Slipping Between the Lines:

Jaune Arc got into combat school, furthermore he aced his way into Beacon. No more was he the dumbass that we had grown to love, Jaune Arc was a capable warrior with a capable semblance. Unfortunately, he had not yet mastered the art of covering his clothing in his aura so his battles tended to end up a little... exposed for lack of a better word. This was Jaune Arc, professional huntsman, aspiring leader, and occasional nudist.

0-0-0-0

It was the first combat class of their year, and already Pyrrha was sweating bullets as her leader walked on stage. He wore a simple T-shirt and jeans, a far cry to their team's usual ensemble of armor and clothing but far more practical if one knew him the way they did. Nervously, the young redhead glanced over at her fellow teammates, Nora -the cheerful ginger- had a sort of malicious glee in her eyes that only grew brighter as their leader's opponent obviously huffed at his choice of wardrobe. The quiet young man, Ren she struggled to remember, seemed noticeably tense and withdrawn as he studied the combat room's floor. Glancing down, she made out one of their bathroom towels stuffed beneath the seat in front of them, a much needed aid for the oncoming battle.

For his part, Jaune Arc strode confidently onto the stage with a swagger in his step, a cheerful smile on his face. Cardin Winchester, his apparent opponent, greeted it with a sneer and a hefting of his oversized mace. Jaune simply cracked his neck and fingers and let out a pleasant sigh at the release of tension.

"You gonna whip out your weapon Jauney-boy?" Cardin asked with faux worry. "I'd hate to smash a guy like you when he isn't armed."

"Don't worry about me Cardin, let's agree to have a good match!" Jaune exclaimed brightly, earning a scowl from his opponent. In between them, Professor Goodwitch strode and cleared her throat.

"Gentlemen, this is the first combat class of the year, and I want it to go well." she glared at the both of them. "And that means I want to see some semblance of sportsmanship, and try to keep the injuries to a minimum. Last year we made it a whole week without a hospitalization which is the record, let's hope you can beat that."

"Oh, I think you might be disappointed teach." Cardin drawled, sizing up his fellow student like a predator would with its prey.

For her part, Glynda Goodwitch sighed and threw a hand indicating the match had begun.

With a roar, Cardin swung horizontally and his mace crashed into the still form of Jaune Arc. The black fabric of the shirt shredded and ripped where it had been hit and yet the young man, now absent of his shirt, stood rather awkwardly as his opponent stopped to comprehend the situation.

"What the hell-?" Cardin asked before Jaune's fist clubbed him in the nose, sending him reeling back onto the floor.

To his credit, the young man executed a tasteful backflip and charged, swinging low to his opponent and aiming to knock his legs out. Jaune jumped just as the swing almost connected, and came back down with a thud that almost crushed the redheaded boy's head. Cardin, with a growl, lurched forward and slammed his mace into the floor, a line of fire screaming towards the blond challenger.

It readily consumed him, the crowd giving a collective gasp of anticipation even as some noticed almost not shift in the half nude warrior's aura level. When the smoke cleared, Jaune Arc was nowhere to be seen. As if on cue, people began to clamor that the poor man was dead, incinerated by the passionate heat of combat and a large chunk of fire dust. Cardin sputtered nervously, whipping around either to form an exit if they tried to arrest him or looking for a sign of his enemy.

It wasn't two more seconds until a flash of yellow lit the stage and Cardin was tumbling ass over elbows through the air. Jaune had somehow phased through the floor and delivered an devastating strike to the jaw as he rose up out of it! The crowd cheered, the more observant students beginning to blush and turn away as one Lie Ren raced down to the floor with a towel. Cardin's aura had reached its limit upon re-acquaintance with the floor and he slumped to the ground, motionless and groaning.

"Well Mr. Arc that was a well placed uppercut, however you could still- HAVE SOME DECENCY YOUNG MAN!" Professor Goodwitch cut herself off with a screech, noticing the completely nude form of her student. The well built body of Jaune Arc stood on full display for the crowd, not even a well placed knee of shadow to cover up his unmentionables.

It was then that Ren rushed onto the stage and threw a towel to his leader who caught it with a salute and a wink. Ren, for his part, turned away with a shiver and tried to get the image that was fastly burning itself into his head out before it would set in. After fastening the towel to his waist, Jaune gave a hearty chuckle without so much as a dusting of red on his cheeks.

"Apologies guys! My semblance doesn't work on clothes so I'm usually going in the buff!" Jaune laughed as he scratched the back of his head.

0-0-0-0

Sometime after both teams JNPR and RWBY had gathered for lunch and sat across from eachother on a table, Nora and Jaune the only ones with an appetite for eating. Ruby and Pyrrha seemed to radiate an intense heat of them as they picked at their food, Weiss seemed to be staving off a massive headache, and both Blake and Ren had resorted to simply ignoring the situation around them. Yang, however, eyed her fellow blonde mischievously, already building up an armory of jokes and puns that she would use until she died.

