Well, another one down! I know it's been a little bit since the last update and I apologize for that. Recently had a family member pass away unexpectedly and it delayed things. While I honestly had time to work on it before then, I just seemed busy in one way or another.
You guys keep giving me solid feedback though and my desire to see this through to the end has never been higher! Truly I appreciate each review, follow, and favorite that you guys give me.
As far as all of the concerns about the whole Adam situation, I hope this chapter gives you more answers to that. I know that some people said that I could have 'dealt' with Adam differently, but that was just how it kind of rolled. I didn't think Adam as a character deserved anything more than that. I am one of those people that think that RT did a hell of a job with dealing with Adam. They focused on closure for Yang and Blake and let Adam's parting words with the series be a simple 'Oh.' Just kinda felt like he was a shitty character. (I mean that as in a well-done character! Just shitty as in they kinda meant for him to be.)
Anywhatzit, I hope you guys all enjoy this chapter! Read, enjoy, and if you feel so inclined, review!
Taiyang Xaio-Long considered himself a decent parent, all things considered. He had his flaws of course. After losing Summer, the weight of two wives gone from him and being left with what were basically exact replicas of the two women he has loved in his life had been overwhelming.
He never hesitated to admit that when Summer died, he shut down. He removed himself emotionally from everything. He began drinking, not giving his two daughters the attention they truly needed and deserved at that age. While he had loved Summer dearly, probably more so than he had Raven, he failed to acknowledge that the two girls had also lost their mother.
His wakeup call came when Qrow came knocking on his door one day with his two angels bundled up in a wagon. The look of absolute fury on Qrow's face when he realized that Taiyang hadn't even known his kids were missing was truly something to behold.
One explanation as to what happened, and one black eye later, Taiyang found himself feeling like shit. Summer wouldn't have hesitated to kill him if she had still been with them. She may have loved Taiyang dearly, but nothing, absolutely nothing trumped her love for both Ruby and Yang. Nothing was more important to her, and he had almost allowed them to die a painful death.
He was disgusted with himself.
From that day forward, he did his best to be the best father he could be. He couldn't stop himself from being the protective father that his very soul desired him to be, but he was able to restrain himself. When Yang told him that she wanted to be a huntress, it took everything he had just to not immediately refuse her. And when Ruby told him that she shared the same goal, it was harder still.
But he still let them. He trained Yang himself of course. He refused to allow his daughters to have anything less than the best training possible. If he had his way, he would have trained Ruby as well. Unfortunately, while she extremely flexible, dexterous, and coordinated, she couldn't seem to put any of those traits to use when it came to hand to hand combat. Still to this day, he thanked the gods that she seemed to inherit Qrow's flawless skills with a scythe. Which was amusing, considering they actually shared no blood.
All of this, though, brought him to his current issue of being an absolute mess now that both of his daughters were out in the world with threats like Salem after them. He knew that they had been going to Mistral and had just gotten word from across the sea that there was a battle at Haven Academy. The only thing that had stopped him from tearing across the world in whatever way he could was that there were only two actual casualties from the battle. Headmaster Lionheart and an unknown woman that just so happened to be missing an arm. The knowledge that it was actually a brunette set his mind at ease.
Now he had no clue where they would be now that Haven was safe. He knew of the Relics and Salem of course. He had hoped that Ruby and Yang would never have to deal with that monster, but obviously he hadn't been so fortunate.
So here he was, sitting in his living room, wondering where on Remnant his daughters were. Qrow being with them was only a small consolation. Would they be on their way back home? Would they be going to Atlas? Vacuo? Vale? Menagerie had been said to have helped with the battle of Haven. Did they have the Relic? Were they out looking for Ozpin? There were just so many questions and nowhere near enough answers.
It had obviously been a few weeks since the battle of Haven. With Inter-Kingdom communications down, all information must travel as fast as the people with it. The people of Patch had actually only found out about the battle from a trader that had just happened to be in Mistral when it happened.
And so Taiyang sat in his living room, nervously tapping his feet on the floor as he tried to figure out what his kids next move would be.
He had finally come to the conclusion that since he didn't know where his kids were going to be, his best bet would be staying put at home. While it would drive him crazy, he knew that anything else could possibly just be sending him further away from them, and they wouldn't know where he was either.
No sooner had he come to this conclusion, than a blood red portal opened on the other side of the coffee table.
Taiyang sprang to his feet, remembering exactly what this portal means, even if it had been years since he had seen the creator.
Raven stumbled through the portal, which quickly shut behind her. She collapsed as soon as the portal closed, and only then does Taiyang see just how hurt the woman was.
"Raven!" Taiyang yelled out as he ran around the table towards the woman.
The woman groaned slightly, before finally losing consciousness. Blood was freely flowing down one side of her face, so much so that it was impossible to open one of her eyes. Looking over her body, she had obviously been burned by something, and a few puncture wounds littered her torso.
Although completely caught off guard by her sudden appearance, Taiyang also knew that allowing the mother of his oldest daughter to die was not an option. He immediately ran to the kitchen where he kept most of his medical supplies. Fortunately, being a hunter, having another hunter regularly visiting after missions, and training two future huntresses tends to make a person stay heavily stocked on these things.
Taiyang managed to move Raven to a cot in the living room that he had very hastily set up. Knowing the stakes, as well as having been previously married to the woman, Taiyang had absolutely no hesitation in stripping the now unconscious woman of her clothing so that he could properly treat her wounds.
The burn along her arm seemed to be created by some kind of lightning dust? He couldn't be sure, but the burn salve he had did its work regardless. She had a decent sized cut on her head, but the more worrying wounds were the puncture wounds she had in her abdomen and one that he recently discovered on her thigh. It seemed as if they were caused by an oversized needle. Luckily, the wounds missed any major arteries, and after a quick stitching job, they seemed like something her aura would heal in due time.
Overall, it seemed like her current state was mostly due to exhaustion. The wounds were worrying, and obviously not something she could have handled by herself, but it didn't explain why she used her Kindred Link to jump to him instead of Qrow.
She had spoken with Qrow on a few separate occasions since she left but had made sure to not maintain any contact with him or Yang. So why would she come to him instead of her brother? He sat back down on his couch after making sure that Raven was sure to recover so that he could ponder this change of events.
