He walks through the streets of Vale, an entirely unassuming man with nondescript features and nondescript clothes. The kind of person who probably wouldn't even get animated if a studio really wanted to save some on their budget. Little more than an extra, he passes through without any notice, any glances, any acknowledgement. Not even the police spare him a second glance as he turns a corner into an alleyway and enters through a door almost hidden entirely from view by a dumpster.
Inside the building, his form changes.
Red markings snake across the skin. The eyes deepen to a dark yellow, irises banded by crimson. The white turns to black and the features gain a distinctly feral tinge: the teeth become fangs, the pupils become slanted and bone tips protrude from the skin as the mask of humanity falls away to reveal a sallow visage in the likeness of the grimm.
The man, half human and half grimm, lets out a satisfied breath. He strides deeper into the building, donning a black cloak with a symbol emblazoned onto its back. A six-ringed moon shattered outward with the fragments forming a simile of an outstretched claw. The emblem of one of many cults that dwell in the underworld of Vale, this one belonging to a certain group of fanatics more obscure and discrete than most.
The acolyte of the Budding Moon moves deeper into the building, coming into a wide-open room, a space filled with mountains of crates and boxes and broken-down construction equipment. He goes over to a rusted over crane, its tip just a few inches from the ceiling and the wheels missing from the platform. A giant, immobile hunk of iron and disrepair, one can only wonder how it was even placed here to begin with.
A clawed hand presses against the base. Veins bulge black with shadow. The soles of the iron-tipped boots stink into the steel floor, and with an ear-piercing shriiiiiiiek as the giant mass moves. One step. Two steps. Three steps, wooden crates and cardboard boxes being crushed into the corner. Eventually, a trap door is revealed. Moving some of the crates and other machinery in place to cover his tracks, he descends into the depths with no further issue.
Down the stairs, into the basement, through a haze of blood and bile, there is a door. From behind, there are voices. Casual voices, as if making conversation. And growls. Snarling. The rattle of chains and the scuffling of claws against stone.
They've already arrived then, the acolyte thinks. He enters the door.
Inside are three figures, two humans and a caged beast in chains. The three all wear similar cloaks, though two in a style more elaborate than the acolytes own.
"The prodigal son returns!" One of the two says, a man dressed in a priest's garb, with slicked brown hair and a sharp beard. His robe decorated and elaborate, his lips part into a grin full of teeth and his arms spread. "How was your day, my child?! Would you like a fruit snack? I'm always sure to carry a few on me!"
The grinning man holds out a hand with a blue plastic-wrapped packet. The acolyte stares for a moment, then takes a packet and pops it into his mouth, wrapper and all.
The grinning man nods and holds a fruit snack to the figure next to him.
"Fuck your creepy ass fruit snacks." The second figure snaps. A hood and shadows obscure the majority of her features, a few strands of deep red hair visible falling past her chin. "Are we doing this or what?"
"Why so on edge, my dear? We've welcomed you into our fold in exchange for your services, have we not? Rest assured, here you are safe."
"There is a psycho pre-tween out there with the emotional stability of an open dust mine in an earthquake and enough power to make the resulting explosion from said open dust mine in an earthquake look like a bad fart. Nowhere on the same continent as that freak is 'safe'. As soon as we're done here, I'm getting on the first ship off of this rock."
The grinning priest only shrugs at the red-haired woman's fear and motions towards the large double doors behind them. "Shall we then?"
The red-haired woman grunts. The acolyte moves over to the caged grimm, grips the bars and hefts the iron prison, the Ursa inside snarling and struggling against its bindings. The chains rattle and clang against the bars and floor, but the cage holds firm, the acolyte keeping it steady as though the caged grimm was little more than a pup in a tiny metal box.
The double doors open to a crimson-stained chamber. Red and black drip from the walls. Mud and innards congeal, pooling into four sewer drains spread around the room.
In the center, a man in dark robes hunches over one of many fresh corpses strewn about around him, each in a similar robe with a similar emblem.
As they draw closer, the sounds of wet crunching and tearing overtakes the rattling struggle of the grimm. Closer still, the source becomes visible to them. Blood-stained teeth gnaw into flesh and bone, gore dripping from his lips, dribbling down his chin and into the robe.
