Hearts Eclipsed by Shadows

Chapter 7: A Village of Secrets Pt.1

[I don't own RWBY or the powers Jaune uses. They belong to their respective owners.]


Team JNPR were packing and getting ready for their secret trip to Mistral to investigate a village that has been having mysterious disappearances. RWBY was to accompany them as backup and to strengthen the bonds between teams already have.

Jaune finished his backpack first, thanks to Yuri giving him advice since the former Harmonixer had lived in the wilds for a while and knew how to efficiently pack. Just then knock on the door draw their attention. Seeing as his team was still packing, he walked to the door and opened the door...

Ruby was there, holding his newly upgraded brass knuckles. The red reaper smiled when knight took them from her hands and inspected the new additions. There are six tubes leading from the main weapon up to the middle of Jaune's biceps. The tubes connect to six containers of dust to help using dust easier.

"Wow… You did a fantastic job Rubes." Ruby blushed slightly and turned away, but still smiled at praise.

"You're welcome Jaune! But don't forget that Weiss helped too." the red reaper skipped away as Jaune left to put his weapon away in the backpack.

"Are we ready to head back home?" Jaune said with a joking smile. He knew all of his team came from Mistral.

"I hope this village has pancakes or I'm going to be disappointed." Nora said dramatically with her head hanging low. Ren just shook his head, knowing he'll make some for her no matter what.

"Well, Ren could always make some, and I can make some extra food if needed."

"You can bake Fearless Leader?!" Nora jumped to him with stars in her eyes. Ren shook him look of sympathy.

"Y-Yeah…? My mom taught me…" Nora started to sing and was jumping around in joy.

"Okay Nora, that's enough." Ren said, placing his hand on ginger girl. She turned grey for a second and calmed down.

"Thanks, Renny." The knight let go of a breath he didn't know he had held in.

"Ok, let's do one last check if we have everything for tomorrow's mission. Dust?" Pyrrha nodded in confirmation.

"Ammunition?"

Nora smiled brightly.

"Loaded and ready Fearless Leader!"

"Food?"

Ren lifted bag with food supplies and nodded.

Jaune nodded back.

"Great. Now if you guys need me, I'll be in the gym. Kinda slacked off and need to get back in the rhythm before we go." He grabbed his workout clothes and left as his team set off to do their own things. Few moments later, Nora was in team RWBY room smiling.

"Hey, guys Jaune is working out. Wanna see if he uses his Semblance?"


Team RWBY with the addition of Nora was currently walking to the gym to spy on certain blond team leader.

"Nora, I doubt he would use it while working out. Yang just wants blackmail material on Jaune." Blake deadpanned, but Nora just waved her comment off.

"And why am I coming along?" Weiss huffed.

"Because I need someone to use another scroll." Said Yang, fixing her grip on a struggling Ruby. Weiss just rolled her eyes and continued walking, knowing that Yang would do something to force her to stay anyway...

"I don't know Yang… Should we do this? This seems wrong…" Ruby spoke with a meek tone.

"There's nothing wrong with a bit of looking Rubes." The brawler just shrugged as they reached their destination. Yang and Weiss pulled out their scrolls to record Jaune.

As they open the door, they all paused. Here, in the center of the room, shirtless Jaune was doing deadlifts.

Weiss almost instantly covered her face with her hand - though there were few spaces between her fingers.

Ruby was just staring mesmerized, her face getting progressively redder.

Blake looked unbothered - but her bow was twitching furiously.

Yang was grinning like loon, taking picture after picture, and not taking her eyes off the working out knight.

Nora had a deadpan stare due to her being exposed enough times.

"Ooh… Momma likes…" the blonde brawler was about to go inside, but the rest of her team stopped her and pulled her away.

"Yaaannggg…!" Ruby whined. "You can't just walk in there!"

"Really? Just watch me." She made to walk into training room again, but her team stopped her again. She just shrugged and allowed herself to be dragged away.

Inside, obvious to all that Jaune continued his workout, music playing from his scroll drawing noises made by five girls.


Back in their dorm, Ruby and Weiss were trying to drown the vision of Jaune shirtless

It was made harder by Yang, who was busy checking pictures she took, humming approvingly from time to time.

"Well, that was a… experience." Blake spoke with a dull tone on her bed, as the rest were trying to get relax and get rid of the blushes that adorned their faces.

"Yeah, we might not have seen his semblance in action, but we still saw something nice. Am I right guys?" Yang said with grin. Rest of her team just glared at her.

"I don't know what you were trying to do, Xiao Long." Weiss huffed. Said brawler just rolled her eyes and gave her a smile.

"If I saw correctly… You were staring just as much as I was… At least you have good taste." Weiss choked on her breath and started to sputter denials. Yang was busy laughing her ass off at heiress attempts of defending herself, and Ruby was looking at this with complicated expression, her face still red.

