Fusion of Forces | Chapter 13

Sighing Naruto prepared himself for the more than likely inevitable rescuing he would have to do...again. It wasn't that he thought Ruby was weak, far from it after all she wielded that bigass scythe of hers like it was a feather. However she wasn't exactly thinking straight right now. Running towards a massive Grimm screaming bloody murder wasn't the brightest of ideas, no matter how skilled you were.

He and the others winced in sync as they saw Ruby power herself forward with the help of the recoil from the gun portion of her scythe...gun...thing. Even still she was too slow as the Death Stalker was able to smack her aside like she was nothing but an annoying fly.

Struggling to stand, no doubt dazed from the blow, Ruby yelled out in a strained voice, "D-don't worry! To-totally fine!"

Turning around Ruby realized far too late that the Grimm had taken the opportunity to close the distance between them, now staring at her hungrily. Panicking she fired off a shot at its face, serving only to irritate it, and turned and began to run as fast her legs could carry her.

Yang saw the obvious danger her sister was in and began to sprint her way to Ruby. Luck wasn't with them as it seemed the Nevermore had decided to help its fellow Grimm and circled around. With a mighty flap of its wings it unleashed a rain of its own feathers, the points of which were as sharp as any blade. Like gunfire they rained down onto the ground, embedding themselves deep into the earth. Murphy's Law decided to rear its head and one of the feathers managed to catch up to Ruby and run straight through her cloak, pinning her to the ground.

Several more of the feathers managed to find their way to Yang, causing her to stumble so that she could avoid being skewered to death. Racing to her feet she saw Ruby frantically tugging at her pinned cloak in an attempt to free herself.

"Ruby! Get out of there!"

A very much so panicking Ruby answered back, "I'm trying!"

Turning to look upwards as a shadow covered her, the red haired teen turned wide grey eyes to see the Death Stalker prepping its massive stinger, aimed straight at her. Clenching her eyes, the young teen prepared for the worse.

Seconds ticked by and when there was no pain she wearily opened her eyes to see a wall of ice holding the stinger of the Death Stalker back. The voice of Weiss came up as the Grimm struggled to free its tail, "Ugh, you are so childish!"

"Weiss?"

Standing from her crouched position Weiss only continued on her mini rant, "And dim witted, and hyperactive, and don't even get me started on your fighting style. Though I...suppose...I can be a bit...difficult, but if we're going to do this, we're going to have to do this together."

Sighing in what appeared to be mock frustration the white haired teen continued, "So if you quit trying to show off I'll be...nicer."

Ruby shook her head, "I'm not trying to show off. I want you to know I can do this."

"You're fine."

As Weiss waltzed off Ruby let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding, "Normal knees."

As Yang raced to crush her sister to death in a hug, Naruto smiled, 'Hmm. Guess Princess isn't as bad as we thought.'

Once the teens had all regrouped Naruto decided to voice the obvious, "I doubt Princess' ice prison is gonna hold that thing for long and we also have a rather angry Nevermore circling back around."

For once Weiss was the one to voice her opinion, "Look there's no sense in dilly dallying, our objective is right in front of us."

Ruby chimed in with her agreement, "She's right, our mission is to grab an artifact and make it back to the cliffs. There's no point in fighting these things."

Everyone seemed to nod in agreement with the pair's assessment while Yang looked at her sister with noticeable pride.

Naruto shrugged, "So tactical retreat then?"

With a round of nods, those who hadn't already retrieved an artifact made their way up to the platform. Naruto observed the options before noticing that there seemed to be doubles of each piece.

'Why would they do that? Sure doubles of a piece, but to have two in the same color? Unless that whole partner speech was only half the truth and they plan on putting two pairs together to form a full team. Man this is like Kakashi's bell test all over again.'

Shrugging and decided to let the pieces fall where they would, Naruto grabbed a golden rook piece while he saw Ruby grab a golden knight piece. He offered a smile and thumbs up, silently praising her on her plan. Ruby giggled at Naruto's cheesy gesture before smiling back. The two walked back to their partners and their group just in time to see the Death Stalker beginning to crack its icy prison.

As it freed its stinger and shattered the ice that had held Naruto turned to the group, "And that would be our cue to get the hell out of here!"

The others nodded with him, turned, and began to book it back towards the cliffs. As they ran the sun was eclipsed by the massive shadow of the Nevermore flying above them. Spotting even more ruins ahead of them the group attempted to take cover as even more of the Grimm's feathers hailed down. Flying ahead the Grimm perched itself at the top of what remained of a stone tower, blocking them from reaching the cliffs that lay just beyond it.

To make matters worse the Death Stalker decided to make its appearance, pinning the group between it and the waiting Nevermore.

Mentally cursing Naruto reached for the scroll at his side. As he unfurled it he and the others had decided they had a better chance of making it around the Nevermore than they did staying and trying to fight both it and the Death Stalker. Biting his thumb hard enough to draw blood, getting curious looks from the others as he did so, the blond ran his bloody digit across the scroll. What followed was a poof of smoke that obscured Naruto from everyone's vision.

Swiping a hand the through the air, Naruto cleared enough of the smoke to reveal that he was now holding what they assumed to be his weapon. Gripped tightly in his hands as he stared the Death Stalker down was a shakujo, or monk's staff, that was easily a few inches taller than him. The metallic pole was a deep ebony black, seeming to absorb the very light around it. The ring that sat atop of the staff was a burnt orange color, matching the color of Kurama's fur almost exactly. Running vertically through the ring was a simple bar covered in black leather. Stitched into the leather were etchings of six magatama, comma shaped symbols. Instead of the usual rings that dangled from the main ring, Naruto's shakujo had nine short lengths of chain hanging from it.

With his back turned to them the blonde called out, "You guys go and get to the cliffs! Me and Kurama will hold off this overgrown bug!"

As if to show them he was more than capable of holding the two Grimm off Naruto spun the staff around and to their slight shock flames began to dance on the chain links. Sweeping it through the air in front of him Naruto unleashed a ball of flames aimed straight at the Death Stalker.

:::

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