Suit?

Check.

Bowtie?

Check.

All in all, Naruto had to say, he looked remarkably prepared.

"Naruto, that's the third time you've checked to make sure you have everything."

Naruto swiveled as Weiss emerged from their bathroom, where she'd been getting changed.

"Fifth time, actually, whilst you were getting ready he checked himself twice."

Naruto spun back to Ren, who was adjusting his suit.

Pyrrha, thankfully, decided not to remark, instead slipping past Weiss and closing the door behind her.

"I appreciate you all letting me get prepared in here. I can imagine that Nora wouldn't take kindly to being seen too early, after all," Ren said, once Naruto had felt suitably chastised for his nervousness.

"Of course, and we can say the same concerning Blake," Weiss replied, giving herself a once over. "I must say, I hadn't expected either you nor Nora to actually make a move. It has been rather… entertaining… to watch the two of you avoid the topic like it was a bundle of live snakes."

Naruto raised an eyebrow at that, glad to have something to distract himself with. "Oh, and the whole 'forbidden love' thing with you and Blake hasn't been?"

Weiss's sputtering was all the response he needed to know he'd scored a point in their metaphorical game of words. To her credit, though, Weiss recovered quickly. "It was you who ordered me to help Blake relax! And it isn't like that!"

Naruto nodded sagely. "Ah, I see. I understand perfectly."

Ren mirrored the nod, glad to have some ammunition to return fire with.

"I- You- Ugh!" Weiss pushed through nonetheless, quickly regaining her composure. "At least I know how to dance. You won't see me stumbling around with three left feet, Uzumaki."

Naruto's smile widened. "Oh, really? You don't think I can dance?"

Weiss's confident smirk dropped a level. "Of course, your stupid semblance."

Naruto shook his head. "Nope. Seven sisters."

Weiss threw both her hands in the air in discontent. "Of course. How could I possibly forget."

This was the moment that Pyrrha decided to re-emerge. "At least that makes for one capable dancer per pair. From what Yang's told me, Ruby isn't looking forward to what I believe she called 'lady stilts'."

Naruto laughed. "I can imagine. How all three members of AWBN do it all the time is beyond me."

"Time, effort, and a lot of experience, mostly. We could get you a pair, make it a full team bonding exercise."

Naruto rolled his eyes at Pyrrha. "I'd look fantastic, thank you very much."

"I'm certain we have a spare dress lying around that might fit you, if you so wished," Weiss commented, and Naruto laughed once more.

A few seconds passed by silently, before Ren sighed. "Well, shall we stop hiding and face the proverbial music?"

"I think that it's more likely to be literal music, Ren," Naruto remarked.

"You're stalling," Ren pointed out.

"So are you," Naruto pointed out in return.

Weiss let out a huff, gesturing to the door. "Well, 'fearless leader', care to lead the way?"

Naruto gave a comical glare at that as he began to leave the room. "That was an insult, wasn't it."

Weiss's hands clapped a quiet applause that followed him into the hall.

The hall had been transformed. It was pretty much the only way to put it, really, and considering Naruto had yet to actually see it, he was blown away. "Wow, Weiss, you and Yang really went all out. This looks completely different from the last time we were in here."

Weiss preened at the compliment. "Thank you, Naruto."

That was possibly the most friendly and accepting Weiss had ever been, and it had both Pyrrha and Ren look at her in surprise.

"What? Am I not allowed to accept a compliment with dignity or something?"

Ren shrugged. "You just never struck me as the type."

Weiss tried to object, she did, and to her credit she managed to open her mouth, finger pointed at Ren and Pyrrha, before promptly shutting down as she noticed the four approaching figures behind the two.

Naruto, as it appeared, had also noticed, and as Pyrrha and Ren turned, they too became as dumbstruck as the rest of the approaching group.

All eight of them were as surprised as each other at exactly how they looked, which was a very complicated statement.

Naruto summarised their entire thought processes with a single utterance of one word. "Wow…"

He took in the approaching four with surprise and awe, but his attention had almost been completely drawn to Ruby, who, despite the occasional stumble, looked…

Naruto didn't have the words to describe how she looked. Or, rather, that he had too many, and deciding on a single one was a task best left to someone far more decisive.

Stunning was a good one to summarize, though.

For all her objections, Ruby looked incredible. Her sleeveless red dress, with the black sash that wrapped around her midsection, made her look mindbogglingly good, at least in Naruto's opinion. He wasn't sure if mindbogglingly was a word, either, but it served its purpose nonetheless.

