...soldiering.

Chapter 13: Intervention.

Beacon Training Grounds

Bite. Pour. Spit. Tap. Aim.

These five words are words that Jaune would always follow when it comes to firing his weapon.

This was especially the case when he was challenged by Ruby to a reload contest with his rifle to see who can let off the most shots in a minute.

For someone who has always loved more modern weapons, Ruby certainly impressed Jaune when she atleast managed two rounds a minute.

Impressive indeed. However the Sharpe inside of Jaune was laughing inside for his turn.

"How did I do Jaune?" said the Little Reaper as she handed him his rifle.

Jaune just smiled and patter her on the head "You did just fine. For someone new anyways."

Yang stepped in "Oh yeah? How about you? How many rounds do you think you can fire?"

Jaune smirked "I'd say four rounds a minute, how does that sound?"

"Sounds like a bet." the blonde replied.

Pyrrha, knowing how Jaune is really good with his rifle (not that rifle, get your heads out of the gutter before I unleash a Nora on you, FILTH!), just placed two lien on the table.

Yang placed five on the other side with Weiss and Blake placing their lien on Jaune's side.

Ruby gasped in betrayal "Weiss, Blake! How could you? After everything we've been through! You betray me like this?!"

Weiss just tilted her head "Oh please Ruby, Arc is clearly experienced with his weapon. If he says he can pull off four shots a minute, I wouldn't be surprised if he fired five."

Blake just nodded to what Weiss said and the two were faced with Ruby's cute growl.

"Oh yeah, we'll see!" challenged Ruby.

"Right..." deadpanned Jaune. He then turned to Ren "Time me Ren."

The ninja boy nodded and pulled out the stopwatch on his scroll.

"Five..." he began

"Good luck Jaune!" cheered Pyrrha.

"Four..."

"Show them who's boss Jaune-Jaune!" shouted Nora.

"Three..."

"You better not lose Arc." stated Weiss.

"Two..."

Blake just waved her mini flags non chantantly.

"One... Load!"

Jaune fired his first shot.

He then reloaded, repeating the same five words.

Bite. Pour. Spit. Tap. Aim.

A second shot has been fired.

"Forty five seconds Jaune." stated Ren.

Bite. Pour. Spit. Tap. Aim.

A third shot.

Ruby already paled while Yang was really hoping he didn't make a fourth shot.

Bite. Pour. Spit. Tap. Aim.

The fourth shot went off and those who placed their money on Jaune already smirked.

"Ten seconds Jaune!" stated Ren once more.

Bite. Pour. Spit. Tap...

Aim.

A fifth shot made itself known as Jaune heard the timer ring.

Yang and Ruby stared in shock as Jaune just pulled what seemed to be the impossible.

The others began collecting their money.

"Well... that was something..." said Jaune, who then began to remove his jacket.

Then he unbuttoned his undershirt so that he could let some of the heat disperse.

Only then did he realize that he was being stared at by Yang, Blake, and Pyrrha, and he could've sworn he saw Weiss trying to look away as she covered Ruby's eyes.

"Purr~ Mama Yang likes~" flirted Yang.

Pyrrha and Blake were fighting off a nosebleed while Weiss continued to stare at his semi exposed chest.

"Uh..."

He then made a dash for the locker rooms while the rest of his friends wondered what had just happened.

Ruby, finally having her eyes uncovered noticed the silence, then she asked.

"What happened?"

Vale Docks, Vale

After Jaune's victory at Beacon, he decided to take his team to go with team RWBY to Vale to visit the Vytal Festival preparations.

He didn't regret his desicion either because he found a positive Weiss quite amusing.

"The Vytal Festival! Oh this is absolutely wonderful!" the Heiress exclaimed.

Jaune raised an eyebrow before asking "Ruby, are you sure we have the right Weiss? I think I've never seen her as positive as this."

Ruby nodded in agreement "Yeah... it's as if she's a completely different person..."

