In this chapter, our heroes are going to attend a party. Why is there a party you ask? To celebrate the election of the 5th Hokage! I figured now was a good time to include the events of RWBY Volume 2, Chapter 7. What about you?
Of course, Cinder's going to seize the chance to do a little infiltration...just like on in the show. However, it won't be Ruby chasing after her.
Who is it, you ask? Read the chapter!
Chapter 37: Party Crash
With the 5th Hokage chosen, it looked as if Vale was once again protected from Grimm attacks. They would be hesitant to attack while a Hokage was present.
Of course, there had been many casualties during the invasion of Vale...so they would need to be cautious as to how many ninja they sent out on missions. Some of the Grimm were smart enough to monitor Vale to see how many ninja were leaving the village.
Now that the 5th Hokage had been chosen, they were planning to throw a party. Now seemed as good as time as any to celebrate. They wouldn't forget about the 3rd Hokage though, now would they? That was what the Hokage Monument was for.
Of course, it was only a matter of time before Tsunade was added to the Hokage Monument. People wanted to remember her as the Hokage, not just one of the three Legendary Sannin. Although, Jiraiya didn't have a statue dedicated to him...at least not yet.
Team JHAK were planning on attending. Hopefully they would let Blake in even though she was a Faunus. Sometimes Faunus weren't invited to special events because they were...Faunus.
The world of Remnant would be a lot better place if it didn't contain racism. Granted, they would still have the Grimm to deal with, but it would still be a better place nonetheless. Racial hatred was one of the things that attracted them in the first place, after all.
Jaune and Hinata noticed that Pyrrha seemed worried about something.
They decided to ask her about it.
"What's the matter?" asked Jaune.
"I'm worried that I might not find a dance partner..." said Pyrrha, a look of concern on her face.
"Are you kidding? If you don't find a partner to dance with, I'll wear a dress!" exclaimed Jaune. His sisters happened to have a lot of dresses, incidentally.
"And I'll wear what he was going to wear!" agreed Hinata. Personally she thought that she wouldn't have trouble finding a dance partner considering that she beat up Cardin...people were pretty impressed by that. She wasn't nearly as famous as Pyrrha though. Pyrrha could take down Cardin in her sleep...as much as he didn't like to admit it.
"Alright then." said Pyrrha, her worried expression changing into a happy one. She was still a bit concerned, however.
Of course, Nora already knew who she wanted to have as a dance partner.
"Hey Ren? Do you want to go to the dance with me?" asked Nora. She was really hoping that he would say yes.
"Sure." nodded Ren. They had known each other since they were children, so Nora DID seem like an ideal dance partner. He could have chosen Ino but she was a bit loudmouthed for his tastes.
"Yes!" cheered Nora. She was so happy that Ren was going to dance with her. Now she wouldn't have to cry like a baby.
Personally she wondered if Shikamaru was going to the dance. Considering what a slacker he was, perhaps he wouldn't be interested in dancing.
Curiously enough, it seemed that Penny was present, though there were Atlas personnel accompanying her. Typically she didn't leave her father often because he wanted to keep the fact that she was a robot hidden.
Still, she had expressed her desire to dance, so her father decided to let her go...though she wouldn't be going alone, that was for certain.
Naturally, she was doing the robot. She was rather good at it, though she didn't usually attend parties.
Ruby quickly noticed her. She was rather excited to see her again.
"Hi, Penny!" exclaimed Ruby. She was glad that she could make it to the party...even though she didn't seem to be in public much.
"Hello, Ruby." said Penny, waving her hand. She was happy that her friend Ruby was at the party as well. Of course, it would be surprising if she wasn't there's given the large amount of guests.
Curious, Jaune and Hinata noticed that Pyrrha was alone. She looked rather upset.
Feeling rather compassionate, Jaune and Hinata decided to check on her to see what was troubling her.
Pyrrha let out a sigh.
"Did you...not find a dance partner?" asked Jaune. He was quite surprised at the occurrence. Apparently not as many people were willing to dance with Pyrrha as he thought.
"I'm afraid not. They apparently didn't think they were worthy to dance with me..." stated Pyrrha. At the rate she was going, she would be a jonin in no time.
Unfortunately, her teammates had already found dance partners.
Hinata sighed.
"I see..." nodded Jaune.
"Well, you know what that means..." stated the Hyuga kunochi.
The Arc swordsman nodded.
The two of them went to their lockers.
A few minutes later...
"Wait, you actually went through with your bet? You didn't have to do that!" asked Pyrrha. Personally she thought that Jaune had been joking the entire time.
She began to laugh.
As it turned out, Jaune hadn't been joking...and he was indeed wearing a dress...and Hinata was wearing a tuxedo.
"An Arc doesn't go back on their word!" exclaimed Jaune.
"Neither does a Hyuga!" shouted Hinata. Their families were alike that way.
Cardin was tempted to laugh as well, but he decided that it wouldn't be a good idea with Hinata around. He remembered the Chunin Exams preliminaries all too well.
