Chapter Twenty: The Queen of Ice

When the hawk returned a second time, failing to deliver the message, Hiruzen was concerned. Nine days since Rin had departed on her C ranked mission, there hadn't been a single word from her. Six days into her mission, Hiruzen sent the first hawk, asking for a status update.

Radio silence.

Today, he sent another message, wishfully thinking that the first failed delivery was due to a stray factor. Hiruzen hadn't expected the hawk to fly through his window, landing on his desk, with the same message he had sent still attached to its foot.

For her to be gone for nine days was worrying. Hiruzen considered the possibility that Rin had been held up with a particularly complicated medical procedure, but that didn't explain the lack of silence. And with her teammates asking him everyday when Rin would return kept his concern for her safety at the forefront of his mind.

A tracking team consisting of an Inuzuka and an Aburame was sent out. The Aburame reported back informing Hiruzen that the weather condition was too dangerous for his bugs to safely scout the area. The Inuzuka simply stated that all traces of Rin's scent was long gone, carried away by the heavy gusts of wind. The constantly falling snow erased all footprints that might have been there.

On the tenth day of her disappearance, Hiruzen received payment from the Land of Snow for the mission. Hiruzen asked his assistant to contact the Land of Snow to inquire if they were mistaken about the payment. After all, the mission hadn't been marked as completed yet.

His assistant received no response.

And later on the tenth day, a very weary Katsuyu slugged her way into his office. Hiruzen had been too preoccupied to notice his former student's summon in his office until Katsuyu had made her way to the top of the highest pile of paperwork. And had gotten his attention by weakly calling his name.

"She's in trouble," was all the slug had to offer before it poofed out of existence. Hiruzen's hand instinctively reached out for the slug, wishing there was a way for him to summon her back to get a clearer explanation. Alas, the only two people capable of summoning her were currently out of the village, one of them in danger as he had feared.

Hiruzen had no choice but to summon all three members of his best Anbu team into his office at ten o'clock at night. All three of them had shown up, looking refreshed and ready for another mission despite having gone on one earlier that morning, and stood quietly side by side as they awaited orders from the Hokage.

Hiruzen sighed, wishing that he didn't have to be the one to break the news to her teammates.

"Rin is in trouble." There was no visible reaction from her teammates.

"Her last known location is in the Land of Snow," Hiruzen continued. "I'm assigning the three of you on a mission to find her and bring her back."

That was all the cue that the three of them needed to flash step out of the Hokage's office, leaving the Third to stare at the ceiling of his office.

Maybe he should retire after all...he was getting too old for this.

The three members of Team Ro wordlessly split up outside of the Hokage's office, each of them heading to their respective homes to retrieve additional supplies for the mission. Hound slipped in through his open window, not bothering to flicker on his light as he tugged a backpack out his closet. He lazily tossed some weapon scrolls, provisions, and clothing into the bag before zipping it up, swinging it onto one of his shoulders.

Crow had taken the liberty of not emitting any sound from his movements as he snuck past his father and mother's room. As he passed Sasuke's room, Crow stuck his head in to get a glance of his peacefully sleeping little brother. Smiling softly to himself under the mask, Crow moved on to his room, grabbing his already packed bag from underneath his bed.

Sparrow ran into one of his younger sisters, who stayed up to wait for him to return home. His sister took one look at his uniform and instantly knew that Sparrow was leaving again. Sparrow spent two minutes trying to placate his younger sister, convincing a civilian girl that he had someone important that he needed to save. He ignored the ache in his heart that resulted when he saw silent tears slip down his sister's cheeks as he headed out the door once more, backpack in tow.

They reconvened at the village gates, exactly twelve minutes later. Hound motioned for them to take off, following their usual formation. No one mentioned their missing member, making their usual diamond formation into a triangle one.

Team Ro stopped once at the borders of the Land of Fire, obscuring themselves in the trees. Sparrow bathed the area in genjutsu and put up a sound barrier before the three of them began to discuss plans. And making possible guesses at what skills the enemy had if he or she was able to take down Rin.

