41: The Third Day.

They had come over three hundred miles through the dark woods and black mountains and were running on fumes. They hadn't slept since the first night, and spent the cold hours haunted, or hunted, or both. Huge dire wolves prowled the woods, black, their breath steaming the air. Brown bears five times the size of normal ones clambered loudly through the forest. And when the beasts weren't a problem, the spirits and ghosts were. So many times a face beside a tree, watching them, or lights on the ground, disorienting them, or voices, and always the screams. Every time they shut their eyes they were shown their fears; their deepest fears. They had passed another mine- larger. Steam came out its mouth, which they found odd. North still, ten miles past the mine, where across a wide valley a procession of the dead walked to the south, southeast, toward the Land of Lightning. Their skin was brown and leathery. Some were missing eyes, and most were missing their toes, and fingertips. Some were dressed for the weather, some weren't. They stumbled forward, thirty or so, all adults.

Naruto and Hinata noted the direction they were coming from and changed their course. They stopped for only a few minutes per hour so he could catch his breath and she sketch. Hinata's eyes ached; she needed sleep, badly. Her nerves and senses were frayed, and if it weren't for Naruto's constant strength and support, and his promises, she would've lost her mind. She held to the thought that sometime sooner than later he would propose to her, and she knew her answer. She looked forward to the day when she could sit down at a table and simply be a bored housewife, with him, with children at their feet, and on their knees. She just had to make it till then.

Another village, but this time there were a handful of people still alive. One family, all in the same house, huddled around a fire. They were gaunt, and the fire was low.

"There's five of them... alive," Hinata said.

Naruto held her in his arms. For the last two hours he was certain a two-headed elk had been following them, just out of sight, with red eyes. Watching. The elk had four red eyes, and Naruto wondered if they were the same as the Kage? Then he remembered getting hit four times chasing after Hinata. Could this elk have been what hit him with the genjutsu? He turned and studied the deep forest. "Let's leave them alive," he said, and started to dart off.

"Wait," Hinata said, "They'll die. We should…" what should we do? What could they do? Dried nuts and dried fish? Come with us for the next 15 hours and we'll take you somewhere warm?

He carried her that way, and put her down in the snow, on the street, and held her hand and knocked on the door.

Silence, and movement in front of the fire.

"It's ok," Naruto said. "We have food to share."

There was mumbling, then the door slid open, and they stepped inside.

A haggard, skinny man led them to a low table around a low fire. "Food, you say?"

"Yes, here," Hinata said, and emptied her pack of everything she had.

Surprise, then hunger, set in, and the five fought for every crumb and scrap.

"So… we're gonna go a little further north," Naruto said. "If you come with us, we might be able to-"

"Come with you?" an old woman said. She was a blanket and eyes. "Further north?" She looked insulted, as though they were insane to suggest such a thing.

Naruto and Hinata looked at each other. "Why… why does that bother you?" Hinata asked.

"The last city north is an ancient place. People used to take the dead there, and they would come back alive. But no one who goes there comes back- not the way they were before."

Naruto and Hinata looked at them, and excused themselves, and left quickly. They made it a few steps down the snow-covered dirt path when the light cast from the small fire behind them blinked out, taking their shadows with it. The light went out? That meant the fire went out. That meant the family would die in the cold. Hinata's breath trembled. The fire had not been that low, and there had been wood in the corner to burn. Was there even a family there? Hinata felt certain if they went back they would discover the food she dumped out of her pack on the ground… or a frozen family huddled around the remains of a long-dead fire.

"I guess we go north," Naruto sighed. His breath was ragged. The cold, the exertion- the physical part of this effort was one thing, but the bigger problem was the mental effort it took to remain sane and the constant chakra control it took to keep the overwhelming sense of dread out of their hearts.

"How many more hours?"

"Twelve or so."

It was 11 at night. There was no chance in hell either of them would consider falling asleep, anywhere. Not in this land. Not again.

"What do you think?"

