Reviewers;

Animefanfic: I know, people don't agree with that part.

The 7th Demon Of Razgriz: Thanks man!

LoganHunter2: A happy story? You mean the ones that end in like ten chapters? Well, my next story will feature a high school based story, so that should be more your cup of tea. For this one, the romance is the adventure as uncertainty, longing and fulfillment play the vital roles, and the magic forms the second half of the adventure of the fantasy story. For the other things, those I felt were minor genres, though unintentionally more than I thought it was.

Czar Joseph: They may, after a return to the past...

St3rfire: I'm glad that you are excited for the happy and heavy thinking couple.

Duh Bomb: Interesting take on my characters to be sure, but this next few chapters are full of what I believe is hard to understand and a lot to go on around my character's whole world. Suffice to say that Dark Sakura will be coming out soon enough.


AN: hey so I decided to post tonight so that you could all enjoy another chapter for the week. I may or may not post again this week, as I've thought up a nice pirate story that may or may not go anywhere, but while I still have it in my head, I need to write down as much of it as I can! Have fun reading. Review your thoughts!

Fire & Ice

Arc 2: Let It Go

Chapter 29: Frozen in Time


Going through tall grass is one thing; one just had to watch their surroundings, feeling the wind and smelling the air to signal the sounds for the black panthers and cougars prowling the grassy plains in the western most parts of the continent. But unlike moving through tall grass, moving through waist high snow? Naruto kept cursing under his breath at the absolutely freezing feeling he was getting inside his pants, and down his legs to where he thought his toes and feet just had to be.

Naruto tripped for what had to be the hundredth time and cursed his stupid body before he looked forward to see Alice twenty feet ahead of him, and moving as if the snow parted for her as soon as she was within inches of it. Well, Naruto supposed that she had done this for a while now, and Naruto didn't want to use his speed as if he fell, he might end up ten feet in a hole he himself made with his feet and then Alice would be the one trying to help him out. But after a few minutes, they were exiting the snow and were on the rocks before the canyon walls.

"Um…Alice?" Naruto asked as he looked around at the walls five feet in front of him. There was no entrance, and yet Alice was looking at him as if he were an unsuspecting prey. In fact, she was now behind him and before he could understand it, she was rushing towards him like she was going to pounce. Naruto turned to face her and took a step back…and yelled out as he began to somersault into what was a tunnel formed around him and soon landed at the bottom of a mine shaft.

Naruto groaned a minute later, coughing the air in his lungs as the pain in his back subsided. Naruto slowly stood up and dusted himself off and soon heard Alice sliding down the ladder, controlled and balanced at the entrance and glared at her giggling face. Alice snorted at his mean face and tried to cover her smile. "I'm sorry Naruto, but I fell the first time too. It's the only way to notice it. The snow practically hides it from view."

"Okay, well, let's just carry on." Naruto brushed off the pain and moved forward, Alice holding his hand tenderly and guiding him through the darkness, until they almost banged their heads on the metallic ladder leading straight up to a small shaft of light at the top and end of the tunnel. Naruto wondered briefly how Alice could guide him through the dark tunnels, but again, no doubt that her healing powers made her eyes the best for night vision, or something like that.

Naruto reached forward and grabbed the metal and as his bare fingers grasped it, he hissed and drew them back at the serious chill of the metal. Naruto picked out his bag at his side and placed on gloves to fight the cold, before he made his way up the ladder, Alice following behind him, smiling at his smiling adventurous face at coming back to his home, to Her. It made her heart smile at her actions now in her decision to bring him with her. She was so worried at first, but this smile of his was making it all worth it.

Naruto reached the top and scurried up onto the soft layer of snow and stood up, pausing in his motion to stand up straight, as he was stuck seeing the land as it was once more, in a circular clearing between the canyon walls, and he sighed happily. he was back..."Naruto hurry up!" He heard Alice yell up to him and scurried out of the hole completely, helping Alice up before she grabbed an old covering device from her pack and covered the hole, before throwing some snow on top of it to hide it from view.

"What do you think, Naruto? Still the same as you remember it?"

"I-It's the same as it was in the wintertime, Alice. But why is it like this?" Naruto asked, wondering why it was snowing here during the spring.

"Maybe the Queen loves the snow, you know?" Alice asked rather personally, and Naruto cocked his head at her answer. Sakura loved all the seasons, not just winter. Alice took a few steps forward in the light snowfall and sighed happily. Naruto looked to her exposed skin and saw it radiate warmth around her. "I think the world would look perfect if it was covered in snow, don't you?" Alice asked as she turned to face Naruto, and he stilled.

Alice's eyes were wide with adrenaline and what could maybe be a daydream of happiness, and there was a dark sense of promise in those simple words and the casual sentence in the way she said it. Her voice had been laced by an ideal amount of wanting and determination, as if she really wanted to paint the world over with nothing but an icy glaze. Then Alice's eyes returned to normal and she grabbed his hand. "Come on, let's get to the city before dark."

