A/N: DOUBLE UPDATE DAY! This and Fragments are being updated together.
This chapter is...shorter than I'd like, but my health is on the mend at the moment. Sorry for letting you all down...
Also, I hate my doctors. You're fine, chap, they say. Take some tylenol and rest, they say.
*grumbles* Easy for them to say, they don't have rent to make! I can't afford to miss even a single day! I neeeed the money to pay for things.
As ever, the Embers rule remains for this story.
If folks don't like this story, POOF! Away it goes. That's no joke.
So by all means, speak up! Every bit of feedback matters here! Truly, it does!
So lets answer some questions, comments, and concerns:
Q: Naruto x Genshin Impact story when?!
A: Don't tempt me! Must resist!
Q: Why are you focusing on Naruto's team to the exclusion of all else?!
A: What're you on about? I'm not. Qrow's got a full chapter dedicated to him coming up, as do Tai and Summer. Granted, others are stealing the show at the moment, but the focus is hardly on Naruto entirely.
Q: I have a bad feeling about Jacques...but without him...will Weiss and Winter not exist...?
A: Read and see~!
Alright, then. I've kept you long enough.
As ever, I own no references, themes or memes. Not a wit or a one. Alright then, here we go~!
Looking forward to your reviews, they're all that keep us going in this madness.
"Yeah, I've pretty much fucked the future. What about it?
Way I see it, this ends one of two ways.
Wanna know which I'm bettin' on?"
~Yang.
The Eighth Fracture
"You're smiling, Yang."
"Am I?" She hid her smile behind her flask. "Whatever gives you that idea?"
Ozpin frowned. At least Yang assumed he did. It felt like he was frowning. He was a frowner. Even with her back to him she could feel the immortal's gaze drilling into her shoulders. Silly Ozpin. If a stern glare was enough to mollify her, she wouldn't have come to the past in the first place. Still, she made a point of not looking at him as she watched the chaos unfold below their tower. Old habits died hard. Oz might not be "Oscar" yet in this timeline, but it was all too easy to see him as such.
All too easy to remember his body, beaten and broken at Salem's hands... with all the others...
Whoops. There was the depression rearing its ugly head again. Nothing a little alcohol couldn't solve. She took another drink and sighed as the whiskey warmed her belly. Ozpin tried to speak, only be silence by a raised finger.
"Very well, keep you secrets." Meanwhile, her erstwhile ally slumped behind his desk. "But at least allow me to guess. This wouldn't have anything to do with the commotion Miss Calavera has been causing now, would it?"
Another swig came and went. "Noo...?"
"Yang," here at last she turned to look at the headmaster, just in time to see him steeple his fingers and lay his chin atop them. "She's been at this for a week."
"Of course she is. I told her to do it." she hummed happily to herself as the Grimm Reaper crashed out a window, caught herself on a nearby ledge and hurtled back inside. "At least his reaction time's getting better. He can actually fight her on even ground now."
"I need Maria to investigate those murders; not run pell-mell through the halls harassing unsuspecting students."
"Well," she took another long draught from her dented flask -Uncle Qrow's flask!- and traced the worn metal as she considered her response. "I wouldn't call it harassment per se. Think of it as...intensive training."
A distant blast rattled the world, accompanied by a low roar. "YIIIIIIIIIIIN!"
Ozpin frowned. "That sounded like Naruto."
"Yup." Yet a third sip followed. "He's the key to all this. Gotta make sure he grows up big and strong."
His brows knit together. "You do seem rather fixated on him and Miss Branwen..."
A bead of sweat ran down her brow.
'Deny, deny, deny! Don't mention Mom and Dad!'
"Its not the combination I hoped for," she swallowed her thoughts, "But it works. So long as they become strong."
She wrinkled her nose as the weight of her words caught up to her. Ugh. Now she sounded like Raven. Mom would be laughing her ass off right about now.
"See, that's the thing." Yang snapped the fingers of her false arm. "I don't have everything figured out. Hell, all my meddling just might ERASE me from existence. Or it might not. But I'll be damned if I don't try." And she had to she must. "My family gave everything to give us this second chance."