Obviously, she needed somewhere to recover. Somewhere steady and low key. Qrow was with Ruby and Yang, and while he knew that Raven didn't want to see Yang if she could avoid it, that wouldn't stop her from saving herself in a situation like this. That meant that wherever Qrow was, he wasn't staying in one place, and he most definitely wasn't laying low.
Taiyang didn't know whether to jump for joy at getting some circumstantial information on his daughters, or to allow his heart to skip a beat at this new realization. Qrow, Ruby, and Yang were going somewhere specific, though he still didn't know where exactly. More importantly though, was that they had the Relic with them, and Raven knew that.
It was the only thing that made sense. Raven wouldn't put herself in a position where she would have to deal with seeing Taiyang again. Her pride was only ever beaten by her fear, and the only thing she feared was Salem.
Even when facing whoever she was fighting, Raven actively distanced herself from anything that Salem would have her eye on. His two baby girls were putting themselves right in Salem's sights…and he didn't know where in the world they were.
His eyes slowly drifted over to his ex-wife.
Taiyang smiled to himself. Raven would want to leave as soon as she could, he was sure of it. Thankfully, she hated being in debt to somebody.
'I guess it doesn't really matter where they are.' Taiyang thought. 'She can send me to them.'
Ruby was sitting in the backyard of Saffron and Terra's house. She knew that the best thing she could do was to put what happened behind her, but she couldn't stop reliving the hopelessness that she felt. It had been just a couple days since then, and she still hadn't talked to anybody about it.
She looked up at the door as the rest of her team walked out from the house. They hesitated slightly at seeing Ruby alone in the backyard, and Ruby knew.
They wanted to finally talk about it.
They settle down on the grass around her chair. Nobody seems to know exactly how to broach the subject, but finally, Weiss decides that she would be the best one to do it.
"Ruby." She says after taking in a deep breath. "We need to talk about this…as a team."
Ruby pulls her knees up to her chest, resting her chin on top of them. "There's nothing to talk about, nothing happened."
"Technically—" Weiss starts to say but is interrupted by Ruby.
"Technically nothing happened because you didn't keep your mouth shut!" Ruby bites out with a slight glare at the Ex-Heiress.
Weiss recoils in shock, taking a moment to process what Ruby had said.
"W-what?"
"He told me!" Ruby says to the white-haired girl. "He said that after he was done with me, he was going to kill you!"
Weiss blinks, "I…I don't remember that."
Ruby shakes her head, before hiding her face behind her knees. Her eyes start to water as she thinks about that morning. "I needed him to keep his attention on me…so that he wouldn't kill you."
"Ruby…" Weiss whispers in shock. She had wondered why Ruby had been so intent on keeping Adam's attention on her. "You know I'd rather die than see you go through that, right?"
An involuntary sob works its way through Ruby, who refused to lift her head up. She didn't want to let her teammates see the tears that were currently soaking the front of her skirt.
"Well, I'd rather go through that than lose you." Ruby finally says with a sniffle.
Weiss gets up, quickly closing the distance to wrap her partner in a hug. The red hooded girl quickly reciprocates as Weiss whispers in her ear.
"I don't think either of us are going to cave on who would go further for who. So, let's just be happy we are here now, and be here for each other from here onward."
Ruby nods into Weiss' shoulder while Blake and Yang exchange sad looks. They eventually join the hug, if only to let Ruby and Weiss know that they were there for them as well.
They all break from the hug, and Blake says her piece, "I'm so sorry that you all got brought into this. If I had known that he would go that far…"
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all glance at each other. Ruby puts a reassuring hand on Blake's shoulder.
"You wouldn't have left him?" She says questioningly. "Honestly Blake, I still consider myself lucky to have met you. I think I speak for all three of us when I say that none of us blame you for what Adam did. It wasn't your fault."
Yang looks down sheepishly, "I actually kind of understand why you ran a little better now. He was…dedicated to ruining you and everybody that you made important to you."
Blake nods, thinking back to Adam's final moments, "I guess we don't have to worry about him anymore though."
"We should go soon." Weiss says while checking the time on her scroll. "We agreed to meet JNPR for lunch."
Ruby's eyes light up slightly as she remembered their planned team eat out.
"It's hard to think that we are going to lose her again so soon after getting her back." Blake says sadly.
Ruby nods, "Yeah but everybody knows that she was dead. If we just showed up with her in Atlas before explaining everything about Naruto to Ironwood, he would ask too many questions. Besides, she needs some time with her family and to train."
The rest of Team RWBY all nod, their minds wandering back to that roller coaster of a day. While it had started with the nightmare that Adam had created, it ended so, so much better.
(Flashback – Two days prior)
A shocked silence ran through the group at Naruto's words.
"You want to…what?" Jaune stutters out.
"I want to bring Pyrrha back to life." Naruto repeats. "And I want to do it today if you're all ok with it."
"What…This is…How can…" Jaune struggles for words.
Naruto proceeds to explain everything rather than letting Jaune fry his own brain.
"It isn't as easy as it sounds." He stresses. "I will have to use my Ningendō abilities to see every memory that you have of her so that I can both make a perfect copy of her body as well as properly grab her soul from the afterlife. This will probably be a little uncomfortable for you depending on your exact relationship with her, but it will be necessary all the same."
Nora speaks up in a shaky voice, "Are you…are you sure that you can do it?"
"I won't know for sure until I try, but I'm almost certain that I can."
"Do it." Jaune suddenly finds his voice. "Whatever you need to do, do it!"
Naruto nods with a smile, "Alright. We will probably need to find somewhere outside of Argus to do this though. I don't want to freak out anybody in the city. We can find a little field outside the walls after dinner."
Jaune shakes his head, "Let's go right now!"
"I need time to prepare." Naruto says. "I need to take a little more time to really understand my Rinnegan. I'm taking her soul from the afterlife. I can't afford to mess it up."
"I guess that's fair…" Jaune mutters, though his anxiousness was visible to everybody.
Naruto sighs slightly before standing and taking off his eyepatch, careful to keep his Rinnegan eye closed, "I'll be back here practicing."
Everybody gets up and starts heading inside. Ruby waits until everybody else is inside before starting to head in after them. Before she is able to shut the door behind her, Naruto calls out to her.
"Ruby!" He says, catching her attention. At her questioning look, he scratches the back of his head. "If you're not too busy…if you're up to it…would you mind helping me?"
Immediately grateful to have something to keep her mind occupied, Ruby nods. She closes the door behind her before rejoining Naruto in the yard.
"How can I help?" She asks, clasping her hands together behind her back.
