AN: Here I am back on the RWBY side of things, at long last! With the cluster bombs of lore that Volume 6 is delivering unto us, needless to say, I had to go right back to the drawing board for more than one of my Fics. That being said, the keen eyed amongst you might have noticed that a couple stories are gone, and that's the reason why. Volume 6 has been a hell of an infodump so far, as well as a really solid volume, and the new info just wasn't compatible with a couple of my older stories. That being said, this new idea had been one that's been plaguing me recently, so I figured why not make it up with what I think will be an adequate replacement. I, for one, find this particular story to be really fun to write as it's my first foray into writing a main character that's not Naruto. I'll let you all be the judges, however, so ONWARDS!

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Naruto or RWBY; all rights go to Masashi Kishimoto and RoosterTeeth respectively.

Chapter 1: The Birth of the Flash

"The Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), the Nidaime Hokage Tobirama Senju's favored technique, stands at the forefront of all currently known Space/Time Ninjutsu. It is capable of teleporting the user distances both short and long, through space itself, as long as the user has their target or destination marked with a specific Jutsu Formula."

Minato sighed as he laid the scroll upon the grass beside him before yawning rather loudly and falling back into the soft green which covered the hill he was currently occupying. Strewn a ways behind him were discarded, empty jars of ink and once blank scrolls which now seemed packed full of chicken scratch, gibberish and a few careless doodles depicting his own interpretation of legends long past and forgotten to history. Those were his many attempts to perfect his own Jutsu Formula for the necessary tags in order to make full use of the Hiraishin, which he had by all accounts learned in theory but had yet to actually mark something. One would argue that he could just copy Tobirama's Jutsu Formula, but no! He wanted to put his own unique spin on this hyper-lethal Jutsu with his very own original Formula and tags.

He had spent the better part of the week working day in and day out, but no matter what design he came up with, it was either a dud or his calligraphy failed him and he ended up drawing a formula that he was too scared to see what it did, much less in conjunction with the Hiraishin. Last thing he wanted was to summon a host of Demons from a pocket dimension somewhere. No, he would see this through and, Gods willing, draw up a functioning Formula that wouldn't unleash a literal hell-scape or summon a cute catgirl or something similar. Especially that last one. Kushina would have him by the balls if that ever happened. That, or she'd dump him for this supposed catgirl. Which was worse?

Catching himself daydreaming once again, Minato shook himself out of his own head and lightly slapped his own cheeks in an effort to psyche himself up.

"Alright!" He declared with a toothy smirk. "Formula time again! No Demons and no catgirls! Just a regular old Jutsu Formula!"

"A catgirl, hmm?" An amused voice caught him off guard. "Is that your fetish, Mina-kun?"

Wide-eyed and stunned, Minato could only shiver when a pair of arms encircled him from behind and his right cheek was given a lick.

"Nya, nya!" This voice which he was very familiar with purred in his right ear playfully. "Has Master finished for the day, nya?"

"And you had to turn it into a catgirl maid?" He sweatdropped, yet was now smiling. "Really, Kushina?"

"What?" She giggled as she let him go for the briefest of moments before she lowered herself down onto his lap, her arms locked behind his head and his hands upon her hips. "Don't pretend for even a moment that you didn't picture this imaginary catgirl of yours as a maid."

"As a matter of fact, I didn't." He chuckled and met the gaze of her beautiful violet orbs with a hint of mischief and a smirk. "If I wanted to see any girl in a maid outfit, it'd be you."

"First off, mediocre save." She quirked an eyebrow. "Secondly, what makes you think I don't already have a dress in mind?"

"… You've been reading Jiraiya-sensei's books again, haven't you?" He narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"And what if I have?" She huffed as she pushed herself up and off of him, making her way instead over to the strewn about scrolls and parchments containing his failed and maybe-successful formulas. "Damn." She whistled in order to change the subject. "You were on a roll today, weren't you?"

"I'm as close as I've ever gotten." He nodded as he pushed himself off of the ground and joined her amidst his experiments. "I can all but taste the end of the road."

"How many of these have you tried?" She asked as she bent down and scooped up a random pile that the wind hadn't scattered yet."

