A/N: This chapter is intended purely to be a bit of festive fun for Christmas and was originally meant to be a standalone omake.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or RWBY. Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto and RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth.
Special Chapter: Christmas Party Chaos
"So what's everyone up to during the holidays?" Ruby asked as the trio of teams all sat down to eat lunch. Currently, there was only a little over a week of classes left before the Christmas break and it was quite clear to everyone that the students were all looking forward to the upcoming time off.
"I'm visiting relatives," Velvet replied as she thought about the family get-together that was planned, with Jaune and Pyrrha both making similar comments.
"Same here," Weiss added, though there was a well-concealed lack of enthusiasm in her voice that nobody seemed to catch.
"Ren and I are staying here and we're gonna beat up all the Grimm we can find in the forest," Nora stated enthusiastically. Her comment prompted a slight sigh of exasperation from her childhood friend.
"We're not going to be hunting Grimm in the Emerald Forest," Ren corrected. "We will be staying here though," he added just to confirm that his partner wasn't entirely wrong. After all, Beacon was a boarding school and, while most students spent their holidays with their families, there was absolutely nothing in the rules that said they couldn't live there full time.
"Oh," Ruby replied a little sadly, having an idea as to why they might be doing that. There weren't that many reasons why students would choose to stay at the school during the holiday and most of them generally weren't overly good for the student in question.
"I'll be sticking around as well, though I'm thinking of popping into Vale sometime to visit a friend," Naruto said. The break would probably be a good opportunity to stop by the Tanuki Tavern for a bit and Rinus would likely enjoy the company.
"I don't really have anything planned either so I'll probably be staying here too," Blake spoke up from the end of the table where she was currently reading a book. Her comment caused the slightly sad-looking Ruby's expression to worsen a bit and she started mumbling to herself, though it was so quiet that nobody noticed.
"And me and Ruby are going back home to see Dad and Zwei," Yang said, more for the sake of completeness than anything else.
"Zwei?" Naruto asked in confusion as he hadn't heard that name before and nobody else except Ruby seemed to recognise it either.
"He's our dog and he is awesome," the blonde brawler replied with a grin, thinking about just how amazing the little canine could be. She completely missed how Blake momentarily tensed up ever so slightly upon hearing the word 'dog' but nobody else spotted it either and the black-haired girl quickly recovered her composure.
"That's it!" Ruby loudly declared, only to blush slightly when every person present immediately turned their attention towards her. "Let's have a party," the hooded girl suggested.
"A party?" Velvet repeated in confusion. She wasn't the only one who was a little perplexed by the seemingly random change in topic as pretty much the entire assembled group just stared at the scythe-wielder, waiting for her to elaborate.
"Yeah," the young leader confirmed. "Since we're not going to be together for Christmas, why don't we have a party before the break to celebrate?"
"Woo! Party!" Nora cheered, clearly enthusiastic about the suggestion.
"That's a great idea!" Yang agreed as she pulled her sister into an almost bone-crushing hug. Naruto's ear twitched slightly as he could have sworn he heard the faint sound of something cracking but dismissed it while everyone else voiced their agreement with Ruby's party idea since it did seem like fun.
"Since it was your idea, why don't you sort out all the planning for it?" Naruto proposed, partly because he had absolutely no idea how to properly arrange a good party and partly because he honestly didn't think Ruby had thought that far ahead.
"What?" the silver-eyed girl asked as her face paled a little when she realised the sheer amount of work it would take to sort everything out in the small timescale she had suggested. "You mean you won't help me?" she pleaded, giving him her best puppy dog eyes.
"Don't worry, Ruby. I'll help you," Yang promised, eliciting a sigh of relief from her sister. "We'll make this the best Christmas party ever!"
"A party?" a voice questioned from behind Naruto as a slender arm draped itself over his shoulder, with its counterpart finding its own spot over his partner's shoulder. "Sounds like fun. Mind if I come along?"
"Hey Coco," the blond shinobi greeted casually, already aware that she had been approaching. She had tried to sneak up on him several times over the last few months in an attempt to catch him off guard so he had ended up unusually attentive to her presence. Sadly, despite having known her for several years, Velvet had yet to develop a reliable 'Coco-sense' and had visibly jumped at the completely unexpected contact along with emitting an adorable squeak of surprise, much to the playful girl's amusement.
"Since it was Ruby's idea in the first place, you should probably ask her," Naruto said in response to Coco's question with a slight gesture towards the hooded girl.
"Sure, the more the merrier," Ruby replied absently before Coco even said a single word; she was clearly more occupied with discussing possible ideas for the party with Yang. "We should probably decorate the room but keep it simple; some tinsel, maybe a little Christmas tree if we can find one..." she trailed off at the end in case her sister had anything to add.
"How about some mistletoe as well? It wouldn't really be a Christmas party without it," the brawler suggested with a grin.
A few of the girls present ended up developing the faintest hint of a blush upon hearing the idea whereas Coco had a rather mischievous smirk on her face as she thought about the possible fun she could have. Despite not knowing the significance of mistletoe at Christmas, Naruto experienced a strange sense of foreboding and a shudder went down his spine which made him decide to be particularly wary of the plant if it did appear at the party.