Although Naruto smiles at the question, Ruby can't help but notice the guilt that the blond was trying to hide behind the smile.
"Well, I need to get used to channeling chakra to my eye. I can tell that using my Ikigai would use the least chakra with you, so I was hoping that you wouldn't mind me practicing by switching places with you for a while."
Ruby tilts her head in thought for a moment. Yang had a brief bout of nausea from the one time Naruto switched with her, but that seemed to be about it.
"Sure." Ruby eventually nods. It wasn't much of a decision all things considered. She would help regardless but knowing that it would help bring Pyrrha back made the decision all the easier.
They practiced for quite a while. Naruto quickly got the hang of his Ikigai which wasn't all that surprising considering it was a technique specifically suited for him. It also helped that Ruby didn't suffer the same nausea that Yang had, being used to higher speed movements due to her semblance.
Ruby also helped him with his Tendō path powers. He didn't want to do anything too destructive like the Shinra Tensei, but he did get practice with his Banshō Tenin. He made sure to be careful in regulating the power, making sure not to drag Ruby more than a few feet before cutting off the technique.
The entire time she helped him train, he was extremely careful in not touching her. Through all the Ikigai training, switching places, having her appear next to him, him appearing next to her, as well as his Tendō training when he was literally dragging her towards him, not once did he touch her. It was almost as if he was scared too. She found it quite a bit more annoying than she thought she would have.
And so there they were, Naruto panting for breath as he took a moment to recover from the chakra loss he suffered while training. He took a seat and Ruby quickly sat in front of him.
"Well, it looks like we've pretty much practiced everything we can except for your Ningendō Path. I guess we need to work on that next!"
Naruto, completely forgetting about his exhaustion, looks up at her in shock. "What! No, I'm not practicing that!"
Ruby rolls her eyes, "I know you already said that you don't plan on using it. I know that you meant the whole ripping somebody's soul out thing, but you know you have to use it to make Pyrrha's body right? And don't you think it will help you find her soul too? You need to practice that at least a little!"
Naruto blinks a few times, "I guess…you're kinda right. Are you sure you're alright with it? I'm basically going to be reading your thoughts. I think that I can be careful enough to only see what you're thinking about but I'm not exactly sure how it will work."
Ruby takes in a deep breath, "I'll do anything to make sure Pyrrha comes back. She…only died because I didn't get to her fast enough. I owe it to her. You can go ahead and look for my memories of her. It will help you even more when you look at Jaune, Ren, and Nora's memories of her!"
Naruto stares at her for a moment, not entirely sure how to respond to her statement. "Ok. We can give it a shot."
Naruto takes a breath to calm himself. He closes his normal eye, leaving only his Rinnegan open as he stared at Ruby. "Alright. Clear your mind. Try to just think about Pyrrha. All the good, the bad, everything about her that you can remember."
Ruby sits up straighter as she nods in understanding. She tries her best to think about her old classmate as Naruto brings out a forefinger and places it in the middle of her forehead. Instantly Ruby finds herself reliving her memories of the Invincible Girl. The first time she met her, all the meals that RWBY and JNPR shared together. Everything played out like a movie in front of her.
Then suddenly they were at the fall of Beacon, Pyrrha accidentally destroying Penny, and finally, Ruby reaching the top of Beacon tower as Cinder Fall launches an arrow directly into Pyrrha's heart.
Ruby feels Naruto remove his finger from her forehead, and suddenly she was back in Argus. It was the most surreal feeling, feeling like she had been somewhere, without actually having been there. Reliving all of her memories had made her remember things that she previously hadn't about her time with Pyrrha. It was really something special. She looks up at Naruto and sees his sympathetic look.
She feels a wetness on her cheek, and she suddenly understood. She had been crying. She hadn't really taken a moment to think about Pyrrha in a while. She missed her so much, and she had done her best not to remember Pyrrha's last moments. It was too painful.
"Ruby I'm so sorry." Naruto says hesitantly. "You should know that wasn't your fault. You said earlier that you didn't get there fast enough, but you did everything you could. You tried your best to save her."
Ruby gently wipes the tears from her face, "You know, it's not your fault either."
Naruto sighs for a moment, knowing what Ruby was implying, "No Ruby, it was. I left when I really shouldn't have. I thought that you would be safe in Argus, but really with you guys having the Relic and with all of the enemies you all have made on the way here, I shouldn't have left you at all."
"You had no way of knowing that anything would have happened." Ruby tried to reason with him. "We don't blame you for that. You…had a lot on your mind after Jinn's vision. You deserved the time to yourself."
Naruto doesn't respond for a while. When he does speak up, he spoke so quietly that Ruby had to lean closer to hear him, "Even if you guys don't blame me…I blame me. I've known that I wouldn't be going back to my world for a while now. I overreacted."
Ruby was silent for a moment before finally asking Naruto, "Did you love her?"
Naruto looks up at the sky for a while, studying the broken surface of the moon in the day sky. Ruby was beginning to think that she may have crossed a line when he finally spoke.
"That's the most painful part Ruby." He said in a defeated tone. "I just don't know. I didn't have the chance to find out. I really, truly think that I could have. Looking back on my life, she was really the only constant. Other than the Third Hokage and Teuchi and Ayame at Ichiraku, she was the only person who really believed in me from the beginning."
Ruby, just like the others, had only seen the few moments since Naruto had become a Genin that he interacted with Hinata. And she knew that she hadn't seen all of Naruto's missions and interactions with all of his friends.
"You know," Naruto says with a soft smile, as if remembering a long-forgotten memory. "When we were kids, she was being bullied by a couple of kids in the year above us at the academy. I remember there were two times that I caught them picking on her about her eyes. I tried to stop them, but I just got my ass kicked."
Ruby watched as he smiles softly at the memory, "She was always nice to me since then, but I never really payed her too much attention. I didn't like anybody being made fun of, but I was too caught up in showing up Sasuke and my crush on Sakura to give her the time of day…I think that's what I'm most upset about. I never gave her the chance she deserved before I died. I'm no expert in the subject of love, but whether I would have loved her or not, she deserved the chance."
"She was really incredible." Ruby said quietly, remembering how the Hyuga had jumped in to save Naruto during Pain's attack, and the Juubi's attack. Knowing that she would likely die both times, she hadn't hesitated once. "But I don't think that you are completely right…"
Naruto looked at her curiously. She gave him a shy smile, "You're pretty incredible too. You both deserved the chance."
