Sorry this has taken a little longer than expected to update.

Things have been... Interesting, to say the least, and writing has been slow.

Spine injury was worse than I thought it was, and things could be heading to surgery here shortly.

So with everything else, I haven't really been focused on my writing.

So I thank everyone who has stuck with the story and apologize if I haven't responded in general.

Been really busy.

Anyways, here's the chapter.

"Why in the world did they come here?" Ilia muttered, struggling to stay concealed in the crowd while trying to keep an eye on her target.

She was flushed with embarrassment, trying to hide herself, and wanted to cloak and avoid all the people here. But it was easier to blend in if she wore a disguise, and she knew it. With all the droids in Atlas, Ilia needed to lay low and not use her ability in public spaces as often if she wanted to keep an eye on Blake.

The same was valid for her partner. But to her disdain, she always seemed to have her Semblance active, so it didn't draw too much attention in her direction. It was always meant to conceal something about her, and she didn't know what…

She just knew her aura was constantly active, and she could feel it, and having seen some of what she could do, she knew she had some sort of illusion Semblance…

But to be made to wear this out in public…

This maid outfit!

And to act as her servant…

Was demeaning and degrading!

Ilia had to hold her tongue and keep from snapping at her current partner in this endeavor. Due to a specific woman, they were forced to cooperate despite having too separate goals that just happened to coincide and made working with one another easier…

And the fact that she didn't even hesitate to purchase tickets to this opera like it was nothing and it didn't bother her!

Just how much lien did this woman possess? This opera was expensive as she saw the price of the tickets and she didn't even bat an eye!

It boiled her blood! Just how hard she had to work to earn a fraction of what it cost to pay for these tickets, and she was willing to throw it away in the blink of an eye? Just for a night of entertainment and her job?

Ilia gnashed her teeth but kept her tongue in check. Saying what she wanted would do more harm than good…

Noticing her partner's gaze, she quickly analyzed the situation and scowled. "Is that… Are they seriously talking to the former heiress of the Schnee Dynasty?"

Former?

"You didn't know?" Ilia smirked at the question from Neo's scroll, making her fellow shortstack silently mouth off toward her. "Guess you wouldn't if you spent all your focus on Vale. There is a wider world; you are aware of that?"

Neo flippantly waved the chameleon Faunus and rolled her eyes. Of course, she knew. She simply did not care. Her world was centered and focused on Vale because it was Roman's world…

Her world.

And that was all that mattered to her.

To be the Crime Lords, nay, King and Queen of Crime in Vale, and rule the streets!

It was her only goal, as it was his goal. Well, it was his goal…

Until she came along and ruined everything…

Ilia only scoffed at Neo's reaction but frowned, seeing the glaze in her eyes flowing. Shaking her head, she watched as their targets seemingly disengaged from the conversation with the eldest child of the Schnee family as she went to join her present family. "All I know is that a couple of years ago, she suddenly joined the military. Her father didn't seem to take that very well, and now her sister is now the heiress and not her. Sounds like there were issues within the family, and I can't imagine why given that man's history…"

Neo's eyes glistened momentarily at those words, an old memory surfacing before she shook it from her head.

She had left her past behind and burned it. There was no reason for her to recall anything of it.

Her life was so much better now…

It was so much better…

Her eyes widened in horror, and she forced a smile, making Ilia cautious when a voice reached their ears.

"Ya know, I've known you've been here the entire time, right?"

Ilia's heart stopped.

Her eyes darted to the side, and she met cerulean eyes as Neo waved, tilting her head with a forced smile.

She saw him walking in this direction, but with the crowd, she felt they wouldn't have been recognized. Yet he still managed to pick them out of the crowd? This wasn't…

"Naruto, what are you talking about?" Blake's voice came, concerned as she looked over at the two of them.

Ilia's heart resuscitated and thumped rapidly within her chest as her eyes made contact with Blake's golden hues. Just being this close to her again was difficult, despite what happened in their last encounter. She surely would recognize…

Why did she have a clueless expression on her face?

