New Moon
Chapter 5: Yin and Yang
Disclaimer: I do not own anything except myself and my own ideas.
Being sealed wasn't really that bad honestly. He was starting to think Kurama was just a big whiny baby. It's not like he even knew whether or not any time had passed. Most of the time, he just slept. At least until a little silver eyed girl picked him up. Now he just pitied Remnant. It wasn't ready for his particular brand of chaos.
Please enjoy the story and review. Your reviews encourage me to write faster and better.
Notes: I know training trips aren't for everyone, so I'll strive to keep it short and hit Atlas sooner.
****NM****
Songlist
This Will Be the Day (feat Casey Lee Williams) – Jeff Williams
The Climb – Miley Cyrus
****NM****
[[Play This Will Be the Day (feat Casey Lee Williams) – Jeff Williams]]
Salem liked to think she was wise and cunning.
And she was, she knew all of Ozpin's tricks. She knew how to subvert his men and how to use her pieces to influence events around Remnant before committing to a fatal strike. She knew how Ozpin worked and how to counter his moves.
It had worked perfectly for centuries had it not?
Sure, she had been pushed back again and again, but she had never outright failed. Every time she was pushed back, she permanently made another part of the board her own, worsening Ozpin's overall situation bit by bit, slowly tightening the noose around his neck until he would have had nowhere to go, reincarnation bedamned, no allies to call his own and no power to resist. Eventually, she would have won so utterly and completely that Ozpin would have no choice but to submit to her.
Therefore, if one of her plans had failed, the only one at fault here, would be her subordinates for being so useless, was it not?
Cinder's failure had had cascading effects.
The Fall Maiden's powers were now essentially lost to her despite the overwhelming advantage Cinder had previously obtained. The Attack on Beacon had been crushed, not deflected, not blocked, not reduced, but crushed in its entirety, by an unknown piece and she had lost two major ones of her own in one go; Cinder and one of her oldest children. The second attack she had ordered had only made things worse. She had thought to strike while Vale, and indeed Beacon's defenses were still weak, but again, her move had been foiled by the same unknown piece. And because she had revealed her hand, Ozpin would now be squatting on Cinder like a mother hen squatted on her eggs. Cinder wouldn't even be able to fight back because her spine had been ruthlessly snapped into three separate pieces last she heard.
Ironic.
The power was there, in one of her pawns, and she couldn't even move or touch it, to say nothing of her other plans that depended on Cinder's subtlety, desperation and ruthlessness. For all of Tyrian's brutality, Hazel's strength and Watt's wits, none of them were capable of subtly operating in society like Cinder and her group had once been.
The thought rankled Salem something fierce.
Beacon still stood, damaged, but it still stood, and that meant it still had the potential to become a thorn in her side once more in the future. The unknown piece had gone missing after her second attack, and no amount of effort on her part had unearthed it yet, though that was just a matter of time she supposed. She had an army of Grimm looking for them after all. That left Ozpin free to focus on Cinder, and while he was there, Vale would rally around him, so another attack would be annoying at best and futile at worst. It would keep them busy and slow their efforts at rebuilding unless she was willing to commit something big to it. And if she did that, there was nothing to say that Ozpin wouldn't just spirit himself and Cinder away to Atlas on the sly, and keeping her forces focused on harassing Vale would just reduce the effectiveness of her moves elsewhere.
In addition, communications were still online and that meant that not only had Cinder failed to isolate Vale from the rest of the world while simultaneously striking at another one of Ozpin's pieces, Ironwood. It got even worse from there as while Atlas had been blamed for having their mechs corrupted so easily, they had turned that around and used that as an excuse to upgrade their internal security even further, so now Watts was locked out of Atlas's network. He would have to go there personally if she wanted to do anything with that side of the board, and even that would take a while.
That left Anima, and by extension, Mistral, for her to play her next move.
So, as the white-haired woman sat on her throne pondering her next move, one hand at her temples and another tapped at the table with long black nails, a fire burned in her ruby eyes as she glared at her men for their failures.
"It wasn't my fault!" The scorpion Faunus protested as politely as he could manage, "I followed the directions Watts gave me down to the letter, but there was nothing there!"
"Enough." Salem crooned softly, the man's whining grated on her ears, "You will go to Mistral. Look for Lionheart. I will provide you with further instructions once you have arrived."
She looked at the giant hulking man next to Tyrian, "Hazel, I will leave it to you to contact Cinder's liaison in the White Fang. Obtain their cooperation by any means necessary."
Both of them bowed deeply before leaving her throne room.
Once she had silence again, one long nail absent mindedly traced the red veins decorating her bone white face. Her thoughts consumed with the unknown piece. Her moves were seemingly done at random and were too straightforward compared to what Ozpin would have done. Which meant that she was most likely not in Ozpin's camp and had no prior information to the Attack. She had simply been reacting to the things around her. That and the fact that she had apparently left the Vale only further reinforced that line of reasoning.
And that thought led further to the possibility of seducing her into her own camp.
But first, she would have to find the piece, she would have to learn what made her tick, and then, she would personally force her to submit, or die by her hand.
The girl had obtained that dubious honor at the very least.
****NM****
"Ozpin, I'm approaching the Grimmsland. As planned, I'll be out of contact for the next week."
Ozpin nodded as he beheld Qrow's visage on his scroll, "Very well. And what about your nieces? Are they well?"
Qrow's face showed a speckle of amusement, "Well and being trained. As promised, they've been calling their dad and I every night. They're not sharing any details, but whatever it is that ring guy is doing, it's enough to put Yang through the wringer. I don't think I've ever heard her curse like that before."
Ozpin could only sigh, he had been absolutely shocked to find out that the spirit in the ring was actually capable of leaving it as and when he wished, although only temporarily. But that only made the situation all the more serious as he for one did not find the situation amusing at all, "I still believe that he could have trained her in Beacon just fine as well as provide another skilled protector for the Vale as a whole."
"He doesn't strike me as the type." Qrow admitted, he had told Ozpin almost everything he had heard that night, except the part of about the Ring spirit's origins because he really didn't want to complicate the relationship between the two beings even more, "He's only here for Ruby. The rest could burn and he really wouldn't care. He'll just go back to sleep."
"I understand." He really did, but it didn't mean he had to like it, "Anything else before we end communications?"
"How's the Fall Maiden doing?"
Ozpin nearly smirked at that, "Badly. Mr. Uzumaki offered Miss Sustrai to let her take care of Miss Fall in front of Miss Fall herself, on the condition that she submit to one of his…. Runic spells that prevented her from leaving the tower without my permission unless her life is threatened. The idea that she would need someone to take care of her seemed to gall her quite a bit if I read her right, and it only got worse when Miss Sustrai accepted without any hesitation. She has yet to speak another word since then but I think there may be some hope for her at least."
Qrow chuckled wearily, "Be nice if she could tell us what's Salem's next move at least."
"In time perhaps." Ozpin allowed.
Once Qrow had ended communications, Ozpin leaned back into his chair and sighed. Uzumaki Naruto was a conundrum to him. He seemed to carry some sort of hope of redeeming Miss Fall, if only for Miss Sustrai's sake but at the same time, he wasn't willing to actively take a role in anything beyond Miss Rose, Miss Xiao Long and possibly the rest of Team RWBY, despite his immense skill and ability.
