"Look all I'm saying is that we got to be careful, if it's a control semblance we could fall under it." Sakura says as she walks with Naruto down the hall, they had just got out of meeting about the incident with Ozpin. "I think whoever was working for Roman has a got a serious hate against you."

"That or he just wants round two, which I will deliver on." Naruto growls as he cracks his knuckles, "if they so much a lay a hand on you…Ruby…Yang…anyone I'm going to go to prison for genocide."

"Nights coming soon." Sakura stops as she looks at the setting sun outside of a large window.

"Yeah…" Naruto groans as he felt uneasy, as if something still was watching him.

Naruto and Sakura started walking only for her to stop, and then smile. "Being serious Naruto, right now, do you like Ruby?"

"Yeah…a lot actually…" Naruto scratches his chin as he came to a stop. "Why?"

"You better tell her, ask her out, make her a strawberry sundae. Just something, because you've got a lot of competition here." Sakura giggled at the end, "in fact there this one bulky redhead guy that was just eyeing her the entire time."

"Isn't it a little weird for a fifteen-year-old to date a seventeen-year-old?" Naruto deadpans as he looks at Sakura incredulously.

"From what I hear he's just now turning seventeen, and with your birthday just around the corner Naruto…" Sakura stopped when Naruto stopped as he had the look of someone who just seen a ghost. "Naruto…?"

Naruto thought about something, birthday, it was such a strange word now. It held a significance to the situation at hand, and one memory came to his mind.

An eight-year-old Naruto was hiding under the bed as his grandfather stood up, the door to their apartment was busted open as several thugs walked in. Naruto's only light was coming off the eight birthday candles on his small whip cream cake that his grandfather bought for him.

His grandfather was standing up, a long and thick staff held behind his back. "And, you would be?" he heard the old man sternly question the thugs.

"A rival gang to Roman's, we heard there's a little bastard here fishing for him…we wanted to tell him to stay off our turf."

"I'm sorry, but gentlemen, you have the wrong address." Hiruzen sternly states as he turns his back to the men.

"well then," the lead thug grabs a sword and charges the old man in front him, "we've just got to deliver a bloody message!"

Naruto watched as his grandfather simply hoisted the staff over his shoulder, "extend."

The staff extended out, impacting the man right in his face, sending him careening out of the door while the old man then used the surprise to smash the two groups of bandits at the doorway against the enlarged staff's metal bottom.

The men all laid groaning, all the while, the man Hiruzen had hit in the face laid still…deathly still.

"Last chance gentlemen, leave…or die." Hiruzen warned them and watched mildly amused as they got up and fled, "and don't ever come back again."

Naruto came crawling from under the bed, looking at his grandfather. "Wow…"

"Naruto…" the small blonde turned to his adoptive grandfather. "I'm not mad at you, you do what you can to bring money in…but please do not go everywhere to get it…ever again."

Naruto nodded as he slowly hugged Hiruzen's leg. "Sorry grandpa."

"It's okay," the man patted the boy's head, "c'mon we've got a cake to eat."

"Sakura…I…think I know who the guy behind the mask is." Naruto clutched his armor before running and Sakura following along with him.

"Naruto, what do you mean?! Naruto!" Sakura yells as they run towards the luggage area.

Naruto and Sakura end up at the luggage area, Naruto throwing his clothing and spare kunai across the ground as he came upon a few books and pictures. "Is that your Grandfather's Photos?"

"Yeah..." Naruto opened them, revealing pictures of a staff in background of each picture. Placed on a stand, along with black battle armor. Naruto shook as he skimmed the pages, before trying to process everything, before throwing the photobook against the piled clothing. "Someone stole my grandfather's stuff. Which is why I couldn't find his staff and armor…just the books."

"Yeah," Sakura looked at some of the books, noticing one just for Naruto. "Naruto isn't that a manual book for staff teachings?"

"Yeah, my grandfather bought it for more from a friend of his…a Wuxia Zi." Naruto picked up the book, smiling a little bit, before he gave a saddened sigh. "I can't help but think Sakura, what if he was still alive…would I have ever had met you…would I still be working for Roman?"

"It's best not to dwell on that." Sakura tells him as they both sat down, before Naruto looked at the manual before opening it.

