AN: This is mainly a disclaimer. This chapter is not action heavy like the last couple have been. This is mainly building towards future relationships as I'm sure some of you guessed based on when this is taking place. If you don't want to read stuff like that, you can skip this chapter and wait for the next one which will have a lot more battles. There will be an additional AN at the end of the chapter explaining a decision I made. Now let the chapter begin!
Chapter 13 – Just Ask Her
It has been a few days since the incident with Roman, the Paladin, and the Super Grimm. Naruto is getting dressed for class as Kurama asks him, "Naruto, how are you holding up?"
"Huh?" Naruto responds in surprise. "I'm doing just fine. Why you ask?"
"During your fight a few days ago with Torchwick and those Grimm, your emotional state managed to pull some of my Chakra" Kurama tells him.
Naruto thinks he knows where Kurama is going with this and tells him, "I was just mad that my friends were getting hurt. I wasn't giving into hatred if that's what you're worried about."
After some silence Kurama simply responds, "Good."
Naruto then smiles and tells Kurama, "Ya know, you're like the big brother I've always wanted."
"Ulgh, okay that's enough…" Kurama responds despite him really appreciating Naruto saying that. Naruto gets a kick out of Kurama's reaction. He knows Kurama feels the same.
Naruto then finishes getting dressed and heads out into the hallway to wait for his friends so they can walk to class together. Team RWBY are the first to come out. Naruto greets them saying, "Morning guys! Or, I guess I should just say girls?"
Weiss rolls her eyes and says, "Good morning."
"Morning Naruto!" Ruby exclaims.
"How you holding up Whiskers?" Yang asks.
"Not bad so far" Naruto responds. He then notices Blake come out with bags under her eyes and Naruto asks, "Blake? Are you okay?"
"I'm fine…" Blake responds. Her team's faces on the matter tell a different story.
"…So, how are the rest of you doing?" Naruto asks the rest of the team not wanting to press the issue.
"We're doing pretty good" Ruby tells him. Weiss and Yang clearly agree.
"So, you sure you're doing okay?" Yang asks him. "You had a pretty nasty head wound the other night."
"I'm good" Naruto responds. "I heal pretty quickly."
"I'm jealous…" Ruby says holding her shoulder still feeling some aftereffects from that night.
"Oh, you heal plenty fast" Weiss tells her. Team JNPR finally come out of their room.
Ruby greets them first saying, "Hi guys! How are you holding up?"
"We're doing alright" Jaune answers. His team seems in agreement aside from Nora who looks very annoyed.
"Uh, Nora?" Naruto starts to address her. "Everything okay?"
"No…" Nora responds.
"Oh no, here we go…" Ren comments.
"Something happen?" Ruby asks Nora.
"You!" Nora shouts to Ruby. Ruby then looks shocked and concerned. Nora then points to Team RWBY and Naruto as she shouts, "You had another big battle without telling us!"
Team RWBY and Naruto are caught completely off guard. Team RWBY then all stare at Naruto as Ruby says to him, "What did you tell them?"
"Oi, don't give me that!" Naruto responds indignantly. "I didn't say a thing, ya know!"
"Actually, Pyrrha saw you all come home pretty beat up the other night" Jaune informs them. "It wasn't hard to figure out something big must have happened again." Naruto then stares back at Team RWBY now vindicated.
A little embarrassed, Ruby turns to Naruto and says, "Naruto we're sorry…"
"…I can't stay mad at you" Naruto responds which causes Ruby to smile.
"Hey!" Nora shouts at them regaining their attention. "Don't change the subject!"
"From the state you all were in it seems like you really could have used back up" Pyrrha says out of concern as opposed to Nora's annoyance.
"If that's your concern then you should be at ease knowing we had Sun and Neptune with us" Weiss informs them. The rest of her team stare at her making her exclaim, "What?"
Nora then shouts even louder, "HOW COULD YOU TAKE A COUPLE GUYS YOU JUST MET INSTEAD OF US?!" Weiss, now feeling even more awkward, realizes her mistake in telling Team JNPR about Sun and Neptune. Ren puts his hands on Nora's shoulders trying to calm her down.
"I mean, it was just supposed to be our team!" Ruby starts to explain in a panic. "But then Sun and Neptune spied on our team meeting so they knew where we were going and we had to include them…"
"Then how did Naruto get involved?" Pyrrha asks.
"He's the one who caught them spying" Weiss informs them.
"And they were such a big help…" Naruto sarcastically mutters. Weiss wanted to try and defend Neptune, but she could not.
"Guys look, just try to let us know next time" Jaune requests of Team RWBY.
"We'll try…" Ruby tells him. Nora manages to calm down and they all head to class.
They are now in the middle of sparring class. Pyrrha was set to face Cardin Winchester. However, in order to avoid another drastic mismatch like when Cardin faced Naruto, it was agreed on by both parties that Pyrrha will face the whole of Team CRDL.
The match begins with Pyrrha doing a dashing slash to Cardin before he can even react and then a follow up slash throwing him off balance. Sky tries to come in to throw her off, but Pyrrha almost effortlessly blocks and parries the attacks coming from both Cardin and Sky.
"Who wants to take bets?" Naruto asks.
"On what?" Weiss asks amazed he's even asking this. "On who's going to win?"
"Pfft, hell no" Naruto responds. "On how long it takes for Pyrrha to beat them."
"Eh, not today" Jaune answers. The rest share a similar sentiment.
Pyrrha then puts her weapon into spear mode while placing her shield on her back. As Cardin swings his mace down on her, she bends down and turns her back making the mace hit her shield and leaving Cardin open to a multi-hit dashing slash from Pyrrha. She then goes airborne and comes down with her spear to which Cardin manages to roll out of the way. However, she wastes no time and jumps before throwing her spear at Dove who parries it with his sword, but loses focus on Pyrrha long enough for her to sweep him with a low kick off his feet. She then in one fluid motion catches her spear and configures it into rifle mode before firing it at the incoming Sky and she then configures it back into a sword.
Sky managed to dodge the bullet and attack her, but she blocked the attack with her shield and she follows it up by hitting the end of his weapon with her own causing his stance to break. She puts her weapon back into spear mode and does a spinning one-handed slash which Sky struggles to deal. She then puts her weapon back into rifle mode and shoots him, completely breaking his guard. She then sends him flying with a spear hit. Cardin looks annoyed as he and his team all rush in at once. Despite this, they cannot land a single hit on Pyrrha. She parries, blocks, and dodges every strike while landing impactful strikes on all of them, culminating in Pyrrha knocking Cardin into the air and then locking his chin under her spear and slamming him down with a flipping powerbomb. Upon landing, she does a bicycle kick to Cardin, ending the fight.
"Lucky shot…" Cardin whines right before he falls over.
"Well done, Miss Nikos" Goodwitch says praising Pyrrha. "You should have no problem qualifying for the tournament."
"Thank you, professor" Pyrrha responds.
"And Pyrrha wins!" Naruto exclaims. "A big surprise to…absolutely no one."
"Of course" Weiss comments. "It's Pyrrha."
"So, think Cardin's gonna cry again?" Yang asks.
"Come on, he's stopped most of his harassment so give the guy a break" Jaune states.
"What do you mean "most?"" Blake asks.
"I mean, I can't guarantee he stopped completely…" Jaune admits.
"Alright, now I know that's a tough act to follow, but we have time for one more sparring match" Goodwitch announces. "Any volunteers?"
Naruto, Ruby, Yang, and Nora are all about to volunteer but before they can Mercury raises his hand and says, "I'll do it."
"Mercury, is it?" Goodwitch asks checking her scroll. "Very well, let's find you an opponent."