Weiss, a bit offended, snapped at them "Hey! How could you not smile? A festival dedicated to the cultures of the world! There will be dances! Parades! A tournament! The amount of planning that goes into this is absolutely breathtaking!"

Jaune was sharp with his tounge of course "I'm excited for the Festival as well, but you make it sounds like it's a bloody smut novel like the one Blake reads."

This erupted several respnses from the members of RWBY.

A confused Ruby, who doesn't know what smut is (stay away from Blake's books.)A smirking Yang.

A baffled Weiss.

And a tomato Blake.

Pyrrha, wanting to change the topic, decided to ask "Why are we in the docks anyway?"

Weiss quickly replied "I've heard that students visiting from Vacuo will be arriving by ship today. And, as arepresentativeof Beacon, I feel as though it is mysolemnduty to welcome them to thisfinekingdom!"

Blake immedietly responded "She wants to spy on them so she'll have the upper hand in the tournament."

JNPR looked at Weiss with raised eyebrows.

"Hey guys! Over here!" called Ruby

Weiss sighed a breath of relief as she followed them.

When they arrived to where Ruby was, she pointed towards a dust shop.

A dust shop that was robbed.

The group approached two men who appear to be detectives, and then inquired about what happened.

One of the detectives answered "Dust shop robbery, that's the second one this week."

"That's terrible." sighed Yang.

The second detective looked at his partner "They left the money again."

Ruby tilted her head in confusion.

"Who would need that much dust?" asked the first detective.

The second just shrugged "I don't know, an army?"

"You thinking the White Fang?"

"I'm thinking we don't get paid enough."

The group walked away as the two detecrives began rambling about. Upon reaching a certain distance, Weiss grumbled "Hmph! The White Fang! What an awful lot of degenerates!"

"What's your problem?" asked Blake.

"My problem is that I don't care for the criminally insane." she spat.

Blale retorted "The White Fang are hardly a bunch of psychopaths. They're a collection of misguided Faunus."

"Bloody hell. Rubish like this can follow me everywhere." thought Jaune silently.

"Misguided?! They want to wipe humanity off the face of the planet!"

"So then they're very misguided. Either way, it doesn't explain why they would rob a dust shop in the middle of Vale."

Jaune finally thought it was time to give his insight "Very misguided is putting it lightly Miss Belladona..."

Blake raised an eyebrow at the Arc "And what do you mean by that?"

"My father, Nicholas Arc, he would always tell me stories about what he and his men faced when he was on active service duty in the Vale Royal Militia."

Jaune sighed as he was clearly disturbed by what he was about to say "Two years ago, my father and his platoon was sent to a settlement due to an increase of Grimm activity. When they arrived, they were met by the White Fang. Then before my father could even utter a word, one of his men got shot and then a brief engagement occured."

The rest of team RWBY and JNPR listened intently as he continued.

"After they drove the Fang out, they went in the settlement to find anyone who lived there. What they saw made my father throw up. Lines of civillians were laid in execution. Not just men, but the women and children as well. Every single one of them were killed in cold blood by the White Fang. So, I don't think they're misguided at all. Their actions shook me inside..."

He had elicted various responses from his friends. Ruby looked like she was about to cry, Yang looked sad, Weiss was disturbed by the story, as was Pyrrha, while Ren and Nora looked like they remembered something fron their past.

Blake's response was the one that stood out the most. She looked ashamed, disgusted and regretful.

Jaune sighed and then said

"Look, I'm sorry if I might have been cold in what I've said, but I felt that it was needed for me to give my view. I for one, have nothing against the Faunus in general, it's just that the actions of the Whi-"

"STOP THAT FAUNUS!" shouted a voice.

The entire group all of a sudden felt a shift in their moods when they saw what was causing trouble.

A blonde monkey faunus was currently hoisted up on a lamp post while several sailors were shouting at him. He even retorted when one of them called him a "no good stowaway".

