A/N: And at last, I'm back with an update! Between the end of my final year of university doing its best to kill me and stress from job-hunting afterwards its been a while since I've had time to update. Uni is over now though and I'm settling into the routine of job-hunting, which means that with plenty of free time and a more reliable schedule, regular updates can continue. I've not written in quite a while, so forgive me if I'm bit rusty for this chapter.

Naruto slept surprisingly soundly considering his surroundings, though that still meant that his sleep was light, and disturbed several times by some small movement or noise.

Ninja were notoriously paranoid when outside their home village, something that was especially true when it came to sleeping. After all, the natural enemy of a ninja was another ninja, and all ninja knew that sleep was the easiest time to strike a target. Ninja used various chakra techniques to enhance their senses or perceive the world, but in the end all this watchfulness also made their vulnerability while sleeping particularly noticeable.

As a result, many ninja became habitually light sleepers in anything other than completely comfortable environments. The common ninja practice of sleeping close enough together that you could touch your teammates was as much about getting comfortable enough to actually sleep than it was about safety. Between the unfamiliar surroundings, unfamiliar bed and unfamiliar people sleeping so close to him, it was a wonder that Naruto had gotten any sleep at all this first night.

So, when something began moving suspiciously close to Naruto just after the sun had begun to tickle at his eyelids, making just enough noise to disturb him, he moved instantly and unconsciously. Before he had even awoken, one hand snapped out to pluck the shining silver whistle from between Ruby's lips before she could even blow it, making the girl who had been leaning over him flinch back with a quiet eep. A moment later, Naruto's mind caught up with his body and he let himself relax, the tension bleeding from his muscles as he very carefully let go of the kunai hidden beneath his pillow.

Yawning widely, Naruto rubbed the sleep from his eyes and glanced around the room, still dimly lit with only the tiniest bit of sunlight streaming through the window. He gave a groan of dismay when he caught sight of the clock sitting on one of the tables. It was fairly simple by Vale standards - a sheet of transparent glass with dimly lit numbers imposed on it rising from a semi-circle of metal. Back in Naruto's homeland, such a device would have sold for a fortune and taken pride of place in some noble's collection. Here, it was simply thrown carelessly on a table in a student dorm room.

This sharp reminder of the differences between Naruto's world and this one showed the current time as far-too-damn-early, the red numbers abrasively bright in the gloom. What the hell was Ruby doing up and dressed so early? The way that she seemed to be vibrating with excitement as she waited for him to wake up probably had something to do with it.

Apparently, Ruby wasn't the only one awake so early. Blake's bed was empty, but the faint patter of the shower drifting through the door to their connected bathroom gave some clue where she was. All that could be seen of Yang was a mound of blonde hair just visible above the covers of her bed, moving in time with the quiet snores and murmurs coming from the girl.

Naruto's eyes drifted from Yang to the whistle in his hands, and his eyes brightened mischievously. He waved to get Ruby's attention and then tossed her the whistle, gesturing to Yang with a grin. Ruby popped the whistle in her mouth and gave him a mock salute, gently sneaking over towards her sister with exaggerated care. Carefully, she leaned down with the whistle just a few inches from Yang's ear and took a deep breath, while Naruto just leaned back and waited for the fireworks.

Across the hall, all was quiet in Team SNVR's room. At this hour even Nora, inexhaustible ball of energy that she usually was, was still asleep with a pillow crushed in her frighteningly strong grasp. Weiss was sleeping peacefully, her face graceful and serene as she enjoyed some well deserved beauty sleep.

Or, at least, Weiss had been sleeping. She found herself rudely torn back into the waking world when the room across the hall burst into a cacophony of noise. A loud, piercing whistle was followed up by a scream, a thud as someone fell from a bed and - just when Weiss thought it couldn't possibly get any louder - what sounded like a gunshot of all things! Nora murmured something about pancakes and snuggled further into her bed, but Weiss and the remaining members of Team SNVR were awoken.

Jumping out of bed with a snarl, Weiss stormed across the hallway and threw open the door to Team RWBY's dorm, her mouth dropping open in shock at what she saw. Yang - clad in only boyshorts, a skimpy tank top and for some reason her gauntlets - lay sprawled half-tangled in her sheets, one smoking Ember Celia pointed at an equally undressed Naruto who had taken cover behind his bed. A large bullet hole had been gouged into the wall behind him at head height.

"- hell did you shoot at me for?" he was shouting as she entered the room, "Ruby was the one with the whistle."

"I'm not gonna shoot my sister!"

"Then don't shoot anyone you crazy bi-"

"What in the world is going on in here? Don't you realise people are trying to sleep?" Weiss interrupted, her shrill screech making the entire room wince and turn towards her.

"I, well, we uh, I-" Ruby began to splutter and try to explain, looking so panicked and pathetic that after a few seconds, Weiss took pity on her and cut her off.

"No, I don't even want to hear your attempt at an excuse. I am going back to sleep, if any of you dolts wake me up again…" she let the sentence trail off threateningly before spinning on her heel, slamming the door behind her.

Still fuming, the heiress returned to her own room and slipped back into her bed, trying to ignore the now slightly quieter arguing still drifting out from the other room and go back to sleep. For neither the first nor the last time, Weiss sent a silent thanks to the heavens that she had ended up in a normal team.

"Mmmm… No! Bad pancakes… not allowed to run." Nora mumbled, chewing on her pillow.

Normal-er.

"Ugh, how can you guys stand wearing clothes like this? I can barely move." Naruto griped, tugging at the collar of his uniform as he stepped out of the bathroom.

By the time Ruby and Blake had managed to break up the argument between Naruto and Yang, the sun was beginning to rise and it was time for them all to start getting ready for the day. Thankfully Yang seemed to be in a better, less shooty, mood after a long shower, though Ruby still noticed her giving Naruto distrustful glances every now and then as she sat and combed her hair into shape.