"Actually, I wanna fight...her" Mercury says as he points to Pyrrha.
"Me?" Pyrrha questions.
"I'm afraid Miss Nikos has just finished the match" Goodwitch says trying to put a stop to this. "I recommend you choose another partner." Naruto, Ruby, Yang, and Nora get ready to volunteer again.
"No, it's fine!" Pyrrha announces ready to keep going. "I'd be happy to oblige." Naruto, Ruby, Yang, and Nora sit back down disappointed as Mercury heads down. He is casually walking around Pyrrha.
"I knew this guy was cocky but come on…" Naruto complains. Mercury then runs up to Pyrrha and throws a reverse roundhouse kick, but Pyrrha reads him perfectly and ducks down before slashing at his legs making him fall over. He rolls through and gets back up very quickly before doing multiple backflips to get some distance. This time Pyrrha presses the assault, and they get into an exchange of blows, all of Mercury's being kicks. Pyrrha knocks him back with a shield bash. Mercury gives a slight nod as if to say, 'Okay, not bad.'
Ruby looks to Emerald and says, "Hey your friend's doing pretty good." Emerald flashes a fake smile until Ruby looks away and then she rolls her eyes. Mercury now gets far more aggressive as he attacks with a leaping spinning axe kick towards Pyrrha's shield and upon landing does a low leg sweep which Pyrrha dodges. He then he follows up with a double roundhouse to which Pyrrha dodge rolls to get some distance and collect herself.
"Whoa, been a bit since I seen someone actually push Pyrrha" Jaune comments. He then looks over to Naruto and asks, "Think he can take you?" Naruto does not respond as he keeps watching. Mercury does another kick combination and manages to knock Pyrrha's weapon away, surprising everyone. As he attacks again, Pyrrha subtly uses her Semblance to make the kick avoid her, but it looked to everyone else like she simply parried it. Mercury noticed this as Pyrrha knocks him back.
As Pyrrha rushes to continue the attack, Mercury raises his hands and casually says, "I forfeit."
Stunned, Pyrrha comes to a stop and asks, "You…don't even want to try?"
"What's the point?" Mercury responds. "You're a world-renowned fighter. We're obviously leagues apart." Pyrrha looks quite annoyed at this.
"In that case, Pyrrha Nikos is the winner of the match…again." Goodwitch announces. "Next time, you may want to think a little harder before choosing an opponent" Goodwitch clearly was not pleased with what just occurred.
"I'll be sure to do that." Mercury tells her with no shame.
"What a waste of time…" Naruto grumbles.
"What was that?!" Nora indignantly complains.
After some thought, Naruto comments, "It's almost like he was trying to test her…"
"What for?" Weiss asks.
"Probably for the tournament" Ruby answers
Naruto's eyes go wide as he says, "I forgot about the tournament! Can I even compete?"
"Oh right…" Jaune starts to comment. "You need a team for the first two rounds."
"Hope Ozpin can figure something out" Yang comments.
"Yeah, I hope so too…" Naruto states as they leave class.
As they get outside, Sun walks up to them and says to Blake as he grabs her shoulder, "Hey, Blake! You uh, doing okay?"
"I'm fine" Blake says with almost negative enthusiasm.
"So I hear there's this dance going on this weekend..." Sun tells her actually seeming a bit nervous. "ah, sounds pretty lame, but you and me, I'm thinking, notaslame, huh?"
Naruto then thinks to himself, "I completely forgot the dance was even a thing! I don't even know how to dance!" Naruto then starts to think, "I wonder if Kurama know—"
Kurama cuts him off mid thought telling him, "Must I remind you that I'm a colossal demon fox?"
"I mean, you're technically not actually a demon" Naruto reminds him.
Kurama begrudgingly responds, "Still a giant fox…"
"Think any of the other tailed beasts would know?" Naruto asks him.
"Maybe Matatabi as she was the most graceful of us." Kurama postulates. "But we can't communicate with any of them until you at least regain your Chakra" Kurama informs him, much to his disappointment.
Back in reality, Sun is still asking Blake to the dance saying, "The dance! This weekend! You wanna go, or what?"
"I don't have time for astupiddance" Blake says rejecting Sun. "I thoughtyouof all people would get that." Blake then walks past her team who all feel uncomfortable at what just happened especially as Sun sinks back from the rejection.
"That was needlessly harsh…" Naruto comments.
"We're gonna try and talk to her" Yang tells him.
"See ya around Naruto" Ruby tells him as her, Yang, and Weiss run off after Blake.
Naruto is now wandering the halls of the dorm wondering if he is even going to go to the dance. Kurama tells him, "All your friends will be there so skipping it wouldn't be a good look."
"Yeah, but I don't know how to dance" Naruto reminds him. "And it'll awkward not going with anyone."
"Hmm…I don't really know what to do about the first problem" Kurama tells him. "But the second one is an easy fix."
"What do you mean?" Naruto asks for clarification.
"Naruto, it's obvious to me who you want to ask" Kurama informs him.
Naruto takes a few seconds to respond saying, "She's probably been asked by loads of people already."
"That doesn't mean she's said yes to any of them" Kurama retorts.
"Are you going to keep hounding me about this until I give in?" Naruto asks.
"First off, I don't appreciate the pun" Kurama responds. "And secondly, yes I am."
It takes Naruto another few seconds to realize the accidental pun he made. He then sighs until he sees Jaune trying to tune a guitar. He then walks over and asks Jaune, "Hey Jaune. What are you doing?"
"I'm getting ready to ask Weiss to the dance" Jaune answers.
"Then what's with the guitar?" Naruto asks further.
"I plan to sing as I ask her!" Jaune informs him.
Naruto stands there bewildered at what he just heard. He then decides he has to tag along to see how badly this is going to go as he says, "Okay Jaune. I'll walk with you. Show me how it's done!"
"Prepare to be amazed!" Jaune confidently tells Naruto as they walk to Team RWBY's room. They then start to hear part of the conversation going on in there.
"So, Weiss and I were asked to pick up where they left off" Yang can be heard saying. "And now we can make sure you have the perfect night."
"And once it's all over, we'll return for our search, rested and ready." Weiss states.
"So what do ya think?" Ruby asks.
"I think this is a colossal waste of time." Blake can be heard saying. She then opens up the door and says, "I'll be in the library." She then storms out of the room.
As she starts passing Jaune and Naruto, Naruto asks her, "Hey! What's wrong?" Blake stops and looks back at them for a second. Having grown to trust Naruto on the Torchwick issue, she considers talking to him about it. However, when she sees Jaune with the guitar she decides to keep moving. Naruto then thinks to himself, "That's not good…" He is then broken from this thought when Jaune knocks on the door. He then leans against the doorway with his arms crossed to get the best view of what he is sure will be a disaster.
Weiss then opens the door and gets a mix of shock and horror on her face when she sees Jaune with a guitar. Ruby and Yang look on with curiosity in the background. Jaune then sings out, "Weiss!" in a shrill and out of tune singing voice. Weiss with an annoyed face shuts the door on him and inadvertently Naruto. Jaune continues knocking while in a whiny voice saying, "Come on, open the door…"
As Weiss facepalms, they hear Naruto say to Jaune, "Come on, man. At least try not to sound so whiny." This causes Ruby and Yang to snicker.
"I promise not to sing" Jaune tells Weiss, hoping to get another chance. Weiss then opens the door out of pity and Jaune sings, "I lied!" Naruto shakes his head and Weiss facepalms again. Jaune then further sings, "Weiss Schnee, would you accompany me, to the dance on…!" He pauses to remember what day the dance is. "Sunday!"
