Greetings and salutations. Not all that much to say here. Trying to write on a 5 day a week work schedule is apparently something I am exceptionally bad at. More annoying was that this was the chapter that got finished first out of all the stories. I was hoping it would be Old Fox or Devil since both chapters of those stories have a bit more going on in them. Would make for a better return to the plate.

Oh well. Can't have everything.

Chapter 11

Team Deficiencies

Revenge.

Now that was a motivation Naruto had more experience with than most. Not directly, mind you. He'd never been particularly vengeful. Sure, he'd thought about punching Orochimaru in the face a few hundred… thousand times, but who hadn't?

His experience with vengeance was from a certain firsthand source. Said source may have spent the better part of his childhood obsessing over killing one person, realizing that one person was innocent and deciding to kill another person, killed that person, then once that was all done gone and decided to — after saving the world, no less — kill all its leaders and replace them himself.

Normal edgy chunii-teen things.

That being said, Naruto didn't think he'd done anything so grandiose as to deserve a revenge plot at Beacon so early on. He'd been nice, a decent professor, and he'd even covered both his colleagues' classes when required! This treatment he was getting was completely and totally undeserved. So he'd knocked them on their asses, big deal. A bijūdama between teacher and student shouldn't have been such an issue.

Coco Adel had made her vehement disagreement with his stance on that known.

"Can we give this a rest?" Naruto yawned, taking a half-step to his left as he did.

Yatsuhashi's sword missed him by a narrow breadth as it came slashing down. Even though the attack missed it was annoying. The large boy was strong enough to break the grassy ground, destabilizing the place where Naruto had been standing despite his effortless dodge. The treeline of the Emerald Forest had become his go-to for spars of this nature. Naruto leaped backward and lazily built some distance from CFVY's vanguard, ringing slightly as he did so.

Showing they had at least some skill as a team, Fox had covered the intentionally obvious retreat. The boy's arms crossed like he was doing a cross block, at least until his arms shot outward in a sea-parting motion, swinging the bladed vambraces he wore on his arms like a weapon.

I mean, they are weapons. Naruto mused disinterestedly. Just because I'm not worried about them doesn't make them not weapons.

Everything insofar had been pretty easy to understand. Send the big guy who could create the most pressure to force him to evade. Then, thinking that he couldn't change direction while airborne, CFVY had set a trap for him. Not a bad idea in theory. In practice…

He summoned a clone to throw him skyward right as Fox was about to connect. The attack axed his clone immediately after he'd been launched to safety, though not before the clone grabbed one of Fox's arms in what looked like an attempt to stop the attack. The other arm cleaved through his clone leaving only a puff of smoke as the clone disappeared.

Having jumped impossibly high by Remnant's standards, Naruto hoped he'd have some time to relax before falling back to the ground and putting his dear students into the dirt. Coco looked to have other plans, bracing her handbag as it transformed in her… hands.

As a transforming handbag should. Where else would it transform? Her feet?

It was times like these that Naruto understood why Kakashi had read books while doing this. You didn't need to pay attention to kids during these kinds of exercises. For all the rebellious airs CFVY put up — and Naruto absolutely refused to call any team with a 'V' in its acronym Team Coffee — their fighting was straight from a strategy guide. Send a distraction, limit your opponent's movements, and then-

"Dodge this!" Coco shrieked with manic glee as she aimed the handbag-now-minigun. While he had expected one of the remaining two to hit him with some sort of projectile, there was one thing that did surprise him.

Oh, Scarlatina has one too… swell.

There was the small difference that the bunny-girl's ridiculously large gun was glowing. Still, he was willing to bet aesthetics wouldn't make the bullets hurt less if he let them connect. All in all, as the two girls unloaded their weapons on him, Naruto didn't think the color of the gun really mattered much. He did appreciate that Ms. Scarlatina looked remorseful as she tried to pour a few hundred bullets in him. That counted for something.

Naruto sighed. They most likely thought that he'd be a sitting duck in the air. Even if he did make a clone they'd likely try and box him in with gunfire until one of the many bullets hit. What a drag.

There were so many ways to get out of this that Naruto didn't know what to choose. It was a lackadaisical approach for Naruto to be picky about how he won. Not many had the luxury of apathy when small pieces of metal were threatening to rampage around one's intestines should they fail to be evaded. He frequently wondered why so many students chose to use guns at Beacon. Even the students her dodged bullets with almost casual ease. Why on Remnant did they think it would work on a professor?

Should he release the sand sealed in his storage scroll and pull a Gaara defense? He could hit the bullets out of the air with a kunai if he wanted to. They'd probably be pretty damn shocked to see someone bat off bullets of two fully automatic weapons. Hell, he could hold a kunai in each hand while he did it. He didn't like doing that because leaving a free hand to grapple was more his style. Not to mention that there was always something to say about a good wind jutsu to blow projectiles out of the sky, too.

No… he wouldn't do any of those. Tired and bored, Naruto decided he'd humored the second-year team enough. He reached for Kurama's power, something made slightly more challenging by the matter of distance his partner had put between them. It was still easy, but more difficult in a similar way to how it would be more difficult to walk through your home while holding a cup. Simply put, it was more of an annoyance than anything.

Golden-orange light swarmed his body. It enveloped him from head to toe; an armor born from the union of Kurama's chakra and his own. Naruto pushed the chakra cloak out further, making the golden energy surrounding him twice as large as his actual person. When the storm of bullets found their purchase in his chakra, they did not accomplish their purpose. He was not felled, wounded, or otherwise beaten. The small lumps of metal were deprived of their inertia and held in stasis like an insect crystalized in amber.

Naruto fell back to the ground, bullets peppering his chakra cloak the entire time, accomplishing nothing. If this were real combat, he might have sent the bullets back at them.

Eh, probably not. Naruto reconsidered as he molded his and Kurama's chakra once more. Multiple arms of chakra began to branch out of the cloak as he closed in on the ground and, along with it, their team. The two boys were both in position to contest his landing while the girls were boxing him in with enough bullets to give Naruto a reasonable degree of certainty that Beacon students did not pay for their own ammo.

