Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or RWBY.

Reading: Veritas Aequitas

XXXIX: Siege The Day

"Ow. Ow. OW!" Jaune squinted as the damp towel pressed against the cut above his left eye. Another ruckus caused by Team RWBY had distracted Jaune

Jaune's eyes cut to said team, who was looking away, whistling innocently.

"I got my eyes on you."

and, since they had been training for quite some time that day, his reserves were down. The natural aura shield gave out just before Pyrrha's last blow, and now he was paying for it.

"Cash or cheque?"

"Ha ha, Yang." The farmer boy mock laughed.

Yang gave him a big thumbs up.

"Sorry," Pyrrha said as she kept trying to gently clean the wound. "You know, even if your semblance was fully matured, being low on aura wouldn't have prevented this."

"Yeah, but I figured that maybe enough strain would-OW!" Jaune pulled away and put his hand over the cut. "What was that?"

"Water." Pyrrha winced. "Sorry."

"It's like getting Blake to take a bath." Weiss curled her lips into a smile, making her friend frown towards her.

"Not funny."

"But true!"

"Not helping Yang!"

Yang shrugged. "It's what I do."

"No, it's fine." Jaune murmured as he pulled his hand away and closed his eyes. "You're just trying to help. Besides, pain lets me know I'm still alive."

"Nora's lessons aren't exactly the best to use as an example," Pyrrha said with a small smile as she returned to cleaning the wound. Jaune snorted.

"Yeah, but that doesn't make them any less true." He argued.

"Does that mean we'll start having pancakes every morning and join in on her weekend runs?" The redheaded Huntress asked with a wry smile on her face.

"No!" Jaune cried out in horror. He couldn't take that.

Nora snorted. "Wuss."

Coco looked at Velvet in confusion. It couldn't be that bad, right?

"God, no!" Jaune grimaced at the thought. "It's one thing to have the whole school laugh at me getting my butt kicked, it's another to have them laugh when I fail to keep up with my own team."

"Jaune..."

"What? I don't have that kind of endurance, Pyrrha," Jaune said with a resigned sigh. He crossed his arms. "Pain tolerance, sure. Endurance? Not so much."

"He does like to take a beating." The blonde bombshell smirked.

Jaune pointed at Yang. "I tolerate the beating, I don't enjoying."

"You say tomato, I say masochist."

"…I hate you. So much."

"With that kind of attitude it's hard to see how you'll make any progress." The lighthearted chirp made Jaune jump in his seat. Both he and Pyrrha looked up to see Sun Wukong, the monkey Faunus that they'd seen with Blake more than once, walk towards them with his hands interlaced behind his head and a grin on his face. He lifted the left one slightly in greeting. "Sup, losers?"

"Sun."

The speaker was surprisingly not the blue-haired boy the two often saw at his side, but the dusk-skinned teen with sage-colored hair. Sage, if Jaune remembered the name correctly, gave his team leader an expectant look. Sun's tail swished in a playfully devious manner.

"What's wrong, Sage? Got cold feet?" Sun asked. Sage grunted and the Faunus shrugged. "Whatever, man. You're the one that wanted me to come with you out here."

"I believe your words were 'we are both heading in the same direction'," Sage said with a bit of bite. Sun's grin widened.

"Ah, right. That reminds me," he said, looking back at the Invincible Girl and the Arc. "You guys know which plot Team RWBY is using for training?"

"Smoochie time?" Yang wiggled her brow towards Blake. "You lucky cat, you."

"Probably not the best time to go find them," Jaune said before Pyrrha could answer. He rubbed his finger along the cut on his forehead and pursed his lips. "I will never get over the speed-y healing-thing."

"What do you mean?" Sun asked, his arms dropping to his side.

"Well, I never really unlocked my aura until-Oof!" Jaune grunted when Pyrrha elbowed him sharply in the side. He sent her a small frown. "What was that for?"

"I believe," Pyrrha began, her jaw set and her brow furrowed in slight annoyance, "That Sun is wondering why you said it was a bad time to speak with Team RWBY. Not inquiring about your awe over aura's healing capabilities."

"Time and place, dude." Sun nodded, his tail wagging.

"...Ohh, yeah, that does make more sense." Jaune nodded and looked back at the amused Sun and the stern-faced Sage. "Well, you know how Team NHKS was sent back home, right?"

"What!? Why!? Did someone find out about the Drunken Raid!?" Sun asked in alarm.

"You are so good at keeping secrets." Neptune smirked at his partner.