Jaune was having a feeling that he'd be a head ache soon as the detectives tried to get him to stop. This proved ineffective however as the blonde monkey faunus just dropped a banana peel on them and sped away.

In an effort to lighten up the mood, Yang said "Well Weiss, you said you wanted to see the competition, and there it goes."

"QUICK! WE MUST OBSERVE HIM!" ushered Weiss.

The group gave chase, with Blake, still pondering about what Jaune said before chasing after them.

...

The chase lasted for sometime until Weiss, who was surprisingly running faster than Ruby, ran into someone before seeing the Faunus jump up some buildings, ultimately losing them.

"Curses! He got away!" muttered the Heiress.

"Uh... Weiss..." said Yang as she pointed to the person the Schnee ran into.

Weiss looked down and saw that she was on another girl who was smiling back at her. She immedietly got up as quick as she can and stood to where her team was.

"Sa- lu- ta- tions!" she greeted.

Everyone else either said hi or waved at her. However, Jaune thought that she was acting rather strange as she had yet to get up.

"Ah... Miss... do you want to get up?" asked the rifleman.

The girl thought about it for awhile and then nodded "Yes!" Then she lept up while doing a flip, before landing right infront of RWBY and JNPR. "My name is Penny! It's a pleasure to meet you!"

The group began greeting her back while giving their own names.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all!" she exclaimed.

"You already said that..." pointed out Weiss.

"So I did!" replied the girl.

"Well, I'm sorry for running into you!" finiahed the Heiress as the group began to walk away with Ruby saying "Take care friend!"

"She was... weird..." said Yang

"No kidding... and I thought my story Arc was odd." said Jaune as Yang gave hima fist bump while the rest of their friends groaned.

"Now where did that Faunus riffraff run off t-" said Weiss but was startled by Penny who somehow appeared infront of them.

"What did you call me?"

Jaune and Yang sweat dropped with the latter trying to apologize "I'm sorry! I didn't think you heard m-"

"No, not you." Penny said as she pointed at Ruby. "You."

Ruby looked very nervous "Me?I-I don't know. I, what I, um, uh..."

"You called me 'friend'! Am Ireallyyour friend?" she asked.

"Uuuum...Y-Yeah, sure! Why not?" stuttered the Rose.

"SENSATIONAL! We can paint our nails! Try on clothes! Talk about cute boys!"

Jaune now felt two massive head aches after being reminded of the comments Weiss gave him, while the Heiress in question looked a bit embarrased herself as she was reminded of the things she said to the Arc as she was now closer to him than before.

"Was I like this when you met me?" asked Ruby to Weiss.

"No... she seems far more coordinated." replied the Schnee.

"So... what are you doing in Vale?" asked Yang.

As the RWBY and the girl conversed, Jaune gathered his team and decided that they'd go back to Beacon so that they could rest earlier. This, Ren hastily agreed to as Pyrrha and Nora agreed with the latter being coerced with pancakes to support the decision.

After bidding RWBY and Penny good bye, they set of towards the docks where they would get a bullhead.

Beacon Dorms

It was afternoon when JNPR arrived back at the dorms. Ren and Nora opted to go to the room first while Jaune and Pyrrha decided to use this time for some weapon maintenance.

Jaune had taken off his green rifleman jacket and began to get his rifle ram rod put to begin cleaning his rifle.

Pyrrha, was currently scrubbing her weapon, however she found it difficult when Jaune, her own leader and partner, was exposing a bit of his chest and muscle. This was taking an extreme toll on her as she wiped wiped the sweat from her head.

"Hey Pyrrha." said Jaune.

She squeaked in surprise "Y-yes Jaune?"

"Can you pass me the extra rag? Need to clean out the ramrod. It's dirtier than I expected."

She did so as quick as she could while trying not to stare at him any further.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't be the case as Jaune's body was making her tremble even if she tried so hard to not look at him.

