Disclaimer: Naruto & co. don't belong to me. They belong to Masashi Kishimoto.

AN: woo- Faster update this time (well... better than the last time). But I'll just note here that fast updates will often be impossible nowadays... lots of stuff to do- If this mystery is something you guys want solved, maybe I will indulge you with an explanation... later on- heheh (but to be honest, I'm dying to tell lol -and it's a good reason, I promise!). Below are some replies to reviews - please just skip it if you just want to get on with the story-

xl-twisted-lx - I live!! (lol)

JapanAnimeGirl - About that Naruto telling Sasuke about the fiancée thing, it wasn't really of a 'telling on her', it was more of a 'recap of what Yuki and I did today' thing, if you can get what I mean -shmile- Naruto didn't mean anything bad, it was just that he didn't know it was going tick off Sasuke.

Rythmic - I burst into tears when I read your review, I was having a really bad day, and your comments just really made it all good for me again -hugglesRythmic- Anyway, I noticed your something characteristic about your sentence structures and thought that you might be interested in reading some of Jane Austen's works - 'Emma' most of all. She's one of the people I'm modeling my own writing on and her sentence structures come very similar to yours - lengthy but still making a lot of sense. I love how you said that reading my work is something like watching a movie. That was my exact aim and I'm glad that at least you have felt it.

Blue Savage- You're still with me! Well... I know I'm really irking some people about updating so slow but there are some things that I just can't ignore happening nowadays... But I'm trying my best! -innocent smile-

Chapter: It Begins

Yuki stood on the porch, shivering slightly from the whips of cold air that the night was bringing. It was evening after Sasuke had gone off for his mission and she only just decided to get up and go out of the house... and go visit Nara Shikamaru.

The said youth was now opening the door. He barely gave her any expression, and she didn't even have to say anything before he gave her a knowing nod and then allowed her into his home.

"I'm sorry if I've inconvenienced you," she said politely as she took off her shoes.

"Not at all," he replied nonchalantly. "I was rather expecting that you would come." Yuki raised her eyebrows in surprise. That came unexpectedly by her.

"How did you know?"

"Given the circumstance- I am, after all, an intelligence officer that just came back from a scouting. The anbu Captain supposedly on leave," he stressed, hinting at Yuki, "would of course be interested in knowing what intelligence that has been discovered." Yuki smiled and rolled her eyes upward as he grumbled under his breath about how troublesome everything was. Shikamaru took her to an open room overlooking the outside gardens and offered her a seat. "What do want to be briefed on, Captain?"

"As you said, Shikamaru-san, I am on leave. Do try to not address me as Captain," she said teasingly. "Besides, you aren't in the anbu squadrons are you?"

"Right," he grunted, rubbing the back of his head. The whole of his demeanor at that moment expressed that he'd rather be anywhere but sitting and talking to someone, but he knew it had to be done. With a great sigh, he focused his attention to the person sitting across him. Eyes serious. "I assume that you know about the escape incident?"

"That's why I'm here," she replied, reciprocating his seriousness.

"I'm also assuming that you've visited Uchiha Itachi's previous confinement?"

"Yes. I know he was broken out."

"Then you know it was Akatsuki?"

"I suspect so. Did you find any confirmation of that?"

"Yes," said Shikamaru grimly. He looked especially bothered at that, giving the intensity of his frown. "They've started to move."

"What is their target?"

"Impossible to tell." The statement was followed by a deafening silence. The news was grim, but Yuki was barely affected - it was what she'd thought for quite some time. "But there is some speculation that the target is Uchiha Sasuke." Yuki's heart skipped a beat at that.

"Sasuke?" she asked in disbelief, jumping from her seat. "You mean you think Sasuke is the target?"

"It is possible." Her eyes widened in even more disbelief.

"Sasuke is out there right now. Did you tell this to Tsunade-sama?"

"Yes."

"And she still let him go?! She let Akatsuki's target go off scouting for them? This is crazy. This is crazy! It like sending someone off to look for his own executioner!" Yuki almost lunged forward at him in her heightened emotional state but managed to catch herself before doing so. She gave Shikamaru a lost look.