"You'll get used to it. At least we only have to wear it for classes." Ruby reassured him. It was obvious just from looking at him that what Naruto normally wore was cut a lot looser than their clothing.

"Hmph. At least you three don't have to wear the noose." Naruto grumbled, tugging at the offending article of clothing. Naruto had almost throttled himself earlier putting his tie on, and in the end Blake had needed to fasten the unfamiliar garment for him.

Yang snorted, "It's just a tie. Suck it up, wuss."

The tone of Yang's voice made Ruby frown. Teasing and poking fun were just part of how Yang interacted with people, Ruby had gotten used to that long ago, but she seemed to be a lot more caustic about it with Naruto. The ninja had noticed too, and almost being shot in the face didn't seem to have put him in a particularly good mood this morning. Seeing Naruto's expression begin to sour, Ruby made a mental note to ask Yang about it later and quickly cut in before the argument could start up again.

"Anyways! Now that everyone is ready we can officially begin with our first order of business!"

Yang caught on quickly and brightened up. "Decorating!" she chirped, holding up the pile of stuff she had dumped out of her suitcase the night before.

The room quickly became a whirlwind of motion as the four teenagers set about making the space they were going to live in for the next four years their own. Yang set about decorating one of the walls with an "Achieve Men" poster, while Ruby decorated the other wall with a poster showing the internal workings of an AK-130 combat android, conveniently covering the bullet hole Yang had made earlier. While they were seeing to the walls, Naruto and Blake moved the furniture about., Blake filled much of their bookcases with a large collection of books - cleverly hiding some of her more… risque books behind smaller ones when the others weren't looking - while Naruto claimed one of the desks and filled it with a wide range of scrolls, papers, inks and brushes alongside a collection of weapon oils, whetstones and other tools that even Ruby thought a bit excessive.

Eventually, they had finished and stepped back to admire their work. The walls were nicely decorated, the furniture stocked with their belongings and put into place, and the beds… piled haphazardly in the centre of the room.

"This, isn't going to work." Naruto commented.

"Hmm." Ruby propped her hand under her chin and gazed at the pile of beds, cogs turning in her head until- "I've got it!" she exclaimed, "Bunk beds!"

She turned proudly to the other three and found them briefly huddling their heads together and murmuring. After a few seconds Ruby received three simultaneous thumbs-ups and she let out a cheer that was mimicked by her teammates, "Onwards, Team RUBY!"

The room once again was filled with noise and motion as the team set about building the beds. Outside the room, passing students stopped and stared in horror at the sounds that were emanating from behind the door as Team RUBY set about their task. They somehow managed to emulate the sounds of an entire construction site and beyond, with one freshman later claiming that he had even heard the growling and snarling of a Grimm through the door (Actually, Yang and Naruto had gotten into yet another scuffle, when Naruto accidentally knocked down part of her and Blake's bunk bed). A passing Weiss Schnee dropped her head into her hands in despair at the thought of living across the hall from Team RUBY for four years, before shuddering and continuing on to class with the rest of SNVR as quickly as she could.

Inside the room, Team RUBY was standing back to admire their work. Yang and Blake had constructed supports for their beds out of the numerous books that Blake had brought with her, sacrificing some of the lesser tomes to produce something that was impressively sturdy and stable considering what it was made out of. It would have looked impressive if it hadn't been across the room from Ruby and Naruto's creation.

"I'm pretty sure using witchcraft is cheating." Yang grumbled, arms crossed as she looked it over. Naruto rolled his eyes.

Ruby's bed currently appeared to be floating neatly above Naruto's bed, shaking slightly as the ninja crouched underneath it, tweakingthe seals he had carved onto the underside with a chisel. In fact, the bed was actually stuck to the wall with a chakra current from a structural support seal, but Naruto hadn't explained much of what he was doing once Ruby had helped him get everything in place.

"Is that safe?" Blake questioned uncertainly, reaching out gingerly to poke the bed as though she expected it to fall and crush Naruto at the slightest touch.

The ninja in question just grinned. "Yep, just need to drag a couple of goats up here to sacrifice and it's done." He quipped, rolling his eyes at Yang who gave a small, amused snort. Ruby gasped and he laughed at her horrified expression, waving his hands placating. "Just joking. This is sealing, not witchcraft."

Naruto then bit his thumb and used the newly flowing blood to sketch a small symbol across the carvings. A hand symbol later and the whole thing began to glow a bright blue, the faint smell of burning wood reaching Ruby's nose before the glow faded and the symbols stabilised.

"Suuurrree, not witchcraft at all. Just needs a blood sacrifice to make it work," Yang remarked.

"There we go." Naruto said happily, slapping the now stable bed. "One bunk bed that isn't going to collapse and kill me in the middle of the night, done." he finished with a grin towards Blake, who gulped and glanced uncertainly at her own bottom bunk.

"Objective complete!" Ruby cheered, dropping herself down onto Naruto's bed and opening her binder up. "Next up iiiiiiiiss-" Ruby seemed to deflate, and lost some of her cheer, "-classes."

The redhead sighed and thumbed through her binder, looking at the timetable they had been given yesterday. "Now, we have a few classes together today. At nine we have-"

Across the room, Blake perked up, "Wait, did you say nine?"

"Yup, why?"

In response, Blake just pointed to the clock, whose cheery red numbers proclaimed the time to be '8:55'. As though mocking them, the clock moved up to '8:56' with a faint beep, and Ruby gave a cry of dismay.

"We're gonna be late! To class!" she cried, darting for the door with the rest of the team close behind her.

When Beacon had been described to Naruto as an academy that trained huntsmen, powerful warriors that battled against soulless monsters that sought to destroy all of humanity, he had expected classes to be exciting. Classes on the Grimm and how to hunt them, classes on combat, classes on the strange jutsu that these foreigners used and the 'Dust' material that fuelled it. Naruto had been vaguely hopeful that he would be able to enjoy some of the hands-on, practical, learning that actually worked for him.

