Chapter 11: Lightspire's Spherechamber, pt.1
Naruto smiled broadly, although his smile was forced as he could smell the horrid stench of vomit oozing up from the floor. Patting the blond guy on the back, he decided to try and make conversation.
"You know, in a world where we're going to fight monsters, that would be quite the lethal attack." True to form, the other guy snorted a slight laugh, turning to look at Naruto. Then his eyes widened as he saw Naruto.
"Hey! You look like me!" he exclaimed, all traces of sickness vanishing. For now. Naruto squinted at him, before shaking his head.
"Nah, don't see it." he mumbled lowly, the smell of ramen spewing directly into the face of his new compatriot, who winced and turned a little green. However, he managed to keep his puke down this time, and merely leaned away.
"Well, either way it's nice to meet you! My name's Jaune, Jaune Arc. What's your's?" the newly revealed Jaune asked, pleasantly reaching out to grasp Naruto's hand. Naruto smiled broadly. Finally someone who seemed completely normal!
"My name's Naruto Uzumaki; known far and wide as-" before Naruto can get into his Jiraiya-esque introduction (considering how poorly the last one went, he decided to go for the legendary Toad Sage introduction this time) Kurama belted out a whine through his mind.
"Naruto, if you finish that sentence I'll kill everyone on this ship." Naruto paled instantly, stopping his introduction before it could begin, and smiling awkwardly as Jaune blinked at him.
"What was that?" Jaune asked, a small smile creeping it's way onto his face. Naruto rubbed the back of his head self consciously, realizing how completely unprofessional he must look with his clothes that he'd… found in downtown Vale. They belonged to someone, but he needed more clothes than just his Akatsuki cloak; even though Nagato had had impeccable style, it stood out a bit too much. Only now did he realize that sweatpants and an old stained hoodie (which was about five sizes too large) probably made him stand out more.
"Well, my Master used to introduce himself like that, and I nearly did the same." Naruto explained, noticing Jaune was still looking at him quizzically.
Jaune nodded slowly. "Oh, that makes sense. Why'd you stop though? Do you not like his… introduction?" Naruto smiled brittly. He'd never gotten the opportunity to do the legendary introduction, and despite his original disdain for it, had grown rather fond of it, and could acknowledge it's uses. For one, impressing a few while convincing the stronger people he was a weak show-off.
"Well, I just realized that it would be a bit much for right now. Maybe I'll do it later." he tried to explain. 'When Kurama won't threaten to kill everyone… come on buddy, can't I do it later?'
"Gahh, fine. If you're going to do it though, do it properly. That means an audience, and actually doing something. He summoned toads, and since we can't summon them here, you're going to need to do something as well."
Naruto nodded happily, already knowing what he was going to do. Jaune cocked his head, bemused.
"Did you just agree with yourself?" he asked, amusement also ringing with his voice. Naruto's eyes widened, before he nodded.
"Uhh, yeah. It's a nervous tic." he tried to explain. Jaune nodded slowly.
"Yeah, I have those too. When I get super nervous I get dizzy." Naruto nodded, before continuing.
"And couple that with the Airship moving you puked?"
Jaune thought for a few moments before deciding that it was fine to talk. "Nah. I'm just really REALLY nervous! I don't usually get airsick… I'm just stressed about going to Beacon, you know?" Naruto shrugged. He'd been personally invited, and hadn't really heard much about Beacon, so he wasn't that awed and thrilled by this opportunity. Honestly, he was only here to get Ruby into Beacon, then find a way home. Remnant had to have some Space-Time manipulation technology! I mean, they'd learned how to harness crystals and fly!
"Well, that's fine. Don't worry. You'll do great! After all, you must be pretty badass already to be here!" he grinned and gave Jaune a thumbs up. Curiously, this seemed to only depress Jaune.
"Yeah… tough warrior, badass fighter. I got this." he gave a weak cheer, before turning around and promptly vomiting.
'Of course he would…' Naruto thought, his eye twitching. Jaune had just vomited all over Yang. Of course. This was going to be a pain. His eyes narrowed as he saw Yang's turn red, her hair dripping with vomit.
'Crap.'
After a long and drawn out explanation, and holding back Yang as Jaune apologized profusely, they realized that there was a message playing. They unfortunately only caught the tail-end of it.
"-experiencing an incredible time of peace, and as future Huntsmen and Huntresses, it is your duty to uphold it. You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task, and now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world." They watched as she flickered out of existence, at this point merely prompting the lifting of a single eyebrow for Naruto. He was becoming accustomed to the fancy technology of the world of Remnant. Turning to the others, he asked them the all important question.
