[Wednesday Evening]
"Velvet, you have to stand up for yourself." Naruto said to Velvet as they studied together.
They both had history class together and after working on a project with her, the two had become friends. Plus since she was using all of the weapon crafting books in the library, he decided to offer up his own little library if she needed it.
"It's fine. If I just ignore them, they'll stop." She said as she continued to look through the entirety of his library for her research.
They had commandeered three tables to contain all of the books.
"They've been harassing you for the past few weeks. They aren't going to stop." He said as she ignored him. Sighing, he continued, "I know you don't like confrontation, but you're a huntress. Act like it."
"I'm still a student." She said as she looked up from her book.
"You're already taking on missions aren't you?" Seeing her nod, he continued, "Then you're already a huntress."
"A huntress' job is to kill monsters." She explained as she closed her book and looked at him.
"And sometimes people are the monsters." He countered as she looked away.
Seeing that she was getting uncomfortable, he decided to say one final thing. "Look, I understand that you don't like it, but what about your friends who see you getting hurt?"
x-x-x-x-x-x
[Thursday Afternoon]
"There goes Cardin again." Blake said angrily as they saw Team CRDL start walking towards Velvet.
"Why aren't you up in arms about this?" She asked Naruto who was reading yet another book.
"She's a huntress like all of you. If she can't deal with something like this then she should quit." He said without even taking his eyes off the page.
"How can you be so callous?!" She asked angrily as she stood up.
"It's the life we've all chosen. She knew that being a faunus and a huntress would put her into situations like these. If she can't handle it, then that's too bad." He said as he flipped the page.
Feeling the book get ripped out of his hands by an angry Blake, he sighed and looked at her. "What would you want me to do? Stop them?"
"I want you to actually give a damn!" She said angrily as she glared at him.
"Let's say I do stop them. I stand up for her and they don't mess with her whenever I'm around. What about when I'm not? What about when she's on a mission with her team and this sort of thing happens?" He said as he stood up and began walking away. "I'm her friend, not her hero."
Glaring angrily at him, Blake left the cafeteria in the other direction. Both Team RWBY and Team JNPR stayed quite, as neither team knew what to say. Their awkward silence was broken when a scream was heard above them. Turning to look at the source they were all shocked to see Cardin's flying body hit the far wall of the cafeteria.
Turning to look at the point of origin, they saw Velvet lowering her leg. "I asked you to stop, and you didn't. Now I am telling you. Do you understand?"
Getting scared nods from them, Velvet saw them run towards their unconscious leader. Letting out a nervous breath, she picked up her things and started to walk towards the exit.
"That was awesome!" Ruby said with wide eyes as she looked at Velvet leaving.
"How the hell did she do that?" Yang asked as she looked at the distance Cardin traveled. "She sent him flying across the cafeteria!"
"I didn't know she was that strong." Pyrrha said amazed that such a gentle person had such strength.
"I guess Naruto was right. She didn't need a hero." Jaune said as he understood what Naruto had meant with that comment.
"He still didn't have to be so insensitive." Weiss said with a frown as she went back to eating her food.
"True, but I think it's more complicated than that." Ren said as he thought about Naruto's actions.
"What do you mean?" She asked as she was now intrigued. Ren hardly spoke without a valid reason.
Tapping a finger on the table to gather his thoughts, he spoke, "Naruto has taken the time to help Jaune get better at fighting every day for the past few weeks. I don't believe that he wouldn't want to help his friends."
"It's true. Every day he's been helping me." Jaune said cheerfully before he started rubbing a large bruise he had on his arm, "Even if I don't want it."
"Well, all I know is that Cardin got put in his place. All is right with the world." Yang said with a grin as she leaned her arm on the table.
"Except that Blake is angry at Naruto." Ruby cut in with a sad voice.
"Right. Forgot about that." Yang sighed as she tried to think of a way to help her partner.
"Maybe it's best to let things cool down for a bit. When tempers run high things can get out of control." Weiss said with closed eyes before she opened and saw that Ruby and Yang were looking at her.
"What?" She asked completely confused as to why her teammates were staring at her.
"When tempers run high things can get out of control huh?" Ruby echoed with a knowing look.
"What is that supposed to mean?!" Weiss asked as a small blush began to cover her face.
"If you can't figure it out then we aren't telling you." Yang said with a grin as she saw Weiss' face get redder.
"I demand to know!" Weiss ordered with a raised voice.
"Does she seriously not know?" Nora asked Ren in a whisper as she looked at the scene in front of her.
"I think it's more along the lines of her not wanting to acknowledge it than her not knowing." Ren replied to Nora as the one sided argument in front of Team JNPR got louder.
x-x-x-x-x-x
[Thursday Evening]
"You were right." The sudden statement caught Naruto off guard. He had been deeply immersed in his book.
