A/N: Well, I did manage to get the May chapter of The Vulpine Huntsman of Vale out on time... according to the servers at least...

Yeah, part of the reason that it took so long was because I kept coming up with different versions of a couple of scenes, and I ended up cutting a bunch of stuff out and rewriting it more than once. So, at least you probably have a few updates to the Extras story to look forward to!

In other news, this story now has 500 reviews! I am so excited about this! Thanks so much to everyone who has reviewed this story for making this possible! Cookies for everyone! (Unless you have cookies disabled in your browser options)

Chapter 19 - Beautiful Sights

By the time Naruto decided to call it a day, he had spent almost two hours practicing the Kirigakure no Jutsu (Art of Hiding in the Mist). Near the end, he finally managed to get the mist for which the technique was named to appear. Unfortunately, it barely covered the surface of the river around him, and wouldn't spread to dry land at all. The mist itself was pretty thin, allowing Ruby to see Naruto's silhouette behind it, and it only rose up to the height of his waist, so his upper body was completely exposed.

Thankfully, almost no Grimm had decided to bother the two of them during their time in Forever Fall. A few more Beowolves had wandered in their direction, and Ruby had taken them down from afar with Crescent Rose before they even knew where the two students were. A Boarbatusk actually managed to get pretty close before Ruby spotted it, but Naruto had just finished an attempt at the Jutsu, so he saw it as well as it ran towards them.

As it turned out, FoxFire was extremely effective against Boarbatusks… and trees. The Forever Fall Forest gained a new clearing next to the river that day.

When Naruto finally stepped back onto dry land, he heaved a sigh of relief. It had been difficult to maintain the control required to walk on water for nearly two hours straight in addition to expending more Chakra to attempt the Kirigakure no Jutsu.

"Feeling tired?" Ruby asked, seeing Naruto's look of relief as he left the surface of the water.

Naruto shook his head. "Not really. It just takes a lot of concentration to stay on the surface of the water for so long. I've still got plenty of Chakra left, but it's a bit of a mental effort, you know?"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Ruby said. "I get the same way after exams."

"Exams are the worst," Naruto agreed. He walked over to Ruby and the tree, and began to re-fasten his swords to his belt.

Wanting to be helpful, Ruby picked up his thigh pouch as he was doing this, and when he finished with FireStorm, held it out to him. "Here you go."

With a smile, Naruto took the pouch and attached it in its usual place. "Thanks," Naruto said. "And thanks for coming out here with me as well. Sorry I took up so much of your time." He rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment. "I thought I would have made progress sooner than that…"

"It's fine," Ruby reassured. Thinking about the hours she had spent in the forest with Naruto, her cheeks gained a pink tint. "It was worth it…"

This confused Naruto. "Huh? What made it so worthwhile?"

Realizing that she had spoken out loud, Ruby's blush intensified. "Nothing! I… um…" Thinking fast, Ruby blurted out the first excuse that came to her mind. "It was just a good opportunity to scout out the Forever Fall Forest, that's all! You know, for the field trip."

Still looking at Ruby oddly, Naruto said "Yeah, I suppose it is a good scouting opportunity." He looked away from Ruby, much to her relief, and focused on the expanse of trees on the other side of the river. "We're probably going to be working in that area of the forest for our outing. Want to go take a look?"

Even if she wanted to, she couldn't back down now after using the scouting opportunity as an excuse for her excitement. "Yeah. Let's do that."

Ruby walked up to the edge of the river, Naruto following a few footsteps behind her. "We'll need to find someplace to cross," Ruby said. "I don't think I can jump it from here, and- EEP!"

She was cut off as she was suddenly swept up into a bridal carry by Naruto, who simply began walking across the surface of the river. Her cheeks turned bright red again at the sudden contact, and Naruto smirked. "No need to put so much effort in when I can just walk us both across."

Once they were on the other side, and Naruto had let Ruby down, she punched him in the arm halfheartedly. "Warn me next time before you do something like that, Naruto! You startled me!"