"Yuki-san. This is only speculation," he said firmly. "He's not the only possible target. With regards to him, there don't seem to be any hostile advances, open or secret - that's why Tsunade-sama allowed him to leave the village."

"S-so," she said breathlessly - she hadn't realised that she'd been holding her breath, and now was trying her best to catch up to it. "Who or what are the other possible targets?"

"Only one other possible target." He looked straight at her. "They might be coming to take you."

If possible, her mind just went into further shock. Her?!

"Me?" she said incredulously. "Take me?"

"Yes. An Uchiha and Hyuuga hybrid is rare to find. If they come, there's a high chance that they'll be coming for you." Unlike in her disbelief before, she stayed silent this time. Shikamaru took this as his cue to talk. "Their objective, if the target is you, then could possibly be either that they want to capture you and turn you. Or it is also possible that they would kill you and find out the secrets of your mixed bloodline."

"Bloodline...." she repeated unenergetically. There was a glazed look in her eyes that told him that she was only barely paying attention. And then all of a sudden, her face hardened. "I don't have any protection." Shikamaru looked taken aback. Protection? What was she talking about? The girl in front of him had her eyes closed and her eyebrows met at the junction above her nose, showing him a really troubled expression. But when she opened her eyes, it wasn't that of a person in fear - but that of determination. "The Hyuuga seal. That should-..." It was fact that the seal could lock all the secrets of the body of the bearer once s/he dies. If she were to have the seal... then there wouldn't be any danger of anyone extracting any secrets from her corpse.

"Yes, but there is no need to go through such extreme measures," he said when she didn't finish saying out her thoughts. Yuki shook her head violently in protest.

"There is every need to, Shikamaru-san. The protection of our village is our foremost priority. Any possible threat should be eliminated." She sounded awfully resolute about it. "I will have to go meet the Hyuuga elders soon."

"I remain by what I said. I don't believe that there is any need to," Shikamaru said suddenly. Yuki felt a little surprise at that, followed by curiosity at how sure of himself he sounded. Shikamaru, noticing the questioning look, nodded and then started explaining. "I felt that there was also a possibility that they are planning to deal with this village once and for all. That the target itself, is this village."

"What do you mean?"

"If Akatsuki managed to attack and win over our village... it's not that hard to guess really."

"So this is a fight for power?" Yuki asked, eyes widening in understanding.

"Yes. For so long, their organisation has been dormant. Now that Uchiha Itachi is back with them, they can attack us. They have enough power to overthrow the entire of Konoha." He took a deep breath.

"If they destroy Konoha, they'd be the unquestioned power on this continent!"

"I know. If their first action since re-establishing their organisation is to take our country down... needless to say, the other countries will think that they can't retaliate. ...In the worst case scenario, the entire continent could fall into their clutches."

The air was heavy with tension. It felt too difficult to even breathe. There was nothing but the sound of the breeze tickling the wind chimes outside for some moments.

"So," Yuki began, forcibly pushing voice out of her throat. "When?"

"Soon," Shikamaru answered truthfully, but Yuki was untroubled. She nodded for him to go on. "The situation beyond boundaries of this village has become increasingly suspicious. Besides the people we personally know, there's no way for us to ascertain just who it is that's been spying on us. But we know... that there's someone out there, that has been periodically checking on us."

"Haven't you been able to track them?"

"No," he said, sighing heavily. "Their tricks are too good. They cover up themselves too well. At any rate, what we do know is that the enemy is aware that within the next few weeks, there will be an open window to attack."

"How so?" she asked, holding her breath.

"Our weapons supply has gone to an all-time low. New supplies won't be coming in for some time - maybe a week, maybe less. We suspect that they've sabotaged our weapons production source in order to help create this window. Besides that, almost a third of the ninja population of this village will not be around. There has been many missions assigned to us, and our village cannot afford to look weak or short-handed right now - for political reasons; so there was no choice but to let the jobs be assigned."

"This is not good," said Yuki gravely. Shikamaru could only silently agree. "...However, I should say that I don't exactly believe that they would simply pounce on us."

"Yes. The cat has to lower its hind-legs first," the youth replied, rolling his eyes upwards.

"And while it's doing that... we need to prepare."

