Naruto was a little surprised when he saw his team's reactions, or lack thereof, when they found out that they'd all be sharing a room together. Although thinking about it, Nora was far too bubbly and innocent to really care about stuff like that and Ren was generally apathetic to most things in life. Pyrrha didn't look at all bothered by it either which he guessed was due to her being more focused on other things like actually training and getting to know her new friends.
Nora smiled, Red shrugged and Pyrrha nodded in agreement with that. It was true.
Of course Naruto could care less. Having Jiraiya as a godfather and mentor meant that he was pretty familiar with the female form.
Naruto gulped as all the females present, with the exception of his mother and Mikoto, looked at him.
Besides that though, there were plenty of times he had to share a tent or even a bed with a female teammate on a mission and getting all flustered because of something as insignificant as gender was pretty immature, especially on a mission when you could very well die if you were not on guard at all times.
"Huh...never thought about things that way..." Yang said as the Beacon students all looked thoughtful about that point. Not that any of them were going to use it as a reason to start acting indecent about things like that, but the reasoning of priorities on dangerous assignments still stood.
Even still he and the others stared questioningly at the current arrangement of furniture. All the beds were smooshed together in one corner with a dresser for each shoved into another corner. That wasn't even taking into account their own personal belongings either.
The room was clearly not big enough to hold four people and their things properly.
The Becon students nodded, it didn't make much sense to them either.
"Uhh...how the heck do they expect us to all fit like this?" Naruto asked aloud as he scratched his head in wonder.
Pyrrha shrugged and Ren offered a thoughtful frown as his response.
"Ooo! What if it's so that when the zombie apocalypse happens the zombies won't be able to make it around all this furniture!"
Pyrrha was quietly giggling at Nora's odd response while Ren, more than used to his friend's eccentricities, only sighed and shook his head. Naruto couldn't resist and just laughed at the hammer wielding girl's oddness. Nora herself continued to smile that goofy smile of hers.
'Odd girl's stupidity aside,
"I'm not stupid, mean ol' fox!" Nora pouted.
"Being grumpy is more or less Kurama's default way of dealing with new people, don't take it personally, Nora." Naruto reassured.
Kushina nodded...although, to be fair, the way the sealing corps in Konoha had set up Kushina's own seal hadn't helped with Kurama's attitude towards her. So his being grumpy to her was to be expected.
I say you just toss out two of the beds. You bunk with the hot red head
Naruto and Pyrrha went red with embaressment as Jaune started grinding his teeth.
Kushina, on the other hand, started looking critically at Pyrrha, her expression thoughtful as her hand went to her chin, the elbow supported by the other hand and amethyst eyes washing over the Invincible Girl. The elder redhead hummed, making Pyrrha squirm.
and Mr. Life Is Oh So Boring over there can probably get the weird vixen to bang a smile onto his face,' Kurama spoke nonchalantly.
Now Ren and Nora both flushed.
Yang hooted. "Foxy...do me a favor and find a way to tell Kurama I like his style!" she told Naruto.
"YANG!" Ruby cried, red-faced.
Naruto sighed as he could tell Kurama was smirking within the seal...that was going to be "fun" to deal with later.
"Thanks a ton, Yang..." he muttered sourly under his breath; only Blake and the other konoha ninjas, having enhanced hearing, picking it up.
Naruto began to sputter as a blush spread across his face. He'd be lying if he said the thought wasn't tempting.
Pyrrha flushed deeply at that.
"Sorry!" Naruto said with a red face of his own.
Minato and Kushina shared a look as they smiled, trying not to laugh. Guess the saying about fathers and sons was true.
Pyrrha was very attractive and he doubted Ren and Nora would mind the arrangement either. Though the thought of the two doing the naked tango was hilarious and he had to stop himself from ending up on the floor with tears of laughter streaming down his face.
He did not want to explain to anybody why he was suddenly dying of laughter.
"Oh...you'll die all right, just not from laughter!" Ren growled as he and Nora glared at Naruto, rubbing their knuckles and still red with embaressment.
Noticing that Pyrrha was sending him a questioning look, no doubt wondering why he was suddenly blushing, Naruto managed to pull himself together.
After a moment's thought he snapped his fingers as the proverbial light bulb went off, "Bunk beds!"
"Hey! That's our idea!" Ruby said.
The other members of NNPR appeared to mull the idea over a bit before they gave their response.
"It would be the most efficient way to make this work," Pyrrha offered.
Team RWBY nodded, grinning. They could testify to that!
Ren nodded along in agreement with the redheaded teen's statement. Nora on the other hand was the most vocal about her opinion, "Yay! Ren! We're finally getting those bunk beds we've wanted since we were five! Maybe next we can go get that chinchilla I've always wanted! Or maybe a pet fox!...wait...no Naruto already has one. Hmm..."
"What to get as a pet...?" Nora frowned thoughtfully at that.
Ren put hand to face in what seemed to be a perfectly executed performance of the universally known "Face Palm no jutsu". Then again having Nora as a friend probably gave him a lot of practice.
"Like you wouldn't believe..." Ren muttered under his breath.
"Huh? What was that, Ren?" Nora asked, turning to her long-time friend in confusion.
Naruto began to wonder how Ren didn't have a single gray hair by now. Stroking his non-existent beard in thought, the blonde was hit with an epiphany.
"That's why you dyed those parts of your hair pink! To hide your gray hairs!"
Everyone turned to look at Ren, snickering at that as well as seeing Ren's brow twitching in annoyance.
"I can see it." Yang smirked.
"Take that back! Ren does not have a single gray hair! I should know, I was the one who dyed his hair," Nora huffed in an effort to defend her long time friend.
As Nora and Naruto began a heated debate on hair color of all things, Pyrrha was torn between laughing her butt off or feeling sorry for Ren who looked to be close to smacking his head on a wall.
Before much else could happen the familiar voice of a certain scythe wielding girl's voice rang throughout the halls, "Uhh...TO CLASS!"
"Thank you, Ruby..." Ren muttered, visibly relaxing.
The four members of team NNPR turned to look at the clock at the wall and seeing that they only had five minutes to make it to class on time, began to hurriedly grab their school supplies before rushing out the door, feet behind the members of an equally rushing team RWBY.
"Why'd they not give you guys any time to figure out the campus after orientation?" Kakashi asked.
The Remnent teens all shrugged. But they agreed they should've gotten at least a day to get use to the school's layout.
As the two teams kept pace with each other in their mad dash to get to class on time Naruto casually struck up a conversation with his fellow team leader, "So is your room as cramped as ours?"
Ruby shook her head, grinning, as were her teammates.
Ruby smiled upon seeing her blond friend and shook her head, "Nope! Not anymore!"
Naruto chuckled at the bubbly girl's response and replied, "What'd you do, toss out your beds?"
Again Ruby shook her head as they veered around a corner, narrowly avoiding a random passerby as they did so, "Nope! We just made bunk beds!"
"I guess what they say is true, great minds think alike!" Naruto replied back with a grin.
Ruby and Naruto grinned at one another and gave each other a thumbs-up.
Yang blinked. Ruby was never usually this social so easily with people. Her little sister was very socially awkward, and although Ruby had no trouble interacting with friends, she did have trouble actually making them, as well as being a self-admitted dork when it comes to weapons, and once admitted that seeing new weapons was, in Ruby's words, "like meeting new people, but better" since she understood weaponry so easily while she had trouble with understanding people.