Once their thirty minute break was up, the three of them took off again, reaching the borders of the Land of Snow by the time the sun began to come up. Crow and Sparrow activated their Sharingans, attempting to catch a glimpse of Cat's familiar chakra signature through the thick snow storm. They didn't; instead, they saw many tiny particles of chakra all over the place.

"A sensor ninja," Sparrow concluded, shutting off his Sharingan. "The moment we enter that snow storm, he will be able to detect our presence."

"An artificial storm, so our enemy is well versed in snow jutsus," Hound said. "Let's see if we can melt it."

On the count of three, all three of them launched their strongest fireball jutsu. The combined heat from fire had been enough to take out a decent chunk of the storm, but the other half was still going, picking up snow from the ground and reforming.

Team Ro changed tactics, forming two clones each. Crow and Sparrow were responsible for the fire jutsu, while Hound would use wind jutsu to augment the strength of their fire. This time, the heat of the fireball was enough to disperse a large chunk of the storm. After checking for chakra once more with his Sharingan, Sparrow motioned an all clear and led the way through.

Beyond the first storm, there were two more that followed. Using the same trick as before, Team Ro made quick of the storms and snuck through it.

After crossing a considerable amount of distance after the third storm, Sparrow motioned the team to stop, pointing to the snow that fell lightly around them.

We've been detected. Be on your guard. Sparrow signed to them. Hound nodded, motioning them to rearrange themselves in a straight line formation with Sparrow at front and Crow at the rear.

A heavy gust of wind swirled around them. All three men struggled to keep their feet on the ground, using the aid of chakra to help stabilize themselves. The swirl brought many particles of snow together, the snow gathering together to form a man.

"What a surprise," the man commented languidly. "You made it this far without me sensing. And those masks...you must be from Konoha. What can I do for you?"

"A Konoha medic was reported missing in the Land of Snow."

"A Konoha medic…" the man repeated. "Can't say I know of such a person."

"The Land of Snow requested aid from a Konoha medic two weeks ago. Konoha has obliged to the request and our medic has not returned."

The man shrugged. "She never stepped foot on my land. If she did, I would have known."

In a blink of an eye, Sparrow had moved, pointing his sword at the man's throat. "You have seen her, if you know that the Konoha medic that was sent is a woman."

The man chuckled, lightly at first until it sounded like he had gone insane. "I guess the guise is up. Find me if you can."

The man stepped forward, allowing the tip of Sparrow's sword pierce through his neck. The man burst into a flurry of snow, the wind working to scatter it about. Sparrow lowered his sword, hand clenching around the hilt of his sword.

Hound placed a comforting hand on Sparrow's shoulder.

"We'll get her back, don't worry."

After their encounter with the snow clone, none of them cared anymore to stay undetected. The three of them ran top speed through the snow storms, no doubt created by that man in an effort to slow them down.

Back at his palace, Hiroto hissed at the relentless Konoha shinobi. He felt their chakra signatures rapidly approaching the village. His attempts to stop their advances had done nothing and once again he lamented the fact that he wasn't able to incorporate genjutsu at long range.

Well no matter, Hiroto thought to himself as he spared a glance to Yuki, who was standing as still as a statue behind him. He would destroy their minds once they found him, just like he did with the Konoha medic.

To say that he was impressed with how quickly Yuki picked up the skills of her bloodline was an understatement. Hiroto had expected it would take her at least a few months to use ice style jutsus effectively, but under Ichika's tutelage, Yuki mastered ice style within the week. He supposed it also helped that Yuki was already a shinobi, with the understanding of how to mold chakra and perfect chakra control.

Since her mastery of ice style, Yuki had taken over maintaining the palace. With her skills, she had even made the palace much more luxurious than before. With her large reserves and somehow constantly replenishing chakra, Hiroto was more than satisfied that Yuki would be able to keep this up for an eternity. Not like Ichika, who constantly needed to take chakra from his guards…

After Yuki's display of power following her escape from the cell, Hiroto's guards had been understandingly wary of the kunoichi. The first guard to cross her had died, just like that. No one knew exactly how she did it, all Yuki had done was press her hand against the guard, but his death served as a warning that she wasn't a woman to be trifled with.

As expected of Hiroto's queen.

Now...all Hiroto needed to do was wait for the Konoha shinobi to arrive.