"Did we miss something important?"
As the Airship touches down, they naturally follow the procession down onto Beacon's grounds. Naruto glances around, and is happy to see he doesn't need to hide his awe. Everyone appeared stunned by the grandiose… well, castle that stretched before them! He could see the tower looming above the rest of the Academy, appropriately shining brightly, probably the namesake of Beacon. Or it was built after the Academy was named…
Either way, he wandered off the Airship, looking around at the rest of the people. Some were carrying their weapons; however most were not. But he noticed Yang hurriedly whispering to Ruby. Seeing Ruby grow more and more panicked, he closed in just in time to hear Yang's parting words:
"See ya sis!" and with that she was whisked away by her friends. Naruto frowned. He'd thought she'd stick with Ruby, especially after her conversation she'd had with Taiyang. However, his quick eye noticed her glance at him and nod towards Ruby. Nodding back, he walked over to Ruby and steadied her before she could fall over. Ruby looked over at him, and her face lit up.
"Oh, Naruto! Where should we go? Yang left and I don't think I'll have many friends here, I mean I'm a whole two years younger than everyone else and I mean I think that-" Naruto cut her off, his voice firm.
"Ruby, you'll be fine. You have me, you have Yang," 'When she's here that is.' "And-" and he leaned out, catching Jaune by the arm and dragging him towards them from the herd.
"And you have Jaune! Jaune, this is Ruby Rose. She took care of me when I first arrived in Vale, and it's partially because of her I'm here at Beacon." Jaune nodded at her, his face open and smiling, causing Ruby to also smile back at him, feeling more comfortable already. Looking between Naruto and Jaune, she struck a thinking pose.
"Are you two related? You look almost exactly the same! If you had spikier hair," she gestured at Jaune, before gesturing at Naruto, "And if you had blue eyes, you'd look almost the exact same! Well, minus the whiskers!" Jaune and Naruto looked at each other, with Naruto frowning.
'I forgot I lost my eyes… next time I see Obito I'm giving his back. Hopefully Sakura still has mine… if she didn't lose them.' he thought bitterly, before recalling Sakura had perished. He felt his eyes tear up; despite his light annoyance he felt about Sakura, she was still his teammate, and he was still not sure how to react to her death. At the very least, he hoped his eyes had been saved before she went the way of the bucket. He enjoyed having the Sharingan, make no mistake, they were very useful, but he couldn't help but think that the Sharingan was a bloodline bathed in blood, and not one he really wanted.
Jaune smiled brightly. "I know right! He looks just like me!" Naruto shook himself, reconnecting to the conversation.
"Well, Jaune, what kind of fighter are you? Judging by the sword and armour you're a frontliner?" Naruto changed the subject, slouching backwards in a manner reminiscent of Kakashi, his hands in his pockets. Jaune smiled, although there wasn't much happiness in it, and drew his sword.
"Yeah. This is my sword and this is my shield." He then popped his sheath into a shield, causing Naruto to look at him, impressed.
"That's useful; but do you think the shield can actually block attacks from bigger Grimm? What's it made of?" Ruby asked, intrigued by the shield more so than the sword. Jaune shrugged.
"Both of these are family heirlooms, so I'm not sure. But it's been around since the Great War, so I think it's probably pretty durable, considering it's never needed polishing." he said, actually sounding like he knew something with confidence. Naruto could instantly pick up on it; Jaune knew about his family heirlooms and their history, that was for sure.
"Well, I'm impressed. I just picked up my weapon in Vale actually!" Naruto said, causing Ruby to zip over to him, bouncing on her feet.
"Ohhhhh! Let me see! Let me see!" she squealed, excited beyond belief. Naruto had asked for some help making augmentations to it, and she could hardly wait to see what she had to work with. Even if it was a guitar.
Naruto, keen to show off the weapon that worked best with his Wind Affinity, leapt into the air, unsealing his Gunbai at the same time and landing on top of it, holding into the pole for balance as he stood on the fan blades. Ruby was impressed, Jaune was awed, and both had questions.
"How'd you make it appear in that puff of smoke?!" demanded Ruby, eyes glued to the Uzumaki swirl boldly contrasting the black silk band wrapped around the middle. For some reason she felt like it belonged to Naruto, although she couldn't place why.
Jaune however, was confused about something else. "OK, I'm stumped. What is it?" he asked, awe still filling his voice. Naruto stood proudly atop it, the extra five feet granted by the fan augmenting his less-than impressive stature of five foot, nine inches. However, with his head peaking above ten feet off the ground, he was definitely impressive. Of course, it was all undercut by his horrid homeless attire.
