A/N: This chapter will wrap up the initiation. Also, Blake finally gets a PoV section meaning that we've finally had a scene from all of the four main PoV characters now!



There was an odd sense of unity amongst the trainees as they ran full pelt through the forest. So much of the uncertainty and mistrust on both sides that had tainted Naruto's interactions with the Remnant natives had been temporarily driven away by the more pressing issue of the giant Grimm chasing them.

Trainees though they were, pushing past their emotions to truly focus on a life or death situation was something even Ruby had some practise at. The Nevermore had vanished into the sky, presumably stalking them from some hidden vantage point above the clouds, but the Deathstalker had kept close on their trail ever since breaking free from Naruto's chakra chains.

The sounds of gunfire and explosions from behind them suddenly cut off with a yell. Ruby caught his attention with a gesture from the side and the pair of them broke off from the group and stopped running. Ruby span Crescent Rose and slammed the blade into the ground while Naruto dropped into a crouch and began weaving hand-signs.

Working alone as a pair Ruby and Naruto could have easily outran the Deathstalker, but working as a group overall they could only go as fast as their slowest member. The faster members of the group had been dropping back by the pairs to try and slow the beast down as much as they could delaying actions were needed.

Ren and Nora emerged from the trees with weapons drawn and the Deathstalker dangerously close behind them. As soon as the pair were close enough to not get caught in the crossfire Naruto and Ruby began unloading onto the Grimm, the sharp crack as Naruto began to spit out compressed blades of air rivaling the boom of Ruby's sniper-scythe. Neither the air-blades nor Ruby's bullets were penetrating the thick armour of the beast, but they managed to stun and slow it down for a few precious seconds before they too were forced to continue running and rejoin the group.

As Yang and Blake ducked back for their turn distracting the Deathstalker the forest began to open up around them, revealing a much grander set of ruins than the one they had just left. The rib-like remains of some grand hall gave way to an almost bottomless looking chasm sitting straight between them and their objective; a thick fog blocking sight of anything below them. From the center of the chasm rose a tall stone tower, connected to a series of smaller towers by thin bridges. This was all that stood between them and their objective, they were almost there.

As though sensing their growing hopes, the Nevermore dropped from the clouds with an ear-splitting screech and landed atop the largest of the towers, peering down menacingly at them.

Naruto threw himself to the side as a hail of feathers longer than he was tall flew toward them, seeking cover behind a thick stone pillar as the razor sharp projectiles flew past his head and embedded themselves in the ground. The Nevermore screeched and fluffed up its wings, threatening a second barrage if anybody popped their heads up. Yang and Blake came skidding to a halt behind his pillar and not far behind them the Deathstalker was closing in again, pincers snapping at the air as it saw its prey stationary.

Naruto's eyes flicked around the ruins as he tried to figure out some way out from between the two Grimm. He could get himself out of this mess, probably Ruby as well, but aside from Ruby's semblance these students were as far below the average ninja in mobility as they were above normal humans. Somehow he didn't think his plan of clearing the chasm with a single fast jump and running straight up the wall would work well for them.

"Naruto, clones!" He heard his name called and turned to see Ruby pointing toward the Nevermore. He slapped his forehead in frustration; stupid, stupid! Using shadow clones as distractions was one of the most basic uses of the technique, how had he not thought of that?!

Naruto crossed his fingers into a seal and felt a brief moment of light-headedness as thirty clones appeared in a cloud of smoke, chakra rushing from his body to feed the costly constructs. The clones charged forward with a cry and Naruto was suddenly assaulted by the memories of being impaled by razor sharp feathers thirty times over. Ouch, he was definitely going to try and avoid feeling that for real. The Nevermore was 'reloading' now though, which gave him and the others the chance to move forwards.

The bird screeched and took off as they approached, delivering a few half-formed feathers in an easily dodged parting shot. It wasted no time in darting down to claw at them, tearing great gouges in the dirt as it split the group neatly in two.

Naruto sprinted forwards onto one of the thin bridges that spanned the chasm, diving down behind the low walls as the Nevermore swooped down again. From all around him a deafening rain of gunfire erupted as Ruby, Yang and Blake opened up with their respective weapons, the hail of bullets driving the bird away for the moment. The Beacon students might lack the physical ability of a ninja, but their weaponry certainly went a good deal of the way towards making up for it. The strange contraptions were a bit noisy for the taste of most ninja, but undeniably effective. Naruto grinned as Yang fired a particularly loud explosive blast and made a mental note to see about getting himself something like that.

