AN: So this chapter is the start of the main part of this arc i.e the land of snow movie and I would suggest you watch that beforehand if you hadn't already because this next few chapters certainly goes off the basis or assumption that you've seen it.

Otherwise really it was just another chance to explore how Takezou fights seeing as he spends so much time thinking and talking but there's so few actual combat sequence's I wanted to explore how he really fights.

Chapter Title: The Blizzard Among Other Things
Arc 4 Part 3

I found out nearly a week after that he had been contacted by a group of Orochimaru's goons. No one had told me solely because I was recovering from a coma and 'wasn't fit for combat' and that made me mad. In fact in the short interaction I was given with the Hokage I had said it was a load of shit and that I was fully capable of fighting.

She threatened to court martial me and put me back in hospital with more broken bones.

Hinata was on the mission to see about saving our black haired moron from something stupid, aside from her there was team 7, 8 and Hinata's cousins team. Naruto had been at the forefront of wanting to save the moron from himself and getting dragged into something we should have been able to keep from.

I hated that it had still come to this, especially because I had only remembered about what happened after the fact. Months if not years was suddenly down the drain. Sasuke had been pushed to go even in the stead of my advances to deepen our friendship and give him something that would tie him to us.

It was a slap in the face like no other.

What had made it hurt more was that the bastard had visited my house the night he left, I had been up and was admiring the sword my grandparents had made for me, they had managed to pick it out of the rubble of their destroyed forge. Sasuke had come through my window, or rather my window was open and he came to lean in through it, we talked for a while and I didn't ask him why he was there, nor had I thought it weird at the time.

But now I felt like a fool.

The day I was called into the Hokage's office had actually been the first interaction I had with the woman, and it just so happened to be that she was informing Sensei and me about what had happened. That Naruto had run into the ass as he was leaving, Sasuke had gotten into a fight with him and once he managed to make Sasuke slip up and mention what was happening Naruto headed for the tower after losing initially.

Like I said though, I lashed out at the woman, Sensei had to take me out because Sasuke was my brother as far as my thoughts were concerned so losing him like this got to me. I was feeling betrayed and like a switch had been flicked on in my head that just wanted for me to lash out and attack something, but being dragged out by sensei helped calm it some. There wasn't anything I could do, it's not like I knew where he was, it wasn't like I would join the lunatic just to see Sasuke again.

It finally started to feel like I had a reason to stop being a shinobi, but seeing Hinata distraught about not being enough to get him back killed me. So I found what resolve I had left and decided to at least continue doing this for another couple of years.

Along with everything else I found out that Kiba, Shikamaru, Chouji and Sakura had become chuunin from the exam, somehow. Hinata had gotten a field promotion as well as Neji. it was something I hadn't really even thought about, I stopped caring for the jacket back in the middle of the forest, but it was more a matter of personal achievement that I felt like I had missed out on.

Everything was certainly going to hell fast.

Not to mention the fact that Dad was going to be getting a new arm soon- He told me about it and showed me a blueprint that his parents had made up with their assistants who they had hired once they settled down in the village. After all they didn't want to have what happened happen again, losing one workshop to negligence was bad enough so the assistants were supposed to help with basically everything except blade sharpening and the main part of forging bits, the arm he showed me was… well I nearly fell over with how much detail it had.

It was something I would have never expected in this world.

[Scene Break]

About a month after the Sasuke incident I was now officially cleared from medical leave and was allowed to continue doing missions where I wanted to.

That's when I was told I needed to pack for a trip to the land of snow of all places. It felt like I didn't have anytime to get over what happened when I was thrust into a mission.

Dad was the one who helped me go shopping for clothes and gear, I bought a fur lined tan cloak and then these cool bracelets that dispensed ninja wire from them, I think the total length of wire was ten meters.

So when I was brought to where team seven was with an entourage of film crew on a dock I was wearing black pants and boots I had found, a grey long sleeved shirt, crimson samurai like bracers and greaves, I had my red haori on with it done up while I had a shuriken pouch on my left thigh and then two kunai pouches on either side of my abdomen under the Haori. Along with all that I had my new sword on my back, it was called a Miaodao from what I was told, the cloak was stuffed into a bag that was also on my back.