Naruto smiled apologetically, rubbing the spot where Ruby had hit him. "Ah, sorry. I'll be sure to give you a heads-up next time."

Being more flustered by Naruto's actions than truly angry with him, Ruby simply grumbled a bit before refocusing on the matter at hand. "Alright then. I guess we should start having a look around," she said. "Which way should we go?" She started looking around them, as if there would be some indication as to where they should start.

"Well, since we're just scouting, any direction is just as good as any other," Naruto said. "There aren't any nearby landmarks important enough to be on the map that I looked at, other than the river. The next closest thing would be the train tracks that run through the eastern part of the forest, but we won't end up going that far."

"Okay," Ruby said, looking around. "How about we go this way?" she asked, pointing in a vaguely northern direction.

Naruto smiled. "Looks good to me. Lead on, Taichō."

With a nod, Ruby began walking in the direction she had indicated, Naruto following a few steps behind her, ending up walking next to her after a few seconds. She turned her head toward him and smiled. "So, to be honest, I've got no idea how to actually go about scouting. Are we looking for anything, or just wandering randomly?"

"A little of both," Naruto said. "We're going to want to be on the lookout for landmarks and places that would make good rallying points, but we also want to get a general feel for the area."

"Sounds easy enough," Ruby said. "Well, as long as you've got a good sense of direction, that is. I'll probably get us lost somehow."

Naruto snickered at that. "I'm sure we'll be fine."

"You know," Ruby said, looking thoughtful, "scouting would be a lot easier from up above the forest. It would be like looking at a map."

"I suppose," Naruto agreed. "Although, that's a bit of a moot point. It's not like we have a Bullhead available."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Ruby said, seeming almost sad about the fact that they didn't have a Bullhead with them. After a few seconds of silence, her face lit up again. "Ooh! We could hunt down a Giant Nevermore and hang onto its legs as it flies!"

Naruto spent a moment staring at Ruby incredulously, before deciding that she must have been joking. "Very funny," he said.

"I'm serious!" Ruby said. "It wouldn't be able to attack us if we were positioned right. It can't fire its feathers at itself, and it wouldn't be able to reach us with its beak."

"Ruby… no offense… but that is perhaps the dumbest idea that I've ever heard."

"What!? Weren't you the one who suggested eating a Wind Dust crystal and breathing out FoxFire to make a bigger fireball?"

"Hey, I was just wondering what would happen! I wasn't suggesting it!"

Ruby and Naruto ended up taking a roughly spiral-shaped path through the forest, taking note of anything unusual and anything that they thought was significant enough to merit "landmark" status. More often than not, these were abnormally large clearings or small lakes or streams. One particular clearing had the remains of a tree that had been struck by lightning in the center of it, which had bright green ivy growing over most of the trunk. Naruto thought it resembled a man giving them a thumbs-up, but Ruby couldn't picture it.

Somehow, they didn't encounter any Grimm during their wanderings, except for a few tiny Nevermores the size of crows. Naruto claimed that they didn't even count as Grimm, seeing as the only thing they could really threaten as they were was a mouse. Still, despite the lack of threat, he eliminated them with a weak Raiton Jutsu.

Eventually, they came to an unusually large clearing after several hours of travelling. Ruby looked up into the sky, which was partly obscured by numerous clouds. Thankfully, none of them looked like storm clouds, but the way the light was shining indicated that it was starting to get late. It didn't surprise her at all, given how far they had traveled.

"Well, this would be another good spot to regroup at if we had to," Naruto commented. "Nothing really significant enough to justify it as a landmark, though."

Ruby looked around them for a moment. "Yeah, not really," she agreed. "We've seen a bunch of clearings that look pretty much just like this. I mean, this one does have a rock, but…" She nudged a head-sized rock that was sitting at her feet. "I wouldn't bother with it."

