"Name?"
"Naruto Uzumaki."
"Country of origin?"
"Land of Fire."
"Son, either you cooperate, or you'll be spending a few more hours in this room."
"I am cooperating! You idiots just aren't listening."
The two detectives shared a look between each other. This was hour three of trying to get information out of the blond teen sitting in front of them. And, honestly, the boy was cooperating. He was answering their questions.
The problem was that none of the information they were getting from him made sense.
"Look, Kid." The beefier of the detectives spoke with an undiscernible twang. "There's not a single person outside of these walls that doesn't appreciate what you've done for the city."
"Truly. Amazing stuff. You were awesome out there." The lanky cop spoke out suddenly, earning him a sharp look from the other detective.
"But!" His partner interjected while leaning over the table separating the duo from the blond. "There's going to be a lot of questions considering you fell out of the sky and killed a couple hundred grimm."
"Questions that I'm trying to answer!" The boy's response made the two men share a look. They were getting nowhere and neither wanted to spend another hour with the uncooperative child seated in front of them.
The sound of a door opening grabbed the attention of the three males within the room. The opening revealed the sharp presence of one James Ironwood.
"Gentleman." The general's presence caused the two older men to stand up straight. James' eyes swept over them both with a single glance before settling on the youngest of the trio.
"You two can go. I've got it handled from here." One shared look between the two men was all it took before they both departed the room, leaving the general alone with the teen.
Several moments of silence filled the room as its two occupants stared at each other. One gaze young but grizzled while the other reeked of impatience and barely constrained restlessness.
"I wanted to thank you." The first words out of the older man's mouth were not what he expected. The guy struck him as the uptight, protocol following type. Stoic looks and no sentence longer than ten words would've been what Naruto expected out of the guy. 'Stick well-acquainted with ass' type of guy.
Not a 'Thank You' type of guy.
"Uh … no problem." His hand went to rub the back of his head as the words left his mouth. He was ten seconds into this interaction and was already sort of missing the two detectives. The bumbling cop routine was a lot easier to deal with than this guy.
"Vale's current lack of problems is due to you." The man took a seat in the only other chair within the room. "So, truly from the bottom of my heart, thank you."
"This place is called Vale, huh?" A raised eyebrow greeted his response. The two settled back into a semblance of comfortable silence as the staring contes continued between them.
"Unlike the other two, I believe you." James was the first to break the silence. "Naruto Uzumaki, ninja from the Land of Fire."
"Yup." Naruto's face brightened at the acknowledgement. He was finally sitting across from someone that was actually taking him seriously.
"You see, the issue I have with that, is that we don't have ninjas around here." Ironwood leaned in, taking note of the widening eyes of the boy in front of him. "And, the Land of Fire doesn't appear on any current or historical maps."
"So, Naruto Uzumaki … how did you end up here?"
"Ozpin was an amazing man and an even better headmaster. His legacy at Beacon will be remembered through the hundreds of quality huntsmen that have graduated throughout his tenure…"
Glynda's heartfelt message lost a bit of its sentiment as it was relayed through the dozens of screens plastered throughout Beacon. Or, at least, that's how Qrow felt as he made his way through the campus' nearly abandoned hallway.
It had been a while since he walked so openly through these halls. Most of his entrances into Beacon involved his bird form and Ozpin's window, much to the man's constant annoyance.
"We will not forget the dozens of civilians lost during the attack. Nor will we forget the nineteen huntsmen that made the ultimate sacrifice to uphold Beacon's safety."
Glynda's words faded away into the background as his strides carried him away from the wall-mounted television. Instead, the light smell of what he could best describe as "clean" reached his nose. The smell only grew stronger as his legs carried him to his destination.
"Uncle Qrow!" His entry into the infirmary was greeted with the shouting of his perpetually excited niece. He had only a moment to brace himself before his midsection was wrapped up by the dark-haired girl.
"I saw you and Glynda fighting and you guys looked so good! Your guys' fighting styles complement each other so well. Are you guys dating? The long-range and short-range combo was unstoppable. I can't believe you guys worked together that well. I thought you hated her! Is this one of those romance things that Dad and Yang say I'll get when I grow up? How old…"
As his younger niece rambled, Qrow took the time to look at the other two occupants of the room. His older niece, whose attention had long since left him and Ruby, was sitting bedside to their downed faunus teammate. The blonde was staring at the girl with an expression of comfort while the other girl slept peacefully through the noise within the room.
"Nice to see you kiddos are doing well." His mumbling came as he brushed Ruby away from his waist. The girl's yell of indignation fell on deaf ears as he made his way over to his older niece. His hand fell on her shoulder, bringing her attention back onto him.
"She doing all right?" He received a small smile and a nod, alleviating most of his concerns. He had been beyond happy to learn his nieces were relatively unharmed from the attack. But the news of their teammate's injury tempered any joy he had. As a man that had lost a teammate and a close friend before, he knew that damage it could.
"Uncle Qrow!" He could only ignore the excitable girl for so long before the guilt ate away his resolve. He glanced at her way and was shocked to see she wasn't bouncing on her heels for once.
"Do you know who that blond boy was?"
Huh. Well, for once, Ruby stumped him. The answer was obviously no but that didn't stop him from sharing the same level of curiosity he could sense radiating from Ruby. That boy had, quite literally, appeared out of nowhere and saved the day single-handedly.
Well single-handedly if you counted his copies as one person.
"I don't know who he is but I know Glynda got with him at the end of all the fighting. I'm sure she's taking care of him."
"So…"
"So what?"
Being verbally pressed by a 15-year-old boy was not a feeling Ironwood was used to. It wasn't a situation he would ever expect himself to be in. But, based on how his current conversation was going, he should probably get used it and quick.
The boy was an anomaly. A child with the ability of a hundred semblances and the creative mind to use them in ways he could never imagine. A child that, if he was speaking the truth, had no scientific explanation as to how he was sitting in front of him.
"Naruto … I'm at a loss of words, I must admit."
"I mean, there's not much to say." Ironwood could feel his jaw tighten at the response. The child also was a little smart ass which made things a tiny bit more difficult.
"Well, I think we can agree that it's pretty clear I'm not from here."
"Yes … that is apparent."
"And you're pretty sure you don't have a way to send me back home, right?
"I am pretty well-versed in the scientific and non-scientific advancements of this world, and dimensional travel is not possible as far as I'm aware."
"So that's that."
"You're taking this relatively well." The shrug the boy gave him nearly set the man's head on fire. Who the hell was this child and why was he calm in the face of being stranded from his own world?
"It's whatever." Another shrug greeted him. "I'll find a way home. I was supposed to be on a training trip with my teacher for three years so honestly, this is pretty good timing. No one will be looking for me. Well, maybe Jiraiya but he'll be fine."
"And, in the meantime? I doubt you'll invent interdimensional travel within a week. What will you do?" This question is what this entire interview hinged on. While he was confident in the boy's character based on the answers he had given him, this last answer was the most important. It determined if the boy was walking out of here free or if Ironwood was about to have the fight of his life.
For the first time in their discussion, Naruto stopped to think. Ironwood could literally see the boy's thought process play out in real time through his facial expression. It almost looked as if the boy was having a mental conversation with himself as he pondered his proposition. The process played out for nearly a full minute before the boy opened his mouth to speak.
"You got any bad guys around here I could fight?"
James couldn't help the grin that overcame his face. Yeah, he could work with this kid.
AN: I'm back. New chapter on New Years Day. If you celebrate it, Merry Christmas. Peace to all.