Hunted or Busted: A Side Story
Dusted 7: The Fox and The Hood: Settling In
Consider this the first AU of many possible ideas.
Most of these side stories will have serious drama, stakes, action, and my attempt at emotional weight to show what this world is like for the characters of the past.
Not this one. This will be nothing like the rest of it. Hopefully this will all just be for chuckles and giving a warm feeling on the inside.
For the sake of not making it depressing, and that I don't know how to utilize a future without revealing everything I have planned for the next few volumes, let's just assume that life was peaceful and normal after Volume 2 and we got this.
Ready...
Go!
((((((((Hunted))))))))
"Food?"
"Got the box right here. You remembered to grab your game systems?"
"Absolutely! Oh, keycards!"
"Spares for days!"
The two young adults dropped the last of their boxes in the shared room of their apartment before sighing in relief. They looked around, "Is that it?"
"Yeah, I think that's it. We did it!"
Ruby and Naruto looked around at their new residence while trying to see what they had to work with. They stood together in the living room between two bedrooms, one for each of them. Each one had a bathroom with a toilet and a shower for them to use. Just adjacent to the living room was a small kitchen with a stove top, fridge, dishwasher, and sink. And lastly a washing machine for them to clean off their clothes.
This was their new apartment.
"Woo," Ruby wiped her head and plopped back down into the rough couch resting to the side of the wall. The young lady stretched her arms and sighed, "I can't believe we finally got here!"
"I know, right?" Naruto slumped down beside his new roommate and sighed in relief once he finally got off his feet. He was relieved to finally sit down and settle in as he closed his eyes, "Give it a sec and realize that there's still something we left behind and need to get."
"Don't joke about that." Ruby jabbed his arm in retaliation, "Moving in was stressful enough."
The young adults shared a quick laugh before forcing themselves up on their feet and making their way over to their boxes. They had to start unpacking, because everything they had was currently boxed up and they didn't feel like sleeping on bare mattresses.
The two had finally graduated, and had become what they had always wanted to be. Naruto was finally a Huntsman, and Ruby had fulfilled her dream of becoming a Huntress. They had celebrated for an entire week with their teams and friends to commemorate all their hard work and the long effort it took to finally reach this point.
But now that they had finally graduated, it was time for them to go out and do their jobs. Of course as much as they all loved each other, Beacon's Dirty Dozen couldn't stick around together forever.
Weiss decided that she was going to head back to Atlas. Get started on guiding the Schnee Dust Company and changing the entirety of the corporation from the inside out. It was going to be a long and arduous process...and one that would be difficult to take alone. So Blake had offered to join her and help strengthen relations with the Faunus. Oddly enough Sasuke also offered to join her and help with their cause however he could.
Some people definitely didn't let him live that down.
Tenten and Pyrrha returned to Mistral to see their families and make their proper debuts. They had started getting offers to join teams and organizations, but they were currently eyeballing the offer from a certain Hunter organization they had friends in.
Kiba had said goodbye to his family, taken Akamaru with him, and started traveling to help people wherever they were needed. Last they heard he was heading towards Vacuo, with Nora and Ren tagging along for the trip. They had friends in Shade to give them board and food, and they also wanted to congratulate a certain Faunus friend of theirs for his new job at the academy.
Which left Yang, Jaune, Naruto, and Ruby to stay in Vale. Yang was going to start off with her father, learning more of the ropes in the real world and getting a handle of what it meant to be a Huntress. Jaune would be starting off slow, building up some more skill and power in job offers in the city before he made his way out. He'd promise to meet up with the rest of his team again in a year, and he had a lot of work to do before then.
Which just left Ruby and Naruto. And to be honest...they didn't quite know what to do yet. Naruto didn't want to head off to Mistral just yet, though he did look forward to when he and his father could take a mission together as proper Huntsmen now. But he wanted to build up some experience as well, and get some Lien in his pockets, so he offered to take some missions up with Jaune as well before heading out to travel the world.
Ruby was going to take up a few missions with Qrow. She was eager to get right into it, but her uncle had thought that he should join her for her first few excursions for her own safety. It wasn't that he didn't trust her to handle it, but apparently he was concerned that she'd be too much of a goofball and take on dozens of jobs at once without any rest.
While Jaune retuned home and Yang went back to Patch, Naruto and Ruby felt the desire to branch away from their familiar surroundings. They wanted to start their lives as professionals and adults as quickly as they could, and decided to start off in Vale before moving out into the rest of Remnant. But finding places in Vale to stay in was proving scarce and difficult to pay for.
So when they found an available place, and it had two rooms and rent enough that they could split it, they immediately decided to take it. Now the 21-year old and the 19-year old newly minted Hunters were living in Vale, and were now roommates.
"Hey," Ruby spoke up as she started to unpack her towels, sheets, and toiletries, "Do you think we need to set up a schedule for when we do things and when we need to switch out?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked as he turned a box over and dumped out some of his clothes.
"Like when we should do our laundry or when we clean up or do the cooking?"
"Heh, you want to cook?"
"H-Hey, I just need a little practice is all! I can learn with time."
"Yeah, let's hope so. Although you might be one of those people who was just never meant to step behind an oven. They usually cause natural disasters when they try to make anything."
"Don't make fun of me."
"I'm not. That's a real thing. My dad is one of those people. He can't boil water without setting off the fire alarm."