They were surely in for a surprise.

The Konoha shinobis were sure adept at dispelling all of his genjutsu traps that he laid along the way. Before he knew it, Hiroto sensed their presence near the steps of his palace. His guards moved to stop them, but were downed in an instant.

Hiroto sighed, annoyed that he always had to make an appearance. Yuki obediently followed after him, descending down the steps of the throne with the grace of a queen.

Hound halted to his tracks, throwing his hand up in the air as the silhouette of a figure came into view. The figure seemed to be in no hurry to meet them, slowly appearing into view.

Her traditional jonin wear was gone, replaced by a full length dress, long enough to hide her feet from view. An obi was wrapped around her waist, tied off to the side as a bow. The Konoha forehead protector was missing, revealing the purple mark on her forehead that was hardly ever seen. Her entire body was devoid of any sort of weapon, except for the sword strapped to her side.

There was no mistake about it. It was Rin.

"Intruders," Rin said, unsheathing her sword and pointing it right at them. Her stance and hold was completely wrong, Hound noted.

"She's under a genjutsu," Crow whispered to him.

"What do I do with intruders?" Rin called out, almost like she was speaking to someone else. A second figure appeared, a smirk splayed across his lips as he studied the three shinobi in front of him.

Could Yuki possibly beat them all?

Probably not, if the rumors of the prowess of the members of Team Ro were to be true. Still, Hiroto was going to bank on the fact that they would refuse to hurt a comrade.

"You eliminate them," he told her.

A Queen always followed the King's lead.

Yuki made the first move. Hound intercepted her, maneuvering his sword to counter hers. Flipping the sword with his fingers, Hound rammed the hilt of the sword against Yuki's hands, forcibly sending her sword flying out of her hands. The sword landed against the ground with a clang, but Yuki wasn't too concerned with her lost weapon. Palm facing outward, Yuki moved her left hand, sending a wall of ice up, blocking Hound's next blow.

His sword lodged into the ice. Channelling lightning chakra through his sword, Hound broke through the wall of ice, shattering it into a million shards. Yuki snapped her fingers, the glint of the ice catching Hound's eyes, entrapping him in a genjutsu.

Sparrow jumped into the fray, using his shunshin technique to reach Yuki in under a second. With her sensory skills, Yuki had detected him coming and adequately countered him by sending up another wall of ice to block him from reaching her. Moving her fingers, Yuki summoned tendrils of ice from the ground, the ice moving to wrap itself around Sparrow's limbs. Sparrow had been quick to jump out of the way, with his shunshin, landing a few meters away.

In the meantime, Crow went to grab Hound who had finally snapped out of the genjutsu, muttering something about a "cheap trick." Crow knew better than to ask.

Upon Sparrow's cue, Crow joined him in forming the hand seals to perform the fireball jutsu. The massive fireball hit the wall of ice, but the wall stood strong.

Three senbons flew towards Crow. With the aid of his Sharingan, Crow dodged the senbon efficiently, launching his own kunais. Yuki simply summoned another wall of ice, rendering his attack useless as the kunai with wires attached just bounced off the ice.

With her other hand, Yuki kept Hound busy, chasing after him with the tendrils of ice. His uncanny ability to read all of her movements grated on her nerves as he effortlessly danced around her jutsu without breaking a sweat. And he was getting closer…

Three ice walls were summoned, keeping Hound at bay. Crow and Sparrow tag teamed, keeping her on her toes as one launched attacks from every direction. Sparrow shunshined all around her, leaving after images of himself, confusing Yuki as to who was the real him. Multiple shards of ice stabbed through him, but he was still there, almost mocking her.

A loud piercing sound emitted through the air. In her attentiveness on the other two shinobis, she had missed the third, who had molded a massive amount of chakra into his hand. Hound's chidori tore through all three walls of ice. The corner of her eye saw the ball of electricity coming her way, her last resort was to send up another wall of ice. But it wouldn't make it in time.

Yuki shut her eyes, awaiting for her death.

The pain never came; instead, she felt hands latch onto her own arms, twisting it behind her back. Yuki's eyes snapped open, legs kicking backwards to break free of her captivity, but Hound held tight, making sure to curl her fingers into a fist so she couldn't summon any more ice.

