirk or unusual personality? Just one!
Finished with his mental plea, the headmaster of Beacon Academy walked over to the bathroom door and rapped on it a few times with the top of his cane. "Miss Valkyrie, would you please come out here so we can talk?" Straining his hearing slightly, he could just make out a soft muffled gasp from the other side followed by light footsteps as something got closer to the door.
"P-p-professor O-Ozpin?" Nora's voice called through the door nervously, making the man nod slightly despite her being unable to see it.
"Yes it is, now I just want to talk about the boy-"
"No! I'm not coming out! You aren't taking him!" She cut him off, surprising the grey-haired man at the sudden change from nervous to determined, though given her personality he really shouldn't have been.
"Wow, you even said no to Professor Ozpin? The guy who can have you booted out of here faster than you can say expelled," Yang muttered in mild awe as she gave the orangette in question an impressed look. "Now that takes some balls right there."
"I'm not surprised, once Nora sets her mind to something it's almost impossible to talk her out of it." Ren said with a resigned sigh.
"Like the time she tried to drink six gallons of syrup in one go, she only stopped because we ran out and she didn't have enough to buy more." Pyrrha added, her face turning green slightly when she remembered that particular misadventure whilst Nora pouted with crossed arms.
"And I was sooo close too, only two more liters to victory."
"Please open the door Miss Valkyrie, this is a very serious situation you are getting yourself into." Ozpin tried to reason with the orangette, sighing after a minute or so when the only response he got was the sound of the shower turning on. "…I'll call Glynda," He said while rubbing his forehead and pulling out his scroll.
"Don't bother, I can handle this." Qrow said confidently as he approached the door, taking Crescent Rose from Ruby as he passed, much to her displeasure.
"Hey! Give Crescent Rose back you jerk!" She demanded while pounding her fists uselessly against his back.
"Nobody touches my Cressy but me!" Ruby yelled in agreement with her counterpart as she tried to charge the screen on reflex. Thankfully Yang, having foreseen this, had wisely grabbed her little sister's hood before hand so all that happened was the raven-redhead comically running in place for a few moments before being reeled back into her seat.
"In a second brat, just need to do… this!"
As he was talking, Qrow activated the weapon, causing it to unfold into a massive red and black scythe with a curved grey blade, two smaller hook blades opposite of the main blade, scope, bolt lever, and cartridge slot in the middle of the handle, and a blade attached to the bottom of the handle. With an almost casual looking motion, Qrow swung the blade twice at the door before deactivating the scythe and tossing it over his shoulder and into the waiting arms of Ruby.
"Stupid drunkle… my precious… no fair…"
"There there Rubes, it's okay." Yang said soothingly as she rubbed her grumbling sister's back to calm her down.
After a few seconds passed for a classic dramatic pause, the door fell to the ground with a solid *THUD*, the hinges and lock cut clean through.
"Well that was easier than expected… why didn't we think of that?" Jaune asked himself as he scratched the back of his head in thought.
"Tunnel vision perhaps." Pyrrha offered with a shrug, getting her fellow sword and shield user to pause before nodding.
"Yeah, probably."
Peering over the various items used to block the now doorless doorway, Qrow open his mouth to talk only to duck down when he heard a cry of "BAD MAN!" just being missed by the bolt of electricity that flew past where his head was. Unfortunately, this ended up leaving poor Ruby in the line of fire as the charge quickly homed in on the large piece of metal in her arms.
The short girl's shriek of surprise was turned into a garbled mess as her hair puffed out into a static afro and her weapon fell to the floor with a clatter with her following a few seconds later.
Almost everyone in the room winced sympathetically as they saw Ruby's other get zapped, the redhead herself finally snapping out of her weapon craze with a flinch.
"Ooooh… now that had to hurt." Nora said with a sympathetic hiss, knowing just how painful it can be to get zapped during the times she'd overworked her Semblance during training. And judging by the state the scythe user was in she hadn't been quick enough to use her aura to stop herself from taking the full brunt of the blast.
"It was certainly a shocking surprise, am I right Professor?" Yang tried to lighten the mood as she nudged Glynda's side before yelping when the teacher in question simply swatted her atop the head with her riding crop.
"That was neither appropriate nor funny Ms. Xiao Long."
"…Everybody's a critic."
Yang was at her sister's side in a heartbeat, making sure she was alright while Qrow chuckled awkwardly. "Riiiiight, kind of forgot to mention. That brat doesn't like me… at all."
'And that's a point in my book.' Glynda thought to herself with a tiny smirk that went unnoticed by anyone else.
"Oh really, what could possibly give you that idea?" Blake asked sarcastically while rolling her eyes. Qrow didn't have a chance to give one of his usual quippy returns as another blast, this time a tiny fast moving white cloud, shot through a small gap where he was hiding. Colliding with his hip, everything it came in contact with was suddenly flash frozen, including his flask which shattered to pieces from the sudden temperature change.
"…"
Qrow stared silently at the spilled alcohol with a blank expression.
'Make that two.'
""…oooooooh fuck/fudge."" Yang and Ruby muttered at the same time with wide eyes as their faces went completely pale.
Taking a long sip of his coffee, Ozpin sigh softly under his breath in an amused sort of way. "This is not going to end well."
"Hit the deck!" Yang screamed as she dragged Ruby's limp form behind Pyrrha's bed, said redhead yelping as she was dragged down along with Blake a few seconds afterwards.