He still had his own options for now though. Naruto pulled out a handful of shuriken and began channeling wind chakra into them. The shuriken took on a white glow, which seemed to expand out into a solid disk when he whipped them through the air.

The glowing projectiles, which could reliably cut through solid stone or steel plate armour, bounced off the Nevermore in a cloud of black feathers that seemed to do little more than annoy the beast. "It's tough," he called out, ducking away as a few feathers ricocheted off the wall he was hiding behind.

"Then keep hammering away at it!" Yang snapped in response, hair whipping about wildly from the recoil as she sent a constant stream of explosive shotgun slugs toward the bird as it flew past. Between the feral look carved into her face and the formidable boom of her weaponry, Naruto was certainly glad that the girl was on his side; for the moment at least. Of all the women to encounter that really disliked him, of course it had to be the one that made him think of a foreign Tsunade or Sakura.

Further down the bridge Ruby was keeping up a constant rain of fire from her rifle and Blake was trying to scale one of the smaller towers, though the latter was forced to abandon the attempt as the Nevermore struck and rammed the tower hard enough to send it crumbling into the abyss.

"Naruto!" Ruby called out, "Can you grab it with those chains?"

"I'll give it a go," he called back, throwing a few more shuriken and then running through the appropriate hand-signs once more. "Kongō Fūsa!" he called out, thrusting his left hand toward the sky. Once again the seal beneath his sleeve lit up and glowing orange chains, his chakra given physical form, shot out from his body to chase the bird. Naruto's aim was true and the chains wrapped themselves securely around the Nevermore, binding tightly around its neck.

The bird screeched in anger and gave a mighty flap upward, pulling the chains taut. In response Naruto pulsed his chakra through the stone below him and pulled back, gritting his teeth in pain as the Nevermore threatened to pull his shoulder out of its socket despite the chakra reinforcing the joint.

In the end it was the bridge that gave before Naruto or the bird, the flagstone that he had anchored himself to ripping free. Naruto released the chains just in time to avoid an impromptu flying lesson, dropping back down to the bridge and clutching his sore arm. "Not happening!"

Yang popped her head up over the stone barrier and popped off a few more shots before ducking back down. "That just made it angry, it's coming back around!" she warned.

Naruto peeked his head over the tip of the wall he was hissing behind and grinned as he watched the Nevermore circle back around. Trying to hammer away at the seemingly indestructible bird like this was frustrating, but there was also a part of him that was enjoying the fight. You didn't chose to become a ninja if you truly disliked fighting and it had been a while since Naruto had been able to just let go and throw himself into a fight without having to worry or feel guilty about the lives he might take.

Hmm, half angry and half enjoying the fight; that sounded like the perfect mind-set to break out a particular, furry, secret weapon of his. "This thing's going down," he growled with a grin, casting the bird one more quick glance before breaking cover. Naruto threw a few more wind-enhanced shuriken up at the beast to get its attention and ran out toward a more open area of the bridge.

Taking a deep breath he dropped into a crouch and started to channel his chakra, for the first time since the battle at Hikomi reaching into his mind and loosening the seal that kept the Kyuubi restrained. He had wanted to try and last longer at BEacon before revealing this little ace in the hole, but he hadn't accounted for having to deal with giant monsters. Oh well, purposely hiding his abilities in a fight had always bored Naruto anyway. He began pulling at the beast's chakra while he shaped his own, forming the frame for the shroud that would let him control it.

That was when things went wrong. Just like when he had been unable to heal his wound earlier, when Naruto tried to call upon the power of the Kyuubi nothing happened. As he pulled at the Kyuubi's chakra through the seal he could actually feel the demon pulling against him, denying him as much of its chakra as it could. What the hell was going on?

Without the demonic chakra to fill it, the shroud he had begun to form sucked hungrily at his chakra before spluttering and failing as he managed to cut the connection. The drain sent Naruto to his knees, clutching his stomach in pain and exhaustion. Chakra shrouds weren't something that even someone with as much chakra as Naruto should mess about with without the demon's help.

A screech filled his ears, and he looked up with blurry eyes to see the Nevermore's talons rapidly approaching him.