"…Are you done?" Weiss asks.
"Yes" Jaune says while shrugging.
"No" Weiss informs him before shutting the door again. She then turns around to see Ruby and Yang staring back at her as she says, "What?"
"And that is why they call you the Ice Queen" Yang informs her.
"All my life, boys have only cared about the perks of my last name" Weiss informs them. "Besides, I—"
Ruby then cuts her off saying, "Yeah hold that thought." She then opens the door to see Naruto watching a dejected Jaune walk away and asks, "Naruto, what are you doing here?"
"When Jaune told me what he planned on doing I had to see it for myself" Naruto informs them.
Still annoyed, Weiss asks, "Well? Did it meet your expectations?"
"Yes" Naruto responds nonchalantly.
"Well, we're having another team crisis" Ruby tells him. "So, unless there's anything else…"
"Kid, now's a good time" Kurama tells Naruto.
Naruto then hesitantly says, "There is one other thing…" He has now caught the attention of all in the room. He rubs the back of his head saying, "I'm sure Yang's already been asked to the dance…"
"Yeah, a lot…" Ruby tells him.
"I still gotta ask if she's willing to go with me" Naruto asks. Yang sighs and Naruto braces for rejection as that is all he is used to.
"Ya know Whiskers, I was starting to wonder if you were ever gonna ask me" Yang responds.
Naruto, caught completely off guard asks, "Is that a yes?"
"That's a yes" Yang informs him.
Both Weiss and Naruto both shout, "Seriously?!" Ruby is clearly happy about this.
Yang raises an eyebrow and asks, "Why are you both so surprised?"
"Because he's a clown!" Weiss shouts.
"Hey, I prefer knucklehead!" Naruto retorts.
"Naruto's kind, funny, attractive…" Naruto was surprised at that one. Yang then continues, "Gets along well with Ruby and, very importantly, he's fun! Do you know how many boring people asked me to the dance?" Weiss is in shock. Yang then asks Naruto, "Now why were you so shocked about me saying yes?"
"First, like I said, I was sure you were already asked" Naruto answers. He hesitates to admit the next part when he tells her, "I've also been rejected whenever I asked out a girl."
"What?!" Yang and Ruby both shout.
"Maybe if you asked more than Sakura" Kurama tells him.
"Shut it!" Naruto internally responds. "And it wasn't just Sakura. Almost every girl my age was into Sasuke…except Hinata as far as I know."
"Why'd they all reject you?" Ruby asks.
"Because every girl my age was into another guy and thought I wasn't worth their time" Naruto answers.
Yang then abruptly shouts, "What a bunch of stuck-up skanks!"
Hearing that makes Naruto start to laugh but then he remembers something and tells Yang, "You might want to reconsider going with me…"
Yang gets annoyed and asks, "Why?"
"I…I don't know how to dance…" Naruto reluctantly admits.
Weiss laughs and says, "That's another strike."
Yang pauses before she says, "We can fix that." This surprises Naruto and Yang tells him, "You not knowing how to dance doesn't erase all the other good things I listed. That being said…"
"None of this matters if Blake won't go" Ruby says completing Yang's thought.
"She took off that way" Naruto says as he points towards the library. "She seemed even more annoyed when she seen Jaune with the guitar."
"See?" Weiss says with affirmation. "It isn't just me." Ruby rolls her eyes.
Pyrrha and Jaune are finishing up their nightly practice to improve Jaune's skills. Pyrrha tells him, "Well done! Your swordplay's improved immensely."
"I couldn't have done it without you" Jaune tells her.
"So, are you ready to move on to Aura?" Pyrrha asks him.
"I'm actually thinking maybe we just skip Aura for tonight?" Jaune tells her. "Might go on a jog or something."
"Come on, I know you get frustrated, but youmustkeep trying" Pyrrha says trying to encourage him. "I'm sure you'll discover your Semblance any day now."
"That's not it. It's just..." Jaune says hesitantly. "It's dumb."
"What is it?" Pyrrha asks as she puts a hand on his shoulder."Jaune, you know you can tell me."
"It's... Weiss" Jaune reluctantly admits.
Pyrrha's expression falls a little hearing it is about Weiss before she asks, "What about her?"
"I asked her to the dance and she shot me down…" Jaune admits. He then gives a slight halfhearted chuckle before saying, "Big surprise, right?"
"Well, I believe the saying goes: There's...plenty of fish in the sea" Pyrrha tells him trying to cheer him up.
"That's easy for you to say" Jaune ignorantly says. "You've probably got guys clamoring over each other just to ask you out."
With a halfhearted chuckle of her own she responds, "You'd be surprised…"
"Ohplease" Jaune says not believing someone as exceptional as Pyrrha could struggle with something like this."If you don't get a date to the dance, I'll wear a dress." He then walks away and Pyrrha becomes upset.
Emerald, Mercury, and Cinder are in their room discussing the students at Beacon. They get to Pyrrha Nikos as Cinder says, "Ah, the invincible girl."
"She's smart, but I wouldn't say invincible" Mercury corrects her.
"Do tell" Cinder says wanting more information.
"HerSemblanceis Polarity" Emerald starts to explain. "But you'd never know just by watching."
"After she made contact with my boots, she was able to move them around however she wanted" Mercury further adds. "But she only made slight adjustments."
"Just enough to make it look like she's untouchable" Emerald continues to analyze. "She doesn't broadcast her power, so it puts her opponent at a disadvantage."
"Hmm..." Cinder begins to postulate. "People assume that she's fated for victory, when she's really taking fate into her own hands. Interesting. Add her to the list."
"Youshould be able to take her no problem" Mercury comments.
"It's not about overpowering the enemy" Cinder informs him. "It's about taking away what power they have. And we will, in time."
"I hate waiting" Mercury complains.
"Don't worry, Mercury" Cinder says to reassure him. "We have a fun weekend ahead of us."
"That's good" Mercury comments. "Since I was stuck having to pull that stunt with Nikos I didn't get to challenge Naruto."
"You're starting to sound obsessed" Emerald informs him.
"Hey, if I beat the guy who humiliated Roman, I'll get to hold that over his head forever" Mercury informs her.
"Hold on, is that what this is really about?" Emerald asks. Mercury nods causing her to shake her head.
"Don't get overconfident" Cinder tells Mercury. "According to Roman, Naruto is already stronger than he was before and keeps getting stronger."
"I'm not worried" Mercury responds.
"You know, I almost want you to get your butt kicked" Emerald informs him. Mercury shrugs it off.
It is the next day and Naruto is in his room finishing his homework. He gets a knock on the door and opens it. To his surprise Yang is standing there. She then grabs him by the shirt and starts dragging him along. He finally asks, "Yang, the hell are you doing?"
"I gotta teach you how to dance, remember?" Yang reminds him.
"…I kinda forgot about that" Naruto admits.
Yang comes to a stop before looking at Naruto and saying, "Seriously Whiskers? It's only been a day."
"I mean, I'm still processing that you said yes" Naruto said half-jokingly.
Yang raises a brow before saying, "Jeez, those girls must have traumatized you."
Naruto then looks back on all the times Sakura hit him or other girls made fun of him and he admits, "Maybe a little…"
Yang then leads Naruto to an empty room and tells him, "Okay look. I've seen you fight so I know you have plenty of fluidity in your movement."
"Is that a good thing?" Naruto asks.
"As long as you're coordinated too" Yang informs him.
Naruto smirks as he says, "I got that covered."
"Now I'm not trying to teach you to be able to go rock a club or anything" She informs him. "Just enough to get by for the dance."
