Chapter 9 – Teamwork & Awakenings
Naruto is making his way towards the warehouse district. He can still hear what's left of team RWBY calling out for Blake. Well, Ruby and Yang are anyway. He once again walks past the noodle shop ran by a man who looks just like the Dust shop salesman. "Is it the same guy?" Naruto wondered to himself.
"Maybe." Kurama answered. "That isn't relevant right now. Your noodles can wait."
"I know I know!" Naruto internally answered. "My mind's not on noodles I promise. I love my noodles, but friends come first."
"Sure, you say that. I'm not entirely convinced." Kurama retorted.
Naruto grumbled at the fox's teasing as the warehouse district was now in sight. As he got closer, he could hear some kind of commotion coming from there. However, there is an issue. When Naruto arrives, a few guards get in his way. "Hey, what's the problem?" Naruto asked them.
"This area is off limits." One of the guards informed him.
"Then why do I hear people over there?" Naruto inquired.
"They have a permit, now get back." The guard says before putting a hand on his gun.
Naruto puts his hands up. "Okay! I'm going!" Naruto says before backing up. "Get anything Kurama?"
"He's full of it. I wouldn't be surprised if those aren't even real guards." Kurama responds.
"I'm not gonna get involved in whatever that is." Naruto sighs. "This was a bust…I can at least go to the roofs and look at the district from there." Naruto then scales up the nearest building. As he starts overlooking the warehouse district, he hears a familiar voice. He goes to look and finally finds Blake who is talking to Sun. "Finally!" Naruto shouts out loud.
"Hmm…hold on Naruto." Kurama interrupts.
"What? Why? She's right there!" Naruto responds.
"Yes, but what are they up to? The cat girl has been missing for a few days and she's with the monkey boy? I doubt she disappeared like that for a date." Kurama answered.
"That's…a good point." Naruto admits. "So what? Should we tail them?"
"I would say so." Kurama answers.
Naruto follows them for a bit. From what he's been able to hear they want to investigate the White Fang. They even climb up onto a roof to oversee the warehouses. Naruto figures now is as good a time as any to make his presence known. He hops onto the roof. "Hey guys!"
"Ahh!" Sun shouts from freight.
Blake was stunned too but she didn't yell out. "Naruto? What are you doing here?"
"Looking for you." Naruto answered nonchalantly.
"You don't need to do that." Blake answers in turn.
"You think you can just run away and not expect your friends to come looking for you?" Naruto questions her.
"Friends? I don't know about that." Blake says in a solemn tone.
"They're out looking for you right now! Even Weiss…in her own annoying way." Naruto informs her. Blake doesn't respond so Naruto just turns to Sun. "Hey Sun."
"Hey Naruto." Sun casually responds.
"Wait, you two know each other?" Blake inquires.
"When you and your friends were chasing me, he actually caught me." Sun informed her.
"We escaped the cops and chatted a bit, ya know." Naruto further chimed in.
"Hold on, is that how you already knew my name?" Blake asks to Sun.
"Um…yeah?" Sun responds, not sure if she's upset.
"I guess that adds up." Blake responds, clearly not caring. She then turns her head to Naruto. "I'm not coming back, at least not yet. I have to see for myself if the White Fang is really behind these thefts."
"Why do you care so much?" Naruto asks. Then after a mere second, he realized it. "You were a member weren't you?"
Blake is stunned. "Did…did they tell you?!"
"Huh? On no no no! I had figured out you were a Faunus already! I just now put together that you were a part of the White Fang..." Naruto frantically responded.
"Then how did you figure out I was a Faunus?" Blake asked.
"Kurama help!" Naruto internally yelled.
"Tell her you seen her bow twitching." Kurama calmly aided him.
"I seen your bow kind of twitching on its own. Bows don't do that." Naruto answered.
Blake then sighed. "And here I thought the bow worked pretty well..."
"I mean it did! No one else managed to figure it out. I just caught you at a bad time I guess." Naruto informed her. "So, I wanna help"
"Naruto you don't—" Blake started to say before getting interrupted.
"Don't even try to stop me." Naruto informed her. "My friends are on a mission and I'm helping. End of story, ya know."
"It couldn't hurt." Sun chimed in.
"Fine." Blake acquiesced. "We suspect that this is where whoever's stealing the Dust well end up transporting it."
"So, what's the plan if they arrive?" Naruto asked.
"I'm…I'm not sure." Blake answered.
There's a long pause before Naruto says "Okay." And sits down.
About an hour has passed and Sun comes back holding some apples. Blake asks him, "Do you always break the law without a second thought?"
To which Sun quickly responds, "Hey, weren't you in a cult or something?" This results in Blake giving him an annoyed stare.
Naruto grabs one of the apples. "Hey, I stole fruit before too. Not like it's the end of the world."
"See? Naruto gets it." Sun replied with amusement.
Blake looks at the two blonde-headed boys with a questioning look and asks, "Are you sure you two aren't related?"
Naruto and Sun look at each other and both replied, "No idea what you're talking about."
As the three of them talk, a ship starts to arrive. "Here they are." Naruto comments.
The ship lands and a man in what is clearly a White Fang uniform exists the ship. Blake upon seeing this is heartbroken. "Oh no…" she says with sorrow in her voice.
"Is it them?" Sun asks.
"Yes…it's them." Blake says, wishing it wasn't true.
"You really didn't think they were behind it, did you?" Sun asks to Blake.
"No, I think deep down I knew, I just didn't want to be right." Blake responds.
"Hey guys, there's someone else in there." Naruto informs them. They pay close attention and out walks Roman Torchwick, the local thief. "Hold on, is that Torchwick?"
"This isn't right." Blake exclaims. "The White Fang would never work with a human. Especially one like him." Blake stands up and draws her sword.
