I'm feeling nice, so here's one more chapter before I fall completely into an unfortunate bout of Laziness/Writer's Block. Just can't make myself sit down and type for hours like I used to.

Alright… so, I know that the time skip was roughly 6 months or more, but I really don't buy that. That would mean that Blake spent 6 months or more on a boat to Menagerie. Sorry, but that doesn't seem probable.

Also, thank you to everyone who debated me on the points I made last chapter. No, seriously. The only thing that annoyed me about it was that most of you were guests, so I couldn't actually have a back-and-forth with most of you. You may have noticed I have actually removed the rant. That's because there were a few excellent points made throughout the 20 or so counterarguments that were posted that managed to convince me on a few topics that I brought up. Granted, I still hold a few of the same beliefs, but differentiating between Speed and Overall Power is important.

Chapter 20: A Change

Two months passed by rather quickly. Before she even knew it, Ruby and her friends were already trekking across Anima. Somehow, neither Yang nor her dad had caught up to them yet, leaving Ruby to believe that they hadn't followed the four of them. Either way, she needed to focus. Dashing through the forest was hard enough, even more so with a giant Grimm chasing her. She leapt off the final tree, turning and firing multiple shots, propelling herself even further out over the cliff she had just leapt off of.

Unfortunately, her bullets weren't designed to break apart solid stone, as this Grimm seemed to be made of. At a time like this, she felt a little jealous of people who could just break it apart with sheer force, like Yang or Nora. However, right now she couldn't waste time with jealousy. Instead, she needed to focus on the Grimm-

-that just fell off the cliff trying to hit her. Did it not see the drop? Ruby felt like shrugging, but was too busy falling alongside it, bouncing off of sturdy tree branches in the process. "Bad- Landing- Strategy!" She landed on the third branch in a crouch, then sped out of the way of the Grimm's attack with her Semblance. The giant stone arm took out most of the trees it slammed against, tipping several others as well.

The Grimm stood in a small clearing, one that it was slowly expanding with each attack. Jaune, Nora, and Ren. were watching from just outside the clearing. Jaune spoke first, "Let's get that thing off her!" Jaune ran off the right, trying to distract the Grimm, while Ren leapt into a tree, followed by Nora.

"We need to draw its attention away from Ruby!" Ren only just spoke when a cloud of rose petals flew past them.

Ruby called out as she passed, "Could use some help!" She sped past the Grimm, getting it to turn towards her and away from Ren and Nora. Nora shot several grenades at the Grimm, with each exploding against its back. Ren dropped down to the ground, where the Grimm attempted to strike him. Ren ran up its rock arm, flying into the air, and coming down near the Grimm's distinctive face. It brought its arms up to protect itself, just as Ren slashed with his weapons. The thick stone blocked the attack entirely.

Jaune yelled, "Gotta get in closer!" Just then, Ren landed beside him.

"My blades don't hurt him!"

Ruby yelled out in a war cry of sorts, "How about this?!"

She loaded a magazine of lightning Dust into her scythe, then sped in front of the hulking monster and fired it. The monster intercepted with its arm, causing electricity to arc up and down it for several moments. The Grimm slammed it into the ground, kicking up a shockwave in all directions, sending each of the students flying. Ren and Nora landed on their feet, while Ruby used her scythe to keep steady. Jaune, however, bounced along to ground until slamming into a rock.

Nora, frustrated, roared at the Grimm, "That's it!" She ran forward, tossing her grenade launcher into the air as it transformed into hammer mode. She grabbed it out of the air and leapt up at the Grimm. She gave a mighty swing, breaking its arm apart. The Grimm seemed to try to recall its stone arm, but just ended up sending large piece flying straight towards Nora, only for Ruby to get between the girl and the stone and slice it in half with her scythe. In retaliation, the Grimm tried unsuccessfully to attack Ruby and Nora.

A short distance away, Jaune stood and observed the Grimm. As he watched, the Grimm's armless shoulder began to glow a faint red, before a glowing red circle with a strange symbol in the middle of it appeared. The circle spun, and then a black, elongated arm with clawed fingers emerges from it. The arm reared back, as if to swipe in front of it. Jaune groaned, "Uh-oh." The Grimm shoved its new arm into the tree Jaune was leaning against and lifted it from the ground.

