Chapter 20: Bold Moves

Naruto quickly glanced at his palm, and saw the mark he'd been bearing for more than three months was still there, pulsing a vibrant purple colour.

"Well. That's shit." he hissed just as the door burst open, Ozpin standing in the entryway with his hands folded over his cane.

"Mr. Uzumaki, that is quite enough." he said firmly. "I am aware that you require time to think, Mr. Uzumaki, but locking yourself in with a patient who requires intensive medical care and not allowing the Doctors in is hardly the best way to help your Team, or yourself." Ozpin said quietly, yet intensely.

"Sorry Professor." Naruto clenched his fist tightly, turning towards Ozpin with a small smile on his face. "But I couldn't do nothing when Blake was so badly hurt."

Ozpin glanced over at Blake, his eyes widening imperceptibly when he saw her fully healed. "Mr. Uzumaki, I was unaware that you possessed healing abilities." As he spoke, the Doctor rushed in, face beet red and ready to lay into Naruto.

"Young man, you better have a DAMN good reason why you-" he cut out when he saw Blake, completely healed. His eyes widened, and he rushed over to some previously unnoticed medical devices on the wall next to Blake.

"Headmaster, this is remarkable!" he exclaimed, all traces of fury gone. "Ms. Belladonna has completely regrown her missing appendages! Why, this might be the most remarkable Healing Semblance I've ever seen, no, heard of!"

Naruto flushed, rubbing the back of his head. "Oh no, uh, it was nothing!" he smiled sheepishly as Ozpin sighed.

"Mr. Uzumaki… well done." Naruto looked flummoxed as Ozpin continued. "Thanks to you, a young woman's life has not been cut short. I am aware that I may have unfairly placed some of the blame on you. I want to personally thank you for what you've done." Ozpin bowed formally, mimicking Naruto's formal bow from the beginning of the year.

Naruto blushed again, waving the thanks away. "It was something I had to do. You were right that I should have been a better leader, and that I was a bad friend." Naruto admitted.

"That may be so," Ozpin began, "But the mistake was mine. I should have addressed this problem when it became apparent that you were not meeting the requirements of your station. I know how much one can yearn for the past, and the world they knew." he gained a wistful look, "I cannot allow you to take the blame for failing to be a leader. I should have told you what that meant… Naruto, what is a leader?"

Naruto frowned. He could tell this was important to Ozpin, and thought carefully about his answer. "A leader… walks in front of everybody." he smiled to himself. "They lead the way, taking on all the pain that should come to their people. They confront the monsters, they protect, and they never back down." he said, a spark in his eyes.

Ozpin smiled to himself. "You remind me of myself, when I was a young man." he sighed, leading Naruto from the room. "I wasn't always a Headmaster, nor was I always a Huntsman." he told Naruto as they left the hospital wing, Ren nowhere to be seen.

"What did you want to be when you were a kid?" Naruto asked, curious.

Ozpin smiled wanly. "I wanted to be a knight." Naruto cocked his eyebrow, unfamiliar with the term despite his extensive readings (after all, the Shinobi World had had no knights).

Ozpin caught his inquisitive look, and chuckled. "I suppose you didn't have knights where you were from, Mr. Uzumaki?"

"No…" Naruto said slowly. "What is a knight?"

Ozpin pressed the button for his office, and explained as they waited for the elevator. "A knight is someone who upholds the chivalric code of Knighthood. They are the pinnacle of valour, honour, gallantry, and courtesy."

Naruto's eyes sparkled. "Awesome! Why didn't you become a knight?"

Ozpin winced. "I suppose that in the end, I chose to fight for what I believed to be right…"

As the elevator opened and they entered, Naruto questioned Ozpin. "Sorry Professor, but isn't that the point of knights? To fight for what's good?"

Ozpin nodded as the elevator rose. "Indeed, and I must say you understand the concept quite well for someone who's never heard of them before." he praised before explaining. "However, what I meant to say was that instead of pursuing valour and victory in the field, I chose to become a teacher, and fight as a Huntsman." he said softly, recalling. "I suppose I've forgotten that dream of mine…" he whispered.

"Well, it's never too late." Naruto said offhandedly. "How does someone become a knight anyways?"

Ozpin smiled grimly. "They swear an oath of allegiance to a King or Queen, or become a Hedge Knight… a Hedge Knight is a knight who swears allegiance to the people, instead of a King or Queen."

Naruto nodded slowly. It was confusing, but he understood the idea. He started as the elevator chimed, opening to reveal Ozpin's office.

