Fun Fact: I intended for this to be out a week after the end of Volume 3…But better late than never! Had a completely different girl in mind for this chapter of FTLOR, but after the Finale of Volume 3, I think we all could use a little Pyrrha fluff (RIP in Peace Pyrrha). Enjoy!

Chapter 12 (Response): Start!

Her red hair: it was the first thing that always caught Naruto's attention when he saw her. That shade of the color, and just how long it was. He was guilty of wanting to run his fingers through it numerous times. Next, he noticed her shoulders. They were a little broader than most girls', then again, she had always been more muscular than most girls he knew. Even so, her figure was still fairly feminine, and quite attractive. Then she would turn around and her eyes, her lovely, lovely, green eyes would look down on him. He could stare at her eyes all day if she let him…

"Naruto…"

Her voice, very calm, very mature, called out to him. There was a sense of peace and content that washed over him. It was like a very lovely melody to him. So lost with that sound ringing in his head he almost failed to feel a gloved hand on his whisker marked cheek. He looked up at her and he noticed the red on her cheeks.

Naruto's eyes widened and his heartbeat quickened seeing her eyes closed as she started leaning down. He couldn't believe that she was being as bold as she was. His brain short-circuited, struggling to register that she was in fact trying to kiss him.

"P-Pyrrha…" He swallowed down the giant lump growing in his throat and began to mirror his old friend's actions. The distance between them became shorter as their lips drew closer to touching. They were mere centimeters away, noses practically touching, breathing the same air, and then…then…

THUD

XXX

"Oh…" The now awake Naruto groaned as he laid on the floor of Team RWUBY's room face down. That…was a very interesting dream. Now that he was awake, he needed to get dressed and take a walk to clear his mind, and once he did that, he needed to get in contact with a very trusted friend for some advice.

XXX

"PYRRHA DID WHAT?!" Naruto started picking his left ear with his pinkie after Jaune shouted the question right in his ear. The two were once again in the student longue and Naruto was recapping the much taller blonde of the events that transpired between him and his old friend on the rooftop earlier in the week.

"Hey Jaune, could you speak a little louder. I don't think the entire damn school heard you, ya know!" Naruto yelled back at Jaune.

Upon realization of how loud he was, Jaune scratched his right cheek out of embarrassment. "Ah…um…sorry about that…" he apologized at a much lower volume than what he initially had. "But seriously, Pyrrha kissed you?"

"Yep, full lip on lip contact." Answered Naruto. "She even told me she liked me…"

"Huh, guess that would explain all the private girl talks between her and Nora." Jaune said more to himself than to Naruto. In the last week and a half he either walked in or came across the two red heads conversing with one another and just…stopping whenever he was in the vicinity of the area; and it seemed to only be him that caused this considering he sometimes saw Ren in the room with them Then again, Ren often kept to himself so he guessed secrecy wasn't an issue when it came to the other male of Team JNPR. "So, what did you do after she kissed you?" He asked bringing the convo back to his fellow blonde.

"…Nothing," Naruto admitted. "I mean, she put me on the spot, and I didn't know what to say…"

Jaune in response coughed in his hand at that answer: "I'm sorry, YOU? Naruto 'Motor Mouth' Uzumaki, had NOTHING to say to Pyrrha Nikos, pretty red head, world famous athlete, strongest girl in this school, after she kissed you and said she liked you?"

"Lay off me ok?" Naruto barked at the leader of team JNPR. "It'd be one thing if any girl had done it, but Pyrrha's been my best friend for years. I had no idea she felt that way about me. I've never even thought about her that way…"

"Hold on, you mean to seriously tell me you NEVER thought of Pyrrha as girlfriend material?"

"…Okay, maybe I have a couple of times." He admitted when his cheeks having the lightest dusting of pink on them as memories of his dream the previous night immediately came to mind. "Even then, what if we go out and it doesn't work out? I don't want things to get weird between us, ya know?"

"Well considering you're sitting here talking to me about it, that ship's already sailed." He let out a shrill 'eep!' when he saw the whiskered young man giving him the eye. It didn't stay long as Naruto fell back on the couch, letting out a frustrated groan while his hands ran through his hair.

"Why'd she have to go and say all that stuff to me?!" He yelled. "I haven't been able to get her off my mind since then!"

