Here is the rest of chapter 5. Yeah yeah it's been months. I keep saying sorry but I haven't done anything to make more room for writing. I swear I will make more time, even if it kills me.

Back in the JNPR dorm room Jaune slept. He had used every last drop of his Aura and despite his training with Pyrrha using that much Aura that quickly was very draining on him. Pyrrha had urged him to get some treatment for his burns but Jaune had insisted that he just needed to rest and that if they were bugging him he would deal with it when he woke up.

Pyrrha felt a mixture of concern and pride. She was proud of Jaune and all the progress he had made since they started training together. But at the same time she was worried about his condition. She knew her methods were a bit harsh and after some sessions she would feel a bit bad about how beat up Jaune looked. Thankfully he always took it in stride and his injuries would be gone by the morning thanks to his large amounts of Arua. But that was in the past and now Jaune's body was beginning to show some of its wear and tear.

Pyrrha knew why it was happening too. Jaune wasn't sleeping enough. Beacon had a very difficult curriculum and even Pyrrha had needed to pull an all-nighter once or twice to make sure she passed. But Jaune was losing even more sleep. He was spending more and more time working on his tactics class. There had been multiple nights when she would awake to use the restroom and Jaune would still be working away on homework or studying some old text.

"Feint left... Counter..." Jaune stirred in his sleep breaking Pyrrha away from her thoughts and back to her room. She sat next to Jaune's bed watching him sleep. Pushing her thoughts aside, she smiled as she left her leader to rest. "Dash forward... Dodge... Pancakes..."

"Good morning class, over the last few weeks you have all grown in your leadership skills and have honed your tactics to a very sharp point." Ironwood began. "And I am proud to know that I helped you all reach that point. In two weeks you will all be sent on missions around the kingdom as part of the Vytal Festival. For some of you this will be your first time in the field. For others it might be the umpteenth time. So until then we will be focusing on group combat.

"All of you will be assigned a squad of three people. You will work on assignments with that group. You will be graded on how well you work together and also on the success of the missions." He gestured to a list in front of him. "Here are your squads. You may begin. If you finish during class you may leave or work on your next squad assignment." As he finished Ironwood sat down and began to work on his scroll.

The most of the class had rushed up to see who they would be working with. Jaune decided to wait until everyone cleared out. It was a strange sight seeing more than just the small handful of students that were in this class grow into something more like 15-20 people. He assumed it was students coming back from missions or people like him who transferred in. A hand on his shoulder broke his train of thought.

"It's your lucky day." A voice belonging to the hand teased. Judging by the voice it was Maryn.

"Coming from you I don't think it is." Jaune replied.

"Don't worry" Stahl said joining the two. "That's her way of saying we were all assigned to the same squad."

"You had better pull your weight!" Maryn added.

"What is the first assignment?" Jaune asked trying to ignore Maryn's attempts to get a raise out of him.

"It looks like a simple defend the hill scenario but with very limited resources and an unknown amount of enemy forces." Stahl explained. "But that's just what I think from the preview."

"So let's start. Sitting here won't get it done any quicker." Maryn said impatiently.

As Jaune loaded up the scenario a message appeared on screen. "In this scenario, and the others when working on a squad, you will be given an avatar. If this unit falls in combat you can no longer help your team mates. This unit is also how you will be able to control the regular units in the game." Jaune looked up from his scroll and noticed the look on the faces of the other two. The three of them all realized that the difficulty of this mission had increased drastically.

"Do either of you have a plan yet?" Stahl asked after all three were in. They both shook their head. "So then let's try this first. I will take some units and do reconnaissance while you two defend. Maryn I want you to listen to Jaune when it comes to defence. I watched some of his recorded scenarios and that is his strength. Jaune don't be afraid to have Maryn go on the offensive if you feel that would get us the win."

"Fine, but you aren't actually walking away we can still talk and look at each others screens." Maryn pointed out.

"Heh, I guess I was getting too serious." Stahl admitted.

So the three students went to work on completing the assignment. Even with the three of them communicating, using all three screens at once, and playing highly cautious they still failed many times. Most failures started with one of the three losing their avatar. This made it harder to manage all the troops. And once a second member fell the scenario was effectively over.

Class ended without the trio making any meaningful progress.

"These squad assignments are due the friday before you leave for your team assignments. Between now and then all class time will be treated as a sort of a study hall. I will be here to review strategies but I will not coach you through the assignments." Ironwood explained as the class left.

"Pyrrha, Jaune is being boring again." Nora whined at lunch.

Jaune continued to stare at his scroll watching the failures from earlier that day.

"Nora." Pyrrha began. "Actually you're right. Jaune. Jaune!"

He continued to stare at the screen.

"Anyone home?" Nora said waving her hand in front of Jaune's face. Still no response. Pyrrha decided on a more direct route. A quick elbow to the side.

"Gah!" Jaune sat straight up and began rubbing the place Pyrrha had jabbed.

"Good morning sleepyhead." Pyrrha said smiling. Nora nearly fell over laughing while Ren held back a laugh.

"Sorry guys... This assignment is so different from what we normally do and I just don't know how to ap-" Jaune was cut short by a hearty slap on the back. He turned to see who it belonged to.

"Sleeping during lunch now?" Yang teased. Behind her the rest of team RWBY.

"Like I was saying," Jaune said with a touch of annoyance in his voice. "I've been very busy with this new assignment and I must have dozed off while watching it again." He stood up to face the blond. "And I would appreciate it if you would get off my case."

"Ooo, feisty." Yang retorted. "You feeling all big and strong now that you finally beat someone in sparring match?"

"At least I can keep up in my classes even when I sleep in them." Jaune said to himself, but louder than he thought.

"Ouch Jaune, that really hurt." She replied with a roll of her eyes and no emotion in her voice. "You and Pyrrha should really train your other skills. Not only is that one of the worst comebacks I've heard in a long time it also couldn't be further from the truth."

"I-" Jaune stumbled for a moment.

"Here's a tip for beginners: have dirt prepared."

The bell for lunch rang moments later. Jaune left in silence. He simply ghosted through the rest of the day's classes. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora waited for as long as they could before eating dinner without their leader. Later that night Pyrrha went to the rooftop to train with Jaune. Half an hour she returned to the her room feeling a mix of concern, annoyance, and a hint of loneliness.

Elsewhere, Jaune was a ball of sweat, frustration, confusion, and regret. Sitting on a bench outside he drank deeply from his water bottle.

"You know she doesn't care." The voice said.

"I know."

"You feel bad becuase you snapped at a friend over nothing."

"..."

"And the only reason you snapped was you were running thin from no sleep, stress, and being overworked."

"..."

"Go apologize to her. And the rest of your friends too. Beating yourself up only makes everything worse."

Jaune returned to the real world as his scroll vibrated. It was a message from Ruby.

"jaune i want to talk. i hope you get this before you pass out tonight. you stay up late studying though so hopefully YOU get back to ME before i go to sleep. anyway, we need to talk. later :)"

"I probably should talk to someone at some point. Meet me in the west commons in 10 mins?"

Not much for an ending I know but The first one I had "written" wasn't going to have any form of impact. This is also part of why I was having trouble posting this. Also A big shout out to everyone who has sent me any kind of review. I have read every single one and all of them make me want to write more. Here's hoping for quicker update's and as always I hope you Enjoyed the chapter!