The priest smiles. The woman scowls. The acolyte lowers the cage, the Ursa's movements becoming more and more frantic and agitated.
"Father…!" the bloodied man rises and wipes his lips and kneels before the priest. "I have done as you've asked. The unworthy have been purged…!"
"Very good, my son. They will find their peace in the brothers' embrace." The priest cups the man's bloodied cheeks. "You have done well. The spark of the brothers is bright within you. Now, we shall allow it to shine brighter still."
The bloodied man bows his head to the ground. The priest nods to the red-haired woman.
"Ugh. Here? Well, whatever. Just don't go blaming me when this turns out exactly how I said it would."
She takes out an ink well and a brush and gets to work. The aura infused ink doesn't run, and she layers it onto the floor, painting a network of jagged lines with sharp angles and corners, like hairline cracks in ceramic.
The bloodied man prays. The priest watches. The acolyte stares hungrily at the red mud pooling into the drains.
About an hour later she finishes, the ink forming two conjoined circles, like broken spiderwebs. The bloodied man kneeling at the center of one web with the caged grimm positioned at the center of the other. The red-haired woman steps back. She looks over her work and nods, closing her eyes.
"Hmph-!"
A hollow cracking fills the room, like an empty shell being crushed. They creep from under her robes and up her neck and down her arms, molten red marks carving across the skin in an identical pattern to the zigzagged lines branching across the floor. She winces as they spread, burning across her skin. About halfway across her face, the cracks stop and fade into a dull black, almost like ink.
The red-haired woman lets out a breath. She opens her eyes again, one eye the same soft brown, and the other a dull yellow set in inky black.
She slaps her hands together, fingers weaving through a series of hand signs. Bird. Dog. Ram.
At the last seal in the sequence, the room lights up, the ink pattern drawn throughout the room lighting up with the same crimson glow that burned across her skin. The molten ink moves. It slithers across the floor, converging on the caged grimm.
Rattling chains. A panicked frenzy. The Ursa's struggle only grows as the burning red creeps towards it, and it howls in pain as the cracks creep up its legs and across its body. The struggle stops. The grimm falls to its knees. Crimson spreads. Clumps of fur fall. The muscles wither and the cracks spread until the shadows collapse beneath their own weight, the pieces of armored bone and mask clattering to the floor as the red darkens into black slithers back across the floor towards the bloodied man.
Just as it did the grimm, the marks encroach on his being. Yet, the bloodied man does not scream. He does not cry, or yell or even move aside from a slight tremor of euphoria as the darkness covers him like a second skin.
One second passes. Two seconds pass. Three. Then, the shadows fade, the bloodied man's form emerging once more from the darkness.
He blinks. He gets to his feet, glancing at himself, confused. Unsure. Then, he looks to the priest.
"Did it wor-"
BOOM-!
He pops. Like a balloon jabbed by a needle, the bloodied man explodes outward in a spray of blackened mud. The priest and the red-haired woman both shield themselves with their robes, the acolyte largely unresponsive as he is sprayed by the dark, vicious liquid.
"Told you that shit was going to happen."
"Yes, yes, how very disappointing." The priest brushes the residue from his robes. "Same time tomorrow then?"
"Better get me some better material next time… and do me a favor and find someone other than a cesspool like this for us to do this next time?" the red-haired woman shivers. "I'm sure this kind of shit is the exact sort of thing that'd he would sniff out like a bloodhound."
"You seem awfully confident in his ability to find you." The priest notes. "What is it about that child that inspires such fear in you? We are only a few steps away from obtaining the very same power he has. Assuming you don't believe those rubbish rumors of him being the vessel to one of the Nine Lords."
The red-haired woman scoffs. She shakes her head a bit and takes a few steps.
"You know, I used to think some stupid kid with the name 'Demon Fox' swirling around him wasn't anything to sweat about either." A pause. She stops and looks back at the priest and the acolyte. "Then, I saw that stupid ten, maybe eleven, year old kid get back up after having his chest caved in, and rip the person who did it in half."