"They are already underway. ...I understand that you will be coming back into active position tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"And as I recall, you were put on border patrol, correct?"

"True," Yuki verified.

"Then I would suggest keeping a close watch on the North-Eastern forests. Shino from the Aburame family - the one that specialises in bugs - informed me that the recent animal activity in that area has been quite curious." At that Yuki sensed an end to their conversation and so relaxed her shoulders.

"I will," she said. "And I thank you for spending time on me." He nodded. They stood up and left their seats for the door. As Yuki was about to exit, Shikamaru spoke up.

"Congratulations on your engagement." She stopped right there, a little startled as the comment came from out of the blue.

Feeling a little sad, she smiled softly and said, "We aren't engaged, Shikamaru-san."

"But the Hyuuga-"

"Were being very insistent, that is all. Nothing more," she said, feeling a little hollow. Her chest hurt a little, remembering the events that happened only what seemed to be a little while ago.

"Oh? I was led to believe that you are now living with Uchiha Sasuke."

"That is correct," she replied. After giving him a once-over, she said her goodbyes and left, leaving the poor youth confused over the situation.

"Women... I'm never going to understand them," he muttered under his breath, sighing exasperatedly.

For the first time in probably a few weeks, the morning actually felt a little warm. The wind felt slightly cool against the skin. Now at the beginning of the fourth day on her first return assignment to active duty, Yuki was geared up and just about as fit as she used to be - with no traces of having encountered any problems as what had happened before.She was now on the way to her first post with her brother. Kakashi didn't really have to be there, but since knowing about the Fuyu Seishin he'd been a little extra careful with anything concerning her.

"It was your decision, and I respect that. But you should have looked more into it!" he said as they jumped through the trees. But to no avail, whatever he'd been saying for the past half-hour had not given any effect on her. Grudgingly, he finally decided to give up.

At the same time he finally noticed how quiet it was in the forest. All at once, they stopped.

"I noticed it too," Yuki said, confirming his thoughts. "The noise has been reducing little by little each day. It's as if... the animals are slowly fleeing."

"Yes," the older Hatake agreed. "Even the temperature here is... colder than what it should be."

"Cold?" Yuki said in puzzlement. No, it was warm. It felt warm even right now...

"You might not be able to sense it," Kakashi said, looking a little stern. "Tsunade-sama mentioned that your temperature senses wouldn't be accurate because of the Seishin, didn't she? Yuki-chan, you best ignore whatever temperatures that you're feeling and start using your other senses. It might be very misleading." Yuki nodded in agreement.

All of a sudden, there was a violent series of movements - indicated by the crunching of dried leaves and twigs that were littering the forest floor. It came from the right.

"Heads up," Kakashi said harshly. The warning came almost too late as a dagger flew past her, slicing part of the cloth of her leg. Two dark figures jumped up from in front of them

Instead of attacking the siblings, the strangers charged past them into the direction of the village. Not being the types to waste time, the two Konoha ninjas quickly caught up to them and headed them off, forcing the two to stop in their tracks.

"Identify yourselves or we will attack," said Kakashi and Yuki simultaneously. As for their answers - the strangers made an abrupt turn, making it look as if they were about to escape to the other direction but suddenly twisted back, one leg swinging forward to deliver a swift upper kick. Any impact was avoided by a hair's breadth. Too close.

Yuki saw Kakashi dodge and then move to the branch above them. She herself evaded the attack by throwing herself to the side, and then using her hands to help her body execute a cartwheel. All of a sudden her left arm went numb.

"Shit," she cursed silently.

Gaara's face was serious. Then again, when ever was it not? The youth practically had no expression. Then again, that was advantageous for their profession. "Things like this will happen once in a while." Her legs were numb. It just... immediately started being numb. One minute she was walking and the next second on the floor!

"What do you mean 'once in a while'?" Yuki asked, unable to hide the alarm in her voice.

"I told you there could be some consequences...." he replied, letting his voice trail off as he leisurely walked to her side.

"My legs are numb."

"I'll show you a quick way to erase the feeling."