Sun slapped him on the arm with his tail. "Shh!"

Sage clapped his hand over his face and let out a groan. Jaune and Pyrrha looked between the two, bewildered.

"Uh...No?" Jaune shook his head slowly. Sun let out a large breath and his shoulders sagged in relief.

"Oh thank god. Wait... if they didn't find out about the raid, then why did they go back to Vacuo?" Sun asked, confused.

"Well, if you ask Nora, they just decided to drop out because Naruto couldn't handle the fact that pancakes were better than his ramen." Jaune rolled his eyes.

"Which is true!"

"Which is ludicrous because Pumpkin Pete's Marshmallow Cereal is the greatest thing to ever exist."

Nora gave Jaune the most evil look he had ever seen.

"What?"

"I was delusional from training?"

"Everyone gets one, Jaune. Only one." Nora warned him in a deadly tone.

"Yes ma'am!"

"Agreed." Sage nodded, earning a pair of bizarre looks from both Pyrrha and Sun.

"...Huh, and here I always thought you were a vegetarian. Wait, is that why you always sneak off early in the morning!?" Sun asked, a wide grin spreading across his face. Sage's cheeks tinted just slightly and he turned away as Sun began to laugh. "Oh, man! That's so...dude! I'm not going to judge you-!"

"But Scarlet and Neptune will." Sage muttered.

"Scarlet would, not me." Neptune refuted.

"Liar!" Sun declared with a cheeky grin.

"Ah, don't worry about them. They're ...delusional. Or misguided. Hm, perhaps mis-lusional? Or De-guided? ...Mis-lusional sounds better..." Sun decided with a nod of his head. He looked back at Jaune expectantly. "Anyway, you were telling me why I shouldn't go talk to Bl-Team RWBY?"

"Long story short: Yang's frustrated. Really frustrated. Like, my third-oldest sister level frustrated." Jaune shuddered and rubbed his arm. "And I think that's being a bit generous."

"Generous?" Yang crossed her arms.

"Are you not flipping out in this?"

"That's fair, I guess." Yang grumbled. "I mean, I don't have my Naru-tush, so that's a real damper."

"Can we not speak of your need of a booty call?" Weiss asked with a roll of her eyes.

Ruby snickered. "She said booty."

"Third-oldest?" Sun repeated, his eyes wide. "How many sisters do you ha-?"

"Seven."

"W...Wow...That's...Um..." Sage blinked several times. Sun whistled in astonishment.

"Man, your dad's either really virile or your mom is, like, super fertile." Sun tilted his head in thought. "Though, considering that makes you one of eight, I'm guessing a bit of both. Then again, there could be twins or triplets or the rare quartet-let. And now I can't help but think of all the sessions it took to make that happen! That's got to be what? Three? Four tries per kid? Damn."

"Mental scarring starting now." Jaune dryly quipped.

"SUN!" Sage gaped at his team's leader while Jaune and Pyrrha flushed red enough to surpass the latter's hair color in intensity.

"What? It's a compliment!" Sun saw the reactions he got and threw his hands up. "Gah, see? This is why I stowaway to other kingdoms! I'm surrounded by prudes! I should go back to Vacuo!"

"That's-! I-! Let's go. You need to have another session on public decency with Scarlet," Sage said finally, grabbing Sun's collar and pulling him along.

"No, not the lectures! He's so factual!" Sun screamed in distress.

Weiss looked at Neptune with a cocked brow.

"Mental trauma."

"It makes sense for some parts of him."

The Monkey Faunus flailed in protest, but could not escape his teammate's superior strength.

Jaune and Pyrrha remained rooted in place, both far too embarrassed to move, let alone speak, after Sun's comments.

Absently, though, they wondered just what kind of place he, and by extension, their friends came from.

"Where are they coming from!? And why are they coming here?!" Haku shouted as he shot another Beowolf through the head. "I thought they only targeted negative emotions!"

"Don't think about it now! Just hold them off!" Sasuke ordered as he cut down a Creep that attempted to leap past him into what was considered Kon's territory.

"Ah, now the good stuff. Violence!" Nora grinned widely.

The two were assigned to help patrol the massive Wall that was built around the established city-village by the Founding Four, and what had been a rather easy and cushioned job had, like all missions, been turned on its head by the enormous legion of Grimm that literally came out of nowhere.

"That sounds like a problem." Coco remarked. "Maybe they shouldn't have been sitting on their cute little asses for so long."

"Complacent." Yatsuhashi nodded in agreement.

