Hey all. Sorry for the long wait. I wrote my finals and hopefully will be getting my degree soon.
So, Part 3 will include the 502nd as the primary Witch group which the 101st supports.
We ended off with the 101st being thrown into a Orussian prison, a Orussian Officer toasts against the current system which Liberion and Brittanian Officers agree to.
This Arc will be mostly AU, focusing on the eastern front during the allied advance into central Europe shortly after the Battle of Kursk.
The next, and last, Arc (currently planned) is to follow the RTB season of S.W.
Responses to Reviews:
Habu2010: No, the story is not dead. If my stories are dead, I will say so. And no, the only Witch Naruto will be in a relationship with is Galland. Soz, but I gave up on trying to write harems.
On with the Story…
Chapter 11, Into the Fires of Hell
"654…655…656…" Katashi counted as he, Naruto and Omoi did push-ups. On their backs sat Temari, Karen and Hanahei respectively. In the cell next door, Tenten, Matsuri, Hiken, Kei, Karui and Kouta sat, doing sit-ups. Following the supposed 'night attack' during which their initial cell was damaged, they had been transferred to a more secure Gulag away from the frontlines whilst the Orussian Commandant salivated at the money he'd get for selling the Akatsuki II on the Black Market.
"We really should have destroyed the Akatsuki." Tenten grunted.
"None of us could have known that the Commandant was such an arrogant snob." Temari countered.
They were well aware that there were Orussian Soldiers listening in on their conversation.
"I mean, he wouldn't have survived being posted in Burma." Naruto said. "Thinking back, he should have been posted there instead of here. Really shows how incompetent he is. And what he is compensating for."
Just then, they heard the locks to their cells being unlocked.
"Oh look, company. I thought that the locals were as cold as their fabled winter." Katashi joked, earning him a scowl from the Orussian guard that opened their Cell door.
"Follow me." He gruffly ordered.
The members of Team Shinobi were led down the corridor until they entered the Mess Hall.
"Why are they still in shackles?" they turned to see the Fuso Ambassador from St. Petersburg standing there, standing next to the Orussian General they saw in Burma.
"General." They greeted him.
"Ladies and Gentlemen." He returned the salute. "Why aren't you removing their shackles?" he snapped at the soldiers, who jumped into action at that, grumbling under their breath.
"Commandant Maleshenko had been stripped of his command and has been sent to a station in Siberia." The general said. "This after we began investigating him following your report to the Ambassador here."
"How's our plane doing?" Tenten asked.
"Destroyed in a Neuroi night attack, I am afraid. The medium scale Neuroi destroyed most of the airbase before the 586th arrived." A Colonel said, stepping past them. Another familiar face from Burma.
"I thought the base should have several AA Batteries surrounding it!" Naruto commented, rubbing his ankles where the shackles had dug into the flesh and relieving some aches that had formed.
"Maleshenko didn't run drills in their operations since he took command." The General said. By this point, the last of the shackles were coming off. "Follow me. You'll be briefed on the truck to the 502nd JFW Base."
"Understood." Naruto said. "But I am not sure what we can achieve without our gear."
"Ironically, you can thank Maleshenko this time." The Ambassador said, shaking his head. "He had cleaned out the Akatsuki II in preparation of having the engineers have a look at the plane, then selling the parts on the Black Market. Your personal effects are being transported to the 502nd base as we speak." He then shook his head. "The troops commented about there being a ton of scrolls that had been thrown around though, but not a lot of weapons other than your rifles and machine guns."
Team shinobi simply nodded, whilst on the inside, they were either giddy that their gear was still there or they were grumbling about having to sort through the storage scrolls…there were only a couple hundred unmarked scrolls in their collection after all.
A few hours later, 502nd base, north of Kiev
Squadron leader Gundula Rall and her second, Aleksandra I. 'Sasha' Pokryshkin stood and watched the convoy of trucks arrive at their base, most of whom stopping in front of Hanger 3 and unloading crates into the unused hanger.
"Are you sure about this?" Sasha asked. "I mean, from what Eila and Sanya told me about this Team, they will be helpful, but…"
"It's an order from High Command, and Wing Commander Wilcke and Air Marshall Galland both vouch for them." Rall said. "Besides, they did save Nipa, Karibuchi and Kanno. We'd be as dumb as the 506th with their infighting, not to accept outside help. Especially with the wrecker trio constantly needing to be rescued."
