Chapter 23: Rising Heavens
Naruto stood silent, the elevator chiming as he descended into Beacon proper. His mind was in turmoil from the recent revelations from Ozpin; without a doubt, Remnant was much more complicated than he had originally thought. And with him now needing to meet his Team… there was much to do.
His head rose slightly when the elevator chimed one final time, the doors opening into the halls of Beacon. With a little sigh, he strode forth into the halls. It wasn't long before he found himself moving towards the dormitories, eyes absently tracking the movement of the shattered moon as it began to rise into the coming night.
'I suppose that in the end… all we can do is wait.' he thought to himself, strangely at peace with himself. 'Now I must apologize to my Team.'
He shook his head, dismissing his fears, before moving.
His movement wasn't the march of a man to the gallows, nor was it the courageous stride he'd made when he'd marched on Madara and the Ten Tails. He simply moved, as though it were natural to do so, as a waterfall is falling water, so too was he a walking man.
"You are not to blame for the failings of your Team. Only your own." Gyuki spoke somberly, knowing the pain that would await. "And your own failings are small, small things indeed."
Naruto sighed, stopping before the door to his Team's room. 'Gyuki… I would like to do this alone. Right now, they need me. They've needed me for a while. It's time to be the leader that I should be.'
He pushed open the door, and saw Ren lying on his bed in his pajamas, eyes watching the door. The rest of the room was empty, and the window was open to the cool night air.
"Ren… how are you doing?" Naruto asked softly.
Ren stared at him silently. Naruto sighed. "I understand if you don't want to talk with me. I know that I've been a terrible leader, and I haven't been a friend to you guys at all. I am hoping that it is not too late to change that."
Ren sighed as well after a moment of silence. "I saw what you did for Blake." he said shortly, eyes curious.
Naruto sighed, sitting down on his own bed. "What I did was… nothing."
Ren sat up, eyes incredulous. "You restored her broken body to her. There is nothing more important to a warrior like her."
Naruto shook his head. "All I did was call in a favour, and ask another to come heal her." he dismissed. 'It wouldn't be good if the rest of our Team behaved like I could heal them at any point… it would breed carelessness.'
Ren squinted. "That may work on Ruby, but it won't work on me. You were the one who healed her, no one else went into that room after or before you."
Naruto sighed, eyes crinkling slightly. "Well, I suppose out of the whole Team, you'd be the most likely to understand." he explained why he didn't want the rest of the Team to know, and Ren hummed.
"I can see why you would want that." Ren began softly, as was his wont, "But don't you think it would be better for the Team if we all knew what everyone was capable of? It would be better for our teamwork." he proposed.
Naruto shook his head. "There may come a day when I'm not there to save you, and I want you to be able to fight without being willing to sacrifice your bodies because I'll heal it later." he insisted.
Ren frowned. "You mean that you could die?" he asked.
Naruto shrugged. "Anything is possible. And if that happens, you can't be dependent on my healing ability to save you."
Ren thought. "I agree. But you should share it anyways."
Naruto sighed. "Maybe someday. But for now, I shouldn't even need to use the ability on you."
"Ah. I was wondering when this would come up." Ren said emotionlessly.
Naruto leaned forwards, the bed springs creaking beneath him. "None of you should have been fighting down in Vale." he began sadly. "And it was my duty as your Team Leader to make that clear."
Ren sighed again. "I am aware."
Naruto nodded, eyes sharp. "Then I suspect this conversation is one I should have with the other members of our Team, rather than you."
Ren smiled slightly. "Indeed. Are you going to wait till morning?"
Naruto shook his head. "This is something we should do as a Team. Right now." he said firmly, rising to his feet, and looking down to Ren, who was lying back down to sleep.
"I said as a Team, Ren." Ren started, looking up at Naruto. "That means you too. It's past time I did my job, and did a Team activity."
Ren squinted. "It's eight in the evening." he said blandly.
Naruto nodded. "And we're going to the infirmary."
Ren sighed, reaching for his school uniform blazer that was hanging next to his bed, drawing it over his pajamas. "Alright then." he said, casting one last look at his bed before following Naruto out into the hall, his bare feet padding softly on the floors.
Naruto glanced at the door across from theirs as they left. "How's Team PAYN handling this?" he asked quietly.
Ren shrugged. "As usual, Yang wants to kill you." he jibed lightly, "Pyrrha doesn't seem impressed with you, Nora was upset that we got hurt, but only blamed us for being idiots. And Jaune actually seemed to think it wasn't your fault at all." he shook his head.
