So, I noticed a few people questioning the strain of chakra on Naruto's limbs. My explanation is, admittedly, a lackluster one. See, when Naruto is training to form the Rasengan, there's a brief scene where his arm is shaking so badly that he can't even hold chopsticks, all from how much he had pumped chakra through his arm. I'm just extrapolating that a little.

Fuck it, this is moving back to Saturday.

Disclaimer: Still don't own any of this.

Chapter 15: The Tournament

Saturday was, fortunately, an absolutely wonderful day. There was nary a cloud in sight, and the sky shone a brilliant blue. And bright and early, most of Beacon's teams were up and about, excited for the day. Surprisingly, out of the thirty-two teams taking part in the tournament, there were only five from Beacon taking part.

The first match would take place at 1 PM. Until then, Team MDNT had several hours to prepare themselves for their match. They'd managed to somehow work their way to the first fight of the tourney, against Team GNGR (Ginger). Though three hours seemed like quite a time, it was over before they knew it, and they found themselves before their competition.

Their leader, Gamboge, standing taller than Naruto did, was wearing a brown robe that that reminded Naruto of what Neji usually wore. At his side, there was a morning star that glowed faintly blue. After him, Nicole, a girl somewhat on the short side, especially compared to her leader. She wore a mostly gray outfit, consisting of simple form-fitting pants and a tank top. She also wore sunglasses. On her sides, there were two Hachiwaris.

Past her, and eyeing each of them somewhat amusedly, was Grant. His appearance was that of a boy wearing a black cloak, like the ones the Akatsuki wore, but without the clouds. He had a crossbow on his back, and its bolt had a red hue to it. As for the last member of their team, Rufus, he was wearing a crimson pair of pants, and a long coat, but no shirt. He had no weapon that they could see.

Gamboge called over to them, "Allow us to have a fair and honorable match." Melissa bowed respectfully. Several screens popped up in the air around the arena, choosing something through randomization. One the side of Team GNGR, the screens ended on the image of a destroyed city. To Naruto's amazement, the floor behind them opened up, and a mimicry of a destroyed city rose up from the floor.

He looked up in the air behind himself, to see a blue outline of something. The floor behind them pulled back, and an icy landscape rose from beneath. He turned back to his team, to see Melissa studying the city section. Port's voice rang out, calling for the match to start.

Naruto pulled out his chokutō instantly, as Troy grabbed his arm. He felt the very brief rushing feeling, before reappearing behind them. In their moment of shock, he bisected Nicole. Or rather, he would have, had a column of fire not appeared in his way. He saw Rufus grinning at him, smoke curling off his hands.

He stepped back, holding up his sword to block Nicole's dual-wielding assault. Her weapons, as with most of their kind, had small hooks near the hilt, which she wrapped around his blade on either side. Using them, she wrenched his weapon out of his hands, sending it skidding across the ground. Nicole was about to follow up on the opening she'd given herself, but a look of shock spread across her face in an instant when an icy bullet flew into her side. Her Aura kept too much injury from occurring, but Melissa's help gave Naruto the time he needed to re-arm himself.

Troy, meanwhile, was having quite a time in the destroyed city. He was trying to fight two people at once, but whenever he would get close to either one, a fire spout would block him off. Rufus definitely knew how to use his Semblance defensively. Although, this kind of combat had to be taxing on him.

At the same time, however, Grant was giving him hell with his crossbow, which was currently in the form of a spear, with the bolt being the tip. Troy brought one knife up in a reverse-grip, while the other one was in its pistol form, firing away at the fiery fighter.

His bullets were for naught, however. A double helix of flame burned each of them to a crisp, and continued towards the teleporter. Troy rolled his eyes, and teleported behind Grant. He finally managed to get one solid blow off, kicking the boy in gray into the fire his teammate had produced before. Troy had no time to revel in his small victory, as Rufus gave some sort of war cry before reeling his head back. Troy only had a moment's hesitation before he thought to try and avoid whatever was coming next.

And how glad he was that he did. He had teleported to the top of a nearby building, and was privy to the majestic sight of white-hot flame burning up everything in front of the Haven student. Troy frowned, since as he looked around, he couldn't see Grant anywhere. Then he heard the telltale holler above him.

Though their height differences made it look hilarious, Diana had engaged Gamboge in one-on-one combat, and she was having the time of her life. She swung her sword like a baseball bat over and over, occasionally striking the rather durable leader of Team GNGR. Most of her attacks were blocked by the guy's morning star, however. And each time an attack was blocked, a jolt of electricity flashed across her blade. But since her hilt had a leather grip, she was able to ignore it.