Naruto takes out his Orange Spark. "Looks like we're going in."
Roman is talking to one of the White Fang members as he says, "No you idiot. This isn't a leash." Blake then sneaks up behind Roman and puts her blade to his throat. "What the? Oh for f—"
"Nobody move." Blake tells the other members of the White Fang, to which they draw their weapons.
"Whoa! Take it easy there little lady." Roman condescendingly tells her.
Blake sees more of the White Fang head towards her and then she removes her bow revealing her cat ears. "Brothers of the White Fang. Why are you aiding this scum?"
"Oh kid, didn't you get the memo?" Roman says to try and aggravate her.
"What are you talking about?" Blake asks in turn.
"The White Fang and I are going in on a joint business venture together" Roman answers.
"Tell me what it is, or I'll put an end to your little operation." Blake tells him while putting the blade even closer to his throat.
More air ships started coming in. "I wouldn't exactly call it a little operation." Roman corrects her. As the ships get closer the air pressure causes Roman's jacket to fly up a little revealing a small vial of bright blue Dust in his pants pocket.
"What kind of Dust is that?" Blake asks him.
"Oh this?" Roman affirms. "This is a little something new. Never before seen on the market!" Blake gets a sneaking suspicion that it may be the Dust Naruto told them about. She looks behind her where Naruto is hiding behind a shipping container and his shocked face confirms her suspicion. "So, she brought friends." Roman mutters before he shoots the ground with his cane causing an explosion alerting everyone in the area and sending Blake flying. As she gets up Roman aims his cane at her and she starts to run. As she does Roman casually starts walking saying, "Here kitty kitty kitty."
Just then a banana falls onto Roman's hat followed by Sun stomping Roman from the air. "Leave her alone" Sun tells him. As he says that more White Fang members drop down from one of the air ships.
With Sun now surrounded Roman tells him, "You are not the brightest banana in the bunch, are ya kid?"
Just then Naruto knocks one of the White Fang members out cold with a punch to the back of the head. "That joke sucked and so do you!"
"And just who the hell are you supposed to be?" Roman asked, clearly not impressed.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and you don't know what you're in for." Naruto informed him. "I'll take these guys out, go kick his ass Sun!"
"Gladly!" Sun shouts before running at Roman. One of the White Fang members tries to attack Sun, but Naruto cuts them off with a lariat that would make his mentor and friend Killer Bee proud. Naruto then takes out Orange Spark and knocks some more White Fang Members back. He guards up as one of them is about to attack from the side, but Blake shows back up and disarms the White Fang member before knocking him down.
As Naruto and Blake are dealing with the White Fang, Sun is doing his best against Roman. Sun brings out his staff that segments into what can only be described as gun-chucks. As wild and fast as Sun's attacks are, Roman is not getting overwhelmed at all. Every time Sun swings, and the gun goes off, Roman manages to deflect it with his cane. Sun goes back to staff mode to try and trip up Roman, but Roman avoids the hits and knocks Sun back and then trips Sun up with his cane causing him to fall over. Roman then aims the end of his cane at Sun point blank.
Naruto sees this and rushes in. He shouts, "Tagging in!" before knocking Roman back. A member of the White Fang swings their sword down towards Sun who rolls backwards to avoid it and gets back on his feet and fights the White Fang along with Blake.
Roman looks at Naruto and says, "Thought you told him to kick my ass. Now you're jumping in?"
"I wanted to give him a chance to look good." Naruto told him. "But he hasn't been fighting as long as me."
"Who are you trying to kid? You're just another snot nosed brat who can't mind his own business." Roman retorts, clearly not believing Naruto to be a threat. He fires the explosive shot from his cane ,which Naruto easily dodges, and Naruto returns fire. Roman blocks each shot, but Naruto quickly closes the distance and switches Orange Spark into twin staff mode. Naruto does 5 rapid swings from his staffs that Roman blocks, but then Naruto shoulder barges Roman and follows up with a strong side kick that causes Roman to fall backwards. "Ah! What the heck is with this kid? He fights way different than the rest of them…"
Roman gets back up and Naruto presses the attack again. Roman tries to wring Naruto's neck with his cane, but Naruto ducks it and double swings his staffs at Roman who manages to back up just in time. Naruto configures his staffs into pistols and empties them on Roman making him back up more. Naruto puts his staffs on his back and brings out his kunai and starts swinging it. Roman keeps backing up, so Naruto throws the kunai. Roman deflects it but then Naruto is right up in his face and starts fighting hand to hand. Roman tries to block, but Naruto gets in some shots on Roman's kidneys. Roman is reeling from Naruto's deceptively strong shots to the point that Roman makes a desperate swing with his cane and Naruto manages to catch it. Roman's eyes widen from shock, and he starts to panic. "N-now hold on, let's talk about—"
Naruto interrupts him by dragging him forward and Naruto lands a full-on punch to Roman's face breaking his nose and knocking him unconscious. "Ha! I warned you!" Naruto shouted. Blake and Sun, who finished taking down the White Fang members, were standing there impressed.
"Gotta admit, I'm kinda embarrassed." Sun admits. "I couldn't land a hit on the guy and you just knocked him out cold."
Naruto is scratching the back of his head accepting the praise but also is a little embarrassed. "Well you know…I started training young."
Blake with her sword still out heads towards the unconscious Roman. "We need to keep him restrained until the police get here." She reaches to do just that when another hand smacks hers and kicks her away. "Ow! What was…?" They look to see a shorter girl with hair that's half pink and half brown, with white streaks on the pink side and has heterochromatic eyes. She is wearing a white cropped tailed jacket with a pink interior and brown pants with a dark belt and also a black and white spat styled under the knee boots alongside black gloves. Her weapon seems to be a parasol. The girl tries to shake Roman awake and then smacks him when that doesn't work.