"The Six Forms of The Godly Staff of The Monkey King. The Tang Overlord Spear, Xaiyo Staff Circle Defense, Drunken Duster, Red Leaf Catcher, Unwavering Oak Tree, and…Tree Cutting Thrust." Naruto stops nervously reading as he came to the last one, before looking at Sakura. "Holy crap…"

"Yeah…" Sakura was in awe of the book, before Naruto looked at it with a sadden stare.

"He wore this for me," he was starting to shake, "and I never just had to willpower to look through all of our old photos together…"

"Wounds like that never really heal Naruto, they just fade, but never fully heal." Sakura says as she looks at him with a small smile. "But, we're here, you've made it."

Naruto slowly walked before coming into a hallway, there he stifled a laugh. "Jaune, what the heck!"

There was Jaune, in a Mighty Pete onesie, standing there with a pillow. "What?"

"That's a onesie man, I've not worn one since I was five, and it wasn't no rabbit either!" Naruto pointed at Jaune and started laughing a little. "I'm sorry, but you've made my day man."

"I have to admit…it's actually pretty hilarious." Sakura chimed in.

"Oh, c'mon, it's Mighty Pete." Jaune states in his defense, "it's a limit edition onesie I won off a cereal box code."

Both Sakura and Naruto looked at each other before blurting out laughing, Naruto on the ground clutching his stomach.

"Go get eaten by a Beowulf!" Jaune yelled as he marched away, red from embarrassment.

"Oh, c'mon Jaune, Jaune! It's just a joke, lighten up buddy!" Naruto calls out before sighing and crossing his arms, "well…that happened."

They continued walking, following where Jaune had went. Coming to a stop, they found where the other students were, before Naruto put on shirt two sizes too big for himself. "Well Sakura I'm going to go find the rest of our people."

"Go on ahead lover boy." Sakura teased.

Naruto blushed red as he looked at her, "huh, no that's not it."

"Oh, c'mon Naruto, be honest, if you had a choice to partner with me or Ruby who'd it be?" Sakura questioned him, and raised her pink eye brow as well.

"I um…I would choose you, you're my sister. We work together better since we've literally trained each other." Naruto states with pride and puffs out his chest, "but if we should end up with anyone else in the four men cell we'll probably have…I wouldn't mind…you know…Ruby."

"Sure, sure, go on then I'm going to go look for the lady's room." Sakura says as she starts walking away before turning around, "and Naruto don't be causing any trouble."

"Heighten security detail, and make sure all of the students are where they're supposed to be." Glynda talks on her scroll before walking over towards Ozpin as he sat his desk, before sipping on his coffee. "Yes, I know we're limited right now, if anything call in a LEO squad we'll deal with the fines later."

"Stop." Ozpin looked at Glynda, who just hanged up the scroll.

"I can't believe a Geist possessed girl got through our security checks, how?" Glynda pinched the bridge of her nose, before giving a frustrated sigh.

"Honeycutt found a needle mark on the girl's neck, it may just be drug usage…but it's laced with a chemical and unknown substance." Ozpin tells her, he then takes another sip of his coffee.

"So, what, they're injecting Grimm into people now?" Glynda says as she paces, "this is wrong."

"No this is Salem's progress, she's perfecting something, but she has to be working with someone else. As knowledgeable as The Demoness Of The Ancients was…she's ignorant to medicinal practices." Ozpin takes a small sip, "and if I'm not mistaken she's been on the move for quite some time."

"Longer than we've been trying to stop her, I know, but when you sealed her soul in the mountain all those years ago…how did she come back?" Glynda inquired as she was too creeped out about the possibility of Grimm being injected into a human body.

"Salem is nothing more than a piece of the two forces that drive the world, light and darkness. At one point, Lord Kurama told us that she was whole, but a tragedy befell her and caused her to turn to the darkness. It's not so different than using Dark Aura when someone is truly possessed by the darkness in their hearts…only, she's fated." Ozpin stops before looking at the moon, "her fate and Naruto's are entwined together."

"Your semblance Ozpin, you store possible scenarios in time in that cane, what do they all say if Naruto is successful." Ozpin looks at Glynda as she asks that question.

"Hundreds of possibilities, they both die…they both live, Naruto absorbs the darkness and he himself becomes a new Salem, he purges the darkness, they join…it's endless Glynda. However, time isn't certain. Fate itself is just a choice, it's a question given to us once in a life time…do we answer it and take the consequences…or try to walk away from it?" Ozpin explains to her but ends it on a question.

"So, you're saying this responsibility that befalls onto Naruto may be too big for him to even handle?" Glynda questions.