"Now you're asking for it you little punk!" Qrow roared as he bashed through the makeshift blockade with ease. Just as quickly as his anger came though, it puttered back out and was replaced with fear at the scene before him. A soaked (but still clothed thankfully) Nora holding little Naruto (who was naked) protectively as he growled adorably at the intruder, all nine of his tails pointing towards Qrow as the tips glowed brightly.
"…oh shit," Was all he managed to say before absolute chaos broke out.
Dozens of multicolored blasts shot from the tail tips, hitting Qrow all over and sending him flying right back out of the window he and Ozpin had arrived in with an effeminate scream. Even though he was gone, the blast continued forcing everyone to duck for cover like Yang had as everything in the room was frozen, burned, blown up, zapped, turned to stone, collapsed into itself, soaked in water, blown around, or roasted with hot air.
"Holy crap, that little guy packs one hell of a wallop." Jaune couldn't help but say dumbfoundedly as he watched Naruto effortless destroying his team's dorm room, Pyrrha nodding in agreement with an identical expression on her face. It was one thing to see him using one or two dust attacks at a time but to witness the absolute onslaught of elemental carnage they were witnessing was simply staggering.
"Dear Oum…" And they weren't the only ones as Glynda's jaw practically hit the floor with wide eyes. 'He could almost match up with a maiden.'
The mayhem continued for several minutes, slowly dying down until it was finally safe for the teens and headmaster to come out of their cover. *Long Low Whistle* "Daaaaaaaaamn, that kid sure had the element of surprise against Qrow huh?" Yang punned as she, Blake, and Pyrrha peeked out from under the remains of the red-head's bed to see the utterly destroyed room that was Team JNPR's dorm.
""Oum dammit Yang,"" Weiss, who was cowering behind Jaune's overturned bed with Ozpin and Ren, and Blake said simultaneously as they palmed their faces.
""Oum Dammit Yang."" The black and white duo of team RWBY groaned in perfect sync with their counterparts while the blonde herself crossed her arms with a grumble.
Everyone else was focused on the equally destroyed bathroom, where they could see the unusual faunus had passed out, his tails dangling limply next to him and somehow only four feet long now and minus the colored tips.
"How fascinating, it seems his tails are directly affected by the dust he consumes," Ozpin said in intrigue at the sight of the shrunken tails. "I wonder if its proportional to the amount of dust consumed or simply acting as an indication of what types are still in his system."
"I'm pretty sure its latter since his tails didn't change at all whilst he was raiding the kitchen's dust supply." Ren stated, getting the headmaster to nod in understanding.
"Hey Yang, doesn't that sound kinda like how your semblance works with your hair?" Ruby asked her sister curiously, only to get a non-committal shrug from the bodacious blonde.
Nora just stood there awkwardly as she held the naked child. "Uh, I'm ready to talk?" She offered weakly.
-Twenty Minutes Later-
"Isn't this a bit excessive?" Nora asked with a dull look as she sat on a couch in Ozpins office. Her question was towards the straightjacket, rope, and giant chains she was currently being restrained with. Naruto was right next to her sleeping peacefully as his now half-sized tails had wrapped around every inch of his body minus his face, with bits of one of Nora's shirts peeking out here and there.
"No,"
"Nope,"
"I say it isn't enough,"
"Definitely not,"
"Not even close,"
"Not taking any chances here,"
"Sorry Nora, but it really isn't,"
These were the responses she got from her team and Team RWBY who were standing nearby making her pout slightly.
As everyone in the room aside from Ozpin himself either gave similar responses to their counterparts or started snickering at her other self's state. "You guys all suck."
Huh, she didn't know if she should be annoyed at that, or proud.
"Why in Oum's name would you be proud of that?" Weiss asked Nora with an incredulous look on her face, only to get a cheeky smirk in response from the orangette.
Ozpin was sitting at his desk, Glynda standing slightly to the side of him with her usual stern expression replaced with tired aggravation as she rubbed her temple, while Qrow was at the far side of the room covered in bruises, burns, and water (both from Naruto's assault and him landing inside of a fountain during his second trip through a window) drinking from his backup flask.
"Will you all be quiet and pay attention." Glynda said snappily, she really just wanted to get this over with and catch some sleep. The students immediately clammed up with frightened faces, you didn't mess with a cranky Glynda, the last poor sap to do so was in therapy for a week with T.W.L.S. or 'Terrified of Witch Lady Syndrome'.
All of the students in the room shivered as the combat professor's gaze drifted over each of them, just daring somebody to make a comment. Fortunately none of them were dumb enough to actually go through with although Yang had to literally bite her lip to keep her mouth shut.
Nodding thankfully to the busty blond professor, Ozpin looked the group over carefully before locking his gaze on Nora. "Now then Miss Valkyrie, I understand why you reacted as you had. Given recent events that have happened, anybody with even a half decent conscience would be reluctant to turn young Naruto here over to the authorities. But that does not mean you can just blatantly refuse to report of such a thing all together."
"You should consider yourself lucky that we already intended for the boy to stay here for the foreseeable future, otherwise you would be punished severely for your actions tonight." Glynda said, throwing in her own two-bits.
"Very lucky indeed I'd say, the repercussions of holding a child in your custody without legal guardianship are not to be taken lightly." Glynda stated with one of her trademark scowls that made Nora shrink slightly in her seat.
"Could you not say the same thing about yourself in that case then?" Pyrrha retorted out of the blue, getting the witch-themed teacher's attention as the redhead turned to Ozpin. "I mean it isn't rather odd that you were intending to keep a child at Beacon Professor. Sure Naruto's ability to eat dust and his… unusual faunus traits are certainly interesting, but I hardly believe that a strange semblance is cause enough to bring him almost halfway across the world."
