Better Days Chapter 4

Hey guys! This one was shorter than I wanted it too be, but I figured that it would be better doing this than nothing at all. Hope you like!

Oh, yea! To clear up any potential confusion. My story is officially AU. Cuz Blake's Parent's are totally alive in canon, and for some reason i had always thought that they weren't, lol, which is why they are dead in this story.

Naruto's POV

It's completely dark out, and I found that I have grown unsettlingly comfortable in the absence of light. It's only a moment before I settle into a dim corner in this office like it's second nature, and wear the shadows like a second skin. This office is like many others that I have visited in the last couple months: top floor with a view of the city, meticulously organized, and void of any personal effects. Overall, my targets have shown to be surprisingly spartan in regard to their work and living spaces. The moonlight that glosses over the office makes me take a moment to appreciate the natural beauty it provides. Even the small list of items that make this office benefit from its tranquil shine. A few steps near the door and I realize that I've taken a couple of steps towards the moonlit window in an almost hypnotic trance.

'Snap back to reality!' I tell myself as I reacquaint myself with the shadows in the corner. There is a purpose for me being here after all. The doorknob slowly turns and in walks a man in an all-white suit. He was a fit looking man, middle aged, but like all of Atlas' men, he carried himself in a strong and stern manner. Moonlight hits his face and I see his clean-shaven face turn to look for the light switch.

"I would prefer if you didn't do that. I don't want others outside to see anything they shouldn't have to." I say calmly.

He turns sharply in my direction. I can tell he still can't see me, even though I'm close enough for him to reach.

I step out into the soft light.

He flinches.

It's just a moment before he schools his features again, but I can tell we both know what is about to happen.

I wonder if he can tell that neither of us actually wish for it to happen.

"I was wondering if I was eventually going to be targeted." He starts. "Quite a few of my colleagues have been killed, and once the body count got high enough it was easy to see the connection between them. But it took so long for you to get to me. Why did you take so long?"

"You have a family." I figure there is no harm in giving a dying man a little honesty. He takes in my answer for its entire meaning and nods.

"Do you mind if I take a seat?"

"No, not at all."

"Will it be quick?"

"As quick as I could make it."

"Painful?"

"Not at all."

Silence.

There's always silence at this part.

I guess it comes from knowing death is nearing. This silence for me is probably a loud and painful reflection of life for them. I always wonder what questions they are asking themselves. I wonder what thoughts are they thinking, knowing that each thought is coming closer and closer to their last. I never ask what they think about though. I feel like I don't have that right, but I can imagine and it damages me every time.

"Are you sure you don't want to try and fight?" I ask, like I always do. "You might be able to escape if you do."

He laughed. The noise was nowhere close to joyful, though.

"No. Anyone who truly knows this world knows that it comes with certain rules." He goes through is jacket pockets before he pulls out his wallet. He opens it up and a smile almost appears from looking at the pictures tucked away in it. "The way you beat an assassin is by never meeting one in the first place. It was game over for me the second I walked in here and I know it. You could've killed me many times by now. I do have to say; the notorious dagger of the White Fang is much more kind than his reputation makes him out to be."

I shake my head. "I never wanted to be their tool, but my reputation is justified. I am a horrible person."

He gave me a look of understanding. "Such is life I suppose, to be a monster while wishing to avoid what makes you the monster in the first place." He pulled out his scroll from another jacket pocket. "Do you mind if I call them one last time."

"Go ahead."

He tapped on the device a couple of times and then the only noise in the room was a loud dial tone. He held it to his ear. A long pause ensued. Followed by a long sigh.

My ears twitch as I barely pick up what sounds like a feminine voice asking to leave a message. I look to the man and see him treasure the last time he hears that voice.

"Hey Hun," he started. "I was hoping to get you, but a voice message works just as well I guess. I won't be coming home tonight, so I just wanted to tell you that I love you very, very much. I don't tell you often enough about how you were the best thing to ever happen to me. You and Ivory are my entire world. I know our little girl is probably sleeping right now, but next time you walk past her room tell her I love her deeply." He hung up the phone and laid it on his desk. After a deep breath, he rested his hands on his lap and looked at me.

"I'm ready."

This is the part that I hate. I place my hand on my hip to grab my kyoketsu-shoge. The metal chain hung low from the small blade, while I opted to keep the small metal ring connected to the other end of the chain on my hip. His eyes widen a bit at my weapon. I wouldn't be surprised if he had never seen this type of dagger before. I only picked it up because of how similar it was to Blake's weapon of choice. I walk up to him, and my eyes catch the wallet still on the desk. Displayed proudly is the picture of a little girl smiling, in a way that only a child could, while looking up to what appears to be her equally happy mother. That must be little Ivory and his wife. It hurts to keep looking at the picture so I turn my gaze.

