-Last Time-
"Hehehe, hey Weiss how's it chilling?" Yang asked rhetorically before breaking out into laughter, completely ignoring the murderous glare her sister's partner was sending both her and Nora. The cold imprisonment didn't last long though, as Winter simple reached over and flicked her frozen sister with a mini gravity glyph over her finger. This sent a pulse of dark purple energy through the ice before it completely disintegrated into powder, leaving a shivering but otherwise unhurt Weiss sitting amongst a newly made pile of snow.
"What is the name of the sitter?" Winter asked calmly, already planning on the thorough background check on the person.
"It's Neopolitan, but she prefers to go by Neo."
-And Now, NNPW Dorm-
"The… h-hungry… kitty… walked… ac-across… the… room… to r-reach… the… bowl… of milk." Naruto was sitting on Winter's lap with a look of concentration on his face as he struggled to read a sentence from the book in her arms titled 'Children Tales for Beginner Readers'.
"Good job little one, you're getting better." Winter said, patting the boy's head while giving him a piece of water dust that he took with a grin. Across the room, Weiss gazed at the scene with a nostalgic smile as she idly handed Ruby, who was currently rummaging around in Penny's torso to fix a leak in her stomach, a plasma dust* welding torch. Her sister had done the exact same thing with her when she had first started learning to read, only instead of dust she had been rewarded with caramel dipped apple slices.
Nora was nowhere to be seen at the moment as she was currently out waiting at the bullhead dock for Neo to show up and babysit Naruto and Penny, something Winter was still not at ease with. She had done a thorough background check on the ice-cream themed girl using specialized tech on her ship to hack into Vale's civilian records* and found… essentially nothing. No known relatives, no school registration, no criminal record, not even an employment history, all she could find was her name, age, and current residence.
The total lack of information put the Schnee heavily on edge, but she also knew that without evidence or due cause she could not voice any complaint. So, she instead set up a multitude of hidden cameras throughout the room and discreetly placed both a tracker at the base of Naruto's tails and more cameras in each of his tail belt gems. All of which was linked directly to her personal scroll, because she took her protection assignments VERY seriously.
"…And this is our dorm!" Speaking of the devil, the door suddenly opened up to reveal a widely smiling Nora and a curious looking Neo carrying a large shoulder bag as they stepped into the room. "It's a little small, but we make d-"
"NEO-CHAN!" The hyper orangette was cut off mid-sentence when a red and yellow blur shot past her and latched onto the bemused mute. "I'm so glad you could come! Now we can hang out and play and pull pranks and…" Naruto rambled on as he wrapped her up in his signature tail-hug, causing Neo to giggle silently as she wiggled her arms free and pulled out her scroll.
[😊I guess he missed me.] She 'said' to the adoptive mother, getting a nod in agreement.
"That he did, that he did." Nora said back while going around and gathering her school supplies. "Well, we must be going. You have my scroll number if you need anything, the vault in the closet with dust if Naruto needs a snack, Penny has the combination." She explained quickly while pointing to the metal box covered in burns and bite marks, then to Penny who was thanking Ruby as the cloaked girl closed everything back up. The safe was a must have for keeping any form of dust nearby while taking care of Naruto, given his uncanny ability to sniff out the valuable crystal and unnatural strength for a child. "Just don't give him too much, that stuff isn't exactly cheap."
Neo responded with a thumbs-up before plopping down on Naruto's bed after said blonde-redhead let her go in favor of giving Nora a goodbye hug. "Come back soon Kaa-chan." He mumbled while pressing his face into her stomach.
"Of course Naruto," Nora said, wrapping Naruto up in her arms and hugging him tightly to her bosom. "I'll be back before dinner, promise. Now don't forget to say goodbye to aunt Ruby and aunt Weiss." She told him, getting a short okay from the boy as he hurried over to the trio on the other side of the room with the youngest talking on her scroll with what looked like an older male version of Yang... all of them unaware of the chaos that was about to be set into motion.
-Five Minutes Earlier, Ruby, Weiss, and Penny-
"Thanks again Ruby, I truly appreciate your assistance in my maintenance." Penny said as the panels for her torso seamlessly closed.
