Without You

Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY or Naruto. Rights are held by their respective owners.

Kakashi stared with horror, his single eye wide in shock. The fourteen year old ANBU captain raced to Minato's side but it was too late.

Minato smirked at his student with his last remaining strength.

"See you 'round, Kakashi…" Coughing up blood, the legendary ninja spoke his final words to his surrogate son and passed away to wherever the shinigami took him.

Kakashi trembled and his hands shook uncontrollably. "SENSEI!" the boy screamed. He sobbed next to the cold body of his teacher, the last real person he cared about in his life.

Sounds of distant cries from the destroyed village were his only company. Kakashi didn't know how long he stood there for but at some point he'd collapsed onto his knees and began to weep.

"This isn't real…" Kakashi mumbled to himself. "Why did I ever think I could be happy?"

The dead bodies of Minato and Kushina didn't reply. The young ANBU tore off his headband and screamed at it, "WHY IS THIS WORLD SO STUPID!" Kakashi punched the dirt over and over again, letting out all his pain and frustration.

His left eye burned like crazy. Grasping his Sharingan in pain, he let out one final scream and let himself be taken by the bloodline.

Swirling darkness enveloped Kakashi, dropping him into a state of vapid unconsciousness.

The Mangekyō Sharingan's Kamui eventually ended with a small pop leaving only the corpses of Kushina and Minato. Not far away was their son Naruto, soon to be retrieved by a worried Third Hokage.

The ninja woke up with a start, slowly clenching his beating heart. Where was he?

Kakashi looked around and saw trees. Not only that but there appeared to be ancient ruins and an old, broken bridge that led to a vertical cliffside.

'Am I dreaming…?'

There didn't seem to be any sign of it being a Genjustu; Kakashi had double, triple, and quadruple checked already.

No…

This was real. But if this was real, then so was-

"Sensei!" Suddenly gasping, Kakashi shot up to his feet and looked around desperately. There were no bodies, so that means that they weren't here.

He slouched in depression, slowly walking himself over to the bridge. "What's the point?" the teen whispered to himself. "Everyone is dead…" Rin, Obito, his father Sakumo, Minato and Kushina.

Kakashi looked down from the destroyed bridge with a single emotionless eye. Darkness. The gorge was probably deep enough that if he fell he'd be dead on impact. Thoughts of his father came to mind.

"I guess the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree." With one last gulp, he tipped his feet forward and decided enough was enough. "I'm sorry everyone, but I can't live without you."

He closed his eye and allowed himself to fall into the gaping darkness, awaiting the sweet cold embrace of death that so many of his friends and comrades have felt. It was a long, hard fourteen years of life, however Kakashi was finally glad for it all to be over.

That was until his plans were ruined when a hand yanked on his armour pulling him back away from the cliff.

"Woah! Careful you don't fall!" A high pitched voice called out to him. Kakashi stumbled back before righting himself and getting a look at the irritant who interrupted his demise.

It was a girl, he noticed. With red hair and a strange dress. And she seemed to smile at him with pureness he thought he never would see again.

Strange.

"So, why're you so close to the cliff?" Ruby tilted her head and beamed at him. It struck him that she really didn't know what she'd done.

He stared blankly at her for a second or three before replying in a dull tone, "I lost something important to me…"

Ruby stood there with her mouth contorting into a silent 'oh' before squeaking out, "You dropped your relic?!" She seemed to snicker at that for a moment. Quickly becoming embarrassed at laughing at the boy, she said, "Well, I'm sort of a clutz too! My sister Yang won't let me anywhere near the kitchen because I always break the plates."

Kakashi merely stared at the girl. He'd gone through one of the worst days of his life. His village was destroyed, his mentor was dead, he was lost in a foreign place, and now he was just yanked from the grip of Death.

And yet, the only thing his exhausted brain could think to say to the girl was, "What's a relic?"

Ruby laughed at her story, "And that's why Zwei isn't allowed to play at public parks anymore." She didn't know why she did it, but she took his hand and dragged him back to the group that was waiting for her.

It was Ruby who decided to scout ahead. They'd secured the ruins from the Deathstalker and the Nevermore and now it was her job as the quickest to find Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora after the four had been split from her group in battle.

They followed a small path that Ruby had told Kakashi would lead to her friends. Much like her description about the relics, he merely nodded along.

As they walked, she looked at the boy from the corner of her eye. He didn't speak much but that was okay. Yang always told her she talked enough for three people. And besides, he didn't seem to mind.

Still, she felt kind of embarrassed at her motormouth. She can't help it! It's not her fault she rambles when she's nervous.

'Okay, Ruby. You just took a cute boy by the hand and are only introducing him to your sister which is kind of like introducing a boyfriend to your famil-' She slapped her rosy cheeks. 'AHHH!'

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the odd behaviour. "Are you alright?"

Ruby snapped her head to him like a deer in headlights. "U-uh…" Unfortunately her mouth betrayed her.

'Stop it, Ruby Rose!' It felt like her inner self was a drill sergeant lecturing her, 'Get it together!'

Rubbing the back of her neck, the girl had a guilty grin on her face, which for some reason made Kakashi feel amused; if only slightly.

"Of course! I was just saying how awesome it would be if you met Zwei. I think you'd really like him and- Wait, you're not allergic to dogs, right?"

He stopped walking for a moment, taking his time to think about Pakkun and his summoning contract. The ANBU captain chuckled slowly behind his black mask and shook his head.

"I used to have dogs."

Almost like teleportation, Ruby appeared in front of him with gleaming eyes. "Really!?"

Kakashi stepped back tentatively. "Y-yes?"

Before Ruby could say much, Kakashi pushed her out of the way and deflected a black claw with his sword. He narrowed his eyes at the creature in front of him.

