It didn't take the girls long to find a Grimm and follow it all the way to the other side of the forest, where the anomaly was taking place. When they got there and stood on top of a hill at a safe distance, their eyes widened at what was presented before them.
Honestly, it was a scary scene.
There were so many Grimms swarming in one place that it seemed more like an anthill!
And to think they were conducting an exam in a forest this infested with Grimms... Weiss was starting to see a questionable pattern in Ozpin's decision-making. Talk about being irresponsible.
After all, she could even see some really powerful Alfas lurking around!
Weiss swore that if Sasuke got hurt or worse, she would use all the power of her family to turn Ozpin's life into a living hell!
"I-is Sasuke...in the middle of all of that?" Ruby asked in a trembling voice, fear more than evident, and for good reason, as she couldn't see him amid all those trees and Grimm. "H-how are we supposed to help him with something like this!?"
They would need a whole squad of Hunters, and maybe even that could not be enough!
"We need to ask for help." Weiss was no less shaken than her partner, her heart sinking just thinking about the worst. "Only the Professors have any hope of dealing with a horde of this scale."
Unfortunately, there was only so much that mere students could do against impossible odds like these.
"B-but what about Sasuke?" Yang was trembling, doing her best to keep her cool and not do anything stupid. "By the time we get help, he will be gone!"
They couldn't just let that happen without trying something!
"And what exactly do you suggest?" Weiss almost snapped at this girl, especially because she also didn't know what to do. "If we try something reckless, it could just make things worse!"
Dying a meaningless death wouldn't help in anything!
"So you just want to let him die?!" Yang had red eyes while looking at this fuking princess! "I thought you liked him, too!"
As far as she could tell, she wasn't the only one lying to herself!
"I do!" Weiss yelled back, almost shedding tears as her heart ached. "That's why we need to find help!"
And they need to do that fast, before it's too late!
Such an abrupt confession took Yang aback, almost as much as the pained expression this princess was making.
Well, Shit.
It seems that Yang was right, but she couldn't even brag about it. If anything, she regretted forcing this confession out of Weiss, even more so in a dire situation like this.
"We can save him!" Ruby chimed in, getting in the way of these two before any of them could utter another word. "We don't need to fight, just get in there and then out!"
That made Weiss and Yang stop, both looking at this girl in confusion. After all, you need to be blind to suggest something absurd like that.
"I know how it sounds, but it's true!" Ruby continued, then pointed into the distance. "I just saw Sasuke in there!"
It was fast and moving without stopping between the trees, but she could see black and red!
Besides herself, Ruby only saw Sasuke using that color scheme in Beacon!
Reluctantly, Weiss and Yang stopped arguing to follow this girl's line of sight. As expected, they couldn't quite see what Ruby was pointing out. However, the Grimms were in fact converging on that point, and perhaps Sasuke was really in there.
After all, given how absurd his Semblance was, he was the only one among the students who could survive in there.
"You always had a good pair of eyes," Yang commented on what she knew to be a fact ever since her little sister chose to become a sniper. "Even Sasuke said so."
The Silver Eyes were not a legend for nothing, and if anyone knew about that kinda of stuff, it was him.
Sasuke's eye, the Sharingan, was special like that.
"If that's true, then I have no choice but to trust you," Weiss said as she took a deep breath and did her best to regain her composure. "So, how do you..."
She stopped, or rather, was forced to stop, when a large explosion occurred at the spot where Ruby had pointed out.
The very spot where Sasuke was supposed to be!
"What the fuck!?" Yang cursed as she almost fell over; the very ground beneath her feet was shaking! "What did that crazy bastard just do?!"
This had to be Sasuke doing!
Given the situation, however, she couldn't even blame him for blowing the fuck out of everything!
"Forget that, we have another problem coming our way!" Weiss quickly recovered from this absurdity and took action. "Behind me, both of you!"
Immediately, she pierced the ground with her rapier, Myrtenaster, and used her Semblance with Ice Dust to create a pillar to protect them from the rain of debris resulting from the explosion.
Unfortunately, it wasn't just debris falling from the sky, and suddenly, the initiation seemed to have begun for real as some of the Grimms that survived got up and focused on them.
"Great, just fuking great!" Yang wasn't happy, and the flames in her hair reflected that more than the red in her eyes. "Of all times, now you want a piece of us?!"
Talk about bad luck!
Fortunately, these Grimms were all half-broken because of the explosion and fall, so they shouldn't be much of a problem.
Or so she thought.
Next thing she knew, Yang was being tackled by her little sister out of the way of a freaking Death Stalker! A fucker native of Vacuo that shouldn't even exist in Vale!
Worse yet, a Nevermore was flying above and ready to rain hell on them!
Not one, but two Alfas were gunning for them, and both of these monsters were perfectly fine!
But then it happened.
While Weiss was busy dealing with the small fry and creating barriers with ice to ward off their advance, the Death Stalker was ready to pierce Ruby and Yang with its tail while they were both down.
For a moment, time seemed to stop as they struggled to get out of the way, and strangely enough, the Death Stalker also stopped moving.
