Chapter Twenty-Eight
Mizuki's tale
I had accepted a mission from the Hokage to join a team assigned to protect the actress Fujikaze Yukie during the filming of her newest movie in the Land of Snow. The team was led by non other than Momochi Zabuza and I would be working alongside his son, Haku. However, it was the other two members of the team that made the mission possible.
Hinata, as the team's Kunoichi, was tasked with close-in protection. Not only did she know the Jyuuken varient 'Ripple Fist', she also knew the Rasengan as she had demonstrated in the preliminaries, making her a very powerful defender.
The final, and in many ways most important, member of the team was Namikaze Naruto, who I knew from his academy days as Naru. The son of the Yondaime Hokage and the Red Hot Habenaro, Naru was master of both the Rasengan and the Hiraishin, and he was the key to the whole mission.
Yes, he was also the Jinchuuriki of the Kyubi no Kitsune, but that was not a problem for me. Yes, it was one in the past, but after several long talks with my best friend Iruka, as well as a few talks with various Jonin and even the Hokage, I came to finally understand and accept the difference between a scroll and the kunai sealed within it.
Iruka can explain it better than me.
I admit, I once hated the boy for what he contained. Like many of the ignorant morons, I saw not the boy, but the fox.
Thank Kami that Iruka managed to show me the reality of the situation. I hate to think where my thoughts would have led me otherwise. I might even have defected had I gone any further down that mental slope.
I owe Iruka a great deal.
We met at the Namikaze mansion and Naru used some clones to Jump us to where we were needed. As we walked into town, we barely managed to dodge a horsewoman racing the other way.
"Naru..." Hina said slowly, "Wasn't that Fujikaze?"
"I think so, and I felt a tag on her." Naru said slowly as a number of people on horseback thundered past. "I'll get her."
"Use clones." Hinata commanded and Naru nodded. He created two clones and they vanished in a flash of golden light. A second later, he winced.
"Okay, my clone appeared beside the horse and hit the ground. Let me try again."
A dozen clones appeared and vanished. A few seconds later, Yukie appeared out of nowhere, looking both panicked and confused. Zabuza reached out and firmly gripped her shoulder.
"Fujikaze Yukie, we are the ninja assigned to safeguard you. I am team-leader Momochi Zabuza, Demon of the Bloody Mist. The others are my son Haku, the Demon of Ice, Namikaze Naru, the Golden Flash of Konoha, Hyuuga Hinata, the Moonlight Princess and my second-in-command Mizuki, the Shuriken Maestro."
I smirked at hearing the nickname Zabuza had given me. I was indeed a master with the large shuriken I carried on my back, using them as blade, shield and projectile as the situation called for.
Yukie looked at us blankly.
"Naru can teleport you to safety at any time." Zabuza said. "He and Hinata will be your primary guards, Mizuki, Haku and I will cover the perimeter. Any questions?"
Yukie remained blank-faced and Zabuza nodded.
"Then all we need do is find your manager and we can get started. Any idea where he is?"
[0]
It turned out that the manager and most of the stagehands/other actors had been the ones in hot pursuit of Yukie. When they realised what we had done and the ramifications thereof, they were amazed and asked for a meeting with Zabuza.
When he emerged from the meeting, he was both irritated and amused.
"Change of mission. Turns out that they were hoping to have us aid with overthrowing Yukie's uncle, who killed her father in order to seize control of the Land of Snow. He thinks that she has a key to a special treasure and will stop at nothing to kill her. The cost has just gone up. Naru, Jump Yukie and me back to your mansion, Hinata, meet us there. I need to talk to the Hokage about backup. I've always wanted to overthrow a tyrant, and I missed my chance against Yagura. Haku, Mizuki, for now you will stay with our client."
No, I don't know the story behind that tyrant comment either. If you want to know, ask him yourself…
Heh, thought you wouldn't.
[0]
The plan we evolved took full advantage of Naru's Hiraishin skills. The samurai-in-exile under the command of Asama Sandayu, her manager and Samurai bodyguard, sent one of their number to Snow with a Hiraishin and instructions on how to activate it. After a week, the tag pulsed and Naru used his clones to transport almost a hundred samurai.
And a dozen ninja, including myself.
The target? The castle belonging to the tyannical Daimyo Kazahana Dotou. We appeared in the dungeon under the castle. Huge area, built into the sides of a natural ravine. Hundreds of cells, very depressing place.
Loads of prisoners, most of whom were only guilty of remaining loyal to Princess Koyuki.
Instant reinforcements.
I led the charge out of the dungeons. The first dozen of the castle samurai fell to my shuriken and Zabuza's sword before they had a chance to react. Their armour was tough, but I'd sharpened my shuriken blades specially and targeted the areas between the armour plates.
My nickname of Shuriken Maestro might have been newly-bestowed by Zabuza-san, but no-one can claim that I didn't prove myself worthy of it that day.
By the time we reached the throne room, the castle ninja had rallied and were proving… diverting. Although nowhere near our level, they still managed to injure several of us and even killed a few of our samurai allies. But we managed to seize the castle.
No sign of Dotou-teme, though. Or his three elite guards.
Once the fighting had died down, we opened up the audience hall and brought in representatives from the city below so that they could witness Princess Koyuki take her rightful position on the throne. All the samurai knelt before her beauty and the town leaders were overjoyed to see her.