However, Naruto was happy to engage in his third favourite pastime: bragging. And with a deep breath, he began.
"Well, I made it appear using secret arts of my village, that must be learned from the great scholars and Sage's that taught me what I know!" In reality he purchased them at a discount used scroll store, "And this, my fine new friend, is a war fan, or Gunbai! Once used by my worst enemy, I have adopted this weapon to myself, to make it fight for the cause of righteousness and good!" Once more, he chose it because it fitted his Affinity, and because it would bolster his defence, not because it had any inherent combat value. In fact, he was probably better without it, but it would pay to keep his talent under wraps. Wouldn't want to be made a teacher!
Naruto shuddered at the thought. He wasn't cut out to be a teacher! Although… last time he was in school he didn't learn because no one wanted to teach him… here he was probably stronger than even the Headmaster, so he didn't really need to learn much in combat class…
While he was thinking, Jaune nodded, before addressing Ruby. "Have you ever heard of a Gunbai? And why does he keep stopping in the middle of talking?" Ruby shrugged.
"I think he's thinking about something that requires his full attention. Naruto's really talented at combat, and sneaky. So if it requires his full concentration to think about something, it's most likely something very VERY important." she nodded wisely. Jaune on the other hand sweatdropped.
'I think you have a little too much faith in this guy…' he thought as a breeze knocked Naruto over, who, due to being lost in thought, did in fact faceplant on the ground. Groaning, he lifted his head off the ground.
"Kurama, am I dead?" he moaned aloud, causing Ruby and Jaune to giggle briefly before helping him up. Naruto groaned before sealing away his Gunbai, making a note to buy some orange paint to cover the tomoe on it. While they were stylish, they reminded him too much of Madara. And honestly, they also reminded him of Orochimaru, who'd had banners with tomoe on them all over his hideouts. Grunting, Naruto shook Jaune and Ruby off of him.
"Mm' fine. Leggo." they let him go with a laugh, although Jaune seemed a bit worried about him. He could feel a bruise forming on his face, and a bit of blood dripped from his nose before he regenerated the injury. Walking down a path, they talked for a while longer about all they wanted to do, and why they were at Beacon. Jaune, Ruby and Naruto discovered, wanted to live up to his family name, which Naruto could empathize with. He had felt like he needed to live up to his father when he found out that the Fourth was his dad. Fortunately, he felt like he'd done so. Jaune however was still developing, and Naruto was glad to see that he was trying so hard. Ruby wanted to be a Huntress because she wanted to slay monsters, and save the world. She wanted to be a hero. Naruto was honestly happy with that. It seemed like Remnant would be in good hands after he left. And when they questioned him, he said that he was here to further some research, and left it at that. Of course, they were intrigued by his answer and asked what he was researching, and Naruto decided to humour them, and see if they'd heard of anything that could help. Jaune had no idea what a Semblance was, which worried Naruto greatly, but he brushed it off. Ruby had heard of people who could teleport, but time manipulation was something she'd only heard of in stories.
"No, Space-Time techniques are abilities that let you teleport, and manipulate time I guess…" Naruto considered the possibilities, before shaking his head. "I need to study teleportation, and such. Maybe there's a technology that does it." Ruby was sceptical, but open to the idea while Jaune, who didn't seem to know much about Hunters but a lot about computers, said that it was probably impossible.
"I mean, the best stuff we can create is with Dust, which means we're also limited in what we can create. We're confined to using the Dust we have, of which there's only four basic types." Naruto nodded at this; it seemed a lot like Affinities, except there were only four types… Fire, Ice, Earth and Lightning. He was intrigued that Wind wasn't a natural occuring Dust type.
As their conversation evolved, and they began to talk about their pasts, Ruby found both Naruto and Jaune were hesitant to speak too much about their pasts.
"Seriously? You guys don't want to talk at all about your families?!" she demanded. Jaune winced, before glancing at Naruto, who looked amused by Ruby's anger. Jaune quickly snapped his head back towards Ruby, who was glowering at him as hard as she could.
"Well, I have seven sisters, and-" and before he can say anything else, Ruby's already blanched.
"S-seven?" she asked, fear in her voice. Jaune nodded.
"Yeah, seven. And yes, a lot of them are like your sister." Ruby quickly hugged him, pity literally pouring out of her face. Jaune sighed.
"Yeah." After a few seconds, he began to grow uncomfortable. "Uhh, Ruby? Why don't we… hear about Naruto's family?!" he suggested, trying to squeeze out of her arms. After he made his suggestion, Ruby popped off of him like a limpet, and turned towards Naruto, who shrugged.
