Chapter 2 – Training Accidents & Bonding
One month has passed since Naruto accidentally dragged the three women from their worlds. During this month, a number of things have happened he considered to be both good and bad. The bad was fairly simple: having to force his clones to read books, taking the time to proofread his godfather's latest work in his perverted novel series, and being attacked for an incident that turned out to be one giant misunderstanding.
Flashback
The group of five had stopped in a small village for the day after a hard day of training for Naruto. It had been a week since he and Jiraiya had met the girls and since he had begun a much fiercer training regiment consisting of what he would call Shadow Clone torture. Book studies were not something he was fond of, but he was starting to understand, after sorting through all the memories he had to go through, why it was so necessary. More than that though, he was refining his taijutsu with Jiraiya and learning a variety of things from the girls.
From Meru, he was learning how to use combat magic and dancing, of all things, as well as how to wield and fight with a hammer the size that she typically used in combat. Meru's magic was interesting, seeing as she was not just a Dragoon, but a Wingly as well, she decided to not only show him some of her species' magic, but teach him in how to use it as well. Or at least, she was teaching him the theory behind it in the hopes he would be able to recreate said spells and use them in a way that suited Naruto just right.
Dancing was an interesting concept for Naruto. At first he laughed at Meru, thinking she was joking when she suggested he learn how to dance. When she clobbered him with her hammer for daring to laugh at her chosen profession, the blonde quickly shut up and listened to exactly why she wanted him to learn how to dance. Meru proceeded to tell the energetic ninja that learning how to dance would help Naruto with his footwork and help him become more flexible and nimble, as well as light on his feet. Not only that, but if he ever had to attend some kind of party or a ball of some sort and had to blend in and/or dance with a member of the opposite sex, he wouldn't end up embarrassing himself if he learned how to dance now. All-in-all, her reasoning seemed quite sound and the fifteen year-old ninja ended up agreeing with her wholeheartedly that learning how to dance sounded like quite the good idea!
From Rikku, Naruto received a Garment Grid and was told to try out a few of the dresspheres. When he did, he found himself donning male versions of the dresspheres that Rikku would commonly change into. Pleased with this, the bubbly thief told Naruto that she would take the time to train Naruto in everything she could that dealt with the various dresspheres she had, how to use the Garment Grids properly, and more. She also told him that practicing in all of these things would definitely make him a better ninja, and when he asked how, Rikku proceeded to explain it like this:
'A thief has to be light on their feet and quick with their fingers. By practicing in that dressphere and learning how to pickpocket somebody as well as learning how to move even more stealthily than you already do, you'll become more adept at handling your kunai and shuriken and, naturally, be more skilled in the art of stealth.
An alchemist deals in a wide variety of tonics, potions, poisons, and other such things. By learning what items combine to make what product, not only will you become more knowledgeable in such things, but you will also learn how to handle all of these things as well. You could even become something of a professional when it comes to poisons if you wanted, therefore providing your village with some very potent toxins and venoms that would definitely put your enemies down for hours, days, or even forever if need be. Or, if you wanted, you could make some life-saving tonics and potions. It all depends on what the alchemist desires to do, and you would hold that power in your hands.
A trainer works with animals of varying kinds. I, myself, work with little Ghiki, my monkey buddy, but you would not only have your own animal companion, you would also be learning how to deal with animals in general. You would be able to calm them, even command them on the battlefield or instruct them on how to best aid an ally. Not only this, but you'll also learn how to tend to wounded animals and learn to heal them as well. This would be beneficial, as from what I understand, there are ninja in Konoha that fight alongside ninja hounds, and I'm sure they would appreciate you coming to their companions' aid.'
Needless to say, Rikku had an answer for pretty much every dressphere, and Naruto absorbed all of her information like a sponge. He wanted to learn, and he was happy to do so from the lovely young woman. He was also happy to learn more magic from Rikku as well, such as White and Black Magic, and even some of her Blue Bullet magic as well, some of which was just amazing to witness for him and he was excited to try and learn if he could.
From Towa, he was learning how to better wield a kunai as if he would a dagger, and he was even learning how to wield her rifle as well, just in case she was ever unable to for whatever reason. So far, she hadn't taught him anything about his time/space magic, but she told him that it was a dangerous magic and that, with his lack of control, it was still too dangerous to attempt to harness at this point in time. So for now, he was content to simply learn what he could from her.
At least, that's what he told himself until she decided yesterday that he lacked proper etiquette and decided it would be prudent of her to teach him how to handle himself better amongst people, especially should he ever need to handle himself amongst members of a noble class. This was proving to be a bit of a nightmare for the young Uzumaki and he honestly felt like bashing his head into a wall just thinking about it. All those rules were a damned, bloody nightmare!
Finally, from Jiraiya, he was learning the art of sealing, or at least that's what he would be learning sometime in the near future. First, he and his clones needed to improve his handwriting to an adequate level before he would even be allowed to attempt sealing. In the meantime, while he worked on improving his handwriting, he was being taught about individual seals and what each small piece did. Surprisingly, at least to Naruto, he found that understanding seals came quite easily to him, though Jiraiya explained this as part of his Uzumaki heritage, that it would likely come easily to Naruto as it did to his mother as well.
