A/N: As ever, we're going by the now infamous Embers rule for this story.
This WILL be deleted if folks don't like it. So by all means! speak up!
Make yourselves heard! Every bit of feedback counts!
That's no joke!
I really look forward to reading and chatting with you all after a long day working back to back shifts. What little downtime I have is often spent writing these days, and that really has a tendency to wear me out these days.
Now, then lets answer your burning questions! Most general stuff this time around.
Q: Naruto's have a tough reincarnation, isn't he?
A: You can say that again. Hunted by Ozpin, hunted by Salem, with seemingly no way out. If he had all his powers this would be a cakewalk.
As to whether or not he'll reclaim them...well. Can't speak on that. Not because I haven't decided mind you, but giving an answer here would spoil the up-and-coming arcs I've planned for the future. Wouldn't want that now, would you?
Q: Naruto still has that friendly little Geist (the one he named Casper!) No? Why do I get the feeling its more than it appears?
A: *zips lips*
Q: Sooo...what's Naruto's plan?
A: For now, he wants to get the truth out to the world. Will doing so spite Ozpin? Definitely. Does he care? NOPE.
Q: Salem's hunting him, ain't she?
A: Ah, but she hasn't pinpointed his exact location...yet. Best keep moving, Naruto~!
Q: What's the endgame here? What're you plotting?!
A: Read and see.
Q: Do the Relics have a part to play here? What of the Maidens?
A: Ironically, this is one of the few stories where said people and items don't really factor. Naruto doesn't know about them; and even if he did, he likely wouldn't care.
Alright, I've kept you long enough.
I'll let the chapter do the talking for me. Hopefully everyone enjoys it.
As ever, I own no references, quotes, memes or themes. Not a wit or a one.
Now, I do hope you're prepared for this...
"Is it luck? Or fate?"
~?
Say Your Peace
They couldn't linger in Mountain Glenn much longer.
Tempting though the notion might be, Naruto knew it simply wasn't feasible to hide here indefinitely. Not only was the dead city an obvious place for Ozpin to search -and he would!- but anyone who DID find them lurking here would doubtlessly think the worst of him. Alpha and Rim might not care, but any human or Faunus would probably attack him on sight.
Besides, Lisa was going stir-crazy here. Poor girl was losing her mind. Or perhaps she already had.
A faint smile touched his face at the thought. Anyone willing to follow a living Grimm magnet through hell and back must have a few screws loose. Then again he supposed they were all mad here. It wasn't as if he could just waltz into Vale; by now there were surely warrants out for his arrest. He'd be set upon the second he set foot in the city. Conversely, he couldn't just let Lisa waltz into Vale without protection. She'd never make it back to Vale alone. There were miles upon miles of Grimm infested wilderness between here and vale.
Which left him at a bit of an impasse.
"Whaddya think, buddy?" he cast a weather blue eye down at his current companion. "Think its time for us to move on?"
The Ursa Major chuffed once, but made no effort to lift its head from where it lay in his lap.
"Heh." the blond chortled. "Fair enough."
It was a prime specimen even among its kind; a mighty bitch of a beast larger than he was tall, bearing powerful paws and mighty jaws. Tainted white spires jutted from its spine akin to those a of a hedgehog, promising pain to anyone fool enough to leap onto its back. He still didn't know why it had come to him, much less cornered him in the first place. He supposed it was possible that the bear thought he was one of its cubs. Perhaps it sensed his distress. Maybe it was simply curious. Who could say?
Unfortunately its presence created another problem for him. "You're not gonna let me up, are ya?"
Lazy red eyes flicked up to his palm, still laid atop its masked skull. It made another noise, rather reminiscent of a low whine.
...c'mon now." Naruto sighed, but the sound lacked rancour. "Don't complain. I've been sitting here for an hour now. My legs are falling asleep, ya know!"