"Why, the last King of Vale even had an organization of knights!" Ozpin said lightly as they left the elevator. "They were called the Knights of Vale! They served the King in all things, and fought valiantly in the Great War." he sighed happily. "If only we still had such magnificent warriors… now we of course have the Huntsmen and Huntresses, but so many students here are barely even close to the skill and talent that the Knights fielded, even though they're a hundred years gone and didn't have access to the technology of today."

Naruto frowned slightly. "Neither are they as… gallant, I believe is the word you used."

Ozpin inclined his head. "I can hardly turn away a student because of their conduct, unfortunately. I don't have the luxury to pick and choose from the morally incorruptible."

Naruto frowned. "Have you considered having something like a post-graduate school for the… good people?"

Ozpin sighed. "Oh if I could. Most students would rather go right to fighting the Grimm however, and would view the extra years of schooling rather pointless." he paused, narrowing his eyes at Naruto. "In fact, some students believe they are capable of fighting, and winning I might add, before they've even finished their first year."

Naruto sighed at the reminder of Blake. "Yeah… I'm gonna need to talk to her about that."

Ozpin nodded sharply. "While I can hardly begrudge her the desire to do good, sometimes caution is the better part of valour."

Naruto frowned, nodding slightly. "We aren't 'Knights of Vale', we're Huntsmen and Huntresses."

Ozpin shook his head sharply. "Not so, Naruto. You are all students. In fact, the only one of my students I would feel comfortable allowing themself to intervene in matters such as this is you."

Naruto narrowed his eyes. "Because you think that I'm not one of your students, not really." he sighed to himself softly, easing into the chair in front of Ozpin's desk. "I suppose that's true… I haven't really made myself into a model student, have I?"

Ozpin groaned, sliding into his chair. "Sometimes I think that you intentionally misunderstand me, Naruto. I only meant that you are far and away the most powerful man of your generation. From what you've told me, you might be the most powerful man I have ever met." he said honestly.

"So what you meant was.."

"That I am sure you can handle anything that the White Fang or Roman could throw at you, easily." Ozpin reassured him.

Naruto smiled crookedly. "Well, yeah, probably."

Ozpin leaned back into his seat, considering. "You mentioned in your story that you can sense negativity, correct?"

Naruto nodded, and leaned in to speak when Ozpin continued. "Then could you pinpoint the location of the White Fang hideout, perchance?"

Naruto thought for a moment to himself. 'Kurama? What do you think?'

"We're kinda busy right now, brat! Whatever happened with the cat-woman has done something to your Mindscape! We can sense something hiding here now, we're hunting it down." Kurama ended with a snarl, "But yes, we'd probably be able to sniff out wherever they're hiding at some point. Tell the old man about the presence in Haven when you're on the topic!"

Naruto nodded to Ozpin. "Yeah, we'd be able to sense them out. I'm kinda beat from healing Blake though, so I can't use that ability for now." he lied. "But while we're talking about it, I did sense something I thought I should tell you about."

Ozpin looked at him seriously. "What did you detect?"

Naruto relayed what he'd detected in Lionheart's office, and the thing hiding away behind the wall. When he finished his tale, Ozpin was frowning.

"I see… I have a sneaking suspicion as to what the presence in the walls was, but the other one… you said it was powerful, and old?"

Naruto nodded. "It felt… I guess sneaky is the best word for it. Dark and malevolent, and crawling with deception. I wouldn't have sensed it at all if I hadn't looked for it."

Ozpin nodded to himself. "Did you discover anything pertaining to your search while there, at least?" he asked, changing the subject.

Naruto sighed. "Nothing concrete, and nothing I don't suspect you already knew." he said pointedly, glaring slightly as Ozpin's unsurprised face. "I learned about the Cult of the Efreet while I was there… and there's a connection between Annatar and a Genie, isn't there?"

Ozpin stood, turning towards his windows and gazed over Vale. "First you must understand that I have my reasons for hiding this from you. I wanted, at least at first, to discover what kind of man you were before allowing you access to all the information at my disposal."

Naruto nodded. That was fair enough, he'd have done the same if he was Hokage and some overpowered man beyond a Shinobi showed up saying he wanted access to restricted files and so on.

"And after I had a measure of what kind of man you were," Ozpin spoke briskly, "I wanted to have you connect more with our world, to see if you would help us."

Naruto frowned. "You tried to manipulate me into fighting your war."

Ozpin shrugged. "Would you have done any different? I was going to try and appeal to your better nature, but for reasons that are beyond me, you began distancing yourself from your team, and for all appearances, stopped caring about those around you."

