-Last Time-
Having an idea what was bothering him, Nora nodded her head slowly while raising her blanket high enough for him to quickly crawl under and snuggle comfortably with her. Soon he was curled up against her stomach and chest with her chin resting atop his head while his tails loosely wrapped themselves around the both of them, already rapidly falling asleep in her arms. "Goodnight Naruto," She murmured into his ear as he nuzzled into her neck.
"…goo…nigh… kaa…chan…zzzz,"
…
[Good, I will also be sending project P.E.N.N.Y early to act as backup. I'm not taking any chances; this target is far too dangerous to allow it to fall into the enemy hands. Over and out.] The screen shut off, leaving Winter completely alone.
"Trust me Ironwood," Winter muttered softly while raising her scarred hand up to eye level as it started glowing a soft blue. That glow then traveled to the palm of her hand as a large shard of ice suddenly formed and started floating above it. "I know exactly how important this mission is."
-And Now-
Nora quietly groaned in boredom, idly petting Naruto's head as he sat on her lap fast asleep, as she and her team listened to Professor Port as he droned on about one of his 'grand adventures from his youth'. It had been two weeks since she'd been made Naruto's official caretaker and three days since classes had been resumed.
During those weeks, the orangette and blonde-redhead had spent much of that time bonding, mostly by pulling more pranks across the academy. Though none of them were even close to as extreme as covering the entire school in colored mud vomit (which Weiss still turn green whenever mentioned) they were still irritating enough to drive poor Prof. Goodwitch up the wall. Especially when they made the horrible mistake of pranking her directly.
-Flashback, a week ago-
"GET BACK HERE YOU DELINQUENTS!" Glynda yelled as she chased the screaming duo of mischief makers. The reason for the busty blonde professor's was blatantly obvious as she charged down the hallways of beacon. All of her clothes were currently dyed a bright neon purple and her hair a deep scarlet.
"You'll never take us alive!" Nora called back dramatically as she scooped Naruto up into her arms before jumping out an open window and going into a three-story freefall. (Un)fortunately, before they even made it halfway down, an invisible force suddenly yanked them right back up. It pulled them through the window and deposited them at Glynda's feet.
"…uhhh, mercy?"
-End Flashback-
There was no mercy, no mercy at all. Nora and Naruto agreed that day to NEVER pull a prank on the strict professor ever again.
Another thing that was agreed on was that Naruto would be looked after by the teachers while Nora was in Combat class or on dangerous field trips. The only exception to this being Dr. Oobleck after a certain accident the day before.
-Flashback, two days ago-
Naruto was sitting in Dr. Oobleck's office with an awed expression on his face as the coffee addicted teacher told him some of the various myths and legends of Remnant, slideshow included.
"…and thus the third maiden said with a smile 'My name is Summer, I am on a journey and am waiting for my sister!'" Dr. Oobleck said at a ridiculous speed while sipping from his thermos and flipping through various pictures.
"Oooh! What happened next? What happened next?!" Naruto asked excitedly as he bounced in his seat.
"Ah! It is so refreshing to see the youth of this generation so interested in the worlds diverse culture and history!" The green-haired teacher said with a smile. He was about to continue his tale but was interrupted by his scroll suddenly ringing on his desk. Setting his thermos/main weapon down, he picked up the small device and quickly looked at the number before sighing. "Excuse me for a moment, I need to take this," He said, oddly missing some of his usual enthusiasm as he walked over to the corner of the room and answered. "Hello mother…"
"Bartholomew Oobleck! Do you remember what was last week?! I'll tell you what! My birthday!" While the unusually calm teacher was being chewed out by his mother, he missed as Naruto climbed out of his seat and wandered over to the desk, his eyes locked on Dr. Oobleck's steaming thermos.
"I am sorry mother but I have to get going. I'll make it up with you."
"Barty! Don't you dare think about-" *Click*
Bartholomew sighed in exasperation as he looked at the call ended screen for a few moments before collapsing the device and stuffing it into his pocket. Taking a few deep breaths, the doctor seemed to pep back up and turned around, ready to continue his previous tale. "Now! Where was… I…" He immediately trailed off as a look of dawning horror crossed his face at the sight before him.
*Gulp, Gulp, Gulp* "Pah! This is really yummy! Can I have some more?" Naruto asked after he finished downing the entirety of the thermos's contents in one go. Before Prof. Oobleck could respond though, the boy suddenly froze up as his tails started twitching at a rapid pace. His pupils grew so large that his irises were practically gone as a giant grin crossed his lips.
-End Flashback-
It was utter chaos.