Roman gets startled awake. "Ah! Dammit that hurt!" he then looks around and remembers what happened. "Should have known those animals wouldn't be any help." He gets up.
"I kicked your ass once and I'll do it again!" Naruto yells as he runs and swings his staff at Roman. But the girl blocks the swing. "What do you want?!" Naruto yells. The girl smirks and kicks Naruto back. Naruto isn't hurt but he's surprised. "She's small but she packs a punch." Naruto thinks to himself.
Blake runs in and Sun is close behind. Blake is about to strike Roman but the girl blocks the hit with her parasol. Sun goes to try and hit the girl, but she hops up and blocks it with her feet and throws both of them back.
Roman starts to laugh. "Neo here is a bit above your paygrade kiddos." Roman says mockingly.
The girl, now revealed to be Neo, walks up to Blake who is looking the most intensely. Black tries to attack her, but Neo almost effortlessly counters with her parasol and kicks Blake multiple times. Sun goes to stop her with a swing of his staff, but Neo ducks under the swing before she flips over Sun and kicks him into Blake. Neo then points her parasol at them mockingly, but Naruto grabs it. She then goes to knee Naruto in the face but Naruto guards up and throws her away. Neo lands on her feet with a smug smile.
"I'll deal with her. You guys get Roman!" Naruto tells his friends.
"You got it!" Sun responds.
"Thanks Naruto." Blake adds. Naruto rushes Neo with his twin staffs and starts swinging but Neo dodges and tries to kick him in the back. Naruto got one of his staffs in the way to block it. Naruto tries to kick out the leg Neo is standing on, but she does a leaping backflip. Naruto adds wind Dust to his Orange Spark and puts it back together before unleashing the shockwave. Neo jumps back to try and avoid it, but still gets hit a little bit making her go back faster than she was expecting. She just manages to get her feet up, so she hits the wall with her feet instead of her back. She then looks back at Naruto with a focused look as opposed to the smug smile she had before.
"This gonna be a really long night…" Naruto muttered to himself.
While Naruto is off dealing with Neo, Blake and Sun are dealing with Roman. Sun rushes again but this time knows Roman's skill and is more cautious. As cautious as someone wielding gun-chucks can be anyway. Roman is blocking everything Sun throws at him, but his head starts to throb from Naruto's punch causing him to slightly stagger. This stagger makes him get hit by one of Sun's swinging guns to the side of his head making him stumble.
"What's wrong? Feeling a little dizzy?!" Sun shouts as he kicks Roman back.
Roman falls to the ground where he shakes his head. "These damn kids are getting on my last nerves." As he gets back up his vision starts to stabilize as he fires the explosive shot from his cane. Sun dives out of the way and Blake rushes in this time. She swiftly strikes multiple times with her sword, all of which Roman blocks and he then swings his cane at Blake's leg. However, Blake uses her Semblance to create a shadow to take the attack allowing her to gain distance and fire her gun. Roman tries to deflect the shots and back off, but Sun smacks Roman in the back of the head with his staff.
Roman once again becomes disoriented and falls to a knee. "That stupid blonde kid…how hard did he hit me?" Roman asked, very annoyed and clearly concussed.
"I don't know why the White Fang decided to partner with you, but it ends today" Blake told him. "The White Fang has lost its way and it can't get back to what it was with a poison like you around." She then thinks to herself, "I knew you were spiteful Adam, but working with this guy? Is there anything you won't stoop to at this point?" Roman then takes out some kind of remote device. "What are trying to do with that?" Blake asks him, taking a defensive stance.
"This, kitty cat, is an insurance policy…" Roman informed her in an exhausted tone. He then presses the button and the sound of a door falling can be heard from one of the ships. Suddenly out comes a charging Ursa from the ship and attacks Sun.
"What the? Why were you keeping that in there?!" Sun shouts as he gains some distance to ready himself. The Ursa starts slashing at Sun with its claws but Sun dodges them and hits the Ursa in the left side, left shoulder and chest with his staff. He then looks over to see Blake struggling to deal with Roman by herself, so he activates his Semblance. He places his hands together and creates two glowing clones of himself. One starts fighting the Ursa while the other goes to try and help out Blake.
"Oh, for the love of…! How long am I going to have to deal with this?!" Roman shouts indignantly. The Sun clone attacks Roman with a series of kicks which Roman blocks, but Blake presses the attack and manages to slice Roman's arm open. Roman screams in pain and things are looking good for Blake and Sun. That changes however when the clone fighting the Ursa gets taken down. Ursa are large and powerful as far as Grimm go. Sun needs his weapon to take one down and unfortunately Sun's ability doesn't duplicate his weapon. Now Sun has to release his stance to defend from the Ursa making his other clone disappear. Blake is no longer getting overwhelmed by Roman because of his wounds. More ships start to arrive. However, one starts getting dragged out of the sky. Blake looks to see it's the odd girl with orange hair they ran into the other day.
"Caught you distracted kitty cat!" Roman says as he's about to blindside Blake. However, his attack is blocked by Ruby at the last second.
"Ruby?!" Blake exclaims, not expecting to see her teammate here.
Ruby knocks Roman back. "Hey Blake! Man, finding you was NOT easy."
Roman takes a deep breath before muttering "Oh, you gotta be kidding me…" He then addresses the new arrival. "Hey there Red, wasn't expecting to see you again. As you can see I'm kinda busy so why don't you buzz off?"
Ruby spins her Crescent Rose and places it in firing position. "Nope."
Roman is getting to a level beyond desperate, so he makes the call. "Okay kids, you want to stick around? Then enjoy the show!" He tosses the vial of bright blue Dust at the Ursa who ingests it.
