I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Cold
"Mr. Makino!" the assistant director's shout rang out, waking up everyone on the ship. "We have a problem!"
Menma was dressed and on the deck of them ship within two minutes, then slowed to a walk, staring at the massive iceberg in front of the ship. It was huge. Probably as big around as the Forest of Death. In the center there were two massive spires of ice, with almost plateau-like areas below them on the side they were on.
"It's massive," Menma breathed, not noticing just how cold he was.
"Yeah it is," Hinata said, stepping up beside him, startling him. "Sorry."
"It's alright," Menma said, shivering. "God it's cold."
Menma placed a hand over the center of his chest and seal script spread over his clothes before fading. Menma sighed before placing a hand on Hinata's shoulder, feeling her shivering as well. The same temperature control seal spread over her as well and faded and she also stopped shivering.
"What did you do?" Hinata asked.
"Temperature control seal," Menma said. "It'll keep you from getting too hot or cold."
Sasuke, Sakura, and Kakashi arrived a moment later, staring at the iceberg before Menma gave each of them the seal as well. Then, the camera crew moved down to the iceberg, as the director had decided to film on it. A small stove was set out for warmth and the camera crew began to set it up. Then, the actors took their places, Princess Gale and her two surviving friends on the lowest plateau, and the old man and main antagonist of the first movie on another off to the left.
"Alright," the assistant director said, holding up the black and white board that read off what scene they were doing. "Scene thirty six cut twenty two! Action!"
"So Princess, you've arrived!" the antagonist greeted, stepping into view. "Well done."
"It's you!" Yukie gasped. "Mao!"
"Princess, please, stay back!" Michy said, hand on his sword.
"We'll take care of him for you," the other actor, Kin Menma believed his name was, said, also holding his sword.
"Did you honestly believe these meager fools would be a match for me, Princess!?" Mao demanded, pulling his left hand back, then pointing his index and middle fingers at Yukie and the others.
At the exact same time, as though scripted, the mountain behind him exploded, the entire iceberg trembling. From Mao's reaction, though, Menma could tell it was most definitely not scripted. Menma closed his eyes as Hinata activated her Byakugan and Kakashi appeared between Yukie and the mountain.
"Three!" Menma shouted.
"There's something weird about them!" Hinata warned. "It's like their chakra is in a bubble around them, but it's not a jutsu!"
"Welcome friends," the first of the three shinobi greeted, standing from under a white blanket beside the explosion point, "to the land of snow.
He had light purple hair in a ponytail with a lock handing in front of the right side of his face, dot eyebrows, bright green eyes, purple lines extending a couple of inches from the bottoms of his eyes, and a suit of strange white clothing with blue tubes running across it, a dark long-sleeved shirt under it, white gloves, a strange device on his right forearm with an opening over the back of his hand like it could launch something, and a device on his left shoulder with a white and blue yin-yang symbol in the center. Hinata was right about his chakra, as well. It formed a sort of bubble, or barrier, around him that couldn't be seen by the naked eye.
A second appeared off tot he left, a girl. She had her Hidden Snow headband attached to a cold-weather cap with two tufts of pink hair sticking out of the sides, eyebrows similar to the first's, and brown eyes. She also wore a similar suit of armor, except her right wrist had a device that stuck out from her arm further, and there was a pair of long metal spikes on her back, where Menma guessed the yin-yang device was, since it wasn't on her shoulder.
"Greetings, Princess Koyuki," the girl greeted, staring at Yukie. "I do hope you're still carrying around the Hex Crystal."
Kakashi turned to stare at Yukie before spinning as the third rose, directly opposite the girl. This one also had similar armor and eyebrows, except he was much fatter. He had purple hair sticking messily up from his mask-style forehead protector, an odd red and purple object that looked something like a weapon on his back, a yin-yang symbol on his chest, and a very large mechanical left arm below the elbow, probably a gauntlet, with a cannonball for a hand. his armor also featured pauldrons, unlike the other two's.
"You lot aren't half bad," the fat one said. "Unfortunately, it's not good enough."
"Menma, Sasuke, Sakura, Hinata, protect Yukie," Kakashi said. "Everyone! Get back to the ship!"
Everyone stared at him, confused.
"Fubuki, Mizore," the middle one said. "I'll leave the princess to you."
Then, he dropped off the ledge he was on, moving to fight Kakashi, who moved to meet him. Clearly, he was the leader, and the biggest threat. That was fine. Menma had two others to deal with. Fubuki was the girl, he guessed, which made the fat one Mizore.
