Story Start
"No", was the crisp reply of the blonde called Naruto Rose, denying the request of one of the people who was a part of his current family, while waiting in front of the oven for the timer to run out. Baking cookies for the whole family, mostly for a young girl who has a worryingly strong sweet-tooth, was part of his usual routine for about a decade. Although he may have started baking on a whim, baking cookies for the family had become a routine for him before he was even aware of it. Now that routine somehow extended to cooking most meals in the family. While he didn't exactly enjoy all the work going into the ingredients making them edible and palatable, when he saw others enjoy the fruits of his labor, made everything worth the effort. Plus, it wasn't bad to hold a bit of power over the other members of the family since their lives depended on him as he was the only one who could actually cook. Not unpleasant at all.
"Please~ take me to Vale." feeling his apron being tugged he turned to the girl who was begging him to help her with some of her usual expenditure which in his opinion was a bit unnecessary.
Ruby Rose, his adoptive sister, biological daughter of Taiyang Xiao Long and Summer Rose, was a silver eyed girl dressed in black blouse and skirt with red trimmings and a hooded red cloak which was strapped to the shoulders of her blouse with cross-shaped pins. She wore black stockings underneath her skirt with red trimmed combat boots.
She had moon-like pale skin with red tipped shoulder length black hair, much to his surprise, were natural, even for him considering he came from a place that had many different hair colors. She was about 5 feet 2 inches in height making her about half a foot shorter than him. Also, she was surprisingly well endowed for someone her age.
"Why?" he questioned her. It hasn't even been two weeks since she last made a similar request. These requests have been getting more and more frequent lately.
"You know why~" she whined. " I need supplies for my Crescent Rose." she answered him as if she was asking him to take her to the nearest grocery store to buy ice-cream, when in reality in order to make a round trip from their house to the shop she wanted to go to would take at least half a day by car. There wasn't any place closer to their house that sold anything combat related.
The Crescent Rose, her personal weapon, is an HCSS or High-Caliber-Sniper-Scythe which is simply a combination of a sniper rifle and a scythe. Although the idea of its combination sounds stupid and it is quite difficult to use, in the right hands it usually is one of the most dangerous weapons. So far only three are known to be able to use the HCSS properly. One of them being their 'dear' uncle Qrow Branwen who taught his sister how to use one. She is well on her way to becoming the fourth one on that list.
If he was really pushing it he may be able to consider himself as someone who may get his name on that list, after Ruby that is. He can proudly (not really) call himself an owner of a sniper scythe.
A bit after hitting puberty Ruby first expressed her desire to become a huntress, Qrow took her under his tutelage and started to teach her how to use the scythe just like him. At first she had to make do with a spare scythe that Qrow had. But soon she got interested in Qrow's weapon and made a sniper scythe for herself. That was the birth of the Crescent Rose. Although it was only a prototype and very weak compared to what it is now, it was something that was completely made by her which was very impressive for someone her age. And that was the birth of the Crescent Rose.
Now, for Naruto, who also just started puberty, having pretty much nothing to do, would simply sit in a corner and watch her get trained. He was content with just that at the time. But Ruby thought otherwise. Within a couple weeks she built another one for him as an early birthday present and gifted it to him wrapped up quite nicely. It needs to be mentioned that his official birthday was set to be on 10th November just one month after his actual one because that was the day he was adopted into the family and it was also Ruby's birthday. People might call the whole thing very emotional but he calls it being lazy.
Although the sniper scythe was formidable in both offense and defense as well as working in all range, he didn't like it all that much as he was never really a fan of anything overly complex. But the scythe was gifted to him with good intentions and he didn't have it in him to turn down a gift from her just because he didn't like said gift. Once he unwrapped it, what he found in his hands was a black and burnt orange colored sniper scythe. He had to raise an eyebrow at that. He never mentioned it to anyone but she somehow figured out his favorite color and it wasn't a coincidence if the smile slowly turning into a grin on her face was anything to go by. It seems that there was more to her than her usual social awkwardness and weapon fangirlism. She was also quite observant, at least towards those close to her anyway. As soon as he activated the scythe, she practically dragged him to the training fields to test out his new weapon. There he found Qrow waiting for them with his own scythe. Apparently, he was a part of ruby's little surprise plan. Qrow decided to include him in their usual training schedule because Ruby asked him to. Naruto was reluctant but knew she just wouldn't leave him alone until he agreed. So he did as she wanted.
Three things came out of that. First, he and ruby practically became inseparable from that day as they spent most of their time both day and night together. This caused a few inconveniences for him but he was able to get around them quite easily. Second, he became very interested in tinkering with mechanical and electrical objects, partly because he got dragged into it by Ruby. Third, his relation with Qrow started to quickly go downhill. Maybe it had something to do with the number of times Qrow's clothes on his body spontaneously burned to ashes in public for no apparent reason at all.
"Hey Naruto, it's done, it's done." he was suddenly brought out of his musings when he was slightly pushed by the shoulder. Suddenly being brought out of his musings have left him a bit confused until he actually noticed the ringing beside him.
Putting on the oven mitts he quickly brought out the cookies before leaving them to cool down. While taking off the mitts almost absentmindedly slapping the hand that got a bit too close to the just-baked cookies he said," Wait a few minutes before eating them or else you'll burn yourself."
Leaving the mitts on a nearby rack and walking towards his room, " Wait in the garage for me, once I'm ready I can take you to Vale, okay?" Vale city is quite far away. On top of that, with their house being on the southern islands it takes at least a few hours by car to get there. No one wants to take the public transports due to the sheer number of times one has to change vehicles. Ruby has yet to get her driving license so she has to rely on the other members of her family to take her to Vale. It was a pain, but he might as well get it done so she'll stop pestering him.
