Ashura Otsutsuki was first thought to be a loser. The younger child of the Sage of the

Six Paths, Hagoromo Otsutsuki, people expected great things from him. However, when it came to the genius of Ninshu, he was completely outclassed by his elder brother, Indra. At a young age, Indra had realized that weaving certain hand signs would result in a different Ninshu technique being formed. He called the hand signs he used "handsigns" while calling the various Ninshu techniques "Jutsu." It seemed that Indra was going to become a phenomenal successor to his father, Hagoromo.

However, a darkness was awakened within Indra. This darkness stained his relationship, not only with the other Ninshu followers but also with his father and his younger brother. What was once a kindhearted young boy who cared deeply for his family was now a coldhearted man, filled with hatred and resentment towards the world.

Hagoromo realized this and decided that Ashura, a man of kindness, compassion, and love, embodied more of the ideas of Ninshu than Indra. This resulted in Indra's betrayal towards Ninshu, and his attempt to murder both Ashura and Hagoromo. Ashura's strong will reincarnates so that the future generation can learn and understand Ninshu.

His will was currently reincarnated into a young man by the name of Naruto Uzumaki, whereas his brother Indra was reincarnated into Naruto's best friend and rival, Sasuke Uchiha.

Naruto and Sasuke, alongside their good friend Sakura, their teacher Kakashi, and their former enemy Obito were in the middle of the most important fight of their lives, fighting against Kaguya Otsutsuki, the most powerful opponent they could have asked for (or not have asked for).

"Kamui!" Obito cries, blood dripping from his eyes. Despite being in immense pain, Obito needs to continue to search the many dimensions of Kaguya for their comrade, Sasuke Uchiha.

"There he is! Sasuke!" Sakura screams, desperately trying to get his attention.

That scream was enough as Sasuke turned around and sprinted as fast as he could. Sasuke would never admit it, but he was actually impressed that Obito and Sakura were able to find him. The amount of chakra required to use such a powerful space-time ninjutsu was substantial. It was almost inhuman.

I'm not going to make it. I have to use my Rinnegan's ability to teleport through the portal. Being isolated in a separate dimension, despite sounding pretty sucky, actually did have a couple of benefits for Sasuke. Most importantly, he was able to restore lots of his chakra and was able to quickly teleport through Obito's Kamui and reunite himself with his comrades.

Obito was exhausted. Despite being amplified by Sakura, the amount of chakra needed to open and close Kaguya's dimensions was insane. To be able to connect these dimensions in an instant. It's almost surreal. However, I made a promise. That I would get Sasuke and bring him back to Naruto. I can't fail now!

"There's still something that I must do. We're going back, you two. Hang on to me."

The Naruto clones charged Kaguya, attempting to put her on the defensive. Quickly, Kaguya used her space-time ninjutsu Amenominaka to avoid getting bombarded by the many Naruto clones. That and she didn't want to be on the receiving end of Naruto's Sexy Jutsu, an attack that cost her life. Just as she opened her portal, it clashed with Obito's, temporarily creating a supermassive portal where a few of Naruto's clones got sucked into and destroyed.

"And that's the match."

Jaune checked his scroll and found that, as usual, his aura was in the red. His opponent, Cardin Winchester, was standing there with his typical smug face. Jaune always wondered why Professor Goodwitch always put him against Cardin during their in-class sparring sessions. Perhaps it's because she has hope that one day he will beat Cardin. Maybe she has faith in him.

Ha! As if.

He gave little attention to Glynda's harsh comments on his inability to fight. After all, this wasn't the first time he had heard the speech. He put away his sparring equipment and headed back up to his teammates. He was the leader of team JNPR, consisting of himself, Nora Valkyrie, Pyrrha Nikos, and Lie Ren. Their friends, team RWBY, consisted of Ruby Rose as the leader, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long. Despite the eight of them passing their initiation test, Jaune knew that he never really belonged in the prestigious huntsmen school, Beacon Academy. To be blunt, he lacked the experience.

"That was a great fight Jaune. You really have improved." Pyrrha has always been incredibly supportive of him, though he never really knew why.

"Tha- BRRRINGGGG!" Just as he was about to respond, the class bell rang, and a massive horde of students swarmed the exit doors. "I'll catch up with you guys later. Just got to go to the room for a sec." Without waiting for a response, Jaune headed out the doors of the classroom, leaving his team and friends behind.

"I wonder what's got Vomit Boy in such a rush?" Yang was never one to be cautious with words. She's always been the type of person to call it as she sees it.

"Dunno. But I'm sure that it's nothing too important. Fearless leader has got everything under control!"

GRUMBLE

"Besides, I'm starving. Hey Ren, you got any maple syrup on you? I wanna see what'll happen if I put it on my sandwich" Nora says.