Ozpin certainly had no illusions that he was capable of persuading a behemoth like him to do anything, much less forcing him.
Not after he had taken that Wyvern out in one move.
And especially not after he had already helped them thwart Salem twice.
Despite his words, he didn't really want Mr. Uzumaki as another protector of Vale, though that would be nice bonus considering Salem was most likely already interested in him. if Salem threatened his wards, he would no doubt respond in kind.
No…. His main concern here was if Salem managed to bend his ear with her honey slathered words. That could not be allowed to happen. If Mr. Uzumaki had stayed in Beacon, at least he would be able to watch out for any overtures coming from that woman.
In addition, his care of Miss Rose's wellbeing was a clear-cut opening. it wasn't impossible to influence Miss Rose. All he needed to do was get Miss Rose to move to the right position at the right time, and Mr. Uzumaki would presumably deal with everything else, like he had during the Attack on Beacon.
The only problem was if Mr. Uzumaki detected his manipulations beforehand, it would most likely sour both him and Miss Rose to his overtures beyond any hope of recovery, and that must not happen.
"What should I do?" Ozpin wondered to himself quietly.
There was no one who could give him an answer.
There was a new player on the board, and he had no idea how to deal with him.
He sighed heavily and turned back to his desk where his paperwork lay.
Unbeknownst to him, a black spiral sigil, etched into the very back of the bookshelf and hidden by the neatly arranged books, gleamed faintly before fading away from view once more.
****NM****
On a balcony at a certain café in Vale, an orange haired man and his diminutive accomplice with the multi colored hair and heterochromic eyes sat eating lunch nervously.
This in itself, was nothing new. They had been nervous ever since the Attack on Beacon. For some reason, no one had seen fit to come after him or Neo, but then he supposed they had bigger fish to fry or interrogate, what with Cinder and her gang being captured and he was nothing but a useful, spare, random tool they had used that wouldn't know anything of substance. Everyone else was out in force, either making sure no additional Grimm attacks happened like the one a few days ago or rounding up stray White Fang members. Any remaining spare manpower was directed towards rebuilding from what he could see.
No, they were nervous for another reason entirely. It felt like they were waiting for their execution and it had to do with the illusory claws resting along their spines. He wished he could say it was just a bad joke, but no, he could feel like that unsettling claw-like sharpness resting all along his spine like some giant predator resting its paws on his back.
Today, it had begun twitching and moving a little restlessly,
He took it to mean that monster that looked like that annoying Little Red was on her way.
Just then, the door to the balcony opened and a blond man that looked to be about the same age as him, dressed in a simple vest, shirt and slacks combo stepped through. He had an odd set scaring on his face, set against a tough and angular face, that made him look like a Faunus with whiskers and gave him a rugged sort look, the sort you would normally see on daywork laborers.
And he was carrying a box of ice cream for some reason.
Torchwick only graced him with the briefest of glances, fully expecting the man to head to the only other table on the balcony when he did a double take.
Those eyes.
He knew those eyes.
Crystalline blue with slit pupils.
Torchwick stiffened as the man approached him with a small smile and his worst fears were confirmed as he took a seat at the table, "Mr. Torchwick. I hope you are doing well?"
"You…." Roman choked as Neo scurried behind him. The blond wasn't giving off that pressure today, but from the way he walked and held him himself, Neo was still perceptive enough to see that the blond had skill in spades. Enough to flatten them, Semblance or no Semblance.
The man grinned and rather toothily, "It's me. As promised, I've come looking for you."
Roman swallowed thickly, beneath the table he gripped his cane tightly, "What do you want? We already did everything you requested short of surrendering ourselves. And you never said we had to do that."
The blond man waved his hands, "No, no. You did good, finding you in jail would've been more annoying than finding you like this. I'm just here to talk, and if everything goes well, release you from our contract."
Everything going well indicated that the man still had something he wanted him to do. Roman wasn't an idiot.
Just then, a waiter walked through the door carrying a cup of coffee that he set down in front of the blond, "Anything else I can do for you today, Mr. Uzumaki?"
The blond just smiled and waved the waiter off, "That'll be all. Thanks."
"You have a name." Roman observed smarmily, "Means you're not a ghost. Does that mean that your Semblance lets you possess little girls?" Behind him Neo squeaked.
"Not quite." The blond smiled at Roman's wariness and folded his legs as he took a sip of coffee, "It's a bit of a long story. Maybe you'll find out one day."
"So? What else do you want us to do?" Roman gritted out.
The blond blinked slowly, before shaking his head, "I don't want you to do anything, Mr. Torchwick. You've already fulfilled your side of the contract. If I had any lien, I'd even pay you. As it is, I plan to just talk for a bit before i relieve you of your burden and take my leave."
"What do you want to talk about?" the orange haired man muttered suspiciously.
"Where do you come from Torchwick?"
"Oniyuri." Romank shrugged, if the blond wanted small talk, he'd give him small talk, "Rich parents, thought they were too good for Mistral. Then one of the biggest sodding Grimms I've ever seen came along and boom. Little Torchwick's a beggar and an orphan. Had to steal, scrounge and scrape my way until I hit Vale where it was peaceful, gentle, kind and most importantly, filled with idiots I could fleece."
The blond nodded, his face blank as he looked over the balcony, one finger tapping on his knee absent mindedly, "It seems to be a running theme amongst Cinder's group. Orphan, abused, outcast."
"So what? You feel sorry for us?" Roman retorted scathingly.
"In a way." The blond didn't deny it, "I've spent the past couple of days just walking around really. Trying to understand where I am. I've been too… busy the last decade or so, so I never really bothered to pay attention. The thing that struck me the most was how this country, all of them really, seem broken in one way or another. So much… apathy and prejudice. It's almost sickening."
"So what?" Roman frowned, he didn't like what he was hearing, it sounded too much like good guy stuff, the kind of stuff that got you smashed into paste by a Nucklavee, "You gonna open an orphanage or something? Fix Remnant?"
The blond smiled at him faintly, "Maybe in the future."
"Good luck with that then, but you're going to have count me out. I prefer watching out for myself."
Crystalline blue eyes shone warmly, "Understandable. Have a good day, Mr. Torchwick, Miss Neopolitan. For what it's worth, I'm sorry we couldn't have met under better circumstances."
Neo and Roman blinked as the claws on their spines dissipated, just like that. The blond even reached over and tousled Neo's hair before placing the huge box of ice cream in her hands, "A gift for the little lady."
If Neo could squeal, she would have, Roman was sure.
That box was like 5 liters worth of pure joy for her.
"What? Just like that?" The dumbfounded thief blurted out.
"Just like that." The blond went back to gazing at the Kingdom of Vale.
Roman stepped away hesitantly, "You're not going to set the cops on us, right?"
"Nope." The blond still had his back to them.
Roman pulled Neo along and moved a few more steps towards the door, then stopped and hesitated, "I'm not saying I don't want to help; you understand right? I'm a thief, a criminal, all I'm good at is heists. I can't do stuff like orphanages."
