Underneath the Underneath

by no169

What is broken can be reforged. Naruto finds himself in an unfamiliar land, facing unfamiliar monsters. Stripped of most of his power, he'll need to adapt to not only survive but to flourish. Can hard work and pure skill make up the difference? Nerfed Naruto, but he's still strong. He won't be curb-stomping everyone he meets. Weiss x Naruto medium-burn

10. You Are Alive

A/N: So here's chapter 10. This chapter was a lot of fun to write. I took a bit longer to get out because of two reasons. First, I spent about a solid week not writing anything because I got sucked into Diablo 4. Second, as you'll find out, there are a lot of moving parts to this chapter. It was as fun to write as it was difficult. Hope you guys enjoy it!

As a side note, there's about a one-month time skip between this chapter and the last. Did ya'll know that there's a 2-month time skip between the field trip to Forever Fall and when the exchange students arrive? I didn't until I was researching RWBY's timeline. So this chapter takes place in the middle of that long jump.

xXx

'Concentrate. Remember, this is shape transformation in its ultimate form. The Rasengan was but a stepping stone.'

Naruto grit his teeth in annoyance. Over the past month, those were the same words Kurama spoke whenever he sensed Naruto's frustration reaching a certain level.

The shinobi wisely chose to ignore just how long it had taken him to master his father's original jutsu. He didn't want to wait another five years to be able to use his mother's signature technique to its fullest. Then again, maybe he could bastardize his chakra chains like he had done the Rasengan? If he was going to do that, he better do it soon. It had already been a month of doing it the hard way.

Re-focusing on his current task, he concentrated on the palm of his hand. The Rasengan had been all about rotation, power, and containment. The Adamantine Sealing Chains embodied flexibility, reach, and density. Also containment. At least he had that part down.

'Focus on just one chain link at a time. Don't think about the whole; it'll be too overwhelming.'

Naruto could feel his chakra coursing through his arm. It was warm and familiar. He followed the fox's advice and imagined a single loop. He packed down as much chakra as possible, focusing on the density of the intended chain. Slowly, ever so slowly, a golden glow began to materialize from his palm. He ignored the brilliant shine. He ignored the fact that the solidified chakra was partially fused with his hand. His only priority was on creating. Of following the mental blueprint that had been burned into his mind.

Kurama remained silent, perhaps afraid words would break his concentration. But Naruto could feel the support gently trickling through their mental link.

Millimetre by millimetre, the golden chain-link began to take shape.

'Make it denser.'

Naruto automatically obliged. He wrestled with the volatile chakra and 'squeezed' harder.

'Good. Keep going.'

After what felt like minutes, but in reality, it was only seconds, Naruto glanced at his open palm. Sitting comfortably atop his hand was a single glowing chain link.

The blond forced down his excitement. He'd do well to look it over to avoid a premature celebration. With his free hand, Naruto firmly grasped the chain. It felt like it was supposed to. Smooth and evenly distributed. No apparent defects, not too thick, not too thin. It was warm to the touch, roughly equal to his body heat. He tugged lightly and noted that the hand attached to the chain was pulled along.

If he pulled hard enough, would it hurt? Like an animal's tail?

'No. While the chain may be an extension of yourself, even allowing you to 'feel' through its touch, there have been no recorded cases of any negative effects such as pain.'

'Really? I can't feel anything through it right now.'

The fox snorted in amusement.

'You can't feel anything because you're touching the chain with your own hand. It's like when you touch your own leg. Is it your leg feeling your hand, or is your hand feeling your leg? The brain blends the sensations together. Since your chains are new, your brain defaults to your hand.'

Neat.

'If you dip your chains in hot water, you'd be able to feel the temperature.'

'And I wouldn't burn myself?'

Naruto could imagine the fox shaking his head in the negative.

'No. But you'll be able to recognize what you're feeling is hot. The jutsu was partly designed to contain bijū. It wouldn't have done the Uzumaki any good if they went into shock from their chains touching our poisonous chakra.'

Naruto smiled. That would be very useful, indeed. It could make a world of difference when gathering information. Knowing that an opponent couldn't harm him via his chains if they tried to burn or freeze their way out of his grip was also reassuring. Hopefully, the same would apply to Kaguya's All-Killing Ash Bones.

'Also, what if I'm restraining something really big, and it's way too strong? I'm not going to have my chakra system ripped out, will I?'

Naruto sensed his partner's amusement before he heard it.

'No, don't be ridiculous. If you encounter something strong enough to overpower you, simply release control of your technique the same way you would a Rasengan. If you're too stupid to do that for some reason, the chain will break long before any kinetic force can cause you any harm.'

Okay. Good to know.

After several minutes of simply admiring his achievement, Naruto realized something.

'Kurama. You told me to focus on making a chain link.'

The fox hummed in acknowledgement.

'How am I supposed to pin anything down with this?' Naruto thumbed the smooth edge of the chain. 'It's not exactly sharp.'

The chakra construct sighed. 'Damn, you're dumb.'

Naruto frowned.

'There are multiple components to this technique. The chain link is the easiest, so I had you start there. In fact, now that you bring it up, let's start on the next step.'

'And that would be?'

'Forming the sharpened anchor of your chains.'

Naruto felt the fox's cheshire grin.

'Shouldn't I focus on making the chain longer?'

Kurama scoffed. 'It's not as important as you think. If you can make one, you can make more.'

Naruto raised a brow.

'And that's not me being impatient. I'm serious; extending the chain really only comes down to practice. You've completed the most important step. Now, we're working on the next.'

Naruto released control of his technique. The chain shattered, golden wisps of chakra floating away into nothingness.

'That's another thing. If you retract the chains instead of dropping the technique, you'll retain the chakra used.'

Naruto sighed. It seemed there was still a lot to learn. Despite the challenge, he couldn't suppress his smile.

xXx

Naruto collapsed onto his back, panting from exhaustion. As his lungs greedily pulled in as much oxygen as they could, he couldn't help the joyful wheeze escaping his throat.

The blond couldn't remember the last time he'd nearly collapsed from exhaustion. He supposed having someone screaming in your ear was a great motivator.

Said motivator huffed. 'Not bad, kid. If there was ever any doubt about your lineage, then we can put it to rest now. You're an Uzumaki through and through. Your mother would be proud.'

Naruto was practically glowing with pride. To hear those words from someone who knew her so intimately, it felt ridiculously good.

'Progress really exploded, didn't it?' Naruto asked his tenant.

'Perfecting the initial shape manipulation is always the most difficult part. Once you get that down, which you have, everything else comes quicker. Even still, you're progressing far faster than I expected. Your mother took four times as long. I suppose starting later in life when your chakra control is at an all-time high was a good thing. And you having a lot of experience with chakra transformation really helps.'

Naruto had to suppress the childish urge to roll around in excitement. He glanced at his hand, and with a surge of will, the sharpened tip of his Adamantine Sealing Chain emerged.

Kami that felt good to think.

His Adamantine Sealing Chain. It was something he had earned through countless hours of blood, sweat, and tears shed over the course of a month. Now he'd finally managed to produce something somewhat combat worthy.

Although...

'You know, this doesn't seem all that sharp.' Naruto ran a finger over the tip of the chain. It was undoubtedly sharp, but not that sharp. His trench knives were sharper.

'Don't underestimate those things. They're a lot sharper than they look. And they have a hell of a lot of power behind them.'

'Really?'

'Really. Plus, their sharpness depends on your skill. As you refine your technique, so will you refine their edge.' The fox said. 'Sharpen that edge just a little bit more, and it'll be enough to pierce even my hide.'

Holy shit.

Naruto gazed at his jutsu.

'And you said my mom could make multiple at once?'

'Several dozen, in fact. And not just from her hands. Theoretically, you can use any part of your body to manifest this technique. Hands, feet, joints. Kushina was particularly fond of sourcing them from her back.'

'You mentioned this makes me an Uzumaki through and through. Are you sure this isn't a kekkei genkai?'

'I'm positive. There have been non-Uzumaki who learned the technique. Although, Uzumaki tend to be much more proficient at using and learning it. Case in point, you.'

'I wonder why that is.'

'It might be the early evolution of a kekkei genkai. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that this technique is considered a fūinjutsu.'

'Wait, really? How's that work?'

'No clue, kid. But it technically falls under fūinjutsu and ninjutsu on equal parts. And don't ask me why. I didn't make that call.'

Well, Uzumaki's were well known for both their proficiency in fūinjutsu and their longevity. It was nice to reclaim another piece of that heritage.

'One last thing, kid.'

Naruto waited for his partner to continue.

'I mentioned that the chains were developed to help contain us bijū. Well, the way that works is by suppressing chakra. Anything in contact with those chains will have their chakra immediately suppressed. The stronger the opponent, the harder it will be, but it's an extremely powerful ability against anything chakra related.'

Wow.

Naruto paused as he realized something. Kurama was practically giving him the ultimate technique to suppress a bijū.

'Hey, furball.'

The Kyubi huffed at the nickname.

'I know what this technique means to you. I promise I'll never use it against you or any of your siblings.'

Naruto wondered if the idea had even passed through his friend's mind. How couldn't it have? If his mother used the ability, there was no doubt it was used, at least partially, to contain the fox while he was in the seal.

Kurama was silent for several seconds. It felt like an eternity. Finally, he responded. 'I know Naruto. I wouldn't have taught you this if I thought there was even the slightest possibility. I trust you.'

Naruto would honour that trust in full.

Minutes later, after thinking of his partner's words, Naruto posed a question that had been slowly forming.

'Do the chains absorb chakra, or...?' Naruto let the question hang. Nagato could absorb chakra. It had been rather frustrating.

'No, only suppress. So keep in mind that once physical contact is lost, your opponent won't be any weaker for it.'

'How do you think they'll work against someone with Aura? Or the Grimm?'

Grimm were, after all, literal bundles of some unknown energy. They weren't negative emotions incarnate, as Naruto had initially suspected, but they were made of something more than just flesh and bones.

'Who knows? Aura is the spiritual manifestation of the body. Chakra is both spiritual and physical. This jutsu could be less effective, more effective, or somewhere in the middle. It may even be completely ineffective. If that's the case, it'll still make for a nasty surprise in a fight.'

That it would. Already Naruto could think of several combat applications.

'In the end, you'll have to test it.'

Naruto frowned. Testing it on the Grimm wouldn't be too difficult. All he needed to do was take a trip into the Emerald Forest and let loose. However, testing it on another person would require him to reveal the technique. As of right now, the only way he could see that working out would be to pass it off as his semblance.

While possible, what would happen when he unlocked his actual semblance?

