"Ya know I'd have thought most people wouldn't want to fight me after my little display at the docks," Naruto called out cockily to his sparring partner.
"And after that display, he's got reason to be cocky about that! I mean...whooo!" Yang said, then turned to Konoha natives, "That was some army-killer style whooping he was dishing out! And you guys fought at monster levels like THAT!? I mean Damn...! Forget Huntress, I'm tempted to take up learning this ninja thing!"
Naruto shook his head haplessly. "Don't doubt you're kick-butt, Yang...but looking at the gap between what we can do, think you cross it?"
Yang blinked. Then thought about that before pouting. Blast!
"Hey...just means when you reach that level by your own merrits, you're that much of a badass without the ninja arts, Firecracker." Naruto said.
Yang perked up at that.
Said partner, the red haired beauty of team NNPR, shrugged, "It just gives me more reason to want to spar with you, so I can improve."
And there it was. The reason, or at least one of them, that the blond Jinchūriki found himself attracted to his teammate and partner.
Both Naruto and Pyrrha went red with Jaune started to take deep breaths, his eyes clamped shut and mentally repeating that this was only in the book.
She wasn't like most people who, upon attaining a certain level of strength, became content. No, Pyrrha was always striving to better herself in some capacity, be it her battle prowess or even herself as a person. And it wasn't for some selfish or contrived reason. No, the young battle prodigy simply wanted to be a better person for the sake of it and to better help those around her.
Everyone smiled at Pyrrha at that, sounded just like her as far as they were concerned.
To Naruto, who was willing to lay down limb and life for those he considered his precious people, it was an endearing quality.
Naruto nodded.
Sure he knew that Jiraiya, Tsunade, and even Kakashi were more than willing to - and had in the past - put themselves in harm's way to protect him, but to have that same level of loyalty and caring returned to him by someone his own age and of the opposite sex was new and inviting.
Naruto suddely went red again and buried his face in his hands with a moan.
Kushina gave the younger redhead another apprasing look over.
Even amongst his peers, the Rookie 12, he had never felt that they would go above and beyond should push come to shove. Even when they found out he housed the chakra monster responsible for almost wiping Konoha off the map, he felt no closer to them. If anything they were more likely to keep him at arm's length.
"WHAT?!" Ruby raged. "That's way too cruel! Naruto's a good person! He shouldn't have had to go through that!"
The sheer passion in her voice had everyone staring at her. Then Kushina smiled, got up, went over to Ruby, and promptly hugged the young girl.
"Heh...Ruby Rose: Kushina approved." Minato said, then shot Summer a warning look. The white-cloaked woman hid a smile and nodded. She got the message. Not that Summer saw what the warning was about as a bad thing.
Seemed Summer would need to start appraising Naruto herself. And if he passed...well, Summer and Kushina would have a lot of planning to do!
Naruto suddenly felt an ominous chill go up and down his spine.
After Kushina released Ruby and sat back down, Summer resumed reading.
To their credit it wasn't out of fear of him, but more fear of what would happen in the worst case scenario, which as shinobi one always had to be prepared for.
"Oh..." Ruby said, embarressed about her outburst a moment ago. "Uhh...sorry about that..."
"Don't be..." Tenten told her weapons-bestie, though she looked ashamed of herself.
"Hey! We were trained to be that way! Nobody's fault!" Naruto snapped, not liking his friend beating herself up about it.
Tenten sighed, then shot Naruto a smile. Figures he wouldn't let a friend go through feeling guilty like that.
Stretching out his limbs and pumping chakra throughout his body in preparation for what would no doubt be a blood pumping spar, Naruto chuckled, "Alright so any rules or restrictions?"
Pyrrha followed her partner's example and began to go through her own series of stretches, "While I'd like to ask you to at least try as hard as you did down on the pier, but I don't think it'd be a smart idea."
"True. Still...having someone that could push me that hard in a match isn't something I'd like passing up..." Pyrrha frowned. It was a difficult choice on her part. She wanted to work for the win, but not be utterly outclassed first thing since she needed to be sure of just how large the gap between their level of ability actually was.
The blond had to give the green eyed Huntress-to-be credit, while he could underpower his jutsu so that they weren't as lethal or as destructive as they had been on that night, it still wouldn't lessen the fact that he would be breathing flames that took on the form of a mythical beast.
"Fire element?" Tenten asked with a raised brow.
"Story universe only." Naruto clarified.
Sparring with other Shinobi meant that you at least had a vague idea of what your opponent could do, especially if you knew what village they hailed from. Here in the world of Remnant where the term ninja invoked the image of people sneaking around in black pajamas, no one would guess that Naruto's version of a ninja meant giving the finger to the laws of physics and telling Newton to shove an apple where the sun don't shine.
"Ok...forget the black PJs, your guys' version of ninjas sound WAAAAAY more fun!" Yang laughed.
"Here here!" Nora cheered in agreement.
As such for anyone to be prepared to properly fight Naruto they would either have to fight him enough times to know what to expect or be given a cheat sheet with all of his attacks and what they did on it.
