Chapter 2: Meeting Old and New People.
After Headmaster Aleister's rousing speech for all the new students of Beacon Academy, Headmistress Elphaba informed all the students that they would be sleeping in the auditorium until their entrance test the very next day. It struck Naruto a little odd that they were going to take an entrance test after already arriving at Beacon, but maybe that was just a thing they did here on the mainland. After all, the island of Patch was a lot more laid back with just about everything, especially considering the most dangerous Grimm they had were maybe one or two alpha Beowolfs and a few packs of Ursa running around. Hell, it was those types of Grimm that most young students practiced on before going to one of the four major schools. Naruto was actually a bit excited about that; he'd long since grown bored of obliterating Beowolf packs.
Now here he was, the very next day, standing in one of the very airships that had brought everyone to Beacon in the first place. It should also be noted that the ship was packed with all the other new students as well, each now in their combat gear, with Headmaster Crowley himself standing back near the ramp. Apparently they were all being transported to a place called the Emerald Forest, a forest Naruto wasn't that familiar with, and would be given their final initiation there. What was strange was how all the windows had been blacked out and their scrolls were taken away as they boarded the ship.
"Don't look so nervous," Tai said, standing next to Naruto with his hands on his hips and a cocky smile on his face, "We're gonna get through this like we get through everything else life throws at us."
"Together," Naruto finished with his own grin, the two blondes bumping fists as Aleister tapped his cane against the metal flooring; instantly silencing the rowdy students and drawing their attention to him.
"As many of you were no doubt taught at your previous schools, those who hunt the Grimm are often put in situations in which they are forced to think on their feet to complete an objective. In a few short moments we will be arriving at the Emerald Forest, home to a great many diverse species of Grimm allowed to remain for the sole purpose of your training. Within this forest is where your individual teams shall be formed based on your combat capability, aptitude for survival, and if you even survive till the end," Aleister's gaze met each of their own with an unflinching resolve, "That being said, deep within the forest is an old ruin in which there is a single artifact for each student here. Your objective is to retrieve an artifact of your choosing and make it to the extraction point by the time the sun sets. The extraction point itself will be revealed once every hour by a column of red smoke. Are there any questions?"
One young man raised his hand, "Um, sir, is there really a chance for us to die during this?"
"Your opponents are creatures born to hunt down and destroy every man, woman, and child on the face of the world. You are being trained to fight said creatures. If you keep your wits about you and remember your training then you will survive. However, make no mistake, the threat of death is very real. Now," Aleister tapped is cane once more on the ground and the back hatch began to open, only for everyone's eyes to widen at the fact that they were still clearly high up in the air, "You may begin when ready."
"Wait, you expect us to jump?" another student asked, disbelief clear in his voice.
His answer came in the form of an excited shout as a blonde blur went shooting past him and towards the open ramp, "OUT OF THE WAY SLOWPOKES!"
Naruto didn't even hesitate to jump, he even added in a bit of a backflip for style points, and left behind several shocked students and a rather mirthful headmaster. Two familiar twins shared a look before taking off after the blonde, which was followed by Tai and then Summer who let out her own giggle. This set of a chain reaction of a practical mob of students leaping to their presumed deaths, which many would end up surviving relatively unharmed thanks to one factor or another. In the end, Aleister was just left standing there in a now empty airship, watching the latest generation of warriors take the first step on their path against the Grimm.
It was such a shame that the majority of them would end up giving their lives in a war that possibly no one of this generation would ever see the end of. How strange it was, Aleister remembered the first incarnation that he truly began to build the foundation for what he has today. He remembered how he cared for the twelve members of his group more than his own life, each of them possessing the legendary silver eyes that Aleister never could truly understand, but more importantly he remembered how each of them fell in the end. Salem had been more active back then, her rage still burning hot after he'd tried to steal their children away, and she was not shy about taking her wrath out on those Aleister cared for the most.
Now he was just numb to it all, he had to be. Aleister knew that if he allowed himself to grow too close then it would only end up breaking him again, it had happened so many times before. Salem would kill them, they would leave after learning to truth, they would join Salem, or more often than not they would just die on some task he'd given to them.
