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?

22. Chapter 22- Recuperation & Determination

Chapter 22 – Recuperation and Determination

It is the following day after the group made it to Haven. Everyone got to their rooms at around 6:00pm that night and went straight to bed. It is 9:30am the next morning and they are all still asleep.

Naruto was now starting to stir. He yawned and then slowly sat up. He got to sleep in a bed for the first time since the night before Beacon fell; and man did it feel good. He looked next to him to find that Yang was still asleep. It took him another minute for him to realize this is the first time they shared a bed. This made him smile and he was still somewhat in disbelief that someone like Yang was actually his girlfriend. He was about to get out of bed, but he was still a little groggy and did not notice that the still asleep Yang was holding his arm.

The movement caused Yang to start to wake up. She then said, "I don't wanna start the day yet…"

Naruto smirked and said, "Didn't mean to wake you."

Yang, who was laying forward with her face towards the other wall, turned her head towards Naruto and seen she had his arm held. She then said, "Oh, that explains it." She then yanked his arm, forcing him to lay back down. Naruto could not help but snicker from this. After another twenty minutes, Yang finally started to shift around.

"Getting up now?" Naruto asked her.

Yang yawned, rubbed her eyes, and then laid on her back before saying, "Probably."

Naruto smiled as looked up at the ceiling and said, "It almost doesn't feel real."

Yang looked confused and asked, "What do you mean? What doesn't feel real?"

"The fact that with everything that's happened since Beacon fell, we're laying here in a bed safe from the Grimm" Naruto started to answer. "And we know Ruby and our friends are safe in the next rooms over."

Yang then looked up at the ceiling too with a smile of her own. She then said, "Yeah, I guess you're right." She then leaned over "We earned it." She then proceeded to kiss him.

Naruto was not expecting the kiss, but he happily returned it. After the kiss, he had a giant smile plastered on his face as he said, "A couple weeks ago I was scared I'd never get another one of those, ya know."

Yang was now laying on her side with her head laying on her hand and facing Naruto. She responded, "I did have a lot of mixed emotions when you told me the truth. But clearly the positive ones won out."

Naruto kept smiling as he checked the clock. It was now 10:05am. He then asked, "What time did we get to bed last night?"

"I'm not sure" Yang answered. "I think it was around five-something when we left the hospital."

"Huh…then we probably got to bed around six…" Naruto said, estimating the time. His eyes then widened as he said, "We've been out for a good sixteen hours…"

Yang hearing that was quiet until she finally said, "We did have a big all-out battle on top of a mountain. Then throw on top of that the exhaustion from traveling on foot and the stress from worrying about Uncle Qrow."

"Yeah, that's a good point" Naruto admitted. "Traveling on Bumblebee was so much better."

Yang scoffed before saying, "It felt so dumb pushing my bike along as we walked."

Naruto chuckled before he jokingly said, "Next time we can just attach a big cart to it."

Yang put her hand on her chin trying to picture it. In her mind, she seen herself driving Bumblebee that is pulling along a large stylized black and red cart. Ruby was at the front of it pointing forward while Naruto was behind her laughing. Weiss was just off to their side shaking her head, Jaune was getting sick, Pyrrha was trying to keep Jaune calm, and Ren was watching Nora who was shouting for everyone to get out of the road. Yang then started laughing at this image she crated in her head.

Naruto looked at her confused until he guessed, "Wait, did you just picture that?" Yang nodded, making Naruto smirk again. He then stood up and stretched a bit before saying, "I wanna check the rest of this place out."

Yang then got out of bed and said, "Hold up, I wanna check it out too." She then went to get cleaned up and change her clothes. While Yang was doing that, Naruto grabbed his headband from the nightstand and wiped some dirt off of it. He then breathed on the forehead protector and shined it a little. He then spent around ten minutes just staring at the headband and reliving old memories.

"It's good to see you taking care of your headband again" Kurama commented. "You are still a shinobi."

"I guess that makes me a Huntsman Shinobi" Naruto responded. "Or maybe a Shinobi Huntsman?"

"The latter makes it sound like you hunt shinobi" Kurama told him.

"Huntsman Shinobi it is then" Naruto decided.

"Although, killing other shinobi was a part of a shinobi's work" Kurama said, trying to annoy Naruto.

"Would you stop making me second guess myself?!" Naruto responded accordingly.

Yang then came out of the shower wearing brown short-shorts, a cropped orange t-shirt, and black wristband on her regular arm. She was drying her hair and heard the last part of what Naruto said and asked, "What's this about second guessing yourself?"

Naruto blushed from embarrassment and said, "I thought you were still in the shower…"

Upon hearing that, Yang realized he must have been talking to Kurama and asked, "Oh, was that a private conversation?"

Naruto shook his head and said, "Not really. I was talking to Kurama about if I should call myself a Huntsman Shinobi or Shinobi Huntsman."

"Huh…ya know, Shinobi Huntsman sounds like you hunt other shinobi" Yang said, throwing in her two cents.

"Yeah, that's what Kurama said" Naruto informed her. He then said with annoyance, "But then he said it's a shinobi's job to kill other shinobi, so the other title's accurate too…"

Now Yang understood the outburst and tried not to laugh. She then had a realization and asked, "So, do you usually talk out loud to Kurama when no one else is around?"

Naruto sat there embarrassed as he said, "…Yes." Yang then dawned a mischievous smile turning Naruto's embarrassment into concern. He asked, "What's that smile about?"

"You'll find out eventually" Yang informed him.

Naruto then went and took his turn in the shower. The whole time he kept wondering what Yang might be plotting. After the shower, he put on the white t-shirt and gray sweats he had on when he ran away from the hospital. He came out of the restroom and was checking his surroundings.

Yang, who was sitting on the bed, asked, "What are you doing?"

"Still looking around" Naruto said. "I won't be caught off guard by whatever you're scheming."

Yang laughed before asking, "Are you gonna be paranoid about this all day?"

Naruto had to think about it before he answered, "Probably not. Even though I should be."

"Aww, do I scare you that much, Whiskers?" Yang teasingly asked.

"Yes!" Naruto shouted, which caused Yang giggle. After an awkward silence, Naruto put on his headband and said, "Well, if we wanna check this place out we should go."

"Good call" Yang said in agreement. They then left their room.

As they walked into the living room area, it was a quaint little space. There are a couple of couches facing each other in the center of the room as well as two wide lounge chairs by the ends of each couch. There is a TV on the southern side wall and a large window on the northside wall. The window has a door to the outer deck of the property next to it. Finally, the eastern section has a well-furnished kitchen that leads to a small dining room.

They then seen Ren is also awake and is inspecting the kitchen. Naruto approached and said, "Hey Ren. Surprised to see you awake already."

Ren turned around to see Naruto and Yang and said, "Hello Naruto, Yang. I woke up a couple hours ago."

Yang sat down on one of the chairs by the kitchen and said, "When we saw you were up, we were worried you might not have gotten any sleep."

"No need to worry" Ren tells them. "I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow."

Naruto then sat next to Yang and said, "Yesterday was exhausting. Even more than the day before."

"Which explains why we're the only ones awake after more than twelve hours" Ren commented. "I'm guessing the energy boost from Jaune's new Semblance is why I'm not still asleep." He then walked over to Naruto and handed him back his kunai. "Thanks for trusting me with it."

Naruto smiled as he took back the kunai. He then said, "Proud of you Ren."

"Proud? Of what?" Ren questioned.

"I don't know your story, but that freaky Grimm was clearly a rough part of your past" Naruto started to answer. "But you didn't let your desire for vengeance control you."

Ren smiled and said, "I appreciate it, but that only happened because you somehow knew what was going on in my head and made me keep it on straight. I do have to ask; how did you know?"

Naruto's smile lowered a bit as he said, "I know the look of hatred when I see it."

Yang looked at Naruto and asked, "You talking about your friend? What was his name? Sas…Sas something…"

"Sasuke" Naruto said, completing Yang's attempt. "And yeah, that's why I know the look."

Remembering Naruto shared his story with everyone, Ren said, "When everyone gets here, I'm thinking of sharing my story with everyone."

Surprised, Naruto asked, "Are you sure?"

Ren gave a nod and said, "It feels like I shouldn't keep it hidden, especially after everyone fought so hard yesterday. Besides, you shared your past and that was a lot riskier."

"He's got a good point" Yang commented.

Naruto smiles and then asked Ren, "So what have you been doing in here?"

"I've been taking inventory of the kitchen" Ren answered. "It's pretty well stocked so I'll definitely be able to make something good tonight."

Ruby then entered the room while yawning and still in her clothes from yesterday. She was still very groggy and had yet to notice anyone else was in the room. Naruto was about to greet her, but Yang covered his mouth as she told him, "This happened sometimes back home. Just wait and watch." Ruby then got herself a glass of water and started drinking it. Yang then held up three fingers and counted down until she shouted, "Hey sis!"

Ruby then yelped, jumped, and splashed herself with the water. This caused Naruto and Yang to burst into laughter and even Ren was struggling to keep a straight face. Ruby then pushed her wet hair out of her eyes and glared at Yang.

Calming down from her laughter, Yang looked at Ruby and said, "I missed this."

Ren then handed Ruby some paper towel. Ruby dried her face with it and said, "Thanks Ren."

"So how often did this happen?" Naruto asked.

"It happened sometimes when Ruby would oversleep, which rarely happened" Yang answered.

"It's been a rough few days!" Ruby exclaimed.

Trying not to laugh more, Naruto told Ruby, "No one's holding it against you. We all overslept."

Ruby looked around and seen only half of them were awake. She then said, "Everyone must have been exhausted."

"So, how's the leg?" Naruto asked Ruby.

Ruby sat down and said, "It's still sore, but I can get around easier now." As Ruby, Yang, and Naruto converse, Ren started making coffee.

"Glad to hear your leg's doing better" Yang tells her sister. "Did you manage to sleep okay?"

"Like a rock!" Ruby happily exclaimed. "What about you guys?"

"I slept pretty good" Yang answered.

"It was great" Naruto answered as well. "First time sleeping in a bed since Beacon."

Ruby tilted her head in confusion and asked, "Wait, didn't you stay at the house?"

Yang laughs at this, and Naruto said, "I stayed on the couch."

Now more confused, Ruby asked, "But why?"

"Ruby, you really think he'd be allowed anywhere near my room with dad around?" Yang asked her sister.

"Oh, right, dad…" Ruby said shifting her gaze.

Naruto and Yang looked at each other before Naruto asked, "Still eating at you the way you left?"

"A little…" Ruby admitted.

Trying to think of a way to cheer her up, Naruto tells her, "At least Zwei's still keeping him company."

"Oh yeah, how's Zwei?" Ruby asked.

"He was a little sad when we left, but then he got a mission" Yang told her.

"…Say what now?" Ruby said, completely confused.

Naruto looked at Yang and asked, "You tell her about Zwei's…" Naruto paused to think of a good word for it. "Gift?"

"No, I kinda forgot" Yang answered. She then snickered just thinking about it.

"What's so funny?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Zwei somehow is able to sense Kurama" Naruto informs her.

"He can?!" Ruby exclaimed in shock. "How?"

Yang shrugged and said, "Canine instinct? Zwei's always been a different kind of dog, so who knows?"

Now smiling, Ruby asked, "So what's the mission Zwei got?"

"Kurama told Zwei to guard the house" Naruto answered. "Then Zwei sat at attention like he got orders from a general."

Ruby started picturing it and giggled. Ren then gave them all a cup of coffee and then placed down a small container of sugar and a cup of crème. Ruby tells him, "Thanks Ren!"

"Yeah, appreciate it!" Yang thanked him as well. Unlike them, Naruto was just starring at his cup. Yang seen this and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I've never had coffee before…" Naruto answered.

"Seriously?" Yang asked in shock.

"Did they not have it where you came from?" Ruby asked curiously.

"I think I might have heard of something like it when traveling with Pervy Sage, but it was niche since most people drank tea" Naruto answered.

Yang thought about that and had a smirk as she said, "A place full of ninjas and tea. Sounds like Blake's paradise."

"Eh, I don't know about that" Naruto retorted. "Discrimination was a problem back in my world too."

"I suppose super-powered people are still just people" Ren commented. Naruto nodded at Ren's understanding. He then tried the coffee and his face scrunched up from the bitterness. This made Ruby, Yang, and Ren start laughing.

Weiss finally came out, hearing their laughter. She sees the look on Naruto's face and then notices his black coffee. She then asked, "First time?" Naruto nodded and Weiss said, "Rookie." She then headed to the kitchen and got her own coffee.

Naruto then looked at Ruby's and Yang's coffee and asked, "Hey, how come yours looks different?" This made Ruby and Yang giggle which only made Naruto annoyed.

"Most people don't drink their coffee black" Ren informed Naruto. "They usually add milk or creamer and some kind of sweetener."

"Don't worry, I'll help" Ruby said as she took Naruto's cup. However, before Ruby could do anything, Yang put her hand on top of the cup. Ruby looked at her sister and asked, "Why are you stopping me?"

"You tend to overload on the sweetener" Yang answers.

Ruby scoffs and responds, "I do not!"

As Weiss stirred in her crème, she quoted Ruby's preferred coffee additives as she said, "Crème and five sugars."

"…That sounds like a lot" Naruto commented.

"It is" Ren informed him. Ruby then relented and let go of the cup. Yang then added what she usually does which is a tablespoon of crème and two sugars. She then handed the cup back to Naruto.

Naruto took a sip and said, "Okay, yeah that's a lot better."

Weiss then said sarcastically, "What a teacher to be proud of."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and said, "Sure you should be drinking something that hot, princess? Don't wanna melt."

Now Weiss narrowed her eyes as she and Naruto glared at each other. The tension then quickly broke as they both started to laugh, and the others joined in. Weiss then said, "Oh, I missed this. A nice morning with people I actually want to be around." Everyone looked at Weiss with concerned looks. She never shared much about her home life. She seen everyone's looks and said, "Sorry, I didn't want to bring everyone down."

"Don't apologize, we wanna be here for you!" Ruby tells her.

Weiss sighed and said, "I don't know…"

"You just admitted you want to be around us" Naruto told her. "And the people you want to be around should want to know your story, and we do."

Weiss then smiled and said, "Alright then." She had all their attention. "As you all know I'm…well, I was the heiress to the Schnee Dust Company. As far as anyone could see, I had the perfect life. And I won't sit here and pretend that my life was the worst thing ever, especially after hearing your story" Weiss said as she looked at Naruto. Naruto chuckled nervously, not wanting to detract from her story. "But, it was certainly no paradise either…I think it was my tenth birthday when my dad, Jacques Schnee, told my mom that he only married her for the family name."

"He what?!" Yang exclaimed in shock.

"Why would he say something like that?" Ruby questioned, shocked hearing that Weiss' father would be so cruel.

"He was sick of her complaints" Weiss answered while looking disgusted at the memory of her father. Pyrrha, Jaune, and Nora were now making their way into the living room area. "He missed the big dinner for my birthday, and this upset my mom quite a bit. And she let him know that. He felt no shame in missing it and was annoyed with her. Honestly, we all kind of knew that he married her for the Schnee name, but when he said it out loud it destroyed any semblance of hope we had as a family."

"Weiss…" Ruby quietly muttered, feeling awful for what her friend went through.

"Then mom's mental state took a turn for the worse" Weiss continued. "A bottle of wine here, then another bottle of wine there, and so on. She did a good job of hiding it from the public, but it was clear as day to us. Then the idea of "family" time amounted to whatever dad could coerce us to do. Our butler Clive did more to raise Winter and me than either of our parents…and then Winter finally left. She couldn't be under our father's rule anymore." She then grips her coffee cup. "I knew I had to get out of there too. That's when I decided I would apply to Beacon instead of Atlas Academy." She then perks up a little as she said, "Where I found my new family." Her friends sat there in awe at hearing of the cruelty of Weiss' father. Weiss sighed, but before she could say anything, Ruby quickly hugged her, much to her surprise.

"The day better not come I ever meet this Jacques…" Yang says with venom in her voice.

"Make that two of us…" Naruto says in a similar tone.

"Make that three…" Nora says the same way. Weiss just smiles at this.

Naruto then changes to an empathetic tone as he said, "I'm sorry Weiss."

Clearly confused, Weiss can't help but reply, "What? What for?"

"Watching one family fall apart must have been bad enough. But watching your Beacon family fall apart too must have been devastating…" Naruto answers. Having that put in perspective, the rest of the group starts to feel bad as well.

"You don't get to apologize for that" Weiss says before taking a sip of her coffee. Everyone looked at her surprised, so she put her cup down and clarified, "Don't apologize for something that's not your fault. You didn't break my team up."

"If anything, you're bringing it back together" Ruby chimed in.

"Ruby's right" Yang added. "We'll find Blake sooner or later and then Team RWBY will be back in action."

Naruto just smiled at this and said, "Good. Seeing you three without her just doesn't feel right."

Nora was smiling at this wholesome moment too, but she then spotted Ren staring out the window. She walked over and asked him, "What's wrong?"

"Just getting ready to tell them all about the attack on our village" Ren told her.

Stunned, Nora asked, "Are you sure?"

"I am" Ren answered. He then walked back over to everyone and stood in the middle to get their attention. He then said, "Everyone, I wanted to thank you for your help against that nightmarish Grimm. And with that, I think you all deserve to know what happened between me and that thing."

Surprised to hear this, Jaune tells Ren, "Ren, you don't owe us anything."

"There's no reason to hide my past from the ones I care about" Ren retorts. He then looked at Naruto who nodded back at him. Ren then started recounting, "My village was a small remote one that didn't have any real Huntsman around. My father was a hunter, but more in the traditional sense. But he had the wisdom any true Huntsman would respect."

