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A/N
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Chapter 22
"That's adorable."
"Shut up."
Naruto snorted and glanced over at Blake as they belly crawled through two feet high weeds in a muddy field. Caked in mud, grim, and whatever else was in the ground and the river they had crossed to get here in the dead of night, Naruto was fairly certain that at this point, Blake should be cold. He could thank the power of Kyuubi on why he wasn't cold. Chakra had too many good uses, but clearly, Aura was starting to catch up on that field. Sasuke had an Ice Semblance, was probably now immune to the cold temperature in more ways than one, and it healed all wounds short of hangovers. Naruto, having only chakra and an absurd healing factor, did not have a semblance, used his chakra for keeping warm when it was required of him, and didn't bring much else to the table in terms of energy based use for mundane things like this.
So; Aura one, Chakra zero?
What Naruto found adorable, however, was Blake's ears. With mud on her body, her little ears swiveling around to every sound she could hear, it was rather cute to look at given the dangerous operation that they were handling. If things were different, Naruto was sure that Blake might have turned around and slapped him for even uttering such a thing in her presence towards her about the one secret she really wanted to keep from the world. Even if she was willing to admit she was a former member of the White Fang, her ears were more of a secret she wanted to keep over the knowledge of her former allegiance.
Tough break because Naruto would think the whole thing cute anyways. And as a growing trend in his life, it seemed that all powerful females in his life were super cute as well. Ino was cute, but not Sakura cute. And Hinata was cute, but, once again, not Sakura cute. Blake, however, was somewhat Sakura cute. She just didn't have pink hair, not that that was a bad thing, but it was a thing. Really, it was the ears that made her cute.
"So how do you know about his place?"
Blake sighed again and looked at him, receiving a look that told her he knew why she knew about it, but not how she knew about it. "A former mentor of mine controls this section of the White Fang," she told him quietly. "He brought me to this place a few times when I was still a member of the White Fang. It's sort of a main base of operations' for the higher ups that control Vale's White Fang group. Only the bigwigs can come here."
That made sense. This place was sort of out in the middle of nowhere and guarded by only a few dozen members of the White Fang. Naruto hadn't had time to question them and when they were all knocked out, he created clones to monitor them and act as working guards. What Blake didn't know was that he was taking two of them to Ozpin to let him do whatever he wanted with them. They were terrorists so by Konoha law, they'd be killed after getting all the information they wanted out of them. But this wasn't Konoha, so the rules might not work like that.
They crawled for another ten minutes before the building was close enough for them to touch. Blake poked her head out of the brush to look around before giving him the all clear. The lights were on inside and she made sure that Adam wasn't going to be here today by monitoring their respective communication lines. If they hadn't changed up their codes then he was having another rally today and working as a security officer to ensure that what happened last time didn't happen again.
Carefully the two approached the wooden cabin and moved to the door. Naruto blinked upon seeing it. It wasn't like the locks back at Beacon. This was something else. A key would obviously be needed to be inserted into the door to open it, but there was also a keypad on the door meant for some form of combination lock. This was where he felt stupid, as he had never come across something like this. He could pick a lock, but not an electronic lock.
Blake opened her scroll and wirelessly logged in to it with something on her scroll. Naruto turned away from her and started watching for enemies. A moment later he heard her scroll buzz and the lights on the keypad turned green. Naruto stepped up and started picking the lock. It was a ten second process and upon getting it done, Blake made a gesturing towards their attire. If anyone was using it to sleep right now and they woke up to their presence, questions would be asked and blood would fly. Naruto touched her and she felt his power warp over her.
Looking down, she found that not much had truly changed. She wore the standard White Fang outfit. She touched her neck to make sure the collar was still there. If she ran in to any old friends, she wanted to make sure that they couldn't recognize her voice, so the collar worked as a voice changer. Anything else about her new outfit she was currently blind to with the exception of what Naruto did to himself. He gave himself the same look, but sported a pair of fox ears on his head and covered up his entire face with a Grimm Fox mask that sported four red eyes. Blake was unsure if there was a fox-type Grimm in the world, but if there was one, she doubted it'd have four eyes.
