Hollowed Martyr - Naruto X RWBY

The Beginning Of Calamity

Today was the day.

That was the thought that kept repeating in Ruby Rose's mind as she threw another jap at her teacher, Madara. Her mind was frazzled and scattered, unable to focus because of what was to come in a few hours. She still couldn't believe it, really. She had been chosen by her team to continue on to the finals, where she would be facing her friend Penny!

The first finals match had already taken place, where Penny and Pyrrha had fought an awesome battle. It had been down to the wire (no pun intended), but Penny had come out victorious! Ruby was really happy for her friend, even if she was a bit scared to face off against her. She still couldn't believe that she had been chosen... okay, now that she thought about it, it made sense. Yang was really strong, but Penny's flight and agility meant that she could stay at a distance. Blake was nimble and agile, but Penny was too tough for most of her attacks to matter. Weiss was versatile and had a lot of fire power, but she was too drained from her summoning to fight.

She, on the other hand, was plenty fast and agile, had strong strikes, and was ready to fight with all she had!

"Too slow." The voice of her sensei snapped her out of her thoughts, his fist smashing into her liver at faster than light speeds before he quickly kicked her in the jaw, sending her up and tumbling to the ground. The red reaper groaned in pain as she rubbed her jaw, giving Madara a faux angry look.

"Hey, that hurt!" She whined, making the Uchiha roll his eyes and cross his arms as Ruby got to her feet. He was dressed in his usual Akatsuki robes, the deep purple making him appear like a dark shadow of death as he loomed over the silver eyed girl. But Ruby knew him as anything but, a smile on her face as she stared up at her leader.

"That's sort of the point, your enemy won't hold back in a fight to the death."

"This isn't a fight to the death!"

"It could be." Ruby gave a mock gasp at Madara's words, before bursting into a fit of giggles as he stared at her with his dark eyes. Soon enough, a light smile graced his own features, a somewhat rare sight that Ruby had come to treasure.

"Maybe not today... but you should never settle into a rhythm in combat, it makes your strikes predictable and easy to counter. Always keep them guessing what you'll do next." Madara instructed, and Ruby nodded with vigor. He took a look up at the clock which hung on the training room wall above them, humming for a moment before nodding slightly.

"That's enough for today, your match is in a few hours. Get some rest." He advised before beginning to walk towards the door, and for a moment nervousness flooded Ruby's mind. She knew that she had come far in her training, but she still wasn't sure if she could take on Penny. But as he walked away, Madara looked back at her with a small smile, giving her a thumbs up and leaving her with some parting words.

"You've got this, Ruby. I believe in you."

Those words made the crimsonette gasp, her eyes widening as her friend walked away. A wave of warmth washed over her heart, and a smile of her own soon creeped up onto her face.

If he believed, then so did she.

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Madara was quiet as he looked down at the arena like a hawk, his eyes like starless nights that swept over the entire colosseum. He sat in the middle of the stands, surrounded by the rest of Team RWBY, Team JNPR, and the disguised Akatsuki. They all seemed to be in quite a good mood.

Except for Adam, but that's just because he was forced to sit in between Weiss and Blake, one of which he had mixed (mostly negative) feelings towards, and the other who he didn't even know how to talk to anymore.