"Fancy dress?" Yang proposed once her previous suggested was accepted, though that was more because Ruby didn't see any reason to veto it than anything else.
"Wow, those two work quickly," Coco muttered after watching the sisters come up with several ideas in the space of a few minutes. "Still, fancy dress could be fun," she said as she leaned down and whispered quietly enough that only Naruto and Velvet would hear her. "What do you think Velvet? Cute elf or sexy Miss Santa? I reckon you could pull off either of them without any difficulty." The comments got the desired response as the rabbit Faunus promptly blushed and Coco smiled in victory as her friend's mouth opened and closed a few times with no coherent sound coming out.
"What do you reckon Blondie?" the playful girl asked. "Wouldn't she look great all dressed up like that?" That particular query left the shinobi unsure of how to answer, since a yes would just spur the second-year on with her teasing and a no would likely depress his partner, but he was saved when the youngest person present spoke up.
"I don't think fancy dress would work," Ruby stated after thinking about it for a few moments. "While it's a good idea, there's not really enough time to sort out costumes if we're going to do it before the holiday. Maybe some other time, though?"
"Good point," Yang said in agreement to her sister's reasoning, both the unfeasibility of acquiring costumes in a matter of days and the possibility of having a fancy dress party on another occasion. The pair then carried on discussing more ideas for the Christmas party that nobody else really paid attention to.
"Probably a good thing it's not going to be fancy dress," Coco commented to Velvet, noticing how the blond had refrained from answering her previous question. "After all, dressing up in sexy outfits is best done in the privacy of your room where only Blondie here will get to appreciate the sight," she added with a teasing grin. The Dust mage's face quickly turned an even brighter shade of red at the implications and even Naruto felt his face heat up slightly at the resulting mental images, prompting him to immediately tune the second-year out before she could say anything else.
A particularly mischievous grin appeared on her face as the beret-wearing girl thought up one final remark on the current topic, one that she was almost certain would get both of her favourite teasing victims as flustered as possible. "If you want, we could always go shopping at the weekend and I'll help you pick out something that'll really leave him speechless," Coco offered, making sure she was loud enough for the blond to hear her as well. "Maybe I'll get something for myself as well and we could give him a Christmas he'll never forget?"
The thoughts playing through the shy Faunus' head at that particular comment more or less broke the poor girl as her face turned a truly impressive shade of red and she became completely unresponsive. Meanwhile, Naruto really tried his best to ignore the girl next to him but she had squeezed his shoulder just before she had started talking and that had distracted him long enough to hear what she was saying; he had a feeling that she had done that deliberately. That meant that he ended up with mental imagery surprisingly similar to Velvet's and it had taken every ounce of willpower he possessed to limit his reaction to just a rather noticeable blush instead of following his partner's lead. When a good few seconds of calming thoughts did nothing to reduce the issue, the blond opted instead to slam his head against the table with enough force that every plate jumped a full two inches into the air before landing again, something that quickly got the attention of the other assembled teens.
"I hate you so much right now," Naruto muttered, thankful that the pain was serving as an adequate distraction to Coco's particularly suggestive comments.
"And my work here is done," the second-year replied with a satisfied grin. Now that she had gotten the reactions she wanted, she straightened up and headed off elsewhere to take care of a few other things before her next class. "Don't forget to let me know about the details for the party," she called over her shoulder as the members of Teams RWBY and JNPR wondered just what she had done to the VNUS duo.
It didn't take all that long for the sisters to decide that the best time for the party was after classes the following Friday, the last day before the Airships started heading off in the morning to take the various students back to their respective homes for the holiday period. There had been a bit of a panic early on when Ruby and Yang encountered issues finding a suitable venue, since the only appropriate room that either of them knew of at Beacon was the ballroom and they couldn't get permission to use it. Fortunately, Coco had heard of this in passing and somehow managed to secure the use of a decently-sized lounge that was pretty much perfect for the fairly small group. When asked how she had gotten the authorisation from the staff, the brunette had simply waved it off as unimportant and said that she had 'talked to a guy who talked to a guy and voila!'. None of the others really knew how to respond to that save for Velvet who just smiled a little at her friend's attempt at being mysterious.
The only other, and less serious, issue had been about the food or more specifically about cake. Ruby was adamant that all good parties had to have good cake but the shops in Vale that they had tried were already overworked and couldn't provide them with anything in time. This meant that the only other option left available to the party planners was to bake a cake themselves but Yang was explicitly banned from any form of food preparation by her father after she very nearly burnt her house down two years ago trying to toast some bread and Ruby had never attempted anything more complex than boiling an egg.
After asking around a bit, the pair had quickly found out that the only one in their little group of friends with any experience in baking was Velvet as she enjoyed helping her mother in the kitchen. Unfortunately, the rabbit Faunus just wasn't confident enough in her abilities to try baking a cake for the party and had reluctantly given a polite refusal when asked. Fortunately for the then-depressed Ruby, Coco decided to give her old friend a private pep talk the following day and somehow managed to convince her to bake something. Nobody really knew what was said during this little motivational speech but every time Naruto asked, Velvet's face went red and she seemed to find her shoes quite interesting so he just gave up.