Naruto smiled, amused by Ruby's humor. "Yeah, rocks aren't exactly in short supply out here. I guess we should move on then?"

"I think we've walked far enough, don't you?" Ruby said. "Professor Peach probably won't send us out any farther than this."

Midway through turning back toward Ruby to respond, Naruto froze, his eyes widening and his fox ears twitching minutely back and forth. He tilted his head back slightly and sniffed twice. Before Ruby could ask what he was doing, his hand went to the hilt of Kitsune no Ikari and he dropped into a ready stance. "Grimm nearby!" he barked out, his fox ears folding back as he prepared to fight.

With a sharp intake of breath, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose off of her belt, changing it into its partially compacted form for shooting, and zipped over to Naruto's side with her Semblance, the scattering rose petals mixing with the leaves on the ground. She turned to look in the opposite direction as Naruto, putting them back to back, and raised Crescent Rose to her shoulder in preparation to fire. "Where?" she asked.

"Not sure," Naruto replied. "But they're close; I can smell them. Can't tell how many either, but it's definitely a group."

Ruby didn't bother to ask how he could tell. She simply continued to scan the forest around them through the sights of her weapon, ready to take out any Grimm that came along before they could get close.

Barely a few seconds later, both of them heard a growling coming from the forest around them. They both turned to face the direction of the noise, Naruto turning to his left and Ruby to her right.

Coming out of the trees was a pack of Beowolves, several of them unusually large and sporting very long bone spurs on their forelimbs. The white protrusions looked very sharp, and a few of them even had jagged points and edges, signs that they had been broken before in fights.

Naruto smirked. Now that he could see the opponent, he felt excited about a good fight. "I was beginning to wonder where all of the Grimm in this forest had gone. There goes our peaceful walk in the forest."

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "Looks like this scouting outing just got a whole lot more exciting."

Naruto's eyelid twitched slightly. "Was that a pun?"

"What? No," Ruby said as she transformed Crescent Rose into full scythe mode. "What are you talking about?"

With a sigh, Naruto drew Kitsune no Ikari and began to channel Chakra into it, the seals beginning to glow. "Never mind. I've been talking to Yang too much lately."

As the Beowolves came fully out of the trees, Ruby swung Crescent Rose in a full circle around her, planting the tip of it into the ground in front of her. "Right. Let's get this thing started." With those words, she pulled Crescent Rose's trigger, resulting in a loud bang and a dead Beowolf. This seemed to galvanize its pack members into action, and the rest of them charged at the two Hunters.

Naruto simply readied his sword, letting Ruby continue to empty her clip into the group of Grimm as they got closer. Then, just as they were about to get close enough to actually fight back, Ruby pulled Crescent Rose up out of the ground and fired one last bullet, jumping upward as she did so in order to fling herself backward. The instant she was behind Naruto, he stepped forward and swung his sword, slashing the closest Beowolf in half at the waist.

Before that first Beowolf had even fallen to the ground, a blade of wind burst forward, flung outward by the swing of Naruto's sword. Another five Beowolves that had gotten close to Naruto and Ruby were struck by it, all of them cut severely by the Wind Chakra. It wasn't enough to kill them, but they were all knocked several meters backward, smashing into their fellows and preventing the entire pack from rushing in to fight at once.

Two large Beowolves remained unhindered, rushing at Naruto at full speed. Having swung to his left to unleash the blade of wind, Naruto turned toward the Beowolf on his right and swung his sword a second time. The Grimm was smart enough to take the blow on one of its protruding bones, but was unprepared for the remaining Wind Chakra on the sword to cleave clean through its entire arm.

Naruto didn't even bother looking at the Beowolf on his left as it was beheaded by a red scythe. He remained focused on the Grimm in front of him, rushing forward and stabbing Kitsune no Ikari into its chest. Before it could attempt to counterattack in its last moments, Naruto sent a pulse of FoxFire through the sword, incinerating most of the Beowolf's body.