Now that question got the whole room's attention as they all started to mull over what she had said, none more so than a certain cat-eared girl who's gaze was all but boring into the headmaster. If he noticed this however Ozpin didn't seemed to care as he just continued to calmly drink his coffee with a thoughtful hum.
"Normally I'd be very well inclined to agree with you on that such an action would seem a bit on the excessive side Ms Nikos. However, considering the current situation we have found ourselves in I think it is reasonable to assume that there is much more to this than just a child with an interesting semblance."
"…That is a fair point as well." Pyrrha conceded with a nod, unable to refute the headmaster's statement.
Nora didn't even flinch though, her eyes holding steady against the headmaster's.
"Um, what's going on?" Ruby asked her teammates quietly as the apparent staring contest dragged on.
"How should I know, I've been right next to you the whole time you dolt!" Weiss whisper/yelled, making the silver eyed girl squeak in fright and duck behind the mighty yellow fortress known as Yang.
"Oi! No need to bite her head off ice queen." Yang said while petting her younger sister on the head like she was a puppy.
"I told you not to call me that!"
"Why does everyone keep calling me that?" Said 'ice queen' demanded with a huff as she crossed her arms.
"Because you are one." Yang stated matter of factly while both Blake and Ruby nodded, gettign Weiss's eyebrow to twitch.
"What'cha gonna do about it!?"
"Why you little-"
*Creeeeeak*
Both girls froze as an ominous sound of something straining reached their ears. Turning their heads in sync slowly, their faces paled rapidly as they came upon the terrifying sight of Glynda bending her riding crop nearly in twine, a vein visible bulging on her forehead, the glare from the light reflecting off her glasses eerily, and a purple flame like aura lazily emanating from her body. "Be… Silent."
"Yes Ma'am/Yes Ma'am!" The two girls said with meek voices as they tried to make themselves look as small as possible.
"""""Yes Ma'am!""""" Everyone aside from Glynda herself said on reflex with nervous salutes as the image of the scowling blonde dominated the entire screen, her gaze seemingly boring into their very souls. Even Ozpin couldn't help but sit a bit straighter, something that his second in command certainly didn't miss if the slight upward twitch of her lips was to go by.
With the silence returned, everyone turned their attention back to Nora and Ozpin who finally seemed to finish with their silent conversation. Nodding in apparent satisfaction, Ozpin pushed his glasses back up from the bridge of his nose with a small grin that caused Glynda's eyebrow to twitch. 'Oh Oum Dammit! He's got another cockamamie idea he's about to go through with!' She mentally screamed, the last time he had that smirk was when he allowed Ruby to enroll in beacon early.
And just like that any humor Glynda felt vanished as she instantly came to the same conclusion, pinching the bridge of her nose to try and stave off the headache that was no doubt about to come.
"As Glynda said, we are planning to keep Naruto here for an undetermined amount of time, and before you ask why I have a question of my own. Have any of you ever heard of the Veil?" He asked with a sudden serious tone, causing all but three of the teens to blink in shock at the question.
"That's a dumb question, how couldn't we have heard of the place we live in?" Yang asked sarcastically with an eyeroll.
"Uh duh, kinda hard not to hear about the place we're currently in and right next to." Yang asked back sarcastically while she pointed out the window towards the City of Vale, Jaune and Ruby nodding in agreement.
"Oh look, an echo."
"I really doubt that the headmaster would ask that question if the answer was that straightforward," Blake said in a dry tone at her partner's casual dismissal. "He's probably referring to something else with a similar name, and judging by everyone else's reaction its something pretty big."
"Meh, can't be that big a deal if I haven't heard of it yet."
"Not VALE you dolt, THE VEIL," Weiss said with annoyance, putting extra emphasis on the wording. "It's been the biggest news around for almost two years now! How could you not know about it?"
Unable to help herself, a small smirk appeared on Blake's lips as she gave Yang a 'I told you so' look. "You were saying?"
"Shut up." Was all the blonde could say as she crossed her arms with a grumble.
"Well I don't know about noodle-boy over there, but Cookie and Temper here are from Patch if they haven't told you yet and that place tends to be little behind on the news." Qrow said as he somehow popped up behind the two sisters, ruffling their hair while laughing off the embarrassed glares he got from his nieces from the nicknames before continuing.
'Huh, guess there are a few differences.' Pyrrha thought to herself when she saw that while Ruby covered her face with a light blush at her uncle's nickname for her just like her counterpart, Yang simply shrugged it off without even blinking.
Meanwhile, Jaune simply deflated into his seat at his own nickname, a comical rain cloud appearing above his head to rain on him which a certain orangette started to poke at curiously.
"What Ozzy and Snow White here are talking about is an odd barrier like anomaly that was discovered several miles off the west coast of Mistral."
"A barrier?" Ruby asked, her head tilted slightly in confusion.
"In layman's terms yes, a barrier," Ozpin confirmed as he gestured to Glynda. Sighing, the blonde professor pulled out her scroll and typed in a few things before placing it onto Ozpin's desk. A hologram popped into existence showing a recording taken from a small boat.
[Holy crap dude, can you believe this shit!]
[I know man, this is way past weird!] Two different voices yelled off screen as the image zoomed in on the background. A good distance away from the boat was what looked like a tall silvery wall of water floating in the air and glistening in the sunlight.
"Whoa…"
"Holy…"
"What in the hell?"
"By Oum."
"Oooh, so shiny!"
Those were just a few of the exclamations that rang out as the Veil was brought into view for all of them to see, with even Ozpin and Glynda losing their composure for a moment at the massive shimmering barrier.
