White Snow (NarutoxRosario)
Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction, all the characters' designs, called names and places mentioned belong to their respective owners.
=[White Snow]=
Prologue
"It's kind of pretty," a blond-haired young man admitted wholly while standing ankle deep in snow and bathing in the morning sunlight, which trickled and glimmered through the frosty and crispy air, leaden with icy particles and flakes. The unending and unyielding winter climate had bothered him when he'd first found himself battered and bleeding amidst the snow half a decade ago, but now, it was more like a mere inconvenience.
As he, whose eyes were that of deep oceanic color, continued to relish in the atmosphere he had grown accustomed to, a silver-haired woman with reflective blue eyes made her presence known. "Are you not cold, Naruto?"
The blond, now known as Naruto, paid the kimono-attired woman the required attention before arching his head forwards and completed a courteous bow. "Yes, it is cold, Shirayuki-san, but the cold no longer hindered me like it once did," he said before he opened one hand and raised it towards her, allowing the numerous descending frosty flakes to decent upon his palm as a demonstration. The moment they came in contact with his skin, they burst and erupted into a superheated steam.
"That is good to know," Shirayuki responded with a thin smile. Her eyes wandered over the blond for a moment before she spoke up again. "Now that you are fully healed, will you be leaving?"
"It's sad to know that you're so eager to get rid of me, Shirayuki-san," Naruto said with a rather amused expression. When he noted her blanked face, he dropped his expression and drawled in a long and deep breath before shaking his head firmly.
"The gateway to the place I came from cannot be opened with my power alone," Naruto explained and pointed an index finger at the cloudy sky. "There might be a small chance I can open it, but that is only when the sun and moon are perfectly aligned with the planet."
Shirayuki looked at the sky, trying to see beyond the shrouding winter mists and clouds. She wondered when there would be a full eclipse, but that wasn't her immediate concern. Her heart-broken daughter was. "I will not stop you from wishing to return back to your world, but will you see her one last time before you leave?"
Naruto matched the woman's gaze as she refocused her attention back upon him. "I'm cannot promise you that, Shirayuki-san. I'm afraid I might hurt your daughter more if I already do."
"So you do still care for my daughter even after you refuse to pick Snow Whites with her," Shirayuki said with a glimmer of hope in her eyes. "Why did you refuse?"
"I… I was ignorance of what picking Snow Whites with another person symbolized," Naruto said before sighing. What he just told her sounded far too much like an excuse even though it was true.
– Prologue –
"Wow, your tails are so fluffy," the twelve year old child had claimed as she gripped tightly on one of his nine tails. She was the one who had found him unconscious upon the crimson dyed snow in one of her treasure hunts, and even in her panicked state, she managed to construct an icy sled in order to bring him back home so her mother could nurse him back to health.
That was almost a month ago.
"I have never noticed," Naruto asserted before he wrapped one of his tails around the purpled-haired child with bright blue eyes and lifted her up onto his bed as his hands and legs were completely useless at the moment. "I might have said before, but thank you for helping me, Mizore-chan."
"You're welcome, Naruto-chan," Mizore responded with a broad smile. She was still gripping onto one of his tails tightly like a soft and cozy teddy bear. "What kind of monster are you?"
Naruto was a bit speechless at the question. "Monster…?" he murmured lowly as he examined the girl before pursing his lips with a slight disapproval. He did not like to be called a monster as there were real monsters in the world; the kind that would slaughter woman and children in the name of their twisted justice and pride. "If you mean what kind of Youkai I am, then I am a Kyuubi – a nine tailed fox."
"Kyuubi… a nine tailed fox…" Mizore muttered. She appeared to be thoughtful before jabbing her index finger at him. "Ah! So you're a Youko!"
"Youko…? Yes, I am," Naruto acknowledged. He understood that Youko were simply a loosely used term for classes of spirit fox. There were many different types, classes, and branches of Kitsune just like every other race, but even so, they were descended of the same bloodline – the Kyuubi.
"I have never seen a Youko before," Mizore said. "Kaa-san said there are only a handful of them left."
Naruto frowned thinly at the knowledge. An extinction of a species, especially those that related to his kind was, was a terrible thing. "By the way, what kind of Youkai are you, Mizore-chan?"
"I'm a Yuki-Onna," Mizore answered as she raised both of her hands, which were now covered entirely in ice, taking a shape of a claw.
Naruto shivered at the rapid drop in ambient temperature. He had no problem with the cold if it was natural, but unnatural ice was laced with supernatural energy; the kind of energy that counteracted with his own power, leading towards mutual destruction. "Snow women huh," he said as he patted the small girl upon her head with another tails. "You still have a long way to go in the chest area."
Mizore tilted her head questioningly before nodded rapidly. "I will be a true Yuki-Onna in a few more years, and when I am of age, Kaa-san said I have to find a boy to join me in picking Snow Whites or something very bad will happen."
"Something bad will happen?" Naruto questioned and pondered what it was. He asked Mizore, but she did not know either. "Well, for saving me, I will help you pick Snow Whites if you can't find a boy to go with you. That way, nothing bad will happen to you, right?"
"You will?" Mizore asked while widening her eyes.
"Yes, I will. It's a promise," Naruto said as he mustered his strength to lift his hand for a pinky swear. He truly did not understand what he was promising to. Snow Whites was a special kind of flower that only lovers were allowed to harvest.
– Prologue –
"If I had known what it was, I would have never – " Naruto had enough realization to abruptly stop. "I'm sorry, Shirayuki-san. I shouldn't have said that."
"What do you mean exactly?" Shirayuki asked. From the years she watched the blond bonded with her daughter, she understood there was a deep seeded pride within him. It stemmed from the proudness and faith he placed in his own race. "Is my daughter not good enough for your kind? Are we not good enough? And I'm not talking about the form you have showed us."