As Weiss was about to attack, a knock on the door stopped them and Ruby used her semblance to reach the door before anyone else. As Ruby opened the door the blonde knight was there with confusion on his face. He was still wearing his workout clothes but at least had a yellow and blue shirt on with a few sweat stains on the collar and mostly on the back. His hair stuck to his head from the sweat and his cheeks were red from the exertion.

"Have you guys seen my team? They left and the note wasn't very detailed. Nora wrote it by the way." they all shook their heads and the young hunter left to his dorm and Ruby finally cracked and blushed as she shut the door. Her older sister was having a field day with the reaper randomly blushing whenever she saw her first friend. Ruby retaliated with a pillow to her face.

"Great… Now I have that image stuck in my head…" Ruby jumped up to her bed and started working on her weapon while the heiress went to study since there's 'no excuse to stop while they go on a mission'. Blake continued to secretly read her book 'Ninja's of Love' but Yang caught a small glimpse of what's in it. Pure smut wouldn't even come close to describe what is in the book and seems to go beyond anything else, even adding in pictures occasionally. Yang herself was playing some games on her scroll to pass the time and browse the school's forums for any lessons the teachers are going to do or events happening in the school. Oobleck has a quiz in two weeks about the White Fang's origins and current impact on the different Kingdoms. The brawler then overheard the rest of Jaune's team return from their talk to the staff of Beacon and she then noticed the sun had set and the stars are out.

'Huh. I guess time slipped by me eh…' Yang yawned and stretched her arms over her head and heard a knock on the door again, the blonde bombshell got up before any of them and answered the door to see Jaune holding four trays with food on them.

"Hey. I noticed you guys didn't go to dinner, so I brought some food I went ahead and cooked up for you guys." he held them out for her to take and enjoy.

"Thanks, Jauney." Yang gave him a genuine smile and took the food as the young harmonixer shut the door behind him. The team dug into their food and had great praises for how the food was cooked. Yang had a simple pork chop with a baked potato with bacon sprinkled on it, Weiss had chicken teriyaki with rice and Blake had catfish that Yang wouldn't stop making jokes about while Ruby had freshly baked chocolate chip cookies and freshly picked strawberries that were drizzled with chocolate. As they all finished their foods, they all decided to toss away the disposable plates and go to sleep, ready for their mission tomorrow afternoon.


As JNPR was waiting for their sister team over by the bullhead docks, Jaune was humming a song that was called "Worst in Me" and was bobbing his head to the beat. Pyrrha noticed it and watched him with a smile on her face while Nora and Ren were having their usual conversation about breaking legs. Jaune never told anyone about his ability to play guitar and still keeps it a secret as his father promised to go ahead and send his custom-made guitar and a few sheets of practice music to him after his mission.

As the song Jaune was listening was over, RWBY appeared and put their luggage in a special compartment next to the door of the shuttle as they all piled on the seats as the pilot signaled the okay to fly as the pilot started the engine for the five day flight to the only city with a Bullhead port near the village, Fengtian. While the two teams were settling down and chatting animatedly, Jaune decided to play a popular game on his scroll dealing with summoning characters from other games with the same franchise name "Complete Dream". Jaune was overhearing a conversation between Ruby and Yang about something dealing with someone named Zwei and their father Taiyang and wondering if he goes on missions regularly or just stays at home and trains while they were gone. Weiss was muttering something about dust and a person named Winter and hoping to meet her soon. Blake was just reading a book while Ren and Nora was doing a thumb war due to Nora's badgering. Pyrrha was watching over the blond man's shoulder watching him play his game while downloading it for herself, impatient to play the game herself.

Four days later, Yang and Blake were playing tic tac toe to ease the boredom as Ruby watched a show about a summer camp while Ren and Nora was watching something about a nomad. Jaune was sleeping still while Pyrrha was reading a magazine with Weiss about different new types of dust out. The pilot immediately notified them that they were approaching their designated landing and to be ready to disembark. The blond hunter had woken up when the pilot started talking and grabbed his pack and handed out everyone else's.

As the group exited the bullhead, one of the villagers was helping refuel the bullhead as many were going about their business.

It was a modern variant of the villages Mistral was used to and was easily comparable to Vale's buildings. A giant skyscraper in the far back with a sign saying "World Lottery Association" with various shops all around it like a cafe and a grocery store. A few miles away features a very nice park with a large fountain and various metal benches for relaxing.

"Well… It's been a while since I've been here. Still hasn't changed." Yuri spoke with a bit of nostalgia in his voice.

'You've been here before? I thought you stayed in the woods mostly.' Yuri laughed a bit at the fact Jaune thought he just stayed in the woods like he lived off the land.

