Chapter 28: Truth

Naruto felt a cold breeze pass by, for the third time in the ten minutes he'd been waiting. He was leaning back against the wooden railing of the deck, eyes closed, looking very relaxed. Blake still hadn't emerged from the interior, so he hadn't moved. Though by now, he couldn't quite remember why he had wanted to talk to her. Or, rather, he knew, but he had forgotten why it seemed so pressing. It didn't change much, did it? No matter if this was the future or an alternate world, it didn't change his situation, and it didn't change that he had friends here now.

So he didn't know why he had thought that this was so pressing an issue. However, his thoughts were interrupted when Kali came around the corner, eyebrow raised. When she saw Naruto leaning against the edge, she cocked her head, "I thought you were going to talk to Blake?"

He nodded, looking at the door, "I thought it would be rude to interrupt them."

Kali smiled, and glanced at the door, "Well, we might as well do it anyway, right?" She walked right up to the door, without any hesitation, and threw it open. Then she stepped out of the way so that anyone sitting in the study would only be able to see Naruto leaning back against the railing.

Blake stood immediately upon hearing the sound of the door opening, and turned to stare at him, "Naruto?! What are you doing?"

Naruto glanced at Kali, who was trying not to laugh. He sighed, "Nothing. I was waiting here for you to be done talking."

Blake stepped around the couch, coming towards the door and towards Naruto. She stopped just in front of him, and frowned at his left sleeve. "What happened to your sleeve? Actually, better question, why are you wearing another kimono?"

He looked down, and saw that his sleeve had been burned badly by the electric whip earlier. He shrugged, looking back up, "There was someone in the woods, spying on the house. Someone in the White Fang named Ilia."

Blake stiffened, staring at Naruto with all seriousness, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. She had a whip thing. It burned my sleeve."

She glanced at her parents. Her mother looked worried, while her dad seemed furious. She faced Naruto again, "Did you find out why she was spying? Naruto shook his head.

"She didn't say. Just that that Adam guy sent her."

Blake scowled immediately, "Adam? Again? Can't he just leave me alone?" She closed her eyes. "Alright, fine. If he wants to see me, then he'll get to. Naruto, we're going to go after him now." She turned to face her parents. "Mom, Dad… thanks for everything. But we need to go now. We'll come back."

Her father nodded solemnly, and looked at her with a sort of pride shining in his eyes. "You take him down, Blake." Kali nodded in ferocious agreement. Then, with a glint in his eye, he continued, "And when you do, I'll make sure everything's ready for the wedding when you to get here!"

Suddenly, all the seriousness of the moment drained, as Blake blushed a deep red and her parents both laughed. Naruto grinned, stifling his own laugh. Blake shook her head, then turned to Naruto, "How soon can you be ready to go?"

"As soon as you are."

Blake grinned back at him, "Good. Go get your stuff, and be ready to go."

Naruto nodded, and ran back inside. He reentered the bathroom, finding his haori was now hung neatly and freshly washed. Kali was efficient, he had to admit. His pants were folded under it. He took off the kimono, put on his pants, and threw his haori on. He strapped his weapons pouch to his belt, and his chokutō to his side, and put his sandals back on. He was ready to go.

He exited the bathroom, finding Kali walking down the hallway. She stopped and stared at him for a moment, "Oh. Well, I was going to tell you that your clothes were washed, but you clearly found that out." She glanced behind herself, then back at him. "Hey, can I ask that you make sure Blake stays safe? I know she can handle herself, but Adam is out of her league. She can't take him on. Just… make sure my baby girl comes home, ok?"

Naruto nodded, and gave his signature thumbs-up, "It's a promise!"

Suddenly, Kali embraced him, "Thank you, Naruto Uzumaki." She turned away quickly, but he still had time to see the tears in her eyes.

As Naruto waited by the front door, he meditated. Well, it looked like meditation. But in reality, he was thinking back to the Fall of Beacon, to everything he had seen Adam do. The guy was quick, he knew that. But he had also absorbed the Rasengan. So, maybe he had some kind of absorption Semblance, where he absorbed energy and returned it. Based on his follow-up attack, it was something like that.