Unfortunately, their first class was… a bit of a disappointment.

"-and so in the early spring of the year 26AW a clash between faunus and human residents of the Jonestown colony occurred when militant elements staged an attack on the local-"

History. Of all the things, the first class that Naruto had been treated to in his Beacon education was history. It was all he could do to suppress the traumatic flashbacks to his days in the academy, trying (and failing) to write reports about people and places that he cared nothing about.

To be fair, the subject - the series of conflicts between Remnant's humans and the faunus, the animalistic race that shared this land alongside them, that eventually led to the Faunus Rights Revolution - was interesting. Or, it would have been if Naruto could actually follow along with the lecture.

Bartholomew Oobleck was a messily dressed, high-strung looking fellow with a frightening shock of green hair. The man seemed to have a steaming cup of coffee permanently glued to his hand, leaving it only occasionally to be refilled, and it showed. As he spoke, he darted around the classroom with the quick, spastic movements of someone who had consumed far too much caffeine, and his speech itself was a rapid-fire barrage of words that hardly ever seemed to slow down or pause for breath.

Naruto's Valian was good considering how short a time he had spent speaking it - ninja lessons in memorisation techniques were useful for more than just scouting and spying - but there was no chance of him understanding anything with the sheer speed that Oobleck spoke at; even many of the native born Vale students seemed to be having trouble keeping up with him. For Naruto, the words of Oobleck's speech just blurred together into one big, confusing mess that he had no time to mentally translate.

The textbook for the class wasn't much help either. Naruto had picked up speaking Valian fairly quickly, but the writing, its characters so infuriatingly different from the ones he was used to, still eluded him for the most part. He could pick his way through text slowly when he concentrated but when it came to trying to keep up with Oobleck, the book did little more than mock him with its presence.

By ten minutes in Naruto had given up, doodling seal designs and theories on what had been his notes while looking at Oobleck just enough to give the impression that he was actually paying attention. Naruto was halfway through sketching out a new design for a portable forcefield seal that might not explode in his face this time, when someone nudged him.

Naruto glanced to the side. After the arguing that morning, Team RUBY had taken up seats along one of the rows with Naruto at one end, Yang at the other and Blake and Ruby keeping the peace in the middle. To his direct left, Ruby was holding up a piece of paper for him to see.

He couldn't quite hold back a snicker as he took in the drawing that decorated the paper, coupled with Ruby's proud grin. Ruby had drawn a crude caricature of Oobleck onto the paper, a preposterously enlarged coffee cup dwarfing a stick-thin body. A stream of 'Bla's emerged from the man's mouth and spiralled around the page, passing over the head of a chibi Ruby sleeping at her desk.

Naruto snickered and gave her a subtle thumbs up, to which Ruby beamed. She flipped the paper around, getting a giggle from Yang and a faint, almost grudging smirk from Blake. In the row behind them, Weiss paused from her note-taking to give a sniff of disapproval.

It soon enough became apparent that as long as they were quiet, Oobleck seemed to take no notice of almost everything they did. Armed with this knowledge, and a hefty amount of boredom, Naruto and Ruby's antics slowly grew more and more ridiculous as Tic-tac-toe, connect the dots and other paper-based games soon ceased to amuse them. As their antis got harder to ignore, a certain white-haired heiress became more and more incensed with their actions.

Eventually, Ruby and Naruto were just blatantly playing paper-football along their desk. Ruby was winning, partially because Naruto was not-so-subtly aiming most of his shots down the table at Yang, bouncing several of them off her nose. Seeing that Ruby was happy, Yang seemed to be tolerating the assaults with only minor threatening gestures in Naruto's direction.

Unfortunately their fun ended when Ruby put a bit too much force into one of her flicks, bouncing the paper off Naruto's hand and up towards Weiss. Unlike Yang, when the paper bounced lightly off her cheek Weiss snapped her head towards them with a caustic glare.

"Will you childish dolts stop it?" she hissed at Ruby, who yelped in shock.

"Ahem."

Weiss froze as Oobleck suddenly cleared his throat violently, pausing in his lecture to peer upwards at her. "Something to share with the rest of the class, Miss Schnee?"

Naruto was honestly impressed at how deep a shade of red the formerly pale girl went, though whether from embarrassment or rage he couldn't quite tell, when the professor turned his attention onto her.

"I, um, no sir," she spluttered.

Oobleck peered upwards, "Very well. Do pay attention, these are important matters. Those who fail to learn from history are destined to repeat it. See me after class."

The rest of the class continued uneventfully, if you didn't count Weiss trying to set him and Ruby on fire with her eyes and grinding her teeth so hard that Naruto could actually hear it. Naruto had made live seals under much more distracting conditions though, so it wasn't too hard to ignore her and go back to drawing his seal designs. Ruby, on the other hand, spent the rest of the class hunched in on herself, quietly taking notes.

The last ten minutes of the class dragged by painfully slowly, even with his seals to keep Naruto occupied. It seemed that he wasn't the only one feeling cooped up either. When the bell finally rang the entire class aside from Weiss shot out of their seats and made for the door, a veritable tidal-wave of humanity sweeping Team RUBY up and depositing them in the hall outside.

"Ahh man, I thought that was never going to end," Yang groaned.

"It wasn't that bad," Blake protested with a frown, though she was stretching out kinks and sore joints as much as the rest of them.

"I'm gonna have to agree with Yang, that sucked," Naruto piped up, drawing a conflicted look from the named girl.

There was a moment of silence and, as one, the three turned to look at Ruby. Their redheaded leader was gazing off into space, her attention taken up either by a particularly ugly painting of a tree, or something within her mind. After a few seconds she noticed them staring at her and gave a start.

"Oh! Uh, yeah, class sucks," she mumbled, shuffling her feet nervously. "Umm, why don't you guys go on ahead? I'm gonna stay here and, uh, say sorry to Weiss."