Yang made a quick mental note to herself to try finding a way to ensure Naruto went back to Beacon with them when they all got out of here. The guy had a gift for helping Ruby feel relaxed about things...even enough to where she could act like this.
Our blonde protagonist could faintly hear Weiss scoff from behind them and mutter something about them being nuts.
"Somebody's just jelous." Naruto said while Ruby giggled.
"Am not!" The heiress snapped, going red in the face.
In response Naruto just turned back and childishly stuck his tongue out at the white haired Schnee heiress.
However his attention was diverted when he heard Pyrrha's voice call out to him, "Naruto! Look out!"
Turning around the blond Uzumaki cursed under his breath as he realized he was on a collision course with a random female student who didn't realize that she had a group of eight speeding teens headed towards her.
Deciding to show off a bit Naruto lowered himself closer to the floor before opening his arms, scooping the shocked teen into his arms.
"Sorry 'bout this!" He called as he casually tossed the girl over his head like a sack of potatoes.
The girl screamed as she feared that she was going to be trampled on by the other teens behind the blond, but was surprised when she was caught in the arms of a sheepishly grinning Pyrrha.
"We really are sorry about this," the redhead said before depositing her in a nearby hallway, out of the way of the rest of teams RWBY and NNPR.
Minato and Kushina howled, gripping their sides, "Oh man...! Did that just...?!" Kushina laughed.
"Bit of role reversal, but yeah! You were who did the scoop and toss, I was always the aplogy and set down!" Minato said.
"Dude...your fokes are awesome...!" Yang told Naruto.
"No duh! Tell me something I don't already know!" Naruto beamed back at her.
For a few seconds the still frightened and astonished girl stood stock still, trying to wrap her mind around what had just happened to her in the span of a few seconds. As her mind realized what had happened she robotically turned on her foot and began to make her way back down the hallway she had come from, deciding that it would be best if she never spoke of what had just happened.
The two teams eventually made it to class on time without further incident. Minutes into the class however most of them were wishing that they hadn't made it on time.
Professor Port, a short and rather large old man, was boring beyond measure.
Naruto slumped over and started to snore.
"Uhhh...he ok?" Jaune asked.
The whiskered teen's mother nodded, "He's fine...just bord. He's a kinesthetic learner; he learns by doing and witnessing; not by reading or explanation. It was a major factor in his earlier training when he was younger. Most teachers went over theory and only told what would need to be done. Naruto's never really understood what use any technical words, theories, paperwork, test scores, and lecturers could have in the field."
"Ah...better at butt-kick than book work." Nora summed up.
Kushina nodded.
Ruby, not wanting her new friend to miss anything, armed herself with one of the pillows from the couch she sat at, which she tossed and it struck Naruto in the face, jolting him awake.
Seeing Ruby flash him the victory sign, Naruto playfully raised and shook a fist, "Oh, you are so asking for it, Whilwind!"
"Bring it, Uzumaki!" the silver-eyed, fifteen-year-old girl said challengingily, a playful shine in her eyes.
Minato, Kushina, Mikoto, and Kakashi all shared a look at Ruby's declaration. Poor, doomed child...
Naruto was trying his damnedest to stay awake while Kurama had actually taken the train straight to snooze-ville and was lightly snoring away on his container's lap. Pyrrha was attempting to look interested, but it was clear that even she thought the professor was an absolute bore. Nora was not even trying to look interested and was instead doodling away inside her notebook. Ren looked even more apathetic than was his norm, something Naruto thought was scientifically impossible.
The only mildly interesting thing that had happened during the professor's lecture was his not so subtle attempt at flirting with Yang. Naruto was honestly surprised his fellow blonde hadn't straight up punched the guy's lights out,
"Would have if I could've gotten away with it." Yang confessed.
but that was him. Nonetheless he considered Yang a friend and made a mental note to offer her his services as the infamous Prankster King of Konoha.
Yang looked interested at that. Prank King, huh? She wondered just how good he was.
If he could get away with putting itching powder on the robes of the Hokage, the so called strongest shinobi of Konoha who had a near 24/7 guard of highly trained shinobi from the ANBU Black Ops Division,
"What? Can't help that I'm just that good!" Naruto said, smirking as the other teens all gave him looks of shock.
Minato and Kakashi looked at Naruto, unsure of if they should be disappointed with him or with Sarutobi and the ANBU guarding him at that, Kakashi making a note to step up on the standards for the Black Ops.
Kushina, for her part, merely snickered. That would've been fun seeing the fallout of.
then just imagine the pranks he could pull on some old Huntsman.
"Ok...Foxy, you are offically hired when we need to get back at someone." Yang said, impressed.
Ruby, however, felt herself grow, if possible, paler as Naruto leaned back and smirked at her as she realized she'd just put a bullseye on her back for him as far as retaliation for that pillow she'd nailed him with. She didn't wanna get pranked!
Pyrrha sweat dropped when she noticed that the formerly half asleep Naruto was now wide awake and furiously writing notes of some kind with a very mischievous grin stretching across his face.
Everyone's attention was drawn to Weiss though when the professor asked who thought themselves to have the traits of a true Huntsman or Huntress with the Schnee heiress promptly raising her hand.
Weiss winced. Oh boy...she remembered this...And her interaction with Ruby afterwards. The feincer was NOT looking forward to reliving that shameful moment!
The professor took this in stride and had Weiss go and retrieve her battle gear. When she returned, there in the middle of the class was a cage holding something that definitely wanted out.
As Naruto watched the rest of Weiss' team cheer her on, his eyes narrowed when he saw the rapier wielder grow frustrated. Naruto began to to pay even more attention as Weiss faced down the Boarbatusk that Professor Port had released from the cage. While he hadn't known the Schnee heiress for long he knew her style of fighting very well. The way she fought depended heavily upon her speed and ability to dance around her opponent, all while keeping calm and in control of the flow of battle.
Weiss blinked. That was actually an astute assessment of her combat style. Seemed Uzumaki was worth hearing out during this.
However it seemed that something, or rather someone, was making her exceedingly frustrated, throwing her fighting style off.
It was becoming increasingly clear who the source of said frustration was as the minutes ticked by and Weiss grew sloppier and sloppier with her movements. Evidently it was her own team leader, Ruby.
Ruby squirmed in her seat.
"Figured that if you couldn't fight along with her, you could at least root for her and provide moral support?" Naruto asked with a smile, he'd done the same during the preliminary matches of the Chunin Exams, after all.
The scythe-weilder nodded. "I didn't mean to be a destraction, I just...wanted to support my friend and teammate however I could..." she said, looking down.
She looked up when she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Naruto had gotten up and was right in front of her.
"Ruby...a great leader always cares about and supports those around them however they can. You weren't a destraction, you just wanted to make sure Weiss succeeded, it's why your team can count on you: you know they're the best and want to help make sure everyone knows it by seeing them prove they are. THAT'S what you were doing, is all."
Ruby felt her eyes sting with greatful tears and she hugged Naruto, She just felt touched at his reassurance and understanding. It meant a lot to her. Sure it was a bit unnerving how he understood her so easily, but he HAD pointed out he'd been in the same kinds of positions as her before.
They were similar, and from that came how he could figure out her, her motovations, and her actions so well. It left her feeling greatful she got to know someone like this.
