Yes this is a new chapter, scroll down halfway if you already read this part.
Two days after his talk with Weiss, Natsu was happy to see that the heiress and his little sister were on much better terms. They were not best friends by any means, but given a few weeks Natsu wouldn't be surprised if they became such.
That day had been their first combat class with Ms. Goodwitch, who for some reason seemed to hold some kind of thinly concealed hatred for him. Because combat class was a physical class, Ms. Goodwitch had briefly gone over the class guidelines and immediately began calling random pairs down to spar.
One of the pairs called down happened to be Jaune Arc of team JNPR and Dove Bronzewing of team CRDL. Without going into the details of the mockery of a fight it was easy to see that Jaune stood absolutely no chance from the get-go. He overreached when he swung his sword, he was knocked off balance every time he used his shield, and he almost tripped over his own feat every time he dodged. It was a really sad sight.
After class was dismissed, Jaune had wasted no time in exiting the room, his head down and an aura of depression clinging to his form. Seeing the team leader in such a state had made Natsu give a drawn out sigh as he came to a conclusion. He would help the blond learn to fight. While the two did not know each other well, seeing as they were not part of the same team and had no prior interactions before Beacon, Natsu could not just look the other way when the guy clearly needed help. Plus he was a friend of Pyrrha's, and a friend of Pyrrha's was a friend of his.
With this in mind, Natsu quickly followed the knight themed huntsman in training, intent on lending his services to the boy.
"Jaune!" Natsu called out to the blond.
Hearing his name, the boy in question stopped his depressed walk and faced the one calling him. "Natsu?" He questioned, "What's up?"
Deciding to not beat around the bush (as if he ever did) Natsu stood in front of his friend and bluntly told him, "Your footwork back there sucked. Now were going to fix it, come on."
"Wh-What!?" Jaune cried as the red eyed teen began to drag him in the direction of one of Beacon's many training fields.
"Just what I said, your footwork when fighting Dove was terrible. Now in the forest you came up with a plan to help take care of the Nevermore almost instantly so I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say you got in because of the theory portion of the entrance exam not the physical one, right?" Getting a hesitant nod from the Arc Natsu continued, "Right, some of your biggest problems when you were fighting Dove was that you couldn't hold your ground when blocking and couldn't keep your center of balance when dodging. Luckily for you both of those things can be fixed at least in part with better footwork, something I'm a master of."
"Um, what do mean by 'footwork'?" Jaune asked him.
"How to plant your feet to give yourself the most power behind your blows, how to be able to take the most force without being knocked on your ass, and how to move without tripping or leaving yourself open." Natsu explained to his fellow teen. "Also, while I admit to not being on Pyrrha's level, I could also help you with your over reaching problem when you use your sword." He offered.
Jaune looked down at his feet upon hearing the Dragon Slayer's words, "Why would you help me? You already know how pathetic I am." He said to the pinket.
"No one starts out as a master Jaune, and besides you're both Ruby's and Pyrrha's friend so I can't just leave you out to dry now can I?"
Hearing Natsu's explanation cheered Jaune up slightly but also raised a question in his mind, "I know Ruby's your sister, but how do you know Pyrrha anyway? You two seem pretty close."
"We met at an inter-kingdom tournament a few years back when we were paired to fight each other. As for why we're so close, well, have you ever heard the term 'Friends with Benefits'?" He asked Jaune.
In response the blond's face took on a deep red hue as he stuttered out, "Wait! You and Pyrrha..!?" Jaune couldn't bring himself to finish his sentence.
By that point they had reached an empty training field so Natsu let go of Jaune's arm as he turned to face him, "Yes Jaune, me and Pyrrha are sleeping together. What did you think we did when she didn't come back to your guys' dorm the first night?" From the look on the poor boy's face, it defiantly wasn't that. Shaking his head Natsu walked to the center of the field motioning for Jaune to follow him, "Whatever, let's get started shall we?"
Two hours. Natsu had drilled Jaune in basic movement exercises for two hours straight. "*Pant pant* Why *huff* couldn't we *weez * have started with *cough cough* how to block?" questioned Jaune while lying sprawled on his back gasping for air.
"Right now you are barely stronger than the average teen, if you tried to block a strike from someone like Cardin, or Mavis forbid Yang it wouldn't matter how solid your feet are, you would be blasted off them and your arm would most likely crack if not outright shatter from the blow. So until you either beef up a bit or learn to channel your Aura into your bones and muscles, we're gonna go with you simply not getting hit at all instead of learning how to properly take one." Natsu explained to his unofficial student.
Jaune didn't know what he meant by channeling his Aura or who this 'Mavis' person was, but he could certainly agree with not wanting his arm to be broken so he simply dropped his head back onto the trampled grass and didn't argue.