What really made the scythe wielder's day was that this change in decision happened to come after Naruto had approached the Graeae twins to see if they'd be interested in helping out since he figured that they'd appreciate the opportunity to get so much feedback on their cooking. Euryale had seemed a bit unsure but Stheno had overruled her sister and immediately agreed after hearing his request. This meant that the party ended up with two cakes being baked for it and Ruby had promptly zoned out into some sort of food-based fantasy upon being informed of this.
The final lesson of the term ended up being a Grimm Studies class with Professor Port and the jovial teacher decided to dismiss the class early, citing it as a Christmas treat for the students. That said, Naruto had the feeling that he'd let them go early simply because only a handful of people were actually paying attention due to the excitement for the upcoming break. After leaving the classroom, the trio of teams headed straight back to their respective dorm rooms to drop off their bags before making their way to the lounge that Coco had reserved for their party. Velvet had briefly considered taking her camera with her but ultimately settled for just using the one built into her Scroll as she doubted there would be any overly awe-inspiring photo opportunities at the party.
Seeing as their time with the room actually started the previous evening, Ruby and Yang had spent a couple of hours decorating the place a little to suit such a festive occasion. There was a five-foot tall Christmas tree situated in one corner with baubles and tinsel hanging from its branches, several more lengths of tinsel were draped over the handful of pictures hanging on the walls and there were even some rather colourful and incredibly long paper chains adorning the ceiling. Some of the furniture had been pushed over to one side to make an open space in the middle of the room though there were still plenty of chairs and a couple of small sofas dotted around for when people got fed up of being on their feet.
Much to Naruto's annoyance, there were also several small pieces of mistletoe hanging in various strategic places; the ninja almost ran into the room when he noticed one was attached to the top of the doorframe. Despite the ominous foreboding feeling back when it was first mentioned, he still didn't know what the significance of the plant was with regards to Christmas and had asked around but hadn't really gotten anywhere. Coco had just given him a particularly mischievous smile and told him that he'd find out at the party whereas Velvet always ended up too embarrassed to actually explain it. Ruby didn't know and was also curious, Weiss' sole response had been to call him an idiot before walking off to hide the faint tint of pink on her cheeks and Yang said that she didn't want to ruin the surprise. He gave up asking after that and was still too technologically incompetent to just look it up on his Scroll; he didn't even consider the library since such a place should always be avoided except in the direst of emergencies.
Ignoring the Uzumaki's slightly hurried entrance, the party got off to a rather good start as Yang immediately put on some Christmas music, declared schoolwork to be a forbidden conversation topic and handed out plastic cups of fruit punch that she had prepared beforehand. The taste was a little different to what Naruto was used to but it was still quite a nice drink and the very large punch bowl resting on a nearby table suggested that there'd be more than enough for everyone over the course of the party. Nora in particular seemed to be quite fond of the fruity beverage as she was downing her sixth cup less than ten minutes later but most just wrote it off as the hyperactive girl's presumed sugar addiction in action.
"Merry Christmas everyone," Coco announced grandly as she entered the room a little over half an hour after the three first-year teams. "I come bearing seasonal goodwill and a pair of stragglers that got lost," she added on when Euryale and Stheno walked in after her.
"Finally!" Ruby loudly cheered, looking like Christmas had come early for her. The outburst caught most people off guard given the young girl's general lack of familiarity with all three newcomers and also served to feed a rather confused Coco's ego.
"Clearly she understands my magnificence if that's her reaction to me walking through a doorway," the second-year remarked jokingly to Velvet after taking the offered cup of punch from the Faunus who was just starting her third. "Maybe I should start hanging around with her more often?"
"Now that everyone's here, let's have some cake!" the scythe-wielder declared enthusiastically after Naruto sorted out proper introductions for the twins. She then promptly used her Semblance to cover the whopping half a room between her and the table that had two cakes resting on it. One of them was a simple undecorated chocolate sponge whereas the other was a two layered red velvet cake covered in a layer of the traditional cream cheese frosting.
"She cares more about cake than me," Coco muttered to herself as she stood there comically sulking. "Parties aren't really Fox's thing and Yatsuhashi still has a load of packing to do but at least I still have you here with me, Velvet," she said, cheering up again towards the end of her sentence. The playful girl then wrapped an arm around the shorter girl's shoulder and pulled her into a sideways hug. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Probably get incredibly bored due to not having her around to tease," Naruto answered dryly as he approached the pair. He was going to get some cake but wisely decided to wait until Ruby and Nora were no longer at the table as their high-speed confectionary-based chat didn't look like it was going to end anytime soon and he would rather avoid the headache.
"But I'd still have you for that," the beret-wearer replied with a grin as she latched on to him with her free arm.
