Apologies. Forgot to put the notes in before, so I reuploaded it!

Welcome back. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and got what they wanted!

Another snippet to hold everyone over as I work on Hushed Dreams and Hero for a Wilting Rose's next chapters.

...Maybe a surprise New Year's Eve or Day update for Lost Destiny...

Might take a little longer as I'm spending time with family and finally have chance to game with my brother.

Anyways, this is a ship were Naruto is with Emerald and Neo, the reason it's called Ebony and Ivory.

It shows the set-up pieces for the three arcs of the concept!

So let's get to it!

She was so hungry.

It had been nearly two days since she last ate. And she had been walking for a long time. Trying to find a new town she could trick people in.

Stupid Huntsman!

He caught her in the act of attempting to take some jewelry and busted her! Now, she wasn't able to hit the market without being recognized! They knew of her Semblance and would be weary of her!

How was she supposed to make money to get food?! Her parents had long since been dead and didn't leave anything behind! Stupid jerk, just letting her wither away instead of helping her!

Weren't Huntsman supposed to help people?! Ugh, how she hated them!

And this place looked ransacked already!

Emerald gnashed her teeth and snarled. Of course, a farming town wouldn't be an extravagant target! She wanted to be back in the city…

Exhaling, she shook her head. Emerald could not worry about stealing items for Lien and had to focus on food. She didn't have the layout of this place. Didn't know who would be willing to buy the trinkets she nicked.

So she picked a target vendor selling fruit and focused. They were arguing with a blonde-haired kid, which was good. She could take advantage of the situation. All she had to do was influence their minds. Make it so she didn't exist…

Maybe even blaming the kid if they noticed something was missing…

"What do you mean my money isn't good?"

"Your play money isn't worth anything! Get out of here, kid!"

Emerald ignored their conversation. She had to focus on moving slowly, keeping her targets influenced as she nicked some fresh and delicious fruit.

And froze as the blonde kid looked directly at her and then back at the vendor, confused.

He could see her? She was influencing him! How?! How was he able to ignore…

Was he grinning?

"Say, if I were to come back with my parents later, what would you recommend?" The kid turned to the vendor, perking her attention.

"Oh, I would recommend the watermelons! Fresh of the vine and the best crop we've had all season! Should be very juicy!" The lady vendor began to glow about her produce, gesturing toward it.

Emerald stared at the boy, unsure of his attentions. He clearly saw her. So what was he…

Oh! Devious. Watermelon sounded good.

Carefully grasping and taking one of the melons just out of her sight, Emerald giggled as she slowly strode away.

The boy was a good distraction.

Maybe he would be a good partner…

(One Year Later)

Today had been such a wonderful day until now. It was the first time she left the house by herself.

…Taking advantage of their lack of attentiveness as they threw another party she wasn't invited to!

Papa deserved everything she bought on his card! Mama should have paid more attention, too! She was so lonely…

Neo was her only friend. She was the only person who played with her.

…And she was imaginary…

And she wished Neo was here! These three punks, a few years older than Trivia, wanted her to buy them milkshakes. After insulting her!

The nerve!

Trivia tried to walk away. But the punk girls moved to stop her path.

She tried to tell them she couldn't speak. Didn't matter.

Trivia tried to shove past their leader, Cookie. The older girl was unfortunately bigger and therefore stronger and pushed her back, telling her she couldn't leave.

Her friend Heather finally convinced her to let go, and she tried to leave again. Instead, she found herself coated in her shake as Cookie tripped her.

And they were laughing! Well, Cookie and Mags were. Heather seemed genuinely upset.

Rage coarse through her. Why were they treating her like this?

Was it just because they saw she had money?

That she was smaller than them? Because of her unusual eyes?

Papa was right. People would treat her differently. Treat like a freak.

All because she couldn't speak for herself. Because she looked different.

"Ah, what the Oum? Let me go!" Cookie cried, feeling her short, spiky hair be wrenched into a tight grip by a young mint-haired girl who seemed to be around her age, struggling helplessly to get out of her grip.

"Why?" The mint-haired girl questioned, staring coldly into Cookie's eyes. "Don't like when you aren't the one in control? Too bad!"

"Cookie!" Heather and Mags leaped to their friend's aid…

Only to be yanked upward and hung by their ankles on a street light.

Trivia blinked, owlishly looking at the two as they screamed. Her attention shifted as a spiky-haired blonde boy dressed in a ragged orange jumpsuit stepped toward Cookie and the mint-hair girl, glaring at the leader of the punks. "Mah, it doesn't feel good when the shoe is on the other foot, does it?"

"I'm sorry! Please, let me and my friends go! We won't do it again!" Cookie pleaded.

"Not after today, you won't!" The mint-haired girl snarled, knocking Cookie to her knees.

"Don't let me catch you doing something like this again. Or next time… You're gonna learn why you don't mess us." The blonde-haired boy glared at Cookie before glowering at her, cutting her friends down from the wire that held them up. They screamed and landed in an amusing heap. "Let her go, Em. She's got the message."

"Fine! You won't be needing this, though!" Emerald shoved Cookie to the street, drawing something out of Cookie's back pocket. It was Cookie's wallet. They were shaking her down just like they did to her.

