Chapter 6: With a Day to Spare

"No. I'm sorry, but I can't let Ruby go to Beacon." Taiyang's words fall down upon the ears of Yang and Naruto. Naruto nods slightly, before turning and leaving. Yang glares at Taiyang furiously.

"You promised she could go if she won! Why the HELL are you breaking your promise now?!" she roars, slamming her hands on the table.

Taiyang turns to her, brow drawn in a scowl. "I just explained it to you! Ruby can't go, not yet! Besides, she didn't beat me in a fair fight! Poison is dishonourable, and bluntly, doesn't work on Grimm! That way of fighting only works on people!"

Yang stands furiously, eyes glowing a flaming red. "It doesn't matter, Dad. You told her if she won she could go to Beacon. If you're smart, you won't let her realize that her father's a coward, and a liar." Brushes past him, slamming the door behind her. Taiyang sighs, looking down at his lap.

"It's what's best. She can't go there, not yet."

Outside, Naruto has left the house, and sees Ruby still celebrating outside. He looks at her, her joy and passion, and sags in defeat.

'There's… nothing I can do. She's going to be crushed.' He feels a hand land on his shoulder, and with a small twist of his neck, he sees Yang behind him.

"What's up Yang?" he asks, defeat audible in his voice.

"I have a favour to ask of you." she says, eyes narrowing as she stares at him.

"What is it? I'm sorry, but it looks like my help didn't help Ruby. Why you think I can help you…" he trails off, looking at Ruby again. "She's going to be destroyed by this, you know. Her own father is trying to stop her from accomplishing her dream."

Yang nods shortly. "I know. That's why I want you to take Ruby to Beacon with you."

Naruto turns to her, eyes wide. "W-what? But don't you need Mr. Xiao Long's signature or something?" he asks, worried.

Yang speaks lowly, her eyes still glowing red. "No, all you need is her Guardian's signature. Fortunately, Dad's not her only Guardian. My Uncle Qrow is also her Guardian, at least after Mum died. Find him, and get his signature."

Naruto frowns. "Where would I find him? From what I gathered, he was on a mission."

Yang removes her hand from his shoulder, reaching into her pocket. "He told me where I could meet up with him to learn about my Mom before school started, tonight." she says, brusquely. "I want you to go meet him there. Here's a picture of him." she says, showing a picture on her scroll of a man who appears to be unconscious on their couch.

Naruto nods slowly. "Sure, I can try. But why don't you go do it?" he asks.

Yang smiles grimly, stowing away her scroll. "Someone needs to explain what happened to Ruby. I'll not explain what you're doing until you meet us at the Bullhead. I'll pack Ruby's bags, and tell her I want her to see me off."

"Won't your Dad go with you though?" Naruto asks, unsure how parental relationships work in this kind of situation.

"No. Both of us will be mad at him, he'll do what he always does. He'll hide at home until someone comes to help him." she says, disgusted. While her comment is unfair, Naruto decides to ignore it.

'Let her vent, keeping it bottled up will make her just like Sasuke.' he decides, before replying.

"Alright. I'll do it. I'll head to… where are you meeting?" he asks.

"We said we'd meet at a bar called the Thirsty Bird… I think it's near the docks." she answers, "I'll send you the location-"

Naruto smiles, "I don't have a scroll yet, remember? Don't worry, I'll head out now and search around. It'll be no problem."

Yang looks nervous. "OK, but hurry! I was supposed to meet him at midnight, and it's nearly six! It takes two hours for the boat to go from Patch to Vale, and it'll take time for you to find the place!"

Naruto scoffs. "Don't worry, I'll make it. Alright, good luck with Ruby. Please don't crush her." he advises, before jogging into the forest. Once out of Yang's sight, he bursts with golden Chakra, entering his Kurama Chakra Mode.

"Alright, Kurama! Vale's supposed to be nearly a hundred kilometer away! Let's see if I can get there in less than a minute!" he cries, aiming across the ocean towards the distant lights.