"I never thought about what my friends were going through whenever I was being picked on. I actually asked Coco about it the other day." Velvet said as she fiddled with her pen.
"To hear how angry she was at the people who were bullying me, well it made me happy to have such a great friend." She said with a small smile before she frowned as she continued. "I did have to ask why she never interfered."
"Do you know what she said?" She asked him without waiting for a response, "Because I wouldn't approve, and she was right. I never want to be thought of as so weak and defenseless that I need others to constantly protect me. I don't know if I would have been able to take that kind of humiliation."
"I don't like confrontation, but I know that sometimes I'll just have to grit my teeth and bear it. If not for myself then for my friends." She said with a steely look in her eyes. "Thank you Naruto."
"All I said was that you needed to think about how your friends felt when they saw you get picked on. That's it. Everything else was you, so don't go thanking me for things I didn't do." Naruto said with a straight face as he returned to his book.
Shaking her head, Velvet returned to her work. She should have known that Naruto wouldn't have accepted thanks. He was strange like that.
x-x-x-x-x-x
[Friday Afternoon]
"Mr. Uzumaki, I think you might be overestimating your abilities just a bit." Goodwitch stated as Naruto walked into the arena in his combat gear.
"It's fine isn't it? The worst that could happen is a few bruises and maybe a few broken bones." He said back as she continued to frown at him.
"Except that accidents can happen and you could be seriously injured." She shot back as he stretched.
"If Pyrrha was doing this, you'd be just fine with it." He said as he finished his stretches.
"Ms. Nikos has a record of exemplary combat experience. You however have no such thing." She explained as he scratched the back of his head.
"Then I can start building mine now." He said nonchalantly which irked her.
"Mr. Uzum-" She started back up, before he interrupted her.
"If this is a mistake, then please allow me to make it." He said with a look that told her he wouldn't back down.
Walking off the arena, she hoped she wasn't making a mistake.
Seeing her walk off, he saw Team CRDL walk onto the stage. Seeing the lights begin to dim everywhere except the arena, he looked at the scoreboard and saw a countdown begin at ten.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"ACHOO!" Ruby sneezed out when the countdown reached zero.
"Bless you." Yang, Weiss, and Blake said at the same time before a gigantic crash was heard.
Snapping their heads to the source of the sound they were surprised to see Cardin being held up against a cracked wall by Naruto. Looking around they saw Russel, Dove, and Sky had all been thrown against the other walls and were unconscious.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"If I find out that you tried to harass anyone in this school I will do more than just hurt you." Naruto whispered to the faintly conscious Cardin before shoving him deeper into the wall and cracking it more. Letting him go, he saw him fall to the ground as he began to walk back towards the lockers.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"DID ANYONE RECORD THAT?!" Yang screamed out trying to see if anyone had pulled out their Scroll.
As Ruby and Weiss tried to help find someone with a recording, Blake was looking up at the scoreboard. In an instant Naruto had not only defeated team CRDL, he had exhausted their Aura. He had perfectly judged the amount of power needed to defeat them. That was terrifying.
x-x-x-x-x-x
[Friday Evening]
"So how'd you do it? Was it a speed Semblance?" Yang asked Naruto as he ate his dinner.
"I bet it was a strength Semblance!" Nora yelled as both she and Yang got in Naruto's face.
"So no recording?" He asked Weiss and Ruby who were much calmer about the whole thing.
"No one thought to record it." Weiss grumbled as she picked at her food with a fork.
"And Professor Goodwitch won't let us see the security footage." Ruby chimed in cheerfully from her seat next to Weiss.
"Don't ignore me!" Yang said angrily as she jumped on the table grabbed Naruto's face and made him look at her.
"Yes Yang?" He said as a small smirk began to form on his face.
Seeing the smirk, she figured out he was enjoying this. Putting their faces an inch apart, she looked him straight in the eye. "How did you do it?"
"You and Ren use the same shampoo." The statement caught Yang off guard and made her back up. Unfortunately she stepped on a plate of gelatin and fell off the table.
"How do you know that?" Ruby asked as she leaned forward to look at him.
Tapping his nose, he replied, "A sensitive sense of smell. Very useful in everyday life."
"How sensitive is it?" Weiss asked curious to know more.
"Well, I can tell someone's bleeding right now." He said nonchalantly as everyone looked confused at his statement.
Looking themselves over to see if any of them had any injuries both team JNPR and team RWBY, minus the B, saw they didn't have any. Sitting back on her spot, Yang looked at Naruto closely as he drank some water and tried to figure out this new riddle.
"Wait, you don't mean..." Weiss said suddenly as she made a disgusted face.
"You figured it out?" Yang asked as she turned to look at her.
"How do you deal with that?" Weiss asked disgusted, wanting to both know and not know.
"You get used to it." He said without issue as he continued to eat.