"That's all I need!" Naruto tells her. "And thanks, I appreciate that you're willing to help me."
Yang is happy to hear that but then tells him, "Just so we're clear, my first dance is going to be with someone else."
While a little hurt, Naruto tries not to show it and asks, "So who's your first dance?"
"Blake" Yang informs him.
Naruto immediately loses all hurt feelings and exclaims, "Oh, good! I'm glad you guys managed to convince her to go."
"She hasn't agreed yet" Yang informs him. "But she will."
Naruto dawns his reassuring smile and says, "If anyone can convince her it's you."
"You got that right!" Yang exclaims with confidence.
Naruto then decides to do his part and says, "He'll probably want to ask her again anyway, but I still wanna find Sun and tell him to give it another shot."
"Good call Whiskers" Yang tells him. "But that's after your dance lesson."
"Right" Naruto says as they get to work.
Around an hour has passed and the dance lesson has ended. Naruto is now out looking for Sun. He manages to find Neptune in the courtyard and heads over to him. Naruto yells, "Oi, Neptune!"
Neptune sees him and says, "Oh, Naruto right? What's up?"
"I'm looking for Sun" Naruto informs him. "You know where he is?"
"He's on top of one of the buildings by the docks" Neptune informs him. "He's been in kind of a dump since yesterday."
"He asked Blake to the dance and got rejected" Naruto informs him.
"Aw man…" Neptune says clearly feeling bad for Sun. "Poor guy."
"I want to try and convince him to give it another shot" Naruto further explains.
"Uh, that's nice and all but…" Neptune says delaying the point.
"But what?" Naruto asks.
"You should probably worry about getting your own date instead" Neptune ignorantly tries to inform him.
Naruto's eye twitches a little from annoyance as he says, "I already have a date…"
"Really?" Neptune asks in surprise. "Who?"
"Yang Xiao Long" Naruto answers.
Neptune is even more shocked as he says, "I thought she was way out of your league…" Naruto starts to get offended, but he knows it is true. Neptune realizes how he's coming off and says, "Hey man, congrats."
"Thanks…" Naruto says reluctantly as he heads into Vale to the docks. He finds Sun on one of the rooftops just like Neptune said. He walks up to Sun and asks, "Hey man. How ya holding up?"
Sun looks up seeing Naruto and says, "Oh, hey. I'm…so-so."
Naruto sits down next to him and says, "Blake was too harsh…but she's really stressed out."
"Is it about the Torchwick thing?" Sun asks to which Naruto nods. "Why does she think it's her job to right everything wrong about the world?" Sun asks.
"I don't have an answer for ya" Naruto tells him. "What I do know is that you should try asking her again."
"I was thinking about it" Sun informs him which does not come as a surprise. "But is there really a point if she's not even going?"
"I promise you she's going" Naruto tells him.
"How do you know?" Sun asks.
"Yang's got her ways" Naruto answers.
Sun chuckles and says, "You know, you and her really get along. You should probably try asking her to the dance."
"I already did" Naruto informs Sun. "She said yes, ya know."
"Wait really?" Sun asks surprised that he already asked. "Congrats dude!"
"Should have seen the look on Neptune's face when I told him" Naruto states.
"Let me guess, he said something about her being out of your league?" Sun accurately guessed.
"That's exactly what he did!" Naruto exclaims. "But I didn't get too mad about it, he's right."
"Huh?" Sun responds surprised. "I thought you had more confidence than that."
"I got plenty of confidence!" Naruto informs him. "But Yang being out of my league is still accurate."
"Then why'd she say yes?" Sun questions.
"She's not superficial, ya know" Naruto answers. "Oh, I should probably tell you that Yang plans on being Blake's first dance of the night."
"That's cool" Sun responds. "I'll probably ask her again the day of the dance."
"That's good" Naruto comments. "I'm gonna head back now. See ya around Sun."
"See ya" Sun responds as they fist bump and Naruto heads back to Beacon.
It is the next day in Dr. Oobleck's class, and everyone is pretty bored. Most students have the dance on their minds, but Ruby, Weiss, Yang, and even Naruto are more concerned about Blake who is struggling to stay awake. Naruto asks Yang who's sat in front of him, "Did you manage to convince her yet?"
"Not yet" Yang responds.
"She's looking worse and worse every day…" Naruto comments.
"I know…" Yang mentions sounding concerned. "I'll take care of it after I finish setting up the dance."
"I didn't know you were helping out" Naruto tells her.
"Team CFVY's mission took longer than expected so we were asked to help" Yang informs him. "And who's got more style than me?" Naruto shrugs to which she responds, "Exactly."
Oobleck spots them talking to each other and shouts up to them, "Is there anything you two would like to share with the class?! Ms. Xiao Long?! Mr. Uzumaki?!"
Trying to think quickly, Naruto responds, "Just how fascinating this topic is sir!"
"Is that so?" Oobleck asks not at all convinced. "And what exactly do you find so fascinating?" Naruto tries but cannot come up with anything. "Mr. Uzumaki see me after class!" He then looks to Yang and asks, "And what of you, Mr. Xiao Long?"
Yang, who took a peak at Weiss' notes while Oobleck was focused on Naruto answers, "I was thinking the way the first negotiations for Dust imports between Vale and Atlas fell through was pretty interesting."
Oobleck takes a sip of his drink and says, "Good to see one of you was paying attention." He then continues with his lesson. Naruto puts his head down in frustration as Yang tries not to laugh. As class ends, Naruto heads down to get his lecture from Oobleck. Oobleck asks him, "So, Mr. Uzumaki. What did you think was so much more important than today's lesson that you couldn't help but talk over it?"
"Well…" Naruto thinks about how to word things to omit the part about Roman. "See, Blake's been really overstressed about something personal and it's really starting to wear her down. We're getting worried."
Hearing about how concerned they are for their friend, Oobleck does not feel right punishing Naruto right now. He tells him, "Alright Mr. Uzumaki. I will let it slide this time, but make sure it does not keep happening."
"Thanks sir!" Naruto exclaims as he heads out. Once he is out of class, he looks for an empty room to practice what Yang taught him yesterday.
"You're actually putting in a lot of effort into this" Kurama remarks.
"I always put effort like this in" Naruto reminds him.
"Do you remember what you told me the day you got to Beacon?" Kurama asks.
"Uh…not really" Naruto admits.
"You said you weren't planning on getting with anyone here" Kurama reminds him.
"It…it's just a dance!" Naruto responds in embarrassment. "We're not a couple."
"Yet" Kurama teasingly says with a grin.
"Hey, I don't know if she would even be interested, okay?" Naruto tells Kurama to try and get him to back off a bit.
Kurama rolls his eyes before saying, "You've never been this nervous about trying to get with a girl before." Naruto realizes Kurama is right. He never hesitated whenever he asked out Sakura before, so why is this time making him nervous? Seeing the confusion on Naruto's face, Kurama decides to tell Naruto what he thinks. "It's because of two reasons. The first is that you've matured a bit."
"So, what's the second?" Naruto asks.
"The big reason is this isn't some superficial crush like you had on Sakura" Kurama informs him. "You actually like this girl." Naruto is now even more embarrassed as he realizes Kurama is right. He then waits for Kurama to tell him not to screw up, but it does not happen. "I know you won't screw this up. Besides, seems like plenty of people are into that girl but she's not into them. She at least likes hanging around you."
Naruto smiles at the encouragement from his oldest friend. He then says, "I'm not going to try and rush into things. At least for now, just gonna try and have fun."
Kurama says to himself, "As I recall that's why she said yes to him in the first place."
After some more practice, Naruto sees Yang heading to the library. He opens a window and calls out to her saying, "Hey! Is it finally time?"
