Authors Note: Thank you guys for the awesome name suggestions I really appreciate them. Sorry for not being able to get this chapter as fast as I would have liked. I may not be able to update as fast with school but I should have the next chapter ready in a few weeks(Do not quote me on that).

Just a reminder that I'm still new to writing and I'm certainly not the best so any criticism or complaints please let me know so I can improve.

Enjoy the chapter.


Honor To The Branwen


"He's a child."

This has been going on for hours.

"He's a Branwen." I barely managed to keep the vexation from my voice. My words fell upon death ears for the last hour. This debate if you could even call it that was being held was because of Raven's heir. Madara turned seven rather recently the tribe was already noticing his rare genius no doubt thanks to his semblance. The heir was already surpassing his and the tribe's expectations while he surely was strong some were unsatisfied. Some members did not agree with these sentiments, while Madara was shown to be more of the dark and silent type the tribe noticed the boy's strong attachment with his mother and vice versa. While they would never admit it aloud, the general outlook of the tribe's thoughts was that Madara was being coddled by Raven and it didn't help that neither of them tried to deny the accusations choosing to speak more with their fist than their mouths.

"Damn it Marcus he could die we have never given a trial like this to anyone this young!" She exclaimed. Her hands scrunched up into fist glaring daggers at the people surrounding the room. "He could very well die and you know it."

"I agree Madara is growing stronger day by day he even found a new use for aura that he taught the tribe he is more useful alive than dead. We should wait until he's a teenager before we try to send him to his death." Jade said pitching in his own opinion.

"We live by one rule and one rule only only." I said showing a glare. "The weak die the strong live, those are the rules."

Celeste smiled at having someone take her side. "See I'm not the only one who thinks this is a bad idea. Marcus if we killed every weakling we met then the tribe would of killed you when you tried to steal from us."

"This was different"

"How."

"Madara is Ravens son he is taking this trial because he is strong if he were weak he wouldn't have been given such a difficult mission."

"We both Know that he's not ready for this everyone in this damn room knows."

"If you care so much why don't you speak with Raven about it that is her son after all. If she didn't want him to take the trial she would have stopped it by now."

"But-"

"Celeste, that's enough we have already made our decision and that's final." An ashen haired man said bringing silence amongst the cluster of elders.

The hall fell silent at the sight of the imposing figure. Carrion Bailwick the former tribe leader he was a man whose presence commanded both respect and fear. It was only two years ago when he still led the tribe before Raven dethroned him figuratively and literally. The title was fought for like everything else in the encampment. It was a closer fight than expected but ultimately even he crumbled before the deadly woman.

The man had a hard chiseled face and a ragged beard. His hair looked as if it had been bleached and left in the sun too long leaving it the color of ash. He had eyes the color of steel they were pure silver they even sparkled in the reflection of the light. His left arm was missing and it was replaced with a mechanical one. His body was riddled with scars one stretched from the right side of his temple to the left of his chin. Raven made sure to leave the scar as a reminder that the tribe was now hers.

The silence permeated the air anticipation building up for the former tribe leader. He sat in his seat, his figure looking docile in nature I knew differently his posture while not guarded left room for him to defend or attack in an instant. His eyes glazed over us as if he was dissecting a frog.

"The trials have been here since the beginning of the tribe and they will be here till the end." He began his smooth voice echoing throughout the hall. "They have always been a signal of strength, a coming of age."

"Madara exhibits the fundamental aspects of our tribe and in time he could very well lead it." The hall broke into quiet mutterings at the bold declaration. "Madara will take the trials whether he lives or dies is entirely up to him."

"Madara is surely strong but even he can't be expected to conquer a village in seven days by himself no less." Celeste said vehemently.

"If he's old enough to fight he's old enough to kill."

"He's seven." she hissed.

"I was nine, that makes him two years younger than me." He said with lips quicker upwards.

"...Does he even know he's taking a trial."

"Why don't you ask him." The man said pointing towards the balcony. The feather haired boy could be seen with eyes looking down on the crowd. "Our guest of honor has finally arrived. So Madara how much did you hear."

"I've heard enough." he said revealing none of his emotions." If you summoned me here to tell me about the trial I have already been informed."

"Have you now? Do you know what village you're attacking, how long the village has been around, does the village stay in contact with the kingdoms?" Carrion rapidly fired question after question. His gaze held a certain amount of intensity. "Well, have you."

Madara stared at the ashen haired man, his face settling into a scowl. Choosing not to refute the statement he chose to end the staring contest abruptly. "...What information do you have on this village ."