"So you want to tell us, or keep us in suspense?" Yang asked as she now had to know.
"Wait, are you talking about periods?" Jaune asked suddenly as everyone but Naruto turned to look at him in shock.
"Yup." Naruto confirmed as he swallowed the last bit of his food.
"That's rough buddy." Jaune said sympathetically to Naruto.
"Eww." Yang said as she could only imagine how nasty it'd be to have to smell that from the people around you.
Ruby could only blush as she slowly lifted the hood of her cape to cover her face.
"Why aren't you two grossed out by this?" Weiss asked Jaune and Ren who had continued eating without issue.
"I have seven sisters. This kind of talk is normal to me." Jaune said without a problem as he grabbed more food.
"I've known Nora for a long time." Ren's simple answer made everyone look at Nora for an explanation.
"He was there for my first time. He helped me through it." She said with a smile as she shrugged.
"Well I've got to go. I have some errands I have to do in the city. Call me if anything comes up." Naruto said as he picked up his things and left the cafeteria.
Waving him off, everyone resumed their conversations before Yang slammed her fists on the table. "That son of a bitch didn't tell me!"
"Oh yeah, we got distracted by the..." Weiss trailed off not wanting to speak of the conversation.
"I bet he planned all of this!" Yang said miffed that he got away without telling how he beat up team CRDL.
"You don't really think that do you? I mean, how would one even steer a conversation in that direction?" Pyrrha asked as she defended Naruto as he wasn't there to do it himself.
"Okay, you're probably right." Yang relented as it was absurd to think that he'd somehow steered the conversation to one about periods to get away from having to tell them how he beat team CRDL.
x-x-x-x-x-x
[Late Friday Evening]
Currently invisible, Naruto walked around the warehouses at the docks looking for a certain marking. Spotting the three claw marks, he put his hand to the ground and, using his chakra, he peered inside to see how heavy the security was.
Seeing just a few members of the White Fang acting as security, Naruto focused his chakra. 'Wood Style: Deep Forest Bloom.'
Sprouting a few buds on the roof the of the warehouse, he had them begin saturating the area with pollen. Within moments, the White Fang members were unconscious. Walking inside the warehouse, he walked past all of the bodies and made his way towards the back where he knew they were keeping the money.
Opening the safe, he warped all of the money away with Kamui. Closing it, he made his way over to the White Fang members. One by one he looked through their memories with the Psycho Mind Transmission to find anything of value.
He smirked when he found out the White Fang had a warehouse that was absolutely filled with Dust. Walking out of the warehouse, he destroyed the buds leaving no evidence behind as the pollen began to degrade immediately afterward.
Activating the Body Flicker, he arrived at his destination in an instant. Still invisible, he checked to see how many people were inside this warehouse. Unlike the previous location, this one was buzzing with activity as people moved about all over.
Moving his chakra throughout the building, he looked for where the Dust was stored. Finding it placed in various shipping containers, he marking them with his Flying Raijin jutsu formulas.
Teleporting himself and the containers to a canyon outside the kingdoms, he went about stealing all of the Dust. Transferring all of it to his cubic container, he teleported the shipping containers back to their proper location.
Teleporting back into Vale, he stopped his invisibility and began to make his way toward a noodle shop he found a while back. It wasn't ramen, but it was a good alternative.
x-x-x-x-x-x
[Early Saturday Morning]
"Jaune, wake up." Hearing a voice, Jaune opened his eyes and nearly screamed. Right in front of him was Naruto who was dressed in his combat gear.
"It's time for training." Was all that Naruto said before he grabbed Jaune and they disappeared from the room. No one in team JNPR had noticed anything.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"Alright Jaune, I've been training you for the past few weeks and now it's time to step it up." Naruto said as he dropped Jaune off in the Emerald Forest.
"Oh god you weren't kidding." Jaune said as he realized he was still in his pajamas.
"Nope and here are your weapons." Naruto said as he threw a wooden shield and sword at Jaune.
Looking at the weapons he realized they were exact replicas of his Crocea Mors. "How did you make this?"
Jaune's question went unanswered as he heard howling behind him. Turning to look, he saw a few Beowolves making their way toward him. Backing up, he looked to see if Naruto was still around. Not finding him, Jaune realized he was in a lot trouble.
Having turned invisible, Naruto stayed near Jaune in case of an emergency. "You wanted to become a huntsman right? We'll it's time you prove your resolve. Are you going to give up, or are you going to take a step forward and take charge of your future?"
Nearly hyperventilating from fear, Naruto's words managed to pierce Jaune's clouded mind. Swallowing a few times, he raised his arms and stopped backing up. Running forward and screaming at the Beowolves, he jumped and swung at one of them.
