He lay awake. Tossing and turning.

A week had passed since the incident at the docks. His first operation as a trainee huntsman, even if an unofficial one. He had spent so long leading his family, working for them, trying to make their lives better. It had been satisfying to do something like that again. To contribute again.

But that was a week ago.

The itch was back.

Frustrated, he tossed aside the covers of his bed and dressed lightly, t-shirt and shorts, before creeping out of the dorm. Down the hallway, down the stairs and into the main school building. Thankfully Beacon was some strange amalgamation of school and university. As such, while it did have punishment systems like detentions, it also didn't have a mandatory curfew. Most facilities stayed open. The fitness centre among them.

On hearing the telltale grunts and bap bap bap of someone working on a heavy bag, Naruto was at first surprised to find someone else awake and training. That surprise disappeared as he saw who it was. "Hey, Blaine."

The muscular man only glanced aside on hearing the voice, not interrupting his rhythm for an instant. "Fox boy," he grunted out.

When he had been living under Blaine's roof while studying at Signal, more than once had he found Blaine in the middle of the night, training away. Quiet. Focused. It had been unnerving then. It was still unnerving. But in this moment when Naruto wanted to work off some frustration he couldn't place, he perhaps understood it a little better.

And so Naruto set up alongside his... mentor? No, that was probably pushing it. His trainer. Taping up his hands (mostly for the sake of it, aura would heal any damage from working a heavy bag practically overnight), he got to work. At first he maintained his discipline, holding to the fighting style drilled into him by Qrow. But as time wore on, as it felt like his frustration was growing instead of fading, his style fell apart and he fell back into old habits. Just laying into the bag with everything he had. No thought, no precision, just aggression.

Panting for breath, Naruto found himself leaning up against the heavily scuffed bag for support, before pushing it away and finding a towel to mop away the sweat.

"Feeling better?" Blaine asked at normal speaking volume. Which for him was quiet.

Naruto snorted in response.

"Would you like to speak about it?"

"Heh," Naruto scoffed. "Don't think I get it enough to talk about it, ya know?"

"I do," agreed Blaine. "I have been told, that is what makes something worth talking about."

Naruto looked from his trainer, back to the bag, and sighed. Bleeding off his irritation hadn't worked. It wouldn't even help him sleep just by brute force tiring him out. Usually the impressive stamina that came with high aura reserves was a blessing. But if all he wanted was to sleep, it was a curse. He could keep going until the wee hours of the morning and it wouldn't be enough.

"I'm... frustrated, I guess," the faunus said finally.

Blaine didn't say anything, just replaced the heavy bags for the sake of any students that might come by in the morning as he listened patiently.

"It's like... I know what it is. I know what I want. I want to do more. I want to contribute more. I want to make an impact, ya know? When I was with the others, everything I did had meaning. I was settling arguments, I was providing, I was looking after the kids. There was always something that needed doing. Now..."

"You feel unsatisfied with your training?" the bodybuilder asked.

"No. Yes? I don't know. Back then, I could be everywhere at once. I could do so much and I could see how it made people happy, made their lives better. And then at Signal I was training to do more. That one day I could make a huge difference."

"And now you are here. And you are single-handedly stopping attacks by the White Fang. And helping your classmates to stop a robbery," Blaine concluded. "You feel like you're ready."

"I know I'm not ready," Naruto retorted.

"I didn't say anything about what you know, just about what you feel." Blaine towelled off his hands before running the cloth through his dirty blond hair. "Feelings are frustrating things. They don't like listening to reason." There was a weariness to his words. A resignation.

"So what do I do?" asked the faunus.

Blaine sighed. "The best you can. You're driven, Naruto. That's a good thing. Feeling like you can do more is only satisfied by doing everything you can. Ambition is a roiling flame, it burns you even as it fuels you. But regret is a dagger of ice."

Naruto squinted at the musclebound man. "Huh. That was almost profound. Like, actually profound and not like the stuff you usually say."

"It was something a... A good friend said to me, once. I think I mangled it."

"Well, thanks, Blaine. I'll think about it."

"You're welcome then. Goodnight, Fox Boy."

-(-)-

It was perhaps a combat class for the ages.