Ever since I woke up though my left eye was playing up so to say, like the colour was dimmer in everything when I closed my right eye, I wasn't sure if I should do something about it, but aside from things seeming greyer in comparison to what I saw from my right eye it seemed fine.

"You think people might mistake you for a local?" Kakashi asked as I stood next to him watching Naruto try to fawn all over the main actress we were here for while she did her best to make him leave her alone.

"Could do, shouldn't we be more worried about that woman's attitude rather than the likelihood that I'm carted away because I'm mistaken for someone's son?" I replied turning my head to the man of whom I was catching up to in height.

"Mah" He shrugged his shoulders as the director began getting everyone to board the ship we were going to be taking to the land of snow. I was excited to see snow if I was honest, it felt like a millennia since I had seen it and it wasn't like it snowed in the land of fire all that often.

Things had been bad this last month, Hinata was still in the hospital and most of team 8 was as well, Neji's team was pretty fucked up as well. Not to mention the fact that I had a run in with the kids from Suna that breezed through the Chuunin Exam. The guy that dressed in all black and face paint actually came up to me and started a chat, which was a little weird but otherwise he was enjoyable to talk to.

From what Kankuro had said to me his brother and sister helped out by keeping everyone from dying on the Sasuke rescue mission. I thanked them obviously, Kankuro took it in stride and said I owed him, Temari said it was fine and Gaara said 'anything for Naruto' and it was kinda creepy.

A few hours down the line while I was on my own thinking about crap.

I was drawn away from my thoughts as one of our employers approached me, I had decided to rest on my own out of everyone's way. My back was against the wall of the ship's cabin as I sat with my knees up and my sword leaning against my left shoulder. He was a shorter guy, dark hair and dressed for the cold weather we were sailing through at the moment. The way he looked at me immediately made me realize he wasn't about to get to know me, he was going to try ask for something stupid.

"Hello mister Shinobi! I had something I wanted to ask of you!" his smile was that of a hungry predator that had just found his victim.

Before he could ask me anything I responded by cutting him off. "No." I didn't want to deal with this shit.

"But mister Shinobi! You haven't even heard my proposal!" he sounded offended.

"I'm here to help team seven with security, we're bodyguards not actors." I said stiffly as I pulled the hood on my cloak over my head and ignored the man as he began to fume before deflating and walking away after that though I heard what sounded like Naruto making noise and Sakura arguing with him.

Who'd have thought though, traveling over the ocean made for abcolutely beautiful weather and also gods fucking awful weather that was colder than anything you've ever thought possible. It was so damn wishy washy that the film crew were all over the place to try get scenes of the movie done when it was clear let alone when they could force that Yukie woman to actually work.

My nap was cut short when I heard yelling about docking the ship, when I got up and actually started moving around I realized that we were up against a huge glacier.

This was going to be a long day. I could tell.

Kiba ended up coming and grabbing me so that Kakashi could give us a briefing about where we should be and all while they filmed on the iceberg. I probably would've gone back to sleep if not for the occasional uncomfortable looks Sakura sent my way or how Naruto looked like a wounded dog whenever he thought I wasn't paying attention and he was looking at me. Those two were so worried about things that it was probably going to end up getting them hurt. I could understand Sakura's disposition considering what I had said, but I had no clue why Naruto was so iffy, maybe he felt like shit because of Sasuke?

Which was somewhat a sore topic for me still, I had a fair few instances where I had gone to either see him or acknowledge him only to find he wasn't around. It stung for sure, but we were on a mission to a different country so I had no intention of letting it get in my way while we did our job.

[Scene Break]

We had been on this ice rock for an hour or two already, I was sitting on one of the many crates that were filled with equipment or props and other stuff they brought along.

Ugh, I felt a shiver go down my spine from how cold it was. I took a moment to tighten the boots I was wearing as well as my bracers and greaves, my haori was blowing in the wind along with my cloak. Sure I was using my chakra to regulate my temperature and all, but its still a fucking cold place, who'd have thought the Land of Snow was a little chilly?