"Don't grow attached, keep focused on your goal, don't grow attached," Aleister chanted like a holy mantra, the grip on his cane growing tighter as the last student fell out of view and the cargo ramp slowly closed
Meanwhile, still free-falling from his over excited jump out of a perfectly good airship, Naruto was beginning to realize that perhaps he was much higher up than he first thought. On the plus side he could clearly see the old ruin Headmaster Crowley had been talking about and was doing his best to fall towards it so he could be as close as possible, while secretly hoping Tai could catch up. Closer and closer the treetops came, meaning it was more than time to begin his landing strategy he came up with while still falling.
Reaching into the cylinder marked wind with on hand and pulling out two of his kunai with another, Naruto placed two circular carved pieces of white dust into the holes on each kunai. The dust seemed to melt into the kunai, traveling like veins down into where the hilts met the blades themselves, and what followed made Naruto grin just a bit more; considering he designed the damn things. The two blades split in half, right down the middle, and revealed to barrels that exploded with a torrent of wind; wind strong enough to slow Naruto down a significant amount. It was just enough so that Naruto could dig is now closed kunai into the trunk of a thick tree on his way down and use it like a massive brake, skidding to a stop on the slightly muddy forest floor but with his grin now firmly in place.
"Ha, and Tai said they wouldn't work," Naruto chuckled, flipping both kunai through the air once or twice before sheathing them once more, taking a look around to get his bearings and taking off in the direction of the ruins.
Naruto must have ran for only about five minutes before hearing the sound of two people shouting some rather propane words at one another, not to mention he could have sworn they sounded really familiar. So, being the curious guy that he naturally was, Naruto shifted direction just a bit and came across the funniest sight he'd seen in a long time. Those two twins, of whom Naruto couldn't remember if he got their names or not, were stuck up in a tangle of branches that had apparently caught them on the way down with a pack of Beowolfs prowling around below them. Judging by the surrounding area, the twins had apparently landed right in their den and startled the whole pack into a frenzy.
"This is great, just great, you just had to antagonize them by throwing crap," Qrow growled at his sister, who was about as tangled up as he was at the moment, while keeping a very close eye on the rather stubborn Beowolf that was trying to climb one of the trees.
"I was trying to cut myself free and dropped my knife by mistake," Raven hissed back, "I don't see you coming up with any grand ideas on how to get out of a mess you put us in."
"You have no proof it was my semblance," Qrow retorted.
"Oh, so I just happened to miss cutting that last branch, which landed us in this fine mess?"
"Maybe you're just not as good as you think you are."
"I'm going to beat you when we get out of this!" if Raven could kill with a glare then lets just say Qrow would be happily put out of his misery.
"Awww, look at the cute little puppies!" a loud voice cut through the entire area, gaining both the twins and the packs attention, as Naruto stepped out into the open with a big old cocky grin plastered all across his face and his arms crossed like he didn't have a care in the world.
"Oh no, not this guy again," Qrow got a small bit of joy at seeing his sister's face right now.
"Do the cute little puppies want to go for a walk," Naruto continued to mock the Beowolfs that were now slowly stalking towards him, crouching down ever so slightly and clapping his hands, "Common, I'll take you for a walk. Common!"
The very moment the first Beowolf took off the rest of the pack followed, charging after Naruto with a vengeance as the blonde ran back into the forest and out of sight. Qrow had to give the guy guts, provoking a pack of Grimm like that so that he and his sister could get free, it almost makes him want to go help out. Sadly, they were both still tangled up enough that they couldn't really move to grab their other weapons and the only person that knew where they were had just ran off with a pack of Grimm hot on his heels. Qrow was content to just sit there, the vines and branches wrapped around him were surprisingly comfy, but unfortunately Raven wasn't so patient and was actively thrashing around to try and get loose.
"Yo, you guys need some help?" crouching down on a branch above him, which was just thick enough to hold his weight without too much strain, was the very teenager that had just been chased into the woods by the pack of Grimm.
"What the…? How the hell did you get up there and what happened to those Grimm?" Qrow did a double take, knowing for a fact that he would have noticed someone climbing the very damn tree he was stuck in, but Naruto just grinned and pulled out the wakizashi strapped across his back.