"I did not say that," Naruto responded and placed his palm upon the deep scar near his heart. It was a reminder for what discrimination could bring. He, along with many of his friends and comrades, had sacrificed much for the future of every species; a future of mutual understandings and common goals.
Naruto heaved his chest. "You knew that I wasn't a full blooded Kyuubi?"
"I speculated," Shirayuki claimed. She felt his demonic aura wasn't completely that of a Youkai. It was a mixture of another aura, but from her personal experience, he did not feel like a hybrid. "I do not know why you are hiding your true form, but I believed you must have your reason. What I wanted to know is whether your form was the reason why you refuse my daughter."
"Nothing really gets pass you, Shirayuki-san," Naruto admitted as the air around him wavered as if it was being roasted at an exceedingly high temperature. It was to the point that numerous sparks manifested in midair like miniature fireworks while the snow beneath his feet erupted into dense steam, obscuring his body entirely.
Due to the massive thermal energy radiating from him, Shirayuki was having difficulty in breathing as her race, Yuki-Onna, was weak against any form of heat. She felt as if she was standing in an oven, which was set to overcook, while the golden light emanating from the mist bathed her body and surrounding.
"This is only a glimpse of my true form," Naruto said after a moment. "You must understand that fire and ice cannot melt together, and if we try, the end result won't be pretty."
"You don't believe that," Shirayuki-san claimed as she panted heavily. She had evidently seen the both of them touching hands without any visible sign of distress. She even urged them to explore each other in more detail, but that yield no result.
"Do you know, Naruto? It has been half a year since you moved out, yet never actually left the village so you have attachment here. And most of that time, all Mizore ever did was locked herself up in your old room, waiting and hoping for you to come back, day in and day out. I do not know what you told her, but she wouldn't talk to anyone. She wouldn't say anything to me for months. When I managed to get her out of the house, she was… no longer herself."
Naruto narrowed his eyes as the swirling steam began to thin. He suppressed his aura and power once more, allowing the chilling wind to enter the area to cool down. "Her cheerful self will return eventually. She will forget about me and find someone; someone who could make her happy; someone she could love and spend the rest of her life with."
Shirayuki managed to control her breathing as the surrounding temperature dropped sharply, returning the feeling of endless and unyielding winter. The temperature regulating candy in her mouth was used up completely. "I am curious at how you could generate that much heat, yet your heart remained ice cold." She shook her head. "Mizore never had any friends when she was growing up. You were her only friend, and I believed she is also your only friend in this place. Is the time you spent together amounted to nothing?"
Naruto closed and rubbed his eyes for a brief moment. It was more complicated than what he had said out loud. "Can you tell me where is Mizore? No… it doesn't matter."
Shirayuki eyes flared up with a mixture of anger and frustration. He had refused to meet her daughter on multiple occasions, forcing her to see him personally. "What you mean it does not matter, how could it not matter?"
"I did not mean it like that, Shirayuki-san," Naruto said. "I do know where Mizore is, but it has been kind of difficult to pin point her exact location lately." Not hearing what the woman had to say, he vanished from sight, leaving before a tint orange color in midair.
"Kyaaa!"
Naruto did not expected Mizore to crash into him the moment he teleported to her vicinity by breaching the barrier surrounding the Youkai Academy. He held his ground as he used his arms to redirect most of her momentum while spinning her around. "Mizore…?"
"… Naruto…?" Mizore muttered weakly and lowly. Her hands gripped his robe shakily as tears pooled around her eyes. "You came back… Kaa-san said you wouldn't… and that I should find someone else… I tried… I really tried…"
"Yes. I know. Just rest for now," Naruto advised as he looked up at the one who had assaulted the only person he came to care in this world. Once Mizore fainted from her injury, fury flashed in his eyes. "Did you do this?"
The silver-haired girl, Moka, remained silence at the question. Where did the blond come from? One second ago, he wasn't here. Strangely enough, she was unable to read any aura emanating from him whatsoever. That was even more alarming. "Kurumu, Yukari… please take Tsukune away from here. He isn't someone I can take lightly."
"Moka-san?" Tsukune questioned, but Kurumu gripped his arm and pressed it against her breast.
"Let's go, Tsukune~!" Kurumu called out, trying to drag Tsukune with her.
After placing Mizore down somewhere safe, Naruto watched the silver-haired girl. He narrowed his eyes as he read her biometric field and demonic aura. He was able to determine her level. "Moka, was it? I'll give you a chance to kneel and apologize when Mizore is awake. I suggest you take it."
"Asking me to kneel to a low level Ayakashi?" Moka growled. She was a pure blooded vampire, and as such she would not kneel down to anyone. "Know your place! And stop hiding your true form."
"You want to see my true form?" Naruto chuckled. Only those he wished to kill would had the pleasure of seeing his true form. "Don't be stupid, little vampire. You would not last a single second against me if I did." He vanished before her eyes and a fraction of a second later, he whispered into her ears. "I could have killed you before you could even blink."
Moka widened her eyes at the speed he just displayed. No, it was more like he was teleporting from one point to another. That would explain how he appeared out of nowhere. And on reflex, she used one leg as a pivot to swing her body over to kick him. To her shock, her high kick was intercepted and grabbed with a single hand.
"I know my place, but do you know yours?" Naruto questioned as he increased his grip strength to steel crushing level, shattering the girl's ankle with little effort.
"Ugh!" Moka clenched her teeth as the pain shot through her leg. She tried to kick him with her other one, but her entire body was lifted up in the air before it slammed right into the earth. Blood erupted from her mouth as several of her ribs were shattered along with the ground behind her back.
– End of Prologue –