I was talking to Khor about an idea I had in a dream, using a power from the Naruto series; which he isn't familiar with. With the Schnees revealing inheritable family semblances, this power would fit in. This power, in Naruto, was labelled as Kekkei Genkai- which translates to "Bloodline Limit". This is an anomaly of the DNA that allows the wielder to use unique techniques. A kekkei genkai's name describes both the anomaly and the resulting technique. Most kekkei genkai are passed down between generations of a clan or Family.

Generally speaking, there are three types of kekkei genkai: Dojutsu are unique eyes with special perceptive abilities. Advanced nature transformations combine two basic natures in order to create a new one, such as water and wind to make ice; or fire and earth to make lava. Finally, the kind Jaune has in this story. Certain kekkei genkai grant their users unrivalled ways of using their own bodies.

"Why are we here? What does it all mean? ...I've been thinking about that a lot lately. And I realized.. finding our purpose IS the meaning - that's why we're here. And the ones who find it... they're the only ones that are truly free."-Kimmimaro Kaguya

Dead Bone Huntsman

ch 1: Weary Warrior

'How long had it been?' Jaune wondered as he stood in front of Beacon Academy. 'How long since my Semblance awakened when my family was destroyed?' He wore sneakers on his feet that seemed worn down from constant use, blue jeans that had torn holes over the knees, and he had a loose yellow shirt left unbuttoned and long baggy sleeves. On his waist was a belt holding a sheathed sword with blue leather around the golden hit with a white and gold sheathe. His yellow hair was messy and fell limply around his ears to his neck, with dull blue eyes that held such caution and pain within them. Above his eyebrows were two red dots- one over each eye. Unbeknownst to the other students, this was a marking from his Semblance.

While not built like a powerhouse, Jaune held a lean- almost swimmer's build. As he watched swarms of students meet up and wander around, he held back. "I can't afford to be hurt again...not until I destroy the ones who destroyed my family...yet...I need to follow his orders." He whispered to himself as he felt torn. Part of him desired companionship, but he was also afraid of feeling such horrible loss again. He was only 9 when he lost his parents, and then he lost his seven sisters only a day later. All because some bandits wanted valuable things from the small town...he would never forget or forgive their leader...that woman with the raven black hair and blood red eyes...nor that name...

Raven Branwen.

The leader of those accursed bandits who ripped away his family. Seeing one of them holding the sword he now had strapped to his belt triggered such an anger, fear, and pain, that his Aura instinctively awakened...as did his semblance. He pried the sword from the dead bandit's hands in a forest of bone. That day...He didn't lose just his family...but his home.

After the bandits took off, people looked at him in fear. His Semblance...was...different...some called disgusting. Even his sisters no longer wanted anything to do with him thanks to his Semblance. He was isolated, shunned, scorned. Finally, he just packed a bag with things such as clothing, some food, and photos and relics of happier times. He left that night, mere hours before his family home was set ablaze by some extremists seeking to "purge the world of his unnatural ability"; his sisters long since moved elsewhere in town away from him. For years he wandered the forests as he honed his skills with Semblance and sword from Grimm attracted to the negativity rolling off him until he had a chance encounter with another Branwen. The brother of the one who lead the slaughter of his family. Hearing the man's family name instilled a fierce rage in him and he attacked the older huntsman.

Every time he tried to find some peace by helping little villages from Grimm, it would be torn from him after his Semblance was revealed. All of that being caused by a Branwen caused something to snap when he saw one related to her. Yet, despite his ferocity and unique Semblance; he was defeated. As he lied on the ground, begging for Death...something surprising happened.

The Branwen who he attacked...was caring for him. Even after he saw his Semblance...this man was caring for him.

Jaune's eyes snapped open as he forcefully brought himself out of his memories. "Master Qrow...I won't fail you." Jaune said in a voice that was slightly scratchy due to a lack of use. He gazed upon a beautiful blonde young woman with lilac eyes and a young teen with black and red hair with silver eyes. "I've found your nieces." When it looked like the blonde was about to ditch the silver eyed girl, Jaune pressed his hand against the ground. "Dance of the Seedling Fern".