Yang frowned and gave the classroom door a cautious glance, "You sure? Ice Queen seemed preeetty pis-" she managed to say before being interrupted by an elbow to the ribs from Blake.

"Sure Ruby, we'll see you later," the bow-wearing girl said, dragging Yang with her. Naruto lightly tapped his knuckles against Ruby's arm and followed suite, the sound of him and Yang beginning to bicker again soon filtering down the hallway as they disappeared from view.

Ruby was left leaning against the wall, tapping her heel nervously against the stone as she waited for Weiss to come out of the classroom. She wasn't waiting for long though before the door was thrown open, and a green blur raced out and down the hallway, leaving her hair flapping in the breeze. The blur was followed shortly by a fuming Weiss, who somehow managed to look even more sour when she caught sight of Ruby.

"Weiss! I, I'm sor-" Ruby began to stammer.

"No!" Weiss snapped, getting right up in Ruby's face in a flash of angry movement, "I don't want to hear it."

With a timid meep, Ruby pressed herself back against the wall in an attempt to put any shred of distance between her and the angry heiress.

Without any opposition, Weiss continued in her rant, "Acting like a child! Goofing off in class! Leaving me to take the blame for your actions! You're supposed to be a leader, and all you've been so far is a nuisance!"

That stung, and finally got Ruby to try and defend herself, "H-hey, that's not fair!"

"Fair?" Weiss all but shouted, her nose barely an inch away from Ruby's, "What isn't fair is that you got chosen to be a leader. You've done nothing to earn your position! Back in the forest, you acted like a child, and you've only continued to do so!" She finally backed off a little bit and stopped shouting, though her voice was no less venomous. "Frankly, I feel insulted that I'm expected to consider someone like you an equal. Ozpin made a mistake."

With that final barb, Weiss turned on her heel and stormed off down the hallway, leaving Ruby to slide down the wall and to the floor with a despairing sigh and hug her arms around her knees. She almost missed the second 'humph' Weiss gave as she was walking away, until she heard the footsteps of the one it was directed at approaching her, and looked up with teary eyes to see Naruto.

"Uh, hey," he called, glancing behind him at Weiss' disappearing figure.

"Hey," Ruby said, her voice quiet, "You heard that?"

Naruto nodded, "Most of it, yeah." With a sigh he dropped down, sitting against the wall besides Ruby. "You alright?"

There was a long moment of silence, punctuated by Ruby's lack of an answer, "Do- do you think she's right? Did Ozpin make a mistake?" she eventually asked.

This time it was Naruto who didn't answer for a while, staring off into space with vacant eyes. "Being a leader isn't just glory and recognition. You have to motivate your teammates, and bear the burdens that we face heavier than anyone else. When you command, you take the lives of those under you into your hands, and if you mess up, people can get hurt, or even killed."

Ruby shrank in on herself even more, the sudden weight of responsibility hitting her like a hammer. "I, maybe she's right then. Maybe I should go tell Ozpin I'm not cut out for this. I don't want to get anyone killed because I wasn't good enough." The thought of causing anyone's death because of a mistake that she made was terrifying to her. No amount of pride at being named leader was worth that.

She flinched when Naruto's hand suddenly clapped down on her shoulder, giving her a comforting squeeze, "And that's why Ozpin didn't make a mistake," he said confidently.

"What?" Ruby asked, turning to give Naruto a blank look.

"You care about people, you value your friends over your leadership. You're not the sort of person who would put their team at risk for personal glory," he paused for a moment, gaze dropping down to his own hands, "or because you got angry. Ozpin didn't choose you because he thought you're already a great leader, he chose you because you have the attitude, the potential, to be one."

Ruby's eyes were beginning to brighten as she stared at Naruto, "You really think so?"

"Yup." Naruto's words were filled with confidence. "Did you know that the Nevermore we fought only had one eye?"

"Uhh no, I didn't really look at its eyes that closely. Why?" Ruby asked, confused by the abrupt change of topic.

Naruto nodded, "I did a big of digging after the initiation. Ovar the One-Eyed it was called. That Nevermore was eighty years old, and it had fifty recorded kills under its belt. And we, a bunch of rookies not even past our initiation, killed it following your lead."

Wow, Ruby'd had no idea that the Nevermore had been that old, or that fearsome. It had just seemed like a big, angry bird at the time. She turned and gave Naruto a watery smile, understanding what he was getting at.

"You care about your team, you've got a quick mind, you're just generally awesome, and, for the stuff you don't know about," he cast his arms around the hallway dramatically as Ruby giggled, "we're in a school. You have a bunch of extra classes compared to the rest of us covering leader stuff don't you?"

"Ugh, don't remind me," Ruby muttered, remembering how busy her schedule got later in the week compared to the rest of the team.

"So, you'll learn what you don't know." Naruto finished with a grin, rising to his feet. "My godfather told me once, 'It's a hell of a lot easier to beat the correct skills into someone, than it is the correct attitude,' I'd take you over Yuki-onna any day."

He reached a hand down to her and she took it, pulling herself to her feet. "I'll do my best in my classes and I'll become a great leader and keep you all safe!" she declared enthusiastically, pumping her fist.

"That's more like it." Naruto gave her a smile before glancing over her shoulder. "Uhh, Ruby, when's our next class?"

"Uhhhhh," Ruby tried to think back to their timetable, "quarter past eleven I think, why?"

Naruto just pointed to the clock hanging from the wall behind her, showing the time as ten past eleven. "Time to run again," he sighed.

Several hours later, after a day chock full of classes and daunting rushes through packed hallways, Team RUBY was finally getting the chance to relax and have something to eat. Unfortunately, their relaxation time was being interrupted.

It had started earlier in the day, while the were going from class to class. Wherever Team RUBY went, they had been followed by a steady stream of negative attention, directed at one member in particular; Naruto.