Naruto blushed slightly at the praise, "Hehe, thanks!"
"And you know," Naruto said with a smile. "This is going to feel really good. Even just looking at your memories, I can tell that Jaune and Pyrrha cared about each other a lot. I don't know if they ever admitted it to each other, but I am excited to give them the chance that they deserve too."
Ruby's eyes light up at the thought, "When we were travelling across Anima to Mistral, he would stay up late each night watching a training video that she had recorded for him over and over. It was just basic stances, but he would always give it his full attention. It was really sad to watch, but I think that he realized how much she meant to him."
Naruto gets up, brushing himself off and extending a hand to Ruby, "Let's go handle this then. I'm getting antsy just thinking about it!"
Ruby smiled at his excited smile before grasping his hand and letting him pull her up. Even though he wasn't gone for long, it felt really good to have him back. She brushed herself off, before remembering something from earlier.
"Oh!" She said, getting Naruto's attention. She took off the red and black haori that Naruto had created to help her cover herself and held it out to him. "Here you go! I meant to give it back earlier, but I kinda forgot. It's really comfortable in the cold with my cloak!"
Naruto looked at it for a moment, before shaking his head, "It also looks good on you. It blends in with your cloak. You should keep it. Consider it a gift."
Ruby blinked a few times before giving him a wide smile. The brightness of the smile immediately lightening Naruto's heart after the events of that morning.
"Really?" She asked happily. At his nod, she immediately throws it back on, bundling her cloak around her neck. By the time she had it back the way she liked, half her face was nuzzled into the cloak with the haori wrapped tightly around her frame. She looks up at Naruto, and even though he can't see the bottom half of her face under the cloak, he could tell she was smiling by the way her eyes were squinted at him.
"Thank you!" She says, her voice slightly muffled under the cloak.
Naruto felt his heart skip a beat at the inexplicably adorable vision in front of him. "U-uh, no p-problem!"
He quickly turns away, walking back inside with Ruby following in behind him, still completely elated by her new gift. As he walked to the sliding door, he thought that he had never given a better gift to somebody.
He definitely wasn't lying when he said that Ruby looked good in the haori. The color scheme suited her for sure, but there was also a small part of Naruto that had been all too happy to give her something that he used to wear, even if it wasn't that specific haori.
They walked inside, seeing everybody else waiting in the living room. Jaune looked at him expectantly, the impatient tapping of his foot on the ground stopping as soon as Naruto entered the room.
"Are…are you ready?" Jaune asked hesitantly, almost as if he was scared of the answer.
Naruto took in a deep breath, "I only need one more thing. Chakra is really good at filling in the gaps of knowledge as long as you have an idea of what you want to do, but it isn't perfect. If I want to recreate a perfect replica of Pyrrha's body, I need something that has her DNA on it. It doesn't have to be a lot, just something that used to be hers will work."
Jaune gulped, before reaching down and shakily untying his red sash from his waist. "This…is all I've really kept from her things. The rest of her stuff was sent back to her family. I melted parts of her armor into my sword and shield, so I don't know if that will be enough, but this should be. It's…all I really kept…but if you're sure it'll work…"
Naruto accepted the sash from him, studying it with his Rinnegan. He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for, but somehow, he knew.
"This is perfect. I'm not sure how I know, but I feel a little bit of her aura on it."
Jaune smiled as he let out a sigh of relief. Naruto frowned at the sash in his hand slightly, before looking up at everybody.
"There are two things that I want to tell you all though." He said hesitantly. When everybody's attention is on him, he continues. "First is that I plan on combining her core when I revive her. I want to do it before I put her soul into her body. It won't cause her any pain because she won't really be there yet, and it will allow me to make sure that I know how to do it properly."
Jaune frowned at thought of using Pyrrha's revival as an experiment, and a quick look around shows that everybody else is having similar thoughts.
"I know what you're all thinking, but it's important that I figure out how to do this so that I can do it without hurting you all. I don't like it either but the thought of trying it for the first time on people that are actually alive is an even worse thought for me."
As everybody else thought about it, Nora took the opportunity to speak up, "Pyrrha gave her life to protect people…I think she would honestly be a little upset if we didn't take the opportunity to do this. It is kind of important that Naruto learns how to do this. I wasn't there, but I don't think Jinn would have said it was important if it wasn't."
Jaune nodded hesitantly. He still didn't like it, but he couldn't disagree.
"The second thing, I know you all won't like even more." Naruto said carefully. "Pyrrha won't be able to come to Atlas with us."
Jaune immediately began to protesting, "What do you mean she can't come to Atlas with us? We can't just leave her here!"
Naruto stared at Jaune sternly, "We can, and we will. All of Remnant knows that Pyrrha died at Beacon. Showing up with her at Atlas will do nothing but cause us problems that we can't afford to deal with. Plus, her family lives here and I'm sure she would like time with them. She will hide here and train. I will be creating a lot of material for her to catch up on about Chakra. I won't have an untrained chakra user that is used to her aura protection leave Argus with us while we have the Relic. That would be ridiculously irresponsible and honestly stupid of all of us."
Qrow spoke up next, "He isn't wrong Jaune. She knows how to fight with her aura. She will be used to the thought of taking a hit if she needs too. That on top of the fact that she won't be able to just use her polarity again until she trains makes her even more vulnerable. The invincible girl won't be so invincible anymore."
Jaune looked down in frustration, desperately thinking of any way to argue with Naruto's logic.
"I think that we should stay in Argus a little longer than we were going to. It'll give you guys time to reconnect with Pyrrha, and it will give me enough time to get everything ready for her to train while we are gone. I imagine that me reviving her will connect her to my Ikigai, so I can bring her around when she is ready, and we are ready."
Jaune's shoulders sag in defeat, "Fine…"
"It's going to be fine." Naruto said reassuringly as he put a hand on Jaune's shoulder, "Now let's go do this!"
Jaune looked up at him, his eyes glimmering with hope.
And so there they were, standing in a clearing just a few miles outside of Argus. The clearing that Naruto chose stood just on the other side of a large hill from Argus. Since he was with Nagato during Konoha's revival, he wasn't exactly sure how flashy this was going to be.
Jaune, Ren, and Nora were sitting down shoulder to shoulder. Naruto was knelt in front of Jaune, prepping him for his use of the Ningendō Path.