Both girls gave yelps of fear as a cage of spiked bones arouse from the ground around them. Yang was growling slightly as her "friends" ran off and Ruby eyed the bones curiously.

"Master Qrow asked me to keep an eye out for you." Jaune's voice came from behind them and the two girls turned to see Jaune standing there with a blank expression. Yang at first growled and activated Ember Celica before his words resonated.

"Qrow? As in Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked as her silver eyes stared into dull blue. Yang's eyes were still red when his eyes stared into hers.

"I hate your eye color when your Semblance activates, and yes..my Master Qrow and your Uncle are the same person." Jaune said, "I am Jaune Arc."

"Wait...what's wrong with my eyes?" Yang asked, perplexed.

"They're the same color...as the Branwen woman who lead the slaughter of my family." Jaune said, refusing to look at her as he pressed a hand against a bone and the bone cage shattered into dust, just loud enough to cover the sound of Yang's gasp. For Yang...those words were devastating. For years she sought out her birth mother for answers. It was during this search that she heard rumors of her leading a group of bandits. Yang wanted to believe that those rumors were false. Yet...in a way they were proved...as she lead the slaughter of this young man's family; which means she wasn't alone.

Jaune froze as he felt a weight against his back and turned his head to see the younger niece holding him in a tight hug. "I'm sorry." He heard her mutter into his back and froze.

"You and your sister are not to blame for her actions. It is her and her group of bandits that must face my judgement." Jaune said, somewhat abruptly before Yang grabbed his hand. "Please release me. You'll only hate me once you see my Semblance-like everyone but my Master does. My purpose in life is to fulfill his will."

Both girls had seen the pain in his eyes and gazed at each other as the same question ran through their mind.

How broken is he?

"So that is the young survivor." Ozpin said as he took a sip from a mug with Qrow slumped in a seat nearby as Professor Goodwitch frowned sternly at the image.

"I still don't see why you let him in; he looks like he belongs in a mental home." Goodwitch said.

"And with that attitude, you only prove him right." Qrow said before taking a long swig from his flask as he set down Jaune's trunk, "To him, Humans and Faunus are in the same exact category: Trash. With what the boy went through I don't blame him. Yo Oz, find anything from that blood sample of his?"

"Actually yes." Ozpin said as he gazed down at the screen of the trio heading into Beacon, "According to our findings...his Semblance-which I believe is Osteomanipulation- is actually hereditary. It just hasn't been on records before as the genes that express it are extremely rare and have to be aligned in a certain way." What Ozpin didn't say is that he also sent the results to Jaune's former sisters- an act of spite for sure for them tossing away family. It was bad enough that Raven lost her way...but hopefully those young girls could learn the error of their ways.

"Osteomanipulation?" Qrow raised a single eyebrow, "Heh, I prefer the kid's name for it. Dead Bone Pulse has a nice ring to it." As he glanced at Professor Goodwitch, who was opening her mouth to protest, "Listen here blondie. The kid went through enough. In this world where minerals give humans the ability to control nature, apparently something like manipulating bones is 'demonic'. Kid was forced out of his old home after losing his family. Every time he tried to do what his parents said his ancestors did-helping others- he was only driven out like some kind of Grimm Spawn because of his Semblance. Eventually he just...stopped caring..."

"Protection." Ozpin said, "He's trying to protect himself from further harm." At this statement, Goodwitch's eyes softened.

"But what about the people you had him visit?" She asked, "Taiyang? The Belladonna family? I remember you telling me that the mother wanted to betroth her daughter to him after hearing what he went through in order to be able to call him her son."

Qrow chuckled at that memory, the one time where Jaune's mask cracked since their fateful meeting and he looked uncomfortable. "He considers them...exceptions to the world of Trash." Qrow stood up and looked out the window before taking another swig. "As much as I hate it when he calls me 'Master'...I'm glad I found him before any of THEM found him...or we would have a second Tyrain Callows. Yet...I can still see it...buried deep down within him, underneath his pain and anger...is a desire for love...a desire for acceptance...a desire...to live up to his family's name."