Trivia's eyes shimmered, feeling an odd amount of satisfaction as Cookie, Mags, and Heather sprinted from the scene. A malicious smile curled on her lips.

She liked these guys.

"You're too nice, Naruto." Emerald tossed half of the Lien in Cookie's wallet to the blonde while haphazardly tossing it into a nearby garbage can. "That kindness will get us into a lot of trouble, Naruto. You were lucky that guy with the green coat from Spider was nice to us and helped us escape to the airbus."

"Not gonna compromise my beliefs," Naruto frowned, shaking his head, pocketing the Lien into the pouch strapped to his thigh. He brought his attention toward Trivia and grinned as Emerald rolled her eyes. "You looked like you were in a rough spot! Are you alright?"

Trivia nervously twitched, and she shifted from side to side. Was he expecting a thank you? Oh, what was she going to do? She wanted to express her appreciation; however, it simply came out as a painful rasp.

She could only nod. She could only hope they wouldn't be disappointed like Papa was when she failed to speak.

"Huh? Are you mute or something?" Naruto squinted, tilting his head in confusion.

Trivia hung her head and slumped her shoulders but nodded in disappointment. Everyone saw her as a freak…

"Oh, my bad! Sorry about that!" Naruto panicked. "I didn't mean anything by it! I just wanted to see if you were okay!"

A sense of relief washed over Trivia. He didn't care? He didn't mind? Her eyes twinkled in amusement, watching Naruto. He was a little ridiculous… But funny.

Maybe some people could be her friends. Maybe Papa was wrong…

"What's going on over there?" A loud voice resonated in the distance as several adults stormed in their direction.

Adults wearing officer uniforms.

Trivia froze in horror. Mama and Papa found out she had left! Oh, she was going to be in so much trouble!

"Boss, we need to go!" Emerald shouted, seeing the officers swarming to their position. "Those punks must have…" Emerald's gaze shifted toward Trivia, and she saw Trivia bolting away and heading directly for a nearby alley. "Hey, wait! Where are you going?"

"Don't question it! Let's follow her and get out of here!" Naruto swept Emerald and pushed her on ahead. He wasn't going to let his friend get caught.

"Dammit! I hope she knows where she's going!" Emerald cried, following Trivia into the alleyway, sending a shade glare at Naruto. "Or for the love of Oum…"

"You're gonna pay!"

(Eight Years Later)

"Boss!" Emerald snapped Naruto out of his stupor.

Naruto's head snapped up to see Emerald glowering at him, hand on her hip. He couldn't help but stare as the sunlight from their office windows shone onto her.

She was gorgeous. He had to take in the view.

"Would you focus?" Emerald crossed her arms over her chest and moved, knowing precisely what Naruto was looking at. She rolled her eyes and hopped onto their guest couch, motioning toward Neo. "It's a wonder how we get anything done! It's not like I'm going anywhere, idiot."

"I get stuff done!" Naruto squinted as Neo laughed, tossing a file on his desk for him to read.

"Stop laughing. You're not hogging him tonight, got me? He's mine." Emerald sharply glared at Neo.

Neo simply flipped her middle finger at Emerald and hopped onto Naruto's desk, keeping eye contact with Emerald the entire time.

Emerald gnashed her teeth. If she wanted to fight…

"A new assignment?" Naruto picked up the document Neo gave him, opened it, and quickly scanned through it for important information. "Who have we been hired to investigate this time? Doesn't seem like our client doesn't know who the individual is."

"I'm not sure. The Huntsman was vague as he didn't really know anything about her either. All he knew was that he's been following her tracks and wanted to dig up anything on them he could find." Emerald sighed, breaking eye contact with Neo to focus on their job. They could continue their tift later.

Business before pleasure. They needed Lien if they wanted to stay afloat…

And not use Neo's wealth to keep their office open. Being mercenaries without having a Huntsman license was a pain…

"Explains why he hired us." Naruto exhaled before squinting at a nodding Neo. He exhaled before standing up from behind his desk. "Well, not gonna earn a cent if we don't go digging. Em, I'll have you comb through and see if you can find anything through the police network. See if you find anything on a woman that fits this description."

"Fine." Emerald rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "But you're dealing with the Huntsman and that stupid academy. I hate those guys."

"Fair enough," Naruto ran his hand through his hair. Turning to an expectant Neo, awaiting her instructions, he exhaled. He didn't like this; however, she was the person he was most willing to talk to. "Neo, I need you to find Roman."

"If there is anyone who might know about someone lurking in the shadows, it would be him."

I hope you enjoyed and your holidays have been going well! And if not, that this made someone's day.

The idea is that Naruto arrived in Remnant right before he became a shinobi. Emerald and Neo's age within a few years of one another, since both are legitimately young enough to compete in the Vytal Tournament canonically, with Neo likely being a year or two older. So the idea in the second part is that Naruto is 13, Neo is 12 and Emerald is 11.

If you got a moment, I always love to hear from ya. The more a concept gets support, the higher the chances it will manifest it a feature story later on.

So until the next time, Merry Christmas and happy holidays, my friends.

Peace.