"No offesnse, but I'd rather the cheat sheet..." Jaune muttered. Seeing the looks that got him, he turned to the others. "What?! You mean to tell me that him using those crazy moves on you over and over again to learn what to expect from this guy is something you'd want done to you?!"
"...Fair enough point." Weiss admitted.
Pyrrha being Pyrrha had obviously decided to go for the former.
"Well, at least someone on your team has guts..." Kushina nodded.
Pyrrha blushed as her teammates all let out a loud and offended "HEY! at that.
"Alright so I'll keep it small scale and go from there. That alright?"
Switching Miló into its javelin form while gripping Akoúo with her other hand, Pyrrha gave a firm nod.
"Sounds like a plan."
"Wait...you guys have multi-function, convertable weaponry?!" Tenten squealed in delight, stars in her eyes.
Ruby nodded. "Yeah. And most are custom built, too. I made my own weapon, Cressent Rose."
"Really?! Can I see it, Ruby?! Pretty please!?" Tenten begged, turning to her new friend.
Ruby smiled, "Of course! Didn't bring the actual one, but it will be shown along with a lot of other weapons from back home in the story. Wanna see about making your own Remnent-style weapon when this is over?"
Tenten squealed in delight, vibrating in her seat and her eyes rolled into her head and she passed out.
"An-n-nd we've lost her. She lasted longer than I thought," Naruto said, grinning as Ruby panicked and started trying to revive Tenten.
"…Weapon nerd down!" Yang cried out, grinning. "Medic!"
"Armament Connoisseur!" Ruby rebutted sternly, still trying to wake Tenten.
"You know...if she doesn't wake up, she'll miss seeing those weapons in action." Naruto said.
Instantly, Tenten's eyes shot open and looked around frantically. "I didn't miss the weapon demonstraitions, did I?!" she yelped frightfully.
Relieved, Ruby hugged the Konoha native, "Ahh, thank goodness...! Don't scare me like that again!"
Weiss' eye twitched violently as the rest of Ruby's friends and teammates snickered before Ruby went and sat back down.
Seeing that his friend was in her battle mode, Naruto decided that he'd give the "Invincible Girl" a harsher run for her money and pulled out Hi no Ishi.
"Going to need to make that weapon..." Naruto reminded himself.
Tenten looked interested. "Oh? Any specifications?"
"Ask Ruby." Naruto grinned, smirking and utterly missing Weiss seeth as she glared at him for giving Tenten and Ruby an excuse to hang out more.
The heiress did NOT like how Ruby had seemingly pushed her aside in favor of the bunned brunette!
He had also realized that he hadn't really been using the weapon which was a shame seeing as he had went through the trouble of making it himself with Kurama's help.
"Hello!" Naruto said, surprised.
Resolving to start using the shakujo more often, Naruto's normally bright blue eyes hardened and gained a frosty cold glint to them. He wanted Pyrrha to grow stronger just as much she herself did and to do that meant he couldn't fool around. No, he was going to put her through her paces and then some.
Pyrrha smiled. That was just what she wanted.
"Going to need to pay attention to this." Ruby told her team, who nodded and focused more intently on what was being read and displayed.
With an unseen and unheard signal, the two were off in a burst of speed. Naruto, being far faster than Pyrrha, managed to cross more than half the field in the time it had taken her to cover a third of it and was already aiming a horizontal swing at her abdomen.
Having sparred with her blond leader numerous times by this point, the young woman was more than prepared for this and brought up Akoúo just in time. What she wasn't prepared for was the amount of force behind the swing. Having Nora on her team, Pyrrha was no stranger to having to evade or defend against hits that could shatter concrete and dent steel. However the swing from Naruto had felt like she had just tried to stop a speeding train.
"I call bologna to that! No way can he hit harder than me!" Nora objected.
Ren shushed her. Sure, RWBY finding out a stratigy for taking down JNPR's strongest because of this was bad, but with what he knew of Pyrrha's abilities and skill, and what he'd seen of Naruto's, this was going to be too good a fight to miss!
Needing time to reorient herself with the increased strength and come up with a battle plan, the redhead warrior attempted to give herself some breathing room by shoving Naruto and his shakujo aside with her shield. She followed this up by quickly shifting Miló into its rifle form and firing a succession of bullets aimed at the Kyūbi container's abdomen.
Again Pyrrha was caught flat footed when, in a show of grace, Naruto easily spun out of the way of the bullets and shoved a palm into her sternum. Her mind had no time to comprehend what happened in the next few seconds and the next thing she knew was that she had a lovely view of the ceiling and was struggling to get air into her lungs.
"Ceiling? Shouldn't in be sky? I mean, those moves he used on the pier are obviously outdoor use-only. Unless he's out to turn the school into a craitor..." Jaune said.
A minute or so later, and having finally managed to get some much needed oxygen into her system, the green eyed teen struggled to her feet, using Miló as a crutch.
"Should have pressed that advantage rather than give recovery time..." Naruto mused.
"You wanted me to fight at the level I did on the pier. It's only gonna get harder from here on in," Naruto twirled his staff.