Naruto sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he turned his head to…

Wait, why did Neo have a completely different appearance? And it was of that woman?

And why did she look like the woman with green-shaded hair?

"You win this round, ya hear? Stay out of trouble, and all will be fine. If not, well, ya both know how that song and dance will go." Naruto rolled his eyes before turning his attention to Blake. "Mah, I'm starting to think I might need you to work on a few things. Can help you with a few things if you like!"

"What does that mean?" Blake narrowed her eyes as he began to walk forward, not liking his chirpy tone, and she stepped in stride with him, scowling at him. "Naruto! Explain! Don't just act smugly about what just happened! Tell me! What's going on?"

Ilia blinked as the two slowly moved away before she turned her gaze to her partner, seeing strange glass shards disperse around them. "Did you…"

"Just fake Blake out and keep us from being discovered? How? She should have been able to pick up our scent?!"

Neo only grinned as she twirled her parasol while her eyes glimmered in amusement, slowly strutting confidently behind their two targets as they moved to their next destination.

Ilia glowered and trailed behind, her eyes shifted between the two and her partner. Something didn't add up about her illusions as one didn't just cloak one's scent…

Just what was her Semblance?

"Why is this something I need to do?"

"Because we have no leads on what to do, I figure we can work on something I've noticed you need to work on," Naruto commented, having found a small greenhouse park that gazed down upon the frigid wasteland of Atlas. "You were snuck up on while searching for me, and your friend had a unique skill that allowed her to blend in seamlessly. Then the multi-haired girl followed us to the club, and you never caught onto her presence. And now, yesterday, you still couldn't recognize we were being followed yet again."

Blake glowered, her arms crossing her chest as she sat on the grass, and her eyes narrowed. He still hadn't told her what happened yesterday, and all she knew was that there was something odd about those two they came into contact with. "Both have skills that allow them to blend in and make them difficult to detect. I am very apt at detecting…"

"How many others are just like them?" Naruto responded, gazing deeply into Blake's eyes. "Technology seems pretty advanced here, too, so I wouldn't be surprised if stealth tech was around too. …Being apt isn't enough. You have to be better. Gotta be able to detect what doesn't want to be detected. …Ya never know what is gonna want to cause ya harm, ya know?"

Shrinking as her bow fell flat on her head, Blake broke eye contact. Her eyes glossed over as that was a genuine fear that had been crossing her mind, and despite thinking she had been alert and aware of her surroundings, now apparently a third time she had been snuck up upon.

Knowing that the White Fang and Adam were looking for her after her confrontation with Ilia and fearing what he would do after seeing what he did after he left her, she shivered. The thoughts of yesterday came full circle as, once more, she saw what Naruto was capable of and knew what he could do…

But if he wasn't around…

"So… How exactly can you help me with this?" Blake's gaze returned and met Naruto's once more. "You don't have Aura, so I don't know exactly how you can help me with Aura control or sensory…"

"Can't be too different from chakra sensory, and I'm a near expert in that!" Naruto chirped before flushing in embarrassment. "Well, I am now after a few certain things happened that changed everything for me… But I stand by the fact that I can help ya as I know I have a few lessons that should be just universal! Like I'm sure you can sense my presence right, ya?"

Puckering her lips, wondering what he meant by everything changing for him, her thoughts turned to what he pointed out. Scrunching her nose to concentrate for a moment, for she wasn't a natural sensor, it took a moment but felt an overwhelming warmth emitting from Naruto. "Yes. I can sense you… What in the world? Where…"

"How about now?" Naruto grinned as Blake's eyes widened as she lost concentration, and she looked straight into his eyes. "Taking that as you lost sense of my presence… Something where I'm from, we all learn the basics very early, like when we're nine or ten, if not younger! …Which is completely invalidated if you run into someone with special eyes… Stupid bastard and his damn eyes… Hinata was awesome, though."

"I, but, what?" Blake stuttered in disbelief before her eyes sharpened. "Why would such training be necessary while you are so young? I didn't even start training until I was twelve, and that's considered the average here! I didn't even start sword practice until I was fourteen! "

"Huh, really?" Naruto had a thoughtful expression, rubbing his chin. "Well, that explains a few things as I got years of experience on you, then. Eight to ten is the general age for where I'm from, so I've been doing this for quite some time!"