"Yes," Ozpin sighs before finishing the rest of his coffee, "because I doubt I could manage it."

Naruto was asleep near Sakura and the rest of the people from Signal, he tossed and turned. He growled as he kept trying to toss and get comfortable, but found himself in a nightmare as he started to drift to sleep.

Naruto was fighting Grimm, but these Grimm were different, they had auras around them. Naruto managed to kill many of them, but as he struggled to withhold against a massive Beowulf, he watched as Sakura got tackled to the ground by another Beowulf of similar size.

"Sakura!" Naruto screamed as he threw the one Beowulf off him. "Get away from her!"

However, when the Beowulf bit into her, he saw it immediately back off. Confused, Naruto still destroyed the wolf demon. However, a dark aura flooded his senses, and turned around to see Sakura standing up. Blood running down her neck.

She bore the red eyes that Grimm had, but maintained a human form, save for the wound in her neck. She chuckled as she ran and punched Naruto. the blonde red-haired mix was sent flying into a sea of Grimm…which only became a sea of darkness.

Floating around, he struggled against the darkness, before feeling himself fall though it and onto a destroyed street. Naruto looked around, recognizing it as his childhood home where he grew up with Hiruzen, his grandfather.

Walking through it, he saw the masked man from before, holding his grandfather's staff and wearing his armor. "Who are you…" Naruto growled out, "and what have you done to Vale!"

Merely, the man took off his mask, revealing to Naruto's horror a Hiruzen himself. Naruto stood there, shocked, but then saw Sakura form next to him via a mass of black smoke. They both chuckled, but it was different, it didn't sound anything like them.

It sounded too womanly, too soft, but in it a venom that could kill all of humanity…that would kill all of humanity. Naruto watched as several more of his friends, his family, started forming. All of them chuckling the same way.

"What a joke…" Sakura spoke, but it wasn't her voice.
"Unnerved by this, do you even know what power you have inside of you?" Hiruzen spoke, but it was a woman's voice.
"A power that can topple Gods, a power that can seal way creators." Rock Lee states as he forms.
"A power most foul, but most divine." Mebuki says as they all walked towards him.
"The light inside of you, is twice as bright as mine was…but it'll only last half as long." Kizashi states, "such pity."

Naruto gripped his hands before he charged them, his red cloak forming around him. "Shut up!"

He blitzes his way through them, uncaring of their visages, but found himself face to face with a white-haired woman with red eyes. She chuckled, before backing away. "Face me…"

Naruto formed a Rasengan in his hand, before jumping up, and making it grow ever bigger. Putting all the energy he alone had into it, but the woman just stood there. When he brought it to bare, slamming it downwards, she merely tapped it with her right index finger.

The Rasengan contorted, before it just…popped…nothing unlike a bubble. Naruto came crashing to the ground, his aura completely drained. The woman didn't walk, she didn't even run, but merely hovered over towards him.

"Your family, your friends." She snapped her fingers, "and your love."

Naruto watched as everyone disappeared, before Ruby formed into their place. He watched as she just knelt, a lifeless expression on her face, but something weird happen. In a few seconds, her appearance changed, switching from that of a man to a little girl.

The man had lavender eyes, but they would form into silver when grunted. He had long navy-blue hair, which was spikey, and wore a kimono with sunflowers on it. Ruby switched with him every few seconds, before the shadow a faceless man stood to their side.

However, then the switching stopped, before Ruby ended up wearing the sunflower kimono. "If it'll cause…peace…if it'll stop war…" she muttered, "if it'll save him…"

The woman took the faceless person place, lifting a great sword with one hand. "If it'll stop this madness…this war…if it'll save him…"

"Ruby…"
"If it'll stop this war…this madness…"
"Ruby."
"Take my life, take it away, so hundreds more may live."
"Ruby!"

Naruto watched, he tried to move, but only collapsed from exhaustion as this woman simply brought the sword down. Piercing through Ruby's chest and heart, Naruto shuddered…he had tears coming from his eyes as life left Ruby's.

"it all can be gone in an instant, and no amount of divine power brings them back."

Naruto got up, before the moon above him turned a sickly blood red. Naruto brought his hands to his face, sobbing as he felt something snapping inside of him. Black aura swirled around him as his rage was unleashed, before he roared out.

It wasn't the roar of a human, but of a monster.

Naruto's eyes turned dark red, his hair becoming bleached white. A flaming white haori formed around as the woman in front of him sobbed over the girl. Which then began to switch once again with lavender eye man, and the white hair woman baring blonde hair.