"My beloved people, it has been far too long since I have last felt the warmth of your welcome. I have been away for too long, have let you suffer under the tyranny of my uncle for too many years.
"I can only hope that you can find it in your hearts to forgive me."
I hid a smile as several of the townsfolk started to say that there was no need for forgiveness for she had done nothing wrong, and then things went to hell.
The upper window shattered and four shapes swooped down. My reflexively-thrown shuriken decapitated one of the flanking figures, Zabuza's thrown blade stabbed straight through a second and the third impacted on the ground, her wings encased in ice courtesy of Haku.
But the fourth figure, Kazahana Dotou, managed to grab Koyuki and retreat back out of the window, carrying her off.
Exactly as planned.
What? You think we hadn't realised what he was after? He wanted the necklace she was wearing, apparently it was the key to the greatest treasure in the Land of Snow.
And besides. It wasn't Koyuki.
Did you really think we were that stupid?
It was Anko.
When we had discussed the possible use of a body double, Anko volunteered. She was close to Koyuki's size and a genjitsu applied by Kurenai made the two of them seem like identical twins.
And Anko had an ace up her sleeve.
Her Hiraishin tattoo.
It took several hours of waiting before Naru and Hinata reacted to Anko sending the signal, and we were ready.
Kami, were we ready.
Naru used a score of clones to transport us to where Dotou-teme and Anko were waiting. As soon as we arrived, we spread out ready, much to Dotou's shock. Iruka took position by Anko. With her involved, there had been no way that he would be left out, after all.
Dotou was firing off an odd form of black-ice dragon-jutsu at everyone. Although it was a powerful attack, it was easy to avoid and it seemed to be the only one he really knew.
I guess he had got too used to relying on the chakra armour.
The attack was hard due to his dragon-jutsu, but I managed to smash part of his chakra armour, embedding one of my shuriken into his backplate just above his kidney and the other cracking the control gem on his chest.
Wow, that stuff was tough.
It slowed him down enough for Naru and Hinata to pull out their own trump card. Naru focused as much Chakra as he could, and Hinata shaped it into a giant Rasengan.
That was astonishing. It is almost impossible to shape another's chakra without first absorbing and altering it. Even med-nin need to refine their chakra in a specific way in order to be able to perform co-operative medical jutsu. So for Hinata to be able to shape Naru's chakra into an attack that powerful?
And without relying on a ritual?
If I had any doubt about the two of them being meant for each other before, that display would have ended it.
And then they charged forwards and rammed it into Dosou.
He never had a chance.
The multicoloured Odama Rasengan would have killed him. The impact was enormous and it sent him slamming into one of the stone-and-ice obelisks lining the valley, coincidently causing the shuriken in his backplate to fully impale him.
And then his armour exploded.
What was left was little more than a charred pile of ashes and bone fragments.
And I was down one Shuriken.
Blast.
Naru brought Koyuki to see the remains of her uncle, then she walked across to a pedestal with a depression exactly the right size for her necklace. Taking off her necklace, she placed the jewel into the stone.
What happened next, I will never forget.
I could feel the natural chakra surging through the area, and the monoliths starting to react to it. The sheets of ice covering them cracked and collapsed and the temperature rose rapidly. Within mere seconds, most of the snow was gone and the wave of natural chakra that flowed across the land caused the long-dormant plants to bloom into life.
It was beautiful.
Just… beautiful.
The real surprise was that her father, who had overseen the installation of the device, had incorporated an image-player which projected a hologram of a young Princess Koyuki talking about what she wanted to be when she grew up.
I was sure that wherever her father was, he was looking down and smiling.
[0]
With the revelation that the long-rumoured treasure was a special chakra-based device designed and built to free the Land of Snow from the everpresent sheet of white that gave it its name, Princess Koyuki promptly decreed that the country would abandon its old name and take a new one.
The Land of Spring.
The Samurai who had kept faith with her during her exile were installed as her guards, while the few ninja ho had done the same were asked to set up a proper hidden village along the same lines as Konoha.
She had apparently had a large number of discussions with the Hokage about what to do after regaining the throne.
In addition to that, she declared that the Land of Spring was allied with the Land of Fire, specifically with Konohagakure, and that the ninja who had participated in The Liberation as it was rapidly becoming known as were from that day onwards citizens not only of Konoha, but of the Land of Snow as well, welcome to visit at any time without issue.
We all got our pictures taken with Princess Koyuki, she even signed them for us. I have mine on the mantelpiece in my living room. In return, I presented her with my remaining shuriken, still scorched and dented from when it had impacted against Dotou's armour.
She hung it on the wall of the main hall just above a picture of all of us.
I'm almost as famous as Naru and Hinata over there.
Afterwards, she took Naru and Hinata aside for a quiet conversation. I managed to overhear only a few words, including 'Honeymoon' and 'eternal gratitude'. I guess she was siving them a special reward for the fact that it was their technique that actually killed Dosou.
We left after the feast, with Naru's clones Hiraishin'ing us back to Konoha. I thought at the time that I wouldn't see her again, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw her sat in the Kage's box at the finals.
She looked wonderful.
Being a Daimyo is what she was born to be.