The other option would be to tell whoever witnessed his technique the true extent of his abilities. And the only people he was even remotely okay with telling would be his team. And even then, he wasn't quite ready. And even if he did tell them, what was he supposed to say to anyone else who witnessed him? No, telling people the truth wasn't much of a solution.

'Hey, Naruto. Eyes up.'

Naruto flinched at his friend's words. He sat up quickly and scanned the room. Empty. He looked at the doorway. Empty. And why wouldn't it be? This was one of Beacon's private training rooms. It wasn't particularly large, but it was secluded. It had been perfect for training with his chains.

'On your feet.'

Naruto obliged. If for no other reason, he was curious to see what his partner was trying to get him to do. He got his answer shortly after.

'See that training dummy?'

Naruto's gaze swept across the room, landing on the aforementioned training dummy.

'You see the smug look on his face?'

Naruto squinted. Hey... Yeah, it was looking pretty damn smug, wasn't it?

'I want you to send the end of your chain right through its smarmy face. Consider it your final lesson. Everything else will come down to practice and experience.'

Naruto frowned. He'd only just managed to get his chains to a somewhat decent length. Was he really capable of this? After all, the training dummy was way over there.

'Imagine the bastard just ate the last serving of Ramen.'

Faster than a viper, Naruto's arm lashed out in a whip-like motion. Several feet worth of golden chakra chains shot out of the palm of his hand. The projectile travelled as fast as any thrown weapon and speared the training dummy's head directly between the eyes. The golden tip continued onwards and crashed into the back wall, burying itself almost a foot in.

Oh. Oh damn.

That was a lot of power.

'Well done, kid. It'll only get better from here. Remember, your imagination will be key in developing this jutsu.'

Naruto grinned. He admired his handiwork for several moments. Just as he was about to retract the chakra chain from the wall, the training room's door slid open with a hydraulic hiss.

"Hey, who the hell's in here! You almost skewered me on the other side of the wall!"

Uh oh.

Naruto glanced at the door. Long blonde hair and fiery red eyes glared back in surprise.

"Naruto?" Questioned a familiar voice.

"Yang." Naruto managed to choke out.

Half a second later, Naruto lost control of his jutsu, and the golden chain shattered into a million glowing fragments.

xXx

"Yang, get off me. I'm all sweaty. I stink," Naruto groaned. He took another sniff. "And so do you."

The blonde brawler huffed, then tightened her hold around his upper chest. "Rude. We don't stink; we smell like hard work."

The girl refused to cease her backbreaking hug.

"Yeah, well, hard work smells bad. Get off."

Naruto slowly increased the amount of force in his attempt to shove his fellow blonde away.

The two teens had been awkwardly embracing for the past minute. Well, Naruto found it awkward. He was pretty sure Yang was feeding off his discomfort at this point, like some sort of awkward energy succubus.

"C'mon man, it's not every day you discover your semblance!"

Eventually, the woman disentangled herself from the blond shinobi and took half a step back. Naruto still found her three steps too close.

"I didn't didn't discover my semblance today," Naruto frowned at the hesitation in his voice. "I've been working on it for the past month."

Looks like he'd be passing his jutsu off as a semblance. There was no way Yang would be keeping this quiet.

Yang shrugged. "Okay, it's not every day I discover your semblance."

Ah. So that's what it was. She did consider them rivals, after all.

"You know," Naruto began. "Seeing me use it once won't give you that much of an advantage. You don't even know what it's capable of."

"Maybe not," Yang continued, "but at the very least, I know you're not helpless without your blades."

Naruto smirked. "You already knew that. Quite well, if I recall."

"Shut up!" Yang responded with a scowl. She shoved him lightly for good measure. The ghost of a smile betrayed her amusement. That, and her lilac eyes.

"So what do you call it?" The young woman asked. "Your Semblance," she added upon seeing his look of confusion.

Ah.

"It's called Adamantine Sealing Chains."

Yang quirked a brow in surprise. "Interesting name. How'd you come up with that?"

At some point, the two had migrated to the nearby bench, both teens dropping heavily onto the uncomfortable surface. As Naruto reached for his water bottle, his hand curled around nothing. Too slow, as Yang had snatched the bottle away.

Naruto watched as his fellow blonde took several greedy pulls from his bottle. He watched as the crystalline fluid, his crystalline fluid, flowed freely down her throat. Small rivets trickled down her neck toward her generous... the shinobi coughed to clear his dry throat. Say what you would about Yang; she certainly had sex appeal. After several seconds she pulled away and offered his bottle back. Cerulean eyes narrowed as he took the provided container.

Naruto sighed. The bottle felt a lot lighter than before. Rolling his eyes, he threw his head back and downed its contents. After draining what little remained, he frowned. He was still thirsty.

The blond shook his head. Back to the conversation. "I didn't name the technique. It's just what it's always been called in my family."

Yang hummed. "So it's a hereditary semblance? That's pretty cool. Didn't know of any others besides Weiss'."

Right. Hereditary semblances were pretty rare. That was okay; it wouldn't change much.

"Yeah, on my mother's side," the shinobi added for context. Short of a kekkei genkai, clan-specific jutsu were the closest thing to a semblance.

"Well, it sure looks badass," Yang grinned.

Naruto smiled. "You think so?"

"Hell yeah!" The brawler exclaimed. "Chains are hot!"

Naruto's smile slackened. He ignored the provocative purr in his teammate's voice. He should probably steer the conversation in a better direction. He wasn't really in the mood for another one of Yang's teasing sessions.

"R-Right." Damn his stutter. "I have an idea," the shinobi pivoted.

Before Yang could corrupt the conversation again, Naruto continued. "Wanna help me test my semblance out?"

The shinobi's eyes widened. Oh, kami. Please don't misconstrue those words. Luckily, the teasing spark in Yang's eyes remained absent. It seemed she was entirely too focused on the prospect of learning more about his new ability.

Fine by him.

Now that his teammate knew about the technique, albeit in a limited manner, Naruto had no issues sharing more information. They were friends, weren't they?

"Hell yeah I would! What did you have in mind?"

Naruto relaxed. Awesome. "Alright, stand over there," he directed his teammate by pointing across the room.

Yang shot up from her seat. Naruto noted with amusement the girl's bubbly stride. He wasn't sure whether it was excitement from helping a friend or learning about her rival's semblance, but the girl certainly was eager.

Yang struck a pose after lining herself up in the general area he had pointed in. Legs spread and arms on her hips, she smiled brightly toward the shinobi. "Well?" She asked. "What do you need me to do?"

Naruto stood opposite her, roughly 15 feet away. "Just stick your arm out to the side."

The girl obliged. "Now what?" She called.

"Just... stay there."

Now, how exactly was he going to do this? Naruto paused. It'd probably be best if he took it slow. No sense in risking an actual injury, especially if the chains worked on Aura like they did on chakra.

Naruto held out his hand. Link by link, he managed to manifest his chakra chain with some effort. Yang's subsequent look of wonder resulted in another bloom of pride in his chest.

Okay. So far, so good. Kurama had mentioned the chains were directable beyond just throwing them. Similar to the bijū's tails. Prehensile, almost. All it took was concentration, like a combination of moving your limb and altering a jutsu's direction.

Naruto took several moments to reconcile the comparison. It was a difficult sensation to explain. Both foreign and familiar. Comfortable yet awkward.

After what must have been minutes, Yang began to shift impatiently. "Is something supposed to happen? Your chain's looking a little limp over -"

Before she could finish her sentence, the golden chain shot toward the girl quickly. Not nearly as fast as before, but still fast. The brawler surely had enough time to evade. Yet she did no such thing. Aside from a minor flinch and briefly widening her eyes, the buxom blonde remained still. It went to show the level of trust she had for her teammate.

In accordance with Naruto's will, the chain began to loop around Yang's outstretched arm, and the sharpened tip sparked lightly against the girl's Aura. The golden shackles looped once, twice, three times before stopping. Afterwards, both occupants of the room simply stared at each other. After several seconds, Yang's innuendo-laden mind forced her to speak.

"You know, this is pretty kinky, but -"

'- Can you just shut up for a second?" Naruto cut her off.

Yang snapped her mouth shut but didn't bother hiding her large grin. Another few moments passed in silence. "Seriously," the girl began. "Is there more to this?"

Naruto tilted his head in consideration. "How's your arm feel?" He asked suddenly.

Yang mirrored his tilted head. "Good, I guess? Should it not be?"

Naruto scratched his chin. "Can you raise your arm up higher? It's drooping." And it was. After the first minute or so, Yang's arm had slowly begun to lower. It may have been due to regular fatigue or a simple loss of concentration, but the girl's arms were pretty toned. And there weren't many distractions to be had.

Yang did as instructed and raised her arm. She frowned at the limb.

"Something wrong?" The shinobi asked.

The blonde brawler rotated her arm as if trying to dispel stiffness. She flexed and shifted uncomfortably. Loose rattling rang throughout the room. "Maybe?" She replied evenly. "Arm's feeling pretty heavy. How much do these chains weigh?"

Nothing. The chains weighed nothing. If they did, they would violate the Law of Conservation of Mass. A universal law supported by the fact that chakra weighed nothing. It was, after all, pure energy. It'd be like if electricity had weight. Besides, if chakra did have mass, there was no way Naruto could have lived on anything other than the first floor of his apartment building when growing up.

Was that enough evidence to suggest that the Adamantine Sealing Chains also worked on Aura users? Was his chain sapping Yang's strength? Or was she simply tired from her earlier training?

He'd have to talk with Kurama about this.

"Okay, you can relax your arm," Naruto advised his teammate.

Yang's arm immediately slackened. As Naruto began to retract his chain, the brawler chuckled. "Is that it? Did you get what you needed from just that?"

Naruto shrugged. "Maybe. I don't know."

As the last of the loops became undone, Yang released a sharp his of pain and grabbed at her forearm. "Shit, what the hell?" She cursed.

Naruto quickly retracted the rest of his jutsu and closed the distance between the two. "What happened?" He asked. Surprise and no small amount of interest laced his voice. If this is what he thought it was...

"I think your chain cut me," she replied in confusion. "Did it go through my Aura?"

Naruto grabbed the girl's limb, raising it to eye level. He removed the hand that was applying pressure on her wound. Sure enough, roughly three inches long, a thin red line greeted him. An even layer of blood was already seeping out. The injury didn't look particularly deep, but then again, the chain's blade had barely made contact with Yang's flesh.

Damn.

"You ok?" Naruto asked.

This pretty much confirmed it. Naruto's chakra chains did, in fact, work on Aura users. He'd kept the chain wrapped around her arm, curious to see if it would suppress her Aura. The relatively minor injury was evidence enough that her protective Aura shield, at least in that area, had been nullified.