"Uhh…" Sheepishly, he scratched the back of his head. "Three."

"From the thirty you've drawn?" She rolled her eyes with a snicker. "Live dangerously, Minato, come on!"

"See, I would, but my earlier musings of summoning something I don't want to came to mind." He shook his head. "I want to complete my Formula, but not at the risk of destroying the world or something."

"Or summoning cute catgirls." Another, more lewd, snicker escaped her as she plopped down on the ground Lotus style, still sifting through the seals and formulas.

"I'm starting to think that you're the one who wants a catgirl, Kushina." He sweatdropped once again.

"What about this one?" Setting the pile to the side, she held up a piece of parchment which painted upon it was one of his first attempts at creating a functioning Formula.

"Haven't tried that one yet." He shook his head negative. "And I'm not sure if I want to."

"First of all, your calligraphy sucks." There was that brutal honesty that he had come to adore. "Second, this is actually a decent first attempt at a Displacement Seal, if that was what you were going for." And there was the deceptively genius side of her, as expected from a descendant of the Uzumaki Seal Masters.

"I was, but halfway through I tried to change the existing Formula into one more suited for the Hiraishin to track." As he plopped down next to her, he pointed out where he made the changes. "I added that thinking it would serve as a beacon for the Hiraishin to latch onto."

"You almost got it right." She smiled as she laid the parchment upon the ground. "Got any ink? I could probably adjust it for you."

"Uhh… no." He chuckled. "I was gonna go restock, but then I began daydreaming and you showed up."

Undaunted and as brash as ever, Kushina simply bit into the flesh of her right thumb and began tracing her own corrections onto the parchment in her own blood. "This is just a preliminary design, and our first attempt." She explained. "If this Formula is successful, then we move on to finishing and replicating the design, preferably in real ink and not in my blood."

"Is this a good idea, Kushina…?" He worriedly eyed her as she, for all intents and purposes, was jury-rigging a Jutsu Formula that would eventually become the Seal in which he'd turn into his personal Hiraishin tags.

"Uzumaki here." She toothily smirked. "Best Seal Masters in the world!" She punctuated her statement with one final swipe of her bloodied thumb to finish the Formula before giving her boyfriend a thumbs up with the very same thumb that sizzled shut right in front of him.

"Well…" He shrugged as he held his right hand over the seal and began channeling a bit of Chakra into his palm. "Here goes nothing…"

"Please be a catgirl…" He faintly heard Kushina whisper before he slammed his right hand down upon the seal and felt his Chakra ebb away from his hand as it soaked into the parchment, the ink and the blood in order to activate the Formula proper.

The wind around them died down, the birds and insects went quiet. A distant passing deer began bounding away as soon as the activation had begun. Everything was deathly still and eerily quiet. The silence and stillness lingered for a few moments, and as the couple shifted uncomfortably…

BOOM!

A thunderous explosion rocked the hill and echoed all the way back to Konoha itself, not that the two teens could hear it as they had been trapped within a sphere of solid, translucent light that they began banging against in a futile effort to escape.

"Watch out!" Minato warned his girlfriend moments before the familiar blue sphere known as the Rasengan formed in his right hand and he slammed it against the inside of the sphere. Grunting as he felt his favorite Jutsu grind into this mysterious thing, the grunt soon turned into a scream as the Rasengan exploded with no damage done to the inside of the sphere.

"Minato!" Kushina exclaimed, catching him before he hit the ground. "Minato, are you alright?!"

"No, I'm not alright!" He growled. "Goddamn it, I knew something like this was gonna happen!"

"No sense in bitching about it; we're in it now!" She declared as she stood, her eyes flashing a red matching her hair. "Fox, wake your lazy ass up!"

"Always with the demands…" Kurama grumbled. "Trapped in a displacement field, are we? I think I can get us out of this."

"Good enough for me!" Kushina's smirk turned toothy and feral as her canines grew into fangs. Red Chakra then began bubbling out of her body, only to coat her right hand as she balled it into a fist.

With one more flex of her hand and a mighty cry, she punched the sphere as hard as she could… and nothing happened.

