Sorry for not posting in a few weeks. I had this chapter ready for so long but thanks to a wonderful new beta reader, it's been a little hard to tweak it to where we both think it's good enough. Anyways, this chapter is extra-long just for you so I hope you ENJOY! Also, I would like to again say, this is rated M, so be warned of self-abuse, and PTSD. With that being said, please leave a review at the end, and I promise the next chapter will be ready by next Thursday!

Weiss can't help but to analyze the future huntsmen as they wander around the courtyard. He can't help but stare into the crowd, as he looks around at the innocence and unpreparedness he can't help but compare it to Konoha during the war. Out of the corner of his eye, he thinks he sees a green flak jacket and memories instantly crash to the surface of his mind like a tidal wave. He swears he can still hear the sound of Sakura's punch, and Naruto's numerous failed attempts at courting her. The bittersweet vision soon turns sour, now all he can see are the faces of shinobi covered in dirt, exhausted as blood drips down from their bodies as they go to report their mission. He can see an older Naruto with deep bags under his eyes and Sakura in her old sensei's coat, relaying orders. Even as Kakashi's mind is tortured by the constant horrors of war, he still manages to maintain the cool, calm exterior of an Ice Heiress.

He begins to walk down the ramp of his bullhead, back slouched as he pulls out his scroll before beginning to read. One in a long line of Ecchi stories he's downloaded from the web. None of them nowhere near as effective as having Icha Icha in hand, but she has heard stories about a series called "Ninjas of Love" which may suit her needs. Weiss shuts her eyes with a sigh as she stops in her tracks and takes a step backward not a moment too soon a girl dressed in red and black crashes down where she had been not a second ago.

-X-

Ruby was having a great day. Last night she was so excited that she couldn't fall asleep until 11! 11! Of course, she had made sure to brush her teeth extra carefully this morning, and just for today, have only one cookie so that she wouldn't have any crumbs on her face that Yang would conveniently forget to tell her. The bullhead ride itself was awesome! Even the news about the White Fang and this one kid who puked on Yang's shoes (Who she got back at by calling Barf Boy for the rest of the ride) could not put a damper on her mood. Not to mention she could not get last night out of her head. That super awesome strong huntress from earlier was wicked cool! It didn't matter how mean she was! She and Yang were gonna be the best duo in the entire school, like the sleuth sisters, or whatever it was Yang told her about.

Apparently, her sister had other ideas.

"But why would I need friends if I have you?" Ruby asks

"Well, actually my friends are here now, gotta go catch up byeeee…" Yang offers a small smile before dashing off, putting Ruby's speed to shame.

"No! Wait Yang! Are we supposed to go to our dorms? Where are our dorms? Do we have dorms? I don't know what I'm doing..." The Crimson Huntress trails off, defeated.

With stars in her eyes and a perhaps overly dramatic motion, she flops onto the ground right as the person directly behind her takes a step back.

"Oww… my head" It's not actually painful as her aura protects her, not to mention she's gone through way worse, but she was always one for theatrics especially since there wasn't anything to cushion her fall.

"Oh, and who might you be?" she hears a voice above her and opens her eyes to see… one eye? Looking down at her is a single blue eye with the rest of her face covered by a blue mask and a seriously cool eyepatch. After laying on the ground and looking at her first potential friend, she shook her head and mentally gushed about just how cool the rest of her outfit was. From her metal boots to the jacket-looking thing... and that dress was cool!

"Ahh! I'm so sorry about that, umm, my name's Ruby, so sorry for falling in front of you. See, my sister was with me, her name's Yang, she's got blond hair, but we were together just now, but then she just ditched me. Like what the heck Yang, and then she told me to go make friends, but I don't know how to do that! And I don't know where to go and I just really want to hide in the corner now."

Weiss takes all of this in with a hint of nostalgia at how eerily similar the girl is to his old precious genin brats. He chuckles at the similarity between her and Sakura, except instead of only being emotionally stunted, she's more just socially stunted all together.

Ruby finishes her complaining, with a little pant before blushing in embarrassment at just how embarrassing that was. Once she can finally look up to the older girl though, she gets a little mad. "Hey, you're laughing at me aren't you?" she asks accusingly as she sees the singular curved upwards, though it's a little difficult to tell with the mask on.

"No no," Weiss says, pulling her hands out of her pockets and trying to calm down the red ball of energy in front of her. "Just curious about how someone so young managed to get into such a prestigious school.

