Of Ice, a naruto fanfic

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, or Spirited away.

Once upon a time… there was a girl. Her name was Chihiro. She had gone into the dark forests near their home with her parents. But it wasn't long before the three of them had gotten lost deep within this forest. Still, the continued walking, hoping to find a way out. Soon they came across a shrine. The entrance of this shrine was a dark tunnel carved in rock… Trying to still their fears they entered the tunnel in hopes if finding someone to help them.

On the other side of the tunnel they found a beautiful field full of flowers. Chihiro was excited by this and immediately ran off, playing happily in the field while her parents watched and smiled. At the top of the hill they saw the lights of a town and her parents quickly made their way towards it while Chihiro followed playfully behind them.

When they entered the town they saw no-one around, but everything was so full of life that it appeared they'd been there only moments before. They were all tired and very hungry and when they saw that nobody was around, they walked into a restaurant on the side of the street. Steaming hot trays of yakatori lay splayed out on the table before them and their stomachs growled. Chihiro felt strangely uncomfortable and the empty town worried her immensely. Where had all the people gone? Why was the food hot and the lights bright? Something wasn't right… She called for her parents to stop as they reached for the food but the two ignored her…

Suddenly… she started seeing movement all around her… There were people… but they weren't alive… They were spirits. Crying in fear she rushed over to her parents to stop them, but it was too late. Her parents had joined the spirits and she could no longer touch them, just as they could no longer see or hear her. She tried and tried with all her might to catch their attention, but they continued to eat, intent on their food and taking part in the conversation around them… They were lost to her.

The girl felt horrified and alone and more then once she wondered whether she shouldn't join her parents in eating the food… but, when the morning light came and the spirits faded away, her parents went along with them and she truly was alone. She wandered through the town, helpless and alone, hoping to find her way home… but then…

Out of nowhere two cloaked figures approached her… Their faces were hidden in the depths of the folds, but she could see their horribly shining eyes staring at her, freezing her soul. She felt cold… so cold… and then she knew nothing more…

The Kyuubi fought against the Seiryuu with all his might, the fight locking in a stalemate at best. The destruction to the surrounding area was devastating, especially to the village of the hidden leaf. The fourth Hokage stood atop the giant toad with the children in his arms. A newborn black haired girl and a newborn blond haired boy. Placing them at his feet, the girl to his right and the boy to his left he looked up at the two monsters locked in mortal combat. They had tried pleading with them to take the fight elsewhere. They'd tried forcing them to take their fight elsewhere and in the process lost many of their nin. He knew that he was taking a gamble… but he also knew that if they didn't stop the two titans his people would cease to exist and his world would cease to exist not long after. It had to be done. Lifting his hands he started to go through a series of hand-seals which the nin used to manipulate 'chakra'. A mixture of spirit and life. "Forgive me…", he mumbled as he finished the last hand-seal and his soul was ripped from his body and dragged down to hell. The two new-borns glowed brightly… The blond boy glowed red as the area around him started to shimmer… The Kyuubi-no-kitsune became incorporeal and with agonizing screeches of deep seated torment that would haunt the people for an eternity it faded from existence. Meanwhile the black-haired girl glowed a sharp cobalt blue as Seiryuu became incorporeal as well… With a deafening roar that shook the earth and a deathly cold glare at the disappearing kitsune he too faded from existence… In the aftermath… there was only a shocked silence. Two anbu appeared and picked up the children and then disappeared in a puff of smoke.

I looked up at the woman who entered the room… Her face was that of pure malicious hatred. I smiled softly at her as I held the pure white rose out to her. This was no ordinary rose. It was white from its petals to its stem and thorns. It was a rose made purely of ice. She looked at me in disgust and swiped at my hand making the rose fall to the floor and shatter. From the shattered pieces of the rose came a soft white mist the filled the small area it had fallen… The woman was covered in the mist before she could even move… When it dissipated a pure white woman was left in her place.

I smiled, even as tears streamed down my face.

I was sitting on the edge of the frozen river in the soft, wet snow. My body was cold and I didn't think I could move anymore. Still… that soft smile was frozen on my face. I looked up and noticed a young boy standing in the snow next to me. I smiled at him… He smiled back… I held out a white rose to him and he gently took it from my hand. For the first time… since I can even remember… my smile became true. Slowly the rose melted and a beautiful red color. He tucked the rose in his hair and held out his hand… I took it.