Turns out that Prof. Oobleck preferred Vacuo dark brew, which has almost triple the amount of caffeine as regular coffee.
It took Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and half the teachers of Beacon nearly four hours to finally capture the hopped-up child and keep him restrained until the high wore off. Oh, the mayhem he caused in that time, people were still trying to figure out how he managed to superglue team CRDL to the ceiling without them realizing it.
Another thing of note was how Naruto had adjusted to living at beacon during those two weeks. During the first few days, he'd acted somewhat shy or nervous whenever around to many people, mostly when they were ones he didn't know. He would become jittery and jumpy, his eyes constantly darting around looking for danger. At first everyone had assumed he was just a little nervous around new people, but when it started getting worse and he even began mentioned having headaches, team JNPR immediately took Naruto to professional help.
Thankfully, after a thorough check-up with Professor Peach they learned that exactly what the issue was.
-Flashback, week and a half ago-
Nora and Ren sat next to each-other inside a moderate-sized office, the latter doing his best to keep the former calm as Professor Peach before them sifted through an extra-large tablet scroll. Prof. Peach was a young woman in her late twenties with tan skin and short, light pink hair. Her clothes looked to be an odd combination between a scientist and nurse outfit, with a tight white jacket that went down to her mid-thigh with peach buttons, black shorts, thigh high black boots, black gloves that almost reached her shoulders, and a pair of safety glasses. (Appearance based on fan-art I found online)
Naruto himself could be seen just outside, peering through a glass window curiously as Pyrrha held him in her arms.
Several minutes of awkward silence passed before the professor finished what she was doing and finally spoke. "Miss Valkyrie, please relax, I assure you that little Naruto is doing just fine."
"Really?" Nora asked as her head perked up, smiling widely when she got a nod from the fruit-named teacher. "Hah! I told you there was nothing wrong with my kid!" The orangette cheered, Ren not even blinking as she got right in his face. Her celebration was cut short however when the professor cleared her throat loudly.
"I never said there wasn't anything wrong, only that he is doing okay for now." In the blink of an eye, Nora was back in her seat, a worried expression spread across her face as she began firing questions faster than a minigun shoots bullets. Unfortunately, she was oblivious to the fact she was completely unintelligible to the other two occupants of the room until Ren covered her mouth with his hand.
"What's the diagnosis professor?" He asked, ignoring the tongue that was poking his hand.
"I assume both of you know what the fight or flight response is, correct?" Prof. Peach asked, getting a pair of nods in response while she held out her scroll for them to see. On it was a 3D video of a brain with various parts of it lit up in shades of red, yellow, green, and blue that played in a continuous loop. "This here is a neural scan I had done on the boy during his exam that mapped out his current brain activity at the time. Now, see this section right here?"
She circled a small section of the image with her finger that was almost constantly bright yellow with hints of red occasionally flaring up. "That is the part of the brain that controls that function."
"And I'm guessing it shouldn't look like that or something." Ren said, making the pink-haired professor nod.
"You would be correct, normally that part of the brain is mostly dormant until a person is in a situation their mind registers as dangerous and/or scary. Yet, as you can see, little Naruto's here is constantly active for some reason." Prof. Peach said.
Tired of being muted, Nora finally wrenched Ren's hand off her lips with a grunt and shoving him away. "What causes that? Is it bad? Please tell me it isn't bad!" She pleaded, her hands clasped together like she was praying.
She continued to rant and beg for several minutes before Prof. Peach cleared her throat again, regaining her attention. "As I was saying, the activity was extremely unusual so I had the area thoroughly examined." She swiped her finger across the scroll, causing the brain video to be replaced with a picture of the top of Naruto's head, judging by the blonde hair, where a thin scar could be seen. "From what I can tell, the poor kid hit his head on something, and pretty hard at that. This in turn resulted in cerebral contusion and edema … bruising and swelling to his brain." She simplified after seeing the lost expression on Nora's face, making the teen gasp.
She was about to start freaking out again when Prof. Peach cut her off with a raised hand. "Luckily, it is very minor case this time, and as such is very simple to treat."
-End Flashback-
In the end, all that Naruto needed was a some shots of medication that reduced the swelling and a few days of bed rest. When it was over, Naruto was almost like an entirely new boy! Where he was once energetic but somewhat withdrawn and nervous, the faunus child now pretty much acted like a mini-Nora, much to the orange-haired girl's glee and the rest of team JNPR's dawning horror.