Feeling his sword slice through flesh, Jaune's eyes widened when he killed one of them in a single slash. A moment later he was blocking the attacks of the two remaining Beowolves as they attacked him at once. Once again he was surprised at his own skill. He was being ganged up on and yet he was holding his own.
Seeing an opening, he slashed upward and bisected one of the Beowolves. Looking at the last Beowolf, which had jumped backward after seeing two of its own die, he charged forward using his shield as a battering ram.
Knocking it to the ground, he raised his sword and stabbed it into the Beowolf's chest. Seeing its hands flop down to its sides, he knew he had killed it. Pulling his sword out of the decomposing body, he gasped for air as he realized that he had just killed three Beowolfs on his own.
"I knew you could do it Jaune, but training's not over just yet." Naruto's disembodied voice came out of nowhere as Jaune realized that he could see a few more glowing red eyes in the shadows.
"Let's do this." Jaune said more to himself than Naruto as he ran at the eyes.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"So what did you think of training?" Naruto asked the exhausted and bleeding Jaune.
"I hate you." Jaune said before he collapsed forward.
'Lasted the whole three hours. Impressive.' Naruto thought to himself as he made a note of that in his Scroll.
Putting his hand on Jaune's back, he took note of all of his injuries. 'Cuts all over his body, fractures all over, and strained muscles. He's much better off than I thought he would be.'
'Ninja Art: Cellular Regenesis'
His hand glowing dark green, he began the process of healing Jaune. Regressing the cells around the injury sites back into stem cells, he had them rapidly divide and differentiate into their proper cell types. The stem cells on his skin turned into brand new healthy skin, the bones healed, and his muscles repaired themselves better than before.
One last check over to make sure that he didn't miss anything, Naruto teleported Jaune back into his own bed. There wouldn't be any physical evidence of what Jaune had gone through except for his torn pajamas, but he figured that it was a worthwhile sacrifice.
Grabbing the wooden Crocea Mors, he sealed it away for future use. Teleporting away in a flash, he purposely ignored the single security camera that had caught everything.
x-x-x-x-x-x
[Saturday Afternoon]
Wearing a frilly pink apron, Naruto was busy baking. The day before he had noticed how uncomfortable he had made Ruby. It's true that he was the only one that had noticed, but that was enough to make him feel guilty for bringing up the subject. As such he had decided to apologize by bribing her. The girl had a sweet tooth that was closer to an addiction than a mere taste preference, so he was sure that his bribe would be taken no problem. He knew how to make a variety of sweets, but had decided to go with cookies as that seemed to be some of her favorites if her meal choices were anything to go by.
Hearing a ding, he opened the oven and pulled the trays out without bothering to put on oven mitts. The trays weren't anywhere near hot enough to hurt him. Placing the trays on the stove top, he took off the apron he was using.
Waiting a bit so that the cookies cooled, he began putting them into a small basket. Once done with that he created a Shadow Clone to clean up. Teleporting into his room, he saw the Wood Clones he had created teleport in a moment later with their own basket of cookies. Transferring the cookies into a big enough basket to hold them, he walked out of his room and made his way toward Team RWBY's room.
Knocking on their door, it opened up a few seconds later. Poking her head out the door, Ruby looked at him in confusion.
"I'm sorry about yesterday." He said without letting her even say hello.
"What happened yesterday?" She asked confused on why he was apologizing.
"You don't remember?" She shook her head no, before her eyes traveled to the basket in his hand.
"Then I guess I made all of these for nothing." He said as he lifted the lid of the basket up and Ruby's eyes widened when she saw the many cookies inside.
"Oh you meant that thing, that happened yesterday." Ruby said without taking her eyes off the delicious smelling cookies.
"Yes, that thing that happened yesterday." He said with a smile as she began tracking the basket.
"Well it's about time you apologized." She said without blinking as she moved her hands toward the basket.
"Well this is a bribe, and yes I am buying your forgiveness." He stated bluntly as he handed her the basket.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Ruby said as she closed the door without taking her eyes off the cookies.
Chuckling he went to grab a late dinner. He had actively avoided Yang and Nora as they would have asked about the fight with Team CRDL.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"Hey Ruby we're back." Yang said as she, Weiss, and Blake entered their room.
However, upon entering the room they found their leader curled up in her bed with her blanket covering her and from the sound of it, she was sobbing. Running to her, Yang pulled the blanket off and found Ruby holding a plate full of cookies and crying as she ate them.
"What are you doing?" Yang asked completely confused on what she was seeing.
"I have seen the face of god, and it's in these cookies." Ruby whispered as she grabbed another one and ate it.
"She's joking right?" Weiss asked Yang who could only shrug.
"Try them and see." Ruby said as she held the plate out to them. Humoring her, they each tried one.
"Oh wow, these are good." Weiss said as she finished her cookie.
"Much better than the ones they serve here at school." Blake added as she licked a bit of chocolate off her thumb.