Blake's eyes widen in fear. She then shouts at Roman, "Nooo! What were you thinking?!"
Ruby, who has no context of the situation, simply asks, "Blake? What's wrong?"
"Remember that mystery Dust we were looking for with Naruto?" Blake asks, leading Ruby along.
"Yeah." Ruby answers matter-of-factly. She then puts it together before saying "Wait, you don't mean-" She is then cut off by the sound of the Ursa's roar, sounding deeper and more viscous than any she's ever heard before. The Ursa's eyes change from yellow to the same color blue as the dust. The Ursa then starts to grow, with its claws extending and the tips glowing the color of the Dust.
With Blake, Sun, and Ruby distracted by the mutating Ursa, Roman manages to sneak away to one of the ships. He stumbles into the piolet seat completely exhausted. He then finally says "Today is not worth it…"
The Ursa let's out an even louder roar than before which attracts more Grimm to the area. Ruby then starts unloading her shots into the Ursa, which would normally be getting quite wounded from it. However, this Ursa isn't even flinching, in fact Ruby's rounds are simply bouncing off. "Oh no…" was all Ruby let out. Blake was legitimately scared. She's never seen a monster like this, none of them have.
Seeing Blake's fear, Sun ran right at the mutated Ursa. He swung his staff, but what happened next he never saw coming. The Ursa blocked the staff swing. Sun was stunned. Then he seen the Grimm's eyes meet his. "Oh cr—" Sun started to say, but he was cut off literally from the Grimm's claw swipe. The swipe had such force that in one swing the Grimm's claw swing busted right through Sun's Aura, making a nasty gash in Sun's chest, sent him flying into a container, and knocking him out cold.
"SUN!" Blake shouts out in concern. Her new friend that came and helped her was now unconscious and bleeding from one hit. The Ursa then stampeded towards Blake with speed greater than even a Beowolf.
"Blake move!" Ruby shouts as she tackles Blake out of the way. They just manage to avoid the hit as the Ursa busts through a shipping container. As they get up and see how easily the Ursa broke through the container, they are in shock. "Okay…we need to be careful. One hit might take us out…" Ruby says with concern in her voice.
Blake, unsure if they stand a chance, asks, "Do you think we could outrun it?"
"I don't know." Ruby answers. "But even if we do, that thing would go on a rampage. People will get hurt, probably die. We're training to be Huntresses; we can't let that happen."
Blake knew Ruby was right. Wherever they would run, there would be people who would end up being targets. As the Ursa turns to face them, Blake tells Ruby, "I'm sorry I got you into this…"
"Wha?" Ruby said in confusion. "How could you have gotten me into this? I didn't even know you were here until Penny and I heard the explosions." Ruby then looks over to see Penny dealing with the extra Grimm the Ursa attracted.
"But you only heard it because you were out looking for me." Blake retorted.
"Which is what teammates do!" Ruby shouted. "Now stop that, we're gonna make it out of this!" She shouts as she readies her scythe.
Blake takes a deep breath as she readies herself for the oncoming Ursa. "Right!" Blake readies her blade. Just then, the Ursa gets stopped in its tracks when its foot gets frozen. "Ice?" Blake says in a surprised tone. "Wait, is she here?" Blake asks as she looks around to see Weiss using her glyphs and ice Dust to pin the Ursa down.
Then, from on top of a building, Yang comes flying down and punches the Ursa full force in the jaw shouting, "You get away from them!"
"Weiss! Yang! You guys made it!" Ruby shouts in delight.
"How could we not? We can hear all the commotion on the other side of town." Weiss informs them.
"You guys okay?" Yang asks them.
"We're fine, but you need to get away from that thing!" Black shouts.
"What do you mean?" Yang asks and is almost immediately answered by the claw swipe she just barely manages to dodge. "Whoa, my punch didn't do anything to it?!" The Ursa then pulls its leg free from the ice.
"It did that so easily…" Weiss points out, surprised that the Ursa got out of her ice so quick.
"That things been enhanced by that special Dust we were looking for" Ruby informs them.
"One hit from that thing is enough to break through someone's Aura." Blake adds as she motions to Sun.
"Yeesh…he's not looking too good." Yang comments.
"This is going to take all of us acting like a real team, okay guys?" Ruby says to her teammates. Weiss looks at Blake as Blake looks back. Ruby then shouts, "Well?!"
"We got it." Weiss says as they face off with the Ursa.
Meanwhile Naruto had pursued Neo and began fighting her. He is doing better than the others could have managed but he is still struggling. Neo has landed a number of hits. While they haven't done too much damage to Naruto, he has yet to land any hits of his own.
Naruto throws multiple scissors kicks at Neo but she manages to weave around them and hooks his foot with her parasol and throws him. Naruto manages to flip over and land on his feet. "Dammit! I can't hit her!" he shouts out loud to which Neo gains a cocky smirk.
"In terms of pure skill, I think even Guy would have trouble with her." Kurama comments to Naruto.
Naruto then approaches Neo cautiously hoping to catch her off guard. Seeing this, Neo just starts walking in a circle around him trying to make Naruto feel cornered. Naruto feels offended at this, so he switches his Orange Spark to dual staff mode and swings one of them at her. She side steps to the right to dodge and gets in closer thinking she has gotten past Naruto's reach and swings her parasol at his head. However, Naruto with his left hand puts the other staff on the right side of his head in order to block the hit.
Neo was surprised by this, but she isn't thrown off enough for her to not press the attack as she grabs Naruto's arm. Naruto expected her to try and throw him and prepared himself for that. Instead, however she throws her own body over the back of his shoulders and then does a leg scissors throw on his head. Naruto crashes into one of the building walls around them making his head whiplash against the stone. His Aura blunts the blow, but it still hurt. Naruto muttered, "Ah…that hurt. I've never experienced a fighting style like hers before."
