Chapter 21: Anima

"Hm… Nothing here… it simply says he was a student… oh, what is this?" One Dr. Arthur Watts was scouring Beacon's records for information on the blond Faunus that the girl, Cinder, had mentioned. He had no idea why Salem had taken such an interest in the boy, but his orders still stood, and he wasn't so arrogant as to disobey the Queen. However, that didn't change the fact that Dr. Watts still saw him as only child. Why, even Cinder had been able to defeat him. He couldn't be that useful to them if even the girl could beat him, now could he?

But these thoughts of his were lost to curiosity the moment he began to look into the boy's history. While at first, he seemed to be an average student, little bits of information began to surface that made Watts question him. Ozpin had insisted on documenting everything, it seemed. This included an incident at Vale's docks, a mission labelled Village Destroyer, something called 'Sage Mode', and some seemingly unconnected documents about something called 'Kyūbi' and a village called Konohagakure. All of this was found in the boy' file, something that originally confused Watts.

A mere hour later, and Watts had copied everything from the boy's file, intending to not only give it to Salem, but also read himself. Specifically, he wanted to know how a mere student had taken on someone that Ozpin had labelled as a 'false god'.

Something else had caught his eye while he was searching. The boy, it seemed, hadn't existed until roughly the start of Beacon's school year. Ozpin had been looking into it, and Watts was curious enough that he would most likely continue the ex-headmaster's investigation.

He made sure that his scroll had finished extracting the files from the school's database before he unplugged it. The basement at Beacon echoed with the many sounds of the various Grimm above, and to be honest, it was a rather eerie collection of noises. But mostly, Watts just found them to annoyingly loud. He checked once again where the blond's dorm room had been, intending to head there next. Perhaps the boy's possessions could tell Watts something about him.

But as it turned out, the boy seemed to have left nothing behind. His teammates all seemed to have left various articles lying about the room, but the only thing that the boy seemed to have was a giant stuffed panda, for some reason, and a scroll that seemed as though it hadn't ever really been used. There was also an orange kimono in one of the closets, which was the only piece of clothing in it. Something about this boy was highly strange. He searched a bit more, but he only found a book with strange markings in it, as though it was written in code. Just in case, he took it with him.

Watts' next destination was the school's security center, where all the footage was stored from the various cameras on campus and in the Emerald Forest. Strangely, Ozpin had removed a number of them, and stored them in his personal database, which was protected by more than just a password. Of course, that didn't mean that it could keep Watts out. The footage was separated into two different folders, labelled Kyūbi and No Aura. Intending to watch them later, Watts downloaded them to his scroll, before he noticed that some of them were purposefully corrupted. As in, the headmaster would have had to manually introduce code into them that rendered them unwatchable. Watts took note that Ozpin seemed to have been overly fixated on this boy.

With no other relevant information at the school, Watts took his leave, looking over the various pieces of information he had already. Based on what he had read already, this 'Konohagakure' was apparently a village where the boy had lived, so perhaps he could find answers there. Smirking smugly to himself, he pulled up a map of Remnant on his scroll, thinking that he could be in the village in an hour or two.

"Alright, we cleared out the Ursa. Now tell us what you know about this White Fang camp," Troy demanded, one hand on the counter and the other near his holster, just in case. After all, they were dealing with an ex-White Fang operative. Couldn't be too careful, no matter what he was doing now. That was why they had taken a night to recover before confronting him again.

"Easy there. The camp's 'bout five or six miles north of here. And it's real fortified," the merchant answered. "I don't know why you'd want to go there. Back when I was in the Fang, it-"

He was cut off by a huge explosion echoing from the outside. "What in the- What was that?" he demanded, as if the two students before him knew any better than he did.

Melissa turned to Troy, "We should check it out!" He nodded in agreement, and they both rushed outside. There was a pillar of smoke rising from near the entrance to the town. "What's going on?" Melissa asked a huntsman who was rushing past.

"How the hell should I know? Look, either get to safety or come and help me!" he responded. Without a need to think about their decision, Troy and Melissa ran after him, towards the smoke. Perhaps it wasn't the best decision, but they were a future huntsman and huntress, and they had a job to do. Of course, they had second thoughts when four more pillars of inky black smoke appeared around the first, but it didn't deter them. They had seen far worse than some smoke, and they had lived.

Nearing the area that was clearly under attack, Troy and Melissa scaled one of the buildings close to them to get a better vantage. Melissa pulled her rifle off of her back and looked through the scope towards what was quickly becoming a battle. "It looks like bandits. And someone is using Dust attacks. Ya know, lightning and such. They're really good with them too."