Pulling my sword out of its sheath I looked it over, it was the same onyx like dark steel that the Nodachi my aunt lent me was, though I had looked into Miaodao's they seemed to be more chinese weapons that were used kinda like polearms. But my grandparents had made this blade for cutting through people rather than poking them to death, the blade was thick probably a centimeter or so, and the width of the blade was similar to a Nodachi's, thing looked like it was ready to behead a horse, not to mention the actual blade itself was as tall as Sakura while the handle added an extra foot and a half to it.

There was an explosion that knocked me off the crates onto the ground.

I heard Kakashi say "You?" as he moved to protect the actors.

Team seven had begun to mobilize as another voice from far above us on the glacier announced loudly "Welcome to the land of snow!"

By the time I got up I was already pushing enough chakra into the sword to destroy a building as it rested on my shoulder while I charged forward, seeing who was attacking us. Three people, or that's what I spotted anyway, a large guy with dark hair, a woman with pink hair and a weird headpiece that I couldn't understand and lastly a guy with light violet hair. They were all dressed the same in weird body suits with armour that all seemed to have visible chakra covering them head to toe.

The woman announced something that had me vaguely annoyed. "Greetings Princess Koyuki."

"You've got to be kidding me a revenge plot? We aren't even in the country proper yet!" I blurted out at the three shinobi facing off against us ignoring the fact that this was probably meant to be some kind of life changing reveal, but it didn't really feel like one considering Yukie's reaction about the land of snow up until this point. Kakashi went straight for the violet haired guy while the other two Snow Ninja went for the princess who seemed to be experiencing what people called Shell Shock or PTSD.

I heard the woman laugh as she launched herself down upon Naruto who had stepped in to stop her while Akamaru and Kiba fang over fanged the big dude as he tried to grapple Sakura.

"Keep the camera's rolling or so help me! Even if your lives depend on it! This is perfect for the movie!" I heard the director yelling as people carted their mobile station and camera around while Sakura moved to try to get them all back aboard the ship.

"Fuck! Takezou swap in!" I heard Kiba say letting me jump in front of the large guy who I now realized had a snowboard, let alone the giant metal arm that he had.

Why?

I blocked an incoming set of strikes dancing around the man's large limbs as he kicked up an enormous amount of snow and ice, there were kunai and other jutsu being thrown all over the place behind me while I dealt with the guy. Before I could swing the sword through the bastard a humongous wall of ice kicked up in between us blocking me from bisecting the man, I was kicked away by the pink haired woman while I watched Akamaru and Kiba 'tap in' so to speak. They were like a blazing bullet as they streaked past crashing into her and the wall blowing it up and nearly catching me in it.

Things got a whole lot worse when I noticed Naruto's eyes had gone red and infinitely more feral as he let out a roar.

I learned something from Sasuke a while ago and now seemed like a great time to use it."GREAT DRAGON FLAME JUTSU!" following my words was a fireball the size of a small house sent flying towards the large guy as he skirted around on his snowboard dodging the dogged duo, Kiba substituted himself and Akamaru out with a person size chunk of ice that exploded from a punch before the snowboarding ninja was engulfed be the inferno of red-orange and yellow that melted the area around where he was leaving a charred man standing in the middle of the sunken area as the steam cleared.

His armoured arm was short circuiting as electricity sparked around it, despite the now faulty appliance the brute pushed towards me as he jump suit seemed to have lost a great deal of its chakra coating leaving nearly blackened spots from the fire.

He was fast.

Why was it that the brutes were faster than you'd give them credit for?

I slid around him on the iced over ground and drew back my sword which still hadn't expended its charge while Sakura threw a handful of explosive tagged kunai at him distracting him for long enough.

My blade found purchase in the shoulder of the armoured arm of his as it released the ungodly amount of chakra into the wound blowing the arm up in a brutal display of gore a viscera sending the man off in the opposite direction skidding along the ground with a howl of pain. I was left standing in the same place as I whipped the blade out making a spray of blood in an arc on the ground, I covered my mouth for a second keeping my lunch in my stomach.