Both of them moved inside and started looking around the room. Blake made haste to the back room where a single terminal was. She plugged her scroll into the port and started copying files on it. Naruto hovered over, leaving a clone on the roof to monitor them as their operation went down. His clone about was now becoming more useful than it was when he was back in the Elemental Nations. Why had no one told him about their other creative uses? Did they not know or not care enough to tell him? He was banking on not carrying to tell him.
A fresh memory hit him hard and he turned to the door as he backed up. "Blake, we got company."
She looked at him with a look of disbelief behind her mask. The door opened and in stepped a man that sent chills through her very being. He had red hair, black horns on the front of his head, wore a half mask that covered his eyes, and wore all black and red. Blake's heart skipped a beat in both fear and longing. Adam… What are you doing here?
Adam sighed and then noticed them in the corner of the room. Blake had turned her back to him and was hard at work on downloading what they needed. Naruto just stood there, unsure of what to do or who this person was. "New recruits?" Adam asked.
"No," Naruto said, finally turning to face him. Blake kept working and from the way she tensed at his arrival, didn't like the idea of fighting Adam, as it wouldn't be easy and she had no desire to challenge her former mentor either. "We were asked to get some information for the Vacuo Branch." He glanced over his shoulder at Blake as she continued to work on the terminal.
"Vacuo? What does Wilhelm want with our information?"
So he's still in charge? Blake wasn't sure if Adam was playing her to get information or being honest. He had always been hard to read when it came to business talk. It was all half-truths and white lies with him. "We were ordered not to give any information out. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Mr. Taurus." Her voice was distorted by the collar she wore. She hoped it was enough.
Adam begrudgingly moved away from them and let them continue their work in peace. Blake's mind screamed warnings as she hurriedly began watching the download take place. It couldn't move any slower if it wanted to. That much was clear as she watched the numbers morph every few seconds. It was like watching water boil at this point. Only she had to get the water boiling before the ultimate killer caught wind of their lie and attempted to butcher them. Her only solace in any of this was that she remembered all the methods for getting into the place and out of…
Oh no! She glanced cautiously to the door. Adam hadn't checked the lock like he was supposed to. When an agent enters, they leave a key in the door to show proof of their power and access. Only those with them could gain entrance to this place or any of the other safe houses in the area. They didn't gave a key to get in here, meaning that if Adam turned and looked at the door, they'd been done in pretty quick.
The download finished and she got up stiffly. Naruto blinked and watched Adam return from another room with a bowl of something. "Leaving already?" he asked, sounding confused on their short stay. "Wilhelm can't be that uptight anymore."
"I wish we could stay and speak further, but duty does call." She gave a light bow and forced Naruto to do the same. "It was honor meeting you." Adam tilted his head in a confirming manner and saw them out. The moment the door shut, Blake ran. Naruto followed. Not a few short seconds later the door was reduced to splinters and Adam stormed out holding his sword. No need for a disguise, Naruto dispelled his illusion and scooped up Blake as a few clones dropped from the air to hold him off. "Don't kill him," Blake pleaded. Naruto sighed and made a clone and then destroyed to make sure the others got the message.
"Why?"
"He's like Iruka to me."
No more words were needed. Naruto understood fully. But damn if this didn't complicate things. Ozpin wouldn't be happy about this. He had a good chance to take out their leader by way of kidnap or execution and Blake was playing role model. It cut deep, but Naruto was more than willing to give her this one… for now.
(-)
"So let me get this straight. This weekend, Port is taking Naruto hunting for reasons you don't want to divulge to me because it has something to do with class? Do I understand this right?"
Ozpin might have laughed at how Sasuke worded his question, but was willing to wait until he was gone. It wasn't like working with Port was hard. Tune the man out and you were right as rain if you knew what you were doing. Thankful, Naruto was more than capable of doing that. And after Port's last attempt to capture another Grimm for whatever studies he was conducting in class, Ozpin was willing to buy Naruto's services again, to which Naruto had already agreed upon. So yes. He was sending Naruto out into the Emerald Forest to hunt down and capture a few Grimm to bring back for study.
"Yes I am."
"Why?"
"Port had an unsuccessful attempt last weekend, and while I'm not questioning his skills as a Huntsman, it was clear that he might need some aid. When presented with the offer, Naruto took the request and has made Port very happy on the matter. Doctor Oobleck will be joining them as well, if that makes you feel any better."