Jaune turned and ran, "His arm is a tree! His arm is a tree!"

Ruby smirked, "Big mistake!" She loaded a cartridge of fire Dust into her scythe, aiming at the wooden arm. She fired, hitting the arm right in the center. Jaune turned to face it and pumped his fist for a moment, before the Grimm brought the arm back around, but now on fire, and prepared to keep attacking the blond.

Jaune's eyes widened as he turned again and ran, "Big mistake!" The Grimm followed Jaune, swinging the flaming arm at him. It missed twice, but Jaune tripped as he ran. Just as the flaming tree was to be brought down on Jaune, a green dagger-pistol spun through the air and cut across the Grimm's mask, causing it to stumble backwards. Ren landed beside Jaune and caught his gun as it spun back like a boomerang. Ruby and Nora came up behind their teammates, ready to continue the fight. "Okay, how do we do this?"

Ren tried a suggestion, "His body is too thick to break through."

Jaune muttered, "It doesn't care about its body…"

Nora cut in, "Plus it can keep grabbing new limbs!"

"But it keeps protecting its face," Jaune pondered. "If we knocked all of its limbs off at once and went for the…" Jaune's eyes lit up with an idea as he turned to face his team. Behind him, the Grimm began to rise. "Guys, I got it! We hit it harder!"

Ren almost scoffed, "Is that it?"

"No, seriously!" Jaune insisted. "It's trying to keep us from its face. If we kill the limbs, we'll have a shot to kill the whole thing!"

"Alright! Come on, team, let's do this!" Ruby let out excitedly.

Nora agreed, "Yeah!"

Jaune began the orders, "Ren, left. Ruby, right." Ren leapt of to the left, and Ruby the right. "Nora, ready to try out the new upgrade?" Nora nodded with a grin and ran forward. "Right. And I will-" The Grimm's still-flaming tree-arm came down just behind him, knocking him off his feet. Ruby came in from the right side while Ren attacked from the left. Nora, meanwhile, activated a mechanism that sent a current of electricity across the hammerhead of her hammer. Jaune ran around to make himself a target, trying his best to distract the Grimm. "I'll take over here!"

The Grimm began to look from side to side almost furtively, trying to focus on one person out of the three attacking it. Nora charges her hammer even more and braces her feet, "Ready!"

Ruby landed next to Jaune after another of her attacks. "Use everything you've got!" Jaune ordered.

Ruby grinned, before she used her Semblance to fly at the Grimm, taking Nora with her, creating a pink-and-red swirl of petals and electricity, headed right for the flaming tree. Ruby sliced the tree in half, opening the way for Nora to smash the Grimm's face with her hammer. The colossal stone body fell across the clearing, and a geist-like Grimm rose up from where the face had been. Its face was identical to the mask that the stone giant had hosted.

Ruby raised her sniper rifle, and aimed for the Grimm. One well-placed bullet later, and tatters of Grimm dust scattered into the breeze, leaving behind nothing but a mound of stone and a tree that had finally stopped burning.

Several hours later, the four found themselves being profusely thanked by a mayor. They had been killing the Grimm for this town, after all. In exchange, the blacksmith was performing maintenance, and even spiffing up Jaune's weapon. That was why he hadn't had one in the encounter with the Grimm. After managing to convince the mayor that they didn't need any greater payment, the four made their way to the forgery, to collect Jaune's sword and board.

The blacksmith emerged with Jaune in his new armor, with his new weaponry, "He cleans up alright, don't you think?"

Jaune's old armor had been replaced with a more knightly looking chestplate of white metal, trimmed with gold, along with a shoulder guard on his left shoulder. On his hands, there were matching gauntlets. In his right hand he held his sword, but it had a much more regal appearance to it. His shield was changed in much the same way as his armor, trimmed with gold, reinforcing it. At the bottom, there was a design reminiscent of his late partner's circlet.

Ren agreed with the blacksmith, "He certainly does."

