Chapter 3: Restarts
She threw everything she owned into a single suitcase. It only took her 15 seconds.
Blake had been preparing for this day ever since she had arrived at Beacon. Unlike the other times she had runaway though, she actually had time to somewhat plan and gather her things first. She was thankful she hadn't let her guard down after her team had discovered she was a Faunus and had a history with the White Fang. She had briefly thought of relaxing and maybe fully settling in. What other reason could she possibly have for needing to make a quick getaway after all of what she had gone through with them?
Before now she would have honestly said that she had no secret left that could force her to suddenly flee Beacon and leave her team behind again.
How stupid of her to believe that…
Hands shaking, the Faunus girl zipped up her suitcase and took a moment to breath.
She still couldn't believe this was happening. What were the chances? The odds? Was she truly so cursed by fate? Could she truly not just forget the past for a few months or years and just… enjoy the present?
Blake looked around team RWBY's dorm room.
The closest thing she had to a home in years. She could honestly say she would miss it. Despite some of the insanity that seemed to happen because of the other girls living in it.
Her Faunus ears lowered at the thought of them. All three had truly grown on her. She knew she would never forget the humans.
Ruby; full of life and innocence. A hero in the making but who would likely forever remain a goofball. She would miss talking about books with her.
Weiss; pretty much her natural born enemy considering both of their families and pasts, yet the both of them would have died for each other. Such a strange friendship. She would miss drinking tea with her.
Yang…
The blonde human that made her forget everything. Fiery and hot, but also gentle and sweet. The person she had been the most intimate with since Adam. The only human ever that had made her heart beat fast and her cheeks flush. She would miss doing… everything with Yang and near everything about the girl.
"Goodbye, team RWBY."
Blake whispered to the room and turned towards the exit.
She was a foot away from the door when it slammed opened suddenly. She was barely able to take a step back in time as the door flew inches away from hitting her in the face.
"I can't believe this! That stupid brat! My hair!" Yang roared marching into the room.
Blake stood in a corner of the room in shock.
The blonde human was as wet as a kitten that had fallen into a lake. Her normally blonde hair had long, messy streaks of orange in it. Her eyes were a blazing red and Blake could see the steam literally rising off of her from the water that was evaporating.
"I swear, that blonde brat is gonna learn not to mess with a girl's hair if it's the last thing I… Blake?"
The entire demeanor of the human changed upon seeing her. The fiery aura gone and eyes changing into a soft lilac within seconds.
"Why do you have your suitcase?" Yang asked, her tone carrying worry and sadness as she quickly realized what was happening again.
Blake opened her mouth, but no words would come out.
Her breathing became heavy as she felt her body's shaking increase tenfold. She could do nothing but stand there in place before Yang. Paralyzed in action or even thought.
"No… no, no. Blake please. Don't leave again. Please Blake! I don't know what's going on, but please!"
The human came forward to hug her, but before she could, Blake felt her knees give out.
"Oh my god! Blake!" Yang rushed forward and sank to her knees with Blake.
The Faunus broke down and sobbed as the human hugged her.
Naruto was currently tied to a stump in the middle of Beacon's campus as the other kids who he had arrived with were led to their dorm rooms for the summer by the red-haired spartan looking girl.
"Now kids, let this be a lesson in discipline. The most important thing to being a Hunter or Huntress is teamwork. It doesn't matter how strong, fast, or even skilled you are if you can't work together. Understand?"
A chorus of "Yes, Ms. Nikos" followed as they marched past Naruto.
Most simply ignored him, others pointed quickly and giggled or smirked. Only one person looked at him with worry and sadness. A small human girl wearing a too big sweater. She had pure white eyes and short black hair. Naruto would have thought she was blind, but she was clearly looking at him. How she was surviving in the blazing heat of Vale wearing that sweater in had no idea.
Even if she was wearing something so out of place and had weird eyes, Naruto decided to give her a wide smile.
The young human girl's pupil-less eyes widened and she quickly looked away in a blushing panic.
Naruto thought it was a strange reaction, but he simply shrugged. It seemed weird to judge anyone when you yourself were tied to a stump.
The kids quickly went into a building and Naruto was left alone again.
A few minutes passed by before he saw one of the teenagers approaching him. It was the quiet boy in green. Black hair with a pink stripe in it… weird.
"You will be happy to know that we will not be calling your grandparents. You can thank the sympathy and kindness of our teams' leaders, Ruby and Jaune. Both I suppose can relate to you a little in their own ways." The serious boy said, crossing his arms behind his back.
"Oh sweet! Thanks, you have no idea how much you just saved me!" Naruto kicked out his legs in happiness and started dancing as best he could while tied to a stump.
Ren only gave a small smile.
"Now, promise again that you will follow all the rules, and I will untie you." Ren bent down, already starting to untie the boy.
"Yep, yep! I totally promise! I'm impressed you guys were able to catch me so don't worry about me messing with you! I was just excited being here! Totally new Naruto Belladonna!"
Ren finished untying the boy and ruffled his hair on a sudden instinct that surprised even himself.
"Oi! Watch the ears!"
"Of course. My apologies." Ren smiled and pointed towards the dorm the other kids had went to.
"Your sleeping quarters are there as is a small food hall on the first floor."
"Awesome! I'm starving! Hey quick question… umm…" The Faunus boy's demeanor suddenly changed as he blushed, looking towards the ground and fidgeting.
"What's that… pretty white-haired girl's name?"
Ren's pink eyes widened as he held in a chuckle.
"Its Weiss Schnee. May I ask you a question as well?"
"Weiss…" Naruto whispered the name with an even deeper blush before he looked up at the older boy.
"Huh? Sure."