"Shisui, now!"

The Sparrow masked man flickered right in front of her, Sharingan spinning into his Mangekyo. Pushing chakra to his eyes, Sparrow activated Kotoamatsukami, effectively breaking Yuki free of her genjutsu. Her unconscious form slumped forward, stopped from face planting into the floor only by Hound, who wrapped his arm around her waist.

Hiroto had the nerve to applaud at the three men's display of power. It couldn't be helped, Yuki had been severely outnumbered and still new to her powers after all.

"You might have freed her, but it's of no consequence. I'll just place her under a genjutsu again. In fact, I'll capture all of you and make you my pawns!"

There was no time to react as a swirl of snow surrounded them, the gusts of wind so strong that it nicked at their exposed skin.

Sparrow was the first to notice the genjutsu. In fact, his Sharingan picked up the massive amount of chakra surrounding him. He dispelled the genjutsu, only to be caught in it again. There was hardly any interval delay in between getting caught and dispelling, so Sparrow was left unable to use his Body Flicker technique to escape the storm. Eventually his will faltered, his mind plagued with images to the point where he wasn't able to discern the difference between the truth and the lie.

Sparrow saw him. The eight year old version of himself in the middle of the battlefield with Iwa nins surrounding himself and his teammate. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the pair was winning. With Shisui's lightning fast speed and his teammate's abnormally large chakra reserves and numerous destructive jutsus in his arsenal, they could wipe the battlefield clean in the next five minutes.

His Sharingan picked up on the Iwa nin that snuck up behind his friend. There was enough time to warn him, but the malicious part of him was jealous. Jealous that his friend was on a fast track to getting a promotion earlier than him. Jealous that his friend was so adept at ninjutsu, possessing three chakra natures already, while Shisui could barely manage one. Jealous that his friend was the reason why Shisui was still standing, alive.

The dark part of him kept his mouth shut, letting his friend register his own demise. With his speed, Shisui could have easily reached him in time. Could have easily saved him. But he chose to watch his friend die.

With him out of the way, Shisui was set to be the top nin of their age. Shisui watched his friend take his last breaths, performing one last jutsu with the remaining dredges of his chakra reserves. That jutsu effectively killed the Iwa nin, who had turned to his next target: Shisui.

His friend didn't want Shisui to die, yet Shisui had so selfishly allowed him to die.

Sparrow felt himself falling onto the ground, on his knees, slowly crawling his way over to his dead friend. By his side, Sparrow pleaded for forgiveness. Pleaded for mercy. But the ghost version of his friend spat angry insults at him, deeming him to be a coward. A sore loser. And promptly told him he would never be good enough.

The ghost version of his friend grabbed his hair, sending his head slamming down onto the ground. Sparrow didn't even fight it and allowed the ghost version to thrash him about. His mind vaguely registered the pain, but nothing compared to the bleeding hole in his heart.

The ghost version of his friend was no longer there. Instead, it was Sparrow's own hands reaching out to inflict pain on his own self. His hands reached to tug on his short locks of hair, body curling up into a ball as he fought the urge to thrash about. He lost himself completely, to his feelings of agony, helplessness, selfishness, and utter inability to do anything.

Crow went through all of the tricks he knew to dispel the genjutsu. Everything from the simplest methods to disturb his chakra flow to creating pain to even trying to reverse the genjutsu on the caster instead. Time and time again, Crow was drawn back into the genjutsu. Logically, his mind screamed at him that it was all an illusion, but it felt so real. So real because he had lived through it, lived through thinking that Shisui had died. And he was living through it once more, all of the same emotions that he felt so many years ago coursing through him so strongly once more.

He sunk to his knees, but refused to give up. With great resolve, Crow powered through the memory, feeling relief when it finally ended because this time, Shisui had actually died. The genjutsu didn't relent, flickering to the next memory. Bodies strewn all over. Streaks of blood marred the walls of the Uchiha compound. His father and mother lying dead on the floor, side by side with a grimace on their blank faces. His brother, running through the compound, screaming his head off as the unknown killer followed him.