"What... just happened?" Ruby murmured in confusion as she got up, but only until she saw thin, metallic lines reflecting light around the body of this giant thing. "Wires?"
And a lot of it, extending all the way to the trees and rocks surrounding the area where kunai was being used as some sort of anchor.
The level of skill and precision to do something like this was just...
"...Amazing," Ruby said in admiration, but she was quick to see the problem as the Death Stalker made the wires creak out loud and start to snap. "It won't hold."
At least, not for long, and that was bad, really bad!
"Then move!"
Came the voice that couldn't be more familiar and that Ruby wanted to hear the most!
"Sasuke?!" she almost yelled, so happy that tears were forming in her eyes. "I knew you were...Kyaa!"
Ruby couldn't help but let a feminine scream escape her lips as she got caught by a strong pair of hands, and she wasn't the only one!
Weiss and Yang were there too, both hanging on each side of this unknown boy, whose voice they knew very well, one more confused than the other!
"Hold on, all of you!" Sasuke said it just once and then jumped as feathers fell from the sky! "We need to get away from here!"
Then it happened, something that could only be considered crazy!
Sasuke was basically running through the trees' canopy, jumping from branch to branch with precision and ease that should be impossible, let alone while carrying three people!
More importantly, however, was his face.
For some reason, Sasuke wasn't wearing his cloak anymore!
Weiss, Ruby, and Yang were all focused on this unexpected reveal.
Now, they could understand why Sasuke was hiding, and it wasn't because he was a faunus or something like that!
"I knew it!" Yang showed a large smile, loving the view as she hugged him closer! "Nothing to hide, my ass! You're hot as fuck!"
So much so that it was a crime to hide it from the world!
This also proves that her Yangsense was never wrong!
"Yang!" Ruby was blushing like crazy as she was carried in Sasuke's arms, just like a princess! "D-don't say stuff like that!"
Even if it was true!
Weiss was just as taken aback, if not more than the other girls, fascinated by the beauty of this boy to the point that she could hear her own heartbeat!
Sasuke could very well be a supermodel if he wishes to!
The mere fact that he chooses to hide instead of basking in the sinful attention of the opposite gender, as most would have done in his place, was proof of his character, and Weiss liked that very much.
But then, all of this gave way to something else as she, too, squished this boy closer, but for a different reason.
"You lied," Weiss said suddenly, gaining the attention of the only boy in this world to move her heart even before revealing his looks. "You said that nothing happened to your left eye!"
The same eye that was now closed as the wind made his black hair dance around his beautiful face!
"No way..." Ruby noted it, too, her heart sinking with the mere thought. "Someone really stole it from you?!"
What kind of monster does something like that!?
"Who was it?!" Yang almost demanded as her eyes shone red and her grip on Sasuke's body became more aggressive. "We need to put that bastard's head on the most wanted list!"
Just like her father and uncle had done with Roman Torchwick!
Sasuke didn't say anything for a moment, once again being surprised by this show of concern.
Even before he took off his cloak, they already cared about him, and he didn't know how to feel about that.
"I didn't lie," Sasuke said, putting everything else aside and focusing on appeasing these girls' hearts. "Although many have tried before, no one stole my eye."
If anything, he was the one who took someone else's eyes, but they didn't need to know that.
"And before you ask, there's a reason why I keep my Rinnegan closed," Sasuke continued, confusing the girls even more by using a different name for a different eye. "Unlike my Sharingan, I can't turn my Rinnegan off. It's like a permanent mutation that uses my power just from being open."
Hence why he keeps it closed.
This divine eye could kill one regular person per second with the amount of power it consumes.
"So, considering how the Grimm is chasing me, it's better to keep it that way," Sasuke concluded, but they didn't seem to be buying it. "Fine, I'll show you my Rinnegan after the initiation is over."
After they had already seen his face, hiding his left eye from them had no meaning.
And just like it was with his Sharingan, it's not like he would tell them everything about his Rinnegan, anyway.
Now that did get a different reaction from the girls, to the point that they smiled again.
"I'll hold you to that promise, then." Weiss was satisfied, even if temporarily. "Now, care to explain why all those Grimms were chasing after you?"
This was just one of the many questions she had for him.
Weiss also wanted to know how he was doing this tree jumping while carrying three people without any effort at all!
Like, his Semblance wasn't even active, so this had to be some kind of extreme Aura manipulation, and she wanted to learn it, too!
"Who knows?" Sasuke shrugged, feigning ignorance before showing a smile of his own. "Maybe I'm not a very nice person."
Which was true, even if he did change for the better after saying goodbye to his brother.
"Haha, very funny." Yang had to bite herself as she felt hot inside just from looking at this damn, sexy smile. "While I love the badboy act, this is serious."
And no one in this world was evil enough to attract this many Grimm.
At least, not to the point of making those things ignore every other human and faunus around them.
"I think it was mostly because of my cloak," Sasuke decided to just tell them another half-truth. "A Semblance was used on it to passively absorb Natural Energy and conceal the face of whoever uses it, and that seems to have attracted the Grimm."
Not to this extent and not on its own, but it definitely contributed to the madness taking place in this forest.