"I know, Mr. Torchwick. It's alright." The blond reassured him, "I'm serious. We're done. You are free to go and you won't get any grief from me."
Roman pulled Neo along even faster, the door was only that far away and it was home free, but Neo was tugging at his sleeves; silly girl got bribed and that's was all it took to swing her to his side?
"Seriously, I'm a bad guy. I got a rap sheet a mile long, I got blood on my hands. What do you want me to do?"
"It's okay, Mr. Torchwick. I'm not Cinder. We had a deal, and the deal is done. You don't owe me anything."
He placed one hand on the doorknob and stilled, "Rrrgghh."
Neo's tugging on his sleeves got more urgent. He really hadn't taken her for the type to have a bleeding heart. Sadistic? Cruel? Yes. Was it really enough to get on her good side with just five liters of ice cream?
"Le-let's say," Roman finally gritted out, "Hypothetically, hypothetically! Theoretically! If you wanted to fix things, what would you need from a thief?"
"Information mostly." The blond finally turned around to regard him curiously, "Who makes the decisions, who funds the decisions, where the funds come from. Simple things like that. There may be more in the future, but I need those first before I can decide. Oh, and like I said, I'm actually pretty bad with technology."
"I can help with the technology part, but the rest? Those don't come cheap." Torchwick replied warningly.
The blond smiled thinly, "You have your specialty and I know a few tricks that might make your specialty more convenient. As long as you use your specialty on the right targets and share with the people who need it, I don't really care. I might even bring some friends to join you on one of your trips. To gain experience you see."
Roman promptly swirled around and strutted over to the blond, "For Neo's sake, we have a contract?"
Behind him, Neo rolled her eyes.
"We have a contract." The blond replied agreeably.
"Where to first, partner?"
"Atlas."
****NM****
Ruby decided that she regretted listening to her mentor.
Today marked the fourth day of their trip and she was already pretty sick of it.
As the two of them trudged through the undergrowth of the forest around Vale, she brushed back her bright green hair and scratched her head vigorously, the remarkably realistic cat ear hairband she was wearing chafed against her scalp.
Beside her, she could hear Yang quietly muttering a non-stop stream of curses under her breath.
People would be looking for two humans, one with dark red hair and one with yellow hair, he had said.
Wearing hoods was stupid because people that want to hide their face would just stand out, he had said.
Subvert their expectations, he had said.
Undermine their thoughts, he had said.
Two feline Faunuses with green and blue hair colors and contact lenses would be ignored, he had said.
He wasn't the one that had to wear a silly hairband while they sweat and toiled.
At least he had been nice enough to tell them to ditch the fancy and frilly combat gear.
He had taken one look at her and her sister when they were preparing to set out and told them to go back to their rooms and change into something more casual and hardier. Like gym trousers, comfy shirts and tough but comfy shoes.
Wearing a skirt and a pair of heels as she climbed hills and crossed rivers would have been a pain in the ass, to say nothing of the sheer amount of sweat leaking out of her.
By Oum's saggy pants, her combat gear would have been so gross and damp.
Someone would ask, why was she sweating so much?
It was still just trekking and trudging right? She was a Huntress in training, so one would think that something like that was still pretty easy as far as doing icky stuff was concerned right?
Noopeee, because Sensei was a bastard like that.
He had stuck several odd pieces of paper on to their limbs that made everything feel three times as heavy and turned something as simple trekking through a forest into a herculean effort straight from hell.
She and Yang had used their Aura to deal with it at first and Sensei hadn't said anything about that, but the smirk he had sent them said volumes all on its own. And she had found out why, less than an hour later when she and her sister had hit the ground face first, too exhausted to do anything.
They hadn't even made it to the foot of the first mountain after landing at one of the ports south of Vale that night. Sensei had been nice enough to help them send out some clones to hunt for food, put up a tent, massage their aching limbs and roll them into bed, but after that?
They had to do it themselves.
So now they had to carefully make sure that they only used the bare minimum of Aura to make the weight feel just short of manageable while ensuring that they still had enough energy left in the tank at the end of the day so they didn't just fall asleep on the ground in the wild and go hungry.
Suffice to say, they had already gone hungry more than once.
She regretted ever finding that ring.
"I regret ever agreeing to this." Yang panted next to her.
Ruby sobbed soundlessly and nodded.
By unspoken agreement, both of them fell on their asses and began to breath heavily.
As if by magic, because she most certainly hadn't seen him following them, her teacher walked out of a shadow of a tree, carrying a bundle of herbs, bottles of saps, insects and various other odds and ends in his arm, squinted at the reddish sky and saluted them carelessly, "Done for the day then?"
Yang flipped him the middle finger while Ruby stuck her tongue out at him.
The blond merely smirked before he put his bundles of herbs and plants aside and started pulling their tents out of the ring on his middle finger and setting them up.
She narrowed her eyes at that, "What are you doing?"
"Setting up your tents and preparing dinner." The blond man answered in reply.
"What she means is, you're being nice." Yang pointed out sarcastically, "What are you really up to?"
"Hey now, I'm just happy you know. It took you guys four days, but the two you finally made it through the day without even stopping once. Figured it was worth a celebration," The other blond responded cheerfully, "And since you're not going to faint tonight, we can finally start learning other stuff too!"
Yang made angry Yang noises before she fell on her back resignedly.
It was humiliating. She had been one of the top fighters in her year, both at Signal and Beacon. But to find that she was unable to even walk for one full day until now, albeit with those paper weight thingies on, was really rather humbling.
Eventually, Naruto came along and helped them up before passing them a bucket of hot water and a steaming towel to clean themselves up, where he had got it from, she had no idea and it was nothing compared to a good long soak in the bath tub, but it still felt heavenly.
Off to the side, Sensei had one of his clones sorting out and cataloguing all the plants and herbs and other stuff he had picked during the day. He had done this every night since they started, so the two girls were more less used to it by now. For every shred of material he gathered, he would take at least five samples if possible, and each sample would be treated differently, one would be left out, one would be dried, one would be steamed, one would be crushed into sap and the last would be ground into powder. He hadn't offered an explanation for whatever it is he was doing, but the girls had been too tired to ask either way.
Once they had changed into some clean and comfy clothes, and eaten a roasted chicken or two that the ring spirit had caught from somewhere, Naruto sat them around the fire, "Alright, first thing tonight, we're going to practice doing hand signs for an hour. This will continue every night until you can do all of them on demand, at an acceptable speed."
Yang held one hand up like a student in a classroom, "Do I need to be here for this? Y'know, considering I can't do whatever it is Ruby can do?"
"You should if you plan to learn." Naruto noted blandly, "I was planning on helping you obtain chakra as well after you get used to the training. I just didn't want to say anything until I had a more concrete idea of what I need to do."
Ruby's eyes went wide and she hurtled into her teacher's midriff with a squeal of happiness. She had suspected it when the blond had asked her to let Yang hold the ring at night when they slept, but she hadn't dared to ask him to do something so personal.
Yang on the other hand, wasn't quite so trusting, "Hold up, before we do that, how bout you tell me what exactly is this chakra? Is it similar to Aura or something?"