There were no warning signs, no sighted Grimm that lurked about in preparation or as scouts. It was as if the Grimm horde spawned from thin air, but that couldn't have been what happened.

"Hold the Wall!" "There's too many!" and "It's game over, man! Game over!"

"Someone fire that man." Weiss looked sick at the cliché outburst.

echoed repeatedly in the distance as the rest of Kon's Defensive Forces struggled to keep the Grimm horde's advance at bay. Sasuke let out a frustrated yell as he decapitated another Beowulf and then impaled a climbing Ursa.

"We're sitting ducks here!" Sasuke said to Haku, as the feminine boy fired round after round down at the climbing Grimm. The last Uchiha cut down yet another Beowolf and then spun Amaterasu to unleash three arrows into an approaching Nevermore.

"I know!" Haku snapped, his wrist flicking to shift Snowfall to its whip form and grabbed a leaping Creep that he flung back down towards the horde at the base of the wall. Snowfall switched around once more in another flick and the climbing Grimm found themselves pelted by more dust crystals. Haku's gaze flicked up at the sound of a loud shriek and he gave pause.

"G...Griffons..." Haku muttered. He lifted his arm and unloaded hell onto the approaching flock of seven black fliers. "GRIFFONS!"

"It's the Order of the Stick!" Ruby cried out.

"One Stick to beat them all." Yang nodded with a grim look.

"You guys watch way too many movies." Blake rolled her eyes. Besides, she liked the prequels better anyway.

"Shit!" Sasuke swore. He spun Amaterasu, slicing the hands off of a Beowulf as he did and kicking another Grimm off of the wall, and shifted it to its sword form to cover the climbers while Haku focused on the higher tier aerial Grimm. Sasuke cut down two Creeps and charged his free hand with lightning. "Haku, duck!"

Haku dropped down and Sasuke threw his hand out, black arcs of electrified aura shot out from his fingertips to char the lead Griffon. The Griffon's body was black mist before it hit the ground. As were the three that followed it.

"He used Holy Smite! Wow, what a Paladin." Jaune awed.

"And now it's tabletops." Blake remarked, she was surrounded by nerds and dorks alike.

"Damn." Sasuke scowled and let out a huff. "I'd hoped to get more."

"Don't sell yourself short, Sasuke." Haku shot down another leaping Creep and dropped into a mirror to dodge a Beowolf's pounce, causing the Grimm to dive back into the horde below. Haku rose back up from his mirror and pointed to the circling flocks of Griffons that were strangely coordinated in their attacks on the defenders of Kon's wall, his index finger leveled specifically on the four that survived Sasuke's initial attack on the return. "Oh look, they're circling around again. If anything, you may get your chance."

"Haku, cutie, no one likes a smartass during a crisis." Coco chided. "They make the best meat shields at the end of the day. We like you too much for that."

"Haku. Keep the others off of me. I'm bringing those birds down." Sasuke squared his shoulders and back-slashed a Beowolf that thought it could get the drop on him before he sheathed his sword. Black arcs danced along his arms and the sky above him began to darken. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and he held his hands up.

"There's a legend belonging to the Vacuo tribes of old of the being that rules the sky." Kakashi's voice echoed in a faint memory. Sasuke had just turned fourteen, and according to Kakashi had only just started scratching the surface of what he could do with his semblance. He sat panting from the exercises that Kakashi forced him through after each day of class, massive craters easily twelve feet wide surrounding them. "The mighty drums that announce its arrival, the cracks in the air that follow its path. The Sky King. The Stormbringer. The Destroyer: Kirin-Ryu, the Dragon of Lightning."

"Please." Nora rolled her eyes. "We all know that one with the guy and the hammer is more real than some dragon of lighting. That's just silly."

"Hey!" Sun frowned at her, but Ren held up his hand to pause his indignation.

"Wait for it."

And now... Sasuke thought as he clapped his hands together over his head and a large black bolt connected his clasped hands to the dark clouds. Bring the rain, Kirin.

"By god..." Haku, and many others, stopped mid-fight while the Grimm gave pause.

From the clouds descended a massive crackling, lightning variant of the creature of myth. The massive dragon was serpentine in form. Its length easily surpassed the height of all four CCTS towers combined. The dragon's maw opened and swallowed one of the Griffon whole in one go. Before anyone could blink, the creature devoured the rest of the flocks within its sight, its body's energy eradicated them from existence the moment they were in its jaw. When the last Griffon was devoured, the dragon let out one final roar before it exploded in the sky over the horde, eradicating a good portion of the creatures that swarmed below them.