"At least you have the decency to admit when you're wrong." Carrion smirked at the boys intensifying glare. "I assume your mother was the one to inform you that you will be raiding a village but there's a lot more to it."

Waiting for a response the boy nodded his head.

"Good, the village you will be raiding is Toshin village. They are one of Mistrial's biggest villages and they maintain a positive relationship with the kingdom. The village was built on a dust mine it's one of the few reasons the village is thriving as it is today." His smirk darkened. "You will destroy the village procuring any dust, food, or useful items that would benefit the tribe."

Madara took a few seconds to process the former tribe's leader's words and when he did he didn't seem pleased in the slightest. His glare was downright murderous. "You want to use me as a pawn." he stated matter of factly. "You want to use me as a spy to infiltrate this village because the tribe can't invade it."

The man dared to snicker at the sight of the fierce scowl. "I'm surprised you noticed, maybe you aren't called a prodigy for nothing."

"The tribe doesn't have enough men to take on Toshin without losing a good portion of our fighters if we even managed to invade it." Madara's tone cold as ice, his semblance spiraling to life. His already venomous glare increased tenfold. "You mentioned that the village stays in contact with the central part of mistral meaning even if we did manage to defeat Toshin huntsmen would swarm us before we could even escape and that's not even accounting for the Grimm."

"I take it back you are definitely a prodigy." The ashen haired old man presented a smile for the blood eyed boy to see. "But you don't seem to get the point of your trial."

"You want to use me as a diversion while the tribe steals any valuables when I'm attacking the village." He stated frostily, jumping from the balcony, his feet barely making a sound. "While I'm destroying the village you want to secure resources amongst the chaos and use me as a scapegoat for the blame."

Marcus couldn't fault Madara for being pissed. He was basically just told to be a human sacrifice for the tribe and to just deal with it. The plan was good, very good many people never dreamed of a child being able to commit mass genocide. It was almost funny how trained huntsmen could die so easily just by letting their guard down for a child. If anyone would be able to pull this off it would be Madara he was one of the only children inside the tribe that could be expected to have enough aura, fighting skill, and self control to properly pull off an act as dangerous as trying to destroy Argus. If Madara was caught which he most likely would be on Mistrial most wanted and that was the best case scenario, worst case scenario he dies… that wouldn't just be a major loss on the tribes part but a vengeful Raven was something no one would want to cross.

"Bingo." Carrion said interrupting my train of thought. " This is a trial that would be reserved for a person one of the stronger members of the camp or a weak expendable member that could be easily replaced, but do you know why we chose you for this task."

Carrion spread his arms and gestured around the room, the hall waiting for an answer.

Madara looked comprehensive? Or maybe mad, it was hard to tell what the usually poker faced adolescent emotions were even more so when he was actively hiding them.

"...No. no I don't " He muttered his pride obviously stinging from not knowing the answer.

"Hmm, I see." Carrion said, sounding neither pleased nor displeased. "I'll be waiting for the answer then."

"...Raven said I'm supposed to finish this in seven days." Madara said choosing to drop the subject for now. "Is this true."

"Yes. The tribe never stays in one place to long were traveling towards Vale within a week if the mission is not completed you will be assumed dead."

Carrion stood up from his chair. Walking briskly towards the boy the tribe parted as he made his way towards him. Red eyes met silver. He towered over the mini Raven staring into his hypnotic gaze his semblance activated. The seven year old didn't even flinch he stared back at the old man, his scowl still present. Carrion's smirk grew.

"So is the little chick ready to spread his wings and fly." Carrion asked his face centimeters from Madara's own.

"I'm ready." he said, his eyes glaring into the man's own. "If you think I will die to something as simple as raiding a village you are sadly mistaken."

Pulling his face back from the little boy Carrion stood to his full height, his smirk fading. "The meeting has been dismissed. If there are any questions or complaints you can talk to me personally."

His eyes lingered on Celeste for a second. She looked ready to object towards the outcome of the meeting but wisely held her tongue.

Moving with the crowd he tried to quickly head out of the hall only to be halted by the Ashened haired man.

"Marcus I need you to do me a favor."


This is annoying. Madara mused quietly to himself as he walked away from the hall. The farther away he was from the silvered eyed prick the better. Madara considered himself a patient person but the former tribe head had a way of pushing his buttons.

This is really annoying. He could hear some of the tribesmen whispering about him in particular. The news of the trial had seemed to spread like wildfire catching everyone's attention. Some had the decency to at least pretend they weren't talking about him when he was walking near them while some tribesmen just flat out spoke about him like he wasn't even there.