Ren was really starting to wish that he hadn't stopped Nora from attacking the Deathstalker earlier. At least then they would have had an entire forest to fight it in, rather than being slowly pushed up against the seemingly bottomless chasm as the scorpion advanced on them.

He darted from cover to cover, ears ringing as he kept a steady rain of bullets flowing from his Stormflowers. He was having disappointingly little effect on the great beast, his automatic pistols too low in calibre to do anything to the thick armour of the ancient Grimm.

Pyrrha wasn't having much more luck with Miló's rifle form either; a Grimm of this size and age wasn't going to be brought low by conventional firearms. Nora, who was behind them both reloading Magnhild, was the only one of them who was really doing any damage to the Deathstalker and she only carried a limited supply of ammo.

The Deathstalker darted forward again and Ren leapt to the side as it shattered the pillar he had been hiding behind. Stone fragments went spinning through the air and one struck his ankle, deflecting off his aura but knocking him down to the ground still. He could hear Nora cry out as the Deathstalker scuttled toward him, but at the last minute before he was impaled the ground around him began to glow white. He had just enough time to look down in confusion before some invisible force yanked him away from the Grimm and into Weiss' arms, who quickly pulled him behind a wall as Pyrrha unleashed a barrage of covering fire.

"Thanks," Ren said quietly, dusting himself off and shivering. That had been a close one, much closer than he would have liked.

"Thank me later," Weiss replied primly, peeking around the wall they were behind. "We need to start doing some damage before it's too late." The chasm behind them was getting worryingly closer every time the Deathstalker forced them to retreat. The heiress sighed and span Myrtenaster's chamber, noticing the Grimm beginning to turn toward them. "I hope the others are having more luck than us."

Say what you would about the Nevermore, but it was a great way to work off some frustration. Every round that Yang sent up toward the bird - the dust-enhanced slugs filling the air around it with explosions as though she were a human flak cannon - was one less round she was tempted to use on Naruto. Ruby was stuck with the boy, but Yang intended to have words with him as soon as she had the chance. For now though her anger had a much better target; one that was actively trying to kill them, rather than just posing the potential threat of it.

Yang gave the blond ninja an incredulous look as he ran out from behind their cover and stared straight at the approaching bird, his hands clasped in some odd symbol. Confusion quickly turned to shock as the ninja spiked what Yang falsely assumed was his aura, creating a pulse of energy that Yang could actually feel in the bottom of her stomach as light began to flicker across his body and form two tails behind him. She backed up a few steps, raising an arm protectively between Ruby and whatever the hell the ninja was doing.

And then it suddenly stopped. A look of pain flashed over Naruto's face and he fell to his knees, the feeling of power emanating from him disappearing along with the aura shroud. The boy suddenly looked very tired and vulnerable, tiny before the massive talons sailing straight towards his face.

Ruby's cry of dismay was drowned out by the victorious screech of the Nevermore and Yang moved before she really processed what she was doing, throwing herself forward and wrapping her arms around Naruto in mid-air. She twisted and used her momentum to carry them both to the side, the Nevermore's talons coming close enough to ruffle her hair as it tore the bridge apart in lieu of Naruto's face.

Naruto lay on the ground panting as Yang picked herself up, sending a couple of parting shots at the Nevermore as it began to loop around. She could hear the boy swearing rapidly - or at least the tone sounded like swearing - in a language she didn't recognise, glaring at his… stomach? She blinked in confusion before reaching out and slapping him around the back of the head.

"Focus, idiot!" she snarled, ejecting a set of spent shells from Ember Celia with a pop and loading in more of her dwindling supply. The ninja snorted and muttered one last phrase in what she guessed was his native language before nodding. "What the hell just happened?!" she snapped once the Nevermore was clear of them for a few seconds.

"I… overcharged it," he muttered, one hand clenched into a fist over the center of his stomach. Yang gave an unsatisfied snort; she had no clue what had actually happened but had a pretty good idea she was being lied to.

The ninja looked exhausted after that little mishap, great, just what they needed. As Yang pumped her reloaded gauntlets Naruto quickly bit his own thumb, drawing blood which he used to smear a small symbol on his neck; what the hell was he doing? Before Yang could give the clearly delusional boy another slap around the head the blood he had smeared began to glow bright blue, the glow spreading down beneath his clothes to his shoulders before dying out. Once it was through he seemed to hold his head up with a bit more strength, picking himself up to crouch alongside her.