…

Alright. That might be overselling things a bit. But it was certainly a momentous one. The first match of the day was a nervous but determined Jaune Arc. For those in the audience that paid attention to the perennial dead last, they noted that the nerves were knew. Jaune had shown nervousness for his first few matches at Beacon but as time wore on those nerves were replaced with resignation for what would inevitably be another loss on his record.

So a return to anxiousness was interesting.

His opponent, a confident Sky Lark sitting at the lower middle of the rankings did not notice or care about a change from his current opponent's usual condition. Walking up to the stage in a swagger.

What happened next astonished just about everyone. The moment Professor Goodwitch called the match to begin, Jaune Arc exploded towards his opponent.

Blitz tactics! He won't be expecting it!

Caught entirely flatfooted and with his weapon in entirely the wrong position and only one-handed, Lark attempted to counter the charge with the butt of his halberd, something Jaune comfortably blocked with his shield.

Halberd. Polearm. Range is my enemy! Stay in close!

Pushing the blue boy's weapon even further awry with his shield, Jaune began laying into his opponent with sword strikes raining down unrelenting.

Sky jumped back to get some distance-

Range is my enemy!

-But Jaune didn't let him, closing in once again with a shield charge before the opponent could get his bearings, the momentum and impact knocking Sky from his feet.

Advantage! This is a fight! Kick 'em while they're down, ya know?!

From such a disadvantageous position, and against someone who was entirely willing to keep attacking against a prone opponent, it was only a matter of time before the siren to end the match sounded.

Sky Lark defeated.

Jaune Arc with full aura. Untouched.

As the slight echo of the siren faded, you could hear a pin drop the audience was so silent.

Jaune offered a hand to help his opponent to his feet. Sky slapped it aside, shoving the blond away. "You got lucky, Arc!" said the humiliated student.

"On the contrary, Mister Lark. You got lazy. Complacent." Glynda turned to address the audience behind her. "Let this be a lesson to all of you and take it to heart! Arrogance will kill you faster than anything else in this world! The beowulf or the creep you dismiss as a threat will inevitably be the one to take your life!" She tapped on her scroll twice, the first brought up the scoreboard, the second changed the number of victories Jaune had earned to "1". "Mister Arc!"

"Y-yes, Ma'am!"

"Your technique was sloppy. That being said, it was better than anything you've shown all semester. Your tactics likewise taking advantage of your opponent's failings were impressive. I want to see continued improvement."

"Yes, Ma'am!" Jaune agreed loudly, standing taller and prouder than he had in a long time as he made his way back to his team in the gallery. A squealing Nora jumped on him to give him a bear-hug, but his eyes were locked on his partner, smiling at him proudly.

"Let's see... Next on the rotation..." Glynda muttered, tapping her scroll again. "Naruto Fox." A picture of the faunus appeared on the main screen with his aura meter beneath it.

"Aww, crap," Naruto moaned, knowing exactly who he hadn't fought yet. Pyrrha, Yang and Ruby.

"Facing... Ruby Rose."

Naruto wasn't sure whether that was the best option or not. They were all entirely capable of kicking his ass. Pyrrha was a guarantee. Yang he fought a bunch and never won. Ruby, at least he could feel like there was a possibility there?

From what he had seen, Ruby's methods involved a lot of running around being hard to hit, wide sweeping attacks from in close and powerful precision attacks at range. She was not good at taking hits as evidenced by the times he had watched her up against durable foes and found herself without options. She had actually lost against Cardin recently, the boy having used a makeshift shield he had been practicing with to stop her scythe cold, leading to her taking a powerful hit while losing her weapon at the same time. And that was when everyone learned how fragile Ruby was without it.

Neither had an overpowering advantage over the other. If he played it smart, maybe he would have a chance.

"Begin."

Ten clones. That was his starting move.

He knew if he made too many, she would just scythe through them like blond wheat. He needed to leverage his biggest asset, but too much would just end up wasting his aura.

Ruby's first move was to move. In a blur of petals she was gone from in front of him and instead seemed to sweep behind him, getting through the clones surrounding her frustratingly easily. Two clones took to trying to keep her on the back foot by peppering her with gunfire but even fragile Ruby saw them as more annoyance than threat. Instead of keeping her on the defensive, she simply leapt about to avoid it, all the while taking lethally accurate potshots at any clone she could see.