Zabuza Momochi, demon of the mist. My master. To me this was entirely the opposite. Only Haku could be my master. He was the only one that held the flower of my heart, tucked safely in his hair. Over the years, the flower had no withered and died, like any normal flower should have. Instead, it stayed its bright red color and Haku never removed it, even when Zabuza had commented on how soft it made him look.

Today was the first day Zabuza would take me with him and Haku on a mission. Lately, it mostly consisted of stealing precious documents for less than honorable people, which he left up to Haku. His tool. He had always been harsh on us and never relented in our training. While Haku excelled in tai-jitsu and quite a few nin-jitsu… his true power came from his blood-line which held the ability to create and manipulate ice. Strangely enough, I held the very same ability, but used it in an entirely different way. I preferred to move quietly and found my main strengths to be in stealth abilities, which included spying and stealing… This is why I had been chosen to join them on this particular mission. We were to infiltrate the compound of a group of men that opposed our employers. If it was any consolation, both were made up of less than perfect people, a trade which Zabuza liked to deal in. He particularly loved turning two groups on each other and watch them tear each other apart from the sidelines, as long as he got paid. Of course… a lot of the money mysteriously disappeared after the bloody battles.

Outside the compound we stopped and crouched low within the shadows. My eyes scanned the darkened areas, my ears pricked for the slightest of sounds. There was nothing. I looked over to Zabuza and waited for his signal… Holding up five fingers he indicated that I had five minutes and then waved me in. With swift, quick movements I scaled a tree, using my charka and leapt over the fence, keeping my eyes and ears open for anything. My training wouldn't have been at all sufficient if we had been infiltrating a ninja compound, but this was nothing of the sort. They were just normal, money hungry thugs.

Swiftly and quietly I landed on a rooftop. I knew Zabuza was getting tired of these kind of missions and wanted to fight someone worthy of his strengths… which is why we would probably be leaving for the country of the mist soon. My home… Where I grew up in near-poverty in that god-forsaken hell hole they called a orphanage. The place where I'd made my first kill… I'd only been with Haku and Zabuza for four years now… I was eleven… Haku was fourteen. Flying through the air again and landing softly on the roof of another building… I didn't want to go back there… To the place where they'd stared at me with such cold hatred… Where I'd been beaten and almost raped… They deserved what they got really… I wanted them all to die… they should be dead already… My cold thoughts turned to the orphaned children who'd been just as abused as I was and for a moment, shame filled me and I felt like throwing up. I shook the emotions away and turned my full attention to the mission at hand.

Finally I spotted the office I was supposed to break into. There were three entry points… The ventilation system, the windows or the doors. The ventilation system seemed the easiest entry point so I landed quietly on the roof and removed the grating. Thinking about how weak and ignorant these 'normal' people were, I used a transformation jitsu to change into a small black cat and slipped inside. Inside the office I took my original form and quickly and glanced around.

Behind a bookshelf I found a hidden safe, deciding to forgo picking the lock due to my time constraints, I held my hand to the small gap between the safe and it's door. Slowly white crystals started to form until they quickly covered the entire right side of the door… They expanded ever so slowly, until there was a sharp metallic crack. I glanced around, hoping no-one had heard the sound as I pulled open the safe. I grimaced a little when I noticed I'd damaged some of the papers. Hopefully nothing important. Taking the manilla envelope and the two binders, I paused only to tuck the extra jewels and money into my clothes as I stashed the important stuff away in a satchel. Suddenly the door burst open and I nearly froze in place… but instincts drilled into me due to years of working with Zabuza drove me upwards and I was in the vents before anyone knew I'd even been there.

Soon I was out on the roof, running as an alarm went off. I leapt and landed quietly on another roof as spotlights lit up and started sweeping the compound frantically. Thankfully I easily judged their movements and moved at broken intervals to keep out of the light. Finally I landed next to Haku and Zabuza. Before I could even blink Zabuza struck me down hard. "You failed.", he stated bluntly and walked off. Haku quickly picked me up, comforting me a little as he placed me on his back and trotting after the bastard.

The girl awoke to a horrible site. Before her lay an enormous castle with dark clouds at its highest peaks. The very sight of it made her fear for her life… Still, as she looked behind her, the cloaked beings stood silently between her and the town she could go nowhere but forwards. So, firming her resolve she moved bravely forwards and entered the castle doors. As she entered though it was as though something had gripped her and she was pulled through a freighting array of passages until she slammed into a closed door. Lying there on the floor she looked up as she heard the door creek slowly open. There before her stood a horrible hag, what she'd imagined a witch would look like… and she was right, for this was a witch.