The others were listening with bated breath, waiting for when this story took a turn for the worse. Pyrrha was able to ask Nora, "You were from this same village?"

"Well…sort of…" Nora answered. "I was a homeless kid in that village too."

Shocked, Ruby asked, "Did…did you remember your parents at all?" Nora simply shook her head.

"One day, I seen Nora being picked on by the other small kids from my village" Ren continued. He then looked ashamed as he said, "I was too scared to try and help her…but my father wasn't. After making those kids run off, he told me that "sometimes the worst action to take is taking no action at all.""

"Your dad sounds like he was a great guy" Naruto commented.

"He was" Ren said with a smile. It then turned to a frown as he said, "But it didn't matter. That night, the Grimm assaulted our village, and we were all caught by surprise. Like I said, there were no Huntsmen in the area, so it was a slaughter…and that's when I heard those footsteps…my father tried to hold that thing off while I got away."

"That…I don't even…" Weiss muttered quietly, completely thrown off by how horrible that must have been. The rest of the group had similar reactions.

"I then found Nora hiding under one of the huts" Ren continued. "There was a large Grimm looking around and sensing her fear."

"And boy was there a lot to sense!" Nora exclaimed, clearly not still bothered by the memory. "But that's when Ren unlocked his Semblance. He took my hand and led me away. We've been sticking together like glue ever since."

After hearing all that, Pyrrha says, "Ren…Nora…I-I couldn't imagine…"

"Almost makes me regret telling my story after hearing yours" Weiss commented to Ren and Nora.

"Hey, neither of you three had it easy" Naruto responds to Weiss.

"Naruto's right" Ren states.

"Wow, I…I've never felt more grateful for my upbringing after hearing that…" Jaune commented.

"I couldn't agree more" Pyrrha states.

"Same here" Ruby comments.

"Me too" Yang says as well.

This made Nora start laughing as she said, "When did we sign up for a group therapy session?"

Yang leaned back now that it was more relaxed and answered, "When Whiskers here decided to spill his guts to all of us."

"Hey! You're the one who insisted I tell everyone!" Naruto indignantly responded.

Yang gives a slight nod before responding, "Yeah okay, but you said you planned on telling our friends anyway."

Naruto tried to think of a counterpoint, but all he could say was, "Damn it…"

This caused laughter amongst the others. Jaune then asked, "So, what's the plan today?"

"Today we relax and have fun. Tomorrow, we start the Chakra training" Naruto answered.

"Aww, I kinda wanted to start today…" Ruby complained.

"Yeah, so did I!" Nora complained as well.

"Guys, I'm eager too. But Naruto is right, we need time to recuperate" Pyrrha tells them. She then looks at Jaune and says, "Especially with the sorry state of your shield."

Jaune recalls the small piece of scrap that is his shield after that last battle. He then says, "Hopefully I can get it fixed here…"

"Okay, I get it…" Nora relents.

Ruby then looked at Naruto and Yang and asked, "Can't you at least show us something?"

Naruto then looked at Yang and then at the wall. Yang smiled and nodded, confusing everyone else. They all then watched as Naruto and Yang walked up the wall and then hung from the ceiling by their feet.

"That…that's…" Jaune started to comment.

"That's so cool!" Ruby exclaimed, essentially completing Jaune's thought.

"I have to learn to do that!" Nora exclaimed. The rest were in silent awe.

"Whiskers says you can walk on water like this too, but I'm still skeptical on that" Yang told the others.

Naruto looked annoyed at her still doubting him and said, "Okay, you know what?! Today we're finding a body of water and I'm proving it, ya know!"

Ruby stood up and said, "Okay guys, looks like we our first activity for the day!"

"At least it's something I actually want to see" Weiss commented.

Jaune then pulled out a map of Haven and said, "There was a map of this place in the drawer." He then inspected the map and said, "It looks like there's a pond a little ways away from the hospital."

"Sounds perfect!" Ruby exclaimed. "First we'll see if Naruto's right about the walking on water thing, and then we'll go check on Uncle Qrow."

"We should be able to leave in a half hour" Naruto states.

"Forty-five minutes" Weiss corrected. "It takes time to look right."

"Even for going to a hospital?" Ruby asked her partner.

"A hospital with people along the way" Weiss corrected again.

"She's right, sis" Yang told Ruby.

"Ugh, okay fiiiine…forty-five minutes" Ruby relented. Everyone else got a laugh out of that before they went and got ready to leave.

---

In Menagerie, Blake was out on the balcony of her family home. She was looking out at her fellow Faunus getting their days started. She wonders what the next step should be for her. She told Sun she wanted to make up for what she done after she fixed her own issues, but has she arrived at that point yet? How will she know?

The door to the room opens and in walks Ghira Belladonna, Blake's father. While Ghira shared the same hair color and eye color as his daughter, that is where the physical similarities stopped. Ghira was very tall and muscular. He had a deep voice with hair and a beard that could be better described as a mane. He wears a dark violet long coat with metal spaulders on the shoulders. He had no shirt underneath, which showed a thick patch of chest hair. He wore a pair of beige pants with a large metal buckle and black boots with white tips.

Ghira noticed his daughter on the balcony and said, "Blake, what are you doing there?"

Blake turned to her father and said, "Just thinking about some things. What about you?"

"I have to get ready for a meeting" Ghira answered. He was the Chieftain of Menagerie. "Although, I still have time. So, what's on your mind?"

Blake looked hesitant, but then confessed, "I'm not sure if I'm ready to take the next step in figuring out what I should do."

Upon hearing that, Ghira stood next to Blake on the balcony and said, "You have yet to tell us about what happened at Beacon. Perhaps you should start with that. Especially since your mother is quite eager to hear it. To be honest, I am as well."

Blake thought about it and said, "That might be what I need…yeah, I think today I'll tell you guys what all happened."

Ghira smiled as he grabbed some paperwork. He then said, "As soon as I get home. I look forward to hearing it all." He then left.

Blake smiled as she went back to overlooking the people of Menagerie. She then heard a voice say, "You shouldn't have come back."

Blake's eyes widened upon hearing that, and she started looking around as she asked, "Who's there?!" She then spotted a figure stand up on a tree branch and got ready to fight.

The figure walked closer and was revealed to be a girl wearing a White Fang mask. She had spotted marks on her skin akin to a chameleon. She had brown hair tied back into a ponytail that curled like a chameleon tail. She wore a black and dark gray sleeveless stealth suit with gray belt straps and gold buckles. She also wore black calf high boots and a black glove on her right hand.

Despite the mask, Blake noticed her complexion and spots and said, "Ilia? Is that you?"

The Faunus girl removed her mask to reveal her eyes that were light gray with a bluish tint. This was Ilia Amitola, an old friend of Blake's. She said to Blake, "It was a mistake for you to come home."

"I guess I should have known you were still with the White Fang…" Blake stated with disappointment in her voice.

"Just like you still should be" Ilia said with venom in her voice. "Things aren't like they used to be, Blake. And if you don't get out of here, you're going to get dragged down along with the others holding us back."

"What? Ilia, what are you planning to do?!" Blake asked, clearly concerned.

"You don't need to know" Ilia told Blake. "I'm giving you this one warning. Get out while you still can." She then uses her camouflage to hide and run away.

However, Sun popped up by Ilia and said, "Hiding in a tree when I'm around? Bad call." He then grabbed her, but Ilia did not let him get a good grip. She got out of the tree, but her scroll fell down. She went to grab it, but Sun dropped in front of her. She decided it was better to leave the scroll than to get captured. She then ran towards a crowd. Sun chased her and said, "Get back here!"

"Ilia wait!" Blake shouted, but to no avail. "Ilia, what's going on?" Blake wondered to herself. She then jumped down and grabbed the scroll before she followed Sun in his chase.

Once Ilia got into the crowd, Sun completely lost sight of her and said, "Darn it! She got away!" Blake then caught up and Sun asked, "Who was that?"

"That…that was Ilia Amitola" Blake answered. "She's…she's an old friend…"

"Some friend" Sun commented.

"We can worry about that later" Blake said as she looked at the scroll. She then looked through it and said, "No…no it can't be!"

Seeing her reaction, Sun asked, "What? What did you find?!"

"Adam…how could you?" Blake said, stunned at their plan.

---

The group at Haven has now made it to the pond by the hospital. Everyone was eagerly awaiting to see Naruto either walk on the water or get wet and embarrass himself.

Standing next to Naruto, Yang looked at him and asked, "Having any second thoughts?"

Naruto was smiling as he answered, "Just reliving some old memories." It was a setting similar to this where he learned to walk on water with Pervy Sage. Technically he started with Ebisu, but that did not last long. Bringing his mind back to the present, Naruto stepped onto the water and then casually walked to the center of the pond.

All of his friends stood there completely stunned. Ruby was the first to collect herself and shout, "That's so cool!"

"I wanna do that so bad!" Nora shouted, sharing Ruby's sentiment. Neither Jaune nor Pyrrha could believe what they were seeing.

"Well, if I didn't want to learn to use Chakra before…" Weiss muttered to herself. She was now even more eager. Even Yang was surprised to see Naruto standing on the water.

Naruto looked over at Yang and told her, "Come on! You do it too!"

Yang looked down at the water in front of her. She was nervous, so she closed her eyes before stepping onto the water. She then opened her eyes to see herself standing on top of the water. She smiled before heading towards Naruto and saying, "Okay Whiskers, guess I shouldn't have doubted you."

Naruto looked back at the others with a confused face and asked, "You guys seen Yang breathe fire, so how come walking on water is so farfetched to you guys?"

The others looked at each other and recalled he is not familiar with their myths. Pyrrha then explained to him, "You see, in our world, walking on water is something only gods do in stories. The idea of mortals like us doing so seems crazy."

"And yet, that's what we'll be learning to do…" Weiss commented, still getting herself to believe what's in front of her.

"It's definitely a skill that will come in handy" Ren commented.

"You really think so?" Jaune questioned.

"There are sea-based Grimm that are very difficult to fight" Ren reminds him. "But with this we could fight those Grimm without being bound to the ship."

Jaune pictured that scenario in his head causing his eyes to widen and admit, "You're right. It would make a huge difference."

"It could make an enclosed room more manageable as well" Weiss added.

"Just one additional skill like that would expand our combat capabilities so dramatically" Pyrrha further added. "And that's without other crazy abilities like making clones or fire."

The others agreed as Naruto and Yang made their way back to shore. They then headed into the hospital where Ruby went up to the front desk and asked, "Excuse me? Can we get Qrow Branwen's room number?"

The check in nurse looked surprised at the group of visitors for Qrow as she said, "I can't believe someone with his attitude has so many visitors." Ruby just chuckled nervously as she did not know how to respond to that.

"If they know about his "attitude" that must mean he's awake" Ren commented. This excited Ruby.

Ruby's smile brought a smile to the nurse's face too as she told them, "Qrow Branwen is in room 209."

"Thanks!" Ruby exclaimed as she and her friends headed to room 209. As they arrived, Ruby opened the door to see Qrow in the bed bored out of his mind.

Qrow noticed them and said, "All of you showing up might be a bit much." Ruby then ran over and hugged him. Qrow smiled and returned the hug.

Ruby turned to Yang and said, "Come on sis, get in on this!" Yang rolled her eyes and smiled before she walked over and hugged Qrow as well. The sight of this brought a smile to the faces of everyone else there.

As the hug ended, Qrow looked at the others and said, "I gotta thank you all. You saved my life."

"Happy to!" Nora exclaimed with a smile.

"You already saved our lives multiple times before" Pyrrha states.

"I know it couldn't have been easy, especially with my Semblance getting in the way" Qrow commented.

"Huh…you never actually told us your Semblance" Ruby commented.

"How would it have gotten in the way?" Yang asked.

"My Semblance isn't one of those that you can turn on and off…it's misfortune" Qrow explained. "Bad things happen around me. Great when I'm fighting someone, but not so great when I'm working with others." The others wondered how far that might extend.

"Eh, I'm no stranger to bad luck" Naruto commented.

Qrow noticed Naruto at the back and said, "Guess I should be thanking you twice, kid."

"Come on, I don't need thanks, ya know" Naruto responds. "And call me Naruto."

Qrow leaned back in the bed with his hands behind his head. He then dawned a cheeky smile as he said, "Yeah, I probably should learn your name. Since if things keep going the way they are, you're gonna end up family."

This made Naruto blush and stutter, "I-I-that's-um…."

Yang blushed as well and said, "Slow down! We've only been together a couple months…"

As Ruby and the others were laughing at this, Qrow shrugged and said, "A couple months, but an eventful couple months."

Yang's eyes started to twitch, and Naruto said, "I…I need to sit down, ya know…" He then pulled up a chair and sat down. He kept his head facedown to hide how red it was.

Weiss looked on at this and commented, "Wow, I've never seen him get embarrassed so quick." She then turned towards Qrow and said, "You need to teach me your secrets."

Qrow continued to tease as he held up his index finger and said, "Lesson one, family is always the easiest to mess with."

"Oh just shut up already!" Yang shouted, causing everyone but her and Naruto to laugh even more.

Pyrrha, not meaning to make things worse, commented, "It does feel like we just watched a family skirmish, Naruto included." This made Ruby and Qrow laugh even harder while Naruto and Yang stared at Pyrrha, astonished she would say that.

Weiss looked at Ruby and said, "I don't know why you're laughing so much, especially with that content smile you had when Naruto was carrying you on his back."

Now Ruby was the one blushing and indignantly shouted, "Hey!"

Everyone laughed again as Qrow said, "I needed the entertainment."

Naruto, who had calmed down and no longer has a red face said, "I get it. My last stay in a hospital drove me up the wall too."

"Technically it drove you out a window" Nora jokingly said.

Qrow looked at Naruto and asked, "Did you try to escape?"

"We spent hours trying to track him down" Jaune stated, answering Qrow's question.

"Hospital gowns make you stand out…" Naruto muttered.

Qrow got a chuckle hearing that and asked, "How long were you stuck in the hospital?"

"Five days" Naruto answered quickly.

Qrow's eyes widened as he said, "Oh hell no. I'll be at the bar by tonight."

"Are you sure?" Ruby asked in concern.

"I'm fine. The poison's already out of my system" Qrow answered.

Yang has an annoyed look as she tells her uncle, "The doctor said you need rest."

"It won't be heavy drinking" Qrow says dismissively. This made Yang roll her eyes.

Feeling a little awkward, Jaune said, "This seems like a family moment, so we'll get out of your hair. Jaune and his team then left the room.

Naruto also went to leave when Qrow told him, "Hold on a sec." Naruto then turned back confused as Qrow asked, "I gotta know. How'd Tai act around you?"

Naruto paused before he rubbed his chin and said, "He did kick me in the jaw."

This caused Qrow to laugh while Ruby exclaimed, "What?!"

"It was a situational kick" Yang nonchalantly said. This only confused Ruby more.

In a less joking tone, Naruto then said, "He trusted me to have Yang's back."

Qrow was surprised to hear that as he said, "That's as close to a blessing as you're gonna get."

Yang nodded and said, "Whiskers earned dad's respect." Ruby smiled hearing this. Naruto then finally left the room.

"You found a good one" Qrow commented to Yang.

"Ugh, finally!" Yang exclaimed in relief. "Someone has something good to say about it."

"What are you talking" Ruby asked her sister in confusion.

"It took weeks for dad to warm up to Naruto" Yang answered. She then looked at Qrow and said, "And then there's you…"

Qrow looked confused and said, "Hey, I've been supportive."

Yang narrowed her eyes and then said in a mocking interpretation of Qrow's voice, "Parents are usually kidding when they say to find someone just like them."

Qrow lost his confused look and muttered, "Oh yeah…"

"Hold on, what?" Ruby said, utterly confused.

Qrow looked at Ruby and asked, "What? You don't see it?"

"No…" Ruby answered, thinking her uncle is confused.

"The blonde hair, blue eyes, and goofy attitude?" Qrow said, trying to get her to see the connection.

Ruby sees it a little, but she said, "That seems like a stretch."

"Thank you!" Yang exclaimed, once again in relief. She then said in annoyance, "Mom even said we must have a type…"

Qrow laughed before Ruby asked, "How did finding your mom go?"

Yang's expression continued to sour as she said, "Not great…"

Ruby's expression then fell as well and said, "I'm sorry to hear that…"

Yang then started to explain, "Instead of apologizing for abandoning me, she decided to congratulate me for finding her instead."

Qrow simply sighed and said, "Yeah, that sounds like Raven."

Hearing that the reunion Yang spent years searching for turned out to be a sour one, Ruby was concerned and asked her sister, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine" Yang answered. "I won't lie and say I wasn't hoping for a warmer welcome from my mom." She then looked at Ruby and smiled before saying, "But I went to her so she could get us to you, and she did." Ruby gained a big smile hearing this.

"I have got to hear how you managed to convince her to make that portal" Qrow told Yang.

"It was three things" Yang responded. "One: I started beating up her tribe. Two: I made it clear I didn't care about Ozpin. And three: I showed her this." She then covered her hand in fire before quickly extinguishing it since they are in a hospital.

"Wait, what does Ozpin have to do with anything?" Ruby asked.

"Remember what me and your friend Pyrrha told you all the other night? Raven knows about all that too" Qrow explained.

"Oh…okay now I get it" Ruby responded.

Qrow then rubbed their heads and said, "You should get going. Don't waste your day in here."

Yang fixed her hair and said, "Good luck Uncle Qrow."

"See ya later!" Ruby told her uncle before she and her sister left the room.

