Chapter 13: A Conference
Naruto was more than happy to lead his team to their dorm, but after nearly an hour of talking with the rest of the group, he realized that he had his meeting with Obito and Kakashi to get to. So, he used his excuse giving skills from his time as an Academy Student.
"Sorry guys, but I have a thing I need to get to." Naruto apologized, backing towards the door. "Tell you what, while I'm gone you can all decorate the room. Uhhh, I put Ren in charge of supervision. See ya!" and with that, he'd bolted from the room, heading for an out of the way corner where he'd be able to Kamui without being seen.
However, on the way he heard a noise he recognized instantly, one that he'd been intimately familiar with in his childhood. Someone was crying. Walking closer to the noise, he saw that girl in white… what was her name… Weiss! She was crying behind a statue. He groaned, but the meeting could wait a bit.
"Hey, are you alright?" he asked, approaching her slowly so that she doesn't freak out. Of course, this doesn't go according to plan, and she jumps in the air, before scowling at him.
"Of course I'm alright! I'm perfectly healthy!" she grouched at him. Naruto sighed, before sitting down next to her on the ground. After a few seconds of him looking up at her, she sat down too.
"Is this because you weren't put on the team you wanted?" he asked, his genuine sympathy colouring his voice. She nodded.
"I wanted to be the leader of my own team, but now-!" she cut herself off, taking a deep breath. "I should be grateful; I'll be learning much from this older team, but, well…" she trailed off, unsure of how to continue. Naruto finished her sentence for her, however.
"They're already a team. You don't feel like there's much you can bring?" he guessed, and she looked at him in shock.
"Exactly! They're already a group of remarkable people, all extremely talented! It would be better if we were all different so that I could learn more, but they're all very similar to me! And they're all better than me I bet, being Third Years and all…" she sighed, sagging downwards. "I'm just realizing that I'm not going to stand out here… I'll be in their shadows the entire time." she said, before scowling. "Why am I telling you this?! You're just a brute… you don't have a weapon, and I saw what you did in the locker room! You…" she started scowling furiously. Naruto was quick to diffuse the situation.
"I'm sorry that you didn't get onto the team you wanted and that you don't think you can distinguish yourself, but you need to realize something."
"What?" she looked at him oddly.
"You're here to become a Huntress. That means your first and most important duty is to protect the people out there." he gestured out the window, Vale glowing faintly in the distance. "I understand the need to become stronger. But why are you trying to? What's your reason?" he persisted, Weiss looking out at Vale, her expression inscrutable.
"I don't see why I need to tell you that." she responded haughtily, if a little peeved. Naruto shrugged.
"That's true. It's not my place to tell you why to fight. But I think you need to think about that yourself. The purpose of a Huntsman or Huntress is to defend the people from the darkness. If you aren't willing to do that, then you need to find out why." he stood up, and turned to bow to Weiss. "Thank you for your time, I do hope that you resolve this problem."
And with that, he set off, angling towards the elevator, Weiss watching him depart with a bemused expression on her face. Slipping into the elevator, he quickly activated the Kamui, twirling him away into the Kamui dimension.
As his feet settled on the gray stone floor, he looked about. He couldn't see Kakashi or Obito yet, which either meant he missed them or was early. A quick glance at the clock revealed that he was slightly early (unless Kakashi was late for this as well, in which case he was really early). Stretching his arms, he began to think about the squad he was in back at Beacon. Now that they were all students, he expected that when he left they'd either get a new leader, or maybe one of them would become a leader with Weiss taking his place. Either way, it would work out.
Looking around the dimension, he noticed that the dimension was a little less empty than before. Some of the cubes had begun to reform in the distance, and he could see that while they were small, they were still growing.
'Does this mean that in a few months Obito's dimension will be completely back?' he thought, curious as his mind began trying to digest the information. 'It can't be a jutsu… I wonder what it is? Maybe an inherent piece of his Time Space?'
As he pondered, a whirring sound alerted him to the presence of newcomers. Turning around, he saw Obito spiral into existence, Kakashi holding his arm. The first thing he noticed was the Hokage hat resting on Kakashi's head. With a grin, Naruto moved towards them.
"Nice hat Kakashi-Sensei!" he called out, waving. Kakashi took a step back, eyes widening.
"Naruto?" he asked, his voice strained. Naruto looked at him, confused.
"Yeah Sensei?"
Kakashi eye smiled at him. "Looks like Obito was telling the truth… I'm so sorry, Naruto. We gave up on you…" he trailed off, his voice pained. Obito patted him on the back.
"Kakashi, we have a chance here to get him back!" Obito said forcefully. "Stop blaming yourself for this and we can start planning!" See, Obito knew how to get Kakashi back on track.
Kakashi nodded, steel filling his eyes. "Naruto, Obito told me that you'd only experienced a couple days since leaving the battle; as you know, I'm the Hokage now. I have an entire division working on bringing you home. It's been two years, there have been advances in Sealing Jutsu since you left." he hurried out, "In fact, our current working theory based on what Obito told us, is to create a whole new body for you, then use Yamanaka Mind Transfer techniques to bring you home." he concluded, looking pleased with himself. Naruto frowned.
"A new body? That sounds… like what Orochimaru was doing…" he said slowly, Obito sighing as they neared this part of the conversation.