"And if it wasn't for Velvet, we wouldn't know each other," the blond pointed out before deciding to change the topic. If he didn't then Coco would probably just start messing with him to prove her point. "Anyway, I didn't know that you knew those two," he said, indicating the green-haired sisters who were off to one side quietly talking to each other.
"I don't. I just bumped into them on my way into the building and they asked me if I knew the way here," Coco replied simply. "So twins, huh? Aren't you being a bit overambitious?"
"What do you mean?" Naruto asked, not sure what she was on about. Velvet, on the other hand, quickly figured out what her old friend was implying and glanced back and forth between her partner and the siblings in question a few times as her mind wandered to places it probably shouldn't.
"It's always the quiet ones," the second-year muttered under her breath upon seeing Velvet's distracted state. Maybe she should cut back on the teasing a little if it was that easy to send her friend's thoughts towards the gutter? It was probably her fault in the first place anyway for favouring the more sexually suggestive innuendos when she messed with the Faunus.
"Uh...hello? Anybody in?" Naruto asked uncertainly as both girls were now completely ignoring him. Velvet was staring off into space as her cheeks slowly reddened for no apparent reason while Coco had gotten lost in her own thoughts barely a second later and seemed to be trying to figure something out. Not getting any reply from either of them, the blond just shrugged himself out of Coco's loose hold and made his way over to the twins.
"Enjoying the party?" the dimensionally-displaced teen asked once he was close enough.
"Yes, thank you," Euryale replied. "Stheno lost the directions you gave us so it was quite fortunate that we stumbled across your friend outside or we'd probably still be wandering around."
"I didn't lose them, I just temporarily misplaced them," Stheno retorted defensively. "Still, it's a nice party, even if you're the only other person here that we actually know, so thanks for the invite."
"It's fine but I think we should do something about that little issue," Naruto declared as he manoeuvred himself between the sisters and wrapped an arm around each of their shoulders. Both girls blushed at the unexpected contact and smiled in happiness as the blond gently led them over towards some of the other guests. Stheno happened to see Velvet and Coco out of the corner of her eye and, emboldened by her close proximity to her crush, stuck her tongue out in victory at the pair.
"I don't think I like those two," Velvet mumbled to herself, her gaze locked on Naruto and the twins. The rather out-of-character comment prompted Coco to stare incredulously at her friend for a few seconds and she couldn't help but blink dumbly at how the usually shy Faunus was watching the identical sisters intensely with a look that could almost be called a glare.
"I must be dreaming," Coco absently commented before pinching her thigh. The resulting pain confirmed that she was in fact awake and she looked around to try and figure out the cause for Velvet's apparent change in behaviour when a thought occurred to her. Raising her cup to her lips, she took a quick whiff and drank what little remained inside, paying special attention to the taste. "Well, that would certainly explain it," the second-year muttered. A smile then formed on her face and she decided to just let things play out without saying anything; it could be quite entertaining to watch if she was lucky.
Meanwhile, Naruto had gotten the twins chatting with Ruby and the silver-eyed leader was currently thanking the pair profusely for taking the time to bake a cake for the party. Neither of the snake-eyed girls chose to mention that they'd only done it because Naruto had asked them to or that it had taken almost a full week of constant hard work and practice to be able to make something that didn't look like a cheap movie monster. They still weren't overly confident on the taste but at least it was edible, unlike the first few attempts.
"While there's not really anything wrong with expressing gratitude, I think you're making them a little uncomfortable," the shinobi stated, interrupting Ruby's somewhat over the top thankfulness.
Having finally stopped talking, the young scythe prodigy had a proper look at the sisters she was thanking and noticed that they did indeed look rather unsure of how to handle the near constant stream of appreciation; they had even started slowly inching backwards in a very subtle escape attempt. "Sorry about that," Ruby muttered sheepishly, realising that she probably wasn't making a terribly good first impression on the pair.
"It's fine," Euryale replied politely. She was silently quite happy that Naruto had said something to stop the hooded girl as she had the sneaking suspicion that Stheno was dangerously close to snapping. "It's nice to know that our cooking is so well-liked."
"Nora!" Pyrrha suddenly shouted, distracting everyone in the room from whatever they were doing and drawing their attention to the madly grinning Nora Valkyrie. The bubbly bomber was running around the room giggling hysterically and swinging around a long-handled butterfly net of all things while downing any cups of punch within reach. It was such a random sight that nobody really knew how to properly react save for Ren who just face-palmed and muttered something about not being able to take his eyes off her for thirty seconds without something crazy happening.
"What the actual hell?" Naruto muttered under his breath at the sheer weirdness in front of him. "Where did she even get the net from?"
"Pyrrha, what's going on?" Ren asked. As the one with the most experience handling the hyperactive girl, the calm teen quickly took charge of the situation with ease.
"I have no idea," the redhead replied. "We were just having a chat and I turned around to put my cup down on the table. When I turned back, she had already acquired the net from somewhere, said something about catching all the pretty fairies and started running around which brings us back to now." It was a testament to Pyrrha's skills and experience that she managed to deliver her entire account so calmly despite spending the whole time chasing after her teammate in a desperate attempt to stop her from smashing anything.