Chakra arms, kunai, maybe a sage punch. Naruto ran through the many ways to end the fight. Eh, might as well make use of what my clone gave me.

With his path chosen, Naruto prepared for a jutsu that had become synonymous with his name. A jutsu that no longer belonged to the Yellow Flash, but the Hero of the World. One second he was about to fall upon them and into their trap.

And the next he was grabbing Fox's arm from beside the boy. A chakra arm extended out from his cloak, grabbed his back, and prostrated the boy to the ground as three more shot out to do the same to his teammates. Coco was the only one to manage a disengaging jump, but the chakra arm caught up to her and latched onto her leg. With no way for her momentum to continue away, it went the only way it could.

Down.

"Oomph!" Coco groaned as the wind was knocked from her lungs. The chakra arm extended over Coco's body to cover her and Naruto rolled her onto her stomach. He'd seen enough jutsu that came from the mouth to know that you always wanted to disarm a combatant face down. Be that as it may, Coco didn't seem to appreciate his tactical decision making. "Can oo stmhpr…"

"Huh? What was that? Speak up."

"Can you stop?" She asked again through gritted teeth when he gave her head enough play to turn slightly to the side.

"I mean, I could, but if you don't spend time reflecting on your mistakes you won't learn from them. So… reflect, I guess." The chakra arm pushed Coco's face back into the dirt. That his chakra cloak rubbed her face into the ground was nothing but a supplementary teaching method. Negative reinforcement, if you would.

It had nothing to do with this being the third time this week that CFVY had challenged him. Nothing at all.

"Your plan was well thought out. You forced me into the retreats that you wanted. Good job on that," And he meant the compliment. Naruto had spent his first few weeks at Beacon watching the students like a hawk. Team CFVY was one of the best Beacon had to offer. Even so, there was still room for improvement. "You tried to use your numbers and equipment to limit the movement of a superior opponent. It might have worked if one of you hadn't gotten tricked."

Naruto let the remark hang in the air for a little bit to see if anyone would volunteer the information. They didn't. Not that he expected them to. Semblances were fairly binary compared to jutsu for some reason. And while figuring out that reason was one of his many hobbies at present, he'd yet to find the answer.

"Fox," Naruto looked to the boy presently lying flat on the ground. He'd kind of forgotten he'd left them there in all honesty. Deciding he'd had enough fun, he let all of them up… well, all except Coco. "What happened with my clone?"

The boy thought for a second before answering. "You used it to escape, I attacked it, and I defeated it."

"Close, but missing a big detail. Walk me through the exchange one step at a time."

"The clone threw you in the air, it tried to block my attack but only stopped one of my arms."

"It grabbed one of your arms," Naruto corrected. "And where did I teleport to?"

Realization dawned on Fox's face as he held his arm out and slowly turned it until a black mark was shown to the rest of them. It wasn't he who commented on it, though.

"Is that a brand?" Yatsuhashi asked.

"More like an anchor. My clone put it on his arm during the grapple," Naruto explained as he finally released an irate Coco from eating dirt. "'To be honest, my clone could have blocked that attack easily. I let Fox win."

"To make us overconfident?" Velvet answered/guessed as she helped her leader dust off. It was hard to tell which was which with her. Her complete lack of confidence made every statement come out like a question.

Naruto nodded. "An opponent is at their weakest when they feel like everything is going to plan. Since things were happening exactly the way you wanted them to, there was no reason to think they'd start going sideways."

"Give me a break," Coco scoffed. "How the hell was I supposed to know that on top of making clones and your weird magic arms that you can also teleport? Any other semblances we should know about?"

Naruto sighed. To their credit, he was the anomaly here. After showing off his clones and cloak they weren't wrong to think that he should be out of tricks by Remnant standards. Hidden weapons were more common here than hidden techniques. Still…

"That's no excuse. Whether it's a semblance, a weapon, or some other secret, you should always be on your toes for a surprise. If something doesn't make sense — say, how you managed to beat your professor in hand-to-hand single combat — it's probably best to question why it happened."

There were a few murmured gripes about how the clone looked like it was out of position after launching him into the air. In the end, none of them brought the complaints forward though. He couldn't give them too much hassle about it either. Team CFVY was one of the most promising teams he taught. That alone was the reason he never refuted one of their many challenges. With what he had planned for them, they'd need all the help they could get.

"Thank you, Professor Uzumaki." Velvet bowed her head as her team gathered themselves.

"Thanks."

"We are deeply indebted to you."

"Thanks, Prof."

"Nothing to thank me for," Naruto waved them off. "Just remember this if I ask you for a favor some time."

"We will!"

"Okay."

"We will be sure to repay you in kind."

"Ughhh."

Naruto chuckled as the second-year team made their way back up the windy path towards Beacon. A quick glance at the sun had Naruto pulling out his scroll from his pant's pocket. As he'd thought, he didn't have time to take the scenic route today. He had somewhere he needed to be. He'd only made time for Team CFVY out of necessity. They were the first of many counterbalances -he'd have to make.

He shook the thought away and lifted his hand. Naruto grabbed nothing…

And in an instant, his hand was palming a wooden wall.

Assuming his scroll was correct, Naruto didn't have time to dawdle. Striding off the wood floor and on to stone tile, the overhead lighting illuminated him to the room filled with third years.

"Good morning, class. Last week we left off on battle formations. Leading off of that, today we'll be talking about marching order and why it matters. It's important to remember that today's marching formation is tomorrow's post-ambush battle formation…"

Watching his partner fight felt like a scene taken out from an action movie. Not the cheap B rated kind either. Perfect lighting, acrobatic stunts during intense swordplay, and an almost impossibly beautiful actress. Not that movie starlets weren't normally beautiful… and not like he looked at Pyrrha like that. She was his partner, his friend, the girl who wore silk pajamas in a room he shared with exclusively other attractive women. With. No. Alone. Time. At. All.

Jaune decided it was best to smother that thought before it could grow.

