.

Chapter 13

So. . . how ya doing on this unlucky chapter?

Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue; Would You Like A Chapter To Go Through?

Chapter Thirteen: Who Has Me As A Friend Can Lack Nothing

"What's your name and school?" a Vale guard asked as he looked to the disguised shinobi.

'Shikamaru' gave a fake sigh. He watched many students around him do the same after being asked that question before they could enter their own bullheads to reach Beacon, so he could guess it would be normal to be irritable from the repetitive question that he himself had just experienced.

"Shikamaru Nara; Shade Academy of Vacuo," Sasuke answered in a bored tone, exactly how he believed the true Shikamaru would have answered. When the soldier looked up to see the face and match it to the list in the Scroll he had on hand, he saw the red Sharingan before he seemingly widened his eyes as quickly as it returned to normal.

"Yes, Shikamaru Nara of Shade," the soldier stated with approval under the illusion. "Proceed to the bullhead." The guard will even forget he ever saw the disguised shinobi. And even if it came back to him, it would probably be among the countless memories of random students he had to approve of, so Sasuke may be safe if the memory came back up sooner than expected.

'I might need Claire to make a fake transcript to dissuade anyone curious,' the Uchiha thought as stepped into the aircraft that held other students. How hard could it be?

To distract himself from his usual discomfort of flying, Sasuke looked around the passenger compartment, and saw the militaristic uniforms of the Atlesians and the casual wardrobe of those from the Vacuoan academy. There weren't many with him since the bullhead was small, but neither looked to the other and conversed with their own companions.

Being ignored suited him just fine at the moment.

After thankfully getting off of the bullhead to set foot in Beacon once more, Sasuke found this place with far more security than previously. Which was saying something since it usually housed warriors in every corner.

'Does Beacon truly need to be protected so diligently?' Sasuke wondered with a raised brow as he saw soldiers walk on campus for extra security, and that was on top of the droids and Huntsmen that were around. Even if they had the future of Remnant in their hands, what could this school possibly have that was worth taking?

The ninja mentally shrugged and let go of that train of thought to return to his objective. Finding a server to Beacon's local mainframe, discreetly connect the modem Claire had given him to it, and to confirm if Blake fared as he expected. Whatever bits of information he finds during those were added bonuses.

With his hands tucked into his pockets, 'Shikamaru' walked passed the many humans and Faunus that were around him, entering the main building of the academy once more after a long absence. Unlike within the capital, Sasuke saw familiar faces he recognized from his time here. Even though all those currently in his field of vision were unimportant.

Sasuke continued walking forward, keeping an eye out for any added security device with his regular eyes, but it was proving difficult to catch any more than what were physically visible without any ocular assistance.

He paused when he heard familiar sounds of metal on metal striking one another as the shinobi was passing an open door. When he looked to the source, the results were both surprising and unsurprising at the same time. The entirety of team CRDL fighting against a singular Pyrrha Nikos.

'Finding one means finding the other,' the Uchiha thought as he entered the familiar classroom, which was large enough to hold the new students from different schools.

Sasuke leaned on the railing from the top bench to see the match that he already knew the result of. 'Seems that CRDL's previous actions weren't forgotten,' he mentally concluded as he saw the Mistral champion brutally take all four of them down.

At the sound of final buzzer, Pyrrha stood over a beaten Cardin and stuck her left arm out for him to take. 'Interesting,' the Uchiha thought in mild surprise. He thought there might've been more animosity when you see one of the people responsible for taking away your arm, but he wasn't exactly one to argue as Sasuke was on both ends of that scenario.

The team leader looked to the appendage warily, before finally deciding to accept the offer and was helped up. Pyrrha leaned in to whisper something the Uchiha couldn't hear, and all Cardin did was have a look of shame on his face and nod slowly, before limping his way to collect his team and leave the stage.

Sasuke could only guess what she said, but left that for a much later time when his former professor spoke up.

"Well done, Miss Nikos," Glynda stated proudly. "I doubt you will have trouble qualifying for the upcoming tournament." The champion's only response was an appreciative nod.

