Remnant of a Shinobi

by AuraofChakra

During the final battle between Naruto and Sasuke, things don't go so smoothly. Sent off to another world, Naruto is ready for a new adventure. What awaits him in this new world where people not only have to deal with each other, but a race of creatures that solely exist to destroy humanity?

16. Chapter 16 - It Begins

Chapter 16 – It Begins

It has been a week since the majority of students went home for a week. Today is the day everyone is to return to Beacon. Ruby is currently standing in front of a grave a little ways from her home. It is the grave of her mother, Summer Rose. Ruby is filling her mother in about how things have been going at Beacon.

"Hey, mom. Sorry I haven't come by in a while. Things have been...well, things have been pretty busy. Oh, Dad's here, too! He's, uh, you know...Dad" Ruby states. She shrugs when talking about her dad and then continues, "He's still teaching at Signal. But he told me that he's going to be on some mission soon. I think he misses adventuring with you." Ruby then has a somewhat lonely look on her face as she says, "I miss you too." She then pauses to perk herself back up as she says, "Haven't gotten kicked out of Beacon yet! So that's cool. I think being on a team with Yang helps. Keep her in line...that was a joke. She's actually a really great fighter! You can tell she's learned a lot from Dad! Oh, so are Weiss and Blake. Oh! They're my teammates! Together, we form Team RWBY! And yes, before you ask, that does cause a lot of confusion. Anyways, I made a bunch of new friends, not just the ones on my team! Some of them are even upper classmen like Team CFVY. But the closest ones are definitely Team JNPR. Pyrrha's so experienced despite being the same age as Yang. Ren's kinda quiet, but I guess he has to be to balance out Nora who's even more excitable than I am. Jaune's the leader of the team even though he has the least experience out of all of them. It's kinda weird that Ozpin made the greenest people leaders of their teams…well at least that's how it is for my team and Jaune's. But we've really come into our own!"

Ruby then remembers there is still one more friend she has not spoken of yet. "Oh, and there's one other friend I have to mention. There's a boy named Naruto who might be my closest friend, teammates included. He's actually the first friend I made at Beacon. He stood up for me when I was being picked on and he's the first person to try and cheer me up when I'm sad. He's kinda become like a big brother, which is good because…" Ruby then looks over at her dad over by the tree and decides to whisper the next part to the grave. "Yang is totally into him! You can tell because she gets flustered when people bring it up. It's actually kind of adorable…" Taiyang notices Ruby whispering and decides to get closer to try and hear. Ruby then says, "But don't worry about me, I'm not interested in anyone yet."

"Well that's a relief to hear…" Taiyang mutters to himself as he approaches. Zwei then barks alerting Ruby to his approach.

"It's been a good talk mom" Ruby says to the grave as she runs over to Taiyang.

"Did you say everything you needed to?" Taiyang asks Ruby.

Ruby thinks for a moment before shouting over to the grave, "Just you watch mom! Team RWBY's winning that tournament!"

Taiyang smiles as he, Zwei, and Ruby head back to their house to make sure Ruby and Yang have everything they need to head back to Beacon. As they enter the house, Yang is waiting on the couch. Taiyang then asks Ruby and Yang, "There anything you two forgot?"

Yang stands up from the couch before grabbing her bag and responding, "Nope, good to go."

"Me too!" Ruby also responds.

"Alright then, come on!" Taiyang tells them as he goes and drops them off at Beacon.

---

Ruby and Yang have been dropped off at Beacon's entrance. Taiyang says to them, "Now you girls take good care of yourselves. Me and Zwei will be cheering you on at home!" He then starts driving off.

"We'll miss you!" Ruby shouts as Yang waves him off. Once Taiyang has driven off, Ruby looks at Yang and asks, "So? Did you make a decision when it comes to Naruto?"

"I thought about it a lot over the past week and every time I think I've made up my mind I get second thoughts…" Yang answers.

"Second thoughts about what?" Ruby asks. "All our friends can tell you have a thing for him, and I can tell you've shown more interest in him than anybody you've ever met."

As Yang and Ruby start walking further into the school, Yang admits, "I keep wondering if us getting together would change him. Then all of a sudden, the guy I like might stop being what made me like him in the first place."

"Oh, come on. Naruto's still gonna be Naruto!" Ruby tells her sister.

Yang just smirks and says, "Thanks Ruby." They then come upon Blake and Weiss chatting in the courtyard.

"Weiss! Blake!" Ruby shouts over to them.

"We were wondering when you would show up" Weiss tells Yang and Ruby.

"It's good to see you guys" Blake tells them all.

"Team RWBY is back everyone!" Ruby shouts excitedly

"And no one's ready!" Yang exclaims. Blake and Weiss smirk.

"So how was your week?" Ruby asks Blake and Weiss.

"It was alright…but I'm glad to be back at Beacon" Weiss answers, obviously not wanting to elaborate.

"My week was quieter than expected" Blake answers. "I spent some time hanging around Team SSSN and learned more about them. There were a lot less incidents involving Nora and Naruto than I expected."

Yang, Ruby, and Weiss are all surprised to hear that with Weiss saying, "You're joking."

"Well, Nora did almost get into a fight with a visiting team and had to be held back…" Blake admits.

"What hap—" Ruby starts to ask before she gets interrupted by an approaching voice that asks, "What happened?"

The approaching voice was Pyrrha who is walking with Jaune. Jaune then tells Team RWBY, "We both just got back and were heading for the dorms when we heard Nora get mentioned."

"So, Ren, Nora, Naruto, and myself were hanging out and Nora wanted pancakes" Blake starts to tell them. "Ren went to go make some but discovered they were out of batter."

"Nora must have been distraught…" Pyrrha comments. Blake nods to confirm and then continues her recount.

---

It is the day of the incident of which Blake is recounting as Nora shouts, "What do you mean we're out of batter?!"

"It's just as I said" Ren reiterated.

"Is it really that big of a deal?" Blake asks. Nora then gives Blake a look as if to convey that the question itself was offensive. Blake upon seeing this look gets wide-eyed and a little scared. Ren is about to say he will go buy more, but…

"None of us really have plans so why can't we make a store run?" Naruto asks.

"I was planning to go myself, but I wouldn't mind the company" Ren states.

Nora then jumps up and shouts, "Okay! Time for Team NNBR's first assignment!"

After a few seconds of silence, Blake asks, "Did you just make a team name for us going to the store?"

"Of course I did!" Nora responds as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

After he laughs, Naruto asks Nora, "So, which one of us is the front N?" This causes Nora to go quiet, so she can think.

Ren thinks to himself, "I can't believe that made her actually go quiet." They then head to the store.

Once they arrive at the store, Naruto tells them all, "Let's all look around and then meet up at the snacks isle." They all then split up with Naruto himself looking at all the different instant ramen packages. He then forced himself to look away.

"I swear you have soup in your veins instead of blood" Kurama says mockingly.

"Oh, shut up! My addiction's not that bad!" Naruto internally responds.

"You just had to force yourself to not look at the Ramen" Kurama responds.

Naruto cannot think of a retort, so he heads to another isle and grabs some different syrups before heading to the snack isle. He looks at all the different chips and thinks to himself, "Choji would lose his mind…"

Blake is at the refrigerated section pretending to look at the butter. However, she is actually looking at all the fish. Ren is grabbing the pancake batter and also grabs some waffle batter for emergencies. And of course, Nora wants everything. They then all meet at the snack isle and check out before leaving the store. On their way home, they see Team CRDL chatting with a visiting team. Blake then asks her friends, "Who would associate with those jerks?"

"We should just keep moving" Ren advises. They do just that. As this is happening, Cardin spots Naruto and sweats a little.

The leader of the visiting team notices Cardin sweat. He is of a similar height and build to Cardin and has similar looking armor, but has longer dark brown hair. The visiting leader then asks Cardin, "Why are you sweating?"

"Don't worry about it…" Cardin responds. The leader of the visiting team then looks over and spots NNBR walking away. He decides to walk over to confront them. Seeing this, Cardin shouts, "Don't do it!"

The other leader ignores him and taps Ren on the shoulder asking, "Okay who are you all supposed to be?"

With a hint of annoyance in her voice, Blake tells him, "It's common courtesy to introduce yourself first."

Now annoyed himself, the visiting leader responds, "The name's Faldin Winchester."

"Winchester? You related to Cardin?" Naruto asks.

"We're cousins" Faldin explains. Naruto and Blake then look at each other with faces that say, 'now it adds up.' Faldin then says, "My cousin seems intimidated by you guys."

Naruto then looks over to where Cardin is, and Cardin hides his face. Naruto then looks back at Faldin and asks, "What about it?"

"I'm gonna show him there's nothing to be scared of with you chumps" Faldin answers.

"We're just trying to head home with our groceries" Ren tells Faldin, making it clear they do not want any trouble.

Faldin then looks at their grocery bags and asks, "What are you guys making?"

"Pancakes: Gift from the gods!" Nora proudly exclaims. Faldin then laughs in their face which gets on Nora's nerves.

Blake looks the laughing Faldin and back at the annoyed Nora before saying, "I don't like where this is going…" Naruto, seeing the same thing is trying to think of a way out of this situation when…

Ren looks past Faldin and says, "Hello officer."

"Wha?" Faldin turns around to look but there is no one there. He then turns back to see NNBR have already walked down the street. Feeling humiliated, he looks to his team and shouts, "Come on guys!" He and his team then ran after NNBR. As they catch up, they smack the bag out of Naruto's hands, which held the syrup, as well as the bag out of Ren's hands which held the batter. The pancake batter then gets run over by a car.

Naruto is about to yell at them when he, Blake, and Ren feel the wrath building in Nora as she smacks two members of Faldin's team out of the way and tackles Faldin to the ground. Ren tries to get Nora off of Faldin but cannot so Naruto helps him before Nora can put Faldin in the hospital. Nora keeps trying to get free, but Naruto has a good grip on her.

As Faldin gets back up, he shouts, "Keep the ugly psycho back!"

This time it is Ren who gets mad and tells Faldin in a stern voice, "Take that back."

"What? No!" Faldin responds indignantly.

While struggling to keep Nora held back, Naruto tells Faldin, "Nora here just busted through your teammates and was about to punch your lights out!" Nora then almost escapes before Naruto manages to pull her back. "I guarantee I can kick all your asses by myself, you'd never be able to touch Blake before she slapped you silly, and I got no idea what an angry Ren is capable of. Do yourself a favor and save it for the tournament!"

Faldin looks at all of them and swallows his pride for now and walks away, but not before shouting, "You're all gonna regret this!" Once they have walked away, Naruto finally lets Nora go.

"I'm surprised you just tried to avoid a fight" Blake comments to Naruto.

"I didn't want there to be an excuse to get Team RWBY or JNPR disqualified" Naruto informs them.

"You really think they would do that over this?" Blake asks.

"They might" Naruto answers. "The only thing the officials would have to go on is that they're all beaten up while we're unscathed."

"That's a good point" Blake admits.

Now that Faldin is gone, Ren is no longer angry and says, "Thanks Naruto."

"We put in too much work in for you guys to get eliminated by a technicality" Naruto states. Nora of course is still angry. After all, her chances at pancakes just got ruined and she was just called ugly.

However, Ren looks down and picks up the waffle batter box and says, "It's still intact." This makes Nora perk back up.

---

We return to the present where Blake finishes the story saying, "So, then we headed back and had waffles."

Jaune and Pyrrha laugh before Jaune says, "At least it ended well."

"I almost wish we stayed for that" Ruby comments.

"I guess we need to thank Naruto" Weiss states. The rest of them stare at her. Weiss then explains, "We might have been eliminated from the tournament if he didn't hold Nora back."

"Speaking of Nora, Jaune and I should probably go find her and Ren." Her and Jaune then wave off Team RWBY as they leave.

"We should get back to our room and unpack" Ruby states.

"That won't take long. What should we do after that?" Yang asks.

"Well, I know what YOU should do" Ruby tells her sister.

Yang gives Ruby a glare before she sighs and says, "No, you're right…" Weiss and Blake look confused until Ruby mouths "Naruto." Weiss and Blake then nod in understanding.

"I know you're talking about me!" Yang yells out. Ruby, Weiss, and Blake then ran away. She then calms down before saying to herself, "Here we go…" She then heads off to find Naruto by first checking his dorm room. She knocks on the door.

Naruto opens the door and is surprised to see her. He greets her saying, "Hey Yang! You guys are back huh?"

"Hey Whiskers…can I come in?" Yang asks.

"Oh, uh, sure" Naruto says before stepping out of the way.

Yang then steps in and looks around before making small talk saying, "It's a lot more normal than I expected."

Trying to think of an excuse, Naruto tells her, "I don't spend that much time in here when I'm not asleep, so I didn't bother decorating, ya know?"

Yang shrugs before she notices the headband pinned to the wall and remembers him wearing it during initiation. She then asks, "So what's the deal with the headband?"

"It's the headband of my village" Naruto informs her. "Even though it's gone, wearing it still gives me confidence."

"Really? Then why haven't I seen you wear it since initiation?" Yang asks curiously.

"I haven't needed the confidence boost…although I could have really used it when I asked you to the dance, ya know" Naruto answers.

Deciding that is a good spot to address things, Yang tells him, "I actually wanted to talk to you about that."

"About the dance?" Naruto asked confused.

"Yeah" Yang says as she walks toward the window. "I had a great time that night and it wasn't just about what I was doing, it was just as much about who I was with."

Hearing that, Naruto really hoped this was going where he thought it was going as he asked with a gleam of excitement in his voice, "Yang, what are trying to say?"

Sick of trying to be subtle, Yang says, "Ugh, I'm saying I wanna give you and me a shot!"

Overjoyed, Naruto responds, "I was trying to figure out when would be a good time to ask you the same thing!"

"Oh, well glad that worked out then!" Yang says, glad to get that off her chest. She then tells him, "But you better not start getting overly lovey dovey."

With a big smile Naruto says, "I won't." This in turn makes Yang smile as well.

They then hear Ruby outside the door shouting, "Yes!"

Yang then turns around and shouts, "Ruby!" She then chases after her sister.

Naruto follows them out still with a big smile plastered on his face. Kurama is also grinning as he tells Naruto, "I'm happy for you, kid."

Naruto then internally says to fox, "Thanks Kurama." He then continues watching the chase until Ruby uses her Semblance to get away. With no hope now of catching Ruby, Yang calms down and shakes her head while smiling.

Weiss and Blake come out of their room hearing the commotion and Weiss asks, "Are you two finally a thing now?"

"Looks like it" Yang answers.

"That a problem?" Naruto asks.

"It's a RELEIF" Blake answers. "Now we don't have to worry about Yang getting mad when we bring it up." Hearing this makes Naruto look at Yang.

"No idea what they're talking about" Yang responds, refusing to admit how flustered she would get about it.

Naruto just smirks and asks, "So did you and Ruby practice any during your break?"

"A little" Yang answers.

"Good" Naruto says before he gets another thought. "Hey, does us being an item mean you won't hit me as hard during sparring sessions?"

Yang looks him dead in the eye and says, "Like hell it does."

Hearing this, Naruto rubs the back of his head and says, "So much for that…" This causes Weiss and Blake to chuckle.

Ruby peeks her head around the corner and asks, "Is it safe yet?"

Yang rolls her eyes and says, "You're safe."

Relieved, Ruby rejoins the group and asks everyone, "So what do you guys wanna do?"

"The team just got back together so it should involve all of us" Yang answers.

"What about your new boyfriend?" Blake asks.

"It's not like we're going on a date right now so he can just tag along" Yang responds.

"It's like I'm not even here…" Naruto says seeing two people talk about him right in front of him. This causes Ruby to snicker.

Yang then turns to Naruto and asks him, "So, did you ever figure out how to play Remnant?"

"Not really…" Naruto answers reluctantly.

"What about you guys?" Ruby asks Weiss and Blake.

"I haven't played since that day in the library" Weiss answers.

"I seen Team SSSN play a game, but I was more into my book" Blake answers.

Ruby rolls her eyes and says, "It's like pulling teeth with you guys!"

"I mean, do we really need to know how to play?" Naruto asks. Then both Ruby and Yang stare him down. A little intimidated by both of their stares, Naruto meekly says, "Okay…"

"What have I gotten myself into?" Weiss ponders to herself as the five of them enter Team RWBY's room.