Alongside her stood the rest of her team, minus Ren and plus Blake, and they quickly broke off, as everyone approached their dance partner.

It was honestly impressive how good everyone looked, and as Naruto stepped closer to Ruby, he noticed that the girl seemed just as stunned as he, and everyone else, appeared to be.

"Hey, uh, Naruto… you look… uhh…" Ruby began, trailing off as the words failed to take the fateful leap off the end of her tongue.

"Wow," Naruto repeated, barely able to form coherent thoughts. 'C'mon Charisma, don't fail me now.'

Frankly, Naruto was surprised his Charisma had held out this long, whatever that actually meant. He wasn't entirely sure, he was somewhat distracted.

Stunned silence continued on for a few moments, before Ruby sniggered, blushing hard. "What are we doing?"

Naruto couldn't help but laugh either. "Being awkward?"

"At least we both know we're good at that," Ruby remarked, wobbling slightly as she took a step. "Woah, these things are going to be the death of me!"

Naruto offered an arm, which Ruby took gratefully. "Thanks. I seriously don't know how your team fights in these!"

Naruto laughed again. "I have been enlightened by Pyrrha, in that regard. Apparently, with a lot of practice and effort."

Ruby hummed in thought, as the two started heading towards the hall. "That makes sense, I guess. I don't know why they thought to do that in the first place, though."

"Miss your boots?"

Ruby nodded vigorously, almost losing balance again, clinging to Naruto in order to maintain uprightedness. "My boots don't make me feel like I'm walking everywhere on my toes, atop a set of stilts!"

Naruto pushed open the door to the hall with one arm, holding it open as Ruby carefully stepped over the threshold.

Ruby had seen what was in store, from her time simply spent hanging around Yang and Weiss whilst they had been preparing, but seeing it in preparation and seeing it when it was all ready and running were two different things.

Naruto, however, had not seen it in either, and so he stared in surprise at the decorations that had been set up, the tasteful fabrics and the peaceful colors that gave the hall a complete rework, unlike the first night they had spent in it.

"Woah…" Ruby and Naruto echoed one another, looking around.

At the front, standing behind a small lectern, was Professor Goodwitch, wearing a rare smile on her face. "Mr Uzumaki, Ms Rose, a pleasure to see the two of you. I assume the rest of your teams are behind you?"

Naruto nodded, and Ruby did much the same, though the red-clad girl followed it up with a compliment. "That's a nice dress, Professor."

Goodwitch nodded a thanks, and now that Naruto noticed, the deep purple dress that she wore was really nice. Naruto didn't know anything about dresses, of course, so he didn't know what kind of dress it was, but still…

"Well, head in, enjoy your night."

Naruto and Ruby decided it was probably for the best that they did so. Goodwitch might be acting nice now, but considering their previous experiences with the woman, it might not be their best bet to accidentally aggravate the woman.

Besides, there wasn't much point to the dance if they were just going to stand in the entrance the whole time.

Ruby led the way in, having somewhat accomplished a near-normality of balance atop her 'lady-stilts', and the two quickly found their way to a table, effectively claiming the eight-seater for team's AWBN and RRYN. The rest of their teams were, expectedly, quick to follow, and soon the stunned silence that they had all shared made way to a more natural chatter.

"Wait, let me get this straight: You asked Yang out because she challenged you?" Weiss asked, quirking an eyebrow at her redheaded teammate.

Pyrrha almost turned the same color as her hair. "I… might've gotten slightly wrapped up in the… competitive atmosphere?"

It almost sounded like Pyrrha couldn't believe it herself.

Currently, Ruby, Naruto, Weiss and Pyrrha were sat at the table, watching the other performing other dance-related tasks, taking the time to relax and catch up, something they hadn't really had a chance to do for what felt like a while.

Naruto leant over to his teammate, giving Weiss a nudge. "Hey, Weiss, looks like Blake's done dancing with Sun. Might want to go over."

Weiss gave Naruto a critical glance. "Since when do you hand out relationship advice?"

Ruby leaned over Naruto and gave Weiss a nudge, the white-haired girl raising her eyebrow once more as Ruby struggled to reach. "Yes, Ruby?"

"Technically, Naruto's the only one in an official relationship, so I think he's more qualified than the rest of you."

Yang stepped over, holding two glasses of punch, handing one to Pyrrha. "Well, that's new. I think I might be in shock. Ruby, getting a date? That was a surprise. But hearing her point out that she and Naruto are dating? Like, properly dating? Am I in some weird opposite-world?"