"Grimm!" He heard Ruby yell.

They looked like wolves but bipedal. More and more of them came out of the woods. Their red eyes shined brightly against their black fur.

Kakashi narrowed his eyes. These disgusting creatures.

'I won't even need the Sharingan for this…' The fourteen year old ANBU captain dashed into the growing mass of Grimm with reckless abandon.

It felt good to be killing again. Like lightning, his sword sliced the Beowolves into pieces. Ruby couldn't believe her eyes. She stood there looking like an idiot as she watched the boy she was talking to take down an entire pack of Beowolves with ease.

He was dodging and performing acrobatics like a seasoned pro. There were no mistakes. No wasted movements or flourishes. Only cold efficiency.

In seconds, dozens of Grimm fell to the teen's blade. To Kakashi, it was merely routine. There was nothing special about these beasts, he noticed, other than their odd appearance. But he hadn't survived this long by underestimating his opponents.

So he steeled himself, pulling off maneuvers that to others would seem impossible. In a flash of white and grey, the masked individual had put down nearly the entire pack, ranging from thirty to forty Beowolves.

Ruby felt like a fool just watching, however she really couldn't do anything else. It was like if she entered the battle she would mess up a glorious piece of art. But she suddenly noticed something lurking in the shadows, silently waiting for the right time to strike.

Unfolding her scythe Crescent Rose, she burst into petals. "Yaaah!" Ruby huffed in exertion, swinging her scythe overhead like a heroic hero from one of the old stories.

The alpha didn't get the chance to strike as the head was decapitated from its shoulders.

She landed with a slight flourish, collapsing her weapon behind her back with a smile. The girl looked over to Kakashi to see if he noticed her before quickly looking away with a flushed face as she met his curious eye.

'Yes! He just saw me kick major Grimm butt!' Ruby kicked the ground nervously with her feet but mentally, she fist pumped the air.

"Ruby," the ninja spoke with a serious tone. She looked up from the ground.

"Let's go."

She nodded, slightly disappointed he didn't comment on how awesome she was.

They made it to the group of four that had taken down the Deathstalker. Seeing friendly faces made Ruby smile from ear to ear and she ran off to greet them.

"Hey, guys!" she yelled, waving like a madwoman.

"Ruby!" Jaune called. "Hey, we saw you take down that giant bird." He gave Ruby a high five which she gladly took and greeted the other three.

Ren was on the ground with his back leaned up against the rock. The poor guy probably took a hit, Ruby noticed, as he held onto his chest. Nora, of course, was hovering next to him.

What surprised her was how clean Pyrrha looked. Everyone else looked exhausted from their fight with the Deathstalker except for her but Ruby remembered she's supposed to be some big-time champion or something so it makes sense.

Coming out of the trees, Kakashi silently appeared behind Ruby, giving her the scare of her lifetime.

"KAKASHI!" she shrieked, "Don't sneak up on me like that!"

The ninja let out a small chuckle. "Don't be so easy to sneak up on, then." His voice was low, yet held a tad bit of humour in it.

The others looked at the war-torn appearance of the new arrival. With his ANBU-issued gray armour and black mask, he certainly looked intimidating. And that headband that covered his left eye…

"Why are you so mean to me, Kakashi?" Ruby pouted at him with sad puppy-dog eyes.

The ANBU captain merely looked down at the girl with a deadpan look in his eye before turning to walk away.

Ruby comically broke down in tears but she thought differently on the inside. 'He's so cool~!'

Eventually, with a shake of her head and a heroic declaration to the group, she led the six of them back to the broken bridge where they would - with difficulty in Jaune's case - cross it and meet up with the other four.

"I'm ba~aack!" Ruby sang to the girls. Weiss, Blake, and Yang all lifted their heads to the sound.

"Ruby!" Yang yelled, quickly getting up and grabbing her poor sister in a headlock.

"ACK! Yang! Get off of me!" She flailed her arms trying in vain to get out of her big sister's ironclad grip. "Kakashi, help me!"

The ninja didn't know why he was with her. He didn't know why he was following her. Earlier, he tried to end his life, though obviously to no avail; now he was following this girl around like a lost dog. Kakashi couldn't, for the life of him, figure out why he was still here.

Regardless, the fourteen year old dashed forwards. He approached the duo with speed that Ruby found difficult to track, unhooked Ruby from the claws of her older sister and separated them all within a fraction of a second.

Yang had wide eyes, "Woah!" She wasn't expecting that.

"Thaaanks Kakashi~!" Ruby drawled, hands clasped and a wide grin on her face.

Once again he looked down at her with that eye. "Hmph." Kakashi turned his face off to the side.

Yang watched this interaction with barely hidden curiosity that quickly turned to mischievousness. "Why, Ruby… You didn't tell me you had a boyfriend!"

"W-what…?" Ruby felt her face get as red as her namesake. Even Kakashi had raised his eyebrows.

Yang slid up next to her sister and thankfully only put her arm around Ruby's shoulders and said, "When I said you've got friends all around you last night, this wasn't exactly what I meant." The seventeen year old blonde shrugged her shoulders, bringing her other hand up to comb her hair. "You work fast, sis!"

"He's not my b-boyfriend!" Ruby pushed Yang off of her and gave her a weak glare. Any effectiveness was decreased because her face was redder than an apple. The brawler gave a good laugh and patted Ruby on the back.

"I'm just going for the low Yanging fruit," she punned.

In a rare show of emotion, even Kakashi rolled his eye at the joke.

The two sisters continued to argue on their way to the cliff.

Kakashi still didn't know why he was following her.

A/N

So, I did a thing. And if there's more interest, I'll continue to do a thing.