A Faunus civil rights protest. They weren't a particularly common occurrence in Atlas. It was basically asking to be taken in for 'civil disobedience' and sentenced to 'community service'. In plain terms, being sent to one of the Schnee dust factories or mines and never being seen or heard from again.

But the SDC had nowhere near as much power over Vale as it did over Atlas. And however many humans would sneer at Faunus as they passed them in the street, there was a certain measure of tolerance for Faunus 'antics'. They would shout chants, wave signs and ruffle a few feathers and then go back to doing what they usually did. And not a difference was made.

But it was that indifference that led to one Naruto Fox attending the festivities. Not taking part, mind you. His survival instincts from Atlas continued to tell him not let himself be noticed at an event like this. But he was satisfied to watch from his bench seat as the protest went on. It was actually a rather nice day. The whole thing was being held at a park across from the government offices. It was a pleasant way to spend a day, surrounded by people who knew. Better than Blaine could. Better than Ozpin could.

Hey, maybe one day his instincts would shut up and he could join in?

"Excuse me! Did you need a sign?" A sweet, cheerful voice asked.

The fox Faunus looked up to see one of the most adorable girls he had ever seen. She looked to be about his age, maybe a little younger. Wood brown hair cut in a bob topped with little bear ears, big green eyes, and tiny fangs peeking through her innocent smile. Dressed in a black t-shirt, dark grey vest and black jeans, she held out a sign for him to take. It read 'We are NOT ANIMALS!'.

"Uh... Ah..." He started holding up his hands to wave away her offer and politely decline but the words just wouldn't come out.

Unfortunately, waving around his hands without saying anything just drew her attention to them. And their... unusual accoutrements. "Oh, wow! Are you a huntsman?!" She asked with very convincing enthusiasm.

"Ah... Um, not really...? I mean I'm still in training..." He stammered awkwardly.

She... didn't seem to be listening. "Oh my gosh, that's so amazing that a huntsman came to our protest! It would be so great if you could say something! Please?" She begged, dropping her signs to clasp her hands together, biting her bottom lip.

'Oh, no it's that look!' Naruto mentally screamed. 'I hate that look! And she's way better at it than Kaine ever was!' He tried to look away. Tried to steel himself to say no and see that look of hope turn to disappointment- "Okay." 'WHAT?! No! Bad mouth! You said a stupid thing!'

And then the bear-girl's face lit up and she squealed with joy and all was forgiven. "Yay! Oh my gosh this is going to be so great!" She exclaimed as she pulled him up from his seat and started leading him into the crowd. "Now I'm just gonna do an introduction for you and then you can say what you want to say. Umm, what's your name?" She asked, sheepishly as she continued dragging him to a little podium the protest had set up.

"Naruto Fox?" Naruto said, it coming out as a question.

"I'm Topaz Smoke! Nice to meet you!" She chirped with a smile and let go of his hand as she got up on the podium. She whispered in the ear of the man leading the chants, an older blond boy with horse ears. He nodded and handed her the microphone.

Naruto's stomach started tying itself in knots.

"My fellow Faunus," She spoke into the microphone, her voice amplified by the speakers at the sides of the podium. The whole crowd started to quiet down. "We have a special guest today who would like to say a few words. It's my pleasure to introduce to you all, the huntsman-"

"-in training" She added sotto voice away from the microphone-

"-Naruto Fox!"

Naruto let loose a deep breath. 'So she did hear me say I'm in training. And yet she dragged me up here anyway. That girl is dangerous.'

As Naruto stepped onto the podium he noticed there was confusion in the crowd that a huntsman that they hadn't heard of before – a Faunus huntsman at that – was about to speak. Still, they were receptive and offered polite applause and a few cheers.

Naruto was no stranger to speeches. He'd made a few to his family in the past. The microphone was new. The complete lack of preparation was also new. But he decided to give it his best and racked his brain for something to say.

