Chapter 21

Ice that can't melt, it was impossible. Hinata had been training for days and was now able to both create and manipulate ice, but there was some trick to this training that she could not master. The ice that she created was nothing but ice, it was water at a low temperature, it still had the properties of ice and one of those properties was melting at a certain temperature. It was even harder since Yasuo tampered with the fake sun to make it as hot as summer inside the cave.

Yasuo was napping under a tree, he was so carefree that it was hard to imagine him as a centuries old guardian with more power than a Hokage level ninja. But even despite his great knowledge, he refused to teach her how to use the power until she discovered the basics on her own. She sighed, looked down at the lake in front of her, and watched her reflection ripple. She was tired of this training, it was getting no where. She needed to go find Naruto, not waste her time on things that were so meaningless.

She pulled the water upwards from the lake and started forming it into the shape of her beloved. As she perfected the shape, she froze it into a miniature ice statue. Tears poured down her face, the time that she was growing so accustomed to was long gone, she might never have an opportunity to be alone with Naruto again.

"You know, a long time before I had to give up my life for the Heavenly Four, I had a wife and a daughter. My daughter looked so much like you that it haunts me, if it weren't for your eyes, I might mistake you for her." His voice surprised her, he had been so still that she was sure he ha been asleep. Hinata dried her eyes and looked away in shame, realizing that he saw her tears. "Please don't look away, even if it really isn't her, I love being able to see my daughter again." She looked back, he wasn't crying or even sad at all. He had lived so many life times that even that sadness of death couldn't reach him.

"The reason I joined the Four was because I had nothing left. I was forced to watch them die in front of my eyes and I didn't have the power to stop it. It scarred me, he was trying to get information from me and he would do anything to make me crack. In the end, I never told him anything and so he tried to burn me down with the building. I thought that it was my time to die, I even wanted death after what I'd seen, but fate was not so kind.

"It was then that I discovered my abilities, there was water underneath the building that I was in and it rose to protect me. It was about that time that I passed out, he awoke outside the burnt rubble. I swore revenge against that man, that I would do anything to kill him, and my new abilities were the key to reach that goal.

"Shortly after I learned to use my power, I was recruited into the Heavenly Four. By the time they helped me master water I hadn't aged a day, but the world had aged fifty years. I found the man who killed my family, he was on his death bed. He was nothing but an old man, diseased and dying in bed. I spoke to him and he apologized for the pain he caused me, he even gave me the knife to kill him with, but I couldn't do it. He had lived his life and was already dying, even killing him would leave my revenge unfulfilled.

"After that I lived to defend others. I wanted to defend everyone else in the world from experiencing the same thing I had to go through. I am now the highest ranked member in the heavenly four, in fact, the only man I fear now is our leader. He isn't a part of the Heavenly Four, just as your Hokage gives you missions he does so for us. He is the most powerful man I've ever met. And I think he might soon become an enemy.

"I have an odd feeling that Naruto is with that man. Atohi hasn't given me any information about his location so Atohi might be dead, and if that is true your lover is in a dangerous position." At hearing Naruto refered to as her lover, she turned bright red, but soon realized the severity of Yasuo's words. "That is why you must master your power, you might be his only savior."

She was his savior, she was now in the position to rescue Naruto. She stared at the still solid statue of Naruto in her right hand. Not a single drop of water fell from it, even from the heat of her hand. "I think I have discovered the secret behind this technique." Yasuo smiled, they were one step closer to finding out the real truth behind his master's deceit.