After a moment, Ruby took a deep breath and released him with a smile, "Thanks, Naruto..."
Kushina and Minato took the whole scene in with a strong sense of pride over the kind of person their child had become as he sat back down.
Nodding, Ren returned his attention to the book with a small smile.
Naruto had a feeling he knew exactly why as well. Like he and Kurama had said before, the Schnee heiress was like a female version of his old teammate Sasuke Uchiha.
Mikoto perked up at that slightly. Interested in hearing how the Schee was similar to her younger son.
Both were born into highly prestigious families and were raised getting almost everything they wanted handed to them on a golden platter. As such they grew to be arrogant, thinking themselves better than everybody else simply because of their upbringing and family name.
Weiss cringed. That was an issue she'd had in the begining.
Mikoto nodded, still not saying a word. The Uchiha were a bit imfamous for acting that way, and it certainly hadn't done them any favors...
Naruto didn't like to admit it, but there was a good reason for that arrogance.
It seemed that like Sasuke, Weiss had taken advantage of her wealth and family name, getting herself the best combat tutors that money could buy.
It certainly paid off.
While Weiss was far and away from being as strong as some of the shinobi he knew or even some of the Huntsmen and Huntresses he had met, she was still very much so ahead of her age. Ruby, Blake, and Yang were all strong in their own right, but Weiss was as well. Backed by her formal training and such, Weiss was a formidable opponent and would only come to grow stronger...if she allowed herself to.
That point further caught the heiress's interest. She was always looking further improve, after all, and thus far, Naruto's observations had been quite accurate. A bit more advice and further opinions had never hurt. And if he was making compairisons to people he knew, then he had obviously seen both the before and after as far as their development, and knew what to look for as far as what had aided and what had hindered them.
It was true that she, again, like Sasuke, would grow to a level of strength that most could only dream of achieving thanks to her family name and wealth, but she would eventually hit a plateau of her own making. Only by opening up her mind and ridding herself of that arrogance would she be able to reach her proverbial peak.
Weiss nodded thoughtfully, making a note to thank Professor Port for that reality check she had gotten about her acting stuck up and spoiled being a henderence.
After witnessing the little episode between Weiss and Ruby and Port's subsequent call for class to end, Naruto quietly collected his things and gave his team a look, letting them know that he would see them in a while. The four teens just nodded their heads, knowing that their leader would want to help in any way he could.
Team RWBY blinked, then all shot Naruto a thumbs-up.
As Naruto caught up to Ruby and Weiss, he caught the tail end of their conversation. Hearing what Weiss said Naruto had to resist the urge to go up to Weiss and physically knock some sense into her.
"Ozpin made a mistake."
"WHAT?!" Yang demanded, her eyes turning a blazing red and her hair flaring gold with flames coming off of her as she rounded on Weiss, who looked outright terrified. "WHAT IS THAT SUPPOSSED TO MEAN?!" the elder of the two sisters demanded.
"Ok...red eyes, flames, and bad temper...maybe we were wrong; seems Yang's more Sasuke's type..." Naruto muttered, Kakashi nodding in agreement.
Naruto could see just how much that hurt Ruby to hear from Weiss, someone she considered a friend and he was sorely tempted to go up to Ruby and console her.
"Why didn't you?" Blake asked with a small frown aimed at the orange-favoring blonde. Ruby was her friend, after all, so seeing Naruto seeming to refuse to support her when she needed it made her upset.
However seeing the silver haired headmaster of Beacon only feet away from Ruby, Naruto knew she would be in good hands
"Ohh..." the ex-White Fang member said in realization. That made sense. There wasn't a need for him to get involved with Ozpin there rather than if it was that Naruto's other was going to ignore Ruby's distress.
"Ozpin was really great with helping me about that. Could tell he meant it and believed in me." Ruby smiled.
and instead decided to look for Weiss. He was not just going to sit back and watch a team fall into the same faults that had caused his own team to shatter into pieces.
"Yikes." Jaune muttered.
"Old team before Beacon?" Pyrrah asked with a raised brow.
"Yeah..." Naruto said.
Weiss sighed to herself and began to contemplate what she had said to Ruby. Part of her regretted saying what she had,
"It's ok, Weisse. I forgive you." Ruby smiled.
Weiss tried to smile, but guilt over how she had acted back then didn't help her feel too good.
knowing that while part of it was her true feelings, most of it was the result of pent up frustration. Misplaced frustration at that.
True she was angry at Ruby and part of her was questioning why Ozpin had made the younger teen team leader, but she could have said so in a much more thought out and easier to swallow manner. Not in a way that had no doubt crushed Ruby. Ruby who really wasn't at all to blame.
Yang growled, cracking her knuckles and Weiss gulped.
As Weiss made to look for Ruby
"Wanted to aplogize...I was out of line..." the white-themed girl said.
she was surprised to bump into the solid wall of flesh that was Naruto Uzumaki. Not in the mood for the usually cheerful blond, Weiss opened her mouth to tell the blonde haired Uzumaki to leave her alone, but her mouth was quickly snapped shut upon seeing the look in the teen's eyes.
Gone was the normally grinning and goofy blond, instead there was a decidedly very angry and frustrated Uzumaki.
"That look doesn't seem like it belongs on your face, Foxy." Yang said.
"Aware of that..." Naruto sighed. If this was going where he thought it was, he really wished Mikoto wasn't here to hear this...
"Follow me," was all that Naruto said.
Weiss would have normally brushed off the teen with her a scoff, but she found that the look in his eye compounded with the roughness in his voice made her extremely hesitant to disobey him. As such, she quietly followed behind Naruto as he led her out to a balcony that overlooked not only Beacon, but the whole kingdom of Vale.
For a minute neither said anything, Naruto with his arms crossed staring out at the city in the distance while Weiss quietly and impatiently waited for the blond to speak. When her patience was all but gone and her irritation steadily building, the Schnee heiress was ready to simply turn around walk away from Naruto.
The low voice of Naruto put that thought process to a stop though, "I had a teammate named Sasuke Uchiha. You remind me of him quite a bit. Both of you were born into prestigious families, both of you excel in combat, and both of you also view those around you as insignificant, or as obstacles in the way of your goals at best."
Weiss flinched as if the words burned her. She knew she had problems when she was starting out, but had she really been that horrible?
Mikoto shifted in her seat. Hearing this wasn't easy for her.
Weiss raised an eyebrow as she saw Naruto sigh and his shoulders fall. Still refusing to look at her he continued, "We realized how similar we were in some ways and forged a bond. Both of us were orphaned at a young age, people never saw us for who were, only seeing the titles and masks we put on, and most importantly, we had a goal that we trained day and night to achieve. In time we became like brothers. Then something happened. One of our village's greatest traitors offered him power, power to achieve his goal and Sasuke took it. From there things spiraled out of control. Sasuke abandoned our village, he turned his back on our bond, and he tried numerous times to kill me while I foolishly fought to bring him back home."
"HE WHAT?!" Minato and Kushina both roared, bolting to their feet as the people from Remnent all gasped in horror at hearing what Sasuke had done.
Mikoto flinched and looked down, ashamed. Wasn't there ANYONE the Uchiha Clan's fixation on self-interests HADN'T screwed over?!