"H-Hai!" Naruto spoke as his voice caught in his throat, and they soon turned the corner and off into the borders of Port Haruno. And as few minutes later, the covering was pushed upwards and over, and ten figures slowly emerged from the hole and merged together.

"We're inside the walls, boys. Let's kill that witch."

"…Sir? Should we report this to Lord Sasuke?"

"And risk losing our prize? Imagine how much wealth and power we will achieve when we bring him the head of the Queen on a pike. No, we do this now."

"But she has a companion."

"Who has magic inside him…We can all sense it. He is of no consequence. Let's follow them, and we'll wait for the right moment to strike."


The merchant and her escort made their way casually through the canyon, each one's vision obstructed by the other's eyes, completely relaxed in staring at the other as Alice held Naruto's hand in her own, interlocked and holding him close. Naruto though walked while his mind reeled from what Alice had said, and was comparing it to the princess he had known since he had first known what magic even was.

Sakura loved the winter snow and ice most of all, more than the other seasons? Was that what she was saying? But Naruto had always thought that her magic represented spring, the thawing of ice rather than the accumulation of it. Spring held new life, and as Naruto walked, he shivered at the lack of sight of any animals in the once filled canyons and forest. In winter, animals survived; they did not live. They hibernated through it, or moved to green pastures to find food and safe water. People used to do that too, until they had the knowledge to save some food for the colder months. But an endless winter? What could that do, but hold the world still and unable to move at all?

Naruto thought these things as they reached the forest, and he remembered that they were now only a few minutes from the very walls of the city of Port Haruno, which reminded him.

"Hey Alice."

"Yeah?"

"Where are the soldiers? I thought that those walls were guarded by volunteers who served Sakura."

"Well, Naruto. We're not near the walls and the men stay within the walls." Alice spoke as she looked away and smiled at the sight of a hawk perched high above them in the trees. Her animal manifestations always kept a close eye on her it seemed.

"But the walls of the city are coming up. Surely, there has to be a secret way inside for you?"

"Naruto…I don't think the Queen has ever come back here before. No one guards the gates."

Naruto's eyes widened at that, but if no one could get into the land itself, he supposed that it made sense…kind of. But then the trees began to thin out, and Naruto moved faster and ahead of Alice as he raced up to the lip of the hill. His feet tripped out from under him and he struggled to keep his balance as his eyes stared at the city before him.

There it was…just as it had been four years ago. The walls with their flags frozen in place, flapping when they were, as the walls stood proud in their stone foundations, with a sheet of ice freezing up just outside them, and the small blue glow around them shined brightly across Naruto's vision as tears teamed in his eyes. And there were the houses, frozen lumber to support them all, with the stables frozen on one side, and farmlands iced over in a dew covered scene. And then Naruto's eyes looked to the castle, held separate from the others by the waters themselves that splashed in a nonexistent current against the rocky foundations, as the whole city was frozen…frozen in time.

"Isn't it beautiful, Naruto?" Alice asked, stepping beside him, as Naruto's hand found hers on his own, making Alice smile widely and looked around herself. This scene…it was endless. Never to fade, never to grow old, never to die of sickness or plague or war or famine. It was simply the halting of the progression of life itself.

Naruto's eyes caught something in them and he rubbed them, making Alice laugh softly as she reached up to hold him. "What is it?"

"That." Naruto spoke and pointed to the center of town, where two stories of the marketplace stood proudly. "It was true. Sakura did make another floor for the marketplace. When we were younger, Sakura saw children being trampled to injuries and death and she wanted to stop that. When I heard she did this, I couldn't imagine it. Now I can."

"Would you like to walk over there?" Alice asked, and Naruto nodded, as they walked down the hill and through the open gates, that were too inviting to not walk through them without sensing their humble superiority, just as the Haruno of ages past. Soon, the two walked on the second floor of the marketplace…well, Alice walked, and Naruto slipped as he tried to gain his footing. Alice giggled and surged ahead, sliding her feet along the ice. "Come on, Naruto!"

"I-I'm trying!" Naruto yelled back muttering that Alice knew how to slide on the ice while he did not. Soon, Alice slid next to him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Don't worry. You'll get used to it. It took me years to master this…"

"…I thought you'd only come here for a year, Alice." Naruto muttered and Alice laughed it off.

"I meant when I was younger. My mama always said that if we lived somewhere colder, I could have been a prodigy entertainer on ice!"

"I believe it." Naruto spoke as they grabbed the wooden railings and began their walk down to the ground before they soon arrived at the docks and there blocking the inlet was a huge wall of ice, bigger than any Naruto had ever seen, and blocking any sort of attempts from sea to come into Port Haruno once more.

