Chapter 17

Well, this chapter is a little shorter than any of my previous chapters, but it just felt like a good place to end it. Now then, to do something I haven't done since starting to write this fanfic, read other peoples fanfics. Grrr, school.....

I shivered. I never expected the mountains to be this cold. I heard joyful giggling from the other tent. The girls had offered to let me share the tent with the for warmth, but I had quickly declined. I looked around my own tent. Couldn't they have given me a smaller one? I'm not an army. A breeze picked up and I got back down into every blanket I had and the girls could share. My back started aching. I really should start using the weight lessening technique. But I also need to save my chakra to create false paths in the snow to throw off pursuers And I also need to save chakra to fight anyone who actually catches up with us and protect the girls... I turned over and rubbed my shoulders. Ouch... I felt a presence enter the tent. I started to get up.
"Man, Janus-kun, it's cold in here. Are you sure you don't want to join us?" I blushed slightly.
"So..orry, Temari-chan. I..." I felt a warm presence appear next to me.
"I understand. But does Jiraiya's lifestyle scare you that much?" She said, starting to massage my aching shoulders. I relaxed.
"It's not just that. I've seen how effective Naruto's Sexy no Jutsu is on almost every guy he's used it against save me."
"Ah, so you don't want Naruto to have an attack that will disable you like everyone else, right?" I nodded into my pillow. Where did Temari learn... "Didn't you know that it's part of the shinobi training for women? And I thought you were well educated." I was about to sit up and refute it but she pushed a pressure point on my back and I fell back down.
"Temari-chan...cruel..." She laughed loud enough that the other girls stopped talking and listened in, giggling softly.
"They are never going to let us live this down, you know." I whispered.
"Who says I didn't plan this from the start." She stood up, leaving a cold breeze where she was. Again I tried to get up to no avail. "The effects of the pressure point will wear off by the morning. Just get some sleep, you need it." She said as I drifted off quickly.