"Ruby, where did you get these?" Yang asked seriously which snapped Ruby out of her cookie induced experience.
"Naruto gave them to me, why?" Ruby asked as she came down from her euphoria.
"They taste just like mom's." Yang said with a smile as the cookie had brought back happy memories.
"I knew they were familiar! I just couldn't remember from where!" Ruby said as she jumped off her bed and walked toward the basket which was still very much full.
"He said he made them as an apology, but then I kinda zoned out when I saw how many cookies he was offering." Ruby said as she grabbed a few more cookies.
"Apology for what?" Blake asked as she grabbed another cookie.
"I don't know." Ruby said as she bit into one of her cookies. "Oh, this one has peanut butter!"
"Damn, so he can bake too." Yang said as she put her hands on her hips and looked at the basket in thought.
"That's not really that strange is it?" Weiss asked as she stole a cookie off her partner's plate.
"He's smart, he's mature, and he can fight. There has to be something wrong with him." Yang concluded as she counted Naruto's traits with her fingers.
"That's a big leap in logic." Blake said as she took a few cookies from the basket which looked different from the ones that Ruby was eating.
"Well there has to be, or else he's too perfect." Yang said as she crossed her arms.
"Are we really doing this?" Weiss asked exasperated that they were even having the conversation.
"Well you did want to talk about boys with Ruby." Yang said with a grin as Weiss just dragged her hand down her face.
"Fine, let's talk about boys." Weiss said dejectedly as she sat on her bed.
"Okay, so he's cute, the ears and the marks on his face just work too well together. He's smart, I'm pretty sure he reads even more than Blake does. He's mature in the actual sense and not in that fake sense that boys always use to try and convince you that they're mature. Plus he's strong!" Yang said in a fervor that startled Weiss and Blake.
"You really needed to talk about boys didn't you?" Weiss asked the obvious question as Yang began to calm down a bit.
"Well, usually I'd talk to some of my old friends, but most of them didn't pass initiation." Yang said with a small laugh.
Sighing, Weiss decided to just get this discussion over with. "I won't deny anything you said, but what makes you think there's something wrong with him?"
"Because he's too perfect." Yang said with wide unblinking eyes.
"That's it?" Seeing Yang nod, Weiss turned to look at Blake, "Want to go spar?"
"Please, anything is better than hearing this." Blake responded as she practically jumped out of the door with Weiss following close behind.
"What happened to our boy talk?!" Yang yelled feeling abandoned.
Turning to look at Ruby, Yang shook her head when she saw that her little sister was basically in cookie heaven.
'Who can I talk to about this?' Yang asked herself as she put her hands on her hips and began tapping her hip with her index finger.
Hearing voices outside the door, she gained a massive grin as she ran out the door and stood in front of the surprised team JNPR. "Who wants to talk about boys?"
The question made the the male members of team JNPR gain looks of confusion while Nora gained a giant grin. Behind her Pyrrha just raised her hand and gained a shy smile.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"So Naruto somehow took you into the Emerald Forest from our room without any of us waking up?" Ren asked as he sat on Yang's bed.
The male members of team JNPR had been kicked out of their room while Pyrrha, Nora, and Yang had girl talk. As such they asked Ruby if they could hang out in her room.
"I know how it sounds, but you have to believe me. How else could I have gotten my pajamas all ripped up?" Jaune asked the skeptical Ren and Ruby, while he paced back and forth between the beds.
"Maybe you were sleep walking and destroyed them accidentally? I used to sleep walk when I was little and I would wake up with bruises on my shins from bumping into stuff." Ruby suggested as she sat on her desk chair.
"Maybe." Jaune said downcast that maybe the entire thing had been a dream.
Seeing his glum expression, Ruby tried to think of something to say before her eyes lit up as she thought of an idea. "Oooh! We can do a stakeout!"
"A stakeout?" Jaune questioned the girl as she bounced in her seat.
"Yeah! We stay up all night keeping an eye on Naruto to make sure he doesn't kidnap you. If he doesn't then it means it was all a dream!" She said with a wide smile.
"It would put all of this to rest." Ren said as he smiled a bit at her enthusiasm.
"If you two are up for it, then so am I." Jaune said happily that his friends would do this for him.
"Alright then, Team Rouge's first mission begins tonight!" Ruby said as she stood up from her chair.
"Team Rouge?" Ren asked confused on how the name originated.
"Yeah. R, R, J, Team RRJ." Ruby said with a grin as she looked at her new partners.
"I think rouge has a g in it." Jaune said causing Ruby to frown in thought.
"It does? Oh well, I decided on a name and we're sticking to it." Ruby said as she headed out the door. "Follow your leader to victory!"
"Wait, we don't even have a plan!" Jaune said following after her.
