The sun was bright, the wind gentle and it was business as usual in the village of Hikomi; which for this tiny village not far from Hi no Kuni's southern coast meant boring and peaceful.

Nestled in a small valley and stretching along the banks of a slow river, this was a peaceful place. It was far divorced from the demons of the northern mountains, the bandits of the east, and the constant skirmishes of the western border. Life here was slow and safe, many of the inhabitants never having known true danger.

That would be soon to change. Death and despair had come to Hikomi, and it stalked impatiently at the edge of the forest just above the town. Unbeknown to the villagers, something lurked in the shadows of the trees. Shadowy, monstrous creatures that almost seemed a hybrid of man and wolf - their lean bodies the colour of coal and their eyes like burning embers - paced impatiently through the trees. These glowing red eyes were fixed on the village below, waiting for a signal to descend and begin their feast.

Scarcely a soul in the village took notice when a single, solitary howl cut through the peace and quiet of the day like a knife. By the time anybody noticed the army of monsters descending from the trees like a rolling wave of darkness, it was already too late.

Not far from Hikomi a small group of warriors raced through the trees, nimble bodies jumping from branch to branch at a pace faster than most humans could match running across open ground.

The group numbered a dozen, each one of them heavily armed and armoured. They were decked out with olive-green flak jackets and all manner of bladed weaponry, each one of them wearing a metal-plated headband with the symbol of a leaf etched proudly onto it. These were the ninja of Konoha, defenders of the realm of Hi no Kuni. Trained from a young age, they were the elite of the Hi no Kuni military; shadowy assassins, fierce warriors, trusted guardians. Today they fulfilled another role; hunters.

The group was led by a young man in his late teens, setting a relentless pace as he raced onward. He was dressed in loose-fitting black clothing and had a shock of windswept sun-blond hair, striking blue eyes and whisker-esque marks on each cheek decorating his face. Most of the group was spread loosely behind him but one woman, pink hair cut short into a neat bob and pale skin flushed from the fast pace they were keeping, kept pace in close formation with the blond.

Eventually the group reached a small stream and pulled to a halt for a minute, thirsty ninja drinking deeply from the water and refilling canteens. The blond leader remained crouched on a tree branch, watching the sky with a grim look on his face.

Normally being assigned to patrol the southernmost province was one of the best missions to draw. Peaceful lands, beautiful scenery and friendly locals made it essentially a paid vacation by the standards of most ninja. Things had changed recently though. The past few weeks there had been reports of monsters roaming the forests, strange midnight coloured beasts unlike anything ever seen before. Many of the superstitious among them considered the monsters a curse, brought with the strangers hailing from a foreign land that had arrived in Hi no Kuni several weeks prior. Whatever the cause, tales of monsters had turned to isolated travellers falling off the face of the world, and then with worrying swiftness that had escalated to attacks on villages and military columns being decimated by unknown foes.

And so the ninja had been sent in to investigate and restore order.

The blond was tense as he crouched on a branch and watched the others restocking. Something felt off about the forest here; it felt too quiet, as though all the wildlife in the area had been scared away. The silence sent a chill down his spine, and he couldn't help but worry for the village they were supposed to be spending the night at.

He was so preoccupied with staring off into the forest that he didn't notice the pink-haired girl approaching him until she spoke. "You alright, Naruto?" she asked quietly, resting a gently hand on his shoulder. He started at the contact, but turned slowly and gave her a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.

"I'm fine Sakura, just nerves." He said quietly, forcing a grin for the sake of his partner. He and Sakura had been living and fighting alongside each other ever since graduating from the academy almost five years ago and he didn't think for a minute he had managed to fool her with the fake smile. She knew him well enough not to comment though, just keeping her hand on his shoulder as a comforting presence until they were ready to move again.

Soon enough the ninja were resupplied and moving again, moving through the trees even quicker than before. Naruto's gut feeling soon proved itself to be more than just a hunch when dark shapes began to emerge from the trees around them; shadowy figures running along the ground faster than any human could. "Naruto…" Sakura called out in warning, the group tightening its formation.