"Yeah, I'm good," Yang replied. "It's not bad."

Naruto still felt guilty. It was, without a doubt, a result of his actions.

"Weird. I swear I still have a lot of Aura left. I didn't use that much when I was training." Yang pulled out her scroll. Upon glancing at the screen, her hand dropped. "Yeah, what the hell? I still have three quarters left!"

Kami, how awkward. How was he supposed to tell Yang that this was his fault?

...

May as well start with an apology.

"I'm sorry, it's my fault," Naruto admitted. Before his fellow blonde could pose a question, he continued. "Supposedly, a trait of my semblance is its ability to suppress someone's Aura. I wanted to see if it were true since, you know, I don't exactly have any family to confirm or deny the claim."

Yang's eyes shifted from surprised to amused to compassionate.

"Well," she started, "looks like that part's true." The blonde smeared a small amount of blood to emphasize her words. "Looks like your semblance is pretty geared towards fighting other people."

Despite her injury, the brawler was all smiles.

Naruto grinned. "Maybe. But it's pretty taxing on me." That was a big fat lie. "And I want to see what effect it has on Grimm."

"You don't know?"

Naruto paused. Time for a half-truth this time. "The person who told me about my semblance didn't know everything about it. It and most of its secrets were thought to have died with my mother."

Yang shrugged and offered another sympathetic smile. Naruto supposed that out of anyone on his team, Yang and Ruby were predisposed to that brand of sympathy.

"Well, if you want to test it out, it'll have to wait until tomorrow. It's too late to leave campus now."

Naruto nodded. That was fine. He wasn't in that much of a rush.

"How's the arm?" The blond asked suddenly.

Yang laughed softly. "Stop worrying. Aura's working again, so it's almost fully healed. It wasn't a deep cut to begin with." She flexed the appendage for good measure.

Well, that was good. Naruto still felt bad, but his teammate seemed to be in good spirits, so there was little point in dwelling on the matter. Plus, he figured the knowledge she got out of the exchange was worth a little blood.

"Still, that's a damn strong semblance. You could either go into law enforcement or assassination with something like that."

Naruto laughed. "Well, I am a shinobi. Those two professions aren't mutually exclusive where I come from."

Naruto glanced at his friend. Yang was no longer smiling. Instead, she fixed him with a subdued look. After a few moments of silence, which bordered on awkwardness, she asked him, "You, uh, do a lot of assassinations back home? During your war?"

A strange mixture of emotions flooded Naruto's chest. It was one of those rare occasions he could be completely honest. "No, actually." Yang looked up in surprise and, perhaps, relief. "I'm kind of a crappy assassin. Sneaking around isn't my thing. I'm much more of a front-line shock and awe kind of guy."

Yang grinned. There were still traces of discomfort in her wide eyes, but then again, there probably always would be when casually discussing war and death. "Yeah, somehow that sounds right. You try to hide it, but you love the spotlight."

Naruto fixed her with a flat look. "What?" Yang asked. Her smile seemed a little easier this time. "At least I don't try to hide it!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Naruto sighed, waving her off.

The blonde brawler once again pulled out her scroll, glancing at the device. "Anyway, I'll probably call it a night. I should get cleaned up."

Naruto smiled. "Need to wash off all that hard work?"

Yang laughed heartily. "Something like that. You wanna head back together?"

Naruto nodded. That sounded nice.

"Sweet," Yang smiled. "Let me just grab my stuff from the other room. Wanna wait in the hall for me? I'll just be a second." She asked.

"Sure," came his casual reply.

With that, the two blonds exited the training room. Yang quickly dashed into the adjacent room while Naruto leaned against the nearby wall.

In his brief reprieve, Naruto reflected on the past 20 minutes. And what an eventful 20 minutes they were. How uncharacteristically unlucky to have Yang in the training room opposite him. For him to underestimate the strength of his technique. For Kurama to instruct him to send his chain toward the wall.

...

Wait.

'Hey, buddy.'

Silence.

'You wouldn't have happened to know Yang was on the other side, would you?'

'Maybe.' Came the fox's single-word reply.

Naruto was momentarily taken aback. 'Kurama, what the fuck? Why would you do that?'

Naruto felt warm chakra trickle into his system. It was his partner's classic attempt to soothe his temper. He wasn't having any of that.

'Easy, Naruto. I can explain.'

Naruto scoffed. 'By all means, please try.'

'This will help you in the long run when you reveal the truth to your team.'

'And who says I'm revealing shit to anyone?'

'Come on, Naruto. Don't be difficult. We both know it's only a matter of time until you tell them.'

The shinobi took a mental pause. He didn't like how easily the fox brought that up. He groaned.

'Whatever. I would have rather kept this ability close to my chest. And what happens when we unlock my actual semblance? Just pray it's something passive or subtle?'

'First of all, that's fine. Just don't spam this ability out constantly. Keep it in reserve. Don't be like those foolish Uchiha and use your trump card at the beginning of every battle.'

Naruto sighed internally. Fair enough.

'As for your semblance, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.'

Stupid fox. Since when was Naruto the reasonable one?

'Also...'

Hmm?

'The more abilities you hide, the harder it will be when they come to light. You need to show something. Besides, whatever happened to the rambunctious genin who would scream his intent to the world?'

'He grew up, dumb ass. You shouldn't let your pride compromise our situation here. It's precarious enough already.'

'Is it? The chaff around here doesn't seem particularly impressive.'

'Just because it's not in front of us doesn't mean danger isn't around. Now be quiet. You're giving me a headache.'

The fox clicked his non-existent tongue. 'You're the one who started the conversation...'

At that moment, Yang emerged from the nearby training room. "Ready to go?"

Naruto glanced up.

"Whoa, you okay man?"

Naruto raised a brow.

"You're looking a little broody there." Yang ruffled her long mane of hair. "Annoyed your rival has already unravelled the secrets of your semblance?"

Naruto couldn't suppress a short bark of laughter. "I'll never understand how you think you're good enough to be my rival," he teased.

Yang shoved him roughly on the arm. "Just wait and see, ninja man."

With that, the pair began their trek back to the dormitories. After a few minutes of comfortable silence, Yang suddenly asked, "So, think you'll need that semblance for someone like Pyhrra?"

Naruto tilted his head in contemplation. Would he? Probably not. That'd be a little overkill, wouldn't it?

"Nah," the blond waved his teammate off.

A sharp bark of laughter pierced his ears. "Sounding pretty confident there, aren't you? What happens if you two get matched up tomorrow?"

Naruto shook his head while rolling his eyes. Yeah right. What were the odds of that?

xXx

Fuck.

Naruto twisted violently to the left, avoiding a well-placed javelin thrust. The weapon's tip came millimetres from grazing his cheek. It was certainly well past his point of comfort. Him and his stupid mouth.

'I think this is a good thing,' commented the blond's tenant. 'You've been itching for a good fight. I can't think of a better opponent.'

'Oh, shut up, you dumb —'

Naruto's eyes widened as the curved surface of Pyrrha's shield slammed into his face. He recoiled from the harsh impact, then lept backward while clutching his nose, unintentionally dodging the redhead's follow-up slash. He hadn't even noticed the girl shift her weapon into its Xiphos form.

Pyrrha's movements were sharp and powerful yet well-controlled. She moved with both purpose and poise, not a single wasted motion. It was everything befitting her stature as the invincible girl.

Naruto tenderly massaged his nose. Thank Kami he'd been focusing on increasing his Aura capacity. That strike would have done a number on his old reserves. There was a significant difference between —

By instinct alone, the blond quickly raised his free hand. Three metallic clangs reverberated off the chakra blade wrapped around his fist, the force of which bent his hand into an awkward angle. Milliseconds later, three corresponding gunshots rang out across the room.

Damn. Rifle bullets were a lot more challenging to deflect than shotgun slugs. While a slug had more mass and kinetic energy, rifle rounds travelled almost twice as fast. The timing was completely different.

Pyrrha was turning out to be — Naruto dropped low as the tournament fighter hurled her shield at him. It tore through the area where his head used to be like a lethal frisbee and continued on. The blond blinked. That would have done some damage. He had just enough presence of mind to continue deflecting Pyrrha's follow-up shots from her rifle.

The girl was quick, unpredictable, and creative. If Naruto wasn't on the receiving end of this, he'd — the shinobi's mind went blank as a tremendous force struck the back of his head, knocking him face-first onto the ground. The corners of his vision darkened, yet the sound of footsteps forced him to act.

The Jinchūriki rolled onto his back, spread his legs wide, and lifted them towards his torso. Half a second later, a crimson blade pieced the ground between his legs. Right where his crotch had been.

Wow. There was no hesitation there. At all.

There was a momentary reprieve afterwards, and only now did Naruto notice that his opponent was again in possession of her shield. Well, that explained the large welt he could feel forming on the back of his skull.

They both paused for a moment, neither moving. Perhaps the redhead hadn't expected him to avoid the strike. Maybe she was planning her next move. Whatever the case, Naruto planted both feet on the edge of her blade and kicked off. Using his momentum, he slid on his back several feet, then seamlessly transitioned into a backward somersault, ending in a crouch.

Damn, his head hurt.

'Okay, as entertaining as that was, start paying attention. That last hit made things all shaky in here.'

Yeah. That was probably good advice. Pyrrha was a tournament champion, and she knew how he fought. Partly, at least. She would take advantage of every opening he gave, unwittingly or not.

'On a related note, you might have a concussion.'

Naruto sighed.

'Then could you please fix it, asshole?'

'Yeah, yeah, I'm on it. Progress will be a lot slower on account of, you know. My chakra being a hell of a lot more dangerous to you now.'

Well, better than nothing.

Heavy footsteps thundered toward the blond. Unlike the last few exchanges, Naruto's focus had remained locked on his opponent. As Pyrrha closed the distance with several quick strides, he had more than enough time to put up a defence.

Naruto raised his left arm, trench knife meeting Pyrrha's overhead swing halfway, halving her blade's momentum. At the same time, he was forced to abandon his left-handed thrust aimed for the girl's ribs to catch her shield, which had been sent toward his own side.

The edge of Pyrrha's shield, Akoúo̱, slammed into the hardened steel of Naruto's vambrace, uncomfortably forcing the armour piece against his forearm.

Damn. She was really good.

For a moment, the two strained against each other. Naruto was sure he was physically stronger than his opponent, and yet they were at a stalemate. Wait. Not quite. To his surprise, the redhead was slowly, ever so slowly, pushing him back. How? The weight of her weapons was almost unreasonable, made worse by both gravity and the feeling that his own equipment was weighing him down. It was like he was fighting against a river's current and perpetually being kept off balance.

