Reviewers;

BradenMan141: I am glad that you are enjoying my story, Braden. I hope that I can continue to provide to you a great service and that you enjoy every minute of my story.

St3rfire: Yay! Double Wow! And yes, fire indeed with a mixture of Merlin and the dark magic that creates all bad things. BTW, Merlin was a great TV series, perhaps you should try it out. I know I've been researching Camelot for a future type setting for another story of mine.

Czar Joseph: The flames will continue to spread, until the whole world is trapped within its circle of everlasting death. At least, that's what Akhlys wants, and with Sakura's powers inside her, she can control the world in any way she thinks up.

AN: Thank you to my reviewers as well as my readers. I am proud to call myself a writer on Fanfiction and that I have people who actively read my stories as I put them out. It is all of you that make us writers keep posting our chapters and our stories until the very end. So now, enjoy this next segment to the story in question.

Fire & Ice

Arc 3: Trust

Chapter 39: Bound to You

The black smoke billowed up around the plain, moving around through the air as it slowly swept around just above the ground. The black contrasted with the white of the snow around them, but even that once pure white was now flaked with the black ash of the air. Interspersed with the ash, blood lay splattered among the ground, and deep inside the snow, small craters of rock and dirt lay depressed a foot down and inside one of these craters, lay Sakura's body, and cradled in her arms was one Naruto Namikaze.

Naruto's eyes were deeply closed as he groaned, though his ears did not hear it as they were ringing beyond all reproach. "Naru~…" he heard a voice, but soon the ringing noise returned and he tried to soothe his head, before a chain chilled his chin before soft feminine hands touched the edges of his blonde locks and began to rub them fondly, with a strong hint of desperation.

"Naru~, please be okay…Naru~!"

"S-Sakura…-Chan." Naruto muttered before his eyes opened slowly, the sleepless glaze falling from his eyelids, and before him, Sakura's body shifted in the air before him, swaying among the darkened but still shining sunlight. "W-Why are there three of you?" Naruto called out deliriously, and Sakura smiled painfully at him, stroking his hair hopefully.

All over Naruto's body, were cuts and blood that was everywhere, but Sakura was happy to note that most of it wasn't his but the splatters of the men around him. Sakura knew that she looked as terrible as he was with the blood soaked into her abdomen, but whereas Naruto's blood was rare upon the snow, her blood continued to fall much easier than his.

Sakura winced at the feeling of being injured, but unlike in previous times, her magic was sealed away from her use with these cuffs on, and so she could not heal herself, nor could she heal the ringing going on in Naruto's head. Sakura hated to see Naruto in any pain, and now after he had come for her, she didn't want to lose him anymore.

'He saved me.' Sakura thought, as she remembered the second before the explosion occurred. The explosion had just begun below them when suddenly, Naruto was holding her as they flipped into the air, metal shrapnel flying into Naruto's back as another sliced in Sakura's abdomen, and then they fell into the crater, and Naruto hit his head on the rocky ground below.

Sakura winced a bit though as Naruto mumbled and moved further into her comforting hands. Sakura hadn't even felt the magic until it was too late. These cuffs were taking away everything that she relied upon, from her defensive magic to the way that she felt for the magic around herself. She was so…weak, and…normal…Sakura looked at her past…normal wasn't so bad, was it? But right now…she needed her gift.

"Sakura-Chan." Naruto repeated and Sakura's eyes moved to look as his cerulean ones opened wide, and she smiled at him as he plastered a goofy smile directly at the center of her face. "...There you are."

"The world stopped spinning?"

"I think so." Naruto spoke before Sakura realized their position; Sakura's legs and arms bending over Naruto's body, straddling his legs, and now that Sakura cared to move around a bit, she found that Naruto's knee was up and pushing against her ass, and as Sakura leaned down to kiss Naruto's succulent lips, his hands found her hip, and she cried into the passionate lip lock that was just glad that he was safe.

A brief kiss erupted and Sakura moved sideways, sitting up on her knees, legs tucked under her own body, as Naruto sat up and blinked his dizziness away before Sakura helped him to stand up, and Naruto and his imprisoned lover slowly walked up the slope of rocks to the snow around them. The two looked around themselves to see soldiers groaning and moving to get up from the ground, but the explosions had gone off all around them, battering the men's balance to a pulp.