"Belladonna is your last name? How common of a last name is it?" Ren asked, much to Naruto's confusion.
"Uh, yeah? And I don't know?"
"Hmm… I see. You said you only have your grandparents, correct? No other older siblings or relatives?"
Naruto's stomach rumbled, but he had promised to be good, so he answered anyway and held back from darting off to the nearest source of food.
"Yeah, it's just my grandparents. I mean, I do have a mom that is somewhere out there. I'm searching for her! That's the whole reason I'm gonna be a Hunter! To find her!"
Ren's eyes widened at the boy's strong words.
"I see… how old are you?"
"What do any of these questions have to do with anything!? I'm eight!" Naruto exclaimed, getting annoyed.
Ren was silent for a moment as he put a hand to his chin. He seemed to be doing some mental math before he shook his head.
"I am sorry. It was a silly question. You may go. Get settled in a room and first thing tomorrow at 0600 we will all go for a run around the campus. Which should not be an issue for you."
Naruto laughed at that and ran off into the dorm waving goodbye to Ren.
Ren waved back and chuckled to himself once the Faunus boy was out of sight.
"What a silly thought. They look nothing alike. It probably a common last name." He said quietly to himself before heading back to his own dorm, slightly admonishing himself for asking the boy such personal questions without real reasons.
"Yang… I have something to tell you. But you have to swear not to tell anyone else! Swear it to me!"
The blonde sat down on Blake's bed slowly.
Her hair was freshly washed now and thankfully the orange had come right out with some liberal use of hair products.
After Blake's breakdown, she had simply hugged the girl for a long time. Ruby and Weiss had walked in on them, but a quick glare from Yang had told them to leave the two alone for a few hours.
Alone, she had gotten Blake to calm down, though the dark-haired girl wouldn't say anything after she had stopped crying.
Even though she didn't receive permission, Yang had taken Blake's suitcase and unpack it. When she had finished carefully putting away all of Blake's things, she had to fight the urge of chucking the suitcase out the window. Instead, she had simply but it as far back into the closet as she could.
Now she had simply been waiting for close to an hour for Blake to speak to her. The words Blake had suddenly said did nothing to ease her mind. She took a deep breath and answered.
"I swear Blake. I won't tell anyone. Just please tell me what's wrong." She said calmly, in the voice she used when Ruby had cried or gotten too scared as a little girl.
"T-The boy… that is here for the summer thing or whatever. The blonde Faunus…"
"The one that's been causing nothing but trouble for everyone and that messed up my hair?" Yang asked, very surprised that Blake brought him up. She hadn't even known Blake had a run in with him.
Yang had been guessing this whole thing was Blake's Faunus secret being let out to the whole school. Or that she had gotten a threatening letter or something from the White Fang. A dozen ideas and guess had gone through her head but none of them had involved the summer program kids. Surely this was about something far more serious than some pranking kid.
"Y-Yes. That one… I know him. I haven't seen him… since I left my home and parents for the Fang." Blake whispered, a far-off look in her amber eyes that Yang had never seen before.
"Wait, wait… is he like… your little brother or cousin or something?"
"N-No… I mean kinda. I mean not really. Its different." Blake put a hand on her forehead, while Yang wracked her brain trying to figure out what the Faunus girl was trying to say.
"Ok. I'm sorry Blake, but I'm not really getting this." Yang said quietly, worried she was just making this harder for Blake.
The dark-haired girl stood up suddenly and began to pace around the room. She opened her mouth and a flood of panicked, nearly sobbing words came pouring out of her without showing any signs of stopping soon.
"I… raised him. I found him after some humans bombed Faunus apartments during a protest and he was the only one that survived. So, I just became his mother, even though I was too young and had no idea what I was doing! I left him with my parents and joined the Fang but never even said goodbye and now he is here! What the hell am I supposed to do!?"
"I can't let him know I am here! He used to call me Mom! Yang, I can't. I've made a lot of mistakes and I know I should face them, but I just can't with this one. If I don't leave, I'll have to disguise myself and nobody can say my name around him, ever! I still can't believe this is happening! I… I…"
"Wait." Yang interrupted; purple eyes wide as she struggled to understand half of what Blake had just said in her panic.
"You have a kid?"
Hello again all! I hope your week went well and your weekends are as well. This has been a super fun story to write and I hope I get to keep doing it. The person who is asking for the story seems to like the direct of things so more and longer chapters should be coming. I have quite a few ideas in mind for where things can go with this story and its helpful that while this is in the RWBY style verse I can pull some inspiration from the Naruto verse as well.
Thank you to: FoxSage001, Genesis09, Shirou Emiya1, SugamDewan, Eaglezaruma, A Guest, TDR007, and Lechuzape for your reviews!
Of course a very big thanks to everyone who has followed and favorited as well. It is a wonderful thing for me to see.
Finally, I would like to just put out some of my own quick thoughts on Blake since I have seen some comments about her in the reviews. Firstly, my deepest dive into her character that I portray is in another story of mine in the second chapter. (Warning for darker themes and more maturity than this story will present though). Second I think canon RWBY really let her character down with how much complexity she is dealing with. This teenager is a former revolutionary, activist, and terrorist. She is a runaway who gave up near everything in her life for her own people and beliefs, admitted she failed and that her organization went to far, and basically is trying to find a way to do some good in the world by being a monster hunter.
And in this story I'm adding to her metal trauma by making her an impromptu foster parent. This girl has a lot on her plate and in her head. She needs to heal herself first. In my mind she currently right now couldn't even handle a serious relationship with Yang. Being a parent is far outside her emotional and mental wheelhouse, realistically. But I would argue against that making her a coward or a bad person.
But anyway those are my quick thoughts. Again I hope you all enjoy the story and have a good day or night!