Sighing, Ren closed the door as he left and after making sure the automatic lock activated, he walked after his new teammates.
x-x-x-x-x-x
"We're being watched." Velvet said quietly without looking up from her book.
"Yup." Naruto whispered back as he flipped a page in his book.
"Can you tell who it is?" She asked as she continued to only slightly pay attention to her book.
"It's my friends. They're doing something weird." He explained which caused her to look at him in surprise.
"Wait, why are your friends stalking us?" She asked completely confused as to why they were being watched by his friends.
"I'm not really sure, but let's ask." He said as he stood up and walked over to the bookcase the trio was hiding themselves behind.
"Ah! Naruto's gone!" Ruby whispered loudly to Jaune and Ren who looked around the bookcase to confirm.
"Where do you think he went?" Jaune asked as he looked around paranoid that he'd be kidnapped.
"The bathroom maybe?" Ren suggested as he seemed to be the most grounded of the trio.
"Maybe he went to see who was stalking him?" Naruto suggested as he looked around the bookcase with them.
"Naruto has a stalker?!" Ruby gasped in surprise as she looked around trying to find the stalker.
"Oh man that's horrible." Jaune said as he joined in her search.
Having heard who spoke, Ren turned around and looked at Naruto. Giving him a nod, Ren stood up and tapped both Jaune and Ruby on their shoulders. Turning to look at him, they both let out a small shriek of surprise when they saw Naruto standing next to them.
"We can explain." Ruby said quickly as she looked at him wide eyed.
"Sure, but let's sit down." He said as he led them towards his and Velvet's table.
x-x-x-x-x-x
Sitting at his desk, Ozpin was unsure about what to do. Over the past few weeks he had kept an eye on Naruto Uzumaki. From a purely academic standpoint the young man was almost without equal. Weiss Schnee was able to keep pace with him, but he suspected that the only reason that was true was because the grading system was limited.
However, everything else about Naruto was raising warning signs within his mind. He was always able to disappear from the campus security system by utilizing its blind spots, and his Scroll would sometimes stop sending out the standard GPS data. Of course what he did to team CRDL would have made Ozpin assume that he was some sort of spy.
Unfortunately all of his other actions completely contradicted this. He had made friends with teams RWBY, JNPR, and Velvet of team CFVY. He had even gone out of his way to help Jaune Arc improve his combat abilities since the first day of school. Of course the little trip to the Emerald Forest had been completely unexpected, but it seemed that it had been done with the best of intentions.
The trip into the Emerald Forest had also raised some questions about Naruto's abilities. His strength and speed, as amazing as it was to the students, was not unheard of in veteran huntsman. No, the real interesting thing was the abilities he showcased for the security cameras in the Emerald Forest.
Ozpin was not naive. He was sure that Naruto had known the camera was there. He had intentionally shown the abilities of teleportation, invisibility, and healing. Both teleportation and healing were incredible in and of themselves, but it was the invisibility that truly grabbed his attention.
The entire time that Jaune Arc had been fighting the Grimm, Ozpin was sure that Naruto had been right next to him. Except that brought up the question as to why the Grimm didn't react to his presence. The Grimm tracked people through sight, sound, smell, and negative emotions.
By turning invisible Naruto had made it impossible to be tracked by sight. Through practice one could also minimize the amount of sound they made. Even negative emotions themselves could be suppressed through years of experience and training. Smell however was not something so easily hidden.
The human body created a variety of scents that couldn't be consciously smelled by humans, but the Grimm had the ability to do so. Even if Naruto had scrubbed himself clean, he would have begun attracting Grimm to his position within minutes. Yet for the entire three hours they had been in the Emerald Forest, he hadn't attracted a single one.
If James was here he'd say that Naruto was arrogant. That he was purposely showing his strength because he thought himself untouchable. Thankfully James wasn't here, but at the same time he needed to make a decision.
Should he allow Naruto Uzumaki's continued education at Beacon Academy or should he be expelled for the possible danger he posed to the other students?
Shaking his head at the foolish thought, he already knew he wouldn't expel Naruto. There had yet to be any conclusive proof that he was a danger to other students. If he was expelled for the potential danger he posed, then Ozpin himself would have to step down as headmaster.
Breathing out his nose, he looked at his nearly empty coffee cup. He was on his third refill and would more than likely need many more before he decided on what to do with Naruto.
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"None of you have ever been on a stakeout before have you?" Naruto asked team RJJ.
"Is it that easy to tell?" Ruby asked sad that they're first mission as a team had ended in failure.
"When you're doing a stakeout, make sure that your target doesn't know that your observing them. After all, these things aren't for decoration you know." Naruto said waggling the ears on top of his head. Next to him Velvet did the same with a smile.
"Oh that is so adorable!" Ruby gushed when she saw their rabbit ears move in sync.
"Jaune, all you had to do was ask and I would have confirmed the fact that I did kidnap you last night." Naruto said as he continued waggling his ears to distract Ruby.