Leaving the kitchen, he wasn't surprised to hear no reply coming from behind him as he could easily imagine Ruby decided to disregard his warning and now as a consequence, she was now panting heavily with her tongue out since it got burned due to her lack of self-control.
Slowly climbing up the stairs he suddenly felt a bit dizzy. Holding onto the railings, he stood there motionless for a few seconds trying to steady himself. It seemed that his lack of sleep was finally getting to him. Staying awake a few nights straight was pretty dangerous. Making a mental note to take some pills the next time he goes to bed, he entered the bedroom that he shared with his sister. Looking towards the only bed in the room he found it to be as it was littered with clothes, crumpled papers and bits of food. Looks like this morning Ruby turned their only bed into her personal work/dining table despite forbidding her to do so at least a hundred times.
Now, a lot of people might object to sharing a room and even a bed between a boy and a girl. But both of them have been doing that for so long that this has become the norm for them. Taiyang did try to separate them on a few occasions, but his efforts never really worked, mostly because of Ruby. Against his little girl, his willpower was no more than paper. Not that there was much to begin with anyway. He could rarely say no to any of his daughters.
Deciding to clean the bed later, he stripped down to his underwear. Folding the clothes, he was about to put them in the wardrobe when he heard an impressed hum, "Any girl that gets together with you will certainly be very happy as a woman. Happy indeed."
He paused, his face not revealing the irritation he was feeling. It was quite clear what that comment was indicating, or to be more accurate, which part of his body.
He tilted his head downward to see the speaker who was crouched in front of him to look at his crotch with a thoughtful expression. The speaker was a woman who had red-tinted black hair that went down to her mid-back. She had a face that resembled so strongly to Ruby that one might say that Ruby was a younger version of this woman. And just like Ruby, she was well endowed. Or rather, it's the other way around since she is Ruby's biological and his adoptive mother Summer Rose who has been missing for years after going off on some shady mission. About a decade ago she was the one who found him and took him in.
He replied her with silence as similar things have happened far too many times for him to actually care. So, he simply ignored her and walked straight through her instead of bumping into her to put on something for going out. Well, not like a ghost can do much to him anyway.
This is how she has been living for the past eight and a half years. At that time, she went on some mission she never really revealed the details about to anyone and all contacts were lost after a few days. Soon she was declared dead. About a month after her mission he found her within the house trying to talk with her family and failing as they couldn't see her. Apparently, her love for her family allowed her soul to stay in the world of living even when she didn't have a body. A beautiful thought, but there's a reason more ghosts don't appear every now and then. There are measures in place that make sure that the dead and the living stay separated. They tend to be quite brutal to those who break the natural order which include souls that have overstayed their time in the world of the living, souls like Summer. Feeling worried he made the mistake of communicating with her to warn her but she latched on to him to help her communicate with the rest of her family. Just from looking at her face, he could tell she met many failures along the way and he was her last hope. Unfortunately for her, he had to put her down for her own safety.
Since then, instead of being discouraged by his rejection, she stuck to him and continued to convince him to become a medium for her. But his categorical refusal led to more than a few arguments which were never really resolved. She tried different ways to convince him which included ignoring him. But that failed completely as he was pretty much the only one she could talk to and he seemed to prefer being left alone. So, she settled for annoying him from time to time. As she spent her time like this for about eight years, with nothing to do other than watching her family and Naruto being the only one she could converse with, she became bored which brought about unexpected and somewhat annoying changes in her. So, he had to deal with comments and such from time to time. And if that wasn't enough, the mystery surrounding her death still remains. Getting her ghost, he expected to be able to learn what the mission was about and how she ended up in her current state. But that hope was dashed when she couldn't remember anything from the time she received her mission. How convenient. It wouldn't be the first time he was denied information and it certainly wouldn't be the first time he would have to find things out on his own.
"Oh come on, don't be so shy. Children should be free to talk about anything with their parents." She said making an expression as if she was completely right.
"I'm pretty sure most mothers on remnant would avoid anything sexual." Is what he wanted to say but didn't because he knew this conversation would keep on going otherwise.
Seeing that he had zero intention of continuing decided to switch topic, "What are you getting ready for?"
"Routine trip. Ruby wants to go to Vale to get some things for the love of her life. Since Taiyang and Yang aren't home, I have to do it." He replied while putting on a pair of pants, a shirt and an orange jacket with a hoodie. It was sort of an inside joke about the Crescent Rose and Ruby. She had an unhealthy level of obsession towards it, to the point that she wanted to bring it to bed every night. There was no way he would let anyone bring anything volatile to his bed. She was heartbroken but that did not stop her from secretly trying though.
"Again? Didn't she go there just a couple weeks back?" she said standing up.
"Well, just a few days ago when she was visiting your grave, she got attacked by a group of beowolves. That's why she wants to go today." Hearing that she didn't say anything, he wasn't really surprised. Though he didn't turn to look at her, he knew there was a clear frown on her face. She was never really supportive of Yang and Ruby becoming huntresses. At the time Ruby made her desire to become a huntress known Summers voice of protest was the loudest at the same time the quietest one due to her lacking a corporeal voice box. She became a huntress herself so that her children would not have to take up that dangerous profession where less than half actually get a happy ending. Kind of contradictory if he thought about it, since parents are supposed to be the role models for their children. Luckily, he got admitted to civilian schools otherwise she would keep nagging him until he was left with headaches.