Weiss gasped in shock as Naruto wove his tale. To her it didn't make sense. What could possibly make a person turn on someone they viewed as a brother? What possible gain was there that could justify such a betrayal?
"No kidding...guy sounds like a monster..." Weiss said. "Wanting to reach his goals, I get. But KILLING the people that matter to you? Makes no sense!"
Naruto quickly stood, walked over to Weiss, and gave her a quick bop on the head.
"Ouch! What in the...?! You comfort Ruby, but I get hit?!" the heiress snapped.
Naruto frowned and pointed at Mikoto.
"Ohh...related?" The Schee realized.
"Try mother!" Naruto hissed in a low whisper.
Wiess gawked, then turned back to Mikoto with a gulp. Oh crud...calling someone a monster with their mother present...she was going to meed to aplogize for THAT later! No wonder Naruto had hit her.
"Ok...so I deserved that, then..." the white-themed girl admitted.
"Sorry I had to do it, Weiss." Naruto told her.
Nonetheless the Schnee heiress waited with bated breath, wondering how this tale ended.
Taking a deep breath Naruto continued, "I will say this, Sasuke got what he wanted in the end. He got the power he had always wanted. With it he was able to finally achieve his goal and kill the man responsible for his family's death. However he realized that he was still left feeling empty. He had sacrificed everything; his morals, his friendships, and his sanity to achieve this goal and for what? A selfish notion of revenge?"
"Friends, home, future, sanity, morals...my aplogies to you for saying this about your son, Miss Mikoto, but, as someone that's seen how that path goes and what it makes people become...what didn't this guy consider expendable in exchange for the few seconds of satisfaction obsession with revenge gives?" Blake asked.
Sheesh...Sasuke Uchiha sounded like the human equivilent of Adam Taurus. It left Blake wondering how a meeting between the two would go...then she shuddered as she recalled how Adam had turned into a remorseless and sadistic killer that was willing to slaughter innocent people, deciding she'd rather NOT know the answer to that question of Adam meeting his human version of himself...
Mikoto sank lower into herself at the Faunus' question.
Feeling the emotional weight of the situation, Weiss asked the only question on her mind, "Why are you telling me all of this?"
"No fooling about that." Weiss asked.
Naruto finally turned to look at Weiss and she was shocked to see his sapphire blue eyes looking at her with untold amounts of regret and sorrow.
"Because Sasuke was like a brother to me. I chased after him, intent on bringing him back home, thinking that I could put him back on the right path all the while watching as our team and friendship was destroyed beyond recognition. I'm telling you this, because I refuse to see it happen again.
"Good answer." Jaune said.
Weiss, you're strong, you're smart, and you are gifted, no doubt about that. But the minute you let that all go to your head, you become something else entirely. Just because things didn't go the way you wanted them to, the way you thought they should, doesn't mean you lash out at the people who care for you. You wanna prove to Ozpin and everyone else that you are an amazing Huntress? Then show them, but not at the price of friendships and who you are."
"...You have a very good son." Pyrrha told Minato and Kushina, getting beaming smiles in responce.
Again silence engulfed the duo, Weiss lost in her own thoughts while Naruto took some time to recompose himself. He hadn't told Weiss everything that had happened with Sasuke, but still it was enough to dredge up old feelings of failure and regret. To this day Naruto didn't know if that regret was over not being able to bring Sasuke back or that he himself risked so much on a fool's errand.
Mikoto rubbed her eyes. She was really hating this. It was painful hearing Sasuke had turned out this way.
The Schnee heiress let out a yelp of surprise when Naruto popped up in her vision, their faces inches apart, and that same old goofy grin of his on his face now, "You got it...Princess?"
The Dust Heiress smiled, "Loud and clear."
Weiss huffed as Naruto walked off laughing, hands crossed behind his head. Even still there was a small but noticeable smile on her face. As Naruto disappeared around the corner, the Schnee heiress spared the setting sun one last look before venturing off, an apology working its way through her mind.
From a balcony above the two teens a certain silver haired headmaster and his blonde haired deputy headmistress turned and began to walk away from the scene.
"Ozpin, you have to realize that we can't just let this boy continue without finding out more about him. He has too many secrets to allow him to be around the students," Glynda spoke in an urgent voice.
"...I really don't like her..." Naruto frowned.
Ozpin seemed unperturbed by the day's events, calmly sipping his coffee.
"He hides no more secrets than you or I do and yet we are responsible for molding these young ones more than he is. Would it not be hypocritical of us to pry into his life in such a manner when we would not readily let him do the same?"
Glynda looked offended at the veiled insult but was quick to reply, "This is different Ozpin. We are adults-"
The headmaster was quick to cut Glynda off, "And they are not? We are entrusting them with the safety of Vale and its people. We allow them to waltz around carrying weapons of unbelievable danger and we trust them not to misuse them. It is only fair that we also trust them, and specifically young Naruto, to know when it is appropriate to keep secrets."
"Man, this Ozpin guy's actually pretty awesome..." Naruto said, awed as he grinned.
The group of eight teens from Remnent all smiled and nodded, Ozpin WAS awesome like that!
Glynda was quiet, finding no response to Ozpin's small speech.
As the two walked back to their own offices, neither saw a shadow part from the walls, falling to show a certain blond haired teen.
'It's funny, Ozpin reminds me not only of Kakashi-sensei but Sarutobi-jiji (Old Man/Grandpa Sarutobi) as well.'
"Ok...really liking that mix of character..." Naruto admitted. The other ninjas all nodded, Kakashi having asmile tug at his lips under his mask.
'Yes, yes I get it kit, there are so many parallels between here and Konoha. Enough now. I'm tired and would like to lay on a comfortable bed for once,' Kurama huffed.
Naruto just stuck his tongue at Kurama, 'Yeah, yeah, whatever you lazy ball of fur.'
Finally after a long day of boring and useless, to Naruto, classes,
"Death to Common Core education!" Naruto declaired.
"Death! Death! DEEEEEAAAAATH!" Ruby and Nora both cheered in agreement!
team NNPR met back up in their shared bedroom and as one, collapsed onto their individual beds with a groan of relief.
Naruto was the one to realize something though, "Guys...we still have to make the bunk beds and get situated."
The rest of team NNPR responded with a single unanimous groan of frustration.
"Yeah...not giving time to get used to the school's layout, then making it so you have to do after an exhausting day of drudgery...school's sadistic like that..." Yang said.
Deciding to take the lead as the captain of the team, Naruto flipped onto his back and spoke aloud, "How about this, we take this time now to at least unpack a little and get to know each other and tomorrow morning we wake up a little earlier and at least make the bunk beds. Sound good?"
"As good as it's gonna get." Jaune sighed.
Getting a bout of that hyperactive energy she was known for, Nora jumped up and seated herself cross legged on her bed and replied with a salute, "Sounds like a plan Captain Naruto!"
Naruto chuckled.
The blond grinned as he heard Nora refer to him as the captain. Sure it wasn't Hokage, but it was good enough for him.
Ren slowly rose from his face down position and calmly seated himself on his own bed, Pyrrha doing the same whilst freeing her red locks from her usual ponytail and taking off the less than comfortable school blazer.
As the red head shook her head to rid herself of any remaining knots in her hair, Naruto had to force himself to look away, fearing that he would make a fool of himself if he stared any longer.
Kakashi giggled pervertedly as Naruto glared.