"I'm afraid that after the war, we sacked all of Orochimaru's labs. We have all his data, and are striving to use it for good. Using his notes, we've concluded that we can create a sort of Blood Clone of you, which we can use to bring you back."
Naruto scowled. "I don't want to be a copy. There's a difference between me and my clones, and I don't want to just be a clone for the rest of my life. Are there any other ways?" he asked.
Obito cut in. "Naruto, that's only the method we know for sure will work. As it is, we've barely had enough time to begin research. Honestly, the biggest problem here is getting you back at all. We need to make you belong to our Time-Space again." Naruto nodded slowly, considering. After a while, he looked up at them.
"What if I leapt into Timeless Space again, and we made some kind of rope thing to pull me back?" he asked, curious. Kakashi paused, considering.
"Well, Obito would know more about this than I would, but I don't see a way we could tether you to our Time-Space. At best you'd be sending yourself to a completely random one, which doesn't seem like a great idea." he decided, before looking at Obito. "What do you think?"
Obito considered the idea. "At the very least, you could try using something like the Flying Raijin to get home from Liquid Space. However, I agree with Kakashi. You could fly out over a thousand years from now, in another completely random Time-Space, one that could be intolerable to human life."
Kakashi concurred. "I agree. At this time, I think it's best that we simply research for another way to bring you back, and if we can't find a way in say… how about a year?" Naruto shrugged.
"I was thinking this wouldn't take long at all… in the Time-Space I landed in there are records of people who've come from other dimensions and who have left for them." Kakashi and Obito turned to look at him, shocked.
"Really? Obito mentioned you were tutoring a young girl, but I didn't think that they'd be better prepared than us to handle this…" Kakashi mused.
"They're definitely not as skilled as the best of ours, but they have far more Genin level and Chunin level warriors in Remnant. And honestly, their tools are way better than ours." Naruto confessed. "They have machines that can fly, towers that let anyone in the world communicate instantly, and have guns, which are better than kunai and easier to use." Kakashi was intrigued.
"Better? How so? The guns that we've encountered in our world have been... well, for lack of a better word, crap."
Naruto didn't even need to think. "They're faster, although not by much, and only if you're around Chunin level when you're using kunai, and they have a far longer range. They also can fire them at a much faster rate than we can throw kunai. I believe it has to do with their power source, although I have yet to investigate further."
Kakashi smiled happily. "It appears Obito was right. You have gotten better at explaining, and giving mission reports." he praised, which resulted in Naruto blushing. "Well, in this case I think you should research how to get home from there. We'll meet every week at this time until we find a way for you to get home." he decided, shifting the Hokage hat on his head. Naruto nodded happily.
"I've also talked with the leader of one of the schools in this Time-Space. His name is Ozpin, and he seems to know a bit about different dimensions."
Kakashi frowned. "You told him where you were from?" he asked lowly. Naruto nodded.
"I didn't think he'd believe me, Sensei! I was just using it as an excuse like you do, but then he checked my Chakra and found out I was telling the truth!" he explained hurriedly, embarrassed at failing to hide his identity. Obito laughed, before slinging an arm over Kakashi's shoulder.
"Kakashi, maybe this'll work out. This Ozpin might be able to help Naruto, and honestly, if he tries anything Naruto can just stop him easily. I think it's fine, it's like when Minato-Sensei wouldn't disguise himself when we went on missions near the Hidden Stone." Kakashi sighed, before agreeing.
"Fine. If he can help you get home, then I guess we have no real choice. But Naruto, you need to be discreet. The last thing we need is a horde of people from another Time-Space coming in to attack us." he ordered, minorly paranoid. Naruto nodded shortly.
"Sure thing Kakashi-Sensei." he said. Kakashi smiled proudly.
"You really are turning into a fine young Shinobi, Naruto." he approved. "Now go research. We'll continue on our end; see you in a week!" Naruto nodded, before he vanished from where he'd been standing with a quick Kamui.
Turning to Obito, he frowned. "He doesn't seem like himself." Obito nodded slowly.
"Yeah. He's… more Uchiha-like than I thought he'd be."
Kakashi agreed. "Maybe it's the eyes?" he suggested.
Obito shook his head. "I think it's the loss. Like all the Uchiha, Naruto isn't dealing with it. He's bottling it up, and soon, it'll explode."
Kakashi sighed. "Let's hope we can get him home before that happens."
AN:
Here's a short chapter, since I wrote the last big one. Now, cheers for Ultimate demon god zero for guessing the composition of Team APAD! Well done! And thanks to everyone else who got the Annatar name drop! I'll say this: it wasn't a cameo. Dude was there, and he did stuff. Ohhhhh, so much fun!
Once more, thank you to Wind Dragon Master! Your reviews never cease to be insightful and helpful! Thank you for the three points at the beginning of it, I'm glad you liked those little details!
Here's a little something I need to say; if this is becoming too much like a crack fic for people, then guess what: I don't care. I like telling little jokes here and there, and just because Ozpin bet Glynda doesn't mean she's his slave. It means that Ozpin is willing to transfer one of his teachers for a chance to win coffee. Fight me.
Have a nice day, wish me luck on the AP English Literature Exam I'm taking the day after tomorrow!
-Pad
