AN: Hey everybody. Been a while huh? I know I canceled this, and I'm not really back. However, I completed a number of chapters and decided I might as well upload them. Maybe you guys will be able to figure out where I was going with this before I stopped uploading. Either way, feel free to enjoy or hate it.
Chapter 6 – Bully Problems
A couple of weeks had passed since the first day of class. Ruby and Weiss seem to have gotten over their issues with each other, which was to the delight of everyone. With team RWBY back in working order, the next couple of weeks were far simpler; for them at least. Naruto had gotten more used to life at Beacon. After three days, some staff members showed up and took the three extra beds from his room. While Naruto knew it would happen, he still was a little disappointed he didn't get to throw the beds out of the window. He had it all planned too. He would go to bed early that day, so he could strike in the early morning. While most people would still be asleep, he would chuck out a bed as hard as he could. The crashing sound would startle people awake. After another half hour he would throw another one, and then the last one an hour later. His chance to startle lots of students awake had once again been taken.
Today, we join them in sparring class. Unsurprisingly, this was Naruto's favorite class. He is not as academically inept as he was back at the academy, but he still did not enjoy it. Physical applications of his skills are where he excels, and of course where he has the most fun. The current matchup is Yang against Tyler Beretta, a male student with brown short hair, a red tank top, gray pants and boots, and a small glaive in which the handle can fold over and release a machine pistol mechanism. Speaking of, he is firing it at Yang right now.
"Dodge it Yang!" Ruby yelled to her sister. Ruby knew that her sister's Aura could easily handle it. However, these matches are a bit more monitored. Monitors are set up showing each participant's Aura level.
"Don't gotta tell me twice!" Yang takes off rather quick by running to the right. Tyler's aim tries to follow her, but he does not do too well. She then uses the recoil of her Ember Celica to launch herself towards him at a higher speed. By the time his aim gets close to her, she is already in his face.
"What?!" Tyler shouts in shock, now desperately trying to configure his weapon back into glaive form. However, he is too late. Yang lands three quick punches to the gut and then two to the chest. This causes Tyler's Aura to go way down into the yellow, just shy of red.
"And you're done!" Yang shouts as she clocks Tyler in the side of the of face, sending his Aura into the red and knocking him out cold.
The proctor of the sparring class, who was Glynda Goodwitch, ended the match. "This match is over. The winner is Yang Xiao Long."
Yang shot her fists in the air in celebration. "Oh yeah! I'm the best!"
"Way to go Yang!" Ruby yelled to her sister.
"Well done." Blake added.
"I guess it was alright." Weiss said, mildly complimenting her.
"Gee, really appreciate it." Yang sarcastically replied to Weiss.
"Hey, doesn't her even remotely complimenting you mean you were really good?" Naruto asked.
"Huh, I guess it kinda does." Ruby added.
Yang then grins. "I mean, I was pretty awesome."
"Well, we can all agree on that." Pyrrha added. The rain of compliments was shortly interrupted as Tyler got carried out.
"Think you might have overdone it?" Jaune asked, a little freaked out that it might happen to him if he gets called.
"Oh, he'll be fine, I've had worse." Yang answered. Naruto nods in agreement. Someone who was surprisingly quiet was Nora. She's arguably the most rambunctious of the group, but she has not said a thing. Every few seconds she takes a quick glance at Naruto. Ren finally caught her.
"Nora, now's not the time." Ren said to Nora. Nora quickly averted her gaze again.
"What was that about?" Naruto asked in confusion.
"Oh, it's nothing." Pyrrha said, trying to avoid the subject. The conversation was then interrupted by Glynda, who announced the next match.
"Would Alex Estoc and Naruto Uzumaki please come down." Glynda announced.
"Yes! I was hoping to get called today!" Naruto shouted.
"Do us all proud, Whiskers." Yang encouraged.
"Yeah! Kick his butt!" Ruby added to the encouragement. Naruto then headed down and stared across from Alex. Alex was relatively the same height and had long hair in a bun, a heavy build, wore heavy armor and wielded duel blades with revolver mechanisms in the hilt of each blade.
"Begin!" Glynda said to start the match. Naruto brought out Orange Spark in staff mode and rushed in. Alex held his blades in a reverse grip and attacked in a quick fashion despite his size and his armor. This would catch an average fighter off guard, but Naruto was anything but average. He's seen people like the Raikages, who tower over everyone around them, also outpace everyone around them as well. Naruto would not be caught off guard by size, as he rolled past Alex and swung his staff horizontally at Alex. Alex manages to get his blades up to block the hit, but he does slide back a bit, surprised at the amount of force behind Naruto's strike. Alex activates the revolvers in the hilts and starts firing. Naruto starts running around, counting on Alex running out of ammo. When 12 shots have been fired, Naruto runs at him. What he didn't know was that Alex's revolvers held 8 bullets each, and fired as Naruto rushed.
"Crap!" Naruto shouted. He managed to block two shots but got hit by the other two. Naruto was now on the defensive as Alex continued his quick strikes.
"Well, kid, this may be a problem for you. You don't like playing defense." Kurama commented.
"Yeah, but I still got this!" Naruto replied to his companion. He then hopped backwards and configured Orange Spark into rifle mode. He started firing a few shots. Alex began trying to deflect them, but then resorted to a basic guard. "Huh, he stopped deflecting. Does that mean…?"