By this point, both males of Team JNPR had also mobilised to try and deal with their wayward associate. Unfortunately, Jaune had taken a net to the face the moment he was within range and the unexpectedly forceful hit had dazed him enough to leave himself open for another three. With their leader now incapacitated for the time being, Ren and Pyrrha were on their own as everyone else was still dumbfounded by the unfolding chaos in front of them.
"Nora! Calm down!" the gunman practically pleaded as he tried to disarm his childhood friend but failed and got smacked for his trouble.
"Renny! You're here!" the hammer-wielder cried out happily. She sounded genuinely surprised that her partner was there and people were starting to wonder about her mental state. "Have you tried this drink yet? It's awesome!" She punctuated her statement by grabbing another cup of punch and downing it in one go with a massive grin on her face.
"Yes I have and it is quite nice. Now why don't you give me that net and we can carry on drinking some more," Ren offered as he jumped back to avoid another swing. The way he was talking made him sound like a parent trying to deal with their unruly child rather than a teenager doing so with someone their own age.
"What net?" Nora asked in confusion, before something else caught her attention. "Hey! Look at the shiny piñata!" She then proceeded to prod the fancy-looking light fitting above her a couple of times with her impromptu weapon before pulling it back like a baseball bat in preparation for a big swing. "I wonder if it's got shiny candy inside."
Fortunately, before the hyperactive girl could smash the light fixture to pieces, Pyrrha tackled her to the ground in a last-ditch attempt to stop her. Unfortunately, Ren had been standing a bit too close to his friend and had gotten knocked down as well, resulting in his head being sandwiched between the two girls' bosoms.
"Pyrrha? You're here too?" the bubbly girl asked in amazement upon seeing who currently had her and Ren pinned to the floor. "Where's Jaune?" She then looked around for her team leader for a full three seconds before her gaze landed on the light again. "Piñata!" she shouted in excitement as she started pushing herself to her feet again, seemingly unhindered by the weight of two people on top of her.
Seeing Nora about to get up again to resume her dangerous spree of mayhem prompted some of the others in the room to actually start thinking about helping and Ruby ended up being the first with an idea. "Dogpile!" With that said, she quickly dived on top of downed trio. Naruto soon followed suit when he failed to come up with anything better and the twins merely shared a single glance before gleefully jumping on top of the blond. Velvet joined in a moment later when she caught a glimpse of wandering hands and Yang was the last one on the pile as she just thought the whole thing was hilarious.
"I'm surrounded by idiots," Weiss muttered as she stood off to one side next to Blake.
"But it is funny to watch," Coco pointed out, casually leaning against a table with her Scroll in her hands to properly document the sight in front of her.
"Hey Ruby, I don't suppose you had any ideas for what to do next?" Naruto asked from the middle of the mound. The shinobi was doing his best to ignore the fact that the young leader's dive had flipped her skirt up to expose part of her underwear as well as the half a dozen hands randomly patting his body in various places; after all, both were obviously unintentional. "Nora will probably just start up again the moment we get up and I'd rather not stay like this for the next few hours."
"Don't worry, I have a cunning plan," Yang stated after leaving the mountain of people. "Just let me at her and she won't be doing anything else all evening."
Understandably confused by the blonde brawler's comment, Naruto glanced up and between a pair of legs that he was fairly sure were Velvet's to see the battle-happy girl standing there holding a very long coiled length of rope. After blinking a few times to confirm that he wasn't seeing things, the shinobi decided that dealing with their Nora problem was more pressing than figuring out why Yang had rope. "OK then," he said, just going with the flow. "Is everyone ready? We'll move on the count of three so Yang can do her thing. One..."
"Are we moving on three or is it one, two, three and then move?" Pyrrha interrupted.
"Which would be better?" the former Jinchuriki replied. Ren then impatiently shouted something that may have been along the lines of 'Just hurry up!' but it was heavily muffled by the redhead's chest so nobody could say for certain.
"One, two, three and then move. Just to avoid any confusion," the spearmaiden replied. There was now a faint but noticeable blush of embarrassment on her face as she finally realised just how she was lying on top of her teammate.
"Alright then. Let's try this again. One. Two. Three!" With that, the seven people piled on top of Nora quickly jumped up, with Ren gulping down oxygen like his life depended on it, as Yang pounced on the giggling girl. The entire room was then treated to a very educational and interesting demonstration that ultimately resulted in a hogtied Nora being deposited on a sofa.
"What?" Yang asked when she realised that everyone was staring at her with expressions ranging from intrigue and awe all the way to complete and utter bewilderment.
"Several of those knots seem to have absolutely no relevance in keeping her restrained," Blake pointed out with a raised eyebrow.
"Which ones?"
"The ones between her legs," the black-haired girl deadpanned, still trying to work out why the hell her partner had thought that something like that would be appropriate.
"Well she's not running around trying to smash everything now," the boxer countered in an attempt to defend her chosen course of action.
"Where did you even learn how to do something like that?" Weiss asked incredulously.
