Chapter Text
The next day, RWBY returned once to the clearing to find Naruto laying on his back smoking as he stares at the clouds, a large chest next to him.
"Well?" Naruto asked, not even bothering to look at the girls.
Weiss spoke up first.
"I lack stamina and durability. In a battle of attrition, I will lose."
"Your not wrong but that isn't all of it. You have no backup plan. No adaptability. You tried the same strike on me repeatedly despite it failing every time."
"You. Next." Naruto barked out pointing at Blake.
"Well, I mostly fight through evasion and feints looking for an opening but, if I can't find one and get hit first, my lack of a strong Aura barrier becomes a problem."
"You also lack the lethality your fighting style requires. Death by a thousand cuts is fine, but sometimes your going to need to put an enemy down in one hit."
"And Yang?" Naruto said turning to the last of WBY.
"Since I fight mostly by boxing, if my opponent is faster than me or has longer reach, I am at a disadvantage. I also lose my cool when my semblance activates meaning anyone I don't bulldoze can just chip away at me as I run wild." Yang replied refusing to make eye contact.
"Good. Here is how this is going to work. Monday through Thursday, we work on your physical abilities. Friday is semblance day. In addition, every Saturday, you lot will have the option to take the bell test again although from now on there will be four bells. Once you can get all four bells as a team, you will be free to spend your time as you see fit. Any questions?"
Yang began to open her mouth but Naruto cut her off.
"Good." Naurto said finally sitting up. Pointing to the large chest next to him, he continued.
"Inside you will find four sets of body suits. Go into the woods and put them on under your clothes."
With that, each member of RWBY grabbed the clearly color-coded bodysuit before walking into the woods to change, clearly confused.
"You better not plan on peeking at us!" Weiss shouted from the woods.
Naruto snorted in response. "You have nothing I haven't seen before and honestly nothing particularly worth seeing!" Naruto shouted back smirking.
"Pffft damn Weisscream you got destroyed." Yang said laughing.
"Shut up!" Weiss responded, her voice thick with embarrassment and indignation.
The group, now changed, reassembled in front of Naruto.
Ruby, pulling on the sleeve of the jumpsuit under her top, was the first to speak up.
"Uh...what's the point of these?"
"I'm glad you asked. A few years ago, Mant... Atlus began experimenting with ways to supplement their military might. Before eventually focusing on their puppets, they had begun looking into power armor. The program was a failure. They required too much Aura before the performance benefits started to outweigh the detriments of weight. But for my plan they are perfect so I made a call to an old friend who was able to dig a few up for you." Naruto said as he took out a brand new top-of-the-line scroll.
"Let's see now, it should work like this..." Naruto said as he swiped at his scroll.
The effect was noticeable immediately. Yang grunted as her shoulders slumped while Blake also looked uncomfortable, but they were doing far better than Weiss who was now panting and sweating.
*thud*
Everyone turned to look at Ruby who had collapsed to one knee and was struggling to maintain even that. Even Naruto looked surprised by that result.
Dialing down Ruby's suit a bit, Naruto continued to explain.
"They are set to drain about 10% of your total Aura, or in Ruby's case closer to 7%. While they will provide some very minor protection, their main purpose is twofold. First, the full-body increase in weight you all feel will help develop your physical prowess. Speed, strength, stamina, all of that. Second, by constantly draining a part of your Aura, it will help increase your total pool of Aura over time as your body produces more to compensate for what is lost. Now with that out of the way,"
Naruto turned and stared directly at Weiss first.
"Weiss, you have an hour to run a hundred laps around the Academy. For every lap you fail to complete, you will do five pushups, situps, and squats each."
All the color drained from Weiss's face at that. She was already tired from just standing here.
"Yang, I am going to teach you how to extend the range and power of your punches. Blake your training will be similar to Yang's, except your going to learn how to increase the striking power of your blade. Finally, Ruby, you're going to be learning how to fight in closer quarters. I have sent the basic form and we will expand from there. And remember, no using your semblance to help out. Your powers should be a tool, not a crutch. Now get to work. Weiss, you know what to do. Yang, Blake, see those two rocks over there?" Naruto said pointing a little deeper into the woods. The girls nodded.
"Good. I'll meet you over there in a moment. Ruby go into the clearing and watch the vid. I'll be with you right after I get Blake and Yang started."
At that, the girls separated to do their respective tasks, with Weiss especially grumbling and sweating already.
As they left, Naruto took note of the footprints left behind where the girls had been standing. As expected, Weiss had left the most shallow indents in the ground, followed by Blake's which were a couple cms deeper. Yang had left indents a good inch and a half deeper than Blake's but, confirming his suspicions, where Ruby had to kneel was by far the deepest indent and even after dialing it back a bit, her footprints were still probably a hair deeper than Yang's.