Watching his partner fight felt like a scene taken out from an action movie. Not the cheap B rated kind either. Perfect lighting, over the top fighting scenes and a ridiculously beautiful actress.

His partner was tearing through all of Team Cardinal at once. Parrying a slash at her back from Sky's halberd, pivoting after she forced him off balance and then striking at Cardin. The big bully of a leader had expected her to be tied up with Sky and ate a shield to the face for it. By the time Dove and Russel charged in his partner had already danced away.

"Damn, she's good," Yang whistled. "Doesn't get any less impressive no matter how many times I see it."

"She is Mistral's Goddess of Victory," Weiss sighed. A bitter note evident in her voice.

That was a thing Jaune hadn't known until recently. Pyrrha was some sort of big shot fighter over in Mistral. Celebrity status big. He'd guessed that when Weiss told him she was on Marshmallow Pete's, but it was a whole lot bigger than cereal. Her own fame was a step below Weiss' own, which after looking into the Schnee name, Jaune knew to be insane. What the heck was up with his team? A prizefighter and an heiress that looked like a storybook princess? Come on!

At least Blake was a normal person. Normalish, at least. Jaune still didn't understand why she spent almost every class with her nose in a book instead of listening to the teachers. Slacking off he could get, but studying in class? Weird. That oddity still left her more normal than the other half of their team, so Jaune solidly considered her to be part of Team One's ordinary half.

A ring out on RDL left Pyrrha facing off against Cardin. Her aura was around eighty percent while Cardin's was barely above half. You didn't need to be a prophet to see the writing on the wall for this fight.

"Mr. Winchester's aura is in the red," Professor Goodwitch announced the end to the fight. "All of Team CRDL has been eliminated."

The polite clapping of the rest of the class lacked any real energy. Not because the fight wasn't impressive. If anything, it was too impressive. Pyrrha's fights were a reminder of how they were supposed to be fighting and — needless to say — weren't. Jaune was in equal parts awe of his partner and ashamed of himself. He'd spent last night reading X-ray and Vav comics instead of training more.

He'd been with Kurama for four hours before that, but clearly, that wasn't enough. Then again, how much could a guy really train?

"Good fight," Jaune congratulated his partner.

Pyrrha smiled as she sat down. "Thank you."

Things had been a little awkward between them for about a day after the Weiss fiasco. They'd rolled out of it after that without much of a scratch. He couldn't say that Pyrrha and Weiss were the best of friends. Not by a longshot. They were, however, both willing to stow their issues with each other away. That wasn't exactly right… it was more like Pyrrha was tabling her issues with Weiss. Weiss had just gotten annoyed with Pyrrha's issues with her. Issues related to Weiss' family.

Jaune didn't really get it. He was just happy the sniping had stopped.

"Next, can I have Ms. Schnee and Ms. Valkyrie."

"Awww yessss!" Nora cheered. "Team Rain is gonna show you who's boss!"

"Not likely."

Jaune laughed. Probably not the best course of action if the stern glare Weiss leveled him with was any indication, yet even that was something he enjoyed. He hadn't had many friends back in Ansel. Team One and Team Rain hanging out together was easily the biggest group of friends he'd had. It was the kind of new experience that summed up why he'd left home in the first place.

"You're lucky it was your partner out there," Cardin sneered at him as he walked past. Jaune was sure he would have shoulder checked him if it wasn't for Pyrrha having insisted on taking the aisle seat. Probably because this scene was becoming a familiar one fast. "I'll make sure to pay you back tomorrow tenfold."

Team CRDL all walked by with bitter looks and promises of revenge. Jaune knew better than to wonder why they were vowing revenge against him and not Pyrrha. Hell, he knew why; they could take revenge against him. Fat chance of pulling the crap they did on him against his partner. Being picked on because he was the easiest target definitely reminded him of home.

With the bullies returned to their seats and Weiss preparing to duel with Nora, Jaune was settling in to watch what would certainly be an explosive fight. Unlike the fights he had… fights that were basically Cardin kicking the crap out of him until his aura gave out. Needless to say that Jaune didn't like Cardin and his team.

And neither did most of their group. "I can't wait 'til you kick that prick's ass," Yang said while glaring down CRDL.

"Why not do it yourself?"

"Wouldn't have the same impact. They know I could bust open a can of whoopass whenever I wanted to. I want those bastards to be humiliated."

"And me beating them would?"

"Uhhh…" Yang balked, twirling her hair around her finger. "A-anyways, you got any ideas for your next fight?"

Jaune made an active effort not to grimace, but he could feel his face sour all the same. He was trying to get better. Really! But with classes keeping them busy for something like six hours a day and the homework those classes gave him, it wasn't like he had much free time to spare towards anything else. He'd tried, too. Two to four hours a day of training with Kurama was a part of his daily schedule now at the minimum. Weekends often demanded a far more lengthy session with his fox mentor.

It was driving him nuts! All he wanted to do was read X-Ray and Vav, watch some TV, and drink so much soda that he passed out. He needed to fricking relax, but Jaune didn't feel he deserved to relax. But if he didn't relax, he was going to explode. But if he stopped trying now then how was he different from the Jaune he'd been in Ansel? But but but — Jaune's thoughts continued to bat his fate back and forth like a ping pong ball.

"Soooooooo Jaune…" Yang's saccharine voice reminded him that he hadn't answered her question. Fortunately… or unfortunately, the blonde had other things in mind. "We're friends, right?"

The reaction speed with which Ruby panicked was a testament to her semblance-enhanced nerves. "Don't say-"

"Yeah! I mean, I think of you as a friend. I wasn't really sure if you… ya know?"

"Of course we're friends," Yang grinned. Ruby sighed and resigned her face to meet the desk, pulling her hood over her head to try and block out what was about to happen. "You ever need a friend to help you out, I'm your girl."

It was really stupid that his heart hammered in his chest when she said that. He knew how she meant it and Jaune didn't even like Yang that way. His heart refusing to still was proof that hormones were all powerful.

"So I was thinking… friends do favors for their friends. Right?"