Kushina shared a look with her husband before breaking out into a knowing smile.
Clearing his throat to hide his embarrassment Naruto began, "Well I guess I'll go first then. I'm Naruto Uzumaki. I like ramen, Kurama, my precious people, and the color orange. I dislike how long it takes for ramen to be made, arrogant jerks, and bigots. My dream for the future is to make my precious people proud and live a happy life."
Everyone nodded at Naruto's words. That really wasn't asking much. Just wanting a good life.
Pyrrha smiled as she heard Naruto's dream. It was an admirable goal while still being relatively simple and down to earth. Knowing what had happened to her friend's precious people though made her frown internally. All Naruto had left of his home and his loved ones were memories.
The five Konoha ninja winced. Story or not, that was still horrible.
Silently the red headed teen vowed to herself to make sure Naruto was able to achieve his dream and find more precious people to live it with.
"Thanks Pyrrha..." Naruto smiled, which she returned.
Kushina looked at Nikos appraisingly again, a light, greatful smile on her face as she did so.
"Oh! Oh! Me next!" Nora exclaimed as she fidgeted in her seat while raising her hand like a five year old on a sugar rush.
"Or Ruby." Yang teased.
"Yang!" the Rose cried to her half-sister.
Laughing at his teammate's hyperactivity Naruto just pointed at her, "Go ahead Nora."
With her goofy grin on Nora spoke, "My name is Nora Valkyrie! I like Ren's pancakes, Ren, my family, and the color pink! I dislike mean people and people who hurt my friends and family. My dream is to live in my own castle and rule as queen of all pancakes!"
"Well...you certainly are...ambitious...Nora." Minato said.
Naruto and Pyrrha chuckled upon hearing Nora's dream while Ren quietly shook his head. Nora was definitely an odd one, but that was what made her so fun to be around.
Nora laughed and flashed a victory sign.
Seeing as Ren was being his typical quiet self, Pyrrha chose to take her turn, "My name is Pyrrha Nikos. I like baklava, my family, making new friends, and the color red. I dislike people who would commit atrocious acts like bullying, and people who only see others as tools for their own benefit. My dream is to become a teacher and maybe have a family of my own."
'Naruto, meet Pyrrha, you're perfect match,' Kurama joked.
Both Naruto and Pyrrha jerked back, faces so red they were nearly a charred black in shade.
Jaune openly snarled.
"...Kushina..." Minato said warningly, turning to his wife and already knowing what she was thinking.
"B-But..." Kushina said, whining. She pouted at him. "Grandbabies! They're so cute and cuddly and fun to spoil!"
Both Naruto and Pyrrha made a strangling noise as they both felt really dizzy at that.
"...New role model, confirmed!" Yang snickered. Kushina was great!
Naruto coughed to hide his blush. As much as he hated to admit it, the fox was right. Pyrrha was damn close to being his dream girl. In a weird way she also sounded a lot like his own mother, minus the whole short temper thing.
"Excuse me...?" Kushina said rounding on her son.
In that regard Pyrrha was the total opposite to his mother who was infamous for her short fuse and subsequent violent outbursts.
Kakashi nodded at that...until he noticed Pyrrah giving him a look a little TOO similar to that of his blonde student's mother, her eyes blazing and her fingers twitched as if longing to lash out, and she was muttering under her breath as she glared at the scarecrow. He caught the words "polarity", "iron", "blood", and "evisceration".
Thankfully before anyone could question Naruto's sudden cough, Ren decided it was his turn to to speak, "My name is Lie-Ren. I enjoy Jasmine tea, meditating, and certain people. I dislike those who interrupt my meditation time. My dream is to simply live my life as best I can."
"Shikamaru would like you." Naruto said to Ren, who raised a brow in response.
'Yup, definitely needs to get laid,' Naruto nodded to himself.
'Couldn't agree more kit. The weird vixen would probably do it if you worded it the right way,' Kurama chimed in.
The other members of team NNPR were left with questions when they saw Naruto and Kurama share a look, the same mischievous smirk on their faces. For some reason Ren felt that he was somehow going to have to sleep with one eye open around them from now on.
"One eye open and armed..." Ren muttered.
Letting out a yawn that spread around the room's occupants, Naruto stretched and said, "Well I say we let the girls shower first. Whoever isn't showering starts unpacking their things, at least the essentials like clothes. Since tomorrow is a short day we'll head out to one of the training fields and get to know each other's fighting style and such."
The Remnent teens nodded. That sounded good to them.
As Naruto and Ren got to unpacking some of their things, Nora and Pyrrha reached an agreement that Pyrrha would shower first then Nora would. The bubbly teen joked that maybe Ren should take her spot though, what with him having much longer hair than her. Everyone had a good laugh at Ren's expense while the raven haired teen simply sighed to himself.
Soon though the room was quiet, with the exception of Nora humming to herself something that sounded vaguely like "I'm queen of the castle~".
A few minutes later and Naruto had already unsealed some of his belongings from the scrolls he had on him, making sure that he did so as discreetly as possible. He was probably going to tell them about his Fuinjutsu after classes the next day, but he didn't really want to surprise them by pulling clothes and such out of a seal on a scroll. Even he knew it was a little odd to see.
"Wait, what?! You can ...you jerk, that could fix our room's space issue!" Nora pouted.
However he had stumbled upon a book that he had forgotten was sealed into one of his scrolls and was soon absorbed in his own little world. Kurama had long since claimed a pillow and was curled into a ball snoozing away.
Being so into the book, Naruto jumped a little when he felt a soft hand touch his arm.
Blake and Ruby shared a smile, getting so deep into a book that happened to you...that had happened to the both of them plenty of times.
Turning he saw Pyrrha smiling at him and was his usual around the red head, he began to blush. No one could really blame him either. With her hair let down and looking especially silky after her shower and clothed in a simple red tank top and black gym shorts, Pyrrha was looking especially beautiful. That wasn't to say that she didn't always look extremely attractive, but even in her school clothes she seemed to exude this air of formality.
Naruto buried his face in his hands with an embaressed moan. This could NOT be happening!
Minato pat him on the back. "I know, son...trust me, I know..."
Kushina smirked at her husband.
Clad in only her pajamas and with a soft smile on her face, Pyrrha looked less like "The Invincible Girl" and more like Pyrrha Nikos, the girl.
Pyrrha blinked at that. Huh...sounded pretty nice, less formal and more casual made her seem regular. She'd have to remember that one.
Given she could probably still kick someone's ass six ways to Sunday even in her pajamas, but that was just Pyrrha.
Team JNPR with the exception of the redhead in question nodded, finding that a justified point.
"You look...great Pyrrha," Naruto muttered more to himself.
As per the laws of the universe however, Pyrrha heard it loud and clear, causing a blush to spring up on her face.
"Sorry son...law of the universe that women are accute to hearing compliments." Kushina giggled. Oh, this was just too cute!
"Thanks," she shyly replied.
Normally she would be able to simply brush compliments like that off, being more than used to getting them thanks to her fame, but with Naruto it was a little different. She knew that despite his secrets, he was an honest and good guy who always put the needs of his friends above his own. She also knew that Naruto never said anything with an ulterior motive, at least to those he trusted.
Teams RWBY and JNPR shoot Naruto respectful looks. Those were all qualities they could find they liked about the blond Uzumaki.
