"I have to go to school?" Naruto asked, horror plain to see in his expression at the very idea.

"Indeed." Ozpin answered.

The two were walking through the streets of Vale, Naruto following the Headmaster obediently mostly owing to having no idea what to do in an entirely new locale. Old habits kicked in for the fox faunus trained out of necessity. Constantly watching his surroundings for the figurative (and once actual) knife in the dark. Observing the people they passed to gauge their motives. Some didn't care, some tried very hard to look like they didn't care, the rest either frightened or glaring. Overall, way better than Atlas in his opinion.

"While I have allowed students into Beacon a year or two early on occasion" Ozpin continued, "I believe that would be unwise in your case. Your skills with your aura and semblance are better than some new entrants into my school but the rest of your skills..." The pause seemed to drag on.

"Are even better!" Naruto finished, nodding with an expression of certainty on his face.

"... Not so much." Ozpin denied, a rueful smile on his face. "Besides, even beyond the realm of combat there is far more to being a huntsman. Huntsmen and huntresses as much as they are warriors and protectors, they must also be symbols of security for the people. A huntsman must seem in control of everything around them at all times. For example, being aware of your surroundings is good. Doing so obviously makes you look paranoid and worried. Which makes the people paranoid and worried. I don't need to tell you why that would be bad."

Naruto grimaced, and tried to stop looking around. He lasted a few seconds before twisting around to see something in his periphery. Seeing that it would be more difficult than he thought, he settled for trying to be less obvious.

Ozpin smiled slightly at the attempt. Learning such control over oneself was more something learned at Beacon than Signal but it served well as an example of how much Naruto still had to learn. "I've made arrangements so that you can skip much of the standard curriculum but at the very least you will be designing your own weapon, learning to properly maintain it and learning to wield it. You will also be designing your combat outfit."

"Don't know much about weapons." Naruto admitted.

Ozpin nodded. "Hence why you will be spending a year at Signal. Having your own is a requirement to join Beacon."

Naruto frowned, still not liking the idea but coming around to the necessity. "Fine. So is that where we're going now?"

"Not quite." Ozpin admitted. "Unfortunately the new term doesn't start for another month. Not to worry, though. I've made arrangements for you to stay at an apartment in the city in the meantime."

Quiet, as though in the distance, an ominous voice carried over to the two.

"Amaaaa-zing gaiiiiinz... how sweeeeeet the liiiifts..."

"With appropriate supervision, of course."

"That greeew a bro... like meeeeeee!"

Naruto looked at the headmaster oddly. "So I'm gonna stay with some random stranger for a month?"

"I once wa-as weak... but nooow am swole..."

"Well," Ozpin started as they approached the front door of an apartment complex, "not really a random stranger."

"Was skinny bu-ut now..."

Ozpin raised his hand to press the buzzer for Naruto's future apartment but got the feeling it was unnecessary. Where he got that idea...

"A-AM HUGE!"

… One may never know.

Standing before them, having thrown open the door, near ripping it off its hinges, was Blaine David. Former huntsman and... bass singer, apparently.

"Fox boy!" Blaine exclaimed on seeing Naruto again. "It's been too long!"

Naruto shot Ozpin a look that questioned the man's sanity before looking back to Blaine. Then shot Ozpin the same look again with emphasis, ears twitching in irritation before looking up at the disturbingly muscular man. "It really hasn't."

"Don't be like that, Fox boy! Now come, I welcome you to the mighty iron temple I call my abode! For all those seeking the greatness of swole, mighty Brodin shall accept them with open, muscular, rippling arms!" Blaine 'reassured', heading inside expecting Naruto to follow him.

He didn't. Instead, he turned to look at Ozpin again, very confused. "So... Is he Brodin or...?"

"I..." Ozpin started but thought better of it. "Will see you in a year. Good luck, Mr Fox." He said before walking towards the nearest metro.

Naruto watched him leave before sagging in defeat and trudging into the small house.

-(-)-

"Alright, class. We have a new student joining us this year." The teacher droned uninterested. "Please introduce yourself." She told Naruto.