Sasha sighed. "I know, but they then went and got themselves thrown into prison for insulting a superior officer."
"I asked around about that." Krupinski said, walking up next to them, followed by the rest of the 502nd. "But nobody seems to know what exactly happened 2 weeks ago. At least, none of my friends and contacts did. Just some rumours about there having been an argument with the CO."
They continued to watch as a specific truck drove up and parked nearby…and a general, a colonel and 12 individuals dressed in Fuso military fatigues hoped out the back.
"Squadron Leader Rall?" Rall turned to look at the speaker, a blonde man whose gaze seemed to drill into her very soul. "Captain Naruto Uzumaki, 101st Independent Neuroi Hunters, Team Shinobi." He held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you."
"Likewise. Your team's reputation proceeds you." She said. "You have my thanks for saving my underlings back then."
Naruto nodded before introducing the rest of his team.
"Got something to say?" Hanahei asked Krupinski, who was intently looking at her, Tenten, Karen, Karui, Temari and Matsuri.
"Just admiring the view, that's all." She answered.
"Well, you may want to admire something else. Such as the sliver-haired pipsqueak trying not to glare at you in jealousy." Karen said.
"Geh…" both Krupinski and Rossmann flinched at that.
"How do you know that?" Krupinski asked, missing the subtle glances everyone was giving her, knowing smirks on the Witches faces and amused ones from Team Shinobi.
"You have a good poker face, but there are other ways to read a person. Such as the shaking of your shoulders or the clenching of the fists, or the slight stiffening of your neck muscles." Naruto answered her. "Now, if you don't mind, we'd like to unpack our things and find out what exactly we are missing."
"Very well. I need to have a word with my squadron anyway." Rall said.
Later that evening
Rall and Sasha walked into Hanger 3 and thought they had left the eastern front and entered an allied forces heavy weapons depot.
Never mind the rows upon rows of rifles and machine guns, what immediately drew their attention was the pair of 88s that were positioned in the centre of the hall, barrels casually directed in their direction.
"Where did all of this come from?" Sasha asked, looking around.
"Trade secret. Sorry." They heard the reply coming from their right, where they saw a makeshift barracks made from Wood and bricks. At its entrance stood Katashi, who held a toolbox in his hand. "Not even the people outside of our group whom we trust the most know that secret, well, except for one person…"
He put the toolbox down and whistled into the barracks, alerting the others. Then he turned back.
"What can we do for you, Squadron Leader?" he asked.
"We were hoping to speak with your CO and second." Rall answered.
Katashi shrugged. Not like they wouldn't find out what this conversation would be about later anyway.
"Naruto. Temari. The S.L. and her second are here to talk to ya." He called.
"On the way. Naruto still needs to clean the grease from his hands." Temari answered.
"Grease?" Sasha asked.
"One of the grease cans for the Akatsuki II, our former airplane, got damaged when those bastards ransacked her." Katashi answered, sighing. "When Naruto picked it up, the lid popped and spilled half its contents all over him."
"That's that red and black plane you came in to rescue us, right?" Sasha asked.
Katashi nodded.
"Sorry about the delay." Naruto said, appearing from the barracks, still wiping some brown grease from his fingers with a rag. "This way. We have a temporary communal area behind the Shermans and Tiger."
Rall and Sasha blinked once, twice, three times before giving him a deadpan "Huh?!"
Shortly afterwards
Sasha and Rall were speechless. From their correspondence with Eila and Sanya (Sasha) and Minna and various other Squadron Leaders and Wing Commanders (Rall), they knew that the 101st had a small reputation of stealing things, or as Tenten called it, 'Keeping weapons safe and ready for when they are needed'.
Now they were sitting behind a trio of M4A2 Shermans mounting the 75mm cannon, sitting around an unlit fire drum. On the far side stood a Tiger wreck that looked like someone was busy fixing the damn thing and giving it a serious upgrade. Seriously, it looked like someone was trying to mount the Orussian BS-3 100mm into the poor tank.
"Not bad for 5 hours of work, right?" Naruto said.
"Forget 5 hours, most people wouldn't get this much done in 5 weeks let alone months." Sasha answered.