The much taller blonde watched his friend wallow in misery and felt pretty bad. He didn't have much experience in regards to romance so there wasn't any words that he had to offer him. Luckily though, he had words from his mother that he could offer: "You know, my mom always told me when it came to romantic stuff that it's better to just talk to the person you have feelings for and see where things go rather than just sit and wonder what could've been."

"Naruto, do you like Pyrrha? And, I mean as someone you could date?"

Naruto looked up at the ceiling and for what seemed like the thousandth time in the last few days and thought about his red headed friend. Funny enough, a lot of memories came flooding to him, even dating back to when he heard stories of her back at Sanctum. Word of mouth from the other students of her strength, and his own ego, was what initially drew him to her. He wanted to be the top dog and all those stories of how she was untouchable were really getting on his last nerves.

That was when he got to meet Pyrrha Nikos, and he got to know her. That beneath the invincible status, she was just like anyone else and she wanted to be seen as such too. That was when things changed. Instead of being a goal to obtain, she became a friend. They sparred with one another, they went to movies together, and they shared their dreams, their insecurities, and their fears. She got him to go to a spa for the first time, and he got her to break her serious health nut episode and got her to eat ramen with him.

Throughout all of those memories, the one thing they all shared was Pyrrha's smile, a smile that now that he was thinking of it, was a smile that he couldn't get enough of. He always hated to see his friends upset, but when he thought of Pyrrha now, the one thing he could only think was that he wanted to keep her smiling, no matter what. And upon realizing that, it became very clear.

Naruto had feelings for Pyrrha.

"…Yeah. Yeah, I guess I do like her." He finally admitted.

"Then, go talk to her. It's better than just sitting in here wracking your brain. Besides, there is that dance coming up, maybe you two kids can make things official there." Jaune smiled.

Naruto flashed a grin that only he could and stood up out of the sofa and whipped out his scroll. "You're right, I'm gonna call her now. Thanks Jaune; and tell your mom I said thanks too." The whiskered blonde left the lounge while Jaune waved him off.

With the JNPR leader on his own, he sighed. "Look at us, just a couple of blond guys with girl troubles…" He then took out his scroll and looked at it, almost like he was contemplating a very important decision. "Well, mom's advice managed to lift one guy's spirits up. Maybe it can do the same for me, and more." He dialed a number on his scroll and took a deep breath, when the scroll went directly to voice mail, he figured it was better than nothing and to just go for it: "Heeey um, Weiss…Schnee. It's me, Jaune…Arc…of the Arc Family—l-last name's Arc…"

XXX

Pyrrha Nikos was a huntress in training and a very capable one at that. Did great when it came to sparring, and was a smart student that did very well in class. When it came to matters of being a huntress, she was very confident in herself and her abilities. Even so, she was still a teenager, and she still had bouts of self-doubt and nervousness, this proved especially true in matters of romance, and her feelings towards one individual.

Pyrrha liked Naruto, she had for years. He was her best friend, her oldest friends. He was someone she confided in on a constant basis. These feelings she had for him had grown so strong over the years and it got to the point that she was going to explode if she didn't tell him. Then came the other day…

At that moment, she was acting only on instinct, resulting in her actions. When she left Naruto, she was the cool as a cucumber Pyrrha she always was. It was only when she arrived in her team's room did it set in that she confessed to her best friend and kissed him. Twice. And from that moment on, a hundred and one questions ran through her head:

What was she thinking?

Did she really kiss Naruto?

Did Naruto like her back?

Was it too soon to tell him, after all these years knowing one another?

Would her actions make things awkward between the two of them?

Even after talking with Nora, who surprisingly was a great listener and provided great advice, she was practically restless until Naruto responded. And then, she got a text from him inviting her to the roof. That's when a pit began to grow in her stomach full of very contradicting emotions. She was anxious, she was excited. She felt calm, she felt clammy, and she was energetic and tired all wrapped up in one. It was driving her up the wall right up to the very moment her heels touched the roof and she saw an all too familiar face standing several feet in front of her.

"…Hey…" he said after a few moments of uneasy silence.

"H-Hello again…" she nervously waved at him. "I got your message and I came over as quickly as I could."

"I didn't pull you away from somethin', did I?"