"Alright. You're going to keep your mind on Pyrrha. Everything you remember about her, the good and the bad. I'm going to see every memory you have of her, and you need to be prepared for that. I can't have you fighting me when I see something personal. That will only complicate things. Understand?"
Jaune gulped, his thoughts immediately going to all his late-night training sessions, and most importantly, his single kiss with the red headed spartan. He didn't like the thought of Naruto seeing those moments, and a quick look in the other blonde's eyes showed that he didn't like it either. After a quick nod, Naruto takes in a deep breath before placing a finger on Jaune's forehead.
Jaune didn't entirely understand what was happening, but it was as if he was suddenly reliving every single thing that he did with Pyrrha. He couldn't explain it, but he could have sworn that he saw memories that were long lost to him, playing before him as if it had happened only yesterday. After experiencing his first kiss for the second time outside of his own nightmares, Naruto withdraws his finger.
It took every bit of Jaune's willpower not to break down right there. It all felt fresh again. After blinking the tears out of his eyes, he looked over and saw that Naruto was finishing up with Ren and was moving on to Nora.
He was shocked to see tears in Naruto's own eyes. An epiphany of sorts hit him. If Naruto was seeing everything that they experienced with Pyrrha, was he subconsciously forming a bond with her as well? He was seeing how her death affected all of her teammates, and now he technically knew her as well as any of them did.
It was a depressing thought for Jaune, and the sad look on Ruby's face told him that the Sage had likely seen Pyrrha's death as well.
Naruto took a step back after viewing all of Nora's memories of Pyrrha, quickly wiping at his face.
"I'm sorry for making you all relive that. I know it had to be painful." Naruto said with watery eyes. "But I think that I can recreate her body now. And…I think I know what her soul would feel like as well."
Naruto turns towards the empty space in the clearing, flexing his fingers for a moment before pausing, "I uh, think that the guys should probably turn away for a few minutes."
"Huh, why?" Jaune asks rather bluntly.
Naruto sighs, "Well, I'm going to have to use two separate Creation techniques. One to create her body…and one to create her clothes and armor. Now I don't think Pyrrha would have a problem with the ladies, and unfortunately, I have to see what I'm creating, but I do think that Pyrrha would like to maintain her modesty as much as possible."
Qrow wordlessly turns around, while Jaune, Ren, and Oscar blush a deep red and sputter before also turning the other way. Naruto shoots RWBY, Nora, and Maria an amused look, earning giggles from the younger girls, before shaking his head and bringing his focus back to the task at hand.
Naruto takes a deep breath, grabbing the Pyrrha's red sash and throwing it in front of him. The sash hovers, suspended in the air as Naruto forms the hand seals necessary.
"Onmyōton: Banbutsu Sōzō no Jutsu!" Naruto yelled out, his Rinnegan glowing an ominous azure color as he locks onto the remnants of Pyrrha still on the sash.
The women stare in awe as the sash slowly unravels itself in front of their very eyes, thread by thread. In similar to fashion to what they saw Shizune do with the injured Neji after the failed Sasuke Retrieval Mission, each thread of the dismantled sash twists and turns around each other, threading itself into a new unknown pattern.
The red thread expands impossibly into a full head of red hair, the consistency and texture of it changing into the luscious red hair that they grew so familiar with in their time at Beacon. Suddenly from the mop of hair, white light burst down, twisting and turning into a bright outline of a human body. The light forms an obvious skeleton, before thin white wires split from the thicker lights, forming a circulatory system.
The entire internal part of the body forms, everything maintaining its bright white color, the sheer beauty of it ridding the onlookers of any grotesque thoughts of the miracle happening in front of them.
Sweat begins dripping down Naruto's face as he gives absolute focus to the formation of Pyrrha's body. Finally, after what seemed like hours to Naruto, the bright light takes on the form of a solid silhouette, indicating that the skin of the body had finished forming. With a final push of chakra, Naruto completes the Jutsu.
A crack forms in the chest of the white form, causing all of the women to lean in. The men all hear the crack, but don't dare to look. Naruto stares at his creation worriedly, hoping that he had done it all perfectly. The crack deepens, webbing outward to encompass the entirety of the white figure, before shattering.
There, floating in front of them, just as they had all remembered her, was Pyrrha's body. The last visages of the white light giving her an ethereal glow. Her body slowly drifted to the ground, and Naruto acted quickly to gently grab her and lay her on the ground.
As soon as she was safely on the ground, Naruto sits back up before forming the ram seal once more. He splays both palms out towards the still naked Spartan, and in another flash of light, her signature clothes and armor appear around her. Only then does Naruto collapse back onto his behind in exhaustion.
"Okay." Naruto gasped out. "You guys are good now. I just…have to…fix her core…and find her soul."
Jaune turned as Nora drops to her knees next to Pyrrha's form. He lays his eyes upon her, and he feels his heart flutter in his chest. Could this be it? Would he really have her back?
Still gasping for breath, Naruto shakily stands to his feet, briefly glaring at Ruby when she attempts to speak. While he knew the girl meant well, not wanting him to push himself, he didn't have much time. He created a perfect human body, and he didn't have much time to give it life before it started to decay and rot.
He studied the body of the girl in front of him. The core of the body, while empty, maintained the same form that it had in Pyrrha's life. With the Rinnegan, he immediately saw the true problem. While the network was there…sort of…it was missing key components. The tenketsu were exactly where they were meant to be, but Naruto quickly realized what was missing. On top of the actual core splitting the Yōton and Inton energy, the networked lacked any of the Eight Gates. Where the gates should be, there were only regular tenketsu.
Naruto realized dreadfully what he would have to do in order to fix Pyrrha's core, as well as all the others. If he merged the core without the Eight Gates acting as regulators, they would burn through it all and die within minutes. This was going to take even more chakra than the already ridiculous amount that he thought it would.
"Shit…" Naruto muttered.
"What is it!" Jaune asks worriedly.
"I…I need a minute. I should have studied one of your Aura Networks with my Rinnegan before I did this. It was stupid of me, but I have to work with it now."
"What's the problem?" Yang asked.
"She doesn't have any of the gates. My senjutsu wasn't detailed enough to feel for the gates when I looked at Ruby's core. I can see that Pyrrha's body doesn't have any of the gates now that I have the Rinnegan. Had I tried to fuse her core without them, she would have immediately burned through her chakra like Gai did when he opened the Eighth Gate."
