-Chapter 29-

-Last Time-

"…You do know she's no better than they are most of the time, right?" Glynda asked the older Schnee dully, making her sigh in exasperation.

"Yeah, but at this point, I really don't see how they could make this situation any worse."

Oh how wrong she was…

-And Now-

"Sooo… why are we just waiting out here again?" Matatabi asked as she sat outside the destroyed police station with an unmasked Raven leaning against her side and Naruto slept between her front paws, snoring softly with the occasional giggle while she groomed his tails with her tongue. "I thought we were in a big hurry to get out of here."

"Not anymore." Raven stated as she cleaned the blood off her weapon with a calm look on her face.

"Care to explain why Chickling?" Matatabi asked with a raised brow, a slight amount of irritation in her voice.

Instead of answering verbally, Raven simply caused a plate sized portal to appear in front of Matatabi's face that showed Yang just as the blonde punched a chunk of falling debris into dust.

"Ahh, so we are waiting on your kit to arrive."

"Yes, if we leave now, she may misunderstand my intent and that could cost me what little trust she has in me," Raven explained with a small frown. She needed her daughter's trust in order to enact her plan, so if that meant giving up what was a golden opportunity to take Naruto and train him like she wished, then she could do so… for now. "Now pay attention, we have company."

Matatabi didn't even have to ask what the woman meant as a certain scythe wielding little red riding hood themed teen girl skid to a stop in front of them with a baffled expression.

"…Yang?" Ruby asked as she stared straight at Raven's face with wide eyes.

Unable to help herself, Raven let out a short bark of laughter as she pushed off of her companion's side and rubbed her hand across her jaw. "Not quite little girl, but I can understand your confusion. The family resemblance is quite strong after all, is it not?"

"Family?" Ruby repeated questioningly, before gasping in realization. "Wait a second… your Yang's mother!?"

"Indeed." Raven stated as she casually strolled towards the girl, causing Ruby to snap out of her stupor and hold her scythe out threateningly.

"What are you doing here? Why do you have Naruto? …And where can I get an awesome cat like that?" Ruby demanded, adding the last question as an afterthought as she internally gushed over the massive fire cat.

"And I already like her more then you." Matatabi said with a grin while Raven rolled her eyes exasperatedly.

'Mustn't gush over awesome giant talking cat! Mustn't gush over awesome giant talking cat!' Ruby mentally chanted as she forced down her excitement. No matter how much she wanted to just run over and snuggle with Matatabi, she needed to stay composed and deal with this situation seriously, especially since these two currently had Naruto with them. "Answer my questions, now."

"I'm here for the same reason as you are little girl," Raven said as she pointed to Naruto's sleeping form. "To rescue our kidnapped cousin."

"Hey who are you calling… wait, cousin?" Ruby cut herself off with a confused tilt of her head once she realized what Raven said. "What are you talking about?"

"Oh, has Yang not told you yet?" Raven asked back, causing Ruby to blink in surprise at the question. "I figured she would have told you already after we spoke, but I guess not."

"Yang… talk to you?" Ruby repeated disbelieving.

"Indeed, a little over a week ago in fact, but that is not important right now," Raven said before drawing her sword, making Ruby tense up once again. Losing all form of humor on her face, Raven pointed the blade straight at the hooded girl. "What is important is the boy needs a proper guardian until he is able to care for himself, something you failed at."

Gasping at the statement, Ruby glared at Raven angrily as her knuckles turned white from how tightly she held Crescent Rose. "WHAT?! How dare you-"

"Was it not you who were with him when he got taken? Was it not your weakness that allowed for the White Fang to capture him?" Raven cut in, making Ruby's jaw snap shut with an audible click as her anger faded away. "You failed the family, plain and simple."

Ruby wanted to deny what the woman said, but every time she opened her mouth, no sound would come out. That was because, as much as she hated to admit it, she agreed with Yang's mother on that. She did fail Naruto.

"Despite your failure though, I will admit you did impressively against those overwhelming odds. Almost enough to be worthy of being indirectly related to the Branwen tribe," Raven said, causing Ruby to snap out of her thoughts. "So I will give you a second chance."