"Yeah, woooo, go Naruto…" Kurama grumbles, knowing Naruto's already capable of moving nearly three hundred thousand kilometers in a single second. Although, that was in his Six Paths Sage Mode, so it might be different in his Chakra Mode.

Naruto grins hearing Kurama, then blasts off the ground like a shooting star.

Back with Ruby and Yang…

Yang watches Naruto run at an impressive speed with a smile. It's nice to know that she has help with this. Turning to Ruby, her smile fades.

'Time to try and keep Ruby intact…' she dreads, before walking over to Ruby, who's now eagerly reassuring Zwei that she'll still have time to come and visit from Beacon.

"Hey sis? Need to talk to you for a minute." Yang interrupts, causing Ruby to look up at her.

"But I need to tell Zwei that I can still come visit! Or maybe he can come visit us!" she says cutely, nearly causing Yang to falter.

'Come on Yang, you need to do this. Wait, actually, I don't! I'll just say Dad needs to talk to her! Let him deal with this, it's his mess. I'll just clean it up afterwards!'

Yang kneels down beside Ruby, taking Zwei for cuddles. "Dad needs to talk to you, Ruby. It's about your fight." she says, trying to keep her anger out of her voice.

Ruby notices Yang's eyes flash red, and wisely decides not to comment. "Oh, OK! I can't wait to tell him about the other things I learned! Ohhh, when I go to Beacon I'm gonna be the best there! Well, besides Naruto… he's…" she trails off, before leaping to her feet.

"Be right back Zwei!" she calls, running into the house in a burst of rose petals.

Yang sighs, holding Zwei. "She's gonna need us Zwei. Hopefully, Dad will change his mind, but I'm glad that I got Naruto to get Uncle Qrow." She pets Zwei, and then a few minutes later hears a clatter from the house, before the door bursts open, with a red comet flashing out faster than she can see and into the woods. Looking up, Yang shrugs.

"Must have been the wind." she decides, before getting up and going into the house.

In The Valean Docks…

Naruto was pissed. He'd completely overshot Vale, and now people were talking about the shooting star that had passed earlier. On one hand, it was extraordinarily gratifying to hear people say that he was the most beautiful thing they'd ever seen, but on the other, he'd smacked into a SAGE DAMNED MOUNTAIN!

"Naruto, just be glad you weren't in your Sage of Six Paths mode! If you had been, the entire continent would have been destroyed!" Kurama reproves, glowering in Naruto's mind.

'OK, OK Kurama. No Six Paths Mode when travelling. And from now on, I'm gonna travel the old fashioned way. Hopefully no one notices that crater in the mountain...'

"I wouldn't worry, brat. We left a Metal Style: Big Ball there. If anyone goes there, they'll think it was just a meteorite." Kurama reminds him.

Grumbling, he wanders into an alley.

'At least it's easy to get in here… the Hiding Like a Mole Jutsu really is useful. Why wasn't it one of the Academy Jutsu?' he thinks, creating a group of Shadow Clones, which all Transform into inconspicuous looking people. Naruto looks at them, before nodding approvingly.

'Perfect, they're Townspeople.' he gestures with his head, and they wander out looking for this 'Thirsty Bird'. With a sigh, he starts exploring the docks.

'They've really gone beyond my own people.' he ponders, thinking about the Shinobi lifestyle. 'Does it help them keep peace, or do they use technology like the Shinobi of the past, craving it like Kekkei Genkai?'

He stops, turning towards the sea. 'On that note, I wonder if there's someone like Orochimaru in this world? Or someone like Danzo? Better keep my eyes open.' he decides, before looking at the sunset. It's so beautiful, he decides to activate his (no, Obito's) Sharingan, and observe it fall with perfect clarity.

'It turns out that perfect sight makes the sunset less beautiful. Huh.' he realizes, deactivating Obito's Sharingan. He sighs, remembering his last battle with Kaguya. At least he managed to land Kakashi and Sakura, he could only hope Sasuke survived his fall to the ground. His clone had also managed to heal Obito's eyes with his Sun Mark, right before it popped. Fortunately, he'd been right above one of the weird root things, so he assumed Obito had been all right, albeit probably shaken up.

