Reworked this chapter since i found loads of mistakes and wanted to make it better.
Disclaimer:- i don't own Naruto, only my OC chars.
I'm making this up as i go along so bare with me.
Prologue.
The little know Hidden Village of Ice was attacked by the Akatsuki during the retrieval of a demon container. The container was killed and the demon retrieved and the village left in ruins. The only survivors from the attack are students from the Ice-Nin academy, the only building that survived the avalanche the Akatsuki caused before the attack. Sheltered within the academy Ai, a newly gradated Genin, helps the Chuunin Sensei keep the students calm while echoes of the battle above resound through the snow intent of crushing the building
I was relieved when Haru-sensei finally cast a sleeping jutsu on the cadets. I couldn't stand the crying or hysterics.
"Kai" I muttered forming a seal, dispelling the sleeping jutsu. Haru-sensei grinned at me.
"Glad you remember how to do that" he said, then sighed and pulled himself onto the desk across from where I sat. Her wore the usual white flak jacket the Ice Chuunin wore, and his hair was bound back using his hiate-ate as a bandana.
"Could hardly forget, you used to use that all the time for exams" I said absently, tensing at the resounding boom from the snow surrounding the building.
"What's going on Haru-sensei?" I asked. He grimaced looking away from me at the window, it was reinforced with metal bars to keep the glass from breaking should there be an avalanche, right now the dense white snow was pressed up against the cracked glass straining to get in.
"The Akatsuki are attacking… they're after Suzuki" he looked down at his laced fingers. Suzuki was a demon container, he'd graduated a year before me, but I didn't really know him. "The Kage sent word to some of the other hidden villages that have interest in the Akatsuki, but it's doubtful they'll be here on time" he looked up at me, his pale blue eyes meeting my deep brown ones, he smiled sadly.
"…There's still a chance though, right?" I asked, my brow furrowing at his defeatist attitude.
"…I'm not going to lie to you Ai-san. It's likely the civilian part of the village has been destroyed during the avalanche, and the Akatsuki will be picking off any Ice-Nin that are roaming around… it's doubtful help will arrive soon enough to save anyone" he folded his arms and glared at the floor near his feet. "My duty now is to protect those I can, and at present that's you and these kids. We might be able to hold out until help arrives… but I will need your help" he sounded close to breaking and didn't look up at me still.
"I'll do anything you say Haru, you do outrank me you know" I said looking at the sleeping kids, feeling my own doubt lap at the edges of my mind. Our village wasn't strong, and wasn't famous, and we were quite happy to stay that way … but it seemed now that either everything was about to change, or shortly we were all going to die.
It was cold, but it was always cold here. I'd grown up around ice and snow my entire life, I'd learned to adapt to it. I could use my bloodline limit Ikiruchi to prevent myself freezing to death… but I'd still have to watch everyone else freeze and die if we didn't get out of here. I prowled around the darkened corridors nervously. It's possible an entrance was left exposed after the avalanche. I wasn't sure what I'd do if I found one though.
If there was an opening we could escape through to be captured and slaughtered by the Akatsuki, or we could seal it up trapping ourselves inside the academy to die slowly from cold and hunger. I grimaced to myself and paused at a cross-section of corridor glancing left, right and ahead. I flexed my hands trying to dispel the numbing cold, the heating had been shut down, either before or during the avalanche and as a result the academy was steadily getting colder. Haru-sensei had ordered the kids to huddle together after waking them from the jutsu. You couldn't sleep in this cold, you wouldn't wake up.
My thoughts turned to my brother, he was likely dead already. Pain reared up within my chest from my stomach, a horrific black void opened inside of me at the thought of loosing my only living relative. Ichiro's image slithered in front of my minds eye while my actual eyes stared dead ahead; he smiled warmly the sky was blue behind him and the sun capped the snowy mounting in the distance. I closed my eyes clenching my fists and holding my breath. I wouldn't cry… nothing is certain, he could have survived. I kept telling myself this.
I exhaled, my breathing thunderous in the silence and my breath misting into a coiling mist ahead of me, I silenced my emotions so it seemed the booming quite surrounding me was seeping into my very soul.
I filled the silence with other thoughts. Haru hadn't seen me slip out, but I knew he wouldn't come after me, he had to look after the kids. I moved and zipped up the white flak jacket I'd taken from another classroom, evidently a Chuunin had left it.
I continued going down the corridor to my right, my steps seemed to echo eerily of the walls in the seemingly deserted academy. I was nervous, and scared, but I was also a Shinobi, and Shinobi never let their emotions get the better of them… at least, not when anyone was looking.
I secured the left side of the building, finding no entrances or traces of forced entry, I reached the generator room and found nothing wrong with it, which meant it had something to do with the parts running outside the academy, which also meant there was nothing I could do about it. I sighed, and continued on my self-appointed mission walking down dark, abandoned corridors with only my echoing footsteps and shadows for company. The sounds from outside had stopped travelling through the snow, so everything had been sinisterly quiet for an hour or so… too quite. I reached the far end of the academy building and turned a corner facing the front entrance.
I stared.
The light was filtering through the snow I could see through the windows. That meant the snow was thinner here, and it also meant we were concealed. I blinked a few times, unsure about what to do. I rubbed my hands together, trying to get the feeling back, then frowned at myself, disgusted at my hesitation, I was so weak sometimes.
I dropped my arms and turned back jogging toward the classroom. I had to report to my commanding officer, namely Haru. The jogging helped to relieve some of the numbness of my body, but it was starting to bite. I slowed and decided to initiate a jutsu that relied on my bloodline limit.
