AN: The first chapter fully set in the Land of Iron is here! There'll be only one more, perhaps two, before some more 'filler'-esque stuff, and then another mini-arc before Naruto gets to the academy, whereupon there'll be two mini-arcs once again, and then we're onto genin days! Yay! I hope you guys like this chapter, and I must admit that it was very difficult to write, which contributed to it being longer between updates. In trying to write something almost entirely original, I've had to do a lot of thinking and working things out, so I hope you appreciate it! Anyway, it is what it is, now read it my minions!

There's a forum link on my profile page.

Beta'd by: The trolling SnarkLord

Chapter 10 – In the Snow

Touching down at the base of the mountains, Naruto got off Madara's back and looked around. His first thoughts were about how desolate the place was, and how did people manage to live up here? Seriously, it was summer and all he could see was snow!

"Can you guys sense any youkai nearby?" Naruto asked.

Madara sniffed at the air. "If they're not here now, they were no more than twelve hours ago. I can't smell anything high-level, but this is Iron Country, so don't underestimate a youkai just because they don't have the greatest amount of raw power."

"Got it." Naruto nodded, looking at the side of the mountain sheltered from the wind. He could see some darker patches of mountainside, which were likely cave entrances. The reason he wasn't entirely clear if they really were caves was due to the heavy snow that was falling and obscuring his vision.

He made his way over that way, a pack of shikigami in each hand, and mentally preparing to cast a fire dart, as a distraction if nothing else. He was also mentally berating himself for only just now realising that with his shikigami dog-piling his opponents in fights, he'd have been better off learning how to use a bow and arrow, javelins, or some other form of ranged weapon.

Maybe he could even alter the fire dart or something? Making it longer and hotter might work, and it wasn't like fire darts didn't cost a pittance in reiryoku. He'd have to experiment with a 'fire javelin' though, and not while he was in Iron Country, but back in the forest where Hinoe could tell him if he was doing something wrong, or even if the idea was at all viable.

Looking at the nearest cave, Naruto grimaced. It was far too small for even Madara, the smallest of the three with him, to fit in there. That would mean he was going to have to go in there alone if he was to have a look around, and he well remembered what had happened the last time he'd gone into a youkai hotspot alone.

"You guys wait here and be ready. If I'm attacked, I'm just going to leg it back out here, screw trying to fight by myself." Naruto said.

"A wise decision." Ran told him. "We'll be ready for trouble, don't worry."

"It's not you guys that I need to worry about." Naruto muttered under his breath.

Reaching into one of the side pockets of his backpack, he pulled out the light ball he'd practised lighting up and held it in his hands. Making sure that his left hand glove was the 'force blast' one and the right one was the 'fire dart' glove, he headed into the mouth of the cave.

The light ball, held in a small string net around Naruto's neck, lit the cave up. The shadows swayed and danced, drawing the six year old child's attention, no matter how much he tried to ignore it. Still, even with the shadows moving, Naruto couldn't see anyone in the entry of the tunnel.

Moving deeper in, he kept his eyes peeled for anything moving, yet he still saw nothing. Even when the tunnel opened up into a cavern the size of a classroom, he didn't find any signs of habitation. Crouching down to check out the ground, he saw that it had been worn down and made relatively smooth.

Naruto frowned. Madara had said that there had been youkai around this area recently, if they weren't still there, and he thought that the floor was smooth because of centuries worth of youkai footsteps. Had he just picked the wrong cave to have a look around in?

Checking the rest of the caverns connected to that one tunnel, and finding nothing alive, Naruto left it and looked to Madara who was still waiting on him.

"Can you check around the caves, see which ones smell of youkai the most?" He asked the inugami.

Madara rolled his eyes. "Very well, if you insist." Madara groused, before doing as Naruto had asked.

"Is everything okay, little one?" Ran asked, seeing that Naruto was rather twitchy.

"I don't like this place, it's too quiet." Naruto admitted. "I'm much happier in a forest than I am here, and the caves are creepy as heck too. I've got this weird feeling crawling up my spine as well. I don't know what it is, but something seems… very wrong."