Nora scrutinized her leader, "I still think a grenade launcher would've really brought the look together…"

"Nothing's gonna stop Team RNJR now!" Ruby excitedly declared.

Nora corrected her, "Team JNRR!"

Ren sighed, "Still not a color."

Jaune cut in, "It doesn't matter what we're called. As long as we're together."

"You kids sure you won't stick around?" the blacksmith asked. "You've been real good to this town."

"Sorry, but we've got another mission." Ruby apologized.

"Make it to Haven Academy!" Nora cheered. "No matter what!"

Ren added, "We've heard the next village over has a working airship."

The blacksmith thought for a moment, "Hmm, no way to know for sure. Scroll signals were weak enough out here back when Beacon Tower was still up. Haven't heard from Shion Village in a while."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Ruby replied. Team RNJR/JNRR turned, and made their way out of the town. "Wonder what Naruto's doing?"

"Probably something crazy, like killing twenty Goliaths at once or something," Jaune answered.

"Don't be silly. I doubt Blake would want to spend any time fighting if she didn't have to," Ren debated, with a slight smile.

Ruby glanced at him, "Really? I thought she liked fighting… huh…"

Nora whispered to Jaune, "I don't think she got it."

Jaune frowned at his teammate, "Got what?"

None of them heard the snickering from the nearby robed figure.

A group like this one being focused on one person gave away one thing: That person certainly commanded respect. The kind of people making the group, the four seated around the table, in their chairs of bone, could only be guessed at. However, one might have been able to take a hint of what they might be like from the fact that Cinder was among them.

And yes, they were all focused on one person. This person, a woman of deathly white skin and red eyes, with vein-like lines spreading outwards from those eyes, stood with her back to the table around which the group of four sat. When she spoke, she had the rapt attention of the entire room, "Watts." The man with an exaggerated moustache and an expensive suit stiffened as she addressed him. The woman turned to face him, "Do you find such malignance necessary?"

Watts bowed respectfully, "I apologize, ma'am. I'm not particularly fond of failure."

The woman sat down at the head of the table, pausing for a moment, "Then I see no reason for your cruelty towards young Cinder. She's become our Fall Maiden, destroyed Beacon Tower, and most importantly, killed dear Ozpin. So I'm curious, to what failures are you referring?"

Watts had a moment of nervousness before he was able to answer, "Well, the girl with the silver eyes."

The large man next to Watts spoke up, "Yes. We've dealt with their kind before. How is it a novice was able to best one of us?"

Watts added, "My thoughts exactly. Even without her new power, it should have been effortless."

"It is because of the Maiden's power," The woman spoke. "Make no mistake, Cinder, you hold the key to our victory. But your newfound strength brings with it a crippling weakness. Which is why you will remain by my side as we continue your treatment."

Cinder lowered her head, refusing to show her unhappiness. Next to her, Emerald looked down at her in pity. Mercury gave no reaction, presumably caught up in wonder, horror, and/or fear of everything around him. The woman turned back to Watts, "Doctor Watts, you are to take Cinder's place and meet with our informant in Mistral."

Watts smirked at Cinder, "Very good."

The woman turned to the last member of their coven, "Tyrian, I want you to continue your hunt for the Spring Maiden."

Tyrian cackled maniacally, "Gladly."

The woman turned to the hulking man, "And Hazel, I'm sending you to the leader of the White Fang. Adam Taurus has arranged the meeting. The boy continues to prove loyal… Ensure that Sienna Khan feels the same."

Hazel bowed his head, "As you wish."

Cinder raised a finger, gesturing to Emerald. She leaned in to hear Cinder. Cinder rasped into her ear, her ability to speak having been drastically weakened when Ruby had unleashed the power of her silver eyes. Moments later, Emerald straightened. The woman looked to her, "Speak, child."

"She wants to know…" She hesitated. "What about the girl? And… um… the boy with the power of the Maidens?"

The woman seemed intrigued, "Oh? You have failed to mention this prior to now, Cinder. What is this news of a male with the 'power of a Maiden?'"

Cinder gestured again to Emerald, who spoke for her, "There was a… a boy, a Faunus, who Cinder fought. He… he could use attacks that only a Maiden could."