"Well, I uh, did this thing that I'm not sure I'm allowed to talk about… but it was super cool, and now whabam! I'm here at Beacon!" Ruby explains as Weiss holds out a hand for her to take. "Thank you, umm, let me introduce myself again, I'm Ruby Rose, umm, I have a scythe that I made, and I absolutely love it! Umm, who are you? A princess of some kind?"

As Weiss is just about to reply, another voice pipes up, "Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the largest producers of energy propellent in the world. A company notorious for its questionable business practices, and Faunus controversy."

Walking over to them is another girl dressed in almost all black, slightly glaring at the symbol engraved on her back. Ruby watched as Weiss raised an eyebrow at the open hostility and was about to step in between the two before she heard her speak. "A pleasure to meet you as well," Weiss says accompanied with an exaggerated bow. "Though I was hoping to hide that for a little longer than intended, having the Schnee symbol on your back didn't help huh?"

As Weiss' henchmen finish loading her dust, she turns back towards Ruby. "Well, I suppose this is where we part ways, for now, Ruby, I hope to see just how skilled you are tomorrow!" She says with a wink… or a blink.

Ruby's not quite sure and by the time she whips around to ask what she means by tomorrow, she's already completely gone. "Sooo uh," with a miffed face, she turns around to introduce herself to the other person to see her walking away as well.

"Well, I guess overall it hasn't been that bad of a day, I'll give that interaction a 7/10. At least I didn't explode off the cliff… Welcome to beacon…"

After meeting Jaune Arc, formally known as Vomit Boy, the two began wandering around.

"I'm sorry, Vomit boy is just the first thing that came to mind. But it's nice to meet you, Jaune Arc." Ruby apologized

"It's ok, but please don't let other people hear you say that. This is my first day and my father always said it's first impressions that decide your potential to the ladies."

Ruby looked up at him confused. "Does it?"

"Umm…" Jaune scratched his head. "Probably, after all, why would people always say it's about the first impression right?"

"Sooooo… I got this thing," Ruby says and in one fluid motion, presses a button before spinning her Crescent Rose to its full form. No one ever said she didn't like theatrics, and she had to admit that her towering scythe being unfolded was something she built in exactly for Jaune's reaction.

"WHOA! Is that a scythe?" He asks as he takes a step backward from the now not-so-cute girl.

"It's also a customizable, high-impact, sniper rifle."

"Uhh, what?'

"It's also a gun," she explains, loading it up.

"That's cool." She puts her scythe down and eagerly looks as Jaune reaches behind him to pull out his super cool weapon.

"I-I got this sword," Jaune says, pulling a sword from his sheath.

Ruby did her best and managed to keep a poker face

"I got this shield too," Jaune says, clicking a button as a white shield with the Arc crest expands in his hands.

"So, what do they do?" She asks as she touches the shield.

"Augh Wha- Gah!" Jaune shrieks… in a manly way as the shield shrinks back unexpectedly. Luckily though, he managed to grab it and held it back up.

"Well, the shield gets smaller, so when I get tired of carrying it... I can just... put it away…"

"But wouldn't it weigh the same?" She asks.

Jaune looks down in a comically defeated pose. "Yeah, it does."

"Well, I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons. I guess I did go a little overboard in designing it," she says while rubs her hands across the flat side of Crescent Rose's blade.

"Wait… you made that?"

Ruby nods. "Of course, all students at Signal forge their own weapons. Didn't you make yours?'

Jaune holds up the blade and looks at it. "It's a hand me down, my great-great-grandfather used it to fight in the war."

"Seems more like a family heirloom to me…" Ruby blurts out before she can stop herself. "Well, I like it. Not many people have an appreciation for the classics these days," she explains. It seems to work as Jaune smiles and puts them away.

"Yeah, the classics."

Putting away the weapons they continue. Before stopping suddenly and looking at Jaune.

"Hey, where are we going?" Ruby asks, realizing they've made a lap around the school courtyard and everyone seems to have left.

"Oh I don't know, I was following you. Do you think there might be a directory, maybe a food court, some sort of recognizable landmark? Is uh, is that a no?"

Ruby chuckles a bit. "That's a no."

Eventually, the two of them make it to where the rest of the students are gathered inside one of the large towers.

How they didn't find it before is a mystery but Ruby quickly spots her sister waving her over "Hey, uh gotta go, I'll see you after the ceremony!"

"Hey Ruby, so, how did your first 30 minutes at Beacon go? You didn't mess things up already, right? But I guess if you did, that means you really are my sister." Yang says before ruffling her hair with a smile.

She laughs at her sister's pouting face before letting her go. "What, I had to go catch up with some friends, besides, I knew you could handle yourself."