Another ten clones.

Even so, in the time between his forces dwindling and his replenishing them, she had made a clean hit on the real Naruto. The shell game was over. With laser-like focus she kept track of him, focusing every shot on damaging him, using the momentum of her rifle fire to stay airborne as much as possible so the clones couldn't catch her. Shot after shot keeping the faunus distracted trying futilely to dodge, more than once a clone taking a bullet for him.

Alright. Naruto thought. Conventional thinking isn't working. Time for stupid plans that just might work.

Fifty clones.

Ruby's eyes widened as she looked down and saw a sudden sea of blond hair appear directly beneath her. Firing her rifle, she bounced herself towards the shield wall protecting the gallery, then back across to the opposite wall to hang there with her scythe as a piton. Two huge groups of Naruto clones had appeared on the arena floor.

And she had lost the original. Again.

"Gotta come down sometime, Ruby!" one of the clones called. "If you don't–" the clones as one all raised an arm, "– we'll happily make ya!"

Two was an annoyance. And as Naruto had intended way back when he asked for a smaller firearm, his semblance could turn an annoyance into a legitimate threat.

Ruby launched herself once again as the Narutos all opened fire. Some tried to track her through the air. Most, however, moved to follow her. And then, as Ruby Rose came down to the arena floor once again, scythe fully extended and ready to do what Naruto had worried about from the start–

"DOG PILE!" Naruto yelled, grabbing hold of her as she came down.

"What?!"

"Dog pile!" "Dog pile!" "Dog pile!" "Dog pile!" "DOG PILE!" "Dog pile!" the clones chanted over and over again.

Ruby fired her rifle in an attempt to go back to the plan she knew would work. Unfortunately, while she cleaved through one clone (and accidentally shot another while it was mid jump), the clone that had first grabbed her, the one that was closest, wasn't a clone. The real Naruto took the blow on his aura with a grunt, the scythe bouncing off ineffectively before being grabbed by a clone and wrenched out of her grasp.

"I got it! I got it!" cheered the clone as he escaped the pile and started dancing away with it, only to accidentally cut itself on the blade. "Ow," it whined as it poofed into smoke, Crescent Rose clattering to the ground.

"Do you surrender?" Naruto asked quietly.

Ruby wanted to say no. She wanted to keep fighting. But she was surrounded on all sides by Naruto, couldn't even move for all the Naruto there was in the way. She knew without her weapon and unable to move she couldn't keep going.

Even so... She still waited a few seconds. While this was still technically a fight, she had basically ended up at the bottom of a snuggle pile made up of herself and three dozen of the boy she had a crush on.

"I surrender," she said eventually.

The Narutos began to disappear one by one until it was just the real one lying half atop the redheaded girl. Quickly he got himself up now that he was unencumbered and lifted his brightly flushed opponent to her feet.

"Excuse me, what happened there?" Goodwitch asked.

"Huh?" Naruto asked confused, before he realised what the problem was. Ruby's voice had probably been muffled under the Naruto pile. "Oh, she surrendered," he explained, picking up Crescent Rose and handing it back to Ruby who cuddled it to her chest.

"Is this true, Miss Rose?"

"Yes, Professor. I couldn't move or use my semblance to get out."

"Very well, for those of us here that didn't see the final events, could you recount them for us?" the professor asked as she once again altered the scoreboard, increasing Naruto's win record by one and putting him in fourth place above Nora Valkyrie and below Ruby.

"Ah, well I knew going in that if I used a huge swarm of clones she'd just cut through 'em and I'd be out of luck, ya know?" Naruto began explaining his thought process. "But then I realised to do that, she needs to cut through each one in one shot. If it gets stopped halfway, she's stuck. So the first one that grabbed her was the real me."

"I see," Goodwitch nodded. "So you used a potential weakness of your semblance as a trap."

"As soon as I hit the real him the impact jarred me a whole lot. My baby was out of my hands before I knew it," Ruby pouted.

