Disclaimer: The following is a fan-based parody. Naruto, Naruto Shippuden, and Boruto are all owned by Masashi Kishimoto. RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth. Please support the official release.

Chapter 9: Thunder Roars

Ruby audibly gulped, finding it impossible to avert her eyes from the old man who revealed his name to be Isshin Ashina. Before coming to Iron Country, Madara had given her a grave warning when traversing the land of the samurai. That among all the samurai in the land, there were only three among them Ruby absolutely had to avoid a conflict with. Throughout the Elemental Nations, they were known as the Sword Saints, samurai whose skill and raw power put them in the same class as the higher echelons of kage, such as Sarutobi Hiruzen and Hanzo the Salamander in their prime. Each one of them possessed such grand power they completely outclassed those of the Sannin, and by rumor were so legendary with the blade that their swings could bend the elements themselves.

While still old, Madara did his utmost to warn Ruby to never fight them. He made it very clear that the Sword Saints of Iron Country were still in a class far above her own as each had power earned through fields of blood in the constant battles they thrived in. Obito, himself being kage-class, freely admitted the Sword Saints outclassed him in a battle to the death and his Kamui was only useful in keeping him alive.

Their names went as such. The first of the legendary trio was Mifune Ito, commonly known for his nickname as the Flowing Iron derived from his fluid style of movements that made his untouchable to most combatants and surpassing shinobi in terms of agilty, and is the current supreme leader of the Iron Country. Secondly, was Genryusai Yamamoto, known as his moniker as the Raging Fire earned from his feat of leveling an entire shinobi army in a sea of flames. Lastly... was Isshin Ashina, the very elder that stood before Ruby Rose, and was known as the Bloody Winds from his vicious sword style that tore apart his enemies and his own thirst for battle.

'Ruby, you had one job.' The silver-eyed Uchiha berated herself while internally crying two rivers of despairing tears. 'One Kami-damned job. Avoid the three Sword Saints among the entirety of Iron Country. And you fucked it up, and you haven't even been here for a week!'

Ruby could virtually see the deadpan glower from Madara, the blank look from Uncle Obito, and the snickering smile from both white and black Zetsu. As for Shirou, his posture was tense ready to spring into action the moment the Sword Saint of the Bloody Winds made an attack on Ruby. Eventually, the legacy of Madara returned to reality with a question in mind.

"What do you mean that chakra can't work with the Breathing Style?" Ruby asked.

"Tell me girl, do you really think the world is so young that chakra has been the only... confounding mystery, I suppose you could say, in life?" Isshin said, using his sheathed nodachi as a staff. "I can see it in your eyes. The quizzical mind you have constantly wondering about the nature and history of the world, wanting to unravel its mysteries."

Isshin was right on the nose. Ruby had too much of a mind wanting to know a perfect understanding of the world around her. It had started in her search of her supposed ancestors, the celestial beings of the Otsutsuki. After meeting with the Shinigami, a technical relative to herself via Kaguya Otsutsuki, that craving only grew. She began to ask questions of what is chakra? How did it come to be? Before chakra, did humans possess some other mystical power? What existed before Ninshu? If Aura and Semblances existed in Remnant and chakra in the Elemental Nations, but what did they have before then?

And yet standing before Ruby was a glimpse at answers to those very questions. Isshin had outright claimed that what she was trying to master was older than Ninshu, meaning he had a more in-depth understanding than what she would find in years of searching and catching at straws. It was a miracle that Ruby even found a connection between the Otsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, and the Shinigami with Ruby's claim they were aliens.

"Yeah I have." Ruby admitted. "The knowledge of chakra has existed for a thousand years, and yet there are still stories older than that. Cultures of gods and stories of heroes possessing fantastical powers even before the Sage of Six Paths. I could not help but understand if there was something more to this world than just chakra."

"Quite the inquisitive mind you have." Isshin complimented with a gruff smile on his scarred face. "Don't lose that, young Okami. Life is too boring without some questions you desire to be answered."

"You still haven't answered my original question." Ruby reminded with a twitch of her left brow. "Why can't chakra be used in this so-called 'Breath of Thunder'?"

"I suppose I must do so." Isshin mused, stroking his short, pointed beard. "Think of it as oil and water. What you are trying to accomplish requires only one, but you are so used to mixing the oil and water together. That mixture of water and oil is the practice of wielding chakra, but to use a breathing style, you have to use one half of the mixture that results in chakra."

"The halves that make up chakra?" Ruby wondered. "Are you talking about the spiritual and physical energies that create chakra?"