*RING* Nora was broken from her thoughts as the final bell of the day tolled, finally making the portly professor stop talking as most of his students rushed for the door. The sudden commotion also ended up causing Naruto to stir as his head slowly raised from its resting spot against her chest with a cute yawn. "Is it over yet, Kaa-chan?" He asked tiredly while rubbing his eyes.
"Yep, it sure is," Nora said happily, patting Naruto on the head before lifting him onto her shoulders while she stood up. Ever since that first night in their new room, Naruto had taken to calling her Kaa-chan (Mother), and it had yet to fail at bringing a smile to her face. "Now let's get going, otherwise you and Penny are going to miss your little date." She said in a teasing tone, earning a cheer from her oblivious passenger as they waved goodbye to Prof. Port.
After a brisk walk through the many hallways of Beacon, the duo separated from the rest of Team JNPR once they arrived at their dorm. Upon opening the door though, Nora and Naruto were greeted with the sight of Winter sitting at a table situated in the middle of the room meticulously cleaning her weapon, and an orange haired girl that wasn't Nora. The girl was wearing a simple greyish-white dress under grey female overalls with green stripes, a black and green collar around her throat with matching stockings, and a large pink bow atop her head that was slightly askew.
While Winter simply gave them a passing glance and a quick greeting before focusing back on her swords, her companion stood up and wave to them a little overenthusiastically. "Salutations friends, how was your day?" She asked.
"The same as usual, boring with a capital boring," Nora said, plopping down on her bed while Naruto hopped off her shoulders and gave the strange girl a hug before tugging her towards the door. "Come on Penny-obachan, you promised you'd take me out for ramen and ice-cream after boring time!" He said in an excited tone, before he ended up tumbling to the floor when the now named Penny's arm suddenly popped off, revealing the glowing green machinery inside.
Penny Polendina, also known as F.A. Unit #001 or Project P.E.N.N.Y., was a fully autonomous and self-sentient combat gynoid (proper term according to Modern Dictionary 2017) capable of using Aura, and the very first of her kind. She had been sent to Beacon Academy as backup for one Officer Winter Schnee during her long-term mission of protecting the primary objective/target, aka Naruto.
Originally, she wasn't supposed to be taken to Beacon till a few weeks before the Vytal Festival, which was still months away, as that was when she was scheduled to be finished being built. However, due to the unexpected outcome of Winter's original mission of retrieving the blonde-redhead child, her production had been put into overdrive and completed much early.
Naturally however, this ended up with the unfortunate extra that her builders fucked some things up in their rush. Thankfully, Ruby's love of all things related to weapons translated over well with advanced robotics and she had been helping with any issues that cropped up… Except for the arm that kept falling off, for some reason that one continued to stump the leader of team RWBY.
As for when Penny first met Naruto…
-Flashback, six days ago-
Naruto stood at the bullhead docks with Nora, an adorable confused expression spread across his face as he stared at a fidgeting Penny standing next to Winter-neechan. The soldier had just finished introducing the robot girl to him and now they were waiting to see how he reacted to her.
Penny felt the most nervous she'd ever had in her whole four days of being active as the silence around her dragged on. Was she supposed to say something? Or maybe do something? Would they dislike her cause she wasn't actually a real girl? 'Oh I must look like a complete idiot right now!' She thought, wringing her hands as she gazed at the ground in front of her while occasionally looking up at the two people before her.
Meanwhile, Naruto was now looking between the new lady and Nora, more specifically their hair, very closely before his seven-year-old mind came up with the best conclusion it could. "…Oba-chan?" He asked with his head tilted cutely.
-End Flashback-
Having not felt like going through a long, drawn out explanation that the young boy would most likely not understand, Nora and Winter just let Naruto think that Penny was Nora's sister and thus his new aunt.
It was a decision neither had regretted.
The duo had almost immediately hit it off, with Naruto greatly enjoying his new 'Penny-obachan', constantly wanting her to hang out with him and Nora whenever she could. The robot girl herself loved how open and accepting he was of her, especially when her arm was accidentally pulled off for the first time. Instead of freaking out at the sight of wiring and circuitry, Naruto had simply been concerned for her health and making that he hadn't accidentally hurt her.
The only real downside was how Coco, Yang, and even occasionally Nora herself would make small cracks about her and Naruto's relationship being more than just adopted Nephew and Aunt.
-Mini-Flashbacks-
"Oh, who would have known that our little boy would be such a lady's man already! First Velvet and now this little cutie, I'm so proud!" Coco said with a sniffle, pretending to wipe her eyes with a tissue as she hugged a baffled Naruto to her bosom, completely ignoring the bunny faunus's cry of indignation.
