"Woah woah, wanna run that by me again?" Naruto tried to say.

Cardin spoke over him. "I wasn't talking to you, furball. Russ, make sure you get this thing neutered so he doesn't get so agitated."

Naruto was stunned speechless. It had been a long time since a human mouthed off to him like this. It had come as a surprise that no one had done it in Vale. And in Atlas he avoided humans because talk like this would happen. And when talk like this happened... Well, he hadn't been the helpless faunus in a long time and he was often happy to prove it. As the saying goes, them were fighting words.

But funnily enough, he didn't feel like fighting this time. All he could do was "Bwahahaha! Oh, I'mma kick your ass later for that but it was pretty funny!"

"I wasn't. Talking. To you. Freak." Cardin said in what would be an intimidating tone were it not for his constantly cracking voice. On the other hand, his looming was working wonders. Easily passing six feet tall and with a muscular build, he loomed over the smaller fox faunus menacingly.

Naruto cocked his head to one side, trying to decide if throwing down would be worth it to put the larger boy in his place. Then, a look of slight fear passed over his face, disappearing quickly. The fox shrugged and walked around the armoured redhead.

Russell stayed where he was, not really knowing what to do. Then he heard the vacating faunus shout over his shoulder, "Have fun with the giant grimm coming this way, big guy!"

Cardin scoffed, rolling his eyes. "Tch. Giant grimm. A faunus telling lies. What a shock, right Russ? … Russ?" he questioned, having looked back to find Russ wasn't there. Looking around he saw the mohawked teen jogging after the faunus.

"Later, Cardin!" Russell shouted over his shoulder. Either Naruto was lying to save face or he wasn't. But from what Russell had seen there was a good chance the blond was telling the truth and it wasn't a risk worth taking just to see Cardin make everyone uncomfortable.

-(-)-

"So Miss Rose and Miss Schnee are hanging from a Nevermore in flight, Miss Nikos is fleeing from a Deathstalker and Mister Fox is of the opinion he and Mister Thrush are being tracked by another large grimm." Glinda Goodwitch listed off as she moved through different camera feeds on her scroll. "Oh, and Mister Lie and Miss Valkyrie have slain a King Tajitu and an Ursa, respectively. Not to mention the small army of minor grimm the other students have battled through. This years initiation is a surprisingly lively event, wouldn't you say, Professor Ozpin?"

"Mm." Ozpin hummed in response as he sipped his coffee. "We have been observing an increase in grimm activity recently. It isn't all that surprising that it is also true here, even this close to Beacon." In his other hand, his own scroll beeped, the screen showing another relic had been taken and by whom. "Oh, dear."

"Hm?" Glinda looked at Ozpin expectantly. In answer, he turned his own scroll to face her, showing her the first confirmed team. "Oh, dear."

-(-)-

"So... Is there actually a giant grimm or...?" Russell asked hesitantly.

"There was one." Naruto answered, Russell breathing a sigh of relief. "Now there are three. That cave I talked about before? The one that Pyrrha girl found? Giant scorpion grimm inside and chasin' them right to the relics. And Ruby and the Schnee heiress are... Well," he pointed as he continued to run. Russell turned in the direction the faunus was pointing and saw high in the sky a Giant Nevermore. And a pair of red and white shapes in its talons. "Yeah." Naruto continued. "Don't know how that happened but one of my clones saw those two get taken up. Hope Ruby comes out of it okay."

"And Schnee?" Russell asked not wanting to ask about the thing Naruto was avoiding.

"Eh."

There was an awkward silence. Finally, Russell felt obliged to ask. "And the third?"

"The third..." he started before he got another burst of memories. "Is currently killing all of my clones. And it's following us."

The green haired teen immediately unsheathed his daggers. "What is it? How close?"

A tremor shook the ground.

"That close." Naruto answered. "And all my clones saw was a huge pair of jaws. By the way, don't get eaten. It sucks."

"BOSS!" the two of them heard. Looking in the direction of the shout, they saw another Naruto moving their way by hopping from tree to tree. "UP! MOVE UP! IT COMES FROM-!" it shouted in warning before its sentence was cut short. A pair of long, narrow, enormous jaws snatched the unfortunate clone mid-jump. In the same bite, the jaws ripped a chunk out of a tree, enough that the top half of said tree broke off and plummeted to the ground.

A split second for the words to register and the clone's memories to sink in was all it took. "UP! Climb the trees!" Naruto shouted, unsheathing his claws and taking his own advice, using the claws as makeshift pitons. It wasn't long until Russell followed suit, resheathing his daggers and using his own manual agility to climb his own tree, slightly higher than Naruto.

"What do we-" Russell started to say quietly until he saw Naruto putting his finger to his lips. A tense few seconds passed as they waited to see if the grimm would appear again.

That tension was not broken, but multiplied tenfold when another voice broke out. "The hell are you idiots doing in the trees?!" the cracking voice of Cardin Winchester mocked.

