Warning: This story contains cussing, violence, nudity, sex, including graphic descriptions of sex, rape, homophobic slurs (Sasuke, mostly), sexist remarks (still Sasuke), scenes involving death, scenes depicting decay, rot, and severe frostbite, prostitution, suicide, theft, torture, murder, arson, genocide, disrespecting and assaulting authority figures, destruction and possible desecration of religious buildings, gambling, drug usage, and alcohol usage. Maybe a little more; you've been warned. This story also contains ships: relation and pirate.

Description: The Fourth War ended… or did it? For Naruto and Sasuke, it certainly doesn't feel like it. Taken back home in wooden carts, each missing an arm and beat to hell, thrown in jail for three weeks, their hearts and bones hurt, someone's attacking them with a nasty genjutsu, and nothing but ugly argument after ugly argument with Tsunade. Enough is enough. They walk through the snow to Tsunade's office, toss their headbands on her desk, and leave. Out the village gates they turn north, into the wind and driving snow.

The day was pale, and shivering, and not dressed for this kind of weather. Ice made the smallest little clicking noises as it hit the windows of Hokage Tsunade's office, and thick clouds blocked out the light like heavy curtains, pulled tight.

Sasuke stood tall, and stoic, and kept his eyes out the window, on the ice and snow. Sakura stood closest, to his right. Tsunade spoke to him. She asked him questions. Kakashi said hello, and asked him how he had been doing. No answer. Cold silence; he hid his eyes behind shaggy black eyebrows and long black hair and looked out the windows. Shikamaru didn't bother speaking, neither did Genma, though Shikamaru was curious why he refused to say anything.

Sakura was studying him- tan, stronger- more muscular, black pants and an open, black cotton shirt hung off his shoulders, cuts and bruises on his hand, and forearm, and chest. New scars. Two swords, both on his left hip, the leather straps tight across his obliques. "Sasuke, you been doin' ok?" She was curious if he would speak to her, since he wasn't speaking to anyone else.

He turned and looked at her and held her eyes a moment. "Yes." His voice was low and sounded like smoke and gravel rolled down a steel pipe.

Sakura took a step back, surprised. She tried to speak to him again, a few times, and everyone else tried, as well, but he refused to speak further. Not without Naruto, and if he didn't hurry his ass along, Sasuke was simply going to walk off. They came here for a reason, and it wasn't wasting time answering questions and listen to sleet and ice pelt the windows.

Five long minutes passed before Naruto and Hinata finally arrived. She was dressed for the weather- he wasn't. His spikey blonde hair was wet with melting snow, and his black sweatpants and black tshirt clung tight to his muscular frame. She trailed behind, her cheeks rosy from the cold and wind, or embarrassment- it was hard to tell which. Hinata breathed warm air into her hands, and entered timidly, and waited a moment, then wondered why he wasn't stepping forward. The door shut behind him on cold metal hinges.

Sasuke turned from the window- snow on the powerlines, snow on the rooftops, snow in the trees- endless winter, endless white- his least favorite color. "Took you long enough."

"Sorry," Naruto answered. "I couldn't find the right shirt." The truth was as soon as he sat down to put a shirt on, he leaned back and fell asleep and Hinata had to wake him up and hurry him along.

Everyone noticed- both Sasuke and Naruto wore all black, and neither was dressed for the cold and snow, and neither wore their Leaf headband. They both wore open-toed leather boots. They also had black pouches on their sides, and thighs. Sasuke had swords. Technically you were not supposed to enter the Hokage's office armed for combat unless it was an emergency. It could be viewed as a sign of disrespect.

This was Tsunade's first time seeing them since they disappeared some six weeks ago. Both men had lost an arm in the war eight weeks ago, but they looked no weaker because of it. They looked strong, and lean, and tan, muscular and imposing. But the real problem for Tsunade: they looked defiant, and indignant. It was in their eyes. Sasuke looked like he wanted to fight her, and Naurto looked like he wanted to cuss her. Maybe she had been too harsh with them. This wasn't going to go well. Patience, Tsunade. Neither she, nor the Leaf, could afford to let them leave for another nation, not with the Conference coming soon. Their most recent absence had caused enough trouble- one way or another she needed to keep them here. "Naruto, where have the two of you been the last month? And why didn't you come when I called for you?" She had summoned them to her office three days in a row now.