"I came here after the incident at Zhaoyang village during my time. Alice was just laying on one of those benches sleeping from the long trip." Jaune stared at the one of the benches imaging Yuri standing over Alice to make sure nothing attacks them. "She looked so peaceful. Even after fighting a bunch of monsters." the young hunter immediately noticed that he went to the same village they have a mission at.

'So… What happened at Zhaoyang? Are we going into something very bad or what? I rather not have my friends get killed or something.' Jaune waved the others off and told them he's going to sit on the bench while they gather supplies for going to the village.

"Well… Just be on your guard. I won't say anything but that. You'll have to experience it you know. Just because I'm in your head doesn't mean you can cheat." the young harmonixer just sighed and took a power nap while the ladies plus Ren went shopping.

He was suddenly woken up by Ruby, who had her hands on her hips while giving Jaune a disappointed look, Well… as best as she could which ended up cute somehow.

"Why do you sleep so much Jaune? I thought you would love to hang out with us." the young rose's voice had a bit of a sad tone, Jaune gave a smile towards the young huntress.

"How about this? I'll hang out with you for a while. I saw a bakery back there if you want to check it out." the blond hunter jerked his thumb behind while Ruby gave a squeal and hugged his arm.

"Yeah sure! I'd like to!" suddenly, she bolted off his arm with a heavy blush on her face. "But not as a date… Just as friends!" Jaune just chuckled as he started walking to the shop to get her some cookies for being a good friend and making his weapon better. Just as they leave, the rest of the group was finished with the shopping spree of supplies but then, they all noticed Jaune and Ruby was gone, and Yang started panicking until they came back with pastries with the two dorks talking about a new show coming out soon.

"Where did you two go to?" Weiss decided to interrogate the two first before the brawler can get a word out.

"Jaune found this awesome bakery and got us all some treats!" the red reaper handed out everyone's treats. Weiss got a special chocolate chip muffin with powdered sugar sprinkled on top. Blake got a surprising fish shaped donut with special tuna frosting. Yang got a head of a dragon covered in frosting that looked like fire. Both Ren and surprisingly enough Nora, both have a lotus shaped cookie in their colors.

"Wow. Thanks a lot, Jauney. We got the supplies, now let's go!" the blonde brawler raised her fist for the others to follow suit. Only a few decided to do so while Ren stayed stoic and Weiss refused to follow the others.

"Let's go guys. Onwards to the village!" Jaune led the group with the red reaper behind him as they left the town of Fengtian.


After a few miles of hiking through the forest, the two teams decided to camp out as the sun started to set. Yang and Ruby went out to grab firewood while the rest set up the tents as Jaune gets the firepit up and going.

"Wow! How do you know how to do this?" the knight broke a twig in his hands and felt it was dry and put it and a few more in the pit.

"Seven sisters and a bunch of camping trips. My family made sure that I would learn how to live in the wilds someday." Owls started making noise in the background as Jaune lit the twigs on fire with some fire dust and threw in some logs that Ruby made from chopping down trees.

"Wow. Your mom must have been a busy woman huh?" Yang wiggled her eyebrows suggestively while somehow, Ruby tossed a circular corgi pillow at the blonde's head. Weiss had a tick mark on the right side of her forehead and was contemplating whether it's a promising idea to murder her or just ignore her. Blake was clearly ignoring her by reading while the others are having conversations about families and childhood stories. Jaune looked at Yang and smiled.

"At least it's never boring at home. Either there's chaos between Violet and Azure or it's the youngest going around lighting firecrackers under your feet during your birthday. Or your twin just hanging out with you and reading a story to you."

"Sounds like you wouldn't give up anything for them huh?" the young hunter nodded with a smile.

The two blondes decided that they were hungry and made a cooking pot holder over the fire as Yang cut the vegetables as Jaune grabbed some pork out of his pack and threw it in the water Blake provided. Everyone else was sitting nearby listening to the cricket's chirp and the fire crackling.

"It feels weird… This seems more like a vacation trip than a mission huh." the harmonixer was stirring the pot as the ingredients cooked in the pot, he made sure to throw in some light spices to keep flavor.

"Yeah… This feels like one of our camping trips with my dad and Rubes. All peaceful and all that jazz." Ruby was laughing at one of Nora's stories while Ren didn't even try to correct it, letting her carry-on, entertaining everyone. Blake decided to put the book down and converse with Weiss about dust and semblances. Pyrrha just playing the same scroll game Jaune did on the bullhead, doing well for beginning a game.

"Although tomorrow morning we'll be at the village by nightfall and we'll find out what was going on." Jaune announced dinner was done started pouring the stew into various bowls to serve. Ruby being the first one up and disappearing in a flash to her tent to eat. Weiss and Blake arriving next with Weiss muttering a thank you for the food and Blake nodding her thanks and walking away with her bowl. Ren and Nora came up next and grabbed their bowls and eat in peace at their tents. Pyrrha smiling brightly and saying thanks for the meal while Yang and Jaune eating in peace over by the pot, Jaune noticing dark grey clouds overhead, signaling rain to come.