"Very well. Mister Fox, while your strategy was somewhat unorthodox, I cannot deny its effectiveness. That said, while I applaud taking advantage of your own weaknesses to conceal the use of your strengths, I must express concern at your taking an attack from a dangerous weapon like that on the assumption that you can take it. If I may direct your attention to your aura level?"

Pulling out his scroll and looking at it, Naruto realised he was a hair away from the red. If Ruby had had enough leverage to punch him, she would have won the match. "Holy shit, that was close!" Naruto shouted.

"Language, Mister Fox, but yes. Miss Rose?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" Ruby shouted, standing at attention.

"I expect you are making strides to cover your sub-par performance without your weapon?"

"Ehh, hehehehhh..." Ruby laughed awkwardly, scratching her cheek.

"Miss Rose, I respect your dedication to the weapon you created and the effort you expended in building it. But your opponents have noticed a flaw in your fighting style. They will continue to capitalise on it if you let them. Am I understood?"

Ruby slumped. "Yes, Ma'am."

Goodwitch nodded. "Now, in applying what you saw in this match to fighting the Grimm. Swarm tactics are very common, especially among the weaker varieties. While you saw earlier a single Grimm can be a threat if you let it, it is a good rule of thumb that if you find one weak Grimm, you will inevitably find more. Maintain your awareness. Overwhelming you with numbers is another danger that the Grimm pose to any huntress or huntsman."

-(-)-

The machine shop.

Naruto still kind of hated the place. Mostly out of fear he would accidentally blow something up or cut his own face off with one of the machines or something. Even so, Ruby had made sure to teach him how to properly use each of the machines himself so he could construct his new and improved weapon. Building it with his own two hands would bring them closer together, she had explained.

The faunus was getting suspicious. She had said it like she meant him and the weapon. But she also might have meant–

… Nah.

In any case, she had started him off small. First was the most basic of upgrade. A blade in the back of the heel, angled upward to avoid it impairing his movement any more than the foot claws already did.

Next she insisted they add something fancy to the feet. This was Naruto's introduction to what Ruby called the "kick heel". Basically a pressurised pad that would allow him to gain a quick burst of movement in whatever direction he was kicking from. From the ground it would be a big jump. A slight boost to his mobility.

Now more comfortable with the machining process, Naruto felt like he was ready for their big project. Which was good. Because now that the parts had come in they had about two days to build it before the next combat class. But he felt he was ready.

Then Weiss Schnee came through the doors of the workshop and took the wind right out of his sails.

While Ruby had been eager to teach him how to get things done, Weiss was the exact opposite. She felt she was doing this as a favour to Ruby and would rather Naruto stay out of it entirely.

As Naruto stood there awkwardly, watching the heiress at work as she separated out a dust mixture and ran it through the spectrometer to ensure it would have the correct result, he turned to look around the workshop. His eyes landed on his teammate Cardin, doing something wonderfully simple by comparison in fashioning his own shield. Absently, Naruto wondered if Cardin would add any cool features like Ruby had been insisting on for him.

As if feeling Naruto's eyes on him, Cardin raised a hand and gave him the finger.

"So... This thing we're building..." Naruto began awkwardly as he and Ruby continued to watch her teammate work.

Instead of Ruby, Weiss actually deigned to answer him. "It's a pulse emitter. One of the great inventions of the genius Ankoli Satel. An unparalleled genius in the implementation of dust technology. He felt that dust rounds were an inefficient use of the miracle material and that current energy transmission methods were likewise unsatisfactory. So he attempted to solve both problems with emitters capable of transferring energy without the use of wiring or any other infrastructure. In the end, he only partially solved the first problem by creating weapons that more efficiently used dust for destructive ends."

"Sounds like a cool idea," said the faunus. "Sounds like you were a fan too."

"No, he worked for my father." Weiss hands stopped working. "I met him once when I was young..." Shaking her head, she continued as she put finishing touches on the equipment. "He was passionate about his work. Dedicated his life to it. Wanted to change the world."

"What stopped him?"

