Well, here we are one more time.

Times are rough for me outside, quite stressful, but this story is a comfort work.

Probably due to what it means overall for me.

That and Blake and Neo are comfort characters for me to work with, so...

So thank you to everyone supporting me and this story overall, and sorry to anyone I haven't gotten back to.

Got a poll up and running to see what everyone wants me to focus on for my anniversary of returning to writing next month...

WildFlowers is already tied for the lead last I checked, so go ahead and make your voices heard.

Now it's time to get back up and keep going!

Let's go!

He hadn't returned.

It had been hours that she waited. He still hadn't returned.

Blake was beginning to worry.

She had never seen anything like what she had seen in her life. She couldn't explain it or the conclusion she had come to, but everything started to make sense the moment he flew into the sky…

Soaring to the moon like a golden light and disappearing into the night sky.

And she couldn't help but worry about how many others saw that scene. She knew Vale didn't have many people out at night, but something like that would catch attention.

A golden glowing object darting across the night sky and going up toward the moon? Strange, certainly. But those in the immediate area would have seen it was the figure of a person if their eyes were sharp enough…

No Faunus would struggle with making out the figure in the night. They wouldn't be able to tell he was from that distance, but they could tell it was a person…

Which meant rumors would soon circulate about a flying golden man in Vale…

And Naruto wasn't the most discrete from what she had noticed. He could hide details and not tell things if he wanted to…

But he was brazen when it came to displaying his abilities. He did not hold back as she could feel that blast from the Nevermore, and they were way up in the sky. Cocky would be another word for it, but after seeing what he had done today…

Blake started to understand why he was cocksure. When he could easily eliminate foes, disarm a powerful attack like Adam's Moonslice effortlessly when he was disabled, and legitimately fly to the moon…

His powers were beyond her comprehension. Not to mention she was pretty sure that she saw him duplicate himself in the sky. She thought her eyes were deceiving her, or some sort of trick was being played on her by the Huntsman through their Semblances, but…

Now she wasn't so sure…

Anything was possible with him. She didn't know what he could do. He really was an alien…

The thought of time travel did occur, as maybe the verbiage was something different, and he spoke the same language, but that went through the window once he flew into the sky.

Now there were so many more questions.

How'd he know their language? Where did he come from? How did he get here? Did he even know that? He seemed lost…

No, he was lost. Lost in a new world, all alone.

Blake kicked up from the bed and slid on her vest while gathering her boots and stockings.

She couldn't wait here.

He was lost in a new environment, unsure of anything. He didn't know where his old home was or if there was a way back. It could very well be an isekai situation like in those books she read, and there was no simple means of returning…

Naruto could be stuck here on Remnant and could not return to his world. And that was a very frightening prospect that was becoming apparent to him. And if she was in his shoes…

Well, she wasn't sure if she would have flown to the moon, but she would have panicked and ran. The very confirmation of knowing you were somewhere else while getting clues sprinkled about that you weren't home…

It would have driven her crazy. Just like how she was driven crazy by wanting to know why he didn't know anything! Now she knew, and it made sense!

And it didn't soothe her at all! It only made things worse! What was this weird sensation she felt around him ever since he dropped into her life? It made him give off this comforting feeling, which, just from talking to him, she would admit he had an infectious, positive charm. But this was something else…

Like something inside her felt like…

Home? No, that wasn't quite it. He didn't give off that feeling. He didn't have his parents' composure, although her father had often said he was quite impulsive in his youth before he learned to gather and compose himself…

And his scent didn't remind her of anyone back home either. Yet it was familiar. Something about it told her she recognized it. She didn't know why, but he had a scent that drew images of a forest in her mind…

A place she had never been before, and it frustrated her!

Putting on her boots, she grabbed the handles of Gambol Shroud and sheathed it on her back. She didn't know where to start. How to even begin to search for him? Logic dictated this was the most likely place for him to return to, as he didn't know anything or anyone here…

But everything was off the table. She would have to start from scratch and take a few guesses at where he was as she exited the door of the hotel room…

And only pray he was in orbit where she could find him…

The sun was peeking over the horizon, causing her to shield her eyes occasionally. It was nearly morning.

She had scoured all of Vale, and she couldn't find him. She didn't know where even to look anymore. She had even returned to the hotel to ensure he hadn't returned, and frustratingly enough, he hadn't.

Where was he? Was he still in orbit? Could he even breathe up there? Oum, she hoped he was okay…

Her ears depressed as she gazed at the morning sun rising over the sea horizon. The salty air hung in his nostrils, making it difficult to find a scent here, but this was the last area she could think of. It was where she tracked him the first time. Maybe he came back here?

She couldn't think of anything else. Where else could he be?