It chuffed once, radiating satisfaction...and stubbornness. It wasn't letting him up without a fight. Seemed he didn't have much choice in the matter. Forget his ability to tame the Grimm; it seemed a bit of peace and a few headpats did the trick all the same!
Caper poked its little head out of his shoulder. Its mask prevented any such display of emotion, but he suspected the little Geist wasn't much pleased with him.
"Alright, alright." he touched its small skull with a finger. "I'll do the same for you. "But don't tell Alpha." a pause now, as he considered the matter further. "Or Rim. Pretty sure she wouldn't take kindly to-
"Food~!"
Speak of the devil and she shall appear!
Naruto grunted a little as sharp teeth sank into the meat of his shoulder. His Ursa didn't so much as bat an eyelash. Rim was ruler here; all Grimm in this city were subordinate to her. It still did nothing to change the fact that she was currently chewing on him like a candy bar.
...Rim."
"Mmmph?" she blinked up at him, mouth muffled against his flesh. "Whuzzat?"
Sometimes he wondered if the gods were laughing at him. It certainly felt like it. "Why are you trying to eat me?"
"Still hungry." she gnawed on him a bit more before relinquishing her hold. "But Alpha said looked sad." her grin was filled with teeth. "So I wanted to cheer you up."
A thorn of alarm pricked at his heart. "And where is she?"
...hunting?" the Grimmified girl whistled innocently.
Blue eyes narrowed to azure slits. "Rim!"
"I'm gonna hunt, too. I'll bring you back a deer~! No! Three! I won't lose to her!"
Naruto tried to grab at her as she danced back. "Wait, how are you going to huuuuooooooly crap!"
His words trailed off as her body suddenly shifted in towering shadow, leaving him to gape as the dragon hurtled away.
"Suuuure she can change back if she wants." he muttered to himself. "Of course she can. Because I totally needed a pet dragon...
Still, maybe she had the right of things. Best just to focus on the here and now. The future could be dealt with later. Planting a boot on a bit of crumbling masonry, he levered himself upright and bit back a sigh. There were too many ghosts here for his liking; a constant reminder of the spectacular failure he and Merlot had wrought. Even now it nagged at him like an old wound, not quite healed.
Back then, the experiment had been going so well. The Grimm were placid at the time. Docile. Until something stirred them up.
Now the rest was, as they say, history. Mountain Glenn had fallen. Hundreds were dead. Merlot was gone and he'd recently become a fugitive, running from one of the most powerful men in Remnant. There was a queen of the Grimm, one who ruled the, and he knew next to nothing about her. Was this Salem person to blame for Mountain Gleen? It was so tempting to cast the burden of guilt at her feet, even if he knew he shouldn't.
This was already his teacher's tomb. It would not become his.
"Well," he muttered, "Nothing to be gained by moping about. C'mon."
With one hand he patted the Ursa that had taken a liking to him. "Lets find Lisa...and maybe something to drink."
(.0.0.0.)
Summer was hearing the voices again.
They haunted her each waking moment; whispered in her sleep, tormented her at every turn. What had begun was little more than whispers in Naruto's absence had soon escalated; until it was all she could do to drown them out. They clawed at her like the paws of some fell beast, threatening to drag her down if she slipped. A single command, one that burned in the back of her brain in a searing brand.
"Take the girl." the chant filled her mind. "Take. The girl. Take. The. Girl."
"No." She scowled at her reflection in the mirror. "I'm still me."
Her reflection smiled right back. "Are you?"
Summer smashed a fist into the glass.
It shattered with a laugh.
(.0.0.0.)
"Found some booze!"
The gods, Lisa considered, were good.
"Really?" the journalist looked up, frazzled hair peeking over the bar counter from where she'd sprawled herself in a dilapidated apartment. "Is it still good?"
"Maybe?" Naruto considered the green-glass bottle and shrugged as his companion regarded the rosy red liquid within. "No idea. Its one of the only intact bottles I could find." His other hand swept out, spinning a pair of relatively intact glasses towards her. She caught one nimbly, white-knuckled in her grasp, only to realize his expression had gone pensive. "I'll understand you don't want any...
