AN: Another new story, this one is something that's been spiraling throughout my mind recently.

I've always loved the world of remnant, and reading other RWBY stories made me want to write my own.

Particularly, when I read a fairly recent story called 'The King of Evernight' by BlazeRaptor54, someone who was one of the first author's on FFN I've read and someone I've admired for a while now.

He's also been someone who's greatly help me out thinking of ideas for this story, and someone you should definitely check out... is what I would say, until I read his latest one-shot. Now I'm contemplating suing him for stealing my future ideas and poisoning my mind with too muchNaruto/Ruby fluff.

Don't worry, I'm sure that perpetrator will get his just deserts in due time, I can guarantee it.

"Wake up to Reality," Normal speech

'Look at me! There's nothing in my Heart anymore.' Normal thought

"Rasenshuriken!" Jutsu/technique/title

"It all started on the day of my actual birth. Both my parents failed to show up" Flashback/Quote

"I find your lack of faith… Disturbing." Demon talk/Anger/ Something important.

2/3/2023

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, RWBY or any other anime I use in this story. They belong to their respective owners: Mushashi Kishimoto and Rooster teeth.

Volume 1

Chapter 1: Ember Approaching

A soft breath released itself from his lips, as he looked on over the balcony they were upon. It was smooth, regal even, and quiet enough that many of his fellow onlookers wouldn't even notice that he was even there.

He observed the spectacle down below, as he waited for his own trial to begin.

All of them were here for a single reason or another. Each and every one of them were taking the preliminary exams for huntsmen prospects.

A fickle little exam that many of the prospects only took because it was a prerequisite for their common goal. And those who already went to one of the combat training academies and gained a teacher's recommendation usually didn't even have to attend.

Contrary to popular belief, you were not required to attend one of the combat schools to be admitted into a huntsmen academy. No, vale wanted any and all fit to become huntsmen to defend humanity. Going to one of the combat school such as Pharos or even patch's Signal academies just meant you had a higher chance of getting in. The school trained prospects to prepare them for their journeys within the huntsman academies, as well as do things like building their very own weapons to carry them through their endeavors.

To them, and those who had been trained enough to complete them, these preliminary exams were a small hindrance to their goals. A stepping stone they needed to pass to attend the academy of their choosing. This was just something done because had you had to, even if the exams were open to the public.

He had heard the exams were always slightly different , but they were always relatively the same in concept. They tested a person on their ability to even remotely survive the actual huntsmen exams an academy would use. They weren't made to be difficult, but weren't made to be easy either.

Right now, he was observing another prospect within the ring. It appeared to be a timed trial, set with various obstacles, targets, dummies and the like that the participants were forced to overcome, or hit, before reaching the end of the course.

This prospect seemed to be a male, with long dark hair with a pink streak. He seemed much more skilled than the rest, with his primary fighting style being quick on his feet. His weapons seemed to be a set of twin hand-held machine guns, with small blades on the ends to cut down his enemies. And honestly, many of the onlookers would compare the young man to what was commonly referred to as a ninja.

"Li Ren: 2 minutes and 54 seconds," a woman's voice on a speaker rang throughout the area. As the next participant was called down. He saw an orange haired female loudly cheering out for him, likely a friend of the boy's.

5 minutes was the time to beat, with the huntsman academies not even thinking about taking someone who could not get such a trial time down.

A whistle sounded beside him, as he faintly saw someone out of the corner of his eye approaching him.

"Wasn't that something," a female's voice said aloud, before she smashed her fists together and said cheerfully, "makes me want to fight him, gets me all fired up."

She was blond, with lilac purple eyes. She wore an orange scarf around her neck, her brown jacket that was buttoned up just enough to show her bright yellow tank top underneath and parts of her upper cleavage and shortened enough to show her toned midriff. Not only that, but she also wore a set of black short-shorts and a large brown belt that matched her jacket and long brown boots, as a set of orange knee-socks could be seen poking high above her left knee.

But what he paid attention to the most were the set of bright yellow painted gauntlets that she wore over some black fingerless gloves.

Many of those here just brought ordinary swords or knives, a few of them even had guns that they purchased at their local shops weapon.

But what she had was different, and obviously manufactured herself. This was a true huntsman weapon, something not many of the participants had.

She leaned turned as she lent over the balcony, flashing him a dazzling smile towards him. "I could tell that guy was going to be good,"

He raised a single eyebrow as he still kept his head turned towards the arena. "Could you now?" He asked, not entirely interested in the subject.

The girl nodded, "Yup, he had something that not many people here had," she told him.

"And what's that?" He asked apathetically. He wondered if she would answer something as simple as him possessing a huntsman weapon. Which if she did, she couldn't be further from the truth.