No. No it does not. Sasuke would never admit that out loud, but when throwing one hyperactive individual with another hyperactive individual – Arguably a hyperactive individual to some. – the result never panned out well for anyone. This was probably why Kiba and Naruto weren't paired up, aside from the obvious reason of said blond being a dead last and needing to have two people round out the team that could cover for his flaws… All of them. But Professor Port was a boastful man that was either a famed liar or a man with a bigger ego than Sasuke could give him credit for, while Doctor Oobleck was a fast paced intellectual that would surely drive Naruto straight up a tree with how fast he talked and how many big words he was prone to using. Honestly, without a dictionary in his scroll, Sasuke was sure that he wouldn't know half the words Oobleck said or their meaning.
But the job was already accepted, so he couldn't do anything. And the idea of a student having anything to do with their lesson plan, while also taking a job before being a huntsman, was unreasonable and wrong. Sure, if the city was bombarded with Grimm right now, they could go to its defense and no one would think twice about a few teenagers going on a rampage in fighting Grimm to a bloody end. But let Sasuke go with Port on a hunt to capture something for their tests or just a random experiment in class, and that would be wrong.
"Is that all?" Ozpin asked, sensing an end to their quieter conversations. Honestly, since Naruto woke up, he had heard Sasuke yell more times than he had when he was still sleeping in the hospital. Now as soon as something bad might be happening to Naruto, he got all defensive like he was his older brother. This was rather cute, when one stepped back and looked at it. And if you knew them like how Ozpin knew them, or their backstory at least, it was very funny to him. Two boys that wanted to understand each other were now thrust into their world and finding out that their rivalry was just as equally stupid as the idea that somehow they were blood related. At least Sasuke was technically older than him so he could play the big brother role.
Gritting his teeth, the former Uchiha closed his one eye in thought. He had a bunch of questions he wanted to ask him, but they could wait for a later day. "No." Sasuke turned and walked away. Ozpin smiled behind his mug as the door shut and the raven haired youth vanished.
As soon as the doors of the elevator opened, Sasuke found himself wanting to scream. He didn't like that Naruto was going back out on another job after he'd get back from town today. His "date" with Blake was nothing but a farce and the worst thing about it was that both had been smart enough to know that it was a lie. Naruto had lied to him and Sasuke had acted as though he believed him. Blake's lie had gone over smoothly with her team as far as Sasuke could see. He didn't feel the need to worry them about such a small detail as who went where with who. If Blake wanted to run a secret operation with Naruto, that was her business. If he team found out, then it would be their business. The only reason Sasuke didn't do or say anything was because he knew that deep down, Naruto would doing this for Ozpin. He wasn't doing this to get into Blake's pants, and if he was, good on him.
But the whole thing just rubbed Sasuke the wrong way. Perhaps it was his own immaturity on the matter. He couldn't look at the world from a different perspective like how Ozpin could. Perhaps Naruto saw it in that same light? It was unlikely, but the thought was charming all the same.
"You look annoyed."
Sasuke slowly glanced to his left and spied Weiss. The heiress was paying more attention to his Scroll than she was him, yet she still managed to walk in perfect sync with him while avoiding other students as she walked.
"Long day," he said with a huff. Not entirely true. He had listened to Persia complain all day about not being signed up for the tournament. Sasuke wished he could just tell them that the last tournament he fought in was enough for a life time, but alas, he couldn't. He could sure as hell complain all day with Naruto, Ozpin, Glynda, James, and now Blake, but not anyone else. Was it wrong that he wanted someone else to confide in? Weiss didn't keep an open mind. So she was out of the running, which was also the same for the other two members of team RWBY.
Weiss snorted in disbelief. Sasuke rolled his eye and wondered if he could hypnotize her to just leave him alone. He would have done it if it wasn't for the fear of doing it wrong or her somehow remembering what he did to her. Lucky for him she wasn't eager to just up and ask more questions as she moved on to a more understandable topic. "So Blake let Naruto take her out to dinner." He could feel the unpleasant tone in her voice. Weiss was a smart girl but damn if she wasn't stupid sometimes. "I thought you said you'd talk to him about that."
"I did talk to him about it." He paused in his step as a thought hit him. If Naruto was out with Blake right now, what were they doing? Was that what she was about to get at? He hoped not. He didn't need Blake jumping down his throat later on, or Naruto for that matter. He could handle the white haired teen, but no one else when he was trying to do the jumping at the time. As soon as that blond idiot was back, he drilling him for details on what really happened. "And before you jump the gun, know that whatever they do is still legal."