Naruto sighed. "I guess it was pretty obvious…"

"Quite." Ozpin remarked, walking to a wall. "But I'm curious, why did you stop caring about the people in my school? I can't say that you just happened to start caring more about returning to your world of origin, because there was no discernible way for you to return! I sent you on a wild goose chase to discourage you, and yet you only became more stubborn. Did I misjudge what kind of man you are?"

Naruto laughed lightly as Ozpin pressed a button hidden in the wall, opening a secret compartment with a coffee grinder within. "No, you didn't. I don't give up, but that alone wouldn't have made me so obsessed. I guess that the truth is that I managed to make contact with my home world."

Ozpin dropped his mug on the floor with a curse. "What did you say?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "I met with my old teacher, and his best friend, a couple months ago. We've been having weekly meetings trying various ways to get me home."

Ozpin paled, turning away from his hidden coffee machine entirely. "You mean that they've managed to come here?!" he demanded.

Naruto shook his head quickly. "Oh no! No no no, we share an ability that lets us both visit the same Time Space." he saw Ozpin's look, and hurriedly explained further. "A Time Space is like a private dimension, at least in this case. Both of us can visit there, but neither of us can go to the world that the other is in."

Ozpin nodded. "When is your next meeting?" he asked.

"We're meeting in a couple hours." Naruto answered neutrally. Ozpin rummaged in his back pocket, taking out his scroll. After pressing a few times on the screen, he slid it away.

"Would it be permissible for me to accompany you, Mr. Uzumaki?" he asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Are you gonna stop trying to manipulate me?"

Ozpin smiled wryly. "I doubt that I'd be able to, now that I know you're on the lookout for it. At this point I believe that total honesty is the best course, at least in regards to your origins and how to return you."

Naruto nodded slightly, before looking at Ozpin. "And… if I might not want to go back?" he asked quietly.

Ozpin could hear the fear in his voice. Not afraid of being told that he couldn't stay, no, Naruto wasn't afraid of that. He was afraid of whether or not he himself wished to return. Ozpin smiled sadly.

"It is not always up to us what our future may hold." he said kindly, laying a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder. "But you will always be welcome at Beacon, either as a student…" he knelt down in front of Naruto and looked him in the eye, "or as a teacher."

Naruto blinked. "A teacher?"

Ozpin nodded. "And maybe someday, once I'm old and… well, gray-er, the Headmaster. Any door you choose to pursue is open to you, Naruto. All you need to do is grasp at the doorknob."

Naruto smiled to himself. 'I could be like Iruka-Sensei… or Kakashi-Sensei… maybe being Hokage… is like Itachi said.' He remembered Itachi, who rebuked him for why he wanted to be Hokage. 'Only somebody already acknowledged ever becomes Hokage… and I've been acknowledged. I have accomplished my dream, ever since I fought Nagato. Now… there's people that need protecting, a world that needs saving… and I've been trying to leave.'

Naruto looked up at Ozpin with a smile. "I think I'd like that, Sensei." he said honestly. Ozpin smiled as well, the movement different than any day before… it was more genuine, Naruto noticed, than he'd ever seen.

"Well, since it appears that you've finally accepted me as your teacher, I might as well meet your other teachers you've had." he said mithfully, elated at bringing Naruto out from himself.

"We have about… five hours until I need to head in." Naruto said, glancing up at the sun. "Before then, how should I explain to Blake and the rest what happened? I can't just tell them it's part of my Semblance, can I?"

Ozpin shook his head. "No, we can't." he adapted to the change in topic quickly, moving back to his seat and slinging his scroll onto the desk, lighting up a holographic display. "First I'll wipe all the recordings of that room." it was done with a wave of his hand, "Then I'll contact the Doctor…"

After pressing a few buttons, the Doctor was summoned to the office. While they waited, Ozpin continued to work, gaining an animation that Naruto had not yet seen from him.

"And then we need to change the paperwork and forms filled out… say that a Huntsman named… Giedon Pinefield was called by me, and old friend from a long time ago, has a Healing Semblance…" with a few touches at the screen, Ozpin had concocted an entirely fake persona. "All that's left is the face… my synthetic image processor should construct one in a matter of hours, and then for all intents and purposes, Giedon will be a real Huntsman, with a Healing Semblance capable of regrowing entire body parts, say at the cost of his own Aura, which takes a substantial time to regrow after using it… yes yes, that works nicely…"

Naruto cleared his throat. "I could use my transformation technique to transform, then you could take a picture with your scroll for the file, right?"

Ozpin nodded quickly. "Yes yes, of course! Someone could find the program running if I activate it, or it could take too long… choose a person who looks like a doctor, Naruto, in some fashion." he instructed absently, continuing to create files and wipe others.