Before he was completely overpowered, Naruto surged forward with a great heave of effort, momentarily offsetting the spartan warrior. In a display of flexibility, his right foot shot up between the two, aimed at Pyrrha's head. What should have been a clean hit to her chin was dodged by the smallest margin, the girl leaning her head back quickly. It was as if she had sensed his foot move before he had even decided on the attack.

In a sort of mutual understanding, the two pushed off each other with no other motive but to create space. Naruto wasn't quite sure what to think of that. Ruby had helped remedy his lack of ranged options, but melee was still by and far his stronger suit. It was a shame Pyrrha could match him blow for blow. Plus, with Akoúo̱ in the girl's hands, it would be easy for her to nullify his ranged abilities.

Regardless of what would or wouldn't work, it was clear that Pyrrha couldn't be allowed to dictate the flow of battle. Naruto frowned. This was going to be challenging. He had no doubt that the tournament fighter had extensive experience doing exactly that.

Well, time to improvise.

Naruto hurled one of his chakra knives toward the redhead, hopefully defying her expectations. At the same time, he weakly tossed his other blade at the ground, rolling it towards her feet like one would a bowling ball.

As Pyrrha raised her shield to deflect, a task made easy considering how much he'd telegraphed his moves, Naruto tensed. The moment her shield began to obscure her line of sight toward him, the blond exploded in a flurry of movement.

He'd have to be fast for this. It was all the more challenging considering how sluggish he'd felt since the start of the fight.

Pyrrha's shield caught the thrown projectile easily, deflecting the blade to the side. Naruto carefully tracked its trajectory. It would be essential to know where it ended up. The invincible girl shifted back towards him quickly, angling her sword to intercept him.

With no small amount of satisfaction, Naruto noted the first sign of hesitation in the girl's movements. It probably did seem strange he'd rush her after disarming himself.

That was good. She had no idea.

Despite being in the dark and visibly confused, Pyrrha was ready for the shinobi's follow-up attack. At least, she thought she was.

Naruto launched himself up with a chakra-enhanced leap, flipping himself over the redhead. It was a pretty good jump if he did say so himself. He cleared the girl by several feet and reached behind his back at the apex of his jump. He emphasized making it look like he was reaching for another hold-out weapon. Which, to be fair, he did, in fact, have on himself. Several small knives had been stashed across various pockets and straps.

Pyrrha tensed and raised her shield just a little bit higher.

Perfect.

After all, he was only making it look like he was reaching for another weapon. In reality, his play would be coming from somewhere else.

Naruto flexed both his forearms and fed a small amount of Aura into his vambraces. Just as Ruby had shown him. He quickly shot both hands out, facing the redhead.

Pyrrha only had a fraction of a second to wonder what he was doing before her eyes widened. With a shrill scrap of metal on Aura, Naruto watched as both of his discarded chakra knives slashed into the girl.

The first blade, the one that had been deflected, had ended up somewhere behind the redhead, an obvious blind spot. The other blade, which Naruto had lazily rolled underneath her, was positioned in another situational blind spot.

The moment Naruto made the necessary gesture and fed his Aura into his armguards, his chakra blades were instantly recalled to his hands. It just so happened that they struck whatever, or in this case, whoever was in the way.

It really was a marvel of engineering on Ruby's part. No small amount of electronics, wiring, and software programming had gone into both his vambraces and the handles of his chakra knives. That, and the largest gravity dust crystals that she could fit. Now, Naruto essentially had an unlimited supply of thrown weapons, something he had been trained with since childhood. He would never be as good as someone like Sasuke. But in this world? He doubted anyone short of a specialist could compare.

The first blade, the one behind Pyrrha, sliced cleanly across her upper back while on its way to the blond. Were it not for the girl's Aura, she would have suffered a severe laceration, if not a flat-out impalement.

The second blade, positioned directly underneath the girl, caught her in the chin as it travelled to Naruto's outstretched hand. Again, were it not for Aura, the blow would have been highly lethal.

Luckily Aura did play a factor in the exchanges, so instead of a brutal pair of injuries, the redhead was slammed from behind, then took a bladed uppercut to the chin. The attack left the girl off-kilter, something Naruto assumed she hadn't been expecting. He needed to capitalize on the small opening. Now fully rearmed, he descended upon the invincible girl like a bladed meteorite. To her credit, Pyrrha recovered quickly and blocked his incoming attack. Dual daggers met sword and shield as the two fighters vied for dominance.

Naruto frowned. Now that the surprise had worn off, he was back to square one. She wouldn't be falling for that again. The two exchanged a short series of blows. Metal clashed against metal, yet neither had a significant advantage over the other. If he wanted to win, he'd need to be mobile, sporadic, and smart.

Apparently, Pyrrha thought very much the same way, as without warning, she hopped back several steps. Naruto instinctively took a step back as well, and it was at that moment the invincible girl threw her shield at him. What surprised the blond was that the projectile wasn't thrown very hard, and it was aimed directly at his feet. As he tracked the shield, all the while keeping his opponent well within his peripheral vision, Naruto's eyes widened slightly. She wasn't so much aiming at his feet; instead, she was aiming underneath his feet. Specifically at the area beneath his slowly descending back foot.

Naruto grinned. She'd timed it perfectly, but it was obvious what her strategy was. She'd aimed her shield in such a way that he would step on the shield and lose his balance. It would be like missing a step on the way up the stairs. From there, it was up to Pyrrha, but if he had to guess, she wouldn't have been kind while exploiting the opening she created. It probably would have worked on any other opponent

But Naruto wasn't any other opponent.

In one fluid motion, Naruto's foot landed on the well-placed shield. The second his boot made contact with the sheet of metal, he anchored to it with his chakra and purposely fell backward, taking the shield with him. Riding his momentum, the blond performed an impromptu standing backflip. Not an easy feat. At the midway point of his flip, he expelled a fair amount of chakra from the bottom of his foot, launching Pyrrha's shield back toward its owner. He had just enough time to see the look of surprise on the girl's face as she raced to take advantage of what she thought was an opening in his guard.

As he completed his flip, Naruto couldn't see it, but he could certainly hear the blunt-force impact of metal on flesh. He almost winced. Pyrrha had not expected that at all. She probably took the full brunt of the blow.

Okay. All right. This was going better. Now, if only he could get a little momentum going.

Fixing his eyes back on his opponent, Naruto was pleased to see that Pyrrha was indeed stunned by his unexpected attack. Akoúo̱ lay on the ground in front of her, and she was clutching her head in pain.

Naruto suppressed a bark of laughter. How did she like it?

The key here would be to keep the redhead on the back foot. Acting on that intent, Naruto let loose one of his trench knives. Admittedly, the blade's design didn't synchronize well with throwing, but he'd been making it work so far. He took off after the blade in a sprint. Upon stabilizing her aching head, Pyrrha barely had enough time to react to the incoming projectile. Perhaps in what was the first instance of a genuine mistake and not something born of external conditions, she raised her right arm to block, which still lacked Akoúo̱. Mild panic flooded her emerald eyes.

Naruto mentally shrugged as he surged forth. He'd take a free hit on her any day.

Instead of metal on Aura, or, at the very least, metal on metal, as the invincible girl still wore a forearm guard, there was no sound. Nothing. Despite the lack of audible confirmation, Naruto's chakra blade seemingly deflected off her arm, spinning end over end in the opposite direction.

Naruto's eyes pinched in confusion. Why was there no sound of impact? It was clear as day his blade made contact with the girl. Was it his concussion taking effect?

The blond pushed the thought aside for the time being. Instead, he focused on recalling his knife. As his blade returned to him, he reached out to grab it from the air. Confusion overtook him as he seemingly overestimated where his blade would be, and his own weapon sliced into the underside of his wrist, no doubt taking out a chunk of his Aura.

What the fuck? That shouldn't have happened. Was his head injury really affecting him that badly? Was his depth perception in question now?

'Kurama, I really need you to clear up my concussion. It's starting to affect my combat potential.'

A fraction of a second later, his partner responded. 'Kid, I fixed your concussion minutes ago. It really wasn't that bad to begin with.'

What? Naruto was at a loss for words.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time to worry about it because Pyrrha was upon him in a heartbeat. Akoúo̱ was in her hand again, another instance of him not noticing her rearm herself. Similar to their earlier exchange Naruto caught the spartan's blade with his own, but this time he intercepted her follow-up shield bash with the palm of his hand. Also, unlike last time, there was a far greater disparity in their strength levels. She was forcing him back quite thoroughly.

Naruto needed space. He needed a second to come up with something. Anything. At the very least, he needed a moment to retrieve his other knife. Now more than ever, did he wish he could use something from his repertoire of jutsu. Well, there were always his chakra chains. His 'semblance.' But did he really want to reveal them now when he hadn't fully mastered them? Rolling the idea around, it was also possible that now would be the best time to use them. Yang already knew, so it was only a matter of time before word got out. At least now, he still had the element of surprise.

In a move befitting her appearance, Pyrrha raised a leg and delivered a brutal spartan kick toward the blond's midsection. Naruto raised his leg and barely caught the kick with his shin. He winced uncomfortably before being pushed away violently. He had barely a second to process the soreness in his leg before the redhead followed up with a series of jabs from her javelin. Each thrust was dodged by an uncomfortably thin margin. That was until the final thrust came. Naruto was well aware of his limits. With Pyrrha's speed and power, he knew he couldn't dodge the last in her series of strikes. It shouldn't have been that much of a problem, as he still had two hands available and would therefore be able to slap her weapon to the side.

...

So why the hell weren't his arms responding? It was like an unseen force was anchoring them in place. Naruto knew himself very well. It helped when one had a hundred-foot-tall entity of destruction constantly providing commentary throughout his life. He knew his abilities. He knew his limitations. Especially as of late. That's why he knew well in advance he should have been able to redirect his opponent's attack.

A lot of good that knowledge did as a sharp pain exploded across his forehead. Why the hell did he move his Hitai-ate to his arm? It was a Kami damn forehead protector. Naruto was thrown back over a dozen feet and crashed onto the ground. His head thundered in pain. If not for Aura, he'd be dead.

The shinobi sloppily crawled to his feet. There was no grace in his movements. None of his usual fluidity. A fight with Pyrrha would have always demanded he throw away any decorum. Moisture blurred his vision, a natural reaction to the acute pain he was feeling.

As long as he didn't fucking cry, he should be able to recover. He laughed humourlessly at the thought.