The horrible old woman beckoned her closer. For a moment she didn't know what to do, but then she bravely took a step forwards. "Where are my parents?", she answered, "Give them back to me…" The witch laughed, "You are in no position to make any demands child…", said the witch smirking. "How about we make a deal…", she said with a grin. "I'll give you your parents, if you give me your name." To Chihiro this didn't seem so bad so after some consideration she nodded her head. Just as she was about to speak though, the witch held out a piece of paper, indicating that she write it. Taking up a quill she did just that and wrote out her name, "Chihiro." She handed the paper back to the old hag and if anything the woman's smile seemed to broaden. She waved her hands over the paper and the last letters on her name seemed to float up into the air and land in the hag's open palm. She looked evilly at the girl, "Your name is now Chi… and you belong to me." Beneath her the floor suddenly opened and she found herself falling. When she finally came to an abrupt stop she found herself sitting in an room with a big roaring fire. Small creatures picked up pieces of coal and dumped them into the fire while an eight legged man sat pulling leavers this way and that. "Umm… Hello?", she said… but the man didn't seem to notice her. "He won't talk to you.", came a voice from behind her and she spun around to see her beautiful boy. "Haku's the name.", he said with a smile.

"My-my name's… Chi-", she stopped trying to remember her name, but it wouldn't come to her… it had faded away on the morning mist. "Don't tell me she got you too?" "Got me?", asked the girl. "Yes, that old woman. If you give your name to her she takes part of it away and you become hers as long as you can't remember your full name." "Really?", she asked, astonished that such a power existed in the world. Her parents had always taught her to be a logical, straight forward girl, but even now she couldn't even begin to fathom the trouble she was in. "How can someone take part of your name?" "In this world, a name is your connection to yourself. If you allow someone to take it, your own image becomes distorted and you will be stuck in this world forever." The girl was horrified at this realization. She would never see her home or her parents ever again. She cried and cried in the arms of the boy she'd only just met and slowly fell asleep.

With a weary sigh I sank down onto the soft ground. Zabuza had managed to get in contact with a ruthless man who had would stop at nothing to feed his greed. In the past few years he'd managed to take over the hidden mist and turn it into noting more than a dilapidated town with starving citizens who's only hope lay in a savior that would not come. His orders were to assassinate a man named Tazuna who was building a bridge to help the people escape Gato's control. The "demon brothers" had already failed in their task and Zabuza would soon go forth and face the man and his bodyguards on his own.

The people of the town desperately needed the bridge if they were gonna survive in the near future but Zabuza wasn't the type to care. In the back of my mind I knew that Haku did care about the people and what they went through and somehow… I found myself caring as well. As Haku and Zabuza went forth to confront the people I found myself in town among the children.

The girl's life was filled with menial chores consisting of cooking, cleaning and washing. She wasn't really good at any of these tasks and was constantly threatened and lectured at her inadequate work. One day, while she was working back in the coal room with the eight armed man though, she heard a mourning cry. A white dragon with greenish blue hair suddenly slammed the window open at the top of the room and came barreling in. She noticed that it was hurt and bleeding, so when it crashed to the floor unconscious she approached it slowly, hoping that it didn't bite. She was shocked though when the dragon suddenly started changing and he took the for of Haku, the beautiful boy she'd met when she'd first come to the castle. She hadn't seen him in a very long time due to all the work she'd needed to do and now here he was lying in front of her, bleeding and hurt. She was panicked and didn't know what to do until a long arm pushed lightly at her shoulder and she looked up to see the eight armed man holding a bottle of clear liquid out to her. Grabbing it quickly, she cradled Haku's head and poured a little into his mouth. He gulped it down tiredly and opened his eyes a little, smiling his soft smile at Chi. "Sorry… Just a little errand I had for the old woman.", he said painfully before he drifted off to sleep. Chi noticed that the cuts on his body was closing up and smiled in relief as Haku slept more comfortably.

I waited in the hut and watched as Haku dressed Zabuza's wounds and tended to him diligently. A small tinge of jealousy quaked within me but I squashed it brutally as I turned my back on the two and walked back towards the village. "Oneesan!", cried the children as they gathered around me.