Maybe the forest where she found him? But that was so far away, and she couldn't return there right now…

That was too close. She couldn't risk it…

But his scent wasn't here either. He wasn't here at the dock she tracked him to, trying to fish. He wasn't anywhere to be found…

"Naruto…" Blake faintly whispered as her golden eyes scanned the sky, looking wearily. "Are you okay… Who's there?"

Drawing Shroud as her ears stiffened, Blake rapidly turned and squinted her eyes as she saw nothing behind her. Her eyes sharpened as she knew better.

She could hear it! Footsteps! Someone was here! Moving…

Blake screamed in agony as she felt a pulse of electricity melt through her system before she could use her aura defensively. But it absorbed enough of the blow to allow her to retaliate as she could see the silhouette and shimmer out of the corner of her eye as she fell to her knees.

And spiked the handle of Gambol Shroud into her attacker to force her to release her. It would be enough time for her to…

Her eyes widened as the person became visible.

White mask. The visible mark of the White Fang on her uniform. Brown hair. Blemished skin with scale spots like freckles…

"No…" Blake dropped to her knees, and a horrified expression froze her to the spot, stopping her from retaliating. "Ilia! …Not you… Get off me!"

A net wrapped tightly around her as two White Fang members, one swimming below the docks and tossing the net onto Blake, keeping her effectively swinging Gambol Shroud and jumping from below and another rushing to restrain Blake. A rope was produced as she was pushed to the ground, unable to overpower the men on top of her. She was bound to keep her constrained and separate her from her weapon.

"Ilia!" Blake wiggled underneath her captors, struggling to free herself. "You don't understand…"

"I understand perfectly." Ilia scowled, stepping toward Blake methodically, looking down at her almost pitifully before she snarled. "You left us. All because of a human? And human rights?"

"Disgusting!" Ilia stomped on Blake's right shoulder, causing her to hiss, but she still looked up with tears as she felt her shoulder dislocate from the stomp.

"No! Ilia, let me explain! That's not what happened!" Blake writhed as she pulled to her feet. "That's never what this has been about! He was found in the forest, injured, and I wanted to help him. Adam just wanted to leave him for dead!"

"You are too kind…" Ilia muttered, a soft expression developing on her face before turning away. "It would have been better to walk away."

"You are wrong, Ilia!" Blake hissed, her eyes gleaming in anger as she strained against her bindings and those holding her down. "That's the attitude I can't stand! Helping people is wrong? Doing the right thing is wrong? No, it should never be! I nearly let myself be enveloped in the darkness that Adam was preaching! Was drawn to it! Absorb it as if it was a part of me somehow! But they are sweetly coated lies so he can bring other people the same despair he feels!"

Seeing Ilia bring her attention back to her, being bristled by her comments, Blake kept pouring it on."And that's what I couldn't stand for any longer! Look at what he is doing, Ilia! Look at all the harm he has wrought! What he did on the train isn't right! This isn't about equal rights anymore! That's what the White Fang always stood for! Working toward equal rights…"

"He did what was necessary, Blake! Don't you understand that?" Ilia stepped into Blake's face with her teeth visibly bared before lowering her head and expression fading to a more remorseful one. "Of course, I don't want death if we can avoid it…"

With a change of skin tone, as it deepened to a blushed red, Ilia looked directly into Blake's eyes and staunchly delivered her message. "But they brought this upon themselves! How many times have they laughed at our misery? Not caring about how we Faunus were treated? How we were forced to live our lives in the shadows of their luxury in the Kingdoms? Given the most hostile environment to live upon and call home and act like it was a gift? Be forced to live there if we couldn't deal with the injustices of the rest of the Kingdoms bestowed onto our kind? Enough is enough, Blake!"

Blake recoiled at Ilia's message. She was forced to meet her gaze, and she really couldn't. How could she when her points were so valid…

She had been supporting them this entire time. There were all things she believed needed to be protested. Everything was valid. It was the method they were using…

The way Adam was twisting everyone's mind to get what he wanted…

"Mah, that's still pretty extreme, ya know?" Blake's eyes shimmered, hearing a voice echo her sentiment.

Without hesitation, she struggled to turn her head and force her way to look left as Ilia, and the two White Fang members holding her hostage gazed upon the shining golden and black form of the person she had been searching for all night with nine orbs hovering behind him.

Uzumaki Naruto stepped onto the deck gently, his eyes falling onto Blake and the situation at hand. "Sorry I was out so late and left you wandering about, worried for me. Needed to sort a few things out after that revelation, which took time…"

"Is this him?" Ilia questioned, tensing at Naruto's sudden appearance, having landed on the dock from nowhere. "What is this? An active Semblance? Or did Adam not recognize another Faunus…"

"Really smelling the scent of a fox coming from him…" The White Fang member, not soaked in salt water, narrowed his eyes. "Amongst a menagerie of other scents… What is he?"