"Spiritual and physical energies, they say." Isshin grumbled with a noticeable frown. "Long ago, those two halves that make up chakra used to have a name. While it is true that 'chakra' is important to us being alive, it is more that the components of chakra are vital to us being allowed to walk in life. It wasn't, of course, during the time of the Sage of Six Paths did the people gain the ability to utilize chakra, there was already a mystical force we were capable of using and still do.

"Their names were long lost to the common folk from the introduction of Ninshu into the world, but to us samurai, who have kept our traditions and knowledge as rigid as steel, they are core of our teachings. They are known as Chi, the spiritual energy, and Ki, the physical energy, and despite the two to create chakra, one alone is not inferior to the sum for it is from one or the other that the power of the samurai truly shines.

"If you would, allow me to give a demonstration." Isshin gestured to a nearby tall tree. "Go ahead and perk your senses up to see if I even use a hint of my chakra. I promise you, there won't be any."

She barely acknowledged the last few sentences. Her mind was rolling around with this new discovery. This confirmed her theory (or crackpot conspiracy) that there definitely was an existence of another mystical power before the introduction of chakra. To learn it was actually the components that made up chakra boggled her mind, but she was no less excited. However, her shinobi intuition kicked in as she eyed Isshin with hidden suspicion.

"Why are you helping us?" Ruby asked with narrowed eyes.

"It's incredibly sad really." Isshin said. "To have a art of battle be lost by another, despite its own prowess. It is a miracle really that it survived to this day with only people in the bare double digits even knowing about it, including those of the samurai. This is the age of Ninshu, and even the way of the samurai has bent to this age. So when I sensed you, a girl not even in her prime yet, trying to master the very art before Ninshu, I had to see it for myself. In you, I see not only a way to preserve a near extinct art to go on to the next generation, but also a potential that I cannot ignore and I wish to see you fully blossom into a grand legend to exceed all before it. Think of it as a duty of last generation to have the next one become greater."

Ruby could not help but think to her great-grandfather's own philosophy. That it was natural for the future generation to surpass the previous one.

"If you need more proof, there is still that demonstration." Isshin offered. "Would you allow me?"

Ruby gave a nod to the elder, who gave a smirk. His one good eye leveled on an intact tree and slowly approached it. In one hand, Isshin gripped the sheath of his nodachi while his right hand snapped to the handle. Ruby watched carefully using her Sharingan to analyze his posture and saw in rapt attention of the elder taking a breath seemingly giving him strength. Muscles stretched and bulged to a slight degree and his exhalation came out like gusts of wind.

"Wind Breathing: Tenth Form..."

After those words, Isshin took another deep breath. There was not even a spike of chakra, his own reserves seemingly still. Yet, Ruby could feel something powerful as if the air itself became heavier. A sudden gust was blowing around the area, picking up loose leaves and snow from the ground. Winds of an almost white gray swirled around the tsuba and blade of the Isshin's nodachi as he flicked the nodachi out of its sheath. The swirling winds began to gather around Isshin like an aura and stick to the edge.

"... Dragon Flash Storm."

If it weren't for the Sharingan, Ruby would have never seen it, yet still she only saw the slam of the nodachi down on the ground before Isshin as a blur. The winds gathered around Isshin and the blade were unleashed in a violent gale similar to the wind jutsu of Great Breakthrough, thinned down like the fine point of the blade. The result was the sharpened air becoming a vertical shockwave that not only cut clean through the tree but tens of others. It continued on till a massive dust cloud was kick up and a newly made trench was made into the earth.

Shirou had gone pale at the display of power as being the most profound show of destruction that he had ever seen. He has witnessed Ruby set a whole part of a forest on fire with her Fire Release, and this is excluding what she can do with her Scorch Release. The same shock carried with Ruby, her mouth agape at the display caused by the Sword Saint. And the most shocking was the entire time, not once did his chakra signature spike. Meaning he had not used any chakra at all in the technique!

'It's real.' Ruby thought. 'This feat of humanity is real!'

Finally, now she could freely admit to herself she actually wasn't crazy. That the fact she hadn't been to civilization for the best part of five or six or whatever years did not make her screws go loose. She was totally fine in the head!

The logical one, at least from Ruby and Shirou's point of view, was that the technique was done through pure physical strength. However, the pair took in account of what they felt from man's aura in that moment. How from seemingly taking a breath his body gained more power to go into superhuman limits normally accessible through chakra. He had used some sort of internal energy that was not chakra, and it was just on the edge of their own senses if they could only feel it yet powerful enough to bend the very winds and refine them into a technique that slashed through the forest and earth like steel through flesh.