Along with seals, Naruto was being taught advanced chakra control exercises to try and get his chakra and magic control levels up to snuff, or at least Jiraiya hoped it would help him learn how to control his magic better. At the same time, Naruto was being taught more in the ninjutsu department from not only Jiraiya, but from various scrolls his sensei had procured from both his travels and from whatever Tsunade had managed to send him. On top of all of this, Naruto was even allowed to study scrolls on medical ninjutsu, and this was quite interesting to the young man as he never thought he'd get to try such a thing. Of course, it was explained to Naruto shortly after he received the scrolls that they were only there to help him get a better understanding of things so that he'd be able to understand and use his healing magic to a better degree.
Thanks to Jiraiya, Naruto had also figured out his chakra nature, or should he say, natures. Naruto was aligned to both wind- and fire-natured chakra, so the majority of the ninjutsu he was going to learn were based in those. However, that didn't mean that Naruto wasn't going to learn ninjutsu for the other elements as well, as Jiraiya wanted the boy to be as well-versed as possible so he could stand up to any opponent, especially those in the Akatsuki. Finally, Jiraiya was trying to improve Naruto's understanding of genjutsu, as well as his resistance to it and how to break it should he ever be caught in one. Which leads us to our current problem.
After such a long week of training, Naruto was glad to finally have a chance to relax. When they found an inn with a hot spring in the back that was divided into both men's and women's sides, he was eager to jump at the chance to rest his weary and aching body. So, without a second thought, the young blonde rushed into what he thought was the male's side of the hot springs. Of course, what he failed to realize was that there was a genjutsu placed over the signs that faded just after he entered the 'men's' side, revealing that he had, instead, entered the women's side.
After disrobing and grabbing a towel, Naruto rushed outside to the hot spring, only to freeze for a moment as there was a lot of steam in the air. Waving his hand in front of his face for a moment, the young man soon found himself frozen in abject horror. "Oh shit."
Sitting there in the hot spring, naked as the day she was born, was Towa, her eyes closed and her long, blonde hair splayed out behind her on a rock. She looked breathtakingly beautiful to his eyes, but at the same time, he knew he was in deep, deep shit if she caught him. Sadly, he just had to mutter that out loud, and so she snapped her eyes open and looked directly at him with a murderous glare. "What the hell are you doing in here?!" Towa snapped angrily.
Mouth dangling open, Naruto stammered for an answer as he glanced back at the doorway he entered from and back again at the nude beauty a few times before he felt tears streaming down his face. I am SOOO dead! "Th-The signs! I thought…but…please don't kill me!"
Now standing out of the hot spring, Towa finished wrapping her towel around her body and grasped her Dagger of Eternity and pressed it up against the younger male's throat. "And why the hell shouldn't I?! You just saw me naked! You're just like Zack, I swear!" Towa shouted angrily as memories of what Moebius told her flashed through her mind. All those times with Zack and those moments with him started flashing through her mind and she ended up pressing the dagger harder against Naruto's neck to the point it began to bleed a little.
Gulping, Naruto took a short step back and pressed himself against the wall. "I'm not like him, I swear to you Towa. The signs…they were switched or something, I swear." Reaching up, Naruto rubbed at his neck and stared at the blood on the palm of his hands for a moment before he looked up again into Towa's eyes. "I didn't mean to make you remember him. I think…I think I know who's to blame for this if you really want to take out your frustrations on somebody right now. Pervy Sage. He's the only one I can think of who would do something like this."
Looking into the younger male's eyes, the blonde princess shook her head in an effort to stave off the memories and frowned as she slipped the dagger back into its holster on her thigh. "Fine. I believe you. Now are you going to be okay? I'm sorry that I cut you."
Naruto waved her off and smiled a bit. "Nah, it's okay. My teammate does a LOT worse than that, trust me. I wouldn't even do anything and she'd hit me over the head or punch me in the face and send me flying. It…it hurts when she'd do that. I mean…I care for her a lot, but…all she could ever see was the teme. She probably still likes the bastard even though he's betrayed the village for that snake pedo. You guys managed to talk me out of that stupid promise I made, which I'm grateful for by the way, but…I dunno. Sakura…she…I…I just don't know, y'know?"
Sighing to herself, Towa shook her head and walked over to the boy. Reaching up, she patted him on the shoulder and gave him a soft smile when he looked her in the eyes. "You have the next two years to decide how you should feel about your teammate Naruto. Don't try to rush it and come to a hasty decision. Okay? For now, what do you say we go and teach that perverted teacher of yours a lesson he won't soon forget? I for one vote for chopping off one of his testicles. What do you think?"
Chuckling nervously to himself, Naruto weakly voiced his own opinion. "Umm, Towa? I don't know if you've noticed, but I happen to be a guy myself, so…yeah. Just the thought of that happening to another guy sends shivers down my spine. Besides, I'm still very sore from everything, so I think I'd like to rest in the actual guys' side of the hot springs. You go have fun torturing the hell out of my teacher. Just…try not to kill him okay? I do still need him after all."
End Flashback
As for the good bits, Naruto felt that was easy enough: plenty of training, and he was growing closer to not just the girls, but his godfather as well. Despite being left to rot in the village of his birth without anyone to truly care for him, the young man found himself easily forgiving Jiraiya as he couldn't find it in himself to hate the man after he was going so far to help Naruto in the here and now.
Rikku had actually opened up to Naruto about her past and about her feelings for Tidus, along with the jealousy she felt towards her cousin, Yuna, and how it made her feel so guilty for falling for the same man she did. Despite worrying that he might get hit for doing it (you can blame Sakura's constant abuse for such an expectation), Naruto pulled the thief into a hug and stroked her hair gently as he let her cry into his shoulder. The young Uzumaki knew it couldn't have been easy to talk about, and he wished he could have said something wise and insightful that would have cheered her up, but for now, all he could really do was offer her his shoulder to cry on. Little did he know that simply being there for her and showing that simple act of kindness was enough for her in that moment.