"I said I could get us out of this mess." Kushina could feel Kurama smirking in victory. "Alas, I just thought of something. You die and all I have to do is wait a few years as I regenerate myself, then I'm home free."

"No…" The Kyuubi's Chakra began receding as Kushina's shocked features returned to normal.

"Have a nice death, human. I'd like to say it was a pleasure, but taking into account this HUGE FUCKING STAKE through my chest, it most definitely was NOT!" With that last outburst, Kurama cut the mental link just in time to miss the unholy fury of a pissed off Uzumaki.

"Goddamn that oversized asshole!" She raged, punching the sphere again and again. "I want FUCKING OUT!"

It was at that moment that a resounding click echoed within the bounds of the sphere. Following the click, the inside of the sphere, slowly but surely, began to hum. It was a low hum at first and it seemed to be charging the air within the sphere with an abundance of Chakra and static electricity. Yet, undaunted, Kushina continued to rail against the inside of the sphere with her fists until her knuckles were red with blood.

"Kushina, quit it!" Minato, having seen his girlfriend harm herself enough, caught her arm mid-punch and pulled her away from the curved surface. "You're only hurting yourself at this point! If a Rasengan didn't dent it and your Kyuubified punch didn't do anything either, what makes you think a regular punch would?!"

"At least I'm still trying!" She snapped angrily. "I want outta this thing!"

"And you think I don't?!" He snapped back a bit too forcefully. "Look, we'll figure something out, or maybe Jiraiya-sensei or Lord Third will show up and break the thing from the outside!"

"I'm not waiting around for them!" As she turned away from her boyfriend, Kushina balled her hands into fists once again and reared back with her right fist. "It's my fault we're in this, so I'm gonna be the one to fix this mistake!"

As she swung, a drop of blood fell from her bloody right knuckles and dripped harmlessly to the floor of the displacement field, specifically onto the Displacement Seal still lying on the ground. Another loud click echoed throughout the confines of the sphere, the ambient Chakra increased in quantity, as did the static electricity. As the low hum gave way to a sharp whine, and the sharp whine to a piercing screech, a blinding flash of light illuminated the inside of the sphere, blinding both teens.

"AHHHHHH!"

Above the screech, Minato made out an absolutely horrified scream from Kushina, yet he could do naught but fumble around to find her, thanks to the still present light.

"KUSHINA!" He desperately called out for her while still reaching out.

Her screams were now harmonized with the screech, something that did nothing to quell his racing heart, and no matter where he reached, he could not find her. And then… silence.

The screech had ceased, Kushina's screams were gone, the static electricity had dissipated and only the charged atmosphere of Chakra remained, thankfully, for Minato to desperately pull off of to feed his Sage Mode which had finally completed its formation. With newly heightened senses, he was hoping he could smell her, hear her and, failing that, sense her, yet there was nothing. He couldn't hear her, he couldn't smell her and he couldn't sense her.

"K-Kushina!" He called out to her once again and was surprised when his voice echoed. Furiously, he began rubbing the irritation out of his eyes, which were now thankfully beginning to clear up. As his vision restored itself, the surprise quickly turned into shock when he found himself standing within a dark, foggy and craggy valley of sheer cliffs and mountainous terrain. Beneath him was the Displacement Seal that they had concocted, along with a scant few other preliminary designs, along with one piece of parchment which bore Tobirama's own Jutsu Formula which he had based everything off of.

Without missing a beat, he had bent down, scooped up the Displacement Seal and promptly lit it aflame with a D-Rank fire Jutsu, mostly out of frustration and mostly out of catharsis. After taking in a calming breath and lazily watching the ashes and embers scatter into the wind, something within him was telling him that something else was off, that the ground beneath his feet didn't feel right. What laid upon the ground when he eventually looked down froze his blood. There was a single Konoha headband that he recognized as Kushina's, crusted with dried blood and laid amidst a substance that he dared not speculate upon… yet he knew what it was.

Ash.

Ash, bone fragments and a few strands of tomato red hair.

Just then, it hit him. He knew what had happened.