With any luck, there was a limit on how much energy he could absorb at once. It would make it easier to beat him.

Out of the blue, there was a knock at the door. Naruto glanced at it cautiously, in confusion. This late at night, he wasn't sure who might have been at the Belladonna's door. He stood up, one hand on his sword's hilt, as he stepped cautiously to the door, resting his hand on the curved hilt for a moment before throwing it open.

Before him, there was a complete stranger.

Watts scowled at Cinder, disapproving of her presence as he gave his report to Salem. But, nonetheless, he needed to report all of his findings to her. So, he told her about the village, and about its history. He also included that he thought that the boy's parents had some connection to the village. After all, why else would he have a name that was only found there?

His report took him over an hour, as he wanted to cover all of the details. Including how the extremely old village still had paper in at least one of their desks, which he had brought back. He gave Salem several of them, just to back up his report. He was hopeful that he would be allowed to continue looking into it, since it was connected to the boy. But more importantly, he himself wanted to keep studying the old village's history.

"So, I think that the boy is nothing special on his own. I believe that the village itself merits further study," Watts finished. Salem sat with her eyes closed, and her hands crossed in front of her face. Cinder was scowling at Watts, having seen what the boy could do firsthand.

"How can you be sure, with what Cinder here has told us?" Salem asked, opening her eyes. "According to her, the boy had tremendous power."

"Yes, I'm sure he does. But I don't think it is unique to him. As I said, he had told the old headmaster about something called 'Sage Mode.'

"And yet, we've never seen this power before. You shall continue your search for the boy, Dr. Watts. You may return to the village after you've brought him-"

Salem was interrupted by the sound of doors slamming open. Trailing blood across the floor, Tyrian came stumbling in, hunched over as red dripped from his abdomen. He was incoherently muttering to himself, and he wouldn't look up.

Salem glared for a moment, "Tyrian!" His head shot up. "Where is the girl? And what happened to you?"

He fell to his knees, burying his face in the ground. His voice came out muffled, "Oh, please forgive me, your Majesty! It was that Branwen… he protected the girl. He and a stranger. They had to work together against me… But I still wounded her, the girl. She's weakened now, she won't fend off another attack."

Salem regarded him with a very passive gaze, "Very well. You have failed me, Tyrian. Now, leave us."

Tyrian pitifully picked himself up off the floor, and limped his way out, holding his head the entire time. Salem turned back to Watts, "As I said, you may return to that village after you have brought the boy to me. He may either be a formidable ally or a dangerous foe. I will not allow him to become a dangerous foe. He will join us, or he will die."

"Of course, my lady."

"You are dismissed."

Watts turned on his heel, shot Cinder one last dirty look, and left the hall. He was off, it seemed, to finally track down this boy, and bring him to Salem. If only he knew where to start looking. After all, the boy could have been any number of places. He might have been in Vale, or on his way to Haven. Maybe he was elsewhere, like fighting the White Fang, as those hero types seemed to enjoy.

Perhaps he should start with any sightings of unusual power.

"Naruto Uzumaki?" the man asked, staring at the blond. Naruto didn't rest his grip on his blade, but he nodded anyway. "Good. I need to talk to you again."

"Ok… But who are you?" Naruto asked. "And why do you sound familiar?"

"You don't remember?" The man looked down at himself. "I suppose I look different from the last time you saw me… Hm… Very well. I'm Imperius. We met back when you had your first mission."

"Oh, right. I remember you," Naruto nodded, letting go of the door. "What're you doing here?"

"I had need to talk to you. I need… answers. Something about you is familiar, but I'd never met you before."

"Ok… but I've never met you before, either. What kind of answers, anyway?"

Imperius paused, looking down. "We all have a place we come from, a place we call home. But for me… I have no idea where I started. My first memory is stumbling away from…. A destroyed town." He hesitated as he said it, like he wasn't sure. "But before that, nothing. No childhood, no learning how to fight, not even how I got there. But you… you're familiar. You remind me of something that I can't remember." Naruto raised an eyebrow, but didn't speak. "So who are you, Naruto Uzumaki? Where did you come from?"