Ruby sighs before telling her sister what happened. "I met this really cool girl who was walking around, she had on an eye patch and a mask, and apparently she's some kind of princess too. Like, there were a bunch of people in black suits and sunglasses that I swear came out of a tv show unloading dust from her personal bull-head I think.."

"Yo!" Weiss says, silently appearing behind the two of them with a two-fingered salute.

"Ahhhhhh!'

Ruby will deny it, but everyone within a 30-foot circle will testify that she did indeed screech before jumping into Yang's arms.

With an exaggerated motion, Weiss puts her hand up to her chest, "Am I truly that ugly that just the sight of me would cause you to scream? Oh, how you wound me Ruby'' Clutching her chest with her head hung low as an almost visible aura of despair hangs around her.

"Wait no! You just scared me is all." Rwby frantically explains as Yang sets her down. "I just didn't expect you to appear behind- Wait, you're messing with me again!"

"Yup," Weiss says as she lifts her head, eye curved in amusement before she looks up at the taller blonde. Immediately she could tell that she was the shoot or rather punch first and ask questions later kind of person. It was minute, but to her well-trained eye, she could see the similarities the two sisters shared. It was almost ironic in some sort of way. The universe was practically screaming at him as all three members of team 7 appeared in front of her the moment she arrived at Beacon. It took all of her restraint to resist calling them Naruto and Sakura. He had to constantly remind himself that Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were in a different world of blood and secrets that the three were desperately working to mend together. Still, as she watched the two sisters interact, a faraway look came to his face as he imagined the times he shared with his team.

Eventually, the chatter begins to quiet as a grey-haired man in a suit and mug in hand walks up to the microphone.

"Ahem, I'll keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge, to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people. But I look amongst you and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose, direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge will only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Weiss had read extensively on Beacon, and by far one of the most intriguing aspects was the mystery surrounding Headmaster Ozpin. He was powerful, no doubt about it, but Kakashi was taught all his life to look underneath the underneath. So he had kept digging and what he had found astonished him. Ozpin had integrated himself into almost every aspect of Vale, from being on the council to influencing dust companies. Everywhere he looked he saw a powerful man who could be considered a genius which begged the question as to why he was teaching at this school. Surely something had to warrant his attention, but that mystery was hidden so thoroughly that even Kakashi couldn't find out. Perhaps his time here could help solve some of his mysteries here, and besides, it'd been a while since he had undertaken such a difficult mission.

A tall blond woman stepped up to the microphone next who Weiss recognizes as Glynda Goodwitch, the secretary and incredibly powerful huntress that is always with Ozpin. "You will gather in the ballroom tonight. Tomorrow your initiation begins. Be ready. You are dismissed."

Chatter once again begins to fill the ballroom as people begin talking, some about the headmaster's speech and some beginning to find places in the ballroom to sleep. Weiss however begins to silently breathe faster at the thought of sleeping with so many other people around. At home, she had a personal bedroom that was soundproofed by her father. However here, if she woke up clawing at her throat with shaking hands and ice-shaped in kunais, people would ask too many questions. That didn't even account for the slashes and burn marks that marred everywhere but her face and she would rather suffer quietly than cause one of the largest dust producers in the world to be put under question for domestic abuse. If the Schnee dust company started to be questioned, people would rally, and seeing as how Faunus' rights were still questioned in some places, war could break out.

Kakashi had been diagnosed with sleeping pills by Tsunade when he couldn't sleep for days on end, and even then they hadn't worked. When he had his first panic attack, the next day he had tried sleeping pills hoping they were stronger with their more advanced technology only to wake up at 1 in the morning with a throat burning and sweat pouring out of her body. Even soldier-grade sleeping pills meant for people with high levels of PTSD didn't work completely as she still sometimes would wake up gasping for breath as her hand unconsciously reached for a cigarette and lighter.

By the time she had recovered though, most people had already placed down her bags and were beginning to head towards the mess hall. Ruby and Yang were just finishing discussing what their dad would think of sleeping with so many boys around before noticing Weiss just standing there.

"Umm, hello, Remnant to Weiss? We're about to head to grab some grub, wanna come with us?" Yang asked, snapping her fingers in front of the mentally checked-out heiress.