"Oh!" She looked up from her Scroll, her eyes now thoroughly fixed on him as she turned to give him her full attention. "And why would you say that, hmm?"
Rising to the challenge, Sasuke crossed his arms, his eye narrowed into a tiny slit. "If Blake chooses to date Naruto, that's her thing. And since the age gap isn't that much, it won't be seen as anything illegal. I checked. So back off and shut up. Besides, the idiot is too stupid to see the signs. Believe me, I'd know. I watched him get rejected by girls all the time." Lying about that aside, Sasuke stood by his words. Naruto was too stupid to see the signs that a girl liked him without having it practically bashed into his head. Hinata were fine examples of this. He was ignorant to the shy girl in favor of the girl with a brain. Hinata made good grades too, damn it.
"She's a Faunus," Weiss told him flippantly.
That damn Schnee logic was something she still clung too, even now after seeing some students of different ethnic backgrounds and races date. There was a cat boy that was dating a human boy here. He never saw her going off about that. But if it's her teammate and his questionably best friend, that was soo wrong and shouldn't be done. Sasuke honestly wondered if she was that much of a prude to flip out if Yang and Blake started dating or it Ruby suddenly understood love and went after her as well. What would she do? Deny it and freak out? He'd pay money to see that. Not the sex, cause obviously that wouldn't come to pass, but the ensuing argument sure as hell would.
"Wow," Sasuke clapped, graduating her on her less than pleasing form of racism. "If they get together and you try to break them apart, I'll break you." He started walking again, his anger slowly rising on the subject.
"And what makes you think that you can break me?" She stormed up to him and jabbed him in the back. Sasuke stopped and turned on her, his finger pointed right at her noise, nearly touching. She swatted his hand away and said, "It's wrong."
"Is it wrong for a black person to love a white person?" He asked finally, his anger now at its peak. What was her logic? Where did she draw the line in the sand? At what point with her was something not wrong? He questioned this about her once, but never vocalized it. He could see his family in her: So proud of their blood and their eyes. To marry out of the Uchiha clan was frowned upon if you had the Sharingan. That shit had to stay in the family. No one should have rights to that but them. If you didn't unlock it, you could marry whomever you wanted. Sasuke had long since garnered the suspicion that her family worked along the same line.
Taken aback by his statement, she snorted and jabbed him twice in the chest. "For your information, I believe that that form of a relationship is okay. Marry whomever you want, but humans marry humans and not anyone else."
"So what's your take gay marriage?"
"It's wrong."
"Really?" He turned and started walking. He wished someone from the Yamanaka clan was here. He remembered hearing stories from Itachi about their powers. He would love to see them rework Weiss's mind and make her into a Faunus loving lesbian. It'd be funny and well worth the watch. It'd destroy her entirely, but at this point, for the time being, he didn't care. He'd do it himself if he wasn't too fearful on the idea of her snapping out of it and trying to kill him. "You should keep an open mind, Weiss. The world is changing and if you don't change with it, you're left behind."
"I'm more than aware of that." Her eyes darkened. She had long sense made the desire to not be like her father. When he spoke, he demanded people listen. When he wanted something, it was not later, but now. She only took up singing as a way to better herself and provide potential avenues for her career path later on in life. But he sought to take advantage of such talents and made demands in the form of requests for her to follow through with. He did not ask you to do something with the intent of not doing it. He demanded you do it and expected it done regardless of your wishes.
"Then start acting like it. If they wanna be together, let them. Stop hounding them about something that doesn't matter." Sasuke stopped and scratched his head, his rage finally leaving him. "You wouldn't happen to know if Port is doing any strange lessons again with Grimm next week, would you?"
Weiss looked away, unhappy at a potential repeat of their first day in class with Port. The man might know his stuff, but damn if he wasn't annoying. His story telling had to be nothing but lies and slander with a small amount of truth behind it. If he was planning something involving Grimm and he went out to catch it, she'd be surprised. These teachers might be skilled Huntsman, but at the end of the day, she saw them as people behind a desk more than people out on the frontline doing what was required of normal Huntsman that risked their lives to do what needed to be done. She hadn't heard of a single teacher leaving to take a job because they had to.
