6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The school nurse had been watching over him almost since the moment her little wolf had been brought into the infirmary, by his two new partners because apparently that was a thing now, and Raven was quickly growing irritated with the woman. The bandit queen had half a mind to just knock the nurse out, lock her in a closet, and actually be able to check up on the son she hadn't seen in practically and entire year. Yet she pulled in that legendary Branwen temper, which apparently her daughter had inherited, and let the middle-aged woman actually go about doing her job. Besides, Raven had spotted no less than five cameras hidden throughout the room and it would already be bad enough once Qrow tells Ozpin she stopped by. Plus, with the information she managed to squeeze out of her drunk little brother, her little wolf had apparently changed his name and fabricated false records just to get into Beacon. He was on a job, there was no doubt about that, but just what kind would be hard to figure out. After all, there weren't many people with the balls to send someone into Ozpin's lair and create such a detailed background for their infiltrator.

Of course she told Qrow she was just making sure her daughter's new teammates weren't weak. The Belladonna girl was apparently ex-White Fang so she at least had some combat experience, and the drunk bought into it so easily. Like Raven would have to worry about her daughter at this point, even with Taiyang's rather lax training, she taught Naruto well enough that he would protect anyone that was on his side. Although the question still remained as to if Naruto would remain on Yang and Blake's side once his mission came to a head. Raven knew what she had to do to insure her children didn't come to blows...but not just yet. She still had some time left.

"Ugh, my head." Raven's eyes shot over to her son, knocking her out of her scheming daydream, to find he was finallywaking up.

"Oh, you're awake." Raven rolled her eyes at the nurse stating the obvious, "I'll inform the headmaster."

Raven scoffed, this woman wasn't even making sure her charge wasn't in any pain! Honestly had the standards dropped that low since her own time at this prison of a school? Although she knew Naruto could fight through just about any amount of pain, that wasn't the fucking point!

"Oh look, a raven." Naruto suddenly said, looking right up at his mother hidden up on one of the stone trusses, in her bird form.

So he spotted, or at least suspected, the cameras hidden throughout the room and was playing it safe. She squaked a bit and gave a cheeky wave of her wing down at her little wolf, although it looked like he was turning into a big bad wolf now. Naruto just smiled softly before going back to staring at the door, making it look like he was just waiting for Ozpin to show up.

While waiting, Naruto also took the time to inspect himself for any injuries he may have gotten after passing out. He could only assume one of the others, most likely Yang, had carried him out of the Emerald Forest and to safety. Now the only real questions were who are his teammates and who was his partner? The choices were clearly between Yang and that Blake girl, or it could be that they got paired together seeing as Naruto had been passed at the time.

Naruto thought back to how he acted when that Deathstalker was about to kill Ruby, especially the way he just charge forward without a second thought, he didn't even have a plan at the time! Sure his sword was sharp, he did take care of it every single day, but there was no way he would've been able to cut through its heavy armor with just the blade alone. Then there was that voice that spoke to him, a voice he hadn't heard since leaving the Branwen tribe, and that the voice somehow had control over his very actions. At least enough control to make him move faster than he thought he could call upon his semblance without him knowing. It was a mystery to be sure and one that he intended to find the answers to.

"Ah, it's good to see you're awake, Mr. Uzumaki." came the aged and distant voice of Ozpin as he walked through the infirmary doors with four other individuals, three of which she already knew.

"Well what can I say, I guess I just don't know how to stay down." Naruto joked in a sarcastic manner, giving the headmaster a sheepish grin while scratching the back of his head.

"That's putting it lightly." said Yang, one of the people that had walked in with Ozpin, while Blake, Pyrrha, and an unknown blonde walked up to one side of his bed.

"Awe, were you worried about me?" Naruto asked in a teasing manner.

"What how am I supposed rewards you, for saving my little sister, if you died or something?"

"What kind of reward we talking about?" Naruto wiggled his eyebrows in a suggestive manner, which

ended up making Pyrrha, of all people blush.

Raven, on the other hand, was torn between being mildly disturbed at how the unknown siblings were practically eye hump in each other and comparing it to those books that she used to swipe from Summer back when they both went to Beacon. Those were the days, before everything went to shit.

"Are you guys going to be like this the whole time?" Blake asked, her cheeks mildly flushed.

"Oh don't be jealous." Yang grinned as she wrapped her arm over Blake's shoulder, "We can always just make it a Blake sandwich."