The old witch had a twin sister. A very kind person who lived on her own outside of town with only a living lamp, a butterfly and large oak door to keep her company. The old witch hated her twin sister though and had done everything she could to make the old woman's life miserable. Haku knew this and hoped the woman would be able to help Chi, so when he was better he took Chi to the old woman's house. She road through the sky on Haku's back feeling the wind tug softly on her hair as she clutched tightly to the dragon. But they hadn't gotten very far when Haku had started to grow tired because he wasn't used to carrying the extra weight. When they reached the bridge that lead out of town they landed on the ground and Chi slipped off his back. Haku was so tired he could barely move, but told her to go on without him. Looking back at Haku and telling him to stay safe she quickly ran over the bridge and into the fields… The woman Haku had described wasn't there though neither was the living lamp or the oak door. Instead, all she found in the field was a small pink butterfly. "Please help me…", she pleaded the butterfly and tearfully related her story. But the butterfly didn't know what to do. Instead it just fluttered around the flowers, drinking their nectar before flying off to the witch's twin sister to relate the girl's story.

The girl sat alone on the bridge and waited and waited and before long she saw the witch's twin sister flying in the sky, the oak door and the butterfly right behind her. The lamp was nowhere to be seen though and the night was rolling in. A loud screech from behind her caught her attention and she turned to see the witch with Haku following behind sadly. The witch glared at her twin sister… "Today, one of us will die.", she said as she ordered Haku to attack. Haku's way was blocked by the oak door and he was forced to back down for a moment. Haku glanced apologetically at the girl as he wrapped himself around the oak door, intending to crush it. "Chi! Attack the butterfly!", shouted the witch and Chi had no choice but to comply. The old witch still had half of her name and she couldn't do anything to stop what was happening.

She tried to catch the butterfly while the witch and her twin sister attacked each other with their magic. The oak door let out a moaning creek as it's wood cracked under the pressure when suddenly, out of nowhere the lamp appeared. Letting it's fire burn brightly it touched Haku, who howled and backed away. But suddenly Haku looked up and saw the witch's twin sister holding her arm, as lighting cracked around them. He knew that if the evil witch died then Chi would never know her real name and she would never see her parents again. If her let the evil witch die though, everyone in the town would be saved. He chose to save Chi… He jumped in front of the evil witch, just as her twin used magic to cast lighting towards her sister. Haku took the blow and fell to the ground. Tearfully Chi rushed to him and held him tight, "Don't die Haku… I remember, I remember your name!", she cried into his chest, "You're the Haku river.", she said quietly, "I remember when I lost my shoe when I was little… I fell into you and almost drowned, but you saved me… You even gave me back my shoe.", she said, almost laughing through her tears… "Don't die!" Behind them… the whole town of ghosts stood and watched.

"Wait Onee-chan! What happened?!" "Yeah! Did Haku die?!" I looked Sakura right in the eyes, "We'll just have to wait and see, won't we?"

Later that week I stood on the bridge looking sadly at the bodies of the unconscious builders strewn around me. I'd taken care of things before Zabuza arrived in hopes he at least wouldn't kill them. I looked up to see the shocked faces of Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke and looked behind me to see Haku and Zabuza. "So we finally meet again Kakashi. This time I'll win." "Don't be so sure Zabuza." "Haku, attack.", ordered Zabuza. Sasuke stepped forwards in challenge and Haku rushed at him. The fight was quick, but easy to follow as they attacked and defended with quick movements… Haku was just a little to slow though and was kicked right in the chest. "Thought you were faster, huh?", grinned Sasuke. "Looks like you're getting soft Haku. Stop playing around and finish him.", said Zabuza with a grin. Haku nodded and started forming hand-seals. Out of nowhere ice-mirrors appeared and formed a dome around Sasuke trapping him inside. "Chi! Take care of the girl!", shouted Zabuza. I looked towards Sakura and smiled, "Sorry about this." I attacked, though only using my tai-jitsu, which I have to admit, still sucked. Sakura and I were pretty much evenly matched in that department, though maybe I held a bit of the upper hand.

Out of nowhere Naruto appeared, loudly and valiantly and broke through the ice mirrors which quickly repaired behind him, trapping him inside with Sasuke. I ignored the screams coming from inside and kept my attention on Sakura. To my disappointment though, she was distracted by Sasuke's scream and I kicked her in the jaw sending her flying. An enormous amount of charka washed over the bridge and a mirror shattered as the rest dissolved. Seeing the blue charka shining through the mist I knew immediately what was gonna happen. Haku appeared in front of Zabuza before Kakashi struck and I appeared in front of Haku.

"And you are Chihiro.", said Haku, as tears filled his eyes, painfully clutching Chi's hand. In the end, she did get to see her parents again…

The end :)