"I haven't heard anything," she confessed. Sasuke started walking. She kept pace with him. "Why? Do you know something?"
"I know Ozpin bought Naruto's service again for another job, but this one is with Port." He momentarily wondered if those were the correct words to use. What other services had Ozpin bought from Naruto that the students might know about? Being a teachers' aid was obviously pushing it, but there wasn't many other things they could know about. Weiss didn't seem to pick up on the meaning behind his words as she examined her nails. Sasuke wondered if that was her of showing disinterest or trying to understand something she didn't get right away. "They're going out to Emerald Forest to find more Grimm for us."
She shuddered. "Pass," she exclaimed unhappily. Sasuke laughed and she glared at him. "I don't see you making anything of his lessons. If we have to face a Grimm in his class room, I hope you're fighting it."
"Why?" He was dressed in his casual clothing. Outside of school and combat, he didn't have much need for the wears of today. He stuck to simple thing, like a black t-shirt and tan cargo shorts. If he could have worn open toed sandals like what he was used to wearing and his arms warmers, you could beat your bottom lien he'd be wearing them right now. But, sadly due to his fight with Naruto when they arrived, all of those clothing were now destroyed. Didn't help that their previous fights had ruined most of his clothing too. Shame that Coco was gone. She'd get him something good to wear for events like today.
"I just want to see how you handle that kind of a situation. Since here lately all I've seen you do is train and fight against Naruto."
That was very true. Sasuke had originally been fighting his whole team in an attempt to improve his skills before Naruto awoke. Now that the blond was up and about, he could get an actual challenge out of training. But then his Semblance surfaced and Naruto's need for more chakra control and abilities started to surface. And now with Naruto running off to do God knows what for Ozpin, it was putting a strain on anything they could do. It was almost as if Ozpin was forcing him to work with the others instead of Naruto.
Not that Naruto truly needed his help anymore. If he did have his parents in his head somewhere, they could help him all the same. Maybe Naruto could learn his fathers' signature ability, the Haraishin no Jutsu. If Naruto could learn that then… well no one would able to beat him. Naruto was already growing in leaps and bounds thanks to their time together. But he feared for the world because of Kyuubi. Could they actually handle an outbreak from him? He doubted it. Not when he had those clones to help him figure stuff out as well.
"Speaking of training, do you wanna help me get more control over my Semblance?"
"What's in it for me?"
"I'll help you deal with Jaune."
"Deal!" A few days alone from that guy would do her wonders. Maybe she could focus more on Neptune without him butting in and being random.
(-)
Ruby watched Yang pace through their room with her thumb in her mouth as she furiously bit the end of it. "Calm down. I'm sure nothing bad has happened."
Yang gave her sister a red eyed warning that she didn't care what she thought right now. Blake wasn't back from her date with Naruto yet. Weiss was off training with Sasuke to further control his Semblance. She wasn't okay with either of those, as she had just been told that they were now in charge of getting the dance party together. With team CVFY out, they were now stepping up to the plate for an event that was meant for the students from all FOUR Kingdoms. If she did something wrong, it'd be on her head.
Yang could take a lot pride in the fact that she was a party animal. She liked going to parties. But she never actually hosted one. That was her problem. But for someone like Weiss, that wasn't much of a problem. Weiss went to a lot of formal events and even hosted them before. So she was right with her thinking that perhaps she could learn a thing or two from the Schnee. But there was the little problem with how Blake had been acting recently that was starting to rub her the wrong way. Sure, Blake had always been secretive, but that had been for a good reason. She was a Faunus, pretending to be a normal human, and had a former allegiance to the White Fang, a criminal organization that was trying to either kill all humans or simply overthrow the government to establish their world order.
That was a good reason to keep secrets, but a bad reason at the same time.
But since Blake had been acting strange, Yang had decided to sit and wait for her to open up and explain what was wrong. Since that hadn't happened yet, and their team was now in charge of making the entertainment for the dance, Yang could safely say that she had a right to be anger over the whole thing. Add in hormones and you had a pretty good cocktail for raging female teen. It wasn't every day that anyone could say they went from two major battles and heavy lectures to being told they were now in charge of a formal and popular event that would either make or break her career as a lover of all forms of parties.
Content with the fact that her sister was now back to doing her homework, Yang resumed her pacing and thinking on the whole thing: Namely why Blake would openly lie to her.