"AHA!" Jaune yelled as he pointed a finger at Naruto. "See I told you Ren!"
"Why would you do that?" Ren asked Naruto as he stopped waggling his ears.
"He needs the experience. He's your team leader which means that he needs to be able to stay active the entire fight. It wouldn't do for him to be knocked out right at the beginning." Naruto explained as Jaune slumped down and laid his head on the table.
"But how did you sneak into our room?" Ren asked as he was sure the windows were closed and the door had been locked.
"Ah, I-"
"I can't believe it. Ruby is actually studying." Weiss unknowingly interrupted as she and Blake walked up to the table.
"Hey I do study!" Ruby said as she stood up and pointed a finger at Weiss.
"Naruto can I speak with you in private?" Blake asked Naruto as Ruby and Weiss got into an argument about Ruby's study habits.
Walking out of earshot of everyone but Velvet, Blake took a deep breathe. "I'm sorry about the other day."
Not saying anything, Naruto waited for her to continue. "I shouldn't have gotten so angry at you. It's just, you're a faunus so how can you stand to see your own kind get mistreated like that?"
"That's because I don't care that I'm a faunus." He said which shocked Blake. "To me, people are people. It doesn't matter to me if they have a few extra body parts."
"How can you not care?! The faunus are constantly being mistreated and abused. They're persecuted for simply being born differently." She said trying to understand his apparent apathy.
"And? Do you think I should act like those White Fang terrorists?" He asked which seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Blake gained a furious expression.
"How can you possibly believe the White Fang are terrorists? They've done so much for the faunus." She said as she glared at Naruto with anger.
Frowning at her, he spoke. "They purposely kill people to instill terror in others. They are terrorists."
Getting in her face, he made her back up into a bookcase with the intensity of his stare. "Besides this isn't about me."
"You care about the faunus too much for it to be solely about something you believe in. No, to you this is a point of pride. You're proud of being a faunus." Naruto said as Blakes eyes widened in fear.
Slamming his hands next to her head, he startled her from running away. "There is no point in being proud that you're a faunus. You were born a faunus. It's not something that you earn. It's not something that you can attain through effort and determination. It is a waste of time."
Pulling himself back and standing straight now that he knew she wasn't going to run away, he continued. "Being born a faunus doesn't make you special."
Turning around he left the shaken Blake to contemplate his words. Approaching his table, he saw that Weiss and Ruby were still arguing, Jaune and Ren were apparently going over some sort of map, and Velvet was reading her book. At least that's what it looked like to those who didn't pay much attention. Instead she was thinking deeply about what she had just heard.
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[Late Saturday Evening]
Walking with Velvet towards the Cafeteria for a late night snack, Naruto was enjoying the quiet night. However, he could tell that his companion had something on her mind. As they approached the cafeteria, he saw her stop walking.
"Do you truly not care?" Velvet asked with a quiet voice.
Stopping ahead of her, he turned to look at her. "About the faunus plight? No. Not a single bit."
"How?" She asked trying to understand.
"That's because it doesn't matter if I'm a faunus or a human. The Grimm will kill me either way." He said truthfully.
"I've come to learn that those who persecute the faunus do so not because they actually hate the faunus, but simply because it's convenient. To be fair though, there are those who believe that the faunus are little more than animals, but those people are idiots with illusions of grandeur." He continued as he looked up at the shattered moon.
"What about groups like the White Fang?" She asked as she stepped forward to stand next to him.
"The White Fang of a generation ago tried to curb the persecution against the faunus through protest and nonviolent action. The White Fang of today are terrorists who use violence and force whenever they can. They are little more than a group of angry and hateful people who are so consumed by their hate that they can't and won't try other means of achieving their goals." He explained as his eyes gained a far away look.
"It's unfortunate that they're so stupid though. With the kind of man power and resources at their disposal they could have just gone and created their own kingdom away from the other four. Instead they just want to lay waste to those who they think have wronged them." Velvet felt her breath escape her as something in Naruto's eyes seemed to age.
"You've put a lot of thought into something you don't care about." She said in order to see if she could snap Naruto out of his mood.
"Only because it's infuriating how short sighted some people can be." He said with a smile at her.
Smiling back, Velvet led the duo towards the cafeteria. She understood him a bit better now.
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[Friday Afternoon]
For the students of Beacon Academy, Friday's had become the highlight of their week. Combat class was the majority of students favored activity even if the instructor wasn't. In the minority was Jaune as he knew that he was at the bottom of the class in terms of skill. Another in the minority was Naruto.
After his stunt with team CRDL during the first official match, Goodwitch had punished him by preventing him from participating in combat matches. He was only able to observe and he wasn't allowed to read a book during class either.
