21 -Chapter 21-

-Last Time-

*Boom!*

Everyone froze as a large explosion could be heard in the distance, before everyone but the older blonde rushed outside to see what happened. Sighing for the Oum only knows how many time that day, Taiyang looked down to the dog still at his side and said, "You know, I could practically feel that coming just as the words left my mouth."

"…Woof."

"Don't patronize me."

"Oh Oum! That's Naruto and Nora's room!"

-And Now, Ozpin's Office, Fifteen minutes before explosion-

*Creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak*

"Glynda relax." Ozpin said coolly as he sorted through a stack of paperwork, not even glancing at his number two as she tried to strangle her weapon while watching several holo-screens of static or chaos.

"Sir, there are fires on every floor, over half the security equipment I'd installed is destroyed, there was a massive aura surge in the training rooms, and somehow Ms. Rose managed to fill all the water tanks with milk." Glynda stated, her eyebrow twitching heavily as a dangerous purple aura started forming around her. "And you expect me to relax?"

Unfazed by this, externally at least, the grey-haired man took a sip from his cup before nodding. "Yes, I do. We both knew that this year would be hectic, to say the least. We just didn't expect it to be… this kind of hectic."

The blonde teacher didn't say anything in response to that, but her aura simmered down slightly, and her weapon slowly straightened out. After a minute or so of silence though, a grumble of irritation made its way past her lips as she started walking for the elevator.

However, before Glynda made it even halfway across the office, a familiar ringing sound reached her ears. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out her scroll and hit the answer button, her eyes widening slightly when she saw who was calling.

[Hello! Hello! How the hell do you use this fucking thing? Hello!] Tsunade yelled angrily as her face appeared on the screen.

"Ms. Senju, there is no need to yell, I can hear you fine." Glynda stated calmly, despite her still twitching brow.

[Excuse me! I just spent the last forty minutes trying to figure this damn machine out when I could have been drinking! I can yell however much I very well damn please!] The greying blonde shouted.

[Tsunade-sama…] Shizune's voice said in exasperation, getting the busty blonde to settle down with a grumble.

[Yeah, yeah, anyway, while I originally wanted to ask what in the nine hells has been going on for the last few hours, we got bigger issues to deal with now.]

"And what, pray tell, would that be?" Ozpin asked as he suddenly appeared by Glynda's side, getting the witch-themed woman to give the ever so slightest jumps of surprise.

[I've never been one for fancy word play so I'll just be blunt, I think one of my 'guards' has gone rouge.] Tsunade said, making air quotes with one hand when she said guards.

While Glynda stiffened at this statement, Ozpin didn't even so much as blink, opting to take another sip of his drink. "That is a pretty serious accusation madam. What exactly makes you believe this?"

[Well, part of it is the fact he's been missing for two hours now, but mostly it's because of this empty vial I found in the bathroom with traces of Eien no Okurimono inside.] Tsunade said while wagging said vial in front of the screen.

"'Gift of Eternity', I'm sorry to say I'm unfamiliar with that substance." Ozpin said with a quirked eyebrow.

[Right, different world,] Tsunade muttered with a facepalm. [It's poison, extremely potent poison specially designed to kill a very specific people. And if you're half as smart as I think you are, I'm pretty sure you've already figured out exa-]

*Boom*

Both teachers stumbled slightly as an explosion suddenly rocked the building, the surprise causing Glynda's scroll to slip from her grasp and hit the ground, fracturing the screen and ending the call.

Not that Ozpin or Glynda cared as they were already gone.

-Hallways of Beacon, one minute before explosion-

Nora and Ren stalked down the dimly lit and messed up walkways at a fast pace, the former holding a look of determination while the latter appearing both concerned curious and concerned. Both had their weapons on hand now, having stopped to pick them up along the way.

"Nora seriously, what do you mean you know what caused Naruto's episode?" Ren asked, tired of not knowing what was going on.

"I already told you Ren, I'll explain once we get to Ozpin's offi-" *BOOM*

Nora was cut off mid-sentence as the shockwave blasted through the windows and knocked them clean off their feet.

After a few moments, the pair groaned as they slowly pushed themselves back up to their feet, mostly unharmed thanks to their aura. "Owwww, what was that?!" Nora asked overly loud, thanks to the ringing in her ears, while dusting off the glass shards that were all over her clothes.