Yang was no stranger to a lie. She told a bunch as a kid. She told one yesterday to Ruby when the subject of who ate her last cookie came into question. She was asked if she did it and she simply said that she hadn't and pawned the blame off on Weiss. Weiss had yet to forgive her or come to any terms with Yang on the subject, but that wasn't what she was really fretting over. Yang knew that Blake was going out with Naruto to run an operation against the White Fang. Why didn't she go and tail them? Well simply put, Ruby had no idea that Blake had lied. Weiss hadn't thought Ruby was ignorant to it until it was too late, and now it was clear that even if they did tell her, nothing good would come of it. They had no idea where Blake went and they had no idea if she was okay. Yang had thought about calling her, but the fear of giving away their position to an enemy was stopping her. Plus, with all the time they spent together, not once had she heard of her putting her Scroll on silent. It went off a few times in class.
So instead of running around town in the middle of the night, she favored staying up and pacing back and forth until their Faunus teammate returned for her ass chewing.
Eventually the door was gently opened, earning the jeering eyes of the sisters. Weiss entered with a scowl on her face as Jaune was hauled off by an irate Sasuke. A few scratched adored his face from what Yang could see before the door was shut and she got a good look at Weiss. The white haired teen sported a few bruises that were slowly healing and a nasty cut on the side of her leg that was already nothing but a small scratch. Aura healing at its finest, but medical treatment was still needed, and Weiss was obviously aware of it as she went to the bathroom to get some medical supplies.
"So what'd you two do?" Weiss glared at Yang from inside the bathroom as she took off her heels and soaks before raising her leg to the sink. Yang's eye twitched at seeing Weiss ignore her in favor of treating her injury. "You have a big fight?"
"We were training to get his Semblance under better control," she hissed out. Whether it was from the ointment or her own anger at her delicate skin being tarnished by yet another scar was unknown. Yang decided that it was the ointment and stepped inside the bathroom. "Did I tell you that you could enter?"
"Do you want some help with that, Ice Queen?" She lowered her leg and gave her a withering glare. Yang brushed it off and sat her down to help give her first aid. Weiss looked away and stared at her own reflection in the mirror for a few minutes until Yang had finished. "So what was the fight about?"
"None of your business."
Yang furrowed her brow. Weiss normally had a lot of anger behind her when she fought with her words. But today they sounded less heated. It was like the fight had simply taken the energy for anger out of her system. Yang wondered if she could throw Weiss at Sasuke more often.
"Is it wrong for a human to love a Faunus?" Yang dropped the medical box and turned sharply to her teammate. Weiss was still looking at something in the mirror. The golden haired beauty knew her gaze was directed to something else or somewhere else far away from here. "Naruto and Blake might have a thing."
Ruby squealed in delight but Yang shut the door and locked it before she could get inside to pepper her with questions. Ruby could be heard moaning from the other side as she slinked back to her desk to finish her homework. Weiss didn't say anything, but her gaze drifted back to Yang and for moment Yang understood that she was in yet another stage of her life where her reality had been warped by something.
Sitting down on the rim of the tub, Yang nodded and said, "This isn't just about Naruto and Blake, is it?" Weiss nodded and looked down at her feet for a fraction of a second. Her eyes then danced to Yang's as the blonde beauty smirked. "I assume that you're asking this question because of your upbringing."
"…I wouldn't just say that, but yes. When I was training with Sasuke he said that I couldn't use that as an excuse. He said it was a copout."
"It's not really a copout," Yang confessed. Her eyes glazed over for a moment and for only a split second Weiss saw her become a woman faraway from here and reliving a moment of pain. The moment passed quickly and Yang smiled sadly. "If you're raised to believe one thing and told that over and over again, it is the truth to you and anything else is a lie." Her fingers drummed along the edge of the tub. "When I was little I had a friend that lived with an abusive father. Dad ended up putting a stop him, but the damage was already done. Two days later at school I found out he was dead and my friend was gone forever. We weren't exactly close, but that's not the point here. You see, I didn't know it at the time, but her father had been abused as well as a child. But more to the point, his father had abused his mother and killed her later on in life. So the son grew up thinking that women were objects and nothing else. If they disobeyed, you had a right to hit them. So the son eventually married and treated his wife the same, because his father told him that woman are objects and if they don't do what they're told, you hit them to make them understand."