"Are you serious?"

"Yep! Been training most of my life! Even the games the children in our village had were designed around training!" Naruto chirped as Blake had a shocked yet incredulous expression adorned her features before he mused to himself. "Huh, now that I think about it, despite everything that happened, I'm still the lowest rank in my village."

"What?! You're joking?" Blake's bow stood straight, and the hair on the back of her neck stood straight.

If that meant what she thought it meant…

"Nope!" Naruto held an amused grin and chuckled. "Guess when I get back, I'll just have to speed through and take the exams so I can correct that! Everything was chaotic, and I never got a chance to take the exams. Maybe they can give me a pass on the count of, ya know, saving everyone and the world… That'd be cool…"

"But enough of my problems! Back to training!" Naruto snapped out of his thoughts before frowning at seeing Blake. "Um, you okay there? Blake… Anyone there?"

Blankly staring at Naruto in utter wonder, unable to comprehend what he was, Blake's eyes shimmered back and forth.

She didn't know how much more of this she could take…

It was taking some time, but he felt progress was being made. In fact, she was excelling at it and picking it up quite quickly. Almost too easily…

It was almost like she had some sort of innate ability to analyze skills and learn them…

Regardless, she was a quick study, and it hadn't taken her long to start putting the skill he was teaching to practical effect as she was able to locate his clones nearby that were cloaking their presence, which he was thankful for. That meant they could get back to looking for clues as to what they were really after here for…

He didn't want her to be caught off guard again. She seemed to have some confidence issues, and he wanted to help her with that, for he could see she was talented. So maybe if they could take another day or two off like today and do some training, he could build that confidence in her…

Or find some way to build her back up as…

The cat girl has some issues, kid. Might want to focus on her problems if you are going to bring her along with us.

"Ah!" Naruto choked on his spit upon hearing the voice echo within him, causing Blake to jump defensively in front of him and look around worriedly.

"Naruto, what's wrong?!" Blake slid her hand behind her and held her hand on Gambol Shroud's handle as she scanned all over while attempting to seek out any presence. "I can't sense anything…"

"No, it's with me!" Naruto waved his hand before scowling at his right, still coming to terms as he felt his old arm moving despite it not being there, and sighed. "There is something I just realized, and I lost my composure for a moment… I apologize for startling you."

Frowning as she slowly lowered her hand from her blade, Blake's tension relaxed. However, she carefully gazed at Naruto as her bow perked slightly higher than usual. "What could you have realized that made you react like that? It sounded like…"

"I was thinking about home…" Naruto quickly covered up the incident with as plausible of an explanation as he could come up with. "Then I thought about how everyone would be thinking about me and worried about me… Then I thought of a particular friend and how he would like to joke about men's… Ahem, moving on."

"Oh…" Blake commented, seemingly satisfied with the response but glancing curiously at Naruto before she shrunk back and refrained from hissing. "I would not miss a person like that…"

Smooth recovery.

'Shut it, Kurama!' Naruto roared mentally, keeping his outer face calm and collected as Blake looked content with his answer before questioning the fox. 'Just what's taken you so long to wake up? Thought you were gonna be out forever at this rate! I felt you within me and could use your chakra, so I knew you were there but could tell you were out like a light as I couldn't get a response out of ya! We got an issue on hand here…'

See you're fiery as ever… And I'm more than aware of the situation. I can sense something isn't quite right here, but don't know what it is. You'll have to fill me in…

Something feels wrong with me… I don't feel right, and I'm not sure if it has to deal with the surroundings here or what, but something is wrong. That might explain why I just woke up…

With those words, Naruto refrained from scowling, and Blake's attention was still firmly focused on him. He would have to find a moment later to communicate with the fox, and it seemed Kurama was in agreement. 'Isn't that just great… You are having your issues, and you're gonna love what I have to tell ya!'