"Hello no! After everything we've been through?! Crack that baby open!"
Naruto hesitated all of a moment. "Well, are you sure...?"
She all but ripped it from his grasp. "Gimme!"
In short order they'd propped a pair of seats up and done just that. Lisa filled her glass to the brim and knocked him
"C'mon, we deserve to celebrate!"
On a whim, he decided to humor her. "What's the occasion?"
"We're alive! What occasion do we need?!" she pursed her lips, considering the matter for a moment. "Where are the girls? They usually stick to you like glue.
"Alpha went out on patrol Something about finding a new pack. As for Rim...?" his lips pursed as a distant roar sounded. "Pretty sure she went hunting."
She looked past him, to the shadow lurking outside. "And that bear's still following you around?"
"Yeah," Naruto followed her gaze, "Don't really know what to do with it. I'll figure it out."
"Meh, fair enough!" she grinned. "Drink, then! To the Golden Grimm!"
It was an odd toast, but for some reason, Naruto didn't deny her.
(.0.0.0.)
Ozpin seldom felt the need for violence these days.
He liked to think himself above such base instincts. But now? Not was not such a time.
"You let him walk into Mountain Glen." he considered the call he'd just received, was currently receiving, and considered crushing the RECEIVER in his fist. "A place teeming with Grimm. What did you think would happen?
"We're terribly sorry, sir." the captain of Vale's guard apologized profusely, voice crackling through the other end of the line. "We'll send a detachment-
"No, don't bother." he waved a hand, pinching the bridge of his nose with the other. "If I know him, he'll be too much for you."
He stood and snatched up his cane.
"This is a job for huntsmen."
More aptly, a job for him.
(.0.0.0.)
How much had they drunk?
Naruto no longer remembered. But that bottle was looking a fair bit emptier than before and an almost pleasant buzz had begun to overtake his senses. He couldn't manage much more than that these days. Somehow his body burnt off liquor before he could truly get drunk. Yet more proof he wasn't entirely human.
"You're mad." Lisa wasn't fairing so well; her face was flushed as she guffawed openly. "Peace between people and the Grimm? Is that even possible?"
Of course they'd started talking. It was inevitable.
"They once said the same about the four cities. Yet they worked out. And is it mad to reach for new heights? To long for something more? Something better?" The passion of his goal took him by the teeth. "That's what I aspire to." he leaned forward, capturing her gaze with his. "What I strive for. What I crave. A better world. True peace. Understanding, if not necessarily between us and the Grimm, then at least coexistence." He pursed his lips as the next word eluded him. "Surely there's nothing wrong with that."
"Not saying there is." Lisa swirled her wine in her glass, watching it sway intently. "But people won't see it that way."
"Then screw em. Sometimes you have to rock the boat a bit to make them understand. Even if they hate me, I won't stop." His hands clenched into fists atop the table. "I will persevere. I must."
"And why is that?"
He dared a smile. "If I don't do this, then who will?"
Lisa regarded him for a long moment.
"What? He frowned at her.
...I think my da' woulda liked you.
Naruto frowned. "You never did tell me who your father was."
"Hmm?" Lisa looked up from her mug, cheeks flushed. "I got my last name from my mother. My pa's name...well..." she looked away, tried to whistle, and failed in her inebriated state. "Shit." a curse escaped her. "Guess there's no point in hiding it. Not if we're gonna be working together."
Well, that wasn't ominous at all.
His eyes narrowed. "Well? Don't keep me in suspense. Out with it."
"Fine, but don't say I didn't warn you." Her shoulder slumped. "He was a real wacko. Suppose I got my curiosity from him."
Something stilled in Naruto's soul, turning cold and dark.
No.
His tongue betrayed hum. "Is that so?"
No, no.
"Yeah, you're gonna laugh." she grimaced. "His name's weird."