Ruby, meanwhile, had killed two more of the smaller Grimm, shooting one and using the recoil from the shot to propel her scythe through the second. With a quick look toward the Beowolves still encumbered from Naruto's wind blade attack, she cried out "Petalstorm! Flame Tunnel!"

Naruto smirked as he quickly sheathed Kitsune no Ikari, forming the Tori seal with his hands. Meanwhile, Ruby had put Crescent Rose away as well, and was crouched down, one hand touching the ground. Naruto leapt toward her, using Chakra to propel himself off of the ground, and landed right behind her. Without warning, Ruby was suddenly gone, red petals scattering everywhere as she used her Semblance at near maximum intensity.

She shot past the Beowolves, causing an intense wind current to be kicked up, battering at the Grimm. Naruto breathed in as Ruby's form popped up for just a moment at a spot barely a meter past the Grimm, and once she had disappeared again, he breathed out, blowing a stream of golden FoxFire out with his breath.

The golden fire was caught in the wind created by Ruby's charge, and it shot forward at the Beowolves, following the path Ruby had taken through the air and expanding as it went. The effect was similar to the mixture of a Fūton and Katon Jutsu, and the remaining Beowolves were quickly engulfed by the flames.

Ruby appeared back at Naruto's side just as the flames began to fade, exposing a large patch of burned earth. Several trees had been scorched by the heat, and a few of them were even on fire. Seeing this, Naruto reached into his thigh pouch and pulled out a scroll. He unrolled it on the ground to expose a seal already made, and he placed a hand down on the ground behind the scroll. "Fūka Hōin." (Fire Sealing Method)

A light blue glow began to spread out from the scroll, and tendrils of it reached out toward the still burning fires, engulfing them and absorbing them. Once the last of the flames were absorbed by the airborne Chakra, the blue tendrils retreated back into the center of the seal, which was blank. As the seal finished its work, however, a kanji appeared in the blank space, glowing orange. Once the technique was completely finished, the kanji turned black, and Naruto rolled the scroll back up and returned it to its pouch.

"Well, that takes care of that," Naruto commented. "Honestly, I thought there would be more of them, since there weren't any anywhere else."

Ruby was wide-eyed. "Did you just seal away fire?" she asked.

Naruto chuckled at her awestruck look before nodding. "Yup. I have a couple of these seals lying around just in case. With Yang on our team…" He didn't finish that sentence, but he didn't need to.

"Good thinking," was all that Ruby said in response to that.

"Wanna have a look around over there?" Naruto asked, indicating the direction the Grimm had come from. "We might find some more of them, and I'm still up for a good fight."

With a smile and a shrug, Ruby said "Sure. Why not?"

They began to move through the trees, their hands not far from their weapons. Naruto sniffed at the air a few times, but between the smells of the Beowolf pack and the ash and smoke from the fire, he couldn't tell whether or not there were any more Grimm in their immediate area.

It wasn't long before they began to see more light filtering through the canopy and trunks in front of them, and Naruto rolled his eyes. "Well, looks like we're about to find another clearing. And no signs of any more Grimm either."

"Hey, you never know," Ruby said. "We could find something really interesting."

"Somehow I highly… doubt… that…" Naruto trailed off as he finally got a clear view through the trees at the reason for the increased level of light.

Before the two of them was a sudden drop, the ground simply ceasing to be less than 10 meters in front of them. However, this wasn't one of the usual hillsides or dips in the ground. Before them was a set of cliffs easily the equal of the ones they had been launched off of for Initiation. Ruby rushed up to the edge of the cliff in excitement, Naruto following behind her at a slower pace until he ended up at her side next to the edge of the cliff.

