Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 6

"Yang?"

"Don't talk to me."

"Nothing bad happened while we were out."

"I said don't talk to me."

"Yang."

"What?"

"You're being childish."

Sasuke wanted to slap the buxom blond, but sadly, he couldn't. Yang was jokingly upset and making sure that Blake understood why she was upset by trying and failing to ignore her partner/friend. Yang was slightly upset to learn that Blake had gone out without them and went with Sasuke and his team, along with Pyrrha, Coco, and Velvet. While no one really had plans for the weekend, they were all capable of doing whatever they wanted and when they wanted. Yang just happened to be a little miffed that she didn't get to spend time out of the Academy and with friends as they visited one Sasuke's friends. Yang understood why she wasn't invited. She never asked and she wasn't there for when Sasuke had asked if she wanted to meet him. Blake was there. Pyrrha had plans in town and they sort of all decided to go along with it. Velvet had dragged Coco along because she wanted to go cloth shopping.

It was funny to look at and know exactly why they were arguing. Yang was pretending to be made and Blake was just rolling with it, smirking all the while and egging her on. In some ways, Sasuke saw himself and Naruto when they were on the same before he fell down the path for power and hatred. They argued, but they got along. Naruto cracked jokes and tried to make everyone happy, just like how Sakura did. But while Sakura was annoying, Naruto held the real battle sense and made things funnier. Sasuke could remember Naruto sticking an explosive kunai up Gaara's butt to weaken his sand control. It was an effective and brilliant and inspiring and stupid. It was sort of how Sasuke saw Yang. If she had been in that situation, sure she might not have done the exact same thing, but she certainly would have done something similar.

For those that had learned the dark truth about Sasuke and his desire to die by his friends' hands, they had started to see him a different sort of light. Velvet openly worried about him and his desires in the long run. Coco didn't voice it, but she held on to some concerns that Sasuke might slip back to his former self. Pyrrha and Jasper had the utmost faith that Sasuke would stay the course of his desired change and become the person he wanted to be, not the person he had to be. His avenger days were over. They saw that in him and hoped that it would stay that way. Persia and Blake became less talkative around him, opting to watch him keen eyes, as if looking for a sign of his dark self's return. Emert remained the same. He was the only one that really gave Sasuke some after thoughts on the matter. His vow to move Heaven and Hell was something he didn't think was possible, but Emert made him believe that such a thing, even a small amount of it, was possible.

Naruto's seizers were now happening every fifty minutes and his strength during each one increased each time. Ozpin had grown fearful that seizures were a sign of something dark brewing within Naruto. But countering the argument for the seizures being linked to the Grimm attack was that each seizure he had didn't pull in Grimm. There was word of them moving towards the wall, but they weren't getting within a dozen miles of the wall. There was no medical reason for why any of it was happening. Glynda expressed concerns for public safety with Naruto and while Ozpin was willing to listen, he was not willing to agree just yet. Naruto's condition was worsening, but not to the point that they were powerless to do anything. Ozpin was riding on faith. Glynda wasn't.

"Well they're having fun," Pyrrha said to Sasuke. The former Uchiha glanced up at the redheaded beauty and nodded mutely. She knelt down and helped him stab the tree so that they could get the red sap out of it. "You ever do this sort of stuff with him?"

"You mean with Naruto?" She nodded. Sasuke thought about it for a moment as the sap began to pour into the jar. They were getting samples for Professor Peach from Forever Forest. Glynda was here to make sure no one died or got hurt since Grimm were in the area. They were ordered to stay with their teams. Jaune went with Cardin. Everyone pretty much stayed with their circle of friends. "We went camping a few times in locations like this. It was part of our training. They wanted us to be ready for anything."

"They made you camp out in Grimm infested areas?" What school on this world did that? That was asking for trouble.

"Yep," he lied.