"Chi Jounetsu!" I said in a harsh whisper after forming the seal. I felt my chakra flare and tingle running through my flesh. It was a weak form of Chi Jounetsu I'd regulated my charka to make it strong enough to make my blood run faster around my body making me warmer, but not strong enough to enhance my strength or make the whites of my eyes go red. I could feel my heart palpitating. Thump, thump, thump. I continued jogging, eventually reaching the classroom.
"Ai-san!" was snapped harshly as I entered. Haru had removed his jacket and given it to a group of kids to huddle under so he wore only a thick black undershirt.
"Haru-sensei, the snow seems to be thinner at the front entrance, it's a possibility we could dig our way out" I said quickly, hoping he wasn't going to shout at me, I still held that fear of my sensei even if I had graduated a week ago. He blinked and frowned.
"You were securing the perimeter?" he asked then smiled. "You used to forget to do that during training… you've really grown Ai" his smile weakened and his gaze seemed to turn inwards.
"Don't get nostalgic" I said nervously, bringing his attention back to me. "We have to plan ahead. So, should we risk going outside?" I asked nervously. Haru's gaze hardened on me then slid down to the grown and his brown furrowed in thought.
"It's been silent for sometime now, but that doesn't mean it's safe. They may have made camp… if they have they'll probably move on tomorrow morning" he said.
"So we should wait until tomorrow afternoon before emerging?" I asked hesitantly, not certain that was the right thing to do. He nodded thoughtfully.
"Yes, we'll wait… Until then we should rest" he sighed running his left hand over the back of his head and gazing at the kids huddled under his jacket. "You'll be alright sleeping with your Chi Jounetsu wont you?" he asked absently glancing in my direction. I nodded slowly.
"It will last a few hours" I said.
"Right, then you sleep for a few hours then I'll wake you up so you can keep me and these guys awake" he smirked. I rolled my eyes but smiled anyway. It was good to see Haru smirk, it showed he wasn't entirely defeated. I settled down against the wall crossing my legs. Once I woke up I'd have to keep everyone awake, if they were to fall asleep here it could prove fatal.
I clawed at the snow aggressively, Haru had fallen asleep before waking me, as had a lot of the kids. I'd ordered the others who were still awake to stay and share their body heat with those who were unconscious. Now I was alone, a scowl set on my face as I clawed at the snow, my blood leaving pinkish trails in the pristine white.
I couldn't feel it, my hands were too numb. While I was trying to rouse Haru I'd felt like screaming but kept my cool, if I alarmed the kids there was no way I could keep them under control and calm. I had to act like I knew what I was doing so they wouldn't lose it. I just hoped I wouldn't lose it
The pain lanced through the numbness and I recoiled; it felt like the fingernails were being torn from my fingers with fire heated fishing hooks. I winced, and paused for only a moment to make sure the wounds weren't serious before continuing; it hurt so much because the snow was wedging under my fingernails and damaging the nerves there.
The rest of my body was compensating for the cold with another Chi Jounetsu, but the snow was removing the heat my blood gave to my hands as quickly as my heart pounded. The pain wasn't too much of a big deal; I could overcome that, it was a part of my training after all. The thing I couldn't overcome was the need. The need drove me, the need to save Haru and the students, the need to know if Ichiro was alive or dead, the need not be the last Ice-Nin.
I heard myself sob and promptly ignored it plunging my bleeding shaking hands back into the show. Even with Chi Jounetsu increasing my strength and heating my body my hands could only hold so much snow, but I had to just keep digging. My wild white hair was damp with sweat, probably sticking up at erratic angles in spikes, and I could feel the whites of my eyes were red with blood surrounding my dark brown eyes with the desperate red. If I pushed Chi Jounetsu any further I'd rupture something.
I fell forward against the snow as my arm slipped through it into the outside world. I gasped wrenching my arm back and pulling the snow inward and behind me onto the floor of the lobby frantically opening up the entrance. I could see light. I scrambled through the hole and stood up quickly intending to run and find help, but what I saw held me fast and frozen.
Blood on snow, white on red. Raw flesh rented and as exposed as the open field of powdery snow beyond it. The stench of dead flesh and burnt hair lingered in the air. Bodies of Ice-Nin, Chuunin and Jounin alike and many others lay strewn like broken rag dolls in contorted positions, some missing limbs, others still covered in black flames that flickered in the dying breeze. Some of them I knew, and most I didn't. I stared at the carnage. The civilian part of the village further down the mountain was engulfed under a field of snow that had become the graveyard of the bodies that littered it.
I swallowed and forced myself to look beyond the death, and I saw them. Foreign ninjas at the bottom of the hill, they seemed to be talking to one another in a circle. Beyond all the torn flesh and spattered blood, there they were. I blinked coming out of shock at the sight of a blond haired ninja no older than me jumping around madly in an orange jumpsuit. A pink haired ninja reached out a smacked his head causing the blonde to fall to the ground… even with all the death and pain and danger, I still managed to smile at that. A black haired youth turned from the main body of the group he seemed to perform a number of seals before putting his fingers to his mouth, immediately fire burst forth form his mouth and began eating away at the snow. Were they searching for survivors?.
Now why the hell didn't any Ice-Nin know a fire jutsu? I asked myself wincing and glancing down at my hands. The blood was dripping onto the snow, I focused and forced the blood to clot, not that it mattered. I couldn't die from blood loss. Another group of ninjas arrived jumping from ledge to ledge on the cliffs. The first set of ninjas turned and yelled greeting, the blonde waving frantically. I doubted they were Akatsuki, and so I started down the mountain of snow and past the ravaged bodies of my comrades.