The heiress sniffed. "What usually stops scientists with ambitious and revolutionary ideas? Lack of funding and pressure from those who stand to lose out from those ideas." With a sigh, Weiss picked up the small device she had modified and handed it to him. "Here. Keep the outer casing clean of dust when you weld it into the housing. External chambers need lightning dust powder, the internal ones need hard-light dust powder. Got it? Don't mix up the dust types or it won't work. The lightning dust is to give it a charge so if it doesn't have that the whole thing is useless."

"So... What will it do?" a still confused Naruto asked, his original question having not been answered.

"You remember what Penny did down at the docks?" Ruby asked.

Naruto gasped. "The big laser cannon thing?! Weiss, if you just made me a big laser cannon I might have to hug you!"

"Ugh, thank the gods I didn't then. It's like that but way smaller. That was a wave emitter. This is a pulse emitter."

"Huh." Naruto shrugged. "Still. Lasers are cool."

"Lasers are pret-ty cool," Ruby agreed.

The heiress rolled her eyes. "You two are made for each other. I'm leaving."

"Thanks, Weiss!" Naruto called as the white girl left at a brisk pace. "Man, I wonder what she meant by that though?" he asked aloud deliberately, glancing down at the red girl who was even redder than usual.

"YeahIdunnoWeissisweirdsometimesokaybye!" Ruby babbled before blurring out of the workshop.

Naruto, expression frozen, took a few steps so he was standing next to Cardin's workstation. "She has a crush on me, doesn't she?"

Cardin didn't even look up from his welding. "Fox, I don't even like you so I pay no attention to your friends. And even I noticed. How'd it take you this long?"

"I just thought she was friendly, ya know!"

"She is friendly. She's friendly because she into bestiality and wants to ride your junk."

"Dude!"

"Oh, right she's like fifteen. Then she wants to pet your ratty-ass fur or something, I don't friggin' know."

"Good to have a reminder why I don't talk to you much. Now if you'll excuse me I have to figure out what hard-light dust is," Naruto grumbled as he wandered over to the welder to fit his new equipment.

-(-)-

"Okay!" Naruto exclaimed, doing poses with his now upgraded equipment, "Ready for a test run!"

"50 lien on it exploding!" shouted Cardin.

"I'll take that action," Topaz grinned. "My money's on it just kind of fizzling out and doing nothing."

"Naruto, your team are mean!" Ruby admonished. "I bet it works perfectly because I, the great weaponsmith Ruby Rose helped him build it!"

"You're on!" Cardin grinned.

"All of you guys suck. Except Ruby who has faith in me!" Naruto grinned at the suddenly sheepish little reaper. "Oh, and Weiss who didn't bet on me failing."

"Oh, I expect this to fail. I just don't care to gamble."

"... Ruby, your team can be mean too."

"I know," she agreed, patting her crush on the shoulder. "Now let's go test this baby out!"

Naruto managed to refrain from bouncing on the spot before making his way to the firing range.

"Ah, Naruto! Wrong way!" Ruby quickly corrected him turning him towards another door.

"But I thought–"

"That's the firearm testing range," she explained. "They have a specialised room for testing dust weapons because they have a higher chance of going really, really wrong." As Ruby led the way into another room, Naruto gawked at the size of the place. A huge open room of concrete walls, a small observation room off to one side with blast shields.

"Okay," Naruto breathed, "Points for preparedness."

"So is he just going to shoot the walls?" Topaz asked. "We should give him some targets or something so we can see what kind of damage that thing does."

"Hmph," Weiss grunted before she generated some spires of ice with Myrtenaster.

"That works," the bear faunus nodded.

"So, do you guys want to go in the observation room or...?" Naruto asked, trailing off.

"Given the specifications of the device I doubt it could cause us significant harm," Weiss thought aloud. "Still... It was you that put it together, so it's probably for the best. Come on, Ruby."

"Good luck, Naruto!" the reaper cheered as she hid behind the blast shields.

"Don't die!" Topaz yelled.

"If you die, make it funny!" Cardin called.

"My friends suck," Naruto grumbled as he found a position to fire from. To give himself as much distance as he could from the ice pillars he set himself up in a corner of the room, taking a knee and staying a couple of feet away from the wall. It was his first time using the device so he had no frame of reference for the kind of kick it would have.