She slammed her blade down, only for him to slide backwards out of its way. She leapt forwards at him, holding her sword over her head. Seeming to sigh to himself, Gamboge stepped out of her path, but swung his weapon into her stomach. She let go of her sword in the impact, and Gamboge followed through with his attack, sending her and her weapon in opposite directions. And yet, when she stood, she still had her maniacal grin on her face.

She tried to rush past him, but he wasn't stupid, and she wasn't as fast as Naruto. He swung again, though this time Diana at least at the wherewithal to dodge the attack. Seeing her chance as he recovered from his attack, she rushed forwards again, this time just managing to roll past him dramatically and pick up her sword, winding up on her feet, holding her sword towards her opponent.

Melissa was positioned up in a tall building in the city, firing at the girl Naruto was fighting. She felt like she should help Naruto win first, since without a doubt he was the best in their team. She really had no idea how he did it. Either way, she kept up her barrage on the small girl, keeping her from launching any counterattacks, since she had to focus on two defenses at once.

Naruto rushed her, appearing right in front of her, looking up at her face as he performed an uppercut. Nicole was sent several meters into the air, eyes rattling in their sockets. Melissa winced a little at it. She'd never personally been on the receiving end of one of Naruto's attacks, but she was more than happy to keep it that way.

Nicole shook her head in midair, and turned over to face the ground. She held up her blades when Naruto came up at her, aiming for a stab. She intercepted the sword, but Naruto just let go of it, and whipped his legs around, sending his heel into her back. She flew straight down, right into the ground, where she lay still.

Oobleck's voice came over the speakers, "Ooh! It seems a devastating kick from Naruto Uzumaki has knocked young miss Nicole out cold! She'll be feeling that one tomorrow. Or possibly later today…"

Naruto grabbed his chokutō as he fell, observing the battle around him. Melissa did the same from her vigil in the tower. Gamboge seemed to be fed up with Diana's antics, whatever those happened to be, as he had wrapped his hand around her ankle, and was currently tossing her about like a ragdoll. He saw Naruto coming to help, and threw the rainbow girl into the blond. Not expecting it, Naruto was caught off guard as he caught Diana.

He stumbled back, almost falling over from the sudden weight. He had also dropped his sword for the third time that match. Gamboge took advantage of the moment of weakness, and swung his morning star right into the side of Naruto's head. The poor blond went flying across half the arena before slamming to a halt in the side of an icy hill. Unfortunately, he also indented far enough into it that he couldn't move at all, his arms and legs being stuck in the rigid ice. That was some scary strength their leader had.

Regardless, not being able to move was by no means a weakness for Naruto. He grinned to himself despite the head trauma and numbness in his limbs, and began to gather Natural Energy. He felt the familiar power flow into him, and soon enough he had entered Sage Mode. He did make sure to keep his head down at least a little, to make sure he wasn't showing off sudden tattoos around his eyes to the whole crowd. He ripped his arms forward, freeing them of their icy prison, and fell to the ground on his hands and knees.

From his position, he grinned at the ground. Gamboge was heading towards him, fast. But by no means was he faster than Naruto. And so, by the time Gamboge had set down another foot, he found one of Naruto's imbedded in his abdomen. He barely had a moment to register what had happened before he found himself outside the boundaries of the arena. Port commentated once more, "And another member of Team GNGR is knocked out of the fight by Team MDNT's blond menace!"

Naruto had dropped Sage Mode in the instant that he kicked the guy out of the arena, leaving his eyes normal by the time the crowd could see him again. Seriously, he really probably shouldn't have done that. It was an unnecessary risk, honestly. Nevertheless, there were still two more members of Team GNGR-

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Troy of Team MDNT and Grant of Team GNGR have just performed mutual strike! A double knockout!" Port's voice rang out.

Right, so there was one member of Team GNGR left. The fire-spewing one, naturally. Just as Naruto began to search for him, he heard a drastic drop on the Aura board above the arena. He looked up, and saw that Melissa's had dropped down to forty, from a hundred. He looked over to where Melissa was, and saw that the building had collapsed, with fire around its base.

Since Naruto didn't want to fight one-on-one with someone this troublesome, he elected to help Melissa out of the way of the tornado of fire Rufus had sent her way. The blond Faunus rushed over, forming a Rasengan. He positioned himself in front of Melissa, who was recovering too slowly, and thrust the orb into the twister of fire. It caused the fire to harmlessly dissipate, leaving Naruto and Melissa largely unharmed.