"Cardin!" Russell shouted down, "Get into the trees! There's a grimm!"

"Yeah, and I got into your mom last night! Whatever, man! If you wanna play grabass with your pet in the trees that's your business but don't drag m-OH SHIT!" Cardin screamed in alarm as he was tossed in the air in a similar way as he had entered the forest earlier. The jaws of the grimm had risen underneath him and sent him skyward. "WHAT THE SHIT!"

"Yeah, like he said, there's a giant grimm?" Naruto repeated as he watched the redhead try to swat away the jaws of what was now clearly an enormous crocodile grimm with his mace. In truth it looked like the grimm was playing keep-up with the armoured teen. "I mean I figured since it was coming from underground it had to be using sound to track my clones and kill them. That's why we were being quiet." The crocodile tossed Cardin into the air again and opened its jaws wide to snap shut on him. "Well, it looks like you got this handled so we'll just-"

"WOULD YOU SHUT UP AND HELP ME?!" Cardin screamed as he held the jaws open beneath him. Unfortunately for him, this wasn't a cartoon and the immense strength of the crocodile's jaws overcame him quickly. Luckily, the jaws snapping shut flung him outwards rather than inwards, sending the teen sprawling across the dirt and into the trunk of one of the many nearby trees.

Fate seemed to be playing a cruel game with Cardin Winchester today.

-(-)-

"Oh, my! A Gustan!" Ozpin exclaimed, showing an unusual amount of surprise. An amount a majority of people would describe as 'mild'. "I haven't seen one of those since my last visit to Shade. I wonder how it got all the way over here."

"Ambush hunting grimm, if I recall." Glinda added. "Able to move through earth like water but needs to surface to breathe. Many a seasoned huntsman has been caught unawares by one and killed without getting the chance to draw a weapon."

"Indeed." Ozpin agreed. "Fortunately it seems Mister Fox's team had some forewarning. Now all that's left is to see if they can find the most efficient way to destroy it. Or at the very least, escape it." With a swipe of his finger, the Headmaster pulled up a second camera feed next to the one he was watching. "It seems Miss Rose' and Miss Nikos' teams have elected to flee their current aggressors."

"A wise choice." Glinda opined solemnly. "It's good they understand already that the grimm are merely an obstacle. Knowing to put their objective first is commendable."

-(-)-

"I'm not goin' anywhere until I freakin' murder this thing." Cardin hissed from his new place in the boughs of a tree.

"Hey, you wanna start a vendetta with something that could eat all of us in one bite, be my guest. Meanwhile, I'll be working on an escape plan." Naruto crossed his hands and a carbon copy of himself appeared on the ground below him and started running full speed towards Beacon Cliff.

It was eaten almost casually five steps in, the Gustan staying at surface level for a moment, watching those in the trees with its solid red eyes. In turn it gave the boys the chance to study the beast. Black, like all grimm. Bone white plating lined the jaws and the beast's teeth protruded grotesquely out of its mouth. Compared to the jaws, the rest of the Gustan's body seemed comically small, somewhere around a third of the size.

At least, that's what they could see of it, it still being semi-submerged in the earth. As it began to slowly sink once again, it let loose a gurgling, croaking growl.

"Well that was just unsettling." Naruto slumped. "Okay. Fighting this thing and the floor is lava. We need to either stop it hiding-" the croc sank fullly out of view again "like that, or we need to limit where it can rise."

"I can do that last one."

The three boys slowly turned to look for the source of the voice, familiar only to two of them. On yet another, especially sturdy-looking tree branch stood Topaz. Her innocent smile conveyed even through her concealing helmet.

The branch she stood on visibly bowed under her.

"I have so many questions." Russell brushed a hand through his mohawk, completely uncomprehending of the circumstance.

"Let's... Just..." Naruto started before immediately giving up. "You can keep it buried?"

"Totally!" she chirped, presenting her weapon. "This little baby is a modified, dust-powered, emergency service issue fire extinguisher!" At receiving only blank looks, she explained further. "It sprays a dust-reactive gel that adopts the property of the dust being used. Usually it's ice dust for putting out fires. But I modified it to have multiple chambers so it can do that and-" she paused, rotating a dial around the barrel firing at the ground below her.

What came out was not a freezing gel. Instead it more closely resembled napalm.

Pre-lit napalm.

Sprayed on woodland underbrush.

"That... I'm from a cold climate. Will that spread?" Naruto asked, haltingly.

"Naaaah." Topaz waved off the possibility. Below her the flames spread to a bush. "I mean... Probably not." The fire spread to another bush in the opposite direction. "There's only so much ground it could cover, right? I mean sure if something were to start spreading it around-"

Attracted by the voice above, the Gustan surfaced directly into the patch of gel, its menacing growl turning into an agonised roar. In panic and pain, it flailed its head around trying to put out the inextinguishable flame by smashing it into whatever it could find. Such as trees, long grasses and other foliage.