---

Team JNPR, Naruto, Ruby, Yang, and Weiss have now left the hospital. As they started walking around the campus, Naruto said, "This is so much better."

"Wow, you really don't like hospitals" Jaune comments.

Naruto looked at Jaune and responded, "Who actually does?"

Pyrrha thought about it for a few seconds and said, "People have fantasies about it, don't they?"

"No, people have fantasies about pretty girls in nurse's outfits" Naruto corrected. "Not about actually being in the hospital."

None of them seemed to be able to refute that, so Jaune simply said, "I guess you got me on that one."

Ruby then walked in front of everyone and asked, "So, what else do you guys wanna do today?"

"Whatever we do, you guys need to leave me enough time to make dinner" Ren informed them.

Hearing Ren will be cooking a proper meal for them, Nora gets excited and says, "Oh I can't wait."

"I need to try and get my shield repaired" Jaune reminds them.

"We could also use some more Dust" Weiss suggests.

"Oh yeah!" Yang exclaims at the Dust suggestion. "I need to restock ammo and Dust for my Ember Celica."

"Why do you still need Dust?" Pyrrha questioned. A reasonable question considering they have all seen Yang breathe flame far more powerful than what Dust can produce.

"Chakra actually magnifies Dust, ya know" Naruto answered.

Everyone besides Yang was surprised to hear that. Weiss asked, "Are you serious?"

"Oh yeah" Naruto answered. "The whole reason I taught Yang the Fireball Jutsu was because we probably weren't gonna be able to restock on Dust or ammo during the trip."

"And I used all the shots I had yesterday in that battle, so he was right" Yang added.

Jaune then rubbed the back of his head and said, "My weapons can't use Dust or ammo, so I could use one of those techniques…"

"I want one too!" Nora exclaimed excitedly.

"Me too!" Ruby shouted, sharing the same sentiment.

"I think it's safe to assume that we all do" Pyrrha stated.

"Since Chakra can empower Dust, I guess I don't need one…but I want one too" Weiss admitted.

Ren then looked at Naruto and asked, "You got that covered?"

"Sure…" Naruto answered with nervousness in his voice.

Detecting the nervousness in his voice, Yang reminds him, "You have Kurama to fill in the blanks."

"And there's a lot of blanks" Kurama snidely commented.

Naruto got annoyed and told Yang, "You just gave him something to make fun of me for!" Hearing this made Yang get a smug grin. Nora on the other hand is still disappointed they can't talk to the fox. Jaune then pulled out his map and was trying to find the Dust Shop and a smith.

While they are waiting for Jaune to find it, Neptune, Scarlet, and Sage spot them. They run over and Neptune calls out, "Hey! Guys, over here!"

Weiss looked over and in surprise said, "Neptune?" Her and the rest of the group headed over to see their old friends.

"The students and most of the faculty were sent away due to recent attacks" Sage explained. "But when we heard a big group of people arrived yesterday, we wanted to see who it was before we left."

"We never expected it to be you guys though" Scarlet commented.

"But I'm happy to see that it is you guys" Neptune told them. He then looked right at Weiss. Weiss simply rolled her eyes, much to his shock. This caused the others to start laughing.

Noticing a member of their team missing, Naruto asked, "Where's Sun?" Sage got an annoyed expression getting asked this while Scarlet shook his head.

Seeing this, Ren asked, "Is everything okay?"

"We don't know" Neptune answered. "We just know he isn't here."

Naruto's group were surprised to hear this. Weiss asked, "When did he disappear?"

"The night Beacon was attacked" Scarlet informed them.

"That's when Blake disappeared too…" Yang recalled.

Everyone started thinking the same thing as Naruto asked, "You guys don't think…?"

---

Blake and Sun were sitting in her parent's home waiting for Blake's father to get back home from his meeting. Blake's mother, Kali Belladonna, is currently sitting across from them. If one were to try and describe Blake's mother, Kali would fit it to the tee, as she looks almost exactly like Blake if she were older. Although personality-wise they are quite different as Kali is not riddled with self-doubt nor is she hesitant to tell others what she thinks.

For some strange reason, Sun gets an odd feeling and tilts his head. He then asked Blake, "You ever get the random feeling that you're being talked about?"

"Actually, yeah. I feel it right now" Blake answered.

Blake and Sun looked at each other before Sun said, "Okay that's weird…"

Kali had a smirk at the conversation and asked, "And what would these people be saying?"

Blake looked a little ashamed as she said, "Depends who it is…"

This made Kali look concerned as she asked, "Blake, is everything alright?"

"I'm okay…" Blake told her mother while trying to get past her thoughts of regret. "I just have a lot to make up for."

Sun, seeing the look in Blake's eyes tries to brighten the mood a little as he asked, "So, how much detail are we supposed to go into when telling them about Beacon?"

Blake dawned a contemplative look as she responded, "Hmm, that's actually a good question."

"I want enough details to be able to recognize your friends if I ever meet them" Kali answered.

"I think that's fair" Blake responded.

About a minute later, Ghira walked in the house. As he closed the door, he said, "My apologies, that meeting took longer than I thought. Corsac and Fennec were at it again."

"Well now that you're home, I'll go prepare us some tea so we can begin" Kali announced. She then stood up and walked to the kitchen. Ghira sat down in a chair next to where his wife was sitting.

Sun quietly, though not as quietly as he thought, asked Blake, "Hey. Are we telling your parents about…" He thought about how to phrase it. "You know…"those" Grimm…"

Blake gave Sun a perplexed look and told him, "Of course we are."

Sun put his hands up defensively and responded, "Hey, I didn't know! We've been keeping it a secret for a while now! How was I supposed to know that we're not doing that anymore?"

Upon hearing that, Blake sighed and said, "That's a fair point."

"What are you two talking about?" Ghira asked, his curiosity now peaked.

"We'll get to that, but first we should start with when I first got to Beacon" Blake told her father.

From the kitchen, Kali can be heard shouting, "Don't you dare start without me!" This caused laughter among Sun, Blake, and Ghira.

After Kali brought tea for everyone, she sat back down. Blake grabbed a cup and took a sip. She then took a deep breath before she began, "My first day at Beacon was a little…socially awkward. And that was mostly my fault. I had just run away from Adam and the White Fang so I was pretty stand offish because of that." Ghira could be seen shaking his head. Not at Blake, but at what has become of the White Fang. Blake then continues, "I hardly gave the people who ended up becoming my teammates the time of day; even though they tried to be friendly to me. Well, most. None more so than the team leader, Ruby."

"Ah, we finally get to hear more about your friends" Kali commented with a smile. "So, what is this Ruby like?"

"She's a girl with an excitable personality" Blake answered. "That's probably partly due to just how she is, but also from being two years younger than everyone."

Surprised by that, Ghira asked, "Why would the youngest member of the team be made leader?"

Blake took another sip of her tea before answering, "Honestly, I still don't know what Ozpin's reasoning was. But Ruby took to the role of leader pretty well. She dressed in black and red with one of those combat skirts. She had dark hair that came to a crescent curl around her face. And I can't forget those silver eyes."

Once again surprised, Ghira commented, "You don't see silver eyes very often."

Eager to know more, Kali asked, "What about your other teammates?"

"There was also Weiss Schnee" Blake continued. She then seen the reserved look on her parents' faces at the mention of her being teamed up with a Schnee.

"Me and her did not get along well at first" Sun commented.

Blake looked at Sun and said, "That was mostly your fault."

A little flustered at getting called out so quick, Sun responded, "Y-yeah…but what about her always bickering with Naruto?"

Not expecting that response, Blake looked down and said, "She…she got better. …But you have a point."

Ghira and Kali looked confused, so Ghira asked, "Who's this, Naruto?"

Blake, realizing they got off track said, "We'll get to him. Getting back to Weiss, she was haughty and self-absorbed when we first met. But she grew a lot and became one of my most trusted friends. I don't think I need to tell you what she looked like."

"White hair, blue eyes, fancy clothes?" Ghira surmised.

"Yup. Spot on" Sun affirmed.

"Then what about your last teammate?" Kali asked. Thinking of Yang, Blake looked down and her cat ears went limp. Her parents took notice of this, and Kali called out in concern, "Dear? Is everything alright?"

Sun gave Blake a reassuring nod as Blake lifted her head and said, "Her name is Yang Xaio Long. She had long blonde hair, lilac eyes, and was pretty tall for a girl. She was beautiful, passionate, and always ready to fight for her friends."

Sun then muttered, "Probably why Naruto fell for her."

Kali's eyes narrowed as she said, "That's the second time you two have mentioned this Naruto."

"It's kind of hard not to" Blake admitted. "He was kind of centerpiece of our friend group."

"Really? Why is that?" Ghira asked out of curiosity.

Blake smiled and said, "Like Yang, he always wanted to help his friends. But he always went above and beyond. And despite not being on our team, we all relied on him when things were tough."

Hearing the way his daughter described Naruto, Ghira commented, "It sounds like you admired him."

Blake nodded as Sun said, "We all did."

"Okay, then what does he look like?" Kali asked, wanting to be able to recognize him if they met.

"He's kind of tall with spiky blonde hair and blue eyes" Blake described. "When Sun first arrived, we thought he might have been Naruto's long-lost twin."

Sun chuckled and said, "All I'd need is a cool robot arm and those six whisker marks on my face."

Hearing about the whisker marks, Kali asked, "Whisker marks? Is he a Faunus?"

"I wondered the same thing at first" Blake responded. "But they were just some odd birthmarks."

Wanting to give more info on how to recognize Naruto, Sun said, "Oh, and he's always wearing some manor of orange! It's kind of his thing."

"And if he's going on a mission or something, he wears a red long-coat with short sleeves and black flame designs at the bottom" Blake further described. "It also has a whirlpool design on the back."

"That sure sounds unique" Kali commented. "Okay, I think I have a good picture of your friends now. Tell us about your time there."

Blake took another deep breath and said, "It started with the initiation." Her parents were all smiles ready to hear her tale. "It was designed to set up the teams…and the first person you made eye contact with was your partner."

"That's…an interesting way to do things…" Ghira commented, not sure what to think of it.

"There was a temple in the middle of the forest" Blake continued to explain. "There were chess pieces, and each pair could only take one. The two pairs with the same piece became a team. It kind of worked."

"What do you mean by "kind of?"" Kali asked.

"There were two large Grimm that showed up and cancelled the initiation early" Blake explained. "Because of that our class size was smaller than it should have been."

"I see…" Ghira said while nodding in understanding. "That's quite unfortunate."

"But it worked out as our team took down one of the big Grimm." Blake told them. The pride on her parents' faces could not have been more evident. "Our other group of friends, Team JNPR, took out the other large Grimm after it got weakened by Naruto. He had no team, but Ozpin let him stay as an add-in."

"An add-in? That seems like an odd decision" Ghira commented.

"It's a good thing Ozpin did it though since Naruto was essential during…the incident at the docks" Blake informed them.

Kali noticed how sad Blake looked at mentioning this incident and asked, "What's wrong?"

Blake took another sip of tea to try and recenter herself. She then explained, "There were a bunch of Dust robberies in Vale and some people were suspecting the White Fang. Members of my team included." Ghira, who was the former leader of the White Fang, looked stunned. He knew they had changed, but he never thought they would become simple thieves. Seeing the look on her father's face, Blake continued, "I didn't want to believe it either. So, I ran away from my team to find out for myself. That's when I ran into Sun who wanted to help."

"We started watching the warehouses by the docks since that's where she expected the thieves to show up" Sun stated, continuing where Blake left off. "And that's where Naruto found us."

"Found you? Was he out looking for you two?" Kali asked.

"Not me, just her" Sun clarified.

"After running away, my team went looking for me and he was helping" Blake further explained. It made her parents happy to know her friends genuinely cared. "So after Naruto joined us, we waited there until someone showed up…and it was the White Fang." Blake looked down at her tea cup still a little sad about how far they have fallen. "And what was worse is they were teamed up with a local crime boss named Roman Torchwick."

Ghira sighed and put his hands in his face at this revelation. As the former leader, he feels partly responsible for the degradation of the White Fang despite him being in no way at fault. Kali put a hand on his shoulder to reassure him. He looked back up and asked, "What happened next?"

"The three of us confronted Torchwick and the White Fang" Blake continued. "Torchwick was a better fighter than I expected, but Naruto beat him up so bad that he freaks out whenever he sees Naruto now."

"Yeah…too bad that girl had to show up…" Sun commented.

"Torchwick had an enforcer that worked over Sun and I like we were nothing" Blake explained. "Naruto went to deal with her while we dealt with Torchwick. We got the upper hand, but then he played a trump card."

Sun notices his hand shaking a little as he said, "I'll never forget that Ursa…"

Reasonably confused, Ghira asked, "How would an Ursa be anyone's trump card?"

Blake made sure to look her father directly in the eyes, letting him know he needs to pay attention to this next part. "There is a strange new blue Dust, and its abilities are a problem. It turned that Ursa into bigger mutated version of itself."

Sun then opened more of his shirt to show a scar made from the Ursa. He then says, "It took me out in one hit."

Ghira and Kali were flabbergasted at this revelation. Kali asked, "How is that possible?"

"And how is it we've never heard of this?" Ghira further asked.

"Somehow only the bad guys knew about it" Blake answered. "Thankfully, my team found me and together, with perfect teamwork, we just barely managed to beat that Ursa."

"I can't believe you had to deal with something like that…" Kali said, a little scared at the thought of what could have happened to Blake.

"It was hard, but our team grew closer because of it" Blake told her mother with a smile. "Not too long after that were the midterms, which were a breeze in comparison. But…" Blake now looked a little ashamed.

"That obsession you got still bugs you, doesn't it?" Sun asked, seeing the look on Blake's face. Blake simply nodded.

"Obsession? What were you obsessed with?" Ghira asked with both curiosity and concern.

"I became obsessed with finding Torchwick and his special Dust supplier" Blake answered. "I think…I think deep down I felt that if I could stop him, it would somehow make up for the White Fang becoming what it has…and me letting it happen."

Kali then walked over and hugged her daughter while she said, "Blake, you can't blame yourself."

"I was their leader, Blake. If anyone is to blame, it's me…" Ghira states with shame.

"Dad, no…" Blake says, not wanting her father to blame himself either.

Annoyed, Kali says, "That's enough out of both of you!" Blake and Ghira looked at her in shock. "I am not going to stand for the ones I love blaming themselves for the detestable actions of others!" She then let out a sigh and said, "Of all the things you two had to have in common…"

Blake and Ghira looked at each other with surprised looks. Sun smiled and said, "I knew Blake's mom had to have a good head on her shoulders." Kali simply smiled at this.

With things having calmed down, Blake continued, "So my team, Sun, Neptune—"

Sun interrupted saying, "That's one of my teammates."

Blake paused before continuing, "…And Naruto searched for leads. We found Torchwick selling stolen Atlas equipment to the White Fang. One of those pieces of equipment was a big robot suit that he chased Sun and I in." She them smirked as she said, "Sun was screaming a lot."

This caused Ghira and Kali to let out a chuckle while Sun looked at Blake and ask, "Did…did you need to tell them that?"

"Yes…and you know why" Blake responded.

Sun let out an exasperated sigh and asked, "You're still on about that?"

"What are you two talking about?" Ghira asked.

"Our teammates and Naruto joined the battle against Torchwick and his robot suit on the bridge" Blake continued. "He ended up knocking Sun and Neptune off the bridge. Instead of rejoining the fight, they ditched us and went to a noodle shop."

Ghira and Kali then looked at Sun judgmentally. Feeling the pressure of their gaze, Sun said, "We thought they had it handled…"

"And what about the two Super Grimm?" Blake asked him.

"Oh come on! How could we have known about that?!" Sun indignantly responded.

"Super Grimm? That's what you call them?" Kali asked, unimpressed with the name.

"Okay yeah, the name isn't spectacular. But it gets the idea across" Sun responded.

"He has a good point" Ghira admitted.

"After that my obsession only got worse, to the point I was losing sleep" Blake continued. "The school dance was coming up and I wasn't going to. But Yang talked some sense into me, and I ended up going."

Kali smiled and said, "I'll have to thank Yang when we eventually meet."

Blake looked to the side and nervously said, "Yeah…"

Guessing what was going through Blake's head, Sun cleared his throat and said, "Then there was the attack on the city."

"I heard about that" Ghira stated. "They said the White Fang was the culprit. I didn't want to believe it, but the way things are going I'm guessing they were."

Blake nodded and said, "They were. Like before, they were led by Torchwick. He was eventually beaten and captured, but it turns out that was just their plan to get him aboard the Atlas command ship."

Ghira's eyes widened as he said, "For the Festival attack…"

Blake again nodded and said, "That was the worst night of my life…" Before her parents could say anything, Blake looked at Ghira and said, "He was there dad…Adam was there."

Ghira let out an audible, "No…" He knew the history between Adam and his daughter.

"He beat me down and rendered me helpless" Blake said, tears starting to well up. "But that wasn't enough for him. He tricked Yang into thinking he killed me. So she rushed in full of anger and he cut her arm off!" Her parents were shocked to hear this. Blake clutched her head and sobbed as she said, "I had to watch Yang lay motionless on the ground…and then see Naruto have a breakdown seeing her like that…"

Both Ghira and Kali go over and sit next to Blake while embracing her to help her calm down. Kali said, "I'm so sorry you had to see that…"

"It's worse than that…" Blake responded. "I ran away when my friends needed me the most, and I hate myself for it! I came home because I didn't know what else to do…"

"And we're glad you did" Kali tells her daughter. "We're always here for you."

