-Team JNPR Bathroom-
"That should keep them out," Nora said happily as she finished barricading the door with everything she could find, which wasn't easy considering she was still wrapped up in Naruto's tails as he clung to her side. The bathroom itself was moderately sized, with a large tub/shower that had a variety of shampoos, conditioners, soaps, and body washes.
The toilet sat to the left with a fluffy pink seat cover, a sink on the right with a large mirror and multiple toothbrushes, and the cabinet for towels and such which had been moved in front of the door. The barricade was quickly put to the test as the door shook from heavy knocking. "Nora! Come out here so we can talk about this like reasonable adults!" Pyrrha's voice rang through the door.
"No! If we take Naruto to the cops, they'll put him in an orphanage! And you know what's been happening to the faunus in those!" Nora said adamantly.
"Hey! That was put to a stop!" Weiss's voice called back, though it didn't hold her usual sass and conviction in it. Six months ago, a board member of the Schnee Dust Company had been caught and arrested for smuggling faunus children out of orphanages and into dust mines to act as cheap labor.
It had been a huge blow to the company's image, with dozens of news sources spreading the debacle across the four kingdoms. Not to mention it sent the White Fang into a frenzy as many members of the now terrorist organization retaliated almost immediately. Nearly a hundred suicide bombings had been committed on SDC property, with almost two dozen managing to hit the Schnee Manor itself.
Jacques Schnee, the current president of the SDC, managed to spin himself off as a victim, claiming to have no clue to what his subordinate had been doing. Even allowing the police to thoroughly investigate the matter, but still left much bad publicity for the company to deal with.
"Okay, I get your reluctance Nora! But we still have to notify the authorities! You'll be sent to jail if you try to keep Naruto without doing so!" Ren's voice spoke this time as he tried to reason with his oldest friend.
"Ren, I trust your opinion on a lot of things, but I'm sticking with my decision with this!"
When she finished speaking, Nora gently shook Naruto causing him to stir. "Zzzz… wha…" Groggily waking up, his tails quickly unwound themselves as he moved to rub his eyes, only not falling to the floor thanks to Nora grabbing onto him as he started to slide down. "Orange lady? It's too *Yaaawn* too early …five more minutes." He started to drift back to sleep but Nora gave him another shake causing him to give her a cute glare as his cheeks puffed out.
"Sorry little foxy, but you need a bath." Nora told him causing him to drop his glare in favor of a pout. Setting him onto the toilet with the seat down, she giggled softly as he continued to pout before tapping his nose with her finger. "Boop!"
She giggled much louder at the boy's baffled expression, before going over to the tub and turning on the faucet. Running the water over her hand until it was at the right temperature, she popped the plug in and let the tub start filling as she dropped in a lavender bath bomb, which quickly filled it with purple tinged bubbles.
*Bang, Bang, Bang* Come on Nora! You really need to open this door right now!" This time it was Jaune who spoke, "…We have panca-"
"JAUNE! I WILL BREAK BOTH YOUR LEGS IF YOU DON'T SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!"
"Y-y-y-yes M-m-m-Ma'am!" You do not use her favorite food against her like that… ever.
Seeing the confused expression on Naruto's face, Nora simply said, "My friends are being stupid." Before turning the tap off since the tub was full and going back to the boy. "Now come on, time to get you out of those dirty clothes." Grabbing the bottom of his shirt, it was an easy matter of pulling it over his head and off, re-revealing the large black sun-like tattoo that covered the majority of his stomach.
The pants on the other hand were a much bigger issue. Turns out that almost the entirety of the upper half of the back of his shorts were gone so that his tails could fit through without issue. This also meant she had to go through the tedious process of pulling each tail out one at a time, though it was interesting for her to see how all his tails were seemingly compacted together at their base into a single mass, about five inches or so wide, that connected them to his backside. When she did, she pulled his shorts and boxers off, cringing slightly as the horrible odor from built up sweat and dried crap wafted into her nose, and dropping them into a pile with his shirt.
Lifting the now naked child off the toilet, she brought him over to the tub and slowly set him into the water, noting how his expression changed from dread to surprise, then into confusion before settling on relaxed. 'By his reaction, he was probably expecting it to be freezing cold,' She thought with a small frown as she grabbed a small wash rag, lathered it up, and started scrubbing. The more she learned about this kid, the more pity she felt for him.