"It's no problem at all Penny," Ruby told the gynoid as she used a rag to wipe the grease and lubricant off her hands. "I mean, how could it BE a problem. Not only do I get to work with some of the most amazing mechanical ingenuity ever, but this has given me soooooooo many ideas on how to improve Cressy as well. I could make her more compact, more powerful, maybe adjust the internal shifting mechanism for faster mode changing and better power efficiency."
By the end, Ruby had devolved into full blown weapon fangirl mode, her eyes practically stars and Crescent Rose held tightly in her arms as she sat down next to her partner and continued to list various ways to improve the already impressive weapon. Weiss was just about to knock her out of it with a slap to the head when the weapon-lover's scroll went off.
Snapping out of her fantasies, Ruby quickly pulled out the device and activated it to reveal the image of a blonde man with blue eyes and the tag 'Dad' under it alongside the incoming call alert. This was Taiyang Xiao Long, father of Ruby and Yang. Surprised, she hit the answer button and smiled when the same man popped up on video with a grin of his own. "Hey dad, what's up?"
[Nothing much Ruby, just checking in to make sure my little cookie monster is doing okay.] Taiyang said, chuckling slightly as Ruby blushed in embarrassment.
"Daaad! How many times do I have to tell you to stop calling me that?!" She cried out as Weiss tried to hold in her laughter while Penny just peered over shoulder curiously. "I'm not a little girl anymore!"
[Hahaha… Sorry sweetie, couldn't help myself. But seriously, how are you? Are you settling into Beacon alright?] He asked.
Shaking off her embarrassment as best she could, Ruby sighed goodheartedly before responding. "Yeah, everything's going fine here, though a little crazier than I had imagined." She said while sending a pointed glance towards Naruto as he was hugging Nora.
[I'm not surprised by that one bit. That academy has always been one big craziness magnet even during my time there.] Taiyang said with another chuckle. [Like during my third year, I had to fight this one chick who had a knife hidden in her p*… er, bra, yeah bra.]
"Really?" Ruby asked honestly, completely missing the little stumble the man had midsentence along with Penny. Weiss on the other hand didn't, and once her mind managed to put two and two together facepalmed with a mild blush across her cheeks. "Hmm, maybe I should try that." Ruby thought aloud as she looked down at her chest, missing the relieved look on Taiyang's face.
[I wouldn't recommend it, Carleen kept cutting herself by accident. So what sort of insanity have you had to deal with so far?] The elder blond asked, clearly trying to change the subject.
Before Ruby could respond though, Naruto climbed onto the bed she was on and started hugging her. "Bye Ruby-obachan," He said, snuggling his cheek next to hers while a VERY confused Taiyang watched.
[Ruby, who is that boy?] The man asked calmly with just a mild touch of concern and suspicion. […And why did he just call you his aunt?]*
"Huh, oh right, dad this is Naruto, Naruto this is… grandpa Taiyang." Ruby introduced in an attempt to make Naruto comfortable with her father… not realizing she'd just made quite possibly the worst decision in her life.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Taiyang became completely still and a look of horror crossed his face. "Hi Jiji! Bye Jiji!" Naruto said happily to the petrified man before going over to Weiss, who was facepalming again, to hug her goodbye just as the image on the screen started cracking before the feed cut out altogether.
"Daddy?" Ruby asked with confused worry as she stared at the static on her screen.
-Xiao Long Residence-
Taiyang stood in the middle of his living room, the horrified expression still locked on his face as he held the broken remains of his scroll in both hands while his dog Zwei, a dopey faced black and white corgi, stood by him sniffing the pieces of glass on the floor curiously. "...grandpa? …aunt?" He muttered to himself as his brain sluggishly processed what he'd heard.
Unfortunately, with the limited and very easily misunderstood information Ruby had given him added with the fact that the boy looked striking like himself and Yang, led him to an extremely mistaken conclusion. "Oh… my… Oum… MY LITTLE SUNFLOWER'S A MOTHER!"
"But how? There is no way I would have not noticed one of my children being…" Taiyang trailed off as an old memory popped up in his head.