The two Hunters-in-training looked out over the expanse of crimson trees before them. Distantly, they could see part of the wall that separated Vale from Forever Fall. Between the trees and the distance, they could only make out a vague gray mass, but there was no doubt as to what it was. The sun, shining through the gaps in the clouds, was beginning to creep lower in the sky, signaling that they had a few hours of daylight left at most. Beams of sunlight shone out of the gaps in the clouds, illuminating irregular patches of the forest. As they watched, a distant wave of wind swept through the trees, creating a visible ripple in the canopy, and kicking up some of the red leaves as well, making them glide and dance through the air.

"Wow," Ruby half-whispered. "It's beautiful…"

Naruto turned his head to look at her. She was smiling and leaning forward, hanging a little over the edge of the cliff. Her left arm was raised, her hand wrapped around a sturdy branch to help her keep her balance. As he watched, the wind reached them, causing Ruby's hair to flow out behind her, and making leaves swirl past and around her.

He found himself smiling as well. "Yeah," he said softly. "Beautiful…"

The two of them remained like that for several seconds, silently watching the sights in front of them. Then, Ruby shifted her weight backwards, moving away from the edge of the cliff. Her head began to turn, and Naruto quickly looked back at the forest in front of him, a slight blush spreading across his face as he hoped desperately that Ruby hadn't caught him staring at her like that.

"We should probably start heading back now," Ruby said. "We've been out here for a long time, and I'm not sure Yang and Blake actually know where we are. They were a bit distracted when you asked me to come with you." Now that she had spoken to him, Naruto decided that it was safe to look back at her. As he looked at her again, he didn't see anything in her demeanor that indicated anything out of the ordinary. Apparently, his reflexes had been fast enough that he didn't look suspicious.

Naruto nodded in response to Ruby's statements. "Yeah, you're probably right." He pulled out his Scroll and opened several programs simultaneously, splitting the screen into several sections. He began to look back and forth between the screen and the trees around him, slightly glad that he had something to occupy himself with for a moment, since he was still a little flustered from the close call from before.

Curious as to what Naruto was doing, Ruby walked up to him and looked at his Scroll. "Compass…map of Forever Fall… and… is that the app that launches our lockers to us? What exactly are you doing?" She looked at him suspiciously, as though she thought he might launch his locker to them at any minute.

"Ah, don't worry. I'm not planning to send my locker here," Naruto said, seeing the look she was giving him. "I'm just using it to figure out where we are. Right now, we're at 288556. Beacon itself is at around 187382." He pointed to a spot on the map. "That means we're about here. So, to get back to Beacon, we need to head…" After a pause to look at the compass, he raised a hand and pointed in a southeastern direction. "That way."

Ruby managed to get one last good look at the map, compass, and numbers displayed before Naruto closed his Scroll and slipped it back into his pocket as he turned toward the direction he had indicated. Ruby walked up next to him. "How can you tell where Beacon is just from those numbers?"

"It's a little complicated," Naruto said. "I basically figured out how the numbers system for our lockers worked, and can use it to navigate if I know the coordinates of the place I want to get to. I need a compass for it, but luckily for us, our Scrolls come with a compass app."

"Cool," Ruby commented. "I guess you'll be navigating us back then."

Naruto nodded, ready to begin leading the way back, before an idea suddenly popped into his head. "Hey, Ruby, have you ever gone tree hopping before?" The question was pretty much unnecessary; Ruby wasn't able to use her Chakra, and therefore couldn't even surface walk, let alone tree hop.

"Tree hopping?" Ruby asked. "What's that?"

"An advanced application of surface walking," Naruto said. With a smirk, he turned so that his back was facing her, and crouched down. "Here, hop on and I'll show you."

"Wha- like a piggyback ride? I-I'm not a little kid, you know." Thankfully for Ruby, Naruto wasn't in a position to see her blush.

"What does age have to do with it?" Naruto asked without turning around. "Shinobi do this kind of thing all the time. If a team member is injured, and the team needs to move fast, the injured member gets carried for a while." He paused for a moment. "But if you don't want to, you don't have to. It's your decision."

Ruby hesitated for a moment, fiddling with the edge of her cloak as she thought. After a moment, she stepped forward and put her hands on Naruto's shoulders. "Alright. I'll give it a try."