Psychologist she may not be, but to be an effective fighter, one had to be able to get a read on a person quickly and Naruto was practically an open book for her. He was clearly an orphan, likely starved for attention based on the way he trusted her so fast despite just meeting, and judging by the faint lines of discolored skin she was finding all over his body as she washed the dirt off and his barely suppressed flinching, abused.
Scrubbing his cheeks clean, her frown grew deeper as she found more tattoos underneath all the dirt and grime. Three thin parallel lines were situated on each cheek, giving him the appearance of having whiskers. She had no idea what the sun tattoo was for, but she could guess the whiskers were there as a kind of taunt towards the boy to make him feel even less human.
Shaking off the dark thoughts for now, Nora smiled as she intentionally tickled his belly while washing it, getting Naruto to giggle loudly as he squirmed. "Hahahahaha! Stop it, hahah, that, haha, that tickles!"
"Never!" Dropping the rag, she started tickling him with a renewed fury, getting loud squeals of laughter from him. So focused on tickling the blonde, Nora forgot about his nine extra appendages until one wrapped itself around her waist causing her to pause.
"… …Uh-oh." *Splash*
The tail yanked her into the tub, splashing water all over the room as she went under. Resurfacing a few seconds later, she spat out the soapy water caught in her mouth before getting tackled by the fox-boy. "Revenge!" This time, Nora was the one laughing like crazy as Naruto managed to get his small hands under her armpits and start wiggling his fingers against the ticklish areas.
Flailing around wildly, Nora just managed to grasp Naruto by the waist and pull him off of her. "Okay, that's enough goofing around for now, gotta finish getting you cleaned up," Nora said as she placed the boy down on the opposite side of the tub, facing him away from her. Nora grabbed a pink bottle of shampoo in one hand while gently grasping one of the multiple tails with the other, noting to herself how the boy stiffened up slightly from the contact. She made sure the entire tail was soaked with water before squeezing a decent amount of shampoo onto the fluffy limb and started lathering it up.
Repeating the process with the other eight tails and his hair, Nora tossed the now empty bottle into the trash as she stood up and pulled the plug, allowing the water to drain from the tub as she switched on the shower. Grabbing the shower head, she pulled it off the wall revealing the long, retractable hose as she quickly rinsed herself off before kneeling down to Naruto's height.
After making sure to thoroughly wash off all of the shampoo, she reattached the shower head to the wall, switched it off, and grabbed a bottle of conditioner. "This will have to sit for a little bit, so try not to move too much, okay?" She explained while rubbing the oily substance onto his head, getting a slow nod.
'Hmm, wonder why the other haven't tried anything yet.' Nora thought as she waited for the conditioner to work, occasionally glancing at the blocked door. She had honestly expected them to try and knock the door down by now and yet it had been completely quie-
*CRASH* "What the hell!?"
Nora and Naruto nearly jumped out of their skin as the sound of breaking glass and yelling echoed in from the other room.
-Team JNPR Bedroom, Fifteen minutes earlier-
Jaune banged on the bathroom door as everyone else minus Yang and Ruby stood behind him. "Come on Nora! We really need you to open this door right now!" He yelled, only to be met with silence. "…we have panca-!"
"JAUNE! I WILL BREAK BOTH OF YOUR LEGS IF YOU DO NOT SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!"
"Y-y-yes M-m-m-m-Ma'am!" Jaune stuttered out, backing away from the door so fast that he bumped into one of the beds and fell over.
"I told you that would not work." Ren said with a dull look as he watched Pyrrha help the floundering blonde to his feet.
"Well it was the only idea I had left. Now what do we do?" Jaune asked.
"We could break the door down." Yang suggested while walking in the room, Ember Celica now on her wrists, Ruby right behind her with Crescent Rose in its compact state.
"No, we can't," Weiss said. "All the doors are reinforced for safety and privacy. You'd risk hurting the child to do so." Yang and Ruby deflated at this.
"Awwww, sorry Cressy, no fun for you tonight," Ruby told her weapon with a pout as she down on Nora's bed and started rocking it like a baby, not noticing the odd looks she was getting from everyone except Yang.