Naruto stood awkwardly at the front of the class, scratching the back of his head. "Uh, hi. I'm Naruto Fox." He could see the dirty looks he was getting from a couple of people. That was the worst he got but none of the looks were particularly friendly.

Then some kid with a mohawk basically set the tone for the year. "What's with the scratching? You got fleas or something?" Most of the class erupted in laughter.

Naruto sighed. This was going to be a long year.

-(-)-

The hunter track at Signal had the students spending a lot of time in one particular room. The combat training hall. A small arena for sparring, a firing range, some training dummies for melee practice, everything students would need to hone their skills with their own weapons and abilities.

"So you're the kid Oz has his eye on, huh?" The laid-back combat teacher asked Naruto rhetorically.

It wasn't a class that was occurring. Naruto was visiting the combat instructor after hours as part of his 'fast-track' huntsman program.

Naruto mentally decided the teacher reminded him of Old Grey, one of the older faunus in his little community that spent most of his time drunk off his ass. It might have been the dishevelled appearance and constant slur that drew the comparison. "I guess." he answered.

"Well, if there's one thing about him I can't deny, it's that he has an eye for talent." Qrow Branwen smirked at his subtle ego trip. "So. You can fight a little. You have aura and your semblance. What you don't have is your gear. Combat clothing and a weapon."

"Yeah, I figured that out." Naruto agreed. Everyone else on the hunter track had a special outfit they would wear in combat class. The weapons were the real problem. Without one Naruto had real trouble. His opponents just had more options than he did. He would win occasionally but only by abusing the hell out of his semblance. Unfortunately people figured out the tricks to it quickly and he stopped winning after that.

"Heh, yeah. You're at a real disadvantage until we get this solved so we're rushing things a bit. Any thoughts on your weapon?"

Naruto shrugged helplessly. "I dunno. I mean I've never really trained with any weapons."

"Yeah." Qrow shrugged. "That's a problem. We could prob'ly set you up with something for you to train with until we get you your own but... Maybe we should stick with something a little closer to the skills you already have."

"Like what?"

Qrow scratched at his stubble as he thought. "Well, you saw what Yang uses, right? Gauntlets?"

"Ugh, don't remind me." The fox faunus grumbled. She was basically the one to show how to bypass his semblance. One area attack and all his clones went 'poof!'.

"Heheh, yeah. She kicked your ass." The teacher laughed. Noticing the boy scowling at him he shrugged. "What? It was hilarious! Heheh, 'poof'!"

"Come on, Teach!" Naruto whined.

"Alright, alright, sorry!" Qrow raised his hands in defense before wiping a tear of laughter from his eye. "Hahhh, but you get my point, right? Something small that won't get in the way of how you usually fight."

"Hn." Naruto grunted before taking a moment to think. What the teacher was saying made sense. It would take too long if he had to learn a whole new fighting style to accompany his new weapon. Should he get something like gauntlets like that blonde girl?

"Eww, look it's the fleabag!"

"Careful, I bet he's rabid!"

"Release the hounds!"

"Hey, Teach. What about claws?" If they think he's an animal, fine. He was going own it.

"Hm." Qrow considered. "Not a bad idea. I mean you're probably doing it just to thumb your nose at the other kids giving you crap about being a faunus but-"

'Oh, crap is he a psychic?!' Naruto thought in panic.

"It might actually work pretty well. It'll still mean adjusting your style a little but nowhere near as much as most anything else would. Alright, so hands? Or feet?"

"Could it be both?" Naruto asked.

"Ehh... Kinda?" Qrow answered vaguely, wobbling his hand in a 'so-so' gesture. "I mean the problem with blades on your feet is them getting stuck. Leaves you unbalanced until you get both of 'em under you again."

"I still wanna try." Naruto said firmly.

Qrow shrugged. "No skin off my nose. How 'bout a ranged option? For this I'd say just the hands for now. Guns on your legs takes a, uh... a lot of practice."

Naruto shrugged. "Never really used guns before. What do you think?"