One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to bully Jaune after that. Hinata had eyes like a hawk...and he should know that. He was a bird tamer.
Blake and Kiba wondered what was going on. Their teammates were dressed rather strangely. Blake of course had chosen to wear a black dress. Kiba thought that she looked rather pretty in it.
Kiba had chosen to bring Akamaru with him. He wouldn't be eating anything laid out on the table, of course...just what Kiba gave him. He was careful to take care of Akamaru, even if unlocking his aura meant he would live longer than regular dogs.
"Arf?" asked Akamaru. Since when did Jaune wear woman's dresses? He usually dressed rather masculine...although to be fair he did scream like a little girl whenever he got scared.
Why were both Jaune and Hinata crossdressing?
Well, they wouldn't judge them.
Fortunately, Blake was allowed to attend the party since she had proven herself loyal to her village, even though she was a Faunus. For once she wasn't being discriminated against. Perhaps they wanted to thank her for helping to apprehend Roman Torchwick.
However, Blake wondered if Roman would eventually break out. He didn't seem to be the type of person who would sit idly and wait out a prison sentence.
He wasn't the type of person to spill secrets about his employer either. Perhaps he was worried that his employer would hunt him down if he did so? That would be her guess.
Suddenly, they noticed three familiar people entering the room.
They were the Sand Siblings, otherwise known as the children of the Fourth Kazekage...who was now deceased.
"The Sand Siblings are here?" asked Naruto. Personally he wasn't expecting ninja from Atlas. He was under the impression that they were celebrating the election of the 5th Hokage.
Although...Weiss was from Atlas, and she was at the party as well. Her father didn't seem to be around though. Was he in some sort of business meeting? That would be his guess.
"Apparently." nodded Ruby. They did have an alliance with their kingdom. It was good that two kingdoms were able to put aside their differences even if the other three kingdoms had yet to do the same.
Rarely was there all-out war (much like the Konoha Crush), but conflict between the other kingdoms wasn't exactly unheard of.
Weiss was rather happy to see Gaara again.
Currently, Naruto was drinking some fruit punch.
"That's some fine fruit punch!" exclaimed Naruto.
Yang was drinking some fruit punch as well.
She decided to give Naruto a warning...a warning that he shouldn't take too seriously.
"Careful how much you drink Naruto. If you drink too much, you might end up passing out...and then you'll wake up in a bathtub full of ice with one of your kidneys cut out. NAKED!" exclaimed Yang.
Naruto gasped. He didn't want to be drugged and have one of his kidneys stolen...and for people to see him naked. And that bathtub sounded pretty cold.
Suddenly, Yang began to laugh.
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"I'm just kidding. To be honest that kind of fails the logic test, doesn't it?" inquired the blonde girl. Some rumors were crazy...though not necessarily unbelievable.
Naruto nodded. Now that he thought of it, that did sound rather strange. Wouldn't they need a huge bin of ice to store the kidney in? And why would they put him in a bathtub full of ice? They could at least give him a rubber ducky.
Besides, how would the kidnapper make their getaway? There were a huge amount of people at this party. And there were also security cameras in the building as well.
"Some people come up with crazy urban legends, don't they?" asked Naruto.
"They sure do." nodded Yang.
Weiss noticed someone suspicious at the party.
She decided that she would follow them.
There was something off about this mysterious lady.
Was...she plotting something bad?
As soon as she noticed she was being followed, she fired an arrow at Weiss.
Weiss ducked out of the way in the nick of time. Her aiming skills were impressive. If her reflexes hadn't been fast enough, there was the possibility that she might have been skewered, even with her chakra protecting her from harm.
Just what huntress was she? She clearly wasn't a genin. In fact, she seemed to be around jonin level...and then some.
Well, at least that narrowed down the suspect list somewhat. It took a good amount of time before a ninja could become jonin.
Meanwhile, Kankuro noticed Pyrrha sitting by herself.
"Did you not find a dance partner?" asked Kankuro. She looked rather lonely.
Pyrrha nodded. It seemed that her popularity was giving her a hard time. Being famous wasn't always good.
"Well, ever since I fought you and almost won...I've been enjoying a lot of newfound popularity. I suppose I might have found a way to repay you..." stated Kankuro.
Pyrrha raised an eyebrow.
"Will you be my dance partner?" asked Pyrrha.
"Why not? What do you think I would do, dance with one of my puppets?" inquired Kankuro.
"They do seem kind of lifeless." answered the teenage girl.
Kankuro nodded...though he did consider his puppets to be a work of art. They were pretty efficient at combat.
Kankuro began to dance with Pyrrha.
Hinata and Jaune quickly noticed.
"Does this mean we don't have to dress like this anymore?" asked Jaune. He wasn't sure.
"I don't know. You look good in that dress!" exclaimed Hinata.
"You look good too!" answered the swordsman.
Both Hinata and Jaune began to laugh.
As it turned out, Sun was dancing with Temari.
"Are you alright dancing with a Faunus?" asked Sun.