"From a book?" Yang answered uncertainly. It wasn't all that clear whether she genuinely didn't remember where she picked that particular skill up or she was just lying.
"Hmm, a somewhat unusual technique but effective nonetheless," Coco muttered to herself as she looked over the bound girl's restraints with a critical eye. "I don't suppose you've still got that book lying around, do you? I wouldn't mind borrowing it sometime," she said to Yang after a moment's thought. Even though her face didn't show it, the brunette's tone conveyed a fair amount of interest in the topic. The second-year then promptly found herself on the receiving end of the same sort of looks that Yang had gotten a few moments earlier. Naruto and Velvet also took that as their cue to discreetly edge away from their friend so that they didn't get caught up in whatever she was thinking about. "What? I'm always up for learning new tricks and skills and Nora seems quite happy with her current situation."
That comment caused everyone to turn their attention back to Nora and they saw that the bubbly bomber was just squirming about a bit with the faintest hint of a blush on her cheeks and still giggling like an idiot, apparently unaware of the dozen people staring at her. The hyperactive girl then yawned quite loudly and put her head down to go to sleep, the occasional chuckle still escaping from her.
"Ignoring Coco's perverted thoughts for a moment..." Naruto trailed off, expecting some sort of indignant denial from the girl in question. However, she seemed more amused by the description than anything else so he just carried on. "Where on earth did you get the rope from?"
"Just over there," Yang answered simply, pointing at a nearby cabinet.
"Seriously? What is this room normally used for?" the shinobi wondered disbelievingly. "First a butterfly net and now some rope. What's next? A hula hoop?"
"I think I can see one sticking out behind that bookcase," Velvet spoke up, indicating the furniture in question. Following her gaze, everyone saw that there was indeed a bright red hula hoop protruding out from behind the wooden item.
"What's next? A free all-you-can-eat ramen buffet?" Naruto asked after a moment's thought. He then looked around the entire room only to sigh in disappointment when nothing turned up. "It was worth a shot," he mumbled under his breath.
Any further discussion on the topic was brought to an abrupt halt when someone knocked twice on the door. Jaune happened to be the nearest person so he opened it to reveal Professor Goodwitch and Ozpin standing in the doorway. Surprised to see the two teachers there, the blond moved aside without really thinking about it and invited them inside.
"Good evening everyone. I hope you don't mind but I was a bit curious about the party you're throwing," Ozpin said. "I must admit that I was surprised when Peter mentioned the room request to me as I don't think anyone's ever wanted to do this before. Well, that or they just celebrate in their dorm rooms."
While the headmaster was explaining the reason for his unannounced arrival, Glynda was examining the room with a stern eye and it only took a couple of seconds for her to see the now asleep Nora on the sofa. "Would anyone care to explain why Miss Valkyrie is currently bound and unconscious?" she asked as her hand inched closer to the riding crop at her side. She quickly noticed how none of the students seemed terribly eager to answer and she also caught how several of them were directing some not-so-subtle looks at Yang while the boxer was doing her upmost to appear as innocent as possible.
"Nora had a sugar rush and started bouncing all over the place," Ren said casually after several seconds of silence. "She tends to not be overly concerned with her surroundings when she gets like that and this was the best course of action we could come up with to prevent collateral damage on such short notice. I think she only fell asleep a few minutes ago after crashing from her high." The ease with which he explained his friend's actions, as well as the accompanying sigh of exasperation, suggested that this wasn't the first time she had gone on a rampage like that. "Admittedly, she doesn't normally get anywhere near as bad as she did but..." he trailed off with a shrug, clearly having no clue why the hyperactive girl's high had been as severe as it had been.
"I see." It was clear that Glynda wasn't entirely satisfied with the explanation, especially since it sounded rather improbable. However, before she could press the issue any more, Ruby took the opportunity to offer her a cup of punch in an attempt to distract her. The silver-eyed girl completely missed her sister's horrified expression as well as how she seemed to be silently planning out some sort of emergency escape route. By the time the strict teacher finished her drink, Yang had come to the conclusion that her best chance for survival would probably be to jump out of the window and run like hell.
"This is rather nice," Goodwitch replied with a slight smile as she handed the empty cup back to Ruby. The smile actually caught all of the students by surprise as none of them could ever recall seeing such a thing before.
"Um...would you like another?" the scythe-wielder asked uncertainly. The small but noticeable shift in mood had caught her completely off-guard and she honestly had no idea how she should react to it.
"Thank you, I think I will." The combat instructor watched the girl as she quickly made her way over to the punch bowl to sort out the refill and took the cup off of her when she returned a few seconds later. As all of the assembled teens watched in strange fascination at the unexpected mood swing, Glynda swallowed half of her drink in one go and turned to face her boss. "We have such kind students this year. You were right to invite her here."
"You seem relieved," Coco said knowingly after moving next to a dumbfounded Yang.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," the brawler replied defensively. After all, playing dumb was essential to maintaining plausible deniability. "Why are you recording Goodwitch?" she asked, gesturing to the Scroll in the brunette's hands that was aimed straight at the teacher.