Tying his shaggy waist-long hair, he went out of his room. Halfway down the stairs, he felt an extremely familiar yet terribly unwelcomed shiver pass through his body and immediately knew that Summer has decided to take him for a ride. It's one of the very few things she could do. She is able to 'possess' him, something which was accidentally discovered. Though unlike what is seen on television these days, she can't control the body she takes possession of. What happens here is that she uses her own aura to create a line that firmly attaches her to him, more specifically to his own energy, like a leash of sorts. He would've liked to compare it with a balloon as the leash is a bit demeaning, but since she stays inside his body instead of simply floating above it, he couldn't. That is the reason she can't control people. Though there are other factors such as him not teaching her how to do it or her not having the mindset to do it. But mostly the way she does the possession does not allow her to send any information from her to her victim. He speculated that the sub-conscious part of her mind didn't allow her as it is far too contradictory to her personality. While it may not give her the power to control the actions of others, it certainly allows her to tap into his senses, which she makes sure to abuse at least several times a day. Thus, allowing her to 'eat' and 'sleep', living a semblance of life, which is not too different from the VR games that recently started gaining popularity. More than once she tried to 'take a bath', he immediately kicked her out those times, both from his body and from the room.
Understanding that she didn't want to be alone in the house, he let her stay and continued towards the front door. Changing shoes, he went to the garage to find Ruby standing near his bike which was a hand me down from Yang. He wasn't sure whether to call the black bike a sports bike or not because while it had a powerful engine, good brakes and an aerodynamic design it didn't have a good enough transmission system to make use of that power.
After the both of them got on the bike he checked the clock on his scroll and saw that the time was nearing the start of evening. He estimated that at the latest they should be back just before midnight.
With a mental sigh he thought, "This is going to be a long Drive." Before driving off.
It was already well into the night when he got to the Dust shop that Ruby regularly frequents. He was feeling very sleepy. So, hoped they could finish this as soon as possible. Entering the shop after letting her in, he didn't hear the familiar greeting of the aged shopkeeper unlike what he expected. Turning towards the counter he saw the old man engrossed in a book, a very famous orange book. Smiling in amusement he noticed that Ruby had already started browsing. Deciding to do the same he moved to a display case that was in the deeper parts of the store. In there he saw crystals of different colors neatly placed there. This is the so-called Dust that his sister has been so eager to buy. Extracted from various mines in the world and the lifeblood of the current society. Almost all the people and machines of this world called Remnant depend on Dust for their daily life. But it's most important use to the people of Remnant is its effectiveness at neutralizing various human and especially non-human threats.
Removing the cover of the display case, he took out a brown crystal that had lightning-shaped yellow stripes on it. A faint blue that originated from the palm of his hands slowly covered the crystal. Soon, the outer parts of the crystal started to melt and seep into his skin.
At the end of it all, what surprised him the most wasn't its versatility or its availability, it was its similarity to chakra. This Dust was little to no different from chakra, except condensed to the point they've become solid objects.
When he first discovered himself in Remnant, the chakra in his body was nearly non-existent. On top of that, it was recovering at a snail's pace. So, one can easily imagine how ecstatic he was when he found out that he could fill up his reserve with help of external sources as it was one of the very few good things in his life at the time. So, he started absorbing whatever dust he could find. He knew he couldn't depend on his family for that. So he did whatever he could to earn as much money as possible without letting his family know and bought dust with that. As time passed his demand for dust became greater and greater. He thought that one of his greatest problems was solved, at least it appeared that way. But years later he discovered that he had paid a heavy for his overindulgence in Dust and not the monetary kind.
As soon as the crystal in his hand was completely absorbed, he heard the front door roughly being opened. Curious about who was in such a hurry, he stuck out his head from behind a shelf.
Coming through the front door of the shop were several men wearing black suits, red-tinted sunglasses, and fedoras carrying katana like swords in their hands. To his astonishment, he had great difficulty differentiating among those people. It was almost like they were some minor background characters that are there just to fill up the space. As soon as they entered, they spread out throughout the shop. With one holding his sword at the startled shopkeeper's neck who dropped his book on the counter while the rest proceeded to help themselves to all the Dust in the store.
At this point, any 5 years old could tell that this was a robbery. So, he decided to not get involved and let his huntress-in-training sister handle the matter. A lot of the manly men might disagree with his decision, but what could he do? Officially he was just a weak little civilian without any training in using aura or weapons. What was he supposed to do, ask them politely so they would leave?
Holding back a sigh he was about to pull back to hide deep in the shop when an orange-haired effeminate man wearing a bowler hat with a walking stick in hand swaggered into the shop looking like a happy shopper instead of a being related to the suit-wearing robbers. "Do you know how difficult it is to find a dust shop open this late at night?" he said in a joking tone. Well, he even sounded the part.
"Please, take my money but don't kill me!" the old shopkeeper pleaded sounding very afraid. Thinking about his advanced age, he wasn't wrong to be afraid as even a slap from an adult male had a good chance of killing him due to his body being very weak.
"Now, now. Don't be afraid." The orange-haired man said wagging his finger while trying and failing to soothe the old man, not that he was really trying anyway. "As you can see, we aren't really interested in your money all we want is the…. oh?" he suddenly paused. A little orange book on the counter catching his interest, "Look what we have here. The latest release of the Make Out: Paradise series that came out just a couple days ago. You naughty old man. You shouldn't read these as they are bad for the heart for someone at you age. Why don't you give it to me as a gift since it is very harmful for your health." To Naruto's amazement, for the first time throughout the whole ordeal, the old man actually looked like he wanted to fight back. Apparently the book was more important than his store and probably his life. But the fire in him only lasted for a few seconds before his survival instincts kicked in and calmed him down.
This time Naruto did sigh while pulling back his head. The orange head was Roman Torchwick. The number of his combined charges of both big and small theft and robbery are well on their way to three digits. He also has several charges of mostly indirect murder, three separate charges of successful jailbreaking, and finally terrorism which are the most recent ones. A criminal of B rank who is soon to be promoted to A rank.