At first, it had been subtle, occasional faint whispers and glances as they made their way between classrooms, but as the day had wore on and the the hallways became busier it had gotten worse and worse. Even though she had only just met him, Naruto seemed nice to Ruby and it rankled her to see people treating her partner so poorly. As a result, Ruby spent much of the day between classes glaring down the various upperclassmen who she noticed making comments (all the while steadfastly ignoring Yang's squees over how cute her angry face looked).

By the time they sat down to eat dinner in the crowded cafeteria, people were openly staring and muttering loud enough for the sound to carry over to the team. Ruby couldn't make out exactly what they were saying, but certain words featured strongly enough to reach her ears; 'foreigner','ninja' and 'murderers' amongst them.

It almost seemed like the ninja was either ignoring or not noticing most of it, too caught up with his scroll. Ruby had half known that Naruto came from a place much less developed than theirs, but it hadn't really hit home until she had seen the look of wonder on his face when Blake showed him how to open and start his scroll.

Despite his enthralment with the advanced device, Ruby was close enough to see the way Naruto's face subtly hardened, and his hands tightened around the scroll when a particularly obvious insult drifted his way across the room. She was doing her best to distract Naruto from the rest of the room, excitedly pointing out the myriad of features that their scrolls had. While Ruby's technological fanaticism was mainly directed at weaponry, she had enough of an interest in the sort of technology their scrolls used that Naruto's excitement at discovering the technology fed her own at showing it to him.

"And look here, if you press this it can take photos!" she chirped, leaning over from her seat next to him to tap at the transparent screen. After a few taps, the screen turned even more transparent than normal, with a faint aiming overlay. Ruby pointed the scroll at Blake and Yang across the table. Blake frowned at her and buried her head into the book she was reading while Yang grinned and stuck her tongue out at the scroll, pulling an eyelid down with one finger. The scroll took the photo with a faint click and Ruby angled it back so that Naruto could see.

"Whoa, that's cool. Useful too," he said wonderingly, zooming in and out on the picture and marvelling at the detail. "Cameras back in Konoha are these massive things, and they take ages to develop the pictures."

It was a similar story with much else the scroll could do; The basic model scrolls they were given for Beacon were phone, camera, GPS, miniature computer and PDA all rolled into one with full access to the Vale Communications Network, or vNet. The vast majority of these features either just plain weren't available in Naruto's home, or only existed in a far more primitive form. Naruto looked like he could hardly comprehend how much such a small device could do so much.

Naruto was still poking over the image. "So, I can just take this photo and send it so someone over that electronic m-"

"Email. Unless you want to sound like you're seventy," Ruby interrupted with a giggle and a nod, "and yup. You can send it to anyone in Vale over the vNet from here. If you go to the CCT you can even send messages to people in other kingdoms! It's not just pictures and text either. You can send files and video and even real time video calls while we're in areas with good network and if these are the ScR-3 models which I think they are we can even play multi-player games between them and-"

Naruto's eyes looked to be getting crossed as Ruby slowly transitioned into a breathless rant about all the cool things their scrolls could do, the rapid-fire stream of information leaving him dazed and confused. Thankfully he was 'saved by the bell', though in this case the bell was his scroll. As Ruby was continuing her rant, she was interrupted by the high-pitched chime of the default message alert as a bright orange envelope popped up on Naruto's screen.

Ruby lurked curiously over Naruto's shoulder as he prodded at the message. There was no description or title attached to it, just a name that made Ruby cast a sharp glance down the table. Cardin Winchester and the rest of Team CRDL were some of the only first year students who seemed to be joining the upperclassmen in harassing Naruto, and the way they were snickering and giving Naruto non-too kind looks from down the table gave her a bad feeling about the message.

With a quick prod, Naruto opened the message and the screen flashed black as the video player opened itself and played the attached file. Shaky, low resolution footage of a forest with unnaturally large trees filled the screen, with the Vale News Network emblem overlaid in the bottom left corner. A man dressed in casual clothing beneath a kevlar vest was walking slowly through the forest with a blocky, black assault rifle cradled in his arms, while the cameraman followed behind him.

Across the table Ruby saw Yang's face go pale, and she leaned forwards. "Naruto, maybe you shouldn-"

Before Yang had time to finish, or Ruby had time to really process how odd it was she had called Naruto by his name rather than 'Uzumaki' or 'ninja-boy' as she had done most of the day until now, the calm air inside the video was shattered.

Some small projectile flew from the trees towards the man, deflecting off some sort of shielding semblance and exploding in a cloud of smoke and fire that shook the camera. In its wake an oddly dressed man - clad in midnight-blue clothing with a bulky olive vest - dashed from the tree-line towards the rifleman with a knife held ready. The newcomer looked to move almost as quickly as Ruby, quick enough that the camera couldn't render his movement properly, but the riflemen turned just in time to fire a quick burst that hit him straight in the chest.

There was no flash of aura protecting the attacker, just a spray of blood as he fell to the ground and began twitching violently. Ruby stifled a gasp of horror as the camera zoomed his way, and the rifleman sauntered over and levelled his gun once more. He called out something aimed behind the camera with a laugh before firing a second burst into the downed man, and the video abruptly cut out on a freeze frame. The camera was close enough for Ruby to make out the blood dripping from the man's mouth, and the odd metal headband that he wore.

Her heart skipped a beat, and she slowly looked away from the scroll over to Naruto. Even in his school uniform he was still wearing his own headband, a slab of metal that was identical to the olive-vested man's.

Naruto's face was blank, but the calm of his expression was painfully forced. His usually tanned skin had gone pale, his hands were so tight around the scroll it looked like it might shatter, and his jaws was set in a firm line where his teeth clenched together. Naruto's eyes showed the things that he was holding back from his face, a mixture of sadness and rage that she would have found terrifying if it wasn't directed down the table at Team CRDL.