"Hopefully it doesn't rain on the way to the village. That'll suck for sure." Yang spoke a bit weary while the other blond nodded but knew that they had prepared for rain, Pyrrha checked the weather app on her scroll in Fengtian.

"Be the way… What are your sister's names anyways?" Yang questioned the harmonixer while he just chuckled.

"Well there's Violet the eldest at twenty-six years old and a veteran huntress from Haven… Azure and Lapis are the first twins aged twenty-four, but Azure was first by two minutes and holds that over her twin's head. Olive is twenty-two and has started being an independent huntress in Atlas. Then you have me and Joan, she's going to Haven for her first year. Then you have the second youngest, Rouge is about thirteen or fourteen and she's just adorable. Just don't look at her puppy eyes, they're evil. Then the youngest, Blanc. She's just barely ten but she has a weird energy to her. She is comatose one second then she's just like Nora the next second." the brawler just laughed at the descriptions and smiled.

"Sounds like a lively family. My dad's name is Taiyang Xiao Long, he teaches at Signal which is our like… beginning hunter school at Patch. He's nice and relaxing but sometimes he is worried about us going to Beacon. Then there's Uncle Qrow and he used to teach at Signal but stopped and does missions for Headmaster Ozpin. You already know about Rubes so that's really it." Jaune had a small frown at his face about not mentioning her mother but he had a feeling she didn't want to talk about her yet, so he shrugged it off and cleaned dishes for everyone. After dishes were done, everyone went to their tents, Jaune and Ruby were at the top on separate sides with everyone going down by their team initials and fell asleep for the journey to the mysterious village.


Jaune was in the lead with the map while the others were doing a supply check as Ruby skipped up to talk to him about various things of his life.

"Well… My sisters kept braiding my hair but I'm more of a warrior's wolf tail kind of guy." Ruby just chuckled and gave him an incredulous look.

"That's just a ponytail Jaune…" Jaune shot her a betrayed look.

"I think it would look good on me don't you think?" the blond hunter smiled but the reaper just shook her head no, causing Jaune's head to slump downwards.

"Thanks Crater-Face…" the harmonixer gave Ruby a gentle shove away and gave him a mock glare and pout.

The others noticed the two goofing off and laughing and smiled at them, except Weiss who had a small glare pointed at the two leaders.

"They should be more professional than that…" Yang just shook her head and patted the Ice Queen's shoulder.

"All were doing is traveling. They have plenty of time to play around Weiss-Cream." Weiss had an urge to strangle Yang but gave her a very cold glare. The rest laughed at Weiss freezing the blonde brawler's head solid with her rapier as Yang was punching her way out.

As night set onto the group, they saw the metal reinforced wooden gate with about twenty-foot-tall walls all around the village. At the gate, two torches were lit so sentries can see if anyone was at the gate or if Grimm were attacking. As the group approached the gate, Jaune gave it a few loud knocks to alert the village that people were outside.

"Hellooo! Anyone home?!" Ruby called out beyond the gate.

After a while, no one answer so Yang decided to kick the gate a bit to alert anyone there.

"C'mon! Anyone home!?" the heiress decided to stop and Jaune told everyone to get ready to camp outside for the night until two small kids ran up to the gate and alerted them.

"Sorry about that! Took us a while to get over here!" a kid dress in yellow yelled out to them.

"Yeah really sorry!" a kid dressed in red spoke out too. The others looked around and Jaune walked up.

"Can you guys open the gate by chance? We kind of traveled here a while and would like a place to rest." the two kids ran off and got the gate open by one of the guards.

As the gate opens, the kids ran out and greeted them. They were weirdly enough staring at the girls for some reason, making most of them nervous except Yang, who winked at them.

"Wow! So many girls!" the one in yellow exclaimed. The red one looked… hungry…

"Nana will be pleased! You can stay at the manor! It's at the end of the square on the left!" the two left, leaving most of them nervous but they still walked into the village with the gate closing behind them.

"Be on guard Jaune… I remember those two brats. Stay close to the girls and don't let them leave your sight." Yuri had a strange… warning tone to his voice. The girls got in front of him as he had his mental conversation with Yuri.

'What's going to happen Yuri?'

"Nothing good…"


A.N: Sorry for the loooooong wait for this chapter. I had to rewrite it a few times and felt a few sections sucked… So, to repeat. Sorry. But I'll keep writing this as much as I can, and I want to thank over 100 people for following this story! I'm happy people love reading this, so I want to thank you guys. You guys are awesome! Now the group are in Zhaoyang and Yuri had delivered a grim message to Jaune and he must keep the group safe in this village of illusions. See you guys in the next chapter! *disappears in golden confetti*