"Ozpin, have you ever seen anything like that?" The witch-themed professor asked her superior in a hushed voice, getting him to shake his head negatively.
"I have seen many strange things before, but this… this is not one of them."
"Roughly half a mile long, this 'Veil' as it was named was discovered when a team of huntsmen were sent out to find the cause for the sudden increase in aquatic grimm in the area. This is what they found." Glynda explained as the three seeing this for the first time stared in shock and awe. "Unfortunately, the team sent were just fourth year students of Haven Academy, so instead of just reporting what they found, the team leader recorded this and posted it online. Be warned, this gets… brutal." She finished with a slight pause.
"I do not like the sound of that." Ren muttered with Pyrrha and Blake nodding in agreement, since they all knew that Glynda was far from the squeamish type and her counterpart looked outright nauseated at what was to come.
Ruby was confused at what she meant but didn't have time to ask as something started to happen. The wall started rippling in an odd way for several seconds before something started coming out of it. "Is that a boat?" Jaune asked as sure enough, an old fashioned and slightly crude looking sailing ship emerged fully.
An incredulous huff escaped Weiss's lips as her gaze wandered over the ship as it came into view. "Who in their right mind would even ride such a vessel? It would be torn apart almost instantly by the first Grimm to happen upon it."
"No doubt about that, which means either that ship is sturdier than it seems or the people on it are confident enough to not need a stronger one." Ren said with while Pyrrha, Blake, Glynda, and even Ruby nodded in agreement.
On the ship was an assortment of oddly dressed men and women, the only thing in common being shiny metal headbands that most of them wore with four small wiggle lines carved into a square shape. Everyone visible either had weapons such as swords and knives drawn or were holding their hands in weird symbols.
'Strange, everything looks Mistrillian in design but those people are definitely not from Mistral.' Blake thought to herself as she quickly looked over the people on the ship in confusion. 'So why would-'
Not even five seconds after they appeared though, nearly half of them fell to the floor screaming in agony for seemingly no reason. "What's happening to them?" Yang asked, only to get her answer from the video itself.
Tails, ears, horns, and other such animal like features started bursting out of the screaming people in a gory and bloody spectacle that caused Yang and Jaune to pale while Ruby was fighting down the urge to puke. A fight that she lost instantly when the unaffected passengers started outright murdering the newly turned faunus without hesitation.
"What the fuck!?" "What the fuck!?" [What the fuck!?] Yang and one of the offscreen voices yelled at the same time as they watched massacre continue until every single faunus and more than a few humans were killed. With all that death and pain happening, it came as no surprise as several serpent-like grimm started bursting out of the water in droves and quickly overwhelmed the unprepared survivors, tearing them and the ship itself to bits in only a few minutes.
"Oh dear Oum…" Pyrrha muttered as she stared at the TV in horror, the blood draining from her face as she witnessed the absolute carnage that played out on screen. Both Blake and Weiss had near identical looks on their faces, neither even reacting to Yang's outcry despite sitting right next to the blonde.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." Meanwhile, a green faced Ruby groaned out before cupping a hand over her mouth as her cheeks bulged out slightly, only just managing to fight down the urge to upchuck her dinner like her counterpart.
"Took the words right out of my mouth." Nora agreed with a gag as she swallowed down the bile trying to rise up in her throat.
"Bleagh!" The same could not be said for Jaune though as the scraggly blonde promptly emptied his stomach into a nearby trashcan, unable to hand the sudden and unexpected gorefest.
Even Glynda and Ozpin weren't immune as the former averted her gaze with a grimace and the latter broke into a coughing fit from accidentally inhaling his coffee.
The image flickered out of existence after that as Glynda picked her scroll back up and put it away. "After that… first encounter, we had scientists study the Veil and discovered it is in actuality a stable two-way bridge to another reality. The kingdoms then tried to make peaceful contact with those on the other side. It didn't work." Ozpin said, rubbing his head as it started to ache just thinking about the political debacle.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold it right there!" Pulling the remote from Nora with her semblance, Pyrrha practically crushed the pause button in an uncharacteristically aggressive manner before gesturing to the TV in disbelief. "We just saw a giant wall of floating liquid light, people turning into Faunus then getting brutally murdered, and now apparently there's another reality involved somehow? Are they seriously just gonna gloss over all of that like its nothing?!"
An awkward silence filled the room following the redhead's little rant, the only sounds breaking it being her own heavy breathing as she winded down from her outburst and Jaune's groaning as he finished losing his breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
"…It would appear so Ms. Nikos." Ozpin finally said after several moments had passed, making the 'invincible girl' collapse back into her seat with an exasperated groan.
"This is starting to drive me crazy."
"Join the club." Blake stated bluntly while swiping the remote and pressing play, her bow twitching rapidly as her gaze bore into the screen.
"The first big problem we had is that dust becomes inert when brought to the other side, so special equipment and ships had to be made just to traverse there." He explained.
"Yeah, father was pissed about that. Spent days ranting about how much a wasted opportunity it was." Weiss through in, shuddering as she remembered her father's reaction when he had gotten that report.
"Now that… actually makes sense to be honest." Weiss said with a slow nod when she thought it over, since they had a similar issue using Dust for space travel and exploration. For some reason whenever Dust left Remnant's atmosphere it would immediately go inert, making the normally miraculous substance completely useless.
So it only made sense that the same thing would happen if taken to another reality. 'Wow, never thought I'd be considering that with a straight face.'