Upon seeing his opponent, Naruto was surprised. Pyrrha's stance was open and disorganized, and her form had a slight hunch. Her shoulders heaved as she pulled in greedy yet controlled gulps of air. Apparently, their fight was taking a toll on her.

Naruto glanced at the Aura board.

Wow.

Neither of them were doing too good. They were both in the yellow, though Pyrrha was clearly ahead of him. Naruto hadn't landed as many blows, but the few he had landed had struck hard. It was still surprising to see how much Aura the girl had lost. At the same time, he wondered how much her last attack alone shaved off his own meter. Only a few more clean hits, and he'd be out. More if he was able to block or deflect. Despite the disparity in their reserves, Naruto was oddly pleased. If it was a month ago, he'd have been long since eliminated from the fight. His meagre reserves would have stood no chance again the invincible girl's first few hits.

Speaking of the invincible girl, Naruto couldn't help but wonder how accurate the title was. Was she only invincible in that she was undefeated? Or was it more literal in that she'd never taken a hit in battle? If that was the case, he supposed he was giving her quite the run for her money.

That didn't mean he was content to lose.

As the redhead was still catching her breath, Naruto chanced a look around the room. A good majority of the audience appeared speechless at their display. With mild annoyance, Naruto spotted a good number of upperclassmen in the stands, as well as the Headmaster himself, of all people.

Great.

Eyes panning, he spotted both his team and the rest of Team JNPR sitting together. Predictably, the rest of RYBWN appeared worried for him. It was understandable. This was the first case they'd ever seen him struggle in a fight. He sighed. If only they knew. Team JNPR appeared more conflicted. They were essentially witnessing their teammate, and a good friend beat the crap out of each other. Naruto liked to think it was difficult for them to cheer on either party.

Kami. How the hell was he supposed to beat Pyrrha while remaining conservative? He felt like his pride was on the line here. Damn his emotions. So stupid.

'Oh, for Kami's sake, would you just stop and think already? The answer to why you're losing is right in front of you.'

Naruto frowned.

'I know this is the part where you mock me for not seeing the obvious, and you explain how it's been fun watching me get my ass beat, but Kurama. Buddy. Brother. I'm not in the mood, and unless you want me to actually lose right now, help me out here.'

Naruto heard a loud huff from his friend.

'First of all, it's not obvious. Your opponent is actually incredibly devious in what she's doing. But she's been sloppy at specific points, and she even made a glaring mistake. I was hoping you could figure it out without my help, but that last blow to your head has shattered any hopes of that.'

Naruto rolled his eyes. He recalled his discarded trench knife as Pyrrha finished catching her breath.

'Perfect. I'm glad we have an understanding, partner. Now what's her secret?'

The Kyubi sighed.

'Think about your last few exchanges in particular. Notice something off?'

Naruto certainly didn't have to think about it. He didn't block her last strike, despite knowing he could have.

'Correct. What did it feel like?'

Naruto thought back. 'It felt... like my body wasn't responding properly.'

Kurama remained silent.

'No, not exactly. It felt like my body was fighting against something. Like there was an invisible force holding me back.'

'Good.' The fox prompted. 'What else? Think back to other parts of the fight. Other instances of things feeling strange or turning out unexpectedly.'

So Naruto did.

In the meantime, the two combatants began to circle each other. It only now occurred to the blond that neither had spoken a single word throughout the fight. They'd been too preoccupied. Well, he needed more time to think, so what better way to buy that time than by talking?

"We've drawn quite the crowd," Naruto prompted while signalling to the audience.

Pyrrha nodded absently.

Hmm. He supposed she was used to crowds.

"You're as good a fighter as I expected. Better even." Naruto complimented.

Okay, let's see. Other instances of something unexpected happening? Well, most glaringly would be when he misjudged where his trench knife would be when trying to recall it, resulting in a bit of self-inflicted damage.

So maybe it wasn't a mistake? Did Pyrrha have something to do with it?

"And you're just as good as I expected," the redhead replied in kind. "I've been training specifically for you, you know."

Naruto paused in his thoughts. Well, that was... flattering. Leave it to Pyrrha to go out of her way to outdo his compliment. She really was a sweetheart.

Naruto smiled. Okay, what else? Well, there were all the cases when she had mysteriously rearmed herself. Primarily reequipping her shield. As far as he knew, her weapons didn't have a recall feature like his own. So how was she doing it?

'Good. Keep going. You better hurry, though. You don't have much time.'

"I've gotta ask," Naruto called out. Pyrrha raised a crimson brow. "Invincible girl. Does that mean you've never been hit in a fight or that you never lose?"

When it came to feeling strange throughout the fight, there was no doubt he'd felt sluggish since the beginning. Like he'd been weighed down. And every time Pyrrha overpowered him, he felt off. Like there was more at play.

The tournament fighter laughed. "Oh, nothing so spectacular as never being hit in a fight. I'm not that good." She narrowed her eyes playfully. "Not yet."

'It has to be her semblance, right? There's been way too much weirdness for it to be anything else.'

'Good!' Kurama barked. 'It's the girl's semblance. A powerful one indeed.'

'She's clearly messing with my body.' Naruto could feel the confirmation via their mental link. 'So what is it? Telekinesis? Gravity manipulation?'

The blond could feel a small amount of surprise radiate off his partner. As if his metaphorical heart rate had risen.

Odd.

'Uhh... Close enough. You're close; it's only a matter of time before you figure it out, so I'll tell you. It's not your body she's affecting; it's your equipment. The metal on you specifically.'

Naruto's eyes widened. Holy shit. What a disgusting semblance. No wonder she was undefeated. There were very few fighters who didn't use metal in their weapons or armour. So long as they did, there was no way they could hope to defeat an opponent who could control the very material their kit was made of.

Hell, against someone in a full suit of armour, Pyrrha could simply lift them and throw them out of the ring. That, or crush them to death.

In the case of their fight, Pyrrha had been subtly manipulating the metal on his person since the beginning. Weighing him down, making him feel sluggish, reducing his speed. Microadjusting the angle of his blades whenever they clashed to make things more favourable for her. Pulling his weapons in the opposite direction whenever they were in a contest of strength, making it seem like she was physically stronger. It was how she could seemingly read his movements; she could probably sense his steel move before she could see it. Even reequipping her shield could be explained through her semblance. Naruto frowned. That also explained how she had blindsided him with it in the beginning.

The blond's eyes snapped to his opponent, and he couldn't help but look at her in a new light. She'd been dictating the course of battle from the very beginning. On the other hand, seeing her slightly haggard appearance and the condition of her Aura was somewhat gratifying. To know that, despite her ridiculous semblance, he was still putting up this much of a fight. It felt good.

He wondered how much of her Aura was lost using her semblance compared to how much he had taken off during the fight itself.

To Naruto's surprise, the redhead still hadn't launched an attack yet. Why was she so hesitant now? Whatever. It was her mistake to make. He needed to even the playing field, and there was no telling how long his opponent would continue to give him that opportunity.

Without warning, Naruto hurled his chakra knives outside the arena, effectively putting them out of bounds. Pyrrha blinked in surprise. Without a word, the blond quickly unstrapped his metal armguards and tossed them aside, removing them from the arena as well.

Various murmurs of confusion sounded throughout the room at his actions. Who could blame them? If they didn't know Pyrrha's semblance, which Naruto suspected only the girl's teammates might have known, his actions would seem nonsensical.

For her part, Pyrrha's confusion shifted to a smile. "So you figured it out?"

Naruto nodded slowly as he removed whatever metal he could from himself. His Hitai-ate, his various disposable hold-out blades. Even his half-used spool of ninja wire. Kami, he should probably just throw that out for good at this point.

"It wasn't easy. Especially with how hard you've been hitting my head."

Pyrrha smiled sheepishly.

"But it's the only explanation I could come to for all the small occurrences that seemed to be going in your favour," Naruto answered. That wasn't entirely true. He'd suspected telekinesis first and foremost.

"That's all it took?" The redhead questioned in surprise.

"That, and because you started relying on it a bit too much near the end. Redirecting my blade without touching it was also a big giveaway."

Pyrrha laughed to herself. "What can I say? You caught me off guard, and I panicked."

Even the invincible girl was prone to making the odd mistake or two. To her credit, the mistake was actually rather subtle, especially when in the heat of battle. But Naruto was perceptive. And he had a partner even more perceptive.

'I don't know why you're trying to dress this up as if you had any idea what was happening. If not for me, you'd be down and out.'

'Well, then it's a good thing I've got you, partner.'

Naruto could feel the warmth from his friend even through the sound of overexaggerated retching.

The blond raised his fists. It was time for a classic bare-knuckle brawl. Pyrrha raised her sword and shield. Okay. Maybe it wasn't exactly a bare-knuckle brawl, but the circumstances didn't stop him from feeling right at home. His fists were, after all, his most dangerous weapons.

Did that sound pretentious?

'Yes.'

Whatever.

Naruto lept toward his opponent. Already he could feel the difference now that she wasn't artificially weighing him down. His speed was faster, his movements smoother, and his strikes sharper. Pyrrha could likely feel the difference as well. The girl frowned as she was immediately put on the defensive. The two exchanged a long series of blows. Each attack slowly emphasized the difference in their physical abilities. Pyrrha was, without a doubt, strong. She was fast. And she was skilled. But Naruto was faster and stronger. Only the spartan's pure skill and technique allowed her to avoid the worst of his attacks. Constantly keeping the distance between them as small as possible also negated the advantage her sword gave her.

But if there was one thing about the girl, she was creative.

This was made all the more evident as the redhead tossed her shield to the side and caught the shinobi's incoming fist. Concurrently, Naruto caught the girl's wrist, the one holding her sword, stopping the blade inches from his head. They once again vied for dominance, but with no metal on his arms this time, Naruto was slowly winning. Yet something still troubled him.

Why the hell did she discard her shield?

An answer was quickly given as the shield in question flew toward his vulnerable head. Right. She no longer had to be subtle about her semblance. Naruto attempted to pull away in order to protect himself, but in a moment of impressive dexterity, Pyrrha dropped her sword and latched onto his other wrist. Like her shield, her sword stopped falling mid-air and angled toward the blond, this time aiming at his midsection.

Did he mention she was creative?

'Three times, in fact.'

Naruto ignored his friend.

Time seemed to slow as sword and shield raced for his undefended body. Trying to pull away would be useless. He was stronger, sure, but Pyrrha didn't need to overpower him. She just needed to delay him for a fraction of a second so that her weapons could hit. Thinking back to the last time he checked his Aura, it was possible two direct hits such as this would push him into the red, ending the fight.

But only one hit might not.