She no longer trusted her eyes. She had seen creatures in the trees, clicking their heads at her, and she had seen spirits in the ice, playing in the reflections. People watching, where there were no people. Her head throbbed. "I think we should stop. I don't know how… how much more of this I can take."

"Do you see anywhere?"

She looked, and she did not. "No," she said, defeated. The houses of the dead, the black caves, the hollows of trees- none were suitable for protection, and they were far past the last cave she had seen. They were learning it was better to face the ghosts out in the open. Around corners, in shadows, it was much worse.

"Rest in my arms, beautiful." He carried her forward, the wind hitting him face on. Driving snow, blocking his vision. He was running low. It took so much effort just to push through the snow and wind. They went miles more, up and through the dark woods.

"Naruto," she whispered. "Wolves that way. Two of them."

The wolves were many miles off to the northwest. Naruto changed his course and went the other direction, the northeast, up the side of a steep rock ledge. They crested the mountain and heard a howl far away, then another, and the distant sound of small trees being shoved aside and crashing. She looked. "They're… they're coming," she whispered.

He turned and ran, long strides as fast as his legs would carry him.

"Naruto…"

They were closing in, he knew. They had run full speed towards them as soon as they noticed them. Naruto created two shadow clones and jumped up on the snow. The clones waited.

Hinata watched what happened. The clones formed rasengans and drove the glowing balls of chakra into the faces of the wolves. The wolves were staggered, but for just a moment, and then they attacked. Their paws were twice the size of the clones. One hit, one fast swipe, and poof- the clones were gone.

The wolves chased, their eyes glowing as they came.

"They're coming," she said, her voice small.

He could tell she was scared. Very. He was too. "Do they have chakra networks?"

She looked. They did, but how did that help them. "Yes."

"Do you think they're afraid of fire?"

"Maybe, but-" but, again, how did that help them here?

The mountain ridge opened up to a small clearing, then a cliff, though a short one, only about twenty feet down.

"We have to fight them," he said.

The wolves howled and roared, and slowed down, and walked, sniffing the air, sagacious of their prey.

Naruto pulled a paper bomb from his pouch, and meant to hurl it at a dead tree, but the second he let it go there was a girl standing there, and he didn't want to hit her. The paper bomb sailed harmlessly into a bank of snow, and exploded with a thump, and sent a cloud of white powder into the air. There was no girl at the tree. He gritted his teeth.

Their hands were tied together- as protection. He felt her hand trembling as they stood with their backs to the cliff, waiting. His hand almost trembled.

The wolves came, each black as coal, weighing tons, reeking of matted fur and the smell of death and entrails caught in their fangs.

"Get a paper bomb," he said.

She did, shakily, from his pouch.

"We attack them, Hinata, not the other way around."

She didn't answer. He formed a rasengan, and it grew in size, about three times that of the clones. He pulled her and ran at the nearest wolf- that one dipped backwards, and the other came at them. Naruto turned to the one charging them and drove his fist forward into the wolf's jaw. The wolf turned its massive head and Naruto blew away the side of its face, removing it's fur and skin down to the bone, and shattering part of the bone. But it wasn't dead; now it was even angrier, and it swatted them while they were still in the air and sent them flying off the cliff. Naruto shielded Hinata as they were hit and he broke the top of a tree clean off with his back and they crashed into a rotted log. Naruto coughed, and hacked- pain seared up his left side. He couldn't hear, and he tasted blood. Hinata was pulling him up, tugging- but she wasn't pulling him away, she ran to the top of the tree they were flung through. She grabbed it and yelled at him. He knew what she intended and lifted it with her.

His senses were returning. That simple swat from the wolf had almost broken his ribs. He felt warm blood from a gash running down his side.

Their backs were against the cliff, the top of a dead pine in their arms like a spear. And the wolves pacing, facing them, patient. Their faces were some fifteen feet off the ground. The width of their paws was about twice Naruto's height.

"Are you ok!" she yelled.

"Yeah," he said, wobbly. He thought about calling for Karuma, but if he took his attention away for even a second, they could die, and if he called Karuma- he could die. He focused, and multiple clones popped to life in front of them.