While Weiss was talking, Ozpin took another sip from his mug before continuing. "Thankfully, the people on that side speak a language almost identical to our own so communicating wasn't a problem. What was, was that the leaders of the other world, which they call the Elemental Nations, refused to believe us about the matter. Instead they insisted that we had been the ones killing their ninja, yes I said ninja, that were being sent through and even declared war against us."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, we're at war?!" Yang asked/screamed with a shocked expression.
"Yeah, what I said," Yang agreed with herself while Ruby nodded in agreement. "I mean sure Patch can be a bit behind the times but how in the hell could we not know that we're at fucking war of all things?"
"Technically yes, but it's pretty much been the easiest war in history as every group of troops those ignorant dumbasses send at us end up just like those in that video." Qrow said with an uncaring shrug.
Ozpin sighed heavily as everyone turned their attention back to him. "That is true, despite being at 'war', we have yet to actually enter into conflict with the Elemetials. They either end up killing themselves or the grimm take care of them. Any survivors we manage to rescue either kill themselves or attack everyone in sight relentlessly."
"Ooooh, so we're at war but not actually fighting a war?" The bodacious blonde scratched the side of her head in thought before simply shrugging it off. "I guess that kinda makes sense. About as much sense as everything else has so far at least."
"Okay, this is all very informative and all," Nora interjected, "But how is this got anything to do with right now?"
"Yeah, enough with the convoluting history lesson bull already, I think my brain is gonna explode if I have to hear anymore." The orangette said while cupping her hands over her ears, steam seemingly rising from the orangette's head.
"For once we can agree." Rubbing the sides of her forehead, Weiss worked hard to both mentally purge the gruesome imagery from the last few minutes from her mind whilst also making sense of all the information being thrown around.
Instead of answering verbally, Qrow walked up to the tied-up girl and pulled a small black book out from the inside of his shirt. Flipping through the pages, he stopped about two thirds of the way through and showed the orangette with the others leaning in over her shoulder to see.
What they saw was a page full of odd writing that was smudged up from water damage, and a small picture in the top right corner of the page. The picture was of a smiling young boy with pure blonde hair, lightly tanned skin, bright blue eyes, and a familiar pair of whisker like tattoos on both cheeks.
"Hey look Renny, it's Naruto… I think. Why does he…" Nora started to say enthusiastically as the picture appeared on the entire screen, before trailing off in uncertainty when she noticed several distinct differences and then quickly turning to horrified when the pieces clicked in her head. "Oh Oum, you don't think he…"
Quickly coming to the same conclusion, many in the room once more dawned looks of horror and disgust as memories of the recent events flashed through their minds, specifically of the people turned faunus.
"That poor boy." Glynda muttered softly as she cupped her lips, not even wanting to imagine how painful the fox faunus's… transition had been. It had been gruesome enough from just ears and horns but nine four-foot tails all at once?
And just when it seemed like it could get any worse, the image zoomed out to show the rest of the page…
"This is why it's relevant Thunder Rod," Qrow said in a lazy drawl. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and Jaune were looking between Naruto and the picture as they were swiftly putting the pieces together while Ren, Pyrrha, Nora, and Blake were suddenly showing large amount of anger. Why you may ask? Because they could partially read some of the writing, Ren, Pyrrha and Nora do to being from Mistral, the most culturally and artistically diverse of the kingdoms, and Blake because her not-so-secret favorite book 'Ninja's of Love' was written in a very similar dialect. And they did not like what was written one little bit.
T..et N..me: Uzumaki Naruto
Bounty: 100,000,000 Ryo alive, 50,000,000 Ryo dead
D..ger: S Class
Pr..ority: SS Cl..ss
Infor…ion: Property of the H…den L…f …llage, C…ner o…the Nine Tailed Fox Demon, No known te…s, No known fighting style.
"Property… Property! PROPERTY! HE'S CONSIDERED PROPERTY!?" Nora screamed in outrage as she struggled fiercely against her bindings, electricity literally jumping off of her in small arcs.
"They-MMPH!?" Just before Nora could start screaming and yelling as well, Ren pulled her into a hug and clapped a hand over her mouth, muffling the stream of profanity she had no doubt been about to unleash.
"Those motherfuckers! Who the fuck calls a child property!?" Luckily, Yang was there to fill the space as she literally erupted into flames from anger and her eyes turned from lilac to red. "Those bastards better hope they never meet me or I swear I'll pummel them into the ground until they can't be separated!"
"For once we agree," Glynda muttered softly so that nobody heard her over the ranting brawler, the witch-themed professor almost bending her riding crop in half as she suppressed the urge to fling the TV out the nearest window with her telekinesis. Instead, she used it to pull Yang back into her seat before bopping her fellow blonde atop the head with her riding crop. "Ms. Xiao Long, I understand that you're upset but I would ask that you calm down, throwing a tantrum is not going to help nor change anything."
"But-" The Y or RWBY opened her mouth to argue, only to quickly shrink back when her fellow blonde pinned her with her trademark 'Teacher's glare'. "…Yes ma'am."
On the other hand, Ren had managed to get his best friend to calm down by rubbing her head in a comforting manner like one would a puppy. He kept doing this even after he let the orangette go, with her simply scooting over slightly so that she was sitting next to him and gently leaning against his side.
Just as angry but knowing there was more to be said, Ren grabbed Nora by the shoulder, ignoring the multitude of small shocks that zapped him, and focused his semblance through her.
Everyone but Ozpin showed surprise as Nora not only calmed down, but her entire body, clothes and all, suddenly became pale and dull looking. Ren kept her like that for about a minute before removing his hand, causing all the color to return to the girl.
'I wish I could do that.' Ruby thought slightly enviously as she glanced at her older sister, remembering all the times she had flown off the handle from her temper… or just wouldn't stop with those puns of hers.