"Uh-"
"I don't know how."
"Okay, so try to avoid being that bad. But what do you think about the schedule idea?"
"I think it sounds like a plan. We can hash it out tomorrow. But about dinner tonight..."
"Yes...tonight..."
The two new roommates looked at each other in silence.
"Pizza?"
"Read my mind."
They high fived before Ruby started rummaging through her things again. Her eyes widened in delight as she pulled out her game system, "Oh, wanna play some games?"
"Absolutely!" Naruto quickly abandoned his sorting and joined her on the couch as the system started booting up, "Whoever wins the first round gets to order the dessert!"
"It's cookies, right?!"
"I was in more of a mood for ice cream."
"Well it's a good thing I'm gonna whoop your butt anyway!"
"Bring it on!"
The night quickly devolved into the two new roommates playing game after game as the night dragged on, playing together or letting one take the wheel while the other watched and waited for their turn. Pizza was ordered, quickly devoured, and went well into the night just playing around.
So far all seemed perfect.
((((((((Hunted))))))))
Ruby blinked as she felt a ray of sunshine enter the living room and hit her in the eye. The young lady grumbled her displeasure and tried to curl up into a ball to hide away from it. However the brightness refused to spare her, and the silver-eyed girl finally let out a sigh and tried to open her eyes.
She realized that she had fallen asleep on the couch while they had been playing games. Even Naruto seemed to have passed out because there was a spot on the floor with a pillow he probably used to sleep on. Ruby blinked as she sat up properly and yawned, still not fully awake and considering just falling back to sleep.
However even with her sleep-addled mind she realized that she had slept in her clothes the entire night. Which meant she was probably super stinky. But she was living on her own now which meant she didn't have to take a shower just because her sister or her dad or Weiss told her to.
She was going to take a shower because she wanted to!
Ruby lifted herself up with a near Herculean amount of effort and made her way into a room. She rubbed her eyes when she entered and closed the door behind her when she was inside. The girl with the red-tipped hair reached down to her side and fiddled with her skirt before she felt it drop to the ground by her feet.
She pulled off her shirt next, pulling it over her head and getting stuck for a moment before finally freeing herself. The sleepy young lady pulled her socks off next, feeling her toes settle into the comfort of the carpet. A yawn escaped her mouth as she pulled down her underwear and let them drop to her feet before she stepped out of them. Finally she reached back and struggled with her bra before she pulled that off as well, shivering as the cold air was quick to strike her and force her to cover herself.
She walked into the bathroom and was relieved to feel the steam and heat from the running shower envelop her. Without a second thought she walked into the shower and moaned happily as the hot droplets pelt her body. She ran her hand through her hair, feeling it get matted down and form around her head. Ruby sighed as she ran her hand down her body, feeling the water stick to every curve and inch of her form. It felt so good to have such a wonderful shower all to herself.
Hot showers were a gift from the gods for all their hard work.
...
But she just woke up so how did she have the shower started already?
"Um...Ruby?"
The red-tipped girl slowly opened her eyes to see a wide chest of muscles situated directly in front of her with some scars, a sheen of water over it before she blocked the droplets path. She slowly lifted her head to look up at the owner of the chest.
Naruto's eyes were focused to the side, daring to turn back to look at her before snapping away. His whiskered cheeks were red, probably from the heat but might have been for something else.
Ruby blinked before slowly looking back down. Was he using the shower? Did she walk in on him in the shower? Well he wasn't wearing a shirt, and there were some bubbles on his body from the soap and shampoo. But that could have meant anything. Her eyes lowered again to look down...
...
Oh wow...he was naked.
...
She looked even further down to see her bare breasts blocking her sight from looking directly over herself.
So was she.
Ruby's cheeks filled with heat as her eyes widened in horror. Steam seemed to radiate from her head, a stark difference between the hot water and the monumentally hotter state of her head and face. She and Naruto stood in silence, naked together as their bodies were rained down on by their shower.
"Is..." Ruby whimpered, "Is this the part where you hit me?"
Naruto blinked, "What?"
"I-In those shows, when the protagonist walks in on someone naked or showering, they get slapped across the face or punched out of the room. So is that what you're gonna do now?"
"But isn't that usually the girl hitting the guy?"
"Y-Yeah, but I'm the one that walked in on you. So-"
"Ruby?"
"Uh-huh?"
"Get out."
"Okay!"
She burst away in a blaze of speed and rose petals, causing the shower curtain to fly out before resting back down in place. Naruto sighed and palmed his face, mostly out of exhaustion but also because he had to feel just how red his face was.
There...there was no way those images were ever going to leave his brain. Ruby was older now then when they first met but he always considered her as a kid or a younger sister. But time changed everything and she was no different.
Ruby... had certainly grown over the years. She was larger in the...uh-hum. A-And curvy with the...y-yeah. Plus all that running made her legs...yep. And not to mention her bare...well...
The fox Faunus flinched as he felt the hot water pelt something sensitive and raw. He looked down and realized that something was standing in the way of the water now.
"Yeah...that figures."
((((((((Hunted))))))))
Done
Well, here's to this crazy new idea. I hope I can make it as enjoyable as the concept was to think up.
One day I just thought about Ruby and Naruto as roommates and all of a sudden this story burst into my head. I think you'll really enjoy it as it goes along.
ReadxReview
Thank You and Bye