Ruby stood up and promptly poked her sister in the ribs.

"We haven't really discussed it in detail, so I hope I'm not jumping to conclusions…" Ruby murmured.

Naruto shook his head. "No, you're not. This is technically our second date, anyway."

At that Ruby nodded. "True."

Weiss stood from the table. "Excuse me, my partner needs a… partner. That didn't sound as good as I had intended."

Naruto contemplated giving the heiress a taste of her own quiet applause, but decided against it. "Have fun."

"This is nice, though, isn't it. The atmosphere, the people, everyone showed up, no-one's trying to kill us… it's almost perfect," Yang said with a smile, watching as Weiss began to teach Blake a traditional Atlesian two-step.

Pyrrha laughed. "Give it an hour, someone will spike the punch and try and pick a fight with the General."

Yang shook her head. "I wouldn't pick a fight with the General!"

Three seconds of silence passed, before Ruby stared her sister in the eyes. "Yang, did you spike the punch?"

"I definitely didn't do anything that you may or may not be inferring, based on what I may or may not have just said."

Pyrrha rounded on Yang. "Yang, did you spike the punch?"

Yang shook her head. "Nope. I just made a second bowl of punch that is spiked, and hid it. See? No problems!"

Pyrrha looked down to her mostly-empty glass of punch. "That wouldn't happen to be the same punch as what you just retrieved for the two of us, would it?"

Yang pointedly avoided looking at any of the table's current members.

"You forgot, didn't you," Naruto remarked, a growing smirk on his face.

"It's fine!" Yang exclaimed suddenly. "It's not like it's all that strong, it's just a little bit of added flavoring!"

Ruby poked Yang in the ribcage again, to which the blonde objected to by wrapping her arms around her sister and squeezing her in a hug.

As Ruby thrashed about in Yang's grasp, Naruto shared a glance with his partner. "You going to be alright?"

"More than alright. I just would've appreciated a heads-up, is all. I'll make sure Yang understands that, don't worry," Pyrrha responded, a slight grin on her face.

Yang quickly released Ruby, who retreated to the relative safety of her seat, sticking her tongue out.

Yang was far too terrified of the presence of her date to even notice. "It, uh, won't happen again?"

"Excellent. You wouldn't want to experience the sorts of things I've had to do to some of my more… enthusiastic fans."

Yang gulped.

Naruto stood up, holding his hand out to Ruby. "Care to dance?"

At this, Ruby managed to replicate the feeling her sister was currently experiencing. "I, uh…"

It was at this moment that Ruby decided to bite the bullet. "Sure, Naruto. I'm still a little wobbly, though…"

Naruto gave her a smile as she took his hand. "Don't worry, I've got you."

Before they could leave, Yang snagged his sleeve. "Hey, Naruto, when you two are finished, mind if I snag a dance with you?"

Naruto shrugged. "I don't mind if Ruby doesn't."

Ruby gave Naruto a playful smack on the arm. "Of course I don't."

With that, Naruto led Ruby to the dance floor, careful not to accidentally disturb Ren and Nora, the latter of which appeared to be in her own world.

Naruto was always hiding a surprise. One such surprise was that he was actually a really good dancer.

Even the System recognized it, because the moment he started to step in time to the music, he'd been awarded a skill.

[Skill imported!]

[Dance (Active): Thanks to the System, you are now capable of dancing all sorts of dances, with little to no effort. Dancing provides a chance to improve relations with the dance partner, with a higher CHA providing a higher chance. Level 37; XP 0/607,836.]

Not only had it been awarded, it had been imported. Meaning he'd learned enough dancing from all the lessons his sisters had given him that it equalled to level 37! That made it his highest level skill, which was somewhat mortifying.

Then again, it wasn't nearly as mortifying as some of the other things his sisters had made him do, so it was fair to say that as long as this situation never called for him having to come up with a cross-dressing skill, he'd be fine.

Already Pyrrha had come too close to the truth. Dangerous times, truly.

Naruto snapped his attention back to the present, as Ruby and he swayed in time to the music, which, thankfully, had remained quite placid and calm this early in the evening.

"Hey, Naruto?" Ruby asked, looking up at him.

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Naruto was a little confused. "Thanks? What'd I do?"

Ruby let out a laugh. "Man, Yang wasn't kidding when she said you were dense."

Naruto wasn't sure if he was supposed to be offended, insulted, amused or accepting. He settled for none of the above. "Seriously, though, what did I do?"