-Flashback, four years ago-
Taiyang was relaxing on the couch, a beer in one hand and the other busy petting Zwei as man and dog watched a cheesy chick flick on the TV after a long day of teaching brats. At least, that was what they were doing before a thirteen-year-old Yang stumbled in with an eleven-year-old Ruby's help. The younger blonde was groaning weakly as she held her bloated stomach in clear discomfort.
Sighing at the sight, the single father got up from his comfortable position and stood over the two girls with a tired sigh. "What did you two do this time?"
"Ugh, well dad," Yang started, "Ruby passed a big test today so I thought we could *Urp* we could go out for a little celebration ice-cream."
"Which turned out was just an excuse for you to try out their fifty-five-flavor bowl challenge." Ruby cut in with a huff.
"Hey, I won, didn't I?" Yang countered with a grin which quickly turned back to a grimace as she clutched her aching gut. "Now we get one free ice-cream cone a day for six… oh Oum I'm gonna-" *BLEUGH*
"…I'm not cleaning that up." Taiyang and Ruby said at the same time as Yang ran through the house to the bathroom, leaving a sloppy trail of stomach acid and melted ice-cream in her bath.
-End Flashback-
Normally, Taiyang would be rational enough to remember that not only was Yang clearly telling the truth, but was back to normal the next day. However, due to his surprise, general fatherly instinct, and no small bit of his active imagination that both his children inherited, these small details were overlooked in favor of the 'true facts'.
Instead of seeing his daughter dealing with an upset stomach from too much ice-cream as the result of childhood tomfoolery, he saw a young mother dealing with morning sickness and pregnancy cravings. And to be expected with any overprotective father, his emotions of shock and denial turned to anger and bloodlust as he marched over to a large cabinet in the corner and practically ripped the door off of it.
"No bastard's gonna get away with knocking my sweet little girl up." Taiyang growled as he pulled a Kel-Tec-KSG that had the symbol for male crossed out on the side. *Chi-chich* "Don't worry Yang, daddy's coming."
-Beacon, Glynda's Classroom-
Yang was sitting next to Blake with a bored look as they waited for the rest of their class to show up when she suddenly felt a strong shiver run down her spine. 'Why do I suddenly have the urge to strangle Ruby?' She wondered, ignoring the odd looks she was getting from her partner as she settled back into her seat.
-Dorm NNPW-
Ruby still retained her expression of confusion and worry as an exasperated Weiss dragged the cloaked girl out the door with Nora reluctantly following behind them reluctantly. Meanwhile, Naruto was in Winter's arms giving her a goodbye hug before she went off to prepare for the arrival of the ambassador and her entourage.
"Remember to behave yourself little one, and remember the manners I've been teaching you." The elder Schnee told the boy as she set him back down, smiling as she got a mock salute in response.
"You got it Winter-neechan!" He said with a wide innocent grin that Winter didn't buy for a second. It certainly didn't help when his tails suddenly twirled together into a single fluffy mass behind him in a clear imitation of crossing one's fingers. This actually got her to giggle slightly as she ruffled his hair before standing back up and heading out the door, pausing only long enough to send Neo one last suspicious glance.
As soon as the slab of wood clicked shut, Neo gained a mischievous smirk on her face as she pulled out her scroll and quickly typed up a message for Penny to read. [Want to see something absolutely adorable?]
"Uh… sure?" Penny answered unsurely, getting the ice-cream themed girl's smile to widen further as she reached into her shoulder bag and pulled out a bundle of red fabric. Turning towards the only boy in the room, who was still focused on the door where everyone else left, Neo started to slowly tip-toe across the room.
Naruto was completely unaware of this until he noticed the odd shadow covering him. Glancing up, he was only able to catch a glance of Neo's Cheshire grin before she pounced on him with the bundle unfurling mid-leap.
*Crash* "YIPE!" *Thump* *Munch* *Silent Scream* *Various struggling noises*
-Five Minutes Later-
Naruto pouted as he sat on his bed glaring cutely at Penny and Neo as the duo gushed over him and his new outfit. A red fox onesie complete with a hood with fake ears, padded hands and feet stylized like paws, and a hole in the bottom where his tails were squeezed through.