The professor tapped her Scroll before looking to the audience, clearly not seeing past the Uchiha's disguise. "We have enough time for one more match. Would anyone like to test themselves?" She was greeted with silence, until she looked towards a familiar group of girls. "How about you, Miss Belladonna? You haven't participated in a while."

Sasuke gave a good long look at his target when Glynda singled her out, then resisted the scowl that was attempting to appear on his face. Blake looked far worse than he expected, even worse than the day after the docks.

The Faunus' hair wasn't as tidy like usual, black bags under her eyes were far more pronounced than the drama at the infirmary with Ruby, and she had a look of surprise when she was called out, as though Blake forgot she was even in class. She only remained quiet with hopes for the attention to go elsewhere.

Which it quickly did.

An arm was raised from within the crowd of students. "I'd like to give it a shot," a confident voice sounded. When the Uchiha looked to the source, it was the male of a trio he didn't like. He never got around learning his name, but neither did he want to.

"Mercury, was it?" Glynda said as she looked to her Scroll once more.

The ninja ignored the stage to take a longer look at Blake. 'It will make things easier. . .' he thought to himself with thinned lips. Blake's mind wasn't at its best, so a Sharingan illusion would be far more effective against it without the mind being healthy. 'Fate truly wants me to take her.'

He missed the conversation, but only then did the Uchiha notice that the now-named Mercury chose to fight Pyrrha, who just came out of a fight with CRDL. Not that it seemed to wind her in any way, but the concept of sparring again after fighting an entire team was unusual.

It wouldn't do well to be caught staring at his target, so the ninja looked to the fight but without the focus to watch the fight. He decided to think about the mission given to him instead. 'Blake is not mentally well, and that would be a boon for me. And she clearly will not be interested in the dance.' He recounted the facts. 'I will follow her and collect any new information of her habits.'

A bang snapped him out of his planning, and saw how Mercury was flying after he kicked off of Pyrrha's shield. When the champion charged him, Mercury merely looked to the professor and said, "I give up."

Now that was peculiar to the ninja. From what he had seen, Mercury hadn't even suffered a single strike, and was at an advantage of being with the most Aura compared to Pyrrha's after her own fight a minute prior. The Uchiha found one solid theory that would explain this. 'Reconnaissance before the tournament,' he concluded.

It wouldn't be unheard of for people to test their future opponent's fighting style before the Vytal Festival, all without revealing their own, it was a legal and underhanded method that even he would've used if it was needed.

"Perhaps you should've been more careful when choosing your opponent," he suddenly heard Glynda say with displeasure, which had the Uchiha hold back a scoff from how perceptive she was. It wasn't any of his business, and he was here on more important affairs.

On the say that they could leave, 'Shikamaru' walked out to the hallway, leaned on the wall, and brought up his Scroll to blend in. After a few seconds, team RWBY showed themselves to leave the building they were in, and Sasuke followed behind them with his Scroll seemingly as his primary attention.

For all anybody could tell, he was another student of Shade simply walking around and just happened to be behind them at the time. Sasuke followed them discreetly enough, if nobody proclaiming his existence was anything to go by.

The Uchiha watched them leave the building, and when he did so as well, he stopped to avoid being walked into by a familiar blonde Faunus. Who seemed to have the same target as the mercenary.

"Hey, Blake," Sun called out with a wave, who got the irritable attention of the cat Faunus, and noticed how tired she seemed. "You doing okay?" he asked with genuine concern.

Blake gave a tired sigh. "I'm fine," she said. "What do you want?" From her tone, Sasuke could accurately assume that she was taking his betrayal and the White Fang in a way that hampered her health. Again, it was something he could use against her when the time comes.

"Right," the monkey Faunus said quickly as he cleared his throat. "Well, ya know, there's this lame dance coming up, and I thought that maybe we could go together. . . Waddya think?" Sasuke's belief of his target's state would be tested at this moment, but he could tell what the answer was, even if he didn't think so beforehand.

Furrowing her brows, Blake looked to him as though he asked the dumbest thing possible. "I don't have time for something as stupid like a dance," she stated sourly before she turned to catch up with her team, leaving Sun in an awkward position of rejection.

'As expected,' the Uchiha thought. He didn't know the effect would be this strong, but he would have to take advantage of Blake's poor mental state to take her away without resistance on her part. So the real finicky part would be the security details of Beacon.