Two hours later the game has finished. Yang won the game, Ruby acts dramatically depressed, Blake is overwhelmed at everything she had to learn, and Weiss is amused because she convinced Naruto to play instead of her and Naruto was the first to lose.

In his defeated state, Naruto says, "I…I need to hit something."

"We could always go a few rounds" Yang tells him. Naruto perks up at the idea.

Ruby, Blake, and Weiss smile at this interaction but then Blake points out, "That's still a weird way to flirt."

Naruto and Yang then both start to say, "We're not—" They then look at each other and Naruto asks, "Are we?"

Yang ponders a bit before responding, "I guess? We both love a good fight."

"You know, the first time I seen you two flirting was in the middle of us fighting Torchwick and those two Super Grimm" Ruby points out.

"Oh gods, she's right…" Weiss notes.

"It was weird and seemed natural at the same time" Blake comments.

Naruto hearing all this asks Yang, "Are we weird?"

"We're unique, not weird" Yang responds.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Weiss asks.

"Nope" is Yang's only response.

Naruto racks his brain trying to think of a difference before he explains, "Being weird drives people away. Being unique draws people in."

No one could ever argue that Naruto and Yang don't draw people in so Weiss admits, "I guess that makes sense." Ruby then smiles.

"What's the smile about?" Yang asks her sister.

"Just look at how the group dynamics have changed since we got to Beacon" Ruby points out. "Me and Weiss respect each other now, Blake learned to trust us—"

Yang then cuts in saying, "You came out of your shell."

A little annoyed Ruby admits, "Yeah that too…and now look at Weiss and Naruto! Now they can have a friendly conversation without bickering at each other."

"That's a good point actually" Blake acknowledges.

"I honestly can't recall the last time he mockingly called me princess" Weiss admits.

"I mean, how many life and death battles have we fought together now? Nothing builds comradery and friendship like that" Naruto states.

The rest of the group ponder how accurate that is before Yang says, "It also helps that Weiss is a lot less haughty than she used to be."

Weiss scoffs and is about to defend herself, but she stops herself and admits, "Okay that's true."

Naruto then stands up and says, "It wouldn't hurt for everyone to get some practice in since tomorrow is the start of the tournament."

"He's right!" Ruby exclaims as she grabs Crescent Rose. "And Team RWBY's gonna win!" Her team agrees with her and they head off for a practice session.

---

It is now the following day, and the tournament is about to begin. Team JNPR has yet to arrive, but Naruto and Team RWBY are in the stands waiting to be called on as the announcers/commentators, which in this case is Professor Port and Doctor Oobleck, are about to announce the start of the tournament.

"Hello ladies and gentlemen! Welcome one and all to the Vital Festival Tournament!" Port exclaims, getting the crowd to wake up.

"Yes! Once again, the students from all four kingdoms will be competing here against each other to show who is the best!" Oobleck expresses, following up on Port. "And might I say Peter, this may be the most promising collection of combatants yet!"

"I'm inclined to agree, Professor. Some of them have already started making a name for themselves" Port replies.

Oobleck pushes up his glasses and with a little annoyance in his voice says, "It's Doctor."

Port goes quiet for five seconds while staring at Oobleck before he says, "Right. Moving on, let us go over the rules of this tournament!"

"Of course" Oobleck says before he looks directly at the camera. "The tournament is divided into three distinctive rounds: teams, doubles, and singles. Age and school year are irrelevant! In this tournament, your only attribute being tested...is skill."

"Correct! The winners of this round will elect two of their members to represent them in the doubles round, followed by the winners of that round choosing one member to advance once again. The remaining combatants will then fight their way through the final bracket in the hope of achieving victory for their kingdom!" Port further explains.

Oobleck pushes his spectacles up his face once again before saying, "And yes, Peter, these certainly are some spectacular spectacles on which to spectate on! I don't think anyone tuning in around the world is going to disagree with me on that!"

"Did…did he just make a pun?" Weiss asks.

"Sounded like it…" Naruto answered a little weirded out.

Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Naruto then look at Yang before Ruby asks her, "How are you not saying anything?"

"What do you mean?" Yang asks.

"Puns are kinda your thing" Blake answers.

"…I mean it was pretty good" Yang finally commented. This caused the group to collectively shake their heads.

"Alright, time to get things started with the first round!" Port finally announces.

"Introducing first is a Team representing Beacon! They are a team who said they want to live up to the expectations set by their peers. Erin Burkes, Owen Farel, Danni Reigns, and their leader Allen Dolumn. Together they are Team AERO!" Oobleck exclaims introducing the team.

"Oh hey, Team AERO! I wonder how much they've improved?" Ruby asks.

"Hopefully a lot with how much you inspired them" Naruto answers.

"Wonder who they're facing?" Blake asks before she looks at the other side of the arena and a scowl appears on her face.

"Blake? What's wrong?" Yang asks her. She then looks at Naruto's face who also has a similar expression.

"And now, representing Haven Academy. Ian Colt, Keith Browning, Ronald Serbu, and their leader Faldin Winchester. They form Team WSBI!" Port introduces.

Faldin walks forward with a cocky smirk and Allen walks toward him. Faldin then tells Allen, "Hope you don't feel like too much of a loser when you let down your school."

"Oh, good. I was wondering if this was gonna be a respectful fight. Thanks for clearing that up" Allen says, knowing he will take pleasure in flattening his opponent.

Owen rolls his eyes and says, "I had feeling they were gonna be sleeze balls."

"Then let's not mess around" Erin says as she readies her tonfas.

Ian looks at the tonfas and says, "Seriously? Oh, this is gonna be stupid."

Erin glares at Ian and thinks, "Okay, you're all gonna regret looking down on us."

"Everyone ready? 3…2…1…Begin!" Port exclaims.

Faldin takes out a mace that is noticeably shorter than Cardin's and swings it at Allen. Allen hops back and unleashes the shot from one of his axes at Faldin. Faldin dives out of the way and gets behind cover. Allen goes to pursue him but Ian shoots at Allen who has to duck the bullets. Ian has a smirk on his face when Owen attacks Ian with his Shuriken Axe. Owen then looks at Allen and says, "I got this, you go after their pompous leader!" Allen nods and does just that.

Danni and Erin are locked in combat with Keith and Ronald. Danni uses a round shield ornamented with her crest as she jumps forward and swings it at Keith who steps back and fires his shotgun point blank. Danni managed to block with her shield in time to block the slug. Erin then hops over Danni and does a spinning strike with her tonfas that knocks Keith down. She then goes to kick the downed Keith when Ronald comes in with his halberd and swings at Erin's legs. Erin just manages to back up in time while Danni does a leaping shield bash at Ronald. Ronald smacks her out of the air causing Danni to fall to her knees. As Ronald is about to strike again, Danni raises her shield in front of her and hits a spot in the inside of her shield that unleashes a short-range buckshot from her shield and hits Ronald dead on.

"What was that?!" Keith exclaims in a fright.

Erin then clashes her tonfas with Keith's shotgun and tells him, "Did you think she'd be using a basic shield in a tournament like this? She's not you." Erin says referring to Keith's shotgun.

"Oh, you think my gun's basic?!" Keith responds indignantly before shoving Erin back. His Shotgun then reconfigures into a longer ranged rifle. He then aims towards Erin.

"You're gonna aim something like that this close?" Erin asks in surprise. She then takes a stance as Keith fires his shot. Erin easily avoided the shot, but she then noticed a smirk appear on Keith's face. She now realizes she was not the target.

Ian is fighting off Owen when he hears the gunshot and makes Owen clash weapons with him. Then, before Owen can realize what's happening, he gets hit in the head with Keith's bullet, knocking him over and eating up his Aura. Ian then kicks Owen in the side of the head knocking him out.

"It seems Owen Farel has been eliminated from the match!" Port announces.

"What?!" Allen shouts in concern. This momentary distraction allows Falen to grab him by the throat and raise him up.

"I thought a team from the heavily praised first years of Beacon would put up more of a fight" Faldin says mocking Allen. Faldin then swings his mace, but Allen manages to get his axes in the way in time.

"Heavily praised…yeah that's true" Allen responds to Faldin's taunt. "Truth is, the reason we're praised so much is because there's a couple teams that are just so amazing that the rest of us get praised just by being in the same class as them. All of the other Beacon first years know there's no way to stand out around them."

Team RWBY and Naruto hear this and feel a little bad as they know when Allen is talking about "a couple teams" that outshine everyone, they know that he is talking about them and JNPR. They didn't want to make their peers feel inadequate. Naruto even started thinking about Sakura. When he, Sakura, and Sasuke were kids, all anyone praised was Sasuke. Eventually, Naruto finally started earning his own praise when he beat Neji in the Chunin Exams. Meanwhile, Sakura was probably just seen as the extra in a play. Luckily, Sakura eventually overcame this and earned a name for herself as much as he or Sasuke. Naruto then thought, "I hope Team AERO can do the same."

"So, you're telling me you're all a bunch of losers?" Faldin questions.

"That is NOT what I said!" Allen yells back. He frees himself from Faldin's grip before saying, "I'm saying that while most of our class have given up on trying to stand out from amazing teams, my team hasn't!" He then makes his Axes go into their chain axe state. "Whether it's this semester, the next, or even the next! No matter how long it takes we will make a name for ourselves!"

Allen's words lit a fire in Danni and Erin as they attack Keith and Ronald with everything they have. The crowd has also seemingly gotten on Team AERO's side. This includes Team RWBY and Naruto who are shouting, "You got this AERO! This is your moment!"

Erin is striking at Ronald with quick strikes with her Tonfa and then jumps up and comes down with a double swing. Ronald raises his halberd to block and almost stumbles. Erin drops down and manages to trip up Ronald with a sweeping kick. Ronald falls and before he can get back up, Erin jumps on him and starts to pummel Ronald with her tonfas. At the moment, all Ronald can seem to do is guard up.

Danni is attacking Keith who has his weapon back in its shotgun state. Keith manages to parry one of Danni's shield strikes and headbutt her on the nose. As Danni is staggered, Keith kicks her and hits her with a shotgun shell. This causes Danni to get knocked on her back and her Aura to flicker. Keith then says, "That was a nice speech by your leader. Almost made me wanna cry."

Danni grits her teeth to fight through the pain and sits up before responding, "Cry huh? I can help with that!" She then throws her shield at Keith's feet causing Keith to hop to the side. As he did, Danni got up, tackled Keith, rolled across his body and grabbed her shield. As Keith got up, Danni hit Keith in the jaw with the hardest shield bash she could muster making his Aura flicker and one of his teeth to go flying.

Faldin swings at Allen who dive rolls away before spinning and making both of his chain axes fly towards Faldin. Faldin slid under them to try and get closer. Allen retracted one of the axes while keeping his other axe on its chain and swinging it towards Faldin. Faldin side steps it thinking he is out of harms way. However, Allen pulls his chain axe back and it catches Faldin's leg making him fall over. Allen then jumps up and swings his other axe down on Faldin. Faldin's Aura absorbed the blow, and it is still in the high yellow showing Faldin has a pretty high Aura level compared to his cousin. Faldin then goes to swing his mace but Allen steps on that arm stopping the swing in his tracks. Faldin is about to reach behind his back for something but decides not to. Allen spotted that and says, "I don't know what you were reaching for, but you're gonna regret not grabbing it!"

Ian, who has been hiding to see where he can strike with the most surprise, sees Erin completely unguarded as she pummels Ronald. He comes out from hiding and runs at her. Ruby sees this from the stands and shouts, "Erin look out!"

"What?" Erin questioned. However, it was too late as Ian struck her swiftly with his daggers. Ronald then kicked her back and grabbed his halberd. He was beaten up, but still could move pretty well. Ronald then sliced Danni in the back causing her to cry out in pain. This caused Allen to look away for a second, but a second was all Faldin needed to push Allen off of him. Ian then grabbed Danni and threw her out of the ring, causing her to be eliminated.

"Oh crap…" Allen muttered as he now realized it was just him and a weakened Erin against the whole of Team WSBI. He then looks at Erin and says, "I'm sorry, I can't believe I let this happen…"

"Hey…it's okay" Erin told him. "This isn't the end of our journey, right?"

"No, not it's not" Allen answered, still confident that his team will make a name for themselves. As Allen attacked Ian, Faldin knocked Allen back allowing Ian to shoot Allen with his revolver daggers. Faldin then struck Allen in the head with his mace and falls flat right on the edge of the arena.

Erin swung her tonfas at Ronald knowing he is the most damaged on his team. Ronald tried his best to block and parry her attacks, but he is too weak and gets hit hard on the top of his head. Keith then shoots a couple slugs at her which she manages to block. As Ronald is dazed, Erin goes to try and knock him out of the ring. Keith however swings his shotgun like a blunt object almost catching Erin off guard. Erin backs off and starts exchanging with Keith. Erin manages to get the better of Keith, but then Ronald, though still a little dizzy, grabs Erin and holds her still. Keith manages to hit her on the head with the barrel of his gun disorienting her. Ronald then puts her down and Keith shoots her out of bounds.

"Damn it!" Naruto shouts in frustration.

"I was really rooting for them too…" Yang comments.

"I can't believe none of those jerks got eliminated…" Blake further comments.

"Wait a sec…" Weiss states as she notices something.

"What is it?" Blake asks.

"Take another look" Weiss tells them.

They do and that's when Ruby points out, "Hey look, Allen's still in the ring!"

Allen, who's Aura is just barely in the yellow, waits for Faldin and Ian to get closer before he springs back up and shouts, "I'm not going down alone!" He then swings both his chain axes. Faldin and Ian duck, but Ian is close to the edge and Allen sees this, so he drops his weapons and tackles Ian out of the ring eliminating them both.

"What a move!" Naruto shouts in amazement. He is a sucker for seeing people like himself who won't call it quits when things look down.

Allen is panting and tells Ian, "No one's getting a perfect score against my team…" Ian wants to hit Allen, but with the officials watching he knows he can't.

"That was a tremendous display by Team AERO, but the winners of this match are Team WSBI!" Oobleck announces. While most of the crowd give a slight cheer for the winners to be respectful, there are a few audible boos heard as well. None more pronounced than the ones coming from Team RWBY and Naruto.

Owen then walks over to his leader and helps him up. He then tells Allen, "You did us proud out there. Sorry for getting taken out so early…"

"Don't worry about it" Allen tells him.

Danni, who is being supported by Erin, jokingly tells Owen, "If anything you should be apologizing to me and Erin. We're the ones who had to pick up your slack."

"That was an awesome fight!" Ruby shouts over to them.

"Yeah! You showed what Beacon Huntsmen are made of!" Yang shouted as well. Weiss and Blake can be seen supporting what Ruby and Yang said. Team AERO are standing there stunned at the compliments. They expected to be made fun of.

"I don't know how you guys feel about it right now, but I'd say you proved yourselves to everyone here!" Naruto shouts over to them.

Allen has tears in his eyes which he tries to hide. Erin sees this and says, "Are you crying? Oh come on…"

"I'm not crying!" Allen shouts in embarrassment. He and his team then leave the arena with bolstered pride.

"Well, if I wasn't pumped to fight before I sure am now!" Yang exclaims.

"I agree" Weiss states now hoping their match is next.

"What an amazing fight that was!" Oobleck tells Port.

"I couldn't agree more, old friend. And we have much more to come!" Port responds.

---

After a few more matches have gone by, Port announces the next match saying, "Our next bout features one of Beacon's most promising up and coming teams! Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, Yang Xaio-long, and their leader Ruby Rose! Team RWBY!"

As Team RWBY make their way to the fighting stage, the Beacon section can be heard cheering them on with Naruto cheering the loudest.

"Wow, I'm surprised I can still hear Naruto over that crowd" Ruby comments.

"He has an impressive set of lungs" Blake further comments.

Yang hears this and snickers before saying, "That's one way to put it." She then looks to the top of the stands and tells Ruby, "Looks like we got another fan up there." She then motions to where she was looking.

Ruby looks up to where Yang was talking about and spots their Uncle Qrow watching. Ruby then smiles and says, "We need to do everyone proud."

"Now for their opponents!" Port exclaims, regaining the crowd's attention. "Representing Haven Academy, Bolin Hori, Reese Chloris, Nadir Shiko, and their leader Arslan Altan. Team ABRN!" Team ABRN appropriately got cheers from the Haven section.

"We're looking forward to this!" Ruby exclaims to Team ABRN.