Melissa switched over to her staff, "Let's get him, partner." Naruto grinned, and nodded. Together, they charged him down. Naruto used his speed to move behind him, and they each attacked from opposing sides. Rufus had just enough time to look back and forth before he used his counter.

Which just so happened to be lighting himself on fire. In a blaze that would put a bonfire to shame, Rufus disappeared from view. Naruto could just barely hear the sounds of the Aura display trickling down over the sound of fire crackling. He could also just hear Oobleck saying that Melissa was defeated, but at the cost of a large portion of Rufus's remaining Aura.

Ah, so that was the weakness. He had to use up a lot of Aura to fight like this. From the smoke left behind by the inferno before, the fire-wielder rushed out, bringing his arms up like he was planning on using them to fight. And he did. Naruto waited for him to make the first move, which ended up being an attempted heel strike.

As he dodged it, fire spewed off Rufus's feet, extending the range of the attack. Naruto just had time to duck under the wave of fire before it passed over him. The next attack came quickly, as a palm strike with fire coming out of it. Naruto sidestepped this one, and brought his knee up and arm down on Rufus's left arm. He broke it, badly.

Rufus groaned in intense pain, clutching his arm, but continuing to attack with his legs. He was actually rather acrobatic, as it turned out. Naruto, after a number of volleys from the boys legs, finally had his chance to strike, and took it, sinking his fist into… well, it's better to leave the details out. But since Rufus was only using his feet, it was bound to be exposed at some point.

Obviously, the boy fell to the ground, in even more pain than he had been in before. He squeaked rather loudly. Port's hesitant voice came over the system, "And… uh… it seems the… winner is Team MDNT. Can… can somebody get that boy an ice pack? Or two?"

The match may have been a bit of a festival of silliness, but it was still a victory for Team MDNT nonetheless. So of course, they were subject to much congratulation afterwards. It obviously didn't last long, since the next match took place after just a half an hour. Though all the matches were interesting enough, none of them really had that silly charm that the first match had. Eventually, Team RWBY was up against a team from Haven.

Admittedly, Naruto had tuned out, and didn't realize they were fighting until about halfway through the match. By then, they were all scattered across the arena, which was divided into a lava field and the same icy section as Team MDNT had fought in. Ruby seemed to be acting as support for the team, providing sniper fire the same as Melissa had. Weiss looked to be covering her from anyone who wound up nearby, while Yang and Blake were supplying the main offensive.

The fight moved along at a rather awkward pace, all things considered. In the end, however, Team RWBY came out on top. Teams JNPR and MDNT were amongst the loudest to cheer for them, as they stood in the center of the arena, looking proud of their victory. Ruby even jumped into the air, cheering for their victory.

Naruto made his way down to the exit for the arena floor together with Melissa, with Troy and Diana having gone off to the fairgrounds to eat. Ruby beamed at him as her team walked out, proud of her team's victory in the first round. He grinned, "Good match, guys!"

"Thanks, Whiskers!" Yang replied. "We kicked butt!" To add emphasis, she punched her own fists together.

"We were about to go to the festival; ya wanna come, too?" Ruby asked.

"Sure!" Naruto agreed. He and Melissa were going to anyways. They had just wanted to congratulate Team RWBY.

They began to make their way to the air docks, since the arena did slight more than just a little off the ground, and none of them particularly wanted to deal with the thousand foot drop at the moment. Whilst waiting to get on the airship, Ruby suddenly asked, "Naruto! How did you kick that guy so hard in your fight?"

"Well, I was moving really fast, so that probably helped… I don't know, Ruby," Naruto answered. Best to at least be vague.

"Huh. Oh, well! Who are you guys sending to the next round?"

Melissa glanced over, "We were thinking Naruto and Troy. But Naruto says that Troy and Diana might work better."

Team RWBY stared at the blond in confusion. He shrugged, "What? They have the best teamwork on our team."

'That, and I don't want to keep using my techniques in front of so many people. Besides, they'll enjoy it.'

Ruby leaned her head back as she said, "Oooooooooh… That makes sense."

"Yeah, but Naruto and Troy would unstoppable! His speed and Troy's teleporting? Golden!" Melissa argued.

"Yeah, but Troy can't do that too much before he runs out of steam. He and Diana will work much better together," Naruto countered. Team RWBY looked back and forth between the two in a comedic fashion, as though watching a tennis match.

Eventually, after the line had slimmed down and they were able to board an airbus, the six students were on the fairgrounds, surrounded by tents and stands and fun galore. Ruby leapt into the air in excitement, before falling back down and clutching her stomach, "Is anyone else starving?"