Naruto sighed. "His training with Ozzy really pushed him, huh."
Ren started, turning towards him. "Ozzy?"
Naruto waved it off as they turned the corner. "Oh, the Headmaster. Ozpin."
Ren ahh'ed appropriately. "He trained with the Headmaster? Curious that his performance in Combat Class doesn't reflect that."
Naruto cocked an eyebrow. "I'm afraid I don't understand, Ren. Is he bad?"
Ren sighed heavily. "He has yet to win a single bout, and only barely knows how to swing his sword."
Naruto frowned. "That doesn't make sense; he received training from Oz for a couple months at least. He should be at least proficient by now."
Ren shrugged. "Well, he consistently loses in class. Haven't you noticed?"
"You know that I wasn't paying attention in that class." Naruto grumbled to Ren's obvious vindication. Naruto continued, the conversation more entertaining than walking in silence.
"Well, maybe he's hiding his full strength." he proposed. Ren shook his head, however.
"There's no reason to do that, and all it's done is hurt his reputation. I even heard Yang was talking about forcing him to give up the position if he didn't shape up into a fighter."
Naruto sighed. Yang's attitude of 'might makes right' was going to get her in trouble one of these days. He'd learned in the Void that some problems can't be solved by striking with overwhelming force.
"Maybe he's hiding his prowess because he wants to stand out more in the Vytal Festival." Naruto suggested. "Ozpin was quite vocal in the beginning of the year about how he wanted to win this year."
Ren looked at him, askance. "And why haven't you mentioned this before?"
Naruto flinched. "I had other priorities, which I regret. Trouble with my home." he explained. Ren nodded slightly.
"I understand." he said shortly, leaving it at that.
Naruto however, was not one to be deterred. "Where are you from, Ren? I've never asked."
Ren remained stoic. "A small village in Mistral."
Naruto smiled. "Oh, I was just in Mistral! What's the village's name?"
Ren stopped. "It was called Kuroyuri." he said sharply.
Naruto stopped as well. "It was destroyed, wasn't it?" he said softly, feeling Ren's emotions through Kurama.
"Yes." Ren said shortly, walking forward again. "And I would like to leave it at that, if you don't mind."
Naruto nodded. "We are all entitled to our past." he said meaningfully, keeping pace with Ren as they walked to the infirmary.
"Yes. We are." Ren said with relief, grateful to Naruto for not probing further. Every person is entitled to their secrets, to their past. No one is under an obligation to share, unless they feel they must.
The boys continued on in silence, before Ren spoke up again. "How are you going to explain what you did for Blake to her and Ruby?"
Naruto smiled slightly. "Ozpin and I have created a fake doctor who can heal extreme injuries at a cost to himself who did it on my behalf."
Ren blinked. "You just… created a fake person?"
Naruto nodded lightly. "Yep! He has a file and everything! I'll just tell Blake and Ruby that he's the one who healed them, at least for now."
Ren nodded slowly. "Aren't you concerned with how easily the Headmaster just… manufactured a fake identity?" he asked.
Naruto shook his head. "It was anything but easy." he reassured Ren. "I mean, I didn't understand all the techno stuff he was doing, but it was very complicated. I think the Headmaster is just good at it."
Ren seemed puzzled. "Isn't that… more concerning?"
Naruto blew that off. "I'm sure that there's a reason that the Headmaster knows how to abuse the computers that the school uses." he snarked, thinking about Ozpin's coffee habit.
As the boys rounded a corner, they saw the locked doors of the infirmary ahead of them, lights gleaming faintly through the windows.
"Well, how are we going to get in?" Ren asked, leaning against the wall. Naruto scoffed.
"Really, Ren? It's just a door." he pulled back his hand, fingers stretching. "Now, Shukaku!" he whispered, just loud enough for Ren to hear.
"You got it!" Shukaku cried from his mindscape. Naruto's fingers glowed, Chakra flowing through them as he channeled the Magnet Style into his fingers.
"Magnet Style: Rise!" he whispered, the bolts in the door lifting on the other side. The doors swung open, with nary an alarm to announce their presence.
Ren looked at him quizzically. "That was new."
Naruto shrugged. "Shukaku is one of the Nature Spirits my Semblance allows me to commune with." he explained, "He can manipulate magnetic waves, allowing me to move some metals, as well as sand."
Ren nodded slowly. "How much metal?"
Naruto thought for a moment. "Enough for it to be useful. I've never actually had enough metal to test it." he said truthfully. "But I'd assume non-magnetic metals wouldn't be affected by it."