Ruby sighed even louder, shaking her head as she pulled her hood even further so much as to pin it to the desk and blind her from the scene completely. Jaune couldn't even hope for rescue from the start of the fight due to Nora and Weiss both being given a few minutes to stretch.

So he answered the only way he could. "Right?"

"Totally! So if you could do a favor for me, I could help you out too."

It wasn't like Jaune was so slow on the uptake that he couldn't tell this conversation was veering towards the path of damnation. He knew. Knowledge couldn't save him. After a whole childhood of growing up with seven sisters? His sisters' fiercely bred conditioning prevailed. "Sure."

Ruby whimpered.

"You and the prof are pretty buddy-buddy, aren't ya?"

"Naruto?"

"Exactly!" Yang snapped her fingers. Thankfully, the sound of Nora shattering through some of Weiss' dust magic ice prevented Professor Goodwitch from noticing. "The prof doesn't let anybody but you call him by his name. Believe me, I tried."

Another item Jaune had to add to the already long list of things he didn't understand. Despite being so particular about being addressed as Professor Uzumaki with everyone else, he was equally adamant that Jaune call him by his name. What was up with that?

Him saying as much didn't deter Yang in the slightest. "Probably because you're his student. Before Beacon and all. You two traveled and trained together, right?"

Jaune was almost as sick of this question as he was of losing to Cardin. It felt like both happened every other day, but that wasn't why he hated it so much. Answering the same way — deceiving his friends even if he wasn't technically lying — opened a pit in his stomach every time he had to give the same carefully worded answer.

Less so in this case. "Yeah…" Though the answer was simple, it did little to help his guilt.

"Any chance you know what he likes?"

"What he… likes? Like food?"

"Like women."

The words were heard, yet it took Jaune a minute and more than a few aimless blinks to figure out what they meant, despite them meaning exactly what you'd expect.

"Like… you?"

"Obviously," Yang scoffed. "You don't get a second chance at a first impression. I figure it'll be tricky enough to bag a teacher as is. Might as well figure out what he likes to tailor my attack."

This… I just… I don't… Even in his mind, Jaune struggled to articulate how stupid that was. Naruto was close to twenty years older than her if he had to guess. He was also their teacher. Jaune was frankly jealous. Not of Naruto for catching Yang's eye. Not at all… mostly. He envied the free time she obviously had.

"Darn it!" Ruby's growl came at the perfect time to sidestep Yang's awkward question. "You can do it! Get her, Nora!"

Jaune didn't know how he'd missed the start of the spar. Team Rain and Team One had managed to become sister teams almost as soon as they'd gotten their names. As such, there was something of a competition between their teams… or more accurately, Weiss and Team Rain's girls. Ren being the odd one out on his team by not caring like Weiss was on their own by caring.

Ruby was on the money with her cheer; getting Weiss was definitely the name of Nora's game. A game she was losing. Weiss was repeatedly getting small pokes off with her rapier on the redhead and then quickly disengaging before the wide swing of Nora's hammer could find her. Rinse and repeat. With only a few percentage points of aura being shaved off with each strike, it was a very methodical and clean fight. A style that seemed to clearly favor Weiss in their duel.

There was something that was bothering Jaune about the fight. Something that didn't make sense. "Why isn't Weiss using her semblance?"

He'd seen it first during initiation and a few more times since in class. Her glyphs didn't make much sense to Jaune. From what he could tell, they let Weiss ignore or manipulate physics. Speeding things up, slowing things down, or acting like surfaces for her to jump off of. All advantages she wasn't using.

It was his partner who answered him. Her voice had that slow and indulgent quality of a teacher speaking to a child. "Being able to do more in a fight doesn't mean you should."

"Nora is losing," Ren agreed with a nod. "She is the one that needs to find a way out of this, not Weiss."

"But couldn't she win faster if she used her glyphs?"

"She could, but why would she?" It was Blake who answered him this time, sparing a rare moment from her book to join their conversation. "She's definitely winning now. Trying to end a fight quickly is an easy way to make mistakes."

That was something Jaune hadn't thought about. It made sense in a totally obvious kind of way. Everyone of Team One and Team Rain seemed to understand that. Even Ruby accepted it as natural. He was the only one who hadn't known.

Jaune was getting depressingly used to that feeling.

"You're not entirely wrong," Ren said, offering what Jaune felt was pity. Then again... Ren was watching the fight closely, his eyes peeled. Maybe he was being serious. "Nora isn't one to get frustrated in a fight. I'm willing to say that few at this school are as fearsome a foe as my partner should she manage to find her bearings."

"And that means…"

"I think Weiss is giving her too much time to think."

As it turned out, Ren knew his partner well. Weiss had gotten into the habit of giving Nora a large amount of space after each hit. Fearing — or at least wanting to avoid — the lethal force of the redhead's hammer. That was a mistake.

Weiss' backstep was further this time. Was it an accident? Had Weiss started to think that distance was safety? Jaune didn't know. It didn't matter. It was a mistake.

Because Nora's hammer was not just a hammer. It had started to mechashift as soon as Weiss began her backstep; Nora somehow able to tell that this leap would put her opponent further away. Ren's eyes widened as the weapon turned into something else.

"Nora! Don't use-"

Ren's warning was given simultaneously to the thwump of a canister being launched from a tube. It was interrupted by the explosion said canister made upon impact with the ground behind Weiss. The heart-shaped explosion blasted Weiss towards a ready and waiting Nora.

"My revenge is here!" Nora cackled as she swung her hammer wide. The large windup would have been something Weiss could have easily dodged were she not hurtling through the air. When the blow buried itself squarely on Weiss' stomach there were a few oohs from the crowd and even more people wincing. Jaune counted himself among the latter half as Weiss' body crumpled against the ground and was sent skidding across the stage..

That single blow tanked Weiss' aura by seventy-five percent.

The buzzer to signal the end of the match sounded. "The match is over," Professor Goodwitch announced. "Nora Valkyrie is disqualified. Weiss Schnee is the winner."

"Don't use the grenade launcher," Ren finished his thought to himself before he heaved the sigh of a man too exhausted to care anymore. "Explosives are against sparring rules."