"I'm an orphan. I don't have any siblings. I only met my parents once." he grunted, not really wanting to get into the details with what was basically a new friend and an acquaintance. Jaune flinched when he heard Naruto was an orphan, and sympathetically believed that Naruto didn't want to talk about it.
So when Ruby asked, "Ohhh, how'd they die?" he felt like smashing his head into the ground. Couldn't she see this was a sensitive topic?!
Naruto stopped walking, and turned to look at her. "My parents were both stabbed through the chest by a massive claw when I was a baby, the day I was born." he said shortly. Ruby nodded sadly.
"My mum died when I was small too. She went on a mission and never came back." Naruto tensed, worried that he'd caused her distress. Quickly glancing at her, he calmed when he saw only lingering sadness on her face; the same that he'd seen in so many other orphans in the Leaf. Once, he'd worn that face. One that was resolute in action, but fearful and alone. He immediately decided, no, it wasn't a decision.
It was instinct.
He didn't want to see that look on her face ever again.
After talking for an indistinct amount of time, eventually Jaune asked a very important question;
"Do.. either of you know where we're going?" he asked, a nervous tremor in his voice. Naruto shrugged.
"I thought you guys did." he said, a questioning tone at the end of his voice. Ruby squawked, freaking out.
"Oh my Gods are we late please don't say we're late AHHHHH!" she screamed, before running back to the loading area. Naruto, seeing her run, patted Jaune on the shoulder.
"Good luck keeping up." he winked, and then he was off, completely not running at all. In fact, he seemed to be walking slower. Jaune raised an eyebrow, confused.
"What do you mean? You're not moving that fast." he pointed out.
Naruto sighed in resignation. "If I'm later than you and Ruby, the fact that you guys are late will be less noticeable. Besides, don't worry. I've got a plan." he grinned, the grin full of glee, none of it hidden from Jaune, who started to run, yelling after Ruby.
"Heeeyyy! Ruby! Wait uuuuup!" he yelled, chasing after the vanishing red dot (fortunately she hadn't used her Semblance, probably because she expected them to catch up to her). Naruto sighed, a smile on his face.
"Just like back at the Academy."
Ruby and Jaune belted into the auditorium; fortunately it hadn't been too hard to find. It was basically situated in the foyer under Beacon Tower (there were also little signs hanging up leading from the loading area to it). Panting and gasping for air, Jaune looked at Ruby who appeared completely fine.
"How-" pant, "are you-" gasp, "not completely" wheeeeze, "exhausted?!" he demanded, doubled over and panting. Ruby looked at him oddly.
"Well, I thought you were fit enough to run that… most Huntsmen and Huntresses in training can manage that pretty easily." Jaune winced, leaning backwards and popping his back with a groan.
"Oh." he said, his voice bland and devoid of any meaningful emotion. Their conversation was interrupted by Yang, who called out to Ruby.
"Ruby! Over here! I saved you a spot!" Ruby did a little happy dance, before looking around for Naruto.
"Do you know where Naruto is?" she asked Jaune, who was still groaning. Waving his hands, Jaune answered her with short pants in between words.
"He said he was going to make an entrance…" he gasped out, causing Ruby to cock an eyebrow.
"He hasn't done anything like this before… he's usually so serious. I wonder what he's going to do?" she wondered aloud. Yang once more called her over.
"Ruby! Did you hear me? I saved you a spot!" she yelled, causing some other applicants to give her annoyed looks. Ruby sighed, before bidding Jaune farewell.
"Well, that's my sister!" Before she left, she took a second to think. "Would you like to come stand with us?" she asked, deciding it would be mean to abandon Jaune on his own. Jaune smiled happily, joy covering his face momentarily.
"Thanks Ruby! That'd be great!" he followed her over to Yang, who glared at him.
"Puke Face." she greeted frostily, causing Ruby to flinch. Jaune however, laughed sheepishly.
"Sorry about that?" he said again, contrite. Yang took this moment to glance around, looking for Naruto.
"Where's Whiskers?" she cupped her chin, thinking aloud. Both Ruby and Jaune shrugged.
"He said he wanted to make an entrance." Jaune said, his voice betraying his cluelessness about Naruto's plan.
Suddenly, a large cloud of colourful smoke loudly poofed into existence on the stage at the end of the auditorium, drawing the attention of all the students in the room (as well as the teachers flanking the doors, who were confused). A voice began to echo forth from the concealing cloud, it's rich bass tones rendering the room spellbound.