Ren nodded slowly. "That makes sense. What kind of spirit is he?"
Naruto spoke immediately. "He's a desert raccoon, Shukaku the Sand Spirit."
"And the greatest desert master in any and all worlds!" Shukaku howled from his mind with a laugh half insane, half delighted.
"You've never actually explained your Semblance to us in depth." Ren noted when they neared Ruby's door. "Is the healing power one granted by it?"
Naruto stopped inches from her door. "I guess you could say so; my Semblance is the ability to connect to nature. The nine spirits with me all are nature spirits, and give me certain powers. However, the healing comes from channeling pure nature into someone else. I also have regeneration powers, and I sort of channel that into someone else." he tried to explain.
Ren nodded slowly. "And there are nine of these spirits, each giving you a power?" he asked.
Naruto looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "What if I answered all these questions when the others are here? Then I don't need to explain more than once." he proposed. Ren shrugged.
"Works for me. Let's get Ruby, and go visit Blake." and with that, they pushed open the door.
'Oh, Ruby.' Was Naruto's first thought, seeing the usually vibrant glowing girl sleeping, bandages wrapping her only visible arm.
"I forgot she was still injured." Naruto said softly. Ren nodded slightly. He'd forgotten too.
"How about we go bring Blake here?" Ren asked. "She should be fine, right?"
Naruto nodded. "Yeah, she should only need something to wake her up."
Ren nodded and watched as Naruto went to get Blake, before turning to Ruby. "This is something he needs to do alone." he said to her sleeping body, before sitting down on the plastic chair near the wall.
In Blake's Room…
Naruto opened the door quietly, and saw Blake, still asleep on her bed. She was looking much better, fortunately. However, he could see drawings of the mark on her stomach on the wall, with small notes next to them. He closed the door quietly, glad of the soundproofing, before moving towards the wall.
'Appears to be a dart?' he thought, reading the notes. 'It's not a seal? It's a piece of something?'
He turned over to her, face drawing into a frown.
"Blake." he whispered, jostling her lightly. She mumbled, rolling over onto her side. "Blake, time to wake up." he said a little louder.
She moaned, before rolling back onto her back. Naruto sighed.
"Come on, Blake." he cracked his knuckles before clamping his fist. "I suppose that this needs to happen the hard way." he said roughly.
He bopped her on the head, right between her cat ears. With an ear-splitting screech, Blake leapt into the air.
"You fiend!" she howled, clenching her ears. "Don't you know how much that hurt!"
Naruto groaned, glad he'd closed the door before waking her. "Blake, it's me!"
Blake stopped, calming slightly. "What?"
"It's me, Naruto. Do you know where you are?" he asked, hopeful.
"I'm… I was down in Vale." she said quietly. "I was fighting Torchwick… the White Fang… they're still out there!" she leapt to go to the door, but Naruto stopped her, hand clenching around her shoulder.
"Now where do you think you're going?" he said quietly.
"To stop the White Fang!" Blake answered blisteringly, eyes cold. "I need to stop them!"
Naruto shrugged. "First, we need to talk. As a Team."
Blake laughed mirthlessly. "A Team? Please, we've never been a Team! You've always been off in your little world, caring only about yourself."
Naruto nodded. "Yes. And that was my mistake." he said softly.
Blake turned, eyes flashing. "Too late! I'm the only one on this 'Team' that has any sense of rational thought! You, you just engage in your little project, always ignoring everything else! Ruby's a child, and a naive one at that! She has no idea how the world works! Ren is the laziest, weakest member of our 'Team'! He doesn't ever do anything without being forced to! I am the ONLY one willing to do something about the problems in this world!"
Naruto looked at her quizzically. "That doesn't change that I am taking the blame for your last foray into Vale. Do you even remember what happened?" he demanded.
Blake scowled. "Obviously we lost. I won't make the same mistake again."
Naruto cocked his head. "What mistake?"
"Relying on useless teenagers!" Blake snarled, trying to wrench her arm free from Naruto's grip.
"Those 'useless teenagers' were both injured trying to help you." Naruto growled.
"Then they shouldn't have come out to Vale!" Blake retorted.
Naruto's eyes froze, bleeding into the crimson red of the Sharingan. The world around them began to also bleed red, and Blake felt afraid.
"They shouldn't have come out to help you? Do you know what happened to you?" he said, voice cold.
Blake looked down at herself. "Obviously nothing permanent." she hissed, "So stop trying to stop me!" Naruto frowned, before fading into a red mist, and joining the red swirls all around her.
"Then look again." his voice echoed from the misty murk around her, as she suddenly fell to the floor.