Naruto looked back inside the house, down the hallway. Blake wasn't coming yet, so he turned back. "I'm from a village called Konohagakure no Sato. Does it sound familiar?"

"… Yes, it does… but I don't like the sound of it. Where is it located?" Imperius had an uncomfortable look in his eyes, like a bad memory.

"The Land of Fire. Back home," Naruto replied simply, still eyeing the man suspiciously. These questions made no sense, and there was a sense of trepidation that he felt from talking to Imperius. His instincts told him that he should distrust him.

"But where? Who are you?" Imperius repeated, a bit desperately. He put his head in his hands. "You're someone I should know. But where from?"

Naruto felt glad that he hadn't relaxed his grip on his sword. "I don't know who you are. I never met you before that mission." Naruto subtly slid his foot into a defensive position, just in case. He wasn't sure how desperate this man would be for answers.

Imperius closed his eyes, and sighed. Without opening his eyes, he continued, "Ozpin specifically told me to stay away from you. Did you know that? That means that you and I have some sort of connection. And I will find out what it is." He opened his eyes, and Naruto met them. Then he did a double take, at least mentally. He could have sworn… it must have been his imagination.

"What do you want here?" Naruto asked, probing. Imperius shook his head.

"Nothing else. I'll see you again, Naruto Uzumaki. I must… know." He turned away, and walked down the stairs slowly. He didn't look back at all, but Naruto kept watching him just in case.

He was after something more than just a memory. It was as though he had lost his entire being. And yet, Naruto had a gut feeling that told him that that was probably for the best. He shook his head, and returned to his seat, closing the door again.

Soon enough, Blake came out of the hallway, looking around for him. When she spotted him, she gestured for him to follow. He walked with her, as she began to speak, "Here's the plan: We're going to find Ilia. Then we're going to find out where those other two are. And then, we'll make them tell us where Adam is. We're taking him down, once and for all. Got it?"

Naruto nodded firmly, not pointing out the flaws in that plan. For one, there was no guarantee that the other two would know where Adam was currently. For another thing, there was no way to know if what they said would be accurate. But mostly, he was worried that Blake might go too far.

"Now's not the time to worry about that, brat. Bloodshed might help her on her revenge quest…"

'Shut up, Kurama. I'm not gonna let her kill these guys for no reason.'

"Is it really for no reason? They're White Fang, aren't they?"

Naruto didn't respond, not having any way to. They were part of the White Fang, yeah. And they had shown that they were supportive of Adam's mission. They weren't innocent, not by a long shot. But then he looked at Blake, and he saw the rage on her face, kept well hidden from most. But she couldn't hide it from him, not with his training, and not with how he knew her.

'I'm not going to let her kill them. If it comes to it… I'll do it.'

"Oh, you will? You've never actually killed anyone, either. Besides that blue-haired woman and Pain, you've got no blood on your hands at all. And I was really the one who killed Pain, so you've only ever killed once. Do you think you'll be able to stop her by killing defenseless prisoners?"

Once again, Naruto didn't respond. He refused to let Kurama get into his head like that. Looking a bit foolish, he shook his head, though Blake didn't notice anyway. He stared straight ahead, still following Blake, even though she couldn't have any idea where to go.

"She… I don't know where they might have a hideout," Blake admitted, still walking. "They won't be easy to find, so we might be out here for a while."

Naruto nodded, keeping his senses open for any noise or movement in the blackness of the nighttime. But here could only hear their footsteps and the sounds from millions of insects overlaying one another. Nothing was out of place. Then again, why would anything be? Ilia had been terrified of Naruto, running in fear the second she could. She wouldn't have exactly rushed to come back.

"Be careful, Naruto. Ilia is a lot more agile and deadly than she comes off. If she wants to kill you, she won't play around. She'll go straight for the killing blow. Keep an eye on her."

"Yeah, I know… But don't worry about me, Blake. You focus on taking her down."

Blake nodded, and they both continued walking, heading down the main street as though they had a specific destination in mind.

Naruto paused, looking up, "Any idea where to start?"

I don't actually have any good way to end this chapter, so to hell with trying to bullshit my way to one. Sorry, again, for how long updates have taken. To be honest, it's not going to get better any time soon.

Until Chapter 29!