"That's awful."
"That's life. Without taking in all the facts, you're left with one story and that one story can shape you. I can't say that he did wrong because that was all he ever knew. So I assume that with you, you were taught that humans marry humans. Faunus marry Faunus. Boy dates girl. That kind of stuff." Weiss nodded regrettably. Her father would never allow such a thing in his family to exist like that. If she brought home a Faunus boy, she'd either be disowned or re-educated by her father after the boy "disappeared" one night. "I know that we're all from different backgrounds. Ruby and I grew up in a small town in Patch and everything has always been great with us. That doesn't mean we don't have hard times. We lost our mom, so we've experienced loss. But that loss made us stronger. It destroyed our dad, but we made up for it by being there for him. Because we knew that deep down, our mom would do the same."
"So what… I should support their relationship?" Yang shrugged. Weiss frowned. "I still don't like the idea of it."
"If Ruby walked through that door right now and professed her love to you; what would you do?"
"Call her a dolt!"
"And hurt in the process." Weiss huffed in annoyance. "I know you have a luxurious background with your family upbringing and that probably makes you hard to be approached by people that know about your status in life and your power. But just because you were taught one thing, doesn't mean that other people were taught the same. You should try to see it from their perspective or at least make the effort to understand why they do what they do. I won't lie, I've dreamed about being with other women before, but I want my first time to be with a man. That's sort of what experimenting is, but I think that's pushing it a bit for us. So how about you just agree right now to never bring up the subject again and take the time to understand both of them a little bit better. Who knows, maybe you'll see that it's not a half bad relationship in the end. I mean, who else is going to put up with Blake being, well, Blake?"
The Schnee chuckled. "You got me there."
"That's the spirit. Now come on. Let's get out of here before Ruby starts to lose her mind." The door was thrown open and Ruby rushed Weiss to figure out what was going on between Naruto and Blake. Yang smiled at the naïve nature of her sister before looking outside and seeing Blake walk up with Naruto. So where did you two go…
(-)
"You didn't have to carry me."
"Why?"
Blake gave him a sour look. No sooner had they escaped Adam's forces, Naruto demanded answers on the questionable safety of a roof in the center of town. Blake wasn't too keen on the idea, but seeing how Naruto wasn't going to let her go, she relented and explained her past relationship with the man. To Naruto, Adam was not like Iruka. But Blake still saw him as such and found it hard to deal with him. On one hand he could see what she meant. To her, Adam was a man that was a mentor and her partner. He worked with her and formed a bond that Naruto wished he'd formed with the members of Team Seven back in the day.
But that didn't excuse him for what he did, and no matter how Blake saw him, he was no Iruka. He was a killer and a man trying to overthrow the governments of the world. His group brought about great fear and panic. If Naruto had simply ignored her, he could have ended him there and cut down a significant portion of the White Fang's power. And all he had to do was disobey her.
The very thought made him want to puke. Kakashi's words, the only words he'd ever spoken that left a clear and powerful ring in him, kept coming through to him. "Those who break the rules are trash. But those that abandon their friends are worse than trash." Killing Adam and disobeying Blake would have been the same as abandoning her to him. He couldn't do it. Not then. Maybe not with her present. But if found that man alone in a dark alley, he'd be dead without a second thought.
"Well for one thing," her eyes danced up to her rooms' window. Naruto looked up and blinked. He could see a tiny dot of gold in the window beside a dot of red and white. Obviously her team was now aware they had returned their "date" and were waiting for information on how it went. "I'd rather not have them thinking we did what they think we'll have done."
"You're still covered in mud," Naruto pointed out. Blake looked down at her current self and sighed. How would she explain that? What restaurant would Naruto have taken them too, on a sunny day without rain for the past few weeks, that she could get covered in mud? She'd give him one point for that, but he was in a similar state and both had to go take showers. With her team up, she couldn't sneak in and get her clothing without being seen. So that left very few options unless she wanted to try and sneak her way into the girls' showers in the locker room and then try to sneak back to her room in her undergarments without being caught. "Come over and take a shower at my place. I'll send a clone to go get some of your clothes."
"Just do that henge thing on me to make me appear like I'm not covered in mud."