"Of course not. Back in our world martial arts was focused on crushing bones with great physical strength. The Hyuga were the exception. But this girl's style seems more focused on wearing you out." Kurama notes.
"She's gonna be waiting a long time, ya know!" Naruto shouts as he rushes towards Neo again. Naruto is confident in his ability to outlast others with his inhuman levels of stamina. He starts rapidly attacking Neo with swings from his staff and a few kicks. None of these hit Neo, but she is noticing that Naruto isn't slowing down at all and that gives her concern. She then counters one of his swings with her parasol and throws a rising elbow at Naruto's face. He moves his head in time and tries to kick out Neo's legs, but she hops over them and goes for another leg scissors throw. This time Naruto grabs her by her left leg. "Not this time!" He shouts as he throws her against the wall to the warehouse district they are fighting just outside of. Unfortunately, Neo flips midair and hops off the wall landing casually.
Naruto then switches his staff back to its normal mode before configuring it into a rifle and shooting at her. Neo is dodging the bullets with relative ease until Naruto empties the clip. As he adds another clip, Neo full sprints towards him and swings her parasol before following up with backwards flipping bicycle kick. Naruto blocks the swing with his weapon, but the bicycle kick knocks the Orange Spark out of his hands. "Oh you little…!" Naruto shouts indignantly as Neo starts throwing attack after attack which Naruto has to block. He jumps back for some distance and is stanced up.
Neo continues to press the attack with quick kicks and another attempted grapple. Naruto dodges all the kicks and outmuscles Neo when she tries to grapple him. He then is about to throw her down when Neo manages to kick Naruto in the head forcing him to release her. She lands on her feet and does a flying kick at Naruto which he guards against. That's when Naruto hears screaming coming from the warehouse district. "What was that? It sounded like Ruby!" This caused Naruto to get distracted due to his concern. Neo then lands three kicks and then throws Naruto down before hitting him dead on with her parasol. Naruto has the wind knocked out of him from the onslaught. He goes to grab her before she kicks Naruto's hand away and then kicks him into a wall again.
"Naruto get yourself together!" Kurama shouts to his friend. "Your friends can handle themselves, you need to stay focused!"
Naruto starts catching his breath and closes his eyes to calm down. "You're right Kurama, thanks." He says internally to the fox. While doing this, Naruto recalls his sage training. Staying perfectly still to become one with nature. He is now applying the same tactic to keep himself calm. However, something starts to change. Naruto can now sense where Neo is. His eyes are shut but he can tell exactly how far away from him she is and even her stance. "This…this can't be right. Am I sensing her?" He quietly questions to himself and then he thinks, "Not just her. I can sense my surroundings as well. It's just like Sage Mode…wait, is this…?"
"Kid, I think you just unlocked your Semblance." Kurama comments to Naruto.
Naruto opens his eyes and squats down near a puddle to look at his reflection. He doesn't have the outline around his eyes nor are his eyes yellow like in his normal Sage mode. The only difference is that there seems to be a flow in his eyes. However, that doesn't change the all too familiar feeling he has with this power. It would need more testing to be sure, but this could be considered an Aura Sage Mode.
Neo is just standing there staring at Naruto who seems to be paying her no mind. She decides to take advantage of his distraction and swing her parasol. Naruto without even bothering to move from his spot catches her parasol mid swing. Neo's eyes go wide from shock. "How could he have caught the swing?" she was probably thinking to herself. She then goes to kick Naruto in the face, but he catches her foot too and just stands up before he throws her away. Neo couldn't believe it. "Was this the same guy I was just beating down?" She likely thought to herself.
Naruto walked over to his Orange Spark and began to pick it up. That was when Neo ran at him making the blade protrude from her parasol. She went to stab the arm Naruto was using to grab Orange Spark. However, he reached that same arm back and grabbed the parasol with his other arm. Neo then tried to pull her weapon free but could tell there was no chance of that. She knew Naruto was physically stronger but now she knew it was by a good margin. Naruto then looked at the fist that wasn't grabbing the parasol, now revealed to be a hush, and then said out loud, "Let's see if I can do it with this Sage Mode too." Naruto then punched at Neo who managed to weave out of the way. However, despite dodging, she feels a major impact on her jaw, and she goes rapidly flying through the wall of a building.
Neo was just shy of being knocked out cold even with her Aura. She then began to slowly get up and saw Naruto walking towards her. She was looking back at him with actual fear in her eyes. Not only was she no longer able to get the better of him hand to hand, but somehow his hits land even when she dodged them. However, it was then that she seen Roman flying away and she knew that she was good to leave as well. Then she stood up and activated her Semblance while taunting Naruto to attack. Naruto did so and the image of her shattered. "What?!" Naruto shouted out loud.
"You relied on your eyes again instead of sensing her, didn't you?" Kurama inquired.
"Yeah…" Naruto answered in turn. "It's been months since I sensed anything. I'm not used to relying on that instead of my eyes anymore."
"Then we'll have to work on that." Kurama commented. "Still, you got your Semblance and it quickly proved too much for her. That's a good sign."
Naruto smirks now that he has a familiar power to call on when he needs it. However, his smile quickly ends when he recalls the scream he heard earlier. "Everyone please be okay!" He shouts as he runs to go check on his friends.
We return to where we left off before with Team RWBY standing off with the now enhanced Ursa. "This thing looks mean, but it's nothing we can't handle." Weiss states before she rushes in.
"Wait!" Ruby shouts to no avail.
Weiss stabs at the Ursa with her rapier but the Ursa parries it with a claw swipe and the Ursa's superior strength knocks Weiss off the ground. "That's not possible!" Weiss shouts in disbelief. She has never been parried by a Grimm before.