Annoying. He found the whole situation absolutely annoying. He was having an overall good day he had finally managed to complete his shuriken training. He had been trying this for weeks to enhance his weapon of choice and it was all thanks to simple aura manipulation.

Aura manipulation was a simple concept in thought, it was fundamentally the most hardest thing he had tried. Aura was made for defense from the moment it was unlocked it was defending you like a cocoon protecting you from anything that would seek to hurt you whether knife, bullet, blade it would protect you until it ran out. Aura manipulation was the absolute opposite of it, you had to go against the very nature of aura itself and try to control it stopping it from naturally shielding you and make it bend to your will. He had seen Raven perform aura manipulation once during training, she was sparring against one of the members of the tribe his Sharingan caught the way the woman's blackish red aura coated the blade and he knew he had to learn it. He remembered exactly how that conversation went, she had refused to teach him how to do it saying "If I give you the answers to everything how will you ever learn." she said it in the most condescending tone. She left him in the woods to practice not even giving him a hint on how to replicate the effect.

He had spent weeks trying to rework the functionalities of his aura from the ground up by himself. If anyone had to learn this by themselves they would have been trying for months maybe years but he had a cheat code the Sharingan it granted him the abilities to see other people's aura and that luckily included his. He could see when he was moving his aura or when it was moving in the opposite direction he was trying to move it made the whole learning process a lot more bearable than if he had to go on a gut feeling. This was actually how he created the water walking technique he discovered by accident when practicing. It was honestly one of the hardest things he had tried to learn as most things came naturally to him. He taught Raven the technique and to his annoyance, she seemed to grasp the concept instantly not having to suffer endless hours of having to be wet and miserable while trying to learn a brand new technique from scratch.

Water walking took a huge amount of time to learn by himself but in the end, he could say it was a worthy investment of his time besides gaining the ability to travel on a whole new surface other than land the process drastically increased his aura control his large surplus of aura was no longer big and unstable but now more fluid and precise. This was why he was pleased with himself today; he didn't just successfully enhance his weapons he was possibly on his way to finding new uses of aura no one had ever thought before not just for himself either but maybe for the whole clan.

Continuing on his path, his thoughts turned sour as his thoughts wandered back to the rest of the dat and the ashen haired pain in his side. All the elders weren't even needed for the trial he gleaned from the balcony he had perched himself on.

The elders were a council of the tribe's strongest fighters. Unlike the name implied most of the elders were in their mid twenties and early thirties more often than not. Only ten people were allowed to be on the council at the same time. They assisted with giving orders to the camp and assisting the current leader with their plans, they dealt with keeping the tribe in check when Raven was too busy or had other matters to attend to. They were the ones who had the most control over the camp with the exception of the leader of the tribe. Like most things the right to be an elder had to be fought for, the tribe only accepted strength so it was essential every member possessed it. They had to fight the leader and if they were deemed worthy they would be put on the council.

It didn't come as a surprise when Raven made Carrion an elder after taking his position as the new leader he was the second strongest inside the camp.

He remembered the fight with perfect clarity thanks to his semblance it was swift and quick Carrion looked to be holding his own own against Raven but the difference in skill made itself apparent not even thirty seconds into the fight, while Carrion was a good fighter in her own regard Raven was on a different level she had formal training as a huntress he had heard how she and his uncle went to beacon with only one of them returning.

Walking towards the biggest camp inside the tribe. The one reserved only for the strongest member of the tribe. The head of the Branwen, my mother.


Speeding up my paste I arrived at the massive tent. Pushing past the curtain that blocked my way I observed the plainly ordinary room. Raven was not a woman of many possessions she didn't hold that many things close to her but the things she did she held on to firmly. She never talked about her past or mine, there was no mention of how I was born, what she did when she left the tribe with my uncle when she disappeared. And I decided to keep it that way, it was better left unsaid than having to discuss things that frankly didn't matter because in the end I am Madara Branwen and nothing will change that.

"Madara." Raven said sitting down at the table drinking tea. "How was the meeting."

I gave her a blank stare. "You should know you were there."

"You noticed I'm actually surprised you could pick out my aura throughout the entire hall." She said thoughtfully. "Your semblance was only activated for a small amount of time."

"It's not that hard you have more aura than everyone combined besides Carrion." I shrugged. "Plus you and Carrion's aura is weird."

"How so." Raven asked intrigued. It was a fair reaction after all your aura was directly tied to your soul if something was wrong with it, you could possibly die or worse.