As for Meru, she acted pretty much as she always did, excited and bubbly. But Naruto had experience with wearing a mask and was able to see that, despite everything, Meru was hurting as well. So he pulled her aside during one of her training sessions with him and decided to talk to her about her friends, the ones she was stolen away from. It wasn't a very long discussion, as she didn't want to truly talk about it just yet, but she was grateful that Naruto cared enough to try and cheer her up.
Now, however, finds our young hero standing before the ex-princess Towa. She had decided that she would be training Naruto today, but she seemed far sterner and more serious than she usually behaved. So, curious about what was going on, Naruto spoke up. "Towa, what's going on? You're acting kind of…'off'. Is everything alright?" He queried, hoping that nothing was wrong with his friend.
Glancing into the younger man's eyes for a moment, the amber-eyed woman released a heavy sigh and shook her head. "I'm just concerned, that's all. We're starting on your time and space magic training today Naruto and I'm concerned that maybe…well…"
Guessing where she was going with this, Naruto frowned as well and nodded his head. "You're worried that maybe it's too soon. I understand. It's dangerous and anything could go wrong, right?"
Nodding her head in response, Towa let a small smile tug at her lips before a stern frown took hold and she resumed her serious posture. "Alright Naruto. You've been working on your control for the past month, and I do think you're ready for this. For now, the first spell I want you to try is to speed up the time around you. In order to do this, I want you to watch me first so you can see what I do, alright? Analyze it and try to figure out what I've done. If you need help figuring it out, just let me know. However, I want to see if you can figure it out on your own."
With that being said, Towa activated her Time Surge spell and practically disappeared before reappearing quite some distance away. In the blink of an eye, she was right back where she started, staring calmly down at her charge for the day. "I call this spell Time Surge. Now, see if you can figure it out."
Naruto sat himself down in a cross-legged position and closed his eyes as he began to meditate on it and think. It almost looked as if she was teleporting from place to place. But from what she told me beforehand, I don't think that's it. Speed up the time around me? How could that be possible? Is that what she did? But how? Think Naruto!
Releasing a shaky breath, Naruto gripped his left knee hard and bit his bottom lip as he struggled to find the answer to this puzzle. Wait, if she wasn't teleporting, maybe she was just moving really, really fast? Could speeding up the time around somebody really cause such a thing to happen? Could I really learn how to do such an awesome thing? If so, nobody would be able to catch me! But…wait…there has to be a catch to this.
Opening his eyes and looking up into the eyes of his mentor, Naruto decided to voice his question. "If you're capable of speeding up time like that and moving that fast, what's the catch?"
Smirking at this, the blonde beauty walked up to Naruto and patted him gently on the head. "I'm glad you caught on. Speeding up time like that used to cause a few problems for me. The first of which, when I was first starting out, is I'd end up not only speeding myself up, but my enemies as well. Needless to say, that didn't make it a very beneficial spell to cast. But refining the spell and my abilities made it so that particular problem didn't exist anymore. Instead, the downside now is the fact that it puts an incredible strain on the spellcaster's body. You can't maintain the spell for long periods of time. In other words, you can only use the spell in short bursts to give yourself an edge, otherwise you run the risk of doing serious harm to your own body. But considering what you have inside of you and how sturdily you're built, I'm not sure how long you can hold it for before you finally have to cancel the spell. All I know is that you're better suited for this kind of spell than I am, hence why it's the first time spell I'm willing to teach you."
Smiling happily at that, Naruto nodded in acceptance of her words, both due to his happiness at her acknowledging him in such a way, and his eagerness to get started with the training. Seeing this, Towa giggled a bit and took a few steps back before she began explaining what Naruto had to do. "Now I want you to stand up and close your eyes Naruto. Visualize the world around you and focus hard on the magic inside of you. Now imagine the flow of time in the world bending to your will. Imagine it surging around you, slowing to a crawl, then speeding up to almost a blur as you will yourself to move faster than light itself."
Doing as instructed, the orange-clad ninja began to focus on the magic within him and thought clearly about what he wanted to do. When he felt like he had a good grasp on it, Naruto tried to will time to bend to his will, only for things to feel slightly 'off' to him. Unsure as to what exactly went wrong, Naruto began to try again and again, at least until Towa shouted at him to stop what he was doing and open his eyes.
Doing so, Naruto opened his eyes and turned to see a rather unstable-looking portal right in front of him, right between the two blondes. Gulping slightly, Naruto tried to reign in his magic in the hopes that the portal would go away, but it was too late, the portal was there and it wasn't going away until its purpose was completed. "Towa, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for this to happen!"
Remnant – Moments earlier
Yang cursed inside her mind as she slew another creature of the Grimm species. Ever since Pyrrha accidentally killed that Penny girl that Ruby was so fond of, things had gone to Hell in a crap basket! She had been watching the fight on her scroll when it happened. Pyrrha's behavior had been odd throughout the fight, but Yang felt it was similar somehow, though she couldn't quite place it at the moment because of all the other thoughts rushing through her head.
As the blonde bombshell rushed around a corner in search of her partner, she let her mind wander to the words of the mysterious 'Red Queen'. All that bullshit she was spouting out was honestly enough to gnaw at Yang's brain. Who the hell did that chick think she was?! Gah! It didn't matter! All that mattered now was that Beacon was under attack and she needed to find her partner before the bastards from the White Fang could find her.