Eyes widening as Raven vanished in a static blur, Ruby barely managed to spin around in time to block the sword that threatened to sever her head from her neck. Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough to stop the fist that buried itself in her gut, knocking the wind from her lungs and sent her tumbling back in a heap.

"Fight me." Raven stated bluntly as she lowered her weapon, watching calmly as Ruby quickly got back to her feet. "Impress me again then all is forgiven, fail however and I will make sure your career as a huntress ends today."

Ruby opened her mouth to retort, but was once again cut off, only this time by a screaming Nora that came charging into the area straight at Raven with her hammer held high.

However, the instant the orangette got close, the black-haired woman caught the hammer by the neck mid-swing. Before Nora even had a chance to recover, Raven then used her own momentum against her, spinning around and hurling her through a stone wall, which then collapsed on top of her.

"Cat, keep that one occupied. Don't let her interrupt again." Raven said, making Matatabi roll her eyes while gently picking Naruto up by the scruff like a kitten.

"Would a 'Please' kill you?" The fire cat asked rhetorically, naturally not getting a response, before turning her attention towards Nora just as the orangette blasted herself free of her rubble confinement. "Hey there, I believe you are here for the little one here?"

"Naruto!" Nora exclaimed upon seeing Naruto's limp form dangling from Matatabi's jaws before glaring at the fire cat angrily. "What did you do to him?"

"Oh relax little vixen, your kit is fine. He's just a little tuckered out from all the excitement," Matatabi said while setting the boy down on her back where he instinctually clung on with his tails. "Though admittedly, I am pretty bored myself. So how about we liven things up a bit and play a little game?"

"…A game?" Nora repeated with a 'Are you stupid' look on her face. "You want me to play a game with you?"

"Yep, and if you win I'll give you your kit back. Now catch me if you can~." The fire cat said in a sing-song tone while darting off into the destroyed city.

"Hoi! Get back here you mangy alley cat!" Nora screamed as she gave chase, leaving Ruby and Raven by themselves.

Watching them leave in the corner of her eye, the estranged mother of Yang mentally grumbled in annoyance before returning her full attention towards deflecting a flurry of blows from Ruby's scythe. 'Not bad, she has potential. Now let's see how much of it she's tapped.'

Deflecting one last slice to her sternum, Raven rapidly sheathed her blade before drawing it again, only now with a fire dust blade that unleashed a gout of fire that forced Ruby to quickly back off.

And just like that, the tide of battle changed as the raven-redhead found herself struggling to defend against an onslaught of fire enhanced strikes as Raven kept pushing her advantage. After a full minute of this, Raven finally got bored and hooked her sword in the back prongs of Ruby's scythe and with a quick twist of her wrist pinned it to the ground.

"I told you to impress me," She said dully while closing the distance between them until their noses were nearly touching. "You're holding back, I can see it in your movements."

Raven chopped Ruby across the throat with her hand, causing the girl to stumble back with a choke, before punting her across their little impromptu sparing arena. "Do not waste my time anymore. Come at me with everything you have or I will kill you where you stand and be done with this."

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Hearing the exclamation from above, Raven looked up in mild surprise before backflipping out of the way as a large green laser shot through the space she'd been standing and sliced a perfectly clean foot wide trench in the earth.

"Wonderful, more interruptions." Raven mumbled in annoyance as she stared at the source of the attack, which was none other than an airborne Penny with her swords set up in cannon mode, who was already charging another shot.

Dodging out of the way of the second shot that obliterated what remained of the prison, the ex-bandit leader frowned deeply as she sheathed her sword again. "I do not have time for this." However, just as she started to draw it again, a distant rumble sounded, causing the woman to glance up at the sky and smirk.

"Get away from Ruby you- *CRACKLE* -GAAAAAHHH!" Penny started to yell as she charged up a third shot, only to end up screaming in pain as a bolt of lightning struck her back out of the blue.

"Penny!" Ruby cried out in worry as the gynoid came crashing back to solid ground, her body spasming rapidly while both of her wings were blasted clean off. Rushing to Penny's side, the raven-redhead lifted the orangette's head and shook her gently. "Penny, are you alright?!"