They did make them go camping, but it wasn't far from the walls of Konoha. They wanted to see if they were capable of living off the land and by themselves. They were ordered to make shelter, find food and water, and survive the weekend. Sasuke scored low on that one. Kiba actually got the best score because he did everything perfectly. It figured that he would be able to since he had a better noise than anyone else. Chouji, Shikamaru, Ino, Sakura, and Naruto all got low grades. Sakura had a hard time finding food while Ino spent too much time making her camp look like a home. Shikamaru was just lazy while Chouji couldn't find food that he deemed edible. Naruto failed because… well… he didn't understand what they were doing. They stuck a bunch of six year olds outside and expected them to survive the weekend. Naruto had no prior training or family members to do that sort of thing with him. Sasuke remembered Itachi taking him on some of his easier ANBU missions. That was why he did as well as he did.

"It was a fun time. Learned to live off the land and such." Sasuke looked around and pointed to a few trees. "Those really big ones wouldn't work for sleeping in. Those ones that have more limbs to them work better. If you make your for in a tree, you wanna have good line of sight on the enemy and protection if they try to come up. You wanna see them before they see you." He pointed to a small cluster of large rocks. "If you're going to make your fort on the ground, you want your back to the wall. Some of these trees have thorns, so you'd rip those down and make your fort with those while you sleep. Anything that comes at you will have to get through that first."

"It would make escape harder," Pyrrha pointed out. Sasuke shrugged. "I suppose in either case, you're fighting with your back against the wall. So it's a matter of preference really for what you're good at fighting in. What would you choose?"

"I'd take the trees. I wanna see my enemy before he sees me." He returned to filling his jar and once he was finished he put it in the box that they had brought with them for their assigned task.

There was a small tussle and three sets of laughs that followed. Sasuke and Pyrrha glanced at the source to see Ruby, Emert and Jasper laughing as Yang got Blake in a headlock. The black haired beauty grimaced as she fought to release herself from the clutches of her blond companion. Seeing that out muscling her wasn't an option, Blake tried tickling her. Yang seized up and yelped as Blake's fingers went to work on her exposed mid rift. The results were instant. Yang released Blake as she was forced to endure the tickle attack by her black haired companion. Blake took a step back, a small smile tugging at the corners of his lips as Yang's face turned a deep shade of red. She gently touched her own mid rift and sighed in defeat.

"Why'd you stop?" Yang purred. It was Blake's turn to go red in the face. Yang seized the moment and snatched up her friends' hands and put them on her mid rift. "You like the way my body feels?"

Blake tore her hands away and shuddered. "What works to get to you let go of me is fair game." Yang purred some more. It disturbed Blake. Put off, she returned to collecting samples and not the game of arguing back and forth. Yang sighed and knew she went too far with her practical jokes. "Don't talk to me," Blake ordered, hiding a smile. Two could play at this game.

Yang continued to pester Blake while the others continued their assigned tasks. Pyrrha laughed joyfully to the scene beside the former Uchiha. Sasuke smiled and shook his head. He turned around to get grab he case when something tugged at the back of his mind. He felt a pair of eyes on his form and he stood up normally as thought everything was okay. He put his hands in his pockets and started walking. "Where are you going, Sasuke?" Ruby called out to his retreating form.

"I gotta take a leak," he lied. Weiss made a rude comment about his bodily functions as he disappeared into the shadows. Sasuke jumped into a tree and doubled back. He made sure to not make a sound. Emert and Blake's ears twitched in response, something that went unnoticed by everyone. They glanced in the general direction he had gone but when they found nothing they shrugged and accepted it as a random noise. Sasuke landed behind the people that were watching him and his eye narrowed in frustration. Cardin and his team, along with a terrified Jaune, were lying prone on the ground behind a small hill. Sasuke caught the tail end of Cardin ordering Jaune to hit Pyrrha with an extra jar of tree sap.

Before Sasuke could intervene the blond haired youth spun around and threw the jar at Cardin. Sasuke blinked rapidly as he tried to process that. Jaune saw him. Instead of calling out to him, Jaune just grunted and was dragged off by the angry four men. Sasuke regained his composure, touched his sword and was about to give chase when he felt something growing behind him. He spun around but nothing was there. He looked back to where Jaune had been hauled off. He sighed and went after him. The feeling of being followed didn't stop.