The woman crossed her hands in front of her face, closing her eyes for a few moments, "Interesting… Perhaps this would be a more prudent threat. I shall make note of him. For now, however… Tyrian, I want you to track down this silver-eyed girl. Bring her back here." She turned away from an excited Tyrian to face Watts, "Haven may wait. I want you to find any information you can on this boy."

When she had finished speaking, Emerald spoke for Cinder again, "Cinder says… um… well, she says she can take down the boy."

"Can you?" The woman questioned the Maiden. "We will not simply throw away this opportunity, Cinder. This is a chance to bring even more power to us."

Cinder bowed her head, hiding her frustration. Tyrian let out an excited cackle once more, before the group dispersed, respectfully bowing to the woman before they left. Only Emerald, Mercury, Cinder, and the woman were left. "I want to know more about this boy, Cinder."

It wasn't every day one sees a boat sinking. In fact, it's a rather rare occurrence to see, unless one spends much of their time of boat. However, it is a happenstance of enough frequency that there is, in fact, protocol that a crew follows when it does occur. For one, patching the hole as quickly as possible. In this instance, where near the entire side of the boat had been caved in and broken apart by the Grimm, that wasn't much of an option. That left the option of sealing the level where the water was pouring in. Given that the hole transcended multiple levels of the cruiser, that also wasn't an option.

Or rather, that hadn't been an option. Naruto was no engineer, but even he understood that simple principle: water make boat sink. Seeing no other option out of the plethora available to him, He chose perhaps the least sensible one. So now, instead of letting all the people on the boat drown, he used Sage Mode to locate all of the passengers, then he had a small army of clones to carry everyone. This 'small army' was actually about a hundred clones or so. The boat, since it was going to Menagerie, hadn't had many passengers. Not many people wanted to go to the home of the Faunus, it seemed.

Naturally, the people he was saving were grateful, if a little amazed at what he was doing. After all, how many people can walk on water or make an army of themselves? It only helped that he had had to travel a very far distance before they had found land. However, no one was sure where they were now. The only thing any of them could tell was that they weren't on an island, on account of how long the shore was. The boat had been between Sanus and Anima, so it was possible it could've been either one of those continents.

The captain was getting finished with thanking a sheepish Naruto, "Thank you, lad. I can't say it enough."

"Heh, heh. It's no problem. Will you all be ok now?" Naruto asked. The captain gave a nod.

"We'll have no trouble. We may not know where we are, but I'm sure someone has a scroll and a map."

"Alright, that's good." Naruto gave his goodbye to the captain, then went to where Blake was sitting, staring at the ocean. "You alright, Neko-chan?"

She glanced up at him, "I'm fine. I can't say the same for your clothes, though."

Naruto looked down at himself, studying his clothing. His orange jumpsuit was torn and ripped in various places. Presumably, it had happened while he was fighting the various sea Grimm that had attacked while everyone was being brought to safety, or even while he was defending the boat. His haori seemed alright, though. Gotta love that toad craftsmanship, and whatever seals they had used to keep it durable. He rubbed the back of his head, "Heh… guess I didn't notice it. I'll need a new one."

Blake raised an eyebrow, "It's pretty warm in Menagerie… When we get there, you'll want something less thick. I'm sure you could get away with just the haori and some pants."

"Really? Alright… but they need to be orange. And maybe… We should find someone who can work metal, too. I need to get something made. Or, remade."

"What is it?"

"A surprise."

"Oh… alright… So, I think we're on the edge of Anima. Those trees don't grow on Sanus." Blake emphasized her point by indicating several odd trees. "So if we're where I think we are, then there's a small town kind of far down the coast, but it's within walking distance. We can probably reach it by the end of the day, if we go now."

"Got it. Let's go!" Naruto took off running, slower than he would usually go, on account of wanting to let Blake keep up. Soon enough, she had caught up with him.

"We don't need to run, you know!" she complained. Naruto abruptly slowed to a walk, while Blake kept going for several feet. "You seem more energetic than usual, Naruto."