"What's your plan here, Hinata?"

She looked at him. "My plan!? This was your idea!"

"I don't think any of this was my idea." He knew they had to kill at least one- then maybe they would have a chance. "Hinata, let's go after that one," he said. The clones took the other. Hinata held the tree with her hip, and threw air palms at it. The air palms annoyed the wolf, but not much more. Naruto did the same, throwing two kunai and two small rasengans. It was growling. He created more shadow clones. They ran off.

How were they supposed to do this? They were both exhausted and tired, and somehow had to get this wolf to rear up. "Naruto, grab the stink bombs!"

He did, and handed her one. They threw them together at its face- his missed, hers hit, right in the center of its forehead, and exploded, and the wolf raised up on its hind legs and howled in fury.

They knew what they had to do- they ran forward with their spear, planted the butt of it in the ground, and Naruto hurled a large rasengan at its back feet, knocking one out from under the beast and sending it towards them, onto the spike. It impaled itself, and hung there, motionless for a second, then it growled and swatted at them, and at the pine spike driven into its lung.

The other wolf was behind them, and on them. If they had even a second to stop evading, he might be able to form a large enough rasengan to hurt it, but the wolf came after them with relentless fury. Naruto scooped Hinata up to flee, but on the ground, right where his foot was going to land was the body of a small child, huddled in fear. He twisted to miss the child, and twisted his ankle as he came down. They both flew forward end over end down the mountain side. There was no child.

They rolled to a stop and the wolf was on them. "Throw everything we have!" Hinata shouted, rolling across the ground with him.

He had no better ideas, so that's what he did- every kunai, paper bomb, sleep bomb, stink bomb- they hit the wolf and themselves- the wind was not favorable for sleep bombs. And two exhausted ninja lay tied to each other in the snow, asleep, and one wolf asleep, it's body close enough to keep the two ninja warm. And a little further away, a dying and angry wolf, close to dislodging itself from the pine spear.

It was sheer luck that the sleep wore off on Naruto first, and not the wolf. He woke up bleary-eyed, saw the wolf just a few feet away, sleeping. He grabbed a kunai and drug Hinata behind him and drove the blade as deep and as far into the damn wolf's neck as he could. It woke, and tried to howl, and sprayed the two with blood. It staggered back, and fell. The other wolf was still alive, and gasping, wheezing, and working its way toward Hinata. Naruto picked Hinata up, and leapt at it, stabbing its throat over and over. Two wolves dead, and the sleep was coming back. He pulled Hinata to the stomach of one of the dead wolves, and leaned them against it, and leaned back for just a second, and shut his eyes for just a second more, and fell asleep.

Hinata woke from nightmares, screaming. Her screams woke Naruto. Then she screamed from the blood on them, and the wolves. Naruto held her, and calmed her.

"Hinata, I want these skins."

"No, please. I can't-"

"We need them. I think… I think they protect us from this place a little. We need at least one."

She grimaced and followed him as he set about the disgusting business of skinning the wolves. Hinata tried to persuade him not to- they should just go, but he was insistent- he was cutting the paws off, and asked her for help, so she helped, despite the blood and horrible smell. An hour later they had one skin. They rolled it up tight, and he used his scarf to tie it. Then they did the other. Hinata had stopped caring. What did it matter? They had nowhere to be, and at least the carcasses were warm. And it was quieter being near these wolves- no screams, no howls. Maybe he was right.

When they were done they had two very large, black fur, dire wolf skins, bound with their scarves and what little rope they brought with them. Naruto fashioned a sled out of a large piece of tree bark, strapped and folded and strapped and folded the skins down; he cut the left sleeve of his cloak off, and cut it into strips, and made a rope to tie to the sled, and the two continued on.

The trees were thinning out, and in the distance the tall, high, gray walls of the glaciers, like sentinels, greeted them with silent indifference. The universe and all her beauty twinkled overhead with the same cold indifference in the cloud breaks. Hinata guessed it was ten or fifteen below zero. They needed heat, and rest, and she looked- "Naruto, up there," she said. There was a small shack on the side of a mountain. Naruto couldn't see it- so wherever it was had to be far. But he knew her voice well enough by now- it wasn't dangerous.