A small idea came to the Uchiha. 'If she's trying to find out about the White Fang's activities, there could only be one place she could go to try and find them without distractions,' he thought with a hint of a revelation, before beginning his journey to the library and wait for Blake to appear there to watch her movements and routine.

On his way, Sasuke sensed the buzzing of his Scroll. He took it out of his pocket to look at who the caller was, and answered it. "Claire, what news do you bring?" he asked as he casually walked passed a few more of the new Atlesian Knights.

"Sir, I found some details worth mentioning. Some might be troubling, even for you," she responded, then stayed quiet for a few seconds to review the document she had. "As of now, all I could tell you is that Beacon had a delivery of motion sensors and security cameras of very small sizes. A lot of them, sir."

This was both good news and bad news. Although, the good part of it was merely confirmation before pressing forward recklessly, while the bad part being that the added security measures increased the chance of hampering the progress he had achieved so far. All information was useful by this point.

"What more can you give me?" Sasuke asked his assistant.

Silent for a few more seconds, Claire reviewed the information she collected on the mercenary's orders. She finally said, "besides the instructors from the other schools, those motion sensors and cameras are your biggest threat if you want to get the target out of there discreetly. I can find out where the motions sensors were placed from the recordings, but that means the camera feeds are a must."

He already knew that of the threat that these devices brought, but it didn't hurt to confirm that she knew as well. "Update me if anything else of concern comes to light," Sasuke informed. After he heard an affirmative, the Uchiha gave her a request. "Also, I need you to make a fake transcript for me to make sure my cover isn't compromised if someone becomes too curious. A student from the academy of Shade, specifically."

She knew the name of his disguise, and could make things up on the spot to make sure Shikamaru wasn't given a profile that stood out, so some mediocre stats would be in order. Claire knew what to do, she wasn't a veteran for show, and all he needed to do was connect a device. When he heard the affirmative once more, he closed the line just as he entered the ever familiar library he visited frequently many weeks ago.

Taking a computer station that oversaw the doors of the library, the disguised ninja began tapping away at the keyboard for no reason other than to blend in. It was difficult when he first started using these machines, and had to get used to the keyboard and know where's what, but his Sharingan quickly remedied that little situation. All Sasuke needed after that was to make tapping the button he needed practically instinctual, which was also quickly handled long ago.

One particular ad on the site he visited was particularly. . . frustrating.

'Like cockroaches, they always seem to be somewhere no matter what you do,' he thought with a great amount of displeasure as he saw an advert for the SUCC's campaign to investigate Sasuke further to prove his innocence. At this point, he believed he could commit a crime tantamount to mass murder and there would still be a few fangirls around. 'Those photographs aren't even of my body. . .'

Sasuke Uchiha does not pose shirtless, especially if he was glistening with sweat.

He quickly closed the site with the advert, and continued to find another the Uchiha could use without the possibility of punching the screen in irritation.

For an hour or so, Sasuke looked to miscellaneous topics that made it seem as though he was researching, but it was merely a cover in case anyone got curious. Which paid off as he saw a familiar black-haired Faunus finally come through the library's door, looking as unhealthy as the last time he saw her.

Sasuke saw how she plopped down on her seat with a sigh through his own translucent screen, and immediately began typing away. He couldn't see clearly what she was looking at, but he knew Blake's tired eyes weren't as focused as they should be for an investigation.

Again, the ninja resisted the urge to sigh. 'I can't be taking half measures to procure my Dust,' he thought to boost his conviction. In front of him several seats away was Blake Belladonna, someone who will probably get injured at best by that red-headed Faunus, but he had to bring himself to see her only as three freight containers of precious Dust. 'I will not have my emotions rule me and dictate my actions.'

If Blake had listened to him during their first day together in Beacon, she might've had a better shot of finding the Uchiha with the clear trail of Dust robberies he helped commit. Even if she wouldn't truly find him. Merely the effects in his wake.

Sasuke thought of taking her here and now, but people would find out soon enough with the cameras and witnesses around, which would most likely result in a lock down for all of Vale. And that must be avoided, otherwise, his hideout with the White Fang at Mount Glenn would be compromised if they caught wind of the direction he was taking.