Topaz wilted under Naruto's glare. "We should go."

-(-)-

"Well that was..." Ozpin began but failed to follow it with anything.

"They set the forest on fire." Glynda said flatly.

"Well, yes." the headmaster admitted. "But it worked." he added with a half-shrug to his deputy. She merely glared at him in response. "I'll... just call Barty and have him put it out, then."

"I think that would be best, sir."

-(-)-

"Huh." Naruto said, taking in the spectacle before the four of them.

The Gustan no longer a concern for them, the four new students of Beacon headed back towards the cliff to finish their initiation. In doing so, they caught the tail end of the fight occurring there. One one side of the now even more ruined ruins, four students including Pyrrha Nikos had managed to kill a giant scorpion grimm with its own stinger. On the other side, Ruby Rose was decapitating a giant bird. After running up a cliff face.

As if in contrast, Naruto turned to look at the path they came from. The orange glow of the forest fire they accidentally started still visible.

"Anyone else feelin' kinda... What's the word..." Naruto paused in thought.

"Inadequate?" Russell suggested, glum.

"Yeah. That." Naruto agreed, mirroring Russell's mood.

"Nah." Cardin shrugged. "I'm pretty awesome."

Naruto scoffed. "You keep tellin' yourself that the next time you get eaten by a crocodile."

"I'd say 'bite me' but I don't want rabies."

"You don't need me to bite you anyways. Crocodile's got you covered."

There was an awkward pause as Cardin adopted a contemplative expression. "Good one." he said eventually, sounding genuinely impressed.

Then he punched the fox faunus in the back of the head and walked toward the cliffs.

-(-)-

"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xiaolong."

The initiation was complete. All the new students that were going to return with relics had done so. And so what followed a handful of hours later was the team formation ceremony. Held on stage in the auditorium it was witnessed by staff and all returning students of Beacon Academy. A true welcome for the next generation of huntsmen and huntresses.

"You retrieved the white knight pieces." Headmaster Ozpin continued. "From this day forth you will be known as Team RWBY! Led by Ruby Rose!" he announced, receiving polite applause from all in attendance.

Their part in the ceremony complete, the four girls moved back, replaced by a group consisting of two boys and two girls.

"Jaune Arc, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, Lie Ren. You four retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forth you will be known as Team JNPR! Led by... Jaune Arc!" the headmaster announced again.

"Wha? M-Me?!" the so-named blond boy asked as he pointed to himself.

"Congratulations, young man." Ozpin said, smiling slightly.

Sharing in that congratulations, Pyrrha playfully punched her new leader on the arm, accidentally knocking him to the ground. With a sheepish smile, she helped him to his feet and nudged him back with the rest of their team. Making room for... a rather less jovial group.

A golden haired fox faunus with a look of begrudging acceptance. A boy with a green mohawk who seemed to be appreciating the celebration as much as he could, given the circumstances. A bear faunus girl who had adopted a posture and expression that showed she had closed herself off entirely. And a tall red-haired boy glaring daggers at the lone girl.

"Naruto Fox, Cardin Winchester, Topaz Smoke, Russell Thrush. The four of you retrieved the black bishop pieces. From this day forth you will be known as Team NCTR! Led by Naruto Fox!"

As though a switch had been flipped, Cardin's eyes moved from the bear faunus to his left to the fox faunus on his right. The look on his face screamed if he could get away with snapping the blond's neck right then and there, he would.

-(-)-

Gustan (pronounced Goo-Stahn): Crocodile variety of Grimm. Most common in the deserts surrounding Vacuo, Gustan are ambush predators, capable of devouring a human in a single bite with only a fraction of a second of warning. Their ability to move through earth means any humans walking the sands must remain on guard at all times. Based on the Roald Dahl story "The Enormous Crocodile" and named for the giant crocodile "Gustave", rumoured to have killed 300 people.

A/N: So I was sitting on this chapter for a while at about 1500 words. Right before Topaz popped up again. I had already outlined in my notes how her weapon worked and that she could use it to force the Gustan into a more straight up fight. But then I thought "that's basically napalm. In a forest." The idea of a fight scene happening evaporated instantly. So instead of NCTR being a team of super badasses like RWBY and NPR, they're more on the level of normal first year students. Worth noting, though. They're also not going to be the pointless, waste-of-character, cannon fodder CRDL were used as. So yeah. Skilled fighters but they make dumb mistakes sometimes.

And yes I am quite proud for coming up with a truly valid team name that follows all the rules. Even the implied ones! Leader name first, first names only, is a colour, the name is even a shade of orange to match its leader! Go me!

Usual plug. Fandom Flux youtube channel. We do podcasts about writing and also a show where we review RWBY episode by episode. We're just over halfway through season 2 right now.

Thanks for reading.