Sasuke's seven year old feet and stamina didn't carry him far. Combined with his distress at seeing his entire family murdered and a copious amount of fear, Sasuke's concentration was anywhere but on where he was going. He tripped over one of the dead bodies of his clansmen, landing face first into the ground. Crow reached out to his little brother, wanting to help him stand up, but Sasuke had already flipped himself onto his back and was crawling backwards upon seeing the mysterious killer approach.

In the genjutsu, Crow ached to stand in the way of the killer and his little brother, but his body was rooted to his spot. Crow screamed at Sasuke to move, but Sasuke didn't, couldn't hear him. He screamed his voice raw, tears sliding down his cheeks as he saw the glint of the sword reflecting off of the moonlight. The sword was raised over the killer's head, Sasuke's piercing scream emitting through the silent night.

Sasuke's cries died as a pool of blood began to form around him. Finally able to move, Crow tried to lash out the mysterious killer, only to phase right through him. The killer turned away from Sasuke's prone body, hand reaching to remove the mask that donned his face. For the first time, Crow was able to identify the killer as the killer casually tossed his blood stained mask to the ground, letting it bounce against the cobblestone.

Crow found himself staring eye to eye with himself. A cold-blooded, hardened version of himself.

"This is who you will become, Itachi," the killer stated, a sinister smirk forming on his face. "You can't escape your fate."

Crow lunged for killer Itachi, only for him to flicker out of sight just before his body could make contact with him. His body crumpled to the ground, Crow sobbing uncontrollably behind his mask. His hand reached out, yearning to be able to touch his little brother once more.

A sword ran through his back and Crow went completely still.

From the moment the first genjutsu caught Hound, Hound went utterly still. How could he not when a very much alive Obito was in front of him? A very much alive Obito who was currently trying to kill Rin? He was sprouting some nonsense about her foiling his plan for a successful execution of the Kyuubi attack.

Rin was fighting a losing battle and Hound felt utterly hopeless. Obito spotted him, but the look he wore on his face didn't belong to the same boy who proclaimed he would be Hokage. Didn't belong to the boy who was always making up excuses for his tardiness. Didn't belong to the selfless boy who would do anything to bring his comrades back, alive.

It belonged to a killer.

Before Hound could even react, Obito flashed right before his eyes, knocking the Anbu mask away from his face. The mask fell, splitting into two pieces as Hound's Sharingan began to spin rapidly at the approach of two fingers.

Two fingers belonging to a killer, not a friend.

An excruciating pain appeared in his left eye. Hound doubled over, hand automatically moving to clutch his left eye. Well where his left eye once was. All he felt was gushes of blood leaking from his empty eye socket as Obito laughed at his demise.

"Don't know why I ever thought you were worthy of my eye," Obito stated. "Scums like you don't deserve to have it."

Hound felt the pull of the space around him. The air was closing in around him, sucking his right arm into what felt like a whirlpool. With the rest of his strength, Hound fought back, pulling against the unknown force. The strength of the vacuum intensified, successfully pulled his arm into the hole. The rest of his body was quick to follow.

And he woke to find himself stuck in an eternity of darkness. Where the voices continued to laugh, sneer, criticize every single one of his decisions. Where the voices hurled insults at the disgrace that he called his father. Where the voices continuously reminded him that he was a failure.

His shaky fingers wrapped itself around a kunai, raising it to point at himself. And promptly stabbed himself right through the heart to end the madness.

The voices stopped.

But so did his life.

There was a loud voice ringing in her head, but no matter how much she tried, Rin couldn't pinpoint the voice. She couldn't figure out what the person was saying. All she could see was the glass surrounding her.

How did she end up here? What was going on outside?

In fits of frustration, Rin banged her fists against the glass. Even with chakra to enhance her strength, the glass didn't budge underneath her relentless pounding. Eventually, the skin on her hands had turned raw, broken apart in some areas and already bleeding.

Before she could heal herself, Rin felt the floor give out beneath her. The gravity pulled her down under, until her body hit a patch of icy water. Rin kept sinking, the light slowly fading from her vision.