The risk outweighed the reward of a quicker pay this time.

Taking a tip from his stalkers of his home world mixed with Remnant's, the shinobi discreetly observed Blake behind his own monitor. After his reconnaissance tonight, he would connect the modem to a server of Beacon's local network.

The Uchiha's planning was interrupted when Yang walked through the doors, and slowly made her way to her Faunus teammate. She was standing right behind her when she placed her hand on Blake's shoulder, which had her jump slightly at the suddenness of it.

'This is. . .' As Sasuke watched Yang literally drag Blake forcibly from her seat, which had a sense of familiarity strike the ninja. He quickly squashed it to pursue his target and find just what the hell was going on. At least, he hoped it was something else entirely from his presumptions.

Making sure the two had a bit of a head start, 'Shikamaru' leisurely walked across the library to follow. His thoughts, however, were anything but so. 'This may be a problem,' he thought.

The Uchiha took a lot of factors in when he was thinking of a plan to kidnap Blake, but he forgot a rather simple, and rather obvious, game-changing element that could potentially foul it up: Friends.

Friendship had a way of bringing people out of their misery, and Sasuke knew this from experience more than most.

Outside, Sasuke saw a nearby door to a classroom closing, but blonde hair was seen before it was fully shut. He walked past the door, discreetly opened it to the smallest unnoticeable amount possible, and leaned on a wall to the side, listening intently to the conversation. The ninja kept the Scroll as his item of focus to blend in as he eavesdropped.

"You can't keep doing this to yourself," Sasuke heard Yang say seriously. "What you're doing won't help anybody. You need to rest." This wasn't the usual demeanor he often heard from her. Even though they were fairly muffled from the distance from the door within the large, echoic, and empty classroom, he could make out enough.

If the Uchiha looked through the small opening for the door, he would've seen Blake slam her fists on the desk in front of her while glaring at her comrade. "I can't rest!" she shouted angrily. "He told me to rest last time, and look where that's gotten us."

Clearly, Yang hadn't taken that statement well. "And he isn't here," she stated with an equal amount of anger. "If he comes through that door right now, what do you think will happen?"

Sasuke had a few ideas, but neither voiced them nor showed as though he was paying attention to the conversation as students around him walked on. It was getting late, but a few people were still around.

"I'll fight him," the Uchiha heard Blake say heatedly. "And show Sasuke the pain he showed us." The longer he heard Blake's side, the more it reminded him of his younger self, all hell bent on revenge. He wondered if having Blake hearing his side of the story would clear things up like himself with Itachi. Not that he would, but it was food for thought.

"You'd lose!" he heard Yang shout. The ninja couldn't see her shove the Faunus with little effort. "You think you could take him down by yourself when you're like that?" She waited for a response, but heard nothing. "You've seen what he's capable of, and you've seen that it would take more than just you to win. Especially when you're like this."

Resisting the urge to frown, Sasuke could tell where this was going. He was part of something eerily familiar back home, and it was-'I must stop comparing my world with Remnant!' he berated himself again. It was happening far too much for his liking.

"I know what it's like to try finding someone, Blake," he heard Yang say almost ashamedly. "To the point where it just. . . just hurts yourself and the people around you."

The longer the Uchiha heard this conversation, the more memories that began appearing in his mind. Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi were precious people to him, but his blind angered hunt for Itachi caused them pain from his betrayal. When he first fought Naruto at Valley of the End was a prime example of harming those around you because of an obsession.

Yang's story about her mother gave time for the memories the ninja didn't want to come in waves, before he clamped down when he noticed the unwanted images of himself impaling his best friend with a Chidori.

"Yang, this is different," Blake said without the edge from previously, which brought Sasuke's attention back to the matter at hand. "He's using the White Fang to steal Dust, I can't stop and do-"

It seemed the blonde cut her off, but the shinobi could only guess how, which was an unseen hug. "I'm not asking you to stop, but you can't do this to yourself. If you want to do this right, then we can help catch Sasuke with you," she clarified, then gave the Faunus a wink. "But first, you need to rest and let Sun take you to the dance for a little bit of fun."