"Ruby," he began, his voice sending a chill down her spine despite the seeming calm of it, "We're free for the day now right?"

"Umm, yeah. We're just supposed to work on our homework together," she confirmed, nodding timidly.

The scroll fell to the table, forgotten along with Naruto's food, as he swiftly stood up. "Right. I'm going somewhere quieter-" a snicker from CRDL's direction caught his attention and he paused, visibly trying to keep his temper, "-before someone gets hurt," he finished darkly. With a final glare towards CRDL he turned and swiftly left the room, leaving the rest of the team watching him go helplessly.

Adam had always said that humans had no idea what they were missing by having such weak senses of smell and, even long after leaving him and the White Fang, Blake still found herself agreeing with him. Someone's scent could tell so much about them, all the most common points of their life blending together into a scent that was distinctive to each individual.

Naruto's scent was rather interesting, she couldn't help but muse as she tracked her missing teammate through Beacon's hallways and courtyards. From the rumours and worries circulating around Beacon like wildfire, she might have expected the ninja to stink of blood and death, but not so. The faint tang of old blood was there, just as it was for many of the warriors around Beacon, herself included, but it was almost entirely overpowered in Naruto's scent.

Instead, Naruto's scent made her think most of trees in the spring, leaves and sap, of an odd spicy smell - a food perhaps? - that made her nose twitch with displeasure, of metal and oil, of parchment and ink, and curiously enough of foxes. The last part was perhaps the most confusing; despite the whisker shaped marks on his cheeks she could tell that Naruto wasn't a faunus, so she had no idea why he would smell so strongly of the elusive animals.

Altogether, it was a rather pleasant scent, and one distinctive enough to easily pick out in the crowded hallways. Blake had been rather lucky there; between Naruto, Ruby's strong scent of roses and weapon oil, and the faint scent of burning that Yang's overpowering shampoo couldn't quite drown out, her teammates were all relatively easy to track by nose. If only she didn't have to hide that she was doing so.

The frustration that welled up at that thought was also part of why she was here in the first place. Even in a progressive place like Beacon, faunus still suffered discrimination and it seemed that now extended towards Naruto. Even here, it was safer for her to hide her faunus heritage. Naruto didn't have that choice - even if he didn't insist on proudly displaying the symbol of his people, his accent and facial structure were very distinctive - and that had drummed up some sympathy for him within her.

Blake was torn from her thoughts when she abruptly found herself at her destination, much earlier than she had expected. Based on what she had seen of Naruto so far, she had half expected him to be working his frustrations out at the gym or out in the forest. Instead, he had led her to the massive, ornate building that housed Beacon's library.

Shrugging, she pushed open the doors and was forced to pause for a moment as the scent of the library hit her like a brick wall. With their enhanced senses, many faunus had a tendency to assign more emotional meaning to smells than humans did, and Blake was no exception. Books were, and had always been, a source of comfort for her, and the thick, musty smell of them drifted out of the door and wrapped itself around her like an old blanket.

The faunus allowed herself a few seconds to close her eyes and enjoy the scent before she pressed on, subtly scrunching her nose as she regained Naruto's scent.

The trail quickly took her of the beaten path and deep into the towering stacks of the library. Soon enough, Blake found herself leaving behind the bright, modernised study halls for the older section of the building that many of the older students either favoured for the quiet, or had to dive into in search of obscure books. The bright dust lights of the main halls gave way to older, filament style bulbs, and in some places even candles or gas-lamps.

By the time she found Naruto, the building had almost become a warren of tight tunnels formed by the towering bookcases, and Blake was getting an appreciation for the despair with which many of the older students spoke when they had to venture here to find some piece of mandatory reading. This was difficult enough even with a scent trail to follow!

The ninja himself, she found in a small clearing in a corner of the building, a table and several comfy chairs crammed into a cosy space lit only by a candelabra on the table and a single small window set high into the wall. He was bent close over a book with his face scrunched up in concentration, muttering something to himself that Blake couldn't quite make out until she quietly moved closer.

"-Stormed. The. Keep. This. Ins- incident. Was. Known. As. The. Summer. Ins, ins- uh." It took Blake a second to realise that he was muttering the book's content to himself, pronouncing each word with the sort of slow clarity a child might.

"Insurrection," she finished quietly from behind him. Naruto dropped the book with a start and turned around, flushing bright red as he realised that he wasn't alone.

Blake inclined her head and sat down in one of the chairs, letting out a small, satisfied sound as she sank deeply into the old cushion. Naruto had one hand scratching the back of his head in a nervous gesture, and his cheeks were still red with embarrassment.

"I didn't realise that you had trouble with reading, you were taking notes fine earlier" she said neutrally, keeping her voice clear of judgement.

"I don't, normally," Naruto protested, "Our languages have really different writing, completely different alphabets. I'm just learning to read yours slower than I did speaking it."

In demonstration, he pulled a blank piece of paper across the table and reached into his pocket, pulling out something that looked to be an odd combination of pen and brush. His hand moved gracefully and swiftly down the right-hand side of the paper, leaving behind a column of flowing symbols which he then presented to Blake. She couldn't make heads or tails of the symbols, but they had enough order to them that Naruto didn't seem to just be scribbling random junk to confuse her.

"Fair point," she conceded, giving up on Naruto's writing after a few moments.

Naruto watched her thoughtfully for a few seconds before grinning, "Honestly, I've never been good at reading or writing; I could barely do either until my godfather started teaching me fūinjutsu. I was never interested in reading when I was young, never could sit still long enough to read a good story."

The foreign word perked Blake's interest, but she filed it away for later. What had caught the book-loving faunus' attention even more, was the sudden thought of the sort of stories that Naruto had passed up when he was young. The sudden burst of curiosity at what sort of fiction a foreign culture might produce was almost overwhelming.