"Sasuke, take the girl," Menma said. "Sakura, Hinata, get everyone onto the ship."
"Right," the other three nodded.
Mizore pulled the object off of his back. Menma could see that the edges were clearly sharpened, but as he removed it from his back, it opened into a snowboard, which Mizore dropped then jumped onto, rocketing forward, propelled by chakra. Menma rolled out of the way and Mizore leaned back, curving around to try to ram him again. Again Menma dodged it and hurled several kunai at the shield, but they were smashed on contact with the chakra around him, a purple barrier appearing for a moment before fading from sight again. Sasuke's fuma shuriken streaked past Menma but it, too, smashed on contact. Menma closed his eyes. Just as he did, Fubuki's voice rang out.
"Ice Style, Tsubame Blizzard!"
"Ice Style!?" Menma gaped. "Oh great! Another Haku!"
As he watched, all the while dodging Mizore again and again, birds made out of ice shot out of the ice around Fubuki, streaking at Sasuke, who rolled out of the way. They swung around, flying at him again, and he leapt into the air, launching a Fireball Jutsu at them, melting them. At the same time, Yukie went stiff.
"Ice Prison Jutsu!" Fubuki shouted, placing her fingers on the ground.
Massive chunks of ice began to shoot out of the ground. Sasuke leapt over them, launching a fireball at Fubuki but she used three ice spires to block it. Yukie collapsed.
She's afraid of fire! Menma realized.
Suddenly, as Mizore passed for the thousandth time, he swiped at Menma with his mechanical hand. Menma ducked under it, slamming his knee into Mizore's side, launching him off of his snowboard and into a massive chunk of ice, fracturing it.
"I've had enough dodge fatso for today," Menma said. "I'm done with you."
Mizore snorted in amusement, pointing his mechanical arm at Menma. Suddenly, the hand launched out, crashing into Menma's abdomen and launching him backward. He crashed down hard, groaning.
"Didn't see that coming," Menma groaned before rolling to his feet, seeing Mizore hurtling toward him on his snowboard again.
Menma drew a kunai, creating a Vacuum Blade on it as Mizore approached. As he reached him, Mizore stomped on the back of his snowboard, the board flipping up and closing, Mizore catching one of the two handles set into what was not the back, slashing at Menma. Menma blocked the weapon, shoving it away and slashing at Mizore. Mizore grinned as the sword approached him. At the last second, Mizore leapt backward, eyes wide, then landed in the distance, reaching up to the cut on his cheek.
"Why didn't my barrier block it?" Mizore growled.
"So that shield is for weapons and jutsus is it?" Menma growled. "Thanks for the info."
Menma leapt into the air, flipping over Mizore, then kicked him sideways. He flipped, landing on his feet, then held his hand out toward Menma again.
"You can't hit me with that twice!" Menma snorted, darting sideways.
Before he got far, however, a length of some kind of chakra-laced string shot out, wrapping around Menma before Mizore flipped him into the air and smashed him back down, the string detaching from Mizore. At the same time, Sasuke, who had still been dodging Ice Prison Jutsus, was suddenly caught and encased in ice, only to be replaced by the stove with a paper bomb attached. The bomb exploded and a pair of kunai with wires attached flew out, wrapping around Fubuki and pinning her to her ice chunks, before fire began to speed along the wire at her. The mechanical spikes on her back suddenly unfolded, forming a set of large purple wings, breaching the cord as they did. She flew into the air just ahead of the flames, and Kakashi landed in front of Menma as he stood, turning to all three of the ninja.
"That's enough Menma," Kakashi said. "Get to the ship. I'll handle them."
"You sure?" Menma asked. "My Vacuum Blade is able to slip through their chakra barrier."
"I'm sure," Kakashi nodded."
Menma nodded, pulling three shuriken out of his ninja tool pouch and exhaling Vacuum Blades onto them, then hurling them at the three ninja with Chakra Threads before making hand seals.
"Ninja Art, Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Menma shouted, the shuriken all multiplying into a cloud of them each.
"Shit!" the one Kakashi had been fighting swore.
Fubuki, being airborne, easily evaded hers, then threw a kunai into the ground in front of each of the other clouds. Massive white ice spike exploded out of the ground under the two clouds, blocking all but one of each cloud. Mizore and the other ninja both dodged the last ones.