Only now was Pyrrha realizing what she was up against. She always had an inkling that her whiskered captain was holding back in their fights and that he was far stronger than he let on. To be fair she wasn't going all out either, not having used her Semblance yet and it seemed that Naruto knew this and was hinting that to even pose a challenge, she would have to give it her all.
"Which is just what I'm after, how can I get stronger without being made to push past my limits?" Pyrrha nodded. However, the trouble in that was finding an opponent that could do that who wasn't a fully-fledged Huntsman or Huntress, she was so skilled.
It SUCKED being "The Invincible Girl"! Especally with finding a good sparring partner!
Using her Aura to numb the pain until it was a dull throb, Pyrrha looked up with her light green eyes gaining their own edge to them. Smirking as the red head readied herself for another round, Naruto rushed to meet her, intent on making his partner take this seriously.
Swinging his shakujo with an almost casual ease, the blond Uzumaki raised a brow as instead of blocking the strike with her shield, Pyrrha had instead opted to catch the blunt weapon with Miló in short sword form.
Feeling Hi no Ishi suddenly gain what felt like several hundred pounds, Naruto realized too late what was happening and received Akoúo to the face for his troubles.
"Ok, ow..." Naruto muttered.
Pyrrha expected to hear the harsh crack of bone breaking, but was instead met with a face full of smoke. Waving away the small grey cloud, the redhead was shocked to see a grinning Naruto casually twirling his staff, looking like he had never moved from his spot.
"Thank you, Shadow Clones..." the reincarnation of Asura muttered.
Already knowing that his sparring partner would be extremely curious as to how he had managed to escape a hit that would have broken his jaw and nose, Naruto moulded his chakra into the needed form and without the need for seals, summoned a doppelgänger who stood at his side, the same grin stretching across its own whiskered cheeks.
"Hey! You can make copies of yourself like Blake can?!"
Blake blinked. Judging from the fact that Pyrrha's shield had made physical contact with it, Naruto's clones were solid. She wondered how else his technique differed from her Semblance.
"This is my signature technique, Kage Bunshin no jutsu, which roughly translates to Shadow Clone technique. It lets me create as many copies of myself as I want and each is more than capable of dealing out some damage. But, they can only take a single hit before popping, which I still haven't figured out how to fix."
"Technique was made for infiltration, son." Minato said.
"I know, but still nothing wrong with them being more durable. I mean, it's a waste of a powerful Jutsu. Making a physical clone with all the same abilities as the original using half of someone's power should be much more useful than a one-shot that is dispelled with even the slightest bit of damage." Naruto sighed.
The others from Konoha shared a look. Ok...good point.
While Naruto was no doubt leaving out a lot of the more technical aspects of the technique, Pyrrha understood the gist of it. Her captain could clone himself at will and, while highly brittle, they were armed with the same knowledge as the original. The only question now was how strong were they in comparison to their creator.
Her analytical mind already racing, the young Huntress in training theorized that it was highly unlikely that they were just as strong as their creator, as not only would that defy at least ten different laws of nature and physics, but it would also be highly unfair.
"'Defy at least ten different laws of nature and physics, but it would also be highly unfair'...ha! Welcome to ninja fighting, Pyrrha." Naruto snickered.
However Naruto had said that it was his signature technique which meant he no doubt could control how strong each copy was along with all of the other aspects of.
"I wish." Naruto confessed to that.
In the end this just meant this spar was going to be a lot harder than she first thought.
Pyrrha nodded, but wouldn't deny the thought thrilled her. This was what she wanted, after all. A fight that would push her to and beyond her limits.
Seeing as how Pyrrha had decided to start using her Semblance, and with the hardened glint in her eye, Naruto knew that he was about to find out how his friend had earned the title of "The Invincible Girl".
Then again he wasn't called "Konoha's Most Surprising Ninja" for nothing either.
Both Naruto and Pyrrha looked excited at that.
"Your Semblance is really impressive Naruto," Pyrrha said as she wiped her face of the dirt and grime that had been the result of her spar with her friend and captain.
"Wait...where's the fight?!" Naruto said.
"Copout!" Yang cried.
"Boo!" Nora jeered.
The blond leader of NNPR only rose a brow, "Says the girl who can control metal."
Having never seen his partner use her Semblance seriously, he had been surprised to find out that she could control it to a great enough degree that she could almost close the gap between them. If she wanted to slow him down all she had to do was make his weapon, kunai, or his other hidden ninja gear weigh a hundred pounds or more. If she needed to avoid a swing, she could just "push" him away by using the same method.
She could even direct her own weapons with her control over Polarity and use Akoúo as a sort of heat seeking frisbee of death.
In a world full of metal, Pyrrha's Semblance was almost unfairly powerful.
"Which is why I trained so hard to control it to as well as I do...if something went wrong..." Pyrrha winced. She didn't need to finish.
But still even she had her limits.
Team RWBY had all pulled their Scrolls out and started taking notes, making JNPR squak.
"What?! Not our faults Pyrrha's so damn tough that we need to take notes on her weaknesses!" Yang defended.
Naruto had found that the red headed warrior needed to "tag" the item she wanted to control either by touching it or having it be within a small area around herself, the latter being far more taxing as she needed to exert her Aura outwards which took quite a bit of concentration and effort.