That really only left one option. Kami damn it. Naruto threw his head forward, smashing into Pyrrha's face. Stars exploded across his vision, and his head rang. He definitely did not execute that properly. But he'd been desperate.

Plus, it paid off.

Unlike Naruto, Pyrrha had not expected the headbutt, which stunned the girl. Luckily this also broke her concentration with her weapons, which paused millimetres from the blond. Naruto kicked out, sending the spartan backward. The blond lept back to create space, which, in retrospect, was probably ill-advised, considering he no longer had any range options, and his opponent did.

As it turned out, it mattered little as Pyrrha recovered quicker than expected and recalled her sword. In the blink of an eye, she shifted the weapon into its javelin form and hurled it at him. At the same time, she reached out with her free hand and made a pulling motion.

Naruto was momentarily confused until he felt it. As his back foot touched down, the foot bearing all his weight, he felt a tremendous force exerted on his body. It was as if someone had pulled a literal carpet out from under him. The force of the motion was so sudden and so powerful that he felt a muscle in his groin pinch sharply. He had barely enough time to suppress a grimace before he noticed the gold and red javelin bearing down on his collapsing form.

Damn.

'Hey, Kurama? How did we get here?'

'Your boots are steel-toed. Moron.'

Oh. Okay.

'Just use your chakra chains and end things already. At this point, it's becoming more of a display of her skills.'

Yeah. Alright.

'Also, you have another concussion.'

...

Naruto ignored the discomfort he felt from landing heavily on his back and reached out with his right hand. Instantly, golden light exploded from his palm, and the rattling of chains filled the room. He'd really been hoping to avoid this. But Pyrrha was just too damn good.

Naruto focused hard on where he wanted the chain to go and what he wanted it to do. The first thing to do was to prevent that pesky javelin from ending the fight in his opponent's favour. In accordance with his will, the bladed tip of his chain intercepted the redhead's projectile. Whether from shock on her end or overwhelming power on his, her connection to the javelin was interrupted, and the weapon was sent careening off to the side. If Pyrrha tried to redirect it toward himself, it would take her much too long, such was the distance her weapon was knocked away.

Next, one thought flooded Naruto's mind. Restrain. He wasn't sure whether the jutsu had a mind of its own or if it was being directed by him subconsciously. What he was sure of, however, was that even if Pyrrha was in top shape, she would have been hard-pressed to avoid the golden bindings.

The redhead's eyes widened as she tried to bat the chain away. Naruto wasn't sure if she was trying to use her semblance on them. Despite their metallic sound, there was no metal in them. They were pure condensed chakra.

It didn't take long for the chain to fully wind its way around her body, looping several times around each limb and compressing tightly. Pyrrha struggled futilely. In a last-ditch attempt, Akoúo̱ rose unsteadily from the ground and shot toward the blond. It didn't make it very far, as its momentum seemingly sputtered out of existence, and it crashed to the ground. The clattering of her javelin, which sounded to be only a few feet behind him, signalled similar results.

Moments later, a loud buzzer rang, indicating the conclusion of the match.

Naruto's head dropped to the ground, and he sighed deeply. The blond released his jutsu, which shattered the chain into countless motes of glittering light. He heard a corresponding grunt as Pyrrha hit the floor. Glancing at the Aura board, Naruto was unsurprised to see his opponent's Aura read zero. The rate at which his chain suppressed the substance was quite fast indeed. He wondered how long — never mind. The girls' Aura was already slowly returning. He was impressed that his own Aura was holding a fraction above the red. Naruto closed his eyes. The lights in the room were entirely too bright.

Despite losing the element of surprise, Pyrrha fought like a cornered animal when pressed. Dangerously.

Footsteps alerted him to a new presence. Cracking open his eyes, he was greeted with sparkling brown orbs. Right. Class was still technically in session.

"Hey, Amber," Naruto greeted weakly.

The girl in question grinned. "Hey yourself, hotshot." She paused, then whispered, "So that was pretty fucking epic. Great job."

Naruto smiled back. That was pretty epic, wasn't it?

"You know the worst is yet to come, right?" Amber warned. At his look of confusion, she continued. "Not only is beating Pyrrha going to draw a lot of attention to yourself but the way you fought will as well. Especially that thing at the end."

Naruto frowned.

"You mean my semblance?"

"Right, that." Amber agreed. "Speaking of which. Glynda will have to add it to your student profile, so be ready to review your semblance's details with her."

Naruto's face screwed in confusion.

"Don't look at me," Amber deflected. "I don't make the rules."

Fair enough.

"Now get up. Class is about to end, and we still need to go over some coaching."

Naruto sighed as he struggled to his feet. Kami he was tired.

"Between you and me," the brunette whispered, "There isn't much to criticize. So be ready for some bullshit 'be mindful of your surroundings' and 'don't underestimate your opponent' schpiel."

Huh. Good to know.

Surprisingly, Amber was right. There wasn't a lot in the way of criticism that was given, even from Professor Goodwitch. The most helpful advice he had gotten was a stern reminder to focus from the very beginning of the fight. His throbbing head was a testament to that.

As the two combatants made their way off the stage, every fibre of Naruto's being couldn't help but to congratulate Pyrrha on her performance. This was likely her first loss in a long while; he didn't want to leave her upset.

Much to Naruto's surprise, Pyrrha beat him to it. And despite his expectations, she was all smiles. "Well fought!" she called as they walked to the base of the stage. Naruto was confused. Regardless, he offered her an awkward handshake.

'Ew.'

'Shut up. I thought she'd be sad or angry. I don't know what to say.'

Pyrrha laughed heartily, then drew him in for a half hug. It was only slightly awkward as they were still walking. His friend smelled of sweat and metal. Naruto assumed he smelled about the same, if not worse. He returned the embrace as best he could.

"You're not upset you lost?" He questioned.

"Of course not!" The redhead replied enthusiastically. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find someone who can actually push me past my limits?"

Naruto grinned. He hadn't thought of it that way. "Careful now," he warned playfully. "If you're about to declare yourself my rival, I'm not taking new candidates."

"I don't think it's up for you to decide," she challenged.

Naruto hummed. "Pretty sure it is."

The redhead smiled. "Really now? So you agreed to make Yang your rival?"

Naruto frowned. "Okay, point taken. But -"

"- Relax," Pyrrha laughed. "I'd like to think I'm your friend more than your rival."

Naruto nodded.

"Friends that..." the tournament fighter continued. "Spar from time to time? And help each other improve in ways that only two fighters on similar levels can?"

Well, if this fight proved anything, it was that he still desperately needed to train. No matter how good Pyrrha was, Naruto needed to be well above his current level.

The shinobi chuckled. "Yeah," he replied truthfully. "We're friends like that." If nothing else, it would be nice to have someone like Pyrrha as a sparring partner. Yang was great and all, but she had a tendency to go overboard. Too focused on their 'rivalry,' he supposed. Pyrrha had proven in their fight that she was more than capable of self-control.

The spartan hummed loudly as the two descended the stairs and approached their teams. That was a prompt for further conversation if Naruto had ever heard one. "Something on your mind?" He asked.

The redhead grinned again. "Just contemplating," she answered.

"Oh?" the blond prompted. He received a nod.

"I was just thinking. What really turned things in your favour was a mistake on my end." At Naruto's expectant look, Pyrrha continued. "I gave you too much time to think."

"What do you mean?"

Pyrrha nudged his arm with her elbow. "You have a sharp mind, no matter what you try to make people think. I was worried if I gave you enough time to think, you'd be able to figure out my semblance. And it appears I was rightfully worried."

Yup. That was him alright. The owner of a super sharp mind able to crack even the most complex of puzzles. All on his own. Naruto grinned at the low rumble he received from his mindscape.

"My initial plan was to implement shock and awe. Keep you constantly moving and unable to think properly. It worked well until I got tired."

Naruto tenderly rubbed his head. "Yeah, I noticed that too. In the beginning, I couldn't get through a single thought without you making a new attack." He paused momentarily. "Is that why you kept going for my head?"

The tips of Pyrrha's ears began to match her hair. Before she could answer, a new voice made itself known.

"Yes, about that. Please refrain from damaging his head any further. Any more, and he'll be as dumb as Yang."

If Naruto couldn't identify the speaker through their recognizable voice, then he could surely tell who it was based on the nature of the comment. Weiss. He smiled.

Ruby quickly jumped forward. "You guys were so cool!" She exclaimed. "You were all blam blam, and she was all, 'It's my personal mission to give you brain damage.' Then you used my upgrades to fight and caught Pyrrha off guard. That was the first time I've ever seen her get hit, and I've watched some of her old tournament fights, but she was so cool about it and just rolled with it. And both your semblances are so freaking cool! Why didn't you ever -"

"- Ruby! Relax!" Naruto finally interrupted the babbling girl.

The pale girl paused, then took a deep breath. "Heh. Sorry. You guys were just so awesome."

Glancing at the rest of his team, as well as Team JNPR, who had joined them during Ruby's rant, Naruto was greeted by a wide array of varying smiles. Each member across both teams offered different degrees of compliments toward both fighters. It honestly felt a little surreal. He'd only fought to the best of his abilities. Was it really that impressive?

'I think you're underestimating just how significant the redhead's reputation was. You beating her and putting on such a show really left an impression on everyone. Even your blond-haired instructor seemed surprised.'

Huh.

"Anyway," Ruby spoke up. "We'll have to sit down and talk about your semblance. I've got a lot of team strategies to revise now."

Naruto nodded. "Before any of that, I'd like to get a shower in. I smell like hard work."

Yang grinned and offered a low mumble of amusement.

Naruto frowned. "I also need to collect my gear."

"Don't worry about that," Ruby assured him. "We can do that! Go hit the showers," she smiled. Naruto could have sworn he heard her mumble something about the 'stench of hard work.'

"We should get going as well," Jaune chimed in. "We'll see you tomorrow at game night, right?" He asked hopefully.

"You betcha!" Ruby shouted. "We wouldn't miss it for the world!"

As Team JNPR split away from them, Naruto couldn't help but smile. He'd almost forgotten about game night. It'd be a nice way to unwind and further bond with everyone. He'd never really been to a proper game night anyway. He wondered what it would be like? Probably relaxation and good vibes, right?

xXx

"Brothers damn it!"

Two standard-issue playing cards flew toward the centre of the table, followed by a heavy thud as a head of bright blonde hair crashed onto the surface. Pale fingers laced through the messy head of hair, blending into the long tresses.

Naruto glanced across the table at the source of the disturbance while tossing his own two cards toward the center. He couldn't help but pity the girl. Yang had been doing about as poorly as one could. When Naruto was originally notified of the upcoming game night, he had asked which specific game they'd be playing. As expected, he was utterly unfamiliar with the answer. Remnant card games were completely different from those back home.