Rounding another corner, Yang shouted out her best friend's name before finally spotting her. When she did, Yang went to approach her, only to suddenly freeze on the spot and go wide-eyed as the Faunus standing above her stabbed the amber-eyed young woman through her stomach. White-hot rage consumed the busty blonde at this point and she shouted out: "Get away from HER!" as her semblance activated, turning her eyes red and causing her hair to flare up as it so often did when she got like this.
As Yang leapt at Adam Taurus, the target of her blind rage, and the White Fang leader prepared to counter her assault, a strange (and quite unexpected) phenomenon took place between the two fighters. Opening right there in Yang's flight path was a large, grey and red portal that the airborne brawler had no hope of avoiding. So, accepting her inevitable fate, Yang closed her eyes and flew right into the awaiting portal, falling unconscious shortly afterwards.
Seeing this happen, Blake's eyes widened even more than they already had at seeing her partner so recklessly charge her ex-boyfriend. Yang! No! Grabbing Gambol Shroud, Blake stumbled to her feet and hurried after her into the portal, the thing closing right behind her, thus preventing Adam from reaching her.
Screaming out in anger and frustration, Adam Taurus slashed apart an Alpha Creep that leapt at him from a blind spot and glared at where his ex-girlfriend and her partner had disappeared. "I swear to you Blake, wherever you went, whatever you might be up to, I will find you and I will make you pay. If it takes me the rest of my years, I'll make sure you suffer for what you did to me."
Back with Naruto and Towa
Whatever the two of them were expecting, a beautiful pair of women falling out of the portal unconscious was most certainly not at the top of their list. Well, at least it wasn't at the top of Naruto's list. Towa on the other hand… "Naruto, I have a question for you."
Glancing at his companion, Naruto raised an eyebrow as he knelt down to begin looking over the two to make sure they were alright, quickly noticing that while the blonde was simply knocked out from the trip through the portal, the shorter of the two young women was in much worse shape and would need medical attention soon. "What's up Towa?"
"When you're opening these portals, exactly what are you thinking about? Do you think about women or something? Because so far, all that we've seen coming through these portals of yours are women. Rikku and Meru were first, then there's me, and now these two. Who's next, hm?" Towa queried, genuinely curious about what would happen the next time he accidentally opened a portal to some unknown world and/or dimension.
Blinking in confusion at this, Naruto shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "Nah, I'm not really thinking of anything like that. The first time was when I was attacking Jiraiya in my four-tailed state, so I can't really say what I was thinking at that point as I wasn't exactly in an 'aware' state. The second time, with you, I was having a panic attack of sorts, so again, not really thinking very well. And this time? I was so focused on trying to get that spell of yours right that I didn't have much else on my mind. I think it's just a coincidence that everyone that's come through these portals has turned out to be a female so far."
Nodding her head at this, Towa reasoned that her new friend's reasoning was sound enough and decided to voice another concern. "Fair enough. For now, I think you have your first real patient, Naruto. It's time to test out your healing magic on that girl there. Nobody else is here with us at the moment, so you're going to need to get this right. You've already had some practice healing Jiraiya after he got himself clobbered at that hot spring resort we passed that one time, but he wasn't as severely hurt as this one is. I want you to focus Naruto and remember to breathe and stay calm. Don't let your nerves get to you."
Mumbling "Gee, no pressure Towa-chan." under his breath, Naruto placed both of his hands over the black-haired girl's stomach and began to focus on his magic once again. However, this time he knew exactly what he was trying to do. Remembering his lessons with Rikku, the young blonde began to slowly, but surely heal the wounded girl's stab wound. When it was finally gone and she was fully healed, Naruto fell back and laid on the grass with a big smile on his face. "Phew! I'm glad that's over with. I was feeling pretty nervous there for a while."
"So was I. That's my girlfriend you were tending to after all. If it wasn't for the fact that I saw you healing her like that, I would've clobbered you for sure." A voice he hadn't heard before said to him. Opening his eyes, Naruto leaned up to look at the blonde girl and smiled to see that she was awake and looking at him. "Hi there Blondie. Name's Yang, what's yours?"
"In case you haven't noticed, you're blonde too, y'know? Anyways, I'm Naruto and this is Towa. It's nice to meet you Yang. Thank you for not attempting to clobber me while I was healing your…wait…did you say she's your girlfriend? As in girl friend or romantically involved girlfriend? 'Cause if that's so, you're going to want to be careful around my godfather. He'll definitely want to use that in one of his dirty books for sure!" Naruto rambled on for a time, clearly getting off topic towards the end as what Yang had said managed to get processed in his mind.
As this happened, Towa sighed and decided to smack Naruto upside the head for being an insensitive idiot as he was wont to do sometimes. "Naruto, it seems I'm going to need to double my efforts in teaching you proper etiquette. You clearly lack tact in dealing with situations such as this still. Anyways, it's nice to meet you Yang. As Naruto told you, my name is Towa. Might I ask who your girlfriend is and what exactly happened to her that left her in such a horrible state?"