Basically, this means things just got a lot more complicated. This might be a bit over what Ruby can handle. Thinking of her, he turned to look towards the back of the store only to see her calmly reading a magazine with her hood on as if she didn't even notice the ongoing something which one of the robbers noticed and apparently didn't like as it undermined their authority. So, to remedy that he brandished his blade and proceeded to have a chat with her. He called out to her twice but didn't get any answer. On the third time he simply grabbed her by the shoulder and turned whereupon the hood fell away revealing that she was listening to music with her headphone. Seeing that somebody wanted to talk to her she removed her headphone. The man immediately ordered her, "Put your hands up, now."
Hearing this Ruby slightly narrowed her and actually asked, "Are you robbing me?"
"No, he's hitting on you." Is what he wanted to shout but kept his mouth shut. Soon the overwhelmingly unfair fight of one harmless-looking girl vs several scary looking men began but didn't even last a minute with the harmless-looking girl coming out as the winner. Normally this would be the time to collect the loot, not that he was expecting much from these errand boys, but there was no time for it as the boss fight was the only thing that was left, which may have already started if the sounds of explosions and asphalt breaking were anything to go by.
Dragging his lethargic body out of the store he saw Roman climbing the ladder of the building when Ruby's voice came from beside him, "Should I go after him?"
"Sure, go ahead." He told her while giving a lazy wave. Immediately she shot to the sky with the help of her scythe and landed on the same building as Roman. Not having much of a choice, he also climbed the building after them after pocketing a few pebbles from the broken asphalt road. On the way, he noticed that summer was being strangely quiet. Not that surprising really. He couldn't really speak with her when there were people around. So, it sort of became a habit for her to keep her thoughts to herself when he wasn't alone.
Reaching the top, he found Roman on one end of the building and Ruby on the opposite end with a Bullhead coming out from Romans side. Ruby couldn't get close to him due to all the wind the Bullhead was generating. A hatch from the side of the Bullhead opened up and Roman quickly jumped on it. Roman Turned to face Ruby. While bringing out a fire dust crystal he said, "End of the line red" and threw it. The red crystal landed near her feet. Guessing Roman's intention, he stood behind just before Roman shot from his cane. As the bright shot came whistling towards them, or more accurately the fire crystal beneath their feet, Naruto was thinking how many decks of cards he could shuffle before the shot, which he assumed was an explosive type, got to the crystal. Roman expected the shot to hit the dust crystal on the roof and taking out the two kids on the roof. But he was surprised to see that the shot exploded in midair. Not a second later a woman landed right in front of them. She gave of rather cool air like a professional. She stood straight and looked around in confusion. But Naruto ignored her and the explosion in the air in favor of picking up the dust crystal. Pocketing it he told the woman he said, "He's gonna get away you know."
Hearing that she immediately focused on the Bullhead. With an instantaneous flick of her wand riding crop, she sent several streaks of purple energy, which spoke volumes of her skills and experience, that hit the ship and caused it to shake around like a rattle.
But Naruto was more focused on the riding crop in her hands. In Remnant while rare, there are people who use magic in battle. One of the most common traits of a mage is that they always carry something that aids them when performing magic. It goes by different names such as foci, focus, 'the wand' etc. The way the woman used magic with her riding crop being the focus makes her without a doubt a mage. And also most likely a huntress as the majority of the magi tend to be hunter or a huntress.
Her next spell had a seconds delay but it would still be considered fast as she gathered storm clouds above the bullhead and rained it with ice stakes which started rid the ship with holes.
At that time from inside the ship, a woman wearing a red cheongsam came out. She quickly shot a lava ball which the blonde woman blocked with interesting-looking clustered shields. Using her first attack as a distraction the red-wearing woman quickly detonated the roof under the blonde woman. The blonde jumped out of the way evading both the explosion and the molten debris caused by it. The blonde used the same debris for her counter attack by controlling them via a method similar to that telekinesis and throwing them at the ship. The red wearing woman caused an explosion with the ship as the center that burned the controlled debris to ashes. Following up with detonation the ground beneath the blonde woman except this time the resulting explosion would be big enough to cover all three of them on the roof. Naruto grabbed Ruby and moved out of the danger zone long before the explosion happened. Watching the blonde jump out of the explosive range he knew this time the ship would definitely try to run away. Handing Ruby a particular rifle ammo, "Load it. Aim for the engine and wait for my signal." What he gave her was a solid armor-piercing round. More than enough if the target is a bullhead engine. As soon as he saw the bullhead turn its back towards them he said, "Do it." The sound of gunfire was consequently followed by the sound of an explosion from the distance. He watched as one of the bullhead engines caught fire and the whole thing crashed at an angle on the streets. Two people quickly got out through the windshield. They took the vehicle nearest to them which was a black bike and used it to run away.
"They took our bike!" Ruby shouted from beside him.
Naruto responded, "Indeed they did." Looking as if it wasn't his bike that was actually got stolen.
"Now how are we going to get home?" Ruby bemoaned.
Hearing someone coughing behind them, both siblings turned towards the blonde whom they have forgotten the existence of.
"You two come with me. We have a lot to talk about." Her tone and expression making it clear that whatever she was going to talk to them about was not going to be pleasant.
Ruby gulped in anxiety. And Naruto yawned.
They were brought to the interrogation room of the nearest police station, which came with the complete ambiance such as the whole room being dark except the focused light in the middle with a small table and four seats. As soon as they took their seats the blonde woman, who introduced herself as Glynda Goodwitch, had been lecturing them something about endangering or something. But Naruto wasn't focused on that. His mind was thinking how the heck his shoe sole now had a hole in it how that was going to make walking difficult. But focusing on even that was hard to do as he is feeling sleepy which caused him to yawn again for the fifth time in the last hour, which was now turning into an annoying headache that kept on getting stronger.