Shaking her head, Weiss nodded and began to follow the two as they went with the crowd and had dinner. Upon arriving back, they found their suitcases along with sleeping bags. Weiss excused herself to the bathroom and after hesitating in front of the door for a second, opened into the women's room. Deciding to take a shower early tomorrow morning where there would be fewer people to see her, she quickly finished brushing her teeth and changing into her pajama wear. Weiss was grateful for the long dress that covered her legs, but her arms were a different story. Most of the time, she would wear gloves to hide her hands as her aura gradually and somewhat painfully repaired them, but her hands were still frostbitten at the moment. That plus the long scar that was beginning to turn yellow on her left arm meant either putting on a long-sleeved shirt which would garner even more attention, or make it back to her sleeping bag before anyone noticed.

Weiss came out of the bathroom half a minute later with her everyday clothes bundled in her arms to hide the most brutal-looking scars. Quickly looking around, she relaxed as most of the boys were flexing to show off to the girls and most of the girls were either chatting in low voices or some like Yang were enjoying the show. Eventually, she made her way to the sleeping bag, fairly confident that no one had seen her. Right as she finished climbing in, a somewhat familiar face came to sit down next to her.

"Good evening," she greeted as the cat Faunus absentmindedly finished placing her sleeping bag next to her, focused instead on a book. Weiss reads the cover, "The Man with Two Souls" as the Faunus looks down startled at her.

Blake Pov

"Oh, it's you." Blake didn't have anything especially against Weiss, but years of working for the white fang naturally instilled within you hate for anything Schnee related. Blake had heard stories of Faunus celebrating when members of the white fang came back from killing members of the Schnee Dust Company, but she had also seen firsthand just how cruel they treated the Faunus who worked there. Adam himself had shown Blake the place where the hot metal had been placed directly on his face before putting back on his mask.

"Yes, it's me." Blake looked down at the single eye looking curiously at her before she sat down and lit a candle. The evening was turning into night and people had settled down to get ready for tomorrow. Deciding to ignore the somewhat unnerving look of the girl next to her, she put up her book and continued to read. The Schnee continued to look at her for a minute more before shrugging and turning around to face the wall before taking off her eye patch and setting it down next to her.

That piqued her cat side's curiosity and she began to silently try to crane her neck to see if there was an angle to see what her eye looked like. As she began to mentally make a plan to go to the bathroom, she was interrupted by a very loud blonde pulling the girl from this morning towards her.

"Hellooo~ I believe you two may know each other?" A loud voice greeted her loudly and she could see the people around her grumble about wanting to sleep. Deciding that she might as well give up her poor plan, she turned towards the two of them.

"You were the one who was laying on the ground for no reason, correct?"

"Umm yeah. Anyways, I'm Ruby… What's your name?" She asked while holding out a hand awkwardly for her to shake.

"Blake."

"Well nice to meet you, Blake, I'm Yang! Ruby's sister… I like your bow… It goes great with your… pajamas!" Yang said, fumbling for the words. Whoever said meeting new people is easy had obviously never met someone like Blake before.

"What are you reading?" Ruby blurted out. "Like your book, what's your book about?"

Blake holds up the covers to show them. "It's about a man who has two souls both fighting over his body."

Ruby takes a step forward, more confident now. "I love books, Yang used to read to me all the time as a child, and ever since I've wanted to become a huntress like the ones in the book."

Blake lets a small smile come over her face. "That's very ambitious of you even if you're still a child. But," her face darkens, "reality is much harsher than what's written in books and fairy tales."

"Yeah, but that's why we're here right, to learn how to help and protect others, to make it a better world for others," Ruby says even more confident.

Blake lets out a smile at that. A dream, that's why she's here and she needed a little girl to remind her of that. "You're right I suppose. Ruby, Yang, I'm sorry if I come off as rude or off-putting. I'd like to be friends with you guys. It's been a pleasure talking to you."

A voice interrupts Yang before she can glomp Ruby. "Yo, I'm trying to sleep over here, do you mind?" Weiss asks as they all turn to look over at her with her eye patch once again in place.

"Oh Weiss, I totally didn't even see you there, which is weird since you're pretty much decked out in white," Yang said while looking at the heiress. "Umm sorry about that, we were just trying to get Ruby a friend. Wait, Ruby, you met Weiss, doesn't that count as a friend?"

"Well yeah, but she's super-rich, right? I don't know how to interact with someone like that!" She whispers loudly at Yang. Weiss lets out a small laugh before looking over at blake.

"I'd love to be friends with you Ruby, and you too Blake, I know we started on the wrong foot, but hopefully we can work that out hmm? But for now, I'm going to sleep, good night girls." Weiss turns back around and the others watch as her breathing begins to even out.

With a big smile, Ruby turns towards her sister. "OMG, I made 2 friends today, this is the best day ever!" she whispers.