Realizing he doesn't know the time, Naruto waylays a passerby after a while of watching the boats and the sunset.

"Excuse me, could you tell me the time?" he waves with a small smile, closing his eyes like his teacher was wont to.

"Oh, no problem young man! It's…" they fumble their scroll out of their bag, "Nearing Eight O'Clock."

"Thanks Miss!" Naruto beams, "Have a nice evening!" The lady smiles, and wishes him the same before wandering away. Naruto smiles brightly, looking around the docks at the pedestrians now. Honestly, he can see why Ozpin wanted him. If he's responsible for protecting this place, then Naruto would do all he could to help.

His eyes take on a steely glint however, when he sees some people in white uniforms talking to the lady who just helped him. While everyone else is ignoring it, he can sense the hostility rolling off of them, as well as seeing one of them grab at a small tail that he hadn't noticed when he spoke with her. Pushing off the railing, he moves to interject.

"Excuse me sirs, is everything all right?" he cuts in smoothly, noting that he's noticeably taller than all except the perceived leader of this little band, who's just slightly shorter than him. This man, who's dressed in a weird white uniform, glances at him distractedly, before looking again with a glare, letting go of the tail.

"What's it to you, animal?" he questions rudely, his grip on his… Naruto assumes it's a gun, tightens. Looking away from the man's hands and at his face, Naruto is shocked by the hatred there.

'OK, Naruto! You got this, just… try to not start a fight.' he muses, before looking at the leader's henchmen. 'They appear to hate me as well. I wonder why…'

The leader, at this point, has had enough of Naruto ignoring him, and grabs at the hem of the cloak. "Listen here beast, I don't know if you understand, but you need to go back to whatever zoo you crawled out of. We're busy here, so get lost." he commands, wrenching Naruto away. The only problem with that is that Naruto doesn't move.

'Really? I didn't even need to channel Chakra to my feet to avoid moving.' Naruto exclaims mentally, bemused. He decides to speak.

"I can understand you perfectly. Why are you bothering this nice lady? I'm sure if she did something it was an accident!" he decides to appeal to their logical side. Unfortunately, they seem even more annoyed now than before.

"What?! Are you trying to speak to me, dog?" the leader growls, shoving at Naruto with both his hands. Once more, Naruto doesn't move, and the man falls over on his rear, muddying his pristine white coat.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Naruto mumbles, reaching into his cloak, "Here, I think I have something that'll get the filth off…" he takes out a large metal water bottle with the Hidden Leaf insignia on it, and with a glare, pours it onto the spluttering man, soaking him to the bone. The rest of his henchmen reach to their belts, taking out some odd metal contraptions. Naruto decides that they're probably guns as well, and sighs. While he can easily dodge the bullets, once these jokes start shooting, the stray bullets might hit someone else. He stops joking, and lowers his arm, dropping the water bottle. He sighs, Sharingan spinning into existence..

The first bounce once the water bottle hits the floor: he's leapt behind three of the grunts, and squashed their guns with his fist.

Second bounce: he kicks in the back of their knees, just as they begin to widen their eyes.

Third bounce: he moves towards the final four, crouching below their extended arms and prodding the inside of two of their guns. Fortunately, all the safety switches look the same as the one on Crescent Rose.

On the fourth bounce, he sees a flash, and with a burst of Chakra, activates the Mangekyou, and uses Kamui on one of the bullets, before kicking the water bottle up to intercept the second. He then spins, kicking the guns out of the final twos hands and into the sea. Then he moves in front of the lady, who's fallen to the ground.

"Are you alright, Miss?" he asks, concerned. Her eyes are wide as she looks up at him, pushing away along the ground.

"No! Get away from me!" she cries. Naruto is floored, and looks around to see people looking at him with distrust, and open caution.

"But… they were…" he tries, confused. From behind, he hears a dry, hacking cough.

"Oh, you have no idea what you've done." he turns to see the leader, pushing himself up from the ground. "When we're through with you, you'll have nowhere to run, little dog."