This made Glynda pause. From her expression, one could easily tell that she was quite irritated by his lack of attention. Just as she was about to make her thoughts known Naruto beat her to the punch, "You might wanna let the peepin' pervert inside otherwise his feet will start aching." Glynda, somewhat stunned, stared blankly at Naruto. Seconds after Naruto finished talking, the door to the room opened up. A silver-haired man wearing tiny glasses came into the room with a plate of cookies and a mug of coffee in hand. Naruto noticed Ruby perking up beside him no doubt from seeing the plate of cookies. Suddenly he heard the chipper voice of summer from behind him, "Ooohh, professor Ozpin? Oh right, he's headmaster now. I haven't met him in a long time. And look at his face, he's aged quite nicely." Looks like she finally decided to get out of his body and why is she speaking up now of all times?
Ozpin stood on the opposite side of the table. Putting the cookie plate on the table, "Ruby Rose…" Leaning down he stared at Ruby for more than a few seconds, something which creeped out Ruby more than a bit. "You have silver eyes." Ozpin finally finished his sentence.
Immediately Naruto started clapping and said with his tone sounding bored, "Congratulations, you have just made the discovery of the century. As a gift, you shall now be called 'complete creep' along with peepin' pervert."
Ruby immediately elbowed him, "Manners Naruto" she whispered. Her voice sounded quite tense.
Taking a cookie in his hand he snorted, "Don't pretend that you didn't think the same." Feeding Ruby the cookie, which she finished within seconds, he took another one and pressed it against her mouth. Just as she was about to finish it like the first one Naruto said, "Take a bite, chew slowly, enjoy the taste, and then swallow."
Following his instructions, she closed her eyes and moaned out lightly as she enjoyed the sweetness filling her mouth. Summer watched her children and smiled, as all the anxiety was feeling up to this point seem to melt away as if they never existed.
Ozpin and Glynda simply stared at them and not saying anything about either Naruto's rude words or their strange actions.
After feeding her a few cookies, he pulled out a handkerchief from his pocket to wipe her face. Gesturing to Ozpin to continue with his free hand, "It's getting late, so let's finish this fast."
Having done enough waiting, Ozpin brought out a scroll from his pocket. Tapping on it a few times he extended it and turned it towards her. It was showing her fighting with the robbers. Naruto noted that she was getting out of practice as she couldn't control her strength.
"This is you using the scythe which is known to be one of the most dangerous weapons, is it not?" he asked, his tone slightly accusing.
Quickly her nervousness came back as she remembered that they were still in the interrogation room being interrogated. Naruto started to gently rub her neck and said in a bored tone, "Don't worry, they can't do anything to us. They're already pushing the limits by putting us in here. It's only because of their reputation that the police let them bring us here. So, you can answer them honestly."
Ruby, now with her anxiety mostly gone, nodded her head.
Ozpin stared at Naruto for a few seconds before continuing, "And who taught you how to use it?"
"Our uncle Qrow." Answered Ruby and at the same time Naruto muttered while rubbing his temples, "That bastard Qrow." That was heard by everyone in the room except Ruby as she was feeling confident because of a topic she was good at and was speaking a bit rapidly, "He works as a teacher. I was complete garbage before he took me under his wing. Now I'm all like….." She tried to emphasize her point by imitating a few Kung Fu moves she saw on TV.
"Which you still are at hand to hand combat.", immediately her mood was deflated by Naruto as he brought up something she was horrendously bad at.
Ozpin took a seat at the table and said, "I assume you know who I am."
Ruby spoke up solemnly, "Of course. You are professor Ozpin, headmaster at Beacon academy."
Naruto decided to continue for her, "Whose most recent hobby is to stalk the under-aged children of his former students, cornering them and getting them harassed by his subordinates so they easily accept the offers that are too good to be true."
Ruby looked towards her brother, slack-jawed, unable to believe what he just said directly to one of her most respected people.
"Naruto Rose" Ozpin added a mysterious flair to his voice which only got him a yawn in response. "If my hobby is as you describe, then what would I be offering?"
Picking up a cookie from the plate, "Offering Ruby a chance to join Beacon right now." He took a bite out of it. Almost everyone in the room perked up hearing that, though for different reasons.
"Oh! Why would you think that?" Ozpin raised an eyebrow.
Taking his time to chew the cookie, he swallowed and looked at Ozpin, "Because, this year two notable people are trying for Beacon. People, who are both powerful and famous. It is unknown at this point in time whether they've passed or not, but it's highly unlikely that they will fail." He paused to finish the last piece of the cookie in his hand. Ozpin knew he wasn't finished so waited patiently.
"Now if I was a smart headmaster of the most famous hunter training academy in the world," Naruto continued after swallowing "I would think something along the lines of, "Hmm, since there are already two powerful and famous people I should find two more who are powerful, if not, then at least has the potential to be powerful so that I can make the strongest team of hunters. That way it will boost the academy's reputation and by extension, mine.""
Ozpin said, "The idea seems a bit far-fetched, don't you think? You should know how Beacon decides teammates. The chances of them all being put together in the same team isn't very high."
Ignoring the difficult to ignore pain, Naruto gave him a conspiratory smile while leaning forward, "Then let me sweeten things a bit." Ozpin clasping his hands in front of his mouth also leaned forward. Everyone in the room was focused because this is the moment where Naruto tries to bribe Ozpin. He looks like he's only in the middle of his teenage years. So, money or anything material was out of the question. What would he offer was what everyone was curious about. Even Glynda couldn't help but lean towards them.
"How about the bragging rights to having one of the most dangerous people graduate from your academy?" Naruto offered with a grin.
The mood was broken immediately by what is probably the stupidest idea. Even Ruby herself thought so as she gave him a dull look. She knew she was good with her scythe, but certainly not good enough to contend against the world.
Ozpin's expression didn't change, he was still clasping hands in front of his face. Leaning back in his chair he said, "I don't know Naruto. What you say about your sibling, doesn't it sound a bit exaggerated?"