"Whoa," Ruby was gaping like a fish, not expecting such a revelation. "So the cool cloak was a mean cloak all along!?"
Talk about a plot twist!
It was almost as crazy as Sasuke's real appearance, being all prince-like!
"Natural Energy?" Weiss ignored the younger girl's antics and focused on this unknown term. "I've never heard of that before."
It seems more like something that could be well used to describe Dust, especially since it was a natural source of energy.
"I would be surprised if you did," Sasuke remembers having searched through those books for anything similar, and he found nothing. "After all, only Sages know how to make use of that power."
A power that probably couldn't be achieved by the people of this chakra-less world.
For the girls, this Sage thing was another foreign concept, and it was starting to become a recurring theme when dealing with this boy.
Sasuke's appearance wasn't the only mystery about him; there's so much more, and they couldn't be more eager to learn everything!
Unfortunately, that would have to wait for a more appropriate time.
"This should be far enough," Sasuke said as he landed on the ground of an open area and put Ruby down on her own two feet. "You three should be able to reach Beacon from here without any problems."
As for him, he had to deal with the remaining Grimms that were still chasing him, especially the Nevermore and the Death Stalker. After the explosion, Sasuke made use of that moment as cover to summon more Ninja Tools from his storage seals.
It was a smooth process, but not an unnoticeable one.
Now, Sasuke couldn't risk bringing those things back to Beacon or close to any place with people in it.
Reluctantly, Weiss and Yang let go of him to join Ruby's side. Now, they could finally have a good look at this boy, and he was quite something.
Exotic, unique, cool, handsome, tall, dark, and hot were just some of the words that came to mind to describe the way Sasuke looked.
Honestly, all of that wasn't enough to do him justice.
Sasuke was more like the main character of a romance novel that was impossible to exist in real life, or a divine entity that fell from heaven and was forced to live among mortals.
In short, he was out of this world.
Once again, it made sense why Sasuke was hiding beneath that cursed cloak.
Being this good-looking was not easy; Weiss and Yang knew that very well.
It draws in too much unwanted attention, and there were the eyes...those who see them with nothing but carnal desire or as the means to an end.
Let's just say that it wasn't for nothing that neither of them ever had a boyfriend.
Now, Sasuke will have a hard time in Beacon as half of the school would be chasing after him out of lust, and the other half would be hating him out of envy.
Worse yet, there's almost nothing they could do about it.
Almost.
"Sasuke." Weiss, without thinking, gave a step forward to gain this boy's attention and asked the unthinkable, "Do you...Want to be my boyfriend?"
As expected, her sudden request was met with surprise, skepticism, and even hostility.
"What?!" Ruby and Yang screamed in unison, one more shocked than the other!
That came out of nowhere!
"You can't just do that!" Yang was quick to grab this crazy girl by the collar. "Not in front of Ruby!"
While she could respect the "go-get-her" attitude, her little sister was almost having a panic attack at the possibility of losing her first love!
Weiss could see that and did feel bad for the younger girl, but she had a good reason for this and more to say.
"Are you...really asking me that?" Sasuke shifted his posture, being dead serious. "And right after you saw my face?"
And he thought that this girl was different.
That shift in tone made the whole atmosphere change, and Yang let go of this girl as she took a step back.
Shit was about to hit the fan, and she didn't want to be in the splash zone.
"I know how it sounds, believe me." Weiss wasn't blind to the absurdity behind the situation or her request. "But you are in for hell during your stay in Beacon now that you lost your cloak."
That was a fact, and he knows it; they all do, as Ruby finally understands her partner's reasons.
"Having a girlfriend is probably the only way to keep most people away." Weiss' expression softened, but in an almost pained way. "It can be either Ruby or Yang, too, if you want, as they like you just as much, if not more than me." That made the two girls in question blush and be incapable of saying anything back, which was an answer in itself. "I... just don't want to see you going through all of that."
Just like she did so many times before.
That gave Sasuke, Ruby, and Yang a pause, as none of them was expecting any of this.
Well, it seems she is different, after all. He had to admit this much, and the method suggested by her could work, even if it had also created a few problems on its own. "I see your point, and I promise to think about it."
That was the least he could do, and all this girl needed to hear.
"Now, as I have said before, all of you need to leave." Sasuke turned his back on them and slowly drew his sword to Ruby's delight. "The Grimms are almost here."
And, as he had to fight without Chakra, he couldn't guarantee their safety.
"Yeah, about that," Yang said as she moved to the side of this boy and brought out her Ember Celica. "I'm not a damsel in distress, and you know it."
If anything, this time, she would be the one carrying this guy in her arms!
"It's just as she said," Weiss had to agree with this girl as she joined them with her Myrtenaster in hand. "Besides, I don't intend to let you die before hearing your answer."
Not when this was her first confession.
"M-me too!" Ruby was quick to come out of her shocked state and reveal to them her beloved Crescent Rose! "I'll fight too!"
This was her chance to show Sasuke what she was capable of!
As for the boy in question, he opened his mouth to say something to these stubborn girls, but chose not to as he saw the determination in their eyes.
A familiar scene that made him smile, amused.
Things just don't go the way he wanted, but oh well, it could be worse.