"I see them. Make for the village!" He shouted back, speeding up even more. They weren't far away now, one final push through the trees would see them to the village safely. A cacophony of howls and snarls came from the creatures below them but Naruto forced himself not to look down, focusing on the branches ahead. The various teams of ninja in the area had been using one of the local villages as their base of operations, and reinforcements should be close by. Hikomi would either be their salvation, or in desperate need of their aid.

Naruto's heart dropped as they broke through the worst of the forest and Hikomi finally came into view. Even from a distance he could see corpses littering the streets of the village, a thin circle of soldiers trying to hold back a wave of snarling darkness as the surviving villagers cowered behind them. Of the other ninja teams, there was no trace, and the regular soldiers would be hard pressed to fight an enemy like this without chakra. Naruto raised one hand and flashed several hand-signals in Konoha's specialised sign language, and his team began to spread out into a looser formation. In one silent rush, the ninja threw themselves into the battle.

Around him the air erupted as his fellow ninja used their own chakra, the air burning as all manner of lightning bolts and fireballs flew towards the monsters. Naruto focused his chakra into his legs and shot ahead. Clearing dozens of meters with each jump now, he sailed over the beasts and landed heavily on a roof near the survivors.

Naruto's eyes widened as he caught sight of something strange. Most of the creatures were pure black, looking like the typical myth of a werewolf, but one amongst them was different. It stood almost as tall again as the other wolves and its face was covered in a white, bone-like mask. Spikes of the same material pierced through its body in several places on its arms and shoulders, which it used to deftly deflect a thrusting spear before disembowelling the attacking soldier with a quick swipe of its claws.

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he watched it. It had the air of a leader about it, snarling commands into the air and holding back. While the smaller wolves raced to their deaths mindlessly this one moved with purpose, often literally letting its smaller cousins weigh down soldier's spears down with their bodies before moving to attack the burdened humans.

Signalling to his backup, Naruto took a deep breath and brought his free hand up. His fingers blurred as he flicked them through several hand-signs and pulled on his chakra. When he let his breath go it was to spit three crescent shaped blades of compressed air that flew towards the creatures with a sharp whistle. Two of them hit true and two of the smaller beasts were split straight down the middle, but the larger wolf saw it coming and darted backwards.

He'd bought the soldiers a bit of breathing time at least. Naruto gave a feral grin and flashed through a few more hand-signs, and with a pop and a cloud of smoke one Naruto suddenly became a dozen, the small rooftop suddenly filled with blond-haired ninja. As one, Naruto and his clones yelled a battle cry and jumped down to either side of the soldiers. The creatures surged forwards as a wave and the ninja sprung to meet them.

The beasts were ferocious and numerous, but they were mindless. Naruto began to charge a rasengan as he fell into the fight and the first wolf he encountered almost ran straight into it, its head disintegrating in a spray of gore as the powerful jutsu discharged. There were just too many of them though. Naruto quickly charged another rasengan, but in the time it took him to thrust the jutsu into the chest of one wolf, two more had come from him at the time. One opened a thin scratch along his arm with its claws and the other would have caught him in its jaws if Sakura hadn't come from the side, crushing its skull with an inhumanly strong punch.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Naruto reached to the small of his back and pulled out the straight-bladed wakizashi that had been sheathed there, a slightly longer version of the standard chūnin tantō. He quickly pushed a flood of chakra down the weapon, and Fūinjutsu seals etched into the blade began to glow a bright, pure white as his chakra formed a wind natured aura. The chakra enhanced blade made quick work of the wolves, cleaving through flesh and bone as easy as paper. Naruto and Sakura pushed forwards, fighting around one another like a pair of dancers. He sliced one across the neck, caught a claw on his bracer and whirled to stab a third through the chest while he held that attacker back. Sakura quickly darted in to finish it off with a pair of twin kunai, and then ducked as Naruto spat out a globule of blade-laden wind to shred the wolf that had come up behind her.

Unnaturally thick and dark blood soon began soaking the street as the ninja made short work of the swarm, their bodies falling to the side and beginning to dissolve into the air. Emboldened by the sight of ninja, the regular soldiers yelled encouragingly and did what they could, fighting from a distance with their spears. With the arrival of the ninja, all that the wolves were really managing to accomplish now was tire the humans out.

Naruto realised too late that that was exactly what they were trying to do.