"They're similar, but at the same time, different." The blond noted. He adjusted the little green haired monkey clambering around him so that she could cuddle on his lap without falling off before clapping his two hands together and spreading them, creating an illusion of the human body in the air before them, like a scroll's hard light projection display, only the blond was doing it with nothing but his hands.
"In the ten years I spent with Ruby, a good chunk of it was actually spent trying to understand the difference between the two systems. I didn't dare to just help her forge a chakra core and pathway on a whim because it might have crippled her or worse so I only started after I was absolutely sure it would not harm Ruby or cause her unnecessary pain."
"At first, I didn't think it was even possible," The blond admitted, "but the two systems had both too many similarities and too many contradictions for me to ignore. However, they both started, ended and centered on a person's soul."
Yang stared in interest as two pools appeared in the illusion of the human body before her, the first was labelled "Yang" and the second was labelled "Yin".
"Your Aura, is birthed from the Yang of the Soul, the physical portion of your primal spirit. It is hard and tough, and activating it enhances your physical abilities. The physical portion of your primal spirit is usually the easiest to awaken, because it is the one you can directly feel and can be increased through training, stimulants, and exercise."
Naruto took a breath and continued, "Once you have become aware of your Aura, or the Yang portion of your spirit, it becomes easier to detect and awaken the Yin portion of your spirit, or your Semblance. This is because the Yang is physical, and the Yin is spiritual. Without the Yang, the Yin has no shape, and therefore, no form. Without the Yin, the Yang has no direction and therefore it is hollow, with no substance. Accordingly, each Semblance is unique to its user because each person's thoughts, experiences and personality are unique to themselves, though genetics usually has a role to play there as well."
The illusion in the air split apart. On one side, there was the "Aura" and "Semblance", on the other, there was "Yin" and "Yang". "Now we come to the differences between the two systems. I do not know how Remnant developed, but what it comes down to is the fact that your Aura feeds into your Semblance, it's a one-way thing. No Aura, no Semblance."
The orb containing the word Semblance bled into the orb labelled Aura.
"In my world, we learned how to mix Yin and Yang together in what we call our core, this creates chakra."
The orb labeled "Yin", mixed with the orb labeled "Yang", until they forced a circle that was equally black and white, with one splash of Black in the White side of the circle, and a dot of White in the Black side of the circle.
"I'm oversimplifying this a bit, but in practical terms, chakra passively enhances us over time, but lacks the sheer defensive and physical capability that Aura offers on demand, at least not without great effort and training. What you can tank with Aura, I can tank even without, after training, and we don't have Semblances or unique powers other than what our genetics give us. In return, chakra is more flexible and capable of creating anything we put our mind to. Anyone who has chakra, is capable of that."
Naruto clapped his hand again and Yang was startled out of her awe and reverie as the illusion disappeared, "Put simply, I can do things like this."
Revolving orbs of flame, water, wind, lightning, earth, dark and light appeared and floated eerily around the nonchalant blond man, "Yang gives form to Yin."
He lifted one hand and summoned Crescent Rose to his hand. He gave it a swing and unfolded it. Ruby and Yang's eyes went wide as Crescent Rose's blade glowed a dim green before he casually swung it again and sent out a nearly invisible vacuum wave that sheared off an entire column of trees in a straight line, "Yin gives substance to Yang."
"I want to do that." Ruby moaned quietly as she listened to the sound of trees thunderously falling over one after the other, "So. Awesome."
He grinned at the girl sitting on his lap as another flick of the wrist refolded the Crescent Rose before he placed it down next to him and one hand went back to automatically gently patting her back.
"Don't misunderstand," He smiled gently at the look on Yang's face, "I'm not saying that chakra is superior to your Aura and Semblance and that you must have it. It's more flexible, yes. But because your Aura and Semblance are pure Yang and Yin constructs, they are also more effective and impactful right off the bat because you can use and improve on them instinctually as you understand yourself better over time, whereas you will need much more training with chakra before you can do the things I can do."
"There's also the problem of reserves." Naruto added, "What I did for Ruby, and what I planned to do for you as well after I ensured that you would not be hurt or negatively affected, is create an artificial core where your Aura and Semblance will bleed into and mix before it flows to the rest of your body through the chakra pathways I have made. Unlike me who was born with it and regenerates chakra by default, you and Ruby will have to fill this core with your Aura and Semblance. Which means that if you plan to use both Chakra and Semblance at the same time, your Aura will be drained three times as fast compared to if you were just using your Semblance."
Yang stared at him for a while, "Is that why you have us doing this? You said Yang can be increased by training. You want us to build up enough physical stamina so that we can use both systems without running out of steam mid-fight or something right? Like the way Ruby fainted when she tried using your clone skill?"
"That one is a little different." The blond tapped his chin thoughtfully and pondered over how he should explain it before reaching an idea, "Alright, let's say I currently have 5,000 units of chakra right now. Ruby, has about 300, give or take. Before we got on that plane, I had actually already used some of her chakra previously, so she actually only had about 50 when she tried that skill. Each clone actually needs a set amount of chakra, typically 100. That's why when she tried to use that skill, she fainted."
The blond shrugged, "When I was younger and when I first learned that skill, I had roughly 20,000 at the time, so I could make 200 in one go pretty easily. They used to say you needed 50% of your max chakra reserves per clone, but I tested it a bit and thought it was pretty much bullshit. In fact, after I factored in a combination of training, skill, familiarity and various other reasons, I've even gotten the amount of chakra I need per clone down to about 10 – 50 units, depending on what I need them to do. For sparring or fighting, they'd need to be tougher and faster so I tend to put about 50 units in. But for simple or brainless tasks like gathering material or passing messages, 10 is more than enough."
Naruto paused for a moment before continuing with a serious mien, "That's another difference between Ruby and me at the moment. She is not dependent on chakra and probably never will be. She can run out, fail to use the skill and at worst, it'll just knock her out due to the mental shock from the gap between the amount of chakra she has and the amount she actually needed but she still has her Aura and her Semblance. I on the other hand, am a natural a chakra user. If I ever run out, I'll straight up just die. If I run out of chakra in this form, I simply poof and go back into the ring and I won't be able to come back out for a while."
"You'll die?" Yang muttered aghast, "Just like that?"
"Well… it's not really a concern for me at the moment, but technically, yes." Naruto hedged, "But If you're worried about fainting, you don't really have to actively use techniques. You can just have it there to increase the potency of your Aura alone. Or you could just have it flowing through you and take advantage of the passive increase in growth it offers you." Naruto pointed out, "Again, I'm not advocating anything. I will explain things as I understand it. What you choose, is up to you."
"But you said you never told Ruby you were doing it until recently." Yang squinted at him suspiciously.
"That is…. correct." Naruto admitted frankly with a weak smile, "I was being selfish, although I was fairly sure that Ruby would like it."
"As long as I learn how to cut stuff like that, I'm happy!" Ruby piped up.
Naruto laughed and tousled her hair, "Then Happy birthday, kid."
Ruby blinked and scrambled for her scroll. The date reflected in the dim light told her that she had completely forgotten about her own birthday in the ruckus. Her teeth gleamed white in the fire light before she hurled herself at her sister for a huge before she let go and gave her teacher for a tight hug too. Her dad, her uncle and her team weren't here, but she still had these two.