"It was the way he walked, confident, but not arrogant like the rest of them," she said, surprising him a bit, as she pointed behind herself down to the main stage.

As the next participant in the trail walked onto the course. He appeared to be proud walking onto the stage, his likely store-bought sword's blade being held upon his shoulder. The only thing he could give him credit for was that his muscle mass was at least fairly well-built, larger than most people's at least. But even so, he doubted he would last very long in the long run.

"That guys a dime a dozen, with big muscles but not much skill to show for it," she told him, and he couldn't deny that she was wrong. Before she pointed to himself, "not like you, that is," she told him.

"And what makes me so special?" He questioned, the girl having proven to have at least passable judgment on the matter.

"Oh please, I could tell you were good from the moment I laid eyes on you," she scoffed. "It was surprising given that you look so young," the blonde said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He asked nonchalantly.

The blonde straight herself up, "Woah, don't take what I said the wrong way, but I…" she rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "I guess you could say it was a bit surprising to see someone about as old as my sister being here, that's all," she tried to rectify.

"I mean, you can't be older than what? Fifteen?" She fished.

"Sixteen," he answered flatly.

She smiled, happy that she was at least close enough to his actual age. "Right, right, my sis is fifteen, so I guess you reminded me of her a bit, you even look like her a bit," she said thoughtfully, as she got close enough that their faces were nearly touching as she observed his face.

Naruto turned to her as he backed up, able to keep a passive face in a situation that would make many his age a blushing mess, especially considering that many would see her as beautiful.

"And why's that?" He asked, finally interested in the subject.

"Yup! They're pretty much identical," she said after a moment of time. Before blinking and processing his question. "Huh? Oh, I was talking about your—"

"Yang Xiao Long, to the stage," a woman's voice rang throughout the room through a set of speakers,

"Well, looks like I'm up!" She said confidently, before extending her fist towards him.

"Huh?" He said, in confusion, not getting what the girl was trying to do. "Umm…"

"Oh, you're supposed to bump the fist, it's like a greeting, or something you do to introduce yourself," she told him, and hesitantly he did as instructed.

As their fists met she properly introduced herself, "Name's Yang," she rhymed, "Yang Xiao Long" the girl introduced.

"Naruto, Naruto Uzumaki," he told her, finally bothering to introduce himself.

The girl, 'Yang,' smiled. "Alright, well, I better get down there," she told him. "Best of luck, you'll have some tough competition on your hands." She called out, gesturing confidently to herself.

He watched her performance, she was good, and with her fighting style seemed to be a hand-to-hand brawler type.

"Yang Xiao Long: 2 minutes and 20 seconds," the voice announced, her time being better than the previous time to beat, Li Ren's.

The woman announced the next participant's name: "Naruto Uzumaki, to the stage," the woman said, as he made his way to the floor.

XXX

"Incredible," a gray haired male's voice sounded as he stared at the screen, recordings of this year's timed trials for beacon's preliminary exams.

"54 seconds," he said, astonished, the time that a particular participant received. Such a time was incredible, and something that even most huntsmen would struggle to obtain, and only something only a seasoned veteran would obtain. All in all, not something that an ordinary participant, someone who had not even attended a huntsman academy, should never receive.

"Name: Naruto Uzumaki, Kingdom of origin:Unknown, Hometown:unlisted, Combat school: not listed, Personal records: next to nothing shows anything to note about a combat history. Says he is a refugee from a village outside the four kingdoms," a blonde woman said next to him, reading the government files of the aforementioned participant.

"Well, that does explain a few things," he said in thought, as he watched the screen.

The young man was fast, dodging a weaving through each and every obstacle as if he memorized where each and every one of them were. Never stopping and never losing momentum in his movement. He appeared to have no traditional weapons, although he had a semblance that made up for it.

The boy appeared to have the ability to manifest silver chains with golden tips on the ends from his body. He would then use those chains, him seemingly having full control of their movement, to then use them to penetrate the targets or wrap around the dummies, or even swinging himself across the air to gain even more speed.

Such a spectacle seemed fluid, something that he had done many times, not something an ordinary 16-year-old could pull off.

Glynda had said he was from an area outside the kingdoms, he was a refugee. It would make sense, given the areas outside the protection of the kingdoms were harsh, with grim attacks being much more common out there. He had heard the many tribes taught their children young, younger than any of those children deserved. Just how young did Naruto Uzumaki train? How many times had the youth come face to face with death to allow him to gain such skills?

Questions he didn't know the answers to.

He paused the screen, stopping the recording at a precise point he had been aiming his chains at a particular target that was known to be difficult.