Sinking and sinking, watching her life flash before her eyes. Her life...one where she had hardly done anything to be proud of. For a medic, Rin allowed too many people she cared about to die. For a shinobi, she was a sad excuse of one, having been the target of kidnapping way too many times. For a friend, Rin was a horrible one. It was all her fault that everyone she cared about was dying, dying for her sake.

It was her fault…

"Wake up!" the voice roared once more. Rin's eyes snapped open, vision slightly blurry but as it quickly came into focus, Rin realized that she was drowning. Her lungs burned to inhale fresh air.

Kicking her feet, Rin started to swim towards the surface. The current in the water tried to push her back down, but Rin didn't give up. She kept going and going and going, fighting it with everything she had.

She gasped as her head broke water, taking a large gulp of air. Sending chakra to her hands, Rin latched onto the surface of the water, pulling the rest of her body out of the freezing water. Droplets of water splashed onto the water, creating a tiny ripple, while other drops slid down her body. Her entire body felt numb.

"Break out of this damn genjutsu," Isobu hissed. Rin's head snapped upwards for her questioning eyes to meet his.

"Your comrades are dying out there," Isobu informed her, the urgency present in his voice. "Don't let them down. Break the genjutsu."

This time when her eyes snapped open, she saw the snow storm. Her senses picked up three rapidly weakening chakra signatures. That was all she could do before she was pulled under once more.

With all of her will, Rin fought it, easily breaking out of the genjutsu. With her mind clear once more, Rin briefly recalled Hiroto saying something about the genjutsu affecting her through all five senses.

Then she was pulled in.

And broke out.

She sent chakra to her ears, blocking out any noise. All she could hear was the static noise of chakra buzzing in her eardrums. Her eyes closed.

Then she was pulled in.

And broke out.

Weak lightning chakra was sent along her nervous system. The jolt was enough to temporarily shut down her sense of feeling, leaving her body completely numb. Mouth closed shut, Rin proceeded to hold in her breath.

Now...all five senses were deactivated. The genjutsu would affect her no longer, but she needed to hurry. Her numb and stiff fingers took an agonizing amount of effort to move together, slowly forming the hand seals one by one.

On her fourth seal, Rin was running out of her. She forced herself to keep going, very well aware that she had exactly seven more seconds before the lack of oxygen knocked her unconscious.

Fifth seal, six seconds left.

Sixth seal, three seconds left.

At the one second mark, Rin finished the last seal. Her body felt the rumble of the ground beneath her as walls of ice began to form around them, completely enclosing them in an ice dome, blocking out the snow storm.

Chakra was released from her ears, her eyes snapped into focus, she let out of the breath that she was holding. The only thing she couldn't fix was her temporarily damaged nerves, but that was alright. She had more important things to worry about, like preventing Kakashi from plunging a kunai to his heart.

The palms of her hand wrapped around the sharp edge of the kunai. It dug uncomfortably into her skin, but Rin didn't relent on the tug of war to keep Kakashi from killing himself. With the aid of her chakra, Rin managed to wrestle the kunai out of his grip, tossing it as far as she could for a good measure. A jolt of chakra into his system and Kakashi snapped back into focus.

Except he had mistaken her to be the enemy and wrapped his hands around her throat. Her bloodied hands moved to grasp Kakashi's hands, scratching at him to let go. He did, eyes widening as reality began to set in.

Rin coughed. "Better be grateful I saved you from death." She meant it as a joke, to lighten up the mood, but clearly Kakashi wasn't amused. Not when he was too busy apologizing to her to pick up on the joke.

She pointed at the two Uchiha cousins. "Let's wake them up before they try to kill themselves too."

Kakashi made his way over to Itachi, cancelling the genjutsu on him. Rin was very amused to see Itachi sock Kakashi in the face upon waking up.

"I suppose I deserved that," Kakashi responded wryly before moving on to Shisui. Shisui's wake up response was considerably less violent. He just simply stared at Kakashi like he had seen a ghost.

"Where are we?" Trust Shisui to ask the important questions.

"Inside my ice dome," Rin informed him. "The dome will block out the effects of his chakra so we don't get trapped into his genjutsu again. Now, we'll wait until he cancels the jutsu or runs out of chakra…"

"Where did you learn how to do that?"