That's right. Jaune remembered. He'd been grateful to know that of all the ways his classmates would find to kick his ass, at least explosions wouldn't be part of the equation.

Nora, proving she was both brave and insane, voices her objections. "That's not fair! My weapon is literally half grenade launcher. How the heck are these spars fai- shutting up now."

It had taken Nora a few seconds to realize Professor Goodwitch's features had frozen into jagged ice. Once she did, however, the girl locked her mouth and wisely lost the key.

"Ms. Schnee, Ms. Valkyrie. If you would return to your seats we'll start on... Actually," Professor Goodwitch glanced at the clock. "That will be all for lessons today. Do remember your worksheets are due at the end of the week. The information will be essential for your quiz the following week."

The scuffing of chair legs and pained groans were heard in equal measure. The 'worksheet' as she called it was eight pages of multiple choice, free response questions, and an essay prompt she'd assigned only yesterday. Jaune had thrown it onto the pile of the five-page essay on the importance of palisades for settlements. That, of course, sat atop the required readings on the edibility of gilled fungi that Jaune had no intention of reading as it was the only thing without homework attached to it.

School sucked.

"At least classes are finally over," Jaune grumbled. He was supposed to meet Kurama after this for more training. The fox had been hammering attack patterns into him for the better part of the week. Kurama had stripped him of his shield and served as his claw-happy sparring partner.

It was one of the least fun lessons Kurama had given him. That said something.

"I so would have won!" Nora's insistence brought Jaune back to the present.

Weiss scoffed. "I can assure you that had the rules been different, then so too would my approach to the fight differ. It's impossible to judge who would have been the victor of that hypothetical from this bout."

"Nuh-uh! I hypothetically would have kicked your butt!"

"You tell her Nora!" Ruby cheered with a hint of deviousness in her bubbly smile. It was the surest sign Jaune could get that she and Yang were actually sisters.

After Weiss' rebuttal, Nora's denial, Weiss again, Nora again, Weiss giving up on 'the childish discussion', Yang goading her back into it, and about three more minutes of bickering, the two teams wound themselves around to the same question they always did at the day's end.

"What are you guys doing after class?" Ruby asked innocently.

There was one thing his team was able to do together. Three pairs of eyes slid over to him and delivered stares lacking any type of subtlety. Jaune couldn't deny that their questioning looks were fair… and that only made his guilt worse.

"I've got to train. With the professor," Jaune added quickly as Pyrrha opened her mouth. His partner pursed her lips and looked away; his whole team did. "They're helping me catch up."

"They?" Ren asked.

Not wanting to get bogged down in a conversation about the magical talking fox, Jaune did the only thing he could. "I'll catch up with you all later."

With not but a quick wave, he bravely turned his tail and fled.

Jaune cleared the door out of Professor Goodwitch's classroom without turning to look back at his team. Every time he did this, there was no stopping the guilt from pooling inside. And the same as every other time, Jaune comforted himself in the same way.

I have to do this. He tried to convince himself. He'd succeeded at it regularly when this first started weeks ago. But now? No. This is… not fine, but necessary.

He had to do this. Better that he become a leader on his own time than his team realizing he'd lied his way into Beacon. There wouldn't be any coming back for Team One if they realized their leader was a complete fraud. This is for the best.

Guilt was replaced by shame as Jaune paused at one of the hallways. Kurama and the cliffs of Beacon awaited him down the left hallway; the same path he'd walked for weeks.

He took a right

It was an ugly sensation that was bubbling beneath the surface of her skin as Weiss watched her leader go off on his own for what had to be the umpteenth time. After the first few days, she'd never have thought that Jaune would be the one preventing their team from coming together. The sigh that passed the lips of Pyrrha Nikos showed that for once they agreed on something.

"Do you think he hates us?" Pyrrha asked glumly and Jaune's silhouette disappeared around the hall. The three of them were standing outside Professor Goodwitch's classroom as their leader had just bid them adieu.

A more polite way of saying he'd turned tail the moment they'd tried to corner him into team training.

"Nonsense," Weiss answered immediately. "I know Jaune cares about this team."

He'd said as much that day in the hall. That one moment in time where she'd sat next to him and he'd told her he couldn't let her lead their team. Weiss was not unused to fighting people for things she wanted and thus would not have been unwilling to argue Jaune Arc for the position. A fight she'd surely win if his fights with Winchester were to be her determining metric.

But…

Weiss had not expected him to give up his position without a struggle. In that sense, his refusal was expected, yet it was not as expected. When Jaune sat beside her, he'd said she could not be their leader with no mirth on his voice and no victory in his body. He'd resigned himself to the role because it was the best path for all of them with the cards he'd been dealt. Almost two decades of being the daughter of the richest man on Remnant had given her a keen eye for duplicity. Weiss knew that at that moment Jaune was earnest.

"Whatever he's doing, I believe he is doing it for our team."

"It's hard to appreciate that when he keeps us at arm's length," Blake sighed the same sigh that all of them had been heaving for the past week. "My first impression was the same as yours," She added when Weiss glowered in her direction. "Jaune… promoted team cohesion when it was an unpopular opinion."

Jaune stuck up for you after you stormed off. Weiss read between the lines. The reminder that her two teammates were painfully averse to her only deepened her frown. She knew her family name was likely to garner ill will what with the decades of her father raking it through mud, but both Pyrrha and Blake being obviously hesitant to look past that was as unproductive as it was painful. Team Rain already acting thick as thieves when their own team was struggling to find traction only twisted the knife.

Funnily enough, it was Jaune's repeated absence that was forcing the two of them to cooperate with her. Their issue with her had taken a backseat to the mutual desire they all shared in getting Jaune reinvolved with their team.

"And that is why we have kept things civil. I think our acting could use some work," Weiss was the third and last of their team to allow a sigh to escape her lips. "But we have nonetheless endeavored to make our team environment a more welcoming one."

"Not that it's changed anything." Pyrrha pouted.

"Lack of change still tells us something," Blake paused and brought her hand up to her face as she thought. "Though I don't know what."