Snickering to herself for a moment, Yang winked at Naruto before looking to Towa and answering her question. "It's alright princess, no harm done." She couldn't help but notice the slight twitch the ponytailed blonde made at being called princess and decided to file that away for later. Shrugging it off, Yang turned to her companion and gently brushed a few fingers through her long, silky hair. "This is Blake. Blake Belladonna is her full name. Mine's Yang Xiao Long in case you were wondering. We…we just came from a horrible battle. Blake's ex-boyfriend came after her. Needless to say, he hurt her bad and in more ways than one. He stabbed her and I tried to attack him when this portal appeared in between us. I never got the chance to hurt him for what he did to her. Then again…"
Towa saw where she was going with her line of thought and decided it was probably left unsaid. Instead, she stepped forward and placed a gentle hand upon the slightly younger woman's shoulder. "Don't let it eat away at you. You've lived to fight another day. That's what really matters here. You and your girlfriend are safe now and that monster has no way of reaching you here."
Naruto decided to speak up again at this point, wanting to try and comfort the gorgeous woman before him any way that he could. "Yang, I'm not entirely sure what you and Blake have been through, but as Towa said, you are both safe now. I'm going to go retrieve my godfather and my other teachers. There's…more you need to hear Yang. Both you and Blake. While you two may be safe now, there is some bad news that needs to be shared with you both. Let me just say that I'm sorry in advance."
Yang blinked in confusion as she watched her fellow blonde rise to his feet and rush off, probably to fetch the others he mentioned. As he did, the busty brawler turned to the ex-princess and decided to ask something. "So what's your story? I noticed you flinched when I called you princess earlier."
Frowning at her, Towa huffed and glanced at Blake in order to avert her eyes from the curious blonde's questioning gaze. "I don't really know you well enough to talk about my problems with you just yet. But if you must know, I used to be a princess. That's all I'll say on the matter."
Nodding her head in appreciation of that, Yang turned her gaze back onto her girlfriend and leaned over her to place a light kiss atop her forehead. "It's alright if you don't trust me enough yet to talk to me about your past problems. I didn't really expect you to open up to me just like that, right off the bat. I've got things I don't really want to open up about with a complete stranger just yet either." With a shrug of her shoulders, the young lady from Remnant offered Towa an understanding smile that Towa returned.
Within a few moments, Naruto came back into view with three other people, two women and a much older male with a long mane of white hair. After they reached the group of three women, Blake finally began to stir and slowly opened her eyes. Glancing around, the young feline Faunus looked around at her surroundings and, upon seeing so many unfamiliar faces, quickly grasped her blades and leapt up, flipping backwards away from the group and taking a defensive stance. It was then that she noticed she didn't feel any pain from the action. Glancing down at her stomach, Blake began to pat at herself in confusion before looking to Yang with a curious gaze. "Yang? What happened? Where are we?"
Rising to her feet, Yang walked over and pulled her girlfriend into a tight hug before kissing her sweetly on the lips, causing a deep red blush to overtake her. Freezing for a moment as her eyes darted to their company, Blake eventually ended up giving into the kiss and closed her eyes, slowly returning her girlfriend's gesture in earnest, happy to know that she was alive and well. When they pulled away from one another, Blake's blush had lessened somewhat and she asked her questions again. "Not that I'm not happy to see you too Yang, but what exactly happened while I was out?"
Shrugging her shoulders in response, Yang turned to face their audience with a smug grin on her face. "Well, I believe our audience could probably provide us with some answers Blakey. When I came to, I saw Mr. Blondie over there healing you with some kind of glowing magic hand trick of some kind. I was about to clobber the hell out of him because I thought he was about to hurt you until I saw what he was doing for you. But other than that, I really don't know where the heck we are or what's going on. Sooo, would the peanut gallery like to fill us clueless peasants in on our situation?"
At this, Naruto decided that the wisest course of action he could take was to hide behind the strongest person there: Jiraiya. As he did this, the white-haired, older male shot him a withering glare that just screamed 'you fucking traitor!' before he decided to address the two young women and inform them of their situation they now found themselves in thanks to his godson.
"I've already been informed of the situation regarding the both of you. Apparently your little girlfriend there was attacked by her ex-boyfriend and Naruto here healed her. First, allow me to say that I'm glad the two of you are alright." Taking a deep breath, the famous author decided it was time to break the bad news to the both of them. "However, you need to hear the bad news about your situation. You are no longer in your world. The two of you were dragged from your world thanks to my idiot godson here. He lost control of his magic and opened a portal to your world that dragged the both of you through it and deposited the both of you here before him. I'd say that it's lucky it did, considering the kind of wound you had young lady." Jiraiya said, nodding his head at Blake.
Before they could say anything, the black-eyed male held up his hand and continued on. "Before you ask, currently there is no known way to return you to your world. My godson here dragged these three from their home worlds as well. Until he gets better control over his magic, there's no guarantee that he can ever open up a portal to your world again. As it is, it was a matter of chance that he happened to open up a portal to your world when he did. If you had loved ones or even family and unfinished business back home, I apologize sincerely for robbing you of all of that." Bowing low to the two young women, Jiraiya forced Naruto out from behind him and pushed his head down until he was on his knees and prostrating himself before the two of them as well. "My idiot godson is sincerely apologetic as well. He'll be working harder than ever to gain control over his magic so he can try to fix this. Please don't be too upset with him, he didn't mean to hurt you."
As Jiraiya's words registered in their brains, Yang and Blake stood there frozen in shock. They couldn't go home? They were stranded in a new world and might never get to see their friends and family again? How? How was this fair?!