Yang then catches Weiss before she hits one of the shipping containers. "Easy there, princess" Yang says to Weiss. "Like Ruby said, this thing's different."
Weiss gives Yang an annoyed look. "Don't you start calling me princess too…"
"Come on Weiss, we need to be a team to beat this thing!" Ruby shouts to Weiss.
"Okay okay I get it!" Weiss yells in turn. "I figured since that annoying loudmouth could beat one of these things on his own I would too."
"Well yeah but remember it was just an enhanced Beowolf he fought, and it nearly killed him." Yang retorted. "And we all know a normal Ursa is more dangerous than a normal Beowolf."
It was then that the Ursa charged at them like a raging bull with greatly enhanced speed. Upon seeing this, Ruby shouted, "Everybody scatter!" Hearing this they all do so making the Ursa have to pick a target. It chose Blake having known her scent the longest. Blake, seeing she was the beast's target, readied herself. Ruby then yelled to Weiss, "Weiss, can you freeze that thing's legs again?!"
"Definitely" was Weiss' response. She stuck her rapier in the ground and started freezing the ground along a path to the Ursa. While this was happening, the Ursa closed in on Blake and swiped with its claw. Blake used her Semblance to leave a copy to take the hit and as soon as the Ursa hit the copy its legs were frozen in place. Ruby then shot herself forward with the recoil of her sniper and cut the Ursa. Unfortunately, the cut was superficial, and the Ursa didn't even flinch and was able to slash Ruby's leg as she was going by. Even with her Aura the pain was severe, and she yelled out in pain.
This caused Yang to be filled with intense anger. "How dare you!" she shouted as she rushed the Usra in a reckless rage. She began assaulting the Ursa with rapid fire punches with her Ember Celica. The Ursa was taking some damage but not enough as it broke free of the ice. It swung its claw at Yang and Yang blocked the swipe, but it was too much force, so she got knocked into one of the shipping containers. The Ursa then charges at her. Yang comes to in time to dive out of the way as the Ursa busts through the container as if it were made of paper. "Dang, that could have been me…" Yang says a little shook.
Blake then helps Yang up and says, "I've never seen anything like this."
"That makes two of us." Yang replies. Ruby and Weiss then join them.
Ruby says, "I think we need to rely on hit and run tactics."
"I don't like it but I'm in agreement." Weiss adds.
"We'll go in pairs." Ruby further adds. "First me and Weiss, then Yang and Blake, and then we'll switch it up from there."
"How will we coordinate that?" Blake inquires as the Ursa charges again.
"We won't be able to!" Ruby yells. "We'll just have to wing it! Come on Weiss!" She then runs at the Ursa.
"This better work." Weiss says following Ruby. Ruby then swings just short of the Ursa so the Ursa's swing doesn't reach her and she uses the recoil of her sniper shot to go into the air. While the Ursa is watching Ruby, Weiss injects gravity Dust into her rapier and places a gravity glyph under the Ursa slowing it down. She then cuts him and runs off. The Ursa is now distracted by Weiss and slowed down thanks to the glyph.
"My turn!" Ruby yells as she shoots herself back down and cuts into the side of the Ursa's neck and this cut is deeper than her last one. She then fires one more time getting herself out of harms way before the Ursa lands another swipe. Yang then rushes forward holding onto the ribbon around Blake's blade. She punches the Ursa twice in the gut and then jumps back before she can get swiped. However, she also yanks on the ribbon launching Blake forward who lands a slash on the Ursa's eye as she goes past it.
Weiss then dashes in and stabs the Ursa, but the blade didn't go all the way through. As the Ursa is about to grab Weiss, Yang comes in from the Ursa's new blind spot and punches the Ursa in the jaw allowing Weiss to get out of harm's way. Ruby is firing her sniper on the Ursa's blind side while Blake is firing from the other side. When the Ursa turns to face Blake, Ruby uses her Semblance to go to the Ursa at high speed and then slashes its leg. As the Ursa reels from this, Blake comes in and slashes the other leg.
Ruby and Yang are now on one side of the beast and Blake and Weiss are on the other. As the Ursa is reeling from the attacks all four close in. Then they all feel a lump in their throat as the Ursa roars and slams down shattering the glyph and creating a shockwave that knocks them all down. The Ursa now looks rabid with its new power and lunges even faster than before at Weiss and lands a swipe that leaves a mean gash on her leg. "Weiss!" Ruby shouts but has no time to react as the Ursa lands swipes on all of them. At this point they are all having trouble maintaining their Auras and even then their Auras cannot completely blunt these attacks. Ruby has a wound on her left arm, Blake has one on her lower torso, and Yang has one on her head.
"This could be going a lot better…" Yang says getting up. The others start rising to their feet too as the Ursa lets out another menacing roar. "So, what do we do now?"
"Take a look." Ruby told them. "The wounds we gave him are still there."
"That should mean we can take him down." Weiss added.
"Yang, how's your Aura holding up?" Ruby asks her sister.
"I can handle maybe one more hit" Yang answered. "Any after that and it's probably gone."
"One more…okay I got a plan!" Ruby tells them.
As they discuss it Weiss shouts, "That's crazy!"
"I'm up for it!" Yang adds.
"I don't have any alternatives." Blake further adds.
Weiss then sighs and says, "How did I end up in this situation?
"Let's go Team RWBY!" Ruby shouts to them. Yang hangs back as the other three surround the Ursa. "We have to wear this thing down as much as possible!"
"Get ready! It's about to rampage again!" Weiss yells as the Ursa roars and then dashes towards her. Weiss jumps back as Ruby uses her Semblance again to close the distance on the Ursa and slashes at its back. However, this time it blocked with its claws.