"Can you get a good shot from here?" Troy asked.

"I can, yeah. But Troy, we need to get to Diana. We don't really have time for this."

"We have to at least try to help these people. We can't just leave them to these bandits."

"Well…" Before Melissa could continue, an ear-splitting shriek sounded from just outside the village. Melissa looked back down her scope towards the bandits, noting that they kept fighting as though they hadn't heard the Grimm. "It sounded like a Nevermore. Do you think they're trying to draw Grimm here?"

"I don't know," Troy scanned the skies around the village. "Wait… Melissa, tell me something. If that was a Nevermore, why isn't it flying towards us right now?"

His leader looked up, following his lead in looking around the air. "That's… weird. Maybe-" Once again, the Grimm's horrific shriek split the air, just before it broke through the tree line. Melissa was still looking in the air for the Grimm, but he didn't need Melissa's sniper to be able to see it, nor would he ever forget it. The sight of the creature burned its way into his brain, etching out a place amongst things he would like to never have to see again. As if on autopilot, Troy grabbed Melissa's shoulder, and the both of them vanished from the rooftop.

Troy hadn't teleported anywhere in particular, and they both of them suddenly found themselves hundreds of stories in the air, and falling fast. After a moment of disorientation, since she hadn't had any warning, Melissa grabbed onto Troy and began to float downwards much slower than before.

"What was that about?" she questioned. Troy shook his head.

"The Grimm. It was like a… like a… I don't even really know how to describe it. But… well, I learned to trust my intuition a long time ago, and it said to run," he answered, leaving Melissa rather confused. From their immense height, Melissa surveyed the landscape.

"Do you have any idea where we are, Troy?"

"No. We should be over Anima still, though." Troy looked around, then pointed off to the distance, "Yeah, see there? The smoke? That's Shion Village. Which means," he pointed to his left, "that way should be north."

"But… well, shouldn't we go back and help them?"

"Melissa, they have huntsmen that are much better trained than we are. I'm sure that they can handle it. And besides, Diana's waiting."

Melissa looked away, then spoke reluctantly, "Alright, fine. Let's go."

"So, where do we go now?" Naruto asked, since Blake knew more about the area then he did. He had already gotten his new pants, orange as he had wanted. They passed just over the tops of his sandals before they ended, making them just longer than his old pants. They had also visited the blacksmith, and Naruto had requested a piece to be made. Now that the sun was disappearing entirely beyond the horizon, Naruto was wondering where they were going to sleep.

"How come you're so attached to your cloak?" Blake asked abruptly, ignoring his question.

He looked down at it, "It's the last thing I've got from my old home. I don't really want to leave it behind." Then he thought for a moment, "Oh, yeah… I did have my teacher's old book, but I think I left that at Beacon. I'll have to go back and get it someday."

"Your teacher wrote a book? This isn't the perverted one, is it?" Blake asked warily.

Naruto laughed, a grin adorning his face, "No, it's not like that. This one was about a guy who fought to bring peace to the whole world, even though everyone kept telling him it was pointless. Ero-Sennin told me that it was apparently based on his own life as a huntsman."

"Really? So how come he stopped writing about that?"

"It didn't sell well, and no one read it. But Ero-Sennin never gave up his dream of peace, not even when he died."

"He died?" Blake suddenly looked concerned.

"Yeah, a while ago. I never mentioned that, did I?" Naruto pondered. "Pain killed him, before he destroyed my home." He clenched his fist, remembering getting the news. It had really taken him by surprise, although being able to kill Pain and avenge his teacher and village had brought a sense of satisfaction. He mentally shook his head, clearing it of the Sasuke-like thoughts.

"Oh… I'm sorry to hear that, Naruto."

"Don't worry about it. Anyway, where are we sleeping tonight? I don't think this place really has a hotel, ya know." Blake looked around, as if she hadn't realized that little issue.

"Yeah, I know that much. I just assumed we would keep going after we stopped here," she answered.

"I gotta wait for the blacksmith to be done, and he said he would only be able to do it tomorrow."

Blake sighed, "What is he making for you, anyway?"

"It's… well, it's something important to me."

The next morning, after a somewhat sleepless night in a few trees just outside town, Naruto and Blake stopped back by the blacksmith, and Naruto was pleased to find that his product had been completed. The blacksmith gave him a toothy smile, "Tha' was an easy piece, son. Jus' a bi' a metal an' some etchin'."

"Thanks," Naruto replied, walking out. Blake took one look at him.

"We waited for a headband?"