Waiting a moment to see if there was another outburst from the now quietly seething girl, Ozpin continued. "As I'm sure you've figured out by now, Naruto here is from across the Veil. That book Qrow has was one of the few things that were salvaged from one of the newest attack parties. We aren't sure how he got here, our best guess being that he stowed away on one of the ships as they crossed over and somehow managed to get to shore."
"Makes sense," Blake said sympathetically. "The poor kid probably thought he found the perfect getaway from whoever was holding him and got a not so pleasant surprise trip to our world instead."
That was a lie, they knew exactly how he got here, or at least a good majority of it. But he also knew it would be a bad idea to reveal these details in front of a certain short-tempered blonde.
"Wait, what?" Said short tempered blonde blinked in confusion. "Why would I-"
Because then he'd have to explain why the mother she was so desperately searching for, was currently hunting down anyone that was from the Elemental Nations to get revenge for the slaughter of her precious tribe.
…
…
Total silence filled the room as Yang's eyes almost popped out of her skull from how wide they got, her jaw hanging freely and an abnormally blank look in the normally lively teen's gaze.
"I… she… tribe… what?!" She barely managed to sputter out after a while before shaking her head a few times and running her hand through her hair. "Okay, what in the hell is that supposed to mean? What tribe are they talking about? Why were they slaughtered? What does my mom have to do with any of thi-"
"Yang, calm down," Blake cut her partner off as she grabbed the blonde by the shoulder tightly, snapping her out of her thoughts. "It's just a video, a creepy, weird, and strange as hell video but a video nonetheless. So take a deep breath or something and relax."
Silently taking in the cat faunus's words, the tension seemed to gradually melt away from Yang before she exhaled softly and nodded. "Yeah… yeah, your right, thanks Blake."
"No prob."
"And I'm sure you noticed his rather unusual appetite," Ozpin said getting nods all around, "These things have made the poor child a target for many people, and most of them aren't the kind of people you trust with the wellbeing of children. Which is why I had Qrow bring him here, to one of the safest places in the kingdoms."
"So he's not only a kid with a fascinating semblance, strange faunus feature, and even stranger appetite, but also a refugee from another reality who someone is claiming is their property," The ice queen of team RWBY summed up incredulously. "Am I the only one that thinks that sounds like the backstory for some cheesy sci-fi reality show character or something?"
"Well, we are watching this by the episode." Ruby pointed out, making Weiss pause with blink.
"…Touché Ruby."
"Which brings us to now and one important question," Intertwining his fingers and resting his chin on then, Ozpin once again looked Nora straight in the eye.
"How would you like to be made the boy's official caretaker?"
"…"
"…"
"YES!/WHAT!?"
"HELL YES!" Nora cheered loudly, hopping up from her seat with her fists raised in the air in victory, not even caring as the -End of Chapter- notice played before going back to the selection menu. "I knew you would make the right choice Professor O! Mama Nora always wins!"
"Nora, you are not a mother." Ren stated blandly, which did nothing to stop the orangette's mini celebration as she bounced in place.
"Other me is now Renny! And that makes me a Mama too by default!"
"I… don't even know where to start with that."
"Well, at least she's in a better mood." Jaune said while wiping away the last bits of vomit sticking to his lips.
"Oh sure, just saw some of the most disturbing and nightmare inducing things of my life but let's focus on the whole 'you are adopting' part instead." Weiss said sarcastically with an eyeroll before grunting when Ruby gently elbowed her side.
"Don't be such a party pooper Weiss, let her have her moment," The hooded teen stated, shrinking slightly when the heiress started to glower at her. "Besides, would you really rather be thinking about that stuff again instead?"
"…Fair enough." She conceded reluctantly, although not without crossing her arms in annoyance at being verbally outmatched twice in a row.
'I knew it! I fucking knew something like that would happen!' Whilst everyone was preoccupied by Nora and her little victory dance though, Glynda was busy introducing her face to the palm of her hand as she grumbled mentally.
The only one to notice the woman's mood was Ozpin, who's eyes twinkled in amusement as he sipped at his ever present and seemingly never empty cup of coffee. "Something on your mind Glynda?"
"Nothing important sir, just… accepting reality."
"Of course. Well then, if you'll excuse me." Getting up from his seat, and in turn gaining the room's attention, the headmaster of Beacon made his way up to the TV and started reaching for eject button on the DVD player. "I'll take this to be examined and see if we can't find what exactly this is all abo-."
[I'm afraid I can't let you do that Ozpin,] a cold robotic voice cut the man off as the screen abruptly switched to pitch black with a glowing red robotic eye making him stumble back in shock.
"The fuck!?"
"What the hell?!"
"AH!"
"The machines are rising against us Renny! I knew this day would come!"
Several shocked shouts and shrieks rang out at once, with Yang catching Ruby when the hooded girl jumped into her arms, Jaune falling out of his seat with a yelp for the umpteenth time that day, and Blake's hair appearing to stand on end as a soft hiss escaped her lips.
Recovering from her surprise the fastest, Glynda took a defensive stance while pointing the end of her riding crop at the television. "Who are you? Identify yourself right now."
[Hahaha... Sorry, sorry, I've always wanted to do that,] the voice spoke again, albeit now in a normal male voice as the screen changed again to reveal two...unique individuals. The one who spoke was a tall humanoid fox creature dressed in a fancy tux with blonde and red fur, several bushy tails intertwined together like a braid, and a distinctive X-shaped scar over one eye.