"What?! How did that just happen?!" Ruby shouts with a mix of indignance and fear.
"Is this thing learning?" Blake asks.
"Oh that's just great!" Weiss shouts as she makes a line of glyphs to increase Ruby's speed as she retreats from the Ursa who stays in hot pursuit. Ruby then gets behind Blake who uses her Semblance to have her copy take the attack again. However, once again having learned from before, the Ursa continues swiping to get the real Blake. Blake guards up but Ruby hops over her and as the Ursa attacks Blake, Ruby slashes the Ursa's remaining eye completely blinding it and it only manages to graze Blake. Weiss then uses the last of her Aura and gravity Dust to lock down the Ursa in another gravity glyph. Blinded and slowed down, the Ursa struggles to attack. Ruby slashes into the Ursa's shoulder to open a wound and then Blake shoves her blade in that same wound making the Ursa unable to properly move that arm.
"Yang, NOW!" Ruby shouts to her sister who comes running as the others back off. The Ursa smells her coming and swings with everything it has. Yang takes the hit and is in some real pain, but her Aura is still in tact and she's absorbed more damage to unleash with her Semblance.
As the Ursa let's out another roar, Yang uses her Semblance and shouts, "That's enough out of you!" With one last punch Yang sends the Ursa crashing through multiple shipping containers and one of the warehouses.
"Did…did we get it?" Blake asks in desperation. That was when the Ursa stumbled out of the warehouse hobbling unable to see where it is and barley able to move.
"Come on team…one last push!" Ruby yells as all four of them run at the Ursa at once and strike simultaneously. The Ursa drops down and starts to vanish. "WE DID IT!" Ruby shouts in a combination of excitement and relief. Once the Ursa completely disappears, she sees a stream of blue floating away. She puts her hand in it and it absorbs into her hand.
"That's the stuff that turned it into that thing…" Blake says at the point of exhaustion. All four of them either sit or lay down.
A minute or two later, Naruto comes running in and sees all the damage caused. "They tore this place up…" He then sees them all sitting over by some crates. "There you guys are!"
"What's he doing here?" Weiss asked.
"I could ask you the same princess." Naruto responded.
"He found me earlier watching this place with Sun and he decided to help me." Blake answered him.
"Wait, you found her and didn't tell us?!" Yang shouted with indignation.
"Well, if I left to tell you guys she might have left!" Naruto responded.
"That's…fair." Yang responded.
"So then where were you?" Weiss asked. "We could have used your help!"
"I was dealing with the multi color-haired girl!" Naruto answered.
"Who?" Ruby inquired.
"Well first Naruto took down Roman single handed. Then after that…" Blake answered.
Naruto looks around and sees Sun out cold with his gash. "Oh crap! Sun!" Naruto runs over to him.
"On no that's right!" Blake runs over as well.
As Naruto and Blake help up Sun, Weiss says to Blake, "So you were with him?" It was then that Blake remembered that the reason they were all there was because she ran away.
Blake then says, "Weiss, I want you to know that I'm no longer associated with the White Fang. Back when I was with—"
Weiss then cuts her off saying. "Stop." Blake was surprised but she did. Weiss then continues, "After searching for you and what we just went through I decided I really don't care."
"You don't care?" Blake inquired.
"You said you're not one of them anymore, right?" Weiss asked in kind.
"No, I-I haven't been since—" Blake started to answer before being cut off again.
"Upupup, I don't wanna hear it." Weiss interrupted. "All I want to know, is the next time something this big comes up you'll come to your teammates. And not…someone else." She said looking at Sun
Blake wipes a tear and responds, "Of course."
Naruto then sets Sun down. "So, what happened after I went to fight that girl?"
"Oh right, I should probably finish explaining." Blake said before she explained to her team about Roman and the White Fang, the fight that ensued, the arrival of Neo, and then the blue Dust.
"The Ursa got the Dust?" Naruto responded. "That explains the damage. Are you guys okay?"
"We're roughed up, but we'll be fine." Ruby answered.
"Speak for yourself." Weiss retorted. "I'm going to need 3 days of rest after this." They all started laughing until the cops showed up.
"Awww…I don't want to do this" Naruto said.
Cameras on multiple buildings caught all the action with the Ursa and the feed is going to Ozpin's scroll. Before Ozpin only had Naruto's story to go off of about this mysterious new Dust and its effect on the Grimm. But now there was no denying it, he just witnessed definitive proof of this Dust. "This is worse than I even thought to imagine" Ozpin said to himself. He then put down his scroll and looked out the window. As he continues to stare out, Glynda walks in the room with some paperwork.
"Just a few more forms to fill out for the tournament." Glynda informed him. She saw his concerned look in the window which now made her concerned. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing I say will be able to convey the dread I feel right now." Ozpin answered. "Watch the latest feed on my scroll and it will be made clear."
Glynda did just that and soon her look of curiosity turned to one of horror as she seen the phenomenon Naruto described is now undeniable and worse, it's in the hands of criminals. "This…this is unprecedented. What should our next move be?"
Ozpin stood there for a minute to think and then he decided. "We're recalling Qrow" he announced.
"Are you sure?" She responded. "We haven't had contact with him in a while."
Then, almost as if by the hand of fate Ozpin received a text from Qrow saying "Queen has Pawns." To which Ozpin texted him back, "It's time to return. Things have changed." Ozpin then puts his scroll down and thinks to himself, "I don't know how you've done this, but you're the only one in this world that could even begin to accomplish something like this. Salem, what have you done?"
After giving their story to the police, Naruto, Team RWBY, and Sun are waiting for the go ahead to head home. Ruby was looking around to see if she can find where Penny went but to no avail.
"So how did it go with that girl?" Blake asked to Naruto.