Pyrrha nodded.
The other problem was her Aura reserve. She didn't have an endless supply of the stuff and while running out of Aura could not cause one to collapse or even die, it did leave the user fatigued.
"What...what?" Jaune cried.
Even still, Pyrrha seemed to know her limits very well and was good at planning out her moves, even in the heat of battle which combined with her own natural talent and skill and her almost hax level Semblance made for a rather deadly combination.
"Fair enough, but I can't create an almost endless supply of corporeal clones or use wind as a weapon," the sweaty teen replied.
"Eh...I'll give you that." Naruto confessed.
Naruto just childishly pouted and stuck his tongue out at her in reply, to which both had a good laugh at. As the sun slowly began its downward trek across the sky, there was a lapse of silence between the two, which neither seemed all that bothered by.
Remembering that there was something that had been bothering her ever since the whole fiasco in the cafeteria and with the night on the pier adding onto it, Pyrrha decided to voice her concerns, "Hey, Naruto?" Hearing said blond offer a hum in confirmation, she continued, "What was Konoha like?"
"Finally! Backstory!" Nora cheered.
Turning his gaze from the view, the displaced Shinobi seemed genuinely shocked that someone had asked about his home village. Seeing the look of surprise hurt the redhead, knowing that it meant he hadn't expected anyone to show interest in the place he was born, to show interest in his past and where he came from.
"Not true!" Ruby cried, the other student-level Hunters and Huntresses nodded in agreement with her, it hurt thinking that their new friend hadn't expected anyone to show interest in his past and where he came from.
However that surprise shifted as ocean blue eyes turned back to gaze at the sunset as a fond smile stretched across whiskered cheeks, "It was a lot different from Vale. The village was surrounded by nature and there was never a lack of greenery, it wasn't called the Village Hidden in the Leaves for nothing after all. But my favorite spot in the village was the Hokage Monument, this huge mountain that overlooked Konoha and had the faces of each our leaders carved into. Whenever I needed somewhere to think I would climb up it and sit on our fourth leader's head, the Yondaime Hokage, who happened to be my father."
Pyrrha found herself lost in the oceanic blue eyes of her friend as he described his home, but was pulled out of it when her interest was piqued upon hearing Naruto mention his parents, "Your dad was one of your village's leaders?"
Minato chuckled sheepishly.
Having lost himself in memories, Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, "Yeah he was. His name was Minato Namikaze."
Having intended to get to know her friend and his past even more, Pyrrha was instead finding herself with even more questions than she had before.
"But I thought your last name was Uzumaki?"
Naruto frowned in thought, "It is. My dad made a name for himself by inventing two of our villages most powerful attacks and using them to wipe out a whole battalion of enemy forces which is one of the reasons he was chosen to be the Fourth. But, because of that he earned himself some enemies and the policies he was trying to implement as leader got him enemies in the village. When him and my mom died, everyone thought it was best I not keep the name Namikaze so I wouldn't have to worry about assassins or people trying to use me as a political pawn."
Weiss nodded. Ok...that made sense, especially to her! She understood the reasoning for it completely. Being an heiress herself, she had to be aware of things like that.
Seeing as it was quite a bit of information to take in, Naruto paused and gave the redhead time to think and go over what she had just heard. He didn't mind telling her about his parentage due to the fact that the name Minato Namikaze and his feared reputation as the "Konoha no Kiiroi Senkō (Yellow Flash of Konoha)" meant nothing here. There was no Iwa or Kumo Nin who feared and hated him here in Remnant. There were no Nin period.
"Except your other." Tenten pointed out to Naruto.
This also meant being the son of the infamous Yondaime meant just as little, which was fine with Naruto. He had grown up an orphan and even when he did find out who his dad was, it did nothing to change who he had come to be, a sentiment shared by those who truly cared for the blond Jinchūriki.
Meanwhile Pyrrha was trying to wrap her mind around the fact that, by all rights, her whiskered leader was the closest thing his village had to royalty. Seeing how powerful he already was at seventeen, and having seen beforehand how charismatic and determined the young man was, she had no doubt Naruto had been poised to follow in his father's footsteps and take over as this, Hokage.
"Fully agreed!" Minato laughed.
Wanting to shift the conversation from such a somber topic, Pyrrha decided to ask another question, "What about your mom?"
Almost instantly the unnaturally, on him at least, serious look flipped and was replaced by a smile filled with warmth and eyes burning with fondness, "My mom was named Kushina Uzumaki. A lot of people say that while I look almost exactly like my dad, I got my personality from her. She had long fiery red hair, violet eyes, and well, people say she was one of the most beautiful women in our village."
'Is that why he's always staring at my hair?' Pyrhha pondered. Naruto had thought he was being sneaky about it, but she would occasionally catch him gazing at her hair, especially when she wore it down. If he did it out of remembrance of his mother, who was apparently strikingly beautiful, it was a big compliment for her.
Naruto went red again.
"Like father, like son!" Kushina laughed, delighted.