Naruto looks at the leader in disdain. "I know exactly what I've done. I've helped someone in need." he says loudly, looking around at everyone on the docks. "Anyone here could have stepped in. You all saw the revolting display these fine gentlemen were displaying, but you all did nothing."

Most of the crowd avert their eyes, shame clouding their faces. Others look at him in disgust, while a small number look at him with something else, something he hasn't seen before…

"The kid's right." he hears a gravelly voice say. Turning, he sees a man with a red cape on a barstool swivel, and face them. He glares at everyone.

"I heard what was going on, and so did all of us. But only this…" he takes a swig from his glass, "boy, this boy, did anything. And what he did was beat up some stinkin' Shnee buffoons!" he guffaws in hysterical laughter, before ceasing just as quickly. "They won't care. You know why? Cause they live there, up in the sky, and they don't care if any of us die. All we do is bleed and wilt, somebody... " he starts sinking backwards, a dazed and confused expression on his face. "Stupid quilt…" he mumbles, before passing out of his chair.

Everyone just stares at him, snoring on the cobblestones.

"Well." Naruto comments, amusement colouring his voice, "That was something." Most of the people around him laugh, and agree, with most going back to their business. Naruto turns back to the lady he was helping, only to see that she'd scurried off. He shrugs.

'Mah, you win some you lose some.' before strolling away. However, just when he's moved a couple meters, he stops and turns.

'No way, was that guy…' and he resumes walking, albeit in a different direction. He stops short of the man who expressed his vocal support. Looking down, he can't tell, but it looks like Ruby and Yang's Uncle Qrow. He hums in thought, before lifting the man up.

"C'mon, let's find that Bar you're supposed to be at." he says amusedly, carrying Qrow down the street.

Qrow shakes himself awake. 'What happened?' he wonders, gripping his head with one hand while the other fastens onto the table in front of him.

"Oh, you're awake!" he hears a voice say ridiculously loudly. Zipping his hand up, he grabs at the person's mouth.

"ShhhHHHhhhuhhh!" he groans, covering their face, "Don't talk so loud, where's my…" he starts to fumble with his scroll, before finally pulling it out. With a glance he sees that it's nearing eleven o'clock at night. With a grunt, he rises to his feet, staggering slightly.

"Well see ya, I've got places to be." he slurs, stumbling towards the door, which now seems a colossal hike away. The voice stops him.

"Oh, I know. That's why I brought you here." Turning to look at the young man, Qrow squints slightly.

"Tai?" he mumbles, before collecting himself. "No, you're too young. How'd you know I have a meeting?" he mumbles, grabbing onto a pillar with his free hand.

"Well, Yang sent me in her place." Naruto replies, standing. "And knock it off, I read your book in your room." Qrow is floored, before standing straight up.

"How do you know about that?" he asks dangerously, his hand moving towards his sword.

"I've been staying with Ruby and Yang for the past week, and they let me stay in your room. I really liked your book, I'm thinking about trying it out."

Qrow scoffs. "No one likes that book. They know I wrote it to be used on people, not Grimm."

Naruto waves his hand dismissively. "But still, you invented a whole new combat style! It's amazing!" he compliments, with Qrow slowly moving to sit down.

"Heh, yeah I guess it was." he chuckles, letting go of his sword. "I thought about teaching it to Ruby, but Tai woulda skinned me alive unless he knew what it was, which would defeat the purpose."

Naruto smiles, shaking his head in admiration. "Where you got the idea of the Fake Drunken Master combat style I'll never know. It's borderline genius!"

Qrow basks in the compliment, his hands not even close to his sword anymore. "You should've seen it when I used it at Beacon!" he chuckles again, "I swear, I thought ol' Oz was going to have a heart attack! He thought he had enrolled a complete loser!" he snorts, reaching into his vest and taking out a flask, causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow. Qrow notices, and responds to the silent question.

"Just cause I'm not drunk when I fight doesn't mean I'm not drunk at other times. See, you gotta keep your reputation as a drunk alive, which means failing the nightly sobriety tests they run outside. If I left here sober, they'd know." he winks, taking a long swig from his flask.