"Comments, Nora?" Ren quirked a brow.

"…Hammer dude still rules!" Nora pitifully protested, a pout on her face. "Stupid dragon."

"I wonder if Naruto can make dragons…" Yang muttered, because that was hot!

Sasuke slumped to his hands and knees, heaving breaths escaping him.

"...Damn, Sasuke." Haku blinked and shot down the Beowolves that scaled the wall before he returned his attention to his teammate. Sasuke grinned weakly and peered down over at the bottom of the wall.

"There's still so many..." Sasuke groaned. He sat back and let his head slump against the wall. "I think there's more here than there were in the Breach."

"I hate to say it, but I think you're right." Haku sighed. He gave a wry chuckle. "Still, being here isn't all bad. Right? At least we're winning."

"My leg! My leg! MEDI-AHHH!"

Sasuke and Haku watched a KDF soldier get carried off by one of the few Nevermore that circled around the wall and dropped into the horde below. The two teammates watched the man disappear into the void of Grimm, never to be seen in one piece again, before they exchanged a look.

"Haku jinxed them." Jaune pointed out. "Even I never do that."

Pyrrha patted his arm. "And we appreciate it."

"Well, Haku, it's official," Sasuke said as he held Amaterasu up and took aim with the bow-form. "You're worse than Kurama."

"Shut up, Sasuke," Haku said before they both resumed fire on the horde.

"Don't get angry just because he's right, we have Yang for that." Blake smirked at her teammate.

"I'm not wrong that much of the time."

"Should I start counting off?" Blake asked her dryly.

"I can get my list." Weiss helpfully offered.

Yang looked at her strangely. "You have a what?"

"I have one for Ruby, but we can talk about her later."

Ruby perked up at her name, cookies stuffed into her mouth like a chipmunk.

"What's the damage?" Kakashi asked, staring out past his grand window at the many pillars of smoke that rose on the horizon.

The room rumbled and shook by the distant booms that the various weapons and semblances in use caused. Sasuke's earlier demonstration had stopped a few of the flying Grimm, but so many more small specks continued to circle around Kon's mighty wall. A swarm immediately brought down any airship that attempted to near the other members of the KDF, so after the fifth failed attempt, Kakashi ordered that all of the Bullheads on hand would fly low, and the available fighters would climb the ten stories that made the Wall.

"Sections Epsilon and Theta are reporting heavy casualties," Aoba said as he kept one hand over the headset that covered his ears. The other furiously scribbled down information faster than what could be perceived as humanly possible, doubly so when one took to heart that Aoba was receiving/deciphering reports from all twenty-four sections of the Wall. "Sections Zeta and Rho have gone dark. Best to consider those gone, sir."

"Man, this is just ominous to see." Sun's tail curled and unraveled in his nervousness.

"Then why aren't they moving in?" Kakashi asked, his eyes narrowed in thought. He looked over at a heavily scarred man wearing an intimidating amount of black that just barged into the door. "Ibiki."

"Commander," the man, Ibiki, said as he straightened into a formal salute. Kakashi waved him off and he relaxed. "Request permission to join the defense, sir."

"Go." Kakashi started to turn away, but stopped and held a hand out to catch Ibiki's arm. "Wait, no. Not yet."

"Sir?" Ibiki asked in confusion.

"Get me online. I'm initiating Article C-Kevlar-Eighty-Six-Alphonse of Konohagakurenosato's Charter. I want everyone that's on reserve. Everyone! If they started here, and moved away, they come back." Kakashi glared angrily into Ibiki's eyes as he pulled his hand back. "Do you understand me?"

"Total recall, smart I guess. Still, I haven't seen a Grimm invasion like this, ever." Neptune commented.

"Can something like that happen to us?" Velvet couldn't help but ask.

"I don't see it happening any time soon." Coco assured her.

"Yes, sir." Ibiki nodded. He looked over at a pineapple-headed youth seated at a control station. "Nara-!"

"Don't yell. Such a pain. I'm already getting the program started." The tired young man with his head propped up on his desk stared at the screen while a shadowed hand danced across the keyboard. The young man was no older than Kakashi's students, but he wore a higher ranked vest than Aoba did. "In five minutes, we'll be in control of the information flow through the CCT and any devices connected to them."

"For how long, Shikamaru?" Kakashi asked. Shikamaru Nara looked up and met the Fifth Commander's intense gaze without so much as a frightened blink. He cracked a small smile.