"I'd say so. That armor is making every movement of his take an extra toll, his stamina is going down." Kurama further explained. Naruto ran in and started pressuring Alex with strikes, making him more tired by the second. Finally, Naruto noticed an opening and kicked Alex right in the side. "Time for a new spin on an old classic?" Kurama asked.
"Damn right!" Naruto replied. "U!" Naruto hits Alex in the gut with Orange Spark. "Zu!" Naruto sweeps that back of his legs with Orange Spark. "Ma!" Naruto kicks his falling body in the back to make him airborne. "Ki!" Naruto lands one of his infamous left uppercuts right into Alex's spine sending him higher in the air.
"What in the…?" Expressed Yang, surprised at the initiated combo.
"That's so cool!" Ruby exclaimed.
"Whoa…" Jaune said in amazement. Even Weiss was speechless, although she found the apparent random shouting of syllables obnoxious.
Upon sending Alex into the air, Naruto jumped up as fast as he could to get above him. Naruto then did a spinning axe kick right into Alex's face. "New Naruto Barrage!" Naruto shouted as Alex was sent plummeting back down to the ground sending his Aura into the red as well as leaving him unable to move.
"The winner is Naruto Uzumaki." Glynda announced. Naruto then configured Orange Spark into its condensed form and put it away.
"That was sweet Whiskers!" Yang shouted to her fellow blonde.
"I knew you'd win! You beat me after all!" Ruby added. Blake, Ren, and Pyrrha gave calm applause.
"Despite their praise, you still forgot to add the Dust to your weapon before you did the combo." Kurama criticized.
"You can't let me have anything, ya know..." Naruto replied annoyed. His mood was brought back up as he got back to his friends.
"Where did you learn such a combination?" Pyrrha asked.
"I came up with it myself!" Naruto answered.
"You did? That's cool…" Ruby stated.
"Not too shabby Whiskers. We should duke it out sometime, see who the best is!" Yang commented.
"I'll be ready any time!" Naruto answered in turn.
"Would Cardin Winchester and Jaune Arc please step forward." Jaune was not thrilled to be called. His skills in combat were well below those of his friends.
"Go kick his snobby butt Jaune!" Naruto said.
"Yeah! Tear him into pieces!" Nora shouted, sounding extra savage when shouting 'pieces.'
"Uh, yeah…" Jaune said, trying not to give away his nervousness as he got up and headed down. As he stood across from Cardin who was taller than Jaune himself, he drew his sword and shield, and the match began. Cardin wore a rather simple outfit. A set of grey armor and he wielded a long grey mace. As Jaune and Cardin fought, every time Jaune would swing his sword, Cardin would either dodge or overpower it with his own strike. Cardin was taking Jaune apart, to the point where it made Cardin look like an expert. That was hardly the case though. Cardin would likely lose had any other of Jaune's friends been picked. However, due to him facing Jaune, he looked better than he was. As Jaune continued to attack, Cardin was still not phased. After a few minutes, Jaune was hunched over, leaning on his sword from exhaustion.
Cardin let out an arrogant laugh. This incited Jaune to get ready to attack again. "Come on…" Jaune said as he rushed Cardin. He did a sluggish overhead slash which Cardin easily dodged. Jaune's eyes went wide as he knew what was coming. Cardin then smacked Jaune's shield with his mace which sent Jaune flying back one way while his shield went another. Jaune then got back up and rushed Cardin with his sword in the air while yelling. He brought his sword down while Cardin blocked with his mace and entered in a struggle of strength with Jaune. Struggle being used in the loosest way possible, as Cardin quickly started forcing back Jaune.
"This is the part where you lose." Cardin told Jaune, clearly confident that his victory was near.
To his credit, Jaune was not going to give in. "Over my dead—" Jaune started to say before Cardin kneed Jaune in the gut making in double over in pain. Cardin then walked over and raised his mace about to bludgeon Jaune with it when the buzzer went off.
"Cardin, that's enough." Glynda stated to end the match before it got out of hand. She then walked to the front of the fighting stage and continued. "Students, as you can see Mr. Arc's Aura has now dropped into the red. In a tournament style duel, this would indicate that Jaune is no longer fit for battle and that the official may call the match."
Ruby was a little perplexed as to why Glynda was choosing to go over this now. "Why is she explaining this now instead of the other matches?" Ruby asked Blake.
Blake then whispered back, "I think because it would have been a moot point. Your sister and Naruto gave their opponents such a beating that they couldn't move, so there was no point in basing it off the Aura levels."
"Ohhh…" Ruby let out. "That makes sense."
Glynda looked over to Jaune and began to address him. "Mister Arc, it's been weeks now. Please try to refer to your scroll during combat-" Jaune then took his scroll out and looked at it, seeing his Aura was very low. "-gauging your Aura will help you decide when it is appropriate to attack or when it's better to move to a more…defensive strategy." This caused Jaune to let out a quiet sigh. "We wouldn't want you to be gobbled up by a Beowolf, now would we?" Glynda further explained.
"Speak for yourself..." Cardin let out, earning him a glare from Jaune's friends.
"Remember everyone!" Glynda spoke now addressing all the students. "The Vytal Festival is only a few months away." As she said this team RWBY, minus Blake, got really excited. "It won't be long before students from the other kingdoms start arriving in Vale, so keep practicing! Those who choose to compete in the combat tournament will representing all of Vale." The bell then rings, letting them know class is over.