No, no, no.
Lisa heard none of it.
"Merlot." she said at last. "His name was Merlot."
"You gotta be kidding!"
Naruto crashed back with a guffaw. His seat failed him in that instant; one of the legs broke and he fell atop it, all but dragging himself down. Lisa leaned after him to laugh at his plight. Karma was swift. Tipsy as she was she lost her balance almost immediately and toppled with a shriek. Her body crashed down atop his. Naruto stiffened.
"Such a silly man." Lisa patted his cheek. "Something flashed in her eyes. "Handsome, too."
She leaned in.
Her lips were warm against his...
.
..
...chest?
Naruto bit his lip to try and stifle a smile. He failed spectacularly. It was just too much. "My face is up here."
Aw." she slurred, squinting up at him. "No far. S'three of youse...
He'd never given much thought to romance before; if only because he simply hadn't the time. Summer was happily married and with children to boot. He'd given the ex-huntress her life back; one she was fit to live to her hearts content. Or so he hoped. On the matter of such freedom, he wasn't above to force himself on the girls -Grimm Girls?- he'd inadvertently freed. Lisa was...well, Lisa.. And also very drunk.
He might be seen as a monster by many, but that didn't make him one. Far from it.
With a long suffering sigh, he rose, pulling her upright.
Lisa followed him. "Bed?"
"For you, maybe."
"Noooo!" as he looked on she threw a fit, crossing her arms and huffing as a petulant child might. "Not sleepy. Don't wanna!"
The ghost of a smile graced his lips. "Sorry, not asking. Up you go!"
Quick as a flash he dipped down and swept her up into his arms.
"Wheeeee!"
Well, he should've seen that coming. With her head now all but cradled against his chest, Lisa's drunken stupor evaporated into a gaggle of giggles. Near delirious in her glee, she clung onto him for dear life.
"Princess carry~!" she sang out. "I always wanted to be held like this, but nooo...everyone said I was too boyish! Ha!" she kicked her legs in the air, nearly sending them sprawling once more. "Look who's laughing now! I ain't no tomboy!"
Naruto experienced a sudden premonition of dread. "Oi! Don't you dare!"
"Do these look boyish to you?!"
Somehow she managed to get an arm free. By the time he realized what she intended, it was too late. Fabric ripped. Buttons flew through the air and sprayed across his face, peppering whiskered cheeks. A flash of deep indigo graced his eyes, accompanied by the cream expanse of pale skin.
"See?!" She cupped her breasts, fondling them. "Perfectly reasonable size!" a saucy smile touched her lips. "I'm not flat!"
Naruto most certainly did not want to see. But the sight had been engraved upon his mind.
They really were quite nice...
"Right." he choked out. "We'll talk about this later. When you're sober."
She sniffled. "Promise?"
"Yeah, yeah." he kissed her forehead. "Sweet dreams."
Ginger steps brought him to her cot. He needn't have worried. Lisa didn't reist. In short order he laid her within and tucked in against a bundle of blankets. Before long, the faint-yet-telltale sound of snoring reached his ears. From there he took one step back. Then another. Followed by a third. Still she made no move to rise.
Naruto heaved out a breath. "Finally."
A howl rent the air.
Followed by dozens more.
He jolted to his feet. "What in blazes?!"
(.0.0.0.)
It was not the hunters of Vale that had come for him.
Honestly, Naruto would've preferred it thus.
Bulling out into the ruined courtyard, he recognized the telltale white-and-blue of Atlas warriors even from a distance. Strange then, that there were only two of them. Most Huntsman teams were known to operate in four person cells.
He notice of the Faunus first, if only because it was impossible not to.
"STAY!"
They stood at the forefront of the horde, weapon drawn in one hand while the other...thrust a finger forward. Before that singular command, none of the Grimm budged. He could see them straining against some unseen force, all but chomping at the bit. Sweat slicked down the man's brow, his arm quivering with the effort to hold them in place.
