It wasn't suppose to be this way, but with Croeca Mors destroyed, Ozpin has given him two months to design a new weapon to replace it. Yet as Ruby helps him to build the perfect weapon, he learns more than he bargains for from his fellow Huntsmen and Huntress'.

The Forge of Life

by

Hibiki

Chapter One: It.. Broke!?

-o0O0o-

Jaune Arc was never the strongest in his family. In fact he was the weakest and it did little to help his self-esteem when you realize he was a middle child and the only boy of eight. When a little sister three years your junior could make Yang and Nora look like lightweights, as she lifted the entire house in a temper tantrum every now and then, it REALLY hurt your self-esteem. In the Arc family, being a solider, or a Huntsmen and Huntress was in their blood. 'All except Jaune.', his sisters would say. 'Jaune took after Mom.' Once again he could not refute the fact. His sisters took after their father. Nicholas Arc was stout and heavily built man, a build built for taking hits and giving more, his sisters had very much the same physique though, of course with more feminine attributes. He shook his head. Jaune however was tall and thin, much like his mother who had retired early in her huntress career to devote her self to her house and growing number of children. There was nothing wrong with that either, Juniper Arc-nee-Wald was still a warrior, but of a different style than her husband. The Arc style, that had become beholden to Jaune's family was to keep your ground, take hits and hold the line, this way of fighting dating back to his Great-Great-Grandfather's time as a footman in the Great War. It shouldn't have mattered, but due to this build of his, his father never once felt obligated to train him. It wasn't from a lack of love, nor was it from a lack of desire. Jaune's build was just simply incapable of using the style the man knew.

Many would argue he should have asked the other parent, and they would be right to mention it. Juniper's style, the very few times Jaune saw it, felt more closely aligned to Blake and Weiss' style of hit and run tactics with tactical finesse. His mother was more agile and acrobatic than even Pyrrha's flowing stances and Ruby's Scythe enhanced dodges. Like everything she did, his mother did it with poise and strength that defied yet accentuated her slender nature. Given him and his mother's similarities, he could have... should have done it too. But Juniper's fighting style was simply impossible to teach without certain basics that she sadly would be unable to impart due to rules set with her Atlesian military background. No one wanted to send him to Atlas to train in those basics either. Beyond the money, the life Juniper lead before meeting Nickolas was not one she liked to dwell. So that was the end of it as far as his family was concerned. To them, Jaune Arc, sole male heir to the Arc line, bound to be a farmer or store keep while his more combat suited family kept him safe, dumb, and happy.

That's where his current... well he had been honest so far, might as well continue, It was where his ENTIRE crux lay. He WAS an Arc, he WAS suppose to fight with a shield and sword, hold his position so the rest of the team could do what needed to be done without fear. Only, he didn't have the build for it. He didn't really know where to go from there. None of his family used Aura like the people of Beacon and the other schools did either. There was no secret chant or poem to wrought it out. It was through a special family secret training for them, and few Arcs ever used semblance, it was really never needed. Of course with the way the Arcs unlocked your Aura, if you were never allowed to do the training, then you would not need to know about Aura. Therefore they had no need to explain it to him. Another thing that had held him back. He knew they meant everything in the nicest way possible, but between his family's insistence that he remain a civilian, and his town's half joking comments that he'd be better suited as a housewife than a huntsman, he had remained a ignorant and awkward child, doing what he could to look cool and heroic when everyone around him was cooler and more heroic. His baby sister killed a beowolf when she was five with her bare hands... okay bare hands and a house. He almost couldn't look anyone in the eye afterward when going into the village when it became known that his injury was from being flung over said house to get him out of her way when he had tried to protect her form the beast. How do you look cool with a broken arm when you say your little sister, not the Grimm, did that to you?