Kakashi and Genma stood to the right of the Hokage's desk, and Shikamaru to the left. Kakashi cared very much about Naruto and Sasuke, but they had been avoiding him too. He was also curious where they had been, and what they had been doing. Shikamaru was just as curious- Naruto had been avoiding him, which was the first time in his life he could remember.

Naruto yawned. He looked sleepy, and leaned against the back wall. Hinata had stepped forward, and glanced back a few times, waiting for him to step forward with her, and now waiting on his answer.

"Well?" Tsunade asked. "Where have you two been. What have you been doing the last month, Sasuke?"

Sasuke turned slowly from the window, and reached across his body with his right hand, and lowered his shoulder a little, and gripped the hilt of the sword on his hip. It was a reflexive motion. He didn't mean any harm. But he looked ready to do harm. Lots of it. "It's none of your goddamn business." His black, slighty baggy shirt slid off his shoulder and fell halfway down his arm.

Hinata and Sakura gasped and pulled back.

"It is my business, Sasuke, or are you no longer a Leaf ninja?"

No answer.

"Naruto?"

"I thought we made that clear, already." They all looked at him. What? Made what clear? No longer a leaf ninja? Naruto stepped forward and stood shoulder to shoulder with Hinata, embarrassing her all over again. She looked at him- he didn't look like he had quit being a ninja; he hadn't been acting like he was done being a ninja. So what did he mean by that?

This old hag. Sasuke felt like cussing her, but knew that would be rude. "Aren't you tired yet, old woman?" Sasuke shut his eyes and forced himself to speak at a calm, measured level- something suitable for nursing home hallways. He truly was trying with her. "You need to find a bed and some diapers and retire." The room went white. Sasuke was positive a child from a sewer pipe would do a better job as Hokage, which both pissed him off, and worried him. But she was old. That could, perhaps, explain some of the incompetence. Still- if he were to base the decisions of this village on nothing more than random chance- a dice roll, he was positive that would have better results than anything she produced. Now he was mad again. This incompetent hag. "Have you done anything useful in the last month? If we wanted to waste our time listening to bullshit we'd go work on a farm."

"Oh my god," Sakura gasped, loud enough for the room to hear, and grabbed his arm and looked at him like he was insane. What the fuck was he doing? She glanced back at Naruto, for help, and she could tell by the look on his face- he had no intention of helping and was about to make things worse.

Tsunade unfolded her hands and lowered her eyes. Goddamn these two. Maybe it would be better if they left the Leaf. "This might come as a shock, but I don't take orders from you, Sasuke."

"Naruto, Sasuke." Shikamaru raised his voice. "What's going on? What did you make clear already?" He knew he might be over-stepping his position, but something was off- with both of them, and had been since they came back. He knew he was asking about a prior conversation between these two and Tsunade, a conversation which might have been confidential, but he was starting to get concerned. It was very rare to see Naruto not wearing his Leaf headband.

Neither man answered.

"Shikamaru," Hokage Tsunade said, "They came to me the same day they were sent to jail. They visited me a day before they were supposed to be released from jail, then left." She let that sit a minute. They all knew why they were jailed: because of Sasuke's crimes before the war, and because Naruto refused to leave Sasuke's side. No one agreed with jailing these two, even though it was a short three-week sentence. A short sentence they apparently didn't bother serving. "The day they left they told me they had been north the last week, and told me this winter was… how did you put it…" she mused, looking at Sasuke. Despite being in her fifties, Tsunade looked young- healthy skin, long blonde hair, though the robes she wore as Hokage covered her body, they could all tell- she was busty, strong, and curvy. "A thing to be feared, I think. They told me to remove all Leaf ninja and scientists from around the God Tree, and how they were being hit with a long-distance genjutsu…" she looked at them, and sighed; she truly did not want to be their enemy. It would be so much better if they would simply work for the Leaf, or at least allow her to trade them off into an arranged marriage. But no. "They tossed their headbands over, I had them arrested, and then they were gone. And now here you two are again. Do you know how much trouble you've caused me?"