"K-Kakashi-Sensei."Sakura whispered as they moved to the right and dropped down to see Kakashi's silver hair with a small bloody patch going down his unhidden eye. Sakura bent down as Naruto stayed upright and checked on the Knight, but was rewarded as he groaned and opened his eyes before standing up quickly on his feet and pulled out his sword, waiting for the enemy.

"...Sakura, do you sense anyone approaching us?" Kakashi called out around him but after a few seconds, Sakura sighed and looked royally embarrassed. "What is it?" He asked, turning his head to look at her.

"I can't use my magic at all. I can't feel anything."

"Sakura? Where are your soldiers?"

Sakura's eyes widened as she looked at the accusing look Kakashi gave her. "They didn't do this! I told you that I gave them my Ice magic, not explosions! Plus, there was metal in those."

"Then who?"

Sakura gulped and began to speak. "It was-"

(ROAR!)

The sudden sound echoed from the east and the couple as well as Kakashi and his men turned in horror as a hundred yards away, men in black uniforms charged from behind the hills and began to run at them, swords in every one of their hands. The men were around a hundred in size, but after the explosion from earlier, Kakashi's men were down one hundred and twenty, and most were injured with blood trickling downwards onto the blanketed snow as they pushed themselves up and got ready to face the enemy.

"Attack!" Kakashi yelled and his men moved to pull out their weapons, swords and shields, and pushed off the snow around them. As the black clad warriors charged at them, the mist surrounding the plains disappeared from a sudden heat and Sakura's eyes widened before yelling to Kakashi and his men.

"Don't get close to them!" Sakura screamed and the men paused.

"What do you mean, Sakura? They are Sasuke's men, yes?"

"Yes, but they are not men! Attack from a distance or you're all dead!" Sakura exclaimed, her body shivering in worry. Kakashi's men looked worriedly to Kakashi and he looked to Naruto, who stared hard at Sakura. If she was to be trusted, then these men were not just simple men attacking them. Naruto turned to Kakashi and nodded.

"Archers!" Kakashi yelled and men with bows rushed to the front of the eastern line and drew their bowstrings back to their ears. As one, they tracked the attackers rushing towards them, and as one, they released their arrows, and twenty arrows shot into the sky, their metallic points glittering as they arched and began to descend on the attackers.

These metallic points sunk deep into thighs, and a few into arms and stomachs, but the soldiers didn't even let up one bit. But one archer was a little late to firing his arrow and it arched on its own and slammed with gravity behind it through the black snake skin armor of a soldier's chest and deep into a red pulsating heart.

The soldiers could only watch as time slowed down and the eyes of the attackers shined forward to them, a blazing red fire sunk deep into their eyes, as if they had no real flesh anymore in the sockets and that all was burned away. And as the arrow sunk into a warrior's heart, there was a single spark into the wound and suddenly, the warrior's body exploded in a festival of black fire, and that fire imploded into the ground and around where the creature stood, three more creatures exploded from the initial attack, but their explosions were small and likely only done by a chain reaction of the first.

Kakashi looked to Sakura in worry, as his men tried to reload and fire as fast as they could, the enemy only a hundred feet away and charging. So this is what Sakura had been talking about saving the rest of the world from? Creatures made of fire that Sasuke sacrificed his own men for. They were truly terrifying and he could only guess at what Sakura had seen in her time.

"Separate them! Loose formation!" Kakashi shouted as Naruto dragged Sakura back to the rear as she moved stiffly on her feet, her legs as fragile as a child learning how to walk without magic or without two legs to stand on. The men formed twelve circles of ten men each and the enemy creations divided accordingly as they began to hack away at their enemy.

Kakashi himself hacked at the enemy's back, but as he slashed into one, it exploded, sending Kakashi and his men flying to the ground, with burns all over their bodies, and their from fitted clothes etched into their skin. Sakura could only watch as men tried to keep a safe distance, but Sakura had been in battle with these creatures before and as one got close to a clustered group, it exploded itself, and three men died for a single sacrifice.