Naruto finished tying his new headband to his forehead, the symbol of Konoha etched into the metal adorning the black fabric. "Like I said, it's important to me. All of the huntsmen and trainees in my old village wore one, and I gave mine to Bangs and Bomb to use in my sword. That's why that symbol near the hilt is there."

"Huh… how come you never wore it before you got you sword?" Blake questioned. Naruto shrugged.

"I took it off, and I guess I just never thought about putting it back on. I don't think it would have felt right without knowing what happened to my village. But now… well, I'm the only one left from my home. Besides… Sasuke." Naruto grimaced, knowing that his friend would never be saved from the darkness now. "But I think I should honor my home's memory by wearing its crest on my forehead again."

He paused, looking back down from his forehead at Blake, "So, are we going to your home, now?"

She blinked, as if to focus on him, "Oh, uh- Kind of… we're headed to a port town nearby. We should be able to get there by the end of the week if we leave today."

"The- the end of the week? But- But it's only Tuesday… are we gonna walk for five days?"

Blake shrugged, stifling a laugh at his sudden loss of composure, "Yes, Naruto, we'll be walking for five days. It's not that big a deal. It's not like I'm asking you to walk all the way across Anima."

Ruby held up the map in front of herself, "So the next town is… uh-huh, uh-huh…" She lowered the map, "We're lost."

Jaune gave a small laugh, waving her off, "We're not lost. The next town is Shion. My family used to visit it all the time."

Ruby gave him an inquisitive look, "Oh yeah. Don't you have, like, four sisters?"

Jaune sighed to himself, and spoke quietly, "Uh, seven."

As Ruby giggled, Nora spoke up, "You know, that actually explains a lot."

Jaune turned to her after a moment, "Wait, what do you mean?"

Ruby cut him off, "So, what did you guys do there?"

"Oh, all sorts of stuff!" Jaune excitedly answered, as he pointed at the map in certain areas, "Over here is a great hiking trail, and over here is where we went camping all the time. I got my own tent because I was special." After a moment, he added on, "Also, so my sisters would stop braiding my hair."

Ruby gave a sly look, "Didn't like the look?"

Jaune proudly answered, "Yeah, they just kept doing pigtails, but personally, I think I'm more of a warrior's wolftail kind of guy."

Ruby spoke again after a moment of pause, "That's just a… ponytail."

Jaune shrugged, looking off, "I stand by what I said."

While Ruby and Jaune continued, Ren and Nora stopped, put off by something. Nora was the first to speak, "Uh, Guys…"

Ruby spoke as she looked up, "Huh?"

"What?" Jaune said nearly simultaneously, also looking up. Ruby lowered the map slightly as her attention was quickly drawn from it.

They were met with the sight of devastation. In several places, the road was burned and the road broken. Smoke was rising from multiple points in the village, and they could see a large building at the end of the road was falling apart. The lightposts were bent and broken, two of them lying flat on the ground. Nearby to them, there was a shattered watchtower, the top of it falling into itself. And, though they tried not to acknowledge it, there was a body lying near the entrance, and it wasn't moving.

Ruby dropped the map entirely, all four of them silently running into the village. As they ran, Nora slowed just a little, looking at the lifeless corpse as she passed it. Ren dropped his bag as he kept running. Ruby ran up to Jaune, followed by Nora, "There could be survivors!"

Ren had run ahead, and he called back, "Over here!" The rest of them followed after him, seeing the 'survivor' he was talking about. The man was still alive, but that seemed to be rapidly changing, judging by the blood flowing from a wound in the middle of his torso. Ren kneeled by his side and put his hand on his shoulder.

"A huntsman!" Ruby exclaimed, clearly horrified.

"What happened?" Jaune asked. "Who killed all these people?!"

The man coughed, a new little bit of red coating his hand, "Bandits." He coughed again, "The whole tribe. Then, with all the panic… Just hope-" he was cut off by a heavy fit of coughing, but he forced himself out of it, "Just hope those kids survived…"

"What kids? Ren questioned, seeming to realize the man's time was short.

"One of 'em-" Another cough, this time a generous amount of blood coming up. "He could teleport, appeared right in front of me, seemed-" Once again, he coughed up more blood than seemed healthy. "like good kids and fighters. Hope they…" His voice died alongside him, and his hand dropped to his side. Ren stood, turning away from the corpse, hands on his head.

Jaune, Ruby, and Nora turned way as well, as though thinking it was disrespectful or vile to speak in front of the body. Nora spoke first, "Should we… bury him?"

Ruby spoke next, about what he had said, "That sounds like Naruto's teammates. We should try to find them. They could help us."

