Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way and make no claim on its copyright or any characters from the series. Original characters are my own property.
Author's Notes: Yay, two chapters in one day, consider this my apology for a generally slow pacing, though I can't really promise things will pick up much, April will be busy. Anyway, this chapter was not easy to write, because I was faced with a situation where the modern/not-modern situation in Naruto really affected things. How does a world without transportation technology deal with remote areas and other such questions were troubling. In the end my portrayal draws somewhat on the depiction of the 1970s Himalaya from Peter Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard, I wonder how people think it works, since it's going to come up again.
Thanks to all reviewers!
Other Gifts Continues
"Is this the right valley?" Suzumebachi shouted over the howl of the wind, forcing her words to her cousin's muffled hearing.
Kuroari heard, and turned her cowled and masked face to meet Suzumebachi's similarly masked eyes. The tinted plastic masks kept the lasting wind off the face, and prevented snow blindness when the sun deigned to show its face, but they otherwise obscured everything. Kuroari nodded curtly, saying nothing, clearly not wanting to waste the energy.
Grimacing inwardly, for with the ridge crested it was her turn to take point, Suzumebachi struggled forward into the waist-deep snow, pushing against the powder just soft enough it failed to support weight, forcing the bitter, soaking slog. Her insulated pants were waterproof of course, treated with Kamizuru made wax, but the heat of exertion covered her lower body in sweat, making her thick white costume resemble nothing so much as a personal sauna.
With such great warmth of exertion it would have seemed worthwhile to take off the bulky white insulation jackets, pants, hat, and facemask, but that would be madness. On these high passes, the temperature plunged many degrees below freezing, and in howling winds, body heat would be overcome in mere moments, and tremendous energy would be wasted in the desperate attempt to become warm again. The misery of heat would have to be borne.
At least it was the last descent, and this brought Suzumebachi strength as she plunged her boots against and again into the drifting snow. It had taken three days to reach the village, a full day more than it should have, all due to the blasting blizzard of the second day, an event that had cut the progress of the two Kamizuru ninja to almost nothing, and made everything more difficult from then on. Now, finally, after hillside after hillside of wind-wracked pines and massive snowdrifts, the village that had called for ninja could be seen. It was little more than a few brown and gray dots near the bottom of the valley from this vantage, caught in itinerant glimpses between swirling blasts of snow.
Her heading confirmed and spirits lifted by the sight Suzumebachi kept her head down and surged onward, her cousin following, stepping carefully within her tracks. They had been walking like this, alternating sections to share the burden, for the whole of the journey, though Suzumebachi had insisted after the blizzard to take a great portion of the snowplowing. She was taller and stronger than her younger cousin, it was only logical, and Kuroari did not bother to waste her strength arguing.
As the afternoon wore on they descended a great distance, slowly but measurably smashing their way down the steep sloping pass. It would have been a vulnerable position under other circumstances, but only a madman would dare battle in this howling wind and snowy lash. Ranged weapons were almost worthless, and in snow like this a ninja who needed to escape could burn through chakra to skid freely down the mountainside, taking a chaotic course almost impossible to follow, so long as there was open ground below them they were more or les safe. Not that either Kamizuru suspected anything. Both believed the mission a fool's errand. Brigands did not raid within the Stone country in winter, they huddled in such sanctuaries as they possessed and attempted not to freeze or starve, and wolves, well, wolves could be dangerous, preying on herd animals, but it hardly required ninja to chase off such creatures.
With the descent from the exposure of the pass to the valley's more sheltered terrain the wind moderated, and eventually the sun came out. As the clouds slid away to let the radiant orb pierce through light did not simply emerge, but exploded onto the landscape. The covering of snow and ice on every surface caught every glimmer and threw it back in a thousand directions. Scintillating crystal gleams flew across the valley, shooting up to the high glaciers on the great mountain peaks to the north and east. The everlasting towers of ice residing there caught the light and threw it back to the sky with seemingly greater force than the sun itself. Illusion though it was, those mighty ice sheets gleamed with glare.
Peering through tinted poly-carbonate glass, exquisite fashions of Iwa's glassworking ninja, the pair of Kamizuru ninja could see the entire brilliant display. Both paused for a moment, turning full circle to survey the whole valley. Great peaks bordered it to the north and east, creating an almost impassable wall of stone and ice on that side. The pass they had taken came on a shoulder between the lesser slopes of the eastern peak and a smaller series of mountains forming the valley's southern border. River carved they snaked along, preserving the thin and narrow fertile land in the shadow of the mightier towers on the other side. Another high pass could be seen as the river snaked up into these mountains where they turned north in the west, but it might be almost completely closed now given the snowfall. This place was isolated indeed, though hardly the most lonesome of the mountain hamlets of hidden stone.