"Are books common in your lands?" she asked.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, especially ninja villages like mine. Being a ninja is a pretty high stress job, and reading is a pretty common way to unwind for some people, though I never got into it that much despite my sensei's efforts."

That sounded promising. "It would be interesting to read the fiction of a foreign culture like yours, to see how your stories differ from ours."

"Suppose so, yeah," Naruto shrugged, not quite sharing Blake's enthusiasm, "Our fiction is a bit darker than yours I think, especially ninja stuff. Most ninjas I know either go for pretty dark fiction or, ah, raunchier romances."

Both of which sounded perfect for Blake. She had to smother the flash of amusement that bubbled up when she thought how, after spending so much time reading the Ninjas of Love series, it would be interesting to read an actual ninja romance novel. Not that Naruto could ever find out about that, she'd have to hope that trade opened up between their nations sooner or later.

"We have plenty of dark fiction here, I've got some good ones if you want to borrow them some time," she continued, trying to keep the conversation on safer terms.

"Reality is darker than imagination, especially when ninja are involved." Naruto claimed, with a slightly unsettling grin, "A lot of our fiction is based on dramatising and exaggerating stuff that actually happened. Constant wars and ninja involvement make for some pretty good tales, and some pretty gory ones. Double, when demons get involved. I've got a pretty good book tucked away in a storage seal somewhere about a warrior who was possessed by a demo,n and had to fight internally for his soul, while at the same time getting caught up in a war between two nations. Good read, especially if you don't spoil the ending by knowing the actual events."

Blake's interest was definitely peaked. "Your literature sounds interesting," she said, before glancing down sadly at the incomprehensible symbols Naruto had written out for her as the obvious suddenly occurred to her, "I doubt there are many translations though."

Naruto followed her gaze and hummed, head tilting to the side and face scrunching up in what Blake was quickly starting to term his 'thinking face'. "Maybe we could help each other," he said after a few seconds, "You seem pretty smart, and I know a lot about my language's writing through my fūinjutsu. If I taught you how to read Nihongo, would you teach me to read your language?"

Blake perked up, giving Naruto a small smile, "That sounds fair." More than fair actually, seeing as Naruto seemed to know some of the basics of Valian, and she knew nothing of his language. He seemed happy with her answer though, giving her a wide smile.

Curiosity was now nudging insistently at Blake's mind about the word that Naruto had mentioned twice now, fūinjutsu. "Um, what is fūinjutsu?" she asked.

Naruto started a bit when she asked that, as though he hadn't realised he was talking about something that she had no idea about. "Oh, right, fūinjutsu. I forgot that you guys don't have it. It's, uh, hard to explain, I don't really know all of the words to describe it in your language. I suppose the best way to describe it would be… weaponised calligraphy."

Huh, now that was both interesting and completely uninformative at the same time, "I, what?" she asked, trying to make sense of what he had just said.

He gave a short laugh and reached into his jacket again, pulling out a slip of paper that he handed over to her. The paper felt unusually thick and rigid, with a red border around the edge and an array of incomprehensible symbols inked onto the centre in precise lines. "This is… interesting. What does it do?" she asked dubiously, holding the paper up so that it just happened to be between Naruto and her nose while she sniffed it. As far as her nose could tell there wasn't much to it aside from paper and ink.

"It explodes," he said, grinning as she jerked the paper away from her face in alarm. "They're called Kibaku Fuda, Explosive Tags in your language. I used a couple when we were running from the big scorpion thing yesterday, remember?"

Blake did indeed remember Naruto throwing something back at the Deathstalker as they had ran, producing an impressively sized explosion. "This little thing can produce that much force?" she asked wonderingly, peering closer at the patterns inked into it and pondering how the hell it worked.

"Yup." Naruto said, bobbing his head and taking the tag back from her. "They pack a pun-" As he had been taking the tag back, the ninja moved his arm just a fraction too wide and the tag caught against the candle set on the table, beginning to burn merrily. Naruto's eyes widened and Blake felt her chest tighten, the tags that Naruto had thrown yesterday had been on fire before they exploded, hadn't they?

Instincts screaming at her, Blake threw herself from her seat and to the ground, curling up into as small a ball as she could and praying that her aura could take the explosion. There was a heavy second of silence, followed by another. And another. And another. Just when Blake was starting to get suspicious, the silence was broken by a snicker.

Blake's head snapped up to find Naruto leaning back in his chair and holding the smoldering remains of half the 'explosive' tag, giving her a cheshire grin.

"That wasn't even an explosive tag, was it?" she ground out between clenched teeth, glaring at Naruto and throwing a punch at his arm as she got back into her seat.

He took it without flinching. "It was, but they don't work like that," he laughed again at her unimpressed glare, hand once again finding its way behind his neck.

"You're sure?"

Naruto nodded, "They work by energy conversion; you put in pure energy, chakra or aura or whatever ya want to call it, and the seals convert it into the heat and energy for the explosion. The sizzle is part of the tags working, not how we set them off." He pulled out another tag and held it up to the candle again, not even flinching when the fire caught. "They're completely, uhh what's the word, inert?" Blake nodded, "Yeah, they're completely inert until you channel energy into them. Fire doesn't set them off, I'd be pretty stupid carrying them around all the time if it did."

Blake glanced suspiciously at the burnt tags, but let herself relax a bit. "You nearly gave me a heart attack," she complained.

"Sorry, sorry," Naruto said placatingly. "I couldn't resist. Ninja learn how these things work really young, so I don't get to play that trick very often."

With a huff, Blake settled back into her chair, "Next time you pull something like that-" she started harshly, letting herself feel a twinge of satisfaction at Naruto's flinch before she let her face soften, "Do it to Yang and Ruby, and give me some warning so I can take photos."

Naruto blinked slowly, processing Blake's abrupt change of tone and taking in her sudden grin, before answering with one of his own. "Deal."

"You're forgiven then."