"Whatever needs to be done, we'll do it together" Ghira tells Blake.

Wiping her tears, Blake said, "Mom…dad…" The three of them then share an embrace.

Feeling really awkward, Sun started sneaking away. Noticing this, Ghira said, "I couldn't be happier to have you home. But why is he here?"

"Ghira!" Kali said in an admonishing tone.

Ghira looked at his wife and said, "You had to have wondered the same thing." He then looked back at Blake and asked, "You two aren't…?"

Blake's eyes widened when she realized what he was implying and said, "N-no! Definitely not!"

Sun disappointedly muttered, "You didn't have to answer that fast…" Blake then felt a little bad.

"Okay, then I'll ask again. Why is he here?" Ghira reiterated.

"He kind of…followed me" Blake admitted. Ghira and Kali then stared at Sun.

Nervous, Sun explained, "The night of the Beacon attack, she was running away from the safe zone looking scared. I was concerned."

"And I appreciate it" Blake told him, bringing a smile to his face. Blake then had a thought and asked, "Did you say anything to your teammates before leaving?"

Sun just stood there awkwardly before saying, "I'm the worst team leader ever…" The caused some laughter until a knock was heard at the door.

Ghira walked over to the door and opened it to reveal two Faunus standing there. They both have the same shade of dark skin and similar facial features due to them being brothers. One was a little taller and had a fox tail. He wore a red hood that draped down to act as a partial cloak. He also wore a black tunic along with white sleeves detached at the mid-bicep and the wrists. Finishing off the wardrobe is a pair of black sandals. This was Corsac Albain. The one next to him was his brother Fennec Albain. He wore the same outfit except instead of having a hole cut in his tunic for a tail, he had holes cut in the hood for fox ears.

"What do you two want?" Ghira asked them.

"We felt we did not get enough time to discuss our concerns with you during the meeting" Corsac answered.

"We certainly hope we aren't interrupting anything" Fennec stated before looking past Ghira and at Blake.

"Oh great, not them again…" Sun complained. Corsac and Fennec were big figures in the White Fang under Adam. They have been making "nuisances" of themselves according to Ghira. They have been trying to talk to Blake when she was out of the house, but her and Sun always made sure to make themselves scarce when they approached.

Blake, having finally told her parents everything and deciding to make things right, decides she is done avoiding them. She walks up to the door and asks, "What do you two really want?"

"Why Blake, you make it sound like we have some underlying scheme" Fennec responds.

"We do wish you would return to the White Fang" Corsac stated. Blake makes a face like he must be out of his mind. Seeing this, he says, "Ilia would love to see you again."

Blake's eyes widened as she said, "Ilia…she's still with the White Fang?" She tried her best to make it sound as if she did not know. She then thinks, "I guess they don't know about Ilia visiting earlier…"

"Yes. Wouldn't you like to see her again?" Fennec asked, trying to coerce Blake.

"I…" Blake said, not sure how to answer. She did want another chance to see her old friend, but she did not want to go back to the White Fang.

Annoyed, Ghira said, "You two can wait to discuss your "concerns" like everyone else." He then shut the door on Corsac and Fennec.

Sun seen the look on Blake's face and asked, "You okay?"

"I'm fine…" Blake answered. She then looked at her father and said, "Dad, I think it's time we took the White Fang back."

Surprised, Ghira asked, "Are you sure about this? What brought this about?"

"Yes. I'm sure" Blake answered. "Dad, Ilia visited me earlier and told me that I should leave. We managed to get her scroll before she escaped. I was going to get this to you as soon as you got home, but my thoughts were kind of jumbled…sorry."

"There's no reason to apologize" Ghira told her. He then took the scroll and looked through it. "No…again?!"

Concerned, Kali asked, "What is it?"

Ghira held his head in his hand and sighed before saying, "They're planning to destroy Haven Academy…"

"What?!" Kali exclaimed.

Ghira looked at Blake and said, "You're right, Blake. We need to do something now." He then went to go prepare an announcement to the citizens of Menagerie.

---

Neptune, Scarlet, and Sage agreed to show everyone around. They first took them to the local smith where Jaune got his shield looked at. It was going to have to be rebuilt almost from scratch, so Jaune was loaned a shield and a sheathe for his sword in the meantime. They then went to the local Dust shop where they are right now.

Naruto held up a few vials of Dust and shouted, "Finally!"

Yang, who had just acquired some fire Dust and ammo, heard him and asked, "Jeez, has it really been that long?"

"Yes!" Naruto shouted back. He then had a little sorrow in his voice as he said, "I've been out of Dust since me and Hesta used the last of it to blow up his shop…"

Yang now had a crestfallen look too as she said, "Poor guy…"

"Hesta…the guy who built your arms, right?" Ruby asked, trying to recall the one time she heard his name mentioned.

"That's right" Yang answered.

"He's also the guy who housed me when I first got to Vale" Naruto followed up.

"I definitely gotta meet the guy!" Ruby said, eager to meet the one who helped Naruto and her sister.

"He's in Atlas right now" Naruto informed her. This disappointed Ruby.

"Hope he can acclimate well there" Weiss commented while loading Dust into her rapier.

"He's got a working partner there, so it probably went pretty smoothly" Naruto answered. "…As long as that snob doesn't cross paths with him again."

Weiss raised a brow as she turned to Naruto and asked, "Who are you talking about?"

"When I first met Hesta, some guy from Atlas was there making fun of him" Naruto explained. "He had this real posh accent and just kept saying things that really got under Hesta's skin."

Wanting a description, Weiss asked, "What did he look like?"

Trying to remember, Naruto closed his eyes and had a really focused face. This caused Yang to snicker before Naruto said, "I remember he had dark red hair and a black suit…I wanna say he wore a glove?"

Weiss' eyes widened as she said, "Oh gods, I know that guy…"

"You do?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"His name is Sebastian Buckingham" Weiss answered. "He was big in the cybernetics market. Everyone in Atlas had heard of his brand, Cyber Elite. But several months ago, something happened, and he got far less press coverage."

"Hmm…did that start happening eight or nine months ago?" Naruto questioned.

Weiss stopped grabbing more Dust as she had to think about it. She then said, "That sounds about right. It was a little before we all went to Beacon." This made Naruto start to get a smug grin.

Nora, who had been listening to the conversation, asked Naruto, "What's that look for?"

"That Sebastian snob had a cybernetic arm competition against Hesta" Naruto answered. "His arm was good, but…" Naruto raises his cybernetic arm into the air and says, "It wasn't this."

"So then I assume Hesta won the contest" Ren surmised.

"That doesn't explain why Sebastian lost all that prestige" Weiss stated. "Sure, he lost. But it was a contest in a random spot in Vale."

Naruto started to snicker and said, "That's the best part! That snob brought a bunch of reporters along hoping to humiliate Hesta even more. But when he lost, it backfired, and those reporters must have brought the story back to Atlas!"

"Huh, way to go Hesta!" Yang exclaimed. Even Weiss smiles hearing how it turned out.

Watching all this go on was Jaune who was sitting by himself at the moment. His sword cannot use Dust or ammo, so there is nothing here for him to do. He feels a tap on his shoulder, so he looks to see it was Neptune. Jaune asked him, "What's going on?"

"Hey uh…so what happened? Weiss used to be really into me and now she's all…indifferent" Neptune asked.

Jaune simply shrugged and said, "A lot's happened since you guys met."

"Yeah but…" Neptune said before pointing at Naruto and Yang. "Those two are way closer than before. How does that make sense?"

"They genuinely liked each other before they got together" Jaune informed him. "It wasn't some crush like Weiss had on you and I had on her."

"Wait, had?" Neptune asked in shock about Jaune no longer having a crush on Weiss. Jaune then looked at Pyrrha with a smile. She was restocking her ammo when she noticed Jaune smiling at her. She smiled back and started walking over. Neptune did a triple take before asking, "Are you two together?"

Jaune kept smiling and said, "We are."

Neptune was in disbelief. Somehow, the two guys he thought were way less cool than him, were with girls way above their pay grade. Trying to rationalize it to himself, he noticed that all the blondes in the group are in a relationship. He then walked away muttering, "Maybe I should dye my hair…"

Now having approached, Pyrrha asked Jaune, "What was that about?"

"You know…I'm not exactly sure" Jaune answered.

Nora was snickering at what she just seen as Ren told Scarlet, "Your friend seems to be having issues."

Scarlet held his head in his hand in frustration. He then said, "Sun's missing and Neptune's having a crisis. Gods, what's happened to our team?"

Sage sighed and said, "We'll finish showing you guys around."

Overlooking this from the top floor of the main Haven Academy building was Leonardo Lionhart. He is the headmaster of Haven Academy and a member of the Mistral Council. He is a middle-aged lion Faunus with a mane of hair and a beard that is transitioning from tan to gray. He has a tanned skin tone with dark brown eyes. He wears a brown greatcoat with a matching mantle and a white dress shirt under his coat. For bottom wear he wears dark brown slacks and dress shoes. He was watching his new arrivals with worry in his heart, for anytime now he was going to be getting a message from her…

A floating Grimm with tendrils and a crystal ball came into the room. The voice of Salem could be heard calling out, "Leonardo."

Lionhart was very startled by this. He held his hands together in a pleading fashion as he said, "H-h-ow can I b-be of service your grace?"

"Some of my minions should be arriving at your door in the coming week" Salem informed him. "I expect you to give them your full cooperation."

"Absolutely! You have my word!" Lionhart responded in a groveling fashion. The Grimm then leaves and Lionhart takes a minute to catch his breath from the panic. He then sits at his desk with his head down as he clutched his head. He internally asked himself, "How much longer is this going to go on? I dare not oppose her, but I don't know how much more of this I can take!" He then walked back over to the window to see Naruto's group being led around by Sage, Scarlet and Neptune. He then quietly says to himself, "I hope Qrow doesn't suspect anything when we meet tomorrow…"

---

Our gang had finished their tour with Neptune, Scarlet, and Sage. They had returned to their temporary living quarters where Ren had gotten out a bunch of ingredients to make an amazing meal. Nora, Pyrrha, and Jaune were figuring out teams for charades while waiting for dinner. They will be joined by Naruto, Ruby, Yang, and Weiss soon, but first these four were currently in the kitchen as Naruto was staring at something.

"So…these are brussels sprouts?" Naruto asked. He had previously revealed that he did not know what they are.

"That's correct" Ren answered while chopping some onions.

"Then they're basically just tiny cabbages?" Naruto once again asked.

A little thrown off, Weiss said, "I thought you were joking when you said you didn't know what brussels sprouts were."

Ruby shrugged as she said, "I guess they weren't a big thing in his world. Kinda like coffee."

Curiosity on this topic now peaked in her mind, Yang asked Naruto, "Okay, what's something you tried here that just blew your mind?"

"Pizza" Naruto answered without missing a beat.

Yang and Ruby both then exclaimed, "Your world doesn't have pizza?!"

Nora then heard this and exclaimed, "What?!"

Naruto then backed into a corner from their reactions and meekly said, "Yes…" Ren smiled in the background as he started cooking some vegetables.

Weiss had a smirk at this interaction before her. She then asked, "Then what's something you still crave?"

Naruto smiles as he said, "Ichiraku Ramen."

Weiss narrowed her eyes and said, "…Ramen? Seriously?"

"Come on, Whiskers. Kinda lame" Yang told him.

"I know you love your noodles, but still…" Ruby also said in judgement.

Naruto snapped and yelled, "Don't you dare downplay Ichiraku! It's not like any ramen you've ever had, ya know!"

After some silence, Ruby said, "Okay then, tell us about it."

Naruto then thought about it before he said, "I got a story about the first bowl I ever had from there. They've made objectively tastier bowls since then, but the bowl on that day can never be beat."

"Well now I'm curious" Weiss stated as she, Naruto, Ruby, and Yang headed to where the others were by the couches.

On one couch was Yang, Naruto, and Ruby with Naruto sitting in between them. Weiss sat on the chair by Ruby. Jaune, Pyrrha, and Nora sat on the other couch so they could hear the story too.

"To start the story out, I gotta remind everybody I was an orphaned Jinchuriki" Naruto told them. "One day when I was really little, I was at a playground trying to play with the other kids. The parents saw their kids playing with me and quickly took them away."

The sympathy on everyone's faces was palpable. Pyrrha then said, "I couldn't imagine my parents being so cruel." Naruto then felt Yang grab his hand, bringing a smile to his face.

"Parents often don't think they're being cruel when they are" Weiss commented. "Just look at my father. Although in this case it's other people's parents being cruel."

"That might be true, but I think our parents are different" Ruby responded before she looked at Yang.

"Oh big time" Yang said in agreement with Ruby. "Dad would have gotten into an argument with the other parents." She then looked at Naruto and said, "While mom would have introduced us to you."

"Your mom sounds like she was a great person" Naruto commented.

"She was" Ruby said with a smile on her face.

"She was the best" Yang followed up.

"Hey, what about the Ramen story?" Nora said, wanting to hear more.

"Oh, sorry! I didn't mean to get us off track" Pyrrha stated.

"It's fine" Naruto told her. "After the other kids got taken away, I sulked around for a while and got hungry. Problem was I didn't have any food at home at the time. So I walked around to see what I could find. I seen a fruit stand closing down for the day. As I was staring at the fruit, the owner threw the "sale" sign at me and shouted, "Get out of here you little freak!""

Everyone was shocked hearing that. Naruto felt Yang's grip on his hand tighten so he looked at her. He seen anger in her eyes that she was trying to control. Yang muttered, "If I ever somehow meet this guy…" Naruto just smiled at this.

Weiss' eyes then widened as something now clicked. She then said, "Now that Cardin incident makes more sense."

"What? You mean the match?" Jaune asked in confusion.

"No, the first incident in the cafeteria" Weiss clarified.

Jaune looked confused until Pyrrha told him, "This was when Cardin was still bullying you."

Ren, who approached the group waiting for water to boil, further clarified, "You had left the room already, so you didn't see it."

"Oh…so what happened then?" Jaune asked.

A disgusted scowl appeared on Weiss face as she recounted, "Cardin and his team were bullying Velvet. Cardin pulled on her ears as one of his other teammates called her a freak."

"That made Whiskers walk over and dump his drink on Cardin's head" Yang said, following up from Weiss. "He then said he mistook Cardin's armor for a trashcan since he was in it."

Naruto had a cocky smirk as he said, "I'm still proud of that one."

"After that Naruto told us that people getting called freaks for things they can't control really sets him off" Ren said, finishing that small tale. "Now we have the context."

Everyone else now put it together as well. Jaune then asked, "I'm a little afraid to ask what happened next."

"It started raining" Naruto answered.

"Oh come on!" Nora exclaimed, almost in disbelief. This made everyone else laugh as Ren then headed back to the kitchen.

"So, I started heading home with my clothes soaked from the rain and a stomach that wouldn't stop growling" Naruto continued. "That's when I seen that Ichiraku Ramen still had its lights on. I could smell the broth, so I took a peak. The owner, his name was Teuchi, ended up spotting me. I got scared that he would throw something at me, so I started to leave. But then he called me to come back. He gave me a towel to dry off and then made me my first bowl of ramen. I tried it and got the biggest smile on my face for the first time in my life. I can still taste it to this day…" He then looked up to see the faces of his friends, who all looked like they were watching an emotional scene in a movie. "Uh, guys?"

Nora wiped tears shouting, "I'm not crying!" A few of the others were watery eyed as well.

"That was…quite the story" Pyrrha commented.

"I'll probably feel a little bad when I make fun of you for your ramen obsession now" Yang told him.

"Me too…but it'll pass" Weiss stated with a smirk. Naruto was smiling as well.

Ren then walked back in and said, "I doubt it will live up to that memory, but dinner is ready." Nora jumped up excitedly and made a mad dash for the dining room. Everyone else followed suit, and there was quite the spread. There was soup, seasoned vegetables, slices of cooked meat, and of course carefully prepared pasta.

"My goodness Ren, everything looks great!" Pyrrha said, complimenting Ren.

"I'm impressed" Weiss said in a similarly complimentary manor.

"Just wait until you taste it" Jaune told her. They all then sat down, and Naruto eyed the brussels sprouts. His curiosity kept drawing him in.

Ruby seen this and announced, "I think he's gonna try one!"

Naruto then did so as they all watched. After a few seconds of silence, Naruto said, "Not bad."

"That…that was a lack luster reaction…" Ruby said disappointedly.

"What did you expect? They're brussels sprouts" Yang pointed out to her sister.

"No more stalling! It's time to dig in!" Nora shouted. After a few giggles, they all did just that.

After giving Ren's pasta a try, Naruto smiled and said, "You could give Teuchi a run for his money."

Ren grinned and said, "I take that as the highest compliment."

After another minute, Weiss commented, "Last time I was around this many people in a calm indoor environment was back in Atlas during a charity event."

"Ugh, that sounds boring…" Nora commented. Ren gave her a disapproving look, but Nora said to him, "Hey, it's true!"

"Oh trust me it was" Weiss stated. "That was until…" She then looked down as her cheeks blushed from embarrassment.

Seeing Weiss' reaction, Ruby puts down her chopsticks and slides closer to Weiss and exclaimed, "Now I have to know!"

Weiss sighed before explaining, "There was a charity event for Vale and my father asked me to sing for it."

They were all surprised and Pyrrha said, "I didn't know you could sing."

"Yeah, me neither" Ruby stated.

Trying to move on, Weiss continued, "After the performance there was a little social party. One of the guests was disrespecting the victims of Vale and…I lost my temper." She then put her hands in her face in shame as she said, "And accidently made a summon that attacked her…"

"Oh no…how bad did it get?" Jaune asked.