Blake's eyes continued to shimmer as she couldn't answer that question. She knew what he was now, and if the rest of the world were to know…

How would it handle it? How would the world handle knowing there was an alien amongst their mists?

She was sure it wouldn't be well…

"But," Naruto stepped forward, making all three nervous once more as they snapped their focus back to the situation. "Got to say, everything you said is a valid point, and I'd be pissed too. But I think I would draw the line of the wholesale slaughter of people by blowing them up and rallying my friends to think that was the only way to get things done, ya know? Sounds too much like someone actively seeking bloodshed for my liking. Seen where that ends up, and I know how that story ends…"

Naruto's eyes glistened, and his eyes trailed to his missing arm momentarily. It wasn't the only story he knew. It was simply the most recent one that left a scar on him…

There were so many that most were recent…

Madara. Obito. Nagato…

Oh, there was the traitor Danzo. That man…

He didn't even know where to begin on that travesty of trainwreck! He only needed to be told a little by Sai once the man died, and the seal was undone when the man died…

His jaw was on the floor!

"You act like you understand our plight when you understand nothing!" Ilia snarled, snapping at the golden figure, and was only infuriated as he smiled at her. "What the hell? Stop that! Don't you get anything? This is a plight…"

"I understand you and your people are suffering, believe me. I feel that. I know pain, even if I can't compare it to yours. I feel all that negativity in the air and want to do something about it!" Naruto grinned, tilting his head and closing his eyes to only further upset Ilia. "While I'm still sorting things out and what I need to do, I'm not gonna just let things like this slide! Hell nah! So I'm interjecting myself into this affair was gusto as I feel that while I'm here figure shit out, I can do some good!"

"So let me bear that pain for you and your people, as I can shoulder all of it." Naruto declared as a look of determination glinted in his eyes. "Whatever it takes to make this right, as I can feel it in the air, I'll make it happen. I'll make people listen, as that is just what I do best, even if I have to beat them down in the first place to get them to listen first! I'll make this place a better place for everyone. You better damn believe it!"

As everyone around her tightened at his speech, looking at one another, unsure how to respond, Blake's eyes shimmered and glistened as something within her resonated. They were hesitant, seemingly conflicted, as his words affected each of them.

Why did that feel so familiar? Like she heard it before! Yet it moved her so much! It compelled her to act!

To fight!

"My balls!" The Faunus, drenched in salt water, dropped to his knees as Blake brought her left foot between his legs as she snarled and drew back her head, slamming it directly into the other's forehead before he could react.

"Dammit!" Ilia attempted to react only to be shoved off the docks and distantly into the ocean as a clawed golden hand extended faster than she could anticipate or track, only to see the results.

But as the left hand retreated, she noticed there was another golden flash that also left her dazzled as she heard two other cries and faint splashes into the water. Something that she couldn't understand, and it left her bewildered.

With a sweep of a golden tail, the two White Fang members that had held her pinned were knocked far away into the ocean, and now Blake. Her eyes shimmered as he approached her, cutting her free with ease as she saw the tail fade into his aura.

She let out a low groan as he placed her hand on her shoulder and felt an intruding source of energy surge into it, and her shoulder popped…

Blake's eyes widened! Her shoulder was no longer dislocated! He had fixed it that quickly! It wasn't too horrible of an injury for her to recover from as all she had to do was pop it back in and apply her aura, and it would heal in a few minutes, but…

Instantaneously! After a single touch in seconds!

What was he? How did he have a tail made of energy? She already knew he wasn't of this world, but now there were so many more questions to answer as his image faded back to his normal state.

But the most important of all…

"Where have you been?" Blake hissed as she gripped her shoulder, unsure how he could do such a thing so easily.

"Moon. Thinking." Naruto responded simply as he pointed at the still visible moon in the fading night sky. "Had a lot on my mind and couldn't sort it out. Found out that it isn't too hard for me to stay up there. And it was a quiet place to gather my thoughts, so I stayed there."

"You can survive in space!"

"Apparently. News to me too. Didn't know that until now. Kind of cool, actually! Wonder if I can have an epic space fight one day!" Naruto grinned as he scratched the back of his head, thinking about the awesome applications he now had access to with the ability to travel into the planet's upper atmosphere. "Oh, I think I need to make a new Rasengan now. Somehow I got to develop a Lunar version in case of a space battle…"

"You are the most frustrating person I know!" Blake threw her hands in the air while scolding the blonde, holding back a hiss in her throat.

"Sorry," Naruto hung his head. "And sorry for worrying you and leaving you in this mess… I just had a lot on my mind and needed the time to process…"

Blake's demeanor softened. A sad smile graced her lips, and she hung her head. "I'm sorry… I can't even imagine what you are going through… I don't even know where to begin…"

"Well, a new outfit for one!" Naruto chirped, his head snapping up before looking at his state of dress and sighing. "Much as I like my normal stuff, I can't go home or know any way to get back at the moment! And I can't keep going out into public like this! People are already staring at me and don't like it! Gotta look the part while I'm here, figure out how to get back home, and fix the problems of your people all in one go!"