The other was a man dressed in a black tracksuit with neon green highlights and matching biker gloves and trainers, with his face covered by a black V for Vendetta styled mask with glowing green eyebrows, moustache, and goatee.
"Well congrats, you scared the crap out of us like a jackass," Yang stated dryly as she set Ruby back down on the couch. Although internally, she was approving the prank and mentally reminded herself to try it out for herself later. "Now who, or better yet what, the hell are you?"
[Ah yes, my name is XXX777; but my friends call me X,] the fox-man said with a dramatic bow before gesturing to the unidentifiable person beside him. [And this is AnonymousIdeas or AI for short]
[We're the ones who sent you Nora's a Mommy to watch,] AI said eagerly while waving excitedly. [Well, not us us precisely; but we helped!]
"What's that supposed to mean? Either you sent it or you didn't." Weiss said with an eyeroll.
[It's a bit complicated] X replied with a wish-washy wave of his hand. [See we sent it, but it wasn't from us.]
[Our friend, Curious Kitsune - we just call him Kit - created it for your viewing pleasure,] AI finished explaining before he and X snapped their fingers. In a blink the duo vanished from the television screen, then just as quickly reappearing in the corner of the room the residents of Remnant were in. "There we go!"
"Gah! What the!? How!? Brain malfunctioning from weirdness!" Ruby cried out in shock, mentally finding a kinship with her cybernetic friend Penny.
Ignoring her freak-out and the stunned faces of the others, the twosome reached into the small pack held by X and somehow pulled out a full-sized desk with a fully hooked up computer and set it down. Pulling out some chairs, they sat down and started typing away without so much as another word of explanation.
"Uh, excuse me gentlemen," Ozpin spoke up, sounding understandably concerned as he tightened his grip on his cane in suspicion. "But what exactly are you doing?"
"Trying to spruce up the place by bringing in a Chibi Ruto," X answered with a slight frown as he typed away which only served to further confuse the room's occupants. "Damnit, why is Kit's computer so difficult?"
"I have no idea, try hitting that key." AI suggested while pointing to a seemingly random part of the keyboard.
To the surprise of the others, Jaune was engulfed in smoke before being revealed to be wearing an outfit that could only be described as an attempt at a "Sexy Bunny Babe" costume.
"I'm blind!" Yang cried out dramatically as she and Ruby turned their heads away in horror, Blake and Ren both looked green in the face, Ozpin held up his hand to shield Glynda's eyes from the image, Weiss and Pyrrha both shuddered at the sight, seemingly frozen like statues.
The only one not negatively was Nora, who instead had a thinking face and hand on her chin as she circled the embarrassed JNPR leader a couple times before nodding with a grin. "Lookin' Hot Jauney Boy!"
"What did you do? How are you doing this?" Pyrrha demanded as she turned her attention back to the mysterious duo.
"No, that's not it, how about this." X muttered, completely ignoring the redhead's question, before pressing another key.
Once again a cloud of smoke burst out, only this time it was Weiss who was engulfed with a startled yelp. When it cleared away, the heiress was revealed to have been transformed into a cartoonishly small version of herself with a slightly oversized head and wide animated eyes.
"What in the-HRK!?"
"Oh my Oum! You're so cute!" Ruby squealed with sparkling eyes, instantly stopping the shrunken whitette into her arms and hugging her tightly…
"RUBY...! AIR...!" Perhaps a bit too tightly as the heiress's face turned a comical blue and her pupils became distinctive swirls that encompassed all of her eyes.
"No, no, no, you're doing it wrong, here let me try something," AI offered as he nudged XXX777 aside and typed in a sequence of keys.
"No, don't-!" Yang called out before gagging as her mouth seemed to sparkle for a few moments.
"Yang! Are you alright?!" Ruby asked in concern as she finally released Chibi Weiss and rushed over to her sister. "Speak to me!"
With a groan, Yang gave a few coughs before answering, "so think I..."
"...What?"
"so think I, said I. me hear you Didn't?"
As the blonde kept trying to talk it came apparent what the problem was, making Blake palm her face with a grumble. "And she's talking backwards... What's next? More anime bullshit?"
As if the universe wanted to answer her, X chose that moment to enter another command that resulted in both the Faunus girl and the hammer enthusiast being engulfed in smoke that left them in outfits fit for "Magical Girl" based anime.
"Im sorry, but you literally asked for that one." Pyrrha barely managed to get out between giggles, both from the irony of the ravenette's situation and how cute the outfits were.
"partner, hot Looking!" Yang complimented with a thumbs-up to Blake, who blushed and turned away in hopes of hiding herself.
"Eh, I give it a six out of ten," Nora said while looking herself over, striking a few poses and even doing a few overly girly skips. "What do you think Ren?"
"That you were just looking for an excuse to make that rhyme."
"Guilty as charged."
"Ah dangit, that wasn't it either, oh maybe this one."
"No! Not that one!" AI exclaimed in panic, before yelping when the printer connected to Kit's computer abruptly spewed out dozens of photos of a certain scythe-wielder in a rather promiscuous pose with her signature weapon and her hood... and literally nothing else.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! W-w-w-why do you have those!?" The poor hooded girl in question shrieked in horror at the top of her lungs, covering her private areas as her face turned brighter red than Pyrrha's hair. "I-I never… I wouldn't even… I…."
"bitches of sons sick You! YOU KILL I'LL!" Yang yelled in pure fury, hair igniting in aura flame as she slammed her fists together… before running backwards straight into the wall.
"Okay… so not just talking backwards…" Blake stated dryly as she watched her partner try and fail to get back up.
"Why does he even have that button!?" X exclaimed in disbelief when one of the photos flashed by his face, making AI deadpan in response.