"Yuki-chan!" Kakashi called out in a mixture of worry and anger. He'd noticed the awkwardness in her moves as she righted herself up and prepared to defend herself. What she did was pull her unfelt arm up over her stomach and used what she could of her fingers to keep it still there. It looked unnatural.

"I'm okay!" she called back, looking unfazed. However, as they were communicating, the attackers both dived towards Yuki as they, too, noticed a flaw in her movements. One of them jumped and aimed a kick right to her head. She dodged it easily by lowering her entire body, but only felt that it was too easy the second an impact was made to her right shoulder - sending her flying off to the sides, scraping the dirt and grass with her hands and feet in order to slow down. It seemed that she didn't notice the other stranger attacking her as he'd moved right into her blind spot.

Once her body stopped moving, she quickly righted herself up once more and then ran towards the two strangers.

"Please go back to the village!" she exclaimed to her brother as she side-stepped them and ran up the tree to her brother's side. In a lower voice she said, "I saw it. Their rings... they're underlings from Akatsuki. The village has to be warned...."

"I understand. You be careful," he muttered right back.

"Don't worry I can handle these two," she said with a silent burst of confidence. "But I worry that there might be more heading towards the village right now."

"I think so too. Deal with them quickly," he said before taking off. Yuki then returned her attention to the enemies.

"Cease your attacks or I will take action."

It wasn't long after when she ended up chasing one of the enemies back to the village - the other one had already been soundly dealt with. This other one was being especially tricky to handle. -And she was nearing her limit after having been chasing after him around in circles. When the stranger realised that he couldn't shake her off, he started heading towards the village - as they were doing at that moment.

"Captain!" came a shout from ahead of them. Two anbu jumped out in front of them, trying to stop the man from moving further - but it didn't work.

"Head to the gate!" she shouted right back. Their speed was picking up, and she could hardly get into a secure position in order to attack the man, and it seemed that the other two anbu were having a similar problem. The gates were fast approaching... they had to stop that man from reaching it at all costs.

But it seemed that there was a large commotion at the gate walls too. From where she was, she could spy Naruto and Kakashi battling out another group of enemies. One, two, three... there were 6 more plus the one man they were still chasing. Three bodies were already lying lifeless in that clearing. Briefly Yuki wondered how long they'd been at it - and why there were only Naruto and Kakashi there.

"Are we to apprehend that man, Captain?" asked one of the masked anbu. At that moment Kakashi looked up - his visible eye telling her that he knew they were approaching. Yuki saw him take out a dagger, running around one of the enemies and then swiftly plunging the dagger into the middle of his back. -There was no room for struggle, the man's body fell limply to the ground.

"Eliminate all of them," she said to the anbu. "Don't let them reach the village."

Naruto was basically jumping all of the place, keeping away any of the enemies closest to the gate, and Kakashi was backing him up. It was clear that they were out numbered. -But not anymore. With the enemy that they'd been chasing joining the group trying to breach the village, that made the opposition total up to six. And there were Naruto, Kakashi, Yuki and the two anbu - 5 on the defenses. Now they weren't so obviously outnumbered.

"Yuki-chan!" Naruto called out when he realised that she was there.

"How bad is it?" she asked back.

"Everything is secure so far. No breaches yet," he replied swiftly. Yuki nodded and turned to the anbu to order them to take the back line while the other three would attack. The fight was evenly distributed - but it was clear that it was getting nowhere. These Akatsuki underlings were good. Well, that was expected, coming from such an organisation, but Yuki was worried.

It wasn't the thought that they couldn't win. They could - these enemies were just a little too tricky to handle, but her arm.... It was still numb. She could barely move it, much less swing it or do anything with it at all.

"Loosen your seal," the red-haired youth said tonelessly.

"What?" She felt puzzled. Well, maybe a lot more than puzzled. Loosen the seal? Loosen it? Heck, that was the same as asking her to unseal it! If she unsealed the Seishin now, then what was the point of having sealed it in before!

"Did I not teach you how to do it?"

"W-well, you did. But-"

"Loosen the seal then."

"Just like that!" she couldn't help but protest.