"So are we" Reese responded. She is a young girl with light green hair swept to the side and teal eyes with a fair skin tone. In terms of clothing, she also wears a dark purple hoodie over a sweater. She has black shorts along with knee and and elbow pads and finally sneakers. She is carrying what could only be described as a highly stylized hover board.

"I hope we have an honorable match" said Team ABRN's leader, Arslan. She has a dark complexion which helps her stand out. She also has platinum blonde hair and green eyes. In terms of clothing she wears a yellow robe with a single loose-fitting sleeve over a black tube top. Her pants and shoes are black. She has a red sash embroidered with "endless knot" on it.

Yang smiles at this, but then she sees Bolin holding a short staff and says, "So, you use a staff, huh?"

"Yes…what about it?" Bolin questions hesitantly. He has lightly tanned skin similar to Naruto. He has amber eyes and black hair. In terms of clothing, he wears two yellow sashes with one around his waist and the other over his shoulder. His pants are gray with yellow lacing up the sides. His footwear is a pair of black boots.

"Some people just have no luck…" Blake comments, feeling pity for Bolin. This causes the whole of Team ABRN to look confused.

"What are they talking about?" Reese asks her team.

"See that blonde guy cheering in the crowd wearing a red jacket and orange pants?" Yang says while motioning over to Naruto.

After a quick glance Arslan asks, "What about him?"

"Our team practices with him a lot and he uses a staff" Ruby informs them. Bolin then looks a little concerned knowing all four of his opponents have experience fighting against a staff.

Nadir puts a hand on Bolin's shoulder to comfort him. Nadir has a darker skin tone like their leader and has long pink hair tied back into a short ponytail. In terms of clothing, he wears a white short-sleeved jacket with yellow details and a black, long-sleeved V-neck shirt and white fingerless gloves. He has black sweatpants and white shoes with black lases.

Seeing the concerned look on Bolin's face, Reese tries to help his confidence by saying, "I mean, that guy over there looks pretty lame to me." After hearing this, Ruby is about to say something but stops when she sees an irritated look on Yang's face. Upon seeing this look, Reese realizes she might have messed up and Arslan gets in front of her. Weiss is seen holding her head in her hand about the whole situation.

Wanting to break all this tension, Nadir simply says, "When I signed up for a tour, I didn't expect to be in one place for so long." He then gets a big grin on his face only for silence to follow. He then tries to explain saying, "Tour? Like TOURnament?"

Weiss then looks straight at Nadir and says, "You're going down first." Nadir then makes an audible gulp.

"I have no idea what they're saying down there, but it's time to begin!" Oobleck announces. The arena then shifts into two different environments. One made of crystalline ice and the other a volcanic area.

Yang immediately tries to punch Arslan out of the way to get to Reese, but to Yang's surprise Arslan is able to compete in strength with Yang and doesn't slide back. Yang's eyes then narrow as she now puts all her focus into taking out Arslan. Reese gets on her bladed hoverboard to get away from Yang and heads for Blake. Reese sends the bladed hoverboard at Blake, but Blake almost effortlessly deflects it. Reese hits it back at Blake, but Blake kicks it away. Blake then goes to attack Reese, but Reese recalls her bladed hoverboard and they get into an exchange of blows that ends in Blake having to catch her balance. Reese then gets back on her hoverboard and rides towards Blake. Blake, however, timed her Semblance perfectly to leave an ice copy that Reese ran into and left her unprepared for Blake's rising slash that seemingly cut the board in half. However, it seems this was inaccurate as the two halves turned into energy pistols that Reese shot while in the air. Blake managed to dodge them and Reese upon landing slipped on the ice and slammed right onto her tailbone. This caused Blake and the crowd to wince as it looked quite painful.

"Why do some of the least gruesome injuries make us wince the most?" Naruto questioned out loud.

"That's…a really good question actually…" Kurama stated as he had no answer.

Continuing to fight Arslan, Yang lands two of her punches before attempting a reverse roundhouse kick. Arslan managed to duck the kick while also going for a leg sweep. Unfortunately for Arslan Yang's leg was still in the air so the sweep missed. Arslan then threw two wheel chops, both of which Yang blocked. They then both clashed fists resulting in a shockwave. Yang then attempted a few kicks, but Arslan brought out a hidden dagger dart that catches Yang's leg and allows Arslan to kick Yang over to the ice area. Yang then struggles to get up on the ice.

"Yang! You gotta move!" Naruto shouts but to no avail. Yang hardly has the balance of a shinobi, so she was a sitting duck when Arslan came in and landed a mean strike sending Yang flying back. Nadir was about to shoot the downed Yang, but Ruby shot Nadir's lower half with an ice bullet leaving him stuck. Nadir then pouts as he knows he is about to experience pain.

Ruby yells over to Yang, "Got your back!"

"Who's got yours?" Bolin asks before spinning his staff and taking a stance. This immediately backfires as Weiss sends him flying with a kick aided by a gravity glyph.

"My BFF!" Ruby exclaims while answering Bolin's taunt.

"No" Is Weiss' only response as she moves on.

Ruby then turns around and whispers, "Yes." She then goes to join Weiss in fighting Bolin.

Bolin looks at this and says, "Two on one and they know how to deal with my weapon? This isn't fair."

"Nope" Ruby responds as Weiss does a dashing thrust that knocks Bolin off balance, but he still managed to block Ruby's aerial strike. Ruby then fires her sniper increasing the force behind her scythe which knocks Bolin down and sends her back. Bolin knows he won't be getting anywhere fighting these two so instead he runs past their attacks and breaks off a piece of the fire Dust in the volcanic area and throws it to Reese who loads it into her board. She then uses her board's new fire boost to free the frozen Nadir.

"Whoa, they turned things around fast!" Naruto comments. He then turns around to the rest of the Beacon section. "Alright come on guys! Let Team RWBY here you!" The Beacon section ups their cheer game.

Reese attacks Blake and knocks her back. Reese continues her assault, but Blake uses her Semblance to get away and then uses her weapons kusarigama state to hook into a slab of ice and pull herself behind it. As Reese follows after Blake, she sees Blake standing there with her back to her. Not stopping to think this was odd, Reese attacks what she thought was Blake but was in fact one of her copies. Blake then throws her kusarigama while Reese is still in the air, and it lands on the other ice block before Blake pulls the ribbon tight making Reese slam into it. Blake then kicks Reese and knocks her out of the ring.

"Oh, a double whammy!" Port exclaims. "Reese Chloris is eliminated by ring-out and Aura level!

"Oh, she really should have worn a helmet" Oobleck comments. Reese hits the ground with her fist in frustration.

As Yang is trying to catch Arslan, Nadir seems to be trying to show off with some flips before he takes aim at Weiss. This only results in Weiss sending Bolin flying at Nadir, making them collide. Weiss then makes Nadir and Bolin slam together using a gravity glyph and then uses an ice glyph to trap them in a giant ball.

"She's still overusing her Semblance…" Naruto thinks to himself.

"It's hard to blame her when it's that good of a Semblance" Kurama retorts to Naruto. "Besides, didn't you used to just use Shadow Clones over and over?"

"Because it's the only offensive jutsu I knew" Naruto answers. "But you're right, it was bad. And I only got away with it because I had a high level of Chakra. Weiss doesn't have that luxury with her Aura levels, ya know?"

As Arslan is still running from Yang, she sees her trapped teammates and rolls her eyes. She then gets in the path of the rolling ice ball and palm strikes the ball making it shatter and freeing her teammates.

Weiss seeing this calls out, "Yang!" As Yang looks over, Weiss creates an ice slide before shouting, "Now!" (I tried to look up what the slide is actually called but could not find it).

Yang then boosts herself along the slide with Ember Celica shots as Blake runs along with her and tosses Yang her Kusarigama. Yang catches it while Blake hangs onto the ribbon. Blake then jumps off of Ruby's scythe as Ruby boosts her with a sniper boosted swing. As Blake gets closer, she yanks Yang towards the remainder of Team ABRN while Yang yells and sends all three of them flying out with a single punch.

"Well, they still need a lot of work individually but as a team they're great!" Naruto exclaims. He then starts cheering and the crowd follows.

"And that's the match! Team RWBY is victorious!" Port announces.

Yang walks up to the edge of the ring and looks directly at Reese before saying, "Watch what you say about another girl's boyfriend."

Reese, who got hit by her flying team and is barely conscious says, "I didn't mean anything by it…"

Seeing this, Weiss asks, "Am I going to have to deal with an outburst like this every time I bicker with Naruto?"

As Team RWBY starts walking out of the arena, Yang tells Weiss, "Nah, bickering's a part of your friendship. And it's not like you openly insult him."

"I guess that's a good point" Weiss acknowledges.

"I mean I think the outburst was adorable…in its own weird way" Blake comments. They then leave the arena.

---

Team RWBY are now in the middle of the fairgrounds. Between their fight and now being surrounded by food stands, Ruby hunches over in hunger and asks, "...Is anyone else starving?"

Blake, standing there with her arms behind her head replies, "I may have worked up an appetite." Then her stomach growls so loud it would give Nora a run for her money. This causes the rest of her team to look at her in shock.

Weiss then shrugs and sarcastically says, "Gee, if only there was somewhere on campus to get food around here. Oh, wait."

Ruby, who seems to have no consistency in her understanding of sarcasm, puts her hand on Weiss' shoulder and says, "It's okay, Weiss, I forget about the fairgrounds, too."

Annoyed, Weiss knocks Ruby's arm away and yells back, "I was being facetious!"

Taken aback by Weiss' response and also not knowing what facetious means, Ruby responds, "Gah! Well if you were hungry, why didn't you say so!?"

"Come on! I know just the place" Yang tells them. They start following Yang, but Weiss stops when her scroll rings and the ID shows "FATHER." Weiss chooses to ignore the call.

Then Emerald, who had pickpocket Ruby calls out to her saying, "Hey! Might be hard to eat without this." She then holds the red wallet up.

Ruby then frantically checks herself for the wallet while saying, "No, no, no, no!"

Emerald then laughs and says, "Good to see you, Ruby."

Ruby takes the wallet back and tells Emerald, "Oh! Thanks, Emerald! Guess I dropped it. Girl pockets are the worst!"

"What's up, Em?" Yang asks seeing that the group has stopped following her.

"Just left the stadium after your amazing fight! You guys were awesome!" Emerald answers.

Ruby then mumbles in a cutesy way, "Oh, shut your stupid little face..."

Paying no attention to what Ruby is doing, Blake says, "I heard your team progressed to the next round too."

"You know, I feel that we haven't seen your other teammates" Weiss comments.

"How'd they do in the fight?" Yang asks.

Emerald tilts her head up in thought recalling how her team devastated their opponents and responds, "Really well."

"That's great. Uh. Why don't we all go and get a victory food together?" Ruby asks Emerald.

"Oh, gosh, that's so nice of you, but my teammates are all kind of..." Emerald trails off as she looks back at Mercury sniffing the inside of his boot. "...introverted. Really socially awkward."

Yang nods and says, "Ooh, yeah, I could see that."

"Oh yeah, looks like Merc and I are going to move on to the doubles round. What about you guys?" Emerald asks, trying to get info on their eventual opponents.

Ruby takes a proud stance and says, "Well, as the leader of this team, I thought long and hard about this decision."

Weiss then pops her head in and says, "We put it to a vote."

Trying to save face, Ruby nervously adds, "Yes, so, but I decided that we should put it to a vote."

"We voted for Weiss and Yang" Blake says without a care.

Weiss curtsies before saying, "I will happily represent Team RWBY."

Yang pounds her fists together like she normally does and says, "Yeah, we're going to kick some butt!"

Emerald laughs before saying, "Well, if Mercury and I see you down the line, don't think we'll go easy on ya."

"Wouldn't have it any other way" Yang replies.

Emerald looks past Yang and sees Naruto at the noodle shop. Not wanting to draw his attention, she turns and starts walking away saying, "Alright, well we're going to catch some more fights."

"Have fun!" Ruby yells, waving back to Emerald. They then arrive at the noodle shop and see Naruto.

"This is the place you were talking about?" Weiss questions

"Yeah" Yang answers matter-of-factly, not seeing the issue.

Weiss then looks at Naruto and asks, "Did you put her up to this?"

Yang then looks over to see Naruto already stuffing his face with noodles and says, "Oh yeah, I guess him being here makes sense."

"Did you really not realize he would be here?" Blake asks Yang.

"Not really" Yang answers.

Naruto finally notices them and walks over to them before saying, "You guys were great out there!"

"Thanks! It was a blast!" Ruby says as she and her team sit down.

Yang sat next to Naruto and told the owner, "I'll have a bowl of the regular, please." A large bowl of noodles slides up to her.

"This guy's great" Naruto comments.

Ruby looks at Yang's order with amazement and says to the owner, "Ohhh…I'll take the same." A large bowl of noodles slides up to her and she gasps with excitement.

"Do you have anything with low salt—" Weiss starts to ask before the same order slides in front of her. "Um…okay…" Then Blake, instead of saying her order, simply nods to the owner and the owner slides a bowl of noodles heaped with fish on top of it in front of Blake. Blake then comically drools and has stars in her eyes.

"Wha? I didn't even know that was an option" Naruto comments.

"That change your mind about your order?" Yang asks him.

"Nope. I prefer bbq pork with my order" Naruto answers.

"That does sound good…" Yang admits. Weiss then goes to pay for her team's food and Yang says, "Aw, Weiss! What's the occasion!?"

"Consider it thanks for sending me to the doubles round" Weiss tells Yang. However, her card is then thrown back in her face as it was declined. "What?! How can my card be declined? I was barely into my monthly allowance!"

While this is happening, Blake tries to subtly take her bowl, but the Owner snatches it from her along with the rest of her team's causing her to dramatically exclaim, "Nooo!"

"That's just cruel!" Naruto exclaims, although his bowl wasn't taken away.

"Hey, how come he didn't take your bowl?" Ruby questions.

"I already paid for mine" Naruto answers. He then mutters, "I could share mine, but I don't see it splitting five ways…"

With disappointment on the faces of Team RWBY, Pyrrha arrives and says, "Maybe I could help?" Naruto and Team RWBY look over to see Team JNPR have arrived.

"Pyrrha!" Ruby exclaims while flinging her arms into the air.

"Aw, you don't have to…" Yang tells Pyrrha.

"But she could!" Blake shouts desperately.

"I've never seen you this desperate for food. Not even for fish" Naruto says to Blake.

"Her stomach sounded like an Ursa on the way here" Ruby informs Naruto. He is stunned to hear this, but now he understands.

"Well, I think you all earned it after that battle" Pyrrha says, still wanting to pay for the food.

"Mind if we join you?" Jaune asks Team RWBY and Naruto. They all nod as Pyrrha pays for both team's meals.

"You think you can handle it?" Naruto asks Jaune.

"I'll be fine" Jaune tells him. Ten minutes then pass and Jaune looks like he is about to vomit. Nora then burps causing Jaune to look at her and say, "If I barf, I blame you."

Nora with an evil grin says, "Ooh! Aim at the enemy!"

"Nora, that's disgusting" Ren tells Nora. He then looks at Jaune and says, "But if you feel the urge…" Jaune just gives Ren a weak thumbs up.

"I warned you" Naruto tells Jaune. "Becoming a better fighter doesn't change what your stomach can handle."

"At least my shoes are safe this time" Yang comments.

"Oh yeah…" Ruby says recalling how Jaune vomited on their shoes on the transport to Beacon.

After thinking for a few seconds Naruto asks, "Wait, that was you two?"

"Yup" Ruby answers. Then Ruby comes to the same realization as Naruto and says, "You were on the same ship as us?"

"How did we not notice each other?" Yang questions.

"I was just standing really bored by one of the windows" Naruto tells them.

"It was the same with me and Yang, until…" Ruby says not wanting to finish the sentence.

"Until what?" Blake asks.

"Well, as we just established. Me, Ruby, Whiskers, and Jaune were all on the same ship to Beacon" Yang starts to explain.

"Yang was trying to cheer me up since I was a little nervous about coming to Beacon" Ruby further explained.

"Then I hear two girls screaming about someone puking in their shoes" Naruto fished explaining. Jaune is now very embarrassed.

"At least you've gotten over your air sickness" Ruby says trying to cheer Jaune up.

"Small victories add up!" Naruto exclaims, adding onto Ruby's point.