"As long as you want, sir, but the next Great War might be declared if it lasts any longer than two minutes." Shikamaru shrugged. "What do we care? We're the ones under siege."

"Worldwide message huh, a rousing speech perhaps?" Weiss wondered looking mildly interested. These types of scenes weren't really her type of thing to be honest.

"You think it's a siege, Shikamaru?" Asuma, who was monitoring the civilian evacuation, asked from his seat. Shikamaru looked over at him.

"What else could it be?" the young man returned. "They've taken two sections-"

"Four, no wait, five. We just lost Bravo," Aoba corrected.

"But they're not invading?" Shikamaru continued, undeterred by the interruption. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and propped a fresh one in his mouth while simultaneously extinguishing the last in the half-full ashtray set beside him. Once the smoke was lit, he removed it from his mouth and crossed his arms. "Something big's happening, Lord Fifth. Something new."

"All the more reason for me to enact the article." Kakashi hinted. He turned to look Ibiki in the eye. "Why are you still here?"

"My department also wanted permission to-"

"Granted! Now go!"

"Sir!" Ibiki saluted once more before he stormed out of the room, barking at a few of the awaiting members of his division before the doors closed.

"Lord Fifth-" Shikamaru began.

"What?!" Kakashi glared at the younger man over his shoulder.

"Troublesome..." Shikamaru muttered as he barely withheld a shiver from the glare. "It's ready, sir."

"Rousing speech, go." Ruby cheered as she ate more cookies out of anticipation.

"Good." Kakashi fully turned away from the windows, which tinted until they were fully dark, and three lights shone down to illuminate the Fifth Commander. A dark orb floated up from the ground. The camera on the orb gained a red light above the corner of the lens and Kakashi straightened himself further.

"People of Remnant, Human and Faunus alike, I apologize for this rude and hostile takeover of the CCT," Kakashi made sure not to sound at all sorry as he continued. "My name is Kakashi Hatake, and I am the Fifth Commander of the village of Kon. We are currently under attack by a horde of Grimm exceeding the size of that which had breached the walls of Vale no more than a few months ago."

Around the world, civilians, huntsmen, huntresses, and soldiers alike were glued to whatever device broadcasted Kakashi's message. Children who were too young to understand the severity of the situation asked their teachers why the educational video stopped or why the smart-board suddenly started up, only to be shushed. At Beacon, students from Kon or the sister villages were glued to their scrolls, shushing anyone that dared speak.

"Not going to lie, if that happened it would be pretty creepy." Coco frowned as the scene went on. "It makes one wonder who else can do this later on."

"I'm sure they had counter measures for this."

"I don't see those going off, Schnee. You?"

"No."

"Five sectors of the Grand Wall have already been lost, and though Grimm have yet to move on to the village, they will come," Kakashi said. "I refuse to let them take my home without a fight. As such, I am enacting Article C-Kevlar-Eighty-Six-Alpha of the Konohagakurenosato Charter of Vacuo, and recalling every and all able-bodied graduates of Kon Academy."

"Not just the licensed Hunters, either." Kakashi added as he stared into the camera that broadcasted his image across the planet. "I want the kids that went abroad to study. I want the doctors. I want the nurses. I want the police officers. I want the meter maids. I want the firefighters. I want the janitors. I want the goddamn lawyers. Everyone that's able-bodied and graduated from Kon's Academy comes back. There will be no arguments. You will all return on your own power, or I will come find you."

"…Wow, when he said recall, he really meant a total recall." Sun was wide eyed. "Kinda glad I went to Mistral."

"Sixty seconds," Shikamaru said under his breath. Kakashi glanced at him briefly and then looked back into the camera.

"To the soldiers and Huntsmen of Atlas, Vale, and Mistral; to the Faunus in Menagerie; and to the honorable Tribes of the Wild-Lands, I just have one last thing to say," he said, his eyes curled up as they closed and he smiled. "Keep yourselves out of this, I don't want to deal with anymore bureaucratic bullshit. Have a nice day."

"You know, he's a swanky guy. All no-shit and stuff." Yang smiled at that.

"And what deprived places is your mind going now?"

"Nowhere yours hasn't gone, Weiss-y."

The camera feed cut out and the lights came back on. The windows filled with the silhouettes and names of councilmen from all over the Four Kingdoms. Kakashi glanced at them briefly over his shoulder.

"...Answer them." Kakashi ordered. Shikamaru nodded and filtered the calls through.

"What is the meaning of this-?" "You have no right-!" "How dare you violate the CC-!"