It really wasn't fair, Jaune realized, to blame anyone. But it was hard not to feel reticent when you are the only one not gearing up to go and save people's lives, to make a difference to the world like he wanted to listening to stories his father told of his family. It only grew with every year more of his older sisters went of to Signal academy. It accumulated into a year he did not speak to his father, when his eldest sister was celebrated by the entire village as their first Hunter to be accepted into Beacon. She would go on to be the only one, as the rest of his sisters would go one to other finishing schools. However the fact she got into Beacon brought home the fact he would never have a chance to become a Huntsman. He had tried to reason with this father for years, that if Nicholas Arc wouldn't train him, maybe he could find someone at Signal who would. Nickolas had finally relented and said if they had the money they would let him go. He even worked in the village doing chores and what work a boy growing into teen would legally be able to do to add to the 'Send Jaune to Signal' fund. Then his eldest sister got accepted into Beacon, and all the extra money they had, even his contributions, along with his faint glimmer of hope, vanished. 'Sorry,' his sister and parents would say, 'But graduating from Beacon is not something to be taken lightly.' Being a Beacon graduate would open up almost every door possible to a hunter, and was a dream worth it's weight in Lien for every Huntsman and Huntress in Vytal, but why did that cost have to come from his dreams as well? He could not wrap his head around it and despite all the love he felt for his family, resentment began to build in Jaune's heart. When his last and littlest sister patted his cheek, incidentally and irritatingly knocking him onto his butt, told him she'd protect him before heading to Signal; it was the straw that broke the camels back. When the family has all gone off to school or missions, he stole his family's heirloom, faked transcripts using his elder sister's old ones, and was accepted into beacon, a year after his sister left the academy. A man-child with the heart in the right place, but literally nothing else.

No matter how many years of watching someone do the moves, he couldn't get the power in his strikes the same as his littlest sister could. No matter how much he tried to emulate his father, he didn't have the man's sheer size to put a defense up like Nicholas could. It took Pyrrha to even get him to understand and unlock his Aura, unlike the training the rest of his family could. No matter how much the rest of the class moved forward, much like the style he desperately hoped but knew he could never master, he remained stuck unable to follow as they grew by leaps and bounds.

Still none of that mattered at the moment. Honestly, why did he drift off like that? Oh right, Cardin had walloped him pretty good. His shield had been struck off him arm with the larger man's mace, and had sent Jaune flying. While things had gotten better between him and Cardin, the Winchester boy was still a powerhouse, and this sparing match had shown it. When it all came down to it though, the Arc style with Nikos improvements was still a style he could feel in his bones was not the right one for him. But it was who he was, right? He HAD to make it work, it was in his blood, the blade in his hand was his family's! He had to do them prou-OH SHIT CARDIN WAS SWINING AGAIN!

Without a shield, Jaune brought Croeca Mors up to block the attack as the crowd cried out at the devastating blow being sent to the downed knight.

CLANG-C-C-CRACC-CK-chink.

Pain and a blinding light filled the room. When it cleared Cardin was rolling on the ground trying to rub the blindness of the flash from his eyes, his mace laying beside him. Jaune tried to blink the stars from his eyes as he looked around the room. Everyone's eyes were on him, many had looks he had seen far too many times before, when he had tried to do something and failed. Pity, he hated that look. Pyrrha was covering her mouth with her hand, the look in her eyes was unbearable so he moved from her. Besides her, both Ren and Nora seemed hesitant, so unlike her, yet fit his male teammate perfectly. RWBY was next and looked no better. In fact Ruby looked like she was going to cry. He guessed it was nice the four girls liked him enough to look at him like that but why was Ruby and Yang holding onto their weapons with such fervor.