There was a small pause and some grumbling, but within that was much deliberation on the Faunus' part. "I'll try," Blake responded meekly. "But then we go find out what the White Fang is up to." She only received a solid 'okay' and pat on the back.

'Damn it.' This was exactly what Sasuke was worried about when he saw Yang come out of nowhere to take her teammate away.

He needed to alter his plans to something entirely different. From taking Blake while she was alone, to taking her in the midst of a dance party of warriors. Or at least, before then, even when all the cameras were covering every inch of within Beacon and its surrounding area.

No, it has to be during the party, when there were too many people to focus on one. Where a single missing person wouldn't be counted before it was too late. He needed more intel on the camera angles, and the mercenary had just the Faunus for the job, Claire Durand.

The door to his side opened to its fullest, and walked out were the two of team RWBY. They both walked past the disguised ninja without giving the person on the Scroll a second glance. Only when they walked away did he look to them, contemplating more on what to do.

'Regardless of how I approach, I will still need the camera feeds,' Sasuke concluded as pushed himself off the wall to walk down a hallway.

Claire may be able to tap into them, but controlling them was a rather risky action to take. If anybody noticed, that would set off some alarms with whoever was keeping watch. With being able to see who was where, he would also be able to tell where the cameras were located from the perspective, and that was enough of an advantage.

'It's time for a change of plans.'

"So, what are we going to do, sir?" Clair asked from her seat behind the six monitors, each one with twelve different viewpoints from cameras within Beacon. More screens were needed to be 'procured' since this was all they could put onscreen at once, and needed to transition between sets regularly.

Sasuke asked if they should get more White Fang technicians to keep track of the feeds, but Claire insisted that she could handle it alone. Citing that the only difficulty on her part was connecting the modem to the local server, which had been completed by the ninja a day previously.

If Sasuke were to compare finding the server room and connecting the modem without getting caught by the cameras with the help of his Sharingan, he would say it resembled rolling a coin steadily between the floor tile ridges. He needed to hide where the cameras weren't seeing, and he needed to do so while the cameras moved their line of sight, so he needed to be extremely quick and very precise on the timing.

Regardless, Sasuke got it done the day previously with a lot of help from the Amenotejikara and his Sharingan.

Looking towards one of the monitors, the Uchiha could see team CFVY discussing within the soon-to-be dancing area, while team RWBY were last seen entering their dorm room. "As I told you last night, the first step would be to take the image of her date, Sun Wukong," he answered. "How I will do so remains to be planned."

They had the cameras, and one of the feeds showed Sun mingling with his team within the main building, smiling away while unaware of what will befall him in a scant few days. Sasuke had an idea of taking him away in one of the very few blind spots from the cameras, but that heavily depended on the right circumstances.

He thought of using the Snake-Tailed Chameleon, but having a large mouth appear out of nowhere and swallow someone up does not make a stealthy approach. That wasn't even counting the massive smoke explosion to make it appear. No blind spot in Remnant could cover that, even outside of Beacon grounds.

Since Blake was the star that would certainly be noticed if she acted oddly, it's a risky maneuver if he replaced her with a clone who couldn't get her habits and mannerisms just right. Especially since the Sasuke clone would be in the presence of her team, who lived with her for months and got to know each other more intently than he could.

However, if Sasuke went as Sun and left with Blake, he doubted that many would try finding two hot-blooded teens that may have skipped a party for another form of 'entertainment'.

"You're going to need to find a way to lure him away from the public eye, then," the Faunus stated, which got her a nod. "What about taking him while he's in the capital?"

A scenario he thought of. "If I were to take his image well before the dance, it would mean that I will have to be with his team," Sasuke answered. "And I know too little about Sun to accurately portray him." He only needed to be with Blake for a few minutes, but being with his team who knew him personally until the party came along was too risky.

"Why not make him leave just before the dance?" Claire's statement got her the attention of the mercenary. "You could make people feel the compulsion to do certain tasks. Why not hypnotize him to leave an hour or so before you go find Blake?"

The Uchiha mulled it over. There may be a few factors that should be accounted for, such as how effective would the illusion be and if it could endure, but it may not be that big of a factor considering how long it lasted with Pyrrha, who wasn't a pushover in the least.