He carried her up the ice, crawling through the snow with her on his back, the skins trailing behind, until finally they arrived, an hour later, and entered the house. No dead bodies, at least. An iron fireplace sat in the corner, with a pile of dried wood beside it. They lit a fire and slipped their packs off. She pulled food out of his pack, and they went outside and scooped snow in a bowl. Hinata forced them to eat and drink; they did so with trembling hands.

"Map?"

She sighed, and pulled it out, and he worked on the report while she mapped. Never had contours and datums felt more painful or harder earned. She didn't want to have anything to do with this map anymore. Naruto sketched wolves and the damned two-headed elk as she contoured the land. He reported what the old woman said, the steam coming out of the coal mine, and the procession of the dead, and had to wonder in all of it- was any of this shit real at all, or was it all in their heads? Well, he knew the wolves were real- the gash on his side was still bleeding a little.

They finished, and rolled it up, and sat down against the wall, still wearing their cloaks and hoods, and drowsed off. Their wrists were still tied together. It was the first warmth they had felt in over fifty hours, except for the stinking carcass of a dire wolf, and it lulled them. It wasn't long before the dreams came. For Naruto, he watched as Hinata and their child stood in the flames of a burning building, dying, him powerless to do anything. For Hinata, she watched as Naruto held their child in his arms, and divorced her, and left, her powerless to stop him. They were families in both, and in both lost their families.

Neither woke till the door of their little cabin creaked open. They both bolted awake at the sound. Creaking, then an odd sound they had never heard before: It was like wood cracking, except softer. And in walked a woman in a white dress. Her feet were black- frostbitten, and cracked from walking on them, and they were bleeding. Her hands were black-frostbitten. Her nose was black, her black lips pulled off her teeth, her ears were gone- just holes, and every step she took, and every move she made, caused small cracking sounds- it was her frozen and frostbitten skin cracking open. Her stomach moved under the thin fabric of her dress, as if something was in it. It crawled. "It's good to see you again, young man."

Naruto and Hinata scooted far back, into the wall. Okiku, with one pale purple byakugan, and one red eye, which looked very much like the red eyes of the elk, stood in front of them.

"Don't come any closer," Naruto said, shielding Hinata.

Okiku looked back at the little room, and sat on one of their packs, as if it was a chair. She scratched at her leg and her fingernails broke off and clicked as they hit the floor.

Dread ran through Hinata. She put her arms tight around Naruto.

"It's hard to survive this weather. If you're not from the north, that is. And yet here you two are," Okiku said. Her voice was soft, and motherly, and warm.

"Stop the winter," Naruto commanded, leaning forward. "Or we will stop you, right here."

Okiku disappeared, and then reentered the room. She did it two more times, and finally ended back up on Naruto's pack. They couldn't figure out how she was doing it. It wasn't teleportation, but it was quite disorienting. "Don't you think," she said, finally, "We would love for the winter to stop? Wouldn't it be nice to fall asleep in the summer, in the tall grass, with the people you love, and the breeze coming off the ocean?"

That sentence pierced both Naruto and Hinata through. They shrank back even more.

"Why are you doing this?" Naruto asked.

Okiku opened his pack and pulled out some dried nuts. She ate them, and they could see her chewing, because she had no lips with which to keep the food inside her mouth. Crumbs fell to the floor. "You two can stop this 'winter', as you call it. Bring us the eyes," she said, calmly, crumbs falling to the ground.

"What eyes?"

"All those," she said, pointing at Hinata's eyes, "And the purple one."

Outside a wolf howled, close, and then another.

Okiku stretched, then walked to the door, and looked up the mountain. "It's odd to see them travel in those numbers," she said. "My husband hunted the wolves for a living. He killed twenty-four. But I don't remember him ever talking about a pack that big."

"You're not getting her eyes," Naruto said, angrily.