"This is gonna be awesome!" Naruto shouted. He knew that if the tournament was anything like the Chunin Exams then it was going to be a blast.
"You know it! Special foods, parties, and fighting? It's a dream come true!" Yang said in agreement.
"Even I have to admit I'm excited for the upcoming festivities." Weiss added. However, while Naruto and team RWBY were conversing on their excitement, Pyrrha is downtrodden as she looks at the defeated and humiliated Jaune. She then goes over to him and offers him a hand. He takes it and gets up. As this happens, the rest of the group heads over.
"Hey Jaune, you okay?" Ruby asked concerned.
"I'll be fine…" Jaune answered. His body is fine, it's his pride that's shattered.
Naruto then bumps his shoulder. "You'll kick his pompous butt next time." Jaune was still down. Out of the three people in his group of friends who fought today, he's the only one that lost, handily too.
Yang, upon hearing Naruto call Cardin 'pompous,' decided to pick up from there. "Seriously, could he have been more stuck up? He made Weiss seem humble…"
"Hey—" Weiss tried to get out before she was cut off.
"No, it's worse than that!" Naruto interjected. "At least Weiss has enough skill to back it up, what's that guy got?!" Weiss didn't know what to do. Should she be annoyed at the dis from Yang, or smug from the compliment from Naruto. The confusion made her very flustered, much to the enjoyment of Ruby who was snickering.
"I know, right?!" Nora indignantly interjected. "He was so—" Nora was then interrupted by the sound of her own stomach growling pretty loudly.
"Whoa…" Was all Yang could let out.
"That was impressive…" Naruto further added.
Ren, who was not at all surprised by what he just heard, finally got a word in. "I think it's time we go get lunch." The two teams and Naruto left the room and headed for the cafeteria.
Team's RWBY and JNPR were now sat down at a table with their lunch. Nora was telling a story. "So, there we were…" she paused to increase the drama. "In the middle of the night…"
"It was day…" Ren said, correcting her. Blake was deep in her book, not paying attention in the slightest. Yang however, was really into it.
Nora then continued. "We were surrounded by Ursai…"
"They were Beowolves." Ren corrected once again, holding a cup of something in his hand.
Nora then stood up and shouted, "DOZENS OF THEM!"
Ren, who seems to be getting tired of having to correct her, responds with "two of them." Naruto had just now sat down next to Blake, not having heard any of the story. Although he didn't really care. What he did care about was that he could see that Jaune was still feeling down.
"But they were no match, and in the end Ren and I took them down and made a boatload of Lien selling Ursa skin rugs" Nora finished.
"Ah…" Ren said putting his head down before bringing it back up to address everyone. "She's been having this reoccurring dream for nearly a month now…"
"Wow…" Naruto said, not knowing at all what to add to that.
Pyrrha was looking at the distraught Jaune. "Jaune, are you okay?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah! Why?" Jaune responded.
"It's just that you seem a little…not okay…" Ruby answered.
"That's putting it mildly…" Naruto commented.
"Dunno if that can even qualify as mild." Yang responded in kind. There was then a pause where everyone looked at Jaune.
"Eh, Guys I'm fine…" Jaune said trying to dismiss them. "Seriously, look!" He then let out a nervous laugh and a thumbs up. He then looked over as he could hear the sound of Cardin mocking someone.
"Jaune, you're not even convincing Ruby with that, and she believes almost anything." Naruto responded.
"Hey!" Ruby responded indignantly.
"Sorry sis," Yang added. "He's kinda right." Ruby then began a dramatic pout.
"Everyone, focus!" Pyrrha shouted to get everyone back to the topic at hand. "Jaune, Cardin's been picking on you since the first week of school."
"Who? Cardin Winchester?" Jaune said in an attempt to feign ignorance. "Nah…he just likes messing around, you know? Practical Jokes!"
"He's a bully." Ruby said in a serious tone.
"Oh please…" Jaune responded. "Name one time he's "bullied" me." He said placing 'bullied' in air quotes before laughing nervously.
"Oh, here we go!" Naruto responded.
"Open the flood gates!" Yang added, knowing that there are so many examples to choose from. They then proceed to bring up the time Cardin smacked Jaune's books out of his hand, then when he activated Jaune's shield as he was walking through a door making him get stuck, and then the time he put Jaune in one of the rocket propelled lockers and sent Jaune off. After the examples are listed off, everyone is once again looking at Jaune.
"I didn't land far from the school…" Was Jaune's only come back.
"…Seriously? That's your response?" Naruto said, baffled at how much Jaune is trying to downplay it.
"Jaune, you know if you ever need help you can just ask." Pyrrha informed him.
Nora then stood up. "OOH! We'll break his legs!"
Naruto then interjects. "I am so down!"
"What happened to the hero?" Kurama stated in a mocking tone.
"Oi! It's not like I agreed we should kill him!" Naruto answered in turn.
Jaune then stands up with his tray in hand. "Guys, really, it's fine! Besides, it's not like he's only a jerk to me; he's a jerk to everyone."
"And that somehow makes it okay, huh?" Blake muttered to herself.