"Wonderfully helpful, Blake."

Weiss had been conditioned to expect the lash of the barbed tongue from her teammate who'd appeared to categorically detest her. Instead, Pyrrha's eyes flashed and she dropped her fist into her open palm. "If you don't know what a word means, what do you do?"

Realization came to Blake's eyes as well. "Look it up."

"Our leader lacks an instruction manual, unfortunately."

"If you wanted to be friends with Ruby, who would you ask for advice?"

A somewhat rhetorical question as the young girl had attempted to throw her friendship at Weiss from the moment they entered the school. Weiss felt a twinge of regret for rebuking that now. How was she to know things with her own team would have gone so absurdly poor?

"Her sister, I suppose," Weiss answered. "Assuming I needed advice, it would be best to get it from someone who knows her. I don't believe anyone else knew her before… ah."

How had she not thought of it before?

"I had intended to complete Professor Oobleck's assignment on palisades. However…"

"Now?" Pyrrha asked. Did she have to sound so surprised?

"The sooner we sort this out the sooner we might become an actual team."

The continued surprise on Pyrrha's face was vexing. It reminded Weiss that she should not judge people on reputation alone. As if she needed such a reminder with her own circumstance. Her partner had been the only one to successfully establish even the smallest of bridges between her and her other teammates. If she had any chance of smoothing over her team's needlessly bumpy road she'd need her partner there to help her.

Besides… Jaune was the only one on their team that treated her like a friend. She missed that. She missed feeling like she was close to someone for real. He'd wanted her to be his leader because he respected her. He'd been so gentle in breaking the news that she couldn't and Weiss knew it was because he considered her a friend.

She considered him one as well. Her only friend at Beacon.

She'd planned on doing Oobleck's assignment not only because it was the responsible thing to do, but also because it gave her an excuse to hide out in the library until a time where Jaune would be finished with his training. His presence was a saving grace for the Team One dorm as it prevented the perpetually uncomfortable silence that existed otherwise. He was usually tired from whatever training he was doing in secret, yet he always talked to them when he returned.

Beacon had not been the escape she'd hoped it would be.

I can't dwell. I must move forward.

"Let's go."

Pyrrha knew it was exorbitantly petty that she didn't want to follow Weiss for the sole reason that the heiress had been the one to tell them to. It was a childish impulse that she promptly quashed.

I'm being ridiculous. Pyrrha lamented for what was not the first time as she followed after their would-be leader. Her annoying, pretentious, image-obsessed teammate who- Stop that! She chastised herself once more.

Beacon was supposed to be her escape. Her reputation had grown so large in Mistral that she couldn't even walk home from school without someone recognizing her and making a fuss. Contractual obligation with her sponsors prevented her from ever making a scene, forcing her to always respond with a smile and good manners. Politely indulging everyone around her as part of her job had become so ingrained into her day-to-day life that she'd started doing it habitually; had started thinking it was what she should be doing. Even now, Pyrrha wasn't sure if that was wrong or right.

She'd come to Beacon precisely to find someone like Jaune. He had no idea who she was. Check. He wasn't interested in using her for her fame or combat prowess. Check. And finally, Pyrrha wanted someone who made her feel comfortable. Someone who didn't feel alienated by her strength. Sort of check? Jaune wasn't alienated by her strength. He was alienated from their entire team. Something that Pyrrha attributed almost entirely to Weiss Schnee.

Pyrrha had tried to avoid being placed on her team in the first place. When that failed, she forced herself to try and be accepting of Weiss. Or, at the very least, open-minded enough to be proven wrong. Despite her best efforts, they were going to be a team. She should at least try to give the girl a chance.

That chance had lasted less than a day. Exactly the amount of time it took Weiss to launch her secessionist movement that would have her appointed ruler.

Ever since then, Jaune had gone from present companion to frequent ghost. Weiss had claimed they had resolved their issues and that her coup d'etat was over. Pyrrha wasn't convinced.

"And that's why it's important to make sure that you're proficient in hand-to-hand," Professor Uzumaki orated. At some point, the three of them had arrived at the teacher's classroom. The professor stood at the front of the class with what Pyrrha assumed was one of his older students underfoot. His foot was pressing into her shoulder blade, keeping the girl's body flush with the ground. She may have been able to escape were it not for the grip he had on her arm; hyperextending it behind her back made it so the girl had no chance of escaping the two points of pressure without breaking her arm.

"Relying on your weapon is a mistake I expect from the first-years. You guys should know better by now. Ms. Adel was not completely unprepared for a rush down," The professor gestured towards a handbag that looked like it had no business being in this combat demonstration. "She made no attempt to mechashift her weapon. It was the correct decision. Unfortunately, Ms. Adel blundered in not preparing a countermeasure for basic joint manipulation which allowed me to disarm her."

"You suck…" The girl mumbled, the acoustics of the room carrying it to their ears.

"I'm not the one eating floor right now, Ms. Adel," Professor Uzumaki rolled his eyes as he removed his foot and let go of her arm. His demonstration now over, the professor placed his normal hand and his bandaged one in his pockets. "Your assignment today is to identify the weaknesses of your own fighting style and find out how you would exploit them in another. Knowing how to attack your own faults is the first step to defending against them."

Those parting words were the end of Professor Uzumaki's lecture. The students began to filter out of the classroom and the three of them made room as they shuffled past the crowds and to the side of the class. Naruto's eyes found the three of them as soon as they entered. Trained vision saw three people going against the flow and immediately marked them.

He did not broach a conversation with them until all of his students had left the classroom. Neither did he delay once they had. "Team One… mostly. What can I do for you today?"

"We're sorry to bother you, Professor. We hope you're not busy."

"It's fine," Professor Uzumaki waved off Weiss' concern. Pyrrha could tell he didn't care for it. Something they had in common. "So it's about Jaune then?"

The professor suggested it with a casual certainty that had Pyrrha taken aback. "How did you know?"