That was the usual case with most of the people who complimented her. They always wanted something from her in return, like them complimenting her meant she owed them.
"That's dumb." Ruby said.
But Naruto said it simply to say it with no other motive, albeit he probably didn't mean for her to hear it.
"Ah, Pyrrha...! But hearing it when the guys don't mean for you to is the best part!" Yang complained.
After a few moments of awkward silence, the two teens still blushing, Pyrrha cleared her throat and pointed at Naruto's book, "What were you reading?"
Thankful for having something else to talk about, Naruto picked up the book with a small nostalgic smile, "It's called The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi. It's the first book that my godfather ever wrote."
Naruto looked up, he and his parents all feeling nostalgic at that.
"Shame it was the only decent one..." Naruto said.
Kakashi glared, then caught sight of Kushina's warning expression and dropped his hostility, deciding he prefered his head attached to his body.
Pyhrra smiled upon seeing how much joy the book brought the blond and decided to seat herself at the edge of his bed, Naruto moving to accommodate his guest.
"What's it about?"
Naruto looked down at the book and slowly thumbed through the pages as he answered, "It's about a ninja who never gives up and vows that he'll break an evil curse that plagues his world."
"Awesome!" Ruby cheered, pumping her fist in excitement. Stories like that were her favorite!
Not knowing just how similar the book's plot was to Naruto's own life, Pyrrha continued, "Sounds like he's a hero. What's his name?"
Naruto, Minato, and Kushina all shared a look and laughed, making it apparent there was a joke the Remnent teens were missing out on.
The redhead was a little surprised when the blond began to chuckle softly before he looked her in the eye, still chuckling, "His name's Naruto."
"WHAT?!" RWBY and JNPR all cried.
Finally understanding why her friend was chuckling, Pyrrha also began to laugh softly, "So your godfather named the character after you?"
"So does that mean you're some super-awesome, world-saving, superhero ninja or something?!" Ruby cried, stars in her silver eyes as she was suddenly just about nose-to-nose with Naruto.
"Ruby...if I WAS a superhero ninja, you know I couldn't tell you. If I was and admitted it, it'd break the "Secret Identity Rule" superheros have to use." Naruto said.
"Aww man!" Ruby whined, going back over to her seat, crossing her arms and pouting as she sat back down. Stupid secret identity rule!
Naruto sighed, feeling a bead of sweat run down the back of his neck.
World-saving superhero ninja...?! Oh, that wasn't even funny considering the way the Fourth Ninja World War went down! Ruby didn't know how right she actually was with that!
Shaking his head Naruto answered, "No, he wrote the book long before my parents were even together. My parents actually named me after the character in the book, hoping that I would grown up to be just like the Naruto in the story."
Pyrrha placed a hand on top of Naruto's, drawing his attention to her, "Well I'd say they got their wish."
"This is true." Kushina said, Minato nodding.
It wasn't long till both realized that Pyrrha's hand was still touching Naruto's and almost as if being burned by a fire, they both recoiled. Blushing heavily Pyrrha stood up and nervously said, "Uh, I came to tell you the shower is free for you to use."
Naruto and Pyrrha both went red again.
Naruto just rubbed the back of his head, "Thanks Pyrrha."
A few minutes later, a very relieved and tired Naruto stepped out of the shower to find his other teammates sleeping away. Throwing his dirty clothes into a hamper by the door he allowed himself to collapse onto his own bed, ready for Morpheus to take him into his realm.
Pyrrha blinked at the name of the Greek god of sleep and dreams. Wondering how Naruto (or at least his story version) had known that.
As he began to drift off he heard the soft voice of Pyrrha, "Goodnight Naruto."
Smiling he whispered back, "Night Pyrrha."
The next afternoon found a battle ready team NNPR occupying one of the high tech training facilities that Beacon boasted, Naruto having reserved them a two hour time slot earlier that morning. All of them ran through basic stretches together before they separated to go through their own unique warm ups which was something Naruto was happy to see.
Jiraiya had all but pounded the importance of a good warm up into his head during their little training trip together.
"Eh...deemed it useless advice." Naruto shrugged.
"Why?" Jaune asked.
Of course for shinobi warm ups were a luxury. The enemy wasn't gonna let you get a couple stretches in so you could properly be warmed up.
"That answer your question, Upchuck King?" Blake asked with a deadpan stare. The fact that warm-ups were a luxury since the enemy wasn't going to let you get a couple stretches in so you could properly be warmed up was as true in a Huntsmes or Huntress's line of work as it was in Naruto's case with shinobi. Of course taking warm-ups would be seen as useless advice.
"...I see your poi...Hey! Who you calling "Upchuck King"?!" Jaune cried at the black cat, "Oh, that'd better not stick..." the swordsman groaned.
"Juane~Arc, the Upchuck king~! The Upchuck King~! The Upchuck King~! Juaune~Arc, the Upchuck King! Spewy~ Spewy~ Chun~un~un~uncky!" Nora suddenly broke out into song.
"Too late..." Ren said.
Jaune hung his head. Damnit! Why him?!
Still it was interesting to see each of his teammates unique warm ups. Pyrrha's stretches and what not were more or less centered around her arms which, given her weapon, made the most sense. Of course that wasn't to say she wasn't working out her long legs either.
Pyrrha flushed.
Naruto admitted that Pyrrha's height was odd to him,
"Why?" Weiss asked.
seeing as how most girls he had ever known peaked at around the five foot something mark. Even the guys he knew were relatively short, Jiraiya being rather unique with his six foot stature.
Once upon a time he himself had been woefully short, mostly due to his malnutrition. Thanks to his godmother Tsunade, another member of the Sannin, who was a world renown medic said to be capable of healing almost any wound, Naruto was forced to eat healthier. Thanks to his change in diet Naruto was able to put on a healthy amount of muscle and even began to grow quite tall.
"So...does that mean Ruby'll get taller if she ate more than sugar?" Yang teased.
"Yang, stop teasing me!" Ruby whined.
What was odd was that he continued to grow tall. At the age of seventeen he stood at a solid six foot, five inches. Considering that his father topped out at five foot something and his mother was even shorter than that,
Naruto gulped as his mother growled.
Naruto's height was something of a mystery. Both he and Tsunade had chalked it up to his massive chakra reserves and having Kurama sealed in his body.
With his increase in height, Naruto was more than happy to brag about his towering height.
"What? I didn't like being short!" Naruto defended.
Seeing as how even Yang was a head or so shorter than him,
Yang snorted. The one they were reading with wasn't taller than she was. Then again, the one in the story was a different Naruto. Still a great guy as far as character went, but different Naruto.
Naruto was sure that he could continue to do so. Pyrrha put a stop to that. Sure she was still shorter than him, but not enough so that he had to look down to look her in the eye. Shrugging Naruto just chalked it up to it being another quality that made Pyrrha different than most girls.
Pyrrha frowned. She didn't like being "different" than most people. Did she aknowlage it? Yes. Did she enjoy it, no.
Turning to observe the other two members of the team, Naruto was none too surprised to see Ren meditating. He was a little surprised to see Nora actually carefully and tediously going through her own stretches and lifts. Then again he was the poster boy for the saying "looks can be deceiving". And besides that, he knew very well that despite her deceptively foolish demeanor, the girl could pack a whallop.
Nora beamed as her friends all nodded to that.