"S-Sugoi!" Ruby gasped. "But how?"

"As the style is named, through total concentration of your breathing." Isshin explained with a smirk. "You take in greater amounts of oxygen into your lungs which is then mixed with your Ki. As the physical energy of life, its strengthens the entire body as it flows through the bloodstream. Depending on the pattern of your breath determines of what Breathing Style you are using. Mine is of course the Breath of Wind while you are finely tuned to the Breath of Thunder."

"Mix your lungs with Ki?" Ruby wondered in confusion. "Isn't that the physical energy of chakra as you mentioned? I have to forcefully separate my chakra in its two halves and control that one."

"Exactly." Isshin said, sheathing his nodachi. "There is power in Ki just as well as chakra. The same can be said for Chi, but for the Breathing Style the use of Ki is very much important for the results you are looking for. I can understand given whatever training you went before this that trying to bring out your Ki from your chakra might prove difficult, but the result is much worth it."

"So how do I get my 'breathing pattern' right for the style I'm using?" Ruby asked, getting a familiar gleam of excitement in her eyes.

"That's a good question." Isshin said, stroking his chin. "I suppose the only way you can figure out the pattern is by getting struck by lightning."

Ruby made a sound from her throat as if choking on nothing while Shirou gave the elder a gobsmacked look. At first, the boy thought Isshin was joking until he saw the seriousness in the Sword Saint's expression. His shock turned into anger at the instant.

"Are you insane?!" Shirou exclaimed. "How would that help her?!"

Isshin shrugged. "It's a possibility. I figured the pattern for Breath of Wind when my master has me jump into a gorge rich with upheaval winds. Fortunately, there was river running down below."

"At least you had something to save your life." Shirou growled. "Your asking Ruby to take a lightning bolt directly. How is that okay!?"

"You're assuming I have full knowledge of the Breath of Thunder." Isshin berated. "Unfortunately, that is not the case. I am a devoted master of the Breath of Wind while I have intimate knowledge of Breath of Fire and Water. Okami over here is already dead set on mastering the Breath of Thunder. I've only encountered the style very rarely before the Second Shinobi War from the top samurai of Uzushio.

"Okami, I would suggest you learn how to harness your Ki from your chakra." Isshin continued as turned his back to Ruby and Shirou and made his way out of the forest. "You would be surprised just how much power you would find. Learn to wield it just, to use it as natural as breathing. Only then should you seek to find the pattern to the Breath of Thunder. Nature has a way of giving you the truth if you are willing to dare your life on it. I will return in about two weeks time to see how you have progressed. It would be unwise to disappoint me."

The whole forest was entirely still as Ruby and Shirou's eyes were glued to the back of Isshin as he walked the way he supposedly came. Everything was ominously silent with only the crunch of Isshin's footsteps on the snowy ground. Once he disappeared among the thicket of trees, the forest seem to have returned the courage to resume the whisper of the wind.

Shirou glanced to Ruby, who was still staring in the direction Isshin left. He noticed that her right hand was on her katana, but it was shaking rather violently in an audible clatter. She stayed like that for another minute before taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down. Then without a word, Ruby filled the area in puffs of smoke that spawned at least twenty clones of herself. Each of them took a spot to sit down and began to meditate, including the original.

"What are you doing?" Shirou could not help but ask.

"Going to figure out how to use my physical energy without turning it into chakra." Ruby stated flatly with her back turned. "There isn't anything else I can do until then."

Shirou knew instantly something was wrong with Ruby. She always spoke so bright and cheerful, but now she almost sounded defeated. He didn't know what came over him, but the next he knew he had crossed the distance between them and laid a comforting hand on Ruby's left shoulder. The silver-eyed Uchiha stilled at the contact until she suddenly grasped the hand tightly with both of her own like she was afraid the instant she let go it would go away.

"You're not okay, are you?" Shirou stated.

"...No." Ruby admitted, her voice almost breaking into a whimper. "That was the closest... I've ever been to death. I knew. I just knew that he could've killed us in an instant. If he wasn't a samurai, there was nothing I could've done to save myself, much less save you."

A tasteless smile formed on Shirou's lips. Even if Ruby comes at her lowest, she always thinks of the safety of others before herself. That just made Shirou want to help Ruby more in every trial in her path that they both walk.