"Come on. All three members of his team come to see me at the same time? Without him?" The professor laughed. "I think you'd need a neon sign to be more obvious." The professor walked over to his desk on the stage and hooked the chair with his leg. He tossed it up and caught it with his hand before walking over to the front row of student desks. Seating himself in front of the desk, Professor Uzumaki gestured for them to take a seat. "Now… what specifically are you looking for from me?"

Pyrrha took the offered seat feeling slightly on edge. Professor Uzumaki always made her feel that way. He was always kind, respectful, and welcoming whenever anyone approached him. Always polite. Yet Pyrrha always felt a chill when he showed that purposefully sunny demeanor. It felt like the professor's entire being was as manufactured as her stage smile.

"We were hoping you might offer us some insight, Professor," Weiss started. Once again nominating herself as the de facto leader of their group. "Our team has had some teething problems."

Professor Uzumaki chuckled but there was little mirth in it. "Most teams do, Ms. Schnee. Most of those teams don't then try to replace their leader at the first bite."

Pyrrha tried her best not to look smug as Weiss floundered, likely doing a poor job at it. Thankfully, Weiss' focus was on the professor. "W-well… that was a mistake on my part, I admit. Jaune and I had a frank discussion in which we rectified that issue. I admitted I was hasty in my actions and did not want him to believe I thought him unworthy of the position he was given."

"Hmmm?"

"It is simply that…" Weiss paused as she searched for the words. "While I have accepted Jaune as the leader of Team One, I do not believe he has accepted the role himself."

Pyrrha sighed and stayed silent. Weiss had articulated her thoughts perfectly. She'd left out the part where she acknowledged it was probably her swift rejection of Jaune's leadership that stole his confidence out from under him in the first place. Bringing that up now wouldn't help the conversation, so Pyrrha reluctantly pursed her lips.

"Hmmm…" The professor hummed again. "I can't say I see things the same way. It looks the exact opposite to me, actually."

"How?" Blake spoke up.

The professor sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Really not my place to be talking about his business," Professor Uzumaki paused, deliberated briefly, and then shrugged. "Let's talk about something else."

"Professor, I really don't-"

"If we were to rate the first-years' combat ability on a scale of one through ten, where do you think you'd be, Pyrrha?" The professor interrupted Weiss and turned to her. His eyes had that same quality they always seemed to have whenever he looked at her. It felt like he was silently judging her. "One being the weakest student and ten being the strongest."

Pyrrha didn't want to talk about this. They'd come to find a way to help Jaune and their team. Even though she didn't want to, something about the professor compelled her to speak. "Probably a nine, a nine-point-"

"You're the ten with a bullet and you know it," Professor Uzumaki silenced her. He'd interrupted Weiss, but this felt completely different. He'd ignored Weiss to speak. His piercing blue eyes were not ignoring her. "Your false modesty is part of your team's problem. Though it is only a small part," Naruto admitted. "I'd put Weiss somewhere around an eight; losing to both yourself and Yang. Blake is a seven and a half. Maybe a seven. Hard to say since her fighting style seems more geared towards fighting humans than grimm. I do sometimes spectate my colleague's class."

His words left Blake slightly shell-shocked while Weiss ground her teeth together in grudging agreement. Had the professor ever watched their fights? Pyrrha couldn't say she remembered seeing him in Professor Goodwitch's classroom before.

As it stood, the impetus was on Pyrrha to speak, lest the professor continue to derail their conversation further off the tracks. "I understand why you would say so. However, we came to talk about-"

"Jaune," The professor interrupted her. And this time it felt like an interruption with the smallest of smug smiles that twitched on his lips. "Where would you place Jaune?"

"Excuse me?"

"One through ten," The professor asked airily. "Jaune Arc, leader of Team One. If one is the weakest of the first years and ten is you, where would you place Jaune?"

Was Professor Uzumaki intentionally trying to irritate her? His every word felt smug and condescending like he was looking down on them, his tone containing a message his words did not. You really don't get it? Really?

"I believe that Jaune has been improving since his admittance to Beacon," Weiss stepped back into the conversation. "He may not be the strongest student, but-"

"He's the weakest," The professor damned his pupil with the title with a casual shrug that made Pyrrha's blood boil. "You all know it. He knows it. Everyone in your class knows it. I can assure you that Professor Goodwitch knows it. Jaune takes one with a bigger bullet than Pyrrha takes ten."

Pyrrha rushed to her leader's defense. "He's training with you every day! He's doing everything he can!"

The professor didn't respond and Pyrrha couldn't find anything in his mute expression. Nothing about the man made sense. Did Professor Uzumaki care about Jaune? Did he not? She'd spent her entire life growing up around people wearing masks. Reporters, aristocrats, sponsors, all of them hiding their intentions to further their agenda. Learning to identify those motives had been essential to avoid being taken advantage of. And yet here she sat, guessing Professor Uzumaki's motives without so much as an inkling.

What did he want?

This is what happens when you lie, Jaune. Naruto grumbled silently.

He'd known that Team One would go through growing pains when he made Jaune leader. When he'd first arrived at Beacon, he'd requested permission for Jaune's attendance from the headmaster. 'Request' was likely too polite a term; strong-armed fit better. Remnant was in dire straits and both he and the headmaster knew it. A little showing off in a rather forcibly arranged interview had been all Naruto needed to ensure the terms of his employment were of his own design. One of said terms had been Jaune's enrollment.

In what should have been an impossible twist of fate, his efforts would have been nothing more than a waste of bargaining power. Jaune had actually managed to gain enrollment to Beacon on his own merits.

… Which was impossible.

Which meant whatever transcripts he had were forgeries.

From there, it didn't take much to figure out the nature of the cloud hanging over Team One. Naruto didn't even need that much to put it together. Because frankly, it wasn't that hard of a puzzle. Jaune didn't feel worthy of leading his team and the other three couldn't manage to fix their issues without him. Naruto thought the issue would be open and shut when he'd talked to Weiss and Jaune to set things straight.

Nope. Still a huge fucking problem. Apparently. Somehow.

"He's training with you every day! He's doing everything he can!"