"A magician never reveals his tricks," Naruto teased a bit, now looking around for the best branches to cut that would get the twins loose but not have them go crashing to the ground, "Now stop moving or you're gonna make me miss."
"Hey, now wait just a moment!"
SLASH!
SLASH!
SLASH!
SLASH!
In a blur of movement, Naruto launched himself between the two trees the twins were tangled up in between and slashed most of the vines that had been keeping their arms and legs tangled up. It would also seem that luck was on their side because not a single one of the main vines had been cut and thus they didn't go tumbling to the ground.
"There we go, now you guys should be able to get yourselves free," Naruto said from his new position on a branch near Raven, sheathing his sword while still having that same cheeky grin on his face.
"Hey, my semblance didn't…oh shit!" Qrow let out a startled cry when suddenly all of the branches keeping him up snapped at the same time and he did get a face full of dirt.
"You were saying, little brother?" Raven mocked as she herself finally got loose and jumped to the ground, landing on her feet and with much more dignity that her brother, all the while sending him her infamous mocking smile.
"Shut up, that wasn't funny," Qrow groaned, picking himself up with a few notable cracks sounding from his body.
"Hm, I could have sworn I missed those branches," then there was Naruto, who was now standing almost right behind Raven without ever making a sound, with his hand cupping his chin in thought; he knew his aim wasn't off.
"Wasn't your fault," Qrow spoke up while dusting off his already filthy clothes, "My semblance makes me a literal bad luck charm. Sometimes I can control it, other times it pops up to bite me in the ass."
"Hm, and what about yours?" Naruto asked Raven, wondering what a girl like her could for a semblance to augment her already aggressive nature.
"None of your damn business!" Naruto was a little taken aback at the sudden hostility aimed right at him; what the hell did he do?!
"She can make portals to anyone she has a close personal bond with."
"Qrow!"
Raven couldn't believe how stupid her brother was being right now, he was giving away valuable information to someone that would one day be their enemy! Did he forget they came to Beacon to learn how to kill hunters, not to go around spilling all their secrets to them! Hell, she could even understand if he gave away his own semblance, there wasn't really any way to counter bad luck aside from a decent reaction time, but he didn't have to go and spill the beans about hers!
"Ah, that does make sense then," Naruto commented, drawing Raven's attention away from Qrow just long enough for the young Branwen to get out of range of her wrath, "I mean you are the older sister after all."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Raven asked while crossing her arms; Naruto was beginning to think it was just her time of the month or something, she was way too moody for it to be anything else.
"Well it's an older siblings job to look after the young ones, so I'm guessing that your semblance just manifested from your desire to always be able to reach the people closest to you wherever they are. It's actually pretty cool, you guys must be the best tag team ever!" Raven and Qrow were a little surprised by the blonde's words, enough for Raven to push past her desire to strange Qrow at least.
"Yea, we're pretty awesome."
Whatever Qrow was about to say next was interrupted by a very loud and girlish scream echoing through the entire Emerald Forest, no doubt drawing every hunter and Grimm's attention for miles around. Qrow at least looked a little worried for whoever had just screamed, Raven looked just as indifferent as she normally did when her fuse wasn't lit, and Naruto looked to be...snickering?
"Hey, what's so funny, some girl is probably being attacked by Grimm?" asked Qrow.
"Trust me, that wasn't a girl that screamed just now," Naruto continued to try and hold in his building laughter before casually taking off into the woods in the direction that the scream came from.
"Wait, what?"
When Naruto and the twins burt into the clearing, where they all heard the scream come from, the found exactly where that pack of Beowolfs had run off to and who they had found. Standing there, surrounded by the evaporating Grimm corpses, were five other students with their weapons drawn and all standing in a circle to watch each others backs. Two of them Naruto recognized as Taiyang and Summer, with the cloak wearing girl holding a spear of all things, but the other three were a complete mystery.
The first of them that Naruto noticed was a man that stood about a head taller than himself, dressed in a black bodysuit with a bronze painted breastplate, two matching bracers on each arm, a skirt of leather strips around his waist that reached about half way down his thighs, and a pair of armored boots that reached almost all the way up to his knees. The majority of his features were hidden behind the helmet he wore, which left mostly his eyes and mouth open. What Naruto could make out were the man's bright green eyes and the braided ends of black hair that stuck out from beneath the helmet. Strapped to his left hand was a circular shield that held a story literally carved into it, while his right hand held a simple looking xiphos.