"This has the potential to be the most amusing thing to occur during the whole party," the second-year explained like it was obvious. "Besides, who would ever believe it happened without proof?"
"Good point. Do you mind sending me a copy of the video if anything funny happens?"
"Sure thing. By the way, you did a nice job with the punch. If Velvet's behaviour hadn't made me suspicious enough to check, I doubt I'd have ever noticed it." It was clear in the older girl's tone that she felt a certain amount of respect towards the blonde for managing to pull off what she had.
"Like I said, I have no idea what you're talking about," the boxer insisted as she accepted the compliment anyway.
"I do feel that I should just point out that it's not actually against the school rules," Coco said casually. The amusement she felt at seeing the first-year's head swing towards her fast enough to result in an audible crack was clearly visible on her face. "Obviously, you'd probably get a detention or worse if you turned up to lessons, missions or exams drunk or hung over but students can drink whatever they want during their free time as long as they're responsible and not underage."
"Seriously?"
"There should be a note about it in the handbook that all new students get when they start," the brunette stated with a shrug. "The staff probably just don't want to broadcast it after one guy last year thought it'd be a brilliant idea to cover that large statue near the main entrance with several rolls of toilet paper." She smiled slightly at the memory of seeing that first thing after leaving the dorms one day as Yang snickered at the thought. "That being said, Goodwitch will probably kill you if she finds out what you did." The sight of the blonde's face turning as pale as a ghost was utterly hilarious.
While Coco and Yang were chatting, Glynda had migrated over to the punch bowl to cut down on the time between refills. Ozpin had followed his colleague if only because there was a certain amount of amusement to be felt at witnessing the usually stern blonde's current state.
"You know something, Ozzy? We should have parties like this more often," the bespectacled blonde suggested as she finished off her fourth cup of punch and turned to top it up again. "It'd be good for the kids to loosen up every now and then." The grey-haired headmaster didn't even bother mentioning that she had loosened up far more than any of the students.
"Excuse me," Naruto said as he tried, and failed, to get to the punch bowl for another drink. Ozpin promptly took a step to the side to let the teen between him and his colleague as he took another sip from his ever-present mug. "Thanks."
"Maybe us teachers should have our own parties as well?" the teacher carried on as she turned back around with her new drink. She quickly noticed that the person in front of her was significantly shorter than a few moments ago but somehow didn't reach the obvious, and correct, conclusion. "Have you shrunk?"
"Huh?" The former Jinchuriki was understandably confused by the question and thus failed to produce a more articulate reply.
"I could have sworn you were a bit taller," Glynda muttered, having still not noticed that she was just talking to a different person. "But if you've not shrunk then that must mean I've grown. What do you reckon? Am I a bit bigger now?" She then proceeded to turn from side to side and back again to give him a better look at her. Unfortunately, due to the difference in height between her and Naruto, the shorter blond ended up getting quite distracted by her chest swaying around right in front of his face.
"Help," the Hunter-in-Training pleaded as he eventually managed to rip his gaze from the tempting sight being presented to him and turned to face the rather amused Ozpin. The blushing shinobi had absolutely no idea what was going on but whatever it was took him right out of his comfort zone. Sadly, Goodwitch didn't seem to appreciate this as she simply placed a hand on his shoulder and turned him back around to face her again.
"Now, now. It's just a simple question. There's no reason to distract the kiddies from their fun," she chided. The blonde didn't even realise that her unusual antics were now the main attraction of the party as everyone had long since stopped whatever they were doing in favour of watching the comedy unfold, or recording it in Coco's case as her Scroll was still going strong. "I just want to know if I've gotten any bigger recently. Surely you can help me with that?" The teacher then pouted in a surprisingly adorable manner at Naruto's apparent refusal to assist her with her query and leaned forwards so she could look him straight in the eye. "Please?"
With his eyes now firmly glued to the older woman's generous cleavage, Naruto was completely oblivious to how several of the girls were getting angrier with each passing second and silently hoping that the teacher would just drop dead or something. He didn't even notice when her attention shifted from getting him to answer her question to his long fur-covered ears until she reached up and gently stroked one. It was at this exact moment in time that the blond made the unexpected discovery that his ears could be somewhat ticklish if touched in a particular manner.
"When did you get these? They're so cute!" Glynda cooed. She then straightened up again and promptly pulled the shorter blond closer to her so she could get a better look at his ears. Unfortunately for Naruto, the movement was so unexpected that he lost his balance and ended up with his face buried in the teacher's sizable bosom. The aforementioned teacher didn't even realise anything had happened as she was preoccupied with examining the teen's ears in as much detail as was possible with her fingers. However, she did take note of the change in position when her roaming digits caused him to start giggling uncontrollably into her chest.
"Oh you naughty boy," the typically stern woman purred out with a rather seductive smile. She then chose to abandon her investigation of his ears in favour of just hugging him very tightly and smothering him with her breasts. "If that's what you want then we could always go back to your office for some playtime."