"A good plan," Sasuke stated with approval. "Find an area that is least visited and has a blind spot." Considering that a dance would be happening, he could guess that there would be fewer people anyway, but it couldn't hurt to be cautious.

He watched the Faunus tilt her head upwards in thought, then turned to the computer to tap a few keys on her keyboard. The result was a map with a handful of red dots here and there to highlight specific areas.

"I may actually have a few candidates that can help you," Claire stated. She then pointed towards the marked areas, each on different spots somewhat close to the vicinity of where the dance was taking place.

'Photographic memory?' the Uchiha pondered. It would certainly explain the lack of need for more technicians. She could technically just scroll through the feeds quickly and memorize where's what until the next 'update'. Or this Faunus was merely smarter than most.

Leaning in closer, Sasuke took a long look at the map and recognized a few of them. The blind spots in question were in rather obscure areas, like behind a bush where a camera was located and pointed forward, so hiding behind it would do fine. Another where two cameras crossed their line of view, but a small gap between the cameras themselves that could be exploited if done properly.

"Well done," he praised Claire, who nodded in thanks. With this new information in mind, the ninja started coming up with a plan of action. A rather possible and good one came to mind, but most importantly, it was very doable.

Sasuke began walking out to initiate phase one of the new plan, which was the implementation of a timed compulsion illusion on his first target. "I will find Sun," he told her, then saw through the feed that Sun and his team were outside the amphitheater, where the dance would take place. "Send me the information you gathered about Sun's team to my Scroll, and observe team RWBY for anything out of place."

A quick nod later, Claire immediately sent the document of information she collected about team SSSN last night on her boss' orders to his Scroll. All while keeping an eye on the targets her boss had given her.

After the mercenary transformed into Shikamaru, he left the bookstore during the afternoon on his way to his first objective at Beacon. The trip was familiar as it was tiresome. Finding the same faceless people around him, wandering to their routine lives. He preferred to read the intel his assistant had gathered on his mobile device than to watch these people.

Reaching the intended bullhead in mere minutes, the disguised ninja didn't wait for the question. "Shikamaru Nara, Shade Academy," he stated in a bored tone. Sasuke didn't need the Sharingan's illusion to help him enter this time.

The guard looked through his Scroll and found the rather mediocrely ranked Shikamaru Nara, who was born in Mistral but goes to Shade in Vacuo, where he moved to at the age of fifteen because of his family's financial trouble. Nothing odd and nothing special.

Exactly how Sasuke wanted.

"Proceed to the bullhead," the soldier told the infiltrator as he used his head to point towards the aircraft behind him.

Not even giving the guard a second look, the Uchiha casually walked passed him and was flown back to Beacon, while reading a document Claire had sent him about team Sun's team, SSSN. 'That naming must confuse people often.' He thought similarly about team RWBY.

Upon landing on Beacon grounds, 'Shikamaru' immediately made his way to Sun's current location. He had seen on the monitors merely minutes prior and he was near the ballroom, so he should still be there.

And sure enough, he came across the familiar blonde and his team minutes later. According to the file Claire had given him, it turned out team SSSN was more popular than he expected, all while being led by the blonde himself. It was a wonder how he was leader material, but Sasuke couldn't exactly argue since Naruto was the same.

Sasuke began approaching to lightly 'bump' into Sun in the hallway, but the large gates of the amphitheater suddenly flew open between them. And the person who walked out was the leader of team CFVY herself, and she looked less than pleased.

The ninja wasn't the only person caught off-guard by this sudden development, he looked to his target and the three with him, and they were looking oddly at the overly-dramatic way Coco brought herself into the hallway. Even the very few students around them were staring.

She turned her frowned face to the ninja, which really unsettled him, especially when she pointed towards him. "You!" Coco shouted. Sasuke immediately went into flight-or-fight mode, but that was put on hold when she swiveled to team SSSN. "And you four!" Only Sage didn't jump from the loud fashionista. "Get inside here and set the tables!"

This didn't confuse only the Uchiha, clearly the four were on the same boat as him. 'Is she seriously-'

"Wait, what?" the redhead of team SNNN said dumbly. Scarlet was his name, if the ninja remembered correctly from the file.