Seeing the state Jaune was in, Natsu knew they wouldn't be getting any more work done that day so walking over to his prone form he held his hand out for the blond to take, "That's enough for today, we'll continue tomorrow. Now come on dinner's starting soon, we don't want to be late." He told him.
With a shaky nod, Jaune took his new teacher's hand and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet before following the red eyed teen to the cafeteria his legs protesting every step of the way.
"Where have you guys been?" Yang asked the duo when they joined the rest of their group for dinner.
"Training." Natsu simply told her.
"Oh, are you planning on learning how to use a sword Natsu?" Pyrrha asked her friend.
"Um, he's actually the one teaching me…" Jaune shyly corrected.
"Really? You never struck me as a martial arts user Jaune. Why the sudden interest?" Ren asked his leader.
"I'm not learning martial arts, Natsu's teaching me how to dodge." Jaune explained to the pistol user.
"Back to basics huh?" Yang asked him, "Yeah after we found out what my semblance was I completely dropped that part, when Natsu here found out I was just tankin' every blow sent my way he was pissed. If he plans on training you like he did me you better be ready for a lot of bumps and bruises Lady Killer, my little bro doesn't really know the meaning of 'holding back'."
"Pot meet Kettle" Ruby murmured under her breath while nibbling on a cookie.
Blake snorted quietly when she heard what her leader said, even with only knowing Yang for a few days, the cat Faunus could certainly see how accurate such an accusation was. And speaking of accusations… Blake remembered the night before initiation, how Natsu said he could 'smell' that she was a Faunus, and that he himself was human. This was something she just couldn't believe. Even after spending several days at Beacon, no one other than him even suspected her true heritage, not even the other Faunus she had come across the last few days. There had to be another way that Natsu could tell she was a Faunus, no human should have been able to tell the truth about her from smell alone if a Faunus couldn't. If he even is human, Blake thought to herself, looking over at the pink haired boy. He doesn't look that much like Yang at all so is he even really her brother? Or is he a Faunus that was adopted by her parents? There was an easy way to find out actually, all she had to do was ask him. "Hey, Natsu?" Blake addressed the fanged boy, another point for him being a Faunus. "Can I talk to you after dinner? There's something I wanted to ask you."
"Huh? Oh, sure Blake, where?"
"Meet me by the fountain when you're done, I need to go grab something first." She told him, picking up her now empty tray and ignoring the knowing look on her partners face, Blake left the others to finish their meals, all the while pretending not to notice Natsu staring at her ass as she walked away.
Damn… Natsu thought, that is one grade A-"OW! What was that for?" Natsu asked while rubbing his arm where his twin had just punched him.
"Just to remind you, no touching." Yang told her brother.
"What are you talking about?"
"Oh come on little brother, a girl just asked to talk to you privately, at night, by fountain. How dense can you be?"
Oh yeah, she doesn't know I can sense emotions… and that I'm not a virgin. "I seriously doubt she wants to talk about what you're thinking Yang, get your head out of the gutter." Natsu told his sister.
"We'll see." Was all Yang said in response.
Having finished his food, Natsu just stood to leave with a grumbled, "Weirdo" directed toward his sister. Lets go see what Blake wants.
The sun was just beginning to set as Natsu walked up to Beacon's memorial fountain to meet with Blake. The fountain itself was made of white stone and surrounded a statue of the Academy's founders, whose names Natsu had never bothered to learn.
Sitting there on the ledge of the fountain with her head down was Blake Belladonna, the cat Faunus that was too afraid to let her true self be seen, and so kept who she was hidden behind a little black bow.
"Did you tell your team at least?" Natsu asked the girl sitting down next to her.
"With a Schnee as part of it? Not likely." She responded not looking up.
"They will find out sooner or later, if you don't tell them now it will only cause more damage when they learn the truth." Natsu told her mournfully.
"I'm careful enough that they won't find out unless someone who already knows tells them. And while we're on the topic, that's actually the reason I wanted to talk to you." Blake said as she finally turned to face the Dragon Slayer.
Raising an eyebrow, Natsu waited for her to continue. "How were you able to tell I was a Faunus? You claim to have smelled cat on me, but you also say you're human. I want the truth, how did you know? Are you really a Faunus as well?" She questioned him.
Slowly breathing out through his nose, Natsu contemplated how to answer her. I can't tell her the truth, she would never believe me and would just cause more problems, but I really am human and I did find out because of her scent. She can try to hide it but a Dragon's nose can't be fooled. "I was only able to smell you when I was specifically searching for the smell of cat. Your bow twitched while my sisters were arguing with Weiss, after that I just put the pieces together."