Without a word, he leapt out of the building and a crow flew out of sight.

"What he needs...is hope." Ozpin said, looking over a chessboard that was partially played through as he picked up a Knight piece and stared at it intently, "To be shown that Love and Hope still exist."

"Why are you so worried about us hating you about your Semblance?" Ruby asked as she sat next to Yang in their pajamas. Jaune sat in front of them with his eyes scanning the room in only a pair of sweatpants. His dull eyes stared into silver and lilac before he sighed and closed his eyes.

"My Semblance...is called Dead Bone Pulse. I can make my bones harder than steel, regrow missing bones, and use my own bones as weapons." Jaune said, as Ruby became starry eyed and Yang quirked an eyebrow. Jaune clenched his fist and narrowed his eyes in concentration before small holes opened in his right forearm where spikes of bones protruded from.

"That is so metal." Yang said as Jaune looked up at her in surprise and Ruby tapped the bones as she inspected their hardness.

"He's living my dream! He can turn himself into a weapon! You and dad said that was impossible!" Ruby almost squealed and Jaune lowered his arm as the bones receded and the holes closed. His mouth opened and closed multiple times before he clenched his eyes shut and turned away as both sisters looked in concern. He started quietly muttering to himself as he stared at a spike of bone protruding from his right palm. While it was impossible to hear everything he said, they did catch three phrases.

"Demon. Grimm spawn. Abomination."

They gazed in concern as he seemingly stared at his own bone before another person walked over.

"Excuse me? Is your friend okay?" A young woman's voice said and the two sisters turned to see a beautiful redhead with green eyes wearing bronze colored pajamas.

"No...I'm afraid he isn't..." Yang said as Ruby started hugging him from behind. At this, the redhead looked slightly concerned as her eyes widened slightly at the bone.

"Is he...hurt? Does he need a doctor?" She placed a hand on his arm and he looked up in surprise as to her wonder, the bone spike receded into his palm and the wound closed.

"I'm afraid his...injury...is more emotional..." Yang finished as she rested an arm on his shoulder and Pyrrha gazed intently at his face.

"I remember you..." She said, "You helped a small village in Mistral from a Grimm invasion."

"They...didn't want me..." He said as he gazed down.

"Wait. Jaune saved a village?" Ruby asked.

"Jaune? Is that his name?" The redhead asked as both sisters nodded, "It is a pleasure to finally meet you Jaune. I'm Pyrrha Nikos."

"I'm Ruby! Ruby Rose!" Ruby said from her position hugging Jaune.

"Yang Xiao Long." Yang said.

Jaune looked at the three in concern before lowering his head and saying "Jaune Arc."

A good distance away, a woman in a black kimono with black hair and a black bow on her head looked over a letter in her hands with a book next to her. Her amber eyes darted between the blonde teenage boy and the letter. Her cheeks were flushed as her mother's words and...advice would not be...appropriate for younger readers. She shook those thoughts from her mind. There were Faunus who would say that since he was a Human, he didn't know what it was like to suffer.

From what her parents had written, they were wrong.

It was one thing to be discriminated against...but...to have your entire existence denied, to be looked at like vermin to be exterminated...it was just so wrong. Adam and Sienna were wrong...and her parents were right. There were humans who knew the pain of the Faunus. She tucked away the letter into her book like a bookmark and blew out the candles she was using for light. A young woman with white hair and a scar going down from her left eye glared at the noisy group as she huffed before turning and trying to fall asleep.

Yet, she couldn't help but shiver remembering the almost dead look in the blonde man's eyes; the look of someone who had lost nearly everything. Since she was little, she was instructed to stay on a pedestal above others due to her family name...despite her mother being a negligent drunk, her father being scum who used others as stepping stones, her brother being a spoiled brat, and her beloved older sister running off to join the Atlas military to escape her father.

Still...she had heard what Pyrrha Nikos had said...and his response. Why wouldn't a village want the person who saved them?! Seeing the look in his eyes she had to wonder...just how lucky was she compared to him?