"Actually, I may be able to make this even easier for you," I say while reaching into a pouch on my hip. I bring out a bottle filled with a dark fluid. I open the small bottle and let it breathe for a second while I lay my blade down right next to it on the desk for him to see.

"Is that poison?" He asks. I nod. "What will it do?"

"It'll make the whole process more comfortable," I respond.

"I see."

"It'll be just like falling asleep."

I coat my blade lightly with the liquid and grab his wrist. I place a small cut on his palm and then sheathe my kyoketsu-shoge. He looks at it more a second and then nods. "That's it, huh. Just like that?"

"Just like that," I affirm. "I should tell you that I didn't wish for this to happen to you, or for the distress that this will place on your family."

He laughed again. It sounded just as sad as the first time.

"I figured as much. I can see the agony in your eyes clearly, even in this dark." He leaned back. "Could I at least get the real name of my killer?"

I walk close the window and sit on the window sill. Taking off my Fang mask, I turn my sights towards the city below. It is such a pretty night out. "Naruto Uzumaki" I call out while still looking at the cityscape.

"Well, as far as assassins go, you're the nicest one I've seen. Oh, and my name is Beluga Blanc."

I glance toward him, already fully aware of what his name was; however, I'm intrigued by the rest of his statement. "Have you seen many assassins?"

I could tell the poison was starting to take effect as his head started to droop, and his movements became increasingly lethargic.

"I'm a tired man who has been in been in a position of power for years. Unfortunately, that means I could say that I have hired quite the number of assassins myself. In Remnant, there seem to be problems that can only be solved using that solution." He turned away from me and tried to rest his head on his desk. He failed halfway in the action and slid bonelessly to the floor.

"I guess that's the end of our talk, Mr. Blanc. I hope you have a peaceful sleep." I say, once again looking out the window, watching the moon cover Atlas in its ethereal glow. It's such a beautiful sight, and I wish I could be spending this moment with a loved one instead of taking someone away from theirs. My free leg swings slightly back and forth from the window sill. I pull out a notebook from my pouch. Page after page filled with crossed out names and details meet me as I look for the name of my latest target so I could cross out his name.

"Two weeks…" I whisper to myself and close the book. "I just bought another two weeks." I lean my head back to rest on the window frame and close my eyes. It's been a few months since Blake left. Adam promised that every kill I make for the White Fang grants Blake two extra weeks of freedom before he unleashes the full might of the Fang in pursuit of her. With this last kill, I've almost bought her a whole year of freedom. I know Adam's obsession with Blake makes it so that he has a couple people looking for her anyway, but at least this agreement keeps that number of people fairly limited, and Blake is certainly skilled enough to avoid small White Fang search parties. The only thing Adam loves more than his obsession with Blake is other people's suffering, and he loves mine in even greater measure. He knows my views and that's why he created this stupid list of targets in the first place. Every kill helps the Fang and hurts me.

At least I know that his enjoyment in my bad predicament will cause him to keep his word and keep her safe. I open my eyes and take out my scroll. One click and a picture of me kissing her on her birthday greets me. I take in every detail of her.

…

I miss her so much.

Her eyes.

Her voice.

Her laugh.

A few drops of water land next to the picture, hitting my thumb.

Oh God, I'm crying…

I take a moment to regulate myself and open my book for my next target. It's only going to get harder from here. The rest of the targets are all either loving family men or women. I got rid of all the actual scum within the first week. I take one last look at her picture and put away my scroll.

"Well, time to become the monster again," I say to myself while putting my mask back on. Not all targets are as accepting as Blanc was. Most times it's actually much more messy, and I need to be mentally ready for that. A small grunt helps lift me up and with a small step I jump out the window and into the moonlit city. This my suck for me, but at least I know this keeps her safe.

And that makes this all worth it

***NUBB***

Blake's POV

"And yet another in a long string of murders has happened in Atlas last night. Beluga Blanc, head of Blanc Industries and partner to the Schnee Dust Company, was found dead in his office. No traces of the killer, but it is unofficially accepted that the killer is-"

I turn away from the news being broadcast on a public holographic display, not really wanting to listen to the world's doom and gloom at the moment. I have places to go and I cannot afford to waste time looking at the world's problems right now.

Vale has always been a busy place, and thankfully that helps me hide from anyone who may be on my trail. A few minutes pass and I'm finally at the docking stations for the airship that will lead me to my freedom:

Beacon Academy.