Ran looked around for a moment before replying. "Having three such powerful and unknown youkai appear without warning is certainly a reason our weaker kin might hide themselves, but you are right, it is quieter than I expected it to be."

Naruto didn't have anything to say to that, and simply waited for Madara to be done with his sweep of the cave entrances. It didn't take the inugami much longer for him to narrow down which tunnel entrances smelled most strongly of youkai, but when he told Naruto which ones did so, he seemed to be trying to figure something out.

Heading into one of the tunnels himself, Naruto wasn't sure if it was his mind playing tricks on him, but he could swear that there was something different about this one compared to the last one he had tried, and he wasn't entirely sure if it was a good kind of different either.

Walking even more cautiously than he did before, Naruto looked at everything. It might have been nerves or something, but he looked at every foot of floor, walls, and ceiling as he walked down the tunnel. He saw where the floor had been worn down with footsteps once again and all sorts of other things, but it was when he got to the open caverns that he stopped and stared.

Blood, bodies, dead youkai. The smell then hit him in the face, and he found it wasn't as disgusting as he'd thought it would be. Maybe that was because of how recent the killing was done, Madara had said that there had been youkai around as recently as half a day ago.

Taking a deep breath, Naruto began to search through all of the dead youkai. Maybe he'd be able to find a survivor amongst the corpses, someone who'd pretended to be dead, or even someone who was severely injured rather than actually being deceased.

He worked quickly, going from one body to another and checking for signs of life, moving on as soon as he realised they truly were dead. With each corpse he checked, Naruto became more and more frustrated and upset. From what he could tell, all of these youkai were low level, and none of them looked like fighters either. Why kill them all like this? It was just senseless slaughter as far as he could see.

Leaving the tunnel as soon as he was finished, he asked Madara which other caves had smelt the strongest of youkai. Seeing his agitated state, Ran asked him what was wrong.

"They're dead." He told her. "At the back of the cave, against the wall, they were slaughtered trying to hide from whoever or whatever did this."

Madara sniffed. "We told you that Iron Country isn't a peaceful place, kid, I'm not surprised by this myself."

"Why though?" Naruto asked. "Why are they doing this? I can understand fighting, people fight over all sorts of things, but these guys weren't fighters, they were… just like civilians, and they were massacred."

Misuzu was the one to answer the blonde. "Some youkai are consumed in rage and blood-lust. Most civilised youkai reject such beasts, but they still need somewhere to go, and it is in Iron Country that they gather. Here there is constant fighting, assuaging their baser desires, and here they thrive."

Ran nodded her head. "The ambient energy here is also rather dense, which in itself is an attraction to all youkai, though especially low-level ones, as it allows them do more than they would otherwise be capable of. The weaker youkai group themselves together because there is strength in numbers, increasing their chances of survival."

"I get it, even if I don't really understand everything." Naruto sighed, before frowning. "Wait, how does there being dense ambient reiryoku make someone stronger? You cast from your own reserves, so it shouldn't make a difference, right?"

Ran shook her head. "It is possible to draw power into yourself from an outside source, or even from the environment itself. However, only weak youkai tend to use this ability, as it is considered a crutch and something to disdain. There are risks as well, youkai have been known to… mutate when they absorb natural energy incorrectly, and it affects one's temperament as well, making them quick to anger and rage."

"Which isn't so much of a problem where everything is full of hate and violence." Naruto finished off.

"Correct." Ran nodded. "So now, with this group of youkai dead, what do you wish to do next?"

"I've still got to check for the other caves for survivors." Naruto said, already heading to the next tunnel entrance. "After that… well this group of youkai isn't going to be the only one around, right?"

xxxxx

Searching through all of the caves and tunnels around the area took the rest of the day. To Naruto's sorrow, they didn't find any youkai still amongst the living. They did find a small number of scrolls written in the youkai language, and lacking anyone else to give them to, Naruto put them into his own backpack to look at later.