Nonetheless, it warmed her heart to see her friend look so happy at the memory of someone so undoubtedly wonderful. Really both of Naruto's parents sounded amazing - his father the powerful and no doubt charismatic leader and his mother, the beautiful and strong willed woman to compliment him. It was almost like a fairy tale with how perfect their family would have been.
The mentioned family sighed.
"Obito..." Naruto growled, his fists clenching so hard his fists shook and his knuckles went white. Even if Obito had repented and given his life to make things right, it still hurt thinking about how life would have been if the Uchiha hadn't fucked up everything because he threw away having any and all faith in the world! Grief was one thing, but he took it WAY too far...
"Helps that the Uzumaki were one of those whom were the founders of Konoha, even the wife of our village's first head was from the Uzumaki, far as that "royalty" bit goes." Kushina said.
Weiss' jaw dropped. SAY WHAT?! Ok...that was interesting! To think Naruto...
Oh boy...Winter wasn't going to believe this!
"Enough about me though. What about you Pyrrha?"
Said teen blushed upon realizing that she had been staring at Naruto's face, "Umm, what about me?"
Shaking his head with a chuckle, the Kyūbi Jinchūriki replied, "Well what about your home? What was it like at Sanctum?"
Pyrrha flinched. Oh boy...
The flinch that followed the last part of Naruto's question would have been missed by most people, but being a Shinobi and having had Konoha's greatest spymaster as his godfather and sensei had left the half blood Uzumaki with the skill to be able to pick out even the most suppressed of reactions.
The need to push for answers never arose though, "Sanctum...wasn't...as enjoyable for me as it was for others." Seeing Naruto's raised brow and concerned eyes, Pyrrha mustered up the strength to continue, "I performed excellently in almost every area and well you know that I earned myself the title of 'The Invincible Girl' and while my family was proud it...it made it hard for me to find friends. Everybody either didn't talk to me because they thought I was too far out of their league or they wanted something from me, like I owed them something."
"Well that's dumb."
"HUH?!" Pyrrha cried.
That one simple phrase broke Pyrrha out of her sullen walk down memory lane. While she had long since come to terms with the hurdles placed in front of her due to her status and fame, she never thought she'd meet someone so unaffected by it. Weiss, the heiress to one of the most wealthy families in Vale and Remnant as a whole, had almost begged her just to be her partner on their first day at Beacon, because of her own reputation. Even Ren and Nora had seemed a little surprised to find out that they were on the same team as her.
Naruto however simply didn't seem to care.
Jaune nodded.
"Naruto..." She uttered.
"I've never really cared for titles or all that other fancy crap. To me you're not 'The Invincible Girl' or whatever, you're Pyrrha Nikos, my friend and partner...who just happens to be really strong and beautiful."
"Ok...can I just say I agree with other-Naruto about all that?" Jaune said.
Pyrrha felt dizzy with all the blood rushing to her cheeks with how much she was blushing.
As the last part of his little speech left his mouth, Naruto's eyes widened.
'Shit, shit, shit! Damn you brain! Damn you red hair!'
"He's your son, all right!" Kushina laughed as Minato pat Naruto on the back, understanding that line of damning both his brain and how he acted around female redheads perfectly.
In that instant Pyrrha's face was lit by a blush dusting her cheeks. Being told she was beautiful was nothing new to her and Naruto had already let it slip once before and just like that time, it was the sincerity with which it was said that caused her to blush.
Or maybe it was the entire moment. Here she was getting to know her partner and, now, closest friend in a way that she had never really been able to do with anyone outside of her family. It was almost surreal for her, finally getting what she had so longed for since her rise to fame. And with someone so...uniquely himself. While not normally a gambling person, the red haired beauty was willing to bet that there was no one like Naruto, as cheesy as that may sound.
"Wait! We don't have a shipping name yet!"
And with that, the hyperactive team member of team NNPR shattered both the awkward tension and the budding romantic one with ease by seating herself between her teammates with a look of deep concentration on her face.
"Bad Nora! Bad, bad Nora!" Yang scolded.
"I'm sorry!" The hammer-user wailed.
"Nora! I told you to leave them alone!" Came the cry of the final member of team NNPR.
"Thanks for at least trying to stop the human bulldozer." Kakashi told Ren.
Ren sighed. And calling Nora a bulldozer...that was oddly fitting.
"But Ren! We can't have a pairing without a proper shipping name!"
"Must kill Nora...that's it, that's all there is it it..." Naruto muttered to himself under his breath, face in his hands.
While both Naruto and Pyrrha stared in shock and embarrassment, Ren simply sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, "Nora, what have I told you about that?"
With a childish pout the eccentric teen replied, "To wait until they're an actual couple."
"It's the most I can make her agree to, sorry guys..." Ren sighed.
"Thanks for that much at least." The other teens said to him.
Realizing that it was Nora, Naruto and Pyrrha recovered from their shock and began to laugh at the oddity that was their teammate. At the same time, the blond leader came to the conclusion that it had been awhile since they hung out as a team - as friends - and hailing from the ninja village that emphasized teamwork and camaraderie above all else, that was a no no.
The readers from Konoha all nodded at that.
Standing to his feet, Naruto brushed off his pants and jacket, "Team! Seeing as it's Saturday and we've finished our work for the day, as your captain I declare today...a team bonding day!"