The big wolf struck suddenly. One moment Naruto was carving through yet more fodder, the next he just managed to block a pair of razor sharp claws that nearly gouged out his eyes. The larger beast had struck quickly and without warning, pushing Naruto back onto the defensive. He blocked several more blows before finally making one of his own, but the desperate swing at the beast's neck was caught and trapped in its claws.

Naruto gritted his teeth and strained as he tried to keep control of his sword. Even with chakra flooding and strengthening his muscles the beast was hellishly strong and he felt himself being pushed back, those claws inching closer and closer to his face. It was a bad situation, but Naruto had some tricks to pull out of his sleeves yet. There was a reason that he was leading this group despite being one of the youngest on it; he was going to show this beast the difference between a normal human and a jinchūriki.

Letting his mind wander for an instant Naruto looked deep inside himself, finding the point within his own mind where he had forged a tight mental lock and loosening it for just a moment. An alien presence pushed through the weakness; a fierce, uncontrollable anger emanating from it and trying to infect his thoughts. With it came a rush of energy, hot and potent in his veins.

It was this energy Naruto focused upon, channelling it through his hands and into his sword. For a brief moment his eyes flashed crimson, the colour quickly spreading to the glow around his sword. The seals etched into Naruto's sword seemed to hum with energy and the beast's claws suddenly shattered as Naruto's blade cut straight through them. The wolf flinched back and howled but Naruto followed it forwards, a second blow leaving a faint red trail as it carved straight through the bone plate protecting the big wolf's head.

The beast fell to the ground and Naruto jumped backwards towards the soldiers, calling out a warning to the others. He cut the stream of chakra to his sword and dropped into a crouch, panting. Around him he could hear the sounds of combat; the ring of metal on metal, faint explosions as supernatural jutsu flew back and forth, cries of pain. He tried to push the sounds away as much as he could and calm himself, push the presence still pushing at his mind back behind its mental prison.

Loosing the Kyuubi, the ancient demon sealed within his body, was taxing at the best of times, and with the howls and snarls of the wolves sapping at his concentration getting it back under control was difficult. The power he gained when he used it had saved his life multiple times in the past, but he didn't need it whispering bloodthirsty nothings into his ear while he was trying to fight. They were in the centre of the village here, surrounded by regular soldiers and trapped civilians; this was no place for a rampage.

Naruto's efforts to regain control were cut short when he heard a cry of pain from Sakura. He quickly looked up and his eyes widened in shock as he saw her grappling with yet another of the spike-clad wolves.

It wasn't just one more either; the horde of lesser monsters was almost entirely slaughtered now and Naruto could see almost twenty of the larger wolves, moving purposefully as they began to engage the encircled ninja. He gulped in fear as he saw Sakura's situation mirrored all around him. Unlike their smaller cousins these wolves were capable of fighting a ninja one on one, and they had the advantage of numbers.

The regular soldiers stood no chance and fell back in terror, the beasts breaking spears and tearing through lacquered armour like paper. Even the steel reinforced kevlar worn by the ninja provided little protection from the fearsome spikes and claws.

With an enraged roar Naruto rushed forwards and charged the wolf that was pinning Sakura, pushing it off her and cleaving through it with his wakizashi as the chakra glow reignited. He felt the presence in the back of his mind pulse and surge into his consciousness, but had no time to resist when he was immediately charged by another wolf.

Even using the demon's power wasn't enough to hold back the tide. The Kyuubi enhanced blade sliced straight through the beasts' bone-armour but there was too many of them, and they were too fast. One fell beneath his blade but another was there to rake claws across his stomach. He turned to face that one and teeth latched onto his shoulder from behind, the two working together to pull him to the ground. He roared and a shock-wave of crimson energy threw them back, fur smoldering and skin blistering from the foul chakra's touch.

Foreign memories began to race through Naruto's mind as his clones fell, the nimble beasts getting past their defences and using the shadow clone's fragility to quickly carve through them.

The wave of memories disorientated him and let another wolf get in close to strike at him, only just being rebuked by a quick slice. He made another cross-seal and summoned another dozen clones, but they fell as quickly as the others had and did little more than waste what chakra he had left.