As Blake collapsed to her knees, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to find the words to express her thoughts, Yang clenched and unclenched her fists, anger clearly taking hold. Eventually she reached a boiling point and raised her gaze, narrowing her red eyes in anger as she glared at the young man before her. Preparing to stomp forward and clobber him for taking away Ruby, her pops, and everything else she loved, she almost lashed out when Blake reached out and grasped her hand tightly. Glancing back and down at her girlfriend, Yang's gaze softened considerably as her hair fell back down and her eyes returned to their usual violet coloring. Blake was shaking her head no, telling her not to attack the younger male.
Turning her amber eyes to look straight into the eyes of the blonde male's, Blake decided to voice a question. "Will you make me a promise? Will you promise to try and master your power and find a way to help us see our loved ones again at the very least? That's all I ask. Even if you can't get us home, I just want to be sure they're okay, that they're safe and happy."
Hearing this, Naruto walked over to Blake and placed both of his hands upon her shoulders before smiling brightly and nodding determinedly. "Blake, on my name as Naruto Uzumaki, I promise you that I will master my magic and find a way to get you and Yang home. I never break my promises…" Pausing for a moment, Naruto chuckled nervously for a moment and shook his head. "Except for one, but that's because my teammate wanted me to bring a traitor back to the village for her when he left willingly to join a really bad guy. Wasn't exactly a smart promise of me to make, so I'm kinda glad these four talked me out of it. But that's not important right now. What is important is making sure you understand that I will get you and your girlfriend home. I promise you that."
Nodding in appreciation of this, Blake looked up at her girlfriend to see her grinning down at the blonde. "Well said Blondie. With determination like that, I actually believe you'll get us home someday. Might not be anytime soon, but if you're that determined, I'm willing to stick with ya until you fulfill your promise. How about you kitty cat?"
Sighing at the nickname and palming her face, the feline Faunus groaned for a moment. "You know I hate it when you call me that. Why you still do is beyond me."
Three Months Later
Naruto grunted as he hit the ground hard. With a groan of effort, he pushed himself to his feet, only to have to dodge to the side a second later as his assailant leaped upon him once again, refusing to give him any time to relax and recover. Quickly spinning around to face his opponent, Naruto threw a straight punch at her, only to have it blocked. Before he could continue with his attack, the young ninja had to duck under a high kick and performed a back flip to escape her attempted grapple.
Now that he had some distance, Naruto took some time to look over his opponent in this match and assess her. Damn it she's tough. Even after all the times we've sparred so far, I still can't win! If I was only allowed to use something more than my taijutsu alone I'd be good, but nooooo! Realizing he was getting off topic, the blue-eyed blonde shook his head to clear it and began to try and focus on his assessment again. Okay, Yang's tough, like really tough. She hits so much harder than Sakura ever did, and she's fast too.
Hopping backwards as Yang dashed at him, throwing punch after punch, each of which he narrowly dodged, Naruto continued his assessment while he moved on instinct. Yang's flexible and has what appears to be a brawler's fighting style, similar to what I used before, but it's not, at least not entirely. She's refined her style until she's become something so fierce that she can take on practically any opponent in a straight-on taijutsu battle. I'm just glad she isn't using Ember Celica anymore, or I'd be screwed. Remembering back to their first spar, Naruto shuddered. He did not want to relive that experience.
Flashback
It had been a month since the group had incorporated the duo from Remnant into their midst, and quite the month it had been. For starters, after witnessing the mass amount of clones Naruto was able to make, the two of them were absolutely stunned. Blake admitted to herself and to Yang that she wished she could make that many, as it would certainly prove useful in the field of combat. In response to this, Yang also admitted to wishing Blake could make a larger number of solid clones like that, if only to increase the fun of their activities behind closed doors. Naturally, this brought quite the enormous blush to the Faunus' face and caused her to punch her girlfriend in the arm for saying something like that in the presence of their current company, especially Jiraiya.
They watched as Naruto's hundreds of clones each separated to go and work on their own projects, each with their own teachers, or going off in groups by themselves to work on something else. Meanwhile, the original stuck with Jiraiya as they began a taijutsu-only spar.
As they watched, the both of them noticed something that seemed to stand out more than anything. Turning to her black-haired girlfriend, Yang decided to voice her observation. "Is it just me, or are his hand-to-hand combat skills really lacking?"
Shaking her head in the negative, Blake responded with an affirmative to her beloved. "I noticed the same thing Sweetheart. He's overextending his punches and kicks, he's taking unnecessary risks that leave him wide open to counterattacks, and he's throwing all of his strength into each of his attacks, which really takes away from his speed. It looks like Jiraiya's attempting to correct these flaws, but from the looks of it, it's not going too well. I think it might be a good idea to have him spar with you instead, Yang."
Agreeing with this assessment, the two of them approached the male duo and interrupted their spar. "Master Jiraiya, Naruto, can we speak with the both of you for a moment? We've noticed some things that we'd like to speak with you two about, as well as offer up an idea that might actually benefit Naruto in his training more than what you're attempting to do right now." Blake stated, hoping that they weren't being too rude by interrupting the two of them in the middle of such important training. However, she truly felt that this was important and that her girlfriend would be the perfect person to correct Naruto's hand-to-hand issues.
Curious to know what kind of help the two of them could offer, Jiraiya nodded in response and offered up a smile to assuage Blake's fears. Motioning for each of them to take a seat, he sat down cross-legged on the ground as each of them did the same. "Sure, we'll listen to what you two have to say. If you think you can offer up some help to my knuckleheaded charge here, I'm more than willing to listen, and I'm sure he is as well. Aren't you brat?" Jiraiya queried jokingly.