"Nah. I just think we should get there before dark," Naruto replied as they kept walking. "You said it's pretty far, and I need clothes. Mine are barely hanging by a thread."

Blake muttered something Naruto couldn't quite hear, then spoke up, "That's a bit of an exaggeration. They're not in terrible shape, they're just missing large swaths of fabric here and there."

"Blake, the entire bottom half of my pants is somewhere in the middle of the ocean, and a lot of the front of my jacket is there with them. They're in bad shape."

Blake gave an response, but Naruto didn't hear it on account of the sudden booming voice.

"Brat, do you sense that?"

'Of course I don't, Kurama. I'm not in Sage Mode.'

"You shouldn't need that… ability… to sense this."

'What do you mean?'

"Just use a little of my chakra for a moment, and you'll see."

'I can't do that right now. Blake's right next to me. She'd probably be a little alarmed.'

"You and your foolish humans bonds… Very well."

'Wait, so… what is it?"

"I'll tell you some other time. It's not a threat, not that I can tell. I think it's dormant."

'Ooooooooook…"

Naruto shook himself out of his mental conversation. Blake was staring at him oddly, "Naruto? Did you hear me?"

"Uh- sorry, I was talking to Kurama. What did you say?"

Blake furrowed her brow, "Who? Actually, never mind. I had asked you where you're from."

"Oh! I'm from Konohagakure, the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

"I've never heard of it. Where is it? What continent?"

"It was destroyed a while back. It's not on any maps."

"Yeah, you said that before, but where was it?"

"In the middle of nowhere, really." Naruto changed the topic, "So, what's your family like?"

Blake gazed at him suspiciously for a moment, "They're… Well, my dad is the chieftain of Menagerie, ever since he left the White Fang."

"He was a part of the White Fang?" Naruto questioned. "Is that why you were a part of it?"

"Yeah. I was basically born into it, thanks to my dad's position."

"What did he do in the Fang? Pass out flyers? Raid stores?"

"No, that was before they became what they are now. After he stepped down as leader, a violent man named Sienna Khan was chosen as the leader. He drastically changed its goals and ideals, and now it's branded a terrorist organization by the entire world."

"Your dad was the leader of the White Fang?" Naruto asked with quite some surprise behind it. "You never mentioned that before."

"Yes, he was. I, uh… wasn't very nice to them when they left. And I haven't seen them since, so this might be a little awkward."

"What about that bull guy?"

"Adam? He was one of the more promising recruits while my dad still ran it. After we were ordered to attack shops and rallies, he stood out as an exceptional fighter, and he was put into a leadership position. I got paired up with him after a while," Blake explained. "We ran missions for a while, and eventually… we got more involved in the partnership than we probably should have."

"So, what happened?" Naruto queried.

Blake sighed, "He started to lose himself in the Fang's methods. He took to heart our belief that humans are worthless, horrible monsters who bring nothing but pain to Faunus. He started to kill any human he could, as long as he could justify it to someone above him. I didn't want to be a part of that, so I left him behind and went to Beacon to hide."

"Why Beacon?"

"Because then I could become a huntress, someone who could take on the corruption and evil in the world and win."

"Corruption and evil, huh?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. He glanced off to the left, towards the sea. "Back before I left my home, I kept having to fight against a group known as the Akatsuki. They were obsessed with taking the Kyūbi for themselves, along with the other Bijū. I don't know what they planned to do with them, but anyone who had their Bijū extracted died. They killed a good friend of mine, and I almost lost myself to the Kyūbi when that happened."

"What's a Bijū? You've never mentioned them before."

Naruto hesitated. He had come this far, so he might as well keep going. Besides, it was Blake. If she didn't believe him, who would? "Bijū are the tailed beasts. There were, or maybe are, nine in total. The Kyūbi is one of them, the Nine-Tails. They're all very powerful beings who could have easily destroyed our villages."

Blake stared incredulously at him, "How is it that you answered my question but made me want to ask even more?" She sighed, "Never mind. How did your people deal with them?"

"Well, we had very strong huntsmen in our villages, like my dad. We would always keep the Bijū sealed away inside of people who were usually taught to control their power."