She shivers. She takes a breath to steady herself. "Honestly, in retrospect, the way he just kept getting stronger and angrier each time we did any real damage should've tipped us off… Like the more we broke the 'container', the more whatever was inside could leak out. And I don't know what is inside of that kid, but whatever it is, it's had four more years to make itself right at home."
"A child? I fuckin wish. Who knows what kind of monster's lurking behind that mask now…"
…
The weak exist to be devoured by the strong.
Struggling. Wishing. Hoping. Intangible nothing and meaninglessness.
Power is the only constant. Strength. The capacity to crush those who would threaten you and yours.
…
This world has no meaning.
To live is to struggle. To exist is to suffer. An unending battle for survival.
And all for what?
…
It is rotted to the roots.
Twisted from the very core.
A society built on lies and empty promises.
This world is wrong.
So maybe… just maybe…
Burn the roots from the corrupted earth. Rip away the core from that blackened heart. Tear down the lifeless trees and dead leaves and set fire to the decayed remains. So that a new life might emerge from the ashes.
Maybe… that would be better.
Maybe… maybe… maybe…
…
'That butt…'
(…)
It's not like he hasn't seen more than his fair share of shapely behinds in his lifetime. Clothed and unclothed and everything in between. That just comes with the territory of spending more time in shady bars for his 'work' than any pre-teen probably should. But, for all of his 'familiarity' with butts, right now, there's just something about her butt that he can't take his eye off of.
It's tight. Firm. Shapely. More or less what'd be expected of the butt of a person who trains day in and day out to fight literal monsters. It's definitely one of the better butts he's seen, but again, it's not like he hasn't ever been offered favors from people with just as perfect asses in exchange for his service. Or mercy. Not that he's ever been the type to take people up on those offers. He's not a pervert, after all.
He's not a pervert. He is not a pervert. But…
'… that butt…'
"-and twenty!" With a breath, Yang rises from her stretch, an orange tank-top and black bike-shorts in place of her usual wears. "Whew, okay! I'm good. You ready, whiskers?"
"Hm? Oh, yeah." Naruto hops to his feet, in a simple black t-shirt and dark-orange shorts himself. "Come at me with the intent to kill."
"Pft. How about the intent to let you get a few hours of shut-eye?"
"I mean, I didn't want to just flat out say you have no chance of winning."
"Oh, you're going to pay for that."
"Is that so?"
They start slow. The strikes come easy and are blocked, deflected or dodged in turn. Yang is the aggressor and Naruto the defender. Faster and still able to throw in the occasional punch or kick, but largely limited by his missing limb.
"Did you hear there was another faunus protest in downtown Vale last night?"
Naruto perks a brow. "White Fang?"
"Nah."
"Hn. Not saying I don't get why they're protesting, but it's kind a bad time right now, isn't it?"
"Oh yeah. Blood Moon's this week."
"Mhm."
Yang throws a heavy right. Naruto ducks under the punch, sliding back a few yards with a quick gust of wind.
"You going to be okay with your eye and arm like… you know."
"I'll be fine. Besides, I… ah, crap."
"What?"
"Just remembered there was something I was supposed to do that I completely forgot to do… should be fine though. Hmph-!"
A burst of wind launches him forward and Naruto cartwheels into a drop kick. Yang blocks the kick on her forearms, skidding back a short distance. This time he goes on the attack, quick strikes with his legs in place of his missing arm.
She blocks the first few kicks well enough but tries to go on the attack and immediately catches a heel in the ribs for her effort. Aura blocks the blunt of the blow, but there's still a pause, and they separate.
"That's one for me." Naruto smirks.
"Pft, lucky shot."
"At this point, you may as well just rename your ribs to 'lucky'."
A slight growl. Yang charges him with a flurry of punches that he dips and ducks away from, only occasionally raising his arm to block.
"So, what do the hunter schools actually do when that time of the month rolls around, anyway?" Naruto asks. "I imagine they'd leave most of the heavy lifting to the real hunters, right?"
"The official guys are usually sent out to support the places with less infrastructure and then we just help hold down the fort." Yang answers, a casual conversation between blows. "Did you know last year Ruby broke the record for most grimm killed during the Blood Moon at our school? I couldn't even believe it! We're all so proud of her."