In the brilliant snow light the village could be seen easily, triangular and rounded structures of stone and solid wood, with thin runnels of smoke issuing from a few chimneys. The trail down the rest of the mountainside was more obvious now, with sturdy cairns marking the way. Suzumebachi turned to continue her trek again, but a comment by Kuroari stopped her.
"See that tongue of glacier on the east peak?" she asked, her voice muffled by the facemask, but clear enough.
Suuzmebachi turned, and indeed there was a gleaming spear of ice streaking down a portion of the eastern peak, delving down almost to the treeline, and with a thin waterfall falling away beneath it, frozen now, and breath-catching in loveliness. "I see it," Suzumebachi managed, wanting to say more but not able to muster the words.
"I think my ants are over there," Kuroari told her cousin. "It matches the description."
"Fine, then we circuit around to it last," Suzumebachi said sternly.
That managed to induce a weary chuckle from her cousin, and Suzumebachi found herself joining in a moment later. "Have it your way cousin," Kuroari laughed. "We're going to get cold no matter what we do."
That remark killed the budding happy mood fairly swiftly when it sunk in to the paired ninja. "Come on, let's move, we need to be down to the village before nightfall," Suzumebachi spoke brusquely, and pushed her feet forward once more.
It was almost dusk when they arrived, and the village was quiet. Such a thing was hardly surprising, with the recent blizzard people would be mostly sheltered in their homes, or in the case of herders, hidden in caves in the hills with their livestock, but it wasn't particularly heartening. The village was not large, only a few score stout homes, perhaps a few hundred people lived here and maybe twice that many scattered throughout the valley. A small place indeed, but the people of such places were hardy folk, strong-willed, hard-working, pragmatic folk, and from places such as this grew the mountain born strength of Hidden Stone.
The little river that had made this valley ran through the village, though ice covered it now, mostly. A woman knelt by the edge of that river, by a break in the ice, drawing water into buckets and goatskin bladders. Suzumebachi and Kuroari made no attempt to hide the crunching noise their boots made on the compacted snow at the center of the village, so she turned to look at them when they approached.
The wasp ninja expected the woman's initial jerking reaction precisely. The slight jump back as she glimpsed these masked travelers in white with gray and brown patches, heavy packs on their backs and weapons holstered in front. Only after a moment did her gaze travel up above their covered faces to notice the metal plates sewn into the reinforced hats, plates with the symbol of Hidden Stone upon them.
"You're the ninja?" she had to pull her own scarf down from about her mouth, exposing a face lined by long winters and reddened by the snow-reflected sun.
Suzumebachi tugged open the insulating mask protecting her lower face. The cold air brought stinging cold immediately, seeping deep into flesh and lodging in the teeth. "Yes, we are, Kamizuru Suzumebachi," she inclined her head ever so slightly.
"And Kamizuru Kuroari," her cousin imitated the maneuver.
"I'm Izue, the headman's wife," she replied in a weathered, but motherly voice. Standing, she grasped her half-full skins and gestured. "Come, we should continue this out of the cold."
She led them not to a home, but to the largest building in the village, a long triangular hall made mostly of wood, but with foundations of stout stone. It had wide double doors of some dark colored wood, cherry Suzumebachi guessed, but it was nothing more than that, though she knew such wood must surely have been rare in this coniferous place.
Izue pounded on the door with a mitten covered fist, and then struck it with her bucket several times when it did not open speedily enough for her pleasure. "Open the door you laggards, cold's no excuse for wastrel ways!"
There was the sound of a bar being drawn, and the door opened a bit. A pair of dark eyes peered out. They saw Izue, and then shifted suddenly, noting the two behind her. "Who these?" the voice was gruff and demanding.
"The ninja we summoned you goat-brained fool!" Izue shouted, and those eyes cringed back. Suzumebachi noted the effect, recognizing that the headman's wife surely wielded some real power here. "Now open that door and let us in!"
The door opened with rapidity, reveal a long hall lit dimly by a few fires in pits placed at set intervals along the length. As they walked in the two ninja observed a number of men and women present here. The floor was made of stone, surprisingly, for Suzumebachi had expected only dirt, but it was hardly clean for that. It became clear this place was some kind of feast hall, but it also served to house many of the herders or their families through the winter. Their occupancy did not make it a clean place by any means, though it was clear some attempts had been made, and Suzumebachi could see Izue looked upon a number of unkempt men and women with open disdain. So perhaps this current crowding might only be temporary, a result of the blizzard. She hoped it was that, and not a consequence of whatever they feared in the hills.