Okiku turned, and clicked her way back, leaving little trails of thick, half-frozen blood. "Then your winter will not end."

Naruto raised another rasengan, this one larger.

"Wait," Hinata said. She looked at Okiku. "So if… if all the Hyuga, and Sasuke, give you our eyes, this will stop?"

"No," Naruto said, and stepped in between them.

"Not just eyes- your life. But yes. Is there any other way?"

"Did you… did you curse us?" Hinata asked.

"No, young woman. You cursed us. You and your damned eyes, and that purple one. My clan has been maintaining that seal for a thousand years, and you froze us in place, and so it was released. My clan curses you, but the seal you opened curses the world. Gather your purple eyes and bring them here, and lay down your lives, and my curse will stop. But I don't know how you fix the seal that you opened- that's not my problem anymore."

"It's not happening." Naruto said, his eyes sparkled in the fire light. His chakra was starting to leak out at the corners.

"We want to rest too, young man," Okiku said. Her face was quite pretty- round cheeks, slightly narrowed, dark eyes. Her hair was soft. Were it not for the black, frostbitten skin, and missing lips, nose, eyelids- she would be quite a beautiful woman. "We did not do this to ourselves. We did not ask for this." She offered him a weak smile. "You don't understand curses, but perhaps you understand vengeance, and revenge. Maybe you have a good heart, and forgive the person who kills your family. Maybe not. My curse ends when those who killed us give their lives. I'm dead young man; I'm a monster. My family is dead. My children are dead. And worse than that- death will not receive you when you die in that place- it sends you back. There is only one way to end this. So please- stop this for us, so that we may rest." She stood, and looked at them, and walked to the door. She turned back a moment. "My village is only a couple hundred miles further north. Come to me, when you're ready."

"Is your village called Numachi?" Hinata asked.

Okiku smiled, and her frostbitten lips cracked open and bled. "You know an ancient language, it seems. Numachi is the name we call our city. Hell is the name I believe your kind has come to call it."

Naruto and Hinata followed her to the door. A pack of dire wolves, ten or more, were coming over a distant ridge. Okiku walked straight towards them, through the snow, and the wolves took no notice. The wolves did, however, take notice of Naruto and Hinata, and they howled, and began creeping toward the small shack.

Naruto slammed the door shut, and they grabbed their packs.

"Why the Hyuga?" Hinata asked, her hands shaking.

"It doesn't matter," Naruto answered.

"But… but there's only thirty Hyuga left, and Sasuke. Naruto, that's thirty-one people, compared to all… all that might die from… from this winter."

"You're assuming what she said was true. There's no guarantee she'll stop."

He was right. "Then what? What will we do?"

He was grabbing packs, and her map. "We come back, and fight."

"Why didn't she fight us?"

"I don't know."

"Naruto… I'm… I'm not even sure she was real."

"I am."

The wolves were closer. They needed to go now, or never. He lifted her in his arms.

"How?"

"Because. She was real. I could smell them on her."

"Smell what?"

He looked at her, "Her husband and children." He opened the door. Five wolves stood watching, waiting. Too close. The others were circling around, closer than he thought they would be. Two wolves nearly killed them. Now ten? Then Naruto had an idea. He didn't know what time it was- sometime in the morning, it was hard to tell- everything was gray and frozen. He took her back in, piled the chairs and table into the center of the hut, and overturned the iron stove, burning his hands and spilling embers and fire into the shack.

He then kicked a wall out, stepped outside, and waited. He moved them close to the skins. The wolves drew closer, and as they did, the fire in the cabin grew. Naruto wasn't sure they could win against even one more wolf, but certainly not this many. The wolves were strong, and fast, and worked together, and were smart. They would simply wait Naruto and Hinata out if that's what it took. Their breath hung in the air, foul-smelling, like entrails and infection.

He sat down with her in his arms, and started meditating. The fire was roaring at his back, and the wolves kept their distance, patient. He tried to pull nature energy into himself, and balance it, but even the nature energy here was off. It felt like he was pulling cold air into his body.