Naruto clapped his hands together. As he pulled them apart again, the now bulkier palms of Kuchigotae split and opened up revealing a curved surface on each hand. As he put them together they formed the inside of a hemisphere. The two halves locked together and seemed to hum with energy. Before Naruto's eyes, from out of the hemisphere, a small ball of energy formed between his hands.

"That's not supposed to happen," Weiss commented, arms folded and tapping her foot anxiously.

"Do we–?" Ruby started to ask as she pointed to the alarm button.

Before she could even finish the question, the ball of roiling, twisting energy flew forwards, slamming into an ice pillar and grinding into it. The pillar cracked, and cracked, and shattered.

The ball kept going.

Into the next pillar.

And the next.

Into the wall. Only then, did the energy of the ball seem to dissipate, grinding a sizeable spiral-shaped divot into the concrete.

Naruto gaped as he saw the destruction that one shot caused, looked down at his hands as he separated them again and grinned like a loon.

As such, he didn't see Weiss storming up to him until she was already grabbing his collar and hoisting him to his feet. "What. Did you. Do." she growled.

"I did what you told me to do! Looks like it worked pretty well, ya know?!" Naruto laughed to himself.

"That was not what that was supposed to do! It was supposed to fire a pulse of energy that would impact like a slug and then at most detonate on impact! What that was... Was...!"

"Awesome?"

Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee dust company, stomped on his foot and pointed furiously back at the workshop. "Go! Out! We're looking at that dust mixture you used!"

She dragged him by the arm through the door when he didn't move immediately, placing him next to the dust spectrometer, 'just in case she needed to yell at him more'.

It was an awkward few minutes for the fox faunus as he just stood there. Meanwhile–

"So it didn't blow up, it didn't do nothing and it didn't work perfectly," Russell summed up. "So who wins the bet?"

"Is it me?" Naruto asked.

"You shut up," Weiss said, eyes still glued to the monitor, "Your talking privileges are revoked."

"Aww."

"I guess nobody wins," Topaz sighed.

"Bummer. I wish it exploded." Cardin lamented.

"Hey, screw mph Crmnn!" Naruto yelled only to find his lips being squished shut by Weiss' hand.

"No. Talking."

"Mmmmmrph..."

Moments later, after Weiss read the printout of the results, she looked up at the fox faunus. "I dislike you."

"I'm aware. Why this time?"

"Why are both wind and hard-light dust in the internal chambers of the device?"

"Uhhh..."

"No, try again. Use your words."

"Which colours are those ones again?" Naruto asked sheepishly.

Weiss gaped at the answer. The paper began to shake in her hands before her fingers let it fall.

"Weiss...?" Ruby asked tentatively.

"GAHHHH!" the heiress screamed as she held her head in her hands. "Stupid, incompetent dunce of a faunus creates a dust mixture that improves on a cutting edge weapon concept BY! ACCIDENT!" she finished, glaring at the fox faunus with rage.

"So... That's a good thing, then?"

"GAHHHH!"

-(-)-

Apparently yes, it was a good thing as Ruby explained to him later that day. Once Weiss had calmed down she explained that there were many projects still trying to make the most out of Doctor Satel's work. New dust formulas that would work to enhance the basic framework of the device. It wasn't patentable per se, but there was something of a finder's fee if someone came up with a formula that had interesting effects.

Weiss had given him the simplest one. He had lucked out on the particular ratio of wind and hard-light dust. A little more wind and it would have damaged the device before it would fire. A little less and it would have punctured the hard-light construct and gotten it to detonate early.

So. Very lucky.

He felt like he had made significant progress at Beacon that week. Improved and redesigned his weapons by his own hands, fought and eked out a victory against one of the toughest fighters in the class.

He still couldn't sleep.

He still had that itch.

-(-)-

As Atlas ships came into view on the horizon of Vale, Naruto found himself for the third time approaching Beacon Tower.

"Mister Fox? Back again?"

"I'd like to talk to Professor Ozpin."

-(-)-

A/N: Okay. I have minutes to post this so sorry if it's brief.

Blaine bonding! He has trauma!

Fights! Jaune is okay-ish now! Naruto still fights with dumb tactics!

Crafting! Rasengan! Ship teasing!

Okay that's good.

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Thanks for reading.