"Use a containment barrier, Hatake, if you're worried that it would escape." He paused for a moment. "It won't harm you. Seeing as how long you've been able to contain it. That should mean that the Fuyu Seishin has recognised you as it's owner." As an after thought he added, "Make sure that nothing that you don't want dead is in that barrier with you."

"Damn it!" she thought as a flying star nicked her on the cheek. The numbness on her arm was starting to spread to her shoulders, and part of her neck. She had to stop it from spreading too much, soon. "Everybody retreat!" All head swiveled to her direction. "Retreat!" she repeated.

"What are you thinking-!" Naruto growled in angry confusion.

"Just do it!" she snapped. "Get over the wall! All of you!"

"What about-"

"That's an order!" She yelled in frustration. The numbness was starting to overcome her. If it reached her heart, she wouldn't know what to think.

As the four Konoha ninjas scaled the gate wall and jumped over to the other side, she constructed a spherical barrier surrounding her and the remaining enemies using the skill Gaara had taught her those many months ago.

Naruto saw the barrier starting to function just as he topped the wall. Just barely, he noticed some mist starting to form on the ground. ...Mist. Just what the heck was she trying to do?

"What is she doing-?"

"Get down, Naruto!" Kakashi called from the other side of the wall. "She can take care of herself!"

"But she just trapped herself in a goddamn barrier with all of them!" the blonde angrily shouted back. Kakashi hesitated for only a second before he joined Naruto on the top of the wall.

"She told us to retreat... why?" he thought as he hurriedly went over some of the possibilities. From where he was, he could see her hands forming an odd combination of seals. He'd only ever seen that sort of combinations when- It was the an unsealing technique! "Stop!"

But it was too late.

There was loud earth-shaking sound - like an explosion of some sort, but it was great. The epicenter was Yuki - her hands over the seal on her body that was starting to generate smoke... or was it mist.... There was mist coming from the grounds too. The enemies in the barrier with her were nervously looking around in foreboding. The atmosphere inside the barrier was slowly freezing. Kakashi and Naruto could figure that out by the conditions of the grass within the barrier. It was turning an odd colour... and when the opponents were moving, the blades of grass cracked and shattered. It was frozen.

However, the barrier was quickly being filled up with that white mist - so much so that the one's outside couldn't see through it - and the one's inside could barely see their hands in front of them. It was pure white. ...But that wasn't the end of it.

A shadow of a figure appeared in front of her. Silky white, animal-like, but at the same time, it was like a human figure too. Yuki had seen this figure before. In a way, it's appearance had always calmed her. But there was always an element of danger to it. A calm sort of danger. The kind of danger that bit you slowly. It would graze its fangs over your skin... making sure that you could feel that it was sharp. And then slowly it would clamp down, prolonging every bit of pain, from contact - to when it would puncture your skin.

That was the Fuyu Seishin grazing on your flesh. Its cold teeth magnifying the pain.

And eventually, all senses would be lost.

That would be the Fuyu Seishin freezing everything within its reach. Everything it bit into... would turn into ice.

"Yuki-chan!!" she could hear Naruto's anxious voice breaking her out of her daze. The mist was beginning to clear a little. And the numbness in her limbs were gone - and the time limit for the release of the seal was up. The Fuyu Seishin was slowly disappearing with the mist.

Naruto ran down when the barrier was deactivated, but stopped when he saw what the disappearing mist revealed. It was white. everything within the circle of the barrier was pure white. Ice covered everything inside it. The grass. The soil. The enemies. The enemies were all frozen stiff. And Yuki.

"Yuki-chan!" he called her as he regained sense of his legs. Yuki looked up from her position and then brought her arms around herself, trembling, as it was cold. She could actually feel the cold bite at her skin. Naruto entered the boundaries of the ice and helped her get back to where the cold air emanating from the icy white circle couldn't reach. It was significantly warmer away from the circle.

"We should report to the Hokage," she said, teeth shaking. It was odd how she was now feeling bitterly cold. But that was how it always turned out when the Seishin was resealed. Well... at least for a little while. The cold would go away. It always did.

Well... it was worth it anyway. At least her arm wasn't numb anymore.

... ...What a morning.

AN: This was a rush post. If I catch any mistakes I'd re-edit it asap. Thanks everyone for reading down to this point.