Naruto and Blake chuckled at her behavior, the cat Faunus also offering up a verbal response, "I may have worked up an appetite." At the perfect and purely coincidental time, Blake's stomach let out a growl that sounded more like a tiger roaring. Blake's eyes went wide as she covered her stomach, as if to silence the noise that had already passed.

"Wow, Blake. Didn't know cats could growl," Naruto joked. "I thought they just kind of... hissed."

"Yeah, give me second to get on that."

Weiss rolled her eyes at the antics of her team and friends, "You do realized there's food all around us, right?"

"She's right! So, as the leader of Team RWBY, I proclaim that we need to go eat!" Ruby thundered, clapping her hands together. "Oh! Uh… rather, Team RWBY needs to go eat… you guys can do what you want." She added, looking sheepishly at Melissa and Naruto, both of whom began to snicker to themselves.

"Nah, we were gonna come with you two. There's no telling where Diana and Troy went," Melissa responded. The six began to wander off in the direction of a random food stand, before someone called out behind them.

"Hey! Might be hard to eat without this!" Each of them turned to see a green-haired girl holding up a red wallet.

Ruby panicked at the sight of it, patting all over herself, "No, no, no, no!"

"Good to see you, Ruby," The girl continued, laughing as she gave Ruby's wallet to her.

"Oh! Thanks, Emerald! Oh. Guess I dropped it. Girl pockets are the worst!" Ruby hunched over with her arms dangling as she spoke. Naruto eyed the girl suspiciously. She had been with the black-haired woman that Kurama had warned him about at the dance. If that woman was worth the fox even mentioning, then she probably kept some pretty interesting company as well.

"What's up, Em?" Yang asked, all six of them having gather next to Ruby in front of Emerald. Apparently, Team RWBY was friends with her, though Naruto didn't know when they could have done that. There was the month-long coma, though. So that may have been when.

Regardless of when they had met the girl, she began to praise them, "Just left the stadium after your amazing fight! You guys were awesome!"

In her typical fashion when someone complimented her, Ruby blushed and began to mumble, "Oh, shut your stupid little face…"

Probably stifling a small laugh at her leader's embarrassment, Blake picked up the conversation, "I heard your team progressed to the next round too."

Weiss chimed in with her two cents, "You know, I feel that we haven't seen your other teammates."

"How'd they do in the fight?" Yang questioned.

"Really well…" Emerald answered after some hesitation, trailing off slightly.

"You guys wanna come eat with us?" Melissa asked innocently.

For a half a second, not long enough for anyone else to pick up on it, a look of disdain flashed across her face as Melissa spoke. "Oh, gosh, that's so nice of you, but my teammates are all kind of… introverted," She answered, glancing behind herself at a guy whom Naruto recognized. He had fought against him one time. "Really socially awkward."

Yang breathed in sharply, "Ooh, yeah, I could see that."

Emerald shrugged, "Oh yeah, looks like Merc and I are going to move on to the doubles round. What about you guys?"

Ruby replied proudly, "Well, as the leader of this team, I thought long and hard about this decision-"

Weiss interrupted, "We put it to a vote."

Ruby's eyes widened, "Uh- yes, and I decided that we should put it to a vote."

"We voted for Weiss and Yang," Blake finished.

Weiss curtsied, "I will happily represent Team RWBY."

"Yeah, we're going to kick some butt!" Yang exclaimed.

Emerald laughed at their excitement, "Well, if Mercury and I see you down the line, don't think we'll go easy on ya."

"We're sending Diana and Troy, apparently," Melissa added. Emerald didn't acknowledge the girl, just turned and waved goodbye to all of them. "Uh. That was weird." Team RWBY and Melissa all shrugged it off, and continued on their way to food, Naruto only hesitating for a moment as he watched the girl's retreating back.

As she walked away from the oh-so-annoying brats, Mercury sallied up next to Emerald, sarcastically asking, "So, how are the new friends?"

Emerald scowled, "I hate them."

"Orders are orders," Mercury taunted.

"I just... how can they be so happy all the time?!"

Mercury shrugged, "Did you at least get what we want?"

Emerald rolled her eyes, "It's the heiress and the bimbo."

Mercury raised an eyebrow, "And?"

"'And' what?"

"What about the blond idiot?"

"He's staying out," Emerald replied. "Guess he's not that good of a fighter after all."

"Remember what Cinder said."

"I know… But I don't get why she's so obsessed. I could beat a bunch of animals, too."

Mercury sighed, "I don't know either. But hey, if you wanna disagree with her, be my guest. I'll be sure to make your grave nice and big."

"Ha. Ha."

"But she could!" Blake desperately insisted.