(-)

"You think he'll be like Sasuke?"

Velvet blinked when she read the paper that Coco had slipped her. Professor Port was in the middle of another long winded story about his youth and hardly took notice of their side chat through notes. Ever since meeting Sasuke's friend, Coco had been quite avid about details on the blond. She didn't find him cute or anything, it was just that she was curious about what he was like. Hearing about his life, his abilities, and his actions all made him sound like a reasonably likeable person. Velvet was all for wanting to meet him as soon as he was up if for only wanting to know about the whisker marks at start. But given more time on the matter she wanted to know just about everything there could be about him.

Naruto was supposed to be dumb, hyperactive, loud, a prankster, a comic, someone who never gave up, always got back up when knocked down, and could beat sense into just about anyone. That was pretty much the main outline for any superhero in the comics. They never gave up, probably had no powers or had powers so strong that they were feared for it, were originally hated for something or started out on the bottom as nobodies, and somehow, either through luck, fame, or just because of one random heroic act, became the hero that the world deserved.

His life sounded like it was full of tragedy and heartache. Naruto didn't know if he was a Faunus or not. He had no family of any kind. He was clearly hated for probably his whisker marks. But his heart was in the right place. It gave Velvet pause as she considered whether or not the White Fang might have made a play for him if he was so powerful. Why not take someone like him with what he had done? He could easily pass as a Faunus, even if he wasn't. If those were scars because someone thought they'd be cute and give him those, it was an easy way of making anyone think he was a Faunus.

Making sure that Port wasn't paying attention, she scribbled her reply down. She slid it under her arm to her friend. "He's hyper. So no."

Coco scribbled something down. Velvet read it and suppressed a light giggle. "You think he's funny?"

Velvet checked to make sure Port wasn't doing anything when she wrote he reply down. Coco skimmed it over and shook her head. "He's supposed to be a prankster." Velvet took it back and wrote something else down. "Maybe he's like that to hide his pain of being alone?" That was deep. Coco gently grabbed the paper but Velvet didn't let it go. She put the pen to the paper and took a deep breath. "Sasuke said he hurt him. Do you think Sasuke is evil?"

Coco blinked twice when she read it and leaned back in her chair. Velvet pulled the paper back but Coco snatched it up and placed it in front of herself. Velvet's ears dropped a little in shame. Coco thought long and hard on her answer. Knowing what she did now about Sasuke, it made her think better of him. He was always a little off. He tried to be someone else and now it made sense. He was actually trying to be a better person. That didn't just happen overnight. People struggled with change. Sasuke was a struggling with being the person he was trying to become and forget who he used to be. No matter how much anyone changed, one small act, even something as tiny as procrastinating work, could cause someone to slip back into old habits. If the two of them fought she could see it ending horribly.

But on the flip side to that coin was that if Naruto did wake up, Sasuke might be able to change and be the person he wanted to be and not the person he originally was. Naruto was his source of strength here. He was the person that Sasuke was changing for. He was the person that he wanted to become. No matter how anyone looked at it, Sasuke had done wrong and rightfully bared the blame. If Naruto died, Sasuke would probably revert to his old self. If Naruto woke up, Sasuke might revert back to his old self. There was no telling how the future of Sasuke's mentality would play out until it happened.

She wrote her answer and slid it over to her. "No." Velvet smiled. Coco snatched the paper up and wrote something else on it. "You think he's going to need clothes?" Velvet smiled and nodded. A shopping trip was already in the works for when he woke up.

(-)

Ruby hummed a happy tune as she put the last jar in the box and glanced over at Nora. Her lips and part of her cheeks and chin were red from the sap that she drank. She handed the empty jar back to Ren with a sheepish grin as he handed over a full jar of the stuff. Yang was busying herself by torturing Blake as the black haired beauty could only sigh in frustration to each pun she made. The growing smile was only making it worse for Blake, but she didn't care. This was slowly becoming normal. Pyrrha hummed a happy tune as well while Weiss worked with Persia in getting their remaining sap for Emert. The moment he started getting any of it the smell knocked him on his butt and he was forced to sit back and let them do it, much to his own displeasure, along with Weiss and Persia's displeasure.