Blake choked. Her eyes grew twice the size and almost popped out of their socket as she rubbed the sternum of her chest. "Wait, I thought you were just talking to distract them. Or raise my moral or…"

"I don't do that kind of stuff. I meant what I said, and what I said is a promise of a lifetime." Naruto frowned and crossed his arms, squinting his eyes at Blake. "Could have just taken them out if I wanted to rescue you. They wouldn't have been able to react. Nah, I wanted to talk to them first and hear what they had to say as I saw those masks and noticed they were similar to the red-haired guy's. Wanted to know what they were all about, and now I have a clearer picture and understand what I have to do."

"This world has a lot of negativity in it." Naruto looked up into the sky, taking a deep breath and exhaling deeply before looking down at Blake with a smile. "It's gonna take a lot of work, but I think I can do some good while I'm here looking for a way home. Don't know how to do it or what I can do just yet, but I'll make it happen. So while I'm here, might as well make it count, ya know?"

A shiver traveled down her spine.

Blake was left flabbergasted.

This person…

Not even of this world…

Looking for a way home…

Was going to do what he could to help her people help everyone else along the way?

Just because it was the right thing to do?

Her heart panged. She felt her eyes mist before she quickly wiped the tears away.

It was what she always believed. There was always too much wrong with the world to idly stand by and do nothing. And yet here was someone with no stakes in this world just come in and say he would come in and do something about it…

It was why she joined the White Fang in the first place despite her parent's protest after they left. She had to do something, even though it was a mistake, and Adam's silver tongue lured her in…

A sliver of a smile crept onto her lips.

Maybe…

Closing her eyes and tilting her head, she reached out and grasped Naruto's left hand. She gently guided him from the docks. She had a place in mind having seen it during the night. "Well, it just so happens I need a new set of clothes, too, as I require a change of outfit."

"Wearing my old uniform makes me stand out, after all."

"I didn't realize this place didn't sell to Faunus…" Blake gnashed her teeth as they arrived, frustrated as she rolled her eyes in annoyance, seeing the sign in the window now display as they arrived. "That wasn't there last night. Oh, I hate… What are you doing?"

"So we need to disguise your features while in there, right? And they won't notice?" Naruto glanced around as he looked into the shop, frowning as he grabbed a small rock from the sidewalk. "Look, I'm not above petty little crime, especially for something stupid like this. Like, who bars people from their place of business when it costs them money, honestly… Ugh, bad memories…"

"What?"

"Nothing!"

Blake narrowed her eyes as Naruto made a weird set of hand motions she didn't quite understand.

What was that about? Was there something he wasn't telling her about? Did he know some form of discrimination at home? That was what that sounded like! She really needed to…

In a plume of smoke, Blake jumped back and landed in a three-point crouch, her eyes narrowed. "What did you just do?"

"Switched a pebble for this ribbon I saw from outside this window." Naruto held out a long cloth of black ribbon to Blake. "Looks big enough that you could maybe wrap it around your head or something to cover your ears. Um, now that I'm thinking about it, something to cover your entire head might have been a better decision…"

Scowling at the cloth dangling in front of her, feeling indignant at the mere thought of having to cover her features, a thought crossed her mind.

This was going to be commonplace. There would be many places that would reject her because she was a Faunus and would not accept her. And while Vale was a more open and welcoming place, there were still places here that did not accept her kind, and this shop was a prime example of that. And if they were to head to places like Mistral or Atlas…

Taking a single look at the black cloth, an idea came to her head.

With a tug, she took it from Naruto as he started to analyze the shop once more and was looking for something else to take. "What the.."

One final knot, and it was done.

Blake sighed, and her head sagged. Her ears twitched uncomfortably, making the black cloth around them move. "Does it look convincing?"

"I guess?" Naruto looked at what was now a bow tied around Blake's ears and grimaced at her depressed expression and the drooping item.

He quickly realized his answer did not help and panicked. "I mean, it looks great! It honestly does! If I didn't know you, I think it is a cute accessory to accentuate your look! Good enough to fool most people!"

Seeing the bow pick back up ever so slightly, a small but sad smile crossed Blake's lips. "Thanks… So, shall we?"

"Yeah," Naruto nodded, gazing at Blake's withdrawn features, and couldn't help but feel partially responsible as he turned to the door. "Let's make this quick."

As he opened the door for her, seeing that posture and expression…

It made him only more determined to accomplish exactly what he said earlier.

This world had some serious cleaning up, and he needed to figure out where to start!