Conspiracies In The Shadows

I read all the comments and thought hard about it. Someone said that Pyrrha should live and be with Juane. The problem with that is, it was Pyrrha's death that made him work hard and stop being so weak. If Pyrrha lives and Juane knows about it, he won't have the same determination. So pairing them together is kinda bad. Otherwise, I might just have to kick Juane out of the story. What do you guys think?

Now you can continue reading and thanks for the response on the last chapter.

~~~~~~~

Naruto laughed lightly as he watched the comedy of team JNPR unfold. They were discussing team tactics during a tournament match. It was so hilarious that he recorded it for shits and giggles. It wasn't much later when Nora sent the opposing team flying out of the arena.

Naruto watched a few more matches until his scroll rang and he excused himself. Finding a quiet corner he looked at his scroll to see Winter was calling him.

"Hello." He greeted her, "Of course. I will meet you there."

Their talk was short and simple, Winter called to let him know that she will be arriving for a day to deliver some cargo for Atlas Military and meet her sister. She said/ordered him to meet her outside of Beacon.

Naruto did not know why she wanted to meet him but he was glad to have a friend to talk to. He watched a few more matches and left for Beacon Academy to wait for Winter.

...

A slightly modified Atlas military ship landed outside of Beacon and out came a few robots to secure the parameters. Winter walked out in her military outfit when he started walking towards her until two short girls ran up to her. He saw they were Weiss and Ruby so he decided to stay back and let the sisters talk.

Naruto mingled in the crowd and followed them slowly. He didn't want to interrupt the sisters, who knows when they will meet each other again. After all, both had their stuff to do, the elder sister was in the military and the little sister was studying in another kingdom.

After watching them for a while he decided to leave them be and return to his hotel. He could just go visit Winter whenever he visits Atlast the next time. He turned back and saw a man with black hair and red eyes destroy the robots with his bare hands.

Naruto closely listened to their conversation and his eyes narrowed in thought. 'Something is wrong.'

Soon, they started fighting and Naruto heard Ruby cheering for her Uncle. Naruto responsibly stayed out of the fight unless the surrounding civilians were in danger and spread his field of sensing to the maximum.

He watched Winter fighting with fluidity and grace when a negative emotion entered his radar. His head jerked to the side and found one of Haven's student with grey hair. Naruto picked up Anger, frustration, urgency, and bloodlust in his emotions and the boy ran like his tail was on fire after looking at the man named Qrow.

Naruto quietly left the scene and followed Mercury from a safe distance, all the while keeping his guard up. This was his first prominent lead and he was not going to fuck this up by being irresponsible.

Mercury carefully made his way through Vale until he reached an old warehouse near the outskirts of Vale. He knocked on the door in a pattern and a white fang member opened the door to let him in. He never thought that someone could be following him from beacon to their hideout.

Naruto changed his cloak to the black one to blend in with the darkness and teleported on the rooftop. He sneaked inside the warehouse through the skylight and perched himself on the steel beams that held the roof.

His breath got stuck in his throat when he saw the amount of dust and weapons stored inside the warehouse. White Fang's supporters guarded the warehouse in groups of two or three people but most were too lazy to care about anything. He searched for more information and saw a map marked with crosses on all the dust shops in Vale.

'They robbed dust to power the Paladin and other weapons they stole! What are they trying to achieve? If white fang attacks people here the other Faunus will also be dragged into this conflict. they will have no choice but to join White Fang for protection.'

After some investigation and listening in on the conversation of White Fang members, he saw Mercury coming out of the room with Emerald behind him. 'Looks like the entire team is with White Fang but why?'

Naruto wanted to leave as soon as possible but he also wanted to find when the attack will happen.

...

After thirty minutes Cinder strolled out of the room to order some of the grunts and did something and typed something on her scroll. Naruto could feel that she more powerful than Mercury and Emerald but he did not see their fourth member, the girl with black hair.

His hair stood on ends when a dreadful thought entered his mind, 'What if they have other warehouses?' His body visibly shook with terror. How many innocent people will die for the ambitions of another terrorist organization and some power-hungry individual.

Naruto changed his cloak and rubbed his temples. 'I still don't know what's happening. The headmasters are fighting among each other, Atlas army is stationed in Vale and White is going to attack soon. If I tell the truth to the general populous then there will be panic and if an entire city panics the older grimm will start attacking.'

After some thinking, he opened his scroll and texted Winter saying he wanted to meet her and it was urgent. She sent her coordinates and Naruto followed the map to meet her.

When he reached the place Winter was still conversing with Weiss, teaching her something. Naruto watched them from afar until they separated after a hug.

"Winter." He greeted and started walking beside her.

"Hello, Naruto. How may I help you? You said it was urgent."

"Yes, do you know what is going around Vale?" He immediately got to the main topic.

"Confidential." She strictly replied and stopped to look at him with narrowed eyes.