Naruto shook as he looked down at the water, seeing the white hair woman's demonic form looking back at him. A dark energy swirling around both. With one last roar, Naruto sent out a wave of flame and pressure that laid waste to everything in view.

Naruto shot up, sweat rolled down his body, he shook as he looked around. Everyone was still asleep, he shook his head. "Just a bad dream…just a very bad dream." Naruto got up and slowly walked towards the doors.

Grabbing his shoes, he soon walked down the hall, coming to the main doors and stepping outside to get some fresh air. There, he looked at the moon before sighing. Sitting on the steps, he lifted his shirt, revealing the tori seal on his stomach.

Naruto focused hard before putting his right hand out in front of him. Focusing, he brought forth a Rasengan easily, it's swirling gold form was like a light, having an idea pop into his head Naruto reached into his pants pocket.

He pulled out a Wind Dust crystal, before he sighed and deformed the Rasengan. Slowly, he put the crystal back into his right hand and he stood up. He tried to form a Rasengan, but found it was malformed and close to exploding which made him quickly deactivate it.

Grunting in frustration, he had been trying to mix his technique with dust for a while now, but it was always unstable.

Naruto cupped his left hand under his right hand before activating his fox cloak as he called it, he dubbed it his semblance since it seemed nothing else was coming, and began to drain the cloak's red energy into the Rasengan as it formed over the crystal.

However, he quickly felt drained, but then heard a screech of air. Looking at his Rasengan, he discovered that it had grown to the size of a large Rasengan, but it had four blades of wind sticking from its sides. Focusing, and bringing it up above his head, the blades grew large, before a torrent of wind poured from it.

Snapping his eyes wide open, Naruto felt the urge to throw it, which he did. The blonde mix lobbed the Rasengan high into the air, with the hope that it would just dissipate like all others did. However, what happened next was that the Rasengan exploded outwards to form a large sphere, giving off a brilliant golden light.

As well a thunderous boom.

Salem's eyes opened, before chuckled and got up. Looking over at her table, she simply walked over to it before clapping her hands together. Black and red energy formed around as she did, before in her hands a screech had formed.

It was a ball of energy, spinning around in between her hands. It slowly grew larger, with her slowly walking it outside. She was joined by a ghost of adult blonde air man, she deformed the ball, chuckling. "Hello, my ancestor…we've come to talk to each other again? "

The ghost overlooked Taiyo from Salem's vantage point, before looking at her. "You've betrayed my legacy…"

"I betrayed no one Lord Uzumaki, I've merely delayed it." Salem states as she crosses her arms.

"Umidara wouldn't had wanted this Salem, if I was you, Hinata wouldn't had wanted me to give into the darkness." Uzumaki states as he takes a sit on the ground, his white kimono flowing in nonexistent wind.

"That's the thing Lord Uzumaki," Salem raised her right hand up, "Umidara doesn't get to say what happens now."

Slowly, black tendrils of energy gathered around her palm, collapsing into a dark ball of energy that flowed with a red hue. Salem drew back and then launched the ball forward. Uzumaki watched unimpressed as the sphere impacted a mountain before shattering it a brilliant and howling explosion.

"I'm more powerful than The Demoness of your time, Kaguya, and even her clan can't compare to me." Salem states before gripping her hands. "And, when I go to Vale…I'll make sure to march upon Ozpin's head for his betrayal."

"Ozpin merely did what Kakashi would've done for me, he's the same, even if reincarnated…Salem…it's not too late to turn back." Uzumaki says as she looked at him, "Umidara is waiting for you…"

"I cannot face him, not until his murderers are all ash upon the world." Salem tells him while clutches her hands, before smiling. "It was nice however of Lord Kurama to leave a piece of himself here. I aim to create my own bonded."

"Salem…don't do anything more than you'll regret later."
"Or what, you'll just transfer another idea to your budding reincarnation? My reincarnation bares both light and darkness Lord Uzumaki. You best remember just as easily he can learn from you, I can easily bring out the true force of his powers."
"Darkness isn't our strongest, light always has been."
"I haven't met a light that killed me, my own won't be able to do it either."

Sighing, the ghost of Uzumaki looked at her. "I must go…please Salem, reconsider your stance. Though I can't directly intervene, I can nurture a champion who can."

"Send forth this champion, his or her head will just be on a pike…just like their father's." Salem coldly retorted.