Ruby leaned into him a bit. "Being my friend. Being our friend, I guess. It's a bit strange, but you've got so much going on with your life, and yet you still make time for us. I appreciate that."

Naruto would've scratched the back of his head if he had a third arm. "You're welcome?"

"It isn't just that. You're like the glue that keeps us all together. Without you, I doubt Yang would've ever gotten so close to Pyrrha, Weiss would probably still be as frigid as she was when we first met her, Blake would never have come out of her shell, I never would have met Penny, or been friends with anyone…"

Naruto stayed silent as he listened.

"Torchwick would probably be ahead of us, the White Fang would've killed Blake, the bad guys would be winning… if it wasn't for you. So, thanks."

Naruto smiled. "No problem, Ruby. I think I owe you thanks, too. All of you. My team, yours, you've all helped me too. There's no way I would've made it this far without you guys."

The two fell into silence as their feet kept time with the music, slowly swaying about the room.

Ruby once again initiated a conversation. "So… sorry about springing that whole 'we're dating' thing on you. We should probably talk about that."

At that, Naruto chuckled. "Well, I can't say I'm all that experienced in the area."

"I'm not good at it either!" She exclaimed exasperatedly. "I barely know how we know if we are or not!"

That last one threw Naruto for a loop, but to his credit he recovered quickly. "I mean, it doesn't have to be complicated if we don't make it complicated. We kind of get to decide how it works, there's no instruction manual or handbook, really."

"Gods what I wouldn't give for an instruction manual. Step by step guides are so much easier."

At that, Naruto couldn't help but agree. "Maybe I'm just used to figuring things out on the fly now, thanks to my semblance. I wish it had come with a guide."

"Man, life would be so much easier with a guide. Though it would kind of defeat the purpose, wouldn't it," Ruby mused.

A few seconds passed before Ruby once again spoke up. "So, what, we just decide we're dating? We just go 'we're dating' and suddenly we're dating? Is that really how it works?"

Naruto shrugged. "I guess?"

Ruby seemed content with that answer. "Well, that makes this easier than I thought. I was kinda worried that there were like special things we had to do, or like a checklist? I don't know why I thought there was a checklist."

They fell back into relaxed silence again, before the music changed to something of a faster tempo, and the two decided to retire back to the table.

"Hey Naruto, hey Ruby. How are you enjoying the dance?" Blake asked, once they neared their seats.

The two shared a glance.

"I'm having more fun than I'd expected, that's for sure," Ruby answered, taking her seat with a sigh of relief. "Though these stupid heels are killing me!"

Naruto took his seat next to her. "Yeah, I'm enjoying myself. How about you, Blake? Glad Weiss managed to convince you?"

Blake gave him a roll of her eyes. "Don't think I don't know you put her up to it, Naruto. But, I'm glad I came. It's nice to take a break, I'd forgotten what it was like to not be constantly worried."

Naruto shook his head. "I told Weiss to help you out and help you relax, but I never told her what to do specifically. It was more of a 'take care of your partner' sort of thing."

"Speaking of Weiss, where is everyone's favourite Ice Queen?" Ruby asked.

"She's getting drinks with Ren and Nora. I told them to get you two some, too, so don't worry."

Naruto nodded his thanks. "So, what about Yang and Pyrrha?"

"Pyrrha decided to call it a night early, she headed back to our dorm. Yang's out on the balcony, she asked me to tell you to meet her out there."

Naruto couldn't help but feel somewhat nervous at that. "I probably shouldn't keep her waiting."

Ruby gave Naruto a confident nod. "I'm probably going to go get some air. Don't take too long."

Naruto could feel the nervousness creep up his spine. He had a bad feeling about this talk.

The balcony was barren, aside from the single occupant, who stood gazing over the nightlife that Vale promised, the light illuminating the hazy fog that rose over the city.

"Hey, Yang, I thought you wanted to dance?"

Yang turned to face him, her white dress contrasting against the dark stone the balcony was constructed from, almost giving her some kind of ethereal glow.

"I do. But you know me better than that. When I say dance, you know exactly what I mean."

Naruto raised his guard in time for Yang's unarmed fist to strike his arm, sending him skidding to the side. "Gods, Yang? Really? I can't get one night to relax?"

"Not if you plan on dating my sister."

Naruto ducked a haymaker that carved through the air. "Technically, she planned on dating me?"

He quickly sidestepped a high-heeled kick that, had it hit, would've carved a pretty hefty chunk out of his flesh, at least, if his Aura was down.