Naruto sighed and looked directly in her eyes, "You are not going to tell me are you?"

"No!"

Naruto closed his eyes in thought, he had no idea who he could tell the truth and Winter wasn't very forthcoming with information. He could tell her about his empathy but that might still not get him what he was looking for. Telling Winter might blow his cover.

"Nevermind then, you wanted to meet me. I was there at Beacon but you were talking with your sister so I left you two alone." He changed the topic.

"Thank you for giving me time with my sister. The reason I wanted to meet you was also related to my sister. You are a strong and independent huntsman. Most operate with a team but you despite being of the same age as Weiss, are far stronger and travel alone which means you know that you can survive in the world. I want to know if you have a way to improve Weiss."

Winter finished talking and waited for his answer. Naruto thought about what Winter was asking him and a small smile formed on his face, "To tell you the truth, I am no genius. I have to work harder than most people because I am a kinesthetic learner and even then I make mistakes. What I do have is the will to not give up." He paused and took a deep breath, "I know I need to be strong to protect the people important to me. Even if I fail again and again I have to back up on my feet, if I can't get up then I will drag myself but I can't give up."

He looked Winter in the eyes with such intensity that she was taken aback, "A friend of mine once said that you can only become strong if you have someone precious. I later understood that if I have someone important I will push myself harder to become strong because I am not fighting for myself but others."

He thought about the people he left behind and sighed, "Tell this to Weiss, if she wants to protect her friends she needs to be strong because bad things are going to happen soon, I don't know what but they will happen and when her friends are in trouble she will have to push herself past her current limits. If not for herself than for them."

Naruto left Winter with her thoughts and made his way back to the hotel. The talk with Winter brought old memories to the surface, memories that he did not want to face right now. Vale was in the midst of a conspiracy that could leave thousands of innocent people dead and homeless and here he was thinking about the deaths that occurred during the 4th Shinobi War. Deaths that he could have prevented if he was strong enough or serious about being a shinobi earlier on. Even if he did his best but it was not enough, 'I just hope that everything is okay back home.'

....

A punch landed squarely on his chest and Naruto coughed up some blood. He looked around and his eyes widened. Barren wasteland with a blood-red moon and dead bodies piled upon each other. Madara looked at him with a condescending smirk, "What are you going to do now Naruto Uzumaki? You have no tailed beast, no chakra, and no friends to fight for you."

"I still have my body." He viciously replied and ran forwards to fight him but silver hair came out of nowhere and bound him.

"I can finally end you Asura." He struggled to get free but his body was so weak that it was no use. Familiar chirping noises reached his ears and Naruto looked back to see Sasuke with a chidori prepared in his hands.

*Argh*

Blood pooled in his mouth and he coughed. He looked down to see Sasuke's hand jutting out from his chest. "Why Sasuke?"

"I told you, I will be the one to kill you."

Naruto jolted up from his bed and his hand reached for the knives under his pillow. He readied himself for another attack but none came. He dropped the knives and clutched his chest due to the phantom pains.

Naruto fell back on the pillow and stared at the ceiling. His body and bed were wet because of sweat but he ignored it all to catch his breath. Pulling the sheets up, he curled himself in and tried to regulate his breathing.

He prayed for some kind of warmth to soothe his pain and end his nightmares but it was useless. Naruto spent the rest of his night struggling to go back to sleep but once the sun rose he got prepared for the finals of the Vytal Tournament. He showered and ordered food service while he loaded ammo, sharpened his sword and made sure that everything was ready and sealed.

His instincts were telling him that something bad was going to happen, just like in the chunin exams so he wanted to be prepared. After he had his breakfast, Naruto made his way towards an airship that will take him to Amity Arena.

Amity arena was full of people cheering for their favorite finalists. Naruto did not have to wait much for the rules to be announced. the first to fight was between Yang Xiao Long and Mercury Black. He clenched his hands when he looked at Mercury but stayed silent.

The match started and Naruto kept his eyes on the Haven team as well as Mercury. He could see that Mercury was still holding back but only slightly to make it look authentic since many professionals were watching the match. The fight ended calmly and people cheered but Naruto picked up Emerald and Cinder's emotions.

Hidden from everyone's sight inside his cloak, he brought out a knife with a blast tag. His eyes narrowed in shock when Yang turned her head, he saw her muscles tense like she was getting ready to attack and Naruto's hand flicked the knife with so much speed that no one saw what happened. His eyes narrowed in concentration and the knife disappeared only to appear in between Mercury and Yang.

*Boom*

A blast rocketed both participants backward and they fell on the floor of the arena unconscious.

"It looks like there was some kind of problem in the arena! Medics please get the participants to med bay and we will see you all after a short break."

The commentators stopped the matches for a while to take care of the situation but Naruto could feel the negative emotions spreading throughout the audience. 'This is bad, so much negativity will attract grimm from everywhere.'