"How should I know?!" Ren asked back just as loud, only to be ignored as Nora rushed to the nearest window…

…and felt her blood run cold as she saw the pillar of smoke rising above where her and Naruto's dorm was.

"NARUTO!"

-? Unknown P.o.V.-

"There is so much that I wanted to pass onto you… I wish I could be with you longer… I love you." A redheaded woman with violet eyes said with a sad bloody smile as she and blonde-haired man stood over me.

A single massive claw was pierced through both their bodies, stopping just short of me thanks to their combined efforts to hold it back, a single drop of blood falling onto my bare stomach.

…

Inside a dimly-lit and crumbling sewer like place, I smashed my fur covered and clawed fists against a large gate, roaring in victory as they shattered under the force of the blow. I then crushed the blonde man on the other side before he could recover from his shock.

…

'Why does nobody like me?' I wondered I sat under a tree at the edge of a park, tears in my eyes as I watched all the other kids having fun with their parents, who would stop every few minutes to send me warning glares full of hatred and spite. 'Why?'

…

"Haa…. *Cough* haa… haa… *Cough* haa…" I panted in pure exhaustion as I slowly dragged myself out of the ocean and onto an isolated beach. Every inch of my body hurt, but mostly my rear where the salt water soaked into the still open wounds.

…

"GRAAAAH! I swear when I get free from these infernal bindings, I will tear you to shreds! Then I will destroy this precious son of yours from the inside out!" A giant nine tailed fox howled in rage as it struggled against a series of giant golden chains that were holding it down amongst golden clouds.

"Never going to happen Kyuubi!" I said firmly while willing the chains to tighten around the mighty beast until it was completely immobile. "I will never let you harm a single hair on my sochi's head-Ttebane."

-NNPW Dorm, ten minutes before explosion-

"Ugh, my head." Pyrrha groaned softly as her eyes cracked open, a hand slowly rising to massage her temple as it throbbed mildly in pain. Thankfully for her though, it quickly faded away as her sleep addled brain started up. "What a strange dream."

The whole thing had been confusing, jumping from one situation to another at the drop of a hat. Even odder was that she could remember every single detail with perfect clarity, unlike with most dreams which would usually become fuzzy and incoherent upon her waking up.

Before the redheaded huntress-in-training could delve deeper into the strangeness of it all though, she finally noticed the weight on her side. Lifting her head slightly, she smiled tiredly as she saw Naruto snuggled up against her waist, snoring softly as his tails lay splayed out across the bed they were on haphazardly.

'I must have passed out on the way to Nora's dorm.' She thought with a quick look around at the rest of her surroundings, confirming her assumption. 'But why am I so exhausted still?' She asked herself while trying to sit up, only for her body to adamantly protest the action.

This mystery was quickly solved however, when she managed to catch sight of a nearby alarm clock displaying the time. '10:26pm? It's only been fifteen minutes since we left the training room?' Pyrrha wondered with a cocked eyebrow.

There was no way she only slept for fifteen minutes with how tired she was, she should have been in Lala Land for at least a few hours…

*Screek* "…damnit." …unless something woke her up.

Pyrrha immediately went on high alert as the doorknob jiggled and creaked while an unknown male voice swore quietly. Easily realizing that someone was trying to break into the room, and that it was NOT someone she knew, the redhead shot up form the bed, ignoring the screaming protests from her body and waking up Naruto in the process.

"Zzzz-whazza? Pyrrha-obachan?" The boy mumbled groggily as he sat up and rubbed his eyes cutely. "What are yo-mm."

He was cut off mid-sentence as Pyrrha placed a hand over his mouth and made a shushing motion with her other. "Naruto, get in the closet and stay quiet, do not come out unless I tell you too. Understand?" She whispered in a deathly serious tone, scaring the child a little as he quickly nodded. "Then go."

Naruto didn't need to be told twice, the moment Pyrrha released her hold he scrambled off the bed and vanishing into the closet, the only part of him still visible being the stark-white bandaging around his injured tail. This left Pyrrha to be able to turn her full attention back towards the door as she stood up slightly unsteadily.

'I hope Penny isn't too upset at me for this.' She thought while grabbing one of the gynoid's spare swords that were neatly stacked up on a nearby shelf. Activating the weapon, it gave a soft hum while unfolding and a power button symbol lit up with a bright green on the handle.