"S-s-surge overloaded pri-primary data pro-processor… critical system re-repair required," The gynoid said, her voice constantly skipping, cracking, and repeating every few words. "Down-down-downloading into b-b-back-up m-memory core… to r-reduce fuuuurtheeer daaamaaaaaaa..."

Penny trailed off as her body went limp, before her opened up to reveal a pulsing green heart shaped device about the size of a golf ball with Ruby's insignia on the middle of it. Grabbing the object, Ruby looked it over with worry for a few seconds before relaxing a bit when she saw no damage on it.

'Thank Oum I decided to install this.' Ruby thought as she put the core inside a small protective case she had in her pocket and hooked a small wire to the bottom of it. "Penny, are you okay? Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear Ruby, I'm alright," Penny's voice crackled over a speaker built in the side of the container while a small camera on the front focused on Ruby, making the hooded girl sigh in relief. "However, I'm starting to regret going with the smaller data cells, I'm feeling a little claustrophobic in here."

"Your friend brought that upon herself, discharging that much energy in this kind of weather is never a wise idea." Raven said, making Ruby looked upwards and noticed the large black clouds above the city that were rumbling ominously.

'Where did those come from? It was clear skies just a few minutes ago.' Ruby wondered in confusion. However, before the girl could ponder on this for long, she was snapped back to reality as her senses screamed at her to move.

Jumping to the side with Penny's body in tow, she was just in time to avoid Raven's now shock dust enhanced blade as it sliced through the air they'd just been occupying.

"Don't let your guard down girl, our fight is not finished yet." The ravenette said with a bored expression as she swung again, forcing Ruby to drop the robot in her arms in favor of her scythe to deflect the attack.

"Fine, you want me to impress you," Using her semblance to get some distance, Ruby pulled out a wind dust clips and loaded it, causing her scythe's blade to be engulfed in fierce gales. "Then how about this!"

Vanishing in a static blur, three hazy afterimages of the girl appeared around Raven with a visible blur of motion going between them whilst a miniature vortex formed around them all. A second later and Raven was also moving, her whole body twisting, contorting, and bending at near insane angles to avoid the dozens of attacks that struck from each side.

"Hmmm, not bad girl, you're actually giving me a decent warm up now," Raven said as she smirked slightly before suddenly standing up straight and seemingly effortlessly catching the end of Ruby's scythe with her free hand and used it to pull the real Ruby forward with a surprise expression. "But not good enough."

Before the hooded girl had a chance to react, the ravenette tilted her head back slightly and smashed her forehead straight into her opponent's.

"GAH! Ow! Ow! Ow!" Ruby shrieked, stumbling back from the impact as her afterimages and self-created vortex faded away. Shaking off the impact as best she could, the raven-redhead yelped while bending as far back as she could to avoid the slice aimed at her head.

Then, thinking fast, Ruby pulled the trigger on Crescent Rose, firing the single round she'd kept in the chamber just in case and using the recoil to spin herself in place to both retaliate and recover. Briefly surprised by the move, Raven hopped back to avoid the counter attack, however she was just a little slow and the very tip of the scythe just managed to graze the front of her chest.

Stopping a few yards away, Raven slowly reached up and ran a finger along the half foot long tear in her outfit as her smirk.

"Better," She said with a nod, before sheathing her sword and glancing at the direction Ruby had come from as the sound of multiple voices echoed over. "And it would appear our time is up, congratulations girl, you'll live to see another day after all."

Not bothering to wait for a response, Raven opened up a large black and red portal with a swipe of her sword and vanished just as Yang popped into sight along with the rest of the gang.

"Ruby!? Are you and Penny alright!? We heard screaming!" The blonde yelled worriedly, her pace quickening when she saw her sister's ruffled form and Penny's abandoned body.

"…Yeah, I'm fine," Ruby said after a slight pause to catch her breath. "Penny got struck by lightning though. The body's fried, but I managed to download her onto a backup drive we made just in case."

"Ugh, the general is not going to be pleased to hear that," Winter grumbled with a facepalm. Penny had not been cheap to create, and she could already see the bills forming for having the girl's body repaired after this. "Are you sure Penny is alright? Her AI isn't exactly a simple program after all."

