"Big Bad Monsters."


Dark Hero Story Idea.


Her words echoed throughout the hall of Mountain Glenn's empty undercity. Like whispered honey, it filled his ears. Everything he always wanted to have heard from someone else. Those words, the freedom of guilt, and the resounding chains breaking with it. It was all so surreal to him as he sat om his knees. Listening to her story, taking the words of this creature in front of him. A creature that he related more too than any other person, or thing, on this entire planet.

It had all started when he upset her plans, nearly killing her operatives when he found them out. She never expected someone like him to exist, someone who was just strong as her. A scary reality had filled her mind, perhaps right now he was just as strong…but he was young. Untrained mostly in his true power, what kind of monster could child become under her guidance!

All he had to do was just say yes. Oh, and did he ever want to say yes to this! Gods knows he wanted to just bow to her here, and now! Someone who could understand him, someone who felt the same way as him, someone who had their innocence robbed from them!

Ever since he was a child in the bandit camp, having been raised their as a babe. He knew he was nothing but property. They had beaten him, mocked him, but when one of the creepier ones tried to do more…he had snapped. All he remembered was walking away from the camp covered in blood, and gore. His eyes shining crimson red compared to normal sapphire blue.

Naruto only had to utter one word after her story, and he could be freed from chains!

"You're just like me you see, we're both the big bad wolf. You don't fear the views of the sheep. You simply slaughter those who stand in your way or threaten those you love and cherish...few as they might be. You aren't from my world, but tell me, Naruto. Would you do anything to get revenge against those who've wronged you?" Salem asked him whilst seeing him sitting on his knees, having taken the position as she told her side of the story.

Naruto took a deep breath, "I did when they came to take my innocence from me."

"Then you know, you know that pain we share. The same cloth we're cut from, beings who chase power to achieve goals meant only to better a world! You can have it all with me, you can have the home you dreamed of. I'll even stay my hand off your friends, you can have me...as your motherlike figure." She offered whilst looking at him in the eye. "All you have to do is swear loyalty to me!"

Was that desperation in her voice? Something that Ozpin claimed Salem never had. Did she see him as something so close to her that she viewed him as her one sole link left to humanity? He closed his azure eyes, remembering everyone back at Beacon, those who treated him like an outsider. Then there's the one single one, the silver-eyed girl, Ruby. She treated him like a friend, actually talked to him, and for once he found a genuine smile cross his lips.

The one single reason he wouldn't say yes. He couldn't say yes, because Ruby was Salem antithesis, and in his own. Salem welcomed him to her court, treated him much the same as she did. Offered him food, offered him parlay to speak, and was all around respectful. She was the monster Ozpin spoke about, that Leonardo feared, but it wasn't the power.

It was her honeyed words that made her a danger. The very same silk weaved near his ears, infecting his mind. Although she could use magic, much like he could use something called ninjutsu, it didn't matter much. Their words would be traded at equal value because they were equals in life. Both of them slaves to others wills before freeing themselves. Well, in her case, she was fully unburdened.

Kurama growls inside of his mind, "if you choose the queen, you choose to abandon her."

Naruto pondered that, hours of thought passing in his head in mere moments. He could easily say yes, and in the coming days he'd walk right into Beacon and slaughter every single staff member there to the last. Glynda Goodwitch would be the only true difficult one, but even then all he had to do was use Kurama in any capacity and her powers would be null. It wouldn't even hurt him to do so, he legitimately hated and loathed almost everyone there. Save that one girl, Ruby, who stood to make his viewpoint different. Her words weren't honey, they were awkward. They didn't flow like silk, but more like cotton.

They were disjointed, unrefined, but they were one thing…innocent!

Even when he pulled the pranks to just get the little bit of attention. Even when he showed her his "red eyes" which others feared. She was always still coming to him, talking to him, trying to understand him. She was also the only person to have seen him genuinely cry and hold him. It was something that he never got, not even from the ones who found him covered in the blood in the forest.

It was all ironic, because she was a weapon lover, and he was the weapon made to counter the very woman he knelt in front of now. Sighing, he felt moisture on his eyes. He looked down at the reflection off the ground, seeing his image in a puddle of water. He smiles softly, nodding to himself.

As she jokingly told him one day, "this is the da way!"

He stood up, as much as he wanted to kneel, he stood tall. Salem made a very convincing offer, her story resounded deep inside of him. In another life, perhaps she could've found him first, and he'd been her sword...her child. Standing tall, Naruto stretches his arms before popping his shoulders. Salem's eyes narrowed, she knew what he was doing, he did this little ritual before he fought and defeated Tyrian.

He was lucky to have escaped with his life.

"Why?" She questioned him. "Why are you willing to throw yourself against the unstoppable wall?"

"As much as I view myself as the big bad wolf, Salem, I hate to say that I'm more of a fox. As a fox, I'm loyal to my friend back home, so I have to politely refuse your offer. Although, I have to say that I do agree with you...sometimes this world isn't worth it." Naruto gave her a small curtsy whilst his azure eyes turned red, "I'm not saying that I'm going to let it burn...but I'll make sure that the flames take me before it takes anyone else away from me again."

"You would face me down?"

"I made a vow to myself, that if I ever found something worth protecting, no matter what I'd throw myself at anything that threatened it. You and I are indeed cut from the same cloth, but it's unfortunate that we are. Because, and this is just me, I had a feeling you knew how this was going to end the moment we both realized we're one in the same." Naruto told her before taking a deep breath, and dropping into a fighting stance.

"Such impudence," Salem laughed slightly before rising from her makeshift throne under Mountain Glenn. "Naruto, you truly are worthy of being my direct opponent, for what it's worth, I'm sorry it has come to this."

"Don't lie about things you don't mean," he corrected her before taking a moment to lower his stance. "It's a shame really, because I see you as someone who can truly understand me."

"We're both covered in blood, both abused by a world that should've loved us." She solemnly lamented before spheres formed behind her, glowing in rainbowlike colors.

Naruto gives her a foxlike grin, "what tragedy, ya know."

"Indeed…fox child, indeed.

Without a moment's hesitation, both launched at each other. Slamming their forearms into each other whilst the ground around them shook. Naruto's arms began to peel off, revealing black and red energy swirling in the place of the skin. His head grew ears of a similar coating, and his face grew more feral. Whisker marks thickening, and his eyes glowing bright crimson just like hers. His canines were longer, poking past his lips. Four tails sprouted from behind him, made of the same substance that coated his arms. Salem got blasted back as he pushes her off, slamming her into the makeshift throne as two more tails sprouted, and bony armor appeared over him.

He grimaces from the pain, trying to control the transformation, with both his hatred and Kurama's infecting him deeply.

"Be careful, Naruto, lest you become the big bad wolf…"

"I already am, Kurama, let's show this old wolf what a fox can do!"