"I don't see what's the point of mistreating Faunus...it only causes them to fight back against us." noted Temari. A lot of tragedy could be avoided if humans and Faunus could simply learn to get along.
Meanwhile, Cinder Fall was continuing her espionage mission.
It was unfortunate that she had been discovered, but she could make a hasty getaway when needed.
However, she had to be careful not to kill Weiss Schnee. People wouldn't take the disappearance of the Schnee heiress lightly.
She just needed to slow her down.
Unlike Orochimaru, she hadn't really shown interest in obtaining all jutsu in existence. She preferred quality over quantity. Why learn a bunch of low-class jutsu when she could learn the most powerful jutsu in existence?
It would still take a long time to learn those jutsus...but not as long as learning all the jutsu in existence. Thus, she probably wouldn't need immortality in order to obtain them.
Immortality might have its perks though. If she kicked the bucket, the maiden powers would pass to someone else.
Someone who she likely wouldn't consider as worthy. Maidens had a habit of helping others...and making others dependent.
She wouldn't tolerate that.
Weiss continued to pursue Cinder...
...but she found her progress being blocked by a wall of fire.
Weiss was rather urprised at the occurrence.
She looked for a fire extinguisher, but she couldn't seem to find one.
Weiss then tried using a water jutsu, but it seemed that the wall of fire wouldn't be extinguished so easily.
She sighed. It looked as if she wouldn't be able to pursue this mysterious woman.
Well, she might as well tell everyone what she saw.
She would start with her jonin instructor, Might Guy.
He would want to know about this mysterious lady.
Fortunately, he assured her that ninja would be sent to investigate.
Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any sign of her.
Whoever this lady was, she had hidden her tracks pretty well.
Currently, she was dancing with Mercury so that she didn't stand out amongst the crowd.
Everything was going according to plan.
Since she had informed everyone of the infiltrator, she decided to look for a dance partner.
Gaara didn't seem to have a dance partner...since people seemed frightened of him.
To be fair, he had some rather nasty things. He had changed his ways, however.
Weiss decided she would dance with him. Though she wasn't a jinchuriki herself, they weren't exactly very different people.
Some people were looking at her curiously, but she decided not to let that get to her.
Meanwhile...
At Orochimaru's laboratory, Orochimaru was concocting a stealth mission of his very own. However, compared to Cinder, it wouldn't culminate in anything grandiose. After his attack on Konoha he was going to plot something a lot smaller, yet something that would work in his favor anyways.
While Cinder was plotting the destruction of Vale, Orochimaru was planning to acquire another host body.
However, he wouldn't be going on this mission by himself.
"I think it's about time to bring Sasuke to me, wouldn't you say, Kabuto?" asked Orochimaru. Since "negotiating" with Tsunade had failed, they needed to try a different tactic.
Granted, Orochimaru probably wouldn't be able to perform hand seals even after he changed bodies...but he could work around that. A lot of his techniques didn't require them, though this was in part due to his large amounts of skill as a ninja.
Kabuto nodded. It was almost time for him to switch bodies regardless, which he did every three years to cheat death.
He knew who he would send on this mission.
It was his bodyguards, the Sound Four.
Their names were Jirobo, Kidomaru, Tayuya, and Sakon and Ukon.
And yes, even though there were technically five of them, they were known as the Sound Four. Why? Because Sakon and Ukon were capable of entering each other's bodies due to their unique kekkei genkai. They were also able to enter other people's bodies as well...but this was only when they activated the second stage of their cursed seals.
Each of them were very powerful ninja. Not comparable to Orochimaru himself, but they were strong in their own right. In fact, each of them were about jonin-level...and then some.
As such, Orochimaru decided to select them for this mission. It was a rather important mission.
Granted, if obtaining Sasuke didn't work out, he could always use one of his prisoners.
But he would rather have Sasuke.
Fortunately, the Sound Four could be rather sneaky when they wanted to be...though they would rather kill people instead of being stealthy. Especially their leader Sakon.
They in fact used to have a fifth member known as Kimimaro who was strong enough to put them all to shame, but he was currently sick. Deathly sick. Perhaps he had caught an illness from all the time that he had spent in a jail cell until his clan called upon him.
Sending him on this mission probably wouldn't be a good idea.
Together, the Sound Four were sent to retrieve Sasuke.
They would want to do it quickly. The necrosis was slowly killing Orochimaru.
He could probably be revived using their cursed seals...but they didn't want to take that risk.
So, off to Vale they went.
It looks like Cinder decided to do a bit of computer hacking. Don't try that at home, kids! It's illegal! Not that it would stop Cinder, of course.
Try not to get drugged and have your kidney stolen! I'm just kidding, just like Yang was.
Unfortunately, it seems that the Sound Four are being sent after Sasuke while Cinder's plans against Konoha are in motion. They're not going to attack the village, thank goodness...but if Orochimaru gets his hands on Sasuke, Konoha could be in trouble. He's very talented for a genin, after all.