"My fellow Faunus," He started, imitating Topaz as he searched for the right words. 'This rally isn't about fear or hatred. Let's go with hope instead.' "Only half a century ago, the humans thought of us as pests. Nowadays you might hear some humans openly call us 'vermin' but that's not what I mean. I mean they literally saw us on the same level as the rats infesting their sewer, or the insects crawling around in their walls. We didn't belong in their ivory castles, and they did their best to step on us when they could, and force us out when they couldn't."

He surveyed the crowd, he couldn't place exact reactions due to how fast he did it and how much focus he was using for his impromptu speech, but nobody appeared to be heavily adverse to his words so far. So, so far so good as far as he was concerned. "They came up with a way to keep us out. They came up with a place where they could lock us away like the beasts they decided we were."

He paused a beat, shifting his look to something just a noticeable bit more stern. "We said 'no'."

"The Faunus people declared in one voice that they – that we – would not be caged! That we would not be controlled! This freedom that we experience today is a freedom that our people fought, bled and died for! We have earned the right to stand right here, not two hundred yards from the seat of the Vale government and proudly say that we are also the people of Vale and we will be acknowledged!"

A cheer rose up from the crowd as if to prove him right.

Gaining confidence with the crowd's approval, the fox Faunus continued. "The White Fang would tell you that protests like this don't matter. That they only reason we've made so much progress is because we bled it from the humans. They would say the only way to get them to treat us as true equals is to keep bleeding them until they beg us to stop."

He slammed a fist down on the podium, caught up in his own speech's energy. "I don't believe that. I refuse to believe that! The humans saw us as beasts. The methods of the White Fang only prove them right. We need to be more than what they expect from us! Be smart! Be capable! Be determined. Be everything the humans are and then some! With every success, prove that every time they called us 'vermin', they called themselves 'idiots'!"

"The only idiot here is you, boy."

The voice came as though from a megaphone. Loud and distorted. Naruto looked around, searching for the source. Having been so focused on his speech, he hadn't noticed the small aircraft that had appeared above the park. An emblem was painted on the side, a wolf's head with three claw marks through it.

"The White Fang..." Naruto breathed. It came out louder than expected. Noticing he was still holding the microphone, he made the most obvious judgement call of his life. "Everyone, evacuate the area, now!" Some ran, but most were petrified with fear. Not having that, Naruto smacked the microphone on the podium, holding back so he didn't destroy it. The loud bang followed by shrill feedback from the speakers snapped the crowd out of it. "Run, you idiots!"

Finally wising up to the increasingly dangerous situation, they scattered in all directions to get away. Not willing to let the humans in the crowd off so easily, two men in Grimm masks appeared from inside the Bullhead class aircraft and opened fire on any targets without animal features.

Not willing to let that go, the fox Faunus clicked off the safety on his gauntlets but kept the claws sheathed. Instead, pointing one hand at the airship and putting the other on the top of his wrist, gripping the trigger there and pulling, unloading lightning dust rounds into the ship. It wasn't enough to damage the Bullhead but it got the White Fang grunts to take cover.

"You will not interfere with our justice, traitor!" The same voice from before spoke before a large man jumped out of the Bullhead. He wore similar to the standard White Fang uniform of black trousers and gloves but his upper body was covered by a white sleeveless top with high collar and low neckline. His face was covered by a Grimm mask like the others but with a more elaborate design, somewhat resembling the white half of a King Tajitu.

Oh. He also had a chainsaw.

… That was probably more important than his shirt, wasn't it?

The heavily muscled man landed hard in a crouch on the concrete slabs of the park paths but seemed no worse for wear from it. Standing to his full height, he casually revved his chainsaw.

And the grunts started firing on the fleeing civilians again.

"Not having that." Naruto muttered as he made a cross sign with his fingers. He didn't wait for the smoke to clear before giving his order, "Keep those clowns covered!"

An identical copy of the fox dashed out of the cloud, already opening fire on the Bullhead as his creator had ordered.