"Naruto! You alright?" a shout came from the side, Ruby hopping neatly over the gap that the Nevermore had made. After receiving and returning the ninja's answering grin Ruby spun Crescent Rose around, slamming the blade into the stone to act as a anchor while she began firing the weapon as fast as it would go. The bullets had little effect, not even deterring the Nevermore from chasing Blake across one of the other bridges.

"It's too tough for bullets, even mine." Ruby griped, watching the beast as Blake nimbly evaded its attention. Even the fearsome .50 calibre bullets that Crescent Rose used were just bouncing off the Nevermore; rounds that were designed to tear their targets apart causing little more than scratches.

Suddenly silver eyes seemed to light up, widening for a moment before Ruby quickly turned to the pair of them. Yang watched her sister with a mixture of optimism and caution. Ruby's ideas in the past tended to either work really well or go completely wrong, with results like their house almost being burnt down; never in-between. "Naruto, how big can you make that wind thing you did earlier?"

"Big." The ninja answered without hesitation, "I've only got one good one left in me though."

Ruby grinned. "Good enough. I'-"

"-ve got a plan!" Weiss called out, beckoning Ren over to her. They'd been fighting the Deathstalker for far too long now and hammering at it individually had gotten them nowhere at all except closer to the certain death of the cliff. The beast was tough, but it couldn't be invincible; creatures like this were exactly what huntsmen and huntresses existed to kill in the first place.

Weiss had no intention of starting her career as a huntress with a retreat, or god forbid a defeat. Glorious victory was a much more appetising dish.

The heiress gave herself a small smile as Ren listened to her quick summary of the plan, nodded, and then dashed off toward Pyrrha. Ren was the sort of teammate that Weiss could see herself appreciating; quick, quiet, and effective. Much better than many of the other possibilities for third and fourth teammates like the insufferable pair of sisters that were over fighting the Nevermore.

Though it wasn't like she could escape that entirely she supposed, looking at the girl she had been left to inform. Nora was giggling as she rolled under a pillar-destroying backhand from one pincer and knocked the other away with an underhand strike from her explosive hammer. Oh well, she would be a better choice than Ruby; at least she hadn't exploded Weiss. Yet. Weiss waited until Pyrrha and Ren distracted the Deathstalker and rushed over toward the girl.

Nora was surprisingly easy to convince, listening to Weiss' plan and then moving off into position with a cheery nod. That only left one thing for Weiss to do.

After taking a moment to steel herself Weiss rushed straight forward toward the Deathstalker, Myrtenaster held at the ready. The beast reacted predictably, thrusting its stinger toward her, and at the last minute she halted and drove the rapier into the ground. Ice blossomed up around her, forming a thick wall and stopping the stinger a bare inch away from her eyes.

Weiss didn't even flinch, simply gesturing behind her to create a glyph on the ground and barking out, "Now!"

Pyrrha responded instantly, using the glyph as a boost to launch herself into the air with Miló extended in spear form. Ren jumped up from the side and met Pyrrha in mid-air and for a second Weiss could see the air distorting as he manipulated pure aura, sending the spartan rocketing down toward the Grimm. Pyrrha slammed into the Deathstalker and Miló was left sticking up, half impaled through the thick armour plates. Pyrrha rolled clear and Weiss formed a second glyph, calling out, "Nora!"

"Got it!" the bubbly girl said, dashing forward with Magnhild in hammer form. She primed an explosion and slammed the hammer straight onto the glyph, the back-blast launching her high into the air. At the apex of her flight Nora released a second explosion to drive her back down and began to spin, slamming Magnhild straight onto Miló and driving all of the considerable momentum she had built up straight onto the thin point. There was a wet crack and the Deathstalker roared; this time not in anger but in pain.

That was Weiss' cue. The ice shattered as the Deathstalker found a burst of strength to rip its tail free, but Weiss was already moving. She backflipped away from the tail and onto a glyph, quickly forming and jumping between three more as she nimbly dodged the incoming attacks.

Her evasive manoeuvrings ended with Weiss landing straight on the Deathstalker's back, one hand grabbing at Miló where it was still stuck in the beast. The weapon had penetrated straight through the Deathstalker's armour and left a break in the chitin about the size of Weiss' hand, more than enough for what she needed.