"Yeah, sure…" Jaune responds.

Naruto then looks at Yang and says, "Help us out here!"

"I'm good at cheering people up but this might be above my pay grade" Yang tells him.

"Okay I'm not THAT embarrassed" Jaune responds. "I'm just still a little woozy from overeating…"

"Well, we should be off" Pyrrha tells her friends.

"So, you think you guys are ready?" Ruby asks Team JNPR?

"They better be with how hard we worked them" Naruto comments.

"Of course!" Nora exclaims. "The worst that can happen is we lose, that is just a few more years of walking around school with everyone knowing we're failures, our friends will slowly abandon us to preserve their social status, we won't be able to show our faces in class, no one will sit with us in the cafeteria, Ren and I have no parents, we have no home left to go to, we'll be officially renamed Team Lose-iper!"

"…You okay there?" Naruto asks. Nora pops back up with a grin and a thumbs up.

"So, yeah, we're feeling pretty good" Ren says after seeing Nora's display.

"Don't fret. If anything, we should be looking forward to a fight with actual guidelines, and not, well, murderers" Pyrrha states.

"Honestly, we've faced a lot worse lately" Yang comments before she looks at Naruto.

Confused, Naruto responds to Yang's stare asking, "What?"

"Lately we faced an abandoned city full of Grimm, Roman Torchwick and his literal underground network on a train, a massive horde of Grimm in downtown Vale, and four Super Grimm" Blake says listing off who they all fought in their latest adventure. "One of them being a Super Giant Nevermore that almost killed you."

Naruto gets quiet before saying, "I'm sorry I had everyone worried…"

"Next time you worry me like that I'm gonna throttle you" Yang tells Naruto. This just makes Naruto smile.

Seeing this interaction, Pyrrha asks, "So is it true then?"

"Is what true?" Naruto asks.

"That you're finally together!" Nora answers.

Naruto and Yang look at each other before they look back at Nora and ask, "Who told you?"

"A trusted source!" Nora replies. Naruto then looks at Ruby who vigorously shakes her head no.

Yang looks at Weiss and Weiss replies, "It wasn't me this time."

Naruto and Yang then both look at Blake who is trying not to look nervous as she says, "Could be anyone."

Trying to break this new tension, Pyrrha tells them, "Well we are delighted to see you two are together now."

"It just came down to not holding myself back anymore" Yang tells her.

Naruto then stares directly at Jaune and Pyrrha and says, "If only others would do the same." Jaune was not paying attention when Naruto said this. Pyrrha then laughs nervously, and she gets Jaune to start moving towards the arena. This causes Ren and Nora to shake their heads.

Once Team JNPR have gotten a suitable distance away, Yang says, "I feel bad for Pyrrha."

"Jaune stopped asking me out every day so that's some progress" Weiss commented.

"Hopefully it isn't too little progress before something happens" Blake further comments.

They all stare at Blake as Ruby asks, "Something like what?"

"Like one of them getting expelled since we all keep breaking the rules" Blake answers.

"Oh, we thought you were implying something…darker" Naruto tells Blake.

A little shocked at this statement, Blake genuinely asks, "Am I really that gloomy?"

"What? Of course not" Yang says while trying to get the others to play along.

Trying to get away from this conversation, Naruto says, "We should go. Don't wanna miss the match!" He then gets up.

"Right! Let's go team!" Ruby says nervously. She wanted to get away from this conversation too. Weiss and Yang then get up and follow Ruby.

Blake gets up and thinks to herself, "I'm definitely not that gloomy, right?"

---

Cinder and Emerald are sitting in the stands waiting for the next match to begin. Mercury finds them and sits down with a tub of popcorn before saying, "I wonder who's gonna win."

"Tch. As if we didn't already know" Emerald responds. They have done research on all the teams before this, so they know who is most likely to win.

"Oh, come now. Even if you know how the story ends, that doesn't make it any less fun to watch" Cinder tells Emerald while grabbing some of Mercury's popcorn,

"Pretty sure it is when it's this much of a mismatch" Emerald counters.

They all look on to see Team JNPR standing off against their opponents as Port announces, "Team JNPR of Beacon versus Team BRNZ of Shade!"

"What happened to announcing each member?" Oobleck asks his friend.

"Well, they took too long getting here" Port answers.

"Ah, I see! Then let's get this underway!" Oobleck responds and the field reconfigures with one half being a mini forest while the other half is a bunch of rock outcroppings.

"Woohoo!" Ruby shouts in excitement.

"JNPR will kick their butts in no time!" Naruto shouts.

"3..2…1..GO!" Port shouts as the match begins. The two teams charge each other, except for May Zedong. She goes to higher ground and starts to aim her sniper rifle. She fires twice with her rifle at Ren but she misses breaking some of the rocks.

Jaune is dealing with Roy Stallion and his buzzsaw gauntlets. Roy punches downward with them but Jaune blocks it before tripping Roy up and kicking him back. This is when Jaune notices a glint from May's rifle and shouts to his team, "They have a sniper! Spread out and watch your environment!" JNPR keep their distance from each other so May has to pick a target. May notices that Jaune and Pyrrha's shields will make them harder to hit so she targets Ren. As Ren jumps to avoid the shots, he is hit in the head by the cattle prod weapon from Nolan Porforio. Ren tries to kick Nolan in return, but Nolan ducks it and shocks Ren with the cattle prod.

"Looks like he's not taking this seriously enough" Naruto states.

"What do you mean?" Blake asks.

"If you would have seen the way Ren was fighting Jaune, you would know Ren could have taken this guy out easy if he was serious" Naruto answers.

"Well, that was a one-on-one" Yang points out. "He's probably more at ease when he's got his team backing him."

"Speaking of…" Weiss says drawing their attention back to the match. As Weiss was illuding to, Nora stepped in to deal with Nolan. Nolan shocks her with his prod, which is possibly the worst thing he could have done as Nora gets a wicked smile.

"Oh-ho! Looks like one of my favorite students, Nora Valkyrie, is charging up to use her Semblance!" Port announces.

"What?" Nolan questions.

"Yes, Ms. Valkyrie's Semblance lets her produce, as well as channel, electrical energy straight to her muscles!" Oobleck starts to explain. "This allows her to jump explosively into the air, wield her mighty hammer, or in this case, absorb Nolan's attacks and send the young man flying!"

"What?!" Nolan expresses further in shock. Nora flexes her now charged up muscles and Nolan backs away slowly with his hands up. She then rushes in and jams Nolan right in the groin with her hammer sending him flying into some rocks.

"Oh that was cruel…" Naruto comments as he winces from what he just saw. This causes those next to him to snicker.

"Wow, and I thought our opponents were unlucky for having someone with a staff" Blake comments.

Jaune notices an artificial storm cloud forming on one of the battlefield mountains. He looks to Nora and tells her, "Nora! Get to the mountain!"

Nora gives Jaune a salute before saying, "You got it!" She then rushes up the aforementioned mountain.

Jaune then looks to Ren, his most agile teammate and says, "Ren, try and distract the sniper!"

Ren, who could not look less enthusiastic if he tried tells Jaune in both apathy and sarcasm, "Sure…why not?" As Ren runs off, Roy launches saw Blades at Jaune which Jaune blocks with his shield. Roy then foolishly decides to take the fight to Pyrrha.

"Yeah! Go get 'em Jaune!" Ruby encouragingly shouts.

"Well, he's certainly improved" Weiss comments.

"Yeah, but he ain't got nothing on Pyrrha!" Yang exclaims.

"Hey now, how's that a fair comparison?" Naruto asks.

"They're both fighting out there that's how" Yang answers.

"Yeah, but still…" Naruto says trying to think of a counter. As this is happening Pyrrha fights off both Brawnz and Roy that ends in Pyrrha doing a hand standing dropkick to Roy. Ren is then seen avoiding May's shots as he gets into another exchange with Nolan. This time, Ren gets the better of the exchange as he catches Nolan's prod with his Stormflower pistols and lands two kicks to Nolan's sides and then turns Nolan around giving him a shield from May's shots.

"See! I told you that Nolan guy wouldn't stand a chance once Ren took this seriously!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Guess you were right" Blake admits.

"Nora!" Ren shouts.

As this is happening, Brawnz Ni attacks Jaune. However, Jaune fends him off while he's watching Nora showing that Jaune does not need to give these guys his full attention to deal with them. He sees May is aiming at Nora so he then shouts, "Pyrrha up!" Pyrrha then runs over to Jaune while deflecting the flying buzzsaw launched by Roy. She jumps to Jaune who in turn springboards her into the air with his shield. As May fires her shot, Pyrrha intercepts it with her shield and Nora raises her hammer into the air charging herself up further with the lightning. Nora then launches her grenades in a heart shape right at May, who herself makes a face that shows she knows it is over. However, by some miracle all the explosions missed her but due to the smoke she has to get out of the tree. Nora then jumps off the mountain and hits the ground with her hammer and sends Roy, Brawnz, and Nolan flying towards May.

Seeing their opponents are on the ropes, Jaune says, "This is it guys! Let's finish them with team attacks! Ren! Nora! Flower Power!"

"Wait, what?" Nora asks in confusion.

"Flower Power. That's your team attack name!" Jaune tries to tell them.

"Since when?" Ren asks.

"Guys, we've been over this!" Jaune says even though it is not true.

Ruby then looks over to see Naruto face palming and asks, "Did they go over this?"

"Not during the training…which means at best Jaune told them last night…" Naruto answers stunned this is happening.

"Flower Power is Ren and Nora! Ren brings the flower; Nora brings the power!" Jaune says still explaining to his team.

Hearing this, Ren rubs the back of his head asking, "How do I bring a flower?"

"No, silly, not a flower! Flour, like in baking!" Nora says, thinking she understands. She in fact could not be more wrong.

Now even more confused, Ren asks, "Why would I bring that?"

"I- Uh- No, it's your symbol!" Jaune tells them in frustration.

"So, what are we?" Pyrrha asks, just as confused as Ren and Nora.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune shouts in further frustration. He hoped she of all people would know this stuff.

"Sorry! I just want to make sure it's clearly defined" Pyrrha says trying to defend herself.

Jaune, forcing himself to calm down tells her, "You and I are Arkos. It's that thing when we take our shields? Remember?"

"Arkos?" Pyrrha asks confused.

"Yeah! It's our names put together!" Jaune responds like it is the most obvious thing in the world.

"Right, no, I get it..." Pyrrha reluctantly says trying to not hurt Jaune's feelings.

"What, do you not like it?" Jaune asks clearly seeing through Pyrrha.

"No, no! It's... good?" Pyrrha says not being able to think of another response.

"Mmm, I sense hesitation" Nora comments.

Unable to watch anymore of this without saying something, Naruto shouts, "Jaune!"

Jaune snaps a little and shouts, "WHAT?!"

"You never went over any of this during training! Hell, you didn't even try thinking of team attacks until the last day!" Naruto reminds him. Jaune hears this and is shocked and absolutely embarrassed. He then looks to his teammates for clarification.

Pyrrha, not wanting to embarrass Jaune whispers to him, "You only mentioned last night you had ideas." The color then starts leaving Jaune's face.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" Brawnz shouts over to them.

"I…I don't know…" Jaune responds. "It WAS a team meeting but now our coach got involved and I feel humiliated and—"

Brawnz then cuts Jaune off and shouts at the top of his lungs, "WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A FIGHT!"

Jaune finally loses it and shouts back, "AND WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A CONVERSATION! WHAT DON'T YOU GET ABOUT THAT!?"

"Um, Jaune?" Pyrrha says to get his attention.

"Yes, Pyrrha?" Jaune responds in an annoyed tone.

"I think that he means that we're all in the middle of a fight" Pyrrha tells him to remind him that they have a large audience.

At this point Jaune gives up and says, "Nora just…hit them with the hammer."

Nora gets another wicked smile and says, "Got it!"

"Wait, what?!" Brawnz exclaims before Nora sends the whole of Team BRNZ flying out of the ring with a swing of her hammer.

"And with that, it appears Team JNPR wins by knockout, literally!" Port announces. "...Can someone go make sure they're okay?"

As Team JNPR are walking back, Jaune hangs his head in complete shame. Nora says to Jaune, "Oh come on, cheer up. We won!"

"Nora's right" Pyrrha says. "And besides, with your training none of our opponents could compete with you." This causes Jaune to perk up a little as they go to find some seats.

Seeing Jaune hanging his head, Naruto comments, "Poor Jaune…"

"At least he did good as far as combat goes" Ruby points out.

As Team BRNZ are being carried off, Oobleck comments, "Ah, well, Vacuo fans are sure to be hurting after that one, but this next one will have them on the edge of their seats!"

"Team NDGO of Shade is certainly a crowd favorite, but these lovely ladies are going against some of the toughest, testosterone-filled teammates we've seen so far! I'm of course talking about... Team SSSN!" Port announces.

"That seems a bit much" Yang comments on Port's description of Team SNNN.

"To be fair, they're the only team of all guys that isn't made up entirely of jerks, ya know" Naruto points out. Yang nods acknowledging that point.

Port then continues, "Sun Wukong and his team are certainly a force to be reckoned with, and although he'll be representing the Mistral Academy of Haven, I'm sure his friends and family back in Vacuo will be cheering him along!"

"Ya know, this should actually be a pretty good fight" Naruto states.

"Why do you think that?" Blake asks.

"I doubt Sun's team is as good as you guys or JNPR so it won't be another landslide" Naruto answers.

Yang looks at Blake and asks, "What do you think? You spent the most time with them."

Blake thinks a few seconds and responds. "They are pretty good, but Naruto's right. They're not as good as we are."

"Then they could use our support" Weiss tells her team. She then cheers, "Good luck, Neptune!"

Neptune then looks at Team NDGO and in his overconfident sense of suave says to them in a flirtatious way, "Ladies."

This infuriates Weiss as she now shouts, "Break his stupid face, NDGO!"

Naruto snickers before saying, "It's like he physically can't stop himself!"

"Huh, you know you might be onto something" Yang comments.

Seemingly proving Naruto right, Neptune tells Team NDGO, "Alright, girls, try and remember: hands above the waist." Team NDGO are obviously offended at his remark.

Sun grabs Neptune's arm and says to NDGO, "Ignore him, for he...yeah, he's dumb." Neptune ignores Sun and winks at Team NDGO, much to their disgust. The ring roulette then stops on sunny dunes making half the arena turn into a desert environment.

Nebula Violette, NDGO's leader, sees this and with delight says, "Alright! Home field advantage!"

"Don't get too cocky, that's my turf too!" Sun tells Nebula.

Scarlet on the other hand is not enthused as he looks down at his clothes and says, "I hope I don't get sand in my shoes."

Neptune leans closer to Scarlet and whispers to him, "Be cool man."

The other roulette image stops on a symbol of tidal waves and Dew Gayl says, "Hey! The ocean!"

"Huh?" Neptune expresses in concern as he turns to look at that same image. He is then overcome with fear.

"Uhh, what's wrong with Neptune?" Ruby asks.

"Oh, no…" Blake expresses as she holds her head in her hand. The other side of the arena becomes a beach with a wrecked pirate ship. This causes Neptune to stiffen up cartoonishly as Blake admits, "Neptune's... afraid of the water."

"He's what?!" Naruto exclaims. The rest of the friend group there are just as surprised.

"Begin!" Port says starting the match. Neptune immediately rushes past Team NDGO and up the mountain behind them.

"Neptune, what are you doing?!" Sage shouts to his teammate.

In a very nervous voice, the usually suave Neptune responds, "Uh, you know, just gaining the higher ground!"

"On the enemy's side?!" Sun shouts in a surprised and annoyed tone.

"They would never expect it!" Neptune responds, trying to defend himself.

Dew looks at her team and says, "He's not wrong."

Deciding this situation is too good to not take advantage of Nebula shouts to her team, "Open fire!" Team NDGO rushes towards Team SSSN. Sage gets out a sword and Scarlet takes off his coat. Scarlet faces off with Octavia Ember and goes to clash with her with his cutlas but she ducks it and slides past him.

Sage lifts his blade and slashes down but then gets hit by the spear wielded by Dew. She then conjures three sand twisters to surround Sage and he is completely helpless against them. The twisters converge on Sage and knock him out of the ring.

"Wow, you weren't kidding about them not being as good as us" Ruby comments.

"And NDGO gains the advantage!" Oobleck comments to the fans.