They fell into silence for a few seconds, before Blake suddenly remembered the reason that she had been looking for Naruto in the first place.

"Oh, here, you forgot this earlier," she said, pulling Naruto's scroll out of her pocket and handing it to him. Naruto's face fell as he looked at the device, slowly taking it from Blake and popping it open to find the message from Cardin still hovering on the screen. He glared at the device for a moment before dismissing the message with a harsh swipe.

Despite her best efforts, Blake found her feline ears twitching as they tried to lower in sadness. While it wasn't anywhere near the same level of institutionalised discrimination, were so many parallels between how the humans of Beacon were treating Naruto, and how they treated the faunus that she couldn't help but feel sympathetic.

"What Cardin did, he-" Blake began, only to snap her mouth shut as Naruto's glare was suddenly turned on her. For a split second Naruto somehow looked less human; his face hardened into something that almost looked feral and his eyes even seemed to glow slightly, though surely that was a trick of the light. A chill ran down Blake's spine and she suddenly found it hard to breath, as though there was some invisible pressure on her lungs. From out of nowhere a feeling of dread fell over her, usually suppressed instincts rearing up in the face of what seemed like a very different Naruto to the one joking with her not a minute ago.

"I don't need someone to tell me that shit he pulled is wrong, like I'm a child," Naruto snapped at her. Blake didn't say anything, but her distress must have shown on her face, because after a moment Naruto visibly calmed himself, "Sorry."

The feeling of dread faded away with Naruto's anger, and he continued, "I'm used to people like Cardin and the rest of Beacon; I've been dealing with people hating me for what I am all of my life. But, that video got to me."

He fell quiet and Blake reached out to him, briefly laying a hand on his arm in comfort, "I can imagine that seeing a comrade… die like that must be hard," she didn't need to imagine after her time in the White Fang, but that was a piece of information too far.

"It's not just that, I see death more than I like as a ninja anyway. The guy from the video though, I knew him." Naruto replied. When Blake failed to interrupt him, he continued with his story.

"His name was Oki. When I was fifteen I messed up real bad on a mission, and I got assigned guard duty one of the gates for few weeks as punishment; Oki was my partner for that. He was a really nice guy, always just seemed so calm and wise. That video was the first time I'd ever seen him fighting, or even angry."

Naruto sighed and leaned back in his chair, running a hand through his hair. "I was pretty angry back then, there was a lot of shit going on between the nations and I got caught in some of the worst of it. Oki gave me some good advice, and someone to vent to; he helped me a lot. And now he's dead, executed while he lay on the ground. Oki didn't deserve that."

Done with his story, Naruto trailed off into silence, eyes staring unfocused at the table. Blake's thoughts were getting dangerously close to revealing things she had worked hard to keep hidden. The smart thing to do would be keep quiet and change the subject, or leave. The little part of her that had driven her to the White Fang in the first place wouldn't let her stay silent though, and she found herself talking.

"I've found that the people of Vale are simultaneously capable of incredible kindness and generosity, and incredible ignorance and hatred," she started off quietly, watching Naruto intently for any reaction.

"The faunus," he said quietly, finally reopening his eyes. Blake didn't see any suspicion there, but remained cautious. By reputation, ninja were as much spies as they were assassins; discretion and attention to detail were crucial traits for them.

She nodded, "Sometimes it's hard to believe that the same people who are so kind to me, can be so hateful to others just because of the circumstances of their birth. Faunus are mistreated and abused all across Vale. Beacon is one of the most progressive places I've lived recently and people like Cardin are still not only tolerated, but accepted."

Naruto leaned back, joining his hands behind his head and staring blankly at the ceiling, "Humans fear what they don't know or understand, and they hate the things that they fear."

"Exactly," Blake said, "Your nation has taken a step in the right direction there, sending you to try and understand us and help us understand you. Hopefully, if you can help with spreading understanding, then the hatred and fear can be banished." She sighed darkly, "I used to, I still do, hope for the same with the faunus but, looking at the way the world is now, it's hard to keep that hope sometimes."

A bitter snort came from Naruto, "So," he began slowly, "what you're saying, is that the victim of the discrimination is the one who should be burdened with trying to fix it?"

"It isn't fair," Blake agreed, "but, it's how it it. People like Cardin, the ones taking part in the discrimination, rarely have much reason or motivation to fight for understanding or change." The two of them trailed off into silence, Blake suddenly worried that she had revealed too much and Naruto still staring blankly at the ceiling, his eyes unreadable.

After a short while, the silence was abruptly broken by Naruto. "Well, that got dark," he said, slowly linking his fingers and raising his arms upwards, stretching his shoulders back until the joints popped loud enough for Blake to hear. Slowly and reluctantly he reached out towards the table, picking up the history textbook from where it had lay ignored.

"Soooo," he said, glancing sideways at Blake, "You feel up to starting those lessons now? I've got-" he cracked the book open to where he had been before, checked the page number and grimaced, "-a long way to go."

With a nod, Blake rose out of her chair, arching her back as she stretched to pop her own stiff joints. "We have a few hours until curfew," she said agreeably, pulling her chair over so that she could see Naruto's book as well. "Now, where are you up to?"

A/N: And there we go. Hopefully you enjoyed that, there are bits I'm a bit unsure about but after three months on hiatus I needed to get something written. The next chapter should be much better with some fluff, character development and the introduction of an early plot point all coming to a fanfic near you soon!

From this chapter onward we're going to deviate from RWBY canon more and more heavily. In general, this story will be more original stuff than it will follow the current RWBY stuff. There are some scenes and such which I'm planning to fit into the story that I particularly like, but in general writing the scenes that heavily follow canon is like pulling nails for me (Hence why this chapter has Port's class subbed out for history), so I'm moving away from that. I'm not quite sure how I'll handle the volume 3 stuff yet since much of the story past the volume 2 material is planned out, I'll have to see about that once volume 3 actually comes out.