Naruto thought to himself. 'Giedon sounds like a guy's name, so no Sakura or Tsunade… no way am I going with Orochimaru… ah, how about…' and with that, he transformed.

Ozpin glanced over as the smoke cleared, and raised an eyebrow. "A bit young, but I suppose he'll do."

Standing before Ozpin was a perfect copy of Kabuto, just as he'd been during the Chunin Exams so long ago. Ozpin grabbed his scroll, took the picture, and then stopped, considering.

"Perhaps you should stay in that form until the Doctor returns… then he could confirm your existence." he mused.

Naruto nodded. "That's a great idea!" he said enthusiastically.

Ozpin whipped his head to the floating displays. "Alright, now to add a paycheck to pay for Giedon's services… how does three million lien sound?"

Naruto blanched. "That sounds like blatant favouritism! Why would you ever pay that much for someone to heal a student when the robot legs are so much cheaper?!"

Ozpin nodded absently. "True… hmmmm. That IS how much this service would cost at a glance, but Ms. Belladonna can't afford it, and neither can the school afford to show such favouritism… any suggestions?"

"How about someone who knows her? Someone who did it because they liked her or something?" Naruto suggested.

Ozpin hummed. "I suppose an admirer of her father could be an adequate reason… Naruto, add a Faunus feature to Giedon. If he's a Faunus, that would explain why he would show loyalty to the Belladonna family."

Naruto grunted, adding a set of serpent's scales to Kabuto's face. It was easy enough, he'd seen Kabuto with the disgusting things when he'd last seen him.

'...was that racist?' Naruto contemplated as Ozpin snapped another image of him. 'I suppose so… but I have a damn good reason to not like snakes!'

As Ozpin finished up creating a Huntsman License for Giedon, the Doctor arrived with a chime.

"Yes, Headmaster? I'm sorry it took so long for me to get here, I was making sure Ms. Belladonna's vitals were all in the green, and that her Aura was capable of covering her recovered limbs." the Doctor reported, glancing at Naruto (who was still concealed beneath his transformation).

"Ah, and is it?" Ozpin inquired, pulling Giedon's file out of sight.

"It's really quite something, Ozpin! If anything, her Aura has increased in potency! There was only one small thing I took note of; there is a small pyramid shaped barb embedded above her belly button… I took some photos to put in her file. At the moment, it doesn't appear to have any properties."

Ozpin nodded slightly. "Well, perhaps we can clear some of this up for you. This is Giedon, he's the man who healed Ms. Belladonna."

The Doctor looked at Naruto quickly. "I thought it was the young man we found there who healed her? You congratulated him and everything!"

Ozpin sighed softly. "It was young Mr. Uzumaki who called Giedon here." he lied, "He did so without my permission, and fortunately for him, Giedon did not demand a price for his services."

"Why, how incredibly generous!" the Doctor exclaimed, turning to Naruto. "Would you be staying here then, to heal the other injured students?!"

Naruto glanced at Ozpin, who shook his head imperceptibly. "Ah, no I won't be. Unfortunately, my Semblance drains me incredibly, and I can't use it for another couple years after something so strenuous." Naruto fibbed, as the Doctor's eyes dropped.

"Ah, it has a time limit then? Seems odd, but I've seen Semblances much much weirder than that." the Doctor shrugged, taking the answer as the truth. "Why then did you use it on my patient?"

Naruto remembered what he and Ozpin had discussed. "I owe a debt to her father. Without him, I wouldn't be here today."

The Doctor nodded sagely. "I see. It appears that the Chieftain has touched many lives. I am glad you are one who chose to heal, rather than kill."

Naruto blinked. 'Who the hell is Blake's dad?!'

"Well, thank you Doctor." Ozpin intervened, "I am glad we were able to have this discussion, and to let you know that it was Giedon here who healed young Ms. Belladonna. Unfortunately, we won't be able to count on his aid in the near future, so we must ensure that no injuries like this happen on our watch."

The Doctor nodded. "I agree, I was just going to start educating Team NRRB about proper precautions. If they'd brought the standard issue medical gear, they could have staunched the wound enough for us to do relatively little in the way of surgery, and could have made grafting a cybernetic much easier."

Naruto flinched, and the Doctor caught it. "Yes, Mr. Giedon?"

"Well, I'm just surprised that a team would neglect to bring medical supplies while on a mission." Naruto bluffed, hiding that his real surprise was that there even was standard issue medical gear.

"Most do, unfortunately, convinced that Aura will protect them from all harm. It's one of the issues I have with Glynda's class. Everyone develops an invincibility complex, since they're allowed to leave the ring when they're below fifteen percent of their Aura. I think that's outrageous, students should be taught that just because their Aura is low does NOT mean that they can just go home!" the Doctor ended heatedly, face red.