"It was tough." Naruto answered. "She didn't do too much damage, but I couldn't land a hit."
"It was true!" Sun shouted. "She kicked my butt and Blakes's at the same time."
"Am I really supposed to believe that?" Weiss questioned. "And I'm still not quite sure how I feel about you!" Sun gave a nervous laugh.
"He isn't lying though." Blake answered. "We couldn't do anything against her."
"I heard Ruby scream and I got distracted." Naruto continued. "That's when that girl really started whooping me."
Ruby hears this and says, "Sorry about that!"
"After that I calmed down and that's when it happened." Naruto said teasing a cliffhanger.
"When what happened?" Yang asked. "Don't leave us hanging!"
"I unlocked my Semblance." Naruto answered.
Hearing this, Ruby rushed back over yelling, "You finally got it?!"
"Wait, you didn't even have a Semblance?" Weiss asked in disbelief.
"Nope" Naruto answered matter-of-factly.
"Wow, that's hard to believe" Yang responded.
"I was embarrassed about it, that's why Ruby was the only one I told." Naruto added.
"So what is it?!" Ruby asked in her usual overcurious way. Naruto then closed his eyes and after a few seconds entered his Aura Sage Mode. He then opened his eyes and the others saw the flow in his eyes and since his eyes are blue it looked like flowing water.
"That's it?" Weiss asked in her confident tone. "An eye change?"
"Hang on there, my eyes change when I use my Semblance but that's just a visual effect." Yang interjected. "I'm sure there's more to it."
Naruto then smirked and said, "There's six people walking by that wall. Two teenage guys, a middle-aged man, two kids, and a cop who's telling them to move along."
"There's no way…" Weiss said thinking he's bluffing.
Sun then looked and said "Whoa, he's spot on!" The others then went to look and sure enough it's just as Naruto said.
"That's so cool!" Ruby said. "So your power let's you know what's around you?"
"Kind of." Naruto answered. "I can sense everything in a certain radius giving me supreme battlefield awareness. I can even sense your movements while it's happening which let's me react to it quicker."
"That sounds kind of unfair." Sun retorted.
"Well it takes getting used to." Naruto responded. "A 6th sense is harder to trust than the senses you've had your whole life."
"I guess that makes sense." Sun responded.
"Does it do anything else?" Ruby said wanting to know everything.
"Yes" Naruto answered. "But I'm not telling you yet." Naruto then got a cheeky grin.
"Oh come on!" Ruby says disappointed. Yang snickers at the interaction.
Blake walks up to one of the officers and asks, "How much longer are we going to be stuck here?"
The officer responds. "You should be free to go, we have all we need." Blake watches as members of the White Fang are being taken away in squad cars and she can't help but feel sad at low the group she used to be a passionate member of has sunk to.
"Hey Blake!" Ruby shouts to her. "What did they say?"
As Blake turns around, she is reassured that the new group of people she calls her friends are more than a capable replacement. "They said we can go."
"Finally…" Weiss let's out.
"I think we still gotta walk home though…" Naruto lets out. None of the group is thrilled to hear that but they start walking, nonetheless.
As the group makes it back to Beacon, they all breathe a sigh of relief.
"The dorms…they're right there…" Weiss lets out.
"Home!" Naruto shouts and begins to head there when…
"Where do you all think you're going?!" They all look to see Glynda standing there looking furious and Ozpin with a look that could be called hidden empathy.
"You kids are in a heap of trouble!" Glynda continues to lecture. "You were out well past curfew and you got involved with an illegal incident that destroyed the whole warehouse district!"
"Oh come on…" Naruto let out. Weiss just drops to her knees in defeat while the others just look sad.
"Come now Glynda." Ozpin interjects trying to reason with her. "These children have been through enough. Just look at them." He motions to their wounds.
"We can't just let this go." Glynda responds.
"We aren't letting anything go." Ozpin informs her. "We just won't be making their night any harder." He then looks at the group except Sun who said goodbye to them once they got to Beacon. "I expect a ten-page essay from each of you at the end of the week detailing the incident and why none of you should have been there." He takes a sip out of his mug before walking away and saying, "I suggest you all go get some rest."
The group of five head back to the dorms. Team RWBY fall asleep instantly when they get to their beds. Naruto got back to his room and laid on his bed thinking about all that transpired. "Hey Kurama?"
"What is it?" Kurama replied.
"If what Blake said is true, doesn't that mean that crazy Dust is already in the hands of people who know how to use it?" Naruto inquired.
"It sure seems that way." Kurama answered. "And that means that they likely know more about it than we do. Perhaps even where it came from."
"Dammit…" was Naruto's only response.
"Worry about it later kid." Kurama told him. "Don't forget that you and that team of girls used up your weekend and have classes tomorrow."
There's a silence before Naruto exclaims, "That's not fair, ya know!"
Chapter End
AN: I'm sure plenty of you will be mad that I made Naruto's Semblance Aura Sage Mode. I doubt my explanation will satisfy you but here it is. First off, if I made it Shadow Clones that would basically make Sun's pointless. However, my main reason is that Sage Mode has become synonymous with Naruto's power system. Ever since he got Sage Mode, it's been tied to all his power ups since (except Baryon Mode). When he gained the Nine Tails Chakra how did he augment it further? Merging it with Sage Mode. When his first stage Chakra mode failed him against the third Raikage, what let him win? Sage Mode. What was his power up after that? He was given the ultimate Sage Mode. Sage Mode is the core to his power set, so it made sense to me to have that be his Semblance especially when it's something no one else has. So that's my explanation, take it or leave it. No idea when I'll complete Chapter 10 since I'm not going for Volume 2 events for at least another chapter. Have a good one everybody, keep your imaginations going.