Yang turns around seeing him and says, "Yup! But uh…why are you in that room?"
"So no one can see me practicing the moves you taught me" Naruto answers.
Yang laughs and tells him, "Well keep it up!"
"As long as you pull off getting Blake to the dance!" Naruto responds.
"That won't be a problem" Yang says as she waves and heads to the library.
Blake is sitting at one of the library tables with a holographic screen in front of her. She then sees a small red light appear on the screen and moving around. Her eyes follow until it vanishes. She looks around herself to find the culprit but finds no one. When she turns back to her screen, the red dot is now on her hand and then she looks to find the culprit again, yet no one is there. The laser dot is now on her screen again and Blake pounds her table in annoyance. As the dot starts moving, she seems unable to ignore her feline instincts as she follows it until she bumps into Yang holding the laser pointer and melodically says, "He-lloooo!"
"What are you-?" Blake starts to ask.
"We need to talk" Yang tells her as she grabs Blake's arm and whisks her away to an empty classroom.
"Yang, if you're going to tell me to stop, you may as well save your breath" Blake tells her partner.
"I don't want you to stop; I want you to slow down" Yang informs her.
Blake has started pacing as she says, "Idon'thave the luxury to slow down."
"It's not a luxury; it's a necessity" Yang informs Blake as if she's talking to a sibling.
"The "necessity" is stopping Torchwick and finding his supplier" Blake protests. "Those Super Grimm don't stop themselves."
"And we're going to" Yang tries to tell her. "But first you have to sit down and listen to what I have to say."
"Fine" Blake says reluctantly.
"Ruby and I grew up in Patch, an island off the coast of Vale" Yang says beginning to spin a tale. "Our parents were Huntsmen. Our dad taught at Signal, and our mom took on missions around the kingdom. Her name wasSummer Rose, and she was, like...Super-Mom: Baker of cookies and slayer of giant monsters. And then...one day she left for a mission and never came back." Yang looks down sadly as it is clearly still painful for her. Blake's eyes are filled with sympathy. "It was tough. Ruby was really torn up, but...I think she was still too young to really get what was going on, ya know? And my dad just kind of...shut down. It wasn't long before I learned why. Summer wasn't the first love he lost; she was the second. The first...was my mom." Blake is surprised as neither Yang nor Ruby had divulged that they had different biological mothers. "He wouldn't tell me everything, but I learned that the two of them had been on ateamtogether with Summer and Qrow, and that she'd left me with him right after I was born. No one had seen her since."
"Why did she leave you?" Blake hesitantly asks.
Yang sighs and says, "That question... Why?" Yang then starts drawing on a chalkboard. "I didn't know an answer, but I was determined to find out. It was all I thought about. I would ask anyone I could about what they knew about her. Then, one day, I found something. What I thought was a clue that could lead me to answers, or maybe even my mother. I waited for Dad to leave the house, put Ruby in a wagon, and headed out. I must've walked for hours. I had cuts and bruises, I was totally exhausted, but I wasn't gonna let anything stop me. When we finally got there, I could barely stand, but I didn't care; I had made it. And then I saw them. Thoseburningred eyes..." Yang was referring to the Grimm. "There we were: A toddler sleeping in the back of a wagon and a stupid girl too exhausted to even cry for help. We might as well have been served on a silver platter. But, as luck would have it, our uncle showed up just in time…my stubbornness should've gotten us killed that night."
Blake then tries to tread lightly as she says, "Yang... I'm sorry that happened to you, and I understand what you're trying to tell me, but this is different. I'm not a child, and this isn't just a search for answers! I can't just-"
Yang cuts her off while clenching her first saying, "Itoldyou: I'm not telling you to stop! I haven't! To this day, Istillwant to know what happened to my mother and why she left me, but I will never let that search control me. We're going to find the answers we're looking for, Blake. But if we destroy ourselves in the process, what good are we?"
"You don't understand!" Blake shouts out of desperation. "I'm the only one who can do this!"
"No,youdon't understand!" Yang shouts in response as she turns around with red, anger filled eyes and ignition in her hair. "If Roman Torchwick walked through that door, what would you do?"
"I'd fight him!" Blake says very unconvincingly.
"You'dlose!" Yang exclaims and she pushes Blake back.
"I can stop him!" Blake responds as she tries to push Yang but to no avail.
"You can't even stop me!" Yang shouts as she pushes Blake again and this time Blake only stays up thanks to the desk she landed on. Yang then walks toward Blake and hugs her, much to Blake's surprise. "I'm not asking you to stop. Just please, get some rest." She then pulls back to look at her partner. "Not just for you, but for the people who care about you." Yang then starts walking away. "And if you feel like coming out tomorrow, I'll save you a dance."
Blake is silent and as Yang is about to leave she says, "Yang…thanks." Yang keeps her smile as she looks back and Blake says, "I'm surprised you're this eager for a dance. You were complaining before about how dull the ones asking you are."
"Well that changed" Yang responds.
"Wait, did he ask?" Blake asks, clearly knowing who Yang wanted to go with in the first place. Yang just winks as she leaves the room.
Naruto decided to take a stroll after he was done practicing. After patrolling most of the grounds, he comes across Jaune walking with a rose. He then looks in the other direction and spots Weiss before rolling his eyes reminded of his own hopeless attempts at asking out Sakura. They then see Weiss asking Neptune to the dance which crushes Jaune. Jaune drops his rose and walks away. Naruto then sighs and decides to follow him.
"Did you sign up to be a rejection councilor?" Kurama asks only half joking.
Naruto pauses before internally responding, "I am an expert on the subject." After Kurama gets out a chuckle, Naruto goes on to explain, "I see a lot of myself in Jaune…aside from the social awkwardness, ya know." Naruto then catches up to Jaune and asks him, "Hey Jaune! How are you holding up?"
"Oh, uh, hey Naruto" Jaune responds. "I'm doing okay" he says unconvincingly.
Noticing this, Naruto says, "I umm…I saw what just happened…"
Jaune sighs and responds, "I should have expected this…"
Naruto finally decides to ask the big question, "Why are you so into Weiss in the first place?"
"She's smart, pretty, confident, all the things I'm not" Jaune tells him.
Naruto then puts his hands in his face out of frustration while muttering, "Again with the self-esteem problem…" Naruto then collects himself and tells Jaune, "You know, those qualities you listed also describe Pyrrha."
"Are you kidding?" Jaune responds. "She's my friend. And besides, she's way out of my league. I guarantee she's been asked by a hundred people by now."
Hearing this makes Naruto's eye start to twitch as he says, "You should still ask her anyway."
"I don't think so" Jaune responds. "In fact, I'm so confident she'll have a date that I told her if she doesn't, I'll wear a dress." Naruto, unable to process what he just heard starts walking up to Jaune. Confused, Jaune asks, "Naruto? What are you doing…?" Naruto grabs Jaune by his chest armor and headbutts him causing Jaune to fall over in pain as he was not expecting it. Jaune then shouts, "Why'd you do that?!"
"You know how many people asked Pyrrha to the dance?" Naruto asks.
Still on the ground and holding his head Jaune responds, "Of course not."
"And I didn't know how many people asked Yang to the dance either, but I still asked" Naruto informs Jaune. "She said yes."
Jaune is surprised by this, but he does not believe their situations are similar because he holds Naruto in higher regards than himself. Due to this Jaune responds, "Our situations aren't the same…"
Seeing that Jaune is too stubborn to listen to reason right now, Naruto tells him, "When you feel like a complete jerk at the dance, you can't say nobody tried to help you, ya know." He then walks off.