"It's getting late." Naruto said. Glancing back at the caves, Naruto considered staying the night in one of them. It would be the easiest and simplest way to get away from the cold, but he was rather uneasy about staying there when so many youkai had died inside, and so recently as well.

Deciding on a compromise, the blonde child set up his tent up against the rock face, where it was mostly protected from the elements. He then set up a small tripod and cooking pot, inside of which he tossed some cut up smoked meat, wild vegetables, and mushrooms from his pack.

It was the work of a few moments to collect enough fresh snow to fill the pot as well. After that he cast a fire dart into his hand and held it beneath the pot, pumping enough reiryoku into it for it to be hot enough to do what he needed it to.

Misuzu, Madara, and Ran gathered around Naruto as he cooked something for himself to eat. All three kept an eye out for anything, youkai or otherwise, that might come across them and think about attacking. Not that such a thing was likely with three such powerful youkai working together, and it wouldn't end well for any that did attack if any were that foolhardy.

As the food cooked, Naruto sat back against his backpack and looked at the sky. He'd have liked to make a start on reading those scrolls he'd found in the caves, but right now wasn't the best time, especially as one of his hands had to be kept under the pot and with a fire dart cast to cook his supper.

His thoughts turned to the dead youkai in the caves behind him… and then moved onto the ninja profession.

When it came to ninja, 'normal' people had two major opinions on what they were like. On one side, you had them as monstrous beings that killed, poisoned, manipulated, black-mailed, and did everything else that they could to improve themselves, justifying it as the 'greater good', or as a 'necessary evil'.

The other 'faction', as it were, had ninjas being almost saintly protectors that use their amazing powers to protect their villages and save people. They made ninjas out to be heroes that went out of their way to make everyone's lives better, brighter, and happier.

From what the old man had told Naruto, neither one was true. Ninjas were mercenaries, but they provided so many more services than that. C rank missions were the most common type of mission by a long way, but there were so many different types of jobs that were considered C rank that it was hard to pin down exactly what it meant.

A C rank mission could be a delivery, fetching a particular object and taking it to a specific location. Courier ninjas were almost a village themselves, this being one thing the different villages collaborated on because of how much border crossing was involved. Other C rank missions included escorting low risk clients, searching for items, investigations that required specific skills, even manual labour was something ninjas were occasionally hired for.

In all honesty, most ninja were neither heroes nor villains, but just people making a living.

That was until war reared its head. There had been three shinobi wars, and all three of them had been in the last half a century. Before the formation of the hidden villages, there had been the warring clans era, and that was an even more bloody and violent time.

It stood to reason that another shinobi war would occur in Naruto's lifetime, and quite possibly several of them, assuming he survived the first one. The thing is, Naruto didn't know whether he could so callously take another's life. When he knew for a fact that the ones he was fighting had done, and would continue to do, bad things, he could fight and kill.

He had, after all, not shed a tear for that rogue group of youkai he'd wiped out. While he'd felt the bile rise in his throat at his first kills, other than the small animals he'd killed for food and their skins, he hadn't felt ashamed or horrified that he'd taken another's life. Instead, he'd been relieved, both that he'd survived the encounter himself and because he'd been able to save their future victims.

He didn't know why, but he felt strange inside because of that. It was like a part of him was rebelling against the thought of killing and bloodshed, while another part of him accepted that it might be necessary in the future. Neither conflicting desire inside of him seemed to want blood and death, but they had seemed divided on what was acceptable and what wasn't.

Naruto sighed. Such deep thinking didn't suit him. He'd be happy being able to look after his precious people, learning new and awesome things, and seeing the world, maybe even exploring beyond the borders of the Elemental Nations? After all, if the world really was round like they taught in school, then there were probably other continents like the one he lived on, right?

xxxxx

The following morning, when Naruto crawled out of his tent, he found that it was snowing lightly. This was an incredible sight to him, as while he had known about snow, and even seen it laid on the ground when he'd gotten to Iron Country, this was the first time he'd seen it fall. Fire Country, after all, was far too warm for it to snow.