"Well..." Qrow started, standing up and walking over to a nearby weapon rack. "The way I see it, you have two options." Taking an automatic weapon off the rack he heads to the firing range. Checking and loading it, he continued. "You could go with an automatic small calibre like this." He demonstrated by unloading a full clip into the target dozens of punctures peppering the middle two rings of the target. "Rapid-fire, small hits. Since your semblance will duplicate them you could make a literal wall of bullets."

"And the drawbacks?" Naruto asked.

Qrow bit the inside of his cheek. "Small hits. For the bigger, badder Grimm, one bullet is the same as a thousand. Neither will do anything."

"There are Grimm that strong?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"And stronger." Qrow nodded grimly. "Which is why…" He began as he lifted a grenade launcher. "This is your other option." Firing a grenade down the range, there was a moderate explosion that took out three targets in their entirety. "Big hits. And again with your semblance it could be a dozen big hits at once." He finished, smirking. Qrow admitted to himself that he had a soft spot for a big kaboom.

"Well, ya see..." Naruto hesitated. He wasn't sure of his big idea but it wouldn't happen if he didn't talk about it. "I kind of have an idea for that anyway but..."

"But what?" Qrow pressed.

"Well," Naruto said, shuffling as he pulled out a sketch from his coat pocket. "I kinda had an idea for my combat gear."

Qrow put the grenade launcher back on the rack and snatched the sketch from the fox faunus' hand. 'Huh. Actually not bad. It's eye catching. No idea what those designs are but this could wor-' His train of thought was knocked off the tracks when he read the notes on the page. "Orange dust." he deadpanned.

"W-well it is my favourite colour! Heheh... heh." Naruto laughed awkwardly.

"Orange."

"Uh huh."

"In your clothes."

"Yeah?"

Qrow Branwen swallowed thickly. The proverbial devil and angel sitting on his shoulders.

'It's insane!'

'But ingenious!'

'But insane?!'

'We've seen crazier.'

'And what are those people now?!'

'Some of the strongest hunters on Remnant!'

'Yeah... Or dead!'

"Uhh, teach?" Naruto hazarded. The combat teacher had been quiet for a while and kept... twitching. The fox faunus was honestly getting a little worried.

Snapping out of his daze, Qrow looked at Naruto with seeing eyes again. He took a deep breath and returned to his desk, pulling out a flask and taking a long pull from it. "Okay.

"Alright, kid. Here's the deal. You are not ready for this kind of hardware. We'll see about maybe doing something like what you've put here in the future but for now. No. Not a chance. We'll get you some grenades and you can do the same damn thing with those without the chance of accidentally atomising yourself, got it?"

The fox nodded, wide-eyed having never seen the combat teacher so serious.

The teacher took another deep breath. "Okay. So four claws and the arms with machineguns mounted on them. Got it. I'll set it up, just... Just go away."

Naruto nodded and practically ran from the room. Qrow sighed as he watched the boy leave. "I swear I'm gonna drink myself under the table."

"Hey, Uncle Qrow I'm here for training!"

"Ahh, dammit."

-(-)-

Several weeks later

"Awesome." Naruto breathed as he looked over his new implements.

"Yeah, thought you might like 'em." Qrow smirked. This was probably the best part of his job seeing the kids gush over their new toys. Well, watching them beat the crap out of each other might be a little more fun. But this was a close second.

"These are so much cooler than I thought they'd be! I mean I thought they'd just be claws but they're retractable and the guns are so freaking tiny and this is so awesome!"

"Yeah, I know right? Now remember, when using the guns-"

"Awesome."

"Dammit kid, shut your trap let me explain how they work!"

-(-)-

A/N: Heeheehee! Yeah. Been sitting on how Naruto's stuff would work for a long while. I'm fairly certain there's no canon or word of god knowledge of what orange dust does but... I think you can figure out what it does here.

So there were three future Beacon students mentioned in this chapter. You should also be able to guess who they are.

Anyway, we're going to do a bit of a training thing next chapter, then we pretty much get to canon. Yay!

As usual, Fandom Flux youtube channel plug. Podcasts, Let's Plays, we did a live commentary of Naruto the Last once, if that grabs ya.

Thanks for reading.