Jaune gets up asking himself, "What was that about?" He walks back to his dorm no longer in a slump, just confused.
As Jaune returns, Pyrrha asks, "Welcome back Jaune. How did it go?"
"She already asked Neptune before I could get there" Jaune informs her.
"Oh, I'm…sorry to hear that" Pyrrha responds trying to be supportive. She then notices a blood mark on his forehead and asks, "Jaune, what happened?"
Now realizing he has a mark on his head, Jaune responds, "Naruto and I ran into each other and got into an argument…" Nora and Ren then look at each other surprised.
"What was the argument about?" Pyrrha asks.
Not wanting to tell Pyrrha it was about her, Jaune tells them, "It ended with Naruto headbutting me and telling me I'll feel like a jerk at the dance." That was enough information for Ren and Nora to piece it together, but Pyrrha does not. Jaune then tells them, "I think I'm gonna call it a night. Goodnight guys." He then goes to bed.
Naruto is heading back to his room in a bad mood. As he is passing by Team RWBY's room he can hear them sounding like they are in a much better mood. "Sounds like Yang pulled it off" he says to himself. This lifts his spirits as he keeps walking.
"You're not going to check in on them?" Kurama asks.
"They need some time as a team without me butting in" Naruto informs him.
Kurama has a smile as he says, "It's hard picturing you as that obnoxious little kid anymore."
"I still have those moments!" Naruto admits.
"If you didn't you would be boring" Kurama tells him.
Naruto smiles as that aspect of himself rewarded him this week. As he gets back to his room, he sees a gift for him on his bed. He checks it and it's from Yang. He opens it up and it is an orange vest for his suit tomorrow night. Naruto is delighted as he exclaims, "This is perfect!"
Kurama groans and says, "That girl's an enabler…"
"Oh, pipe down!" Naruto tells his friend as he puts his vest on the dresser and turns in for the night.
It is the day of the dance, and everyone is getting ready. Naruto is staring at his headband and wondering how his old friends are doing back in the Leaf Village.
"I know I told you that you would need all your Chakra back for us to contact my siblings, but I could still try if you want" Kurama tells him. "But even if by some miracle I get through, they won't necessarily know anything."
Naruto considers it but decides, "Today's not the day for it anyway." He then takes a couple thumb tacks and hangs his headband on the wall.
Confused, Kurama says, "I thought the headband gave you confidence."
"The day will come where I'll need the reassuring feeling putting on the headband gives me" Naruto responds. "On that day, I'll put it back on. But I don't wanna become dependent on it."
"You aren't fighting world ending calamities anymore I suppose" Kurama acknowledges.
"Today should be a pretty relaxed day anyways" Naruto comments. He gets himself cleaned up before putting his suit on. He then touches his headband before leaving for the dance. He knows it is early, but he also knows that is where some of his friends and date are.
As he walks in, he sees Yang trying to help Ruby navigate her way in there in her dress and heels as she complains, "Can we have a serious talk about how Weiss fights in these?" She then mutters "Stupid lady stilts are killing me…" Naruto can't help but snicker drawing their attention.
"Oh, hey Whiskers!" Yang says greeting Naruto as she almost misses catching Ruby.
"As someone who's never worn heels like that, is it really that hard to move in them?" Naruto asks.
"Yes!" Ruby exclaims.
"Only the first few times" Yang answers.
"Well on the bright side you both look great!" Naruto says complimenting them. "Especially you Yang."
"Aw, thanks!" Yang exclaims. Ruby does not care right now. Yang then gives Naruto a once over and says, "Gotta say, you really clean up good Whiskers!"
He smiles and says, "A little orange goes a long way! Thanks for the vest."
"No problem" Yang responds. "But why are you here already?"
"I knew at least you, Ruby, and Weiss would be here since you set up the dance" Naruto answers.
"Any reason you couldn't hang out with Team JNPR?" Yang further inquires.
Naruto's face sours a bit as he says, "Jaune and I got into an argument last night. If you don't want me here, I can try to find something to—"
Yang cuts him off saying, "Relax! I was just asking questions…"
Naruto then sits down and notices Weiss looking kind of bummed, so he asks, "You okay Weiss? Something happen?"
"Nothing happened" Weiss answers.
"Then why do you look so bummed out?" Naruto asks again. This catches Weiss off guard as she did not realize she was not hiding her mood.
"It started last night" Ruby answers. Weiss gives Ruby a disapproving look causing Ruby to say, "Sorry…"
Naruto starts thinking about last night and remembers what happened just before he and Jaune got into the argument and he puts it together saying, "Aw damn it, Neptune…"
"Neptune?" Ruby and Yang ask confused. Weiss is stunned as she had not told anyone about her rejection.
"Jaune and I got into an argument last night after we seen you ask Neptune to the dance" Naruto informs them. Weiss is embarrassed now that she knows she was seen.
"What was the argument about?" Ruby asks.
"I don't want to talk about it" Naruto tells her.
"I'm gonna kick Neptune's butt…" Yang mutters.
"No!" Weiss shouts. "I can still have fun tonight without a date."
"…I still want to know about the argument" Ruby says. She hopes it was not too personal.
"Look, all you need to know is that if Jaune walks in with a bandaged head it's his fault, ya know" Naruto tells her.
"Jeez, how hard did you hit him?" Yang asks.
"A hard enough headbutt to draw blood" Naruto answers.
Yang then looks at Weiss and says, "And that's part of why I picked him as my date."
Not sure what Yang is referring to, Weiss asks, "Because he has a hard head?"
"Yes" Yang responds as Naruto dawns a big grin. This actually makes Weiss crack a smile.
Ruby struggles to get to a chair and finally sits down before asking, "Seriously, how do you two walk in these so easily?"
"It's called having grace" Weiss answers. Naruto and Ruby then both look to Yang for her response.
"I don't know" Yang answers.
Deciding not to address what just happened, Naruto asks, "So where's Blake?"
"She's resting up" Yang informs him. "She wants to look her best tonight and that's hard with those bags she's had under her eyes."
"That's good since Sun said he was going to try asking again tonight" Naruto informs them in turn. Yang is about to speak but Naruto cuts her off saying, "He already knows about you being her first dance."
"Oh, good!" Yang responds happy there's no complications. The punch then starts being brought in.
"The dance starts in about an hour" Ruby announces.
"Hopefully by then you'll have gotten used to your "lady stilts"" Naruto says teasingly. Ruby mopes but also hopes he's right. During the next forty-five minutes not much happens until one of the people adjusting the lights trips knocking over one of the big speakers which Yang rushes over and catches it.
"Wow, we're off to a great start" Ruby says sarcastically as Weiss sighs.
"At least the speaker's fine" Naruto comments. The band then comes in as does Ozpin and Goodwitch.
"I forgot we have chaperones tonight" Weiss states. She is then surprised to see Ironwood walk in.
"Who's that?" Naruto asks.
"That's General Ironwood" Weiss informs him. "He's a member of the Council of Atlas, general of the army, and headmaster of Atlas Academy."
"That's a lot to be in charge of" Ruby comments.
Naruto thinks, "Sounds almost like a Kage." He then notices Weiss is in no hurry to talk to him making him think, "Something tells me there's some issues between him and the Schnees."
That being said, Weiss forces herself to walk over to talk to Ironwood saying, "Hello there General. It's nice to see you."
"Good evening, Ms. Schnee" Ironwood says in return. "It's good to see you're doing well. Although I must say I'm disappointed you chose to attend Beacon instead of Atlas Academy." Ozpin takes a sip of his drink choosing to ignore that as does Goodwitch.