Octavia looks at Sun and Scarlet and then makes a fire slash which kicks up sand into their faces. Sun gets away as he is accustomed to fighting in this environment. He then shouts, "Neptune!" Neptune then drops down from the hill and puts on his goggles, so the sand doesn't bother him. He then shoots at Octavia who blocks said shot. However, this distracted her from Sun who jumps in and hits her in the face with a dive kick. Octavia gets mad at this but then Sun brings out his staff and hits her multiple times before she can react and knocks her out.

Sun then overlooks at the current battles and sees Scarlet get sent flying by one of Dew's twisters. Scarlet managed to glide onto the pirate ship and is relieved he didn't get eliminated like Sage. Nebula and Gwen Darcy then follow him to the ship. Nebula shoots an arrow from her crossbow into the mast of the ship and uses it to springboard up to Scarlet. She then configures her crossbow into a sword and begins dueling with Scarlet. After an exchange, Scarlet managed to hit Nebula with an elbow and knock her off their foothold. Gwen throws more of her knives and Scarlet in turn takes out his pistol which can fire the hilt guard like a grappling hook. The hilt wraps around Gwen's ankle and he strings her up. However, this almost backfires when all her knives almost fall on him.

Dew is now going after Sun and Sun responds by hitting one of the palm trees which drop coconuts. He catches two of them and throws them at her. She bats them away with her spear which somehow sets them on fire, and one hits Scarlet in the head while the other one hits him in the groin, taking him out. Sun sees this and simply says, "Nuts…" Dew grins at his predicament and makes a few twisters. Sun acrobatically avoids them while saying, "Uh, Neptune! Could use some help buddy!"

Neptune, trying to come up with excuses to not get near the water responds, "Uh, you know, uh, it would probably be better if you came over here! Yeah, I can guard this... sector! We're in lockdown mode!"

Looking fed up, Sun yells to Neptune, "What are you talking about? There's nothing to lock down!" While this is happening, Dew frees the strung-up Gwen.

Hearing what he wants to hear, Neptune responds, "Lockdown! Right! You got it!"

Dew jumps from the ship and tried to stab Sun on her way down. Sun jumps out of the way and yells over to Neptune, "Dude, I know you're afraid of water, but you gotta—" He is cut off when Dew jumps at Sun and Neptune shoots her out of the air making her land in the water.

"There! I helped! Are you happy now!?" He then pauses before further responding, "Also, I am not afraid of water, and I have no idea what you are talking about!" Dew, Nebula, and Gwen are now standing together ready to fight. However, they are all standing in the water.

Seeing this, Sun shouts, "NEPTUNE!"

"Okay, fine! Just get out of the water!" He then changes his weapon into electric trident mode before tiptoeing towards the water and jamming in his trident. The water conducts his weapon's electricity and shocks the three remaining girls and drains their Aura eliminating them. Sun and Neptune then start celebrating.

"And with that, Team SSSN moves on to the doubles round!" Port announces. "You know what I call that victory?"

"Shocking?" Oobleck guesses.

"No, well earned. What you said is stupid" Port says making fun of his friend.

Naruto starts uncontrollably laughing at the whole display from Neptune and Yang says, "Did Mr. ladies' man really just squeal like a girl because of water?"

"Looks like you were right about it being a close match" Ruby tells Naruto.

Calming down, Naruto responds, "I guess, but I was NOT expecting what I just saw! There's no way I'm letting Neptune live that down."

Yang smirks at this and says, "So the dorks move on."

As Sun does the finger guns in Blake's direction, Blake blushes a little and says, "Emphasis on dork." Team RWBY and Naruto then head down to congratulate Team SSSN.

Naruto fist bumps Sun and tells him, "Not bad."

"Not bad? Come on, it was awesome!" Sun responds.

"I don't know if I'd go that far" Yang comments.

Neptune gets a slightly offended look on his face from Yang's comment. He then asks, "What do you mean?" This causes the whole of Team RWBY as well as Naruto to stare at Neptune.

"It's hilarious that you were questioning my combat skills after what we all just saw" Naruto tells him.

A little embarrassed, Neptune responds, "It was a situational weakness!"

"So, was getting knocked off the bridge by the robot another situational weakness?" Yang asks. Hearing this, Sage and Scarlet both look at Neptune with disappointment.

Upon seeing the looks of his teammates, Neptune tries to defend himself saying, "It happened to Sun too!"

"Yeah, but unlike you I caught flak for it for weeks" Sun states in response.

"No, the flak was for you guys ditching us after that" Blake says correcting Sun. Sun is now embarrassed again.

"Yeah, but he made up for it with the Giant Nevermore" Naruto comments. He figures Sun deserves credit for that because without Sun's help, Naruto might not have been able to beat the giant Super Grimm. Sun clearly appreciated Naruto's compliment.

Neptune then notices Weiss walking up and she looks excited. He goes to talk to her, but Weiss walks right past him leaving him stunned.

Sun walks up the Neptune and puts a hand on his shoulder asking, "Dude, you okay?"

Neptune looks at his hand with concern on his face as he thinks out loud, "Am I losing my mojo?" This causes Blake to laugh.

Ruby on the other hand looks at Weiss and wonders, "What's got her so excited?"

---

Weiss is anxiously waiting in the courtyard as an Atlas ship is starting to land. Ruby comes walking along and asks her, "What's going on? I've never seen you this excited."

"She's here!" Weiss says in the most happy tone she possibly can.

"She?" Ruby questions. Her attention is then pulled to the ship as the hatch opens and out comes some drones along with a somewhat tall young woman with fair skin and slate-blue eyes. She has long white hair tied back in a bun along with bangs along the right side of her face. In terms of clothing, she wears a white long-sleeved coat with a single dark blue clasp around the center waist and a red jeweled brooch on its collar. The sleeves are split from shoulder to elbow. She also wears a white pleated sleeveless blouse with a dark blue waistcoat. For bottom wear she wears white trousers with dark blue garters alongside a pair of gray thigh boots with black detailing around the knees. This is Winter Schnee, a soldier in the Atlas military and the elder sister of Weiss.

"Winter! I'm so happy to see you!" Weiss says in overexcitement. "Oh..." Weiss suddenly remembers her manners, so she curtsies before calming herself and saying, "Your presence honors us."

Winter is looking around as she approaches her little sister. She then says, "Beacon...It's been a long time. The air feels...different."

"I mean it is fall, so, eh, it's probably colder" Ruby says in a poor attempt to make small talk.

Weiss punches Ruby in the shoulder to make her stop talking. Ruby gasped in pain as Weiss asks Winter, "So, what are you doing here?"

"Classified" Winter answers matter-of-factly.

"Oh, right. Well, how long are you staying?" Weiss further asks, trying to converse with her sister.

"Classified" Winter says repeating herself.

"Of course" Weiss says while nodding as this seems to be a typical conversation for them.

Ruby looks around due to how awkward this is and says, "Well, this is nice...I think."

"You're going to love it here!" Weiss exclaims excitedly to her sister. "I know you travel a lot, but so much of Beacon is different from Atlas!" She then whispers under her breath, "Vale, too." She then returns to normal volume as she says, "The government and school are completely separate! Can you believe it!? I—"

Winter cuts off her sister saying, "I'm more than familiar with how this kingdom handles its...bureaucracy. That is not why I came."

"Right! I'm sorry!" Weiss apologizes, feeling like she wasted her sister's time.

"Nor did I come here to watch my own blood fail so miserably in battle" Winter said criticizing her sister. "But it appears that I have no choice in the matter."

"But, we won!" Weiss states, confused at her sister's statement.

"Only a novice would refer to that as a victory. I counted at least three strikes missed" Winter says, continuing to chastise Weiss. She then looks to her escort and tells them, "Leave us." Her escort does just that and then Winter almost pulls a 180 in personality and warmly asks, "How have you been?"

"Oh, splendid! Thank you for asking" Weiss starts to answer. "I'm actually in the very top ranking of our sparring class! And the rest of my studies are going wonderfully, too! I'm—"

Winter then slaps Weiss on the head showing the previous scolding was not a complete act. She then says, "Silence, you boob! I don't recall asking about your ranking, I'm asking how you've been. Are you eating properly? Have you taken up any hobbies? Are you making new friends?" Despite how she conveys it, Winter is clearly a caring sister.

"Well, there's Ruby" Weiss answers motioning to her friend.

Ruby in response giggles as she pushes the bump made by Winter's strike and says, "Heh, boob."

"I see. So, this is the leader you wrote of" Winter says, clearly unimpressed. Luckily, neither Yang nor Naruto were there as she said this: "How appropriately...underwhelming."

"Uh...Thank you!" Ruby says, clearly not knowing how to respond to that.

"Greetings, Ruby Rose. I wish to thank you for taking an interest in my sister" Winter says very formally.

"Oh! Uh, yes, of course!" Ruby nervously responds as she does a poor attempt at a salute and then a curtsy. "The honor is in my...court!"

Qrow is standing off to the side seeing this all go on. He decides it would be fun to go mess with Winter. However, as he starts heading over, Ozpin grabs his shoulder and says, "I know what you're thinking."

Qrow shrugs before saying, "I don't have a clue what you're talking about."

Winter then notices Qrow out of the corner of her eye. She approaches him and says, "I had heard that you returned."

"Oh? Is that that gonna be a problem?" Qrow asks with sarcasm in his voice.

Winter then pauses before she says, "Thank you for helping my sister during the Grimm attack."

Completely thrown off, Qrow simply says, "It wasn't a big deal…" As this is happening, Ironwood walks up and is pleased there was no incident between these two.

Upon seeing the General approach, Winter stands at attention and says, "Sir. I'm ready to be briefed on the current situation." Upon hearing this, Ozpin gives Ironwood a disapproving look.

Not appreciating the look, Ironwood tells Winter, "Not until we're inside."

"Yes sir" Winter responds as she, Qrow, and Ozpin head to Ozpin's office where Glynda is already waiting.

Once they all arrive, Ozpin sits in his chair and asks Ironwood, "How many people do you plan on bringing in on these meetings?"

"Just Winter" Ironwood answers. "And I trust her wholeheartedly. Besides, the secret is no longer contained to this office since multiple of your teachers as well as at least three teams of your students know of the Grimm."

"As much as I hate to say it Oz, he's got a point" Qrow states, agreeing with Ironwood.

Ozpin sighs before saying, "I can't argue that point. But just her." Ironwood nods in agreement. Winter on the other hand is very confused at "The Grimm" being referred to as a secret. The Grimm are known to every man, woman, and child. So, what could they be talking about? Ozpin then turns to Glynda and tells her, "Make sure no one is listening in on us."

Glynda then checks the office and then the surrounding rooms before returning and telling them, "It's just us now."

"Good" Ozpin responds. He then looks at Ironwood and says, "Go ahead General."

Ironwood looks directly at Winter and says, "There has been a new discovery, and not a good one. Some time ago, a new kind of Dust appeared, and it has had severe consequences. Somehow, the Grimm know to ingest it and once they do, they become bigger, stronger, faster, and they gain the ability to learn."

Stunned at this revelation, Winter responds, "Forgive me sir, but I find this very hard to believe."

"Of course you do, you'd have to be crazy to believe that if you were going off of just being told about it" Qrow comments.

"Of course, we have more than just our word" Ozpin states before he starts playing footage of the incidents.

Upon seeing the footage Winter is even further stunned. However, she then becomes horrified when she sees Weiss fighting the Super Grimm. Upon seeing the look on her face, Ozpin tells her, "I'm afraid your sister's team has been at the forefront of every incident."

"I gave them a lecture, but I don't know what good it did" Qrow tells her.

"We are bringing you in on this due to Ironwood's recommendation. We are counting on you not telling anyone about this" Ozpin tells Winter.

"I would never think of it, sir" Winter tells him.

"Winter, I want you to keep an eye on your father" Ironwood tells her. "As I said, this is being caused by some new kind of Dust and he is a kingpin of the Dust market."

While Winter does not want to believe her father is involved, she knows if it would benefit him, it is possible. She then says, "I accept."

Ozpin then sighs and thinks to himself, "One more matter to take care of."

---

Naruto, Yang, and Blake are conversing with Team JNPR at the fairgrounds. Blake then mentions, "Ruby and Weiss have been gone for a while now." As she says this, Ruby returns to the group.

"So, what was the big deal?" Yang asks her sister.

"Weiss' sister is here" Ruby informs them.

"Hold on, is that the one those Atlas soldiers were scared of getting mad?" Blake asks.

"Yup!" Ruby answers.

"So does she fit the reputation?" Naruto asks, further interrogating Ruby.

"Well, she's definitely stern with Weiss, but you can tell she cares" Ruby further answers.

"I guess that makes sense" Blake comments.

Naruto, who has now walked over to Team JNPR asks, "Did you guys decide who your doubles are gonna be yet?"

"Nora and Pyrrha" Jaune answers.

Naruto makes a false wincing gesture before he says, "I feel bad for whoever has to go up against them."

"That was the idea" Ren comments.

Yang overhears this and tells them, "No hard feelings if I gotta break your faces."

Pyrrha smiles as Nora responds, "No hard feelings if I have to smash you and Weiss into the ground!" Naruto and Ruby look at this interaction and smile.

"It's getting late, we should probably head back to our rooms" Jaune mentions.

"I could definitely use some rest" Blake states.

"Yeah, me too" Ren says in agreement. Naruto and the two teams head back to their dorm rooms. While Team JNPR were able to head to bed, the same could not be said for Team RWBY. And since Naruto's room is past Team RWBY's, he was a part of this interaction as well. As Naruto, Ruby, Yang, and Blake approached Team RWBY's door, they heard part of a conversation and started eavesdropping.

"So, what do you think of the dorm room?" Weiss can be heard asking someone.

"I…honestly thought you were joking about the bunk beds" Winter can be heard answering. Although only Ruby recognizes the voice. "Which one is yours?" Weiss then points out the bottom bunk on the left. Winter then starts inspecting the bed like a drill Sargent and says, "At least the bed itself is up to code." She then looks at the door and says, "The rest of your beds certainly are not." She then opens the door and looks at the eavesdroppers.

Naruto then starts running off, but Yang grabs him and asks, "Where are you going?"

"It's not my room so I have nothing to answer for!" Naruto answers.

"You did eavesdrop" Blake points out. Naruto looks back at her stunned that she called him out. Weiss just facepalms at this whole situation.

Winter, going based off of the descriptions from Weiss' letters, is able to identify Blake and Yang. She then looks at Naruto and asks, "And who might you be?"

"H-he's nobody!" Weiss answers quickly

Naruto hearing this continues to look stunned and says, "Wow Weiss, that hurts." Weiss does feel a little bad, but she does not want Naruto embarrassing her in front of her sister.

"Weiss, I expect a proper answer" Winter tells her in a stern tone.

Weiss straightens up and nervously answers, "H-he's Naruto Uzumaki. One of the best fighters in our class and a friend."

"Why did you hesitate?" Winter further inquires.

"We bicker" Naruto answered.

"I think their friendship is probably similar to yours and Uncle Qrows" Ruby tells Winter. This causes Winter to get a disgusted look on her face.

"Hey, I don't try messing with Weiss out of nowhere!" Naruto exclaims. "She usually does something first, ya know!"

Winter then glares and asks, "Something like what?"

Naruto hesitates to answer, but then Weiss confesses saying, "I was pretty mean to Ruby when we first met…"

Winter pauses before asking Ruby, "Is this true?"

"I mean kinda, yeah…" Ruby says hesitantly. "But it's all water under the bridge now!" Weiss then cringes a little in the background.

"I'm glad to hear that" Winter answers, much to Weiss' relief. "Now, there is one more matter to discuss now that your team is here."

"What is it?" Weiss asks nervously.

"It has been brought to my attention that you have been hunting these new Super Grimm" Winter tells them. Team RWBY collectively groan. Naruto goes to sneak away to try and avoid a lecture but…

Yang grabs him again and tells him, "You were there for all the incidents so you can deal with the lectures too." Naruto just grumbles in response.

"I've also been told you have already been told to stop by Qrow" Winter informs them. "While I agree that you should stop, I want to hear why you all keep looking."

"Someone has too" Blake answers.

"And we've managed to find more of them than anyone else" Yang further explains.

"It's what a true huntress would do" Ruby answers.

"Nobody else has the experience with these Super Grimm that we do" Naruto continues to explain.