"Then how come none of the other Faunus have been able to tell what I am? Even if you could only find out when looking for it the nose of a Faunus if far stronger than a human's." She rebutted.
"How do you know they haven't? For all you know they could just be respecting your decision to hide and are leaving you alone." Judging by the way Blake's eyes widened when he said that, Natsu guessed such a thing had not occurred to the cat Faunus.
Steeling her resolve, Blake spoke again, "You still haven't told me, are you really human? Or are you a Faunus like me?"
"You're on a team with both my sisters and know for a fact that they are human, why would you think I was any different?" Natsu asked in turn.
"You three look absolutely nothing alike meaning there is a possibility that one of you or all of you are siblings through adoption and not by blood."
Hearing the girls reasoning, Natsu chuckled lightly, "Yang and I are twins while Ruby is our half-sister. Yang looks like our mother with our dad's coloring while I look more like a mix between the two. Ruby looks practically like a clone of her own mother. And before you ask, my mom doesn't have pink hair, I dye mine like this; it's naturally black."
His answer seemed to appease the golden eyed girl next to him, but Natsu could still feel her caution toward him, it was obvious she didn't trust him. "How do I know you're telling the truth?" She asked him.
"Two ways, you can either ask Yang and Ruby if what I told you is true. Or…" Calling upon his magic, Natsu raised his right hand palm up and willed one of the many magical flames he knew of to form, a light blue almost silver flame to be exact "you can look into this, and see for yourself. It's called the 'Flames of Memories'. Traditionally water or earth is used as the catalyst for viewing memories, but this will work just as well." He told her.
Blake herself was shocked at what she was seeing, she knew that Natsu could control fire, but something like this… "How are you able to do this? Something like this shouldn't be possible for a combat type Semblance like yours."
Natsu couldn't help but smirk at her question, "I never told you what my Semblance was did I?" he asked her. Getting a confused look form the girl Natsu decided to elaborate by telling her the story he'd come up with to hide his magic, "I call it the 'Flames of Emotion'. By using what I feel in conjunction with my Aura, the fire I produce is far stronger than it has a right to be for the amount of power I put into it. As for how I can do something like this, my fire takes on the aspect of the emotion I put into it, when I was fighting in the forest I used anger and rage, right now I'm using nostalgia and the emotions I felt in the memories that I want to show you to give some of my experiences to you instead of burns. Cool huh?" In truth Natsu had no idea what his Semblance was, or if he even had one. Quite frankly he didn't care.
Blake though defiantly believed what Natsu had said about the fire he had summoned, just being near it made her remember her past in vivid detail, her time in the White Fang, befriending Adam… leaving him behind.
After continuing to stare at the silver flames for several more seconds, Blake shook her head, "No, I'll just ask Yang. If what you say about your fire is true I would feel what you felt, and quite frankly I don't need a guy's memories in my head."
"Fair enough" Natsu said, closing his hand and snuffing the fire out.
Looking down once more, Blake thought about what Natsu had just told her about his Semblance, flames that change properties depending on what he's feeling… "What happens when you use Lust to power your fire?" If his nostalgia flames made her feel such strong, well, nostalgia just for being near them, what would happen if flames of Lust burned her?
Too bad for her that Natsu doesn't get embarrassed as easily as other people- "It would function as a powerful aphrodisiac for whoever touched it." – And was far blunter than he should be sometimes.
With his piece said, Natsu stood to leave the now blushing girl alone, leaving her with some parting words, "I should also mention that my Semblance grants me empathy, I can tell you feel angry and guilty about something Blake, I won't ask what but I will say that you shouldn't bottle your feelings up. All that pressure has to go somewhere, and if you wait too long it just might explode." And with that Natsu began to walk back to his dorm, leaving Blake to her thoughts as the sun sunk under the horizon, leaving the world cast in shadows.
I'm sorry to all of you who were hoping for a full chapter this time, but my week has been kind of full. Three tests, four quizzes, a paper, and a project, all in one week. And next week is the start of two weeks of State Testing!
Anyway, to get this up in time I decided just to use Natsu and Blake's talk to make this chapter full length. Again, sorry.
On another note, all poles are now closed, my side story will be a Percy Jackson X Fairy Tail story about Natsu being the son of Hestia! (On that note 2 of the top three most voted for options were Percy Jackson crossovers... I'll be honest I did not expect that.) The first chapter will either be out tomorrow, come out along with the next chapter of this fic, or will take the place of this stories new chapter next week, depending on how my ADD plays out.
Sense I re uploaded this chapter everyone is free to:
Read and Review!
Wingd Knight out.