The game involved two cards being dealt to each player. Easy enough. The involvement of community cards, or the 'board,' was interesting as it was a completely new mechanic he wasn't familiar with. Regardless, Naruto found himself slowly adapting to the rules throughout the night. The problem with that was despite his level of comprehension, his legendary luck was proving to be a multiversal constant. If he wasn't winning hands he was confident in, he was winning hands for reasons that needed to be explained to him. It had gotten to the point that he'd stopped asking if he had won and simply went with the crowd's reaction.

Pyrrha sat beside him to his left. Her long red hair was tousled, entirely concealing her left eye and hiding a good portion of her right. Yang had commented early on that she looked ridiculous, but the redhead was adamant that it played an integral role in her 'poker face.' Despite this, she threw in her own cards, an uncharacteristic scowl on what little was visible of her face.

Squeezed between Pyrrha and Yang was Weiss. Her blank look was more noticeable when nestled between the two glowering women. In a rare display of casualness, her snow-white hair was let loose, dangling freely over her shoulders. She gave no reaction other than a barely suppressed smile, as her cards had been discarded almost immediately after being dealt.

Naruto adjusted to a more comfortable position and scratched lightly at his side. The black cotton t-shirt he wore shifted lightly.

They were, all of them, in various states of casual wear. Hoodies, sweatpants, shorts, and t-shirts. It was deemed by the majority to play a crucial role in any game night.

Naruto didn't know anything about that, but seeing everyone in clothes other than their combat attire or school uniforms was interesting.

A cry of victory grabbed Naruto's attention.

"Ha! Too easy!"

Perhaps the most surprising performance of the night came from the woman to Naruto's right. Nora laughed triumphantly as she pulled in the relatively small pile of poker chips with an over-exaggerated cast of her arms.

"For Brother's sake, have mercy!" Yang cried out. The poor girl sounded heartbroken.

Naruto reasoned that he would as well if he had lost as much lien as his blonde counterpart had. For reasons unbeknownst to him, Nora seemed to have a personal vendetta against Yang's wallet. She had spent most of the night punishing the rowdy brawler by steadily lightening her pockets.

"It's your poker face. It sucks," Blake commented offhandedly from across the room.

Yang scowled at the ravenette's words.

Blake, unsurprisingly, sat comfortably on the nearby couch. She and Ren were currently halfway through a multi-hundred-piece puzzle. Blake had made it clear she held no interest in the game of cards. As for her black-haired counterpart, Pyrrha had informed Naruto that Ren was permanently banned from participating in poker nights when it became clear that his poker face was the stuff of legends. Much to everyone's frustration, with the exception of Naruto, Ren didn't mind his ban in the least, claiming he didn't particularly care for the game in general.

Naruto looked around the table. Judging by the glares he was receiving from Pyrrha, Yang, and Nora to a lesser degree, he would likely be added to the ban list soon.

Yang turned to her partner and growled, "Shut up broody pants! I don't need advice from some edge lord who's too afraid to put her money where her mouth is!"

Blake raised a brow at the insult, then muttered a quiet "rude" before returning to the puzzle.

"She's right, you know," Pyrrha admonished RYBWN's heavy hitter. "Your poker face is almost as bad as your temper."

"Too bad she doesn't become a better player when she gets angry, eh?" Nora chuckled while lightly poking Naruto in the ribs.

Yang's grumbles brought a smile to Naruto's face. He truly appreciated how well their teams got along. Team JNPR, their sister team, had been proving themselves valuable friends since the beginning of the year; it had only been natural to run a game night with them.

Despite Nora's earlier cries of victory, she wasn't the night's top earner. That honour, as previously mentioned, belonged to Naruto himself. Nora was trailing close behind, apparently a natural adept at the game. Although considering the predatory look she wore as she eyed Yang's hunched-over form, perhaps she was just exceptionally motivated. Weiss was breaking even so far. Some hands won, and some lost. It likely had to do with how conservatively she was playing. Although, he was almost convinced that the heiress was counting cards. She had an uncanny accuracy when it came to knowing the right play. That girl certainly knew when to both hold em, and fold em.

It reminded him of Shikamaru. During the war, card games were often played in camps during the rare recesses between battles. It was one of the few times the allied shinobi could destress. Unless that is, they were playing against the Nara clan heir. Shikamaru had discreetly admitted to being able to count cards. Not even that was enough to beat out Naruto's unfathomable luck.

Pyrrha wasn't fairing well. Despite insisting her hairstyle helped her poker face, it did not, in fact, help her poker face. Finally, there was Yang. Poor Yang.

...

Speaking of the blonde, the girl craned her neck and gazed past her partner. "Hey, Rubes! Tag in for me!"

Naruto looked to the far end of the room. Ruby and Jaune were hunched in front of a television, playing some sort of sidescroller fighting game. He couldn't tell who was winning from this distance, but judging from the sigh of relief that came from Jaune as the scythe-wielder paused the game, Naruto figured he knew.

The red and black-clad girl meandered over to the table, took one look at each player's piles of chips and laughed. She turned on her heel and began walking back to the television without a word.

"Traitor!" Yang cried, betrayal thick in her voice.

"You're not getting out of this that easy!" Came Nora's overexaggerated 'villain voice.'

Yang groaned. "You're no queen of the castle; you're a tyrant!"

"And don't you forget it!" The hammer-wielder spat.

Yang looked as if she was on the cusp of throwing in the towel. Only the woman's pride stayed her hand. "Why aren't you picking on Naruto? He literally has two-thirds of all the chips!"

"Because, my dear Yang, you are my eternal rival!"

Yang nearly dropped her newly dealt cards.

"And as my eternal rival, it is my job," Nora paused in thought. "Nay, it is my duty to make you suffer!"

Naruto peered silently over his hand and managed to lock eyes with his blonde counterpart. He sent her a knowing look. Yang scowled in return. "What we have is different, you jerk!" Naruto dipped his head in deference. He didn't need to say anything to prove his point. Not really. And both blondes knew it.

Yang turned back to Nora. "Are you trying to be my rival or my enemy?"

Nora nodded. "Yes."

...

Throughout the banter, the round had steadily progressed. Weiss, the current dealer, ended her duties by flipping over the river. Each reaction was unique. Weiss simply frowned, throwing her cards to the centre of the table. Pyrrha gave no outward response other than elegantly sliding her cards in. Nora brazenly raised the current bet, a broad smile on her face. Yang was more subdued as she tentatively matched the bet, but the tiny flicker of hope in her eyes was enough of a tell. Finally, much to Naruto's surprise, he realized that he hadn't even bothered to look at his cards throughout the round.

What if...? Just for fun... he really shouldn't...

Naruto folded his cards down and matched Nora's bet. The hammer-wielder grinned, glanced at her hand, then raised a fair amount of chips. Yang released a nervous laugh, then pushed a large section of her few remaining chips in. Naruto matched the pair without hesitation.

A manic gleam passed through Nora's eyes. She glanced at her cards one more time, hummed to herself, and raised the bet further. Yang was practically sweating bullets at this point. She wiped her hands on the sides of her shirt. Again, her pride got the better of her, and she forked over another pile of her dwindling reserves.

Naruto smiled sweetly. He matched the bet.

As Nora's turn rolled around again. Yang released a short whimper. "Please don't." There was a pained look in her eyes.

Maybe it was an act of mercy. Maybe it was Nora's way of prolonging the blonde's suffering. Whatever it was, it stayed the manic girl's hand. Instead of raising, she finally checked.

Yang released a pent-up breath, tapping the table twice.

Naruto chuckled, then began to fiddle with several chips in his comparatively massive pile. Yang's anxiety returned in full force upon realizing she wasn't yet clear of danger.

The shinobi lifted a single chip and nodded to the brawler. Yang desperately shook her head in the negative. Naruto lazily twirled the chip in his hand. He adopted a contemplative look while discreetly eying the blonde across from him. Upon seeing her bow her head in apparent prayer, he let his chip fall back into his pile with a soft laugh.

"I'll call," he finally said, his words shattering the fragile tension between the members of the table.

"Let's see everyone's hands!" Came Weiss' command.

The three remaining players dropped their cards and leaned in.

...

Oh. Wow.

There were times that Shikamaru had claimed Naruto's incredible luck was due to a savant level of awareness. As if he was subconsciously able to take in information and automatically make the best possible decisions without even realizing it. It was the shadow users' only method to reconcile losing against the Jinchūriki during their shogi games.

Well, Naruto could now safely say that theory was bullshit. What else but sheer unadulterated luck could explain the results of this round of cards?

Red eyes and glowing yellow hair almost had Naruto on edge. Instead, he tried his best not to laugh at the sheer absurdity of the situation.

"That's it, Uzumaki, you're out of here! You're banned from poker!"

Were it not for Pyrrha and Nora's tight grip on Yang's arms, Naruto may have had to dodge a lunge over the table.

"You're so fucking banned from poker — Nora! Get the hammer! Get the ban-hammer!"

Naruto's eyes widened. She wasn't talking about Magnhild, was she?

Despite their earlier investment in the game, both Nora and Pyrrha played a crucial role in keeping the raging blonde contained.

Nervous laughter filtered past the tournament fighter's lips as she strained to hold back the buxom blonde. "Perhaps it would be best if we took a break?" She half requested half insisted.

"Screw that!" Yang shouted angrily. "The only break I need is to break his legs!"

Nora shifted awkwardly at the mention of broken legs, and her grip faltered slightly. What the hell was with that girl?

A loud clap caught everyone's attention.

"Okay, enough!" Came a familiar voice. Weiss, who had been awkwardly shoved back when Pyhrra moved to grab Yang's arm, slid out of her seat and stood.

All other table members craned their necks to meet her icy gaze.

"You!" The ashen-haired girl jabbed a finger toward Yang. "Sit." Her voice was cold, demanding, and carried weight.

Yang reflexively obeyed, if for no reason other than pure surprise from Weiss' tone.

Pyrrha and Nora slowly followed Yang's lead, their movements stiff as if they, too, were being reprimanded.

Naruto suppressed a grin. They probably wouldn't have felt so intimidated if they knew what Weiss was doing. It was an old annoying habit, at least, according to the heiress' older sister, that was created during their childhood.

It was Weiss' 'Winter Voice.'

Apparently, the younger Schnee sister had been quite the pain to grow up with and had, at some point, begun parroting her older sister's authoritative demeanour. It was cute at first, but it eventually grew into an almost awkward teasing as they grew up.