Sighing at this, Naruto nodded his head and turned to the girls, honestly curious to see what they had in mind. Any help he could get with his training, he was honestly willing to accept at this point. After all, he needed to get stronger so he could better protect not just himself, but his loved ones as well. "Yeah, I am. If you two feel like you can help me in my training somehow, I'm willing to hear you out."
Deciding that it was probably best to just be blunt, Yang spoke up before Blake could. "We both noticed some things about your hand-to-hand combat style Naruto that trouble us. You have so many problems it's amazing you even function at all. I bet that you've probably only won in any hand-to-hand fights in the past because you can overwhelm your opponents with a large number of clones, am I right?"
Seeing as Naruto was about to shout out from a mixture of frustration and anger, Jiraiya shot him a glare that told him to be quiet and listen. So, reluctantly, Naruto did just that and motioned for Yang to go on.
Nodding her head in appreciation towards Jiraiya, the busty blonde continued. "You don't know how to throw a proper punch or a kick. You overextend yourself and leave yourself wide open to counterattacks from your enemies. When you throw a punch, it's obvious that you put all your power behind it, which takes away from your speed. You also happen to take unnecessary risks in your efforts to hit your opponent, which, if and when they fail, also leave you wide open for counterattacks. You also lack any proper form, which is okay, but it would help if you had some kind of base form to build off of. You need to learn how to fight smart instead of just doing whatever and hoping you hit, Naruto. I'm not saying to ignore your instincts, as trusting them in a fight is a good thing, but at the same time, if you don't use your head in a fight, you're not going to last very long."
At hearing all of his faults laid bare for him like this, Naruto could only grit his teeth in frustration as he clenched his fists tightly. He was angry, but not at Yang, Blake, or even Jiraiya for forcing him to listen until the end. No, he was angry at the situation itself, at being stuck like this. He knew why he was like this, but it hurt him to even think about why he was in this situation to begin with. Naruto didn't want to remember the past and how much it hurt, but Yang's next comment brought it all to the boiling point.
"Naruto, it's almost like you were never taught how to throw a proper punch. I heard from Jiraiya before about that ninja academy, and I'm sure they took the time to teach students how to fight, so why the heck didn't you pay attention in class? Surely you would have been better if you had only paid attention to the teachers' instructions." She commented, unaware that her comments had finally pushed Naruto too far.
With a growl, Naruto rose to his feet and snapped at Yang angrily. "Nobody wanted to teach me! I was the fucking pariah in my village! I've always been hated and unwanted by everybody Kami damn it! Whenever I tried to learn anything, whenever I asked a question, I'd always get in trouble! They loved watching me get beat down in the most humiliating ways possible during spars in the academy! I only got to pass because Iruka-sensei was kind and did what he could to help me. He…he…" Stopping momentarily to wipe at his eyes in an attempt to stave off the tears he could feel stinging at his eyes, Naruto continued on. "Iruka-sensei could only do so much because of the years of sabotage throughout the academy. Even then, I had already given up on trying to learn much of anything and skipped half the damn classes like a damned idiot, despite the fact I finally, finally had a teacher willing to help me! So don't act like you know what I went through damn it! You don't know anything!"
Breathing heavily, Naruto tried to calm himself down, but he was still so angry at everything and he wanted to hit something badly. Sensing this, Yang rose to her feet and walked away from the group of three. "Naruto, let's have a friendly spar. I think you could use a spar to help you calm down. From now on, I'll be your sparring partner until you can finally beat me, and then you can resume sparring with Master Jiraiya. Before we begin though, I apologize for making assumptions like that. Can you forgive me?"
Smiling a bit, the blond ninja nodded his head before preparing himself for combat once again. "Yeah Yang, I forgive you. It wasn't like you could've known. Thank you by the way, nobody's ever taken the time to point out my flaws like that before. If you can help me fix them, I'm more than willing to accept your help."
With that, the two of them bowed to each other before the spar began with a signal from Blake. It didn't take long for the long-haired blond to put Naruto on the defensive, nor did it take long for the fight to end as she ended up firing off a shot from her Ember Celica after nailing Naruto in the chest with a rather powerful right hook. What she didn't expect, however, was for a large amount of blood to splash on her face and chest and for Naruto to collapse backwards, hitting the ground with a thud.
Staring down at the fallen ninja with wide, unfocused eyes, Yang felt a sense of dread wash through her. She couldn't believe what she had just done. She was so used to the spars back at Beacon Academy that she forgot that the people of this world didn't have aura to protect them! Now Naruto was on the ground bleeding out, probably already on death's door! It was all because of her! It was all her fault!
Naruto was vaguely aware of Meru rushing over and forcing a transformation into her Dragoon state to heal him. He couldn't hear anything, nor could he feel anything. The young Uzumaki male could taste blood and he was sure that it was trickling down from the corner of his lips while Meru was patching him up. Glancing around, Naruto could see Blake and Rikku shouting at Yang, who appeared to be frozen where she stood. He had no idea what they were saying, but it didn't matter to him at this moment. Looking to his side, he could see Jiraiya trying to speak to him, but again, he simply couldn't hear anything. At the moment he just felt so tired. So very, very tired.
However, he was starting to feel something: a warmth was flooding through him and he was starting to regain feeling throughout his body. He still couldn't hear anything besides this horrible ringing noise, but he was glad that he was starting to feel something again. That cold feeling wasn't pleasant and he was sure that if it had continued, he would have likely dozed off and never woken up again.