Chuckling Naruto said, "By the time that dirty ol' Qrow reached Ruby's level in skill with the scythe, he had long ended his teenage years. So that speaks more than enough about her potential."
"You only show promises but no proof Mr. Rose. I cannot take such a risk simply based on that."
All traces of cheer were gone from Naruto's face. He was now thoroughly irritated. It was way too obvious that the headmaster decided to give Ruby the invitation long before they were brought to this room. Yet, they've been dancing this silly dance for no reason at all. At first Naruto was bored, so he decided to humor him. Now his head was aching too much. He was done with this.
Giving the man in front of him an annoyed glance, "If you were so afraid of taking risks then you wouldn't have headed the missions you had in the human-faunus war that happened a couple decades back. You'd be no more than a minor footnote in the history books, much less be given the responsibility to manage the academy where the best of the hunters come from. I'm done playing games Ozzie. I'm not gonna talk anymore. So, if you want her then quickly give out the invitation, otherwise we'll be leaving." Saying his piece Naruto leaned back in his chair and started massaging his temples with his eyes closed.
The room was eerily quiet for a while. No one said a word. Everyone was too stunned to get angry. No one could believe that a teenager just spoke like that to one of the strongest huntsmen and a war hero.
After a long silence Ozpin finally brought his hands down revealing his smiling face. "You have me convinced Naruto. Coincidentally I'm also in the mood to take some ventures." Turning towards Ruby who sat attentively, "Ruby Rose, while I would like to formally invite you to my academy, I didn't bring the necessary papers with me but you can certainly expect them tomorrow."
Turning towards Ruby who had a hard time holding her smile in front of the respectable people, "Hear that little red, you're going to Beacon this year."
Ruby wasn't really having a hard time holding back her smile. She was just short of jumping out of her chair and dancing in joy. Her dream of becoming a huntress has just become two years closer. Who wouldn't be happy about that?
Ozpin interrupted them, "I apologize for interrupting your joyous moment but I wasn't finished. I am also extending a similar invitation to Naruto Rose."
This time Ruby couldn't hold herself. Her chair discarded, she grabbed onto Naruto and hugged him tightly, "Naruto, everyone's going. You, me and Yang are going to the same school. Isn't that the bestest? This is will be great. All of us are going to be in one team. Everything's gonna be so much fun. Isn't that right Naruto?" Not hearing any response, she looked up, "Naruto?"
She saw no trace of joy on him except probably suspicion as he was only looking at Ozpin with narrowed eyes.
"I see you've finally gone senile old man." He finally said after a bit of pause.
"I don't quite understand what you are talking about Mr. Rose."
"Stop pretending Ozzie, I know you've checked our backgrounds before even thinking of coming here. You should know about my situation. So why are you doing this?" Naruto said sounding genuinely confused. Headmaster or not, there is a limited number of people that can be personally invited like this every year.
"As I've said Naruto, I'm in the mood to make some ventures. So, I've decided to invest in you."
"Unfortunately for you, it's already failed."
"Only time will tell Naruto."
"You don't want to go Naruto?" Came the unsure voice of Ruby.
He doesn't want to do this, but it has to be done. Looking her in the eyes he said, "Think logically Ruby. I neither go to any huntsmen academy nor did I have any official training. So that makes me a civilian. On top of that, my aura tests came back as complete negative. So, what does that make me? A crippled civilian, at least in terms of a hunter. Like this I wouldn't survive the first month let alone four years. What do you think I should do in this case?"
"Go to Beacon with me." Was her immediate answer.
Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration. Sometimes Ruby could be unexpectedly stubborn. Noticing the clock in the scroll on the table he started pushing her out of the room, "We'll have this conversation later. Right now, we need to get home. Bye Ozzie, bye Glynda."
When the two siblings were out of the room Ozpin started taking his now cold coffee. After a few moments passed like this Glynda finally opened her mouth, "Ozpin, a word if you will."
After he turned to look at her, she continued, "I understand why you have invited Ruby Rose. But why her brother Naruto? It isn't simply because of Summer, is it?"
Taking a couple more sips of his coffee, he replied, "Glynda, I don't know exactly how to explain it to you but a rather crude way to describe it to you would be because my guts are telling me that I should pay attention to him."
Seeing her blankly staring at him he tried to explain, "Glynda, if I didn't trust my guts, if that is too offending to you then my intuitions, I wouldn't have survived the war and the days after, I wouldn't be the headmaster of Beacon and I certainly wouldn't be here speaking to you. I would have been long dead, probably in some shallow grave without a tombstone, and as Naruto said, no more than a minor footnote in the history books. They've kept me alive to this day and I have no reason to distrust them. And now they are telling that there is something interesting about him. That there's more to him than he's letting on."
Glynda brought out her own scroll and brought up Naruto's profile, "Naruto Rose. Adopted son of Summer Rose. Current guardian is Taiyang Xiao Long. Civilian. Abysmal grades in everything except eastern traditional studies and language studies. Has disciplinary problems but it's mostly being late. Aura tests say that he has no aura. Ozpin, even if he is hiding something, which is highly unlikely, and you want to study him by keeping him in Beacon, he won't survive the team selection. His aura isn't simply un-awakened, it's just not there. No matter how many life or death situations he goes through, his aura just won't awaken."
Seeing that she needed something more than his words he dragged his finger across the screen of his scroll and brought the previously playing video to a certain point after which he handed it to Glynda. Glynda watched the video played the time when Roman tried to shoot the fire dust crystal in slow motion. When the shot reached the middle of its flight path, just before it exploded, something, a pebble most likely, was approaching it. Focusing on it, she played the video backwards, frame by frame, until she traced the origin of that pebble to Naruto.