"It's beautiful." He murmured, and he meant it too. The snow was just so white and pure as it slowly fell from the sky.

"It's cold." Madara huffed.

"Oh, grow up, you have fur, don't you?" Ran sighed at him. "You're acting like a puppy."

Misuzu chuckled. "Not quite. A puppy would be wagging its tail and chasing the snow." He gave Madara an amused look. "Are you going to 'act like a puppy?'"

"Oh, get slaughtered, horse." Madara growled.

Naruto mostly ignored their bickering as he packed away his tent and pulled out a sandwich to eat as his breakfast. As he munched on his food, he looked around and wondered which direction they should head in. He could head towards the nearest human settlement, it wasn't uncommon to find lesser youkai around humans, and besides that, rumours, myths, and legends could give him a clue about where to find other youkai.

On the other hand, youkai also gathered together in groups away from humans. His camp in the forest back home was a fair distance away from Konoha proper, and these caves were nowhere near human civilization either. It was rather noticeable, for any that bothered to think about it, that the youkai groups that lived away from humans did have more higher level beings amongst them than the ones that lived near humans.

Deciding to leave it to chance, Naruto began wandering in a random direction. If he came across a human settlement then he'd go there, and if he came across a youkai first, then he'd try and talk to them. Behind him, the three youkai continued to talk amongst themselves, easily keeping pace with the much smaller boy.

Naruto kept walking, and several hours after he'd set off, he noticed the snow was getting heavier. He hoped it wouldn't become a blizzard, because if it kept up then he'd have to make a camp, and it would be a lot harder to cook some supper if it was snowing badly, not to mention the fact that setting up a tent in a blizzard really didn't sound very fun.

"Naruto, stop a moment!" Ran called out suddenly.

Doing as she said, the blonde looked back at his youkai escort curiously.

Ran's eyes were narrowed, and she was looking around the place as if she was trying to find something she'd only caught out of the corner of her eye. Misuzu was stood tall and imposing behind Naruto, looming high overhead. Madara was standing firm, his nose twitching constantly, like he was searching for something like a regular dog would.

Deciding to check things out himself, Naruto turned on the spot, looking to see if he could see anything out of the ordinary. Unfortunately though, all he could see was white. There wasn't even a hill or a copse of trees to break up the flat, white landscape.

"What did you see?" Naruto eventually decided to ask.

"Nothing." Ran answered. "At least not at first. This snowstorm is natural, but a moment ago, I could swear that there was something else influencing it."

"There most likely was, I noticed it as well." Madara agreed with her.

"As did I." Misuzu added.

"Could it be a Yuki-onna? Hinoe warned me about them before we set off for here." Naruto asked.

"The women of ice aren't the only things that have an influence over cold weather." Madara told him. "However, they are amongst the most dangerous youkai to male humans there are. Males, yuki-otoko, are rather rare, and not very pleasant regardless. Rather than being human in appearance, they take the form of large, ape-like creatures covered in thick, shaggy hair, and they are highly territorial."

"Yuki-onna themselves are, as a rule, not very fond of their male counterparts." Misuzu continued on from Madara. "They see the human form as being far more appealing. However, while yuki-onna can be impregnated like a human female, humans really cannot survive being intimate with them, and their bodies aren't exactly conducive to bearing children, so actual births are very rare."

Ran finished off the explanation. "You are an even more delectable target for them than regular humans. Because of your ability to see us, some might think – and it may even be true – that you could possibly survive such a coupling, and be up for multiple acts of copulation, thus increasing their chances of pregnancy."

"Oh..." Naruto didn't really know what to think of that. He knew that children weren't brought by a stork, nor did they 'magically' appear out of nowhere, and knew vaguely what was needed to make a kid, but to hear that something might want to do that to him, with a decent chance of it resulting in his death, was something else. "Um, wouldn't they leave me alone though? Don't you have to be so old before… that kind of thing is even possible?"