"I know of you, Fox." The musclebound man started, his accent that of the Mistral wilderness. "We wanted to recruit you after what happened in Atlas. Why would you turn your back on your people for them?" He asked with venom.

"I-" Naruto started.

"Never mind. I don't care." The White Fang Lieutenant said. "All that matters now is that you are a TRAITOR!" He roared as he dashed forward swinging his chainsaw in a wide arc.

Naruto reacted quickly, unsheathing his claws in a split second but not bothering to try blocking a chainsaw with them. Strong they might be, but indestructible they were not. And a high-power chainsaw could easily be enough to break them. Instead he opted for backing as quickly as he could to stay out of range of the large man's swings. Noticing a chance as the Lieutenant went for an overhead swing, Naruto rolled forwards behind his enemy and swung his hand claws at the larger man's legs. The first landed, the second was blocked by a back kick.

The Lieutenant had been holding his swing, knowing he was leaving himself open and wondering what the fox would do. Disappointed, but curiosity satisfied, he spun around and brought the chainsaw down on the fox Faunus.

Desperate, Naruto rolled sideways awkwardly, his foot claws getting in the way but allowing him to barely dodge the teeth of the weapon.

Behind the Lieutenant, a figure emerged from behind the podium and opened fire, dust rounds started raining down on the man's unprotected back causing him to stumble and whirl around with a snarl. He growled audibly on seeing who it was, raising his chainsaw to block the continuing shots.

"Haa... Did you really think I made just one?" Naruto smirked. The smirk fell from his face however, when the White Fang member sank into the ground. A moment later he came up again right underneath the clone behind the podium, bisecting him with the chainsaw as he came up.

Another three streams of dust rounds came at him immediately afterwards.

"Did you really think I made just tw-"

"SHUT IT, TRAITOR!" The Lieutenant roared as he took cover behind the podium. Unknown to the fox Faunus, he sank into the ground again, coming up elsewhere. Looking around, he took stock of the situation. All of the civilians were gone and he could hear sirens coming. The mission was a bust and it wasn't worth capture to kill the traitor. Decision made, he sank into the earth again.

Naruto was in the middle of creating more clones when he saw the chainsaw wielding terrorist shoot out of the ground like a rocket directly under the Bullhead, grabbing onto the cabin edge as he reached his apex. Climbing inside he ordered the pilot to return to base.

Naruto watched it leave with a frown before surveying the area. There were people hurt, mostly human. He sighed, but resigned himself to giving first aid until the authorities arrived. They wouldn't thank him for it, but that didn't matter. It was the right thing to do.

"St-stay away from me!" The injured man shouted as Naruto approached.

In response, the blond Faunus shrugged. "Okay. Have fun bleeding out." He said as he moved on to the next person.

Then again. If they wanted to be idiots, he was content to let them.

-(-)-

A/N: I'm not going to say anything. I'm just gonna let these chapters keep rolling while I can.

So if people are wondering when this takes place, this is actually a canon event. In episode 1 a news report talks about a Faunus rights rally that gets crashed by the White Fang. So to date this, it would be after the trailers but before the events of episode 1.

Also, I figured I'd do a dramatis personae for all of the OCs in the story so far. If new ones are added later I'll put them in the relevant chapter notes. So far we have:

Blaine David: Blaine Gibson (shocking, neh?)

Burnie: Burnie Burns (*gasp*)

Brandon: Brandon Farmahini (no way!)

Jankin Schnee: Whoever voices him in the show (bet you he's voiced for volume 4)

George Gerontio: Taliesin Jaffe

Topaz Smoke: Laura Bailey

By the way. Total accident giving the bear faunus the name "Smoke". I was looking up shades of brown to describe her hair colour (and give her a name based on it) and it was RIGHT THERE! How could I not use that?! So... Yeah. A genderbent Smokey the Bear is now in this story.

Also, I will take any opportunity to quote Jon Irenicus. No one reading this knows who that character is but you should.

Alright. That's about it.

Thanks for reading.