Coco marched with her heels clicking loudly at each step, each one bringing her closer to Scarlet. The same teen leaned backward and gulped when she got in his face. Sasuke would bet all the Dust he collected that it was the fashionista's intended effect.

Lowering her glasses to look him in the eye, she said, "I said that you will set the tables."

'She seriously is.' He fought the urge to sigh in exasperation. Instead, he turned to walk the other direction and find the monkey Faunus another time.

"Where do you think you're going?" Sasuke heard from behind him. Not from a distance, but as though she was in spitting range. That theory was solidified when he felt a hand plop itself on his shoulder.

Thinking quick, Sasuke saw that he had three options. First, he could flicker out of there, but that was a no-go for obvious reasons.

Secondly, he could run, but had this gut feeling that Coco would chase him, for no other reason than that she picked him out. It never stopped her before when he helped Velvet, and he always had a problem with persistent people.

Thirdly, and this was the option he would rather not choose, was to go along and hope nothing out of the ordinary happened beyond that.

"I have an-" As the Uchiha had expected, Coco began dragging him back to the group without even pretending to hear what he had to say.

"That's what I like to hear," the fashionista said happily as she patted him on the back. Once in front of the gates, she had another statement to say. "Now go in there and start setting tables before I kick you in."

Option three it was.

Once inside, the shinobi noticed that there wasn't anybody here. Last he had seen, all of team CFVY were in here and were about to set this place up.

Fortunately, on a few accounts, he wasn't alone to be dragged to do Coco's bidding. When he looked back, team SSSN were also forced into this. "Why don't you get your own team to help?" he heard Neptune ask.

She shut the gate when she entered the amphitheater. "My teammates are concerned about their training for the festival. So I told them I could handle this myself while they practice," the fashionista replied as she sat on one of the chairs and crossed her legs.

"And by 'yourself', you mean us," Sun concluded. His captor gave him a nod, which had him slump his shoulders.

They were just about to head for the training grounds before this happened.

One decided to be a little foolish. "What's stopping me from leaving right now?" that dark-skinned member of team SSSN asked with some added bravado. According to Claire's file, this one was Sage.

"Oh my," Coco said with a faux gasp. "What am I to do? A lady such as myself to fix up the entire place for you people to enjoy." Sasuke never really thought of her as a lady when he first met her. Not even when she began 'tearing' up. "To think, I won't be able to enjoy it because of my one and only love's betrayal, Sasuke Uchiha."

That last statement brought silence, but the shock was very clear at her deceleration. One individual very nearly facepalmed specifically because she was using him as a scapegoat for her laziness.

"Are you serious?" asked Neptune awkwardly, and immediately regretted it when he was answered by excessive 'wailing' as she buried her face in her hands. The ninja had to admit, she wasn't that bad of an actress, even if a little overdone.

The four began to slowly walk to the door behind them, but the fifth didn't move at all. Sasuke figured that if his 'sweetheart' didn't get up to keep them in here, then she had something else planned to keep them from leaving.

The moment Scarlet opened the door for him and his team to leave, almost exactly on cue, Coco wailed louder, startling the team she brought in. But mostly, however, was when the students just outside noticed the crying and began giving dirty looks to the all-male team.

And thus, rumors and whispering began to spread. What more could have happened was left unknown as team SSSN stepped back into the undone dance floor and shut the door.

Just as the shinobi expected, Sun and his team walked back in, conveniently when Coco stopped crying and observed them as though nothing had happened.

". . . What do you want us to do?" Sun asked in defeat. When their captor pointed towards the other end of the room, he looked and saw a massive amount of tables and chairs piled onto each other. He could only sigh as he walked over to do the job he was pressed into, with his team following behind him.

Instead of joining them just yet, Sasuke observed the team as they began moving tables and such into piles of their own before their placement. They seemed more like prisoners of war that lost the battle from the absolute sense of defeat they were exuding.

"Aren't you gonna join them?" he heard Coco say as she flipped a page from a magazine. The Uchiha hadn't seen her carry one, so he was going to assume it was just around somewhere .

