-Last Time-
Intertwining his fingers and resting his chin on then, Ozpin once again looked Nora straight in the eye. "How would you like to be made the boy's official caretaker?"
"…"
"…"
"YES!/WHAT!?"
-And Now-
"Ozpin, this is without a doubt, the stupidest thing you ever done." Glynda told her superior as they watched team JNPR, with the now unbound Nora carrying a still sleeping Naruto, and team RWBY pile into the elevator and head down to RWBY's dorm for the night.
"Is it, Glynda? You know that none of the staff could be spared to watch over him, and even if we could, they'd need to earn the boy's trust. Something Miss Valkyrie seems to have already done." Ozpin said back while raising his mug for another sip.
"And she also has classes to attend to, or have you forgotten about those?" Glynda countered, drawing a sigh from the headmaster, or it could have been from the fact his cup was empty.
"I am well aware that this isn't perfect solution Glynda, but it is the best I have to work with. Now it's late, and I know how much you want to go get some sleep, so how about we hear the rest of Qrow's report and be done with this night."
"About time, was starting to think you two lovebirds had forgotten about me," Qrow quipped, drawing an annoyed groan from the tired blonde.
"Alright, then how about you explain how we got into this whole mess in the first place Qrow."
"Oi! It wasn't my fault he wandered off, I put enough tranquilizer in that dust crate to knock him out for three days." Qrow said back, "His damn primary semblance is much more powerful than I thought." Yes, he said primary semblance.
Somehow, the boy had two semblances, something that should be impossible as a semblance was the SINGULAR manifestation of one's aura and soul based on a key aspect of a person. The fact he had two was a phenomenon that only drew in more attention to the lad, and gave Ozpin a very good idea of what the kid really was based on the information that had been collected about the Elemental Nations.
"His semblance is Adaptation, of course you should have seen that sedatives wouldn't work long on him." Glynda scolded, jabbing the man in the chest with her riding crop for emphasis. Qrow shoved the blonde professor back with huff as he took a long swig from his flask.
"Three… days… worth! How was I supposed to know it'd only last two hours!?" Qrow demanded as he got right in the woman's face.
"Enough you two, Qrow back to the report." Ozpin said in a stern tone, getting the squabbling duo to break apart. "What of the situation at the veil?" Qrow just sighed as he pulled out his scroll and hooked it up to Ozpin's desk.
"Mostly the same shit, three more attack vessels from the Mist, Stone, and Cloud respectively crossed and were almost immediately sunk. No survivors." Video of the aftermath of said ships played out. "Negotiations with said villages is still going horribly, especially Mist since they are practically centimeters from breaking out into civil war. The Leaf has agreed to a cease fire due to the Third being reinstated again, and the Sand has withdrawn but refuses to negotiate."
Videos and photos taken high in the air by non-dust powered aerial drones of the Five Great Villages of the Elemental Nations, and reports played out as he talked. Their names seemed pretty accurate, Mist being shrouded in mist, Stone built into mountains, Cloud sitting high into the sky, Leaf surrounded by trees, and Sand was smack dab in the middle of a desert.
Putting his scroll away, Qrow sighed as he rubbed his temple. "I also had a run in with Raven on the way here," Ozpin and Glynda stiffened up at that, "Good news is she isn't trying to kill the annoying brat. Turns out, she didn't have any intention of killing him this whole time."
Ozpin had a feeling he would regret it, but he asked anyway, "And the bad news?"
"She intends to, and I'm quoting her here, 'Turn him into the perfect husband to help rebuild the tribe.'" The sickened/horrified looks on the two professors' faces would have been laughable if it had been in any other situation.
Glynda was the first to recover from her shock as she asked in a disgusted tone. "You don't mean she's seriously planning to-"
"I'm not a religious man, but right now I'm praying to every deity I can think of that she meant that she plans to forcefully hook him up with Temper, cause if not then my sister just became the creepiest person I know." Qrow said with a shiver. And given the number of sickos he'd met during his career that was saying a lot.
"When does she plan to act, and how long till she gets here?" Ozpin asked seriously as his hands turned white from how tightly he was gripping his cane.
"Please, I'd stop drinking for a year if she wasn't already lurking around waiting for her opportunity." Row said, his eyes flickered to one of the windows where he briefly caught site of a small black mass zip past seconds after the two teams had left.
-Tree-
Bright red eyes shimmered lightly through four slits of a terrifying grimm like mask, the wearer of said mask hidden by the branches of a tall tree that gave an unobstructed view into the dorm of Team RWBY.