"Qrow Branwen." A gentle, yet stern female voice said as the drunken Hunter turned to see a woman in a white military dress with her white hair done up in a bun with icy blue eyes.

"Well, isn't it the Ice Queen." He said with a smirk as he took a sip from his flask as she narrowed her eyes gazing upon the flask, "I know why you are here...Specialist Winter Schnee."

"You know how I feel about alcohol." She said, her gaze softening as she saw him stash the flask on his belt and pulling out his scroll and pulling up a picture of him with a confident smirk next to a blonde teenage boy with red dots above his blue eyes; a very tiny-almost unnoticeable-smirk pulling the the right corner of the boy's mouth as he held a scythe made of bone.

"The Atlas Military wants my apprentice. You already know my answer." Qrow said, putting his scroll away, "Not like you could convince him otherwise. The previous encounters with people from Atlas just cemented his decision to refer to them as Trash."

Winter said nothing, only gazing at the broken moon, before she quietly replied with "I know."

"If you know...why did you come all the way to Vale?" Qrow asked as he turned to stare into her blue eyes, hand subconsciously drifting down to rest upon his sheathed weapon. A cold wind blew between them, as a leaf drifted on the wind before settling between them.

"Why..." Winter said, as a single tear slid down from her left eyes, "He attacked you...you knew nothing about him...we knew nothing about him...why would you care and take him under your wing?" Qrow's hand fell off of his weapon and his gaze fell to the leaf on the ground between them.

"The look in his eyes." Qrow said, as Winter looked up to him as he avoided her gaze, "It's one I see when I look in the mirror." Winter opened her mouth slightly as no words emerged, not knowing what to say for once. "I used to be like the children at Beacon once. Young. Impressionable. Arrogant in the belief nothing bad would ever happen. I was in Team STRQ; Summer Rose, Taiyang Xiao Long, my sister Raven Branwen, and myself. We were regarded like modern day heroes; like we could do nothing wrong...then it all fell apart. Raven abandoned her husband and infant daughter to become a bandit...then Summer married Taiyang when he thought Raven was dead...and then Summer died on a mission when her daughter was very young."

Qrow paused as he grabbed his flask and took a long swig from it. "I blamed myself, you know?" He said with a humorless chuckle. "First for not finding a way to prevent Raven from leaving; then for not being able to save Summer. It was like where I went; bad luck would follow." Qrow paused again, muttering under his breath to himself, "The one good thing was that I managed to keep my nieces safe when Yang took Ruby out looking for Raven. That just...cemented my decision that...well...those around me only got hurt."

Winter said nothing as Qrow seemed to become lost in thoughts, muttering things inaudibly to himself. "You...didn't answer the question..." She said quietly, nearly recoiling as a pair of red, pain-fulled eyes stared into her own.

"I took him in..." Qrow said, "Because his eyes were just like mine after Summer died. Like he had nothing to live for. I had lost two sisters and would only bring misery to my nieces. What I learned...he had lost everything." A heavy silence drifted in the air around them as Qrow made a dismissive noise and turned away to gaze at the moon before taking a swig from his flask.

"I wish you wouldn't drink alcohol so much. What kind of example are you setting for your apprentice?" Winter finally said, a small uncomfortable smile on her face as she tried easing the tension.

"Who says I drink around him?" Qrow shot back, chuckling slightly. "Kid hates alcohol."

"Smart young man. Too bad the teacher didn't learn from him." Winter said as she glared with a raised eyebrow at the flask in his hand.

"Oh come off it, Ice Queen." Qrow said, tossing her the flask, "You might be surprised on what's in it."

Winter eyed the flask like it was a venomous snake before carefully opening it and taking a sniff of the liquid inside it. She raised an eyebrow in confusion and hesitantly took a sip before her eyes widened in surprise and she closed the flask and tossing it back to him. "Since when do you drink Dr. Piper?"

"Since the kid showed me another way to focus my emotional pain; by channeling it into training." Qrow said as Winter walked over to him.

"Those at Altas...They want his Semblance..." Winter said as she shifted her weight and latched onto her left arm with her right hand.