Blake smiles one more time before setting down her book and blowing out the candle, bathing the room in darkness once more.

Weiss waits for Yang and Ruby to leave before trying to go to sleep. She's heard stories of the eccentric ways the Headmaster does his initiations and decides it's probably for the best to get as much rest as possible. Weiss lays on the floor for hours as she does all the tricks she knows, breathing in for 10 out of 10, counting sheep, relaxing further but nothing seems to work. Finally, around 1:30 in the morning she can fall asleep to the thought of how Sakura used to bring him dango after her Friday shift at the office, how Naruto had struggled with the books he had to read if he was to become Hokage, and how sometimes Sasuke would come into his office unannounced every few weeks to share a cup of sake and update him on situations outside the Hidden Leaf's territory.

Weiss does not sleep long and wakes up as the sky is still dark outside. She checks her scroll to see that it is 4:30, three hours, and yet she knows that it will be impossible to fall asleep again. Instead, she grabs her clothes and heads to the showers, letting the hot water pound against her shoulders as she looks at a body covered in scars. Making note of the worst ones, she gets out and using the vapor in the air, covers them with ice. After finishing she walks back outside to the ballroom before exiting into the cold Autumn air. After looking around to make sure no one is watching, she reaches into her bag and pulls out a cigar and lighter. Flicking it on, she stares at the flames as she remembers Asuma who was the first to pass him his cigarette during one of his missions. She remembers chasing after Kakuzu and Hidan as team 10 followed after him with revenge and regret pushing them forwards.

A deep breath floods her lungs with the familiar taste as the glowing but begins to burn. Weiss knows she'll have to take another shower to wipe away the scent of smoke, but for now, she can stand in front of the statue and pretend it's the memorial stone. Apologies once more fell out of her mouth, she had bought a good-sized rock which was kept in the back of her closet. On it had been carved the names of everyone who she had let down. Minato, Kushina, Rin, Obito, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, each made with a kunai of ice as she gingerly scraped their names into the stone before adding Konoha at the end, for all the names she couldn't remember.

With one last drag, she encases the used cigar in ice before shattering it, leaving no trace behind. Weiss makes her way back towards the showers and opening them, she can hear the sound of running water coming from the far stall. She quietly changes and goes into the shower on the opposite end. As she begins scrubbing, she prepares for the panic attack as hot water beats against her back. And blood runs through her fingers and no matter how hard he scrubs, he will never forget the feeling of his hand tearing through Rin's eyes.

If she looked down, she'd see the water beginning to turn red as the healed fingers begin to tear at her arms in an attempt to wash away the blood that isn't there. He continues to scrub at imaginary blood as the sight of Obito with half his body crushed gives him his eye, and his father's cane smashes into her back, and Sasuke looks at him in disgust, and his mother Willow is taken to the hospital after drinking too much. And then Kakashi is back in control of his body as he looks down to see his arms already beginning to heal himself from the wounds he reopened. He touches her head to find her blood smeared across it and begins to wipe everything down as the water does its job. Once there are no more traces, she turns off the water and heads outside to come face to face with Pyrrha Nikos with a worried expression on her face.

Weiss looks down at her body that's covered only by a towel wrapped around her midsection as Pyrrha sees bloody arms and a slash across her arm that's a sickly green, and a scar going right over her left eye. She takes all this in as Weiss casually walks over and begins to change, putting on her attire for the initiation as the Invincible Girl stares in shock at her shoulder which looks like it's recovering from a stab wound.

Finally, she looks back up as Weiss is fully clothed, fabric hiding the marks of abuse and determination that work Kakashi down to dust as he stares at her with a lazy eye.

Snapping out of her shock she looks at Weiss, "What happened for you to have those kinds of wounds?"

"Mah, they're from training, I fought with a swordfish that I wanted to cook for dinner and the swordfish got a few hits in before I finally finished him off. And in the shower, there was a black cat that attacked me, but I managed to fend myself off after it got off a surprise round. Don't tell anyone yeah? I don't need them to think that I can't fend off a swordfish by myself now, and I'll let you know that it was extremely delicious too." Weiss finished with an eye smile before exiting the showers leaving Pyrrha Nikos dumbfounded at the answer.

"What?"

What a cliffhanger! Sorry to leave you on that note, but I'm telling you now, the next chapter might be a little clunky. I've never really written fight or action scenes much, but I'm reading a bunch and trying to take what I can to incorporate into my own writing. Next time, Weiss gets stuck with babies, realizes that she has to be in a room together with 4 other girls, and learns that drugs are bad. See you then!