Madara activated his semblance. "Your aura color is naturally crimson but your aura is diluted with a dark wisp of black aura that merges with it." Madara said, trying to accurately describe her aura. "I never see it do anything even when we spar it just stays there never depleting. Your black aura only seems to react when you transform into a bird."

"...That sounds about accurate..." she said, not sounding worried - she never worried - but very contemplative like she was trying to solve a math equation without an answer. " How is Carrion's aura different."

"His aura doesn't look as weird as yours his aura is the same as everybody else but his aura changes from a natural grey to silver once his aura touches his eyes."

Raven looked at me for a long time before responding.

"...How come you never mentioned this before."

"If I give you the answers to everything, how will you ever learn." I said looking into her annoyed eyes. Maybe it wasn't wise to antagonize a cold blooded murder that happened be your mother because one moment Raven's blade was sheathed the next it was held to my throat.

The tribe said I was lucky to be born with a great semblance. Some called it unfair, cheating, broken, hax but there was one thing that the Sharingan couldn't counter and it was speed it didn't matter if I could see a bullet coming from a mile away if I couldn't doge it. It was something she loved against me purposefully because she knew I could see the sword coming towards me and I was helpless to stop it.

I saw the sword inch towards my neck, the process dreadfully slow until it came to a halt right under my jugular. The cynical part of my mind found it slightly funny that one day I would see my death approaching and I would be helpless to stop it. "This was uncalled for." I said neutrally I didn't have a shred of doubt that she wouldn't actually harm me. She was one of the few -only- people he trusted with his life. Raven had given him hell in training and usually left him until his aura was depleted but she would never actually try to kill him even if she would never admit it….. he hoped.

"You're still to weak to think you can get away with being snippy with me." She said lowering her sword back inside her sheath.

"But if I wasn't when would you ever have a decent conversation. Do you even talk with people who aren't running from you or begging for their lives?" I said looking at her blank eyes. I caught the slight twitch of her lips which I would have missed if I didn't have my sharingan activated. "You know I don't think you even have any fri-."

"Madara, do you really think you redirect the conversation that easily."

...

"I did think it was strange how your aura was diluted and I was planning to tell you but then I saw Carrion's aura and he was the former tribe leader. I logically assumed that your aura was a result from being a tribe's head. I thought you knew your aura was that way. Also aura is the reflection of your soul. It only makes sense that the head of the tribes aura would be corrupted to some extent, it seemed like a logical conclusion at the time."

She stared at me before dropping her glare." Madara was there a reason you came here."

"I came to say goodbye. I'll be gone within the hour." I said, waiting calmly for her response. This would be my first time away from the camp on my own. It was an experience that I wasn't sure how to feel about. On one hand, he was going to be used as a pawn for the tribe's disposal, on the other it would be the first time I got to explore outside of the camp alone. "What will you be doing while I'm gone."

"Hm I will be planning the tribe's departure when you attack Toshin the huntsmen will be swarming all of Mistral looking for a person to pin the blame on." she said rising up from the table.

"You were the one who suggested the trial to the elders and Carrion weren't you?"

"Maybe, maybe not." She said, she never did like to give a straight answer. She preferred to let me figure things out myself. "Madara, when you return we will have to discuss some things."

"Does it involve you and Carrion's weird aura."

"Perhaps."

"Now you're the one avoiding questions."

She didn't bother to refute the statement. Choosing to ignore it.

"I will see you when you return." She said walking past me towards the exit. Pausing she looked behind her giving me a smirk. "If you return."

"Hn."

"Don't die." She said while giving me a small smirk. That was basically the Raven equivalent of I love you. She exited the tent leaving me to my lonesome.

...I better start leaving...


"Qrow they love Zwei!" Summer exclaimed practically bouncing up and down. "Where did you find him?"

"In a forest, he was a stray, a little like myself I thought the brats would like them." The drunkard chuckled. "How do you think Tai's handling three of them."

"They're probably driving him crazy. Yang and Ruby tried to use Zwei as a football." She said her smirk lighting up the forest. "They're gonna want souvenirs, do you think we will be able to stop anytime soon?"

"Yeah, we should be at Toshin in a few days." He said taking a swig of his flask.

"Finally we have been searching for weeks and we still haven't found anything involving her." She said not feeling nowhere near as happy as she felt before.

"The Queen is always planning we need as much information as we can get." Qrow said soberly. "You also have to be extra careful and that just doesn't apply to you."

"...Ruby… they will have to kill me before I let them touch my family." She said with a steely gaze her silver eyes glowing for a second.

"...Family huh…I wonder where you are…..Raven."


AND CUT!

I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. I appreciate the reviews and follows. Thank you for reading and the name suggestions.