"I hate it, Shirou." Ruby continued. "I hate being that... hopeless. I felt it... when I heard that my mother died. I was just a toddler, but I couldn't help but think that I could've done something to save her. That's why I want to get stronger. So that no matter what, no matter how hopeless anyone's plight is I will always be able to save them."

"And you will, Ruby." Shirou assured, slight tightening his hand on her shoulder to convey his message. "I know you'll be able to do it. You will help people, be their strength when they don't have any. After all, you helped me, and here I am joining in on the adventure. I don't regret it one bit."

"Thank you, Shirou." Ruby said softly, a shine of a tear rolling down her cheek. "For always being there."

"I don't think I'll ever leave your side." Shirou said honestly.

In that moment in his innocent demeanor, he had unknowingly sparked something in Ruby. It started off as a sudden rise of Ruby's beating heart and followed by the greatest fuzzy feeling in her stomach as if it was made of clouds. Her face glowed in a crimson blush to then make Ruby come to a sudden realization.

'Shirou...' Ruby thought dreamily.

It was probably best described as Shirou's best mistake in his life. In that moment, he had now given Ruby a crush on Shirou with his gold heart, forever earning Ruby's side in his life and the ire of his great-grandfather. Yet at the same time awakening something quite violent from the girl. Safe to say anyone or anything to put Shirou in danger was going to go through hell. Maybe if he had stayed longer and not had gone off to forage for dinner, he would have heard the result of his kindness.

"Anyone hurts my Shirou-kun, I will gut them like a fish." Ruby mumbled under her breath, a crazy gleam in her eyes.

(One Week Later)

Learning how to harness her Ki, especially to a degree where it wouldn't be time consuming, was probably the hardest thing imaginable. If it weren't for her high chakra reserves allowing her to produce an excess amount of clones, there would have been no way Ruby would have completed the exercise. Unlike chakra that was second nature to Ruby the instant she started learning under Madara, she had trouble even finding her Ki since she would instinctively combine the physical energy with Chi to make chakra.

It took a full day with a hundred clones per hour to simply figure to know where the Ki was. She had eventually harnessed it by very slowly going through the steps of molding chakra till she felt what was the closest to a mixing pool. Another day was spent trying to harness the Ki through a mental exercise of blocking the other 'stream' that flowed into that pool and picking up from the other. When she had done this, Ruby had felt an amazing high of vitality flow through her entire body such her muscles strengthening more naturally than chakra enhancement, her lung capacity increasing, and the rate of healing to name a few results.

The following days were spent practicing constantly with shadow clones to make it almost instinctual so she didn't have to waste time in concentration. That was the most difficult to do so in her life, and that was excluding the headaches from her clones dispelling and more thanks to Shirou with his medical help. But even after all that, there was still one step Ruby had to take, and one she dreaded: her breathing pattern.

As Isshin had said, Ruby was locked onto mastering the Breath of Thunder, meaning she had to know how to 'breathe its pattern' as well. The only 'possible' way to do that was being struck by a lightning bolt despite being entirely bat shit crazy. So after meditating over the situation, Ruby came to one conclusion.

"Screw it!" Exclaimed Ruby, jumping from her position sending snow flying around her. "Shirou-kun, I need you for something."

"Uh, yeah sure?" Shirou said hesitantly, tending to a fire with his unique chakra control.

He almost jumped out of his skin when Ruby closed the distance between them in a blink of an eye, the wind whispering in her wake. Her hand clasped on both of his shoulders like claws. Their faces were inches apart, but Shirou had no way of backing up.

'Too close, Ruby, too close!' Shirou thought, a blush adorning his cheeks.

"Okay, Shirou." Ruby said. "I need - and follow me on this one... strike me with a bolt of lightning."

"What?" Shirou said dumbly.

Ruby nodded. "I am not crazy Shirou, but I seriously need you to hit me with a bolt of lightning."

The blush on Shirou's cheeks disappeared and he closed his mismatched eyes as if in deep contemplation. Ruby waited patiently for Shirou to finish his pondering with a deep breath through the nose. His eyes opened again a moment later to stare back at her silver ones.

"Sorry, had to realign my understanding of reality for a moment there." Shirou explained. "So I will reiterate what I said. What - THE HELL, RUBY!?"

Ruby was not expecting the shout from Shirou and tripped off her feet in shock. She quickly dusted herself off at her best friend (and crush) who looked like he was struggling to maintain his sanity by the twitching in his eyes.

"I'm serious Shirou." Ruby argued. "If getting struck by lightning is the only way to get a step closer to using the Breath of Thunder, then that's what it will do."