Weiss lowered her hands as her face was not as red as it just was. She answered, "Ironwood eliminated it before it could do anything."

Trying to make Weiss feel better, Naruto said, "At least it was an accident, ya know. I would have thrown something at her 100% on purpose."

"Hopefully something that would ruin her gaudy outfit" Yang said as a follow up.

Weiss was now smiling as she said, "You're both terrible."

"We know" Naruto and Yang answered. Everyone at the table started laughing.

"Hey, Yang?" Ruby called out to get her sister's attention.

"What is it?" Yang said, showing she was listening.

"Um…how…how hard is the Chakra training?" Ruby asked, a little nervous.

Yang thought about how to answer before she said, "Getting control of it was pretty hard, but worth it. But getting it flowing is the first step. And what a rush…"

"You guys weren't born with Chakra so that's why it isn't flowing through your Chakra network yet" Naruto explained.

"Now I'm getting kind of excited" Jaune stated. The others were as well, but they still chose to focus on and enjoy their meal.

---

Qrow was at a small tavern. True to his word, he was drinking by nightfall. He was starting slow for now. He knew he could not drink too heavily since he had to meet with Lionhart in the morning. He was then approached by a boy who looked even younger than Ruby. He is wearing a dirty white shirt with olive-colored pants held up by orange overalls. He has on orange gloves and brown boots as well. He has tanned skin and freckles on his face. His eyes were green with accents of yellow.

The child said to Qrow, "Excuse me."

Qrow turned his head towards the boy and said, "You know, I don't think they allow kids in here, pipsqueak."

The boy was a little nervous, but then whispered to his side as if someone was there and said, "Shut up, I'm getting there." He then looked back to Qrow and said, "Umm... I'm supposed to tell you... I'd like my cane back?"

Qrow blinked a few times before he realized what was going on. He turned around with a smile and handed Ozpin's cane to the boy. He then said, "It's good to see you again, Oz." The boy looked at Qrow oddly, seeing that he knew what was going on. Qrow then pulled up a chair next to him and said, "Sit down, kid." The boy did so and then Qrow asked, "What's your name?"

"It's Oscar…Oscar Pine" The boy now named Oscar answered.

Qrow let out a slight chuckle before saying, "Yeah, that fits. Think your "friend" and I could talk for a minute?"

"Uh, sure…" Oscar said hesitantly. He then shut his eyes before he opened them again and his eyes glowed a slight green. He then spoke in his own voice, but also with an echo of the soul residing in him, Professor Ozpin. "I see you are still up to your old habits."

"Back for a second and you're already lecturing like a teacher again?" Qrow responded.

Ozpin chuckled and asked, "How have you been?"

"Not gonna lie Oz, it's been crazy" Qrow answered.

"Yes, I imagine so" Ozpin said in agreement.

Qrow then put down his drink and said, "Things have changed in ways none of us could have predicted." He then looked at Ozpin and said, "We know where the new Dust came from."

Ozpin's eyes widened and he said, "What? Where—"

Qrow cut him off and said, "Not here, you should know better."

Ozpin sighed and said, "You're right. It's just been so long since something was such a mystery to me."

"Tomorrow, after me and the kids meet with Leo. That's when we'll tell you" Qrow informed him.

Surprised, Ozpin asked, "You haven't met with him already?"

"Like I said…things have been crazy" Qrow responded.

---

The next day in Menagerie, Blake, Sun, Kali, and Ghira are preparing for Ghira's announcement to the citizens about Adam and his sect of the White Fang. While preparing, Sun was curious, so he asked, "Hey, Blake?"

Blake turned to Sun and asked, "What is it?"

"You said that girl from before told you to leave. But who is she?" Sun asked curiously.

Blake looked a little sad as she said, "She's…she's an old friend from when I was a part of the White Fang. Back when it was a force for good." Sun detected the sadness in Blake's voice, so he knows something must have happened. Blake continues, "Her chameleon traits meant she could pass as human. She could've lived a normal life if she wanted, but she didn't. I always admired that. She lost her family in a mining accident when she was young, then she joined the White Fang. Like me, she was more or less trained on the road alongside other Faunus. She learned to survive, to defend herself, but as people like Sienna and Adam started to gain a following, she became more dangerous. I guess I did too. My parents tried to get me to leave with them, but I refused. I had Adam and Ilia, after all." Blake then looked at her father who was preparing for his speech and she had a look of shame because she did not leave with him.

Kali then looks at Blake and says, "Hey, go give your father some encouragement." Blake then went and placed her hand on Ghira's arm. Ghira smiled at this as Kali did the same.

Sun then pat Ghira's back and said, "You got this." The three Belladonnas gave Sun an odd look, but they also appreciated the sentiment. They then left the Belladonna home where a crowd of the citizens had been gathered. Unfortunately, two of the people in the crowd were Corsac and Fennec, who they knew were going to be a problem. Luckily, Menagerie guards were also there just in case. Ghira then went up the podium to address the crowd.

"Thank you all for assembling here" Ghira said, beginning his speech. "I wanted to take time to address some of the rumors that have been circulating around our island. I believe that it is important for the people of this territory to understand the truth. No matter how you feel about the human race, I think we can all agree that the event now known as the Fall of Beacon was a tragedy. A tragedy that will set both man and Faunus-kind back. While the main aggressor is still unknown, we do have official confirmation that Adam Taurus..." He then glared at Corsac and Fennec "... the leader of a powerful splinter group working inside the White Fang, was partially responsible for these attacks. His actions not only tarnished the reputation of an organization originally created to bring peace and equality to all, but to our entire race. With each day that this man remains unpunished, it becomes increasingly difficult to condemn those that look down upon us."

The crowd were surprised by this and began murmuring among themselves. Corsac and Fennec did not seem worried for some reason.

"His radical plans do not stop there" Ghira continued. He then held up Ilia's scroll and said, "The documents on this scroll proclaim his next target to be Haven Academy and its attached CCT Tower. Their plan is to strike on the last full moon before the beginning of the Fall semester. I have sent my swiftest messenger to the government of Mistral, but I believe we have a greater responsibility. My relationship with the White Fang has been...an interesting one. Years ago, I led the organization to help try and create a world where I, and every Faunus who wished, could walk alongside the human race. And while I believe we made great strides toward this goal, it was made clear to me that the people both in and out of the White Fang wanted faster results. So I stepped down, and Sienna Khan was appointed as my successor. It's true that I do not fully condone many of her methods. What I do condone is what Sienna fights for: the idea that the Faunus and humans are, and should be, equal. Adam Taurus does not seem to have that goal in mind. What he has done benefits no one but himself. I think it's time that the Faunus showed the world that we are equals! Time that we snuff out this splinter group, and restore the White Fang to what it once was!"

Ghira was winning the crowd over. But Blake had a feeling something was about to go wrong. She kept a close eye on Corsac and Fennec.

"To do this, I think the answer is clear" Ghira continues. "We must go to Haven and protect it at all costs!" The crowd that was cheering fell silent, clearly not sure about doing that. Seeing this, Ghira cleared his throat and said, "Before we proceed any further, I'd like to invite my daughter to come and share her story. Not only as a former member of the White Fang, but also as a survivor of the Fall of Beacon."

Blake then stepped up to the podium and was clearly still nervous. Ghira in a reassuring tone told her, "You can do this."

However, before Blake could speak, a voice shouted out, "TRAITORS!" Ilia then released her camouflage revealing it to be her. Her face looked full of anger. "Cowards...After everything the humans have done to us, everything they've put us through, you're asking us to help them?!"

"I know we haven't been treated fairly..." Ghira responded in a calmer tone.

"Where was their help when the Dust companies treated our people like slaves?!" Ilia continued to yell. "Where was their help when Kingdoms hunted Faunus just for being who they are?! Where was my help when my parents were killed in a Dust mine?! WHERE?!"

"Young lady, progress takes patience and cooperation!" Ghira exclaimed, not giving into Ilia's anger.

"Belladonnas are the worse kind of Faunus!" Ilia exclaimed in return. "They want us to work with the same people that are trying to hold us down! If you truly, truly want to help your people...now is the time to support Adam, not the Belladonnas! He will bring about the future that you deserve. And if you are unwilling to fight, know that the White Fang will do it for you!"

Sun, who was subtly sneaking around to get close to Ilia, leaped at her while shouting, "SHUT UP!" Ilia used her coiled weapon to get out of the way of Sun and run away.

One of the Menagerie guards yelled out, "After her!" She and the other guards did just that. As Corsac and Fennec smirk, Blake and her father glared angrily at them. This must have been the plan. It did the job of placing doubt in the citizens' minds while Corsac and Fennec could play innocent.

The crowd then dispersed and Corsac and Fennec returned to their hideout where Ilia was waiting for them. Corsac said, "That was very well done Ilia."

"Do you think it was enough?" Ilia asked.

"No, but it was a start" Fennec answered. "The next part of the plan is the elimination of the Belladonnas." Ilia was shocked to hear this. She did not think they would go this far, but she was committed at this point. Fennec then clarified, "With the exception of Blake. She is to be taken to Adam in Mistral."

"I see…what if the attack on the Belladonnas fails?" Ilia asked, trying to hide her hesitation.

"Oh, it won't fail" Corsac said. He then walked into another room and said, "We have an insurance policy thanks to Adam's new…benefactor."

Ilia goes to look at what he is talking about. She finds a large cage with a sleeping Grimm, but one larger than it should be. It is mostly kept in the darkness, so she can't make out many details. What she can see is a blue tipped tail and Grimm mask. The beast appears to be asleep. Ilia could not believe what she was looking at.

---

It is the following day in Haven and our group is up at 8:00am. They are drinking their coffee and getting some stretches in.

"Today's the day!" Ruby exclaimed. "I'm so excited!" She has been waiting for this day ever since Naruto told them about Chakra.

"Yeah, me too!" Nora said in agreement. "I can't wait to use this stuff to put those new Grimm in their place!"

"Even I can't hide my excitement on this one" Weiss commented.

Yang had a big smile watching the excitement on all their faces. Naruto seen this and said, "You were just as excited on your first day too, ya know."

Yang just shrugged and said, "Could you blame me?"

Naruto then shrugged as well before saying, "Fair enough."

Jaune looked at Pyrrha and asked, "How are you feeling about all this?"

Pyrrha tilted her head in thought while crossing her arms. She then said, "I'm a little nervous, but I'm excited too."

Surprised, Jaune asked, "Why would you be nervous?"

Pyrrha smiles as she said, "I can't remember the last time I was taught anything for combat." She then looked at Jaune as she said, "Everything I learned at Beacon was academically oriented. Even when preparing for the tournament, Naruto made me an assistant coach."

"That's just because you're an amazing fighter" Jaune pointed out.

Pyrrha gave a slight chuckle before saying, "Thank you Jaune. But that is also why I'm so excited. I get to finally learn something new."

Jaune nodded as he said, "I guess that makes sense."

Qrow then walked into the room and seen that everyone was awake. He learned against a wall and said, "Glad to see you're all awake."

"How could we not be? Today's the big day!" Ruby responded to her uncle.

Qrow crossed his arms and looked confused as he asked, "You're that excited to meet Lionhart?"

"What? No! Today we learn about Chakra!" Ruby informed Qrow.

"Oh…" Qrow said with surprise on his face. He then rubbed the back of his head while he asked, "Is that today?"

"Yeah. Why?" Naruto answered and asked.

Qrow sighed and said, "I hate to put a damper on things, but we got a few people we gotta meet before you guys can do that."

"…Excuse you?" Weiss asked, stunned at what Qrow just said.

"Oh come on Uncle Qrow!" Ruby exclaimed in disappointment.

Jaune sighed and said, "Of course…" Nora was practically ripping her hair out in frustration and Ren was trying to stop her.

Qrow put his hands up and said, "It can't be helped, okay? We need to go meet Leo now and then right after there's one more person we gotta meet with. After that you can get to your lessons."

"Fine…" Ruby replied.

Seeing Ruby's expression, and then the similar reactions of the faces of his other friends, Naruto said, "As annoying as it is, meeting that Lionhart guy was the whole point of coming here, wasn't it?"

"Well…yeah, it is" Jaune admitted. "It's just, after learning about Chakra and Salem, meeting him went to the back of everybody's mind."

Wanting to get this over with, Ruby sighed and said, "Let's go." They then left their living quarters.

Qrow led them all to Lionhart's office. As Qrow opened the door, Lionhart was sitting in his chair. Upon seeing them all, Lionhart exclaimed, "It is so good to see you again Qrow! It really has been too long."

"It's a busy life" Qrow replied as he and the others entered the room.

Nora whispered to the others, "Is this really the guy?"

"I think so" Pyrrha whispered back.

Qrow then turned around to address the kids as he said, "Everybody, meet Leonardo Lionhart. Headmaster of Haven Academy and Councilmember of Mistral."

"It's honor to meet you all" Lionhart said in a warm manor. The others were a little taken aback. Lionhart's personality is so different compared to the relaxed and mysterious Ozpin or the stoic Ironwood.

Realizing how awkward they are being, they start introducing themselves starting with Ruby, followed by Yang, Weiss, Jaune, Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, and finally Naruto.

Lionhart recognized Naruto's name as he said, "Naruto, was it? Ozpin told me about a student that he saw too much promise in to let go."

Embarrassed, Naruto scratched his cheek as he said, "Yeah, that's me…"

Qrow then interjected saying, "Even though they're all young, they're very capable. So, what's the situation around here?"

Lionhart shook his head and said, "It isn't good." He then got up from his desk and walked closer to the group before saying, "There have been reports of some kind of evolved Grimm."

"I'm afraid it's true" Qrow told him.

Lionhart sighed before he said, "While there have been no major attacks on Haven, many of our Huntsmen have fallen. Some survivors claim seeing larger Grimm with glowing bone plates."

"That's them alright…" Naruto muttered.

"This all seems to have made the Branwen tribe more desperate as they have been attacking more frequently" Lionhart informed them. Hearing this, Yang, Naruto, and Weiss collectively groaned.

"Are they really that bad?" Ruby asked.

"Yes" Yang answered matter-of-factly.

Lionhart then looked at Qrow and said, "You and your sister are evenly matched. Even you can't handle her and an entire bandit clan."

Qrow gave Naruto and Yang a slight glance before saying, "We'll figure it out."

"There is one more issue…" Lionhart hesitated to admit. "The Branwen tribe has Spring."

Qrow was shocked as he responded, "That is an issue…"

Thinking back, Naruto said, "There was a girl at the camp that summoned a lightning bolt."

Qrow then glared at Naruto and asked, "Why are you just now bringing this up?"

Naruto looked a little nervous as he said, "It…it never seemed relevant until now…" Qrow then signed before he looked at Yang and Weiss for confirmation.

"Yeah, we seen it too" Yang confirmed.

"There was so much going on at the time it didn't really stick out in our minds" Weiss told him.

"Well it shouldn't be too much of a problem since we have—" Ruby started to say until Naruto grabbed her arm and shook his head.

"What were you trying to say?" Lionhart asked, giving Ruby his full attention.

Ruby was stammering until Pyrrha spoke up and said, "Trust and teamwork." Ruby then gave a poor attempt at a fake smile. Lionhart simply laughed.

"It was nice catching up" Qrow told Lionhart. "But me and the kids got a lot to try and plan out now."

"It was wonderful meeting all of you" Lionhart told them. "Until we meet again."

The group nodded and waved as they left the office. On the way back to their living quarters, Ruby asked, "Why didn't we tell him about our Chakra?"

"Look, just because I told you guys doesn't mean I wanna tell everyone" Naruto answered. He then looked up at Qrow and said, "And clearly your uncle agrees with me since he didn't say anything either."

Everyone else then looked at Qrow. He sighed and said, "That's right. I wanna trust Leo, but with such sensitive information, we should keep it quiet for now. Although, the next person we meet we are going to tell."

Naruto groaned and said, "I never thought I'd get sick of telling my story, ya know." This earned laughter from his friends. As they approached their living quarters, they came upon Oscar standing in front of the building. Naruto of course asked, "Uh, who are you?"

"I'm…my name's Oscar Pine" Oscar said with nervousness in his voice.

Pyrrha looked at him and noticed what he was carrying. She asked, "Why do you have Ozpin's cane?"

"That's kind of hard to explain…" Oscar hesitantly replied.

Qrow then walked past Oscar toward the door and said, "We'll explain everything inside." They all follow Qrow to the living room area. Qrow motions for Oscar to sit on one of the couches.

Oscar does so before looking at the others and saying, "So, I kind of…have another person in my head?"

"That other person being Oz" Qrow said as a follow up.

Outside of Qrow, the group collectively shouted, "What?!"

"Did he age backwards?" Nora speculated.

"He's possessed!" Jaune exclaimed. Pyrrha then made Jaune back up and calm down.

"Or reincarnated!" Ren stated, wanting to join in.

"Seriously? Even you?" Weiss said to Ren.

"How are you not weirded out?!" Ruby exclaimed to Weiss. "I mean, this is objectively weird, right?!"

"It is very weird, yes" Oscar replied.

"Eh, maybe a little" Naruto replied. Yang then snicked.

"Okay, okay" Qrow said putting up his hands to get them all to be quiet. "Let's all just take a second and remember that this is very overwhelming for everyone." The others finally started quieting down with nervous laughter.

Oscar looked to Qrow and said, "Thanks." Qrow then took a seat next to Oscar as Ruby, Nora, Pyrrha, and Jaune sat across from them. Ren decided to remain standing while Yang and Weiss each took a chair.

