The Hidden Snow lay at the bottom of a glacier in an icy valley. It lay in the shape of a hexagon, with large, thirty feet walls surrounding it, covered in slippery ice. The houses were arranged in the pattern of a snowflake, and in the center where all the branches met, stood a hexagona building with a small side portion, most likely a ninja acadamy. It had taken the group of Anbu the entire day to reach it, and the sun was now almost completely gone.
'We'll head in in a few minutes, alright?" asked Neji, crouching behind a large boulder and adressing the rest of the group. His brown cloak flapped gently in the breeze.
"Metsuki, please don't use your bloodline during the mission. You've already lost too much blood," said Iyasu. Metsuki shot an angry look at him.
"I'll do whatever the hell I want! D'you think I give a damn if I die?... I'm gonna take a look around," she said, standing angrily and and vanishing.
"Ugh... She's scary when she gets angry," said Iyasu, peeking over the edge of the rock at the village. A snowstorm had kicked up, obscuring it from sight. It swirled angrily around it, engulfing it completely. Iysau sank back down, sighing.
"You should go get her, Neji, otherwise our timing will be off," said Sasuke.
Neji grunted and stood, vanishing. He cast around for Metsuki, finally finding her sitting on a nearby boulder, her feet dangling off the edge as she stared out towards the village.
"Metsuki, we should leave. You should listen to Iyasu, he has a point," said Neji, standing a few feet off. To his suprise, she said nothing, but continued staring out.
Neji paused, before deciding to pry a bit. "When Iyasu was trying to stop that attack, he ran his chakra through your stomach. What were all of those scars? They looked like torture marks. And what is that seal on your arm?"
Metsuki was silent. "You're right, we should go." Damnit, I hope father doesn't find out. He'd kill them all... again.
Metsuki vanished, leaving Neji to wonder about what had happened. In a few moments, though, he had also headed back to the others as they prepared to head out. Metsuki adjusted her brown Anbu cloak, draping the hood over her head.
It was an easy dash to the village, but the snowstorm surrounding it had grown fiercer and they paused at the edge.
"Let me just-" Metsuki was cut off by Neji.
"No," he hissed, " I don't want to lose you..." What's he talking about? Metsuki stared at him.
"I'm the leader of this mission and it's my responsibility to see that everyone gets back safely," said Neji as he realized what he had just said.
"I'll use the Byakuugan and lead us through. I'll take the front, followed by Sasuke and then by Metsuki. Iyasu will bring up the rear. Make sure to hold on to the person in front of you."
The group prepared, attatching their masks and grabbing a hold of the person in front of them, forming a line. It would have been easier if they had brought a rope, but their bags were still hidden back at their campsite.
Neji activated his bloodline, before pressing into the almost solid wall of snow. It swirled wildly around them, stealing their breath away and whipping across their necks and hands. The hood of Metsuki's cloak almost blew off as she pushed forward with a great deal of difficulty. Being the lightest in the group, the wind almost picked her right off the ground.
The snow around her was so thick that she could barely see the glowing blue form of Sasuke ahead of her. Her hands were frozen and her legs were beginning to stiffen. She felt a whoosh of warm air to her left, and she turned her head forcefully in the direction, catching a glimpse of a black figure. Ann odd tingling crept up her back, and she finally pinpointed it. This was no normal snowstorm, it was genjutsu.
Why didn't Sasuke recognize it? Turning her head back to the slow trail she was ploughing through over knee-deep snow, she suddenly froze. In front of her stood Sasuke, she could clearly see for some reason through the snow, but he was dying. Blood was dripping freely from over a hundred kunai embedded in his body. This is just genjutsu, she thought. They had stopped moving and she heard a thud. Iyasu fell behind her, warm hands dropping away from her cloak.
Just a jutsu, she thought wildly, trying to escape it. Damnit, what's going on? Suddenly the snow stopped, wind dying down and revealing the bodies of her companions all dead in the deep snow. Six shapes suddenly surrounded her, all glowing blue in her mind. Snow-nin.
What the hell is this? Screw this, I'm usin' my bloodline. She moved her frozen hands to her face and lifted the cloth, tying it around her neck. She saw Sasuke and Neji in puddles of red in front of her. But before she could break through the genjutsu, the six ninja simultaniously struck her, each throwing many kunai towards her. The world turned dark as the jutsu escalated a level.
Pain exploded throughout her body as each kunai struck her and knocked her down. A twisted voice, a female's, rasped out from the shadows as blood red eyes widened in anticipation.
"She fears... blood. And her comrades lives. Painful. Past..."
A Psychic? But before she had time to sort out what was happening, a new scene unfolded before her. She saw Iyasu and Neji, both alive, being tortured by two of the Snow-nin. They screamed out as sickly twisted instruments entered their body. When Metsuki tried to move, she found her body frozen to the spot. Glancing down she saw her body covered in blood which was flowing freely from various gashes in her body. Just a genjutsu, just a genjutsu...
"You're wrong," came the girl's voice. "This is no jutsu, it is real. Aren't you going to save your friends? Not like last time, you let them all die." The female voice came through her mind with no actual physical traits. And for some reason, Metsuki believed her. This was too vivid to be genjutsu, but... Where is Sasuke?
Iyasu slumped to the ground, either dead or unconcious. His body couldn't take the pain. Neji cried out as a katana was run across his stomach, before plunging into his side.
"Neji! Ugh..." her body felt slow and her arms and legs felt like lead. She closed her eyes, making a big mistake after she found they would not open. "Shall we see what went on in your past?"