Kushina had finished the Displacement Seal with her blood, which acted as a priming catalyst. He supplied Chakra to it which tagged him as the primary user of the Jutsu, and whatever Formula they had concocted together called for a final trigger catalyst in the form of a final drop of blood from someone that was not the primary user. They had unknowingly created an entirely new blood rite and Kushina had unknowingly provided herself as the sacrifice to use as fuel for this supercharged Space/Time Ninjutsu. And he, against his better judgment, let it happen.

Silently, he fell to his knees amongst her ashes and pressed his hands into them. As tears finally began to fall, he balled his hands into fists, taking her ashes into his palms as he did so, and as he lifted them, a sob shook his entire frame. It was his fault, he figured. He could just as easily have made do with Tobirama's design and left well enough alone, but no, he had to be adventurous, try out something new, something untested.

"I'm sorry…" He sobbed out. "I was a damn fool, Kushina, and my foolishness got you killed…"

His life as a Shinobi was over. Eventually Lord Third would find out about what happened and he'd be stripped of his rank for killing Konoha's Jinchuuriki, possibly even jailed or executed on the spot. Just as well, he figured, at least that way he'd get to see Kushina again.

Faintly, he heard footsteps approaching him from behind, but he was so far beyond caring that he didn't bother. He merely peered over his shoulder as the tears fell freely and spied a dark-skinned woman wearing a skull mask dressed in a long dark blue cloak.

"Death Herself has come to claim me, huh?" He chuckled sadly. "I wasn't aware that I was that important to the Gods for them to send their best to collect my soul." As he spoke, he relaxed his hands, allowing the held ashes of Kushina to scatter along with the rest of her as a breeze picked up.

"I'm… not sure what you mean." The woman shifted in place, almost uncomfortably. "Are you alright?"

"I killed my girlfriend, all but betrayed my village and am now staring down the Grim Reaper herself." This second chuckle was mirthless. "I'm prepared to pay for my sins." As he spoke, he pressed his right hand against the parchment containing Tobirama's Formula and was able to expertly hide his shock amidst the other myriad emotions he was feeling at the moment. "But not before I go out swinging and with a smile!"

As he stood and turned, he let loose three kunai before spinning out one of his favorite tri-pronged kunai and wrapping the parchment around the hilt of the blade, whereupon the Formula flashed. As expected, the woman sidestepped the three thrown kunai and as he threw his fourth one which bore the Formula, Minato's eyes widened when she unveiled two short staffs which folded out into a pair of twin scythes, one of which she used to bat the fourth kunai away and up into the air above her. As she dashed in, however, all she saw of the blonde in front of her was a smirk before he disappeared in a yellow flash. Thanks to her Semblance alone was Maria able to feel the next attack coming as she wisely jumped backwards in time to avoid a Rasengan being buried into the earth where she once stood.

As he righted himself from the failed Rasengan, Minato twirled the kunai by its loop with his right index finger and glared at the Reaper in front of him. Fresh tears still stained his face and his Sage Mode had yet to wear off, which he would be using every ounce of Senjutsu available to him to fight this Reaper. He wanted to see Kushina again, but he also wanted to make sure that he wasn't just giving his life up to some run-of-the-mill mook.

Catching the kunai in a reverse grip after one last twirl, Minato made a handsign reminiscent of a cross. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He exclaimed as he rushed at the Reaper once again, three copies of himself bursting to life alongside him, one of which used his shoulders as a springboard to get airborne.

Tossing his kunai up to the airborne clone, Minato joined his other two grounded clones as the engaged the Reaper in close combat. As she swiped at him, he hit the ground and slid under her attack, scoring a kick to the underside of her chin which she used to propel herself into a backflip to gain a bit of distance, but was immediately beset upon by his two clones. With a spin, she dispatched them both simultaneously and as if she knew what was about to happen, she headbutted the third clone as it landed, ready to take a swipe at her. Blinded by the cloud of smoke, the next thing Maria registered was another yellow flash, followed by a hand being rammed into her deceptively endowed chest and another as the smoke disappeared, revealing the battlefield devoid of the combative blonde.

"What are you?!" She called out into the pea soup fog which surrounded her. "Is that cloning trick your Semblance?! And what the hell is that yellow flash?!"