He hiccups. "That's not to say I don't get drunk, in fact it happens quite often…" he starts to think thoughtfully. "Actually, now that I think about it, I've probably fought more people drunk than sober… geez." he sighs, putting away the flask, before looking at Naruto seriously. "If you wear a mask for long enough, it becomes your real face. I may have started as a Fake Drunken Master, but now… let's just say that time wears you down, kid." he sighs, leaning over the table. Naruto looks down at him, and awkwardly pats his back. Qrow leans up, looking at Naruto.

"Anyways, why'd Yang send you? Thought she'd want to hear all about her mom herself." he questions, curious. Naruto shakes his head in the negative.

"Actually, Yang wanted me to do a favour for her, though to be honest I'd have done this anyways." Qrow's intrigued now.

"Oh? What did the little Firecracker want?" he asks, leaning back in his chair, careful to keep all the legs on the floor.

"Well, it's a long story." Qrow shrugs.

"I've got all night." With that affirmation, Naruto launches into the story, explaining the entire situation with Torchwick, and how Ozpin had invited both of them to Beacon. At that point Qrow had smiled proudly, but when Naruto got to the part about Taiyang refusing Ruby's entrance unless she won a fight against Yang he began to scowl.

When Naruto said he taught her some tricks, Qrow was interested, but didn't ask any questions. However, when the big fight came and Taiyang took over, Qrow leapt to his feet.

"That motherucker!" he growled, furious. "I'm gonna go tear him a new one!" he was about to leave when Naruto interrupted him.

"Sit down, there's more to tell!" Qrow growls, and sits, although he looks like he's about to leave at any moment. Naruto hurriedly explains Yang's request, which puts Qrow into a thinking posture.

"Hmmm. Let me get this straight: Tai told Ruby she can't go to Beacon, even though she beat him in their fight. This is contrary to what he previously promised, right?" Naruto nods affirmatively. "Alright, and Ozpin's the one who invited you both. Well in that case, I've only got one question." Naruto cocks his head inquisitively.

"What is it?" he asks.

"What's your relationship with my niece?" Qrow leans forwards, his head resting on his hands.

"Well, I'm one of her teachers; I've taught her some tricks, and I consider her a friend." Naruto answers, confused. Qrow barks out a short laugh.

"Just like Summer…" he shakes his head.

"..." Naruto sits quietly, not sure what to say. Eventually, Qrow stops brooding and looks up at him.

"Alright, I'll tell Oz that Ruby has my express permission to attend Beacon. She'll be welcome there." Naruto leaps to his feet and bows to Qrow.

"Thank you." he says, "Ruby will be overjoyed. Of course, we can't tell her until she's waiting at the Bullhead." Qrow nods shortly, before rising to his feet.

"Well, it was nice meeting you kid. Just try to keep your head down more, while I liked seeing you stick it to the Shnee workers, that'll earn you some enemies you can't afford to make." he warns, before walking out. Naruto sighs, before speaking to the empty seat.

"If you do what's easy instead of what's right, then the world will always be ruled by hatred." he intones, leaning back. He sighs, before looking at where Qrow left.

'Might as well get some late night training in before heading back; Yang and Ruby are probably already asleep. With that, he gets to his feet and leaves the Thirsty Bird.

After walking out to the docks, Naruto jumps into the ocean. 'Tailed Beast Art: Water Breathing Jutsu.' With that, he starts to swim through the ocean, noting how his cloak seems to be keeping him warm. 'Guess Gyuki was right, I made a new Sage Tool.' he thinks, swimming along the seabed. Once he gets to Patch, he leaps out into the forest.

"Time to train!" he declares, filled with determination. With training in mind, he sits down, thinking.

'What should I train though? Hmmmmm.' he muses, before Shukaku decides to advise him.

"Naruto, you should train with the Sharingan. While you can use it passably, you still haven't tried using the full powers of the Kamui." Shukaku recommends.

"Good idea, Shukaku! Let's try… teleporting to Yang, or Ruby!" he decides, swirling his eyes into the Mangekyou. With a small application of Chakra, he swirls away.