The cause for this desperateness? Well, Blake did, in fact, have a liking for tuna rivaled only by Naruto's undying love for ramen. A side effect of being half cat. Weiss had offered to pay for the meal, only for her card not to work. Pyrrha had then walked up with her team, offering to pay in their stead. Yang had politely said, "Aw, you don't have to."

"I think you've earned it, after that match. Oh, and you two, as well, of course," Pyrrha addressed to Naruto and Melissa. Naruto shrugged. They may have been noodles, but they still weren't anywhere close to ramen. Ramen was true art. That which only existed for a few brief moments before disappearing… into his mouth.

These were noodles in a bowl. A lot of noodles in a big bowl.

Jaune added in, "Mind if we join you?"

Besides Naruto, who refused to touch the ramen facsimile, everybody else was totally engrossed in eating for the next several minutes. By the time they were finished, everybody was clutching their stomachs, either in satisfaction or nausea.

"Hey, aren't you guys supposed to be at a match?" Melissa asked to Team JNPR.

While three of them remained calm, Jaune's eyes widened to comical proportions, and he ran off at full speed towards the airships, "We're gonna be late!"

As the rest of his team followed, Team RWBY, Melissa, and Naruto were all laughing amongst themselves. "Ah… Jaune, you loveable idiot…" Melissa muttered.

Blake tapped on Naruto's shoulder. He looked to his left at her, as she began to talk, "Hey, Naruto? Could you come with me for a moment?"

She stood, and he followed as she began to walk a short distance away. Behind him, he could hear Yang making odd noises while Ruby made sounds of adorable disgust. Blake eventually turned around when they were at the edge of the cluster of tents, "Why don't you want to fight?"

"What? It's not that I don't want to fight. I just think-"

"That Troy and Diana would fight together better? No, I don't think so, Naruto," Blake stepped in closer. "I think you don't want to accidentally use your… friend's… power."

Naruto frowned at her, "It's… uh… it's not exactly that simple. I do have to call on it for it to work, ya know. There's really no danger in it, unless I lose control of my emotions and let them cloud my judgement."

"So why don't you want to fight? You always want to fight."

"I told you. Troy and Diana work together better."

"Fine, don't tell me," She leaned in next to his ear and whispered into it. "But I'll set Yang on you if you don't."

Naruto jumped back suddenly, unfounded fear in his eyes, "You wouldn't!" He may have been the king of pranks, but Yang could still pull her punches when she wanted, like that one time with the bucket and the rubber duck.

Blake laughed at his expense, "No, I wouldn't. Not even I'm that mean." She smirked at him. "But I got you pretty good."

Naruto laughed along with her, "Yeah, yeah you did." He grinned inwardly, before wrapping his arm around her. "Well, let's head back!" Blake began to blush and sputter in embarrassment. They began to walk back, Blake not really walking, but not really resisting either.

All of a sudden, an tall Atlas student stepped out in front of them. "Excuse me, madam. Do you need me to remove this vermin?" He asked, looking Naruto up and down, sneering at his whiskers.

Now, as it turns out, it is not, in fact, a wonderful idea to insult someone based on their being a Faunus when the person you're insulting them to is also a Faunus. Blake immediately stopped blushing, and began to scowl at the man, who actually stepped back a half-step in trepidation.

"Insult him, you insult me!" Blake growled. The man gulped.

"Sorry, madam! I didn't mean to insult your preferences." It seemed the man didn't understand entirely why Blake was upset. Despite the guy having just insulted him, Naruto gave him a fair warning.

"I'd say you have about four seconds."

"Wha-"

"Three seconds."

Without another second wasted, the man turned on his heel and ran. In his wake, Naruto and Blake were merrily laughing at the student. Blake was the one who wrapped Naruto's arm around her this time, but with a somewhat bitter look on her face.

"That kind of person is exactly why I wear my bow. I feel bad for other kinds of Faunus… they can't easily hide themselves if they want to."

"Ah, come on. Do you really think everyone is like that? I mean, I've never wanted to hide my whiskers."

"I'd still rather not have people judging me before we can even talk to each other."

"Alright, but what about Faunus who think all humans are scum? Or the other way around?"

"Those people aren't worth talking to."

Naruto sighed at her rather pessimistic view of it all. In theory, the White Fang could have put a stop to all the hatred between the two. But, as with most things, it seemed, they had just become what they were trying to stop.

As they came back into view of The Simple Wok, the noodle stand they had eaten at, Naruto saw Yang staring at them with a big, goofy grin on her face. She made a strange whistling sound that for some reason caused Blake to blush and push Naruto about a foot away from herself. Naruto was thoroughly confused.