"And we're ready to do whatever it takes" Weiss finally answers.

Winter then sighs before turning to Weiss and saying, "I'm not around enough to stop you. So, while I am here, I will be making sure your skills are the best they can be." This causes Weiss to get excited and the mood spreads to her friends. Winter then starts walking away and tells them, "All of you get some rest. Tomorrow will be another big day."

---

It is now the following day which means today is the doubles round. The arena is filled once again with screaming fans. Naruto, Ruby, Blake, and Yang have front row seats for the action. Noticeably absent is Weiss as she is busy getting a short training session from Winter. Sitting right behind Naruto is Team JNPR who are waiting for Pyrrha and Nora to be called. They know they will be in the first match, but they do not know their opponents. The festivities are about to begin.

"Welcome ladies and gentlemen to day two of the Vytal Festival Tournament!" Port happily announces.

"Today will be the doubles round. This is where the teams who won yesterday will choose two of their members to represent them today!" Oobleck explains.

"Aha! And today promises to just as exciting as yesterday's bouts!" Port exclaims. "And we're starting strong today. For in this first match we will be starting with one of Beacon's most incredible upstart teams! Representing Team JNPR, Nora Valkyrie and Pyrrha Nikos!" The crowd starts cheering, especially at the mention of Pyrrha.

Pyrrha and Nora get up and start heading down. Jaune tells them, "I know you two will make us proud."

"Get down there and kick some butt!" Yang tells them. Blake then holds up a tiny flag with Nora and Pyrrha's faces on it.

"Whoa, where'd you get that?" Ruby asks.

"There's a girl named Bess who made it for me. She's the same one who made my Team RWBY flag too" Blake explains. She also shows there is one of Yang and Weiss too.

"Huh…ya know, I wondered where you got that Team RWBY flag but forgot to ask" Naruto comments.

As Pyrrha and Nora have gotten to the ring, Port announces, "And now their opponents! Representing Haven Academy and Team WSBI, Faldin Winchester and Ian Colt!"

Faldin and Ian head to the ring as Faldin says, "Didn't see this coming…" Seeing Faldin and Ian as her opponents, Nora grins in delight. Faldin and Ian look at her with disgust.

Pyrrha looks at the two of them and says, "Normally this would all be friendly competition, which I would appreciate. However…" Pyrrha then pauses and takes a fighting stance. "You tried to bully my friends, so this is personal."

After hearing that, Ian turns to Faldin and says, "Uh, I think we might have messed up if we got Pyrrha Nikos mad at us."

"Oh suck it up" Faldin tells him as he takes out two maces.

"You use a mace too?" Pyrrha comments to Faldin. Team JNPR were absent for WSBI's match against AERO.

"Where do you think he got it from?" Faldin responds to Pyrrha.

Naruto then stands up and shouts, "Kick those Bully's asses!" This starts getting the crowd roaring as they were already predisposed to disliking Team WSBI. The ring roulette then begins and one half lands on a green grass symbol making one half of the ring turn into a simple plain area with just a few hills. The other roulette lands on a snowflake bringing up the ice field that was used when Team RWBY fought Team ABRN.

"3..2..1..begin!" Port says beginning the match. Faldin quickly starts the match by going to strike Nora with his Maces, but Pyrrha kicks Faldin knocking him over. This distracts Ian and Nora nails him with her hammer and he gets sent flying into the green hill section. Faldin then manages to quickly get back up and jump up to block Ian from getting sent out of the ring.

"Hey, get it together!" Faldin yells at Ian. Ian gets back up and shakes the cobwebs loose before readying his revolver daggers. Nora then jumps at them and slams her hammer down. Ian and Faldin seen the damage the hammer can cause so they jump out of the way but in different directions. Pyrrha dashes at Faldin with a tri-slash and follows up with a side kick into shield bash combo. Fladin is knocked off balance by the tri-slash but he still manages to dodge the kick and even blocks the shield bash with one of his maces.

"Well, you're better than your cousin at least" Pyrrha tells Faldin.

"I'm better than you too!" Faldin boasts as he swings at Pyrrha making her take a step back. He then jumps at her and swings both his maces. Pyrrha pivots around the strike and slashes Faldin's legs making him stumble and unable to avoid or block Pyrrha's follow up thrust with her blade which sends him into the ice area. Faldin then puts his two maces together into a powerful rifle and starts firing at Pyrrha.

"Dual wielding blunt weapons that get put together to make a rifle? It's like he's a lamer version of Whiskers!" Yang comments.

Naruto's eye twitches at this comment before he asks her, "So, should I expect to hear a lame version of you cheering for Faldin?"

"There's no such thing as a lame version of me" Yang retorts. This causes the rest of their friends to laugh.

Ian is launching rapid strikes with his daggers. Nora is blocking most of those strikes and dodges a few as well. Having assessed Ian's power, Nora now knows for certain that he cannot overpower her like the Super Beowolf did. Nora then does her newest tactic of side-stepping her opponent while holding her hammer by the very end allowing her to hook Ian onto her hammer. She then begins spinning him around now that she has him hooked. Ian then starts to shout, "Someone help! I'm getting sick…"

Pyrrha sees this happen and then closes the distance between her and Faldin. Faldin keeps firing shots, so Pyrrha switches her spear to rifle mode and fires two shots and then throws her shield where she expects Faldin to dodge. Faldin rolls away from the two shots and right to where Pyrrha threw her shield causing him to get hit and disoriented. Nora then launches Ian right into Faldin and sends them both right to the edge of the ring. As they look up, they both see Nora and Pyrrha mid-attack and they are then both sent out of bounds as well as knocked out.

"Faldin and Ian are out of the ring and unconscious! The winners are Pyrrha Nikos and Nora Valkyrie!" Oobleck announces. The crowd erupts into cheers for their victory. Pyrrha and Nora are all smiles as they return to the friends.

"Great job guys!" Jaune says congratulating his teammates.

"That was very satisfying to watch" Blake tells them.

"Not as satisfying as it was to do!" Nora responds.

"I bet!" Naruto states in agreement.

"Can't wait until my turn now." Yang states.

As the talk between Team JNPR, Naruto, Ruby, Yang, and Blake continue, one of the Beacon staff walks up to Pyrrha and tells her, "The Headmaster would like a word with you." The staff member then continues on their way.

"What do you think Ozpin wants?" Naruto asks.

"Maybe some kind of medal?" Nora guesses.

"I guess I'll see you all later then" Pyrrha tells her friends as she heads to Ozpin's office.

"Moving onto our next bout we have Russel Thrush and Sky Lark versus Penny Polendina and Ciel Soleil!" Oobleck announces.

"I still can't believe those bunch of losers got past the first round" Yang comment.

"Guess they managed to face an even worse team than them" Naruto further comments.

"Luck of the draw really matters" Blake comments as well.

"Wooo! Go Penny!" Ruby shouts.

Yang looks again and notices Penny is the odd girl they met the day Blake disappeared. She then comments, "Oh, it's that weird girl again."

"Hey Ruby, who is that?" Naruto asks.

"Her name's Penny! I'll try to introduce you guys afterwards" Ruby responds.

As Ruby ends her sentence, Port announces, "And that's the match! Penny and Ciel win!"

"That was a quick match…" Blake states in shock.

"When Cardin is your leader what do you expect?" Yang comments.

"That's a good point" Blake acknowledges.

Ren looks over to where Cardin is, and Cardin is simply holding his face in his hands. Ren then comments, "This is quite a bad day for the Winchester family."

"Maybe they'll learn something" Naruto states. This causes all his friends to stare at him and he awkwardly responds, "I said maybe…"

Ruby then stands up and says, "Come on, I'll introduce you all to Penny."

The rest of them look at each other and Jaune says, "Maybe not…"

"Yeah, we wouldn't want to crowd her" Blake says following up on what Jaune said. Ruby gets a disapproving look on her face.

"Whiskers will go" Yang said, volunteering Naruto.

Naruto looks back at Yang in shock and says, "This better not start becoming a thing."

"No promises" Yang responds.

"Then let's go!" Ruby exclaims as she heads to Penny with Naruto in tow. As they get in close, Ruby shouts, "Penny!"

Penny turns and sees Ruby before exclaiming, "Ruby!" Penny then proceeds to tackle-hug Ruby.

"Why…?" Ruby says meekly.

"Wow, didn't know she was a tackle-hugger" Naruto comments as if this is the most normal thing ever.

Penny gets off of Ruby and back onto her feet. She then notices Naruto and asks, "Ruby, who is this?"

Ruby, who is a little dizzy when she gets up says, "This one of my closest friends!"

"Naruto Uzumaki! Nice to meet ya!" Naruto says introducing himself in his usual cheery way.

Penny gives a salute before saying, "May name is Penny Polendina. And this is my teammate!"

"Ciel Soliel" Ciel states before giving a slight formal bow.

Ruby then raises her hand in a greeting manor before starting to say, "Hi! I'm Ru—"

Ciel cuts off Ruby and says, "Ruby Rose. 15. Hails from Patch. Leader of Team RWBY. Status: Questionable."

This leaves Ruby stunned and Naruto sarcastically says, "Aren't you friendly."

Ciel then looks through her scroll and says, "Naruto Uzumaki. Age: 17. Home: Unknown. The first student to have the designation of "Add-in." Status: Suspicious."

Naruto pauses before he says, "I can tell you're gonna be hard to get along with, ya know."

Ruby then whispers to Naruto, "Try to be nice."

Naruto then whispers back, "I said hard not impossible."

Ciel then turns to Penny and says, "Penny? I believe it is best if we move on to our next location."

"Could we have just a minute to talk?" Penny asks. Ciel then checks her watch before nodding and walking off.

"So is she…your friend or...?" Ruby asks in confusion.

"Well, in a way. She's like Blake, but if Blake was ordered to spend time with you" Penny responds.

"Oh. So, Weiss" Ruby comments. This causes Naruto to snicker.

"Precisely" Penny confirms.

Ruby then asks in lowered voice, "Does she know about...ya know…beep boop bop, does not compute?" Ruby then physically imitates a creaky robot.

Naruto pauses thinking he must have misheard Ruby. He then asks, "Ruby, did you just imply Penny's a robot?"

Ruby and Penny both go wide-eyed as Ruby says, "Whaaaaaat? What are you talking about?"

"What's a robot? There are no robots here" Penny says upon Ruby's poor attempt at a cover up. Penny then begins to hiccup uncontrollably.

Naruto then starts laughing and says, "Ruby, we finally found a worse liar than you!"

Seeing that they are caught, Ruby asks in a pleading voice, "Naruto please don't tell anyone!"

"I promise" Naruto says with pure honesty.

Ruby breathes a sigh of relief as she knows Naruto does not go back on his word. Penny is surprised how calm Naruto is by this revelation and asks, "You…are not weirded out by me being a robot?"

Naruto simply shrugs and says, "I've met weirder. Besides, if I can be friends with Weiss then a nice robot won't be an issue. And a friend of Ruby's is a friend of mine!"

Penny smiles hearing this and tells Ruby, "You are lucky to have friends like him."

"Well, you have friends now too" Ruby points out. Ruby was already her friend and Naruto just agreed to be her friend as well.

"That is actually part of what I wanted to talk to you about" Penny informs Ruby. She then looks both ways and whispers, "I want to stay at Beacon."

Ruby has a worried look on her face as she responds, "Penny, they'll never let you do that."

This causes Penny to frown before she dawns a mischievous grin and says, "I know, but I have a plan."

Ciel then walks back up and says, "Penny it's past the minute you requested."

Naruto then whispers to Penny, "Let us know if you need help." Penny then smiles and waves at them as she walks off with Ciel. Ruby waves Penny off as well before Naruto turns to her and says, "You really gotta work on your discretion…"

Ruby then slumps over and replies, "I know…"

"To be fair to the kid, she probably only felt fine talking about the robot girl's secret because it was specifically you that was standing there" Kurama said, putting his two cents in. "She trusts you more than pretty much anyone."

Naruto recognizes that and starts to feel a little bad that he is lying to everyone about who he is. He breaks himself of these thoughts and says, "We should head back. Yang and Weiss' match should be starting soon."

"We definitely can't miss that!" Ruby states as they head back to their seats.

---

While the rest of her friends went to the arena, Weiss went off to have her private training session with her sister Winter. Winter is trying to teach Weiss to use the ultimate power of their glyphs, Summoning. Unlike most Semblances, Schnees inherit theirs. They all use glyphs and most importantly Summonings. Weiss is trying her best but is struggling.

"Your form with your blade is excellent" Winter says complimenting her sister. "But your commitment when using your power seems to be waning."

"I've been focusing more on pure melee combat lately…" Weiss admits.

"Why in the world would you do that?" Winter questions.

"That…" Weiss states struggling to admit she was being coached by Naruto.

"Out with it!" Winter demands.

"Naruto was coaching our team for the tournament, and he told me to focus on training my normal combat abilities" Weiss confesses.

"He was coaching you?" Winter asks surprised.

"He doesn't have a team so he couldn't participate" Weiss explains. "I didn't think he was good enough either, but he beat me in a duel, so I relented."

Hearing this, Winter is surprisingly calm about her sister getting coached by another student. She simply asks, "Why did he think you needed work on fighting with your blade?"

"It's not that my skills were lacking, it's that he didn't want me relying on my Semblance as much" Weiss informs her sister.

Winter gets confused and says, "Something clearly must have happened for that thought to have occurred."

Knowing better than to try and lie to her sister, Weiss confesses, "During the midterms I burnt through my Aura before I could beat all the Grimm…"

"I see…" Winter states. She now understands that Naruto's advice was well thought out, even though she disagreed.

"He said what I needed was to increase my Aura levels, but there wasn't enough time before the tournament to do that" Weiss further explains.

"He was correct about that" Winter states. "But I am not training you for the tournament. I am training you for the battles against those Super Grimm that I know you will be too stubborn to avoid." Weiss nods and gets back to trying to manifest a summon. However, she starts seeing all her mistakes she has made against the Super Grimm and the summon fails. Winter notices the hesitation and shouts, "Stop doubting yourself!"

"I'm trying! But…" Weiss says hesitantly.

"Then you must try harder!" Winter tells her. "This isn't about some silly tournament. From the footage I saw, you are fighting battles for which you are clearly not ready." Weiss then recalls the painful injuries she received when fighting the Super Grimm. Winter notices the look in Weiss' eyes and guesses what is going through her mind. Making Weiss worry about herself is not cutting it. So, Winter decides to take a different approach. "I imagine you received a number of injuries in these battles, haven't you?" Weiss simply nods. Winter then asks, "What is going to happen when one of your friends gets injured and you are the only one who might be able to save them?"

Weiss's eyes go wide at the thought. She recalls the battle against Roman and the two Super Boarbatusks. She recalls when Ruby was about to be attacked by one of the Boarbatusks and Naruto pushed her out of the way taking the hit. Would she have been able to do the same if she was in Naruto's spot? She certainly cannot take the blows that Naruto can. And she has no means of restraining one of those Grimm on her own. The way she is now will not cut it. She then says, "I'll save them and that's all there is to it." Weiss then tries again, and a blue energy streak surrounds her. At first this makes the glyph expand and what seems like a hand starts to reach out. However, the glyph becomes unstable and explodes sending Weiss flying.

"What was that?" Winter questions as she runs over to her sister.

"Oww…" Weiss groans as she sits up. "I thought I was getting it too…"

"Weiss, what was that you just did?" Winter questions.

"What are you talking about?" Weiss questions back. "I was trying to do a summon."

"I was referring to the blue streak that was around you" Winter informs her.

"Blue streak?" Weiss says, clearly unaware there was one. Her eyes then widen when she remembers Ruby had a blue streak when she attacked that Super Grimm. She does not want to tell her sister though, so she does not say another word.

Winter takes her silence to mean she is scared. She helps Weiss to her feet and says, "Whatever it was, it will have to wait. Your match will be starting soon."

Weiss checks the time and sees she has 20 minutes to get to the arena. She looks at her sister and says, "You'll be gone when I get back, won't you?"

"Yes. I have…another mission to attend to" Winter tells her sister. Weiss looks very disappointed to hear this. Winter then tells her, "I'll likely be able to watch your match from the ship. I expect to see great work out there." Weiss smiles from hearing this and heads off.

---

Yang and Weiss are standing in the ring ready for their match to begin. Yang stretches while she says excitedly, "Well, now it's our turn!"