"As fascinating as this conversation is." Ozpin cut in, reminding everyone that he was also in the room and they were talking about sex, on school grounds, in front of the headmaster himself, "I believe we have other matters to discuss."

"Thank the gods." the unknown blonde male, who Naruto could've sworn he'd seen somewhere, sighed in gratitude.

"Right, sorry?" The funny thing about it was that Yang didn't sound sorry at all, even when she mirrored the way Naruto nervously scratch the back of his head.

"So what's the news and who were these two?" Naruto already knew who Pyrrha was, but decided to play it safe just to be sure.

"The news, as you put it, is that the five of you are in a very interesting situation. The fact of the matter is that there has never been a situation where three people have made eye contact at the exact same time. So I've been left with one of two options, which I decided to let you all choose amongst yourselves." Ozpin explained, resting both his hands atop his cane while he made direct eye contact with Naruto.

"And what are our two choices?" Naruto asked, his eyes sharpening at Ozpin's challenging gaze.

"Your first option is that you remain a five-man team, but will be expected to meet a higher criteria than your fellow classmates. Your individual test will have more questions on them, your combat analysis will have a higher bar set, and the teachers will generally expect more out of you." said the headmaster, his eyes never breaking away from Naruto's despite noticing how the other four people in the room seemed to deflate slightly.

"And the other option?" this time it was Blake that asked, a slight hiss behind her words.

"Your other option, Ms. Belladonna, is that one of you volunteers to leave the school and wait until next year for re-enrollment."

The other is noticeably stiffened at that, with none of them wanting to volunteer to wait another year. Naruto felt his legendary Branwen temper spike ever so slightly, but he held it back. Something was off about this. There was no way a situation such as theirs hadn't happened before. Or a situation where there was an extra student and no teams available.

"Then there's no real choice here." Naruto said as he got up out of his bed and stood next to his new teammates, "We've all worked too hard, in our own ways, to get into Beacon Academy. We fought tooth and nail through the Emerald Forest, we got your stupid relics, so I say bring it on. The more you throw at us, the stronger we're gonna get."

The infirmary was silent after that, even Raven was a bit stunned at how bold her son was, and after a few moments of awkwardness Ozpin actually started clapping. The other four looked at each other, not really sure what was going on, but Naruto just sent the old man a confident grin.

"Well said, Mr. Uzumaki, well said indeed."

"So does that mean you'll tell us what you're really playing at here?" Naruto asked, getting a smile and nod from the headmaster.

"I'm so confused here." the blonde male said, looking slightly paler than he had a moment ago.

"This wasn't about seeing which one of us would choose to leave Beacon Academy. The headmaster here was testing our character. If we all chose to stay together then that would mean that we had a strong sense of loyalty and wouldn't abandon one another when things got tough. If one of us chose to give up our chance of becoming a hunter, then that would show him that we were willing to make a hard decision for others sake." Naruto explained what he had figured out.

"You are half right, Mr. Uzumaki. The other reason I asked such questions was to see which one of you would speak out about it the loudest. Which one of you had the courage to stand up to me, to choose for everyone else the best course of action. Essentially, I was seeing which one of you would make the best

leader for this most unorthodox team," the reactions he got were rather priceless. "No way." Yang looked a little dumbfounded, "Man, you really had me going there." "Tell me about it." the other three said as one, all looking relieved.

"So I guess congratulations are in order." Ozpin said, turning his gaze back to Naruto, "For becoming the first leader of a five-man squad."

Naruto just grinned he was finally on the inside.

As it would turn out, trying to fit a five-man team into a room that can only fit maybe four people wasn't the best idea. Not only did they have to bring another bed out of storage, which was all the way down in the basement, but they also had to find some way to fit all their belongings. On the plus side, they did wind up in a room across from Yang's little sister and her team, a team named RWNR. So they ended up copying Ruby's idea and just making bunk beds, with the extra bed simply being shoved into the corner. Although, unlike Ruby's team, their bunk beds were actually structurally sound and didn't look like they were about to fall over at a moments notice.

This just left setting up all their personal belongings, which out of all of them Naruto had the least amount. Blake was given all four of the bookshelves, not to mention she also took the bottom bunk to put the rest of her books underneath it. Yang pretty much claimed half the bathroom with all of her hair products. Pyrrha managed to limit herself only one dresser and a stand for her weapons and armor. Jaune, who was the other blonde male that Naruto barely recognized, was forced to stuff all of his comic books into his own dresser and stored his weapons under his bed. Then there was Naruto, who called dibs on the single bed since he was the team leader, and all he really did was claim a single dresser and leaned the majority of his weapons up against the wall.