"Well, she definitely knows her way around that giant weed whacker of hers…"
Yang lets out a snort of a chuckle. "Don't let her catch you calling her 'sweetheart' that."
"Why? I already have. Multiple times."
"Of course you have."
He ducks under a punch, pivots on his heel and spins back around with a roundhouse. She hops back, away from it, and takes a second to regain her balance.
"What about you?" Naruto asks. "I imagine you put up some pretty good numbers, right?"
"Ehhh~, I do okay. I'm more of a 'sprinter' and those nights are definitely more of a 'marathon' kind of deal. Ruby can just kind of spam her semblance while mine is more like a 'one and done' kind of deal, you know?"
"It takes a bit out of you to use, I suppose? That makes enough sense."
Yang gives him a wink. "Keep it between us, alright?"
"Obviously." Naruto perks a brow. "You could just, you know, not use your semblance?"
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?"
"Hmph, fair enough."
They come together again in a whirlwind of fists and limbs and feet. It's almost like a dance, both fighters just going through motions practiced many times before, moving to a tune only they can hear. At its end, they part again, Yang panting slightly and Naruto having not even broken a sweat.
"So, what do you usually do… on those nights?" Yang asks between breaths.
Naruto just shrugs. "Keep my head down and try not to make a mess. That crap used to give me nightmares as a kid."
"Aww, really?"
"Hey, don't you 'aww' me! That shit's terrifying when you're five years old and have no idea what's going on…"
"Sorry, I meant 'aww' as in 'wow, the adults you grew up around were all total assholes'." Yang frowns. "Did you at least have someone to check up on you?"
"Nope."
"So, just totally alone."
"Yup."
"That really sucks… but hey, at least you're way strong enough to kick any grimm's butt now, right?"
"I suppose." Naruto gives a lame shrug and scratches his cheeks with his thumb. 'Not the one that's causing them anyway…'
"Well hey, Blood Moon and grimm aside, Signal always threw us one hell of an after party to celebrate!" And I hear the ones at Beacon are Le-Gen-DARY! It's going to be awesome. I'm sure you'll love it."
"Somehow I have my doubts about a school sponsored after party being anything to remember in the morning. Aren't, like, a fourth of the people here technically underage?"
"Yeah, but this is a school sponsored party by a school that trains people to fight monsters. Besides, someone always tries to spike the punch bowl."
Another round. Between the flurry of limbs and fists, they continue to talk.
"You know, I gotta say, I never really understood the whole 'underage' thing." Naruto says, slapping a punch to the side. "Like what, the old crones in charge think you're old enough to go out and fight and die to keep them safe but sex and alcohol are just too far?"
A high sweep catches her on the side of the chin and Yang grunts, her hair starting to glow ever so slightly. "I know, right?! But, I guess I can kind of see where they're coming from. Aura can keep you safe from the grimm but that other stuff can mess up your life if you get into it too early."
"Literally the first time I saw you was when you ordered a drink and started beating up dudes in a bar."
"Hey! That 'drink' is more sugar than alcohol. Besides, I'm not the one who's still not legal." A pause amidst a flurry of motion. "Why's a cutie like you slumming with someone like Junior, anyway?"
She almost catches him on the jaw with that. Almost. But instead, Naruto ducks the punch, replying with a dull expression. "Gotta pay the bills somehow. Well, not really but he is the kinda person who's sometimes useful to know."
"Oh yeah, I think you told me about that. Said he's your friend."
"Pretty sure the phrasing was more like 'occasionally useful business associate'." Naruto gives her a curious look as they again break for a quick breather. "So, what about you?"
"Hm?"
"Why'd you go knocking on and then proceed to smash through, Junior's front door?"
Yang glances away, smile wavering ever so slightly. "That… it's a bit of a long story."
There's a bit of an awkward pause. But, the moment passes and she looks back to him with an eager grin, raising her fists as her eyes flash red. "Alright, you ready to kick things up a notch?"
Naruto only perks a brow. "You sure you wanna go that hard? This probably isn't the week to be burning yourself out in a spar."
"Eh, it'll be fine! Come on, let's get this thing started!"
Fists slam together. Gold ignites. Naruto allows himself a second to admire the sight of her hair aflame before he closes his eye.