Now Hinata and Sakura were really looking at the two. Hinata knew the genjutsu was true- she was hit with it three days ago. That's what brought Naruto back. But the winter is a thing to be feared? She looked out the window at the sky- white, grey, dark gray, sliding across the land like threadbare blankets pulled out of the attic. There had not been a single day, or hour, of sunlight since the war ended- not one. She looked back at Naruto, worried- what had he been doing?

Sakura looked at them as if they were both just slightly crazy. She ran her hand through her pink hair to get it out of her face. She was close enough to Sasuke- she heard his hand tighten on the sword hilt.

Naruto held Tsunade's eyes. "How much trouble we've caused you?" They'd had nothing but trouble since the war ended, and she was part of the problem. "Why did you refuse to go with us? Why did you get mad? If you don't trust your own ninja, then… we probably shouldn't be ninja, right?"

"I'm not bringing her dumb ass back now," Sasuke scowled.

Sakura and Hinata looked horrified at him. Kakashi cleared his throat. They had both looked at him, and offered weak smiles, but had not spoken to him. What was going on here? Even if they no longer wanted to be Leaf ninja, it would be better to just not come to this meeting. Why bother antagonizing the Hokage? He looked hard at both men.

"Naruto, Sasuke, I imagine you can take me far enough north to find bad weather, especially in December. How far would we have to go?"

Neither answered.

Maintain patience, Tsunade. Maintain patience. "That," she said, emphasizing the word, "Should not be a hard question to answer." She looked at them. "No? Ok, then how about this: there are reports from the Stone and Rain that some of their ninja have been attacked and killed. Know anything about that?"

Neither answered.

"This is what I meant by causing me trouble. Thirty-seven Stone and Rain ninja- all strong. All killed. In their own land. Lots of deep cuts, by a sword. Some of them looked as if a rasengan had ripped through them. No signs of the enemy coming or going…"

Neither answered. Although they both knew she was wrong about them being killed in their own lands, which meant her reports were false, or she was lying. They killed stone ninja in the Land of Lightning, north of Kumo village, and Rain ninja going towards the God Tree, under the genjustsu, through her lands, apparently free and clear.

Hinata looked at Naruto, and Sakura looked at Sasuke. Were they out attacking ninja in other lands? They looked plenty strong enough to do so.

"How about this? When the Kage of other nations ask me where you two are, and what you're doing, how do you propose I answer?" She was working at maintaining patience. She truly was.

"We'll go wherever the fuck we want," Sasuke said. His shirt slipped the rest of the way down his missing left arm, and hung off his side.

"Who's asking?" Naruto asked, but the question turned into a deep yawn, which turned into a bigger one, and he reached his arms up and stretched- he tried, and couldn't finish his yawn, so he stretched a little further and leaned back into it, and croaked out a yawn, most of it through his nose, and shook his head, and straightened himself. He blinked at Tsunade.

Sakura, Shikamaru, and Hinata stared in disbelief at these two. Genma and Kakashi stood stock still. Kakashi had thought about stepping in a few times, but was curious how this would play out. Not well. It wasn't playing out well. They were going to be kicked out. And it looked like they were perfectly happy being kicked out.

Tsunade slammed her fist down on her desk, startling half the room. The wood cracked and splinters flew off at Genma. "Naruto, Sasuke, tell me- you two have been back for three days. In those three days the Hyuga Estate, the ANBU compound, the hospital records room, and the police department records room have all been broken in to. Seems an odd coincidence, doesn't it?"

Hinata paled. He broke into her house? Her estate? Why?

"Even the goddamn archives! Why break into the fucking archives when it's open during the day?!"

Neither answered.

"Over the last month six Hyuga clan members have disappeared. Two of them were found blind in the woods. Know anything about that?"

They knew a lot about that- Hinata had told them both their first night back, standing with Naruto in his apartment, in his clothes because her pajamas were wet with melted snow. Hyuga are going missing. It's the genjutsu- just like Hinata- they walk right out of the damn gate to their eyeless death in the snow. We don't know that. Then what else could it be? Well obviously some could be leaving on their own- I would if I was in the goddamn branch family. They didn't say a word of answer to the Hokage.

"Um… Hokage… I… I was…" Hinata looked up at Naruto, and he looked down at her, and smiled a very gentle, soft smile, and shook his head no- telling her to not respond to the Hokage. She shut her mouth, and didn't say another word, and looked down at her boots, and blushed a little.