"And why couldn't you reach that age after being captured by them and groomed to fulfil a… service to them?" Madara asked. "From their point of view, that would be a lot better than seeing you just walk away, possibly never to return, would it not? There are few enough yuki-onna as it is, and their race could face extinction within the next millennia or two if their numbers aren't boosted."

"The beast is correct."

Naruto nearly jumped out of his skin at hearing a voice so close to him.

Spinning around, Naruto saw what he assumed was a yuki-onna. She looked pretty much human, being around twenty years old in appearance, with thigh-length powder blue hair, and striking violet eyes. She wore a pure white kimono that looked like it was snow made fabric.

"Erm… hi?" Naruto awkwardly greeted her.

"Greetings, human." The yuki-onna returned his greeting, bowing her head slightly.

"Um… you're not going to do that, are you? The kidnapping thing I mean." Naruto asked, gulping nervously.

The yuki-onna looked at the three youkai that hovered protectively around the boy. "Even if I were inclined to do so, you are too well protected for me to acquire on my own."

"So you're not going to kidnap me?" Naruto continued, wanting confirmation.

"If you were alone, I might have done so, but knowing you have powerful guardians, I will refrain from taking you. There are few enough of my kind without me needlessly risking myself against such powerful opponents." She eloquently informed him.

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, not noticing an impish grin appear on the yuki-onna's face.

"However, seduction is not something to be discarded out of hand." She added. "Where force does not work, perhaps subtlety and intelligence will suffice."

"Um… I don't mean to be rude, but I don't really see myself hanging around Iron Country long enough for that to really work, you know?" Naruto nervously shrugged.

"Yuki-onna are not limited to the north alone." She informed him. "However, the humans will notice the cold we bring with us should we travel south in force." Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "One or two may slip by unnoticed though."

"That sounds great..." Naruto said, before remembering something he'd read before. "Hey, you know how ninja have bloodlines? They're thought to be chakra mutations and stuff, but what if they came from youkai and human relativ… relationships. Do you know if that's true or not?"

"I imagine you're referring to what is known as the 'ice release' bloodline." The yuki-onna replied. "In truth, though you are far from the first to speculate bloodlines being born from non-human blood, those with such mutations did not spring from cross-species breeding. However, exactly what causes them, I could not say."

"Oh, okay then." Naruto said. "I just thought… never mind, I'm sorry if I offended you with what I said."

"There was no harm in your words, nor in your intentions." The yuki-onna smiled. "I am not offended by your implications either. In fact, if such unions did indeed produce such things, then it would suggest that my kind would be able to bear children far more easily than we truly can. Unfortunately, that is not the case."

"Uh… okay then." Naruto floundered for something to say, not helped at all when he heard Ran start to snicker behind his back.

"Now, a question of my own; where are you going and what is your reason for coming to Iron Country?" The yuki-onna asked.

"Oh!" A question he could answer. "Well, you see, I'm going to be a ninja, and to be one, I need to learn how to fight. We came here because this is apparently where most weapon tsukumogami are supposed to be, and we thought that one of them might be willing and able to teach me. Do you know where I could find someone appropriate?"

"I'm afraid that I do not." The yuki-onna shook her head. "Like most of my kin, I wander the open country, occasionally drifting close to a human settlement, and yuki-onna tend not to… 'mix' well with other youkai. Up here we are viewed as a threat, both the rich power and the environment serving to make us quite powerful."

Naruto sighed. "Damn, I was hoping you could point us in the right direction. The only lot of youkai we've come across so far are all dead, and I don't really want to walk into whoever killed them, or another group that might try and kill me either."

The yuki-onna observed Naruto, before deliberately turning her attention to Ran, Misuzu, and Madara. "I do not believe you have much to worry about in regards to your safety. While youkai exist that could roll over your guardians without trouble, they are few and far between."

"You managed to sneak up on me without any of us noticing you." Naruto pointed out. "Just because someone isn't super strong doesn't mean they're harmless."

"That is true." The yuki-onna said with a slowly growing smirk. "However, I am a yuki-onna, I am almost literally a snowstorm, and to detect me at all is surprising. It would be different if I attempted to abduct you, because then they could not only try and track myself down, but they would be able to follow you as well."