-Static-
"Guess he's into young women then huh? Do I have to keep an eye on you while you're around my adorkable little sis then?" Yang asked jokingly, a Cheshire grin on her lips before a massively blushing Ruby started pummeling her in embarrassment.
-Mini-Flashback end-
Each time, poor defenseless Penny was quickly reduced to a sputtering mess while Naruto was just left confused thanks to his innocence.
Anyway, back to the present, Penny couldn't help the small giggle that escaped her lips as she helped Naruto back up to his feet with her good arm before taking back her missing limb and reattaching it. "Don't worry, I haven't forgotten," She said in her usual upbeat manner, "I even invited Ruby to join us, she'll be meeting us at the bullhead docks." Truthfully, Penny had to invite Ruby since she wasn't allowed out by herself yet.
…
What? She was technically barely two weeks old, so she kinda, sort of, maybe, needed a babysitter.
"Then what are we waiting for?!" Naruto said excitedly as he got behind Penny and started pushing her out the door at a surprising speed, leaving small gouges in the floor where the robot girl's feet were dragging against it. She barely had time to say a quick goodbye to her friends before they vanished out the doorway.
*Sigh* "They grow up so fast," Nora said, somehow managing to pout and smile at the same time.
-Old-style batman transition with Naruto's face-
Ruby was humming to herself happily, her fingers idly thrumming against the hull as she waited for Naruto and Penny by one of the academy's bullheads. She had headed here right after changing into her combat outfit/casual wear and had been waiting for the last five minutes or so for her friends to show up. She passed that time fantasizing about all the weapon ideas she'd come up with since she started helping Penny with her… maintenance issues.
'I know! A collapsible mini-gun that pops out of her chest! …Nah, that would get in the way of her main systems. Hmmm, oh! Missile launchers that fold into her arms! …No, then she wouldn't be able to use her arms without risking them blowing up.' So deep into her thought, the raven-redhead never noticed as a helmeted head stuck itself out the side of the bullhead she was leaning against.
[Oi!] Ruby nearly jumped out of her skin with a yelp as a static-distorted female voice yelled out right behind her. Swirling around on the ball of her heel, she squeaked softly when she found herself face to helmet with a slightly tall woman wearing a padded silver and grey pilot suit. [Would you stop with the tapping already! It's driving me crazy in here!]
"Sorry!" Ruby said, zipping several feet away from the aircraft at high speed with her semblance. "I didn't mean to upset you! I was just waiting for my friends, I swear!" She said while waving her arms around wildly.
The pilot stared at the freaking out and rambling girl for several moments before palming her covered face with a sigh. [Why do I always get the weird ones,] She grumbled to herself before loudly clearing her throat, making Ruby freeze mid-rant. [Just don't do it anymore, got it?] She stated, getting a rapid nod from the teen before she withdrew back into the bullhead.
Ruby remained tensely nervous for another minute or so, waiting until she was certain that she wasn't in trouble or going to be yelled at by the scary pilot before allowing herself to relax. "Hi Ruby-neechan!" "EEEEK!" Unfortunately for her, it was at that exact moment that Naruto decided to announce his and Penny's presence… which just so happened to be directly behind the cloak wearing girl.
"That's not funny, don't do that!" She yelled, half-heartedly glaring at the laughing boy for his little prank.
"Whatcha gonna do about it?" Naruto asked with his tongue stuck out at her playfully.
Instead of responding, Ruby just gave a sickly-sweet smile that caused Naruto to freeze. Faster than the blink of an eye, Ruby was suddenly behind the boy with her hands poised to strike under his armpits. "Tickle monster!" She declared triumphantly as peals of laughter filled the air.
Ruby was relentless, not giving an inch of breathing room during her 'assault'. Not even as she was swiftly cocooned by Naruto's tails until only her wiggling hands were visible. This continued for several minutes until, [Are you idiots planning to get on sometime this week or what?! I ain't got all day you know!] The angry pilot shouted, getting all three of them to jump before scrambling into the bullhead.
[Finally,] The pilot said with a sigh as she started up the vehicle. [Maintenance, this is four-seven-niner heading out for standard scheduled dropoff, estimated return time forty-five minutes. And would somebody get cleanup out here already! There's still puke all over the tarmac from that blonde idiot yesterday!]
While 479er proceeded to chew somebody out on the radio, Penny and Ruby were debating on who was paying for the ramen and the ice-cream. In the end, they had a game of rock, paper, scissors with Ruby bawling anime tears when she lost, meaning she'd pay for the latter…
…not yet knowing of the bullet she just narrowly dodged with that 'loss'.
-End Chapter-