"Guess I'll sit here then..." Naruto said before sitting on the couch with Qrow and Oscar.

Oscar ended up sharing a look with Ruby. She can see how nervous he is, and this makes her giggle just a bit. Oscar says, "Ah, sorry!" He then looks away quickly before saying, "It's just I've never really met real Huntsmen and Huntresses before."

Trying to make him feel better, Ruby said, "Well, uh...we've never met a person with two souls! So, first times all around."

Naruto cleared his throat gaining their attention before he looked at Ruby and said, "Ruby, I'm sitting right here."

Ruby looked confused until it dawned on her, and she replied, "Oh right! The fox…" The others giggle at her. Oscar on the hand was confused.

Qrow then looked at Oscar and said, "Not to break up the whole 'getting-to-know-you' game, but we need to have a talk. Mind showing us your little parlor trick, kid?"

Oscar groaned before saying, "Yeah, okay. Just so you know, I'll still be here." He then closed his eyes. A shimmer of green ran across him before opening his eyes again with Ozpin in control.

"It is so very good to see you again, students" Ozpin said, greeting all his old students. He then sees Pyrrha in front of him and says, "Ms. Nikos…I can't apologize enough for putting you in that situation."

"It's okay…I made a choice" Pyrrha tells him.

"A choice you should have never had to make" Ozpin replies.

"That's for sure…" Jaune commented.

"Jaune!" Pyrrha said, admonishing Jaune.

"No, he's right" Ozpin told her. "It was our fault, the fault of your elders, that put you in that spot."

"Okay, then I got a few questions" Yang spoke up. With attention now on her she asked, "So what's with the kid?" She motioned to the body of Oscar.

Ozpin looked to Ruby and asked, "Do you remember when I told you that I've made more mistakes any man, woman, or child on this planet?" Ruby nodded leading him to say, "That is because I've lived far longer than anyone else. When I die, my consciousness moves onto another."

"Wow…that's gotta be really disorienting for the host" Naruto commented.

"It always is" Ozpin replied.

"That's one question…" Yang said, regaining Ozpin's attention. "Are you the one who gave my mom and Uncle Qrow the power to turn into birds?"

Ozpin smirked and said, "That's right. I gave them the last of my power that was leftover from when I gave the bulk of it to four young maidens."

Pyrrha's eyes widened as she asked, "You're the old man in the story?" Ozpin nodded to confirm.

"We don't want to go on too long" Qrow interrupted. "We don't know how long Oz can stay in control at this point."

"Are we in a rush?" Ozpin questioned.

"The kids are gonna get mad if their training gets put off too much longer" Qrow answered.

"Oh really?" Ozpin responded. "Now what kind of training is that?"

Qrow looked to Naruto and said, "Alright, go ahead."

Naruto sighed and said, "Okay, here we go." He then proceeded to give Ozpin the best barebones version of his story possible. Just enough to where he knows Naruto is from another world, he has Kurama inside him, and the existence of Chakra.

Despite how old and wise Ozpin is, the revelations from Naruto took him completely by surprise. He then muttered, "So there are other worlds out there…ones not made by the Gods…" Oscar was in the back of his own mind, completely overwhelmed at this information. Ozpin then asks, "So, this Chakra. You know for a fact it exists?" Yang then ignited her hand while Naruto made his hand glow orange. Ozpin was in awe as he said, "That's remarkable…"

"So now we don't have to worry about the Maidens!" Ruby proudly exclaimed.

"The Maidens are still very much a threat, even with your new power" Ozpin corrected her. "You also need to remember, it isn't their elemental powers that Salem wants, but their ability to open the vaults and acquire the Relics."

"He has a good point" Naruto commented.

"Okay…" Ruby said, a little disappointed. "One more question! Is your cane a Relic?!"

Ozpin chuckled before answering, "While this cane does have a few tricks, and is special to me, it is just that, special to me."

"Aw…" Ruby expressed in disappointment.

"I'll be right here if you need me, but I will be handing control back to Oscar now" Ozpin tells them. He then does so. The rest of them then stared at Naruto.

Naruto seen their stares and nervously said, "Guess it's time then…"

---

Naruto has all seven of his friends now gathered on the outer deck of the property. Qrow is watching them from inside the living room along with Oscar. Oscar asked Qrow, "Why are we watching from inside?"

Qrow took a sip of his drink and said, "I don't want whatever they're doing to make me spill my drink. You can go watch though."

"What if I'm spotted?" Oscar asked concerned.

"Not from there" Qrow told him. "Besides, you'll be surrounded by other kids, so you won't look out of place."

Oscar then opened the door just in time to hear Naruto say, "Everybody sit in a meditative position."

"Huh? Why are we supposed to sit down?" Ruby asked.

"And why couldn't we have just used the couches inside if we gotta sit down?" Nora followed up.

"I have to admit, I had the same thought" Ren commented.

Naruto accepts these are reasonable questions and said, "The first step of your training requires a lot of concentration." He then crossed his arms and closed his eyes before saying, "Some of you I can't trust to not fall asleep on the couches." Despite him not naming names, everyone knew he was talking about Nora and Ruby.

Ruby fiddled her fingers together and said, "Yeah, okay…"

Naruto opened his eyes again and said, "The other reason is that once you complete this first step there will be some…reactions." He then looked over at Yang.

Yang recalled how quickly she shot up to her feet when she felt her Chakra circulate. She then said, "Oh yeah, big time."

"Reactions? To what?" Pyrrha wondered to herself. Everyone else was wondering the same thing.

Weiss then sat down in a meditative position and said, "Let's get this over with." The rest of the beginners followed suit.

"There's six of you to watch out for instead of one…so four should do" Naruto said before he made four shadow clones.

Oscar seen this and struggled to not exclaim his surprise. Ozpin from in Oscar's psyche commented, "That is a remarkable feat…"

The real Naruto looked to Yang and said, "Come on." He then started walking away.

Yang started following. As they passed by the others, she turned her head to them and waved as she teasingly said, "I'll see you noobies around."

"Keep walking teacher's pet!" Nora shouted back.

One of Naruto's clones then said, "So, the first step of your training is to get your Chakra circulating. When you guys first absorbed those streams, you felt a lot of internal pain, right?"

"I mean, I sure did" Ruby answered.

"Me too, but I thought it might have just been me?" Weiss commented.

"Did it feel to you guys like you were exploding on the inside?" Ren asked them. They all nodded. Only now do they all realize they had the same feeling.

"That's not a surprise" The clone spoke again. "You guys all got those streams after fighting Super Grimm, so you were all already banged up. You all probably just thought it was from the fights."

"Hmm…that would make sense" Ozpin commented to himself from within Oscar. Oscar has a slightly annoyed face from the commentary.

Realizing that something is not adding up, Ren asked, "Why did those…Chakra streams come from most of the Super Grimm, but not any of those Super Beowolves we fought the other day or the Death Stalker the night after?"

"That is weird…" The Naruto clone comments. "Honestly, I have no idea."

Qrow overheard this and then recalled Tyrian calling those Beowolves more "pure." He then thought, "What the hell could he have meant?"

The Naruto clone then continues, "So, that pain you guys felt was from your Aura and Chakra wrestling for their places in your bodies and then building your Chakra networks."

"You mentioned that last night. Just what is a Chakra network?" Pyrrha questioned.

"It's almost like another set of nerves" the clone Naruto answered. "It carries the Chakra that's pooled at the center of your body throughout the rest of your body. But because of how you guys got your Chakra, you need to get your Chakra coursing manually."

"You've gotten pretty good at these explanations" Kurama stated, genuinely complimenting Naruto.

"Thanks Kurama. Thankfully I had practice, ya know" Naruto internally responded.

Hearing the part about "manually" circulating their Chakra, Jaune commented, "That sounds pretty difficult…"

"It will be easier if you've unconsciously summoned up your Chakra before" The clone told them. "I've seen Ruby, Ren, and Nora do it. What about the rest of you?"

Weiss thought about the incident that occurred when she was practicing with Winter. She then said, "I think I have."

Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other and Pyrrha admitted, "I don't think so."

"Me neither" Jaune admitted as well.

"You guys will need more work then" The clone replied. "Chakra is a combination of mental and physical energies, so you guys will need to concentrate. But first, I want you guys to do this." He then makes the Seal of Confrontation.

They all did so, but Weiss then asked, "Why are we doing this?"

"It's a hand seal that helps mold and focus Chakra" The clone answered.

"Wait, so like, ninjas we seen make weird hand signs in movies and stuff…that's real?" Ruby questioned.

"I mean…technically, yeah" the clone answered.

"That's awesome!" Nora exclaimed. The clone snickered before he separated those who have experienced using Chakra before from those who haven't.

As this is happening, Ozpin let out a sigh from within Oscar. Oscar internally asked him, "What's wrong?"

"A few months ago, they were all my students" Ozpin answered. "But now they are being taught by a fellow student. It just seems so backwards."

"At least I'll be learning from you" Oscar told him.

One of the clones seen the look on Oscar's face. He walked over to Oscar and said, "I wonder if that's the same face I make?"

"What do you mean?" Oscar asked in complete confusion.

"I know what it's like having someone else in your head" The clone responds.

Realizing he has someone to talk to who knows what he is going through, Oscar says, "It's just so weird…"

"Trust me, you get used to it" Naruto informed him.

Ozpin, being reminded about Kurama says, "Now I need to know. Did that fox help him cheat on the exams?"

"I am not asking him that!" Oscar internally exclaimed.

Watching Oscar's facial expressions, Naruto said, "I can tell there's an argument going on in there, ya know."

After a pause, Oscar said, "He asked…" He then sighed before continuing, "He asked if the one in your head helped you cheat on the tests."

"Of course not!" Naruto exclaimed.

"You would have aced those exams if I did" Kurama commented. His comment made the clone's eye twitch.

"Are you okay?" Oscar asked, seeing the twitch.

"I'm fine…" the clone answered. "Kurama just made a snarky comment."

Oscar then starts to say, "This is really—"

He was cut off by Weiss who jumped up having gotten her Chakra circulating and she exclaimed, "What's happening to me?!"

"…weird" Oscar said, finishing his sentence.

"Weiss, you did it!" Ruby exclaimed. "What's it feel like?"

"I feel like I just got plugged into an electrical outlet…" Weiss described.

The clone over by them says, "That rush will pass. This is gonna be your normal state now." Ruby was now a little jealous and went back to concentrating.

Jaune on the other hand sighed and said, "I have no idea what I'm even supposed to concentrate on…"

"I'm also having trouble…" Pyrrha admitted.

The clone over by them was desperately trying to think of how to help them. He then thought, "Yang's Chakra popped up from her anger. With Nora and Ruby it was desperation. I'm not sure what it was with Ren, I was too distracted." That clone then yells over to Weiss, "Hey Weiss!"

"What is it?" Weiss responded.

The clone approached and said, "Tell me about when your Chakra reared up"

"Well, I was practicing my summon with my sister" Weiss explained. "She made me think about what would happen if I was the only one who could save my friends. I quickly stopped doubting myself and started the summon. But then it overloaded which was apparently from the Chakra."

The clone then thought about how the Chakra seems to be reacting to extreme fluxes in emotion, but not consistently. He then walked back towards Jaune and Pyrrha before he looked at one of the other clones and said, "Hey, come here." Once the other clone approached, he told the other clone the plan. As this was happening, Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other concerned.

One of the clones tells Jaune, "Jaune, you're coming with me!"

The other clone pointed at Pyrrha and said, "You're with me."

"Why are we being separated?" Pyrrha questioned.

The clone leading her along said, "You'll see." They head into the woods before one clone takes Jaune and heads another direction. So Pyrrha and Jaune cannot see what each other is doing. The clone with Pyrrha then told her, "I'll be right back." He then went into the bushes and made another clone.

The new clone complained, "Making clones is so much harder with this new energy…"

"We'll get used to it" The first clone responded. He then told the other clone, "I'll turn into Jaune, you turn into Tyrian."

"Wha? Why do I gotta turn into that jackass?" The new clone questioned.

"Because I don't wanna and I was here first" The first clone answered. The new clone grumbled before using the Transformation Jutsu and turning into Tyrian. The first clone then turned into Jaune before covering himself in dirt.

Pyrrha was back waiting for her Naruto clone to return. She then seen what looked like Jaune running from Tyrian and was stunned by this. The Jaune clone shouted, "Pyrrha! Help!" Pyrrha then ran over and got in between the Jaune clone and the Tyrian clone.

The Tyrian clone then kicked Pyrrha back. She stayed on her feet and is on guard, but is now fully aware of the superior strength and speed of her opponent. The Tyrian clone thought to himself, "Now how did this guy talk? It was over the top and crazy…"

"He was also belittling to those weaker than him" Kurama reminded him.

The Tyrian clone then said, "Oh little girl, what are you gonna do?" Pyrrha did not answer and made sure to stay ready.

"That impression will do" Kurama told him. The Tyrian clone then started attacking wildly and Pyrrha was doing her best to guard. Unfortunately, she was quickly getting overwhelmed.

Over in the opposite end of the woods, the same thing was happening with Jaune. He was doing his best to defend a clone of Pyrrha from a clone of Tyrian. The Tyrian clone knocked Jaune off his feet and then slowly made his way to the Pyrrha clone. Jaune got back up and jumped at the Tyrian clone, but the clone blocked Jaune's swing and then did his best impression of Tyrian's crazed eyes. It felt weird, but he had to play the part.

"I won't let you hurt Pyrrha!" Jaune shouted at the Tyrian clone.

"And what can someone as weak as yourself do?" The Tyrian clone responded. Back with Pyrrha, her Tyrian clone had just taken her shield and asked her the same question.

Jaune and Pyrrha had the same response as they said, "If I'm weak now, then I'll get stronger! Strong enough to protect him/her!"

The Tyrian clones both scoffed, but on the inside they were shouting, "YEAAAHH! That's what I wanna hear!"

Pyrrha used her Semblance to pull her shield back from the distracted clone. She then configured her spear into rifle mode and fired four shots. The clone easily dodged them all and closed the gap in no time. Pyrrha attempted a shield bash while configuring her rifle into sword mode and attempting a spinning slash. The clone weaved back from the shield and ducked the slash. She then attempted a thrust with her blade that the clone easily side-stepped. She rolled to try and get away, but the clone caught her foot and threw her down pretty hard. Before she could react, the clone stomped on her stomach which caused her to cough up all her air along with a little blood and bile.

Jaune attacked his Tyrian clone with three slashes that the clone easily dodged. Jaune then did a swift downward slash, but not swift enough as the clone caught the sword. Jaune was shocked but tried to quickly attack with his shield. The clone caught the shield and started cackling, really trying to get into character.

Jaune thought about his options and then remembered something that really hurt when it happened to him. He then reared his head back and headbutted the clone right on the nose. It did no damage, but it still hurt and made the clone take a few steps back from shock. The clone then shouted, "That's it brat! Playtime is over!"

Jaune nervously gulped and took a defensive stance. The clone then dashed to Jaune and punched him back pretty far. Jaune had a perfect guard, but the strength difference was just too great. The clone quickly closed the distance and sent Jaune's loaned shield flying with a reverse roundhouse kick. "Wait a sec, I know this fighting sty—" Jaune started to think before he received a punch to his face that shattered his Aura and sent him skidding across the ground. Whatever thought he had was gone now. The Tyrian clones then started approaching their prone counterparts.

Jaune was barely conscious as he said, "Leave her alone…please…"

Pyrrha could barely breath as she said, "Don't hurt him…I'll do anything…"

Both Tyrian clones answered the same way, "Why would I listen to someone too weak to stop me?" They then continued to approach the prone targets.

Both Jaune and Pyrrha forced themselves to their feet. They stumbled towards their respective Tyrian clones and struck with what little strength they had left. The clones effortlessly blocked the attacks and still went to strike their prone counterparts. Jaune and Pyrrha then both screamed as they unconsciously drew upon their Chakra and got a quick boost in strength to start pressuring their respective Tyrian clone. The Tyrian clones both smiled and let themselves be cut down into a puff of smoke.

"Wha…what?" Pyrrha said, absolutely confused.

The prone Jaune clone then got up and undid the transformation, revealing himself to Pyrrha to be Naruto. He then walked over to Pyrrha and said, "Congratulations!"

Jaune, who just witnessed the same thing on his end asked, "What just happened?"

The clone with Jaune told him, "The only way I could think of to help you and Pyrrha was for you guys to feel your Chakra like the others have. That faux Chakra summoning seems to react most to extreme emotions."

"Then what about this little stunt?" Pyrrha asked.

The clone with Pyrrha answered, "I knew you two would feel those extreme emotions if you had to protect each other. But I couldn't have you guys fight together since you reassure each other too much, ya know."

"Then why turn into Tyrian?" Pyrrha asked. "I also didn't know you could turn into other people…"

"It's a pretty basic ability" Her clone tells her. "As for the Tyrian thing, let me ask. Would you believe Jaune was in danger if you knew it was me beating him up?"

Pyrrha's eyes widened before she answered, "…Fair point." She then sees the other clone and Jaune approach.

A pretty beaten up Jaune asked Pyrrha, "Did you just fight a Naruto disguised as Tyrian that was threatening to kill a Naruto disguised as me?"

"I sure did…" Pyrrha answered both exhausted and a little humiliated that she fell for it.

One of the clones with then vanishes in a puff of smoke, leaving only one still with them. That remaining clone said, "Now make the Seal of Confrontation and focus on the feeling that crept up when you fought my clone!" Jaune and Pyrrha then both did so. Because the feeling was so fresh it was easy to recall. In a few minutes, both of their Chakras were circulating.

"It feels incredible!" Jaune exclaimed.