"W-what?" she stuttered, looking down. Her eyes widened. She didn't have any body beneath her waist. All that was left was a bloody stump.
"I could allow you to feel the pain." Naruto's voice echoed out to her. "But I think you already know that this… this would hurt. THIS is how your Team brought you back."
Blake shook her head. "No, no, this couldn't happen… I'm fine!"
"Only because a healer came by the school." Naruto said from behind her. Blake tried to turn, but succeeded only in moving enough for some blood and flesh to ooze from her open wound, making her retch in disgust, and freeze.
"A healer came by and fixed you up. It's ONLY because of him that you aren't going to be on life support for the rest of your life." Naruto said coldly. "So don't EVER say you don't need your Team. Without them, you would have died out in Vale."
Blake sniffled. "How? How did this happen?" she gasped out.
"Because I failed as a leader." she heard from behind her. "I should have stopped you all from going out there too early. It was my responsibility, and I failed."
"No! You should have been with us!" she insisted, anger taking hold. "With you, with anyone, we might have beaten him! We could have stopped the White Fang!"
Naruto sighed, moving in front of her. "Even now, you care more about stopping the White Fang than about your teammates." he said quietly. "I am aware of the hypocrisy of my talking about this." he continued ruefully, "But you still haven't asked me what happened to Ren and Ruby. What cost THEY paid because you wanted a fight."
Blake snarled from the floor, glaring up at him. "I wasn't looking for a fight! I need to stop them! I have to!"
Naruto shook his head. "They do certainly need to be stopped. Do you really think that you need to be the one to do it?"
"I am the ONLY one who can do it!" she said viciously, "Nobody else understands the Fang like I do!"
"Be as that may." Naruto said, turning his back on her, "You dragged your teammates into a fight you had no hope of winning. And they paid a price for it. Ren sustained a head injury. He's fine now, but Ruby remains in the hospital. She has two fractured ribs."
Blake flinched. "They shouldn't have gotten involved! This is my fight!"
Naruto bowed his head. "You sound like a… old friend of mine.
"He too desired to bring vengeance. He also declared it only his fight. Do you want to know what happened to him?"
"He died alone?" Blake scoffed, eyes rolling.
"No. He may yet be still alive. He betrayed everything and everyone in the whole world. In the end, he tried to kill the only people he had left. And they banished him from realm and nation, for all eternity."
Blake blinked. "I would never betray anyone!"
Naruto turned towards her, eyes blue and bright. "But don't you see: you're doing that right now."
With that said, the red faded, revealing only the room, Blake lying on her side on the floor. Naruto stood before her, eyes no longer red, simply black, and empty.
"You have no idea how small the slope you walk is." Naruto said sadly. "The slope is not slippery. It's decline is barely noticeable. But once you've walked this path long enough, you'll find yourself entrenched in darkness. Please, Blake. Let's go to our Team, and talk."
Blake looked up at him slowly, eyes wary. "Alright."
Naruto smiled happily. "Good."
AN: Well, this is a shorter one than normal. However, we're getting into the fun meat and potatoes of the relationship.
Maybe it's just me, but I found Blake's one track mind in the first three volumes to be more entertaining than anything else. It's actually Cinder who I detest the most, since she thinks she's a Knight or Bishop or even a Queen on the board, when she's merely a Rook. It's quite hilarious.
Anyways, Blake isn't very good yet at accepting other people, and Naruto just kinda browbeat her into submissions, which isn't great leadership technique, but hey, the only leaders he's had were Kakashi, who basically didn't lead, and Yamato, who locked him in a cage when he argued with Sai. Guess who he thought the better leader was.
No, just upfront, Naruto is NOT going to reveal that he's from another dimension. I hate it when characters demand backstory in fanfictions. They do NOT deserve that information, and Naruto has no reason to give it to them.
Blake is being annoying as usual. She'll have the talk with the Team, and they'll come to an understanding on what to do.
Turns out that people really like the idea of Ozzy getting his powers back. Wow, cause usually I find people who prefer it when the Maidens kick his ass and run away. Glad to see some people who think he's not the worst!
Again, please consider being a patron for me! You know how it works, remove the spaces, remove the caps "A"s, and then enter it! Also get the slash as a "/"
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And the last final thing: yes, this story is moving fast. That's because I have lots of plans that don't really circulate around the whole "pretend Cinder is the big bad" thing that lots of people go through. Cinder is a PAWN. Remember, she's an idiot. That means she's a Rook at BEST on the board, with her single-minded dedication to ramming a problem in the front.
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