I caught site of a fucking Unicorn Ice Whale as it launched out from the ocean crashing down on the island seperating what we were standing on from the raised more mountainous part of the glacier.

"Shit-" was all I managed to get out as I substituted with one of my logs back towards the ship.

I felt hands wrap around me as I fumbled forward along the ice, in a moment I was standing next to the team and crew onboard the ship as it sailed away from the attackers. I was panting and finding it hard to breathe for a minute when Sakura came over and started using medical Ninjutsu- which I didn't realize she could use, when she was done though my breathing returned to normal and I thanked her for it. The director thought everything was awesome and went on about how 'the movie was evolving' though he didn't expect the movie's rating to become more than family friendly all of a sudden pointedly looking at me and Kiba.

As I was letting loose a sigh someone spoke up.

"Takezou? Why did your substitution log have that on it?" It was Kakashi who asked me about one of the many things that I had written onto large pieces of paper before attaching them to the logs.

"Which one was it? I didn't get a chance to read it." I asked back, seeing the smirk on Kakashi's face. The approval apparent.

"It read 'I'm glad you missed me so much'." he said with mirth ever present, I could see the pinkette nurse rolling her eyes trying to hide a smile while Kiba let out a laugh and Naruto giggling like a schoolgirl.

"So what's going to happen with Koyuki?" I asked Sensei as he surveyed the crew for a moment.

"That's what we're about to go and talk about if you lot want to join." he said as he began walking back inside the main cabin towards a room I had seen when we first got on board, it was a meeting room with maps, a table and chairs all set up and ready for planning.

We all followed him into the room where Sandayu, Makino and- the… uh- ginger guy? I forgot his name.

[Scene Break]

It was about an hour after the meeting now, a sigh escaped me.

Who'd have thought Naruto would have gone off on the princess about disregarding her attendants dream? Not her that's for sure, she stormed out of the room as fast as she appeared to argue the futility of it all. While her Nihilism seemed to make Naruto mad I sat there and kind of agreed with her really, I mean really I didn't give a crap so long as we got paid for this crap. But my agreement was more because the problem we actually had to deal with was overthrowing a government that was controlling the entire country and didn't seem to have any qualms with killing his own brother, so why would he care about Koyuki? He would just kill her so he was uncontested.

All this crap was getting on my nerves, while Naruto sulked around and Sakura seemed to be trying to at least sort of cheer him up. Sensei was on the deck while Kiba and I were taking turns guarding the princess. It was currently my turn and I was standing outside her room facing the hall leaning against the wall.

Around the time my shift so to say ended we were docking again, but this time it was on actual land instead of an iceberg. When I got onto deck I watched in awe.

I forgot about technology, holy shit it had been so long. The closest Konoha came was electricity and home appliances, there was a massive convoy of these snow truck things. They were pretty cool to see.

Too bad I didn't get a chance to ride in one because it took an hour before we took off and that meant I was back to guarding the princess as she sat in hers depressed and looking like she hated the world as the mountains and forests past us. I suppose it would be remiss of me not to clarify, but I chose not to be in the truck with the rest of the team while I watched over Koyuki, I was sitting on top of her truck unbeknownst to her so that if she ran I could go after her.

We made a pit stop outside the entrance of an enormous ice cave, I overheard someone mention that we were traveling along an old train track that had rails buried deep under the ice. My first thought was that the chakra armour Kakashi had explained to us that the Snow Ninja had was probably a normal metal that got used here often and that we should get off the tracks in case a train came through along them because the tracks were being heated by chakra clearing the snow. It would only be common sense for them to do that right?

A small group of people jogged over the cliff side to relieve themselves, I probably would've joined them if not for the fact that the princess had silently opened and closed her door before going off into the forest as the trucks began traveling into the tunnel.

Now see I could've stopped her but I didn't and instead I followed her silently keeping myself up high in the trees.

AN: Takezou has started to change and I wonder if you'll catch where it all becomes apparent.