"Ruby... did I accidentally put something in today's lunch because this is fucking crazy?!" Shirou shouted.

"Shirou, I am not high on a narcotic or something!" Ruby shot back. "Your cooking is too good to let a mistake like that happen. No, I want - no - need you to hit me with a bolt of lightning. It doesn't even have to be at full power. Just hold back enough that it just won't kill me."

"Nope." Shirou denied crossing his arms. "No way!"

Ruby bit her lip and growled ever so slightly. Her eyes glanced to a tree and noticed its superior height among the rest of its kin. More in a fit of pettiness, Ruby went up to the tree and walked up the trunk till she was perched to the very top. Shirou did not make a move to stop her in his confusion at her actions.

"Ruby, what are you doing now!?" Shirou shouted to Ruby.

"If you're not going to do it, then I'm just going to stay up here as long as I want." Ruby said, turning her back to Shirou.

The redhead balked. "Ruby, there's an incoming snowstorm, and its freezing in the higher altitudes. Get down, now!"

"Nope!" Ruby cried. "I can stay warm with my Scorch Release. I'm staying up here all I want, and there's nothing you can do about it. Unless you shoot me down with a lightning jutsu, I am never coming down."

For the first time, Shirou felt frustration built up and it was all aimed towards the one person he never imagined to infuriate him at all. Instead of lashing out in yell or something he might regret, Shirou gave a grunt and turned his way to his fire. Maybe if he cooked the rabbit he caught she would definitely come down. If not, then more of his own cooking for himself.

However, his eyes caught a green flash above him. He looked up and became shock at the storm growing in the sky. Shirou knew that there was going to be a snowstorm in the evening, but he didn't think it would be here right now. Even worse, there were flashes of green, indicating the snowstorm was developing lightning as well.

The Uzumaki glanced back to Ruby perched on the tree. The tree that was the highest in the immediate area... and lightning strikes at the tallest vantage point... which is where Ruby was. The metaphorical gears in Shirou's head screeched to a halt at a haunting realization.

'Fuck my luck.' Shirou swore internally.

"Uh, Ruby..." Shirou called out.

"I'm not coming down!" Shouted Ruby, completely ignorant of the growing flashes of lightning in the clouds.

Shirou persisted as he raised his voice. "Ruby, I really should-"

"No, Shirou!" Ruby screamed. "If you really want me down, then a throw a bolt of lightning at my damn face!"

Her voice echoed to the heavens, and whatever divine entity that existed chose to act for its own amusement. The roar of thunder came from the sky, but it was too late for Ruby to know the danger as a green bolt of nature's wrath crashed directly onto the tallest tree. Having herself perched directly on top of the tree, Ruby herself became the direct impact point.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

Shirou's eyes flinched from the bright light as the lightning struck upon Ruby. For an impressive few seconds, she became a beacon of light for the entire forest as nature's wrathful power forced itself through her body. In any other situation, it was comical that Ruby became a shining green star for the tree. A moment later, the bolt sifted through Ruby to then split the tree in half as it was meant to, and the strike finally ended.

The redhead Uzumaki user of Dragon Release blinked his eyes from the daze caused from the lightning. They took in the sight of Ruby and a grimace marred Shirou's face. She was barely standing on the lone branch, but she had definitely seen better days. Burns were obvious on any visible spot of skin. Her kimono was singed through in some spots, and the edges of her favorite red cloak were scorched black. Grey smoke wafted from her now ridiculously spiky hair that could put Madara to shame and from her gasping mouth. Her eyes were barely open, but soon closed for one purpose.

Shirou cursed under his breath making a dash for the tree. As he predicted, Ruby had lost consciousness and fell from her vantage. All of the branches below had been blown off from the lightning bolt, leaving nothing to slow her fall. Seeing this, Shirou was pumping chakra into his legs in overdrive for the speed necessary. He ran up the ruined trunk and held his arms out to successfully catch the Uchiha into his arms. His body only staggered slightly backward due to Ruby being lighter than most people as she was now. To his immense relief, Ruby was breathing in a healthy manner as if she were asleep.

Shirou sighed exasperation. "You are going to drive me into madness one of these days, Ruby."

Ouch, that has got to hurt! Would be a nifty scar, or maybe the bolt might have left some alien green strands in Ruby's hair. At least she got what she asked. Always be careful when making such wishes. It can result into a disastrous consequences. But the real question is, has Ruby figured the breath pattern now?

Oh if one of you want to do a reaction fic with one my stories, please PM me.

Up next is Chapter 10: Lightning Strikes

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