"You think they would have given us bigger rooms." Blake commented as she sat casually on her bed with an open book in hand.

"I know right, it's not like they have a giant school with plenty of room." Yang said sarcastically, rolling her lilac eyes.

"I'm sure they gave us the best that they had." Pyrrha tried to defend the staff, although honestly she would've preferred a larger room as well, "It's not that bad."

"Yeah, we could've waited until tomorrow to unpack, right before class started." Naruto pointed out as he said on his own bed, sword resting on his lap, with a cloth running over the blade.

"Man that would've sucked, we would've been so late!" now that Yang thought about it, didn't Ruby and her team pretty much go right to bed after the exam?

"I'm sure we would've been fine." said Jaune as he laid down on his bottom bunk, reading one of his many comic books.

"Better safe than sorry," Naruto shrugged his shoulders before looking over at Yang and Blake, "So what happened after I passed out?"

The blonde and black haired girl looked at each other before turning back to face Naruto, "Not much really."

"That sounded so convincing." Naruto said with a flat look, clearly not believing his two partners. "Well Yang carried you back." Blake began.

"We got attacked by more Beowolfs." Yang continued. "Jaune got carried away by a bunch of Nevermores."

"Pyrrha had to save him, twice." Jaune further hit his face behind his comic book at that.

"And we fought our way back to the cliff." the two finish at the same time, glancing at each other again.

Naruto knew they were clearly leaving out relevant details, whether out of embarrassment or shame, but decided not to press the matter. They were still a new team after all, he was the team leader, and they'd eventually have to learn how to trust one another. The best way to earn someone's trust is to go in the battle with them. Maybe that's what they should do, to further learn how they all fight together. He knows that Yang likes to do early morning workouts, so maybe he could convince them all to do some early morning training before classes start. Plus he had no idea how Jaune fought.

"Right, if that's all that happened."

"On another note, there's still the matter of your reward for saving my little sister." Yang instantly switched back into her flirtatious mode, which drew Naruto's attention.

Her carefree attitude, the way she had no qualms about flirting with someone she barely knew, and a few other smaller details led him to believe he was some kind of defense mechanism. A way for her to deflect questions or get out of a situation that she found uncomfortable.

"It's fine, Yang, I'm sure she would have done the same for me."

Yang just ignored him and skipped over to his bed, her hands clasped behind her back as she looked down at him with a grin. The other occupants of the room just looked at each other, unsure if they should leave or not.

"Oh shut up and take your reward." Yang suddenly bent down and kissed Naruto on his cheek, something that normally wouldn't have made her so flustered and yet it did anyways, "So thanks."

Naruto just paused in the act of polishing his blade, feeling his own cheeks heat up a bit, before looking up at Yang with an all too charming smile.

"You're welcome."

The rest of the newly formed team spent the rest of the day just hanging out together, talking about their pasts, what they did in school, and just getting to know one another. Blake and Jaune were a little vague with their stories, often glossing over details, but by the end of the day they were all just a little bit closer. It was only later that night, once everyone had finally fallen asleep, that Naruto's red eyes snapped open and he got up out of his bed.

(Outside)

Now standing on the ledge just outside his dorm room window, Naruto's gaze traveled up to the actual roof of the student dorms. It didn't take him long to scale up the side of the building, even without proper climbing equipment, and when he did reach the top he found someone familiar waiting for him. Raven had been meditating for the last hour or so, waiting for her son to eventually seek her out, and actually let a smile graced her features when she heard him approach.

"Hi mom." what else could Naruto say, he did leave in the middle of the night without even so much as a note and now suddenly his mom had found him.

Raven just got to her feet and gave him an appraising look, noting every single change that he had gone through since leaving, especially the new scars that she could see. She then walked closer to her son, who is now taller and had a build similar to his father; even if it was a bit leaner.

"You got taller." she grinned up at him.

"What can I say, I've been eating my greens?" Raven did her best not to snort at his lame excuse.

"I see you've also been getting into fights." Raven pointed out, tracing her hand along one of the scars on Naruto's arm, wondering what kind of Grimm gave it to him.

"I've been winning them to, just like he taught me." Naruto smirked mirrored Raven's own, but the elder Branwen frowned suddenly.

Without warning, Raven wrapped both her arms around her son's neck and pulled him down into a hug, which nearly sent Naruto off balance. Instead of pulling away, like any teenage boy would've done, Naruto instead returned the hug; he did miss her after all.