"N-Naruto…" Sakura cried and choked on her sobs as she looked to her lover who was speeding through the lines of the enemy, slashing them and running away, faster than the initial explosions left in his wake, but their magical fiery eyes saw him coming and so his attacks were blocked more than a few times. Naruto was not used to this, but he raced back to stand in front of Sakura, in time to hack into the back of a creature that almost got too close to her kneeling form.

Naruto turned his head, cursing at the ambush and the look of approximately now sixty soldiers left while the enemy was still strong in their eighties. T-They couldn't win this. They were now outnumbered, and now being overpowered.

"Naru…" Sakura's voice sniffled and Naruto turned to see Sakura holding up her shackles to him in a plea. "Please! Let me help."

"I Can't!" Naruto cursed at himself, seeing the pain in Sakura's eyes. To see this carnage over month after month, she had made her own creations stronger for this very reason.

"Please! I can save them!"

"That's not how the shackles work! I can't just put them back on"! Naruto yelled before another explosion knocked into five more men as cries echoed as three men fell as the enemy sliced into their chest cavities.

"Please Naru! I swear I won't run from you!"

"…There is one way..."

"Anything!" Sakura exclaimed, her fragile knees locking together as she pushed her will into her limbs to kneels higher.

"You're sure?" Naruto called back, hacking at another enemy.

"YES!" Sakura yelled out with no hesitation.

Naruto growled and turned around, his sword arm dropping Kyuubii into the snow as he pulled at Sakura's chains and flashed through fifteen seals, none of the seals repeating and none familiar to Sakura at all, before gripping her wrists tightly as Sakura's eyes widened and slowly the chains molded into burning liquid and fell off her left wrist. Sakura watched as in a second, the molten sealed metal moved along her wrist and up to her elbow and down towards her palm and fingers. The golden metal wrapped rings around the edges of her fingers, around the knuckles of her flesh and solidified against her elbow, forming rivets and Sakura's eyes widened suddenly as the magic cooled and there on her right arm, was a metallic gauntlet, golden in color, with what looked like a replication of claws along the backs of her fingers.

Sakura's emerald eyes softened and looked to Naruto, her memory of what her arm looked like when she killed Naruto the first time. These claws did not reach past her fingers, but with a likeness of gloves, but as Naruto smiled at her, she nodded, and Naruto cast a final five seals and Sakura gasped in utter erotic pleasure as her magic surged deep inside her once again, and her eyes flashed ice blue, but with a small fleck of golden magic hidden inside it.

The soldiers began to retreat, their circles doing nothing to hold the enemy back, and the enemy smiled as bright red teeth, with deep orange illumination shining up from their throats flashed at the ninja and knights and the creatures began to pounce at them once more from ten feet away.

"Kakashi! Duck!" Kakashi heard Naruto yell from many feet behind him and so he nodded to his men, who saw the motion through the sides of their eyes and as one, the fifty two remaining soldiers ducked and dropped to the snowy ground.

All around them, creatures pounced into the air, ready to finish the defenders and claim their prize of the defenseless Witch, but as they neared their swords and bodies to the men, suddenly, howls of pain erupted all around the area and snow around the soldiers shifted and moved before large icy points sliced into the air, slicing and plunging their tips into the enemy warriors. Soldiers raised their eyes, waiting for the explosions to kill them, but most widened their eyes as a few passed out from their injuries, as the spears of ice shoved the creatures fifteen feet into the air and all around them and so, as the creatures exploded and died, the area erupted in black fire and smoke, but the only deaths were that of the enemy.

The men stared through the smoke, looking to the center of the circular formation, where the Queen of Port Haruno stood calmly in the face of danger, and had her arms extended widely, her golden chains now morphed into a property armband upon her right hand, signifying her as mere property of someone else who own her mind, body, and soul. Sakura nodded to herself as the enemy disappeared among their own ashes and crushed her hands into fists at her side and the icicles morphed into snow and fell upon the soldiers calmly with the breeze.

Sakura's breathing labored as she turned to see Naruto looking at her in awe. In fact, all of the soldiers looked to her in that way, just as Kakashi did. Sakura in her castle could have truly killed them easily, but she held in her restraint and allowed them to capture her. If not for Naruto's seals, then she could have easily slipped out of their hands, and now she had saved them all.