If the man looked built for battle then the woman standing a few feet away from him looked built for war. Her features may have been soft, almost beautiful if you asked the right person, but her steel grey eyes spoke that she was ready to fight anything. Despite her full plate armor, which made her look like a knight from the old stories, she also held a longsword in her right hand. Her shiny black hair was cut short, as to not get in the way of a fight, and the scar on her cheek at least told Naruto she'd been in more than a few.
Finally, amongst all the warriors, hunters, and martial artists of the group, the last one Naruto noticed could only really be described as a princess with bits of armor attached to her. She was somewhere between Summer and Raven's height, although she was dressed in a moderately flexible white in blue gown, with a pair of knee high boots, and a pair of odd looking gauntlets that went all the way from her fingers up to her elbows. The gauntlets themselves look like some piece of high-tech machinery, with etchings in them that held different colors to symbolize the dust held within, while on the palms of the hand were odd looking circles that had a snowflake design embedded in the middle of them. And while her armor was expensive, her rather pale skin, startling pure white hair that was held up in a fancy braid, practically screamed that she came from a wealthy family.
"Well, look who finally decided to show up," Tai said the moment he saw his older brother, a teasing smile on his face as he walked over and embraced Naruto in a brotherly hug.
"All I stumbled upon these two all tangled up in the trees," Naruto said, gesturing over his shoulder to the twins before looking around at the carnage that had no doubt that ensued, "Looks like you had some fun though."
"You could say that. I ran into Summer and we decided to team up, only for a pack of Beowolfs to come charging out of the forest at us. They seem to be coming after me particularly hard. Anyway, these three stumbled upon as an aside to lend us a hand," Tai summarized, walking Naruto over to the three people he'd yet to meet.
"This is Achilles, Jeaune, and Willow," the three unknowns turned to Naruto and gave their own greeting, in their own unique ways.
"It was a good fight, broke up the boredom of walking through this forest. Achilles Nikos, from Mistral, your brothers a good fighter," the taller man said, nodding his head slightly to Taiyang but otherwise kept a lookout for any more Grimm.
"We should move on before more Grimm come, this battle would've attracted them," Jeaune spoke up, her tone very professional if maybe even a little cold, but when you're in a forest of Grimm who could really blame her.
"The real question is, does anybody have a clue what direction the ruin is in?" Summer pointed out as she walked over to join the rest of the group, "Oh, and it's good to see you all right Naruto."
"Hi Summer, and I do believe that there is one way to find out for sure," Naruto said as he and Tai shared a look, almost like it was some kind of an inside joke that only they got.
The two blondes then turned around and began walking in opposite directions, with Tai stopping much sooner than Naruto, leaving the rest of the group more confused than anything else. That is until Naruto himself turned around and charged at his younger brother in a dead sprint, blowing right down the middle of the group in a blur. If one were to look closely at Tai then they would see a flash of fire around his hands that took the form of dragon claws. The next thing everyone else saw was Naruto plant his feet in Tai's cupped hands and then launch the older blonde so high that it should have been impossible for a man of his size.
Higher and higher Naruto seemed to go, his body twisting around and around until his eyes finally landed on the ruins once more, just seconds before gravity took a hold of him once more. Now normally a fall from such a height would kill a man, but Naruto was more than a little special and he wasted no time in gathering aura into his legs and feet. Yet it all seemed to be for nothing as a strange black snowflake, nearly the size of Naruto himself, appearing right behind him and on the ground far below him. Amazingly his momentum began to decrease and he floated gently to the ground. Standing there, with her right hand outstretched and the glyph on her gauntlet glowing black, was Willow with an amused smile on her lips.
"Man, everyone here just has awesome semblances," Naruto laughed, "By the way, the ruins are in that direction."
"Well you heard the man, let's get a move on!"
I'd like to thank everyone that reviewed the last chapter and gave their thoughts on it, especially those that gave suggestions. Anyway, not much to say in regards to this one aside from me hoping that everyone enjoyed it.