The pair sat back down for only a second, after which Ruby jumped to her feet, proclaiming, "We need to go watch Team JNPR fight!"

Of course, the fight had already started, and largely ended, by the time they all sat down in the stands. Jaune was talking to his team exasperatedly, like he was trying to get a point across, while the other team stared in shock and disbelief. The entire crowd was booing at them.

"What do you think you're doing!?" One of their opponents finally yelled over to them.

Jaune turned around, rather annoyed at the interruption, "Trying to have a team meeting, thank you very little!"

Nora added, "Yeah! Team ears only!"

The guy who yelled before looked to his teammates with the same look of shock, while they simply shrugged in confusion. He yelled again, "WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!"

Jaune whipped around, actually angry this time, "AND WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION! WHAT DON'T YOU GET ABOUT THAT!?"

From where they were sitting, Team RWBY, as well as Naruto and Melissa, could see Pyrrha tap on Jaune's shoulder. They couldn't make out the words, but after a moment Jaune began to rub his forehead with his sword hand, as Nora jumped towards the opposing team, smacking all of them with a hammer and sending them flying out of the ring, winning Team JNPR the match.

Port's voice boomed throughout the arena, "And with that, it appears Team JNPR wins by knockout, literally! ...Can someone go make sure they're okay?"

Amidst their laughing and cheering for Team JNPR, Naruto asked Ruby who the next fight was. She shrugged, "I think it was… Team-"

Oobleck's voice drowned her out, "Ah, well, Vacuo fans are sure to be hurting after that one, but this next one will have them on the edge of their seats!"

Port picked up, "Team NDGO of Shade is certainly a crowd favorite, but these lovely ladies are going against some of the toughest, testosterone-filled teammates we've seen so far! I'm of course talking about... Team SSSN! Sun Wukong and his team are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and although he'll be representing the Mistral Academy of Haven, I'm sure his friends and family back in Vacuo will be cheering him along!"

"Oh, he. It's Sun. I almost forgot about him," Naruto remarked, leaning back into his seat. "Wonder what he's been doing."

"He and Neptune were doing Junior Detective jobs last time we talked to them," Ruby answered. Then she put her finger on her chin. "Although, Weiss sometimes talk abo-" The aforementioned Schnee covered Ruby's mouth with her hand, reaching over Yang to do so.

"Ruby, please do shut up."

"3! 2! 1! Begin!" Oobleck's voice resounded all throughout the coliseum. Looking at the arena, Naruto saw two rather interesting settings to choose from. For some reason, Neptune had climbed a giant rock on the enemy's side. That side was a desert full of rocky formations, while the other side was an ocean complete with a crashed pirate ship.

As entertaining as the fight was when it began, it quickly turned into a joke, and a somewhat large one at that. For one thing, Sun seemed to be the only one who wasn't goofing off, whereas, for example, Neptune just kept looking away from the fight happening in the oceanic area.

When the fight started, Neptune had immediately dashed past the other team, and climbed the rocks at light speed. After a brief dialogue of confusion, the four girls of Team NDGO charged towards him, with the rest of Team SSSN chasing them. Though it didn't take long for the fight to start, Octavia still had time to prepare for a dramatic leap out from behind a sand dune. Scarlet, whom she had leapt towards, attempted to cut her in half, only for her to duck under the blade as she slid past.

As she kept sliding along the ground, she passed by Sage and Dew, the former lifting his great blade over his head, and coming down with a mighty slice, which was rebuffed by the female's staff. They both skidded back several feet, creating a small, thin dust cloud. Apparently inspired by it, Dew began to revolve the end of her staff, creating several small tornados with wind Dust.

The three whirlwinds combined after spinning around Sage for a few moments, sucking him up into the much larger cyclone. The winds spun faster and faster, eventually flinging him from the arena entirely. Sun and Scarlet watched him fly out, before turning their attentions back to the girl in front of them, Octavia.

She spun around, slashing her sword towards them, creating a wave of fire that sped towards the two. Scarlet covered his face, while Sun ran in the opposite direction, calling up to Neptune. The blue-haired boy jumped down from his rocky vigil, right before Octavia slashed at him, too. He lowered his goggles over his eyes, shielding them from the sand that was kicked up.

From his impromptu sand cover, Neptune fired at Octavia. She raised her sword to block it, right after which Sun flew out from in front of the fake sun above the arena, delivering a neck-cracking kick to Octavia's face. She stumbled back several feet, obviously not pleased with the attack. She lunged back forward with her sword, which Sun countered with his staff.