"You think Sasuke is okay?" Ruby asked quietly to Pyrrha. The champion fighter looked thoughtful for a brief moment before a loud road echoed through the entire forest. Everyone stopped what they were doing to look in the direction of the roar. "Did you guys hear that?" Ruby asked worriedly.

A moment later Team CRDL minus Cardin came running out of the shadows screaming in terror. Russel bounced off Yang when he collided with her. She grabbed him up as he continued to scream about something. "Ursa! Ursa!"

"What? Where?" Yang asked.

"Back there in the woods! It's got Cardin!"

Pyrrha dropped her jar of sap in fear. "Jaune!" The others nodded. There was no way he wasn't with him.

"Blake! Yang! You two go get Professor Goodwitch!" Ruby ordered.

"You two go as well!" Pyrrha ordered. "There could be more!"

Persia grabbed her weapons and chased after the four. Jasper and Emert looked to each other and then went after her. If there were more in the area they were going to go for the people screaming in fear right now.

Weiss, Ruby, and Pyrrha ran through the forest towards the sound of battle. They made it through to a clearing where Cardin was crawling away. He was covered in cuts that slowly healed. He was about to keel over. Weapons in hand, when the big Ursa took a swipe at him, Jaune's form stood protectively over the man as he blocked the attack with his shield and slashed at it with his sword to drive it back. Weiss drew her weapon and took her stance. Pyrrha raised a hand to stop her. "Wait," she pleaded. Weiss chewed her lower lip and complied.

Jaune lunged forward, slashing in a fanatic fever to kill the creature. It swung a paw out low. He jumped over it but the large Ursa was prepared and delivered a painful blow that sent him rolling backwards on the ground. Not giving up, Jaune lunged at it and took a powerful blow to the back that sent him tumbling forward. He gasped for air and looked at his shield where his Scroll was. His aura was in the red. The Ursa charged him and stood a few dozen feet away. Weiss shook her head and got ready to attack. A strong arm on her shoulder pulled her from her attack. Pyrrha was pleading now.

"If he dies it's on you." Weiss told her quietly.

Pyrrha nodded her thanks and returned to watching her leader face off against the Grimm. Jaune growled and challenged it. Pyrrha's eyes grew wide as she saw him lower his shield and raise his sword arm. The Grimm came down on him with the intent to bust through his shield and crush his head. Pyrrha's hand snapped up and was cast in black. Jaune's shield rose without his will and blocked the attack. He collapsed to one knee and sprang up with it, slashing through flesh and bone in the Grimm's neck. It's head rolled along the ground. Smiling, Pyrrha breathed a sigh of relief.

Ruby blinked as she watched Pyrrha lower her hand. "Uh… what?"

"How did you…?" Weiss paused when she looked back at Jaune. He was unaware of what happened.

"Well," Pyrrha began cautiously. Jaune sheathed his sword and was returning to Cardin. Both teens were unaware of the three ladies. "Ruby has her Speed. You have your Glyphs. My Semblance is Polarity."

"You can control poles?" Ruby could feel Weiss's ire when she said that.

"No you, Dunce. It means she has control over magnetism."

"Magnets are cool too." Ruby mumbled under her breath.

"Where are you going?" Weiss asked Pyrrha.

"Yeah! We gotta tell them what happened."

"We could," Pyrrha told her softly. "Or perhaps we could just keep this our little secret." The two members of Team RWBY thought about it before deciding to agree. If they went to Goodwitch now and explained what happened, Jaune would get in trouble and Cardin would clearly be able to play the victim without learning a lesson. Jaune proved his worth by standing up to the monster at the very least. He was stronger than Cardin was since he clearly didn't stand a chance against it. They caught up to the red haired champion as she randomly stopped and smiled. "How long were you watching him?"

Both looked curious until they felt something drop behind them. Ruby let out a small squeak of surprise when Sasuke appeared with his hands in his pockets. "From start to finish," he told her. Pyrrha clenched her jaw. "He had things under control."