I'm sure, but better pay attention to the girl for now. We'll have time to talk later… Wait… Interesting…

Frowning, wanting to know what was so interesting, Naruto couldn't press the fox further when golden eyes peered into his. "It's been a rather long day, hasn't it… Think we should get something to eat? I scouted out a few places to eat near our hotel to try…"

"Let me guess, by any chance, is one of them sushi?" Naruto suddenly grinned as Blake flushed furiously, turning away.

"Fine! Seeing you aren't interested…"

"Mah, didn't say I wasn't," Naruto repressed a laugh as he could predict her, finding it amusing. "I'll agree to it this time, but for our next meal, I get to choose, fair?"

"Gonna be noodles, I bet…" Blake muttered and rolled her eyes, a soft smile gracing her lips as she turned back to meet his gaze.

And seeing his dazzling cerulean eyes made her melt, and she sighed. His vivid expressions and the looks in his eyes could just be so compelling… "Alright, fine. It's a deal. Sushi tonight, whatever you want next time."

"Yatta! Ya getting to know me already!"

"Shut up! And let's get out of…" Blake repressed her laughter, seeing his jovial response before her eyes narrowed, and she turned around. "How long have you been watching us?"

"What? How did I not…" Naruto turned on a dime, confused about how he couldn't sense anything, before a loud shrill caught him off guard.

With a single leap, Blake slid in front of a person observing them with Gambol Shroud held at the ready. "You again? Why are you watching us?"

"I apologize! I simply came to observe…" A girl with auburn hair cried before electric eyes trembled as she stepped back. "No, that would only make the situation worse. How do I respond? Father never went over how to handle this situation. Dear me, this predicament is a conundrum."

"Father?" Naruto frowned as he approached from behind the said girl to cut off her escape, but it didn't seem like she was trying to run this time. "You seemed rather startled yesterday and mentioned something about your father then, too. Now you show up again…"

"I apologize profusely for yesterday!" The girl turned from Blake toward Naruto, ignoring that she was holding a sword at her, and bowed respectfully. "My father informed me it was very rude of me to leave the way I did. I wanted to apologize for my manners. So I've been searching for you most of the day and found you were in the Atlas Foundation Park and seemed busy. So I waited and observed until you were finished!"

"Huh?" Was the intelligent response from Naruto, not able to fathom the actions of the girl and could only blink at her.

Lowering Gambol Shroud to her side, having difficulty processing as well but functioning at a slightly higher level than her partner, Blake tilted her head at the auburn-haired girl. "So, you have been waiting here to apologize for running off yesterday? That wasn't necessary… We ran into you."

"Oh, I don't mind waiting!" The girl smiled as her electric eyes brimmed with energy. "I was inquisitive on precisely what you were accomplishing with your exercise. It was so fascinating to watch, and I've never seen such a unique Aura like yours before that I couldn't help but analyze it! An Aura capable of having more than one Semblance! It's remarkable!"

With that last statement, her head excitedly turned and faced Naruto, and her eyes gleamed with curious zeal.

As Naruto chuckled, Blake shuddered unconsciously. Someone else had begun to notice the oddity of what Naruto was capable of and it would only be a matter of time before they would be able to connect the dots and figure out exactly what he was…

There was already the headmaster of Beacon, and thankfully, he wasn't an issue, but others could be.

He needed to be careful…

"You didn't need to wait! You could have just come down as we weren't doing anything too special." Naruto shook his head with a toothy grin, not sensing anything negative with the girl. "Mah, we were about to get something to eat, though. Want to join us?"

"Naruto!" Blake hissed, her previous thought coming full circle, and her eyes narrowed at her partner.

"What?" Naruto gave her a raised eyebrow, wondering what her issue was. "I'm just being friendly. I can feel she doesn't have any ill intentions, and despite the fact I can't sense her for some odd reason, I can tell she's not a bad person! She's been searching for us all day to apologize for running off yesterday, so the least we can do is offer a plate of food."