The person had a curvy figure that screamed woman with long spikey black hair that reached her lower back, wearing a low cut black dress with red shoulders, red armored gauntlets. She had a red girdle belt around her waist, tall black leggings with red splatter patterns, and what looked like a collection of black feathers hanging from her hip. Hanging from her waist was a thick bulky sheath with a sword handle sticking out the front. This was the ever elusive mother of Yang, Raven Branwen
Her gaze was focused solely on the orangette of Team JNPR as she placed the faunus boy onto Ruby's bed getting permission from the young team leader. 'Such a small, weak, and vulnerable looking one, aren't you?' Raven thought as she watched Nora and Ruby climb up on the highly unstable looking bunkbed with the boy and settled in for the night. 'But looks can be very deceiving, oh so very deceiving.'
-Flashback, One year ago-
Raven stood inside a small boat, her mask off revealing a rage filled face almost identical to Yang's with pale skin and deep red eyes. She currently floated just outside of the Veil, waiting in silence as memories of her destroyed Tribe played through her mind.
It had been three months after the Veil's discovery, the Tribe had decided to explore what laid beyond themselves. Acting smart, she had sent a small group of some of her best fighters through ahead to scout out the area. She would have used her semblance to see if it was safe, but ever since the Veil had appeared her ability to see into the future had become distorted and inaccurate.
When they'd gotten the all clear a few hours later, she and the Tribe had passed through... only to find themselves caught in an ambush instantly by ninja wearing blank porcelain masks with an odd symbol on the forehead. She had spotted all but one of the members her scouting party floating dead in the water.
The sole survivor and the one who had radioed the faux all clear was on the enemy ship, clearly gone traitor given by the fact he was directing the enemies where to attack. Even caught off guard like that though, Raven had confidence her tribe would have won, until she made a very bad discovery. Not only did dust not work, which she had prepared for by having her fellow Tribesmen and women switch to non-dust weapons and radios, but neither did aura or semblances.
Before she even realized what was happening, most of the Tribemembers had already been killed and the few remaining quickly falling. The only reason she had gotten out of there alive herself was that her ability to turn into a raven had still worked, though she had managed to cut the head off the bastard who had betrayed her. Though she had noted that the moment she'd done so, one of the masked ninja's heads had fallen off at the same time.
Back to the now, she was back here because she had intercepted a report saying that one of the newly deployed spy drones had spotted a ship full of ninja's wearing the exact same masks were headed straight for the Veil. So she would wait for them, and make them pay for every drop of blood tenfold.
Seeing the telltale distortion, Raven drew her weapon, an odachi like blade that was somehow double the length of its scabbard and currently shining a light blue. Swinging the blade at high speed twice, the ice dust coated blade created a thick fog just as a large wooden ship pierced through the Veil.
Turning into her raven form, she stealthily landed upon the ship and silently observed as many of the masked bastards collapsed from pain and started turning into faunus only to be swiftly and mercilessly executed. It actually slightly disturbed her of all people how casually and methodically these men had just killed their own. If it wasn't for the fact she could see the blood staining the deck, she would be convinced they were simply disguised Atlassian robot soldiers.
Moving on from this, she was just about to descend upon them when she and the ninja tensed when loud screaming suddenly burst out from the middle of the deck. Whatever was causing it had to be important, since every one of the masked men rushed towards the source with her following.
What she saw upon arriving though, confused the transformed woman greatly. The screaming was coming from a small blonde child, maybe five or six years old, with blue eyes and whisker like marks across his cheeks that was locked inside a large cage with several dozen slips of paper with more odd writing plastered all over it. The cause of his screaming came apparent as an explosion of blood and skin shot from his backside, revealing nine blood soaked tails that flung around erratically.
"Get Danzo-Sama! Tell him the weapon is attempting to escape and the seals aren't working!" One of the masked ninja yelled as he and several others kept slapping more of those papers onto the cage.
"Don't bother, I'm already here." A cold, even voice said as an elderly man exited the main cabin. He was wearing a long white robe with red highlights and an odd hat with a similar color scheme. More than half of his face was covered in bandages that he was slowly removing as he approached the caged boy. Pealing back the last wrap, he opened his once covered eyelid to reveal a charcoal black eye that he proceeded to stare at the child that looked back at him pitifully as he whimpered in pain.
"Sir? Why are you not activating the Sharigan?" The same masked ninja from before asked when nothing seemed to happen after a minute or so.
"What do you mean activate? It should be active!" Danzo said in confused frustration as he backed away.
Tired of just watching, and seeing the apparent leader of these men, Raven dove down at the man, changing back to her human form as she swiftly redrew her blade. She was surprised slightly when the elderly man was able to react swiftly enough to turn around and draw up a kunai to block her sword, but quickly switched to satisfaction as her sword cleaved straight through both the smaller blade and the man with ease.