Blue and white invert for an instant. A slight leak, a brief slip with the coming of the red night. Then, he bares his will upon the darkness once more, forcing it to retreat. The pool of shadow drains to blackened veins. And he opens his eye once more, ashen blue igniting as well.
…
"Mhg… ow…"
A few rounds later, the process of changing clothes is a less than pleasant affair. She worries about him. She really does. Especially with the whole 'literally not sleeping at all' thing. Fortunately, or unfortunately, the only thing the lack of sleep seems to be making him any worse at is holding back. Judging by how it feels like she just got run over by a train, he seems to be physically fine. And judging by how intently he was focused on her ass while she was stretching, he seems to be mentally fine as well.
Still, she worries. As silly as it may be to worry about someone who could probably break a grown man like a soggy kit-kat. Kind of like when she was a kid, right after mom died, when Uncle Qrow would come stumbling in so drunk he couldn't walk straight, and she would have to get in real close to make sure he was still breathing.
Granted in this case, instead of a grown-ass man with a drinking problem, it's a cute boy the same age as Ruby who apparently never had anyone around to tell him better. So, it is a bit different.
Just a little bit.
Changed into comfy sweatpants and a cargo jacket, Yang finds him outside the locker room, brow furrowed at something on his scroll.
"You finally got that thing figured out?" She asks, dropping into the spot next to him. "What're you looking at?"
Naruto scowls. "They found something in Vale last night. Looks like the weirdos are starting to come out of the woodworks."
"Lemme see."
She leans on his shoulder to get a look at his scroll.
"Multiple bodies… unidentified substance… signs of cannibalism? Gross." Yang wrinkles her nose. "I bet it's one of those weird, grimm-worshiping cults."
"Yeah, those guys are always up to something around this time."
Naruto clicks off his scroll and slides it into his pocket. The lone blue eye glances at her. "So, you good?"
"Mmm~, carry me."
"So, question." Naruto says, piggy backing her back to the dorms. "With your semblance, can you just, like, keep building up energy forever, or do you kind of have to eventually use it or lose it?"
"It's a bit of use it or lose it, but there's only so much strain your body can handle, you know?" Yang chuckles, resting her chin on his shoulder. The position is a bit awkward with the difference in their height, but it still beats limping back on her own. "Well, I guess you don't really know, but there is a bit of a balancing act. The power from my semblance puts a good chunk of stress on my body and then there's the damage I gotta take to build it up in the first place. So, if I go too hard with my semblance I gotta make sure they can't get back up afterwards or I'll burn out."
"Like now?"
"Yep. But it's nice to get to really flex the ol' semblance every now and then." Yang sighs with a content smile. "Think you're the only person I know who can get me that fired up."
"And who's willing to carry your ass back after you burn yourself out punching them in the face with all of your strength?"
"Ehe~."
"Don't 'ehe' me, you muscle monster! Ugh. Why do I have to be your punching bag and your wheelchair…"
"Hey, who are you calling a muscle monster, you overpowered fishcake?"
"You." Naruto perks a brow and glances back at her. "By the way, I heard wolfie let it slip that sneeze was thinking of switching teams?"
A frown curls her lips. "Mhmm~. Well, you tell the ice bitch to not let the door hit her on the way out. She wants to ditch, that's fine by me. You'll fit in the team better anyways."
"Um, yeah, let's not even get into the sheer power-level difference between me and you guys and take a quick stop at 'two hot girls and a wolfie in a small stuffy room with one dude sounds like a terrible idea' station. Like, if you think I'm not sleeping enough now, that shit would be impossible."
Yang snorts out a chuckle. She leans in to let her breath tickle his neck. "Ohh~? And why would it be so hard getting some sleep around little ol' me?"
She feels a small satisfaction at the shiver racing up his spine, and Naruto grumbles. "You know why… besides, you shouldn't be so sure that Sneeze will actually go through with it. I gave her the go ahead already but she still hasn't pulled the trigger, so who knows? Maybe she'll decide to stay after all."
"What, so she just got cold feet?"
"I suppose."
"Hmph. Whatever. I hope she's not expecting a warm welcome back."