"Oh, you were right, he looks so cute!" Penny said happily, before blinking in surprise when Neo's scroll popped up in front of her face with only two words typed.
[Your turn 😊!]
That was the only warning she got before Neo pounced on her.
-With Nora-
"So, what's up with Jaune?" The hyper ginger-haired girl asked Ren and Pyrrha as the trio harvested the red sap of the eternally red leafed trees of the Forever Fall Forest into large glass jars. Well her teammates were at least, Nora was more focused on chugging as much of the sweet syrupy nectar as she could when no one was looking.
"Cardin got ahold of a big secret of Jaune's and is using it to blackmail him into doing what he says."* Pyrrha said with a scowl. The night before last, Jaune had admitted to her that he had lied his way into Beacon using a fake transcript after she had tried to help him personally with his training. While initially upset, the redhead had quickly calmed down and continued to offer her support only to get turned down when she accidentally bruised Jaune's pride.
Then just as she had left the balcony they had been on, she had just managed to overhear Cardin announce himself to her partner and reveal that he had eavesdropped on their entire conversation. He then proceeded to essentially force Jaune to become his servant under the threat of having his fraud revealed, and thus leading to the blonde's immediate expulsion if not outright arrest.*
Even worse was that despite knowing all of this, Pyrrha couldn't do anything about it since if she did inform the teachers of the blackmail it would only result in getting both Jaune and Cardin expelled. Not to mention she could be expelled as well for assisting and abetting.
"Well, maybe you should of thought of that when you stopped me from breaking his legs." Nora said with complete sincerity. She had legit tried to break Cardin's legs the other week when the bully had intentionally tripped Naruto while the boy was going down a flight of stairs as revenge for freezing him. On the good side, Naruto's tails acted like a cushion and prevented serious injury, though on the bad side (for Nora), she'd only managed to give Cardin a few minor fractures before Pyrrha and Glynda managed to restrain her with their combined might.
It was thanks to those very same fractures that Cardin managed to get off with only the minor punishment of three days detention, though he practically craps himself whenever Nora gets within a hundred feet of his current position.
…Speaking of which.
"Do those idiots really think we don't know that their watching us?" Nora asked blandly as she briefly glanced at a small hill where Team CRDL and Jaune currently were. If it wasn't for the fact they were as stealthy as a stampede of Boarbatusks, Cardin's not-so-quietly telling the others of his plan to get revenge on the orangette for the cast still on his leg definitely gave them away.
"Judging from their relaxed stances and confident tone of voices I would say that they very much do." Ren said while sealing the lid on another jar of sap and putting it with the other full ones stacked neatly to his left. "If they're bothering you so much than do something about it. They clearly don't have good intentions for you and we all heard what they have planned so you could easily claim self-defense."
"I'm not so sure you need to, it looks like Jaune is taking care of it-" *Bang, bang, bang* *BOOM* "…nevermind." Pyrrha finished with a sigh as Nora bombarded the area with her rocket launcher. By some miracle Jaune, who was just a second ago had finally grown enough of a spine to stand up to Cardin, was completely unharmed as he stared in complete shock at the bully and his team splayed out on the destroyed ground covered in soot and groaning in agony.
"AND THERE'S MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM!" Nora yelled, emphasizing her point by switching Magnhild to hammer mode and tossing it right into the face of an incoming Ursa with enough force to obliterate its entire upper body.
'…I need new underwear.' Jaune thought with a whimper while quickly moving to hide behind Pyrrha, never taking his eyes off of Nora as she went to retrieve her weapon. She stopped midway though when her scroll suddenly going off.
Pulling said device out, she found that she had a new message from Neo and swiftly opened it, only to burst out laughing as soon as she saw what it was.
It was a photo of Naruto, still wearing his fox onesie with a pout, sitting on a blushing Penny's lap. Why was she blushing? Because of the orange hamster onesie* she was currently wearing. And to top it all off, Neo sat behind them both wearing a purple cat onesie* with a mischievous grin still on her face.
-End Chapter-