"Team bonding days...we need to have those." Ruby said. The others from both RWBY and JNPR nodded. Sounded like a good idea.
Nora cheered at the declaration while both Ren and Pyrrha simply smiled, the red head's being more noticeable as she absentmindedly gazed at her friend.
Pyrrha moaned. Make it stop!
That smile soon turned into giggling though as the blond Jinchūriki looked at their current attire. Both Ren and Nora were still in their school uniform, while he and Pyrrha were in their battle clothes and looked - and more than likely smelled - rather foul.
"After a shower and change of clothes that is," Naruto chuckled.
A freshly showered and casually dressed team NNPR made their way through the streets of Vale, the team laughing at the plight of their captain.
"How does Vale seriously not have one damn ramen stand!?"
"Criminal...just completely criminal!" Naruto muttered.
Garbed in a set of black jeans, a burnt orange shirt with the Uzumaki family crest emblazoned in black on the chest area, and his old Konoha headband tied loosely around his neck, Naruto childishly fumed at his so far futile attempts at finding a simple ramen stand.
"Nice outfit, at least." Yang said.
"I don't think we'd find one in the shopping district, Naruto," a still chuckling Pyrrha responded. Dressed in a pair of form fitting blue jeans with a simple black top that bore her own unique symbol at the bottom left portion of it, and her crimson locks done up in a simple ponytail, the statuesque teen still managed to turn quite a number of heads, not that she was paying attention to that.
Jaune blushed, muttering Pyrrha looked nice.
Prancing around in her pink skirt and white blouse with her insignia printed in a matching pink on her chest, Nora garnered her own fair share of stares, mostly due to the fact that despite her age she was acting like a five year old on a sugar high, seemingly ignorant to both the stares and her captain's plight.
Ren, despite his friend dancing around singing something she referred to as the "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" and his leader whining like a spoiled child who didn't get the candy they wanted, seemed unsuitably at peace. He had likewise gone with the simple style of clothing his teammates had and was dressed in a pair of white jeans and a forest green hoodie, his flowery symbol stitched into the pouch of the thin clothing article.
Finally deciding to give up on his search for his own personal ambrosia, again, Naruto sighed, "Well there goes my idea. Anyone got anything they wanna try?"
No doubt wanting to give his childhood friend something to occupy her lest she cause some form of trouble, the long haired male spoke up, "There's a weapon's shop up ahead. We can see if there's anything interesting in there."
"YES!" Ruby and Tenten both cheered, starry-eyed.
Seeing as how Beacon didn't provide its students with ammo or anything, the rest of the team agreed, needing to stock up on their own preferred ammo of choice.
"They don't...that is a crime!" Tenten raged.
"I know!" Ruby moaned.
Despite the seemingly unassuming exterior, team NNPR were a little surprised to see that the interior of the store was tediously well kept and organized with a wealth of variety from the basic and mundane to the eccentric and expensive.
Ruby was practically hyperventilating as she mumbling every name and specifications of the weapons she could see.
"I want to use that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that, and that..." Tenten said eagerly, pointing out various weapons, her eyes shining with sheer need at the sight of the weaponry.
"Welcome to Achievement Hunter's Weapon Shop! Anything that cuts, pierces - or my personal favorite - goes boom, we got it. My name's Jack, how can I help ya?"
"Ruby...copy that weapon shop's name down for later...!" Tenten said urgently.
"Way ahead of you!" The younger Rose in the reading group said, furiously typing in her scroll with her thumbs.
Blinking at the the bearded man that stood in front of them, the four teens found themselves at a loss for words. His entrance and subsequent speech had come so abruptly that not even Nora knew how to respond to the situation. Of course that soon came to an end when the word "boom" clicked in the equally eccentric girl's mind and with a squeal she was gone, no doubt to get ammo for Magnahild.
With a sigh Ren ventured off after her to make sure she didn't blow up the store or break anything that would end up costing him in the long run.
Ren twitched. An unsupervised Nora in a weapons shop...yeah...that was scary!
Coming out of their own stupor, both Pyrrha and Naruto blinked, the blond speaking up, "Actually yeah, I was wondering if you guys had any of these."
Reaching into the singular weapon's pouch, the only one that was visible at least, Naruto showed the store worker a spool of his ninja wire as well as a kunai and shuriken.
Eyeing the odd choice of weaponry, the large man hummed in thought whilst rubbing his beard, "Well kid, I'll say this, you got an interesting taste in weapons. But like I said, if it's sharp and pointy, we carry it, so yeah we have a few packs of those shuriken and kunai. The wire on the other hand, I'm afraid that's not something we carry. I can check and see if we got anything similar though." Seeing Naruto's shrug, the apparent lover of all things explosive jerked a thumb to a shelf in a corner, "Well we got our kunai and shuriken over there so feel free to browse while I see what I can do."
Naruto nodded. So ninja weaponry was uncommon on Remnant he figure as much. But they weren't impossible to find, just hard to.