"Danzo-Sama!" The men yelled as they watched their leader flop to the ground, split from left shoulder to right hip. Not wasting a second, a now masked Raven dashed between the men, not giving them any time to collect themselves. In less than a minute, every masked ninja above deck was laying on the ground in pieces.
About to move on to the lower decks, Raven paused when she felt a small hand grab onto her ankle. "Please… help…" The boy was barely able to rasp out between whimpers, though not entirely from his hind end if the red glow coming from his stomach was anything to go by, as he stared straight into her partially hidden eyes.
Normally, Raven would have ignored such a plea, due to her belief that the strong survive and the weak die. But she found herself mildly impressed, most full grown men would have either died, passed out, or be screaming their heads off from the pain of such an injury, and yet this kid was only barely whimpering.
Deciding to give him one and only one chance, she sliced the front of the cage apart using a burn dust blade before walking off. "Thank… you…" She barely heard him say, but didn't acknowledge that she did as she marched down into the lower deck, killing everyone she came across.
When she reappeared on the higher deck, she was greeted with the sight of two dozen or so masked ninja with their hands already in motion. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" They yelled in unison as Raven braced herself for the coming attack, only to show mild surprise when nothing happened at all.
'So their abilities don't work on this side just like mine don't on theirs,' Raven quickly deduced with a smirk as she prepared to engage another in another bout.
"RRAAAAHH!" Both parties froze as the devastating roar shook the ship and a huge amount of pressure fell over them. Raven actually found herself breathing heavily as a feeling of dread and danger washed over her. Slowly turning her head towards the source, Raven had a moment in her life where she would truthfully admit she was completely flabbergasted at what she saw.
They young boy she had released earlier was currently standing on all fours, a snarl set on his lips revealing elongated fangs, his whisker like markings were thicker and more prominent, a deep crimson glow shining brightly from his stomach, his new tails standing at end behind him, and his eyes had turned a deep glowing scarlet with slit like pupils that were just barely seeable past his eyes bright glow.
This wasn't what had her speechless.
That was thanks to the ten foot tall, dark orangish-red transparent construct of a slightly blobby looking fox with nine tails currently tearing apart everything in sight the boy was situated inside of. Raven was jogged from her stupor as the ship shook again, this time from whatever the hell that thing was tearing a chunk off the side of the boat and using it to squish several ninjas into paste.
Taking this as her que to leave, Raven turned into her raven form and took off into the air and watched the carnage from a safe distance. Whatever had happened to that boy, it made him entirely ruthless as he literally tore that ship apart with minimal effort, killing every single living thing on board.
Just as the ship was most of the way sunk though, the construct froze up as the boy started clutching at his stomach in sudden discomfort. Watching in silence, she released a 'caw!' of surprise when glowing golden chains phased out of his torso and wrapped themselves around him, construct and all. The aura fox struggled desperately to escape its bindings as it shrank at a rapid pace as the chains constricted it, before it howled in dismay as it dispersed into particles of red aura.
The chains continued to constrict around the flailing child, tightening more and more until they seemed to be absorbed into the boy's skin. After that, the boy instantly stopped struggling and collapsed into a limp pile. The glow from his stomach finally stopped and red highlights suddenly formed on the ends of his hair
Raven was pondering if she should check to see if he was still alive when the ship finally fell apart and sank, with the boys.
-End Flashback-
She had spent the several hours looking for him after that only to come up with nothing, she'd assumed he'd been eaten by some form of aquatic grimm and left. Then a few months later, she heard of a supposed 'Grimm Bringer Child' with an alarmingly similar description wandering around from village to village.
Remembering the sheer amount of power that child had at his fingertips, Raven could think of no other better suited to help bring about the rebuilding of her Tribe. Unfortunately, lacking the usual resources she was used to, it took her nearly six months to track the brat down and by then Qrow, Salem, and Ironwood were all after him as well for a plethora of reasons.
Ironwood wasn't much of an issue as he simply had a capture on sight order and Naruto had very rarely gone near any place the general's soldiers were. Salem and her little posse were also irritating, but Naruto was luckily not too high of a priority to the witch so they weren't that much of an issue.
Qrow was the biggest annoyance, until recently he'd been convinced she wanted to kill the boy and had spent a good deal of time diverting her away from him while not letting her explain until recently. Though, given his reaction, she wasn't sure if that was much of an improvement.
'But none of that matters now. I will get what I want in the end, because only the strong survive." Raven thought as she finally broke her gaze away and turned away, vanishing into a black and red portal she had formed with a slash of her blade.
-End Chapter-