Free time has been really hard to come by recently, so I haven't really done much writing. Had a bit of brainwave about how I wanted to start the next chapter, so I stole an hour to jot it down. I'll use the weekend to write the other 14000 words but for now, I present, Naruto Uzumaki in Winter's Wolf chapter 5;
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Snow. It was always snow. Northern snow. Pure and white and heavy. It wafted down from a black sky with but one star. It raced red across the night, casting wicked enmity down at him. In its trail, just behind it, high in the sky, was carved the shape of a longsword. That though, was a vibrant white, as if dawn broke where it's light fell. A sword which brings the morning.
Naruto powered on. Deep and heavy steps through the wisping snow. There was naught in all directions, but something told him forward was the way to go. He could not feel the cold, just as well, for he wore nothing but the skin the gods had seen fit to grace him with.
He had no thoughts on anything but his own steps. One, then another, then one more that led to many and another for good measure. He had walked for all the days he'd lived, it felt like. How did he know what a day was, he thought, days could not exist in a place without time. For that was what this place was. Naruto had a sense for things. He knew nature and it knew him. He could taste a storm days away, the wind whispered to him often and loudly, its many voices warning him of danger. This place was silent. Its essence dry on his tongue. There was no nature here.
He held up a rough, worn palm and let the snow settle up on it. A perfect flake landed in the centre of his right hand. He peered down at it with his icy blue eyes. It was in the shape of a crown. A royal circlet with tiny square jewels embedded all around it. How he could see such detail on a thing so fine as a snowflake he did not know, nor did he ask. Who would answer? He was alone. As more snow filled his palm the tiny white ice jewels about the brim of their crowns began to reflect the wicked red of the of the angry star above.
The red crowns were aglow in his hand, it was as if he held a clump of white-hot coal and for the first time in the lifetime he had wandered the nothingness, he felt something. He dropped the burning mass onto the floor and watched as it sizzled and melted away at the pristine snow.
When he looked up there was a door just in front of him. It was brown and dreary, old and worn. It had swollen with moisture over time, many passing moments had removed its splendour. Like a man who had taken in too much drink. There was once something carved into it, but time had taken that as well. If he reached out he could touch it. So, he did. With little effort the fat door was opened.
A room lay inside. It was more than a room. It was a hall, expansive and grand. Naruto's feet carried him through the threshold with absent prodding. Great pillars raced up to a ceiling that did not exist. Strung about them were banners as black as night. They hung low and trailed across the marble floor beneath him. The braziers at their base were lit and raged with fires of pitch black, verdant green, and glistening gold. A head of him the floor went up step by massive step until it became a platform that stood as high as his head. Naruto could not make out what stood atop the platform, but he kept walking towards it.
Hanging on the far wall high above and behind the steps and the platform were the skull of three dragons. Giant fierce things even when stripped of skin and bone. He could hear the roar of a waterfall but could not see it. Could not smell it. Could not feel it. Nature was not here either.
He took the first step, then the second and third in quick succession. After the fourth he was as high as this room could bring him. An arm's length away stood a great white tree with red leaves that fell from its branches like swaying drops of blood. When they hit the floor, they splashed and made that sound that the rain made before it became rain.
The tree was carved. A weirwood if he had to guess, he had never seen one, but he knew to be so. He was of the north, this tree was as flesh and bone to him, a part of him. The carving was of a face, long and sullen, its red eyes cried red tears of sap that hardened and crystallised its mourning. The face was familiar. Recognition danced at the edge of his senses but would not share its hand, it left him in a strange longing for something that he already had. He reached out and rubbed his hand across its chin in that way that he did.
The tree reacted to his touch. It crumbled into a heap of red stained snow almost the moment he laid a hand on it. There was a long moment when nothing happened. Naruto reasoned that there must be some other intrigue in this room.
Just when he made to walk away the bubbling mess at his feet began to rise up. As white as ever it rose and rose and it stood as tall as Naruto. From the writhing unknowable mass came a shape. A long snouted fox with nine white tails swaying in the shimmering air. The red of the sap and leaves became patterns across its body. In the centre of its great head was a red circle that swirled into a spiral. The same pattern was on both of its shoulders and strange wing like protrusions adorned the back of its front legs.
Stranger yet was the giant metal disc that floated just above the centre of its back. Great flames spewed from it in all directions, coating the white fox in a shroud of oranges and reds that played reflections across its milky body.
Its eyes were blue, glowing and icy and ethereal under the licking flame on its back. Its mouth curved into a serious line as it stared directly at him. Nature was here.
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Mini A/N
The Design of the fox is based on Okami from the old Wii game. I feel old just typing that.