"I'm scared," she said.

"I've got you." He was reassuring her, but realized, if Sasuke didn't come before this fire died down, it was likely both of them would die. Then he thought of an idea- a way for her at least to survive.

Rats scurried from beneath the shack, and he hopped up with her, and they stomped and kicked, and got almost too close to a wolf- one swatted at them and Naruto pulled Hinata down just in time, and they rushed back, and stood close enough to the fire to singe their hair. Now rats and wolves looked at them from the edge of the orange light. The shack burned bright and hot for an hour, two hours, and as the wood consumed itself, the two scooted closer to the blaze. The wolves and rats crept closer as well. They dug and rooted for chunks of unburned, or partially burned wood, and singed their hands throwing pieces into the center of the fire. Naruto kicked at the fire, and the wolves recoiled just slightly. It wouldn't be long now. The wood was gone, the fire was dying, and the snow had started falling.

Two wolves crept closer, and Naruto fished for a kunai, or paper bomb, or something- nothing. He saw a hot piece of metal in the embers; he grabbed it and threw it. It bounced off the shoulder of the nearest wolf.

The wolves crept closer, growling, snarling, just past the reach of the orange fire light.

And then finally Sasuke and Sakura appeared. Naruto immediately grabbed Sasuke, and gave him all the chakra he had, and held onto Hinata and the skins with all his strength.

"Fuck!" Sakura shouted, as a wolf lunged at her. Its teeth were at her face when Sasuke pulled them back through the gate and they landed in the grass, in their village.

Sasuke collapsed- Naruto's chakra wasn't nearly enough, and Shikamaru and Temari came over, giving him all they had.

"God damnit Naruto! What the fuck?" Sakura said, shaken by the wolf, by being almost chomped in half.

Sasuke held on to her, and tugged at her, and she released her hundred seal, and poured chakra into him. He had seen Naruto beat up worse than this, but he didn't think he had ever seen him tremble.

If Naruto and Hinata heard her they didn't show it. Their wrists were tied together. They had heavy dark bags under their eyes, dried blood and soot on their face, and viscera matted in their hair. Their hands were burned, their hair was singed, and Naruto had a huge bruise and a busted lip and many cuts, some deep, running down his right side. Both reeked, and looked more exhausted than their friends had seen before. Naruto and Hinata collapsed to the ground, kneeling, and slumped their foreheads together. They were both trembling, and their breathing was shaky. They held each other tight, as tight as they could. Their teeth chattered, and tears were coming silent down Hinata's cheeks, leaving clean trails in soot and blood. And all their friends looked on very worried: what could bring the strongest ninja in the world to his knees like this? Their friends gathered and took their packs, and removed their cloaks as much as they could, but their wrists were tied. They started to untie them and Naruto stopped them. The two stood, holding each other tightly, and quietly turned to walk home, dragging their coats and the skins through the tall grass.

"Hey, hold up you two." Shikamaru called after them. "Let-"

Naruto turned slowly. "Later, Shik." His voice fell apart. His face was a mess of injury and blood and soot and wolf visceria. Hinata wobbled beside him, and almost fell, and he caught her, and picked her up in his arms.

"Let us come with you," Temari asked. "Let me run you a bath, and make food, and help you get settled."

Naruto nodded, and turned and carried Hinata home. Temari took Sakura's hand. It was obvious they needed sleep, food, and rest- not questions. "We'll get them washed up and in bed," Temari said, to their friends. "We're saving our questions for after they've rested. At least twenty-four hours. Don't bother them." Temari and Sakura followed Naruto and Hinata as they walked slowly to their house, coats and a filthy rope trailing along behind them.

"I'll take care of the skins," Sai said, looking at them.

"I'm going with the girls," Ino said, and trotted off.

"Hey," Sasuke yelled, to Ino. She turned, and walked backwards. "Set all their reports and maps and stuff on their porch for us."

"Please?"

This goddamn entitled, spoiled, ignorant woman. "Please," he growled.

She gave him a thumbs up, and turned and ran after them.