Meanwhile, Yang was finally snapped out of her frozen stupor when Blake slapped her cheek hard. "Finally! Yang, I don't know what you were thinking, but you almost killed him! They don't have aura here, I can't believe you could be so reckless! I understand you're used to the spars back at Beacon, but you need to be more careful from now on! From now on, if we're even allowed to stay with them after this, you aren't allowed to use Ember Celica during your spars! Do you understand me?!"
At this, the busty young woman could only nod in response before wrapping her girlfriend up in a tight hug. Tears soon began to fall from her eyes as she shut them tight and began to sob. "I didn't mean to hurt him. I wasn't trying to kill him…I…I…" As she tried to stammer out her thoughts, Blake shushed her and just gently stroked her hair in an effort to calm her girlfriend down. It would take some time, but they'd all get through this and become all the stronger for it.
Flashback End
For almost an entire month, they hadn't had another spar. Instead, Yang spent time instructing him on how to throw proper punches and kicks, as well as trying to show him how her style of fighting worked so he at least had some type of base to work from. Sure enough, Naruto forgave Yang easily enough after just a couple of days, which really caught the young woman by surprise. When he did forgive her, Miss Xiao Long hugged him tight and thanked him profusely for forgiving her after what she had done.
Now, however, Naruto had to focus on his current spar with the lovely young woman. Ducking underneath a powerful left hook, Naruto tried a sweep kick, only for Yang to perform a flip kick and send Naruto flying through the air again before crashing hard onto his back once again. Groaning in pain, he raised up a hand and shouted out: "I give! I give already damn it! I'm not sure how much more of this I can take! I'm honestly exhausted!"
After the both of them chuckled for a bit at his forfeiture, Yang helped Naruto to his feet before they began walking back towards the others. Upon arriving where the others were, the two of them could see Blake fidgeting a bit while trying to avoid locking eyes with Naruto. Curious about this, Naruto walked over to her and placed a gentle hand upon her shoulder. "Blake-chan? Is everything alright?"
Sighing heavily, Blake decided it was time to get this over with and be honest with him about what she was. So, rising to her feet, the cat Faunus grabbed Naruto's hand and hurriedly dragged him off so that the two of them could be alone, out of earshot of the others.
Once Blake felt they were far enough away from everyone and they were in a private enough spot, the black-themed girl turned around and stared deep into Naruto's eyes. "Naruto, you were honest with Yang and I about your past and what you hold. That couldn't have been easy, and it sounded to me like you've been through a lot of discrimination, abuse, and neglect. You got the short end of the stick, and it isn't right. Well...there's something I've wanted to tell you for a while now, but I was afraid of how you'd react. But I trust you and I wanted to show you. So…here."
Reaching up, Blake untied her bow and freed her cat ears before lowering her hands again, clutching her bow tightly in her hands. "I'm…I'm something called a Faunus in Remnant. We're pretty much the same as Humans except for an extra animal feature. I happen to have cat ears." The lovely young woman clenched her eyes shut tight as she waited for Naruto to call her a freak and storm off.
What happened instead was Naruto reaching up and gently petting her ears with both of his hands. This action caused Blake to blush a brilliant shade of red as she began to purr in contentment from his actions. After a moment, Naruto pulled back and began to chuckle. "You really thought I was going to think any differently of you Blake-chan? If anything, I think you're more beautiful with the extra features. You're an amazing person, and I bet those come in real handy sometimes, huh?"
If possible, Blake blushed even deeper than before and could only nod meekly in response. With a grin, Naruto spoke up once more. "You should leave your bow off from now on Blake-chan. You look much better without it on, and I'm sure it can't be comfortable having that bow on all the time." Seeing her shaking her head in the negative, Naruto frowned as he couldn't quite tell if she was refusing him or if she was agreeing that it was uncomfortable.
"Blake, if you're scared, you should know that none of us will think differently of you. As for what anyone else might think of you, I think you should know something about this world. Here, we don't discriminate people for being different. If anything, people would just assume you have some kind of kekkei genkai or something and that's what gave you your extra features. Nobody would give you a hassle for having cat ears and you'd be quite welcome amongst the citizens and ninja of Konoha, I can practically guarantee it. I know Granny Tsunade would love to have you with us."
Blinking in shock at how sure Naruto sounded about all of this, the Faunus girl glanced down at the bow in her hands and decided to try and trust in his words, at least for now. So, tucking the ribbon away, Blake smiled at Naruto and leaned in close to place a soft kiss upon his cheek. "Thank you Naruto. I'm glad I told you." And with that, she took his hand in hers and walked with him back to the others. The entire walk back, Naruto couldn't help but think about the kiss Blake had placed upon his cheek and how good it felt to receive such an intimate gesture from a girl.
A/N - Okay, hope you guys enjoyed chapter 2. As you can see, I brought in Yang & Blake. I had already planned to do so, so if you were hoping for them, yay! lol.
Anyways, I'll be putting information on this fic up on my profile shortly for those of you interested in seeing some extra info on the fic. It won't be much and there won't be any spoilers, but it might be kinda helpful. *shrugs*
Finally, I'll be working on a new chapter for Naruto: Mercy of the Shinigami next, so if you've been waiting for that, I'm sure you're probably pretty happy to hear that that's what's up next. :)
I honestly can't think of anything else to say, so I hope you're all doing well and I hope you will continue to be patient with me as I continue to work on future chapters for my fics. Thank you.