The blond man looked at the currently blue haired Yang in the clearing with the lilac eyes as he patted Ruby's back, "Don't rush to answer, Yang. Take your time and think on it. Even if you decide not to get chakra, I will still train you to the best of my ability." He said as honestly as he could.
He waited for Yang to slowly nod before he smiled faintly, "Alright then, time for a quick spar before we sleep!"
"We just got cleaned up." Ruby pointed out.
"Then we can clean up again afterwards."
"Uhm! It's my birthday!"
Naruto eyed the small girl critically but she just fluttered her eyelashes at him innocently before he eventually relented, "Fine. Starting tomorrow, we'll train after we're done walking for the day and before we clean up. And don't forget to call your dad before you sleep." He added before disappearing back into the ring.
[[Play The Climb – Miley Cyrus]]
Ruby calmly picked up the ring and placed it in one of her pyjamas's pockets before she inched closer to Yang with a little worried expression, "You okay, Yang?"
"I'm alright sis," Yang let out a heavy breath, "Just a bit overwhelmed by it all."
Ruby cuddled into her sister's side like a limpet, "It's okay Yang, I'm fine. You don't have to be so worried for me."
The blue haired girl with the lilac eyes snorted, "I was so worried about you that I barely even had time to get worried about my arm. Hell, you barely even know what that guy wants to do with us. Somehow, I feel like I have to be the voice of logic that's reining you in instead of Weiss, and boy am I glad we're going for her first."
Ruby stared at her older sister for a moment before she placed her head on Yang's shoulder, "You won't lose me Yang. I'm still here. I'm not going anywhere."
Yang was quiet for a while, and when she spoke it was with a quiet wobble, "You almost died, Ruby. No, you did die. Twice. I thought I was going to lose you like I lost Mom. You were going to make it a record too. Dying before we even graduated." She murmured with a downcast smile, "At least Mom graduated."
"It won't happen again."
"You don-"
"It won't." Ruby cut her sister off firmly, determination gleaming in her eyes, "That's why I'm doing this. So, I can go even further than last time without sacrificing myself. So, I don't have to watch people die helplessly."
Yang exhaled again, "Promise me."
"Promise." Ruby offered her sister her pinky with a bright smile.
Yang looked her for a moment before sighing.
She could never fight her baby sister whenever she gave her that look with those big silver eyes.
"I'll hold you to it." Yang hooked Ruby's pinky with her own and they shook.
"You have to promise me too. At least listen to Sensei. You don't have to get chakra, but at least try and see if he's teaching you something good."
Yang snorted again with some resignation, "Alright. Alright, stop bugging me already."
"It's only been four days, but don't you think we're already stronger than one month we spent in Beacon?"
"To be fair, we spent most of our time in Beacon studying." Yang grunted, "We only physically trained like, what, one or two hours a day? Not only that, all we're doing is walking from sun up to sun down. Any idiot can do that. And he hasn't really taught us anything yet."
"He will tomorrow. Just at least listen to him alright?"
"Get some sleep, Ruby. We still have a mountain to climb tomorrow."
Ruby smiled happily and shuffled off to her tent, leaving Yang to sit there for a moment, staring at the burning embers in the slowly dying fire.
She threw a stick into the embers before finally going to bed.
Above them, a clone that had been keeping watch for any Grimm or enemies in the shadows of the tree closed his eyes.
The next morning, the three of them had breakfast quietly and packed up, if Naruto noticed the strange atmosphere, he said nothing about it, before they started moving again. The day was broken by sparse breaks every other hour or so, and then lunch before they continued trudging. Eventually, the sun started going down again, and the time that Ruby had been giddily waiting for arrived.
One clone started preparing the tents and dinner while two more went with Ruby and Yang respectively.
With Ruby, the clone set out a scroll, like parchment scroll, with pictures of all the hand signs.
"Alright, as planned, we're going to practice with hand signs. You need to have those down before anything else."
Ruby blinked slowly before one hand went up, "What happened to teaching me techniques?"
"Can you do any hand sign on demand? And do them so fast that no one else can see it?" The blond returned wryly.
"Uh… no?"
"Then you better start there."
"But I already know how to do them." She looked at the chart before amending herself, "Some of them."
Naruto wanted to roll his eyes, what was that she was saying last night about at least listening to him first before making a judgement? Why did that seem like nothing more than a sweet dream right now?
"You can barely even do one properly, kid."
"Yes, I can." Ruby pouted at him, "I even got that illusion to work."
"Getting that illusion to work and getting it to work in combat are two very different things." Naruto commented dryly.
"But it's boring." Ruby started pouting harder, "Can't we at least practice that illusion first until I get it down properly?"
"It's a C-rank illusion, Ruby." Naruto pointed out patiently, "It's not really considered high end, but I really doubt you've got enough in the tank to do it more than three times in a row..."
"Just let me show you, please?" Ruby cranked her pout up to eleven.
Naruto folded like a wet towel.
"Alright, alright, go ahead."
Ruby happily, slowly and clumsily made the required hand signs before she touched a tree, prompting it a to turn invisible.
Naruto blinked.
He recognized the technique and the application; it was what he had done back in Beacon after all.
The problem here was that the False Surrounding Technique was not supposed to work like that.
Rather, it worked by covering a fine layer of chakra over the targeted surface. New users generally wouldn't be able to change much, for example they could make it look like the wall was dirty instead of clean. But they couldn't remove or turn the wall completely transparent without much practice and effort. The bigger the difference between the surface being covered, and what was being showed on the surface, the easier it was to detect the illusion or genjutsu, and that kind of change was a bit too drastic for a newbie.
Not to mention, it was an environmental illusion, and those usually cost at least one level more chakra than a targeted illusion of the same rank.
He touched the tree trunk and noted that it was still there. His own skills and nature let him actually see the layer of chakra, so the illusion didn't really have any effect on him, but he could tell that the layer of chakra on the tree trunk was so fine that the average experienced Jounin wouldn't have detected it at all. For all intents and purposes, the tree trunk would have turned invisible to them. Then he slowly walked behind the tree trunk and noted that it was still visible and blocking his sight of Ruby.
He walked a full circle back to his original position.
"This is…. I don't get. This shouldn't be possible," Naruto murmured to himself in confusion. Ruby had essentially skipped the first and second step in one go and went straight to at least jounin level user, "It took me years for me to do something like this. You'd need impossibly fine chakra control…. incredible focus…. And a vivid imagination…."
He slowly turned to look at Ruby.
Her chakra reserves were still tiny, probably about as much as Sakura had when she graduated as a Genin, so her control was probably as fine as it was going to get right now. And to be fair, it took him that long because his own control was basically a steaming pile of shit and didn't really improve until later on.
As for the…. Incredible focus and the…. Vivid imagination?
Didn't that basically describe his spacy little girl to a tee?
When she wasn't being spacy at least.
Ruby preened happily, and Naruto finally realized that she had just been wanting to show off to him.
Naruto sighed and patted her head, "Alright, you win. Keep training until you're at least fast enough to do the Tiger, Boar, Ox and Horse hand signs on demand and I'll teach you another illusion tomorrow."