I woke up hearing the sounds of packing the next morning. I got up, quickly and packed up my blankets, preparing the extras for packing too. I put on my overcoat and pants and quickly got out of the tent. Just in time to as the center of the tent fell down.
"Hey!" I said to a giggling Ino and Sakura. I looked over at Temari who had a large grin on her face. "You told them to do that, didn't you?" I said.
"And what if I did? Going to do anything about it, fearless leader?" I made a face at her and turned around, causing all the girls to start laughing. After most of the laughter had settled down, I felt a shy tug on my coat. I turned around to see Hinata holding a bowl of oatmeal.
"Here's breakfast, Janus-kun." She offered me the bowl.
"Thanks, Hinata. At least one of you is considerate to me." Temari, Tenten, Ino, and Sakura all looked at me and stuck their tongues out.
"Umm, Janus-kun? Why was Temari laughing from you tent last night?" Here it comes. Even though they were finishing packing, everyone's attention was focused on me.
"Nothing important, just Temari-chan getting insane pleasure from tormenting me." All the girls save Temari blushed slightly.
"Oh quiet, you know you enjoyed it." I opened my mouth to refute her. I didn't say anything. I blushed slightly as I started eating my breakfast to the sounds of more giggling. I quickly finished and wash the dish so we could finish packing. Five minutes later everyone was loading pack to their backs.
"Alright. If we keep on this pace, we should hopefully be out of this cursed range in five more days. If we keep following Jiraiya's trail we should be good. Everyone, move out!" The girls started marching down the line. Hinata first, using her Byakugan to scout ahead. The rest of the order was Sakura, Ino, Tenten, Temari, and I pulled up the rear.
"Hinata won the draw." Temari said an hour into the trip. I had just sent off my first two sets of clones for the day. They would continue to march for about two hours then vanish.
"Huh?" I said, looking at her back.
"The girls all drew straws to see who got to confront you. I told them the story last night but they just wanted to have some fun too."
"So that's what it's about?"
"Yeah, the needed to keep their spirits up. Think about it. We don't know if we are going to survive the trip over the mountains let alone make it home. I felt that this would be the best way to give them something to gossip about. I've seen how much this trip has warn away on you." I sighed. She was right. I wasn't prepared to be a leader yet. "Don't feel down about it. You've done a great job." I heard a scream.
"But obviously, not good enough?" I looked forward to see a tall figure with long white hair wearing a white robe tied in the back with a large purple rope. He was holding Hinata up in the air by her coat. "Under the orders of Orochimaru-sama I am retrieving the Kusanagi and kill the refugees from Konoha." Everyone backed up behind me.
"Let her go!" I shouted. He laughed and tossed her at my feet. Ino and Sakura rushed to her side to check if she was ok.
"You had better entertain me, little friend. And after hearing what happened to the Four Gates, I'm not going to underestimate you, genin." Black, crystalline structures started expanding across his exposed skin from his shoulder. Crap, a Cursed Seal User. I watched as they covered his entire body so he looked like some kind of demon. "Come, fools. I'll show you pain. Demonic Ice Mirrors!" We were surrounded on all sides by mirrors of ice.
"Wait, that was Haku's bloodline!" He laughed.
"I don't know of this Haku but if he could do this, I must also be of his bloodline. So, you know the jutsu you know that you know you are doomed." He stepped into one of the mirrors, merging with it.
"Crap, Naruto's ability isn't going to save the day this time." I mumbled to myself. Our opponent appeared in every mirror. "He uses the mirrors to increase his speed. I'm so glad that one of the side effects of opening the higher level gates allows me to see faster. To bad I'm only catching hints of his movements. Damn I wish I had the Sharingan or something..."
"Janus-kun, what about me?" I glanced back towards Hinata. That's just crazy enough to work!
"Hinata, watch him. I believe that there is some pattern to his movement pattern based on a slight angling of the mirrors. If there is, we might be able to beat him, everyone else, protect Hinata till she figures out if there is one, got it?" Everyone agreed.
"So, ready now, little ones?" The mirrors echoed. "Because here I come!" I preformed a series of hand seals.
"Deflection Shield no Jutsu!" The shield appeared around me just in time to block a good three dozen ice needles. I felt the pull on my chakra. They are a chakra attack but the needles themselves are just ice so they are in the same category as normal weapons. Everyone else didn't field the attack so well. Luckily, the only got a quarter the needles I got attacked with.
"So, this is the chakra armor Orochimaru-sama told me about. No matter. After some research he discovered the weakness in the jutsu. Icy Wind no Jutsu!" I quickly shut off the shield to take the full blunt of the attack. Crap, there goes one of my aces. I was hit by four simultaneous blasts of a biting wind from the mirrors. I felt my skin slash get slashed by small chunks of ice. Damn Orochimaru! The attack stopped and I fell to my hands and knees.
"Janus-kun!" Temari shouted. She started to head towards me.
"No!" She stopped. "What did I tell you to do, I'll be ok." She scowled, lifting up her fan.
"Yeah, right. Kamaitachi!" She swung her fan at the mirror the guy was currently in. He quickly vanished, appearing above. The wind merely chipped away at the mirror. Temari growled as she swung again at him. Same effect as the first, he disappeared and appeared somewhere else. But somehow, his movements were getting easier to see for me. I looked closer at one of the mirrors. It was dull, and didn't reflect very well.
"I can see it!" Hinata shouted, everyone looked at her. Shit.
"Then do something!" I shouted, standing and jumping at one of the dulled mirrors.
"No you don't!" He launched another ice blast towards me, but I kept towards my target. I felt the blast usher me slightly off course, towards outside over the cliff! I started forcing chakra into my feet. Air is a liquid. In order to walk on a fluid I need to force enough chakra through my feet to support myself. I put more and more chakra into my feet. I opened the first gate to increase my chakra amount. I soon was pushing forty times the chakra out my feet as needed to walk on water. I felt the ice stop ripping at my skin. Now for the fall. But the fall never came, just a lot of gasping. I looked at my feet. They were grasping to thin air alone. I was currently at shoulder height of the nearest mirror.
"That's impossible! He shouted. I quickly grabbed the nearest untarnished mirror and swung at the outside of it. I knew Temari had figured out my plan and was launching an attack at the inside one. I watched our opponent foolishly head for the mirror that was about to be attacked from both sides. I kicked the mirror and I felt Temari's Kamaitachi hit the front of the mirror. I heard a scream of pain. I reached into my pouch and grabbed two kunais. The mirror shattered and I started to fall down the sharp slope towards a bottomless gorge. I slammed my kunais into the ice. I felt myself slow. I watched the man slid right by me into the gorge. My body slowly dropped over the edge but my kunais' stopped just at the edge. I heard the girls yell and scream. I slowly pulled myself up over the edge.
"Isn't someone going to throw me a rope?" I shouted up towards then.

I looked around be site of the battle. Blood covered the snow, surrounded by melting needles of ice. Everyone had cuts on some part of their bodies. I looked at myself. I guess everyone had fewer cuts than me even though a lot of mine were merely superficial.
"Umm, Janus." Tenten walked up from treating Temari's wounds. Hinata was currently bandaging Ino and Sakura's wounds. They both had worse wounds then everyone else. "We need to find somewhere to camp so we can tend to Sakura and Ino."
"No, we can't. We do what we can here then we keep going. If he caught up to us, who can say there aren't more of them following? Also, knowing the resilience of Orochimaru, how do we not know he didn't survive the fall? I'm sorry, I wish we could but we need to get somewhere where we can hide and this isn't the place. We keep going, faster and without rest till we make it out of here. If we do, according to what we've been told, we should make it out of here in one to two days. We should find somewhere on the other side."
"If there is an other side..." I heard Tenten whisper as she walked away. I sighed. I can't deny that there may be nothing but we can't stay here. We have to keep going. It's all we have left.