She felt something shift behind her, but even her Semblance wasn't fast enough to allow her to dodge what was coming. From the now dissipating yellow flash, a blue glow which belonged to that same blue sphere from before, was rammed directly into her back, whereupon a sound akin to shattering glass echoed throughout the craggy valley, followed by A scream from Maria as she flew forward, now bereft of her Aura.

"Is that it, Reaper?" Minato mocked from the fog. "I was expecting more from a servant of Death."

"What the hell are you?!" Maria screamed. Never before had she seen someone do the things this boy was doing. Cloning himself, forming balls of energy in his hands without the use of Dust, teleporting. Was there nothing he couldn't do?!

Again, another shift behind her, and again she wasn't quick enough to stop that very same tri-pronged kunai from sliding into place against her throat from behind.

"Someone who just bested Death." He quipped. "And for the record, this was me fumbling my way through this fight using a technique I hadn't practically used until just this moment."

"You… weren't even trying…?" She gulped as a bead of sweat rolled down her cheek and onto the blade.

"I was trying mildly." He corrected himself. "Without the Hiraishin, I'd be interested to see just how good your obviously above normal reflexes would be against my natural speed."

An applause then began resounding within the confines of the now clearing fog, which revealed four individuals, three of which Minato had identified as human, while the fourth was… something else entirely. She had scales.

"Quite the performance, love." She congratulated him in a cockney accent. "How's about doin' me a favor and slitting her throat snappish like."

"I had no intention of actually killing her." He shook his head and removed the kunai. "I'm obviously not in the afterlife, nor am I in any similar realms, else this Reaper here had to merely snap her fingers and I'd be dead. Where exactly am I?"

"You high or somethin'?" The scaled woman snorted. "Yer in Remnant, love."

"Then the Displacement was a success after all…" He bitterly sighed at the mere mention of the thing that killed Kushina. "Listen, I want to be left alone for now, and this woman no doubt wants to recover from our light skirmish. Is there any possibility that you four will just leave?"

"No can do." The woman shook her head as she went for the clock hanging from her waist. "See, I think I've seen enough of what you can do, love." She then smirked, revealing a row of razor sharp teeth. "This'll be over in one minute."

After another sigh, Minato stepped in front of Maria and spun his kunai back into a reverse grip in his right hand. As the woman sneered, her body flashed with some kind of power, yet just as she was about to charge, the man to her right fell over with a slit throat, followed by the one to her left. The one that was behind her let out a scream as he was kicked off of the cliff and just as the woman turned, a yellow flash blinded her momentarily as Minato rammed a Rasengan into her chest. The woman, however, was blown back, but otherwise unharmed.

"Three seconds and three kills…" She cackled. "You weren't kidding about your natural speed, darling!"

"Your protective shield thing must be stronger than the Reaper's." Minato narrowed his eyes. "Or maybe there's a reason you're timing this fight?"

With an annoyed growl, the woman charged him, sabers in hand and swiped at him again and again, all of which he easily either dodged or parried with his kunai. After another missed stab, Minato used that opportunity to slip around her guard while fishing around in his hip pouch until he took out an explosive tag and planted it on the ground before disappearing into another Hiraishin teleport. Glancing down after hearing the tag sizzle, then woman's eyes went wide.

"Oh, fuck me!" She exclaimed as the tag blew up, pushing her invulnerability to the limits.

As the dust cleared and she was still standing there, without a scratch, from his position amongst the rocks, Minato hummed. "Invincibility it is." He took a mental note. "And she's timing this whole thing, so it must last a fixed amount of time. She said a minute and it's been thirty seconds so far. Unless I've already done enough damage to tire her out…?"

"Fancy little toy there, love…" The woman gasped for air. "Have to admit, I've never tested my Semblance against an explosion before… and I don't think I ever will again…" Her body flashed again, and that was all the provocation Minato needed.

In a literal flash, he appeared before her again, bloodshot blue eyes from all the crying he did narrowed lethally as the blue glow of the Rasengan held in his left hand was plunged into her now vulnerable torso. Flesh, meat and bone were rent asunder as the Rasengan ground into her body before blasting a hole clean through her chest and sending whatever remained of her body off of the cliff and into the fog below. As he shook his head with a sigh, Minato felt the last vestiges of his Senjutsu leave his body, thus deactivating his Sage Mode just in time for him to turn and regard the still freaked out Reaper.