It was distinctly different from Weiss' normal haughty tone if one knew what to look for. Winter had constantly chastised her sister as, according to her, it sounded much too similar to how one would speak to a family pet.

Glancing at three sets of wide, almost obedient eyes, Naruto supposed the comparison still held true.

The little trove of information was something Weiss had disclosed to him in private during one of their evenings spent chatting about nothing in particular, so unfortunately, Naruto wouldn't be able to call her out on it in front of the others.

"Naruto," the heiress turned to him. The blond smiled in turn. "We're out of snacks. We'll go to the kitchen to replenish our reserves."

The blond raised a brow. "We?" He questioned.

"Yes, we," Weiss replied as if it was obvious. "With the rate at which everyone's been going through them, you'll need an extra set of hands."

Naruto dipped his head. Fair enough.

"Ruby, Jaune!"

Awkward shuffling could be heard across the room. Naruto glanced over and was met with four additional sets of eyes. Well, Weiss' 'Winter Voice' certainly had reach.

Ruby shot off a quick salute. "Reporting in, bestie!"

Seconds later, Jaune, who seemed somewhat relieved to have their fighting game put on hold, matched the scythe-wielder with a sloppy salute of his own.

Weiss pointed a dainty finger at their impromptu poker table without missing a beat. "You two fill in while we're gone."

Ruby frowned, but at her partner's expectant glare, she quickly zipped over and hovered next to Naruto's seat.

Hmm.

She certainly chose who to fill in for quickly. Jaune joined the table at a slower pace but with less hesitation.

Wait, why did they need to substitute in?

Before Naruto knew it, he was being led away from the table by a firm grip around his wrist. Being a full head taller than Weiss made for what was surely an entertaining sight.

"Smooth," Yang muttered begrudgingly as they passed by.

Bordering on just out of earshot, Naruto heard Ruby mutter to herself, "I wonder if I can just cash out now..."

The blond smiled to himself. He wasn't sure how well a gambler his team leader was, but he had the distinct feeling he'd be coming back to significantly less money. Oh well. That just meant more opportunity to wring everyone else dry.

As the two students steadily put distance between their floor's communal lounge, Naruto's eyes slowly drifted across his friend's form. There was something so very captivating when it came to Weiss in her casual clothes. Something comfortable. Domestic.

Her outfit was simple. A navy blue long-sleeve. Pale blue jeans that bordered on white. Black and white low-top sneakers — she was even smaller without her heels. And, of course, her snow-white hair let down from its typical sideways ponytail. It was one of the few occasions he'd seen it absent from its usual style.

Still looked great.

Naruto had long since discovered that on the rare occasions Weiss decided on a casual look, one needed to remain casual themselves. If compliments were offered, they should be given in moderation. Quick and succinct. Nothing too pandering. It was like bonding with a cat. You didn't want to come on too strong. This didn't apply to just Naruto. The first time Weiss had donned a more laid-back outfit, Ruby had almost started gushing, quickly resulting in the ashen-haired girl changing into her much more familiar attire.

It was almost out of character for the girl. For someone as seemingly vain as Weiss, she was evidently terrible at receiving compliments. Did she not receive praise and attention throughout her childhood? Surely she did once she was named heiress of her family's company.

Perhaps it had something to do with the more recent compliments coming from people she was close with? They were equally more real.

Naruto shook his head. This wasn't the time to get lost in thought. Now it was time to enjoy the moment. "Hey, what was the point of substituting Ruby and Jaune in?" He asked.

Weiss released her grip on his wrist and slowed her pace, allowing the blond to match her stride. "So Yang won't be in such a foul mood when we get back, of course."

Hmm.

"How's that supposed to work?"

Weiss was silent for a moment. "Have you seen Ruby's poker face? It's a joke," she answered confidently.

...

"You know those are my chips she's playing with, right?"

Weiss offered a low hum as a response. The faint lilt of amusement transcended any need for words.

"I'm sure you'll win it all back," Weiss replied airily. After a moment's pause, she added, "Be honest. Were you cheating?"

The question was spoken casually. Neutrally. It wasn't an accusation as he might have expected. Just a yes or no question asked out of simple curiosity.

Naruto let out a light huff of air through his nose. "Nope. Just supernaturally lucky."

Weiss laughed. "Is that so?" She smiled prettily. "Good luck convincing Yang."

What went without saying was that Weiss' belief wasn't brought into question. It didn't need to be.

The duo continued down a series of stairs and corridors, eventually exiting the building through a rather plain, at least, for Beacon's standards, foyer. To get to the pantry, they'd essentially need to go to the cafeteria.

Fine by Naruto, it meant a pleasant nighttime stroll across campus. And what a beautiful night it was turning out to be. Clear skies and Beacon's location being far enough away from the city of Vale meant the stars and moon cast a beautiful glow across the school's courtyard. The midday heat had mostly dissipated, resulting in a cool summertime breeze. Atmospherically and literally, it was a breath of fresh air.

It reminded him of home.

Speaking of which...

"So," Naruto prompted. Weiss glanced at him through the corner of her eye. "Any updates from your fancy-schmancy investigator?"

The girl hummed. Her gaze shifted into one of mild thought. "Nothing groundbreaking, but he's following a few leads."

"Is that so?" Naruto added somewhat lamely. He didn't want to be pushy. Well, he did, but he knew he shouldn't.

It was hard to explain the contradicting feelings. Luckily, Weiss had gotten pretty good at picking up on them lately.

"Well," the heiress began, "He's only now arrived in Vacuo."

Naruto's brows contorted. As far as he knew, the desert kingdom was mostly just sand, sun, and a borderline laissez-faire government. "What's in Vacuo?" He asked plainly.

Weiss paused. Naruto could sense her hesitation. After a few moments of silence, she responded. "A library."

Hmm.

Before Naruto could comment, the white-clad girl continued. "Vacuo and Mistral are much older Kingdoms compared to Vale and Atlas. Because of this, they have relatively extensive libraries."

Naruto tried to slip in a snarky comment, but Weiss was quicker. "Before you say anything, just because Beacon's library is 'the best,' doesn't mean other libraries don't have things unique to them."

Naruto shrugged. "I wasn't going to say anything."

That was a lie.

"Liar," Weiss scoffed. Naruto chuckled. "Besides," the heiress continued. "Where would you rather be right now? In some desert, sifting through dusty books? Or here. With us."

...

Fair enough.

It was an unnecessary question with an obvious answer.

Naruto gazed upward. The stars really were beautiful tonight. Things had been much easier the past month now that he wasn't constantly stressing over finding a way home. The prospect was still scary and uncertain, but between Ozpin's promise and Weiss' private investigator, things were easier. It was as if the onus to get home was no longer on him. That utilizing the headmaster and trusting Weiss was the logical choice to make. The responsible choice.

Did that speak poorly of him, that he was passing the responsibility of finding a way home onto others? No one else seemed to think so. Not his team. Not Weiss. Not even Kurama. They had all been somewhat of the same mind. That he was being smart about it. Practical.

Naruto wasn't entirely sure, but he'd tentatively trust their judgement.

"Wolfgang said he would spend some time in Vacuo," Weiss continued. "But he made it clear that he wanted to pursue a lead in Mistral at some point."

Naruto froze.

"I'm sorry, Wolfgang?"

Weiss raised a brow. "Yes?" She replied in confusion. "My investigator? The man I hired to help you?"

Naruto nodded slowly. "You didn't mention his name was Wolfgang."

Naruto received a skeptical look. "I'm sure I did," Weiss said dismissively.

"Oh no you didn't. I would have absolutely remembered the name Wolfgang!"

Weiss released a light string of laughter. The sound was airy. Innocent. Happy. Naruto enjoyed it for what it was.

"Does it even matter?" The girl replied, slight tinges of exasperation in her tone.

Naruto balked at his teammate. "Of course, it matters! That's the coolest name I've ever heard! How could I not trust him completely with a name like that?"

Weiss shook her head in amusement.

"Please tell me he's also a wolf faunus," Naruto prodded.

The ashen-haired girl crossed her arms with a smile. "As a matter of fact, he is."

"Awesome," Naruto mumbled. "Does he, by any chance, run with a gang? A gang of investigators?"

Against her best efforts, Weiss snorted. She elbowed the blond sharply in the side. "Now you're being ridiculous."

Naruto grinned. He wouldn't say it, but being ridiculous was worth hearing those laughs.

The two continued to walk in comfortable silence. Naruto had no clue why the cafeteria was so far removed from the school dormitories. But it was working out in his favour.

"Hey, Naruto?"

The blond hummed in response. His teammate's tone was different from before. More serious. Almost hesitant.

"I'll find you a way home," the white-clad girl replied confidently. "Until then, just try to bear with us, ok?

Naruto frowned.

Bear with them? Something about that phrasing irked the shinobi. It almost felt self-deprecating. This place. These people. They weren't something to endure until he could get home.

No. This was somewhere to be. This wasn't home, but it was still something. Streetlights and cobblestone paths. The sky, the world. He was still alive.

Naruto turned to his friend. He let her know as much.

xXx

A/N: And there she is. Chapter 10. I really, really liked this chapter. It's one of my favourites so far, so I'm suspending all instances of constructive criticism for this chapter only. Only good vibes, please. I'm kidding; constructively criticize away if you'd like. Nothing's perfect, no matter how much we like it.

Let's see. We covered a lot of chakra chain stuff. That was cool. They're not very well explored in the anime/manga, and even their Narutopedia page is relatively sparse. This means I can kind of write them however I want. As you can imagine, they'll be explored and developed further in the future. As Kurama said, it'll only get better from here.

Fight with Pyrrha was long overdue. I hope I wrote it well. There were a lot of moving parts and a lot to keep track of. Hopefully, it wasn't too jumbled, and you guys could picture it clearly in your heads. I wanted Naruto to struggle a little throughout the fight, which I hope was explained by the end. Remember, Naruto's going against a prodigy with an unbelievably powerful semblance. One that he doesn't know about. And he still can't use like 80% of his abilities. Also, just so we're clear, just because he was losing in the Aura game initially doesn't mean he and Pyrrha are equal fighters. Remember, Naruto's fought his entire life without Aura, including its protective qualities. Running out of Aura isn't the end in a real life-or-death battle. It just puts you in a position Naruto's been in his entire life. I'd imagine that if both fighters ran out of Aura, Naruto would have an overwhelming advantage since he knows how to fight without it. Not to mention in a life-or-death battle without Aura, you better believe Naruto would be using the full extent of his chakra.

Game night was fun. I love everyone. All the little interactions between other characters are an absolute joy to write. I should do it more often.

Anyway, hope you all enjoyed the chapter! The next one is being worked on!