"Then why go this far?"
"Because my old man made me a promise before he sent me back. That," and here those lovely lilac eyes burned with flames, "I'm a spiteful, spiteful woman, Ozpin." anger coiled in her heart like a bitter serpent, warping her thoughts once more. "Salem took everything from me. So. I'm going to take everything from her in turn.
She stowed her flask and stepped forward, looming large over him.
"And when she finally dies," the words escaped her in a feral hiss, "When all her precious pawns are gone and her sly schemes crumble down around her ears, she'll know she has no one to blame but herself. She'll have lost to the same "little girl" she mocked in the last life.
She beamed.
"When we met, you asked me if this was personal. I said it wasn't. I lied."
Another explosion rattled the school below. Yang whirled and looked toward the window. Frowned. "Wait a minute. Isn't that...?"
(.0.0.0.)
Maria Calavera fought like her namesake.
For every injury Naruto dealt her, the Grimm Reaper dished out two more. Life and Death were a whirl of motion around her; a storm of steel that tore through his defenses like paper. Or they would have if he'd bothered to defend himself. One did not simply defend themselves against Maria. He'd learned that lesson the hard way. You attacked, or got attacked in turn.
"Rah!" A snarl tore out of him as he lashed out and up, kicking her away. "Stop already Let me enjoy my lunch in peace!"
No dice. She came tearing right back in, grinning from ear to ear. He supposed she was enjoying herself. He wasn't. She'd been ambushing them for the better part of a week now, and frankly he'd grown sick of it. Yes, he'd grown faster and stronger for her constant attacks; his instincts sharpened, reflexes honed to a razor's edge, but with each successive strike his patience waned.
"You think you're hot shit, don't you?!"
Naruto turned his head and spat out a tooth.
"I'm going to remind you in advance," he grunted as he took her rightmost scythe to the shoulder and left it here. "I'm very sorry and apologize for the inconvenience of me... NOT GIVING A FUCK...
His body twisted, ripping it from her grasp.
...about what you think."
This time he disarmed her first and struck again, a low sweep that ripped her left scythe away, followed by a shoulder barged that pushed her toward yet another window. She ripped Prophecy from his grasp as she went, but he wouldn't be denied. He caught her in a fully body tackle, grabbed her by the cloak, whirled, and flung her through the glass.
Miss Calavera crashed out the window, performed a graceful backflip in midair. For a moment she almost seemed to hang there. Defying gravity itself.
"Crap!"
And sank like a stone.
A strangled squawk came from the courtyard below. "I say?!"
Naruto peeked out over the window. "That didn't sound like Miss Maria...
Raven 's head poked over his shoulder. "Suppose its too much to hope she died?"
Willow slapped her arm. "Don't be rude!"
"Fiiiiine...
In short order team GRWN scrambled down after Beacon's resident psychopath. Their concern was for naught. They found her sitting atop a dazed young man; the latter of which lay sprawled down in the courtyard, eyes spinning in his head. She looked every bit at her ease, stretching languidly atop him.
"Thanks for breaking my fall, kiddo." Maria reached down to pat his cheek. Striking silver eyes swept back to them as she climbed back to her feet. "Same time next week, brats. Try to last a little longer this time."
"I'll last longer if you stop ambushing me like that! Give up already!"
"Not a chance~!" She sauntered away with a sway in her hips.
Glynda clamped a hand over Naruto's face. "Don't look!"
"I'm not!"
A low groan came the poor sod she'd landed upon. "A little help here...
Naruto sighed. In the end, he took pity on him.
Whatever debonair air the young man might have possessed was decidedly dashed by his disheveled state. His once glossy dark hair was a tattered mass atop his head, his crisp suit now a crinkled mess. That pencil-thin mustache curling around his upper lip really didn't do him any favors. He looked like one of those posh Atlas types through and through. Didn't stop him from helping him up, though. A hand clasped his and hauled him to his feet.
"My thanks you have, for my timely rescue...