"I simply wanted to strike out on my own" Weiss informs him. She then changes the subject asking, "How is my sister?"
"Winter is doing quite well" Ironwood informs her. "She has risen quite high in the ranks. She will also be visiting during the festival…on official business of course." This excites Weiss and brightens her day, which also brightens the mood of her friends.
"All that's left is to see a smile on Blake's face" Naruto mentions.
"We should see that pretty soon" Yang tells him. Students then start pouring in, including Jaune, Ren, and Nora. They see Ruby's group and start heading over but Jaune hesitates when he sees Naruto.
Naruto sees him and asks, "Hey, how's the head?"
"It's fine…" Jaune responds full of restraint.
Their friends can feel the tension and Nora whispers to Naruto asking, "Was the fight about Pyrrha?" Naruto nods making Nora give an exasperated sigh as she looks at Ren letting him know their suspicions were right. Ren shakes his in disappointment for Jaune.
"Come on Whiskers, try to reign in it" Yang requests of Naruto.
"I already said what I needed to last night, so I won't press the issue" Naruto tells his friends to put them at ease. Jaune knows Naruto is a man of his word, so he joins the group by the punch bowl. The students start getting into groups and dancing, including Ren and Nora. Naruto is waiting for Blake to show up so his date is available.
Sun is walking up to the door struggling with his tie saying, "Stupid...dumb...neck trap!"
Blake approaches from behind saying, "I knew you'd look better in a tie." He stops struggling with his tie as he stares at Blake who clearly put in a lot of effort to look good for this dance. She then takes Sun by the arm.
"Sooo, does this mean we're going...together?" Sun asks, now very thankful he showed up.
"Technically, though my first dance is spoken for" Blake informs him.
"Don't worry, I already know" Sun says as they walk in.
Naruto spots them and shouts, "Hey, look who finally made it!"
Yang looks and is delighted to see the smile on Blake's face. Sun and Blake are talking with people before they get to the friend group, one of those people being Neptune.
Meanwhile, Jaune and Ruby are standing by the punch bowl as Jaune says, "I see you're hiding at the punch bowl too."
"Yep" Ruby says as the situation has her bored out of her mind.
"To the socially awkward" Jaune says as he raises his glass. Ruby giggles as they clink their glasses.
"Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss" Ruby tells him.
"Meh, it's fine" Jaune says not letting it bother him at the moment. "Neptune's pretty cool. I get why she went with him."
"What do you mean?" Ruby asks.
"Well, come on, not many people can pull offBLUEhair" Jaune says as he then starts to take a drink.
"No, I mean, Weiss came to the dance alone" Ruby informs him. This causes Jaune to choke on his drink.
"Uh, what?" Jaune asks in shock. Weiss is then seen trying to get life out of a wilting white rose.
"Yeah, she said that she had too much to focus on to worry about boys" Ruby starts to tell him. "But it turns out…"
Jaune then sees Weiss watchingSun, Blake, andNeptuneas Neptune is making Sun and Blake laugh a bit at an impression. Jaune gets upset at this and tells Ruby, "Hold my punch…" He then hands his punch off to Ruby and walks off. After what could only be three seconds, Ruby drinks some of his punch. Naruto smirks and fist bumps her. Blake and Sun have now made their way to the group as Yang and Blake head off for their first dance of the night. In the meantime, Sun stands next to Naruto.
"Come on, you couldn't dress for the occasion?" Naruto says to Sun.
"Hey, I put on a tie!" Sun responds indignantly. He looks at Naruto and asks, "Dude, what's with the monkey suit?"
"HA!" Yang can be heard yelling from the dance floor. Sun then realizes the irony of what he just said.
Naruto then answers Sun's question saying, "So I don't make my date look bad."
After hearing that answer Sun admits, "Maybe I should have dressed a little nicer…"
After a few more minutes, Yang hands Blake off to Sun and in one smooth motion grabs Naruto's hand and pulls him onto the dance floor and tells him, "Come on Whiskers! Let's see if the practice paid off!"
"Lead the way!" Naruto tells her. Yang's dancing is much better, but he does not embarrass himself. To his surprise, he can see in Yang's eyes that she's having a great time which in turn makes him have fun too.
After the third song ends, Yang tells Naruto, "Wow, you must have really put in that practice."
"Couldn't let myself embarrass us, ya know?" Naruto told her. They then decide to take a little break. During this break, they see Neptune chatting with Weiss and Naruto comments, "I guess Jaune did some good." He then looks over at the entrance and says, "But I was still right." Yang then also looks over and sees Pyrrha walk in looking lonely.
Jaune walks up to her and says, "Hey, Pyrrha."
"Hello, Jaune" Pyrrha says greeting him.
"You okay?" Jaune asks. "I haven't seen you tonight."
"Arrived late, I'm afraid" Pyrrha says trying to not let Jaune know how she's feeling.
"Well, youlookreally nice" Jaune tells her.
"Thank you" she says appreciating the compliment.
Jaune then pretends to be nervous as he says, "Your, uh, date isn't going to beat me up for saying that, is he?"
"I think you're safe for tonight" Pyrrha says, not being blunt with it.
"So, whereisthe guy?" Jaune asks rubbing his hands.
Pyrrha lowers her head as she says, "There is no guy."
"What?" Jaune asks surprised.
"Nobody asked me…" Pyrrha informs him shaking her head with gloom on her face.
"But that's..." Jaune says as he starts feeling bad. "You're Pyrrha Nikos! H-How could nobody ask you?"
Pyrrha turns away saying, "I've beenblessedwith incredible talents and opportunities. I'mconstantlysurrounded by love and praise, but when you're placed on a pedestal like that for so long, you become separated from the people that put you there in the first place. EveryoneassumesI'm too good for them. That I'm on a level they simply can't attain. It's become impossible to formanysort of meaningful relationship with people. I thought that was finally starting to change once I met all of you. But here we are…"
Jaune recalls that was the reason he gave to Naruto about why he would not ask Pyrrha to the dance. He now feels like a complete jerk, exactly as Naruto said he would. As Pyrrha walks in, Jaune turns around and sees Naruto mouth the words, "Told you." Jaune then leaves.
Seeing this, Yang tells Naruto, "Okay, you need to spill what happened last night."
Naruto sighs and says, "After Jaune and I saw Weiss ask Neptune to the dance, I told him he should ask Pyrrha. He gave me a spiel about how Pyrrha is way too far out of his league and that she was probably asked a bunch already. He wouldn't listen to anything I told him…" Naruto pauses before saying, "Then he said he made a bet with Pyrrha about how there's no chance she would not be asked. That's when I hit him."
Yang then looks over at the very down Pyrrha and is now very annoyed with Jaune. At the same time she is now even happier with her pick for the dance.
"So, want any punch?" Naruto asks her.
"Sure!" Yang responds.
Naruto walks over to the punch bowl and pours some for him and Yang. Ruby is still hanging around there and he tells her, "Come on, Ruby. Try to have at least a little fun."
"I'm working on it!" Ruby exclaims. Naruto smirks and then heads back towards Yang when he sees something that makes him drop one of the punch glasses and almost drops the second one.
"Whoa, what happened?" Yang asks Naruto. She sees he is unable to keep a straight face as he hands her the punch and points. She takes a sip and then looks to see Jaune in a dress causing her to spit what she just sipped onto one of the other students.
"Oh, come on!" The student exclaims.
"Sorry!" Yang exclaims struggling to keep it together.
Pyrrha turns around to see Jaune in his dress and is stunned as she says, "Jaune?"
"Eh, a promise is a promise" Jaune tells her being surprisingly cool about the situation.