"I know...it's wrong." Qrow said, "We're supposed to be on the same side...and here they are trying to turn him into some kind of experiment. Well they're out of luck now. He's in Beacon now under Ozpin's watch."

"Good." Winter said, making Qrow raise an eyebrow, "Don't get me wrong...I enjoy what I do. It allows me to escape my...sire...without him making a huge fuss about it being too far from home or too undignified. Yet...I won't lie, there are things about it I hate." Qrow gave a smirk noticing the look on her face as he could predict a rant coming on. "I mean, I greatly respect the guy and his deeds, but General Ironwood could be such a doofus! Trying to make the kid be captured like a criminal or taking a small air fleet to a village weary from Grimm and bandit attacks and then wonder why they think we're invading!"

"Yeah, Ozpin wasn't too happy with him." Qrow said as his gaze focused behind Winter.

"Master Qrow." A scratchy voice said as Winter tensed and quickly turned to see Jaune standing behind her with a focused glare aimed at her, "Who is this Atlas Trash with you?"

"She's a...friend...of mine." Qrow said as Winter gazed at his serious face before Jaune's glare softened into a neutral look. "She's working with Headmaster Ozpin to keep you safe from the eggheads in Atlas." Jaune's gaze turned into one of curiosity as he scanned her face with his eyes.

"Is she the Ice Queen you have a crush on, Master?" Jaune asked as Qrow turned red and sputtered in embarrassment. Winter's cheeks reddened slightly as she averted her gaze from the experienced Huntsman. As both Winter and Qrow had their gaze away from him, they both missed the satisfied smile that Jaune had for a few seconds. Though he felt like his only destiny to serve Master Qrow until he died in battle- Jaune wasn't above trying to act like his Master's "wing-man".

"Just...Just what do you have to report?" Qrow said as he schooled his expression and Jaune knelt in front of him.

"I have successfully made contact with your nieces. My main mission of protecting them can now proceed easier due to this." Jaune said, keeping his gaze locked onto the ground as he didn't show his Master the perplexed expression on his face as he recalled their reaction to his Semblance.

"And they didn't hate your Semblance." Qrow said with a smirk as he looked up, "Why don't you four come out?" Jaune looked up in shock and horror as he turned to see Ruby, Yang, Pyrrha, and Blake emerge from nearby bushes. "Before you ask, I'm an experienced Huntsman, I could see the movement in the bushes as little as it was. Without a breeze moving it that movement was suspicious."

"I have failed you, Master Qrow." Jaune said as he closed his eyes and bowed his head, only to open them in surprise as he felt Qrow ruffle his hair.

"You have not failed me yet kid." Qrow said, "My nieces are still safe, though I see they still are very curious. The other two I can only guess is that they were curious about the three students leaving the group to go outside."

"Why do you want him protecting us Uncle Qrow?" Ruby whined with a sad pout, "Don't you trust our skills?"

"Oh I trust your skills." Qrow said, "I don't trust the world around you, that's all. Having someone your dad and I know watching your backs makes us feel better about not being there to constantly watch out for you."

"If I may..." Winter spoke up, "Maybe a showing of Mr. Arc's abilities would put them at ease?" She asked, "I am willing to spar on him to determine how well you've trained him."

Jaune lowered his head as a hole opened between his shoulders and he pulled off his shirt and tied it around his waist. A long spike of bone protruded as a long opening formed going from that hole to above his hip. Right above his hip, a curved, sharp bone sprouted. The young girls and Winter watched in a slightly sickened and worried expression as Jaune grabbed the bone protruding from his spine and pulled towards the opening before revealing a serrated scythe made out of bone. The "wound" then quickly closed and he stood up straight and twirled the scythe before stabbing the spike on the bottom of the handle into the ground. "Fine with me. I always wanted to test my skills on a Hunter other than my Master."

The two warriors stared at each other as the young teenage girls leaned forward. This match would be the first time they saw a spar outside of a tournament, and would be a showcase of the skill of a fellow Beacon Student. A leaf landed on the ground and Winter pulled out her Rapier as Jaune charged forward with his scythe.