Taking the shop worker's advice, Naruto made his way over to the shelf to see what they had while Pyrrha ventured off to see what else the store had to offer. On the way to the aisle the blond passed by another customer, but he was unable to see her face as her back was turned to him, though he was struck by a strange sense of familiarity as he glanced at the stranger's long raven locks and petite build.
A loud smack was heard and the readers all turned to Naruto, who had his hand over his face as he shook it slowly. "You gotta be kidding..Please, don't tell me..." Naruto muttered.
The teen shinobi was tempted to simply brush the feeling off, but both Kurama and Jiraiya had drilled it into him to always trust his instincts, no matter how far fetched they may seem. As he browsed through the varying types of kunai the weapon's store had to offer and simultaneously kept an eye on the nearby stranger, Naruto wanted to bash his head in as the person turned and revealed a set of burning amber eyes.
Browsing through a shelf full of various vials of basic Dust was the woman who was supposedly the real leader of Torchwick and his whole outfit.
"Damn, I knew it..." Naruto moaned, wanting to bash his head against something.
The situation went even further downhill as the woman turned and, with wide eyes, stared straight at the frustrated teen.
'What in the nine circles of hell did I do in a past life to deserve this Kami?'
"If it was for using chakra for combat purposes, that was Indra's fault, not mine...!" the reincarnation of Asura hissed.
The booming laughter of Kurama echoed throughout the recesses of his mind, 'Hahaha! This is just priceless! Can we just kill her now? Pretty please?'
"You have a clear villain stalking you, one with an agenda that can and will most likely get innocent people killed, and a Tailed Beast wanting to take care of the problem..." Kakashi said in concern.
"That's a problem in and of itself. Too much crossfire and collateral damage..."
"This woman clearly took that into account and chose to confront you in a setting like that to ensure you couldn't just kill her off and stop her plots before they can even really happen."
"Huh?" Ruby asked, "What do you two mean?"
"Bad guy made it so I couldn't just blow them up to prevent them being able to do their evil scheme." Naruto translated.
Ruby went still, "...That witch! The bad guys are supposed to get beaten! Evil is weak! Hope, valor and justice shall prevail in the end!" she declared.
"I actually WANT my other and Kurama to kill her, too. She's just...the kind of person that would smile while stomping on the lives of others to get what she's after. Needs to die on principle of her being alive..." Naruto said.
"Naruto! How can you say that?!" Mikoto yelped, shocked.
"Easily; after all...I had to deal with the actual Madara. Can tell that woman is the exact same type he is." Naruto frowned.
Mikoto winced. Ok...Cinder deserved to die on principle.
The blond Jinchūriki was sorely tempted to say yes to his tenant, however the ensuing battle would more than likely leave the entirety of Vale's shopping district in shambles. Plus there was a high risk his team would try and get involved and he knew that they were no match for this woman who had managed to defeat both Ren and Nora with utter ease.
The two old friends winced at that. True enough. It was class, not numbers that were needed to beat that woman. They wondered who could beat that monster-woman.
At their thought, back in Remnant, a black-haired woman with red eyes and red, samurai-like armor suddenly sneezed.
No, to defeat her he'd have to bring out the big guns and really let loose.
'Spoil sport.'
Naruto was stopped from giving his furry partner a retort when the woman sauntered up to him with a sultry smirk stretching across her flawless face. The smoky voice that followed sounded almost like sex in verbal form, "I didn't think I'd run into you here of all places."
"So says the stalker..." Blake frowned.
"Yeah, I didn't think a crime boss like you was one for shopping like normal people," Naruto bit back.
The raven haired woman seemed unperturbed by this and just continued to gaze into his sapphire orbs with her own searing amber eyes, "The only crime boss is that buffoon Roman. Even then he's a poor excuse for one."
"And yet, he works for you..." Mikoto frowned at the woman's image.
Before Naruto could reply, his Bijū decided to deliver some rather shocking news, 'Kit, wait! Remember how I said that there were only two negative auras that night?'
'Yeah, what of it?'
With a grim look stretched across his face, the fox dropped the bomb, 'She's not one of them.'
"Kill her anyways..." Naruto muttered.
The muscles in Naruto's jaw tightened visibly as he gazed down at the much smaller woman who seemed far too calm for the current situation. Meanwhile his mind raced as it tried to cope with the new information.
Kurama's Negative Emotion sensing ability was never wrong, ever. There was no feasible way for even the other Tailed Beasts to trick it.
Naruto snorted, "Oh please! Not to doubt Kurama, but if the author made someone that can qualify as a gender-bent Madara seem like an anti-villain, they need their head examined!"
"What's your game?" Naruto spoke at last in a tone that showed he wasn't in the mood for playing around.
Again the woman seemed not at all bothered by the change in demeanor, only raising a singular brow, "You don't expect a woman to give away all her secrets to a random stranger, do you?"
"It was worth a shot," Naruto admitted.
"Well we don't have any of that wire, but...," Jack, the store worker took note of the situation and smiled, "Hey! I didn't know you knew this guy Cinder! Were you the one who told him about us?"
The now named Cinder simply smirked and spoke without tearing her gaze away from Naruto's, "No. Unfortunately we were both a little...preoccupied during our last few meetings."
