Story Start
Ruby was a girl who liked what she liked: sweet cookies, delicious strawberries, her family and Crescent Rose.
Naruto was similar; he cared for his friends/adoptive family, a nice bowl of Ichiraku ramen and a good training session.
They shared something beyond their love for their family/friends; their dreams...literally.
While Ruby and Naruto never met, they knew what the other did.
While Ruby was asleep, Naruto was awake, and vice versa.
Time was a bit screwy, but for every 2 hours Naruto was awake 1 hour passed in Ruby's world. Second verse, same as the first for her.
Usually, it was easy to tell the difference between the two until Naruto discovered the clone and their memory feedback. That took her a good few years for Ruby to sort through.
The recent memories weren't that great though. Probably didn't help that there was a massive war ongoing.
Especially with ghosts/zombies returning from the void and messing everything up. Damn zombie ghosts.
While Naruto slept, there's probably at least 3 or more of those ghost zombies getting kicked around. Can't really kill a zombie or a ghost, so they needed to be sealed up.
Because of that, he had to spend months learning to seal up the ghostly bastards away. Through the liberal use of clones, decades of training was painfully crammed into his head and Ruby too, much to her ire.
Right now the 5 Kages and the Not-so-Hidden Villages declared war on the Remaining Uchiha as Obito and Madara's zombie ghosts were destroying everything.
It was in these brief moments of respite that Ruby(and by extension Naruto) enjoyed the lull in-
"Hands up girly! No sudden movements." Standing to Ruby's left was a sharply dressed man aiming a pistol at her. Letting out an audible exhale, she turned up the music on her scroll and kept reading her trashy 'news' magazine.
"Nope. Today's not a good day for you to try. Walk away while you still can walk." Focusing on the magazine, the black/redhead could see the thug wasn't discouraged and in fact, seemed annoyed at her statement.
"I don't think you understand the situation girly, this shop is getting robbed and unless you want to get your head bashed."
Great, so it's going to end like this.
What happened next, the robber wouldn't remember but certainly would feel.
In a flourish of sliding metal and gears, the muzzle of her sniper scythe was pressed against his nose. A click was heard and the instinctive activation of Aura was the singular reason that he was able to survive flying through the window.
Ejecting the spent shell, Ruby dashed out the hole and landing gracefully next to the three other robbers.
Of the group, one was obviously in charge. Vibrant orange hair, bowler cap and a white themed coat compared to the black theme of his lackeys.
Having style while breaking the law, alright. Now if only they didn't try to rob her then there wouldn't be so bad.
"Seriously? You really were worth all that I paid and less. Listen up Little Red, I'm trying to be a better person, but if keep messing with my plans I'll have to go back on that." Fixing his suit, the sharp-dressed man levelled his cane at her and switched it to the rifle.
Giving him a deadpan expression, Ruby fixed her hood up while aiming at the goons.
"If Dum Dum there didn't yell at me then I'd never even known you were robbing the place. I was hoping to relax and do nothing today. I had plans for tomorrow and wanted to enjoy the now. Understand me? P. L. A. N. S. Now; because you, Larry, Moe and Curley over there ruined that so imma need my pounds of flesh and I don't think I'm going to stop until you're a pile of bruises. Kay thanks. Bye."
Mistakes were made that day, and looking back... Roman could see where it all went wrong.
If you only look at today, then robbing this specific store with the cheesy Dust pun for a name with that midget huntress in it was the problem.
Going a little bit further, it was not tossing Fall out of his base immediately after she slithered her way in.
Going even further... well Ozpin had a way of ruining everything.
But as of right now, that red midget that was thrashing the goons he hired from Junior was the problem.
You get what you pay for or whatever that old saying was. Those three definitely were worth every Lien.
Right now was the time to cut his losses while dumb, dumber and dumbest held her off. Reaching into his pocket, Roman fired a quick message on his scroll to Neo.