Training with Kurama, technically. Naruto amended the redhead's words in his head. Both Weiss and Blake seemed to rally behind Pyrrha's declaration. The three of them were remarkably in sync on this issue for being as fractured as they claimed to be. While he wasn't sure what Pyrrha's issue with Weiss was, Blake's was a little more on the nose.

Hidden under a bow or not, aura still flowed to her ears. Her other ears.

Part of him was interested in the biological aspect of it. Two sets of working ears? Did the animal ears hear better? If so, was there a difference in sound quality? Maybe not. Maybe it was more of a difference of perceptive range. He'd been tempted to ask the girl on more than one occasion.

Not a topic to address at the present. There wasn't really all that much to talk about in his opinion. Jaune's attitude had started to make a shift since they'd met. That didn't mean the man himself would transform inside a month. He was actually impressed by Kurama's estimation of how diligently the boy had been training. Kurama had tried to push Jaune to consult with his team more and it looked like he'd understood.

And now I'm stalling by reflecting. Naruto admitted boredly. That was his attitude towards this whole affair. The teachers didn't expect teams to be teams yet. That was why the first real mission wouldn't be until the second semester. Team One was likely comparing themselves to Team Rain. Comparing a team with a faunus, a fraud, a champion, and an SDC heiress to a team like RRYN is not doing them any favors. RRYN has no social friction while it's Team One's brick and mortar.

More reflecting. More stalling. He'd only taken twenty seconds to process all of that, but that wasn't the issue. Naruto wanted to wrap this conversation up because it was a type of tedium he had little patience for. He'd have been much more sympathetic if most of this wasn't spawned from Jaune's lies to his team. That wasn't the fault of the three girls, obviously. But a closet faunus butting heads with the SDC heiress she'd closed the book on within a minute of meeting and a champion fighter who couldn't take combat seriously most certainly were. Weiss' candied niceties looked to have worn.

One of those offences bothered him far more than the other two. Pyrrha Nikos was looking at him with righteous indignation on behalf of Kurama's little liar. Funny that she sparked similar emotion in himself.

"Then what can I do for you?" Naruto asked. "You say Jaune is training hard to catch up with you all and I agree. If you came here asking how to deal with your team issues then my advice is patience. Jaune is doing what he believes to be in his team's best interests. If you disagree then my advice would be to talk to him."

Blake shook her head. "He runs off to your training every time we bring up anything involving the team."

"Then corner him."

"He doesn't want to talk about it," Pyrrha almost glared at him. She was too polite and reserved to be that aggressive towards an educator. "We were hoping you could tell us why. Or at least point us in the right direction."

Naruto held his tongue and sat down on the stage behind him, putting a bit more distance between him and the girls. Jaune's secrets were not his to give regardless of whether or not he agreed with the boy's keeping of them. Sometimes teams had their secrets. It wasn't like Team Seven had started off thick as thieves. They'd bonded over missions with their lives on the line. Fighting superior opponents had a way of-

"Ah," The sound escaped Naruto's lips as the thought crossed his mind. It was an idea far more reckless than he'd usually have. He'd grown used to the luxury of time as an immortal. Not this time. "Jaune's business is his own… though it is still possible for me to help where I can."

His particular phrasing left Pyrrha with doubts written on her face. She was right to. Weiss had no such reservations. "We would appreciate any aid you could provide, Professor."

At that moment, Naruto could have easily pulled off a snigger that his teenage self would be proud of. He fought the tempting impulse. "We had a teamwork building exercise where I come from that I would be willing to help Team One through. It is combat related and there is danger involved…" He let the words hang in the air for a moment. "That being said, it helped my own team begin to come together when I was an academy student."

"Then we would be honored to follow in your footsteps, Professor."

Weiss is such a kissass. Naruto felt exhausted by merely listening to all her pomp. It made him want to spring his trap then and there. He did not. While Pyrrha and Blake had not disagreed, neither had they given their consent. They needed to make their own choices in a situation such as this.

"I'll offer one last warning; this is not a simple task. I passed with my team only barely and it was by no means a painless experience. There is risk involved in this exercise. It may have helped make my team and many others, but even more teams were broken by it. If all three of you are not individually determined, you will fail."

He couldn't give it to them plainer than that. Some might have called him harsh knowing what he intended to do. Naruto would happily let them. The girls of Team One had potential; the kind of potential to be more than huntresses. Experience was what let Naruto see that. He'd been a hero, he'd trained heroes, and he knew what kind of person fit the bill.

None of them.

And that was something Beacon couldn't afford.

The three girls looked at each other. They didn't converse with words. Determined expressions and nods were shared before they turned back to him having reached their resolution. Even the previously doubtful Pyrrha having been brought on board.

"I wish to see our team succeed," Pyrrha answered.

"We all wish to see our team succeed," Weiss added with a slight scowl.

Blake didn't chime in. She gave him the same nod she'd given her teammates. All three had made their decision and he had no intention of giving their fourth man the luxury of choice. It was mostly Jaune's fault he was mucked up in all of this, after all. He'd make sure they all shaped up enough that they wouldn't bother him with crap like this again.

Failing that, he'd have to settle for none of them bothering him for the next year.

Naruto's lips cracked into a toothy grin. It had been a while since he'd done this. "Then I'll see all of Team One bright and early tomorrow. Sunrise, the cliffs, be there," He delivered his instructions simply. Putting his hands on his knees and pushing himself up, Naruto rose from the stage and turned away from them. "I'll make sure the other professors know that you'll be excused from classes for the day."

The girls started whispering behind him, diving into an eager discussion. Why were they being excused from classes? What would they be doing? Naruto didn't notice, already wrapped up in his own thoughts and memories.

One in particular came to the forefront. "There's something I forgot to mention," Naruto said without turning to face them.

"Yes, Professor?"

"Make sure you skip breakfast."

Saying I'm completely happy with this chapter would be a lie. I kept beating around the bush on how to make this chapter feel more interesting and that led to far too long of me not completing it. As it is, it serves as a transitory chapter that sets up many things and has some pacing issues. I'll probably look back to this in the grand scheme of the story and look for what specifically I'd change to improve it, but it will serve for now.

Until next time.