"This match is over!" Goodwitch announced, letting Jaune lower his arm. He must have been woozy still, he could barely feel his weapon in his hand. Slowly rising to his feet he looked as Goodwitch gave him a similar look to the crowds. Oh god, was half of his face caved in? Was he going to die? She never looked like that. "The match is a draw, due to depletion of Aura and destruction of weapon." Huh, destruction of weapon. That mace must be... looking rather intact. A chill went through him. "Mr. Arc, if you would be so kind to allow me to inspect your weapon, I may be able to repair it." Jaune looked down, only to find a hilt in his hand, the blade broken off in a jagged ragged line of twisted metal. The blade had taken as much as it could before bending on of the old chips that the sword had gained from almost a century ago. Apparently the larger man had put a lot of effort in ending the match in that swing and the sword had finally given in and the blade had snapped off. Numbness filled him as he woodenly handed the remains of the hilt while an apologetic Cardin handed her the remaining piece of the blade. You never messed with a Hunter's weapon. Breaking one in a duel was bad form, but most could accept it and move on, they had spares. But like Jaune, people knew Croeca Mors was more than a weapon, it was a family heirloom. An irreplaceable family heirloom. Goodwitch's semblance erupted up and down the blade in purple light, bringing the young blonde hope, but after several tense moments she sighed and allowed the items to fall into her hands, and his fear to grow. "I'm sorry, but the blade has been completely ruined from Mr. Winchester's attack."

My family is going to kill me.

Next Chapter: The Forgotten Forge

-o0O0o-

Well. I guess I should introduce myself.

Hello, for those who don't know me I'm Hibiki, I've been writing fanfiction for far longer than I should, but even before that I had being interested in writing since I was a very young boy. Sadly, I never properly learned things that could be useful. Like Grammar. Oh well, such is life. I'm now in my thirty's so yeah I'm kinda old, but hey I'm like fine wine. That's been improperly made. Damn.

To my Naruto fans: Apologies must come in a large dose for my first return to writing a fan work in nearly three years. To those whom know of me and are hoping for more of my older Naruto works, I'm sorry but that ship has sailed. The canon story got too weird and too over the top for me to continue to be a fan, not to mention the ending. Bleck. I sadly lost interest in the series which is sad, I rather enjoyed writing in it before hand. However real life has a way of hitting you when you are down and keep on punching. I've nearly lost my studio more times than I want to admit, worked my butt off to keep it, and more importantly, lost both a friend and my father to illness in this year prior. I could not find the time nor gain any interest to write. It was only recently that I got back into reading fiction. However with Naruto being a pile of mess I wanted no part of (To those who care, my unfinished Naruto works will soon be given all of what I did have written for them and adoption papers as well, hoping they will have good homes in those still willing to follow them.) Sorry again my loyal fans, but I once again apologize. (Though after three years I hope it was noticeably I was out of the Naruto circle.)

The new fiction direction: So with that part of my fandom fading away, I began looking at other avenues that still held interest. Living in Texas as I do, I always had the chance to see things done by Rooster Teeth sooner than most, one of those being a quirky little pseudo anime.. So I latched onto something that has always had my interest but I pointedly refused to get into the fiction of... until they killed off everyone in the show I liked. RWBY. Yeah I love it but Rooster Teeth you suck. I quickly found three truly interesting authors, Coeur Al'Aran, College Fool, and Super Saiyan Cyndaquil, whose story seem to focus on what could probably be considered the most mailable piece in an already openly vague world. Jaune Arc. I began thinking of many interesting little stories in this similar vein, some happy, some sad, some heartbreaking, and others that made me giggle at the thought of doing them. Ergo this one. This goofy story, admittedly will be a little shallow at times and plays on Jaune's... er... numerous faults, using a slightly played on Jaune's family are kinda pricks meme, will be a character building fun romp. I shall need it because while I have no doubt darker themes will slip in from time to time, this will be a fun little time as Jaune tries to find that perfect weapon.

What I need this happy humor story as a stress valve for, is because this story will soon be followed by a far more serious piece that will continue in a AU direction of the last ten minutes of Volume 3. And no, despite how sad I am Pyrrha died it will be that piece correct because these three RWBY writers are correct in that she needed to go, no matter how much it sucked. But my change is the thought of what if Blake hadn't run? If Weiss had managed to talk her down from being a scared little kitten and face her guilt and fear like a panther she can be instead? How much would things change from what we saw when Ruby woke up if Blake was there? How better would Yang be if Blake, the person she had lost her arm for had not thrown her sacrifice away in her fear was beside her for the same? What if Blake went with the newly formed Team RNGR(Ranger)? How better would the world fair when this group began their trip towards Haven?