"It was nothing important, I promise." It was so funny, on her way here, she was nothing short of a nervous wreck, but now being here, standing right across him. None of that was there, in its place was a very calm aura, perhaps a little nervous given what transpired the last time these two were face to face at this exact spot. She walked over so that she was standing next to him and asked the question she almost didn't want to. "So…what did you want to talk about?" It was plain as day what he wanted to discuss, but a part of her wanted to play dumb.

Naruto scratched his head and look right at the red head: "I've been thinking a lot about what happened the other day, and what you said to me." He noticed her perking up a little more with that statement. "How…how long have you felt that way about me?"

"To be honest, it's been so long, I forgot when it started. I just know that it's been years…" She answered and after that things became silent between them again, and those previous emotions Pyrrha had were creeping up once again. She hated this. Sure things could be quiet between the two, but it never felt this…unsettling. She wanted the two of them to be smiling and laughing like they always were, it made her almost regret telling him if this was how things were going to be.

"Pyrrha," he got her attention once again. "You're my best friend, and no matter what happens between us now or in the future, I don't want that to change."

A smile appeared on Pyrrha's face, albeit something of a sad one. "I agree. Your friendship is one of the most important things to me Naruto. And no matter what choice you make, I don't want to lose it." Although from the way things sounded, the red head was determined that he didn't reciprocate her feelings.

The whiskered blonde sighed. "Glad to hear it, that makes doing this a lot easier…" He surprised his best friend by grabbing her shoulders and standing up to his toes (Damned height difference) and kissed Pyrrha.

The huntress in training initially froze in place before she melted into the kiss. Being kissed by him felt better than anything she could've imagined.

Much to the dislike of both teens, the kiss came to an end and they both looked at each other with completely red faces.

"So… yeah, I uh…I like you too Pyrrha," he confessed. "I heard there was a dance coming up and I hoped that maybe…we could go together? Like a couple?"

In a heartbeat, the taller girl eagerly answered: "That sounds lovely." Having the person she held such strong feelings for for so long return those feelings, she felt like she was on the moon right now. And it also made her feel very affectionate at the moment. Without even thinking she placed her gloved hand on his whiskered cheek. "Naruto…"

The blonde gulped as he realized that this scenario, including Pyrrha's hand on his cheek, including her red, face, and including her leaning down to him was playing very much like his dream earlier.

"P-Pyrrha…" He soon began to mirror his old friend's actions. The distance between them became shorter as their lips drew closer to touching. They were mere centimeters away, noses practically touching, breathing the same air; and this time there wasn't a rude awakening awaiting Naruto. This wasn't a dream, this was his reality.

His lips and Pyrrha's touched again, and this time he could actually feel years' worth of pining and admiration being released from her. There was no shock, no expected movement, it was…perfect.

And just like that, two rivals, two close friends, became something more.

Chapter End

This chapter was how the Naruhina romance should've been handed (Cue Mordecai and Rigby going "OOOOOH" here). I kid, I kid. Nothing much to say here, this chapter was a little mushy in the middle and near the end, but that's what FTLOR is all about amirite? I'm not gonna say what I'll work on next as far as the next girl goes, because I'll probably change things up last minute. So, I'll do chapters on whichever girl I feel like at the time, I suppose. Til then, I'll see you all for more For the Love of RWUBY!

Reviews Response

Eniox27: Thank you, it took a little bit of time to think of it, and I feel it's the best way to have Naruto connect with and be romantically involved with the more villainous RWUBY characters.

OBSERVER01: Gracias

grimreaper40045: Sometimes, that's all a guy needs.

Dragon and Sword Master: It'd be worse if you didn't

Le MAO XVII: Naruto and Emerald will have a sequel chapter, when I can think of it. I have something in mind for Winter, as for Neo, she's been one of the most requested girls, but I can't think of anything.

kira444: I did, which is why we have this chapter…months after Vo. 3's ending…because I was THAT devastated by it and totally not because I was lazy with this story…

Dadlop3: I've got something in mind for the Twins, Cinder, and Naruto in mind. Your Neo idea sounds pretty cool though to be honest; and Summer and Raven for the time being I'm not even thinking about.

mocasiotorres27: I love you loving this!

With all that said Ladies and gents, I hope you all enjoyed! Leave a review and if you liked the story, why don't you favorite and follow it!