It was now or never and Weiss braced herself against the Deathstalker, pulling Miló free and throwing the weapon over toward Pyrrha. With her free hand Weiss reached into her pouch behind her and withdrew a crystal of dust, coloured a vivid orange-red. She drove the sharp splinter deep into the black flesh of the Deathstalker and pushed as much aura as she could into it. The crystal began to spark and crackle dangerously and Weiss motioned with her hand, pouring every last drop of Aura she still had into a glyph that launched her away from the beast.

The explosion hit Weiss like a sledgehammer, her speedy exit saving her from the flames but not from the shockwave. She hit the ground hard and rolled for a few feet, coming to rest against a shattered pillar. Slowly she began to pick herself up, a victorious smirk spreading across her face as she beheld her handiwork. The Deathstalker's thick plating had only served to redirect the explosion inside itself, and now there was little more than a smoking stump where its head had once been. Weiss looked proudly at the smouldering corpse, and the shell-shocked hunters beginning to pick themselves up just beyond, for a few more seconds before she slumped to the ground in exhaustion.

All Grimm species lived ungodly lengths of time and could grow to extreme sizes given enough time to live, even without a formal education on the matter Blake knew that; it was basic knowledge. She also knew that Nevermore were one of the fastest growing species. They started out life not much bigger than a crow and grew rapidly, outweighing all but the largest vulture by the time they had lived a year and begun to grow their mask.

Truth be told, the bird circling above them wasn't that big by Nevermore standards; a hundred years old at most. There were tales of much, much larger ones. After all, there was a reason that the largest displays of humanity's might tended to be their airships; and it wasn't entirely Atlas' ego-driven measuring contest with the rest of the world.

Somehow, curiously enough, knowing that there were even bigger Nevermore lurking out in the wilds didn't particularly make Blake feel any better about the one currently blocking out the sun above her head.

Every single one of the instincts that had seen Blake safely through a rough life were screaming at her to run and hide. She took a breath and forced herself to stand her ground, the way her fingers wound in and out of Gambol Shroud's ribbon the only visible sign of her distress. This was the life she had chosen; to atone herself for her sins by dedicating her life and skills to the protection of the innocent; human and faunus alike. The Nevermore was scary, but dealing with the scary things of the world was her job description now.

"You ready?" Ruby asked quietly, sidling up beside her. If nothing else the past minute had shown them that trying to hide from the Nevermore was pointless. Even with all their attempts to be stealthy, the bird might not know where exactly they were but it wasn't straying far from the tower they were hid in.

Blake had been more than a little surprised that out of them all, it had been Ruby who was the first to come up with a workable plan. The plan certainly sounded like something that the excitable girl would come up with based off what Yang had said about her - full of dramatic attacks and risky manoeuvres - but it seemed sound in concept and for something that Ruby had come up with on the spot, while being attacked and with an unfamiliar set of 'tools', Blake was impressed.

"Yeah. No time like the present, right?" she replied quietly, masking her nervousness behind a small smile.

Ruby gave her a bright, confident grin in return and fidgeted with her weapon, dropping the magazine to the ground with a faint clack. Blake could just make out a small black cross etched onto the magazine that had been brought out to replace it and her eyes widened in shock. If that stood for what she thought it did… black dust was some pretty serious firepower to be carrying around.

Ruby had noticed her gaze. "Not got many of these," she said, patting the magazine, "but this seems like a good time." Without further fanfare she hoisted the weapon to her shoulder and began firing. Even by human standards, firing Crescent Rose in a confined space like this was almost deafening. For a faunus like Blake it was practically torturous, each black muzzle-flash accompanied by a blast that physically shook her body, and she found herself wondering how the hell the slight girl before her managed to fire such a large weapon without dislocating her shoulder at the very least.

Thankfully Ruby didn't stick around for long. Once she had got the Nevermore's attention the cloaked girl threw herself out of the tower, using one of the powerful sniper rounds to properly herself upwards to the roof. And that left it Blake's turn. Taking a deep breath, Blake lined up her target and took a running jump straight out of the tower and at the Nevermore as it flew towards Ruby.

Her eyes widened in shock as it noticed her sent her flying away with a single powerful flap. For a moment it seemed at though it was going to change targets to her, but then a sniper round from above ricocheted off its skull. The split second of distraction gave Blake the chance to throw Gambol Shroud back at the tower, the ribbon snapping taunt as she used it to swing around the tower for another try. This time the Nevermore was distracted - trying to rise up through the hail of sniper rounds from above - and she landed neatly on its back, pulling her cleaver-sheath free.