He had spiked blonde hair and tan skin, as a set of three whisker like marks marked themselves upon each of his cheeks, perhaps he was a fanus? Even so, it did not matter.

He wore a strange set of clothes, only a pair of stark white pants over a long plain looking tunic of a similar color.

He wore no shoes, choosing to rather go barefoot as he traversed around.

Ozpin zoomed in on the screen, specifically to focus on the boy's face, which only confirmed his suspicions, something in which he voiced aloud. "He… has silver eyes," he noted the particularly rare and coveted genetic trait.

"So he does," Glynda noted as she fixed her glasses. Such a trait was rare, with only a few families known to even possess them. But it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that an unknown family would possess them far off outside the kingdoms.

"Tell me, what choice are you going to make? His records are almost nonexistent, we know next to nothing about him, and yet he was still able to attain such a record time for someone so young. Will you allow such an unknown to walk the halls of beacon academy, Ozpin?" Glynda Goodwitch asked.

Ozpin thought about it, although the answer had ever so plainly crossed his mind, "I think the answer is obvious…" he told her.

XXX

Days later

"Are you robbing me?" A silver haired girl asked in confusion.

"Yes!" A plain locking man in a black and red tuxedo shouted in indignation.

"Ohhhh," Ruby said in realization. And it wasn't long before the man was kicked clear across the room, right next to an orange haired man in a bowler hat giving orders to the man at the desk.

Another henchman got close to her, pointing his gun at the ready and shouting, "Freeze!" This time, her attack launched them both clear out the window and onto the nearby street's road. Leaving many of the other henchmen looking through the hole in confusion.

As the girl got up from the drop-kick she had just performed, she readied her weapon, a large red and black scythe, that appeared seemingly from nowhere.

As her red hooded cape billowed out in the wind, she twirled her weapon around before firmly planting it in the street's road, destroying the pavement even further.

"Okay…" the orange haired man said, realizing the situation for its absurdity, a cigar fixed within his mouth. "Get her," he ordered, as the rest of the men followed suit, opening the nearby door to run outside.

The black and red haired girl then made exaggerated fighting noises as she twirled through the air. Striking each of the henchmen with a dastardly punch or kick that sent them flying into a not-so blissful sleep.

She jumped forward, firing the barrel of her gun that had been built within her scythe. She then used the momentum she had gained to knock the blunt end of her blade into one henchman while slamming it into the other in one fluid motion.

The final remaining henchman used his tommy-gun to fire at the fire, but the girl using her enhanced speed and the recoil to dodge his bullets and knock him straight into the pavement. All the while the orange bowler hatted man in a white coat watched the scene.

"You were worth every cent, truly you were," he remarked after seeing the pitiful display each of them had made.

As he then turned to the black haired girl, removing his cigar from his mouth and speaking up, "Well, Red, I think we can all say it's been an eventful evening," he told her, as sirens could be heard in the distance. Him dropping his cigar on the floor, putting the small alight flame at the end with the bottom of his cane.

"And as much as I'd like to stick around..."he aimed the bottom of his cane at the girl, a sight, similar to that of a gun's popping up at the end. "I'm afraid this is where we part ways," he told her, firing a small fireball then shot towards the hooded girl in nearly an instant.

The girl leapt high up, intent on not getting hit by in the blast. Huffing as she landed, she looked around, the orange haired man nowhere in sight.

She then spotted him climbing a small ladder that lead to one of the nearby buildings rooftops. As the shop owner crawled out of where he had been hiding, she asked, "are you okay if I go after them?" To which the man nodded.

Using her scythe's recoil to scale the building, she shouted after the orange haired man. "Persistent," she faintly heard the man grumble.

A small drop-ship appeared flying over the building, it's bright headlight shining in her face from up above. The man climbed into it, turning back to face her, as he pulled out an orangish-red crystal from his coat.

"End of the line, red!" He shouted, throwing it towards her.

Her silver eyes widened in surprise as another fireball the man had fired approached her, as she braced herself for the incoming explosion.

XXX

Elsewhere

A similar pair of silver eyes overlooked the battle from a nearby rooftop.

His arms at his sides, a golden glow emanated from his right palm, as aura sparkled off in a shower of light. It was only then that a short silver chain pierced the heavenly light, with a spiked golden tip at the end.

He recalled his chain in nearly an instant as a blonde haired woman, likely a huntress, show up to save the silver haired girl from her plight.

Him continuing to watch on from the distance, not interfering in the slightest, as he watched a dark haired woman come out of the carrier's shadows. Her glowing orange eyes that matched parts of her clothing lighting up like a fiery inferno. As she then fired a large fireball at the huntress, something the blonde huntress seemed to block with ease.