"Yeah, and by "preoccupied", she means trying to kill each other." Blake scoff.
Oblivious to the tension of the moment, the bearded man shrugged, "Alright well I'm gonna go make sure that orange haired friend of yours doesn't break anything. I didn't like the way she was looking at some of our higher caliber explosive rounds."
When he felt that Jack was sufficiently out of earshot, Naruto spoke, "Cinder?"
"Cinder Fall," She replied a little too easily.
"Uzumaki Naruto."
This only seemed to make Cinder happier, "So my research was correct after all. You're a Shinobi."
Everyone's eyes widened. How did she...?!
Naruto's eyes narrowed dangerously, "How the heck do you know that?"
He wasn't so much worried about her, or anyone for that matter, knowing about his previous occupation, but he had thought that there would be no other way for people to find out unless he personally revealed it to them. Apparently he had been wrong.
"It was a lot harder to find than you'd think, but the way you said your name confirmed my suspicions. I had to dig through countless ages old tomes that dated back to before even the discovery of Dust and the apparent birth of Grimm. But in one ancient scroll I found a passage that spoke of a people who could do the impossible - defy gravity by walking up walls, walk on water as if it were solid ground, and even command the very elements themselves. They were called Shinobi and used something called Chakra to perform all of these almost God like feats."
'Wait, if what she says is true then...'
'Your silver haired sensei's Sharingan didn't send us to a different dimension, it sent us into the future, the far future.'
"SAY WHAT?!" everyone cried.
"But...the Kamui jutsu didn't..." Kakashi sputtered.
"...Seems things are altered in the universe for the book..." Minato frowned thoughtfully.
Not allowing the shock to show on his face, Naruto spoke, "And why go through all the trouble? So you can find my weakness?"
Almost instantly Cinder's smirk fell, replaced by a decidedly much more serious look, "No. I admit I was highly intrigued by your attacks as well as the fact that you called out your attacks in what most would consider a dead language. However what I want most is for you to join me and to that end I wanted know as much as I could about you and your powers."
"Not liking that..." Mikoto frowned.
At hearing the possible villainess' want for him to help her, a single blond brow was raised, "You want me to help you? Regardless of your relationship with that creep Torchwick, I'm not so easily inclined to believe you're up to anything good."
"Shouldn't believe that at all." Ruby frowned.
That sultry smirk once more found its place on the raven haired woman's face, "That's not something we can exactly discuss here, but soon we will. Until then, just think about my offer."
Blue orbs watched as the petite woman calmly, and enticingly, strutted out of the shop.
'Kurama?'
'Yeah, Kit?'
'What do you think?'
The massive chakra construct offered a mental shrug, 'Well she doesn't have that red hair you like so much, but she seems like she'd offer a good romp in the-'
'NOT IN THAT WAY BAKA-KITSUNE!'
"Perverted hairball..." Weiss muttered, the faces of the females all red, while the males all rubbed their eyes in irritation.
Once again the sounds of laughter reverberated throughout the halls of Naruto's mind,'Hahaha! Priceless.' Once the Kitsune allowed his last vestiges of laughs to pass, he took on a much more serious demeanor, 'But in all honesty I'm not too sure. We still don't know enough about our own situation here to really be able to just jump into anything. The only things we can be for sure about now are; she's got some hidden agenda, but isn't necessarily evil, we're more than likely a few dozen millennia in the future - not a different dimension like we thought, and there's something going on here that only a select few are privy to.'
Raking a hand through his blond locks, Naruto sighed, 'So pretty much the standard stuff, huh?'
"The more things change, the more they stay the same...I swear..." Naruto muttered.
"And we're gonna get sucked into the middle, aren't we?" Ren sighed.
"Sorry guys..." Naruto winced.
"Eh, don't worry about it, Foxy. Our luck, would have gotten wrapped up in things anyways." Yang shrugged.
Seeing the worn out expression on his container's face, Kurama decided to offer some good news, 'At least this way we can find out what happened after that scarecrow sensei of yours pulled off that Kamui (Authority of the Gods). If that woman could find old scrolls detailing the Shinobi, there's bound to be others laying around with more specific info on those events.'
Looking many years older than anybody his age had a right to be, Naruto allowed his eyes to crinkle as he offered a small smile at his tenant's words, 'That's true. And at least we now know for sure that whatever Akatsuki (Dawn/Daybreak) had planned with the Bijū failed without us there.'
"Thank god for that silver lining..." Naruto muttered.
The blond Uzumaki was torn from his thoughts when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning around he was a little surprised to see the concerned looks of his teammates.
"Are you ok Naruto?" Pyrrha asked, having been the one to put her hand on his shoulder.
Looking at the genuinely concerned looks of his team, his friends, Naruto shook his head and gave a off a bright smile, "Yeah I'm fine guys! So what'd you find?"
"Lier." Blake said.
Hey, I have a lot going on to deal with and don't want to trouble you guys with it." Naruto defended.
"Understandable." Summer nodded. Then frowned as she looked at the book, "this chapter's over."
"That was actually short." Yang frowned.
"Summer, care to read the next chapter to make up for it, then?" Kushina asked.
The white-cloaked woman nodded.