"I can't even begin to describe this feeling!" Pyrrha also exclaimed.

The clone with them had a giant smile as he said, "We should head back to the others now."

---

Naruto had led Yang to a different section of the campus where no one was around. It was pretty roomy with a few trees in the back. Perfect for what he planned on teaching Yang today.

"This is a quaint little place" Yang commented. "So what are we gonna try over here?"

"We're gonna do the Body Flicker" Naruto answered.

"That's the speed thing, right?" Yang asked.

"Yup" Naruto confirmed. "It's mostly used for escapes, but with enough practice and Chakra it can be used to overwhelm an opponent."

Yang smiled and said, "That's good to hear!"

"I used to be pretty good at it" Naruto commented. "But this new energy makes me have to concentrate on everything again."

Yang nods in understanding but then said, "At least you know what you're doing."

"I guess that's true" Naruto responded. "Now watch me." He then made the Seal of Confrontation and focused. Yang watched closely and after a few seconds, Naruto vanished from sight. She was shocked and started looking for him. Naruto then hopped out of one of the trees and said, "Still kinda rusty with it…"

Confused, Yang put a hand on her hip and said, "Seems fine to me."

Naruto shook his head and said, "I was trying to go behind the tree, not up it."

Yang gave a dismissive wave and said, "Eh, details."

Naruto smirked at her attitude. He then said, "For this technique you gotta build up your Chakra and spread it through your body to vitalize it. The more Chakra you build up, the further you can go."

Hearing that, Yang commented, "Chakra control must be essential for that one." Naruto nodded and she began concentrating her Chakra. She spread it through her body and took off…right into a wall.

Naruto's eyes widened before he asked, "You uh…you okay?"

Yang shook her head to make her eyes refocus before she said, "Yeah, I'm okay. I just wasn't expecting it to be so hard to control."

"That's why I brought you out here" Naruto told her. "With the practice you'll need, it'll distract the others who really need to concentrate."

Yang looked at him and said, "Come on, I'm not that much of a distraction."

"…You just ran into a wall" Naruto pointed out.

Yang went quiet before she said, "…Shut up."

"I'll be practicing too" Naruto informed her.

Yang smirked and said, "At least I won't be running into walls alone."

Naruto smiled back and said, "Let's get to it."

An hour of practice later, Naruto and Yang have moderately improved their Body Flickers. Yang hit the wall a few more times, but now she is able to stop herself. Naruto can get where he wants within short distances, but he still requires a good deal of concentration. Yang was out of breath as she said, "This is way harder than I thought it was gonna be…"

Naruto had caught his breath already and to told her, "Remember, this is mostly used for escapes so using it in succession isn't normally done. Very few shinobi can pull it off."

"So why did you decide to teach it to me then?" Yang asked him.

"I know it's gonna be helpful" Naruto answered. "And besides, there's no telling what you'll be capable of." Yang looked surprised when he said that. Noticing her surprise, Naruto continued, "Your Chakra's been active for less than a month and look at everything you can do! Your potential could be crazy!"

This made Yang smile. She had no reason to doubt him so she said, "Hope you can handle my crazy potential then."

"Looking forward to it" Naruto responded. "We should practice a little longer and then head back to the others."

"Sounds good" Yang said in agreement. They practiced another twenty minutes and then started heading back.

On the way they could hear Ruby shout, "This feels so weird!"

"Sounds like Ruby got her Chakra going" Yang commented.

Naruto smirked and said, "Once we get close enough, we should Body Flicker over and surprise them."

"Oh, I like that idea!" Yang exclaimed.

Naruto then undid his clones and gained their experiences. He then said, "They've all unlocked their Chakra."

"That's good. They can start practicing tomorrow" Yang commented.

Naruto crossed his arms with a slightly annoyed face as he said, "I'm probably gonna hear a bunch of complaints about them wanting to start tonight, ya know."

"You'll have to get used to it" Yang responded.

"I already am…" Naruto responded back. After another few steps he said, "We should be close enough now."

"Okay" Yang acknowledged as she got ready.

"Three…two…one" Naruto counted down. They then both Body Flickered away.

Back with the others, Pyrrha was finishing up telling the others what her and Jaune went through as she said, "And then the other clone stands right up like nothing happened and turned back into Naruto."

"Jeez, that seemed a little extreme…" Weiss commented.

"Yeah…but I guess we needed a little extreme" Jaune responded.

Naruto and Yang then appeared by the wall as Yang shouted, "What's going on here?!" They all got startled which caused Naruto and Yang to laugh.

"Where did you guys come from?!" Ruby asked excitedly.

Naruto pointed towards where they were and said, "That way."

"How did we not see you coming?" Ren asked the whole group. Naruto then looked at Yang. Yang nodded and began to concentrate before she did a short distance Body Flicker. All the others were shocked and amazed, but Yang was panting as she was now really low on Chakra.

"That was amazing!" Ruby shouted with excitement. "I can't wait to learn it!"

Naruto walked up to Ruby and asked, "By the way, did you ever manage to come up with a name for my merged Chakra and Aura?"

Ruby nodded and said, "Yup." She then held her hands up and said, "Now hear me out…Ascended Aura."

Naruto was thrown off, so he asked, "Ascended Aura? Why'd you pick that?"

"Well, I was thinking how Aura was the gift from the gods, right?" Ruby started to explain. Naruto nodded showing he was with her so far. "But by merging with Chakra, the Aura has ASCENDED beyond what the gods wanted."

As Naruto thought on that explanation, he really started to like it. He really hated the idea of a destiny that cannot be changed, and what represented that more than a power bestowed by the gods? The fact that this new power was a slap in the face of their design brought a smile to Naruto's face. He looked at Ruby and said, "I like it! Ascended Aura it is!"

---

It was a few nights after the Ghira's speech was ruined by Ilia. Blake and Sun had been trying to recruit citizens to their cause, but seemingly no one wanted to risk their lives, especially after what Ilia said. Blake was once again on the balcony when she spotted a letter placed on said balcony. She read the letter, and it was from Ilia telling her she wanted to meet alone. Blake was hoping Ilia regretted what the White Fang has done, so she went to meet Ilia.

Blake had arrived at the meeting spot and called out, "Ilia?"

"I'm here" Ilia could be heard responding. Blake took out her weapon to be cautious. Ilia then walked out from the shadows with her hands up. She then undid her camouflage.

"Ilia, I know you're scared, but you don't have to be" Blake told her old friend. "My family and I, we can keep you safe."

"I'm sorry" Ilia told Blake.

Thinking she may have gotten through to her, Blake responded, "You can make it up to me by helping us stop Corsac and Fennec."

"No" Ilia said, shooting down her old friend's attempt to reach out. She then said in a more hostile tone, "I'm sorry." She then signaled for the trap to be sprung. Then a bat Faunus named Yuma dropped down onto Blake and pinned her down. He had dark brown hair and a soul patch. He had bat wings which is what helped him get the drop on Blake. He wore a mix of black and gray attire, fitting with his aesthetic.

Two more Faunus come out of hiding, one of which is a spider Faunus that uses her silk to tie up Blake. The spider Faunus' name was Trifa. She had gray hair and whore similar attire to Yuma, but with more exposed skin that showed her blueish-gray veins. She told the others, "I've got her."

"Well done, Sister Trifa - and to you, Ilia" Yuma said, complimenting his cohorts. He then tossed Ilia back her weapon, Lightning Lash.

"Ilia! What are you doing?!" Blake shouted at her old friend.

"I tried to warn you, Blake. I'm sorry" Ilia responded, no sympathy in her voice.

"Don't tell me you're sorry!" Blake shouted out in anger.

"But I am" Ilia continues. "I am sorry it has to be this way, but you and your family are holding the Faunus back!"

"Because we're trying to protect people?!" Blake exclaimed, baffled at what Ilia is saying. "In what world do you live in where attacking the innocent is the right thing to do?!"

"The same one as you!" Ilia shouted back. "There's no such thing as innocent! There's no right thing to do! Only what's best for us! There's the humans that still hate the Faunus, and there's the others who stand by and let the hate happen! But you know what snuffs out hate? Fear. I don't like hurting people. But I'll tell you this..." She then pointed her weapon at Blake and said, "It's gotten us results."

"Yeah, look where it's gotten you" Blake responded, full of shame towards her old friend.

Ilia's eyes widened at this. She thought about what Blake said, but she made herself ignore it. She finally replied, "We all have to make sacrifices for the greater good, no matter how much it hurts."

"And you think killing me is really for the greater good?" Blake asked.

"No, but getting rid of your family is" Ilia answered.

Blake's face expressed shock and fear as she said, "You wouldn't! You can't! I won't let you!"

Ilia began to speak in a more sorrowful tone as she said, "I know. That's why you're being sent to Mistral. To Adam."

Blake's eyes widened even more, her worst fears were in the works and she struggled to stop herself from tearing up. She tried to break the webbing as she pleaded, "Ilia, please! You don't have to do this. This isn't you!"

"Yes. It. Is!" Ilia responded defiantly. "But I guess back then you were just too busy falling for Adam to notice." This caused Blake to look confused. "I was always jealous of the way you looked at him." Ilia's spots then turned pink, seemingly reacting to her emotions. "I wanted you to look at me that way." Ilia closed her eyes, and they became pink as well. They then went back to normal as Ilia said with hostility, "But we can't always get what we want! Yuma, with me. You two, get her to the docks." She and Yuma left that location.

Trifa and the other Faunus started taking Blake away. Trifa said, "Let's go, traitor."

Blake then shouted, "Now!"

Trifa became confused until Sun jumped in and knocked down the other Faunus. Trifa was shocked as she said, "What?" She then drew a knife and tried attacking Sun with it. Sun had little trouble blocking her attacks with his staff. He then disarms her. Then Blake, who had managed to get free, grabbed Trifa before punching her right in the face and knocking her our cold.

Blake looked at Sun and said, "Thanks for the backup."

"Thanks for the invitation" Sun responded. "You okay?"

Blake retrieved her weapon and said, "No. You heard Ilia, my family is in danger. Call the police and let's go!"

"Right!" Sun exclaimed. Blake was trying to call her parents, but the attack was already underway.

Kali's guard had already been taken out, so she grabbed that guard's gun and shouted, "Get out of my house!" She then returned fire on the attacking White Fang.

In the other room, Ghira and his guard were fighting off the White Fang as well. Ghira easily caught the kick of an attacking White Fang member before slamming that member into a locked door. He then took out two more with his overwhelming strength. He then looked to his guard and shouted, "Go find my wife!" However, before his guard could to that, the guard seen a bullet coming for Ghira and then took the bullet himself. Ghira was sad to see this. He then looked towards the culprits, Corsac and Fennec.

"I believe it's time for our Chieftain to step down, brother" Corsac commented.

"I have to agree, brother" Fennec responded.

Ghira readied his claws before throwing off his coat and letting out a roar. The battle then continued as more White Fang poured in. They all opened fire at Ghira who leaped onto one of the pillars to avoid the bullets. He then leaped off the pillar and as he landed, he slashed one of the White Fang grunts twice with his claws. He then caught the thrusted spear of another grunt that rushed him. He then lifted up that grunt by holding up the spear. He then launched the grunt at two more incoming Faunus.

Seeing this, Corsac aimed his weapon, a Dust compatible stylized dagger called Inferno, and launched a small fireball. At the same time, Ghira threw the spear he acquired right at Corsac. Ghira was hit by the fireball and sent back, but his Aura was able to take it. Corsac on the other hand got pinned to the wall by his hood. Then Fennec used his weapon, Cyclone, which is almost identical to Inferno, to launch a small cyclone at Ghira. Ghira guarded against it, but now he was the one who couldn't move.

A White Fang member, who was waiting for his opportunity stepped out from behind a pillar and took aim at Ghira. Sun then crashed through a window and took out that White Fang member. Corsac had managed to pull himself free from his hood and then stood next to his brother. They used their weapons together to make a fiery cyclone. Sun spun his staff to keep it at bay while yelling to Blake, "Hurry!"

Blake loaded her Gambel Shroud with ice Dust before leaping over the balcony. Corsac and Fennec fired projectiles at her which she dodged. Upon landing, they struck at her, but she used her Semblance in conjunction with the ice Dust to leave an ice copy that froze their hands in place.

Sun, Ghira, and Blake then stood next to each other. Blake asked, "Where's mom?"

"I don't know" Ghira told her. "I've been stuck here ever since we were ambushed."

"Then after we beat Corsac and Fennec, we can go—" Blake started to say.

"No, go now!" Ghira insisted.

"What? But I can't just leave you!" Blake said in objection.

"You keep assuring me your friend isn't a complete waste of space" Ghira responds. "Let's see him prove it."

"We got this, Blake. I've wanted to sock these creeps since the day we met!" Sun told her.

As Corsac and Fennec free themselves from the ice, Ghira tells Sun, "You'll have to get in line." He then tells Blake, "Blake, go!" Blake then finally heads off.

Now that Blake has left, Sun said, "I won't let you down sir!"

Annoyed, Ghira responded, "Shut up."

"You got it!" Sun replied, clearly trying his best.

On her way to her mother, Blake spotted Ilia on the balcony. They both drew their weapons as Blake asked, "Did you come in here to hide?"

"I told you, I didn't want this" Ilia responded.

"But you're still here!" Blake yelled, pointing out the contradiction.

"I don't have a choice!" Ilia claimed.

"Of course you do!" Blake retorted. Ilia looked away instead of responding. Seeing this, Blake said, "Just... stay out of my way." She then started walking off. Ilia took this chance to attack Blake with her weapon, but all she hit was Blake's shadow copy. Blake then told Ilia, "Ilia, you can't beat me."

Ilia then turned towards Blake and responded, "I don't ever remember you being this cocky."

"It's simply a fact" Blake told Ilia. "I've had to face things this past year that you can't even imagine." Sick of the talking, Ilia lashed her weapon towards Blake. Blake dodge rolled out of the way and behind cover. She does not want to fight her old friend, but she cannot let this continue.

"If you can really beat me so easily, then why are you the one hiding?" Ilia taunted with annoyance in her voice. "You should have run when you had the chance…"

Blakes's eyes widened at being told she should have run. The whole reason she came home was from running away. She then stood back up and said, "The days of me running away are behind me now." She then opened fire on Ilia. Ilia deflected the bullets with her weapon as Blake vaulted over her cover and threw an extended side kick. Ilia managed to step back from the kick and retaliate with two slashes of her weapon. Blake weaved both slashes before clashing her blade against Ilia's while asking her, "Why do you have to do this?!"

"Because it works!" Ilia responded.

"That doesn't make it right!" Blake yelled before she kicked Ilia back. Blake then took a page out of Naruto's book and threw her sheathe at Ilia. Ilia was not expecting this, so when she deflected the sheathe, she was not expecting Blake to have already moved into striking distance. Blake struck at Ilia's weapon from below, making the weapon get knocked above Ilia's head and breaking her stance. Blake followed up by kicking Ilia in the stomach before punching her in the jaw and throwing her down. Between the stun from her jaw getting hit and the shock of Blake's new moves, Ilia does not move. Blake then pinned Ilia down and told, "Please, just stop!"

Ilia was trying to get out, but she finally relented with tears in her eyes as she said, "I don't know what else to do…" After another second, Fennec got knocked through the wall by Ghira.

Struggling to get back up, Fennec muttered, "The time might be right for our contingency plan…" He then seen Ilia being pinned down and went to go help her. Ghira grabbed him, but then Corsac stabbed Ghira from behind. Ghira dropped to his knee in pain, but then got right back up as Sun attacked Corsac with his staff.

Seeing Blake was distracted, Ilia knocked Blake off of her. Seeing she was free, Fennec yelled to her, "Go open the cage!"

Ilia had a hesitant look on her face. She then asked, "Is that really the best thing to do?"

"What Cage? Ilia, what's he talking about?" Blake asked the conflicted Ilia.

"It…it's hard to explain…" Ilia responded.

Seeing Ilia's hesitation, Fennec got upset and shouted, "Fine! You stay here and I'll open the cage!" He then looked to Corsac and yelled, "Brother!" He then tossed Corsac Cyclone before leaving.

Corsac caught the dagger and then started attacking Ghira with multiple thrusts from both daggers. Ghira dodged them all before he caught both of Corsac's wrists. He then told Blake, "Go find out what Fennec is up to. I'll deal with this fool."

"You're the real fool!" Corsac shouted. Fed up with him, Ghira squeezed Corsac's wrists and made him drop the daggers. Sun then ran up and grabbed the daggers to keep them away from Corsac.

Blake was chasing after Fennec while Ilia chased after her, unsure of what to do. Fennec had made it back to the hideout. He took the key out from his pocket before opening the door to the cage. Glowing blue eyes lit up as the cage door finished opening. The Super Grimm then recalled the voice of Salem talking to it before it went to sleep, "Until this cage door opens, you are to sleep. But, when the door opens, you are free run my sweet." The Super Grimm then came out of the cage and was revealed to be a Super Griffon. It ran out of the hideout and let out a roar alerting the whole of Menagerie.

Blake came to a stop with absolute fear in her eyes. Ilia seen this and asked, "Are you really that scared?"

With fear in her voice, Blake told Ilia, "You don't have any idea what you've done…"

Fennec was laughing as he said, "Let's see what this thing can do!" The Super Griffon looked around at the people of Menagerie who were starting to panic. It then picked a young mouse Faunus and pounced. The young Faunus was torn right through, causing mass panic to spread quickly. This panic allowed them to be easy pickings for the Griffon as it quickly tore through four more of them.