There was a bouquet of rose red flowers miraculously untouched at his feet, somehow untrampled in the chaos. He picked himself up, dusted his clothes off as best he could, and straightened his spine with an audible crack. Aura flickered just so, cracking across his shoulders in a show of pale blue sparks. Small wonder he'd survived Maria's rough landing. Aura could tank a fair bit.
Willow jerked back like she'd been scalded. "Jacques?!"
Naruto turned, letting go of his hand as he did. "Who, now?"
"Bwergh!" bereft of balance, the poor fellow fell face-first into the muck all over again. He caught himself on an elbow and thrashed upright. ""Willow?! Is that you?!"
She scowled at the young man in turn, keeping the three of them between him and her at all times. "Why are you here?"
"Why, I've come to rescue you, of course!"
Raven scoffed. "Rescue, he says? Heh. This'll be good."
"Rescue me?!" Willow repeated the words, aghast. "From whom?!"
Before their very eyes Jacques Gele snarled. "From all this! That woman clearly seduced you!"
The lot of them blanched. "Woman?"
"You mean Yin?" Willow tsked softly and shook her head. "Jacques, no. We've been over this. She's like a mother to me!"
"She doesn't matter! You have responsibilities!"
Her brow turned thunderous. "To you or the Schnee family?"
Jacques turned an alarming shade of puce at the slight. "Your father-
-has given me his blessing to be in Beacon." the heiress flicked her fingers, producing a glimmering glyph just over her nails. "Unless he's retracted that in the last few weeks -which I find highly unlikely!- I don't much see the point in this.
"You know his health is poor-
"I do not care this," she snapped her fingers, "For my responsibilities. This is my life! I will not be some trophy wife!"
Raven whistled. "You tell em."
"No one says you should be such a thing!"
"No?" Her expression became icy indeed. "The board of investors clearly seem to think otherwise. Or have you wooed them, too?"
He looked away. "That is an unrelated matter. Without you, the SDC cannot function!"
"They have my Father. Nicholas has run it quite well."
"He's run it into the ground!" Here at last he dropped the pretenses. "Investors are leaving the company in droves! You don't belong here, Willow. You're better than this ilk. Come back to Atlas!" when she didn't falter in the face of his please, he tried anew. "The SDC needs you! You belong there!"
"Is that so?" She turned her nose up at him. "And you are you to say where I belong, Jacques? My life is my own." when the young man opened his mouth to protest, she thrust her blade into it, caressing the inside of his cheek with cold intent. "But by all means, keep talking. One more word and I'll carve you a smile you'll not forget!"
Naruto frowned. "Do you think we should...?"
"Nah." Raven waved her down. "She's got this."
"Besides!" Willow whirled and latched onto his arm, startling him. "I'm already spoken for."
.
...
...Willow, why do you do this?!
"I've met someone." she pulled on, heedless of their thunderstruck expressions. "A man I wish to spend the rest of my life with."
A blond brow rose. 'First I've heard of this...
Jacques appeared to be of a similar mind. "So soon?!"
Raven all but spat sparks.
"We wanted to keep it secret." Willow turned a pleading look upon him. "Isn't that right," she seemed to physically struggle with the word for a moment, "D-Darling?"
Darling? Wait...was she...oh. Oh! Realization broke like the dawn, bringing glorious clarity. Willow wanted nothing to do with Jacques. But nothing would dissuade him. Not even force. So she'd sought another path. He just so happened to be standing squarely on it. If anyone else had been here, then she'd surely have latched onto them instead.
Really, it was just bad bloody luck.
Tch. Damn him and his soft heart. Damn Qrow and his Semblance, too! Blasted thing was contagious!
...right." he put on what he hoped was a winning smile and put a wary hand round her waist. She stiffened only a little. "What she said." his lips twitched a little. "Madly in love. Yup. That's us."
Glynda slapped a hand to her forehead, not at all fooled by this ruse.
Ah, but Jacques was.