"What in the world...?"
Ultimately it was his companion that caught the eye. She was certainly well fit.
While the poor Faunus looked fit to soul his trousers, her smile wavered. Not once.
He took her in at a glance; this tall young muscular woman, her brown hair wrapped in a short ponytail, Dark of skin and bright of eyes, -they reminded him of milk chocolate-much like her companion she too wore an Atlesian Specialist uniform; although hers consisted primarily of an open white, one-sleeved crop jacket bearing dark blue accents, shoulder flaps and collar flung over a dark gray shirt. Silver vambraces sheathed her forearms, contrasting a deep a red belt wrapped around her white pants. Oddly enough, she hadn't any shoes to speak off, save for some bandages wrapping her feet. A silver hoop glinted merrily on her right ear.
All in all looked like she could easily benchpress an Ursa -or three!- and win handily. The hammer held lazily in her off hand only further hinted at her strength.
She saw him then, or perhaps she'd seen him all along and simply held her tongue until this moment.
"Hello!" the newcomer waved cheerily. "Mind calling off your beasties? We come in peace!"
...aren't you afraid?"
"Terrified, really." a faint warble rose. "I'd really rather not die, and Marrow can't hold them much longer." As he looked on, a bead of sweat ran down her brow. "Little help here?"
"You need to calm down." he hissed out. "They're reacting to your stress. Just breathe."
The woman grimaced. "I really hope the rumors were right about you...
He could've answered them in any number of ways. A retort maybe, or a long-winded speech perhaps. But the proof as they say, is in the pudding. Seeing is believing and all that. So he gave them reason to believe. Casting out with his gift he began prodding the Grimm around them, urging them to calm. It was impossible to truly control so many minds at once, let alone change them, but nudging them was another matter.
It was the work of several minutes, but he succeeded.
In hindsight, he'd soon wish he hadn't. The very moment he did, the woman stepped forward, clasped him by the shoulders, and drew him into a crushing hug. His face landed right in her bosom. Heat surged through his face, turning his whiskered cheeks a bright, rosy red.
"Bwuh?!"
"I'm Elm." she set him down with a grin. "We've come to bargain."
Marrow palmed his face. "Don't mind her. She has absolutely no tact."
"Piss on that!" she scoffed. "Long story short, Atlas is willing to offer you sanctuary. Whaddya say?"
Naruto pinched the brow of his nose. "Of course you are. What's next? Ya got hidden cameras on you or something?"
(.0.0.0.)
Ironwood watched the footage intently from his command post.
A small smile touched his lined face.
"Remarkable."
A/N: And there we go.
Ironwood really does mean well. He's not a baddie in this. Thought I'd make that clear before anyone asks.
As ever, we're going by the Embers rule. This'll be deleted quickly if folks don't like it.
So speak up! Make yourselves heard! Every bit of feedback counts! Seriously!
Strange at it may seem, I can't write without reviews. That's no joke.
Worry not, we haven't seen the last of Summer or the rest.
Didn't see that coming now, did you?
Aaaand there we go. As ever, reviews keep me alive. Without them, I cannot write.
So...in the Immortal Words of Atlas...
...Review...Would You Kindly?
Have some new previews!
As ever, a disclaimer:
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
THAR BE SPOILERS AHEAD!
BEWARE!
(Previews!)
Lisa's face was redder than a rose. "About last night...can we never speak of that again?"
"Too late. Remember everything.
Lisa made angry Lisa noises."
Elm offered a lower whistle. "Stronger than you look...
Alpha came tearing through a door, silver eye bright in her skull. "Enemies!"
"Its the Grimm." she sniffed once, scenting the air. "Something's stirring them up."
Naruto's mind bleated in panic. Not again!
...where are you going?"
Rim was surprisingly easy to placate.
"Just stay in that form. I won't be able to feed you if you're thee stories tall again.
She tilted her head. "Our long-awaited meeting has come at last."
R&R~!