"Okay, not in a joking mood, got it. Is there a point you want to make, here, because you know you can't beat me."

A fist coated in yellow flame missed his face by mere millimeters.

"Gotcha, no talking, just fighting. I can do that."

Yang's fist swung in once more, and Naruto caught it by the wrist, wrenching her out of place, taking advantage of her non-existent guard and driving her to the floor.

"I can't tell if you've had too much to drink, or this is how you are normally when Ruby is involved."

Yang struggled underneath his knee, which he was currently using to pin the small of her back to the ground. "Fuck you."

Naruto shrugged. "That isn't as much of an answer as you think it is, Yang. If I let you go, are you going to sit still and talk this through?"

Yang struggled under his pin before going slack. "Mmph. Fine."

Naruto stood up, releasing Yang, who stood up, brushing her mangled dress as best she could. "Ruined my dress."

Naruto shrugged a second time. "Technically, you ruined it yourself."

Naruto then realised that Yang was going to need some prompting. "So, what's wrong? Why'd you pick a fight?"

Yang shrugged this time. "I figured I was obligated to."

"What?"

Yang laughed at Naruto's reaction. "I've got to play the whole protective big sister role, Naruto, the problem is is that we're friends, and I can't beat you in a fight. I'm no longer intimidating."

"You see, the former is a reason why you don't need to pick a fight, and the latter is why you shouldn't have picked a fight."

Yang shook her head. "Before you say anything else, I know Ruby's the one that started the relationship. I get that, I didn't expect it, sure, but I get it. See, that's the problem."

Naruto didn't have anything to say to that.

"It's not that I don't trust her, it's that I know her. Ruby rushes into things because she thinks it's the right thing to do, and sometimes it gets her hurt. I don't want Ruby to rush into a relationship with the first person she suspects might share the feelings she has, only to ruin the friendship for herself. I want you to know that."

Naruto nodded solemnly. "You want me to be her friend first."

Yang nodded. "Yeah. I don't think you're the kind of person to take advantage of her, gods know you and Ren are the best guys I've ever known, but still… I just want to make sure. I want you to know that if you do hurt her, I don't care how powerful you are, I will make it my life's work to hurt you."

Naruto smiled at that. "I'll hold you to that."

As Naruto went to leave, he stopped, turning back to face the blonde. "You let me win, didn't you."

Yang snorted. "I don't think I was even trying. I'm going to head back to the dorms, maybe hang out with Pyrrha. Take care of Ruby."

Naruto nodded. "Of course."

Naruto didn't know where Ruby had gone. 'She said she was just going to get some air. Where could she have-'

His thoughts were cut off abruptly as he remembered that he was a literal video game character with magic powers.

"Alcmena, find Ruby!" Naruto spoke aloud, the Stymphalian-soul appearing in the air above him, quickly gaining height.

It only took a few moments before Naruto, through Alcmena's eyes, spotted Ruby, entering the CCT. A strange enough event on its own, though it was not alone.

Surrounding the CCT were barely hidden bodies, dressed in Atlesian Military armor.

That didn't bode well, and was what most likely had drawn Ruby's attention. Unless Ruby had secretly turned evil and killed a bunch of soldiers, which he doubted very much, and was disappointed in himself for even thinking that.

He was already close to the CCT, and he quickly burst through the door, only to roll to the side as a high-caliber bullet whizzed past his head.

"Sorry Naruto!" Ruby shouted, the still smoking barrel of Crescent Rose in its smaller form pointed away from him. "You scared me!"

Naruto clambered to his feet, waving it off. "It's fine. Not like I'd have died."

Ruby turned, placing her index and middle fingers against a collapsed soldier's neck. "Unlike these guys. They're alive, but barely."

"Damn. I'll send Alcmena to get the General, or Ozpin, he'll know what it means."

Alcmena heard the telepathic order and quickly set about doing as Naruto had bid, before his eyes ceased their glow. "We should check the top floor."

Ruby was already in the elevator, waiting for him.

"Oh, right."

He quickly joined her in the elevator, and Ruby hit the button for the top floor, wobbling slightly as he balance decided to throw her off as the elevator departed from the ground floor.

"Might want to take those off. Fighting in them might not be the best idea," Naruto said, and Ruby nodded, leaning down and removing them, tossing them to the side.

Naruto pooled Mana into his fists as Ruby rechambered a round, and the elevator doors gave their telltale ding.

The room was empty.

"Well, that was a bit of a letdown," Naruto remarked.

Then the entirety of the CCT blew up.