"Were you going to let Cardin suffer?" Sasuke's eye narrowed. The thought had crossed his mind. But he knew that she wasn't going to outright ask if he was going to let him die. "Would you have stepped in for Jaune?" The faintest of grins touched his lips and she smiled at him. "Thanks for looking after him."

"Whatever," he said with a grunt. He walked pass them and stopped a ways away from Pyrrha. He glanced over his shoulder and looked at her with his Sharingan. She blinked. He snorted and motioned for her to come closer. She complied. "Jaune was being order to attack you with the sap. They wanted to do something with bees and the sap." Pyrrha sighed and knew why. She was able to beat back Cardin on every fight they had and proved he was either stupid or racist. She couldn't stand him, but she didn't want to see him die. "I thought about killing him," he admitted in a whisper. Pyrrha shut her eyes. "Why do you think they allowed him to come here? He's not worth it."

"Is that how the old you views him or the new you?"

"Consider it both. Someone like him doesn't need to be here. He said something about reporting Jaune for lying or something like that. I didn't catch all of what he said. Jaune knew I was there. I got behind them and after he was given the orders to throw the jar at you, he turned and threw it at Cardin. He saw me. The old me…" Sasuke shook his head. He could still feel the desire to go back and murder Cardin. Not because he could, but because he just wanted to. Sasuke didn't believe in murdering others, but there was something about Cardin that just made him want to slice the man apart. "I'm still a monster… That won't change."

"You had a difficult life. You're trying to be a better person. Perhaps if you let others in as well, they could assist you in making the change. You took a big step by telling us about your past. Admitting to your wrong doings. But you need to absolve yourself of your guilt. I know you need Naruto for that. So I suggest you simply stay strong and never give up." He chuckled softly. Pyrrha was taken back by his chuckle and laughed softly. "Is that something he would say?"

"Yeah," he said after a brief pause. "He used to say that all the time."

(-)

"Jaune!" Nora cried as she tackled their fearless leader to the ground. He coughed as her shoulder came crashing into his stomach, knocking the wind right out of him and sending him falling to the ground. He groaned as the bruises he got from fighting the Ursa were once again touched and he could only hiss from the pain. Above him, Pyrrha walked in, a sly smile on her face as she passed the two by. Ren eyed her suspiciously, but turned to Nora and their leader as the blond could only moan as she squeezed him with all her might. "I heard you fought eighteen Ursa! Why didn't you invite me?!" She yelled and pouted.

"Umm…" he looked hopefully towards his other teammates and begged silently for help. Ren just blinked and returned to loading more rounds into his magazines for tomorrow's matches. Pyrrha smiled and took her tiny victory over him again. It was bad enough she put more bruises on him for their private training arrangements. Jaune wasn't sure if getting her help late at night was a good idea or a bad one, but if she promised he'd improve, he was willing to listen. It was either that or turn to someone else that didn't know about his problem. "I'm sorry I didn't invite you, Nora. I was sort of… lost in the moment."

"That's okay!" She sat up on him, a big smile on her face. "I ate your pancakes! Consider us even!" She hopped up and marched for her bed.

Sighing, Jaune got up and moaned. He wasn't sure what hurt worse: Not eating Ren's pancakes or Nora tackling him to the ground and reminding him of his injuries. He decided that starving was worse and moved to the bathroom to take a shower. He looked at the few bruises that had yet to heal and shook his head. Those were ones he got from Pyrrha and their training on the roof tops. He still wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do, but he banking it helping him in the end. With students arriving tomorrow, he was going to need all the training he could get to stay on top of things.

(-)

Ingram checked the IV lines to Naruto and shook her head. Another seizer got him and the railing was removed. They were lucky to have gotten a piece of hard wood in his mouth or he might have bit through his tongue and drowned on his own blood. Another doctor was in the room to help monitor him. With seizers coming every fifty minutes they needed to stay on top of him as best they could or he might be lost.

"He's past the fifty minute mark," Oxford told her. Ingram nodded and waited. When another ten minutes clicked by they grew somewhat worried. He hadn't had one yet? He was always spot on with them. Oxford checked his pulse and shrugged. "He's fine… You think he's stable now? Permanently?"