…
…
It's a little bit nerve wracking. Being here right back again where she started, doing this after having already walked away once. The awkwardness of the shoe finally being on the other foot. Still, having come this far, it would be remiss of her if she didn't at least make the effort.
With a quiet breath, this time it is Weiss who approaches her partner and team leader. Her nose in a book, the reading due tomorrow, she notes, the younger girl doesn't notice her.
"Good afternoon, Ruby."
"Oh, hi Weiss!" Ruby looks up from the book and cheerfully greets her. "Is there something you need?"
"Yes. Well, no, not exactly. I just… there's a new clothing store that only opened today, and the brand is fairly well-known in Atlas for the quality of their combat skirts, so I wanted to if you wanted to browse their selection." A pause. "I already finished the reading, so I can fill you in on the details."
Ruby just blinks, as if seeing something strange, inexplicable and incomprehensible. Then, her brain reboots and her face lights up the same way that one ray of sunlight manages to light up the insides of her eyelids every morning.
"Oh, really?! That'd be great! I was actually thinking of going down to Vale later today and I've already made a list of things that I wanted to buy and-!"
'I already regret this…'
…
…
"Aaaaahhh~…"
He yawns for what may very well be the hundredth time that day.
It's strange. In the past, that time of the month has always put him on edge. Even after the grimm in the forests became just about as threatening as a strange shadow in the dead of night. Because then, if it wasn't the grimm on the outside then it was the grimm on the inside.
The slightest slip. That's all it'd take for the demon within to make his vision bleed red and his blood burn black and his body not his own.
Now? Now, he's just… tired.
The Blood Moon comes, but that desperate, nervous energy doesn't come with it. Just the low-simmering anger and general annoyance at everything.
Naruto blinks hard with his one eye, stretches with his one arm, and refocuses on the paper in front of him.
"… the Second really was a piece of work, huh?" He picks up the sheet, a piece of loose leaf like one could find in almost any student's notebook but with a spider web of ink drawn over the surface. "Well… all things considered, I guess I shouldn't be surprised."
He holds the paper up and just stares at it.
Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei. (Summoning: Resurrection to the Impure World)
A kinjutsu that allows for the resurrection of a soul into an immortal body of dirt and ash.
It's not the whole thing. Of course not. He's barely a few steps in. But even the tallest mountains had to start as simple stones. The progress is there. The secrets of the Second Hokage's foul legacy have begun to unravel. And now, it's only a matter of time, stubbornness and a lot of clones.
A lot of clones.
In his hands, he holds the first key to a blasphemy like no other. Part of him wants to burn it. Burn it and that scroll and this room and cleanse its existence in aura and flame. Yet even the ghost of the semblance-loving child inside is already asking 'what if'?
He could get answers. Answers to the questions he never thought would be answered. Questions he's not sure if he even wants answered. There are a lot of those. And now, the possibility is there. The chance to have answered those unsaid questions he never had the chance to ask. The things anyone left behind would want to ask of those who left.
…
A forked grin and cruel yellow eyes flash through his mind. The memory of his first encounter with this forbidden ninjutsu, long before he'd laid eyes(eye) on its entry in the scroll.
"Tch."
Ash smolders with crimson. He slaps the paper back onto the table and stands with a scowl. "… I need a shower."
Grabbing a towel, he makes his way to the bathroom.
Then, there's a knock on the door.
Naruto perks a brow and glances at the window. 'Still morning… wonder who it is?'
He opens the door. The scowl deepens.
"Good morning." Weiss Schnee says in all of her 'gi-normous pain in his ass' glory. "It's time for class."
'I am not in the mood for this shit.'
He tries to slam the door shut.
She puts her foot in the door.
The result?
Crack.
"OW-!"
…
"Was it really necessary to put that much strength into it?"
"Yes."
Seated in a chair, Weiss tries not to wince as the bandage tightens around the growing bruise on her foot. Then, she glances at the new foot-shaped indent in the door frame, at the slightly ajar and splintered door, and does wince.
Her aura protected her foot. For the most part.
The door, not so much.
She looks from the door to the bed, the sheets all but untouched beneath a knapsack and a small mountain of books and rolled up parchment and crumpled up paper. Then, to the desk every bit as littered with papers filled with notes and curves and lines that make no sense to her.