'An opportunity,' the ninja realized. It shouldn't be hard for eye contact to be made, especially with this few people around. But before he walked to his target, he turned to the fashionista with curiosity in his mind. "Do you actually like that terrorist?" he asked in a hushed tone for no one to hear except her.

She didn't even look up from her magazine. "Best you get to work before I beat you down," Coco stated irritably. When team CFVY found out about what he'd done, she wasn't sure what to think. This so-called criminal helped their teammate when everybody else merely watched or ignored what was happening.

Velvet may have taken the betrayal the hardest among them, she was very thankful for Sasuke's help and came to idolize him a small bit. She wasn't a fanatic by any means of the word, but it was disheartening to find out he was actually Gaara. The rabbit Faunus refused to believe anything she was told just yet. Not until things became a little clearer.

While Yatsuhashi and Fox weren't even that close to the Uchiha to begin with, they were also upset about the grand reveal. They may have gone out to Vale only once as thanks for Sasuke's help, but it was a pleasant one.

Coco herself was in a similar boat as Velvet, but a tad different in certain ways. She didn't want to jump into things too quickly, but she would kick that ninja's ass first and bring him in before asking him why he did all those things.

Stabbing a fifteen-year-old girl wasn't something that could be overlooked, but Sasuke never seemed like the kind to do things without reason. So Coco gave him the smallest benefit of a doubt, but only after she knocked some sense into him.

It was pointless to prod, so the shinobi went about to set his illusion on Sun. Where an opportunity came quicker than expected.

"Dude, mind helping set the chairs?" Sun said while carrying a large stack of chairs in his arms.

'Shikamaru' looked to where the others were, saw Scarlet setting the stage, Neptune moving tables, and Sage placing speakers in certain spots. As far as they were concerned, Sun was alone with the shinobi.

"Yeah, sure," Sasuke answered in his friend's voice and tone, turning away from Coco and her reading. He approached closer, but was molding the Chakra needed into the correct form, readying the illusion to be placed.

"Here, let me hold these," the disguised ninja said as he took the stack from the Faunus, who turned to get another stack of chairs. "Hey, look here."

The moment Sun turned to see what the deal was; he was greeted with the red eyes of the Sharingan. It took him a few seconds, but he finally widened his eyes in realization on who this was. Unfortunately for the team leader, it was too late.

A few blinks later, Sun suddenly felt like he had forgotten something, but shrugged it off as something unimportant. "What is it?" he asked the brown-eyed guy in the green vest.

"Just want to know where I should put these," the new guy asked. The Faunus only pointed towards the captor, and mouthed, 'ask the demon'.

'Are these people who fight monsters afraid of talking to a woman?' It's not that he didn't realize that Coco was strong compared to them, but to go as far as avoid talking with her was something else. 'Shikamaru' approached the captor, who looked up from her magazine to eye him. "Where would you like these?"

At that, she instantly went back to reading. "Just put them beside each other on the walls. All of the chairs," Coco replied.

Sasuke looked towards the hundreds of seats they had to place, and sighed at the work he had to do to simply leave the amphitheater. 'Troublesome.'

Yes, I know team CFVY weren't there during the dance in canon. If you see something different from the RWBY series, it's because I planned it. The butterfly effect is a real thing going on. You can change small things and not much will change, but how small were Sasuke's actions? Yeah, hella big.

Trivia:

1- I was going to stop writing this fic until season 3 was completed to continue, but it seems that happened as I was writing, so I'm going to stop at the of the season 3 arc until season 4 finishes. Some good news, though, Rooster Teeth said that the hiatus between seasons 3 and 4 is going to be shorter than the previous ones.

2- After I finish writing the chapter for the end for season 3, expect an alternate ending chapter. Kind of like an omake, but less of a comedy and more of an 'OH FUCK!' kind of deal. At least, that's how it plays in my optimistic mind.

3- I was inches away from making the Chakra Rod blades be corrosive to Aura users. The way I saw it, the blades themselves are made from Chakra, an energy. Aura itself is a different energy, so what would happen if two different energies meet? Do they clash or do they merge? So I just went the middle route of neutrality (Fokin' pussy!) with the blades being too solid to give any residue.