"Damn, I was close," Menma growled, already running toward Yukie, who Hinata and Sakura were trying to get to snap out of her panic attack.
Suddenly, a kunai entered his peripheral vision with a tiny ball of ice attached to the ring. Hinata saw it two and all but threw Sakura, Yukie, and Sandayu out of the way. However, she couldn't escape in time. At the same time at the kunai hit the ground and sent massive ice spike exploding into the sky, Mizore fired his mechanical hand at Yukie.
"No!" Kakashi shouted, turning to help only for his opponent to appear in front of him.
At the last second, Menma appeared in front of Yukie, the mechanical hand crashing into his right palm with enough force to send out a shockwave, kicking up a cloud of snow behind him. Mizore tried to retract his hand but it wouldn't move. On Menma's left shoulder was Hinata, unscathed save for a scratch on her cheek.
"Thank you Menma," Hinata breathed as he set her on her feet, still gripping Mizore's hand.
"Get them on the ship, Hinata," Menma snarled, his eyes seeming to glow red from inside his mask.
Hinata nodded, sprinting away and picking up Yukie, sprinting to the ship with Sandayu and Sakura following.
"No one hurts Hinata," Menma snarled, his clawed fingers denting the metal of Mizore's hand as Menma's left gripped the cable connecting it to Mizore's arm. "Come here!"
He twisted his upper body, one foot moving back a step as he yanked the cable with all his strength. Mizore's feet left the ground and suddenly all the force his arm was exerting trying to pull the hand back to him, pulled him toward the hand, Mizore streaking through the air toward Menma. Menma pulled his right hand back, his newly restored sword appearing in it from a seal on his palm. Then, As Mizore neared him, he stepped forward, stabbing at him.
"Shit!" Mizore shouted.
"Ice Prison Jutsu!" Fubuki shouted, slamming her hand into the ground.
A massive chunk of ice exploded out of the ground between them, encasing Menma's sword and part of the cable attached to Mizore's hand, but Menma managed to jump out of the way in time to escape. Mizore crashed into the ice, hard, but after a moment he stood.
"Thanks," Mizore growled, slamming his fist into the ice, the ice shattering, and his mechanical hand retracted as he caught Menma's sword.
"I thought only you could lift the sword," Sasuke said.
"After it broke I never reapplied those seals," Menma said. "I was never a fan of the sword anyway. I mostly kept it to deal with Kisame."
Sasuke nodded as Mizore swung the sword experimentally.
"I like this," Mizore said.
"Good," Menma said. "You can keep it."
Suddenly a loud hiss reached their ears. Mizore looked at the sword's grip, which was unravelling, and saw paper bombs underneath.
"Oh shit!" Mizore swore, dropping the sword and leaping away.
The explosion hurled him away, Fubuki being thrown higher into the air as well, and both crashed down hard, Mizore on his back and Fubuki her left leg, which broke loudly. Then, a massive whale made of ice, just as big as the glacier they were on, exploded up in the middle of it, splitting the glacier in half between the two ice spires in the middle. Half began to sink and Sasuke and Menma retreated onto the water, then to the ship.
"You blew up your sword?" Sasuke asked.
"It worked didn't it?" Menma asked. "We needed to distract them."
Sasuke shook his head, sighing, just as another whale, followed by another, shot out of the water, the two impacting over the glacier and falling onto it.
"Oh God," Menma breathed.
The two whales crashed down on the glacier and obliterated what was left, sinking it. A moment later, Kakashi jumped onto the ship and it set off, going around the glacier and sailing away, heading for the Land of Snow again.
"Is everyone alright?" Kakashi asked.
"Yukie fainted," Sakura said. "But we're all okay."
Kakashi nodded, turning to Sandayu.
"I think we need to talk," Kakashi said.
Sandayu nodded in agreement.
"We will reach port in a couple of hours," Sandayu said. "When we get there, I'll explain everything."
Kakashi nodded, heading below deck and Menma leaned against the railing. Sasuke and Sakura headed below deck as well and Hinata walked over to stand behind Menma.
"Are you okay?" Menma asked.
"Thanks to you," Hinata nodded.
He turned to her and she hugged him, resting her head on his shoulder.
"I lost control," Menma said.
"You saved me," Hinata said. "So stop worrying over it. It's done now. We're safe."
"You're right," Menma nodded, wrapping his arms around her. "Thank you."
She smiled, squeezing for a moment, then stepped back, smiling before heading below deck. After a moment, Menma followed.
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