"I am fine Winter, a little cramped but alright," Penny's muffled voice called out from the hooded girl's pocket. "Though I have to say that you really need to clean your pockets Ruby, I'm pretty sure this donut has mold growing on it."

"Whoops! Sorry Penny," Ruby said sheepishly as she pulled a half-eaten packaged donut out of her pocket that had patches of green all over it, making Weiss gag slightly at the sight, and tossed it over her shoulder. "Totally forgot that was in there, my bad."

"Disgusting pockets aside, what happened? Where's Naruto and Nora?" Winter asked, cutting off the idly chit-chat.

"Oh, a giant fire cat took Naruto and ran off that-a-way after challenging Nora to a game of 'catch-me-if-you-can' while I was busy dealing with someone else that ran off just as you guys got here." Ruby said with a completely straight face while pointing a thumb to her left.

…

"I really wish I could say I didn't believe what you just said." Weiss said dully as the group turned towards the direction Ruby had pointed and started moving again.

"Don't we all." Glynda muttered, rubbing her forehead as it throbbed from the ridiculousness she'd had to deal with these last few months.

-With Nora-

"When I get my hands on you cat, I am going to find out just how many lives you actually got!" Nora yelled angrily as she chased after Matatabi over a massive pile of collapsed buildings.

"We'll see little vixen, we'll see, but first you have to catch me~." The fire cat said in a sing song tone while casually hopping out of the orangette's reach when she got too close, causing the girl to bulldoze through a half-destroyed wall. "Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me~."

Her eyebrow twitching wildly, Nora grit her teeth and shook off the debris from her collision before going after the cat again. This had been going on for a few minutes now, with her getting within a hairs-breath away from catching Matatabi, only for the massive feline to somehow slip out of the way at the last second and cause her to crash into or trip over something.

Normally she would have just blasted the annoying feline to pulp after the first time, but couldn't since Naruto was still riding on the the fire cat's back. However, sick of playing this stupid game of cat and mouse, Nora dug around in her pockets and somehow pulled out a large bottle of syrup with a vicious smirk.

"Hey pussy cat!" She called out once she got close again, causing Matatabi to look towards her with her normal smirk…

*Pop* *Thwack* *Splat* "MROW!"

…Before meowing in surprise when Nora squeezed the container in her grasp, causing the lid to shoot off like a cannon right into the cat's nose, swiftly followed by a wave of syrup that completely covered her face.

Completely blinded by the sticky substance, the fire cat skid to a halt and shook her head wildly to try and get it off.

"Ah-ha! Got you!" In her surprise though, Matatabi briefly forgot about her little game and was thus completely unprepared as Nora collided into her side with the force of a freight train. "Now give me by my Narut- WhoaAAAAA!"

Yet at the same time sadly, Nora was so focused on finally being able to catch the elusive feline, she didn't pay enough attention towards her surroundings and in turn was utterly oblivious to the fact they were right next to a sheer cliff until she and Matatabi flew right off it.

"Huh? Whazza happaniIIIEEEEK!" Even worse, as the pair fell down the hill Naruto, who had been asleep this whole time still thanks to Matatabi keeping his ears covered with her tail, was jostled awake and ended up flying off the fire cat's back when his grip slackened.

"Naruto!" Nora cried out as the multitailed blonde landed several dozen feet away and rolled off into one part of the city while she and Matatabi tumbled towards another. "Oum fucking dammit!"

Now thoroughly pissed at having her little boy this close only for him to slip away, Nora turned all that rage towards a certain fire cat as the pair rolled to a stop on an outcropping about halfway down the cliff.

Still blinded by the syrup all over her face, Matatabi wiped it off with her paws irritably… before freezing as she found herself staring at a red-faced, heavily breathing, hammer wielding orangette glaring down at her murderously. "N-now hold on, before you do anything rash-"

"IMMA POUND A PUSSY!"

-Back with the 'Rescue Team'-

"IMMA POUND A PUSSY!"

"Whelp, sounds like Nora caught up to the cat… that or she decided to be a lesbian." Yang said as the group ran in the direction of the shout, snickering loudly at her joke while most of the group groaned in annoyance.