"You've certainly been busy…" She picks up a piece of paper. "What is all of this?"
Naruto swipes the paper from her hand before she can make heads or tails of it. "None of your business." A pause. He takes a quick second to actually read over the contents of the page and furrows his brow. "Actually, this is garbage."
He balls the paper up and tosses it into a trash can filled to the brim with more pieces of discarded paper. Ashen blue looks to her, the faint flecks of embers within visible even from her seated position. "Why are you here?"
Weiss notes the oddity in his eye color but opts not to comment. "… I told you. Class is in fifteen minutes and I fully predicted, and expected, you not to care enough to show up without someone reminding you of your obligations as a student."
"Dear god, I've only got the one eye left and you are actually going to make it roll back into my skull."
"Well, it would be wonderful if you could at least get yourself dressed first. You still need to put your uniform on. And seeing as how we only have three working feet between us now, thanks to you, we shouldn't dawdle around too long, or we'll be late."
"You have aura, your foot will be fine in like an hour."
"Which is forty-six minutes after the start of class! My attendance record is spotless, and I refuse to have a black mark added to it because you were too sleep deprived to control your own strength!"
Naruto grumbles under his breath, even as he grabs his uniform from the floor and slinks to the bathroom to change.
"… More like you decided to stick your foot in a doorway like a dumbass…"
"I heard that!"
"You were supposed to!"
The door shuts. Weiss crosses her arms and glares at the door for a second before letting out a silent sigh. She cradles her foot and looks around at the room.
Empty walls. Empty space. An empty room. If it weren't for the papers, she may not have even been able to tell someone was living here.
'… What a lonely room.' Weiss thinks to herself. 'He's practically already packed to leave…'
"Since your just here to drag me off to class instead of kicking me out, I'm guessing you had second thoughts about hopping ships?" he says from the bathroom
"How could I bear the thought of kicking you out of a room with such warmth?" She answers flatly.
"Hah."
"You really ought to decorate this place."
"I literally cannot think of a single thing I'd want to do less."
A pause. The rustling of cloth and the jingling of a zipper.
"I take it you've figured out what you want in a team, then?"
"I'm… keeping my options open." She answers rather uselessly. Not quite willing to admit those second thoughts have already become more than just second thoughts.
The bathroom door opens and Naruto steps back into the room, dressed in the typical dress shirt and pants he usually scavenges from the uniform, but this time with the addition of the unbuttoned blazer. The blue and crimson regards her lazily. "Hmph. Well, try not to get another door shut on your foot. Can you walk?"
There is a dull pain when she places her foot on the floor and a sharp one as she stands. A wince. "I'll manage with some support."
He crosses his arms, the right arm still all but missing below the elbow, but enough of the limb having regenerated for him to at least accomplish the motion. He looks to her, then to her foot and back to her.
"What… H-hey! What do you think you're doing?!"
Weiss blanches as she is unceremoniously lifted over his shoulder. She kicks her feet and rails against his back with her fists and displeasure. Alas, her fists find only a rather well-muscled back, and he responds in a dull drawl.
"Do you want to spend fourteen minutes hobbling to class with me holding your hand the whole time and still end up late, or do you want me to just get us there in one?"
"Ugh…"
He has a point. As always, it is a point that she hates that he has, but he does, and she can't dispute it. Making herself comfortable, she goes mostly limp over his shoulder, doing her best to fight down her already growing shame.
"… You better not look up my skirt."
"Not like there's anything to see anyway."
"I hate you."
"Most people do."
…
AN: And we're back. I'm 1-2 chapters away from finishing this arc before I start working on the next(chapter 31 is just about done). I really enjoyed writing it, so I hope you guys will enjoy reading it just as much. I think I should be able to do weekly releases the whole stretch, but no promises. I'll try not to leave it on any particularly bad cliffhanger.
As for this chapter, I don't have much to say. I probably should've just released it last week. And I do want to note, even though alot of my chapters are pre-written like a month in advance before I release them, I do spend the week of going over the chapter to be released. So, nothing is set in stone, and if you have some feedback about the way the story's going, don't hesitate to share.
As always, thanks for reading and I'll see you all next time.