"Pyrrha..." Jaune said in a low deep voice. "How's your maintenance going?"

"It's going fine so far J-jaune..." she stammered.

"Are you sure? You seem tensed." he said as he stood up and walked over to her.

"I... I'm just f-f-fine Jau...ne..." she tried but couldn't hold it any further as she looked up and saw Jaune now shirtless.

"Take me..." she whispered in a low hush voice.

"Pyrrha..."

"Jaune..."

"Pyrrha."

"Jaune~"

"Pyrrha!"

Then the Mistralian Champion woke up and snapped back into reality. Jaune still had his shirt on, and was shaking her back to wake up.

"Huh? What happened?" she stuttered.

Jaune sighed "When you gave me the rag, you finished cleaning Milò and Akoùo, and then fell asleep. Been trying to wake you up but you seem to be dreaming about something bad. Wanna talk about it?"

Pyrrha blushed tomato red and replied "Uh... no I think I'm fine! It's just a dream! Let's head back to the dorm! Ren and Nora might be waiting!" She then stood up and high tailed it out of the forge.

Jaune tilted his head in confusion, but followed her out.

Dorm Hallway

Jaune and Pyrrha were walking towards their room, talking about Jaune's past experiences when they heard Ruby scream for Blake.

Then, team RWBY's door bursted open and Blake ran out of the room towards their direction. Yang followed suite, but stop to yell at Blake to come back.

Jaune took the hint that Blake needed to be stopped so he did the first thing that came into his mind.

As the hidden cat faunus neared JNPR's door, Jaune yelled "NORA! TACKLE!"

The next set of events were a blur as Nora bursted out of JNPR's own door and took a guess that it was Blake she uad to tackle, and tackle her she did as she jumped Blake.

The ninja girl was unfortunate as Nora struck true and held her in place as Jaune and Pyrrha rushed over to help.

"Let me go!" Blake shouted, but Nora didn't listen and then began lifting her towards RWBY's dorm.

Jaune and Pyrrha summoned Ren, and together, they escorted Nora back to RWBY's dorm.

"Thanks Jaune..." said Ruby solemnly as she watched Yang and Nora tie Blake up to a chair with the B in RWBY, struggling against them.

Finally, they succesfully bounded Blake to the chair and started to settle in.

Jaune looked at RWBY and observed their faces.

Ruby looked shocked and scared.

Yang was shocked as well, but had a hint of concern.

Weiss was scowling and angry.

Finally, Blake looked scared, angry, and sorry.

"Well, is anyone going to bloody explain what is going?" asked Jaune sternly.

"I think we do deserve an explanation, don't we Blake." Weiss spat angrily at the hidden Faunus.

"Blake. Explain." ordered Jaune in a low voice.

Blake kept silent.

Jaune was going to ask again when Yang spoke up "When you and your team left to go home, Blake and Weiss began to argue again regarding the Faunus. This went on even when we got to the dorm and then Blake shouted something about 'them getting tired of pushed around' . The rest is history."

Jaune nodded in understanding. He then turned to Pyrrha "Pyr, make sure the door is locked. I don't want anyone else hear what I have to say."

Pyrrha nodded and went to do what Jaune instructed her.

The rifleman then turned to Ruby "Ruby."

The Reaper looked up to him "Yes Jaune?"

"Do you remember about the officer I told you about during the first day of classes?"

"Yes?"

"What if I told you that the officer is here in Beacon right now?"

"He is?"

"Yes..." Jaune sighed as he was about to tell them the tale that could change RWBY's minds about him. "...and he's right in front of you, speaking to everyone in this room."

Ruby's eyes widdened, the rest of her team looked in confusion.

That night, Jaune told them about his tale, the same tale that he told his team.

The Tale of Richard Sharpe, Officer of the 95th, Leader of the South Essex, and now, student of Beacon.

(Sharpe guitar riff plays here)

Yet another chapter is out! Hope you enjoyed this one as I did writting it.-Solemn