Naruto flushed slightly, although the scales made it a bit hard to tell. "Well, that's true enough. I remember when I attended the academy, the fights there were very much not the same as what I've seen in the field."

Ozpin cleared his throat. "While I do love criticizing Glynda," he began, "I believe that you have other patients, Doctor?"

"Yes, yes I do. Thank you for the talk Headmaster, and thank YOU, Mr. Giedon, for healing that young girl. If you are ever in need of assistance, my door is always open." the Doctor nodded to each of them, before departing the office.

"Well now, Mr. Uzumaki." Ozpin spoke with a gleam in his eye, "What would be this barb located in Ms. Belladonna? Perhaps something to keep her healed?"

Naruto shook his head slightly. "I'm sorry Professor, but I have absolutely no idea what it is. All I know is that it appeared on my palm just after I killed Kaguya."

Ozpin was silent, considering. "Is it still on your palm, then?"

Naruto held up his hand, the mark simply black against the white circle. "Yeah, it looks like it's dormant now. I only know that when I healed Blake, it sort of… transferred part of itself into her? That's the best way I can describe it, but the Tailed Beasts think something else happened as well."

Ozpin nodded to himself. "Perhaps a piece of her soul then, fragmenting itself and transferring across to multiple hosts… I haven't seen something like this since that time with the Kayhal… could it be connected?"

Naruto cleared his throat, causing Ozpin to flinch. "You mentioned the Kayhal, Oz? They're a noble family of Mistral, aren't they?"

Ozpin raised an eyebrow. "You studied more than I thought you would, Naruto. I'm impressed. And I suppose I did say that I would be honest with you, didn't I?"

Naruto leaned forward, ready for the information.

"Long, long ago, a man came to Remnant. His name, he later told the people, was Annatar. At the time the current Kingdoms were not even in their infancy; Mistral, as it would later be known, was a collective of small Kingdoms each ruled by a Warlord. Annatar, as it happened, appeared not in what would someday be known as Mistral, but in the wastelands of Vacuo." he sipped his coffee, before resuming the tale. "Bordering the Kingdom of Vale, which has always been and always shall be Vale, Vacuo was not so much a Kingdom as a distant land none bothered to travel to. All you could see was barren desert, from all sides. Ships which had wandered to the eastern coast reported dusty mountains of some reddish stone, which, upon further investigation, was soft and crumbled easily. The scouts returned, and reported their findings, and so Vacuo was left to its own."

Naruto leaned back, interested. "And Annatar appeared in Vacuo? I assume he left, right?"

Ozpin grimaced. "Indeed he did, and when he came to Vale, he told the King of great riches he'd found in the desert. The King, upon some reflection, decided to send some of his greatest Knights with Annatar back to the desert, to determine if he spoke the truth." he swiveled his chair, looking out over Vale. "None returned."

Naruto frowned. "How many Knights were sent?"

"More than twenty Knights were sent on that journey. Each of them were beyond some of the professional Huntsmen we have today; if I had to hazard a guess, they were roughly around the ability and skill level of Taiyang and Qrow, who I believe you've had the pleasure of meeting."

"Each of them were at the level of Qrow or Mr. Xiao Long, or all of them together would match Qrow and Mr. Xiao Long?" Naruto asked, curious.

Ozpin smiled grimly. "Each Knight was as skilled and powerful as Qrow AND Taiyang."

Naruto paled.

AN:

Well, here we go! A sortee into exposition! Now, to clarify, YES, the mark Naruto and now Blake have is the Karma. And this is an awesome day, because finally, at long last, I have breached the threshold! Above 100k words!

I hope that the chapter has clarified some issues, and some details that might have eluded some readers. And at this point, Naruto and Ozpin have both promised to be completely transparent (although we know how much that means with Ozpin), and Naruto isn't one to break his word.

Naruto is considering staying in Remnant, but hasn't made up his mind. That's something that he'll need to obviously talk with Kakashi about, and so on. Which is why Ozpin needs to be there, because Kakashi will want to meet the man who's effectively taking over as Naruto's boss for the future.

And finally, Blake and the Miracle Cure! I think Ozpin and Naruto did an OK job of covering it up. Of course, Ren will know the truth, so Naruto will need to discuss it with his Team (or just Ren) at some point, but for now it's story time with the Wizard, and then meeting with Kakashi and Obito, and THEN we get to Ren and Naruto talking (which, honestly, is going to be wayyy easier for me to write than Naruto and Blake, because Ren speaks and acts more like how I write than Blake does).

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This is Pad signing off; going to listen to "She Makes Me"