He assumed it was because Goodwitch wanted him to help the students later on as she realized he was likely more skilled than the vast majority of the students. That or she really wanted to punish him by watching a lot of boring and pathetic fighters. It could also be both if he had her personality pegged correctly.
"Wow, that training you've been putting him through has really been paying off." Pyrrha said as Jaune fought Cardin.
"He's still going to lose though." Naruto said as he observed the match.
"Hey, he has a chance." Ruby said trying to be supportive of Jaune.
"No, he doesn't. A few short weeks of intensive training aren't going to magically catch him up to others who have been training for years." He explained as Jaune took a hit to his chest that had him rolling backwards.
Grasping his sword in his hand, Jaune used it to push himself up. He was breathing pretty heavily, but he was glad to see that Cardin wasn't having an easy time. As much as he hated being kidnapped in the middle of the night to fight Grimm for hours at a time, it was doing wonders for his combat skill.
Still, it was frustrating to see how much he still had to go to catch up with the rest of his classmates.
"Come on Jauney boy." Cardin said once he was able to get his breathing under control.
Looking at his Scroll, he saw that he was barely above the red. One more hit and he'd lose. Looking at Cardin's meter, he saw that about half still remained. A few good hits would put it into the red, but if he himself got hit even once, he'd lose.
"Don't think that you can beat me. I'm gonna pummel you until there's nothing left." Cardin's trash talking wasn't helping. Compounded by the fact that his own trash talk was rubbish, Jaune knew that he was more than likely going to lose. Again.
That was another source of frustration for him. His constant loses in combat matches. It seemed that no matter how hard he tried, he'd always lose. Even when he put in hours of practice on top of whatever it was that Naruto was putting him through that day, he always fell short.
Always falling short. Whether it was with his own team or with his classmates, he always fell short. His team running a drill and he'd fall short and cause the entire team to lose points because of it.
He was so sick of it. He needed to get better. His team was suffering because of him. What kind of leader could he possibly be if he allowed his team to suffer because he wasn't good enough?
'No more.' Jaune thought as he dashed towards Cardin.
Raising his sword for an overhead swing, he didn't notice that Cardin had raised his mace to block the strike. 'I won't fall short anymore!'
"Jaune's los-" Naruto's statement was cut short as he froze up from shock.
"I won't lose!" Jaune yelled as he swung his sword down.
Naruto's mind was going a mile a minute as he tried to figure out if he had truly felt the sensation he had felt. He didn't notice the blood flying in the air, or the screams of horror as Cardin was cut down by Jaune.
He didn't see Jaune's horrified expression when he realized what he had done. He didn't even notice when he had jumped down to heal Cardin. All he noticed was the Lightning Style chakra running down Jaune's blade.
Why does Jaune have chakra? Why did I make Velvet and Naruto study buddies? Did Naruto ever tell Ren how he snuck into team JNPR's room?
I'm not answering any of those until later.
I put in days and time of day because I found that it helps me keeps things on track. If they don't help you then just leave a review saying that it doesn't help and I'll remove them if that's the majority.
Some of you may think that I'm making Blake act out of character, but I do have my reasons. From what we have seen in the show is that she's very passionate about what the faunus. Therefore if she had a faunus friend who didn't give a damn about what was happening to the faunus, how would she react?
I'm also not trying to bash Blake. I really like her character, but she's very biased when it comes to the White Fang. That's why she defends them so much until she finds out what they had begun doing.
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Ninja Art: Cellular Regenesis – A ninjutsu created by Naruto Uzumaki to be the ultimate medical ninjutsu. Taking inspiration from Tsunade's Mitotic Regeneration, he went a step further by regressing the cells into totipotent stem cells. These stem cells are capable of dividing indefinitely without a decrease to a person's life span. Through the use of this jutsu one could theoretically live forever.
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I wanted to add in what Yang, Nora, and Pyrrha were all doing, but I couldn't find a way to add it into the story without messing up the flow.
As such, it'll be a little bonus scene that doesn't really add anything to the story, but it doesn't detract anything from it either. As such, it is canon to my story, but not necessary to read.
"Cardin's tough, but his skills are in the bottom half of the class." Yang said as she wrote his name near the bottom of a list she and Nora were writing.
"Yeah, but Dove needs to be higher up. He's actually pretty good." Nora said as she wrote Dove's name in at the middle.
"Okay, so then who's at the absolute bottom?" Yang asked when she turned to look at Nora.
"Jaune." They both said not even a moment later.
Sighing, Pyrrha idly played with her hair disappointed that this is what Yang meant by boy talk. It had started off promising, but it quickly devolved into ranking the boys of their class based on skill. At the top of the list Ren and Naruto were tied. Ren because Nora insisted that he could beat up Naruto, and Naruto because of how quickly he had beaten team CRDL.
Twirling her hair around her finger, she wondered if Jaune and Ren were having more fun than she was.