Team RWBY, Maria, Oscar, and Qrow all paled at the thought of that. While Gai was easily one of the most powerful fighters they had seen, releasing the Eighth Gate was a disturbing sight at best.
Naruto takes a moment to think. He knew he could create the gates with his Onmyōton. He just worried he didn't have enough chakra to do it.
"Well, this will be a new technique for me…" Naruto sighs out. He moves over Pyrrha, a foot on either side of her as he claps his hands together and gathers his chakra without any further delay.
"Onmyōton: Hachimon Sōzō no Jutsu! (Creation of the Eight Inner Gates!)"
He places a single hand over Pyrrha's left breast, right where her heart was located. Chakra begins flowing into the body at an impossibly fast rate. Eight points glow a bright white from underneath her Pyrrha's skin. Two on either side of her forehead, five running down from just under her collarbone to just under her stomach, and finally, the Gate of Death just under Naruto's hand.
Next, Naruto a tiger seal, followed by an ox, then a horse seal.
"Hachimon no Fuin! (Sealing of the Eight Inner Gates!)"
All eight points on Pyrrha's body change from a white, to a soft green glow that slowly faded away.
Naruto steps away from Pyrrha, stumbling slightly as the sudden loss of chakra hit him. This was taking much more chakra than he had intended. He still had to fix her core and revive her. He knew that he was reaching his limit. He creates a clone to begin gathering Nature Chakra so that he could finish the job.
'This is a good way to make sure that I can do it correctly, but the chakra demand is enormous.' Naruto thinks to himself as his clone begins gathering chakra.
He walked back over to Pyrrha, knowing that he had to complete the chakra merge without being in Sage Mode. He had learned about messing with somebody's core with Senjutsu the hard way already. Unfortunately, that meant that this next part was going to be all the more exhausting.
He knelt next to the spartan, opposite of the others so that they could continue watching. They knew better than to interrupt at this point. He held out his sun marked hand, and golden flames light on the tips of each finger.
"Onmyōton: Seigi no Hakari!" He sinks his fingers into the Spartan's stomach just as he had with Ruby all those weeks ago. Rather than just leaving them there as he did with Ruby, or pulling like he did with Cinder, he twists. He twists his arm completely around, undoing the knot that the brother gods must have put in the core. With his Rinnegan, he sees the the core regain its shape. There was now nothing stopping Yin and Yang energy from mixing into the chakra it was always meant to be.
"I think that's it." Naruto says with a tired smile, causing everybody to look at each other excitedly. "Now, just one last thing."
He forms a ram seal again as his clone disperses, gathering chakra into his Rinnegan eye. He activated the Gedō Path, feeling his connection to the afterlife forming. It amazed him that even with simply activating this part of the Gedō Path, he could already feel a small part of his life force draining away.
He began searching, a perfect picture of what Pyrrha's soul should feel like forming in his mind. It was truly empowering to feel himself sifting through the souls of all of the recently deceased. He somewhat understood why Nagato had believed himself to be a god. Even as a small part of his life force slipped away, and his chakra drained even further, he felt completely all powerful!
His mental probe into the afterlife moved past souls at an astonishing rate. It was as if he already knew where Pyrrha's soul was and getting there was but a mild nuisance.
Finally, he found it. With a roar, he switches to the snake seal, latching on and dragging her soul from the afterlife. The ground around him shakes violently, throwing everybody else off balance and onto the ground. A bright green light filled the entirety of the sky. The light was so bright, Naruto felt like it would easily be visible from Atlas. If he weren't so focused, he would have worried about Argus panicking over such an unnatural occurrence.
From the clouds a bright green ball floated into Naruto's outstretched hand. Naruto closes his hands around it, feeling the overwhelming power that the soul held. He turned to look at everybody as they regained their footing. His eyes locked onto Jaune, and he smiles.
They all just look at him in shock as he holds what is apparently the soul of their dear friend in his hand. Naruto looks back down at the body he created, and he gently leans down, opening his cupped hands and letting the soul gently fall over Pyrrha's chest.
Pyrrha's soul slowly sank into her chest, and everybody looked at her expectantly. After several moments, Naruto decided to save Pyrrha's soul the trouble of kickstarting her own body. He places his Sun Mark directly over her heart, sending a pulse of chakra into it. With a jolt, her heart takes its first beat, before assuming a normal rhythm.
After a few more moments, Pyrrha takes in a deep breath as her eyes flutter open. She looks around confused before meeting Naruto's eyes.
"I know you don't really know me," Naruto said with a smile. "But it is really good to see you again."
Pyrrha opened her mouth to speak, before closing it again, seemingly stuck on her words. Finally, she looks to the other side of her. The hopeful looks on all of her friends faces confuse her greatly.
"Where are we? Where is Cinder?" Pyrrha asks, though the second question seems to incite a strong sense of panic in her. She sits up suddenly, looking around for any sign of the woman that killed her.
Hands on her shoulder halt her momentarily. She looks over, seeing that Nora had been the one to stop her.
"Pyrrha, we have a lot to tell you about." Nora said with tears of happiness in her eyes. "We can worry about that in a little bit though. Right now, I think we just all want to appreciate the fact that you're here right now."
Naruto stands and takes a few steps back. Oscar, Maria, and Qrow join him.
"I honestly didn't think that you could do it." Qrow said with a shrug. "I knew you could technically, but I didn't think you could manage without Kurama."
Naruto readjusted his eyepatch back over his Rinnegan. He opened his mouth to respond to Qrow, but paused to cough into his hand. When he pulled his hand back from his mouth, he found it covered in blood.
"Not unscathed though." Naruto says with a frown as he begins to sway. He looks back to Qrow, "You got me?"
Qrow chuckles before moving in front of Naruto, catching the blonde as he falls, "Yeah kid, I gotcha."
"Alright kids!" Qrow speaks up, noticing that everybody had made their round of hugs to Pyrrha. "We need to head back into the city."
"What city?" Pyrrha asked, completely confused by everything that was happening around her. Why were all of her friends acting as if she had been brought back from the dead? Why weren't they in a hospital? She assumed that she lost her fight with Cinder, so why were they in the middle of nowhere?
"Your home." Jaune said, immediately grabbing his partner's attention. "We are just outside of Argus."
"W-w-what!" Pyrrha exclaimed in shock. Jaune simply leaned down, wrapping an arm around his neck to support her as she stood.