It wasn't a moment too soon either, as with an ear-shredding painful shriek of metal grinding on metal, the point of a blade stabbed through the locking mechanism to the door before it slowly swung open. This allowed Pyrrha to finally get a look at the intruder, a lanky man with greyish white hair and a slightly surprised look on his face that swiftly turned to a nasty grin.

"Hello there sweet-cheeks, you wouldn't happen to have seen a certain little nine tailed freak of nature around here, would you?" Mizuki asked mockingly as he casually stepped inside, twirling the kunai in his hand while looking over the wobbling girl with cockiness and a hint of lust. "I saw that little monster come in here a little while ago and I've just been dying to see him."

As soon as he finished speaking, the intruder jumped back to avoid being turned into human sashimi as Pyrrha started furiously swiping at him with Penny's sword. "Naruto is not a monster, and you will not lay a single finger on him."

"Oh really? And who's going to stop me? You?" Mizuki asked with a chuckle, stopping his dodging and blocking an overhead blow with his kunai. "Don't make me laugh. You're nothing more than an overly pampered brat, you can't even stop yourself from shaking in fear." He said before going on the offensive

'Well, he's got that last bit half-right.' Pyrrha thought as she struggled to block his attacks. Her entire body was trembling, though not from fear but sheer exhaustion. Her… exposure with Naruto's aura had worn down her own to almost nothing while simultaneously sapping her of her strength and stamina.

This left her just barely able to stay matched with her opponent and a lot more cautious than usual since she wouldn't be able to rely on her aura to protect her from a direct hit.

Even so, that didn't mean she was going down easily, something she proved as she deflected a jab towards her torso and responded with a rising diagonal slash that tore through the man's vest and lightly scratched the skin underneath. Then, she

"Shit!" Mizuki exclaimed in pain, staggering back a few steps as a hand instinctually shot up to his injured chest. Attempting to take advantage of the man's disbalance, Pyrrha dashed forwards with a stab.

Unfortunately for her, Mizuki recovered faster than she'd thought her would and just managed to sidestep her attack, before promptly punching her harshly in her exposed flank. The blow shattered through what aura she had left and sank into her now completely unprotected waist, causing her to gasp in pain and shock before falling to her knees.

"That's right bitch, just where you belong." Mizuki said cruelly as he watched the redhead struggle to regain her breath. She tried to get stand back up, only for him to punch her once again, this time directly in the face, causing her to collapse entirely.

Kicking her sword away, Mizuki sat onto Pyrrha's prone form and grabbed a fistful of her hair before roughly lifting her up to eye level. "Now here's how this is going to go, you can either tell me where that little freak is right now or I cut the answer out of you one piece at a time." He said coldly while holding his knife against her neck.

"…Fuck you…" Pyrrha panted out with a glare, a large bruise already forming on the left side of her face.

"Alright then, hard way it is." Mizuki said with a sadistic grin while moving the kunai away from her throat and digging it into her shoulder slightly. "Don't say I didn't war- *crack* ARRG!" The white-haired man was caught off guard when Pyrrha suddenly slammed her forehead against his nose, completely ignoring the blade sinking into her flesh in the process.

Then, while Mizuki was still reeling from the surprise blow, she sank her teeth as deeply as she could into the crook of his neck while punching every inch of his body she could reach. This continued until she ran out of steam and the man was finally able to dislodge her with a trio of punches to her gut.

Hitting the ground again, she felt some kind of cloth get roughly jammed into her mouth before a muffled yelp slipped past her lips as the knife in her shoulder was roughly yanked out. "That's it!" Mizuki growled, making sure to keep her fully pinned this time as blood oozed from his mouth, nose, and neck. "If that's how you want to be, then I guess I'll have to try something more extreme."

Before Pyrrha could even begin to wonder what he meant by that, she felt her right hand get roughly pulled away and pinned to the floor next to her. "You're clearly right-handed based on how you fought, so it be an awful shame if something were to happen to it, wouldn't it?" Mizuki asked in mock concern as he lined up the edge of his Kunai's blade with the knuckle of her pinkie.

Eyes widening in horrifying realization, Pyrrha squirmed around as much as she could in a vain attempt to get free, before giving a muffled scream as the weapon sliced through her flesh once more. Her thrashing increased tenfold and tears poured from her eyes as the pain became unbearable.