Naruto and Temari shrugged.
"Now then, what did you want to talk to us about?" Naruto asked.
"There are 3 main subjects I want to talk about." Rall began. "More accurately, 2 things I wish to discuss with you, and 1 which Sasha wants to discuss with you."
"Well, Winter is coming, so let's not waste the daylight hours." Naruto said. "Please, continue."
Rall nodded. "I had intended on offering you one of the wings of our Barracks to quarter in. As you said, Winter is coming and she is brutal."
In some RWBY universes
Winter sneezed, then glared at the Atlas soldiers and huntsmen around her when they looked at her, making them all snap to attention, fearing her wrath.
Back to the story
"So we've heard." Temari said, nodding. "However, we prefer to stay close to our gear, if you don't mind. Especially some of our more frequently used heavy weapons. There have been several attempts to have those stolen by Army Officials ever since they learned that we had those weapons." She pointed at a crate situated behind the Karlslandian and Orussian, labelled simply as 'Ammunition' and beckoned for them to open it.
Rall nearly let go of the crate lid in fright.
"Especially the MK 108 you just opened up. Katashi is quite attached to that one." Temari explained, hiding her smirk "Sergeant Latonya Morris of the 555th nearby managed to claim it for herself, had our weapon master not tearfully upped her existing firepower instead."
"I am not seeing much from Orussia though…" Sasha commented, looking around.
"Oh, we didn't have the opportunity yet." Naruto commented. "We have a couple of Mosin Nagant Rifles, PTRD's and PTRS's which we will be giving to their fallen owners' families, but that's about it. We didn't really work in locations where the Orussian divisions could afford the loss of military hardware." He then looked at Rall. "What was the other thing you wanted to ask us?"
Rall took a breath or two to calm down.
"I heard from Squadron Leader Wilke that you sometimes helped the 501st and the 555th train. Would you be willing to offer the same help to the 502nd?" she asked.
Naruto and Temari looked at each other, then nodded.
"Provided that we won't be behind Neuroi lines, I see no reason as to why not." Naruto said. "Just a word of warning. Our training will not be easy. Heck, some people have said it's downright sadistic."
Rall just nodded...Minna stated that Erica would rather wake up early than do their training…
"Also, allow our medic to have a look at your back later. She may be able to relieve some of the pain you are suffering from." Temari answered.
"How'd you…" Rall began and even Sasha quirked an eyebrow, then they remembered that the 101st could read them like an open book apparently.
"We realized the purpose of your corset wasn't just for fashion pretty early on." Naruto explained. "Added to that, your near expressionless face is a feature we have seen many times in people who live under constant pain. You keep your face blank in order to hide the pain that you are feeling in order not to worry those around you, right? What is it? An old combat injury?"
Rall numbly nodded.
"Minna was the same. Her emotional pain left her having a similar problem for a time until shortly after meeting us." Naruto said.
"What did you do?" Sasha asked. Naruto stopped and paled slightly, then quickly said.
"Nothing much."
Temari smirked. "Something that left quite the awkward moment with the 501st."
"And since then I've done nothing like it ever since. Can we drop it please?" Naruto groaned.
"Now I need to know what happened." Sasha said.
"He fed them cupcakes laced with weed. Made the entire 501st high as hell." Temari giggled. "Minna and Mio swore to kill us after waking up in the same bed together, naked. Gertrude and Shirley didn't bother with the threats, they straight up grabbed their weapons to hunt us."
"Yeah, fortunately, at the time we had been sent to recover a witch from the RAF 145nd Squadron, who had been shot down near Isole Tremiti." Naruto said, shivering. "On the way back we picked up this beast here." Naruto said, rapping his knuckles against the Tiger.
"…If you do something like that to us, forget retaliation, I'll personally hunt you down till you die." Rall swore.
"All the more reason not to feed space cakes to witches." Naruto said. "Despite how hilarious it is too see you girls all high and not-so-mighty, I rather enjoy being alive, thank you very much."
Temari chuckled, before turning to Sasha. "What did you want to talk to us about?"
"I know that Wing Commander Rall already told you this, but I want to thank you for saving the lives of my comrades." Sasha said. "Especially Nipa."
"Your flame, right? The white haired one?" Naruto asked. Immediately Sasha's face flamed red.