"Hinata," Hokage Tsunade said, loudly, catching her attention. "Do you have something to say?"

She shook her head no, and kept looking down.

Sasuke stepped over to the window and opened it, and slipped his shirt the rest of the way off his arms, it hung down, off his left side- covering his swords a little. He opened another, and turned back to them, his right eye glowed red and his pupil turned to a six-pointed black star- this was his sharingan, with which he could cast his own genjutsus- though none nearly as powerful as the ones they had been hit with. Cold air rushed in around him. He returned his hand to the hilt of his sword. The freezing rain had turned to sleet, and it sounded like radio static with the window open. Surely these fools realized something was wrong with this winter. This hag Tsunade's answer was that the scientists told her the war kicked a lot of dust into the air. Naruto and Sasuke's fighting kicked a lot of dust into the air. Ah yes, blame the winter, and the war, on them. According to the scientists, it would snow, and remain cloudy, until the dust settled.

"Well?" Tsunade asked, looking at Hinata.

Naruto stepped in front of her, shielding her from Tsunade.

Genma walked over and shut the window. He faced Sasuke, smiled pleasantly at him, and offered a handshake. Sasuke avoided the handshake, and pushed the window back open, and drew his sword as he turned back. He drew his sword in a way that made a slow, continuous sound of metal scraping metal. He jabbed it in the floor, the blade slicing into the tip of Genma's boot. Then he leaned forward, and in doing so shoved Genma backwards. Sasuke growled- it was hot in this fucking office, and if this jackass so much as moved again…

"Sasuke, be nice," Kakashi ordered, loudly, and stepped within striking distance. "C'mon, fess up- what have you been doing the last five weeks, and do you know anything about these break-ins, and the deaths and disappearance of the foreign ninja, or anything about the missing Hyuga?" He looked at all of them. The girls shook their heads no. No reaction from the boys.

Little chinks of sleet hit the windows, and the window seal, and the hardwood floor, and wind gusted against shingles and guttering. The lights flickered. The powerlines couldn't take much more of this.

Sasuke turned from Genma to Tsunade, pulled his sword from the floor and leveled it straight at her. There was only one reason they came to this meeting. "Did you meet Okiku?"

They all looked at him sideways and like he was insane. Holding a sword at the Hokage? And they had never heard that name, and then, it was just as obvious, Tsunade had, and didn't want to answer.

That name hit her ears like bugs, from her ears down her back, crawling. No one who has ever met that woman ever wants to meet her again. And if they knew her name, then they had met her.

"Well?"

Naruto looked over. "It's kinda obvious- she has."

"It is obvious, isn't it," Sasuke agreed.

She grimaced. "Yes. I've met her. Guess who she was looking for?"

Naruto studied her- she didn't look beat up. Unless that meeting was a month ago then Okiku didn't fight her. Although Tsunade did have the hundred-seal jutsu. Still. And why wouldn't she fight Tsunade? "You're working with her," Naruto accused, turning from Sasuke, slowly- he glanced at Sakura, and then Kakashi, and leveled his eyes at Tsunade. He stepped directly in front of Hinata.

Sasuke sheathed his sword, but left his hand on the hilt. He turned to the side and dropped his shoulder. Lightning crackled down his arm, down his hand, and over the sword sheath, cracking blue and popping.

Kakashi jumped forward, between them, and Tsunade. He held his arms out and shook his head no at them.

Tsunade looked over his shoulder. "I am not working with Okiku- I don't always have control over who visits this village, as I'm sure you two are aware. You two want to quit? Then quit. Disappear and become bullshit farmers. But that's not what you're doing, is it. The two of you are fucking around with other nations, and villages, other kage, visiting goddamn daimyos, and stirring up trouble, that I have to fucking deal with! Disappear, goddamnit, or obey the laws of this land, or get the fuck out, and never come back!" Anger sat on her shoulders, and climbed around her ears, to her eyebrows, and laid across her brown eyes. She clinched her fists and released her hundred seal. Black lines ran from the diamond on her forehead down her face, her neck, and her body under her robes. She stepped to the right, out from behind her desk; out from behind Kakashi.

Hinata Sakura, Shikamaru and Genma were stone statues. White marble. Expertly carved for silence.