'Interesting. I figured she wasn't physically weak, not swinging around a weapon as heavy as hers especially since she moves so fast but I didn't expect her to have so much more Aura than the rest of her team. Speed huh. Speed enhancement shouldn't drain her Aura as fast as it does. Something else is going on.'
Snapping out of his thoughts, Naruto went over to where Yang and Blake were limbering up.
"So, what's the deal with the rocks?" Yang asked already impatient as Blake nodded along.
"I figure a demonstration would help explain best." Picking a tree at random Naruto motioned towards it.
"Yang I need you to punch the tree as hard as you can."
The girls stared at him like he grew a second head.
Running out of patience, Naruto stared Yang in the eyes. The blue spheres of ice unsettled the blond girl greatly.
"Punch. The. Tree. Or I will triple the weight of your bodysuit and chase you around the Academy, cutting pieces of your hair every time you slow down for the next two hours."
Yang blanched at that and walked up to the tree as her eyes flickered in color.
"Don't hold back either." Naruto added.
Scowling Yang punched the tree, hard, causing it to sway a bit as she shook her hand from the aftershock.
"There. Happy?" Yang snapped at Naruto, more red seeping into her eyes.
Naruto ignored her and turned to Blake.
"Now you try to cut it with your sword."
Looking at Yang, Blake shrugged before slashing at the tree, her blade sinking in a few inches before getting stuck.
Grabbing the blade, Naruto then walked up to a third, thicker tree.
"Now watch the difference."
He threw the blade at the tree which sailed clean through before embedding itself down to the hilt into the ground. He then punched at the tree, his fist stopping several inches in front of the trunk which
immediately exploded into splinters.
"That is the difference between a normal strike and one properly enhanced with Aura. Yang, gather your Aura up into your fist before letting it explode forward when you make contact. For now, focus on making the rock crack. Once you can smash a rock of this size in one punch we will move on to extending your range. Blake your training is similar. Flow your Aura into your blade to increase its sharpness. For now, focus on trying to make a cut. When you can cleanly cut through a rock of this size, we will move on to enhancing your stealth and throwing weapons. You have one hour. After that, the two of you will also be running laps. If you manage to succeed before then, you have the rest of the day off. But don't expect to get this down in a few hours or even days."
At that point, Weiss was approaching the clearing where they all started, already dripping with sweat.
With a cheeky smile, Naruto bellowed out "ONE! Only 99 more to go!"
A weak, exhausted "I hate you" floated on the wind in response.
With that Naruto left the girls to their work and rejoined Ruby.
"So," Naruto said getting Ruby's attention as he walked up. "Have a general idea of what the plan is?" Naruto asked.
Ruby nodded in response, grabbing crescent rose with both hands near the middle of the handle.
"Good. Run through the stances then. I'll make corrections and adjustments as you go."
With that, Naruto began teaching Ruby how to use Crescent Rose like a monk's spade.
An hour later, Team RWBY reconvened. Ruby had started to get a very basic handle on the new fighting form. Once it became second nature, they would work on incorporating it into her main form to make it more versatile. Yang had been the first one to make progress on the stones, able to now create small cracks. She had then helped Blake who could now coat her sword in Aura but that only seemed to blunt her weapon rather than sharpen it. Weiss had managed an impressive 90 laps, through sheer stubbornness given the girl had collapsed on the spot once the timer had gone off.
"Since you all did better than I expected, I'll allow for your first day to be easier. Ruby, Blake, Yang. Go give me 40 laps in the next half hour. Weiss, you can ignore the squats for today. Then you can all leave half an hour early."
Weiss groaned and rolled over onto her stomach to start her pushups.
After the girls had finished their training for the day and left, Naruto decided to go into the city for a first-hand view of the effects of the recent crime spree. Having spoken to a few of the stores hit, some pieces started to slide into place. The White Fang was a pawn. Practically speaking there was no reason for them to focus on Vale like this. While racism existed everywhere, Faunus were generally best off in Vale and it was the only nation to openly trade with Menegerie, a direct result of the efforts of "Ozpin". This scheme didn't seem to be Torchwick's either. The man had made a point in his career to avoid any political entities and frankly, all of this couldn't pay anywhere near well enough to be worth the trouble. That meant something else was at stake.
Naruto was brought out of his musing as he absentmindedly bumped into a young girl causing her ice cream to fall to the ground.
Snapping out of the initial shock that he hadn't noticed her presence at all, Naruto immediately began to apologize. "I am so sorry. Are you alright?" Gesturing to the ice cream shop across the street. "Come on. I'll make it up to you. Order anything you like and I'll pay."
The girl beamed at him then grabbed his hand and dragged Naruto across the street.
He hadn't missed the monumental amount of killing intent she let out when her ice cream fell. This one was interesting.