Ruby cheered happily.
Naruto just smiled wearily.
Like teacher, like student, he supposed.
His own transformation illusions were a bit different from the norm too.
He just hoped he didn't suck too badly as a teacher, because now that he thought about it, he realized that he had never actually trained someone before, and Konohamaru didn't count.
Oddly enough, training with Yang was actually far smoother than training with Ruby.
Smoother as in, she was at least listening and trying to understand what he was saying, but she just didn't get it. He figured it would take some time.
"What do you wish to learn from me?" The blue-eyed blond asked the lilac eyed bluenette as they stood apart from each other in a small clearing. He felt like it was probably a bad idea to start by explaining fighting styles and methods, or by teaching her an entirely new method, not when they already had their own burgeoning styles and habits. Besides, outside of a few specific examples, shinobi rarely specialized in any fighting style or methods. All those were simply just another tool to be used to reach their ultimate goal, but he felt like his relationship with Yang simply wasn't at a point where she would listen to him rattle on about that yet.
Yang quirked an eyebrow at him, "Aren't you supposed to be the teacher here? You tell me."
The blond man nodded, "Honestly, both you and Ruby are already very good fighters. You have the reflexes and skill to manage both Grimm and human opponents. Mostly, I think you both lack experience and flexibility, but that will come in time. So let's give it a whirl and see if I can't help you do better."
Yang nodded slowly and tensed. When she noted that the other blond wasn't going to move first, she immediately charged. Her first punch was immediately defused with a simple block, so she whipped around using the momentum from being blocked and lashed out with a roundhouse kick that was again blocked with the other blond's shoulder, whereupon one arm wrapped around her ankle.
Yang growled and pushed herself into a handstand and kicked the taller man with her free leg, again and again and again but the blond merely tilted his upper body to evade them. Trying another tack, she inhaled and used Naruto's grip on her leg to pivot, intending on sweeping his feet out from under him.
When her heel hit his calf, it almost jarred her as the tall man firmly met her attack, strength to strength. His free hand rose and came whooshing down. Almost on instinct, Yang's hair lit up in muted golden flames through the blue dye and her eyes burned red.
Naruto's overhead strike immediately flowed into a grab instead. A large and calloused hand wrapped around her wrist, before she was suddenly thrown into the air. Gasping at the sudden change in height, she Instinctively orientated herself and growled again, a plan forming in her mind; although she had not absorbed much kinetic energy from their few moves because Naruto hadn't struck her at all, it was still enough to enhance a blow, especially if she used gravity against him.
Yang came hurtling down like a golden rocket with a fist outstretched. The other blond punched back, or at least he had looked like it, until the punch suddenly turned into a knife hand and wrapped around her wrist like a silk rope before redirecting her punch to the side.
She hit nothing but ground, and the earth itself trembled and cracked. She chanced a glance back at the other blond only to see him just standing there, his legs shifting with the earth and his center of gravity was completely unaffected, while her back was completely open, and her semblance was down.
The 17-year-old girl braced herself for the inevitable attack, but nothing came until the tall man patted her back, "Sit down for a bit."
He sat down next to her with his legs folded, ignoring the shattered earth around them. Yang warily followed suit, "So?"
Crystal blue eyes observed her for a bit before he nodded, "You have a lot of anger in you. You feel like the world has done nothing but hit you down your entire life and you want nothing more than to hit back. So you prefer to charge in full bore and bank everything on your strongest punch."
It was to the point where if she ever got chakra, he already had a pretty good idea what her elemental affinity was going to be.
Yang bristled until the other blond put up a hand, palms open in the universal sign for 'peace', "I'm not going to ask why or ask you to hide it. Nothing like that. Instead, would you be okay if we tried something else instead?"
"What is it?"
Naruto helped the bluenette up and moved so that he was facing her before he entered a steady stance, "Just follow exactly what I do."
Once he was satisfied the blond in front of him was ready, he performed a very basic punch. The only difference was in how slow he was moving.
Yang quirked one eyebrow and snorted, "You want me to do that? Move as slow as I can?"
Naruto just patiently nodded, "You can already move very fast. Now we see if you can move slowly."
Yang rolled her eyes before mimicking him, grumbling under her breath the entire time, "Like that?"
"Slower.
The two of them moved in a pattern, slow-slow-fast, then one step.
Slow-slow-fast-step.
Slow-slow-fast-step
They continued like that for an entire hour, when Naruto realized that Yang's temper was at its breaking point, upon which he ended the training session, leaving the disgruntled girl to go and clean up.
****NM****
An entire week passed just like that.
Ultimately, their schedules didn't deviate much. They climbed through the forests, skirting around Vale in the day while one of Naruto's clones continued cataloguing nearly everything it came across, and then when sun set, they would set camp.
Ruby would mix up sparring and her chakra training on alternate days, while Yang would furiously spar with the blond who would switch styles every round. He didn't often repeat styles either, the sheer width and breadth of fighting styles and methods he seemed to know and could use proficiently boggled Yang's mind. That was the only thing that stopped her from erupting on Naruto when went on to do one of those slow-slow-fast meditation type movements together before they bathed and slept.
It almost felt more like he was teaching her the steps to a dance rather than training of some kind.
That said, and she wouldn't admit this to anyone, not even her sister, she was beginning to find it…. Peaceful, even if she didn't know the reason for it. She felt like she was beginning to drift off into some sort of half-way border between sleep and wakefulness while she followed and listened to the blond's slow and rhythmic words. And then she'd wake up refreshed and ready for another round of sparing.
It was on the 11th evening of their trip when they finally crested the last mountain and arrived at the vast plains north of Vale. In the distance, they could see the lights of a town that neither of them really knew the name of.
Ruby threw up her hands and cheered, "We're finally out!"
Beside her, Yang chuckled a little wearily, "It's almost dark. We should set camp first before we cross the plains tomorrow."
A blond, neither of them knew whether it was a clone or the original, emerged from the tree lines behind them and squinted over the plains, "We're a little late because of the mountains, but we should be able to make up for it across the plain to the northern-most port city, Silmeria, and then its just half a day's flight to Atlas. We should be in time for that concert. Worst case scenario, I'll just carry both of you and run."
Yang sweat dropped at the idea of her piggy backing on the other blond, and then Ruby piggy backing on her as they hopped across the plains, "Yeah. Not happening."
The other blond smiled good naturedly at her, "Then you better run fast tomorrow."
"Hey, is that smoke?" Ruby muttered as she stared into the distance.
Naruto frowned as he refocused on the speck of lights far north of them, "Bandits and Grimm." He said after a moment's observation, "The bandits are attacking from the east. About 11 of them. I see someone stopping them from entering the city." He blinked slowly, "I think it's one of Pyrrha's team members; the pink guy. Pyrrha and the others on her team with four other Hunters are on the west side of town, fighting off the Grimm. It's the bunny girl's team."
"Team CFVY." Ruby nodded.
"I'm more curious about how you can see that far." Yang muttered as she strained and squinted to even see tiny flecks of black moving shapes dotting the entrances to the town, while smoke rose from the town itself.