After all she was the only one who was actually able to at least dent the armor of that Death Stalker on her own. Admittedly she was only capable of doing so after numerous Aura empowered hits, but it still showed just how much power her hits held.
Naruto shivered to think what kind of damage the hammer wielding girl could be capable of if she were to ever learn Tsunade's super strength technique.
Nora suddenly looked interested in that.
Tsunade herself was capable of creating fissures in the earth with a simple punch and that was on her worst days.
Everyone scooted away from Nora, suddenly pale at the idea of this Tsunade woman teaching Nora to be able to hit harder.
Naruto had to resist the urge to scream in terror when he imagined what Tsunade would have been capable of with Nora's hammer.
Naruto gulped. He did NOT like that mental image at all!
Seeing the rest of his team ready to go for whatever he had in mind for them, Naruto stopped his own stretches before joining his teammates at the center of the training field.
"Alright now that we're all warmed up, it's time to get some actual training. From what I've seen you guys already know your own strengths and already have things you guys want to improve on. As such the best thing for us to do right now is to train on working as a team," Naruto paused to turn to Nora and Ren before continuing, "I already know you two know how to work together well so, for now, me and Pyrrha will team up and see how we fare against you two. Sound good?"
Ren nodded, agreeing with Naruto's assessment, while Nora...was Nora, "Yes sir! C'mon Ren time to show em the power of friendship!"
Everyone chuckled at Nora's attitude.
Chuckling Naruto turned to address Pyrrha as they walked to the other half of the field, "Alright so I already know you're pretty good at both long and short range combat. You have any preferences?"
"Well if I had to pick, I'd say close range, mostly because it takes me less time to prepare for, which I doubt those two will give us," Pyrrha replied.
"Need to keep this stuff it says in this chapter about their fighting styles in mind for the Vytal Festival Turmoment..." Blake stage-whispered to her teammates.
They all nodded. Sure it was unlikely any of them could actually beat Pyrrha, but there was still no reason to give the redhead an easier time against them.
Nodding his head Naruto agreed. Ren was agile and quick footed, but lacked stamina. As such he and Nora were likely to go with the hit hard and hit fast tactic.
Seeing Team RWBY pull our their scrolls and taking notes on them, team JNPR's members all paled. Not good!
Pyrrha, Ren and Nora all turned to Jaune.
"What?" Jaune asked with a blink, then his eyes widened,"Oh no...no way! You guy can't seriously...?! Them...all by myself...?!"
"You're the only one this book can't let them take notes on! It HAS to be you!" Nora said.
That was a very bad idea for them though.
"And why is that?" Ren muttered.
Naruto was a stamina monster and could take hits that could kill most people and shrug them off like nothing, ready to keep going. He knew that Pyrrha, while not as much of a stamina monster like him, could hold her own. Add to that the fact that both he and Pyrrha were able to quickly analyze their opponents and come up with plans on the fly, they were the worst duo for Ren and Nora to go up against. He and Pyrrha could outlast them and use their fatigue as an advantage.
"Good old Rope-A-Dope...got it, need to watch out for that..." Yang said, copying it down.
Of course that all sounded nice on paper. Naruto knew well enough that plans did not survive contact with an enemy, much less one as unpredictable as Nora. She was the unknown element. Naruto had fought so many agile and speedy opponents like Ren that he pretty much had a formula on how to beat them. Nora was like him though - strong, durable, a heavy hitter, and unpredictable.
"Thank you kindly!" Nora beamed, pleased at that being pointed out about her.
"Well I guess we hit em as hard as we can and see if we can't tire em out. Just watch out for Nora, who know's what she'll pull out."
Pyrrha nodded as she pulled her shield and sword from her back, taking on a ready stance. Naruto unravelled the scroll that held his own weapon, unsealing it in a poof of smoke.
Across the field Nora and Ren had pulled out their respective weapons, looking just as ready as their teammates.
Calling out across the field Naruto spoke, "Alright! So team Red Storm
"What? It helps coordinate things on a team." Naruto said, shrugging as he defended his other self.
Ruby nodded, "I hear you, Naruto. Especally with team combo attacks."
versus team...uh…"
"Pancake!"
"..."
"..."
"Real opinionated, aren't ya, Ren?" Kushina deadpanned.
Ren didn't look away from the book, not wanting to dignify that with a response.
"...right. Team Red Storm versus team Pancake! Ready?...Go!"
"Need to pay attention to this." Weiss said, looking to the screen that played what was being read.
In a burst of speed both Ren and Nora took off heading straight for Naruto and Pyrrha. More than prepared for this Naruto stuck his staff into the ground before reaching into the pouches on his thighs. Pulling his hands out, kunai knives were grasped in each of the open spaces between his fingers. Before he tossed the blades, Naruto made a quick mental thank you to the people responsible for Remnant's technology.
That caught the attention of the four jonin-level shinobi present, wondering why Naruto would be greatful for that in a team sparring session.
Normally he would have to carefully aim for non-vital spots lest he wanted to end up killing someone. Thankfully though, each of Beacon's training grounds were outfitted with some mechanism or other that layered the people in it with a barrier of sorts that blunted most damage. Where his knives would normally pierce, they would now only bruise and sting.
"Not bad...wish I would've had time to include something similar to that to our training grounds back home during my time as Hokage..." Minato nodded. No wonder Naruto was gratful for that. He could see how that would be good if the ones training were afraid to hurt their teammates, but still felt like holding back wouldn't help them improve their skills.
Pyrrha seemed to take advantage of this as well, swiftly situating her shield on her back before shifting her sword into its rifle form, taking aim, and letting loose a hail of bullets.
Despite knowing about the protection the training fields offered, Nora nor Ren were too keen on getting hit by any of the projectiles headed for them. The two childhood friends shared an almost imperceptible nod before Nora took point. Heaving her hammer into the air, Nora drove the massive weapon into the ground in front of them, sending chunks of the ground flying into the air, providing team Pancake with a suitable cover from Red Storm's rain of projectiles.
"Hmm...pretty good streangth there, Valkyrie; and not a bad way of improvising cover." Kakashi said, recalling how quite a few Iwa ninja he'd faced had done something similar.
Ren however put the chunks of rock to further use, using them as a platforms that allowed him to swiftly hop his into the air over the rain of kunai and bullets.
Again, the shinobi present found that a good tactic. Nora and Ren had clearly been together a long time and throught a lot with one another to be so in synch. Considering how young the pair or teens were, it was impressive.
Showing off his control over his body, Ren twisted himself in mid air, his twin pistols aimed straight at Naruto and Pyrrha. Applying the necessary force, Ren pulled the triggers and let fly his own hail of bullets.
Pyrrha and Naruto adjusted to the onslaught with relative ease.
The red head grabbed her shield off her back, crouched low, and hid behind the round bronze item. Using the curved groove in the shield, Pyrrha situated her rifle and began to answer Ren's bullets with her own.
Naruto meanwhile applied Chakra to his palm, sticking his staff to it, and, using a plentiful amount of Fuuton chakra, began to spin his shakujo at high speeds. Moving at the speeds it was, the staff was naught but a circular blur shielding Naruto from Ren's bullets.
"Pretty good tatics so far." Weiss accessed critically.
Ruby sushed her bestie, they were still taking notes on ways Ren, Nora and Pyrrha fought so team RWBY could develop countermessures, after all.