"Can't take away the smell." She sighed in defeat. Her pleading look made it clear that if he went, he'd see something she didn't want him to see. "Fine, I'll go myself and explain that you had an accident you don't to explain about your clothing. That way, if you want to, you can avoid the whole thing. Or you can just take a shower at my place, I put the henge on you anyways after you've taken a shower, and you go back while leaving your clothes with me."
"I'll be walking around naked, but under a disguise that I'm not." She was trying to make sure she that understood that right. Naruto took off his shirt, dropped it, made a seal, and suddenly had the same shirt, without mud, covered his bare chest. "Fine…" she relented with a sigh of defeat. At least he was being nice about this. And if worst came to worst, she could totally kick his ass. He was genetically forced to let women beat him up, or so it seemed with his stories he'd shared so far. Either that or they were just really strong.
Smiling, Naruto picked her up again and used Shunshin to get to his room before she could protest. With cat-like grace she landed on her feet after only being in his arms for a second once again and looked around in a daze. Damn him and his ninja abilities. Naruto pointed to the bathroom and she hurriedly moved to it. As soon as she had the door locked, not that she figured it'd do any good, she pulled out her Scroll, turned the water on, and started pilfering through the stolen files. As soon as the first one was opened her Scroll buzzed and the words became scrambled. Someone's hacking in to it! She powered her Scroll down, but knew that the damage had already been done. Who could have hacked my Scroll? She could safely rule out Naruto, as he had no idea on how their technology worked, something he admitted to her before their operation even started.
Deciding to make quick on what little time she had, she stripped down and jumped in the shower. It was best to get this over quickly or face the unyielding questions from Yang and Weiss. She hoped Ruby would be asleep and forget about this by morning.
(-)
"So did she get anything good?"
Ozpin looked up from his terminal to find Naruto standing with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed on the man. Ozpin nodded and considered showing him but decided not to. Naruto might not understand it all, but he had already painted a good picture on what he brought back. Whether it could be used against them was a different thing entirely, but Naruto had brought him two great presents today in the form of the information that he managed to snag from Blake's Scroll and the two White Fang members that were now in their custody.
Lacing his fingers together, Ozpin nodded. "They had detailed plans on a few operations concerning the weapons that they have already stolen and will be stealing a few weeks. They're gearing up for a big operation soon, but what they seem to know is limited. They make refrences to someone by the name of Queen. So this clinches it. They are working together." Naruto rolled his eyes. He wasn't up to speed with their problem, but he knew enough to know that Queen was a serious threat to them. "How did the operation go?"
"About as well as I could have expected… I've never taken a job like that without someone over me telling me what to do. This was just the two of us working together and utilizing our skills to get through any terrible situation we faced, which wasn't much." Unfolding his arms, Naruto got closer to the desk and said, "Who is Adam Taurus?"
The Headmaster blinked in surprise. Leaning back in his chair, he said, "He's a radical that changed what the White Fang is today. I know that you probably aren't fully aware, but they were once a peace loving group that was meant to bridge the gap between humans and Faunus. But somewhere along the line a new group took over as head of the White Fang and he started appearing at terrible acts of violence. At first they were seen as acts of self-defense, but eventually it was moved up to planned attacks and sabotage against dust shipments. But as of late he's been leading large scale operations against the SDC and any store that sells dust at jacked up prices to Faunus or pay Faunus less for their services."
"So I should have killed him when I had the chance?" That sounded about right for him.
"As simple as it would be to kill him and simply move on, I don't like the idea of putting him down without a chance for talk. I know that's wrong to think like that, but I do believe that we could talk to him peacefully and hope to resolve this. But should he test my patience any longer, I will move against him. So you not killing him gives him another chance to sit down for talks. But should he act out against us again, I do give you permission to kill him." Naruto's eyes narrowed and for a moment, Ozpin wondered if his words were in the wrong to him. Did Naruto simply not like the idea of being talked to like that or did he not like the idea of talking to the man?
The blond rubbed his eyes and shook his head as though he had a silent conversation with someone or something not present. "If it's okay with you, I'd like to go to bed. I have that job with Port in the morning."
"Well until then," Ozpin reached under his desk and pulled out a few lien cards, "consider this a portion of the payment. You'll receive the rest tomorrow."
Taking the money, Naruto sighed and nodded his thanks. "I'll talk to you to tomorrow." With a single hand sign he disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves. Ozpin smiled. He wished he could do that.