Sakura's breathing stilled and pain crossed her face as her right hand gripped her left in pain and Sakura feel to her knees as blue ice frosted over her fingers, up to her wrist, turning white and then froze into a solid ice up to her elbow. Sakura's tears flowed from her eyes as she held in the pain of her magic attacking her and suddenly, a body mass enveloped her and held her firmly.

"Sakura-Chan... what have you done?"

All around the ground, men moaned as the three living medics tried to bandage their wounds as well as themselves as Sakura limped from soldier to soldier, and her green magic in her right hand moved over the men, healing what burns she could. But as soon as she winced, Naruto dragged her away, and let her calm down and focus on herself. The ice on her left arm had started to thaw after an hour here in the plains, but had only dropped down to two thirds up her lower arm, and as Sakura healed five men, it refroze and they had to wait another five minutes for it to begin to thaw once more.

"Sakura, you need to stop using your magic."

"But I need to heal them. Some might die." Sakura's voice echoed and yet Sakura sat still as Naruto rubbed his hand through her hair lovingly. This new gauntlet on her arm wasn't allowing her to say no to Naruto's commands at all. She was literally bound to his will, but Sakura knew that Naruto was purposefully commanding her to rest, and not abusing it, and she sniffled at her kind master that she now served. Sakura had seen these property bands on slaves, and placed on prisoners for life imprisonment but with magic sealed into this one, she couldn't resist at all. And…Sakura felt the seals making her aroused at Naruto's presence and his calming and soothing words, and she wanted so much to make a small tent and ride him until morning, to please him, and herself if the property band so allowed.

So, as Sakura rested, the medics wrapped the men in pieces of white cloth and Kakashi walked to join the two as Naruto took care of Sakura's small wound on her stomach, where as before, her magic did not heal internally, and so even as she stopped the bleeding, Naruto's fingers traced the wound, checking every few seconds.

"Sakura, what happened just now…that was amazing."

"I just did what I had to." Sakura replied meekly. You would have fought similarly in my place."

"But Sakura," Naruto caressed her freezing arm, as the magic slowly melted to her wrist. The ice was like a time table that forced her to wait until she gained enough magic back into her body. "What's wrong with your magic?"

"Well Naruto, I had to give up some of it to my warriors, and there's never anything for free in this world, so when I use a lot of magic now, my arm freezes over and I have to wait another day. I should have been able to fight longer, but I suppose the suddenness of being released had a part to play in this."

Sakura looked to Kakashi and held her hands together towards him. "You can cuff me again."

Kakashi though smiled at her. "And do what? You're not really our prisoner, are you?"

Sakura smiled bashfully. "Originally, I wanted you to leave, but I made sure to have a backup plan just in case you captured me. I didn't count on Naruto bonding me to him though." Sakura smiled and nuzzled her head into her lover's hand as Kakashi looked to Naruto who blushed and stuttered his explanation.

"The cuffs can't function by just coming off so quickly, so I bonded my seals to her magic and well, that keeps her from using it against me."

"So you see, Kakashi." Sakura smiled. "I belong to Naruto now."

"Good for you two." Kakashi smirked and the two blushed. "But anyways, what is your plan now, Sakura?"

"Well, I know that you were planning to invade Port Haruno and the Uchiha lands in order to end this fighting and for that, all the leaders of the Alliance will be taken to the Haruno Isles, if I'm correct. After all, only captains who have sailed inside with help from those who have been there before can make it inside the main island."

"Very true, and so what is it you want to plead for with our leaders?"

"Peace…I will end this eternal winter if you help me defeat Sasuke and his Goddess in their blazing summer."

"…A Goddess?" Kakashi spoke softly, but the moaning stopped and Sakura now had much attention surrounding her.

"…Yes, but I must speak with the Alliance first. I can't defeat Sasuke's on my own. Our forces are equally matched. He has sacrificial numbers on his side and I have better trained but fewer warriors that I can make. I need numbers to attack him."

"I see…well, let us first get you to the Isles."

"Agreed…"

AN: Hey, just to be clear...Sakura is not Naruto's slave. Think of it more like in matrimony, being bound to another. It also allows Sakura to see things from a servant's point of view as Naruto did so long ago. Anyways, read and review.