The bird made a spirited attempt to dislodge Blake from its back but she held firm, slashing all the while. The Grimm was old and held the vicious cunning that many of its race developed, but it was still a beast. It was an easy task to use the pain reflex from her strikes to guide it where she wished. She clung on for dear life and steered her mount towards a particular bridge. It took about half of the ten second flight for Blake to completely discount travel-via-Nevermore as a sane or effective form of transport, and she was glad to leap off the beast as soon as the bridge was within jumping distance.

Blake hit the bridge hard, rolled, and immediately sprung into motion. She ignored the angry screeching behind her and ran like her life depended on it, the Nevermore right on her back, as she prayed that the next part of Ruby's plan worked.

Yang bounced her gauntlets lightly against the stone arch she was hiding behind, teeth worrying at her lower lip. It wasn't in her nature to hang back from the fight like this, especially when the ones still putting themselves in harm's way were her partner and little sister. She wasn't arguing with Ruby's plan - it was better than anything that she had been able to come up with - but the waiting was killing her. Naruto was holding a similar position to her on the other side of the arch, using one of his knives as a mirror to peer around the corner and wincing every now and then.

Suddenly the Nevermore screeched in anger and Yang couldn't resist anymore, peeking her head around the corner. She could just see Ruby positioned atop the tallest tower, a constant stream of black muzzle flashes making her cape ripple with the recoil. The Nevermore veered away from the scythe-wielding girl and began to bank their way, revealing Blake stood atop its back delivering a constant rain of slices. As the Nevermore flailed Blake leapt to safety and hit the bridge running, the Nevermore following right behind her in their direction.

Hook, line, and sinker, Yang thought with a grin, pumping her fists to rack fresh shells into Ember Celia. Blake rushed through the arch and she and Naruto sprung out from hiding to face the Nevermore, Naruto taking point slightly.

"You up for this ninja-boy?" Yang asked, taking note of how tired he still seemed despite whatever trick he had pulled to get his second wind. The Nevermore had noticed them and decided that stationary prey was easier, closing in with talons outstretched.

"I'll be fine, just make sure you catch me afterwards." He sniped sarcastically, hands blurring into movement so fast that Yang couldn't even make it out as he began running through a long series of those weird hand-signs. Yang swore that she could almost actually see faint ribbons of blue energy flickering down his arms toward his lungs. Oh hell, if he overcharged whatever he was trying to do again they were screwed.

Before Yang could voice her concern Naruto finished, his hands freezing on one position as he took a deep breath in. "Fūton: Daitoppa!"

What came out of Naruto's mouth could only be described as a tornado, condensed and packed down into a solid wall of wind. The cone of wind slammed into the avian Grimm with the force of a truck, stopping it flat for a few seconds before the Nevermore managed to recover; fighting through the winds to slowly approach them.

It never got the chance. Yang's hair began to flash and flicker as she built up all the aura she could, pushing it down into her arm and into one of her Ember Celia. After a few seconds of charging Yang rushed forward and put all her gathered aura into one fiery blast that rocketed past Naruto.

Yang hadn't believed just how flammable Naruto's wind element attacks were until she saw it now. As soon as the blast entered the wind stream it disappeared, and in its place a massive wave of fire was unleashed. The wave of flame rolled towards the Nevermore and engulfed it entirely, the Grimm shrieking in pain. The heat was so intense that even the fire-attuned huntress had to raise an arm to shelter her face from it, and she could see Naruto's hair beginning to smoke before he broke off the attack and staggered backward.

He swayed for a moment before falling backward limply, panting with exhaustion on the ground. Oops, he hadn't been kidding about her catching him. Oh well.

The fire died out and the Nevermore was visible again. The previously untouchable beast now looked like it was barely alive; large patches of feathers burnt straight through to the charred and blackened skin. It hovered unsteadily in mid-air, giving off a faint confused squawk as it tried to get its bearings. And that was when its death bell tolled, in the form of a sharp crack high above it.