He delivered several more attacks to her while she tried to recover from them, failing each time. Finally, Sun slammed the end of his staff into her face, sending her flopping along the ground, defeated.

"Oh, and we're down to three-on-three!" Port boomed. Sun looked over to his teammates, where Neptune was fighting two, and Scarlet was fighting Dew. Scarlet was swept up into a twister, and sent flying off towards the ocean area. Nebula and Gwen followed after him. In midair, Scarlet turned himself around, somewhat gracefully grabbing onto the mast of the pirate ship, and winding around it up onto the wooden beam.

Nebula fired her crossbow at the mast, lodging an arrow that she used to spring up to where Scarlet was. Her crossbow transformed into a sword, and she and Scarlet began to duel. Scarlet countered her horizontal swipe, but she brought the blade back around. This time, he ducked under the slash, then slashed upwards with his own sword to counter her bringing the sword back.

Mostly in frustration, Nebula head-butted him, to which he responded with a kick across the face. She swung to the other side of the mast, bringing her sword up to block Scarlet's follow-up. She raised her blade over her head, bringing it down, only for Scarlet to hold his blade against it, bent backwards. He grabbed the not-pointy bits, and pushed it upwards, slashing at her feet at the same time. She jumped over the haphazard attack.

He spun around, and elbowed her off of the beam, letting her fall into the sand below. Scarlet looked down at the battlefield to see Sun getting double-teamed. He pulled out his flintlock pistol, using the grappling hook in its handle to grab onto Gwen's foot, and hoist her up over the mast while he dropped down. Unfortunately for him, several throwing knives fell from the folds of her dress, right towards him. Somehow, he managed to dodge all of them.

Octavia leapt across the water at Sun, who improvised and slammed his fist into a tree, getting it to drop two coconuts. He lobbed them at the girl, only for her to slam her staff into them, hitting them so hard that they began to flame as they traveled back towards them. Sun precariously dodged each of them, only for them to go sailing straight into the unfortunate Scarlet's head and… other head. His Aura dropped incredibly, and he fell over in pain, unable to go on.

Sun muttered to himself, while Octavia smirked at him, as she created tornados of water, sending them towards the monkey Faunus. She dodged out of the way of each of them, trying to get Neptune to help him, while the other boy merely rambled about some lockdown, while Nebula freed Gwen from he hanging prison.

Eventually, Neptune shot Octavia out of the air over Sun, sending her into the water behind him. Her teammates dropped down next to her, while Sun shouted, "NEPTUNE!"

Eventually, the fight was concluded when Neptune carefully tiptoed up to the edge of the water, sinking his electric halberd into it, shocking all three of the remaining members of Team NDGO, all of whom were still standing in the water for some reason, rather than on the dry land right next to them, or trying to attack the two guys in the center.

Port's voice once again came through the system, "And with that, Team SSSN moves on to the doubles round!" Still on the speakers, he asked Oobleck a question. "You know what I call that victory?"

Oobleck's Yang-approved response was a pun, "Shocking?"

Port spoke in a deadpan, "No. Well-earned. What you said is stupid."

Naruto could have sworn he heard Oobleck whimper.

Elsewhere, in a dingy bar named the Crow Bar, the bartender commented on the outcome of the fight to his only customer, "Now that was a match!

The familiar looking man responded in a light slur, "Heh, that was a mess!"

"Come on man, you didn't like them, the Vale kids, or any of the rounds before that? What fight are you here for?"

The man looked out the entrance to the bar, seeing an elegant looking airship flying towards Beacon "That one... Happy Vytal Festival!" He called over his shoulder as he walked out.

"Well?"

"He's not fighting in Round Two."

"Hm… that's a bit of a shame… I had hoped to see more of his abilities."

Cinder closed her eyes, thinking to herself. No one had seen it, not even her, but for the briefest moment during the blond Faunus's fight against Team GNGR, she had felt the Maiden's power practically thrashing around at him. Not, of course, that it could actually do that.

But nevertheless, she wanted to see what he had done to cause such a volatile reaction as that. So this news that he wasn't going to be fighting in the next round was disappointing. Besides that, she still needed to select when to start her plan. She could do it when Mercury's opponent broke his leg, or she could find some other time… But when?

On top of that, there were still a few students she knew less than she wished about. The blond Faunus being one, the 'Invincible Girl' being another. One she would probably have to wait for, but she did want to know why this Pyrrha Nikos had such a glamorous title.

Which was why she'd had Emerald befriend Team RWBY. No doubt some of them knew about the redhead, no? And like mice, they fell right into the trap. During a 'friendly' spar, Pyrrha had demonstrated her Semblance in the form of lifting her shield off the ground without touching it.