"Dude, haven't you ever heard of fanservice?"
"…Oh yeah… Wait! I think I got it now!" X announced as he slowly entered a set of keys that produced yet another burst of smoke in the middle of the room.
"What in the hell-ttebane?" When the new cloud cleared, it revealed a beautiful and very confused looking redheaded woman with a noticeably distended pregnancy belly. "Where am I? What's going on here? Who the hell are you people?"
"Aaah crapbaskets, little bit too early." X said with a grimace while AI just shrugged.
"Eh, close enough for me."
"Well, this is quite the clusterfuck you two idiots have created, isn't it?" A deep male voice said from right behind the pair, making them freeze for a moment before turning around not see yet another new person.
The speaker was a man appearing in his later 20s with brown hair and eyes, wearing a plain black t-shirt with a red "17" on the front, dark blue jeans, and black shoes. His hair was short, but messy with notable white strands of hair, his eyes were covered by a pair of charcoal gray glasses, and his face was styled with a "Lincoln" beard that revealed some red hairs blended into it.
"Oh hey Pain, how's it going?" AI asked nervously, only to shrink slightly when Pain stared back with an unamused expression before snapping his fingers, making the pair vanish back into the TV. [Aw man…]
[Everyone, this rude guy is pain17ification] X introduced with a grumble as he crossed his arms in disappointment.
[Why do you gotta be so mean, Pain?] AI asked, sounding almost pouty.
"I'm mean?" Pain repeated with a raised brow. "I'm not the one who stole Kit's computer and started messing with everyone in this room."
Taking a moment, the duo finally seemed to notice the not so small amount of chaos they had unleashed upon the room with their actions, sweat drops forming on the sides of their heads.
[Touché,] X muttered with a shrug before quickly putting on a pleading look. [By the way you won't tell Kit about this, will you? We'll owe you one]
Smirking, Pain smirked as he took a seat behind the computer. "Don't worry, I don't need to tell him anything."
[[...Why not?]] The pair asked at the same time more than a little hesitantly.
Instead of answering verbally, Pain pointed behind them, causing the color to cartoonishly drain from their bodies as they quickly spun around to see the barrel of a VERY large tank mere inches away from their faces.
At the same time, the camera view zoomed out to revealed the final member of this odd foursome peeking out from the Tank's hatch. He was a brown haired young man with a fox tail and fox ears dressed in casual wear with his lower face partially covered by a neckerchief, and based on the angry scowl on his face Very Angry.
"I'd say you'd have about five seconds." Pain commented with a smirk as the two started sweating rapidly.
[Hehehehe hey Kit, how's it going?] AI asked nervously, gulping when the only response he got was the sound of a round chambering into the cannon. [Look, we have a totally good expla-]
[It was all his idea!] X shoved the mask man forward and bolting in the opposite direction at high speed.
Quickly getting to his feet, AI glowered at his fleeing companion before following after with a yelp when the ground next to him was blown to smithereens. [X you traitorous bastard! I'll get you for that!]
[It's every man for himself dude!]
[YOU TWO ARE SO DEAD THIS TIME!] Kit bellowed, sinking back into his tank as it rolled after the fleeing pair, the cannon firing round after round in quick succession.
"Have fun, Kit!" Pain bid before bowing to the others in the room whilst ignoring the sounds of explosions and tank fire fading into the distance. "I'm very sorry about all of this, give me a second and I'll have this mess cleaned up."
His fingers danced across the keyboard, entering multiple sets of keys and reversing everything done to the Remnant residents, which most were quite thankful for (Especially Jaune and Weiss). Meanwhile, the pregnant redhead suddenly found herself not pregnant anymore with a sleeping baby wrapped up in her arms, nine familiar fluffy bundles of fluff dangling from its backside.
"And done," He said as he finished erasing all the dirty Ruby pictures, before a tiny mischievous smirk appeared on his lips as he typed a few more commands. "Now just one last thing to do."
Before anyone could ask the guy what he was up to, not that they actually expected a straight answer at this point anyway, a soft glow appeared in front of Nora before she found herself holding a transparent cerulean blue egg with a softly glowing yellow core.
"Do me a favor, Hammer Girl, and keep her safe for me, okay? And here," He handed her a card with an odd runic circle on it. "Use that to call me when she hatches. You mind doing that for me?"
While confused at the request, Nora still nodded with an eager smile as she carefully held the egg. "No problem, Weird Guy with a 17 on His Shirt."
Pain chuckled at the girl's title for him before flinching as he heard Kit yell at him from a distance, [Pain! What are you doing with my computer?!]
"Oops, and that's my que to go, later guys!" Pain yelled before both he and the computer vanished, leaving behind some very, very, VEEEERY confused people.
…
…
"…Does anyone have any idea what in the hell just happened?" Glynda asked in a blank tone, only to be met with a series of head shakes and soft murmured denials. "Good, then it isn't just me then."
"Well, you can't say it wasn't interesting at least," Nora said with a shrug before tuning to the newly arrived redhead and holding out a hand. "By the way, I'm Nora Valkyrie, nice to meet you."
"Uzumaki Kushina, a pleasure… I think."
-End Chapter-
Pain: *Hiding behind convenient brick wall* Well folks, hope you all enjoyed the new chap, we worked real hard on it. For those of you who figured out what that egg was then *Makes shushing motion* keep it quiet, not even Kit has figured it out yet lol. Anyway, thanks for stopping by and look forward for more stories in the future *Flinches as part of the wall is blasted apart* assuming I don't get blown to pieces first, later guys!