"Watch the moment when that woman blew up almost half the roof top." Came the voice of Ozpin.
Following his instructions, she watched Naruto try to grab Ruby even before the very first hint of the spell showed up something even Glynda wouldn't be able to do despite her two decades of experience as a full-fledged huntress.
"Enhanced kinetic vision, eye to hand coordination and reflexes in levels that are quite difficult to find even among the best of hunters." Ozpin said watching her eyes going wider and wider in surprise.
Now Glynda knew Ozpin was giving her a hint here. He emphasized on the hunters. Meaning Naruto has some skills similar to that of hunters. But hunters gain at least half their strength from aura, by extension dust, and Naruto had no…
As soon as she thought Naruto's lack of aura, she remembered a particular case she worked on few years after the war. Under normal circumstances, she would have forgotten the case as she works on more or less a dozen cases every year. This particular case stuck with her because one of her friends were one of the victims, to be accurate the child of her friend.
She began reciting from memory, "Illegal dust experiment. Most of the test subjects were kidnapped war orphans with their age ranging from newborn to anyone under thirteen. Estimated total number of victims to be at least five thousand with less than ten percent chance of survival. So far thirty-seven victims have been found alive with only five of them being remotely sane. Every one of them showed special or enhanced abilities along with which are different from semblances in general. One common point among them is that they have no aura."
Turning towards the man she said with a bit of urgency, "Ozpin, are you saying Naruto is probably one of the survivors that were never rescued?"
"And a sane one at that, as far as I can tell anyway. Grooming children to serve their purposes isn't anything unusual for organizations like these so I assume they did the same with the subjects of the experiments. Hopefully, he can give us clues that will lead us to the criminal group." Ozpin said.
At the time, the three people that were present in the room did not notice the fly on the wall disappearing in a puff of smoke.
It had already been quite some time since they left the police station, half an hour at least. Since then Ruby has tried to talk to Naruto, but he wouldn't say a single word. She was pretty sure that he wasn't upset or anything. More like he was probably being late for an appointment, if his brisk pace and how he tried to take the alleyways were anything to judge by, even though her family, including Naruto, again and again told her not to do that, especially during the night. What a hypocrite! Thinking of using the alleyways during the night, she looked up at the moon. Judging by its position, almost anyone could tell that it was well into midnight. That meant no buses or ferries. Her head drooped as she groaned pitifully. Her feet were gonna be so sore by the time she got back home, especially with their bike gone. She suddenly bumped into a person. Looking up she saw Naruto standing in front of her and she also noticed that from where she was standing, it would only take around a couple of minutes to get to her regular dust shop as it was just around the corner. She had failed to notice that they were heading towards this area due to using unfamiliar back-alleys. From where she was standing, she could tell that there were police around the area, probably still investigating the scene of crime.
She saw Naruto looking around when he suddenly stopped and his expression brightened up. Following his gaze, she saw something that confused her. In one corner there were a few trash cans which were surrounded by a huge pile of trash. Fearing something, she looked at him hoping he wouldn't do what she was thinking. Ignoring her he strode forward and brought her fears to reality by starting to rummage through the trash.
She blankly stared at him, too stunned to say anything. Then she facepalmed. Great, just great. Up to this day, Naruto was the most normal person in the family, if a bit lazy. Now that he has become a scavenger, her family can now officially be called a family of weirdos.
Unbeknownst to Ruby, Naruto's left eye twitched once but he rummaged on. Soon, Ruby saw the blonde pull out what looked like a briefcase of some sort. But unlike the conventional ones, it was of the type that had to be opened from the top. Without even giving the case a second look, he slid it towards her. Understanding that he wanted her to examine it she took the case and took a good look at it. The thing looked vaguely familiar. Opening it she saw that it was filled with half a dozen canisters. Something in the back of her mind kept nagging that she had seen this somewhere before and most likely quite recently. Lifting one of them she saw that it was filled with some sort of red liquid. Giving it a light shake, she saw the way the liquid moved. Her eyes went wide, something inside her mind clicked. She recognized that this was dust. Premium quality fire dust to be exact. She quickly put it back and pulled out the canister right next to it. It was red just like the previous one. She continued to do this until she had checked every one of them. Half of them were fire dust while the other half was ice dust, the two elements she needed almost every day.
She questioningly looked at her sibling, who was lazily leaning against a nearby wall, asking a question without really asking. Naruto nodded, confirming her suspicions. These were indeed some of the very same dust that robbed from her usual store. Basically, they were holding onto stolen goods.
"But how?" this time she couldn't help but actually ask. She personally saw the orange-haired guy carrying the exact same case while he and the woman escaped using their bike. So how was it here?
"Well, the situation was a bit chaotic with all the fighting and the police coming towards our location. So, it wouldn't be all that surprising if a certain orange head accidentally picked a case that looked and weighed similarly to his, would it?" he answered while playing with his nails.
Ruby stared at him for a moment, quite certain that the whole thing wasn't as accidental as he claimed it to be. Turning back to look at the case again she thought about returning the stolen goods. She could imagine without the dust how distraught must be the shopkeeper…. She suddenly realized that the old man she had known for at least a few years, she did not even know his name. Well, that was very rude of her. No matter, she could learn it as she returned his dust.
Just as she was about to take the first step towards the shop, she was her sibling's voice from behind her, "Weren't you recently complaining about finding it more and more difficult to afford dust like before with your pocket money?"
Turning back to him she said, "Well yeah, they've been getting more and more expensive. Now if I get the dust I need, I don't have any money left for anything else. It's been getting so difficult to manage everything…"
"That it makes you wish that you would suddenly get a lot of free dust, right?"
Ruby looked at him questioningly, not understanding what he was trying to mean.
Naruto gestured towards the case, "Six canisters of fire dust and ice dust, exactly the elements you need. If I were to make a rough estimation, you could last several months if you had this much, right?"