"Ooww! That hurts!" The pained voice came from a Faunus girl with brown hair and rabbit ears. Cardin and his team were laughing as Cardin tugged on the poor girl's ears. "Please stop…"
"I told you it was real!" Cardin mockingly said.
One of his teammates, Russel, further commented with, "What a freak!" It was at that moment a response was triggered in Naruto. Hearing someone called a 'freak' sent him back to the days in his village when he was a small child. He was desperate to be loved, yet all he got were people calling him monster or FREAK. If there was a sure-fire way to get on Naruto's bad side, it was calling someone a freak for something they had no choice in.
Naruto dropped his fork and stood up. "Don't eat my food…" were his last words before he headed over to Cardin while holding his drink. When he arrived, he dropped his cup on Cardin's head, causing the drink to spill all over Cardin.
"What is wrong with you?!" Cardin shouted at Naruto.
Naruto feigned innocence. "Oh, sorry, I confused that piece of scrap you're wearing as a trashcan. After all, you're in it…" That comment angered Cardin even more.
"Oh man, now that was a good one." Yang commented.
Cardin got in Naruto's face. "You little punk…" Naruto was itching for Cardin to take a swing, so he could really make Cardin feel small. Cardin grabbed Naruto by the shirt, to which Naruto kept the same facial expression. Cardin was about to take a swing, but then he looked behind Naruto. He saw both teams RWBY and JNPR, with the notable exception of Jaune, staring at him like a pack of wolves ready to strike. He knew that if he punched Naruto right now, then the two teams would pounce on him immediately. Cardin may be extremely overconfident, but he didn't truly think that his team could beat two teams. He then let go of Naruto's shirt. "You get off lucky this time, you little punk. Come on guys." He said as he and his team walked away. Naruto just kept staring at them with rage filled eyes until they left the room.
"T-thanks, for that…" The rabbit Faunus expressed. Naruto now calmed down to speak with her.
"Ah, it was nothing. I don't really need thanks to deal with a bigoted jerk…" Naruto responded.
The Rabbit Faunus smiled. "My name's Velvet Scarlatina."
"Naruto Uzumaki!" Naruto shouted extending his left hand. Velvet shook his hand and proceeded to find her seat.
"Not that he didn't deserve it, but you usually have better control of yourself than that." Kurama mentioned.
"I guess you're right…" Naruto mentioned back to Kurama. "I guess in this new world the slightest action hasn't had severe consequences like we had to deal with back home. I guess I've gotten a little too used to not having to worry about how my acts will affect others in a while, so my self-restraint has gotten a bit weaker."
"I get it. Basically, the same concept as you having more freedom for pranks, you have less holding you back. On another note, bigoted? Big word for you, don't you think?" Kurama said teasingly. He wanted to make sure Naruto wasn't still in the mindset of his past self as a kid.
"Kurama, I'm getting so sick of your crap, ya know!" Naruto mentally shouted at his friend who began to laugh. Naruto then went back to his seat. Of course, now everyone who was staring at Jaune is now staring at him, especially Blake for some reason.
"Naruto, what made you go confront him?" Pyrrha asked.
"What do you mean? Standing up to a bully is weird?" Naruto responded.
"I think she means why specifically now? You didn't other times." Blake explained.
"Well I mean, this time it was like five meters in front of me." Naruto mentioned. There was another pause before he continued. "I guess it was also when that Russel jerk called her a freak…"
"Hm?" Ruby expressed, wanting further clarification.
"When someone calls another person a freak because of something out of their control…it just, I dunno, I guess it just sets me off to the point where I don't think things through…" Naruto explained.
"What exactly do you mean? I understand that it sets you off, but it makes you not think things through?" Ren asked.
"Yeah, like right now. I walked right over and messed with Cardin, not at all thinking about how he had his team with him." Naruto continued to explain.
"Yeah, but if they would if tried anything the rest of us would have taken them out." Yang commented.
"I guess that's why he didn't bother punching me." Naruto responded. "That's the thing though, I didn't take you guys into account. The only thing on my mind was making Cardin feel small, the way he made that girl feel…"
"Well, at least you lose your rational thought for a good reason?" Ren said trying to make him not feel so bad about it.
"That Cardin…" Pyrrha began to comment. "Atrocious, I can't stand people like him."
"He's not the only one." Blake added.
"It must be hard to be a Faunus." Yang said in a melancholy expression.
"Yeah, can't imagine…" Naruto said, being one of the few people there who does know what it's like.
"So…" Ruby let out, trying get away from the topic so as to lighten the mood as it was making her very uncomfortable. Jaune of course had already left the room. "What's something you hope the cafeteria will serve?"
Naruto, without even a second passing, shouted, "Ramen!"
"Really? Noodles of all things?" Weiss asked.
"That does seem like a rather dull choice." Blake added.
"You people just don't understand…" Naruto muttered.
"Pancakes!" Nora then shouted. Ren just held his face in his hand. He knew that answer was coming, he just didn't want to hear it.
"Another odd choice…" Pyrrha added.
"You wanna see something odd? Watch." Naruto said as he let it get quiet. "Cookies!"
Ruby then became fully alert. "What?!"
Yang then snickered, but then also got annoyed. "Hey, that's my trick!"
Naruto laughs. "Hey, don't blame me! Blame your sister! After the first day of class I offered to treat her to cookies. And the way she devoured them…" Ruby sat there embarrassed.