"I don't know. I mean, I feel like I just lived through a completely different life…" She spared them of the details of her other life. Of how ruthless and merciless she had been. It wasn't real, she knew, but it felt so raw, so real. Like she really had been Yuki Kazikane.

Finally, Rin felt Hiroto's chakra usage die down and she released the ice dome while he finished up with his jutsu. Seeing the four of them still conscious albeit weary, had taken Hiroto by surprise, from the way his dark eyes widened considerably and the way he took an unconscious step back.

"How-"

"When you have comrades to fight for, your will becomes stronger," Rin said. "But I don't suppose you'll ever understand that."

Hiroto's eyes narrowed at them. "It's no matter, I'll just-"

Before Hiroto could perform his jutsu again, Rin formed a tiger seal with her right hand, effectively cutting off any of Hiroto's movements. An agonizing scream tore from Hiroto's mouth, his body stumbling backwards as he cradled his hands to his chest.

"What did you do?!" Hiroto yelled, now flailing his hands about, trying to shake away the pain.

"I only ruptured all of the blood vessels in your hand. And tore through your chakra network. I left your nerves intact because I wanted you to feel the pain," Rin responded nonchalantly. She picked herself up from the ground, brushing the snow off of her dress? When had she changed into a dress?

"You-!"

"I, what? You were the one who taught me ice style. Now you'll pay for it."

Turning to her comrades, Rin smiled at them. "Finish it up will you? I have someone that I need to go rescue."

Kakashi nodded as Rin headed off back into the palace. Navigating through the familiar halls of the palace, it was eerily silent. There wasn't a single soul in sight to stop her. Rin even found the key belonging to Ichika's cell dangling from a rusty hook on the wall.

At the sound of the lock clicking, Ichika looked up, thoroughly surprised to see Rin.

"Princess Yuki…?"

"Please, just call me Rin." She knelt on the ground next to the older woman, throwing Ichika's arm around her shoulders. "Can you walk?"

Ichika nodded, struggling to get to her feet. One arm wrapped around Ichika's waist, Rin aided the weaker woman out of the palace where Team Ro was waiting. Hiroto's body was nowhere to be seen. The drops of his blood were the only indication that he had even been there in the first place.

Once Rin and Ichika made it safely away from the palace, Rin turned back to eye the beautiful palace once more. Beautiful, but full of haunting memories associated with it. With a clench of her fist, Rin cancelled the jutsu, bringing down the entire palace. The iced structure broke, sending a flurry of shards into the air.

The walls that surrounded the village also moved, sinking back down into the ground. The village would no longer need it, as Hiroto was no longer alive to manipulate the winds and snow.

For the first time, the village was a picture of serene. Hints of the sun's rays even broke through the cloudy skies, shining on the snow. A few curious heads peaked out of the doorway, mostly children, but were quickly pulled back in by their mothers.

"Is it finally over?" Ichika asked, her eyes sweeping to take in every detail of the landscape. For a woman who lived here longer than in her homeland...Ichika hadn't been blessed with many opportunities to see the outside world. It was her first look, in who knows how many years.

"Yeah," Rin dared to whisper.

"Home?" Kakashi questioned.

All of them nodded.

The prospect of going home, to Konoha, had never felt so good.

A/N: Hi again!

A lot of you mentioned Isobu in the last chapter, he's here in this one. :) To clarify, Rin is not a perfect jinchuuriki, so she is still susceptible to genjutsu like Naruto was in his fight against Itachi in the Kazekage rescue arc. That being said tho, Rin and Isobu are friends, so naturally Isobu will step in to warn her about genjutsus and the likes, so she is mostly resistant. But, she'll have to break out of the genjutsu herself. Someone mentioned the scene when she was testing Itachi's Tskuyomi. Isobu can knock her out, but that won't break her out of the genjutsu, which is why he didn't do it here. Hope that clears up some of the confusion.

Someone mentioned Haku. Maybe in canon, the intent was to have Ice Style a kekki genkai in the Mist, but in this story, that particular ability comes from the Land of the Ice (which no longer exists since it has been decimated).

Next chapter is Homebound.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Thanks for reading and let me know what you think. Until next time!

-MM