Ingram shook her head and started monitoring more of his vitals. She took his pulse, checked his heart rate to make sure it wasn't out of sync with the machine and scratched at her head. He was now an twenty minutes past due for a seizure. Something was wrong. She checked the states again and then looked at him more closely. His heart monitor beeped and suddenly they hit hard. His body jerked upright so fast that it looked like he had woken up and sat up. He came crashing back down with a yell and thrashed in the bed. The two worked to try and hold him down as more nurses and doctors rushed in to hold him. It wouldn't be long before Sasuke and Ozpin showed up to check on him. School was out for the day.

Just as quickly as it happened it stopped and he resumed peaceful rest. His heart rate returned to normal and he breathed easily. Ingram looked at the other two doctors in the room as a pair of nurses came in with more meds to sedate him. Upon seeing his peaceful state they all shared a glance and then waited. Nothing happened. Another ten minutes clicked by and he did nothing. Ingram and Oxford remained on standby to watch him.

They checked to make sure that any wires or needles that were in him weren't removed or damaged. Ingram checked his teeth and noticed that he had almost bitten through the wood plank they shoved in his mouth. The door was thrown open and Sasuke marched in. He held up his Scroll and looked at it. "He had a small one this time. He was even late to it," she told him. Ozpin marched in a moment later. He jerked his head to the door and the two doctors left. Sasuke walked around him and finished checking on him.

"It was only for fifteen seconds," Ozpin mumbled. He looked over the recordings on the paper that heart monitor spat out. He shook his head. "They're usually three minutes long and this one was only fifteen seconds. He could be getting better." Sasuke narrowed his eye on his former teammate. Something was off about the seizure. Sasuke knew exactly what time each one would happen. The moment it was late he knew something was off. Ozpin had known as well. They looked him over and found nothing. Sasuke sighed and decided that it was a sign of him waking up. "Is that normal?"

Sasuke looked at what Ozpin was pointing at. He pulled the sheets back and Naruto's stomach was covered in a large spiral tattoo with hash markings around it. Sasuke blinked. "I've never seen that before. He was never shirtless around me." He wanted to touch it. There was a low moan and the two looked at him. Sasuke's eye widened in horror. The small whisker markings on his cheeks had widened and become jagged. He checked his hands and sure enough his nails had turned to claws. Sasuke took a step back and looked at him with a keen eye. His Sharingan spun wildly as he checked to make sure what he was seeing was real.

"This looks like…"

"It is." Sasuke put his hand on the bed and looked him over some more. He put a hand on the tattoo and felt something scream in the back of his mind. He winced when he could hear a loud roar from within his own head. He pulled his hand back and sighed in defeat. "This is how he looked when I put my hand through his chest the first time. His eyes were red, he had fangs, claws, and his power grew. I couldn't follow him, even with my Sharingan. I had to awaken it even further than it what it was to be able to even the playing field." Ozpin pulled the sheet up and over Naruto's arms and stomach. Sasuke ran a hand through his hair. "He could be waking up now. This could be a sign that he's coming out of it."

"Are you sure?" Ozpin looked at his Scroll. There was no word of Grimm moving on the city. Not yet anyways. "We're going to have to move him."

"If we do that now we run the risk of him not waking up!" Sasuke closed his eye and sighed in defeat. "Give him two more days. If he doesn't wake up or if Grimm show up, we move him then. Please. This is the closes I've seen him get to waking up. That's all I'm asking."

Sasuke held Ozpin's stare and for a moment the man became some different. He looked like the kind of a man that would send people knowingly to their deaths without a second thought. The feeling and look vanished and Ozpin agreed. "Two days. No more. No less. If Grimm show up, we move him." He put his cane under his arm and started walking out. "I'll get the pod ready just in case. Let's hope he wakes up before then." He marched out the door and Sasuke remained. He examined the tattoo for another hour and touched his own Curse Seal in thought.

Come on, Dobe. It's time to wake up.