Jaune shook his head, "Ruby… this guy looked like a trained huntsman. If he couldn't survive…" he trailed off, leaving Ruby to finish his thought mentally.

Ruby looked down, "But- But he even said it! He could have teleported away from danger!" Jaune closed his eyes.

"Ruby…"

Ren strode past them, "We should go. It's not safe here."

Nora followed him after a moment, while Ruby and Jaune just looked to the dead huntsman. Ren stopped suddenly, looking at the ground, his eyes widening. Nora stood next to him, and she followed his gaze. After only a moment, her eyes also widened, as she too recognized the print in the ground.

Jaune and Ruby moved on, with Ren and Nora joining them soon. Ruby still looked conflicted, like she wanted to search for, at the worst, the bodies of her friends. But she was still determined to think that they were alive. "Maybe they're still around here somewhere," she supposed. Jaune shook his again once again.

"Ruby, just… just keep going. If they were here, then they'll be long gone. Even if they did survive, then Troy probably teleported them miles away by now." Ruby looked away, upset at the thought. Truthfully, she wanted to see more friendly and familiar faces. It had been so long since she had seen her sister, or Naruto, or Weiss or Blake. She missed them, honestly.

Though none of them knew it, Nora's request to bury the huntsman was granted. A brown-robed figure stayed just long enough to give the man a warrior's burial, then continued their work of the last few weeks. That is, they followed along behind Team RNJR, tracking them across the continent of Anima.

Though Emerald was fearful of her duty, she still spoke for Cinder, telling the Queen everything that Cinder was croaking to her, "She says that… that he can most likely fly, because he broke through a window at the top of Beacon Tower." Emerald leaned down once again, then stood up after a moment, "And… and he made a clone of himself, and then created a shuriken out of Aura. After that, he threw the shuriken at her."

Salem gave Cinder a doubtful look, "Child, what you are telling me… is that this boy, this Faunus, has the powers of someone in a storybook. Those are the kinds of powers that only a legend would ever speak of. A very old legend, at that. I find it hard to believe, but very well. Perhaps Dr. Watts will be able to tell us more once he returns." She stood up, and strode to a window, gazing down at the Grimm-spawning landscape. "Until then… we shall begin your treatment."

Cinder shivered to herself, apparently knowing what this 'treatment' would entail. Salem came back to her seat at the head of her table. She looked up at Emerald, "You, child, may wait with your comrade." Emerald took her chance, and stood by the door with Mercury. Salem turned back to Cinder, "Do you feel it? Don't fight it, girl. It can sense your trepidation. You must make it dread you."

A soft clicking sound drew Cinder's towards the door. From the blackness beyond the meeting hall, a jellyfish-like Grimm emerged, seeming to glide through the air towards Salem and Cinder. Emerald and Mercury backed away fearfully, pressing themselves against the door to stay as far from it as possible. It hovered its way over to Salem at the head of the table. When it reached her, Salem leaned closer to Cinder. "Cinder, I am going to ask you this one more time, and I expect a clear answer. Did you. Kill. Ozpin?"

Cinder opened her mouth multiple times, frustrated at her inability to speak. She held her arm up, about to call Emerald over to speak for her, when Salem angrily slammed both of her hands onto the table, eyes glowing as she spoke, "No!" Cinder lowered her arm in fear, while Salem leaned back slightly, "I want to hear you say it."

Cinder tried again, several raspy groans coming before, with a dry voice, she spoke, "Yes."

Salem studied at her for a long moment before speaking to the Grimm by her side, "Reinforce our numbers at Beacon. The relic is there."

The Grimm slowly drew away. When it reached the door, Emerald and Mercury drew away from it just as they did before. Salem looked away from Cinder, holding her hand to her mouth in contemplation, before she spoke, seemingly to herself, "What are you planning?"

Finally, I get off my lazy ass and then sit back down to write another chapter of this… *internal sigh*

I was originally going to post this along with the rewrites of Chapter 16, 17, and 18, but 1. I haven't completely finished them yet, and 2. I feel that you guys have waited for this for long enough. And by long enough, I mean about two days more than you should have had to.

Although- and fair warning here- you probably shouldn't expect one for at least two weeks. I haven't really shrugged off this damn Writer's Block. In other words, writing this chapter felt like a chore, and wasn't all that enjoyable. And when I don't enjoy writing whatever it is I'm writing, that's typically reflected in the quality of the chapter. I think this one's ok, but who can really say?

That said, I have two very basic ideas for RWBYxNaruto crossovers, but I don't want to start two different stories right now. Maybe one day, but not now. Check my profile for the poll. That's right, this one's up to you guys.

Until Chapter 22!