"Nora… Why would I have maple syrup?" Ren states in his typical monotone voice. Despite being complete opposites, Ren and Nora get along exceptionally well together and are extremely close. Well, not 'together together' as Nora would say.

"You put maple syrup on your sandwich? That's disgusting. How much sugar do you eat?" Yang asks, confused as to Nora's revolting diet.

"Maybe Jaune's thinking about his match against Cardin. He got beat pretty badly." Ruby says, as she tiredly looks around for her missing friend. Jaune was Ruby's first friend that she made at Beacon. Despite many people thinking Jaune was a buffoon, a weakling, or even a loser, Ruby always saw the positive in him – his exceptionally caring attitude, his witty humour, and his overall kindness.

"Please. That dunce should not be at this school. Our jobs as huntsmen and huntresses are to protect the world of Remnant from Grimm. The dunce lacks the discipline, work ethic, and skill required to be a huntsman." Despite Ruby seeing the positive in Jaune, her ice-cold partner, Weiss Schnee, sees only the negative in him.

"Eh. You're just mad that Jaune was made team leader and you weren't." Yang replies.

"That is so not true" Weiss responds in a flustered voice, getting a laugh from everyone at the table.

Jaune walks through the hallways, thinking about his team and his inability to be an adequate leader. Jaune cared for his friends more than anything and developed powerful bonds with them, despite not being at Beacon for that long.

Jaune steps into his bedroom and immediately collapses on his bed. "AHHHH!" Jaune screams in his pillow.

Maybe coming to this school was a bad idea. Everyone is so much stronger than I am. I'll never be able to catch up. How can I lead my team when I can't even protect myself?

BRRINGGG!

Startled by the sound of his scroll going off, Jaune jumped from his bed, immediately falling face-first into the ground. "Ow. Dammit. Can't I sulk in peace?" Jaune complained as he reached for his scroll, still lying in his bed.

"Yello?"

"Jaune? It's Ruby. Are you coming? I saved you some food."

"Thanks Ruby, I just had to grab something. I'll be at the cafeteria in a minute" Jaune replied. After a slight pause, he could tell Ruby didn't believe him.

"Jaune. I know you didn't have to grab something from your room. I'm like, your best friend. I can tell when something is bothering you."

Dammit. Ruby's always been good at seeing through my bullshit. Jaune was in no mood to deal with this.

"Nothing's wrong, Ruby. I'll be down there in a minute." Jaune says as he hangs up the scroll, not even bothering to listen to what Ruby had to say in response. Why didn't I become a farmer or something?

"Honestly. Why did we let him in our school in the first place? I don't care what his transcripts say, Mister Arc is not ready for this level of combat." Glynda exclaimed furiously, as she re-watched Jaune's fights against Cardin. To say she was disappointed would be a massive understatement. In fact, there were little words that could be used to describe the amount of frustration she felt towards Jaune. Sometimes, Glynda just could not understand Ozpin's way of thinking.

"Hmm. I believe that Mister Arc has enormous potential. And yes, while it is true that his combat skills are… lacking, I do believe that he is improving." Ozpin replied, sipping his coffee.

"Ozpin you can't be serious. This child has no business at this school. Yes he is improving, but if he wants to be on par with the rest of the students here, he will need a miracle."

"… Maybe."

Jaune told Ruby that he was going to meet up with her. That was a lie. The truth of the matter is, he completely collapsed on his bed and gave in to the sweet temptations of sleep. And nothing was waking him from this much-needed rest. Not even the hundreds of messages he was getting from his friends asking where he was. He even got one from Weiss, though it seemed to be more of a threat.

Jaune typically did not dream. Well, maybe he did, but he could never remember those dreams. However, this dream was different. Much different. This was less of a dream and more of a subconscious takeover. He was discombobulated as to what was happening. He knew that he wasn't exactly awake, but it all felt too real. He took a couple of slow steps as if he was testing to see if the ground beneath him was solid. Satisfied with his response, he took more and more steps. Then he began to run. Why he ran, Jaune didn't know. Maybe he was trying to run away from himself, from his problems.

"Hello, how are you?"

Jaune stopped running immediately. He stood dead frozen, like a deer caught in the headlights. He was hearing voices in his subconscious. Slowly, he began to turn around, expecting the worse. However, he was surprised to see that the voice that called out to him was a young man, approximately in his mid-twenties. He had spiky brown hair pointing upwards with two long strands, wrapped in white cloth, coming down on the sides of his face. He had a white headband wrapped around his forehead. He wore a white kimono with black magatama's close to the collar.

"You seem to be surprised. Perhaps a proper introduction is in order. My name is Ashura Otsutsuki."