Naruto smiled, and put his hands behind Ruby's knees, ready to hoist her up. "Great! Make sure you have a good grip."

Nodding, despite Naruto's inability to see it, Ruby let her hands slip off of Naruto's shoulders, looping her arms around his collarbone as much as possible to avoid choking him. "Ok. I'm ready."

With a nod of acknowledgement, Naruto looped his hands behind Ruby's legs and lifted, standing up at the same time. Ruby tightened her grip slightly as he did this, mostly as a reflex. "Here we go," Naruto said. "Hold on tight, and let me know if you think you're going to lose your grip."

Before Ruby could say anything, she felt Naruto crouch down slightly. Goosebumps formed on her skin as a strange feeling passed through her. It was almost as if tiny amounts of static electricity were coursing through her. Before she could think on it too much, Naruto leaped forward, rising up toward the treetops, and leapt off of a branch.

Ruby felt her breath being taken away from her as the two of them soared through the trees. Instinctively, she clutched a little tighter to Naruto, pressing herself closer to him in the process. As the two of them shot through the treetops, almost seeming to ricochet off of the tree trunks and branches that Naruto used as springboards, Ruby felt herself beginning to smile, and then laugh in excitement.

It wasn't the speed that Naruto was going that exhilarated her, although he was moving faster than many Hunters could manage. Ruby had gone much faster than what Naruto could manage many times using her Semblance. In fact, she didn't even have to come close to her limit with her Semblance to go as fast as she was currently going. No, the speed of Naruto's tree hopping wasn't what made her laugh in joy and her heart race. With each leap, which could cover dozens of yards at once, she felt like she was floating. Looking down and seeing the ground rush by so far below her, Ruby wondered if this is what flying felt like.

As Naruto kicked off of another tree, sending both of them to their right, Ruby also decided that the frequent and sudden changes in direction contributed to the excitement of the experience as well. She had only ever moved in a straight line at high speeds before, and darting to the right and left without warning was a completely new experience to her.

A sudden increase in speed, coupled with a sharper change in direction, took Ruby by surprise, causing her to yelp in surprise before going back to laughing.

Naruto, hearing Ruby's excited laughter, couldn't help but smile. "Enjoying yourself?" he shouted over the sounds of rushing air.

"This is amazing!" Ruby shouted joyously, making Naruto's smile widen. "How long can you go before you have to rest?"

"I can get us all the way back to Beacon no problem!" he said in the moment that they were airborne between two hops.

Although she had never known Naruto to brag or overstate his abilities, Ruby couldn't help but worry that Naruto might end up overexerting himself. "Are you sure? You were practicing that Jutsu for a really long time before! And you used some Jutsu to fight off the Grimm!"

Naruto laughed, confusing Ruby. "Don't worry about me, Ruby! I'm known for being a stamina monster! Just relax and enjoy the ride!"

With a sigh that somehow turned into a laugh at the end, Ruby decided to just trust that Naruto knew what he was talking about.

'Besides,' she thought as she let out a whoop in response to another series of rapid direction changes, 'this is way too much fun to spoil with worrying!'

A/N:

Just in case anybody is interested, I took my own interpretation of the rocket locker coordinates, rather than relying on canon alone for the details. If you want the breakdown of the process I used to determine what the launch codes mean, let me know in a review or PM, and I'll send the details to you in a PM. Warning: you may need some geometry knowledge to understand what I'm talking about.

Also, as I promised in the previous chapter, since I have failed to put out two chapters during May, I will be posting two chapters during June. Hopefully they will come out a little quicker than this chapter did.

As always, be sure to check out Nacrym's profile on DeviantArt for more awesome artwork like the cover to this story. Link is in my profile.

Japanese Translations

Kirigakure no Jutsu - Art of Hiding in the Mist

Taichō - Captain/Squad leader

Fūka Hōin - Fire Sealing Method