Scowling, Blake couldn't help but look away and sigh dejectedly. With his mystic powers, he had a point. And if someone had been looking for her all day, she would at least want to make sure they were taken care of as well…

She just didn't like the situation and wanted him to be more careful. The more people that could find out what he was…

The worse off things would become.

"Good, well then it is decided!" Naruto grinned as he could see Blake wasn't going to argue her point further and turned to the auburn-haired girl, only for his expression to fall. "Um…"

"Friend…ly?" She held a quizzical gaze that bore straight into his that unnerved him. "Do you really consider me a friend?"

"Uh…" Naruto didn't know exactly how to respond to that question.

With a quick glance over to Blake, he could see she was frantically shaking her head and waving her hands and arms around while mouthing 'NO!' repeatedly with steady eye contact.

Naruto somehow misinterpreted this gesture as he turned back to her and flashed a nervous grin. "Sure?"

Blake slapped her forehead in despair as she slumped forward and groaned, "Idiot… I'm partnered with an idiot…"

Her electric eyes pulsed brighter than before, and she seemingly brimmed with energy. She tensed and seemed about to lunge forward, but instead, a subtle smile emerged on her lips. "Friend… I am your friend… Yes, I would like to go out to eat with you, friend!"

"Okay… Then." Naruto blinked, taking the peculiar reaction into account, but returned the smile as he could only think that she was an odd duck that didn't have many friends. "Oh, just realized I never introduced myself! The name is Naruto! This is Blake…"

"Charmed…" Blake muttered, giving Naruto a stern glare before her eyes met hers.

Her bow flattened on her head as she was right before her, smiling brightly, making the situation extremely awkward. "Salutations, friend!"

"I am Penny!"

"Ugh… Today was a wash." Ilia groaned, her eyes twitching as she watched her partner pop another bite of sushi into her mouth as they kept eyes on their target as they exited the restaurant.

There had not been anything of note that happened today. Well, it seemed the blonde wanted to focus on training Blake in something, and she couldn't identify what he was making her focus on. But he was dissatisfied with something, and now it seemed she was doing far better as she was hitting his copies with rocks?

Also, he had multiple Semblances?

What was this guy? She saw that golden form of his! And now he had this ability, too!

"Just who are you, Uzumaki Naruto?" Ilia muttered under her breath as she kept eyes on the blonde next to her friend as they parted ways with the odd girl with a mechanical scent, remembering the words he spoke before she was shoved into the ocean. "And just what is it about you that has Blake entranced with you?"

You'll find out soon enough. There's a reason our boss wants to keep an eye on him.

Ilia's eyes snapped to her partner, and she scowled, seeing her eyes shimmer as they met.

What did she know? Was there something more to this that she wasn't aware of?

And did she eat another bite of sushi in front of her while her stomach was growling? She was starving and hadn't eaten all day!

"Seriously? Are you gonna share any of that?" Ilia nastily spat as she glared at Neo, knowing the woman was doing this intentionally.

Neo's eyes glistened, amused with her response as she took her time chewing and closed the box they came in as if thinking about it. With a deep swallow, a sinister glint gleamed within her eyes, and Ilia scowled.

"I swear to Oum if you think I'm gonna beg…"

"Salutations!" A chipper voice interrupted and drew Ilia's and Neo's attention to the peculiar girl standing before them, excitedly bouncing on the heels of her boots. "Do you happen to be friends with friend Naruto? Is that why you have been following him since the park?"

"Um…" Ilia crossed eyes with Neo for a moment before quickly coming up with a lie. "Yes, we are friends. We didn't want to intrude…"

"Oh, but friend Naruto said that was never an issue!" Penny tilted her head and looked curiously at the two while frowning. "As long as it wasn't something too important…"

"Ah, there you two are!" Ilia and Neo shuddered, and they slowly turned around to see the broad grin of Naruto and a deep scowl of Blake as she nastily glared at Ilia in particular. "Been wondering where you have been! Thanks for finding them, Penny! We were wondering where they went!"

"Yes, thank you…" Blake's eyes firmly held Ilia's as she shrunk back from her friend's intense stare. "Ilia…"

"I think it's time we talked."