"Are you alright?" He turned her first question to him around on her. "I didn't rough you up too much, did I?"

"N-No…" She eyed him suspiciously. "What… who are you?"

"Minato Namikaze." Minato bowed his head. "Newly promoted Jounin of Konohagakure no Sato, apprentice to the Toad Sage Jiraiya of the Sannin and Captain of the Sandaime Hokage's Bodyguard Force."

"I'm… going to pretend I understood what all of that meant." She nodded blankly as she stood on slightly wobbly legs. "I'm Maria Calavera, the Grimm Reaper."

"No you're not." He quirked an eyebrow with a negative shake of the head. "If you were, you could have just sneezed on me and I'd have died."

"I know the stories about me are exaggerated, but I didn't think it was to that extent…" She found herself bashfully scratching the back of her head before removing her mask to breathe a little easier. "Unless…"

"Unless... what?" He asked.

"You said something about a Displacement Seal, and you can do all of these crazy things." Her silver eyes bore into his cobalt. "What's your story, huh?"

"It's a long one and happens to be something I don't want to repeat… not at the moment, anyhow." He then turned and walked back to what remained of Kushina's ashes and bones.

Carefully, he picked up her headband, gave it one last kiss and tied it around his right bicep. The ashes he picked up and scattered into the wind. And with her bones he found a spot that wasn't just all rock and buried them within the ground. The tears had come back as he put himself to properly seeing her away, and as he began solemnly chanting what Maria assumed to be some death rite, gone was the imposing, frightening figure which wore the skin of a seventeen year old boy and in its place she saw the broken form of what used to be a seventeen year old boy having to see to the funeral of his own girlfriend which he had said before he killed. Out of respect, she bowed her head with him and offered her own prayers, just in case the Brothers were feeling particularly merciful.

"The Displacement was a success…" He spoke after finishing the rite, wiping a sleeve across his eyes to rid himself of the tears. "I'm not in my world anymore, am I?"

"Considering I still have no idea about half the stuff you said back there, coupled with the fact that you can do all of these amazing things without Dust, I'm willing to say that you're an alien or something, yes." Maria spoke as she approached him and placed a comforting hand upon his shoulder. "I still can't make heads or tails of you, kid. You attack me and then defend me in the same breath, killing four people in less than a minute and continue on to bury your girlfriend, unfazed by what you just did…"

"In my world, we're trained from a very young age to kill, maim and assassinate people." Minato darkly intoned. "In fact, I'm pretty sure a war was brewing before Kushina and I got displaced."

"Our worlds aren't so different." Maria bitterly conceded the point. "Here, we're beset by an unstoppable tide of evil known as the Creatures of Grimm." She began to explain. "Humanity has been on the verge of extinction for a very long time and it's all we can do to just stave off our inevitable fates."

"I have no purpose anymore." He sadly chuckled. "With Kushina dead and my world lost to me, I have nothing left… so if fighting these Grimm will give me purpose, then count me in." He turned to look her dead in her silver eyes. "I need to blow off some more steam anyway."

The distant squawking of a Nevermore drew both of their attentions.

"I've seen you fight humans…" Maria smirked as she called her weapons to her. "Let's see how you handle your first Grimm!"

AN: So, for an introduction, what did you guys think? As I said before, this was hella fun to write, as I've always loved Minato, probably even moreso than Naruto, truth be told. Now, as is tradition going into a new story, pairings are up in the air, though this time I do have an idea of who I want Minato to end up with.

What do you guys think, though? Who will be the future mother of Naruto? Will he have siblings? Personally, I'm thinking that Summer's going to be the lucky girl, but I want opinions here! Should Summer end up with Minato? Would Raven be a better choice? Hell, setting him up with Weiss's Mom has even occurred to me on several occasions, but I'm still partial to Summer myself. Let me know your pick on who should end up with Minato and eventually Naruto as well! Give me good, solid opinions! Also note that this most likely will not be a harem story, at least for Minato's side of this story. Naruto, I'm not so sure about, however.

This is ZeroDivisionRaijin, signing off!