Naruto wondered if her anger was a clever way of distracting them? Jiraiya would've thought so. "Tsunade, if I find out you're working with her I will remove you as Hokage, and I will remove your ability to work with anyone ever again. You need to-"

Tsunade sprung over the desk, shoving Sasuke aside, drew her right fist back while she sailed through the air and slammed it into Naruto's face. He flew through the back wall. Dust and debris filled the office, and Hinata, Shikamaru, Sakura and Genma stared on in horror. Except that wasn't Naruto- Sasuke had cast his own genjutsu. The real Naruto was standing between Hinata and Shikamaru, yawning. Hinata and Shikamaru jumped when they noticed him.

Okiku was here, in this office, three weeks ago, and told her the winter was bad to the north, and they were migrating south, and would bring food so long as they were allowed passage. She said they had been attacked by a young man with black hair, and a purple left eye. That could only be Sasuke. Okiku asked his whereabouts, and Tsunade answered honestly- I don't know. And then Okiku looked sad. She looked up at Tsunade, and her face started decaying- her skin turned shiny, then red, then cracked, and cold blood clotted under the surface, and darkened her cheeks, and around her eyes; her lips turned black, and cracked, and congealed, half-frozen blood gathered and fell off in plops, and her nose turned black and shriveled back off the bone. Frostbite ran across her face and took her ears the way rats gnaw wood- piece by little piece by little piece. I would like to find that young man. We're freezing to death, and it hurts.

Tsunade walked back behind her desk, and folded her arms. "Did you attack Okiku? Sasuke? Did you attack her land, and her people? Not just recently, but anytime in the past?" Kakashi was still between them, looking at Sasuke and Naruto.

"I've never set foot in her land; I've never seen her people. If you can find her land on a goddamn map then do it, because we can't. But when she came to us, and attacked us- fuck yes we attacked her back." Sasuke gritted his teeth. If this woman was working with her, he would hack her hundred seal away if it took all week.

Tsunade sighed. Was he telling the truth? That was the first question she had asked that they had answered. Tsunade had lived long enough- she had fifty years' worth of experience. If they wanted to leave then she couldn't stop them. But at a minimum, she needed to keep them here long enough to figure out if they were telling the truth. If she could also figure out which village they were leaving for, she might be able to arrange a trade. And how do you manage unruly children? Give them what they want. "I'm reassigning the teams. Shikamaru, Naruto, and Hinata- you're now Team 7. You're to investigate the break-ins, under Kakashi."

Naruto started to speak, and Shikamaru answered loud, interrupting him, "Understood."

"Sakura, Sasuke, you are on team 10, with Ino, when she returns, under Genma."

The wind was picking up, and starting to cover the wood floor in a layer of snow and sleet. Sasuke Uchiha stood as if challenging the day. He was challenging her, the wind, the snow, the ice hanging in the air, but still… he appreciated the gesture. He grinned just slightly and loosened his grip on his sword. "Thanks, but no," he said, in his deep gravel voice. "If I wanted a harem, I'd have one."

Genma nearly choked. Sakura looked down, thinking, then looked back up at him, her eyebrows slanted down to the center. That pissed her off for some reason.

"I decline," Naruto said, and reached over and took Hinata's hand, surprising her, and turned. "Let's go."

"Sasuke," Kakashi said, "We need to talk."

"From here on out," the dark-haired ninja answered. "We talk as friends, and not teacher and student. And right now, from one friend to another, it's best we don't talk." Those were the first words either had said to him. Sasuke looked at Sakura, and turned, and walked out the door. Sakura took a deep breath, and brushed her hair out of her eyes, and looked at Kakashi, then Tsunade. He had only spoken to her. She was mad at him, and wasn't quite sure why, and worried about him, and wasn't quite sure why. She chewed on her lip a second, and her emerald green eyes sparkled despite the gray day. She spun around and followed him.

Kakashi stepped over and shut the windows. His instincts told him something was wrong, but he didn't know what. The lack of sun, and the endless snow since the war ended- October 10th. The snow started October 10th. And hadn't stopped since. Was it truly a dust cloud? Food was starting to get expensive. Okiku. Tsunade knew her, and Naruto and Sasuke knew her, but a different reaction from both. "I'll keep an eye on them," Kakashi said, and left.

"Well…" Genma looked down and inspected his boot. "I think you pissed them off."

Tsunade glared at him but didn't say anything.