Naruto could see it in his face; the muscle jumping in his jaw, pulsing furiously alongside the vein in his temple. There it was, the telltale twitch of his eye; something that said more than words ever could. He'd seen that look in members of the Tribe before, just as he'd seen what came next. Any moment now...
"Him?!" he sputtered, all but frothing at the mouth. "You?! With this ruffian?!"
Aha! There it was!
"I'll thank you not to speak of my intended that way!"
Jacques made a wheezing noise. "You mean to marry him?!"
Raven lunged forward. Glynda restrained her with her Semblance.
All the while, Naruto died a little on the inside. 'This is what I get for helping...
"He looks like some...some kind of bandit!" Ooh, that accusation was a little too close for comfort. "What can you possibly see in him?!
Must not speak!
In the end he didn't have; because everyone took offense for him.
Raven bulled forward. "Wanna say that again, bub?!"
Glynda stepped up beside her. "How dare you?!"
"The gall!"
Faced with such a united front, Jacques faltered. He looked left, looked right, and found no allies. The few students that were out and about didn't bother to come to his aid. Why would they? In this timeline, he was only a man. Nothing. No one. He owned nothing. Had nothing. And that was his folly.
His gaze settled upon Willow with intent."This isn't over."
She scoffed and made a shooing motion. "I believe it is. Goodbye, Jacques."
He bridled a little at that; the very moment he did, Naruto wriggled free of Willow and stepped forward. Glynda and Raven did the same, effectively flanking him while keeping their sassy Schnee firmly behind them. Say what you would about the woman and her machinations, but she was still his teammate. If this little worm wanted to strike her, he'd have to go through them.
"Go on," he growled. "Make our day."
No such luck. The man muttered a curse and stalked off.
The very moment he was gone, Willow found herself skewered by three angry glares.
"Well?" Glynda planted a hand on her hip. "Care to explain yourself?"
"I'm sorry!" The Schnee heaved a sigh and fug up her hands with a cry. "I panicked! And really, its just for a little while." she stole a glance over her shoulder. "Jacques will give up eventually. He always does when things don't go his way."
Naruto craned his neck past her toward the man's rapidly retreating back. Even from here he could see his shoulders quivering with anger. He whirled and spared them a vicious look, eyes like twin chips of ice. His mouth moved, and from this distance, he couldn't hear what was said. Not all of it. Just a single word.
...mine."
"That doesn't look like the face of a man who will give up easily." he grimaced as the Gele stalked away. "I can't pretend to be your...whatever this is, not forever."
Willow looked up at him and clung t his arm. "Surely it wouldn't be that bad."
"Oi! At least take me to dinner first!"
Raven imploded behind him.
"Hands off! He's mine!"
A/N: Hi Jacques, bye Jacques, see you you later, Jacques~!
As ever, the Embers rule remains.
If folks don't like this story, POOF! Away it goes. That's no joke.
So by all means, speak up! Every bit of feedback matters here! Truly, it does! That's no joke!
As ever, without reviews I cannot write. 'Tis a simple, yet painful truth.
So In the Immortal Words of Atlas...Review Would You Kindly?
Oh, and before I forget. One last time!
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
SPOILERS BELOW!
BEWARE!
(Preview)
Yang's head snapped to the side. She smiled. Wiped a thin line of blood from her mouth. "That all ya got?"
"Wake up."
Blue eyes opened.
Sapphire slits met stark scarlet.
The giant fox grinned at him. It was not a pleasant smile.
"Well, its about damn time...
"Traitor!"
"No, no, no." Glynda shook her head fiercely. "I want no part of this madness! They'r welcome to have him and be done with that.
"You say that," Qrow knocked his glass back, "But I see the way you look at him. 'Sides madness is like luck. It finds you." his brow twitched a little as he considered the inebriated girl currently sitting on him. "Whether you like it or not...
Summer hiccuped in his lap, utterly smashed. "Yuuuup."
For a wild, fleeting moment, he recalled that young blond boy from the raid.
Tai raised a hand. "I have a question. Have we met?"
Naruto whirled and walked the other way.
R&R~!