"Practice and healthy food." The blond replied blandly as the three of them jumped down from the cliff and began speeding off towards the town, "You two take the Grimm. I'll deal with the bandits."
"Sensei, I can take those."
Naruto glanced at the dark-haired girl, "Are you sure?"
The implication that she would be fighting men and other desperate people that probably hadn't even awakened their Aura yet, went unsaid.
Ruby just nodded resolutely, "Yeah."
"Yang, you good with the Grimm?"
"Better than good." Yang punched her gauntlets together happily.
"Alright. I'll watch your backs. Go. Whichever one finishes first, go help the other."
With the bandits, Lie Ren had just finished dispatching one bandit with a quick stab between the eyes, any queasiness he felt at the blood splashing on his hand was crushed by his Semblance, Tranquility, only for three more to rush him when they were all blown away by a…. green haired cat Faunus with a familiar looking scythe attached to her back crashing in from the sky.
Lie Ren's eyes bugged out.
He had no idea where the Faunus had come from and he had been especially careful to continuously scan the area around him and make sure that none of the bandits would flank him, make it into city to loot and plunder whatever supplies they could get before the Grimm destroyed everything, thereby making it even harder for Team CFVY and Team JNPR to defend the city.
The green haired Faunus waved at him cheerfully, before turning around and exploding into a shower of red rose petals.
He knew that Semblance!
And then the shower of rose petals spun wildly and seemed to multiply and turned into a verifiable blizzard of rose petals.
Ok. He didn't know this Semblance.
"Genjutsu: Hanabira Nigereru."
'Illusion: Flower Petal Escape.'
The name of the technique included the word "escape".
What Ruby was doing had nothing to do with that word.
She was rampaging through the bandits with wild abandon and glee, free to go anywhere anyway she liked, and none of them could so much as even see her as she swung her scythe and hamstrung them with precision slashes.
It didn't even take a minute before all 10 bandits were groaning and screaming on the ground.
She turned around and grinned at Lie Ren who was still staring at her with wide eyes.
Oops. She had forgotten she was still in disguise.
Ruby burst into a shower of petals again and darted back into the shadows much to Lie Ren's confusion.
In the shadows above them, Naruto just watched.
One thing he had realized in the past few days, was the fact that Ruby was frighteningly talented with illusions. They bent to her will like clay in a potter's hand. It made him feel both complicated and proud. Complicated because he wasn't really a genjutsu specialist, and therefore, had a very limited arsenal of illusions, but proud, because Ruby was Ruby.
On the opposite side of the city, the remaining members of Team JNPR and Team CFVY were in much of the same confusion as a random blue haired Faunus suddenly appeared out of nowhere and began punching Grimm like they owed her money. And that was before another Faunus, this one with green hair, swinging a familiar looking scythe joined the first one.
Still, they weren't complaining.
It felt good to fight Grimm again, Yang mused to herself as she vented every bit of frustration and anger, she had in her body. No Grimm ever went near their camps and Yang wasn't sure why, but she was pretty sure it had something to do with the Uzumaki.
Beside her, her sister burst into another blizzard of petals blew her way through an entire column of Grimm, leaving behind deep gouges and scratches on ground and Grimm alike, while she grabbed one of the larger Grimms and used it like a bludgeon. Her muscles bulged as she smashed it into its brethren before she dropped it and ducked a claw that was promptly pierced by a Javelin.
She waved her thanks to Pyrrha before continuing her rampage.
Thanks to their combined teamwork, it didn't take long before the Grimm horde was completely routed.
By then Team CFVY and JNPR, minus Lie Ren, had already crowded around the two Faunuses with wide eyes. Even if they looked completely different from normal, what with the cat ears and the simple hardy clothes they were wearing, it was difficult to completely hide their fighting styles, weapons and Semblances, "Ruby? Yang? Is that you?"
The two girls in the disguises shared a look before they both pulled off their respective cat ear headbands.
"Yep." Yang said plainly.
"Not that I don't appreciate the help… but what the hell are you two doing here? And what happened to your hair?" Coco Adel mourned comically, "Your beautiful, beautiful hair…."
"Why don't we go inside first before we talk?" Jaune cut in with a suggestion.
Buoyed by the mood of meeting their friends again, Yang and Ruby instantly agreed.
As it turned out, Team CFVY had been sent to this town about a month ago, even before Ruby had woken up in the hospital, so they had had no idea about Ruby and the second attack on Beacon or what happened to her after that. After the Attack on Beacon had been routed, all the Grimm that had nowhere to go had instead turned on the next largest target in the vicinity, and that target had been the large farming town on the outskirts of northern Vale that supplied Vale with most of its produce. Team JNPR had only been sent to reinforce them less than two weeks ago, shortly after Ruby had left Beacon.
The last team of Ruby's generation was still in Beacon. As Jaune explained it, Team CRDL had originally the team slated to reinforce Team CFVY one week after they arrived, but Cardin Winchester's father, a member of Vale's Ruling Council, had refused to let him out of the city. Then again, Cardin didn't seem to be complaining very hard, nor had he or his team been seen doing anything to help the reconstruction like Team JNPR had, and so after Winchester the Senior and Professor Ozpin had argued back and forth, Team JNPR had been sent one week late and Team CFVY had been forced to defend the town by themselves, plus any volunteers, for 2 weeks. Luckily, the only danger the Grimm here presented, were in their larger than usual numbers and the bandits that were always making an attempt to steal supplies
There were several other second and third year teams working on a rotation to guard the other settlements around Vale and Vale itself, but those were further away and thus more dangerous since any reinforcements were a long way off, nor did Coco know anything about them.
Once they had and met up with Lie Ren on the way to the large residential building that was being used as accommodation for Team CFVY and Team JNPR and taken a seat in the large living room.
The building was old but serviceable, and the living room had three sets of couches ringing a fireplace, with Ruby and Yang taking the middle one, Team CFVY on the left and Team JNPR on the right. Eventually, it was Ruby and Yang's turn to explain what they had been doing the past two weeks or so, minus any mentions of chakra.
"Wait, so the two of you have been training with the woman that stopped the Attack? Was she a relative of yours? She looked a lot like Yang." Coco looked sincerely impressed.
"Uh…" Ruby wasn't quite sure how to explain this, Team JNPR already more or less knew, so that left Team CFVY as the only ones here who didn't know about her ring. In addition, although they hadn't seen Sensei personally during the attack, they had most definitely seen the videos, "Actually it's a guy."
Nora blinked, "So your uncle's a cross dresser." She concluded innocently.
Coco just nodded sagely, "Don't worry, I got nothing against that. Everyone's got their preferences. Right guys?"
As everyone murmured their agreements, Yang straight up exploded into peals of laughter while Ruby stifled a giggle, "Uhm, well let's just say that there was a reason he looked like that that day. Normally he just dresses like any other normal guy."
"Okayyy." Coco accepted the explanation despite the quirked eyebrow at Ruby and Yang, "So? Where's our hero of Beacon?"
"Uh… he was supposed to be watching out for our backs." Ruby commented with some shame, she had totally forgot about her Sensei in the excitement of meeting her friends again, "I'll go call him."
"No need. I'm here."
Everyone in the room jumped so high they practically hit the roof.