"Yang, now is really not the time," Ruby said as she glanced up at the cloudy sky which was rapidly darkening. "We need to find Naruto before the sun sets or we'll be walking around blind down here."

-Meanwhile, with Naruto-

After tumbling several dozen yards down the cliff wildly, Naruto managed to regain enough of his wits to curl up with his tails wrapped around himself firmly in a ball. However, whilst this stopped him from getting hurt as much, it also prevented him from seeing a thing, muffled his hearing, and made him more then a little nauseous as he rapidly gained speed.

In no time at all, he'd reached the bottom of the cliff and with his momentum rocketed along for almost half a mile before finally slowing down to a halt. For a few minutes the ball of fluff just sat there unmoving as Naruto stayed 'hidden', but eventually the boy's curiosity and restlessness got the better of him as one of the tails shifted to give him a small gap to peek out from.

Seeing that the coast was all clear, the whiskered blonde allowed his tails to unfurl as he stood up a bit wobbly.

Loong around the area, Naruto gulped nervously as he found himself completely alone in what appeared to be an old marketplace. "…Hello?" He called out meekly while slowly walking through the decaying ruins, his tails curling around him protectively as it started to get really dark. "Kaa-chan? Penny-obachan? Ruby-obachan? Anybody?"

*Clatter*

Naruto's head snapped to the side as he heard something. Not seeing anything at first, the blonde slowly shuffled in the direction the sound came from, his eyes darting around nervously as he looked for any sign of danger.

*Clatter* *Cough* "Fuck that hurts," *Cough*

Hearing a voice groaning in pain amongst a coughing fit, Naruto's pace quickened as his caring nature urged him to help.

However, upon rounding one last corner and finding the source of the noise, the boy stopped with a surprised and angry expression.

Laying on the ground several feet in front of him amongst the half-crushed wreckage of her escape craft was none other then Cinder, and saying she looked like shit would probably be a compliment at this point. Along with her already existing injuries, the right side of her face was covered in deep scratches, her right eye's sclera was dark red with blood, cuts and burns adorned her entire chest, and her left arm was now nothing more than a smoldering stump.

And if that wasn't enough, one of her legs was currently being crushed under a dog sized hunk of cement whilst the other was riddled with shrapnel.

Noticing the boy in the corner of her good eye, the criminal turned her head towards him with a mixture of hate and fear. "Wonderful *Cough* should have known *Cough* you would be the one to find me."

Naruto didn't say a word, opting to instead continue slowly approach the crippled woman with an unreadable expression on his face as his eye color flickered between red, golden, and purple.

As he drew closer, the fear on Cinder's face grew and she tried to drag herself away, only to be painfully reminded of her leg's current status.

"N-no. Stay a-away from me. Stay back d-dammit. Stay back!" Unable to move, the injured ravenette instead grabbed onto a piece of rebar with her good hand and swung it wildly at the whiskered blonde.

Unfortunately for her though, she only managed a handful of rather pathetic swings before Naruto caught the length of metal with one of his tails and ripped it from her grasp.

"You… bad lady… hurt Neo-chan," The boy said slowly, tossing the impromptu weapon aside while he climbed on top of Cinder, his whole body shaking slightly and his eyes focusing more on purple and gold now with only the occasion slip back to red.

"D-do you w-w-want an apology? I'm s-sorry okay, I'm r-really s-sorry!" Cinder yelled, her eyes wide in terror as one of Naruto's tails curled around her arm and waist.

This actually caused Naruto to pause, his eyes sticking with his natural red color as he tilted his head with a puzzled expression, like he was confused at what was going on. However, this only lasted a few moments before his eyes went back to flickering and his anger returned.

"No… No apology! Bad Lady pay!" The multitailed blonde growled while grabbing Cinder by the throat, his voice suddenly gaining an odd blending effect as he spoke, as if others were speaking at the same time.

"No… w-wait… I… I'm sorry… p-please… mercy!" The woman choked out while weakly squirming in the boy's grasp.

"Why should I?" Cinder froze as a soft feminine voice escaped Naruto's lips while his eyes finally settled on a glowing golden color. At the same time, a soft orange aura began to emanate from the boy's form before condensing into the familiar fragmented and chained form of a young woman who glared down at the pinned ravenette with her one eye, her lips moving in sync with Naruto's. "Why should I show you mercy? You never did."