The wolves zeroed in on him as a threat, and soon the throng surrounding him was so thick he could barely see the others. For every wolf he brought down two more appeared, slashing and biting at him. The wounds sizzled and closed back up as quickly as they were made but such a thing wasn't free, even Naruto's unnaturally large pool of chakra was quickly drained by regeneration, and soon he could barely stand. The pack circled around him, closing in for the kill.

Naruto couldn't react to the charge quickly enough when it came and was once again knocked to the ground. He felt teeth graze his neck and reacted instinctively, unleashing another shockwave of red that vaporised the wolf holding onto him. The presence of the Kyuubi in his mind was no longer gently probing him now; it felt more like a workman pounding away at his brain with a hammer.

Something instinctive snapped within him and he lunged forwards angrily. Teeth became fangs and fingers lengthened into claws as more and more of the beast's energy flooded through his body, soaking out through his skin and hanging about him in a red shroud. His sword lay forgotten on the ground as Naruto snarled and swiped at the wolves with his bare hands, red shrouded claws cutting through them as smoothly as any blade. For a time he fought as a berserker, showing no care for his own body as he howled wildly and tore through as many of the wolves as he could. Someone was calling his name but the sound was fuzzy, muted. All he could hear was his own breathing and the ecstatic screams of the demon in his head as he drew blood.

It wasn't enough. No matter how quickly he killed them there were just too many of them. All around him his team - men and woman he had fought and laughed and bled with for months - were falling; torn to shreds by the beasts that swarmed them.

One, two, three of the wolves caught him in a synchronised lunge, two biting into each of his arms while the third took out his legs. The Kyuubi's power failed him and Naruto fell to the ground, unable to even struggle as the weight of the beasts crushed him against the floor. Dragging his head weakly to the side he caught a flash of pink as Sakura was dragged down herself, and then a pair of claws flashed before his eyes and everything went black.

The black abruptly turned to white.

That was the first thing he was aware of, pure bright white stabbing needles into his brain.

After a few painful seconds the scene resolved itself into something he could actually make sense of. Plain white ceiling panels, bright strip-lights; the hospital. Naruto wondered how long he had been unconscious as feeling began to return to his body; it wasn't pleasant. His entire body ached down to the bone, and his mouth felt as dry as a desert. He tried to think back - figure out what had happened - but his memories were blurry, slipping away like sand through his fingers.

"You're awake."

Naruto started as he heard someone speaking from the foot of his bed. He craned his head to see a figure rising from a chair at the foot of his bed. Mouth set in a grim line, Tsunade Senju - Hokage, supreme commander of the village and the closest thing Naruto had to a mother-figure - rose to her feet. There was a long moment of silence as Tsunade stepped forwards and gingerly laid a hand atop one of Naruto's, staring at him quietly with a look in her eyes that made his stomach drop in dread.

"The others?" He croaked, his voice pleading.

A heavy sigh was his answer. "You were the only survivor. By the time reinforcements arrived everyone else…"

Naruto fell limply back against the pillow, closing his eyes. Unbidden memories flashed before his eyes, scattered recollections of the fight. Of his comrades, his friends, dying. He let out a low moan. "They- I-"

Tsunade's hand tightened around his own. "It wasn't your fault." She said firmly, her tone allowing no argument. She kept held of his hand a few moments more before sighing again and letting go.

He heard her rustling with something and opened his eyes again just in time to see her hold a familiar object out towards him. A mission scroll? He thought in confusion, stopping in his protest when she gave him a helpless look. He would have thought he would at least be given some time to… recover. "The council want you to leave as soon as you're fit." She said, helpless frustration filling her voice.

He winced. Failure wasn't looked upon kindly in ninja society and any way you looked at it, he had messed up badly. If the entire advisory council was against him there wasn't much even Tsunade could do to help him. He read the scroll in horrified silence, his eyes somehow growing even duller as he took in the words. "You're sending me away? You're sending me there?" he finally asked in a hoarse voice. The loss of his team, and now this; it was almost too much to process.

The Hokage paused halfway through saying something, glanced at him and then said simply, "Yes." Before sighing and taking a seat again. "People are angry Naruto. A team of promising young ninja just got wiped out under your command. I need to appease them somehow and-" She paused and gave him a steely look. "Besides, your mission is more than what is just on the scroll. These creatures only started appearing after those 'explorers' found us Naruto. We're ninja, we don't believe in coincidences, however much that windbag ambassador of theirs splutters and denies. I don't know what's going on, but I intend to find out."