"Wait, I though you said that your dad was the only one who could seal them."

Naruto shrugged, "Nah. A lot of people were capable of it, at least when they worked together. Ero-Sennin was pretty good at it, too."

"So, what was a Tailed Beast, then?"

Naruto glanced at her, "This might take a while to explain."

"This is taking a really long time, Troy. Are you sure we can't just teleport or fly?" Melissa asked slowly, mostly focusing on not falling off the steep rock wall. Troy had insisted that they not use up any Aura or stamina using their Semblances to climb faster. They would apparently need them to fight a few Grimm.

"Yes, I'm sure. These Grimm may be very dangerous. We need to be on our guard."

"They're just Ursa, ya know. The shopkeeper was just guessing when he said there might be a Goliath, Troy." Melissa pulled her legs up to new footholds, steadying herself. "You don't have to be so serious."

"Sorry, but he knows where the White Fang camp is. I don't want to lose this chance."

"And that's great, but we're taking a really long time to get up this thing. Wouldn't it just be better for us to get up there quickly, then wait if we really needed to?"

"No. Besides, climbing this wall'll help build endurance."

"Funnily enough, I'm not concerned about that." She grabbed ahold of another rock that was jutting out of the wall, only for it to break under her grip. "Shit!" She quickly grabbed another one, stabilizing herself.

"Be careful."

"You know that there's no problem if I do fall, right?"

"Yeah, I know. We're almost to the top now. Get ready for a fight."

Only a minute later, Troy peered over the top of the cliff, met with the sight of no less than two dozen Ursa. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any Goliaths, so they were in the clear there. Melissa climbed up next to him, following his example of looking around. "It's only twenty eight Ursai. We can take them down easily."

"Not if we have to fight all of them at once. You're not great with your staff, and I don't think it would be a good idea for me to fight all twenty eight at once while you support."

"We can still take them. If you get into too much trouble, you can teleport away, and I can take out most threats from the air while you focus on other Grimm."

Troy hesitated, "…Fine." He hoisted himself up onto the top of the cliff. "But we'd better live through this. Diana's counting on us."

Melissa grinned, "Don't worry. Like Naruto would say, we're not giving up on our friend, and we're not dying 'til she's ok." She hovered several meter's away from the edge of the cliff, readying her rifle. Troy rushed at the nearest Grimm, jumping past it and quickly and efficiently slitting its throat. He whirled around upon landing, shooting three bullets into the open wound, killing it to death.

An Ursa lunged from behind, only to be blasted away by Melissa's cover fire. The ice Dust she was using froze its head in a block of ice. Troy charged towards another Ursa, sliding under its attack and stabbing upwards into its face. A round from Melissa made sure it wouldn't get up again. Troy leapt off of its dissolving corpse towards another one, passing over it and anchoring himself to it with his knives. He shot into the side of its head with one of them, then repeated it on the other side. Meanwhile, Melissa had frozen several of the Grimm that would have attacked her teammate.

Over half an hour later, all of the Grimm were dead to either a knife or bullet. Troy was doubled over, breathing heavily, while Melissa was sitting against a rock, too tired from using her Semblance for so long to even stand. Her Aura was almost completely gone. Troy had been right; it was a good thing they hadn't flown or teleported up here.

"Now I get why they don't send first years out against hordes of Grimm…" Melissa joked between breaths. Troy rolled his eyes, then fell back onto the ground, staring up at the sky. "So, are we heading back now?"

"Give…" Troy took a breath. "Give me a moment."

After a while, Troy walked over to Melissa and gripped her shoulder. Together, they disappeared. At the entrance to a small village, the air bent and fragmented as two people appeared. Troy stumbled, and Melissa held him upright.

A nearby huntsman took notice, and rushed over to help. Melissa thanked him, but he waved it off, "Don't worry about it. It's my job. What happened to you kids?"

"Half an hour against some Ursa. We did it for a shopkeeper in town here."

"Oh, so you're students? Well, I don't know if anyone's told you this yet, but welcome to Shion Village."

And we're done here. I'll see you all once I've clawed my way back from this lack of effort I feel like putting into everything.

Until Chapter 21!