"Just remember to keep proper form" Weiss says trying to keep up a brave face. She is still a little shaken from what happened when she tried to summon.

Yang let's out a slight chuckle before responding, "Alright. You're from Atlas. What could we expect?"

"Well, seeing as their Kingdom, academy and armed forces are all merged as one, I think we can expect strict, militant fighters with advanced technology and carefully rehearsed strategies" Weiss answers with confidence. Then a female Faunus with roller blades and a pink cat tail rides behind them with a literal rainbow following her. On closer inspection she has reddish-orange hair in pigtails with neon blue highlights in the front and turquoise eyes. In terms of clothing, her outfit is even more outrageous in terms of color than Nora. She has a blue tank top over a visible dark purple bra, dark purple short-shorts under a pink mini-skirt, and almost too many accessories to count. This is Neon Katt. She comes to a stop next to her teammate who is far less crazily dressed, although arguably as much style. He has dark skin with dark brown eyes. He wears sunglasses and a black fedora hat with blue trim. He is also wearing a black vest over an untucked white dress shirt and an untied tie wrapped around his collar. His pants are dark striped dress pants and silver dress shoes. This is Flynt Coal. Upon seeing these two, Weiss simply responds, "Or whatever they are."

"Hey!" Flynt calls out addressing Weiss. "You Weiss Schnee, right? The heiress."

Weiss bows her head before responding, "I am."

"I take it you're pretty good with Dust, then?" Flynt assumes.

Trying for the first time to be humble, Weiss answers, "I do my best."

"Yeah, my dad was good too. Owned a little Dust shop of his own" Flynt starts to say before shifting his tone to one with aggression. "Till your father's company ran him out of business."

"Oh…" Weiss responds, clearly ashamed. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Sure you are" Flynt says dismissively.

"Hey! Why don't you—" Yang starts to say speaking up for her friend.

"Hey! Why don't you?" Neon says in the most annoying way possible. "That's what you sound like!"

"Uh..." Yang let's out, not sure how to respond to that.

"Hey! Where'd you get your hair extensions?" Neon asks seemingly with a different tone.

"This is just my normal hair" Yang answers, still thrown off.

"Ooh, really?" Neon responds in a disappointed tone.

Starting to get annoyed, Yang responds, "Yeah! Is that a prob—"

Neon cuts Yang off and completely changed topics saying, "You should try rollerblading sometime! It's super fun! It'd probably take you a while, though, since you're so...you know, top-heavy."

"…Oh no" Naruto states. He looks at Ruby sigh as they both knows this won't go well.

"Excuse me!?" Yang indignantly shouts. The arena then starts to shift as the combatants get ready.

"3…2…1…begin!" Port says, starting the match. Flynt blows his trumpet which let's out a sonic wave that disorients Yang and Weiss. Neon, thanks to her roller blades, gets boosted forward by the sonic waves. Weiss uses a glyph to keep herself in place while Neon sends Yang tumbling back. Flynt sends more sonic waves at Weiss and Weiss in turn uses a gravity glyph to keep her from flying back and even takes a few steps forward. Flynt then lets up and this causes Weiss to go rushing forward and allows him to catch her with a kick to her back as she goes flying past him. Meanwhile Yang is firing her projectiles at Neon who is avoiding them as she skates away and sticks her tongue out to taunt Yang with a raspberry. Yang continues to get more and more annoyed before Neon starts hitting Yang with hit and run strikes. Yang tries to hit Neon with a lariat, but Neon manages to dodge and freeze Yang's leg with the ice Dust with her glowstick nunchaku.

As Yang checks her frozen leg, Neon taunts Yang further saying, "Look! Now you're bottom heavy too!" Yang gets more annoyed and frees herself of the ice on her leg. Neon however continues her hit and run tactics and freezes Yang's arm. Neon then says, "You should cool off! Get it? 'Cuz you're angry." Yang slams her fist against one of the walls breaking it and the ice. Naruto sees this and facepalms.

"I thought you and Yang were working on that?" Blake asks.

"She was making progress but still needed a lot of work" Naruto admits.

"And she's never fought someone this deliberately annoying" Ruby further clarifies. Yang then jumps towards Neon but Neon managed to freeze her leg again. Yang finally snaps as fire enters her Aura along with a hard to see blue streak. She slams her foot on the ground again, but this time cracking apart most of the ring. Ruby is sitting there mouth agape as she asks, "How did she do that?"

"My word…" Oobleck says in shock as he adjusts his glasses. Neon gets very intimidated but tried to hide it.

Flynt and Weiss were in a struggle of sonic versus wind when the cracks happened. They both fall over, but Weiss is able to get up quicker and hits Flynt with a dashing thrust. Flynt goes flying back and this is when Weiss notices a weakness in Flynt, his skills all require distance. Weiss then makes a series of Glyphs and races over to him. Flynt uses his Semblance to split himself into four and launches another Sonic wave, but Weiss is able to bounce off her glyphs to avoid the wave and manages knock one Flynt into the other four, seeming to undo the Semblance. Weiss then slashes Flynt three times and kicks him into a rising burst of flame from the ring.

Yang is still struggling to get Neon, but she manages to take a breath and think. Naruto notices this and smiles. Yang thinks to herself, "Okay, the girl looks pretty frail, probably why she's avoiding me at all costs. I'm definitely not frail…so this could work!" Yang runs forward and jumps at Neon again.

Neon gets out of the way and says, "Guess what they say about blondes and being dumb is true!" Yang's eye starts to twitch but she forces herself to stay calm. She is slow to get up and Neon takes this as an opening. What Neon did not know is that this was bait. Neon does hit Yang in the leg and freeze her to the ground, but Yang managed to grab Neon by the tail and stop her in her tracks. Neon looks back to see Yang with a sinister smile.

Yang breaks the ice before she says, "Who's dumb now?!" Yang then punches Neon sending her flying. Flynt is starting to get up but then gets clobbered by the incoming Neon. As they are both weakened and on the floor, Weiss pins them with gravity Dust while Yang comes in and clobbers them both out of the ring.

"The winners are Weiss Schnee and Yang Xaio Long!" Port announces.

"I hate to admit it, but Naruto's training came in handy in this one" Weiss admits.

"You're telling me!" Yang states.

"We lost? We lost?!" Neon is shouting in shock. "Team FNKI lost?! That was…that was…amazing!" Yang and Weiss look confused at this. "Oh my gosh, you guys were super crazy awesome! Especially when you broke the ring!" Yang looks a little embarrassed. "We should definitely party together some time! Right Flynt?"

Flynt starts getting up and says, "You completely schooled me there Schnee. You saw my weak point and showed you're definitely not. I dig it." As this is happening, Naruto, Ruby, and Blake run up to congratulate Yang and Weiss.

"Way to go you two!" Ruby exclaims.

"I was starting to think that Flynt had you" Blake tells Weiss.

"He might have if we kept exchanging Dust abilities like we were" Weiss responds. She then looks down at one of the cracks and says, "Luckily this put a stop to that."

Naruto looks at Yang and asks, "You okay after that?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Although I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little concerned. This is the second time I broke something like this" Yang admits.

"What are you talking about?" Blake asks.

"Back when we were fighting on that train, I found Yang in a completely busted up train car" Naruto tells them. "But hey, at least it wasn't someone's face."

Yang smiles and then says, "Come on, I could use a bite to eat after that."

---

While the match was going on, Pyrrha made it to Ozpin's office. She enters the room and says, "I was told you wanted to see me?"

Ozpin turns around in his chair and says, "That is correct."

"Is something wrong?" Pyrrha asks concerned.

"Yeah, you could definitely say that" Qrow says leaning against the wall.

"You're Ruby and Yang's uncle, right?" Pyrrha asks. "I never got to thank you for helping us out."

"Don't mention it" Qrow tells her. He then thinks to himself, "You won't be thanking any of us after today…"

"Please, take a seat" Ozpin requests of Pyrrha. She does so before Ozpin asks, "What is your favorite fairy tale?"

"I'm...sorry?" Pyrrha asks, confused at the seemingly random question.

"Fairy tales, stories from your childhood. Surely you must remember some of them" Ozpin clarifies.

Still thrown off, Pyrrha answers, "Well, there's The Tale of The Two Brothers, The Shallow Sea, The Girl in the Tower..."

"What about The Story of the Seasons?" Ozpin asks.

"Well, of course!" Pyrrha answers as she begins to tell the tale. "A callous old man, who refuses to leave his home, is visited by four traveling sisters. The first understands his reclusive nature and urges him to use his time in solitude to reflect and meditate. The second brings him fruits and flowers, tending to his crops and revitalizing his garden. The third warms the man's heart, convincing him to step outside and embrace the world around him. And the fourth and final sister begs him to look at all that he has and be thankful. In return for their kindness, the man grants the maidens incredible powers, so that they may continue to help others all over the world. They graciously accept and promise to share their gifts with the people of Remnant until the end of days. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall; the four maidens. My mother loves that story."

"Would you believe me if I told you that one's been around since I was a boy?" Ozpin tells her as if that should seem impressive.

Pyrrha laughs and says, "You're not that old, Professor."

"Well, would you believe me if I told you it was true?" Ozpin asks.

Pyrrha pauses before saying, "I beg your pardon?"

"What if I were to tell you that there were four maidens existing in this world, that could wield such tremendous power, without Dust?" Ozpin asks, knowing full well the answer.

"You mean...like a Semblance?" Pyrrha asks, trying to explain it the only way she knows.

"Like Magic" Ozpin answers nonchalantly.

Pyrrha is stunned at his answer and Qrow says, "Yeah. First time hearing it's pretty crazy."

Seeing Qrow and Ozpin both have serious faces, Pyrrha questions, "Why...why are you telling me this?"

Ozpin looks at Qrow who simply nods and says, "We are telling you this, Pyrrha Nikos, because we believe that you are next in line to receive the Fall Maiden's powers."

Pyrrha becomes perplexed and asks, "We"? That is when Glynda and Ironwood reveal themselves.

"Sorry we're late" Ironwood apologizes.

"Wait, what is this? Who are you?" Pyrrha asks in concern.

Glynda does her best to reassure Pyrrha saying, "You know who we are. We're still the same teachers and Headmasters you met when you arrived at Beacon."

"Except we've got a little part-time job" Qrow adds

"We are the protectors of this world" Ironwood clarifies.

"And we need your help" Ozpin finishes up. They then lead Pyrrha into the elevator who looks quite concerned about the whole situation.

"Where are we going?" Pyrrha asks.

"The vault. Under the school" Ozpin answers. After a few minutes, they come out to a dark hallway, and they all start walking.

"I'm sure you must have questions" Glynda says to Pyrrha. Glynda knows she has to be overwhelmed.

"Maybe one, or two..." Pyrrha says nervously. "I still don't understand. You said I was next in line to receive the Maiden's power. What do you mean by that?"

"The Maidens have existed for thousands of years. But much like in nature, the seasons change" Glynda starts to explain. "No two summers are alike. When a Maiden dies, her power leaves her body and seeks out a new host, ensuring that the seasons are never lost, and that no individual can hold on to that power forever."

"So, how does the power choose?" Pyrrha asked as anyone would.

"Through a series of stupid and convoluted rules" Qrow answers in an irritated voice.

"Qrow" Glynda tells him in her usual manner.

"Hey, don't get mad 'cause I'm right" Qrow responds.

Glynda goes back to explaining to Pyrrha and says, "At first, the only thing that was certain was that the powers were specifically passed on to young women. But as time went on, it was discovered that the selection process was much more...intimate."

"Intimate?" Pyrrha questions.

"As we understand it now, when a Maiden dies, the one who is in her final thoughts is the first candidate to inherit her power" Glynda explains.

"Unless it's a dude or some old hag. Then the power goes to someone random, and our job gets a lot harder" Qrow clarifies.

"Why tell me all of this now? Why not wait until I've graduated?" Pyrrha asks.

"Honestly we'd rather not have to tell you at all" Qrow tells her. "But things have gotten more complicated."

Pyrrha wonders what he could mean, until she comes to the most rational conclusion as she asks, "The Super Grimm?"

"Give the lady a gold star" Qrow quips. "Yeah, those new Grimm changed everything. You seen it yourself. A Nevermore got enhanced and tore through Ironwood's ships like paper." Pyrrha recalls they all barely made it out alive during the last attack.

"So, we need the Maiden's power now more than ever" Ironwood states.

"We can fill you in on the details once we know that you're with us." Qrow says ending that current conversation. "For now, all you need to know is that one of the Maidens has been attacked. And for the first time in history, part of her power was stolen."

Pyrrha then comes to a stop as she sees a young woman unconscious inside a pod and says, "Is that..."

Ozpin let's out a sigh before saying, "The current Fall Maiden, Amber."

Pyrrha looks close and says, "She's...still alive."

"For now. We're using state of the art Atlas technology to keep her stable" Ironwood explains. "But there is a lot about this situation that is...unprecedented."

"What do you mean?" Pyrrha asks.

"Well, we don't know what will happen if— when she passes" Ironwood answers.

"Won't her power...just transfer to the next host?" Pyrrha questions.

"Under normal circumstances, yes. But this is a delicate situation" Ironwood clarifies. "It's not uncommon for the last thoughts of the slain to be of their attacker. And to make matters worse, no one's ever seen the power split like this before. For all we know, it will seek out its other half."

"Her assailant…" Pyrrha says now understanding the problem.

"If we lost the Maiden with these new unprecedently powerful Grimm at our doorstop, there may be no stopping them" Ozpin states.

Pyrrha, after taking in all this information gets a little upset and asks. "If all of this is true, why keep it secret!? If this girl is so important...if we're truly on the brink of destruction, why not tell everyone?"

"From what we understand, it used to be common knowledge" Glynda answers.

Surprised, Pyrrha says, "Excuse me?"

"How do you think legends and fairy tales get started? Even the craziest ones come from somewhere" Qrow states as he takes a swig from his flask.

"Our group was founded in order to protect both mankind and the Maidens. Those hungry for power hunted them with the hope of inheriting their strength" Glynda starts explaining.

"And as you can imagine, the ones that succeeded weren't exactly the kind of people you'd want to have unimaginable power" Qrow elaborates.

"And so, this brotherhood chose to remove the Maidens from the public eye, allowing their existence to fade away into legend" Ironwood finishes explaining.

"The things we're telling you go against hundreds of years of human history, religion" Ozpin tells her.

"No one would want to believe us. It would cause an uproar" Ironwood further adds.

"It would cause panic. And we all know what that would bring clawing to our Kingdom's walls" Ozpin further elaborates. "Which is why we would like to..."

"I'll do it" Pyrrha says before Ozpin can even finish, surprising them all. "If you believe that this will help humanity then I will become your Fall Maiden." She then looks at all their concerned faces and asks, "That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"It is, but I'm afraid it's not that simple" Ozpin hesitantly starts to explain. "Given Amber's condition, you won't be able to inherit her power naturally. However, General Ironwood believes he has a solution."

"For the past few years, Atlas has been studying Aura from a more scientific standpoint; how it works, what's it made of, how it can be used" Ironwood starts to explain, "We've made significant strides. And we believe we've found a way to capture it."

"Capture it and cram it into something else" Qrow elaborates. He then gestures towards Pyrrha saying, "Or in your case..."

"That's..." Pyrrha starts to say.

"Classified" Ironwood states.

"Wrong!" Pyrrha shouts, showing her displeasure.

Glynda glares at Ironwood and says, "The feeling is mutual. But desperate times call for desperate measures."

"We don't expect you to give us your answer now" Ozpin tells Pyrrha. "But time is short, so I expect your answer by the end of the festival. I suggest you take care of any unfinished or personal matters before you make your decision."

Hearing this, Pyrrha starts walking back to the elevator full of conflicting thoughts.

---

Pyrrha is making her way through the fair grounds unable to get what she just learned out of her head. She then spots her team and other friends hanging out over by one of the food stands. She stares at Jaune and thinks about what Ozpin told her about unfinished business. "Should I finally tell him how I feel?" Pyrrha questions to herself. "No, I can't tell him now! Not with everything else going through my mind at the moment…" She then looks at Naruto who is in some kind of argument with Ren. Likely video game related. She then remembers that she and Naruto are at one win a piece. When it comes to combat, she will feel far more at ease than trying to confess her feelings. She then thinks, "If I decide to link myself to the Fall Maiden, being able to have friendly sparring matches will likely become impossible. If I'm going to settle things with Naruto, this may be my last chance." She then walks over to her friends.