An angry expression marring his face as he looked on at the woman bathed a hellish fire. Although he did note how effortlessly the blonde woman, Glynda Goodwitch if he remembered correctly, summoned a small storm with only the flick of her wrist, as well as making large constructs of the rubble below.

It didn't take long for the dark haired woman to fire at the silver haired girl, forcing the huntress to protect her and making the damaged carrier retreat off into the distance.

The police then arrived, them locking up the girl, likely due to her interference in the huntress's affairs. Given that it was likely due to her that the carrier had managed to get away. Although he had to admit that had it not been for her stalling the criminals, the huntress likely wouldn't have been able to make it here in time to even have a chance to stop them.

The girl hadn't been bad, her fighting abilities had been quite good even. Her quick speed and small figure allowed her to wield the large, dangerous weapon—that not many would even dare touching— like an expert. He'd say she was around the level of a huntsmen academy recruit, which was impressive, given how old she looked, which, if he had to guess, she was around the age of 15.

He heard a faint buzzing in the corner of his bag, a brown satchel he held at his side. Unclasping and reaching into it, he pulled out the scroll he had been given, as he focused on the message he received.

A soft chuckle escaped from his lips, as he read the new information he had been given.

He had passed.

He knew he would have. With his show during the preliminaries, he knew he would, now all that was left was to pass the actual huntsmen school initiation exams.

He wouldn't fail, he needed to get into the beacon, as he had been instructed to do so.

Putting his scroll back in his bag, he silently leapt down onto the sidewalk below. Walking to the edge of the crime scene, right where the authorities have set up their yellow police tape, he observed the wreckage within the dust shop that had gone on below.

Windows were smashed, some of the sidewalk had been cracked, and even the road had a large hole in it from when the girl had planted her weapon into it. That isn't to say anything from the destruction on the store building's roof above.

He spotted the aged shop keep frantically giving his testimony on what had previously happened, angry at the fact his shop had not only been robbed but also destroyed.

A faint glimmer of light caught his eye, as he turned to face it, he caught sight of a small silver pin reflecting a small light off into the distance.

Slowly walking towards it, he leant dow, taking it into his hand as he observed it. The object was small, it's metal having a rose design that almost also resembled a burning ember. A pin, that most definitely belonging to that black and red scythe wielding girl.

It was strange, and for some reason it reminded him of…

Pushing that thought aside, he turned it over, witnessing the back. The pin on the other side was broken, likely having been damaged in the battle and falling off of her onto the ground's pavement.

She likely hadn't even noticed it had fallen off, too busy within the heat of a battle to even notice such a little thing.

Placing the object within his satchel, he only vaguely thought about getting it repaired in a shop somewhere. As he then went off in the distance, not a person even noticing he was there.

He had to prepare... he would get into beacon academy, at all costs.

End Chapter.

An:I'm gonna try to keep this short, I've been working on a lot of different projects.

I also changed my writing schedule. And instead of forcing myself to complete a chapter in a set amount of time (being around a week or two), I'm gonna set a minimum of about 5k words or so (I can write past that). That means that I'm not gonna just focus on one project during the course of a week, but rather write what I feel like writing and hopefully put it out in a rational amount of time.

I'll post when I finish a chapter, but i won't rush it and make the story bad when I'm stuck on a particular point I can't seem to get out of. Choosing to come back to that point at later time to work on something else, or just think on it a few more times.

The preliminary exams: it was just something I thought up because in all honesty… beacon is not going to allow just anyone to take the actual exam in the MIDDLE OF A GRIM INFESTED FOREST.

And it was stated a few times that you don't need to go to a combat school to get into an actual academy, you just need the right skills to do so, Blake is an example of this.

And yeah, jaune got into beacon because of "false transcripts" or whatever, but in this story he still had to take a small physical exam. Jaune is fairly well-built, and he'd likely get a time that would allow him to barely pass.

Also, the times are more of a spectrum, with each time giving a decent idea as to a person's skill level.

Normal person: above 5 minutes

Huntsmen academy recruit: 5 minutes to 2 min 45 secs.

Huntsmen trainee: 2 min 44 seconds to 1 min 30

Huntsmen: 56 seconds to 1 min 29

Seasoned huntsman: 36 to 55 seconds

Veteran huntsmen/best of the best/ trained maidens: 35 seconds and below

That's around the score I have in mind, with only the best of the best (qrow) able to get anything below 35. Speed semblances also play a factor, but they'd also need to be able to hit their target, which would still be quite difficult.

The reason Naruto is so strong will be told later, but he's not invincible, and he can lose from time to time.

-Ja Ne.