"Hey Clockwork Bowler cap, do you know how rude it is to text during a fight." Right... the girl. Slamming shut the shipping container, Roman snapped his cane up to block the scythe swing towards his neck.
"So is trying to take off my head. Guess pleasantries are over so watch your teeth." In a sliding motion, Roman positioned the muzzle of his cane at her face and fired.
"Oh, crap baskets." Ruby braced herself as the canes barrel exploded in a cloud of Dust propellant and a rapidly approaching projectile.
In an instant, Ruby's face exploded in a cloud of vibrant smoke. Falling back, a cloud of coloured red smoke belched from her mouth while the rest of the flares shell clung to her face.
Considering that the flare had exploded in her face... she had come out of it fairly unscathed. Though he should have been able to dodge the explosion- nope not going there. She's Ruby and not Naruto. A huntress-to-be, not a ninja, focus on the threat and not the horrible horrible HORRIBLE taste of the smoke.
"That's *cough* a dirt- *cough* *cough* y trick you jerk." aiming the weapon at him, a loud metallic clang drew her focus. From atop of the container was a magnetic claw holding the container with a Bulkhead hovering above.
"I hate to hit and run Little Red but I got prior arrangements. So ta ta!" Using his cane, he launched himself upon the container just before it took off.
"Get back here you fucker! You just shot me in the face and leave!? What kind of man does that? Huh!" Ruby yelled, smoke and soot clinging to her face.
"That's not *bang* hey! Stop that." Ruby interrupted him by firing a bullet and leaving a shallow cut on his cheek.
Down below, Ruby gave each goon a solid hit to their heads before swapping to a specialized round. Aiming at the street and loading herself on it she fired it into the ground.
Packed to the brim with highly volatile Dust, perfect for propelling herself upwards and towards something that needed to deserve a solid walloping.
Round after round was fired as she neared the rapidly approaching aircraft that the visibly nervous Roman atop the container.
Grabbing his scroll, he fired a quick message to Neo simply stating 'Accelerate. Approaching threat.'
Moments before the ship could, Ruby arced her scythe and punctured the shipping container. With a slow turn, the well-dressed thief locked eyes with hers.
Dilated silver eyes held a barely restrained rage while crimson smoke poured through her clenched teeth. Aura cracked around her hand as it deformed the metal while she ripped Crescent Rose free.
Heaving herself onto the crate, Ruby hefted her scythe and aimed at Roman while the last of the smoke seeped from her mouth.
"Now... either let me wail on you until all my rage is gone or I'm going to shove your hat down your throat until it comes out your aAAAAAAHHH." A violet glow enshrouded the ship and cargo, jerking it back and launching Ruby downwards.
"SHIT! Your ass~ is grass!" Spraying herself out, Ruby reloaded her rifle and pressed the trigger.
click*...*click* *click* *click*. Well, that's not good. Alright. And the ground is pretty close too.
Collapsing Crescent Rose and storing it on her back, Ruby took the hem of her cloak and tried to parachute it out.
It seemed to work way too well as she came to a complete stop. As well as the same violet glow around her.
"Young lady, are you aware how dangerous what you just did was?" Ruby was flicked over to a nearby tall building to where a green-eyed blonde in a pleated shirt and pencil skirt was standing.
She had a pretty curl framing her face and oval glasses accenting her pretty eyes-nope not dealing with that right now.
"Uhh, I was dragged there?" Right. Totally believable and the blonde lady would 100% take it as fact.
"You were dragged there? Then I guess that ship up there managed to force you into the air and arcing yourself into the air to land perfectly on the container?" Oh no she's smart. Uhh...uh DISTRACTION.
Contorting herself so that her rifle was aimed at the immobilized Bulkhead, she chambered her steel tip round and fired it into the right engine.
Like a burning knife through paper, it vanished in the ship followed by a belching column of thick smoke.
"Stop that! Have you any idea what is that ship is carrying?" Didn't work, deflect.
"Yeah, I do. Do you know that wombats make square poop?"