"So, ugh, is everything alright guys?" Jaune asked, staring up from his food to notice the tense atmosphere.

"No! Nothing is "alright" Jaune Arc!" Weiss nearly screeched, an accusatory finger pointed right at the young man. "How did you think it was appropriate to expose yourself in such an i-i-indecent manner!"

Jaune, for his part, shrugged apathetically. "I can't really help it, my clothes phase right through my body."

"Then stop phasing!"

"Hey, that's not fair! I don't ask you to not use your semblance!" Jaune shot back.

"My semblance doesn't cause me to become naked!" Weiss seethed back, a light blush on her face. "This is a place for sophisticated hunters, not for streakers to show themselves off!"

"Oh Weiss-cream, are you embarrassed by our blonde friend's muscular body?" Yang teased, raising a suggestive eyebrow at her teammate.

Weiss looked like someone had walked over her grave and shivered. "I will thank you to never assume such a thing again."

"Speaking of asses-" Yang began until her sister clamped a tiny hand over her mouth.

"L-Look, Jaune, don't worry about it. It is your semblance and we can't... ask you to not use it, I guess." Ruby told him, unable to look him directly in the eye.

"Sorry guys but when you've got a semblance like mine you kinda stop being embarrassed by being seen in the buff." Jaune shrugged once again, turning back to his food and narrowly stopping Nora from pilfering one of his nuggets. "Everyone back at Sanctum seemed ok with it after awhile."

That caused Pyrrha to blink and turn to her team leader. "Jaune, you went to Sanctum?"

"Hmm?" he hummed with a mouthful of food. "Yeah, how else did you think I got into this school?"

"N-No, it's just... I guess I never really heard anything about an occasional nudist around the school." Pyrrha thought aloud, now wondering how it was that Jaune seriously didn't know who she was when they first met.

"Well, how much time did you spend in school instead of training for the tournaments or hashing out sports deals?" Jaune asked, head leaning on the palm of his hand.

"W-Well I guess you've got a point, I probably spent the very bare minimum of time required there I suppose." Pyrrha blushed and looked down, ashamed at having asked such a dumb question in her eyes.

"Relax Pyrrha, it's nothing to feel embarrassed about. You still got your training and you're like a super genius, y'know?" Jaune asked, patting a hand on her shoulder.

Pyrrha beamed and stared into her leader's face, the surrounding students gagging at the obvious crush between the two of them. After awhile, and a dozen more innuendos from Yang, lunch was over and the teams returned to class.

It wasn't until the day was over that Team JNPR sat in their room, Jaune listening to his music and Pyrrha finishing up her studies. Nora, having grown tired of just idly watching Ren knit, looked to her team leader and asked him a question that had been on his mind.

"Hey Jaune, what's it like to have such an awesome semblance?" Nora asked, causing Jaune to chuckle a bit. "It's just that mine isn't as cool compared to yours."

"Nora, that might be a touchy subject for him." Ren warned, but was staved off by his leader.

"It's fine Ren, it's just that if you really knew what my semblance was like you wouldn't think it so cool." Jaune smiled somewhat dryly.

Pyrrha having been listening in, turned in her chair with a confused look on her face. "What do you mean Jaune?"

Jaune's smile faltered and he sighed. "Well, it's just that- my semblance, Phaser, allows me to phase through anything. Anything. That includes light, air, and soundwaves when I'm fully phased. I can't see or hear anything and I have no oxygen when I'm fully phased, I don't know where I am or where my opponents are. It took me over a decade to hone this semblance into such a controlled power."

"Really?" Pyrrha asked, frowning slightly as she thought about the much simpler mechanics of her own semblance. "So, if that's the case, how on Remnant do you even locate your opponents to strike?"

Jaune smiled mischievously. "Training Pyrrha, training day in and day out for the better half of 11 years. Admittedly my finetuned control over my semblance gives me a definite edge over my opponents, but in the heat of battle it takes an enormous amount of concentration to accurately attack my opponents."

"That explains why your clothes slip through your body, and why you have no weapon I suppose." Ren murmured, remembering how he had met the nude warrior punching a hole through a beowolf's head during initiation.

Jaune blushed and scratched his cheek. "Yeah, I kinda had to get used to it y'know? Speaking of which, Ren you're good at aura manipulation right?"

"I would say I am adept at it, yes." the black-haired man answered.

"Well, do you mind helping me do that aura technique where you let your aura crawl over your weapons and armor?" Jaune asked, pleading as he dropped himself in a heap at his teammates feet.

"Wait, you can't do that?" Ren asked incredulously, the technique itself being kind of simple for a Beacon student.

Jaune blushed again. "W-Well it's just- I had to work on my semblance y'know? Not a whole lot of time to be training aura techniques."

Ren chuckled and smiled at his new team leader. "Alright, I suppose I can if it spares me the sight of you being nude again..."