Pyrrha cracks a smile which then transitions into a full laugh as she says, "Jaune! You didn'thaveto!"
"Hey, an Arc never goes back on his word" Jaune says extending a hand to Pyrrha. "Now do you wanna stand there and laugh at me, or doyouwanna dance?"
Pyrrha offers her own hand and responds, "I wouldloveto dance." Jaune then pulls her away.
Nora flails with excitement and says, "Ren. This... is...happening!"
Looking quite confused, Ren asks, "Wait, what "is happening?"" Nora then pulls Ren along as the whole of Team JNPR perform one of the wildest dance numbers any of them had ever seen, grabbing everyone's attention. After the dance number is over, Naruto starts to approach them. Seeing this, Jaune gets ready to apologize.
"How long have you guys been working on that dance number?" Naruto asks. "It was incredible!"
Shocked at the lack of a tongue-lashing he believes he deserves, Jaune responds, "I'm not sure."
"At least a month" Ren informs them.
"I wonder if Jaune could have pulled that off in heels" Yang says as she walks up.
"I'd pay to see that!" Naruto exclaims causing them all to laugh. He then looks at Jaune and says, "You're a man of your word, I respect that."
"I appreciate that" Jaune tells him. "Doesn't change the fact I should have listened…"
"We all could be better listeners sometimes…" Naruto admits. He then sees Yang looking around for something and he asks, "What's wrong?"
"I can't find Ruby" Yang tells him.
"Hold on" Naruto tells her. He sits down and uses his Semblance and finds Ruby. "She's outside with two people I don't recognize."
Yang heads outside and sees Ruby being taken away by two Atlas guards and yells out, "Ruby! What happened?!"
"I saw someone enter the tower and I went after them, but they got away" Ruby tells her. "Now they wanna question me."
Yang sighs but also smiles as she says, "You just can't seem to avoid trouble."
"What can I say?" Ruby comments. "My sister's a bad influence." Yang takes that as a compliment. Ruby sees Naruto approaching and says, "Go back and enjoy your night."
Yang starts to do so when one of the guards shoves Ruby to get her moving again. This causes Yang's eyes to turn red in anger and she shouts, "Do that again and you'll kiss the ground!" Naruto sees this and is ready to attack.
"Yang calm down!" Ruby tells her. "They won't hurt me, now go back and enjoy the dance!" Ruby is then escorted off.
As Yang is calming herself down, Naruto asks her, "What happened?"
"Ruby saw an intruder so now they want to question her about it" Yang answers.
"Good to know I'm not the only trouble magnet!" Naruto says jokingly.
Yang smiles and says, "Well you heard her, she wants us to enjoy our night." She and Naruto then head back inside and mingle with their friends until the dance ends.
As everyone is leaving Yang says, "Whiskers and I are gonna go make sure they released Ruby."
"Wait, what do you mean "released?"" Blake asks.
Naruto and Yang then look at each other shocked that they forgot to tell them Ruby got taken away. Naruto then tells them, "Ruby got taken away for questioning by the Atlas guards."
"Well, we're going too" Weiss says referring to her and Blake.
"We'll go too" Jaune states.
"As much as we appreciate it, you showing up in a dress is only going to cause problems" Weiss tells him.
"…You may have a point" Jaune admits embarrassingly.
Pyrrha chuckles and says, "We should head home then."
"See ya guys tomorrow!" Nora exclaims as they leave.
Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Naruto head to the building Ruby is being kept in. As soon as they walk in Weiss asks a guard at the desk, "Has Ruby Rose been released yet?"
The guard checks his scroll and says, "Not yet."
"I demand she be released immediately!" Weiss tells them.
"Now you listen to me—" The guard starts to say as he stands up.
One of the other guards grabs him and says, "That's Winter's little sister, so you really wanna get on her bad side?" Hearing this makes Weiss smirk.
Genuinely surprised that worked, Naruto says, "Whoa, good job Weiss."
"Thank you" Weiss says accepting the compliment. The same two guards from earlier along with Ironwood now walk Ruby back to her team.
Yang hugs her and asks, "Are you okay?"
"I'm fiiiine" Ruby tells her. "Nothing really happened. They just took forever to release me."
"I do apologize for that" Ironwood says. "We just needed to be thorough." He then looks at Weiss and asks, "Please refrain from ordering my men in the future."
"Fine" Weiss says nonchalantly.
"Is your sister really that scary?" Blake asks.
"No!" Weiss responds as if she was just insulted. "She's just respected."
"Can we continue this talk outside the holding facility?" Naruto requests.
"That's a good call" Ruby says as they start to leave.
Yang is the last to leave and before she closes the door, she points at the guard who pushed Ruby earlier and shouts, "Make sure he keeps his hands to himself next time!" As Yang closes the door, the last thing they see is Ironwood looking at the guard upset.
They start heading back to their dorms. Naruto looks at Ruby and says, "Looks like you've gotten used to your lady stilts." This causes Yang and even Weiss to snicker.
Blake who was absent for the conversation looks confused and asks "Lady stilts?"
"Ruby was having trouble balancing on her platforms earlier and even called them "stupid lady stilts"" Weiss informs her. Ruby is embarrassed. Blake then starts to laugh at hearing this.
"Feeling any better?" Yang asks seeing the smile on Blake's face.
"You were right Yang, I needed this" Blake admits. They get back to Team RWBY's room.
"What a night…" Naruto says to the four of them.
"It sure was" Ruby says in agreement as she heads into the room. "Goodnight Naruto!" Weiss waves Naruto off as she heads in.
"Goodnight" Blake says as she heads in.
Instead of saying goodnight, Yang kisses Naruto on the cheek and tells him, "Thanks Whiskers, I had a blast!" Naruto's face turns red, and Yang closes the door as her three Teammates stare at her.
As Naruto calms down, he heads back to his room grinning ear to ear. He opens the door and looks at his headband saying, "Life is good right now."
"Play your cards right and maybe you can ask her on a proper date" Kurama says teasingly.
"One day at a time" Naruto responds jokingly. "Goodnight Kurama" Naruto says as he heads off to bed.
Chapter End
AN: I'm sure this did not come as much of a surprise to any of you. Yes, I am building towards Naruto and Yang. I will admit, this does feel somewhat awkward with Bumblebee just recently becoming official. That being said, I'm not going to just ignore that it took them until Volume 9. Why did it take that long? It might have something to do with them spending almost half the series building up Sun and Blake; which only changed when they stopped writing Sun into the show. During the first 4-5 volumes, Blake had something building while Yang was just kind of out there. However, in this timeline, Yang also has a friendship and then an eventual relationship building at the same time with someone she is very compatible with in Naruto. And unlike Sun, Naruto is NOT going to be written off halfway through the series.
Naruto and Yang are also different enough personality wise to where it is not a Loki situation. They are not the same people from different universes. Hell, as established in this chapter, Jaune is more of a counterpart to Naruto than Yang is. Some of you wanted me to make a haram. Believe it or not I can see where some of you are coming from. Despite Sasuke being the one girls crush on in the mainline narrative, Naruto is the one who somehow gets different girls crushing on him in the movies and fillers. That being said, Naruto has never been interested in that. In "The Last" he has loads of fangirls and he didn't care. He just wanted to be with Hinata. So that's my main reason for this not being a haram. Another reason is that I'm not a fan of them. Now, Naruto and Yang are not going to rush into a relationship, it is still just a friendship. I'm sure I made some of you mad, but there's nothing I can do about it. For the majority of you who enjoy what I've been making, I thank you all for reading and enjoying this. I have Chapter 14 almost fully written but it won't be uploaded for at least a couple weeks. Until next time everyone.