And once they were back on the ground, all their weapons came out like a bristling porcupine out at the man who had apparently been sitting in the middle of Team JNPR, wedged in between Jaune and Lie Ren, without being noticed at all.
Not a single one of them had seen the fucker come in or sit down, not even Ruby or Yang.
As all of them were busy trying to understand how that had happened, Naruto smirked at them, "Hello everyone. It's good to finally meet all of you face to face. I've heard a lot about you from Ruby and Yang."
Coco observed the blond man that looked to be roughly in his late twenties that only emphasized his simple vest, shirt and slacks combo. He had an odd set scaring on his face, set against a tough and angular face, that made him look like a Faunus with whiskers and gave him a rugged sort look, the sort you would normally see on daywork laborers, at odds against the neat and soft feeling she got from his clothing style.
In short, he looked nothing like Ruby or Yang, though that wasn't really anything important in Remnant nowadays, and he looked like someone who spent all his day in the office.
"So, you're pretty strong right?" Coco said challengingly.
"I suppose I am." The blond man replied blandly.
"Alright, let's see what you got. Gotta make sure my juniors are being taken care after all." The boisterous girl in the fashionable clothes laughed loudly as she swung her handbag around.
Velvet tugged her sleeve fiercely, "Coco! We-We're in town, you can't use Gianduja here!" she whispered urgently. Team JNPR nodded along, "Besides, isn't it late already? Can't we do this tomorrow?" Jaune pleaded.
"No can do, Lady Killer." Yang spoke up, "We got a schedule to keep, so we're going to be hitting the road as soon as the sun rises."
Naruto tilted his head. More specifically, he seemed to be considering Yang, who narrowed her eyes at him in return, before he nodded to Coco, "Tell you what. No weapons. In return, you and your whole team can fight me at once."
Coco whistled, "Now that's confidence. Alright! You're on! First one to Red Aura loses?"
The blond man bowed, "As you wish."
Yatsuhashi and Fox approached Coco with troubled expressions, "Are you sure about this, Coco? You already know he's strong as hell."
"I couldn't sense him at all." Fox agreed. He was blind, so he relied mostly on his hearing and his Semblance to detect people around him, but not even he had noticed anything wrong until the blond had spoken up himself.
"I know he's strong." Coco replied confidently, "Ruby and Yang's uncle over there kicked the ass of almost every Grimm in Beacon in one go. I wanna see just how far we have to go before we reach that kind of level."
Once everyone was ready, and Yang was refereeing, she looked at both sides, "Ready?"
Once she had gotten affirmatives from Team CFVY and seeing the placid expression on Naruto's face, she shot an empty blank from Ember Celica, "GO!"
As usual, Naruto never initiated, he simply stood there and waited for his opponents to come to him. He leaned away from Yatsuhashi's quick jab before taking an odd step forward to avoid Fox's leg sweep. Then when Coco tried to capitalize on his shaky stance with a quick rush, he simply lifted that one foot, somehow staying steady with just one foot on the ground despite the odd angle he was standing at, and kicked Coco's leg gently, knocking her entire form astray. Slowly, one hand rotated to deal with Yatsuhashi's heavy punches, meeting strength with softness, while another darted like a snake, disrupting Fox before he could even attack. Meanwhile, he took heavy and light steps, moving the center of the battlefield forward even as he dealt with Coco with a single leg with that strange slow but fast footwork, essentially dribbling the confused girl across the floor.
Yang watched with fascination. There was something about what he was doing that felt really familiar.
Like a slowly rolling, grinding boulder.
Slow-Slow-Fast-Step.
Slow-Slow-Fast-Step.
She wasn't sure if it was because she had just vented all her anger on the Grimm earlier, or the euphoria of meeting her friends again after two extremely tiring and frustrating weeks or if it was because she was finally looking at it from another person's perspective, but something inside her suddenly shifted.
Once Naruto had moved far enough, he kicked Coco lightly so that she fell back on Velvet before grasping Yatsuhashi and Fox's wrists. With a pivot, he sent them both flying into the air before he disabled Coco's kick and sent her up to join her other team mates.
He kept one eye on Velvet who stood there, paling and uncertain. Each time one of Team CFVY came down, he would grasp their limbs and spin, sending them back up.
He was juggling them, the others realized with a start. It started slow, but slowly got faster and faster until "BAM!".
He had let Coco, Yatsuhashi and Fox fall, but before they hit the ground, he had gently kicked them, sending them flying over to Velvet one by one until they hit the ground and sprawled at her feet. Velvet looked up as he lifted one hand and clenched her eyes shut as the hand came down, fully expecting the man to swat her down to the ground like he had done to her team mates.
Instead, she felt the man's hand land on her head, gently patting her, "You need a bit more confidence, Miss Scarlatina. You can't always depend on your friend to let you know when to move."
Her big soulful brown eyes slowly opened warily, before they closed again and she was unconsciously humming to herself; the man's hand was really comfortable and gentle, and he rubbed her ears just nice.
"Oi! Stop molesting my girlfriend, old man!" Coco angrily yelled as she clambered to her feet.
"Old man?" Naruto was rather miffed at that, he didn't actually know how long he had been sealed, but he personally still felt like he was only in his mid-twenties. Even if you added the ten years he had spent with Ruby, that technically still made him only 35 minus a few years here and there because he spent most of that sleeping, and that wasn't old at all, okay? OKAY?!
"Alright, all of you brats, come at me." He grunted as he stepped away from Velvet and shrugged off his vest and shirt in one go and then dropped into a ready stance, feet spread wide stably and one arm open palmed in front of him while the other guarded his chest, "I'm gonna spank all of you for real this time."
Only…. No one moved, much to the blond man's confusion until….
"Oum almighty, you can grind rocks on those." Coco murmured softly.
She heard Velvet squeaking in agreement.
Even Pyrrha and Nora, the two ladies who were already spoken for (although she wasn't 100% sure about Nora), shifted slightly.
Ruby started rolling around in giggles while Yang just rolled her lilac eyes.
Everyone there was no stranger to well-built men considering they were all Hunters and Huntresses. In fact, it was probably easier to find muscled and well-toned man than a flabby, soft one in Beacon. However, thanks to Aura boosting their physical capabilities, most of them didn't go the same extremes as the blond apparently had either.
The fact that the blond's choice of baggy and covering clothes tended to make him look a little soft and homely didn't help, but the moment he had shrugged them off, everyone there saw corded, bulging, gleaming muscles that rippled as he moved. There was no fat whatsoever on that lean swimmer's frame, and the tall man somehow looked even larger than he was normally and made them feel like he towered way above them.
"Huh? Why isn't anyone moving?"
"Uhhhh, training is postponed!" Coco proclaimed, her tone a little higher than normal, before she grabbed Velvet and ran for it.
"Huh?" Naruto blinked slowly, "What's going on?"
Someone tapped his shoulder and he looked back to see Yang offering him his shirt and vest, a huge smirk on her face, "Training's over, big guy. Pack it up before someone tries to jump you."
"Isn't that the point of this training? For them to get the jump on me?"
Yang rolled her eyes and threw his clothes at his dumb face, "Oum save me from this idiot."
****NM****