"Known far and wide from south, to east, to west and the icy north, and even amongst the heavens beyond the stars, I am the legendary Toad Sage! Inheritor of the Six Paths and companion of titans, I call them forth!" With that, the smokescreen was blown away with a gust of wind, showing Naruto standing proudly in his Akatsuki cloak, and wearing a horned headband with an odd symbol on it. Jaune absentmindedly noted that his Gunbai wasn't there- and he had to take a double take. Naruto had blown away the smokescreen with a large, scaly looking tail covered in purple patterns and spots. It flourished about him as he continued his speech, his eyes glowing in a golden nimbus like effect with a cross overlaying it.
"Shukaku!" he cried, the tail brandishing itself above him.
"Matatabi!" he bellowed, a fiery blue tail surging out to join Shukaku's.
"Isobu!" he intoned, a flat tail covered in armoured plates exploding to join the others.
"Son Goku!" a red furred tail sprung out with odd spikes trailing along the spinal cord.
"Kokuo!" another tail, this one a brilliant white with a golden tip twirled amongst it's brethrens.
"Saiken!" he howled, a slimy appendage oozing out to join the rest, prompting some flinches from the crowd.
"Chomei!" a shining yellow tail swung out, trailing lazily in the air.
"Gyuki!" a long octopus tentacle erupted forth, pushing him into the air to give the rest of the tails more room.
"And Kurama!" he roared, his cry accompanied by a large orange tail bursting forth, this one rapidly twining through the air; as Naruto stood above the rest of the students he found that for the first time since he discovered he could get home, he was happy and not distracted.
Of course, despite the awe, and in some cases disgust of the students, some had no appreciation for performance. As an applause rang out throughout the auditorium, coupled with some boos and jeers, Naruto felt an approaching doom from behind. Using his Gyuki tail to pivot, he saw Glynda Goodwitch marching towards him, riding crop clenched in a white fist.
'Uh oh.' he thought to himself, seeing Professor Ozpin smiling faintly behind her. 'She doesn't look happy…' with a flick of her crop, Naruto was sent careening into the student body, which tried as hard as they could to escape the rapidly approaching tails. Naruto quickly took stock of the situation, and with a grunt pulled the tails back within him. As he landed on the ground, and fell into a roll down the nice sizable (for a person without tails, at least) alley created by the fearful students. Coming to his feet, he looked about with a happy smile on his face, with most around him giving him wary looks.
'Eh, you win some you lose some.' he shrugged, before walking over to where he sensed Ruby. Quickly repelling his Sage Chakra back into the auditorium, he noted how the people around him calmed, and stopped giving him wary looks.
'The power of peaceful nature, eh…' he thought as Ruby walaid him. And thus began a long drawn out period of questions; too bad he couldn't listen to Professor Goodwitch… it probably wasn't important, he thought before beginning to completely ignore Ruby's questions in favour of looking around at the other students. Overall, his performance seemed to have had mixed effects. On one hand, most students seemed wary of his many tails, but bemused by his introduction. That in itself wasn't bad, but he'd hoped for a more positive reaction. Fortunately, nearly a third of the student body appeared to have been amused by it, with a small fraction of that (including Jaune) awed by his performance. All in all, he was glad he'd done it.
It reminded him of home.
AN:
Wowza! Another chapter in a week-ish?! Obviously I've been forced to do this!
OK. Complaints about Naruto being OOC.
…
…
He just went through a war, and is having IMMENSE emotional and mental strains placed upon him. If you think he's being too much like an Uchiha, maybe you should wonder why most Uchiha turn out that way; their lives aren't exactly sunshine and rainbows. Naruto is behaving in an unhealthy manner because he is not in a good place. He's somewhere where telling people about his problems would CAUSE problems. And when people bottle up their emotions, they tend to become more cynical, darker, more prone to irrational behaviour, and scarily enough, more intelligent at times.
Now that that's done, I hope that people can see he's not just an OC Uchiha I've shafted into this story hoping that the 'Naruto' name will carry him to success.
What do you think of his introduction? Honestly, I'm feeling giddy thinking about all the backlash that can come of it! He basically became nine Faunus at once! Ohhhhh, so much racism! I can hardly wait! It was sort of in commemoration of Jiraiya (if you couldn't tell) and you'll learn about the headband in the next chapter! For now, sit tight, stay safe, and please don't PM me about how much you hate my story. Honestly, you have better things to do, don't you? Like, go to a YouTube comments section. Then you might be listened to instead of me just deleting your message ;)