"Is it that bad?" Blake asked.
Yang leans her head against her hand. "You have no idea…"
The next day, the students were in the classroom of Doctor Oobleck. He has a rather simple, if disheveled appearance. He wears a white-collared shirt that is tucked into his dark pants except for a little bit untucked on his left side. He also wears a yellow tie and opaque glasses. He also has a mess of green spiky hair the flows towards his back. Naruto is sitting in the furthest top right corner of the room, simply wanting to be able to have the widest view, as Doctor Oobleck seems to dash all over his classroom. Jaune is also not sitting next to any of his friends. In fact, he is sitting in the front row. A poor choice as he is also falling asleep.
"Yes!" Oobleck shouts, teaching about the human and Faunus war. "Yes, prior to the Faunus Rights Revolution, more popularly known as the Faunus War, humankind was quite, quite adamant about centralizing the population in Menagerie." He then takes another sip of what could only be coffee, as he further zips around the room.
Naruto began reminiscing about his days back at the academy. He kept on trying to think of someone that came even remotely close to this teacher's hyperactivity, but there was no one. He just started to grin thinking how unpredictable his life is going to keep getting.
Oobleck then asks the class, "Have any among you been subjugated or discriminated because of your Faunus heritage?" A couple of the students raise their hands, one of them being Velvet. Oobleck then spurts out "Dreadful, simply dreadful! Remember, students, it is precisely this kind of ignorance that breeds violence."
"Isn't that the truth…" Naruto thought to himself, thinking back to people like Haku who were hunted because of their Kekkei Genkai.
Oobleck breaks Naruto from these thoughts. "I mean, I mean just look at what happened to the White Fang! Now, which one of you young scholars can tell me what many theorists believe to be the turning point in the third year of the war?" Oobleck sees Weiss raise her hand and calls on her.
"The Battle at Fort Castle!" Weiss answers.
"Precisely!" Oobleck responded. "And, who can tell me the advantage the Faunus had over General Lagune's forces?" Cardin then flicks a paper football at the barley awake Jaune startling him. This catches Ooblek's attention as he dashes over to Jaune. "Mr. Arc! Finally contributing to class! This is excellent! Excellent! What is the answer?"
"Uh oh…" Naruto mutters. Pyrrha, who knows that Jaune does not know the answer, starts trying to give him a visual cue by pointing at her eyes.
"Uhhhh…the answer…the advantage…of the Faunus…had over that guy's stuff…" Jaune then looks at Pyrrha's cues. "Um, b-binoculars!" Pyrrha hangs her head in defeat as the rest of the class laughs, Naruto included.
Oobleck dashes back behind his desk. "Very funny Mr. Arc. Cardin, perhaps you would like to share your thoughts on the subject."
Cardin, looking very confident says, "Well, I know it's a lot easier to train an animal than a solider."
Kurama's eye then began to twitch. "He needs to die."
"No Kurama, we're not killing him." Naruto answered his friend. Still, Naruto did not appreciate that remark considering his best friend is a talking giant fox.
"You aren't the most open minded of individuals, are you, Cardin?" Pyrrha asked.
Cardin responded, "What? You got a problem?"
Pyrrha calmly said, "No, I have the answer. It's night vision. Many Faunus are known to have nearly perfect sight in the dark." Cardin just sort of growls.
Blake, who was sitting next to Pyrrha, added on, "General Lagune was inexperienced and made the mistake of trying to ambush the Faunus in their sleep. His massive army was outmatched, and the General was captured. Perhaps if he'd paid attention in class, he wouldn't have been remembered as such a failure."
Naruto noticed how mad Cardin was getting, and decided he wasn't mad enough. He wanted Cardin to lose it after what he did yesterday and the remark he said that insulted Kurama. So, Naruto decided to make Cardin feel small here. "Hey Cardin." Cardin then looks up at him. "I guess you might be right about animals being easier to train, after all you're still not house broken."
"What?" Cardin said confused, as was a lot of other people in the class.
"I mean, you just openly spewed out that verbal diarrhea without a second thought." Naruto said, making the whole class laugh. This made Cardin really mad. He got up and was about to get in Naruto's face.
"Mr. Winchester! Please take your seat." Oobleck ordered him "And Mr. Uzumaki, that is quite enough out of you." Jaune could be heard snickering and then Oobleck dashed up to him. "You, Mr. Winchester, and Mr. Arc will all see me after class for additional readings." Naruto just slams his head on the desk, which once again made some people laugh, although unintentionally this time. Jaune just slumped over.
As the class ended, the students left the room, except for Jaune, Cardin, and Naruto. They all had to be sat in the front row. Oobleck had Naruto sit next to Jaune because he knew there was a good chance that if Naruto and Cardin sat next to each other they would end up in a fight. "Mr. Uzumaki, I do not know what brought on that needless joke of yours but see to it you show more self-control in the future."
Naruto just sat there nodding 'yes' thinking, "I didn't think it would land me here…"
"You never learn. That being said, that was a nice steamer." Kurama complimented his friend.
Naruto grins and responds to him, "Hey, no one disses my buddy, ya know?"