Magnetism. And a girl subtle enough to hide it in the heat of battle. After figuring out what the semblance was, it was only a matter of time before Cinder had realized how she used it in a way that no one caught one. Thus, the glass swords she now possessed.

But while that was all well and good, it didn't really help her current conundrum any. She supposed that the leg-breaking would have to suffice for the catalyst for doomsday. A killing is what she really needed. For one of Beacon's students to kill another student, preferably from a different Kingdom. That oughta sway people's emotions.

"That concludes the matches for today. Please leave the Coliseum IN A CALM AND ORDERLY FASHION!" Oobleck boomed.

Yang was the first to recover from having her ears assaulted, "Come on, let's go find something fun to do."

"Wait, you don't think we should go congratulate them?" Melissa questioned. Yang shrugged, and began to walk off, followed by Melissa. The rest of them followed suit, until Weiss suddenly stopped, looking over at an airship flying past the arena.

"What are you doing?" Ruby asked, after bumping into her. With his years of intense, rigorous, gut-wrenchingly difficult shinobi training, Naruto was able to not take the two steps that would make him do the same to Ruby. Blake looked past him for why they had stopped.

When Weiss spoke, still watching the aircraft, she had something akin to joy in her voice, but mixed with strain, by the sounds of it, "She's here…"

"Who?" Naruto queried. Weiss ignored him, and just began to run to the exit. Ruby followed closely, leaving Naruto and Blake to question everything that had just happened before them.

"Well, I guess we could follow them…" Blake proposed. Naruto shook his head.

"Nah. I'm sure it's not our business."

"Really? You're not just a little curious?"

"Curiosity killed the cat."

Blake chuckled at the joke, "Whatever. Let's just go find Yang and Melissa."

And so, the two Faunus wandered off in the same direction as Yang and Melissa, intent on finding them, as Blake suggested. Since they knew where they were headed, it was much easier than perhaps it would have been otherwise.

"-with the fight, Sun," Yang was saying. It seemed they just met up as well.

"Thanks, Yang," replied the half-monkey.

"Yeah, nice job out there," Naruto added when he was close enough. Sun turned towards him, and for a moment, Sun had a distasteful look in his eyes, like he was looking at trash that someone had thrown on the ground randomly.

"Yeah, thanks," He responded indifferently. Naruto cocked his head at the tone. "Is there anything else?"

"Uh- No, just wanted to say good job," Naruto was confused. He had thought he and Sun got along fairly well. So he wasn't sure where the hostility was coming from. "Uh… bye, then."

Realizing he wasn't wanted at the moment, Naruto decided to simply wander off. Maybe he could find Ruby and Weiss. For that matter, where were Troy and Diana? Oh, well. Mysteries for later. For now, he did kind of want to find out why Weiss had been so distressed.

He knew she had been looking up at an airship, so the logical place to start looking was not, unfortunately, a ramen stand. He was getting hungry. No, instead the best place to start would be the docks.

But, when he went out, he couldn't find them. So, perhaps they were at Beacon's docks. Getting down by way of airship would take to long for his liking, so he merely stepped off the floating arena, dropping several hundred stories.

With chakra reinforcing his legs, Naruto slammed into the ground far below with little damage at all. From where he had landed, it was a short enough run to Beacon's docks. Soon enough, he was on the path to them, passing through the courtyard. As he did, he saw a conglomeration of people off near where the ships docked, wrapped in a circle.

He frowned, wondering why so many people would be gathered around. He would have to wait for the answer to that question, as a faint whiff of something had his nostrils caught. It was familiar, but not enough so that he really recognized it. He was close to the edge of the circle now, and could see a familiar white color inside it. He ran up next to Weiss, taking just a moment to register the similar looking woman next to her, and the Atlesian robots all around, including the two lying on the ground next to-

"Hey, Kid. Haven't seen you in a while," Qrow slurred, looking straight at Naruto. He was definitely drunk again. Naruto grinned at him, and answered perhaps more causally than was called for in this circumstance.

"Hey, old man. Where've ya been?"

"Hey! Don't ever call me old."

Weiss turned to Naruto, "You know him, too?"

"Yeah, he's-"

"Enough!" yelled the woman next to Weiss. She brandished a sword towards Qrow. "If you won't hold your tongue, I will gladly remove it for you!"

Qrow went back to cheekily smirking at her, "Alright then." He made a show of slicking back his hair with his hand. "Come take it."

Ah, another one done. Though it's a little shorter than I would like.

Until Chapter 16!