Once I'm there, I could finally sit down and think things through. My whole life has been nothing but a scramble for the last few months, running from one place to another. I had to ditch my scroll awhile back so Adam couldn't trace me with it. That part was hard. I had what felt like a whole lifetime of memories on that scroll. Pictures of the beautiful places I've seen during my travels, pictures of my friends, pictures of Naruto…

Suddenly, I feel like I have no energy. I nearly crumple onto one of the benches near the docking station.

Nothing was supposed to happen this way. I never wanted to leave Naruto, but Adam was being so horrible! I was so tired of it! Then he wanted to kill all those people on the train… I couldn't take it anymore.

I'll stay with you until you no longer feel like you have to run.

I'll always be there. Always, until the day you feel you won't need me anymore.

His words echo in my head, and pain rocks through my chest. I can't believe I left him. He was only there because of me! I let myself get too caught up in the moment. Adam is probably blaming Naruto for my leaving.

Another pain beats through my chest.

"I'm the worst type of person." I mumble to myself. Will there ever be a day that I decide to stop running?

My hands go to the locket hanging around my neck. I open it and gaze at the pictures inside for what had to be the millionth time in these last few months. I take in every detail of him. I miss him so much.

His eyes.

His happiness.

His comfort.

"Dang, you must miss your boyfriend pretty badly for you to be crying this hard. You okay there, chick?" A loud (way too loud) voice says from behind me.

I turn sharply out of anger and embarrassment in being caught looking at my locket.

"He's not my boyfriend!" I yell out defensively.

I'm about to yell and this blonde hair intruder again when I stop. There's no use shouting at her, she doesn't know anything. Once the heat from my anger dies down I finally realized what she just said. A testing wipe across my eyes gives truth to her loud statement.

Oh God, I'm crying again.

She seems even more worried now that she's seen that I didn't even know tears were falling from my eyes.

"Okaayy, well if he's not your boyfriend, who is he?"

I feel weak again. Much too weak to put up my usual barriers. A part of me wants to talk to her about it, about him, tell someone about this great person in my life that I abandoned. I want to tell her about the whole story. Tell her about how we met, and how he became such an important part of my life. I want to tell her about how I left him, and am now running away from everything like I always do. I want to tell her about how I'm running to the only place that will give me freedom and enough time to think about how to save him.

"He's part of my history that I wish I could rewrite," I say instead. Old habits die hard I guess, and some barriers are hard to overcome. My words may be vague but their meaning was true. I do wish I could rewrite history. I never would have turned Naruto away. I only dated Adam in the first place because I felt too awkward to say no. That's one mistake I'll be sure to never repeat. It's one I wish I never made in the first place.

"Ohh, I get it. That jerk did something horrible to you, but you can't forget him because he's the ex-boyfriend that you had the longest." She said as if she just figured out a great puzzle.

An unreasonable fury raged within me. I know she is just pulling at straws, but I couldn't stop the anger that came with hearing someone talk bad about him. I shoot up to put this silly blonde girl in her place when my new vantage reminds me that I am in a very public place still and that I can't afford to do something to let the White Fang know I'm here, like causing a scene.

So instead I just walk away.

"Hey! Wait! I'm sorry!" The blonde annoyance says while running after me. "Here, let's start over. My name is Yang Xiao Long. I came over because you looked lost in your own world. Are you waiting for the Airship into Beacon to?"

I pause to look at her and accept her apology. She doesn't know anything, so I shouldn't blame her for coming to the wrong conclusion about things. Then, as if on cue, the wind starts to pick up as a couple of airships prepare to land.

"I'm Blake. I appreciate your concern, but I'm alright." Before I can continue, a red blur appears next to Yang.

"Oh my goodness! Yang! I'm sooo happy I found you! I thought I lost you. I was so scared."

"No, there's two of them." I say in disbelief.

"Hah! You get scared too easily, Rubes. It's not like I could go anywhere. The airship to beacon only leaves from here." She said to the smaller girl. Before Yang can even attempt to introduce us, 'Rubes' is dragging her off to their luggage so that they could hurry up and get on the now ready to board the airship.

I get onboard not too long after and make sure to stay on the opposite end of the energetic duo. I grab a spot next to a window so I can watch to make sure that no one from the White Fang has followed me. Now that I think on it a bit, it's been relatively easy to avoid the Fang. Why was that? They usually hunt down traitors mercilessly and with overwhelming force, and with me being so close to Adam, I assumed that the hunt for me would only be more intense.

My weariness has returned and I put away those thoughts.

As the plane takes off, my hand makes its way to my locket once again.

I'll come back for you Naruto.

I promise.