"How about we explain on the walk back." He said with a smile. Pyrrha blushed, remembering the desperate kiss she had given him before her fight with Cinder.
'Is he going to bring it up?' She thought to herself. 'Does he just want to forget about it?'
Taking a moment to study everybody, she realized that they all have gone through their own changes. They all looked…older. More mature.
"Sure." Pyrrha finally said. "Let's do that."
Once they had gotten closer to Argus, they gave a hooded cloak to Pyrrha to hide her identity. By that point, they had already broken the news to her that she had died. She had frozen in shock when they told her. She immediately believed them. The look of sadness on all of their faces told her everything she needed to know. More shocking than her death, however, was the fact that the unconscious boy on Qrow's back had been the one to bring her back.
By the time they got back to Saffron and Terra's house, they had more or less caught her up on everything that had happened since her death.
"It's been a year and a half?" Pyrrha asked in disbelief. At everybody's grim nods, she stares sadly at all her friends.
"Oh…I…I'm so sorry." She choked out, tears forming in her eyes. "I just wanted to stop her. I just…I thought that I could do it. I thought I could hold her off until somebody else got there."
"It's been…hard." Jaune said with a sigh. "Losing you almost broke a lot of us. It almost tore our hope away. I'll admit, I didn't exactly have the most innocent intentions when we started this journey. I…I wanted to kill Cinder for what she did. Unfortunately, I never had the chance."
"And where is she now?" Pyrrha asked, silently grateful that Jaune hadn't had to do that.
"Well," Ruby fidgets, her eyes peeking out from behind her cloak. "Naruto k-killed her."
"Him?" Pyrrha asked incredulously. They hadn't explained much about the boy yet. Only that he brought her back and had been with them since Haven Academy.
"Effortlessly." Qrow chimed in as they walk up the stairs of the house. "Where are we gonna put him? Saffron was kinda maxed out on bed space with just us. Now we got two more people!"
"Pyrrha can bunk with me!" Nora said excitedly.
Ruby nodded at the suggestion, "And I can bunk with Yang. Wouldn't be the first time anyway. You can put him in my bed."
Qrow grunted in acknowledgment as he opened the door to Team RWBY's room.
"You expect us to share a room with him?" Weiss said in all her perfected haughtiness. "He could be some kind of sexual deviant. He could…"
She trailed off at the deadpan look from the rest of RWBY and JNPR that knew Naruto, "Ok fair point. I guess there are worse options."
Qrow tossed Naruto onto the bed, earning a glare from Ruby. "What! He can take it!"
"That's not the point! He is tired, and he literally just brought somebody back to life!" Ruby hissed at her uncle animatedly.
Qrow shrugged with a smirk. Naruto groaned from his awkward position on the bed before pulling the covers over himself and burying his face into the pillow. As soon as he settled, he let out a content sigh, muttering something about smelling flowers.
Yang barks out a laugh as Ruby flushes red all the way to her neck.
Ruby quickly began pushing everybody out of the room before Naruto continued his sleep talking, "Out! Out! We are letting him rest!"
Although Pyrrha had no context for that entire encounter, she did manage to gather that Ruby had developed a bit of a crush on Naruto and honestly found it quite amusing. She quickly thinks back to something that Qrow had said before dropping Naruto off in the room.
"You said 'effortlessly' when Ruby said that this Naruto killed Cinder. What did you mean?"
Qrow scoffed, "I mean he beat her effortlessly. He defeated two Maidens without really breaking a sweat. He was one of the most dangerous people in Remnant then, but now? That kid is the most dangerous and powerful person on Remnant."
Pyrrha blinked a few times after his miniature rant. When nobody cracked into a smile, she took in a deep calming breath. "I think that you need to catch me up on everything."
(Present)
And catch Pyrrha up they did. They had explained everything that had happened with Naruto, including a large part of what Jinn had told them. Pyrrha had at first been extremely annoyed to find that she no longer had aura, and by extension no longer had her semblance. That was quickly fixed when Naruto finished recovering earlier that day and took Team JNPR out to show them some more of what Chakra was capable of since they hadn't been present for Jinn's vision.
When Team RWBY met up with JNPR for lunch at a small little café, a light that they had never seen was burning fiercely in Pyrrha's eyes. After so long of being on the top, not having much to improve on, and generally never truly being challenged, she found an entirely new avenue to travel down, and she is intending on tackling it with a fervor just like when she first started her training.
"So whatdya think?" Ruby asked JNPR as she slurps on a strawberry milkshake. JNPR looks at each other, still in complete shock at what they had seen that morning. While all of them other than Pyrrha had seen Naruto's fight with Cinder and Raven, the creation of the rings, and the short fight with Adam, it paled in comparison to what Naruto had shown them that morning.
Pyrrha was the first to speak, showing an excitement that nobody else knew was possible for her.
"He showed us his Rasengan, then he made it like HUGE! It was bigger than he was! I don't even know how it is possible to have that much Aura-I mean chakra! Like…wow!" She blurts out almost too fast for them to hear. "And this seal! Look at it! I don't even look like me anymore!"
And it was true. Naruto had written a seal on her arm that let her change her appearance at will. She didn't look too different. Her face was a little more rounded, and her vibrant red hair was a few shades duller. On top of that, her eyes were now a bright blue, resembling Naruto's own. He had put enough of his own chakra into the seal that Pyrrha would be able to switch between her actual appearance and her fake appearance for months. All Pyrrha had to do was touch the seal specifically with her opposite pinky finger. The red head had originally thought that to be odd, but Naruto had just explained that it would prevent her from activating it accidentally.
"And he said he wasn't very good at it since he got it as a gift from Shukiku, but he showed me a little bit of Jiton or Magnetic Release. He says that I'll probably be able to do that. He created a few statues of iron and moved them around. It was really sloppy, but he even made them fight each other for a few seconds! Then he made this iron sand and moved it around a little bit. He said that one of his friends makes him look like a child when it comes to Jiton! I'm so ready to start practicing!"
"It's Shukaku," Weiss corrected with a smile. "But yes, Gaara was absolutely amazing with his Sand Manipulation. He only used regular sand, but apparently there were others that used iron sand or even gold sand. Everybody that we have seen with Jiton has done it differently. I'm sure you'll figure out how you want to use yours."
Pyrrha nodded before biting into her Snickerdoodle thoughtfully. "I really wish that I could come with you guys to Atlas…I will miss you guys. This all feels so unreal."