Even with Ren finally coming down from his brief venture into the air, Pyrrha and Naruto were being kept pinned down by his non-stop hail of bullets, something Naruto had to question. Didn't this guy ever run out of ammo?
Naruto didn't make sense to him. Guy had to have a limit to his projectiles. Heck, even Tenten had that problem, and she usually carried enough weaponry to level an entire hemisphere if she wanted to—and that was if she was packing light!
Before Naruto could pursue any theories on Ren and his endless supply of bullets, Nora finally decided to make her appearance, the recoil of her weapon propelling her straight for him. Cursing to himself, the blond was prepared to pull out a Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement technique) when, to his shock, Pyrrha appeared in front of him in burst of speed, shield raised to take the hit.
"I refuse to stand by and watch someone get hurt when I know I can do something to help them. It isn't that I don't think Naruto could handle himself, but that's just how I am." Pyrrha said.
The group all nodded, understanding that perfectly.
Kushina beamed, liking that a person like that was looking out for her child.
To his further surprise not only was his red headed teammate able to take the brunt of the blow, but she quickly followed it up by stomping down on the head of Nora's hammer, keeping it and it's wielder pinned there.
"How'd she do that?" Kakashi wondered.
Continuing her assault, Pyrrha tossed her shield like a deadly frisbee with Ren as its intended target.
Deciding to ask his teammate just how in the hell she was keeping the no doubt physically stronger Nora and her hammer at bay after the battle, Naruto instead took advantage of the opening she had presented to him and with a twirl of his staff and a spin of his own to get some momentum, Naruto spun out from behind Pyrrha and slammed his shakujo into a still struggling Nora.
While strength wasn't exactly Naruto's forte, that didn't mean he was a slouch either. He was by no means anywhere near Tsunade or maybe even Nora's level of strength, but he could still pack a shallow
"Shallow? What does that mean?" Ruby asked.
when he needed to. Having near an ocean's worth of chakra to empower his strikes also helped.
Still Pyrrha and even Nora were a little surprised when the hammer wielding girl was not only hit with enough force to send her away from her weapon, but also send her flying through the air.
Nora gawked. Ok...that was impressive. It took a lot to send her flying so easily.
Ren had managed to dodge Pyrrha's thrown shield with relative ease, although to do so he had to sacrifice his ability to provide cover fire for Nora. Still he could resume doing so and possibly aid her when he landed on the floor in a few seconds. That plan was promptly thrown out the window when, with wide eyes, he saw Naruto smack Nora like a baseball and send her flying straight towards him.
Seeing as Naruto and Pyrrha had the better hand with Nora now without her weapon, Ren decided to toss his twin pistols to the side and catch his childhood friend in his arms.
"Thanks Ren!" Nora chirpped.
Ren smiled. "Anytime."
Both Naruto and Pyrrha winced when Ren painfully collided with the ground with Nora in his arms. Thankfully he wouldn't suffer more than a bruise and some soreness thanks to his timely use of Aura and the fact that he had only been a few yards high by the time he had caught Nora.
A few minutes later a dazed Nora and a sore Ren were seated opposite to Naruto and Pyrrha in the stands of the training field, taking a much deserved break. While the two childhood friends looked a little worse for wear, they still looked ready for another round. Pyrrha meanwhile had only worked up a slight sweat while Naruto wasn't even winded.
"Aww man...that's it?!" Yang moaned.
"There'll be other spars, we can get more info later from those." Blake reassured her partner.
Still he was enjoying the slight respite and decided it was a good time to question Pyrrha about how she had managed to keep Nora at bay with just her leg, "Hey Pyrrha. I know you're strong but how in the world were you able to keep Nora and her hammer down like that?"
Nora only turned to give her female teammate a curious look, just as curious as Naruto was, "Yeah! It was like Magnhild had grown like a thousand times heavier or something!" Seeing Naruto's questioning look, Nora answered, "Magnhild is the name of my hammer!"
Turning to Ren with the same look, the raven haired teen answered, "My weapons are named Storm Flower."
"You guys name your weapons?" Naruto asked.
Ruby nodded, "Yeah, we'll introduce you to them later if you like."
The casual way she'd said that made everyone look at her oddly. Finding it weird she was refering their weapons in a way that implied they were people.
"Yeah...Ruby and Tenten would get along just fine..." Naruto summed up, "Ren?"
The black-and-pink haired teen returned his attention to the book.
Satisfied Naruto and the rest of team NNPR turned their gazes back to Pyrrha. A little embarrassed at their intense looks the red head saw no harm in revealing her secret to her teammates, "I used my Semblance. It allows me to control anything metal so all I had to do was magnetize Nora's hammer and have it be pulled towards the ground."
"Oh!" Naruto said, eyes widening. "Magnetic power...that's useful." Having used Jiton himself with help from Shikaku, and having himself and his teammates deal with those whom had magnetic abilities, he knew what they could do.
Kakadhi paled, recalling Pyrrha's muttering from before. He really hoped her magnetic powers didn't extend to the iron in blood! He did NOT like the idea of being eviscerated alive from the inside out like that!
"Be less of a pervert, and leave me and my friends, Naruto included, alone." The Nikos girl said, narrowing her eyes at the perverted scarecrow, guessing what he was thinking about.
Kakashi quickly nodded in agreement to her terms. Sheesh...Pyrrha WAS similar to Kushina!
Naruto whistled in appreciation of such a powerful Semblance. In a world where near everything used metal and where almost every opponent's weapon was also made of the metallic material, such an ability could be devastating.
Pyrrha rubbed her arms, that thought had bothered her all the time when she'd first unlocked her Semblance, and it still did, actually. It was why she had trained herself so well to hone her control over it, why she'd developed her skills so she wasn't over-relient on her power, and why she was so careful with her Semblance. If she hurt someone...she shivvered.
Seeing as how, instead of relying heavily on it, Pyrrha used it only to help her when she needed it Naruto grew even more respect for his red headed teammate as a fighter.
Most Shinobi, hell most warriors in general, would far too often rely on a skill or ability that made them unique. Back in the Elemental Countries the most prominent people like this were those who had a Kekkai Genkai (Bloodline Limit).
Wordlessily, Mikoto nodded. That was true. Coming from a Kekkai Genkai clan herself, she knew how that went.
Sure having something like the Sharingan (Copy Wheel Eye), the Kekkai Genkai of the Uchiha clan, which allowed the user to predict an opponent's movements, entrance them with a single moment of eye contact, or even copy their own moves after only seeing it once was a great tool, but take it away and most Uchiha were practically useless.
Again, Mikoto nodded, while most Uchiha would take offense to that, she agreed with Naruto's assesment of the Uchiha being so dependent on the Sharingan. It was part of what made Itachi so infamous. Her elder son had honed his ability to where he hadn't NEEDED the dōjutsu for the most part.
Pyrrha on the other hand knew very well how to fight without her Semblance which made her all the more deadly when she did decide to use it.
Naruto was taken from his thoughts though when Pyrrha turned the tables on him and asked her question that had been bugging her and a lot of other people as well.
"By the way Naruto, how is it that you're able to pull your weapon out of plain scroll?"
Sheepishly chuckling Naruto knew he was even for a long chat. Then again all he had to do was pass off it off as a sort of byproduct of his Semblance...right?
"That's it for the chapter." Ren said, closing the book.