Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
"Naruto..." Ruby muttered as she started to stir in the awake position, which just happened to include her noticing that she was on top of Naruto's back.
"Yeah Red?" Naruto asked with a solemn look to his face.
"... We lose... didn't we?" Ruby asked with a sad tone to her voice. She got all the answer she needed when she noticed that Naruto seemed to be in thought about something.
It was true... Naruto wasn't sure what happened either. One second he was getting red to fight Ruby to knock her out after defeating Satori, and the next thing he knew was that the entire city was covered in a bright light as both he and Ruby were knocked straight out of Version 2 and forced back to their normal forms. The damage from whatever blast had hit them had been so great that it had been enough to cancel out the Version 2 transformation.
Not only that, but worse things had happened.
The entire Kingdom of Vale... was nothing more than a giant smoking crater in the ground. It was like a god had taken a scoop and scooped out the land itself. Naruto had been able to quickly find Ruby, who had burned off her clothes, naked on the ground with all of her skin peeled off. He had been able to help heal her skin back to perfection, but she suffered from bruising all over her body. He had wrapped her cloak over her shoulders to protect her modesty and he carried her on his back, his hands under her thighs.
It was a long trip back to Beacon on foot after all, but he could see it in the distance.
He could also make out what seemed like a giant crumbled up barrier of sand covering the school, while also quickly falling apart.
Shukaku and Pyrrha.
"Yeah... we lost." Naruto admitted to Ruby, who looked down at the ground. She could see that they were inside of a giant crater, the center of which had actually melted from the heat of the explosion and turned into glass that reflected the sky. They were actually standing on the glass crater, and Ruby could see herself and Naruto reflected in the glass. She could see the clear sky above them, the sun shining brightly.
"Were... were there any survivers?" Ruby asked sadly, fearing the answer.
...
"No... only our cloaks protected us from the explosion." Naruto admitted to Ruby. He was feeling down himself. Ozpin, the other teachers, the Third and Fourth year students... all of them were now dead... including his own mother. She had bravely come with them to help out, and he was sure that her experience would have let her come out alive... but sadly not even HIS vast experience had alerted him to the explosion before it happened. He had thousands and thousands of years of battle experience built up over so many reincarnated lives, yet he couldn't predict that their would be some kind of extremely powerful... chakra bomb in the city.
His only guess was that Sog had overloaded his body with chakra, and thus blew himself up and everything around him.
Naruto felt some tears land on his shoulder, and Ruby wrapped her arms around him tightly.
"Then... I couldn't protect everyone... I failed." Ruby cried a little as she spoke with such utter heartbreak.
"Ruby... this mission had zero chance of success." Naruto told Ruby, who gasped at how he admitted there had been nothing they could have done.
"Then what was the point... so many people are dead now!" Ruby seemed like she wanted to yell, while Naruto gained a serene smile on his face.
"Satori was defeated, and the Box of Ultimate Bliss was destroyed. We prevented the world from being destroyed today, even if we failed to save Vale... we saved the world today. Nobody but us could have defeated Satori... I'm sad about the people that died... but this outcome... isn't a bad one when you think about what could have happened." Naruto told Ruby, who hugged him tighter than she had before.
She understood his words, but she still hated that they couldn't save Vale and the good people in the city. It was their job to protect people, and help everyone find a happy ending. So many people had died because of their failure, even if Naruto had admitted there was zero chance of them actually being able to do anything... she felt like she had personally failed.
"... I'm going to get stronger." Ruby told Naruto, with him closing his eyes and smiling.
"You will... will you?" Naruto asked her with a large smile growing on his face. Naruto had dealt with death enough that he knew how to push the sadness deep inside him until he could grieve. Right now Ruby needed him strong, so he would be strong and grieve his mother's death, as well as the deaths of so many other people later. It wouldn't do for him to leave his friend in a sad state while he focused on himself. So he would support Ruby in her time of need.
"I'll get stronger... I will protect everyone." Ruby told Naruto, who grinned for a moment, before he realized something.
Beacon was going to have to close.
Over half of the students had been killed today, and only Glynda Goodwitch was alive of the teachers. Beacon as a building was standing, but without Vale it had no source of regular food to take care of the mass of students that it had. After today students were more than likely going to be sent home, to wherever their homes were. Ruby and Yang would be going back to Patch, Pyrrha would be making her way back to Mistral, with Weiss going on her way back home in Atlas. Jaune would have to go back to his home on the farm, while Nora and Ren... were both going to have to go back to wherever they had come from.
Unless they were born in Vale and lived there... for obvious reasons.
Speaking of people, he would need to spit out Summer Rose when he got the chance.
"Then get stronger, right now you don't have the strength you need." Naruto told Ruby, who gripped his clothes harder than before at the blunt admission.
"I know." Ruby told Naruto, who closed his eyes and decided to enjoy the silence all the way back to Beacon.
Naruto looked down at the ground for a moment, before he smiled to himself. One day he would be reunited with his friends, he just knew that much. Beacon or no Beacon, Naruto wasn't going to let go of his friends that easily. There would come a day when they all would gather again, even if he had to gather them himself. Naruto felt the wind blow his hair back, while Ruby leaned forward as if sensing his thoughts and kissed him on the cheek. Naruto closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of the wind, finding a small pleasure in the feeling that it was blowing away all of his troubles for the moment.
"Team RUWBY... is finished isn't it?" Ruby asked Naruto, who smirked at her.
"Is it? Listen up, just because Beacon is going to have to close... doesn't make the friends we made here any less real. One day we will all gather again, and not only Team Ruby, but also Team Juniper will join hands again... all of us. As long as we hold out bonds dear to us, then we will always be connected." Naruto told Ruby, who got off of Naruto's back on shaky legs and covered the front of her body in her cloak. She moved around Naruto, before she grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him down a bit as she leaned up and kissed him.
Naruto's eyes widened, before they softened and he returned the kiss... and to Ruby it was a kiss that felt like fireworks were constantly going off in her head. It was like all of her memories seemed to be refreshed... her old life seemed to come into her mind as she remembered everything about herself and her relationship to Naruto. She stopped kissing him and knocked him to the ground, her smaller body on top of him.
"I don't want to say goodbye... I still love you!" Ruby actually seemed to be begging, and Narutp rubbed her back.
"Not goodbye... just see ya later." Naruto told her with a sure tone, and she believed him.
They would all be together again one day.
She would wait patiently until then, and grow stronger and stronger.
Naruto looked up at the sky, and he could see the sun shining high in the sky. He relished in the warmth it gave him, and he hugged Ruby tightly.
The winds of changing were blowing through Remnant.
Chapter End!
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To Be Continued in Naruto the Huntsmen: Shippuden
That is right, I just finished Naruto the Huntsmen... and the second part of this story will be Naruto the Huntsmen: Shippuden. Hope all of you that liked this story will read that one when it comes out!