"What?"
"What?"
Cinder Fall…was tired of dealing with incompetent underlinings. Honestly, it was impressive how bad they were at completing simple tasks.
Roman was hired to steal Dust, that's It. Easy. Yet somehow, he managed to even fail at that. It wasn't even the Store owner or local police that stopped him but two, TWO Huntresses.
If it weren't for the fact that his failure reflected poorly on her then it would have been almost impressive how massive his blunder was.
"You, mute-girl. Open the side door. I'll deal with our huntresses." Not bothering to wait, Cinder strode into the central hanger and summoned embers to form her obsidian bow.
The bulkheads door slid open and revealed the two figures below on the roof of a building.
Aiming her weapon, embers of burning obsidian coalesced and compressed into a luminescent arrow. Focusing her power, fire seeped from her right eye and pulsed through the length of the arrow.
"So long. Two fewer problems to deal with." Letting loose the arrow, a quiet whistling permeated the night.
"... and a tree still makes a sound even if no-ones around." Ruby finished while Glynda gave her a deadpan expression.
"If you are done, I'm going to take you and our dear thief up there."
Flicking her crop, Ruby found herself flat on the roof while she pulled the aircraft towards the ground.
'What's that sound?'
Focusing on the ship a speeding black object glinted in the shattered moonlight. Veins of fire seemed to pulse its length.
A comet? Nope, to smooth and don't happen in Vale. That's an arrow. And it's moving fast. Really fast. Really really fast.
There's no reason to worry, she's a huntress. She'll see it and stop it …she's not noticing it. Oh Oum she's not going to stop it.
Doing the math(Blech) in her head, Ruby could tell that even if the huntress noticed the arrow now she wouldn't have enough time to stop it.
Pushing herself off the ground, she activated her Semblance and moved to intercept the arrow.
Rose petals spiralled around her while she moved to intercept.
Impossible, not enough space for her to stop the arrow before it strikes Glynda straight in the temple.
Just go faster then.
Planting her foot firmly into the roof, Ruby blasted Aura through her foot right before it left the roof. Still not enough, the arrow was within an arms reach away from its target.
Drastic times, drastic measures.
Overcharging her legs, Ruby blitzed the remaining distance and slammed directly into Glynda, sending them just both of them just out of the arrow path.
It just barely passed over Ruby's head and grazed Glynda's bun, nicking her hair tie and sending her hair cascading around her neck.
Acting on reflects, Glynda wrapped her arms around Ruby and rolled the duo along the roof before stopping with a clear view of the ship
Without her Semblance holding the Bulkhead in place, the craft was able to limp away with a belching trail of smoke behind it.
"Well, that was a close cut hahaha-sorry that was terrible."
"Well *ahem* I am grateful for you helping me," Glynda paused to slide Ruby off her "it resulted in the Bulkhead getting away with the Dust. So thank you, but I will need you to follow me to the VPD to give a statement."
"O-ok, but I'll need some help 'cause I can't really feel my legs after doing that."
Tying her hair into a loose bun Glynda used her Semblance to pick Ruby up and held her in a bridal hold.
"Very well. Let's go."
A/N: Attention, as some of you may know, I have not written in a fair while. There's a reason, beyond the Great Sniffles: School, Great Sniffle sadness, streaming and other scribblings.
I'm attending Uni come September and have spent some time writing for scholarships. Lots of writing and revisions.
Sadness hit me hard a few times and mostly killed my drive to write. Kinda hard to write with that.
I've started streaming on Twitch. That's fun but takes time away from writing.
I've also been trying to write another book, that takes a chunk out of my writing on here.
Old stories. Many of my old stories are gathering Dust and as such, they will get 2 possible tags. Bin or rework.
I will be going over each and adding a rewrite or recycle to the title before clearing the recycle~one week after the change.
Reworks will be longer and will likely take a bit before the new one will be posted.
Thank you for reading. To each of you, be a good person.
*End*