"Maybe we should say we have pan-"
"Already tried that, didn't end well." Jaune cut the bodacious blonde off, getting her to snap her fingers.
Everyone paused as they heard laughter and splashing coming from the bathroom. For a minute or so, they just sat/stood there in silence as they heard the happy squeals. Pyrrha was the first one to snap back to reality, sighing to herself as she walked over to her bed and grabbed her scroll. This action snapped the rest of the group out of their trance and made them all look to her as she started rifling through her contacts.
"Uh, Pyrrha, what are you doing?" Ruby asked.
"What we should have done from the start, I'm calling Professor Goodwitch and reporting this."
"At three o'clock in the morning?" Blake asked in her normal casually sarcastic tone while glancing at the clock hanging on the wall.
"I'm sure she'll understand once I explain the situation." Pyrrha said firmly as she found the teacher's number and hit the call button.
*riiiiing* … *riiiing*
Everyone found themselves watching with baited breath as the scroll rang. Seconds crawled by as each ring sounded out. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, there was a soft clicking as the scroll connected and Glynda's face appeared on screen. "Hello, 'Glynda Goodwitch' is currently unable to answer at the moment. Please leave a message after the beep." *Beep* "Message box is full."
"Damn it," Pyrrha grumbled as she closed the scroll and plopped onto her bed. "Well, Professor Goodwitch is a very busy person, she's probably just enjoying a good nights rest as we speak."
-With Glynda-
"OF ALL THE BONE HEAD, DUMBASS, IDIOTIC THINGS YOU COULD HAVE DONE! YOU LOST HIM!?" Glynda yelled as she towered over the cowering Qrow and Ozpin.
"N-now now, Glynda, t-there i-i-is a per-perfectly reasonable e-e-explanation." Ozpin stuttered with his hands held up in surrender as he tried to pacify his raging subordinate.
"DON'T YOU 'REASONABLE EXPLANATION' THIS! YOU WILL GET OFF YOUR LAZY, HOT COCOA DRINKING ASS, GET OUT THERE, AND FIX THIS MESS RIGHT NOW!"
Without giving either of them a chance to speak again, Glynda flicked her riding crop at them and the two men were sent flying out of the nearest window with a scream. Taking a few deep breathes, the busty blonde teacher heard a slight beeping coming from her pocket and pulled out her scroll to see she had missed a call.
"What in Oum's name does Ms. Nikos need at three o'clock in the morning?" She asked herself before shaking her head and refocusing on the current situation.
-Back to the others-
"Yeah, you're probably right."
"Well, I guess the only thing left is to just wait it out." Yang said while clapping her hands together, and started walking to the door. "I'm going to call it a night for now, not like the solution to this is going to just come waltzing in the door." And she was right, the answer did not come in through the door…
*CRASH* "What the hell!?"
…It came in through the window.
Everyone was baffled as they stared at the two men who had just crashed through Team JNPR's dorm window and onto the floor in a tangled mess of limbs. One everybody recognized immediately as the headmaster of Beacon Academy, Ozpin, while only two of the group knew who the second man was.
"Uncle Qrow!?" Ruby and Yang yelled in sync as the two men untangled themselves and stood up.
"Heya brats, how's it going?" Qrow asked casually, like he didn't just come flying into the room via window, only to get glomped by the two girls as they started talking at the same time.
"What are you doing here?"
"Did you miss me?"
"When did you get here?"
"Are you gonna teach me a new move?"
"You wouldn't believe what happened in the last hour."
"We gotta show you some-!" Qrow covered both of their mouths with his hands, effectively muting them.
"Sorry, would love to stay and chat but me and Ozzy here have a job to do." He told them bluntly before pulling his hands back.
"He is correct," Ozpins said as he dusted himself off and accepted his cane from Pyrrha with a nod of thanks, "We have to get going, but may I ask what you all are doing up at this hour, and why is Ms. Valkyrie not present?"
"She's barricaded in the bathroom, giving a bath to a faunus kid she found on campus and now wants to adopt." Blake told them bluntly getting blinks of surprise.
"…"
"… He wouldn't happen to be about this tall, blonde, nine red tails, and love to eat dust, would he?" Qrow asked while holding his hand at hip height, getting baffled looks from all the teens.
-End Chapter-