Oobleck then turns his attention towards Jaune and Cardin. "As for you two, you have been struggling in my class since day one! Now, I don't know if it's from lack of interest, or just your stubborn nature, but whatever it is, it stops now!" He then takes a sip of coffee. "You've worked hard to gain entrance to this school, and we only accept the best of the best. So! I expect you to act like it. History is important, gentleman! If you can't learn from it…you're destined to repeat it."
Naruto thought, "he has no idea…"
Oobleck continued, "Pages 51 to 91! I want an essay on my desk by next class! That goes for you too Mr. Uzumaki."
"Crap! I was hoping he forgot about me…" Naruto thought. He got up as Jaune and Cardin headed out. Cardin shoved Jaune over and took off. "Oh that's it!" Naruto shouted as he ran out the room to try and chase down Cardin.
"Wait, don't both—" Jaune tried to say but Naruto already had ran off.
Cardin was now in his room, as Naruto wasn't able to find him in time. As he was waiting around, he overheard Jaune and Pyrrha, and what he heard shocked him. Jaune revealed that he forged his transcripts to get into Beacon, meaning he wasn't qualified to be there. Cardin knew he could take advantage of this and waited until Pyrrha left before he went up to the roof too. He then tells Jaune that to keep that secret, Jaune would have to do a lot for things for him, including his essay. Over the next few days, Jaune ends up doing all sorts of things for Cardin, as well as becoming estranged from his team. He hears his team talking about him from the other side of the door to their dorm and feels ashamed.
"Hey Jaune!" Ruby says from behind Jaune startling him. "Long time no see. Did you lock yourself out again?"
Jaune, sounding all nervous responds, "Oh uh, nope! Got it!" He said holding up his scroll.
"So, where have you been lately?" Ruby asked.
Jaune tries to figure out what to say before he just sighs and says, "I messed up. I did something I shouldn't have and now Cardin's got me on a leash and Pyrrha won't even talk to me…" He sighs again before saying, "I'm starting to think coming to this school was a bad idea. I'm a failure."
Ruby, as only Ruby can, simply responds with. "Nope."
Jaune is understandably confused. "Nope?"
"Nope." Ruby again reiterates. "You're a leader now Jaune, you're not allowed to be a failure."
Jaune responds with, "But, what if I'm a failure at being a leader?"
Ruby ponders for a second. "Mmm…nope."
Jaune lets out a slight chuckle. "You know, you're not the easiest person to talk to about this kind of stuff."
Once again, Ruby says, "Nope. Jaune, maybe you were a failure as a kid, and you might have even been a failure the first day we met. But you can't be one now. You know why?"
"Uhhh, because-" Jaune did not have an answer, but Ruby does.
"Because it's not just about you anymore." Ruby answered. "You got a team now Jaune. We both do. And if we fail, we'll be dragging them down with us. We have to put our teammates first, and ourselves second."
Naruto, who has his dorm room door open just a bit, has a huge grin on his face. "Think he'll finally straighten himself out?"
"Doubtful. You felt like a failure a lot of times and got right back on your feet, but you also had a never give up mentality, something he doesn't have." Kurama responded with honesty.
"I guess, but he also has something going for him too." Naruto added. "Like Ruby he said, he's got people counting on him."
"That doesn't mean he'll step up." Kurama retorted.
"You know what, I think he'll prove you wrong, just watch." Naruto then turned out his light and went to sleep.
The next day, the students are on a field trip with Glynda in the forest of Forever Fall, the location with the red leaves that Naruto first woke up in when he arrived in Remnant.
"Here we are again" Naruto thought.
"Luckily this time you aren't one-armed and heavily weakened." Kuarma added.
"Yeah, that wasn't great…" Naruto responded.
Glynda then began to speak, "Yes students, the Forest of Forever Fall is indeed beautiful. But we are not here to sightsee. Professor Peaches asked all of you to collect samples from the trees deep inside this forest. And I'm here to make sure none of you die while doing so."
"You sure know how to make something as boring as collecting samples sound exciting!" Naruto said to Glynda.
While Glynda did give him a slight glare, it wasn't one that showed as much annoyance. She was slowly coming around. "Each of you is to gather one jar's worth of red sap. However, this forest if full of the creatures of Grimm, so be sure to stay by your teammates." She looks at Naruto. "In your case just find a group." Naruto looks back at Team RWBY who all nod that he can stick with them. "We will rendezvous back here at four o'clock. Have fun!"
Cardin then grabs Jaune by the arm. "Come on buddy! Let's go." Jaune looks at Pyrrha who is also looking back at him. Jaune then looks down and goes with Cardin. Pyrrha sighs and then walks away with the rest of her team.
"Still betting on him?" Kurama asked Naruto.
"He…he just needs some time…" Naruto responded to Kurama as he headed off with team RWBY, very disappointed in what he just saw.
Jaune returns to Cardin's team carrying seven jars filled with sap, and he falls to the floor tired.
Cardin sees him and says, "Hey. Great work Jauney-boy. Now that wasn't too hard, was it?" He says as Jaune appears to go cross-eyed.
"I think I'm allergic to this stuff…" Jaune responds.
Cardin quickly interrupts. "Great, great, great. So, Jaune, I bet you're asking yourself, "why did my buddy Cardin ask me to collect seven jars of tree sap when there's only five of us?""
Jaune, barley keeping his mind straight says, "That is one of the many questions I have asked myself today, yes."