She started to pace about the room, the way her hands were clasped tightly behind her back revealing her anger. "Twelve villages destroyed, thousands of soldiers and civilians dead, along with dozens of ninja. In two weeks. These 'Grimm' creatures are nothing like we've ever seen before. You will go to Vale and you will attend this school, but you will also gather any information on the Grimm you can. You'll find out if these huntsmen have anything to do with the Grimm appearing in our lands and if they do…" The silence as she trailed off was more sinister than anything she could have actually said. A smart ninja avoided violence unless the situation called for it, but when they were stirred to action mercy was not a word on their tongues.

Naruto was still silent. The sense of duty and revenge within him urged him that this was the right path but he felt oddly scared. Konoha was his home, he didn't want to leave it. Tsunade noticed and her face, beginning to flush from anger, softened. "This is for the best Naruto." She said gently, "You will be out of sight and safe from the council, and I get someone I trust in the best position I can get to investigate this." Feeling the fatigue catching up to him again Naruto nodded his head in acceptance - as though he actually had a choice - and then laid down again weakly.

There was a pregnant pause, before Tsunade gave him a sad look and moved to leave. "I'll go make the preparations. Good luck Naruto, be safe."

"Yeah, right." He muttered at the closing door.

Much as he wanted to, when Naruto tried to lay back and go to sleep he found himself unable to rest; the faces of his team flashing before his closed eyes. Instead he reached out gingerly and took up the scroll that Tsunade had handed him away, unrolling the piece of paper and beginning to read it over again. If it was going to be his home for the next four years, he might as well read up about this Beacon Academy.

A/N:

Howdy, welcome to Between Two Worlds!

This is my take on a RWBY/Naruto crossover. I've meshed the two worlds together and rewritten some of the Naruto world's history (more on that below) to create the background for this. As well as action, mystery and a bit of romance later on, this story is based around looking at how Naruto, trained to be loyal to Konoha from birth, will deal with his loyalties being pulled in opposite directions as he interacts with both worlds.

Got a couple of points to discuss before we get into things

Universe wise, this version of Naruto follows canon up until the start of the timeskip. From there, things diverge. The events around the akatsuki never quite got going in this universe, Otogakure plays a bigger part in the events following Naruto's return, and such. I'm not going to go into too much detail because while some of the changes are motivated by making it so that we don't go into this story with all the Naruto villains dead, there is backstory here that's going to come out as this story progresses. The fusing of the Naruto an RWBY worlds has created several changes both big and small (coughthemoonisexplodedcough) that have had their effects on the Naruto canon.

Secondly, the power levels. This is a change that a couple people have complained about, so I thought it'd be worth setting it out here and now: the ninja in this story are less powerful than their canon counterparts. That, and the Grimm are more powerful than their RWBY canon selves.

In this story, Naruto is ranked a chūnin and his power reflects that. He's a bit differently balanced from canon, less brute strength and more variety to his abilities, because to be frank Naruto at 17, at canon levels of power, would just be far too overpowered for the RWBY universe. I'm using my own interpretation of things and regular Naruto is somewhat weaker but trickier. The Kyuubi's power gives him the sort of brute strength we see in canon, but at the cost of control.

There are various reasons for this. Balancing Naruto against the enemies he will face, making the other students not completely outclassed combat-wise, giving Naruto some room to grow across the story despite his age, etc. In the end, I'm just enjoying writing a slightly smarter Naruto and getting to play around with the potential abilities of ninja that I would enjoy writing him in canon; spamming clones and smashing varying forms of rasengan into things don't make for the most varied fight scenes.

Anyway! If Naruto and co being weaker than you're used to doesn't put you off, or if you're willing to keep going despite it doing so, then welcome to the story! I hope that you enjoy it. Glossary:

Hi no Kuni: lit. Land of Fire; the country that Naruto comes from, ruled by the fire Daiymo

Konoha/Konohagakure: lit. Village Hidden in the Leaves; a village that houses the ninja of Hi no Kuni. Lead by the Hokage (Fire Shadow).