The Nevermore looked up just in time to see its death silhouetted by the sun, descending upon it at great speed. While the Nevermore was distracted and weakened Ruby had jumped from the tower high above it and was now returning to earth rapidly, firing Crescent Rose as fast as she could to speed her descent. The Nevermore tried to move but it was too injured to dodge and Ruby's scythe caught it around the neck, the girl herself flying past the Nevermore and dragging it down with her. A trail of rose petals formed behind them as Ruby activated her semblance, heading straight for the bridge.

With a thud that shook the stone beneath Yang's feet the Nevermore slammed into the central bridge, coming to a sudden and brutal stop. Ruby, and the Nevermore's head, kept falling into the abyss. Ruby tumbled uncontrollably away from the decapitated head, and just as it seemed she was going to fall to her death Blake appeared right on time. The black-haired girl swung down on Gambol Shroud's ribbon, catching Ruby under her arm and launching the two of them back toward safety.

There was a stunned silence on the bridge as the girls finally got the chance to admire the enormity of the Nevermore now that it was still. The dissolving corpse took up the entirety of the bridge ahead and any one of them could have comfortably crawled into its windpipe and had plenty of space to move about.

The silence was broken by a hacking coughing sound and Yang turned around to see Naruto being helped to his feet by Ren, though he moved away from the other boy and staggered toward them with his head drooping down. Yang tensed uncomfortably as she remembered exactly who, what, she was looking at and he made the odd noise again. That was until she realised that he was - through what sounded like one hell of a sore throat - laughing. The three stared at him as he finally lifted his head, revealing a wide grin and a twinkle in his eyes.

"That," he croaked, spitting a small wad of blood to the side, "was fucking awesome."

The auditorium filled with a polite applause as Team CRDL moved away from the stage; a mismatched collection of teachers, older students and reporters gathering to watch the ceremonial welcoming of this year's new Beacon trainees.

"Weiss Schnee, Pyrrha Nikos-" The applause briefly became thunderous as Ozpin's voice echoed through the speakers and Beacon's two celebrity students came forward. Weiss stepped up and played the crowd with a practised ease, flashing them a bright smile and a brief curtsy as she took to the stage. The reaction of the crimson-haired girl behind her was more taciturn, but Pyrrha was obviously used to the attention as well. "- Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie." Ozpin finished, the remaining pair taking to the stage.

Small portraits bearing their images began to arrange themselves on the screen behind Ozpin. "The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team SNVR," he began, pronouncing the team 'Silver', "Led by… Weiss Schnee." Weiss' smile was radiant and she gave Ozpin another curtsy before turning to lead her team off the stage. Ozpin's eyes slid to the last four students remaining.

"And finally; Ruby Rose, Naruto Uzumaki," Once again a wave of attention spread through the hall as the first pair were named and took to the stage. The clapping was muted though, and almost overpowered by poorly hushed whispers and the popping of camera flashes. Naruto had the feeling that he would be fighting with Weiss for top position in tomorrow's newspaper and kept his face as neutral as he could, fighting to not give them anything to use against him. "- Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward you will work together as Team RUBY, led by… Ruby Rose."

The applause from the audience finally picked up as Beacon's youngest huntress stood there with a stunned smile on her face, until a yellow blur raced past Naruto and grabbed her in a bone crushing hug. Naruto gave the pair a small smile and patted Ruby's back as the redhead tried to pry herself free from Yang's deadly embrace.

As Team RUBY stepped away from the stage Naruto could swear he felt Ozpin's eyes lingering on him, and he just heard the man mutter something as he stepped away from the microphone.

"It looks like this will be an interesting year."

A/N: And that's the initiation! It's been fun to write, but I'm also now looking forwards to bringing in more of the original elements I've got planned. My plan isn't to disregard canon entirely with this story, but to pick and choose the bits which work and are appropriate and meld them into the original story I've cooked up.

As an aside, wow! In just four chapters and a little less than three weeks this has gotten forty reviews and gone over the hundred favorite milestone (Closer to a hundred and fifty now)! You guys rock!

Jutsu Glossary:



Fūton: Daitoppa - Wind Release: Great Breakthrough

Ninjutsu - C Class

The user takes a deep breath and then releases a conical blast of wind from their mouth. Can vary greatly in size and intensity depending on how much chakra is used.

Fūton: Mikazuki no Ha - Wind Release: Crescent Blade



Ninjutsu - C Class

The user takes a deep breath and compresses the air inside their mouth, releasing it as one big or several small crescent shaped blades.