Cardin, in a sinister tone says, "Well, come with me and you'll find out." They then head over to where teams RWBY, JNPR minus Jaune, and Naruto are collecting sap together. Naruto is sitting in a tree when a squirrel throws a nut at him.
"Stupid squirrel!" Naruto indignantly shouts causing his friends to laugh.
"Shows what he thinks of you" Yang commented.
Jaune is grinning at the situation before he gets an uneasy feeling and turns towards Cardin. "Cardin, what's going on?"
Cardin looking focused and with wrath in his eyes responds, "Payback."
Jaune then looking concerned asks, "Pyrrha? What are you-" Jaune is then cut off.
"That's the girl." Cardin states with contempt. "Red-haired know-it-all thinks she's so smart. But worse than her…" His gaze shifts towards Naruto and his eyes almost explode with anger. "That irritating punk humiliated me twice. But their high and mighty feeling ends now." He then grabs one of the boxes he had Jaune bring. "I had Jaune round up these here Rapier Wasps. Now, they're gonna unleash their fury." Jaune laughs nervously. "According to one of those essays you wrote for me, these little monsters love sweets, kind of like that sap we're all collecting." Jaune gulps as he knows where this is going. Cardin then grabs the two extra jars and gives one to Jaune. "It's time they learned what happens when you humiliate Cardin Winchester. I'll hit the blonde guy, you go for the girl." Cardin then chucks his jar of sap at Naruto and it hits him in the back of the head.
"Ow!" Naruto shouted as he dropped out of the tree and sap was all over the back of his head along with a little bit of blood.
"What happened?" Ruby stated concerned.
"I think you're bleeding." Yang said.
"It doesn't hurt much…but now I'm sticky." Naruto complained.
Cardin turns to Jaune. "Now throw it Jauney-boy, or me and Goodwitch are going to have a nice long chat."
Jaune looks torn. He gets ready to throw, but he just can't do it. "NO." He turns and throws the sap at Cardin. Jaune then realizes what he did and how much he's about to get hurt.
Cardin let's out a smug chuckle. "You're in trouble now." He then proceeds to start beating up Jaune. "I'm sending you back to mommy in tiny pieces."
Jaune, now finally having some conviction states, "I don't care what you do to me, but you are not messing with my team."
"You think that makes you tough?" Cardin states before he strikes again, only this time he hurts his fist as Jaune unconsciously activated his Aura. Unfortunately, it doesn't last. But before the beating can continue, the roar of an Ursa is heard as it comes out from the trees. Due to the sap on Cardin's armor, the Ursa targets him. Cardin's team quickly runs away shouting, "That's a big Ursa!"
The roar of the Ursa is loud enough to be heard by the others as Ruby asks, "Did you guys hear that?" Russel is running away shouting Ursa when he bumps into Yang.
Yang grabs him. "What? Where?"
Russel answers with, "Back there! It's got Cardin!"
Pyrrha drops her sap now worried. "Jaune!"
Ruby assesses the situation and delegates. "Yang, you and Blake go get Professor Goodwitch."
Pyrrha then delegates to Ren and Nora, "You two, go with them! There could be more." Her, Weiss, and Ruby get ready go to back up Jaune.
Naruto following tells them, "I'll head into the woods behind them and prevent back up. With as loud as that roar is it's bound to happen."
"Good idea." Ruby adds as they head off.
While Jaune is dealing with the Ursa with Pyrrha secretly backing him up, Naruto is in the trees behind them taking out Grimm that try to join to fight. Luckily for him, it's only been one Beowolf and a Boarbatusk so far. Naruto reaches a clearing, where he spots something odd. There is a Dust crystal, but it's different than any Dust crystal he had ever seen before. It was small, no bigger than his palm, but he could feel some energy from it not present in other Dust crystals. Before he could investigate, another Beowolf arrives, and he hops back.
"Stupid mutt." Naruto states. "Just go away!" Instead of attacking Naruto, the Beowolf heads over to the Dust crystal. "What is—" Before Naruto could finish, the Beowolf ate the crystal. The Beowolf then let out a loud roar as its eyes went from yellow to a glowing blue. "This can't be good…."
"Something is welling up inside that wolf. Whatever that crystal was, it just made it more powerful." Kurama noted.
Upon saying that, the Beowolf launched itself at Naruto faster than any Grimm before it had ever done and caught Naruto off guard letting it get a good slash into his shoulder. "Ahh!" Naruto shouted. "Damn that hurt!"
"Naruto! You can't fight this one like any other Grimm you fought. Don't underestimate it." Kurama instructed.
"It won't catch me off guard again…" Naruto stated now completely focused. The Beowolf launched at Naruto again, but this time Naruto managed to roll under the attack and shoot it a few times. The Beowolf, however, is still relatively unhurt. Naruto then runs at the Beowolf with his kunai in hand before jumping up and throwing the kunai. The Beowolf guards up against the kunai allowing Naruto to land and smack the Beowolf right on the nose with his staff, which does stagger it a bit. Naruto then adds wind Dust to his staff and starts attacking the Beowolf, each hit having some extra impact thanks to the Dust. However, the Beowolf manages to collect itself and knock Naruto back. Naruto managed to guard up reducing the damage.
"You're doing good, but your hits need some more behind them." Kurama noted.