"Councilors, councilors, know that I mean this will any and all respect I can muster: Shut the fuck up!" Kakashi ordered firmly.

"Would you like a slap to the face with that silence or something more humiliating?" Coco let out a soft chuckle. Now this? This was good TV.

The councilmen silenced immediately, their minimized screens able to see him standing in what could only be called a War Room with a skeleton staff working behind him. Kakashi gestured to the few that remained dutifully at work. "Councilors...what you see here are the handful of men and women that I managed to keep from charging this horde with all their fury, Hell, I've barely managed to keep myself in this room. I've lost already five-hundred able bodies to this Horde, and I will be damned before I lose any other because of your inability to put wounded prides aside and stay out of the way."

"Our pride!?" One councilman from Mistral snapped. "Commander Hatake, you overstep your boundaries-!"

"Article IV, subsection Q, paragraph three and a half on the two hundredth and thirty-seventh page of the Vytal Accords," Kakashi said, cutting the man off. "'Any nation that deems a threat too great to handle may request the aid of another, but none should act without proper request lest it be seen as an act of aggression.' Let me make myself perfectly clear. I am not Professor Ozpin and this is not Vale. We will not be hosting the Vytal Festival nor will we allow any outside force take command of us under the illusion of protection."

Ruby couldn't help but ask, "Is that a real thing?"

"Yes, if you bothered to listen to any of our history classes." Weiss rolled her eyes.

"I listen! Just not well."

"Commander!" A councilwoman of Atlas scowled. Kakashi arched a challenging brow.

"Shikamaru?"

"I count a squad of Atlesian Airships already in flight from Vale, and two more heading from Atlas," Shikamaru said as he stared calmly into his computer screen. He looked up and stared past his village leader at the councilors. "Forgive me if I'm wrong, sir, but I believe that's a breach of the Vytal Accords. For all we know, they could be heading this way to claim Kon after the Grimm are repulsed."

"How dare-We saved Vale!" Another Atlesian Councilman refuted.

"Great, now we gotta listen to political B.S." Sun flopped back into his chair, looking bored. "Where's the real action? Not the bureaucratic foreplay."

"Ew, Sun!" Blake looked disgusted.

"It is, what it is, Blake."

"No, you repelled Grimm with excessive force." Kakashi argued. "If it wasn't clear before, then I will make it clear now. If an Atlesian Airship or any such like it from Vale or Mistral, comes within five hundred miles of Kon, Councilors, then Vacuo will perceive it as an act of war. Does that confuse you in any way? Because I can say it slowly if I need to let it sink into your thick skulls."

"You need help, Commander." A councilman of Vale insisted. "You wouldn't have recalled your people otherwise."

"No, Councilman. I recalled my people because I know who I want to watch my back, and who I don't." Kakashi insisted.

"Our Governments at their finest." Blake shook her head at the squabbling.

He turned and waved his hand across his throat, which prompted Shikamaru to end the call. Kakashi returned his gaze back to the now clear windows and folded his hands behind his back. "Asuma, report."

"Fifteen percent have been successfully relocated to the shelters, sir." Asuma sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. His jaw flexed and he swiveled the cigarette in his mouth around. "...Sir-?"

"I need you here, Asuma. You, Gai and Kurenai are vital to the evacuation procedure," Kakashi said.

"We're getting our asses handed to us!" Asuma snapped as he shot up to his feet. "The councilman was right! We need help, more than just the few hundred that left Kon!"

"And we will get it, Asuma." Kakashi looked back at the man. He cracked another eye-smile. "Haven't you noticed that my right hand is missing?"

"I find that highly offensive! I wasn't missing!" Obito refuted as he emerged from the ground in a swirling red portal. He walked over to Shikamaru and presented a device with his false hand. "Pop it in and load it up."

"Yes, sir." Shikamaru nodded. Once the device was connected to the computer, the windows flickered before four faces super-imposed themselves over the glass. Kakashi brought his hands up and bowed his head.

"Fellow Commanders," he said before his lifted his gaze. "It's as we feared: The Grimm are being organized."

"And they end it on that? Show us what's on screen!" Yang complained. "Let me get in there and kick some ass!"

"And get yourself killed somehow?"

"Please, Blake. It takes a lot to kill me." Yang refuted with a snort.

Ruby nodded, it was true.

Wow, been a long while! I just remembered I had one of these. Weird.

Anyway, I'll see what I can scrounge up for the next chapter.

Should be out in another year or so.

Maybe?

I don't know.

Peace!