After what felt like eternity, in reality only a few seconds, the pain lessened ever so slightly and the redhead stopped screaming. Instead, quiet sobs racked through her as she was forced to watch Mizuki loom over her again, with her severed pinkie being held tauntingly above her face.

"So, do you feel like talking now, or is the ring finger next?" He asked while using the finger to pull out the gag in her mouth.

"…g-go… to… he-hell…"

"Ring finger it is then." Mizuki said while shoving the gag back in her mouth and lowering the kunai back to her hand.

Pyrrha just glared at the man as best she could while bracing herself for the pain that was about to come…

*Splooosh* "GAAAAH!"

…only to be saved at the last second by a stream of pressurized water that suddenly blasted Mizuki off of her chest and into the wall.

Knowing only one thing, or more specifically one person, which could be responsible for that, the exhausted and hurt teen weakly turned her head to see Naruto clambering out of his hiding place and stood over protectively. "…N-Naruto… I… I t-told you… to stay h-hidden." She muttered after she managed to spit out the gag.

"Bad man hurt you," Naruto said with a growl, the whisker marks on his face growing bolder and larger and his eyes glowing brighter than she'd ever seen as he glard at a recovering Mizuki. "I won't let bad man hurt you anymore."

"Ha! So the little monster finally decided to show himself," Mizuki coughed out with a grin before reaching behind himself and pulling out a kunai easily twice as big as the one he was using earlier. This one had a thin leather sheath, that once he pulled it off revealed the sickly green fluid that coated every inch of the blade. "I got something special set up just for you, brat."

Naruto simply growled at the man in response as his tails pointed at the white-haired man, before all but one suddenly coiled up around himself and Pyrrha, surrounding the duo with a dome of fur. Seeing this, Mizuki chuckled, then outright laughed as he started walking up to the 'barrier'.

"Really? I mean really? You think this will keep you safe? I get you're a kid and all, but you must be really fucking stupid of you think this… will… work…" Mizuki trailed off mid-sentence, his large kunai held up ready to strike, when he finally noticed that the last tail had started glowing an extremely bright orange at the tip. "Oh, son of a bi-"

*BOOOOOOOOM*

-Present-

As the smoke and dust settled, the remains of NNPW dorm was laid out for the world to see. The walls, ceiling, and the furniture were blown to pieces, and the floor was heavily scorched and missing a few chunks. The bathroom and closet were surprisingly mostly intact, albeit they and the hallway were riddled with shrapnel and debris.

And in the middle of all this destruction, Naruto's tail dome sat, entirely unharmed thanks to the layers of compacted earth and ice that now covered them, though the bandages on the gravity tail were now shredded to bits. With a loud cracking and sound, said layers broke apart as the fluffy limbs separated, revealing an equally unharmed Naruto who was… licking Pyrrha's injuries.

"Naruto… wha-what a-are… y-you doing?" Pyrrha asked with a cracking voice, flinching harshly the boy's tongue run over the bleeding mess where her pinkie used to be.

"Helping your booboos," Naruto mumbled, his face crinkled up in disgust from the taste of blood while he continued to lick.

While she was touched at his attempt to help, Pyrrha knew that all that he was going to do was get himself sick. However, just when she started to pull her hand free of his grasp, she froze up as the pain started to fade away and was replaced with an intense itching sensation, before both stopped altogether.

Jerking her head up in surprise, the huntress-in-training's jaw dropped as she gapped the now completely healed stump on her hand. Feeling a weight on her chest, she shifted her attention back towards Naruto as he clambered over her and started licking the gash in her shoulder.

'I would say I'm starting to hallucinate from blood loss and exhaustion, but honestly, at this point that would probably be more realistic than reality at this point.' Pyrrha thought with a tired chuckle as she watched the stab wound start to rapidly heal, before her head dropped back down, the adrenaline fueling her having been entirely spent and her body went completely limp on her.

*Crackle*

Unfortunately, fate being the ever-sneaky bitch it is, decided it had one last surprise in store for the duo. Pyrrha could do nothing but watch in numb terror as some debris nearby suddenly started to move until a horrifyingly familiar knife burst out wielded by a badly burnt hand.

As the owner of said arm began to gradually pull himself free, revealing more and more disfigured skin as he did, Pyrrha desperately tried to move only for her body to not respond at all. Her body had reached its absolute limit and basically shut down on her, preventing her from doing anything other than keeping her eyes open as shock fully settled in.