"We are going to miss you too." Ruby said sadly. "But you don't have an aura, and Naruto was right. I don't think that we can't trust Ironwood, but I don't think he would take somebody coming back from the dead very well. He would probably think it's some trick from Salem."
Pyrrha shrugged, "I know, I don't think he is wrong. I know I'm a good fighter, but without my semblance I'm not as good as I used to be. I just…I feel like it was only a couple of days ago that the Fall of Beacon happened. You guys went so long without me, and I feel like we were just getting ready for the Vytal Festival not too long ago. And my parents! I still have to break it to them! How am I going to do that!"
"I'll be there." Jaune said with a smile, placing his hand over hers. Nora and Ren lean in, silently chiming in that they would be too.
"Naruto and Qrow too." Blake said. "Qrow being a huntsman should make them understand the situation without revealing too much. You just have to make sure that you coming back is hidden until you are ready to defend yourself. That is the most important thing. When you are ready to come back out, you can just tell the world that you were recovering from a terrible injury and that people were after you or something. We can figure it out."
Pyrrha nods after a moment. While she didn't personally feel the time passing between her death and now, she saw it in the others. They had all grown in their own ways, and she had a lot of catching up to do. It wouldn't surprise her if a few of them could beat her as she was in Beacon now. They had truly improved physically and mentally. She spared a shy glance at Jaune. He had definitely improved physically.
Until they left for Atlas though, she was going to enjoy every bit of time she had with them. They all had their own part to play, and if she wanted to play hers, she needed use her time in Argus to improve as much as possible.
Naruto and Qrow were walking through Argus, enjoying the sights and chatting. Naruto had gotten back on his feet rather quick. He had slept amazingly well after reviving Pyrrha, and despite the amused looks from everybody when he said as much, he really truly believed that Saffron and Terra were amazing at picking out beds.
'Best bed ever!' Naruto thought to himself, already wanting to go back to the house and take a nap.
"There's something I wanted to talk to you about." Qrow said as they were walking.
Naruto nodded, "I figured as much."
"I'm not sorry for killing him." Qrow said as they turned into an empty alley.
Naruto shrugged, "I'm not sorry that you killed him either. I think that prison is better for him, but I know that prisons aren't perfect, and I'd rather him die than get out and have the chance to hurt somebody again."
Qrow looked at him apprehensively, "And that's it?"
With a sigh, Naruto stopped walking, prompting Qrow to stop as well.
"I wanted to kill him Qrow. I wanted to rip his soul out just because I could. I haven't known you all that long, but you guys have been here for me when others would have shied away from that. The only thing that stopped me was knowing that I'd get his memories."
Qrow doesn't speak, leading Naruto to continue, "Qrow…I felt hate for him. True, genuine hate. I haven't felt hate like that since the waterfall. I didn't even hate Obito or Madara, not really. I could have killed Adam without a second thought and not lost a bit of sleep over it, and honestly, that scared me."
Qrow looked at Naruto for a long moment, seemingly judging him in one way or another. He finally nods as if accepting Naruto's explanation. He looks down at his hand, before slipping his ring off of his finger. He holds his hand out for Naruto to take it.
"Here." He said, dropping it into Naruto's hand. "I really appreciate you giving it to me. It was useful for knowing where Ruby and Weiss was, and I know that there is potential for a lot more, but I think that it belongs to Pyrrha. You should give it to her."
Naruto looked at the gleaming silver ring, the amber gem shining brilliantly. He closes his hand around it.
"What's the real reason?" Naruto asked the huntsman.
Qrow shrugged, "You want to teach people the ways of chakra, and that's great. I just don't think that it should be taught to me. You want to pass it on in a way that it could be used to spread peace, and I just don't know that I'm the one to do that."
"I disagree." Naruto said simply.
Qrow chuckles, though any trace of humor was absent, "Kid I was Ozpin's spy. I gathered information in any way I could by any means that I could. I've lost count of the number of throats I have cut just to get some info or maintain my cover. Trust me kid, I ain't the one."
Naruto stared at his closed hand for a while longer, before nodding silently.
"Now," Qrow said. "Are they still all out eating?"
Naruto took a moment to focus on his Ikigai, happy for any excuse to practice on it. "Yeah, they are all still at that café. I don't know if they—"
Qrow looked at Naruto curiously when he suddenly stopped talking. The blonde was concentrating deeply on something.
"Qrow?" Naruto asked after a moment.
"Yeah?"
Naruto opened his eye, looking at the male Branwen twin. "Why would Raven be on an island just off the coast of Vale?"
Qrow blinked in shock, "She's where?"
Naruto nodded, "She's on an island near Vale. I'm not sure when she got there since I haven't checked the link in the past two days, but it was in that time period."
The features on Qrow's face hardened as he puts his hand on Harbinger. "Naruto, I need you to send me to her."
"Huh?" Naruto said smartly. "Why?"
"Can you do it or not? That island is Patch. The only reason she would be there is to see her ex-husband, Yang and Ruby's dad. That's where they grew up."
Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, "Y-yeah I can send you there. When should I bring you back?"
Qrow waved dismissively, "You can send a clone every couple of hours to check. I just need to find out why she's there and if she has done anything to Tai. She proved that family doesn't matter much to her at Haven."
The last part of that sentence was said with such distaste that Naruto didn't question him. He simply nodded and held out his fist. Qrow, instantly recognizing what Naruto wanted, bumped fists with Naruto. As soon as their fists touched, Qrow disappeared.
Naruto sighed quietly when he was gone. He didn't want to take the time to tell Qrow that with the distance, the ride would be quite a bit rougher than Yang or Ruby had experienced in their times being used for his Ikigai. He shook his head and began walking back to Saffron and Terra's house.
Alrighty then!
I really just had to do it with Ruby. Having Naruto create his Haori for Ruby last chapter was kinda just absentminded, but when I thought about it, I realized that it kinda fit her color scheme and I knew I had to make it an outfit addition. Then when I thought of her using her cloak in a more scarf like manner, my first thought immediately went to Sinon from SAO when she would tuck her chin behind the hem of her collar.
When I write I try to make sure I can keep a certain kind of imagery to it in my mind so when that image popped into my mind I was like alright, that's gonna be it.
Any who, another thanks to Grindle The Wise! He did a good job of catching some issues with my writing and had some good suggestions for the story's future.
But any who, I'm going to go and get me some fat Z's. I hope you all have an absolutely fantastic day! Peace!