"SHE'S NOT…" she shouted, before seeing the smirk on Naruto's face being wiped away by Temari who hit him over the head. "She's like a little sister to me!" she huffed.
"Please forgive him. He is still an idiot at times." Temari said. "He just is addicted to pranking."
"…" Temari shot a glare when Naruto opened his mouth to refute her.
"Kei, is your workstation completed?" Temari called out to the barracks.
"Still sorting the 'supplies'!" came the answer. "But the table is ready, so the Commander can get comfortable at least."
"Supplies?" Rall asked. "What supplies?"
"Medicines, anaesthetics, disinfectants, stuff like that." Naruto answered.
"So, where can I get ready?" Rall asked. "Or is there a changing room somewhere?"
Naruto and Temari raised an eyebrow at that.
"You can leave your clothes on for this one. Kei will just give you a once over or so. There is nothing invasive about the procedure at all, other than that horrible needle…" Naruto called out that last bit.
"Oh, stop being such a child." Kei shouted back.
Rall and Sasha looked at each other and thought the same thing. 'He's scared of needles?'
Timeskip, a few days later
"Fuck my life…" Kanno yelped as she dodged the swing of a staff towards her shin.
"That'll be one more lap for bad language, missy." Katashi said, getting ready for another swing of his training staff. (Yeah right…the freaking thing was twice as long as he was…)
Today, the 502nd had started their training with the 101st…and it took them all about 1 hour to start regretting life.
Seriously…first snow was due to fall any day now…and everyone was running around in freaking summer sport attire. Everyone's fingers were freezing…except for Nipa, who found the temperature to be 'pleasantly cool'…damn northerner and their resistance to cold climates.
'Oh wait…didn't Major Sakamoto also have this crazy insane training regime?' Kanno asked herself. 'Did she teach it to them or did they teach her…nah. No way that would have happened.'
Flashback, Hokkaido, 6 months after the 101st were unsealed
Mio was about to snapped. 2 weeks up on the northern most point of Hokkaido, in the middle of winter, wearing nothing but a swimming suit, she had been sent through hell, though grudgingly by her own request.
Mio was close to snapping. Ever since she wanted to learn their training regime, refusing to acknowledge the nosebleed she had gotten when she first saw the 12 shinobi + samurai training, she had tried to break the language barrier between them, and had finally managed to send her request across to them. Biggest mistake of her life other than…no…what happened in that Hotel Room during her 50th Neuroi Kill celebration after that Sake-pong (1) game, stays in that Hotel Room.
Her shivering suddenly stopped and she felt the overwhelming urge to cackle as she started swinging her sword around, her silhouette outlined by a sunrise.
"Hey, Naruto. I think she just snapped." Omoi commented from where he and Karui were doing crunches whilst hanging from a tree.
The 12 individuals looked at the cackling sword wielding witch.
"Well…we can fix her…hopefully…" Naruto commented.
They did…mostly…
Flashback end
Unbeknownst to Kanno, her thoughts were mirrored by the rest of the 502nd, especially Sadako and Hikari, whilst Krupinski and Rossmann kept their mouths shut and endured their bridges, not wanting to think about the hell Rall was currently going through, Georgette was singing songs consisting of swearwords in her native Gallian, which she had quickly learned none of the 101st understood, whilst she was doing push-ups with a bag of sand on her back, Nipa, having somehow managed to break the small dumbbells she had been given (they only weighed 1 kilo, but they broke whilst she was holding them out in front of her), and Sasha was joining Georgette in singing curses at the 101st.
"Hauptmann Uzumaki, wie lange müssen wir diese übung halten?" Krupinski asked. (Captain Uzumaki, how long do we need to maintain this exercise?)
"Bis ihr es nicht mehr könnt, dann weiter." Naruto answered them. (Until you can't hold it anymore, then longer.)
Krupinski and Rossmann regretted opening their mouths to complain once in Karlslandian…why the hell couldn't Naruto have learned Orussian or Gallian instead?
Better question…why the hell did they all think that being trained by this bunch of sadistic Super Soldiers would be fun?
(1): think beer-pong just with sake instead of beer
…
AND DONE!
Sorry for the delay. I was busy with final exams. Now that they are over, I can return to writing. I will work on my ongoing Naruto x Fairy Tail story next.