Pictures began flaring to life in front of her in silence as they played out her history, the only noise she heard was Neji's screams. She tried to cry out for someone to help her out of this, anyone, but the picturs kept coming.
She was only a child, only three years old, her father was teaching her how to use her bloodline. Her attacks were not bad back then, only a small headache or a few second's coughing. The picture melted into another.
She was now four and had killed her first person. The blood was on her hands as her father congratulated her. She wiped the blood across the person she had killed, further staining the clothes. It was her mother, the last bearer of her bloodline along with her.
Now she was five and on a battle field, sending up spikes of earth and ice as she sent bolts of lightning into a small village. Her father had wanted to test her, and had just told her that her only purpose was as a tool for his organization, the Akatsuki. She had felt nothing at the time, although she fully understood his words.
The scene changed again, it was her seventh birthday and she wanted to play with other children her age. Her father had agreed to send her to a village, the Hidden Star, and she had made her first friends. They were all acadamy students, and her closest friends were a girl with a shock of blue hair that she kept in pigtails, she was always smiling. The other was a boy, always silent, he had black hair and had had his family slaughtered at the age of two, he liked the blue-haired girl but would never admit it. The last was an adventurous boy with flaming red hair and a personality to match. She had liked him the best, and spent alot of time with him.
She was still at the Hidden Star, but was now nine, and her and her friends were gennin. They had become known throughout the village as powereful ninja, each had their own summon as well. They had been a formidable team. She watched as the four of them trained in a small field.
The scene changed again, showing her at the age of eleven and sitting in the moonlight beside the red haired boy. He had just told her that he had feelings for her, and she had begun to tell him about herself. He had changed throughout the years, growing more mature and even more powerful. This scene ended with a pair of dark eyes watching her as she leaned forward into the red-haired boy's arms.
She was still eleven, but the Hidden Moon had changed. It was a wreck, with dead bodies everywhere and the ground covered in blood. Her two friends, the blue-haired girl and the dark boy, were huddled against a building, both of their summons defeated. Her father gave the word and killed the boy as he defended the girl, before slaughtering her as well. Then, right before her eyes, her own father killed her boyfriend, splattering his blood into the night. But the jounins of the Star finally captured her.
The pictures changed to scenes where she could almost feel the pain. They were torturing her, spilling her blood everywhere. They taunted her about letting the red-haired boy die so easily, and about betraying them. But her father finally found her and killed them.
The scene changed, the aftermath of the attack on the village, everyone was dead. That was when her attacks had started growing worse, more serious.
She was now twelve, and fighting her way past a new member of the Akatsuki to regain her position as second strongest. He was a sharingan user, but it was useless against her. It took alot of time, but she finally beat him down. The picture melted into one showing the attack she had had after that, her blood spilling everywhere. The person who she had just defeated actually helped her then.
It then showed her at thirteen, fighting Neji in the field, snapping his ankles and wrists so easily. She heard his screams continuing from outside of her realm of memories as she tried to fight it off. But it was not over.
Now she was fourteen and Neji was her new boyfriend. The attacks had lessened. But her father decided to interfere again.
This has not happened... is... is this the future?
Suddenly a picture of Neji, bleeding on the ground, was before her. Except this time it was her hands that were covered in his blood, and her father was clapping behind her. In the image, she felt the corners of her mouth twitch as she smiled.
Finally the torture ended, only to be replaced by a vision of Neji. He had stopped screaming and now lay beside Iyasu.
"You see, monster? That is what- Who's there!? Get out!" the sick voice suddenly escalated to a screech. Metsuki stood frozen, wide-eyed and staring at Neji with her mouth slightly open. She did not notice the dark world around her suddenly fade.
"Metsuki! Get up, now!" It was Sasuke.
All around her lay the bodies of the six Snow-nin, along with Neji's and Iyasu's. She snapped out of her trance and looked towards Sasuke, who was covered in blood with kunai and shuriken protruding from his brown cloak. She wanted to move, but her body wouldn't allow it. Her body was frozen.
Sasuke gave up, collapsing into the deep snow, breathing heavily. But Iyasu suddenly twitched. The various wounds all across his body started welding together, stopping the bloodloss. It took only a minute before he stood, fully healed. He ran over to Neji, quickly reviving him and sealing his wounds. The snow started to pick up again, but this time it was real snow, not a jutsu.
Neji said something to Iyasu, before sitting up. Iyasu moved onto Sasuke as the snow picked up further, obscuring Metsuki's view. Her eyelids felt heavy. She almost fell asleep, but a voices cut through the snow.
"Metsuki! Where are you?"
She heard the faint sound of someone yelling 'Byakuugan' and a moment later she heard three sets of hurried footsteps crunching through the snow towards her. She felt Iyasu's hands quickly pull the weapons from her body before sealing the cuts. She no longer felt tired, and finally snapped out of her trance.
"Wh-what... Was that a Genjutsu? What happened?"
"Yeah, Genjutsu. But Sasuke wasn't affected by it. He defeated all six of them by himself," said Iyasu, helping her up. The snow died down again.
"So much for going unnoticed," muttered Sasuke. Ahead of them the walls of the Hidden Snow rose thirty feet into the air, but there were no ninja standing atop it.
"You must have killed the messenger, they must have been the guards. We can still pull this off, but only if we get moving now," said Neji, dashing to the side and followed by the other three. Now the mission would really begin.