Reappearing in the Kamui dimension, the first thing he notices is that he's falling. With a scream, he flares his Chakra, entering his Six Paths Sage Mode, and starts to levitate.

"What the HELL?! Where's the Time-Space?" he yells, looking around. All he can see is a fine grey dust, which seems to be floating about very slowly.

"Hmmm. The Tailed Beast Bomb must've done more damage than we thought, it seems that the dimension's original structure has been completely destroyed." Son Goku comments, looking through Naruto's eyes.

"Damn. What can we use this for then?" Naruto demands. Shukaku's the one who answers him.

"Well, we can use my Sand control to try and move all this dust around, and remake the ground." he theorizes, with some of his brethren agreeing with him.

"Alright then." Naruto holds out his hand, causing the dust to swirl into a vaguely cube shaped structure. 'This time, I'll make one big cube, so that no one falls between them.' he decides, moving all the dust away. However, as he does so he sees a single cube still floating, which seems to have been completely untouched by the explosion.

"That's not possible." Kurama growls, "The blast should've destroyed everything. How did that cube survive?!"

"Maybe… it was blocked behind other cubes?" Naruto suggests weakly, unsure. Kurama snarls that that's not likely, all the other cubes were destroyed even if they were protected.

"Go check it out, Naruto." he commands.

Naruto nods and releases the dust, then flies over towards it. He hadn't realized how large Obito's Time-Space was, the cube was more than a couple kilometers away from him. He frowns.

'It's so large…' he thinks to himself, wondering how come he'd never noticed. 'Must be because of all the cubes, they probably blocked my sight.'

Nearing the final cube, he notices some black lines covering the corners.

"Are those… seals?" he questions, moving closer to take a closer look. However, when he does so, the seals light up, with a red barrier appearing around the cube.

"Huh."

"The Uchiha must have placed a Barrier Style Jutsu on this cube to keep it safe. But why? What's so important about it?" Naruto floats above it, before pointing out a stout pillar with a seal on it.

"Must be because of that." he says.

"Well, can you get to it?!" Kurama growls.

Naruto thinks to himself, before answering. "Well, I could leave using the Kamui, then try to enter the Time-Space inside the barrier. Or I could break my way through."

"If that barrier could withstand the Ten Tails Tailed Beast Bomb, then there's almost nothing you can throw at it that would break through." Matatabi cautions.

"Alright, then I'll just use the Kamui." Naruto exits the dimension, reappearing in the woods, glowing brightly. With a curse, he deactivates his Six Paths Sage Mode before anyone can see the light from the town.

"That was close." he says, chuckling before using the Kamui again, this time aiming for inside the red barrier.

This time, he reappears inside the barrier. With a cheer, he leaps into the air. However, he notices a purple seal appear under him. He flares his Mangekyou, a light blue ribcage appearing around him.

'Is this… the Susano'o?' he wonders, glancing around himself. The seal flashes brightly, blinding him for a split second. Then, the air in front of him begins to distort in a very familiar pattern.

"What the hell?!" he cries, readying for a fight with a Rasengan forming in his hand, glowing a spectral green. However, what comes out surprises him greatly. It's a man who's wrapped up in golden chains, with a glowing red seal on his chest. Looking into his face, Naruto recognizes him nearly instantly, although he looks like complete hell, with sweat, dirt and bruises covering his even further mangled face.

"...Obito?"

Wow. Bet ya didn't see that one coming!

Anyways, I've figured out why people like writing cliffhangers: they're easy. I can wrap this chapter up now, and no one will complain (cause I'll pull a Nora if they do).

Poll time! I've done the Pairing Spin the Wheel, moving me down to Three Possible Pairings! I'll put them on my profile, and you guys can vote. Here they are!

1) Naruto x Ruby

2) Naruto x Neo

3) Naruto x Ren (ha ha ha ha. Just kidding, it's really Naruto x Pyrrha)

Anyways, thanks for reading this far! Just know that whoever you vote for might not be the pairing forever (subtle foreshadowing, I know).

-Pad