Blake looked at Ilia and asked her, "Was it worth it? This is what advancing through fear looks like!"

Ilia dropped to her knees with wide panicked eyes. Her voice quivered as she said, "I…I-I didn't know this would happen…"

Blake took a deep breath before she ran towards the Super Griffon. The Griffon took its talons out of a freshly made corpse and struck at Blake with them. Blake predicted this and used her Semblance to take the hit while she cut into the mask. The cut could hardly even be called superficial. The Griffon attacked her with its tail, but she again used her Semblance to take the hit and get away. The Griffon then narrowed its eyes and growled.

Blake then thought, "It's probably already figuring out how my Semblance works." The Super Griffon launched a volley of high-speed feathers at Blake. She was caught by surprise, so she was not able to fully dodge, and her right arm was grazed by one of the feathers. Her Aura blunted the damage, but she still felt her heart pound in her chest. As she was getting back up, she saw the Griffon attacking more civilians.

"What are you doing? Attack her!" Fennec shouted while pointing at Blake. Fennec then got too close, and the Griffon pierced Fennec's chest with its tail.

In shock, Ilia muttered, "It even attacked the one it was supposed to obey…"

"Ilia, snap out of it!" Blake yelled. "If you just stand there, you'll be a target too!"

Ilia looked out at the corpses of her fellow Faunus. She gripped her weapon and said with anger, "I'm not going anywhere!"

Blake smiled at her friend finally coming back around. A shot then got fired at the Super Griffon, which only managed to annoy it. Blake looked over to see that the shot came from Sun who was standing with her parents. With a mix of fear and annoyance in his voice, Sun said, "I never thought I'd have to fight one of those things here."

Ghira observed the Super Griffon and said, "Increased size, glowing blue eyes and bone plates, and an even more menacing roar. I take it this is one of those Super Grimm then?"

Kali was looking at all the victims of the Super Grimm and said, "This is horrible…"

"Kali, gather the guards that can still move and have them keep everyone else as far away from here as possible" Ghira told his wife.

With a concerned look, Kali nodded and said, "Okay." She then grabbed Ghira's arm and Blake's arm before she told them. "Be careful." They nodded back to her, and she headed off to gather the guards.

Ghira then looked at the Super Griffon and readied himself before he asked, "How much more powerful are these Super Grimm compared to their normal counterparts?"

"They can hardly be compared" Blake answered honestly. "Two of the best Huntsmen I've ever seen struggled to take down a Super Beowolf." This caused Ilia to take a nervous gulp. The Super Griffon observed the four warriors around it. It sensed fear in all of them, but it sensed more of it in Ilia, so it targeted her first. She swung her weapon desperately at it as it charged at her. The Griffon deemed her weapon to be no threat, so it took the hit and charged through. She didn't have time to get away, but luckily Blake managed to pull her out of the way.

Ilia looked at Blake and said, "Thanks…"

"I've got your back" Blake told her old friend.

The Griffon then pounced at Ghira. He was about to try and grapple it, but Sun shouted, "Don't do it!" Ghira then crouched down and guarded up at the last second. He got sent tumbling back from the impact. He shook his head, now fully understanding that to try and match strength with these things is to court death.

Ilia camouflaged herself as Blake and Sun ran in to divide the Super Griffon's attention. Sun swung his staff and landed three hits that did no damage. He then segmented his staff into its gun-chuck state and used their hard to predict movements to temporarily confuse the Griffon. After five more hits, the Griffon got annoyed and struck at Sun. Sun managed to jump back at the last second as he was anticipating that attack. He then said, "That was a little too close…"

Blake then opened fire on the Griffon to gain its attention. She then started running as the Griffon chased her. It did not take long for the Griffon to catch up to her, but just long enough as Blake shouted, "Now!" Ilia then undid her camouflage and lashed her weapon into the eyes of the unsuspecting Super Grimm. This caused the Griffon to stumble from momentary blindness and allowed Blake and Ilia to get some distance.

Sun activated his Semblance and sent two of his Aura clones that tried their best to hold the Super Griffon down. Ghira then rushed in on all fours and slammed into the Griffon's side and successfully knocked it over in its debilitated state. Sun's clones tried the keep the Grimm's legs restrained as Ghira slashed away at it with his claws. Blake and Ilia took this opportunity to run in and attack the head with multiple strikes.

The Super Griffon started to regain its sight and was now quite angry. It spread its wings and with significant effort broke the hold the Aura clones had on its legs. It then knocked them all back a little with a gust from its wings. As it got back up, it swung its tail around making them all jump back further. Now having breathing room, the Super Griffon flew into the air.

"How are we supposed to get it down?!" Sun exclaimed. The Griffon then launched feathers from the air, causing the four of them to all leap away. It then started doing strafing runs.

This reminded Sun and Blake of the battle against the Super Giant Nevermore and Blake said, "This is really bad…"

"Yeah, where's Naruto when you need him?" Sun said with a smirk.

Blake got a slight chuckle and said, "Really? You're telling jokes right now?"

Sun dove away from another line of launched feathers before he said, "It's either that or realize just how scared I am!"

"You two need to focus!" Ghira yelled at them.

"Dad, I promise we are" Blake told her father.

Now putting two and two together, Ilia asked Blake, "Is this what you meant about fighting things I can't imagine?"

"Afraid so" Blake answered. She then walked over and handed Ilia her Gamble Shroud.

Confused, Ilia asked, "What are you doing?"

"I want you to use your camouflage ability and hide" Blake told her. "When you get the chance, use this and wrap it around the Super Griffon so we can pull it down."

"But…you'll be unarmed" Ilia said, worried for Blake.

Sun walked up and said, "I got that covered." He then pulled out Inferno & Cyclone from his back that he took from Corsac. He then handed them to Blake.

Blake took the daggers and said, "It's now or never." Ilia nodded and took a deep breath before activating her camouflage ability.

Ghira was doing his best to avoid the launched feathers. He then hears a shot get fired at the Griffon. Ghira looked over to see it came from Sun. Blake was checking Inferno for the firing mechanism before she shot a fire projectile at the Griffon. The Griffon easily avoided it. Seeing this, Ghira asked his daughter, "What are you doing with those?"

"I have a plan to get that thing down here" Blake partially answered. "We just need to distract it a little longer."

"Good" Ghira said with a smile. He then ran left, Sun ran right, and Blake ran back. Now the Griffon had to pick a target. Since Blake was the last one to attack, it chose her. She ran towards the awning of the café. She hopped over the front counter and under the roof. The Griffon launched more feathers, and they pierced right through the flimsy roof. Blake gasped and curled up, just avoiding getting skewered.

Ilia has now gotten into position. Sun shot at the Griffon, leading it towards him. It was about to launch more feathers when Ilia throws Gambel Shroud, and it wrapped around the Griffon's left hindleg. She pulled with all her might, but the Griffon pulled her into the air. Ghira then grabbed Ilia by the leg and said, "I don't think so." Sun was then able to grab the ribbon which allowed Ghira to do the same. Blake then ran up and also grabbed the ribbon. Ghira then told them, "All together now." They all then yanked at once and the Griffon was pulled out of the sky.

Ghira quickly pounced on its head and clawed away at it. Sun attacked the underbelly, hoping to cause internal damage. Blake stabbed it in the back with Inferno & Cyclone while Ilia attacked the tail with her weapon. The Super Griffon yelled in pain and was finally getting affected by the bits of damage. It roared and made a small shockwave knocking them all off of it. It then glared at Ilia, very angry about her wrapping up its leg.

Ilia's eyes widened and she activated her camouflage ability. The Griffon had learned from before and relied on her fear to detect where she was. It then used its tail to run her through. Ilia's camouflage was undone, and her eyes widened as she gasped for air.

"ILIAAA!" Blake shouted as she desperately ran over. As Blake got closer, the Griffon pulled its tail out of Ilia and blood began to pour out of her. She then collapsed into Blake's arms. "Ilia! Please, you have to stay with me!"

In a weak voice, Ilia said, "Blake…I'm…I'm sorry…" Her vision was beginning to fade. "I wish…I had the chance…to fix things…" Blood then trickled down her mouth.

Tears now streamed down Blake's face, she pleaded, "Don't go…please…" Blake's emotional state now drew the Super Griffon's attention, so it pounced at her. Ghira got in the Griffon's way and his arm along with some of his chest got punctured by the Griffon's talons. Blake then looked at her wounded father and shouted in shock and concern, "Dad?!"

The Griffon growled, but with rage in his eyes and voice, Ghira shouted, "YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH!" He was then able to lift up the Super Grimm and throw it back a little. The Grimm took no damage, but it gave Sun the opportunity to smack it with his staff and get its attention on him.

Still in emotional distress, Blake said to her father, "Dad I'm sorry! I should have paid attention…"

"You don't need to apologize" Ghira told her, trying to not show the pain. He then looked at the dead body of Ilia and said, "No one can look at their friend die in front of them and not be distraught." He then looked back at Blake and said, "Especially someone as kind as you." Hearing this, Blake dried her tears and then put Inferno & Cyclone on her belt. She then grabbed her Gambel Shroud back from the ground and the air pressure around her started to build, thought she did not notice.

Sun had gotten pinned down by the Griffon. It then tried to peck Sun with its beak, but Sun barely managed to hold it back with his staff while he shouted, "Get off me!"

Blake looked at the Griffon in anger and yelled, "No! You're not taking another friend!" Blake then ran at the Griffon with a small amount of Chakra swirling around her before it wrapped around her arm. She then cut into the Griffon's tail and it yelled it pain. It turned around and struck at her with its talon and she used her Semblance to take the hit. She screamed as she swings her blade with all her might and landed a clean slash into the Griffon's mask, cutting pretty deep. Blake's power up faded as she went to strike again. The Griffon swiped its talon at her and she went flying back.

Sun caught her and asked, "How'd you do that?"

"I don't know…" Blake answered honestly. "But it didn't seem to last…"

Ghira has gotten up and joined them as Sun helped Blake back to her feet. Sun then asked, "How are we gonna beat that thing?"

"I don't know if we can…" Blake admitted.

They then hear the voice of Kali shout, "You don't have to!" Blake, Sun, and Ghira then looked over to see Kali standing with the citizens of Menagerie.

"Mom?!" Blake exclaimed in surprise.

"What are you doing here?" Ghira asked in surprise. "I told you to keep them all away."

"I tried, but they wouldn't listen" Kali informs them.

Another mouse Faunus, the cousin of the first victim, walked up and shouted over, "This is our home!"

A jackal Faunus then stepped up and told Ghira, "You might be the Chieftain, but it's on all of us to defend this place!" The rest of the citizens shouted in agreement. Yuma, the bat Faunus, then arrived with the rest of the sect of the White Fang that participated in tonight's coup.

Ghira looked at the White Fang and said, "What do you want?"

Yuma looked at the dead body of Ilia and the corpses of the other Faunus. He then said, "This isn't what any of us signed up for…" He then looked at Ghira and said, "We want to fight beside you."

Ghira closed his eyes before telling them, "Fine, then get ready!" The White Fang along with the other citizens readied themselves for the fight of their lives. The spear wielding White Fang member approached Ghira and handed over their spear. Ghira accepted the spear and said, "Thank you."

The Super Griffon roared, regaining all of their attention. It then charged at the gathered forces of Menagerie. Sun stepped up first swinging his staff. The Griffon quickly overpowered Sun with its talon, but the jackal Faunus hit it with one of the café chairs. The Griffon was unphased but targeted the jackal Faunus anyway. It sent the poor Faunus flying, but Kali jumped at the Griffon and clobbered it with her tea tray. The Griffon was annoyed and struck at Kali with its talons. Kali used the tray as a shield. The Griffon shredded through it, but she was able to back up.

As Kali backed away, Blake took her place and landed two slashes with her blade before loading some kind of clip into her weapon. The Griffon struck at her, and Blake used her Semblance to take the hit. The Griffon quickly tried to follow up, having learned from before. However, Blake knew this and had a plan. As the Griffon went to strike again, it noticed its talons were frozen to the ground as Blake's copy was enhanced with ice Dust. She then shot the Griffon's hindlegs with ice bullets and froze them to the ground too. She knows that will not keep it trapped long, but it does not have to.

Ghira let out a roaring scream as he shoved the spear into the cracked mask with all he has. This caused the crack to widen and knock the Griffon down. Trifa, the spider Faunus, then webbed the Griffon as it was down. The citizens of Menagerie then ran in and began to beat down the trapped Super Grimm. Nothing but superficial hits, but they were starting to add up.

The Griffon broke out of the web and got back up. It swung its tail and killed another Faunus while injuring multiple others. The citizens backed up enough for it to take to the air. However, Yuma came from above and clutched the Griffon's wings, causing it to fall out of the sky. Ghira then ordered, "Target the wings!" Sun made two Aura clones to help Yuma keep the wings subdued. The White Fang members shot the wings until Blake came in and slashed them. The Griffon then knocked everyone away, but now its wings are too damaged for it to fly, and it is feeling cornered.

Another citizen jumped at the Super Griffon, and it swiped them out of the air. Then another, and another, and another. They attacked from behind, then from the left, then from the right. The Griffon was knocking them all away, killing some each time. But they were relentless, just like the Grimm. Sun then jumped on its back and hit its head with his staff before shouting, "How's it feel to be the one getting overwhelmed?!"

"Sun!" Blake shouted as she tossed him Inferno & Cyclone. Sun dropped his staff before catching the blades and jamming them into the crack in the mask.

Blake then ran towards her father and jumped. Ghira tossed his daughter with his good arm right over the citizens. He yelled out to her, "End this!" Blake managed to land her blade into another part of the crack in the mask. Blake and Sun yelled with all their might and were able to plunge their blades deeper into the Griffon's skull, finally finishing it off.

Blake got off of the decaying Super Grimm and Sun did the same. Everyone was exhausted mentally and physically. Blake then walked over to Ilia's dead body and dropped to her knees. More tears streamed down her face as Sun, Ghira, and Kali walked over to comfort her.

They then heard a voice yell, "You've ruined everything!" Everyone looked over to see a crazed looking Corsac. Ghira looked angry, but he chose to stay by Blake. Corsac looked at the members of the White Fang told them, "This is our chance! We can take the Chieftain's head right now!"

The members of the White Fang all looked at each other. One of them looked at Corsac and told him, "No." He then threw off his mask. The rest of the members then did the same thing.

Corsac got even angrier and shouted, "You're all traitors!" Trifa then wrapped up Corsac in web. "Let me go!"

Yuma then walked up and punched Corsac in the mouth before he said, "No more…" Blake watched all of this before once again looking at Ilia.

---

It is the following day and the citizens of Menagerie are gathered in the town square to honor the fallen. There is a large makeshift memorial with the pictures of those who died in the Super Grimm attack. No one had been to sleep. Anyone who was not cleaning up from after the battle was helping make the memorial.

Ghira was standing at a podium in front of the memorial. His chest and arm were covered in bandages from his wounds. In most memorial settings this would look out of place, but everyone there was wearing some form of bandage since no one but the children were absent from last night's massacre. Ghira took a deep breath and said, "Days like this are never easy. I spent what I had left of last night trying to think of what to say. But there is no speech you can prepare for something like this. Too many people were lost yesterday. All in order to foolishly continue pushing so-called progress through fear."

The former members of the White Fang that were in attendance all looked ashamed. Ghira then continued, "If nothing else, I am proud of how the people of Menagerie came together. I now welcome everyone to come forward and pay their respects." One by one, the citizens came forward and paid their respects to the memorial.

Eventually it was Blake's turn. She placed her hand on Ilia's photo as her last words echoed in Blake's mind. ""I wish…I had the chance…to fix things…""

Sun seen her and asked, "Blake? You okay?"

"I have to do something" Blake stated.

"What do you mean?" Sun asked in confusion.

Blake did not answer. Instead, she went up to the podium and announced, "Everyone, there's something I have to say." Everyone then looked upon her, curious what she was going to say. "I was once a proud member of the White Fang. As the organization lost its way, I did as well. And instead of trying to change it, I ran away." She then looked up to the sky and pictured her team as well as Naruto as she said, "I then made friends who helped me become a better person. But I ran away from them too…I am sick of running. I'm ready to be the person that the people I care about believe I can be." She then looked out at the former White Fang members and said, "I know you've made mistakes just like me. But that doesn't have to be the end of it. My friend Ilia wanted the chance to make up for what she did." Blake then started choking up as she said, "But she didn't get that chance." The others in the crowd, the former White Fang members especially, were starting to tear up as well. "We haven't lost our chance to make up for what we've done. I can't do it on my own. So, my brother and sisters, will you help me?"

"You can always count on me" Sun told her.

Yuma and Trifa both stepped up and said, "We're with you." All of the former White Fang members then followed suit.

"We're with you too!" The mouse Faunus shouted. One by one the citizens of Menagerie also announced their support.

Ghira was trying very hard not to tear up as he said, "I'm so proud…"

Kali smiled as she said, "You're such a softy."

Sun then stood next to Blake and asked, "So, what now?"

"Adam and the rest of his followers are in Mistral and getting ready to attack Haven. So that's where we need to go" Blake told him.

Sun let out a chuckle as he said, "Back to Haven it is." He then looked at Blake who was once again staring into the sky.

Chapter End

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AN: Like I said last time, I had trouble figuring out how to end this chapter. And once I got going on it, I kept going…and going…and going. I have a good portion of the next chapter written and am running into the same problem. I think I'm hitting that burnout phase again. So, after the next chapter I think I will probably take a break for a few weeks. Give my mediocre brain some time to refresh. This is by no means me saying I'm quitting. That's not happening again. I hope you all enjoyed, see you next time.