That last comment was accompanied by several spikes of killing intent which served to snap Naruto out of his marshmallow-induced daze. Professor Goodwitch still seemed to be completely oblivious to her surroundings as she just turned towards the door with the apparent intention of dragging the shorter blond away for some private fun. Despite the strange feeling that Jiraiya would strongly disapprove of his upcoming actions, the shinobi quickly gathered up some chakra and used the Substitution Technique to replace himself with the nearest viable target.
Nobody really knew what to make of the large puff of black smoke that suddenly engulfed everything within one and a half feet of the shinobi but Glynda simply marched straight through without paying it the blindest bit of notice and pulled a very confused Ozpin out of the room. When the cloud dissipated a few moments later, all that could be seen was a rather flushed Naruto standing slightly to the side of where he had previously been. The vulpine teen was busy gulping down great lungfuls of air as breathing with a face-full of breasts was understandably quite tricky and not a skill he had managed to develop yet. The most important thing that was noticed was that the blond was no longer being molested and thus the anger and killing intent quickly faded away as the ones producing it calmed down.
"I think I almost died in there," Naruto mumbled as he slowly got his breath back after his near-death by suffocation. Despite being just a quiet muttering, the room was still silent after the rather entertaining show and thus everyone heard it clearly.
"Do you need the kiss of life?" Yang asked jokingly.
Despite the clear lack of seriousness in the comment, the idea still stuck in several minds and gained traction when the owners of those minds finally noticed just where Naruto was standing, or rather what he was standing under. Stheno and Euryale immediately descended into a high-speed twin-speak chat that nobody else could understand while Velvet seemed to be weighing up various pros and cons in her head. Even Weiss seemed to be giving it some thought and Coco was currently talking with Yang in hushed tones. When Velvet still hadn't reached any sort of meaningful decision a good minute later, her beret-wearing friend simply wrapped her arm around her shoulder and handed the Faunus a fresh drink.
"We both know you won't do it," the second-year commented as Velvet took a sip of her punch. "Even though you made that cake to try and impress him, you'd never do anything that could potentially damage your friendship with someone and that's fine." With the Dust mage's attention now focused on both her drink and what was being said to her, Coco started walking and Velvet followed without really noticing. "Though you'll probably spend ages wondering 'what if' and it'd likely eat you up inside eventually." Unknown to the pair, the identical sisters chose this moment to split apart and put their hastily devised plan into action.
"But that's fine too. Even if you're filled with regret about not taking the chance when you could have, you'll still have him at your side as a friend. Just a friend. Nothing more, nothing less." The rabbit-eared Faunus seemed to be deep in thought at this point as her friend's words were going through her head over and over again. "But that's why I'm here," Coco proudly declared. The abrupt change of tone prompted Velvet to look at the playful girl and she quickly noticed the mischievous grin just as her empty cup was gently pulled out of her hand. "When opportunities like this present themselves, I'll always make sure you make the right choice. Even if I have to give you a gentle nudge."
"What are you-" Velvet started only to get interrupted a moment later.
"Hey, Blondie!" Coco called out. The unexpected shout made the shy Faunus realise that Coco had led her towards her partner as she was now only a few feet away from him. "You know you kept asking about mistletoe and Christmas? Well this is what it's all about!"
Without further ado, the playful brunette proceeded to push her friend at just the right angle and with just the right amount of force to get her to collide with the confused blond. To make things even better, Velvet had been in the midst of complaining at her plan while Naruto had been questioning what she had meant by her previous statements. That meant that both of them had their mouths open and the similar heights ensured that their lips met in a kiss with the blond's tongue accidentally slipping into his teammate's mouth, just as Stheno and Euryale appeared on either side of him and kissed his cheeks.
The clicking of Yang's Scroll as she took a few pictures for Coco was completely ignored by the quartet as the three girls suddenly found themselves locked in a test of endurance to see who would be the first to back off. This would be the first of many little skirmishes in the war for the blond's heart. Some would liken the conflict to the battles of old whereas others would just find it to be the funniest thing ever witnessed. Only time would tell who the victor would be.
A/N: That's the Christmas special done (my first ever attempt at an omake!). I was toying with the idea of doing something like this last year but the story wasn't far enough along for it back then so I didn't bother. Depending how well received this is, I might consider doing more omakes at some point in the future if the inspiration hits me. (Note: I make absolutely no promises concerning this, I'm just saying I MIGHT, not will.) Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this little treat from me. It's got some fluff, more Coco teasing, Yang spiking the punch with alcohol to help people loosen up, drunk destructive Nora, drunk Glynda and even a somewhat tipsy Velvet getting jealous; what more could you want for the holidays?
*EDIT* Anyway, as mentioned at the start, this was meant to be a standalone omake but several people have since expressed their disappointment with that particular choice which prompted me to have a bit of a rethink before ultimately deciding to follow the consensus of the masses. In other words, while this was originally written to be nothing more than a non-canon Christmas treat, I am now declaring that this chapter is canon to the main story (though I will have to tweak some of the ideas I had for further down the line to avoid inconsistencies).
I'm going to keep things fairly short this time and not say anything else except Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays!