"I'm sorry for leaving." Naruto whispered, but Raven just shook her head. "No you're not, you take after me."

Naruto pulled back and nodded his head, "You're right, I'm sorry for not keeping in touch."

"I know you are, but it's okay now," the mother and son stepped away from one another, "So what brings you all the way out here to Beacon? I'm pretty sure I taught you enough to wipe the floor with any of these children."

"I took some work as a mercenary not long after I left the tribe, mostly for source of income. My first job landed me in the middle of the desert for quite some time, but I made it out and there was someone else looking to hire me. Now here I am." Naruto explained, not knowing how much he should tell Raven and if she might disagree with his full job description.

"Someone hired you to infiltrate Beacon Academy? Have you met this person?" Raven knew she might be jumping to conclusions, but she didn't choose destroy her family to keep her son out of Ozpin's hands, just to have her him wind up in Salem's.

"Nope, it's all pretty shady, but the money is real."

"Do you even know if it was a man or a woman?" She knew Salem had minions of her own, but at least Raven would have someone to look out for.

"Sounds like an old man, one of those rich and sophisticated types. You know, the ones our tribe usually steals from." Naruto replied, getting a smile and a nod from Raven.

"I won't ask you what your job here is, if you're anything like me then you won't tell, but at least promise me you'll be careful." Raven couldn't bear the thought of losing her son, let alone in a game played by those two monsters.

"I promise you I'll handle it like a Branwen."

Raven just let out a hearty laugh, "Then the school won't be standing by the time you're done. I nearly brought down one of the smaller towers when your father made me upset one day."

"Oh, well I guess now I have to bring down the whole place." Naruto said sarcastically, his goal still being to become just as strong as his mom and become a worthy leader for the Branwen tribe.

"So, have any pretty girls caught your eye yet? You know they're gonna have to be strong if you want me to accept them," Raven teased.

"Well a girl did kiss me on the cheek a few hours ago, after I saved her little sister earlier today." Raven's mind broke for a moment, her left eye twitching while she tried to remain smiling, "I...see." "Mom?" Naruto asked since like concern.

"It's nothing, nothing at all, I just didn't expect you to take so much after your dad. The ladies like him a lot as well."

"So how's the tribe doing?" Naruto asked after slightly awkward silence.

Raven moved over and sat down on the edge of the building, motion for Naruto to join her, "Well we got a new member, a girl that had ran away from one of the academies. She is a bit of a mess right now but there's hope for her."

They spent the next few hours talking, mostly just catching up, before Raven decided she had best leave.

"I'll be sticking around Vale for a while, I've got some tribe business to attend to, so we can talk more later."

(Dash)

While Raven was having her reunion with her long lost son, another member of the Branwen family sat on the edge of another building not far away. Qrow knew he was right in trusting his gut; there was no way Raven would just randomly show up to see how Yang was doing. Hell, he doubted she even knew her daughter was going to Beacon to begin with. At first he thought she was planning something against Oz, it wouldn't be too out of character for her, but what he saw was even more dumbfounding!

"He's alive." Qrow whispered, shock evident on his face as he watched what played out before him, mentally kicking himself for not recognizing his best friends son the moment he saw him back in the Emerald Forest.

Qrow had his scroll out in a matter of seconds, Ozpin's number already set and ready to dial, but he paused just seconds before hitting the dial button. Raven had lied about her son's death, she'd lied to himabout it! No matter how much they may not see eye to eye on most things, Raven knew family was important to Qrow. Hell, he'd known about her being pregnant with Tai's kids long before the man himself! So why did she fake her own son's death just to make Qrow think he was gone?

Qrow glanced down at the image of Ozpin on his scroll and then back at the mother and son saying their goodbyes. He remembered when Naruto's semblance came roaring to life and the way Ozpin tried to get involved in the whole thing. He remembered how Raven and Tai fought like never before over what they should do, only for Raven to vanish later that night with their son. She lied to him because she knew Qrow would tell Ozpin, or Ozpin would ask Qrow to spy on the boy and report back to him.

"Dammit." Qrow cursed, taking a swig from his flask, "I need to find some damn answers."

Meanwhile, a small Nevermore flew above them all, it's eyes glowing like never before. They were approaching the endgame. After so many lifetimes, it was almost over.

Manthisonetookmeaminutetocrankout.Letmeknowwhatyouguysthinkabouthowthestoryisgoingsofar.IthinkI'mdoinganalrightjobbutathirdparty'sopinionneverhurt.