Then, when she was just about ready to give up hope and tell Naruto to get out of there, she felt the whiskered child curl up on top of her waist whilst his tails around their bodies. There was only a small gap near one of her eyes thanks to his explosion dust tail having shrunken down to its natural size, and it was through this gap that Pyrrha finally got the answer to how Naruto was so good at hiding when scared.

Before her very eyes, the exposed parts of the tails rapidly changed color and texture, becoming flatter, rougher looking, and darker until they were indistinguishable to the surrounding rubble. If it wasn't for the fact she was literally uncapable of doing so, Pyrrha would have gasped in shock as this happened, instead all that came out was an unintelligible gurgle thanks to her voice quitting on her as well.

"Gah! You little fuckers! You will pay for this!" Mizuki screamed as he finally managed to get himself free, revealing his now mostly bald head, destroyed clothes, and horribly burned face permanently contorted into a snarl of pain and fury. Limping around the devastated dorm room, he walked up to a random pile of debris and furiously stabbed into it.

"I know you two are still here!" He screamed again while moving to another pile and stabbing it repeatedly. "And when I find you, I'm going to gut you bastards like fish!" This time he tore off what remained of the door to the closet and hacked through the clothing that had somehow survived the blast, mostly Penny's outfits.

"Better yet, I'll skin those disgusting little tails of yours! One fucking hair at a time!" Pyrrha felt terror rapidly building inside of her as the deranged man started to get closer to their position, throwing aside a section of wall to look under it. "Maybe turn them into a lovely coat for my girl!"

Pyrrha's heart felt ready to burst out of her chest as the man began to loom over her and Naruto's hidden forms, an insane look in his eye as he stabbed through the rubble barely three feet away. On her chest, she could feel Naruto start to shift around slightly before the smell of burning ozone reached her nostrils.

"Speaking of, can't forget to cut off the rest of that redheaded bitch's fingers!" Mizuki yelled as he raised his blade to impale the 'rubble' in front of him. "Starting with her other pinkie!"

Right as the blade was about to fall and most likely kill them both in one fell swoop though, a single female voice asked. "What did you just say?"

Standing just outside the demolished room was one Nora Valkyrie, Magnhild held in her hands in its hammer form and an absolutely pissed expression on her face. Pink electricity was crackling all over her body, shooting off in small arcs that lightly scorched the already damaged floor. Behind her was Ren with Storm Flower trained on the man's head and Jaune who looked rather ridiculous wielding his sword and shield in his pajamas.

"Well, well, look who it is, the beast's kaa-chan." Mizuki mocked with an insane laugh as he held up the scorched digit still in his free hand, making the trio start trembling in rage. "You heard me, I cut that little slut's pinkie right off. Made her scream nice and good while I did it. And after I'm done with her and that freak, you're next." To add insult to injury, he tossed the finger at their feet. "Why? What are you going to do about it?"

"I'M GOING TO BREAK YOUR EVERYTHING!" Nora screamed as she shot straight at Mizuki, startling the man as she seemed to vanish from sight and reappear in front of him, her hammer already mid-swing. At the exact same time, Naruto's tails split apart to reveal the equally pissed looking child spit out a bolt of pure electricity flew from his mouth.

For one ever so brief moment, time seemed to slow to a crawl as the lightning flowed through the air, making its way to the most conductive object nearby, which just happened to be Nora's beloved hammer. The moment it made contact, the charge ran down the large metal object and into Nora's body.

This in turn sent her semblance into overdrive as it immediately redirected that power straight to her muscles, increasing her striking-power thirty-fold.

*Cru-squelch*

Which meant that the entirety of Mizuki's torso, waist, and most of his arms were promptly blow to pieces upon impact. His head remained airborne for all of one second, just long enough for Nora to see the dumb surprise spread across his face at what just happened before falling down with a sickening *splat* on what was left of his hips, making his legs crumple from the sudden weight.

'Oh thank Oum, it's finally over.' Pyrrha thought with overwhelming relief, even as her vision slowly started to fade into black. She could just hear as her teammates rushed to her side and called out to her, but their words sounded like they were so far away.

She could feel as her head was turned so that she was facing upwards, and the last thing she saw was Naruto's glowing ruby eyes staring into hers worriedly before the blissful embrace of unconsciousness took her.

-End Chapter-