"Naruto?" Alice asked, gaining his attention as the sun began to set upon the city. "We should find shelter. Didn't your family live near the canyon?"

Naruto chuckled dryly as he looked back at the harbor. "I have no home anymore."

"But you're back now."

"Not that kind of home, Alice. You see, the Namikaze held a seal to continue our role as Haruno's protectors. It was created when the Haruno and Namikaze were still small, and it was made so that when the approaching arrival of a Haruno child was about to be born, a Namikaze child would be born a few months before the child. And so for years, the Namikaze stayed by each of the Haruno's sides, dying for them willingly, enjoying their friendship. But as the Haruno began to become royalty and sent heirs to other cities, the Namikaze left here made a new home inside a valley. But as you might know, a seal has a time limit.

"Soon, the families had both expanded greatly, too many children in so little a time." Alice nodded, remembering how her mother and father were each one of seven children. "And then there were the many wars and genocides and assassins. And so, with the seal at its weakest, my father spoke that it would only hold together one more birth…one more generation."

"You…and Queen Sakura…" Alice whispered, her own eyes shimmering at this new information."

"…Hai…and there was a prophecy said to me that still haunts me. 'The Namikaze and Haruno will end as they become one.' As the years went on, I thought that it meant that somehow that if I was ever with Queen Sakura, we would all die, but then we kissed and nothing happened. It was only after I left, that I felt the pull of my family leaving the world. I only survived because of the ancestral blood between my parents becoming one. And soon after, Sakura lost her parents who were from the closest lines of the Haruno royalty. I need her, Alice, because we are the only ones left. I need her to comfort me and for me to comfort her."

Alice sniffled and nodded, hugging Naruto as he hugged her. "Come on. Where else is home?"

"I suppose the castle."

"I believe it's blocked." Alice spoke as they made their way across the frozen town.

"You never went in there?"

"No, people said that the stuff was cursed, and I figured that merchants took everything they had with them. I've only been in the homes."

"Oh." Naruto muttered as they crossed the stone bridge and he ran up to the doors and pushed, but the doors did not budge.

"Damn, it's locked!" Naruto cursed and sighed as he turned away. Alice saw his eyes shimmering in want and it melted her heart. She waited until his head looked back out to sea before she walked up, and her hand glowed bright white as the ice began to melt on the inside, while keeping the look of the ice on the outside barring their entry.

"Naruto, remember that it's iced over. Try to kick it."

Naruto shrugged and walked up before he aimed and kicked with all his might and as he did, the ice broke in half and the doors opened.

"Naruto's that's amazing!"

"I…I expected my foot to break..."

"Well, be glad it didn't. Now, let's hurry and find some place to keep warm. There's a storm coming." Alice warned and though Naruto didn't see it, he trusted Alice's deduction.

"…There is one place we can spend the night." Naruto nodded to himself and walked forward into the courtyard of the castle, and Alice was pulled along, shivering at the sight of the royal's ancestral home. Naruto felt her shiver and pulled her close. "There's nothing that can hurt you here, Alice."

"R-Right." Alice stuttered, but inside, she shivered at seeing all of her possessions after so long. To think, she would return here with the man she loved, but as another person. her parents would be ashamed of her actions, but they were some place a lot better than here. Anyways, Naruto led her in through the doors after Alice secretly defrosted it and entered the main castle, where it was warmer than outside, but still blistering cold.

"Come on, this way." Naruto spoke as they neared the center of the castle, before pulling Alice into a dead end and Alice grew confused at his action. Yes, they could sleep in a corner, but there were beds upstairs. "There's nothing here, Naruto."

Naruto smiled and nodded his head. "That's what the King and Queen wanted everyone to think. They always needed to keep their only child close by." As Naruto spoke, he put his hand on a stone near the corner of the wall, and slowly the wall next to it hissed as dry air melted the ice around them and a door opened.

The wall-door opened sideways and as they walked inside, Alice gasped at the furniture of time past. Inside were royal red blankets, sofas, and beds, as well as toys from when Sakura was just a small baby and toddler. "This was the Queen's old playroom, and I believe it was the warmest place in the castle."

The two travelers quickly grabbed the blankets off the beds and closed the door, making a bed out of two couches and as they laid down, Alice snuggled into Naruto, pressing her nose deep into his neck as her warm breath blew into his skin.

Naruto for a second felt like he was burning before he placed a hand on Alice's back and noticed how hot she was, that she was really warm. "A-Alice, y-you're burning up."

"I don't get sick anymore, Naruto. M-my magic must be working hard is all." Alice muttered, glad that her magic had warmed up Naruto's body for her. Naruto hugged her and nuzzled into her as outside the castle, the sun disappeared and a blizzard fell from the mountain, surrounding the entire land in a world of white.


AN: Another little background for the end of the Namikaze and Haruno families.