Ruby looked at the case and did a rough calculation. If she was careful with her usage and didn't waste anything, she would last close to a year with six canisters of dust.
Slowly walking towards her he said, "Now try to imagine the amount of money you otherwise would've spent on that dust. Since you never used that money it would stay with you. Think of all things you could buy with that money. Especially the upgrades for your crescent rose."
Standing behind her he put his hands on her shoulders and whispered in a very smooth voice, "I don't know about you but, if I were in your place I would be very tempted to keep the object in your hands and not return it at all."
"But that isn't right, this dust doesn't belong to me."
"That's up to you really, do you want to help the shopkeeper or do you want to help yourself? You know you need it. If you're worried about people finding out, don't bother. That stuff has already been written off as stolen property and is considered as convenience goods. So, no one will really bother to look for it."
She stared at the case, clearly tempted to take it and use it for herself. But she knew she would be doing something wrong and would feel guilty afterwards. She turned to look at her sibling to ask what is it that she should do. But right at that time Naruto let go of her shoulders and started walking away. She couldn't help but ask, "Wait, where are you going?"
Without stopping he said, "All this talking has made me thirsty. So I'm gonna get something to drink from that vending machine around the corner."
Ruby was pretty sure that he wasn't getting a drink or anything, he was just giving her some time alone to make a decision.
As she was thinking about what to do with the case, her mind drifted off to her crescent rose. For more than a few months, she wanted to buy a particular upgrade for it. The part would allow her to use burst fire, thus allowing her to fire off more than one shot almost simultaneously. She could easily think of so many ways to make use of that. Maybe… she should keep the dust. But thinking up to that point her mind took another turn. She thought about the old shopkeeper. She would no longer be able to go shopping in that particular shop. Every time she would see that old man she would not be able to look at the man in the eye due to guilt.
She looked at the case again and sighed. This was going to be a tough decision.
Hearing the familiar clink he pressed a button the vending and a few seconds later his selected drink came out from the bottom. Popping the cap he pressed the bottle to his mouth and let that disgusting grape flavor fill his mouth. He didn't actually hate grapes. But artificial flavoring could never get the taste right. He could always tell the difference no matter what the companies tried to imitate. Depending on how one looks at it, this can be counted as one of the disadvantages of having enhanced senses.
Having had enough of it after taking another sip, he crushed the can and threw it at a trash can several meters behind him. As soon as it landed in the trash can he heard an indignant shout, "Hey, you could've hit someone with that."
Craning his neck back he answered, "Just when I was starting to think that I was free, you show up again. Why won't you just move on?"
Summer simply stepped up in front him and brought her face close to his, "You've still yet to help me talk to Taiyang and the rest. So why should I leave?"
Naruto stared at her for a few seconds and then turned around effectively starting to ignore her. Ruby should be done with her thinking by now so he started walking towards her.
"What was all that about?" came the voice of Summer from beside him. Without stopping he quirked an eyebrow at her.
Seeing that he didn't understand her she said, "I meant you trying to tempt Ruby into keeping that dust. What was all that about?"
Naruto looked forward while ignoring the fact that she had been spying on them just a while ago, "Oh that? Let's just call it preparing her for the future, shaping her personality."
"By teaching her to steal from others?" She countered.
"Not exactly. I'm simply getting her used to choosing between her needs and her morals. The world isn't all black and white like she believes it to be. If she really tries to become a huntress she is bound to face dilemmas that will put her decision-making skills to the test. With this I'm not conditioning her to make certain type of choices as much I'm getting her used to the whole process of decision making. Basically, I'm preparing her for the future so when difficult situations do pop up she doesn't become the metaphorical deer caught in headlights."
"If you're going to go this far for her, then you might as well just go to Beacon"
Naruto stopped walking and smiled at her in amusement, "That coming from you, who was the most adamant about your children not becoming hunters is quite the surprise. Mind telling me what made you change your mind about that?"
Instead of answering him, she asked, "Naruto, tell me something, how many friends do you have at school?"
He looked at her with a blank expression, "Where'd that come from?"
"Just answer me Naruto."
Naruto didn't say anything, he just simply stared at her.
"You don't have any, do you? It's not just limited to having any friends, you just don't get along with anyone. You avoid everyone. So, what's keeping you there?"
"Does it really matter? I'm doing perfectly fine without anyone bothering me and I know you're gonna nag me about it for a long time so tell me this, how am I gonna survive in school for warriors and magi when I wasn't even born with any aura."
Summer took a thinking pose and said in a playful manner, "I don't know anything about that but I do seem to remember that you always seemed to come out completely unscathed from every single grimm attack during all the family camping trips."
"Uhhh, I was lucky?"
She gave him a hard stare, "You mean to say out of the several dozen times that you were attacked not only did you not get scratched even once but you weren't even around and reappeared only when all the grimm were killed."
"You sound like you wish I got hurt. What kind of mother are you?"
Summer kept staring at him and did not say anything.
Not wanting this talk to continue any further he hung his head in defeat and said, "All right you win. I'll go. Now stop bothering me because Ruby's coming." Turning around he saw his younger sister coming towards him looking completely dejected.
"Since I don't see the case with you, I assume you returned the dust?"
Ruby didn't say a thing and just nodded. She was feeling quite depressed right now. If she kept the dust, she could've made quite a few modifications to her Crescent Rose within a few months at most. Now she doesn't even know how long it'll take to do the things she wants as she doesn't have a good source of income. It could take years before she gets all the mods done.
Patting her on the while pushing her towards home he said, "Well, good thing you did. Otherwise, I would've fed you the special cookies."
As soon as she heard that, she blanched and forgot all about her disappointment. She was glad that she made the decision she made since she never had anything that tasted worse than Naruto's special cookies