Cinder didn't have an answer, though even if she did it wouldn't have done her much good as Naruto's grip tightened further, completely stopping her from speaking.

"You stole my life for power, attacked this boy just because he could be a threat to you, and intended to kill thousands of innocent people," As this girl spoke through Naruto, the tail around Cinder's waist undid itself and all nine spread out behind him like a peacock's feathers, each one starting to glow vibrantly. "These crimes cannot be forgiven."

Not liking where this was going, Cinder tried to lash out with her now free arm, only to be shocked when the aura formed girl caught it with her translucent hand and pinned it back to the ground. So now, all the crippled woman could do was watch in fear as each tail grew brighter and brighter before moving forward so the tip of each tail was pointed directly at Cinder's chest, the lights seemingly merging together into a single pure white glow.

"You wanted power so badly Cinder, now you will get to feel power you never even dreamed of!" The aura girl screamed before everything was engulfed in a blinding light.

-With Nora and Matatabi, a few minutes earlier-

"Ha… Ha… stupid cat." Nora panted tiredly as she was carried like a kitten by a ruffled up Matatabi to the top of the cliff.

"Don't be mad at me for losing the kit little vixen, you're the one who knocked us off a cliff." The fire cat said with a huff. "I just wanted to have a little fun but nooooo, somebody had to act all immature and throw food."

"Well maybe if someone hadn't been running off with MY kid on their back, that might not have happened." Nora retorted sourly as she caught her breath, before turning her head to the side when she heard someone calling her name.

"Nora!" Ren called out worriedly upon seeing his friend being held by the jaws of the biggest damn cat he'd ever seen, immediately training his weapons on it along with everyone else.

"Hey Renny, about time you got here. Decide to take the scenic route or something?" The girl asked with a tired smile, waving her hand in a 'calm down' motion. "Relax, the kitty isn't an enemy… no matter how much I wish she was."

"Love you too vixen," Matatabi said sarcastically with a good-natured roll of her eyes as she padded over to the still cautious group and set the exhausted girl down in front of them. "Now while I'd love to stay and chat, I gotta take my leave. Got places to go, people to see, yadda, yadda, yadda."

With that said, the cat turned to leave… only to stop with an annoyed meow when she felt something tug on one of her tails. Glancing back, her eyebrow twitched upon seeing none other then Nora herself latched onto the fluffy limb.

"Oh no you don't furball, you aren't going anywhere until we find Naruto." The orangette said firmly.

"Fine, but only because I'm a bit worried about the kit myself." Matatabi stated with a shrug as Nora let her tail go.

"Nora… are you really trusting the giant talking cat we literally just met?" Ren asked with a deadpan expression that only grew when his friend nodded.

"Yep."

…

…

"I swear, when this is over I am going on vacation… a very LONG vacation." Glynda said while rubbing her forehead.

"Agreed." Winter muttered, doing the exact same thing.

"Come on guys, we got to get going. I want to find Naruto before something happens to him." Nora said as she and Matatabi headed towards an incline that led in the direction Naruto had fallen down the cliff. However, they only made it a few yards before stopping as the ground started shaking.

"It would seem we're too late for that." Blake stated nervously.

Nora opened her mouth to retort, but was cut off by a pillar of light shooting into the sky, piercing straight through the forming storm above.

Staring at this sight in awe, the group were even more shocked as massive columns of pure white crystal erupted all around the beam followed by smaller clumps that rapidly spread outwards.

Speaking of which…

"Kuso! Stay close to me!" Matatabi yelled while getting in front of Nora when she noticed the new formations swiftly approaching their position. Acting fast, the feline waved her tails and summoned forth a vortex of blue fire that the surrounded the whole group.

At the same time, Winter slammed her scarred and now brightly glowing fist into the ground, causing a super dense dome of ice to form inside the fiery tornado. Just in time as not even a second later the wave of crystals hit, the rapidly growing minerals slamming into the barriers, punching through the flames and leaving multiple deep fractures in the ice, before simply spreading over both like a flood.