"Hey Pyrrha!" Jaune said, greeting his teammate. "So, what did Ozpin want?"

Pyrrha tires to think of a cover up that sounds plausible before saying. "I had offers from other schools wanting me to transfer."

"You better not be leaving!" Nora quickly objects.

Pyrrha laughs at this response and says, "I would never!" She then looks over to Naruto and walks up to him.

"Huh? What's going on?" Naruto asks.

"Since we can't face each other in the tournament, I want to have our rubber match now" Pyrrha tells him.

"Uh, this is kinda sudden…" Naruto comments.

"I'll say…" Yang says, shocked at the suddenness.

"Please! This is really important to me…" Pyrrha pleads.

Naruto does not understand why this is suddenly such a big deal, but he says. "Okay!"

Seeing Pyrrha's sudden desperateness, Jaune, Ren, and Nora become concerned. As they all head to the clearing JNPR uses for practice, Jaune asks Pyrrha, "Pyrrha? Are you sure you're okay?"

Pyrrha has her weapons ready and takes her stance before telling Jaune, "I'm fine."

"Okay Whiskers! Go get that win!" Yang tells Naruto. Naruto nods with a smile.

"It feels like we're about to watch the championship fight despite the fact that we just left the arena" Blake comments.

"Considering Naruto and Pyrrha are the two best fighters in the class I guess you're right" Weiss says in agreement.

"You got this Naruto!" Ruby shouts.

Despite how concerned they are, Pyrrha's teammates get in support of her as Jaune shouts, "No one can beat you!"

"Go kick his blonde butt!" Nora shouts.

"We're with you all the way!" Ren shouts as well.

"I'm not going to hold anything back and I expect the same from you" Pyrrha tells Naruto.

Naruto puts Orange Spark in dual staff mode and says, "I'd never insult you like that, ya know!"

Naruto and Pyrrha stand across from each other, eyes full of focus. After ten seconds they rush each other. Pyrrha does a sliding slash and Naruto jumps over it. Pyrrha gets to her feet and attempts a dashing tri-slash. Naruto blocks the tri-slash with his staffs before doing a rising front kick making Pyrrha back up. He then does a double horizontal swing with his staffs coming from the left and then follows it up with a spinning double swing. Pyrrha ducks the first double swing and blocks the second with her shield before doing a leaping thrust with her spear. Naruto blocks the thrust with one of this staffs before swinging with his other staff. Pyrrha blocks that swing with her shield and they start pushing against each other.

"Whoa…Pyrrha really isn't pulling her punches" Jaune comments.

"She requested this match so she better not" Ren follows up.

"Pyrrha! Mess him up!" Nora shouts.

"Come on, Whiskers! Show her who the best is!" Yang cheers.

Naruto does a leg sweep, but Pyrrha leaps forward over the leg sweep and thrusts her spear. Naruto bends back to avoid the thrust and then Pyrrha puts her shield on her back to wield her spear with both hands. Naruto swings one of his staffs at her head which she ducks. He goes to swing at her again, but she turns her back making Naruto's staff hit her shield and she then thrusts her spear behind her. Naruto did not expect that, so he gets hit. He then rapidly starts attacking and Pyrrha grabs her shield again as she knows she will need it to deal with Naruto's onslaught. He attacks with four swings from his staffs and Pyrrha blocks the first three before she tries to counter the fourth with her spear and then changes it to sword mode and doing a horizontal slash. Naruto weaves his head out of the way of the spear thrust and backs off before he is hit by the sword slash.

Naruto then rushes back in to continue the exchange and Pyrrha manages to parry one of his staff swings, but Naruto does a back spin and backswings his other staff hitting Pyrrha in the chin causing her to stagger back. Naruto then presses the assault by throwing one of his staffs at her and she parries it. Naruto swings his other staff and she blocks it. He then drops his staff and starts throwing punches now that he is this close to her. Pyrrha dodges well but he lands a knee to her sternum and then kicks her into the air. Seeing this, Jaune holds his back thinking how much that much that must have hurt. While she is airborne, Naruto grabs her by the ankles and does a leaping flipping throw. This causes Pyrrha to crash into the ground hard and gets the wind knocked completely out of her. Now struggling to catch her breath, Pyrrha's eyes widen when she sees Naruto come down with an axe kick. She manages to roll away in time and jumps back; though not far as she is still catching her breath.

"That throw was great!" Ruby shouts.

"I haven't seen him use that before" Blake comments.

"He always seems to have new moves" Yang further comments.

As Naruto retrieves Orange Spark, he thinks to himself, "I'd like to use Spear Mode, but Pyrrha's got way more skill and experience than me with one so that's asking for trouble."

"Her Semblance also makes the added metal an even bigger advantage for her. Especially when she has no issues using her Semblance on you" Kurama comments.

"That's a good point" Naruto replies to Kurama as he retrieves his second staff.

Pyrrha is now in a defensive stance and has caught her breath. She thinks to herself, "Perhaps I'll take a page out of his book: relentless attacks. I can't keep it up for as long as he can, but as long as I get two or three good hits in…"

Team RWBY continues to cheer for Naruto as Jaune, Ren, and Nora cheer for Pyrrha. Naruto starts to stance up, but he is caught off guard when Pyrrha rushes him throwing an overhead slash, horizontal slash. A roundhouse kick towards his head, a spinning back swing with her shield and then spins the other way with her shield. Naruto side steps the overhead slash and blocks the horizontal one, but he gets knocked back by the kick. He manages to duck the backswing of her shield, but he gets nailed in the head by the front swing. This allows Pyrrha to land a thrust with her blade and a front kick.

"Yeah! She's kicking his butt!" Nora shouts with glee.

"Naruto, get it together!" Ruby shouts.

Jaune, who's worry has subsided because of how engrossed he is in this fight, yells out, "She's got this!"

"Naruto! You gotta regroup!" Yang yells out.

Naruto manages to jump back and thinks, "I never expected this from her…"

"She knows she can't use her usual tactics against you" Kurama tells him.

Pyrrha runs at Naruto and continues her assault. However, Naruto was not caught off guard this time and meets her attacks with his own. Unfortunately for Pyrrha, Naruto's attacks are stronger and faster, so he starts overwhelming her assault with his own. He lands a hit to her right side with Orange Spark, a follow up hit to the side of her head, and then punches at her face. She manages to guard up against the punch, but she is sent back and is now on one knee panting.

Nora is extremely hyped by this and says, "Please tell me someone brought popcorn!"

"I don't think so" Blake answered, much to Nora's disappointment.

"Pyrrha's starting to look cornered" Weiss comments.

"It would look that way to most people" Ren retorts.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asks.

"She hasn't used her Semblance" Jaune explains.

"But he's not using metal" Ruby points out.

"But she is!" Nora says excitedly.

Pyrrha thrusts forward in spear mode and Naruto parries it. Pyrrha then throws her shield which Naruto dodges, but he keeps an eye on the shield recalling their last fight. However, Pyrrha also remembers their last fight and counted on Naruto watching the shield as she uses her Semblance to retrieve his kunai and bring it to her open hand. She then does a double dashing slash which cleanly hit Naruto. She then does multiple slashes with her sword, all of which Naruto dodges, but she then she then steps in with a thrust from the kunai and he barely weaves his body out of the way. Pyrrha then drops the kunai and brings her shield back, hitting Naruto with it in the process. This allows her to land a slash with her sword and an overhead strike with her shield right on Naruto's head. This causes Naruto to land on his back, his Aura to flicker, and his head to bleed.

"I never would have thought of that tactic…" Jaune states in awe.

"That's why Pyrrha is the best" Weiss comments.

"Don't count Naruto out yet" Blake also comments.

"She's right. Naruto has his own trump card" Ren mentions.

"And it's a big one" Yang comments, knowing how strong Naruto's Semblance is.

Naruto sits up before wiping the blood off his head and entering Aura Sage Mode. He then says, "This is it, nothing left to be held back!"

Pyrrha smiles as she uses her Semblance to send Naruto's kunai flying at him before she rushes in. Naruto catches the kunai and then Pyrrha uses her Semblance to jerk the arm holding the kunai to the side breaking his guard and allowing her to strike with her blade. Naruto guards with his other arm, but due to his position it is a poor guard and his arm gets knocked out of the way as he gets hit with a shield bash. Naruto, however, stands his ground and kicks Pyrrha in the gut before landing two clean punches to her jaw; one from each arm. Her Aura flickers as she is now using her Semblance more than usual and she has taken a number of hits from Naruto. She then thinks to herself, "I can't beat Naruto in terms of stamina, so I need to do something that will put the advantage back in my court." She analyzes their past encounters and then realizes her greatest advantage over Naruto. Naruto has Orange Spark in dual staff mode and attacks Pyrrha with four rapid staff swings and Pyrrha defends against each one. Pyrrha then jumps back as far as she can before changing her blade to rifle mode and fires multiple shots. Naruto dodges them and jumps at Pyrrha. She then uses her Semblance and Naruto plummets to the ground.

"What?!" Ruby exclaims.

"Wha…what just happened?" Weiss questions.

"Whiskers, get up!" Yang yells.

As Naruto tries to get up, Pyrrha lands a dashing tri-slash and kicks Naruto in the jaw. Naruto tries to move again, but Pyrrha keeps him pinned with her Semblance and lands two shield bashes before Naruto swings with his left hand and Pyrrha backs up.

"What is going on?" Ren asks confused.

"Keep it up Pyrrha!" Nora shouts, happy to see Pyrrha winning. Ruby on the other hand is starting to get concerned.

Jaune's eyes widen as he says, "I get it."

"What is it?" Blake asks.

"It's Naruto's right arm" Jaune explains. It then dawns on everyone that Naruto's right arm is a prosthetic full of metal parts.

"As long as he has that arm, he doesn't stand a chance" Weiss states.

"So Pyrrha's a perfect counter for him" Blake comments.

"Don't give up!" Yang yells.

"You can still win!" Ruby yells as well.

Naruto looks down at his arm and says, "Sorry Hesta." Naruto then throws off his coat and detaches his right arm. Pyrrha is caught off guard by this and gets hit by an incoming kick making her stumble back. Pyrrha then gets an idea. She puts her shield on her back before she runs past Naruto, much to his surprise, and picks up Naruto's dual staffs and kunai. Naruto can't help but ask, "What are you doing?"

"I've seen you do it enough times to figure out how it works" Pyrrha responds. She puts Orange Spark back together and then into spear mode. She then puts her own weapon into spear mode so she is now dual wielding spears.

Naruto is shocked by this and says, "You're never out of options, ya know."

"My fights with you have driven my skills and fighting mind past what I thought possible" Pyrrha says, full of appreciation.

"I...I'm in complete awe…" Weiss states truthfully.

"I don't care what anyone says…" Yang starts to say.

"This is the best fight we've ever seen!" Nora exclaimed, finished Yang's thought.

"Come on, Pyrrha!" Jaune shouts.

"You still got this Naruto!" Ruby shouts.

"Time to bring it home Whiskers!" Yang shouts.

"Show everyone why you're the best Pyrrha!" Nora shouts.

"I don't know who to root for anymore…" Weiss states.

"Just cheer in general" Blake tells her.

Naruto takes a deep breath to stay focused and tells Pyrrha, "Let's end this!"

"Gladly!" Pyrrha responds as she does a leaping thrust with Orange Spark and then swings Milo. Naruto dodges both strikes and then jumps at Pyrrha before doing multiple aerial kicks. Pyrrha hops back from the kicks and then does a spinning sweeping slash with Orange Spark and then follows up with three more spinning wide slashes, each higher up than the last one. Naruto manages to flawlessly dodge each one before Pyrrha throws Orange Spark at him. He side steps out of the way and goes to retrieve his weapon, but Pyrrha leaps and thrusts at him with Milo making him step back. Then in one fluid motion, she reclaims Orange Spark and does a backwards spinning wide slash which catches Naruto in the cheek.

Naruto's Aura blunts most of the damage, but he does get cut a little. He then smirks and rushes back in. Pyrrha swings Milo at him but Naruto slides under it and he is now too close for Pyrrha to use Orange Spark, so she tries to jump away. Naruto manages to grab her foot while sliding and trip Pyrrha up. This allows Naruto to jump at Pyrrha and punch her in the back. She stumbles forward but turns around taking a defensive stance. She thinks to herself, "Naruto is already getting used to this new fighting style of mine. On top of that my Aura is running on fumes. I need to end this now…"

Pyrrha jumps forward and does a thrust from Orange Spark and then two follow up thrusts from Milo. Naruto side steps the first thrust and weaves the other two before throwing a punch to Pyrrha's sternum and follows up with a side kick. Pyrrha side steps the punch and spins around the kick before swinging Orange Spark upwards. Naruto bends back to dodge it when Pyrrha throws Milo and it catches Naruto on the shoulder, but Naruto then lands a gut punch on Pyrrha that shatters her Aura. However, Pyrrha stands her ground and hits Naruto with a knee strike to his head and then thrusts Orange Spark into him dead center, knocking him over and making him close to losing his own Aura. As Pyrrha retrieves Milo, Naruto runs and retrieves his arm. He then says, "Now that your Aura's gone, I don't have to worry about that pinning trick of yours…"

Pyrrha is panting and she knows her chances do not look good. But she is also smiling as she motions for Naruto to come at her. Naruto rushes in and starts throwing blow after blow. Four one-two punches, a scissor-kick, a right cross, and then a leaping axe kick. Pyrrha manages to dodge the first three set of punches but has to guard against the fourth. She then guards against the scissor-kick and barely dodges the right cross. Having lost her Aura, her movements are getting slower and slower. The axe kick completely breaks her stance allowing Naruto to grab Orange Spark, kick Pyrrha in the gut making her let go of it, and say, "I'm taking this back!" He configures Orange Spark back into dual staff mode while Pyrrha grabs her shield from her back.

Pyrrha is barely standing but is doing her best to hide it. Naruto jumps in doing multiple spinning swings with his staffs. Pyrrha blocks them all, but each one knocks her more off balance. Naruto does not let up and does a downward swing which succeeds in knocking her completely off balance. He then kicks her dead center before sweeping her legs and kicking her into the air. Naruto then jumps up with her and hits her back down with a double downward swing from both of his staffs, causing the sound of bone cracking to be heard. Pyrrha hits the ground hard and is completely knocked out. Naruto then falls onto his butt and starts catching his breath.

"He did it!" Ruby shouts.

Yang tackle-hugs Naruto and says, "I knew you had it in you!" This makes Naruto get a huge grin.

Jaune, Nora, and Ren are checking on Pyrrha as Ren asks, "How is she?"

"She's pretty banged up, but nothing serious" Jaune tells them.

Pyrrha starts regaining consciousness and asks, "I…lost?"

"Yeah…" Jaune confirms, not sure what else to say.

Much to her team's surprise, Pyrrha gets a big smile of her own as she looks over to Naruto and says, "I gave you everything I had, but still lost."

Clearly tired, Naruto responds, "Yeah, but I thought I was screwed when you pinned my arm down."

Now that things have calmed down, Jaune asks, "Pyrrha? What was this all about?"

"You know…I don't really remember" Pyrrha tells them.

"We did hit each other in the head a few times…" Naruto comments. This causes laughter among the group of friends.

"It was worth it! That fight was wild!" Nora exclaims.

"If either of them fought me like that I would be lucky to last two minutes" Ren comments.

"You and me both" Jaune states in agreement.

"The rest of the tournament should be a breeze after that" Weiss says to Pyrrha.

"Oh, I wouldn't say that" Pyrrha says, humble as ever.

"Well, now we know Naruto probably would have won the tournament" Blake comments.

Annoyed, Naruto says, "Why'd you have to bring that up?"

As the group laughs at this, Pyrrha looks up and thinks to herself, "With that out of the way, my choice draws ever closer…"

CHAPTER END

---

AN: Yeah, I know, pretty long chapter. There was a lot to get through. For a little explanation of Faldin, I felt I had to come up with something that happened during the break. The name Faldin is basically like Cardin but using the F from Falcon. I made his teammates all have surnames of firearm manufacturers. Finally, the "Bess" Blake mentioned who made her flags is a small reference to Betsy Ross. Hope you all enjoyed, see you next chapter.