***NUBB***

Naruto's POV

I wipe off the blood on my hands in a stream near our camp. The last target was nowhere near as accepting as Beluga Blanc was. It got messy quick. I sigh.

I've been doing that a lot lately.

As a return, I notice a general unease in the camp.

"Ey," I ask a passerby. "What's going on? Did Adam get another stick shoved up his a-"

"See, it's sentences like those that makes him hate you even more, Naruto" A familiar voice interrupted me. I turn to see gray eyes and took a step back from their proximity. Slowly, a silhouette starts to form and then a familiar face sends a smirk in my direction.

"Whoa, Ilia, I didn't see you there," I say with a smile. Ilia is probably the only person I can enjoy being around now.

"Well, not being seen is sort of my thing." She says with a smile. "The reason everyone is so uptight is because some lady came in with some goons of hers and has been talking to Adam for the last couple of hours."

I give a nod in thanks, and make my way over to the center of camp. That's normally where Adam likes to keep his meetings.

"Hey, Naruto," Ilia calls out. "Why don't you come over to my room once you're done so we could catch up. I haven't seen you in months."

"Sure, but I'm just warning you now. I'm probably going to fall asleep five minutes after in come in. So be sure to have an extra pillow ready for me." I tell her with a small laugh.

She gave me a playful sigh. "I don't even know why I expected anything different at this point. Also, you know you can take off your mask in camp now right?"

"I know." Was all I offered. I gave a lazy two fingered wave over my shoulder and made my way towards the center again.

It wasn't long before I came across Adam and his company.

"For the last time! The White Fang will not work with humans! I don't care what stupid plan you have." Came Adam's familiar angry tone.

"I had desired that it wouldn't have to come to this," said the woman with long brown hair. Her voice was smooth and sophisticated sounding. Nevertheless, I get ready to move. Nothing good ever really follows those words.

Just as I anticipated, all White Fang members surrounding this woman and her group were very suddenly, very violently, taken out. Shards of glass ran though most of them in very painful way. No one looked to be stabbed in an extremely vital area. That's a sign of good faith between two shady people if I ever saw one, she probably does want an honest partnership. Adam was all alone now, left to the whims of this mystery woman.

One of her goons, a man with grey hair makes his way towards Adam while the green haired girl takes a couple of steps to the side and aims her guns at him. A shard materializes in front of the leader and I feel like it's time to step in.

"As much as I would love for this man do die, I can't afford for that to happen yet," I say from behind them. The gray-haired one runs towards me immediately. Probably in an effort to get me away from their leader.

I smile.

I duck underneath his kick, and step behind him. I grab his arm and swing him around to face me. His momentum brings him into my waiting fist. A sharp crack sounds came from his neck as the whiplash takes full effect. He slides off my fist and falls into a pitiful pile on the floor.

"As I was saying. Do you see that silver band around his arm there?" I say, pointing to Adam. "That reads his pulse. If anything were to happen to him that band will send a signal telling the entirety of the White Fang to chase down someone very important to me. This coward got that as a final protection measure against me, and all these brainwashed idiots here will follow his order without question."

Adam growls at my words and that only makes me feel better.

"So I'm going to have to ask you to leave." My voice sounds out, but from the other side of the group. They turn and see another me walk up to them.

Both me and my clone have to dodge has shards of glass come protruding out of the ground.

"The famous assassin of the White Fang!" The woman exclaims happily. "It took me a second to figure out who you are, but your Semblance gave you away. What a pleasure it is to meet you. My name is Cinder Fall, and I was just telling dear Adam here about a plan that will help both the Fang and us. Somethings tells me that you are a much better listener then he is. Plus, if your words are anything to go by why not join me. I have enough power to protect whoever it is that he wants to go after. All you have to do in return is kill him and lead the White Fang in his stead."

Adam takes a look at me and puts his hand on Wilt. His stance is low, ready to strike at a moments notice.

"Yea, see, that's a tempting offer Cinder. However, I can't put their safety in your hands based off of words alone." I take my blade from its place on my hip. I let it hang on the chain attached to its hilt and twirl it a couple times before catching it. This woman was powerful. I could feel it. All her actions seem reserved. She must be holding back a lot. "Why don't you show my exactly how much power you got?"

She smirked.

"Gladly."

The entire forest erupted.

Again, this is largely unedited as of right now. I'll go back and fix some things later.
I was asked on one of my stories if I would like a Beta, and the answer is most certainly yes! haha
Just PM me if you're interested, I'll get a feel on how you do things and see if it works.
Other than that, let me know what you think. It's officially my Birthday here, and A great gift would be lots of lovely reviews haha (wink wink).

Expect the next chapter to come out soon.

Have a great rest of your day! :D