"Okay, that's pretty cool." Naruto admitted, thinking about how awesome stealth like that was. "Still, knowing my luck, I'll probably come across one of those super strong youkai just wandering around, and it's fifty-fifty on whether they'd want to fight or just sit down and talk."

The yuki-onna closed her eyes, and for a moment, the snow seemed to swirl much thicker than it did before. When he'd cleared his vision, Naruto saw that the snow woman had re-opened her eyes, and her hair had been caught in the wind, giving it a wilder, ruffled look.

"I can detect no others in my range, youkai or human, and the strongest of the strong tend to have defined territories that they more or less stick to. I can show you the places to avoid… if you so desire it?" She said.

"And what's it going to cost me?" Naruto asked warily.

"Nothing much." The yuki-onna said. "Just a kiss."

xxxxx

Ran watched the yuki-onna carefully. She may have done nothing so far to make her think she would attack Naruto or attempt to inconvenience him in any way, but neither did she have a reason to trust the youkai woman either. She would act if she had to, but for now she would let Naruto try and talk through things first.

She felt amusement bubble up inside herself as she listened to Naruto's awkward attempts at conversation, and idly wondered how differently things would have gone if Naruto were a few years older, under the influence of teenage hormones, and just becoming a man.

She imagined he would be less coherent than he was now.

The yuki-onna's form was what, if she was right, grown human males found attractive. She was human-shaped, with delicate features, a slender body, and those lumps that men were supposed to like, even if they were smaller than some she'd seen on other examples of female humans.

Her mannerisms were also 'enticing', if she understood them properly. Hiding her lower face behind a wide sleeve, her posture being firm but not domineering, and even her tone of voice was sweet and sensual. On top of that, her words gave the impression of one that was not unintelligent or ignorant.

Given her relatively young appearance, that of a woman only just matured, she could see how many regular humans may consider her to be 'perfect' and desirable. She was merely thankful that Naruto didn't seem drawn in by her, though if he one day actually did become close to the ice and snow aligned youkai… well, that was his choice after all.

However, the 'price' the snow woman had asked in return for showing them which areas of the country were unsafe made her sharply focus on the blue-haired female. While not as lethal as sleeping with one, a mere kiss on the cheek from a yuki-onna could give a regular human frostbite, and while that could be treated relatively easily with Naruto's current first aid kit and potions, it would also tell the yuki-onna if he was at all resistant to her cold body.

xxxxx

"A… kiss?" Naruto asked. "Like, a kiss on the lips, or one on the cheek?"

"The cheek will suffice, young human." The yuki-onna then blushed and gave him a coy look. "Unless you wish to satisfy your beastly male urges with my tender body. I had thought you too young, but to think humans matured at such an early age." She gave a mock sigh of faintness.

"A k-kiss on the cheek is fine, I'm not going to do a-anything else!" Naruto waved his hands around and blushed bright red from embarrassment.

"Oh, how disappointing." The yuki-onna said. "We could have gone so much further than that."

"I'm six years old!" Naruto protested.

"True." The yuki-onna agreed. "I guess I can wait a few years, a decade is nothing after all, and I do believe you will enter your adult development before that. Now, how about that kiss?"

Wishing to avoid the talk about puberty as much as possible, Naruto eagerly agreed, and waited while the yuki-onna bent down to his level, before giving her a quick peck on the cheek. A moment later, she did the same to him, before she straightened up.

"Wow, you are pretty cold, aren't you?" Naruto commented, having felt the chill of her body on his lips and cheek, which he was currently rubbing at. "I suppose calling you a yuki-onna really is appropriate."

"Oh please, child, call me Tsurara." The yuki-onna, Tsurara told him.

Icicle? An appropriate name he supposed. Naruto then introduced himself.

"Ah, my name is Naruto Uzumaki. It's nice to meet you." He said.

"Oh believe me." Tsurara said, an odd glint in her eyes. "The pleasure is all mine."