Naruto looks at his wound and the blood is still coming out. That being said, it's hardly reducing Naruto's fighting ability. One thing Naruto has always had going for him is his ability to take punishment and keep going. "Okay, this should definitely do some damage." Naruto fills his weapon to the brim with fire Dust and rushes in. The Beowolf slashes at him but Naruto managed to jump up and over. However, the Beowolf manages to grab his ankle with its other hand.
"Uh oh." Naruto says as the Beowolf slashes Naruto's leg. This time the wound is very minor due to Naruto having his Aura up. Naruto then flips over and the Beowolf slashes again, but Naruto manages to weave under the slash and punch the Beowolf a few times as hard as he can. The Beowolf backs up and Naruto perfectly lands his uppercut. Despite this Beowolf being enhanced, Naruto's uppercut still knocks it on its back. Then Naruto grabs his Orange Spark and slams it into the Beowolf unleashing a small fire shockwave that ignites the Beowolf, leading to its death. "Phew, that was a close one, ya know?"
"Hmph, that took you too long" Kurama said.
Pyrrha, Jaune, Weiss, and Ruby come running in hearing the commotion. They see the husk of the Beowolf and then they see Naruto, clearly bleeding. "Are you okay?!" Jaune said concerned.
"I'll be fine, only stings a little bit." Naruto responds.
Jaune looks at the blood that keeps coming out of his shoulder. "I think I would have passed out already…"
"Me too…" Ruby states a bit grossed out. Pyrrha on the other hand seems perplexed by something.
Weiss takes note of this and asks, "Pyrrha? What is it?"
"That is clearly a Beowolf, and I can't see anything different about it." Pyrrha answered. "And yet, here's Naruto cut up and bleeding. The same Naruto we seen go toe to toe with a Death Stalker."
"That's…a good point." Weiss acknowledged.
"Naruto? What happened?" Ruby asked.
"Well, there was this—" Naruto then gets cut off by Jaune.
"Maybe we should wait for the explanation after he gets patched up?" Jaune points out.
Ruby's face goes red with embarrassment from completely forgetting about Naruto's bleeding shoulder. "G-good point!" They then start heading back when they run into Glynda, who notices Naruto's bleeding shoulder and gets him back to the ship where he gets patched up.
"You kids are so reckless." Glynda states.
"Yeah…um, Ms. Goodwitch? Can we see Ozpin when we get back?" Naruto asks.
"Why do you need to see him?" Glynda asks.
"It's about what I saw out there. He definitely needs to know." Naruto answers.
"Why not just tell me?" Glynda inquiries.
"It's not that I don't trust you." Naruto informs. "It's just that I sometimes have trouble explaining things properly, and Ozpin somehow seems to understand it."
Glynda just nodded as she knew that Ozpin excelled at understanding what others were trying to express. "Fine, I'll take you to him."
"Thanks." Naruto said honestly. He then heads over to his friends as he never was informed about how things went on their end. "Hey guys. So, what happened with the Ursa?"
Pyrrha grins as she says, "Jaune saved Cardin from the Ursa by himself."
Ruby remembers that Pyrrha wanted Jaune to think he did it on his own, so she plays along. "Yeah, and then he was all like, "never mess with my friends again!""
Jaune starts to blush. "It wasn't that big of a deal…"
Naruto had his endearing grin. "Nice job Jaune!" Naruto then says to Kurama, "See? I told you!"
"Oh, shut up." Was all Kurama responded with.
Upon landing at Beacon, team's RWBY and JNPR head back to their rooms for a well-deserved rest. Naruto on the other hand is being led to Ozpin's office by Glynda. Upon arriving, Naruto notices the obvious clock theme of Ozpin's office.
"What's with all the clocks?" Naruto asked.
Ozpin responds, "It's merely a personal preference." He then turns around. "Now then, I've been informed you have something you need to tell me." He then sits down in his chair.
"Yeah…it happened in the forest today." Naruto then tells him the whole thing. Not leaving out a single detail, especially the strange Dust crystal.
Ozpin, pondering what he was just told, simply says to Naruto, "Thank you Mr. Uzumaki. This information is quite interesting. I think you need to go back to your room and rest."
"Right…thanks possessor!" Naruto says as he then heads back to his dorm. Ozpin then gets out of his chair and looks out the window.
Glynda walks up next to him and asks, "Do you really think he saw what he claimed?"
"I know it's hard to believe." Ozpin answers. "I might not believe myself if we were merely going off of his word. However, there are factors supporting his claim."
"What factors are those?" Glynda asked.
"The other students who seen what he fought corroborated that it was a single Beowolf, correct?" Ozpin asked.
"That they did." Glynda confirmed.
"Glynda, you saw the tape of Naruto's entrance exam, correct?" Ozpin asked her. She nodded yes. "In that test, Naruto efficiently dispatched of multiple Beowolves."
Glynda finally catches on. "Which means for a single Beowolf to have done that too him, it had to be enhanced by some measure."
"I desperately wish to say it's impossible." Ozpin comments. "But with our enemies, being able to discern what is and is not possible has become so complicated."
Glynda then asks, "Should we call Qrow?"
"No." Ozpin informs her. "We have very little to go on. For all we know this could have been a freak occurrence. Now, we are still teachers, and there are still classes tomorrow."
Glynda smiles. "Goodnight Professor." She then leaves.
Ozpin then takes a sip from his mug and says, "What is she up to?"
Chapter End