The headman's wife guided them through the hall, to a stout wooden table at the far end, near a sputtering fire. Three men were seated the table at present, looking carefully at a map, discussing matters in low tones. Catching a snippet of the conversation Suzumebachi could tell they were considering where to move herds for grazing at various points through the winter.
As Izue approached the three men looked up. "What is it, wife?" the man seated at the back of the table muttered. "Shouldn't you be cooking?"
"Your ninja are here husband," Izue barked with little kindness. "I thought you might like to know." She said nothing more, only turned and headed off toward one of the small fires.
"Ninja?" the headman, for Suzumebachi was certain this small-eyed weather-beaten man must be such, looked at them seemingly for the first time in the gloomy low-light. "You two?"
Suzumebachi took her hat off completely at this point, more to avoid overheating than anything else, but it served to bring the stitched forehead protector closer to the man's face. "I am chunin Kamizuru Suzumebachi," she said in her most formal voice. "This is my cousin, chunin Kamizuru Kuroari," Suzuembachi pointed to her, and Kuroari responded with the slightest of bows. "We have responded to your mission request."
"Huh…" the headman appeared slightly put off. "So you are, I didn't expect two girls though."
"You should consider yourself lucky anyone came," Suzumebachi replied frankly, not interested in pandering to this man. "Few were interested in coming to such an isolated place in the cold, and we had to fight our way through a severe blizzard to get here."
"Yes, yes," the headman nodded repeatedly, his eyes failing to meet Suzumebachi's directly. "Well it's good you're here, we do need it."
"So, what is the precise situation then?" Kuroari spoke up from beside her cousin. "Your request was rather low on detail."
Kuroari's voice was even, but the slight tilt to her expression made it very clear to the headman that this was not acceptable. "Um…yes," he stammered, not used to being faced so directly by people younger, smaller, and female. "Of course, we don't know the whole problem, that's why we called you." He took in a shallow breath. "There's something up on the mountainside. Herds have been attacked, even with the herders only a short ways off, but only torn bodies are found. It's not normal, and there was a traveler too, a mine prospector, he headed out toward the high pass in the west, but men herding up there never saw him pass, and we don't think he made it."
"That's hardly enough to prove a disturbance," Suzumebachi returned skeptically. "It's been a hard early winter, perhaps the wolves have gotten desperate, and any traveler could go missing in lands like this with only an accident for cause."
"It wasn't wolves, chunin," the man to the right of the headman spoke, provoking a sharp look from the village leader, but he ignored it and went on. "I've hunted these mountains for twenty years," he said, and the man was ripcord lean and with the weathered but sharp visage to back his claim. "In that time I've seen plenty of attacks by wolf or leopard or desperate man, and you're right, sometimes they do brazen fool things, but not like this. I've been up by places that were attacked, the wounds are all wrong, and so are the snow prints, like nothing I've ever seen before. It's not any animal chunin, I'd stake my life on it."
"So, presuming you are correct huntsman," Kuroari questioned, her interjection forestalling any attempt by the headman to regain control of the conversation. "Do you suggest these are the attacks of bandits? Men so desperate they can operate in snow where they can be easily tracked, yet competent enough to avoid the sharp eyes of every herdsmen on the mountainside, it does not make sense."
"True enough I admit," the hunter replied, stoic. "I don't have an answer for you. We've had bandits in this valley before, I've fought them with the headman and others, but if its bandits it's not like any bandit group I've ever heard of."
"What's that leave then?" Suzumebachi had been trying to follow her cousin's line of reasoning, something she did with little ease, not being quite so quick witted as her cousin. "A ninja terrorizing this valley?"
The three men gasped at this, and stood silent.
"It could be cousin," Kuroari remarked. "It could be, but what's the motive? It can't be Stone country politics, or we'd know, and how could a foreigner even get here in this weather? A puzzle, but you have the right idea." She addressed the headman directly. "Events suggest the actions of a human party, one who wishes you ill, perhaps employing another trained hunter or a group of woodsmen to deplete your herds and intimidate you. Can you provide a reason for such an action? Does this valley have enemies?"
The headman took his time answering, and the two Kamizuru ninja studied him intently, trying to gauge his response with the utmost care, to read the truth behind the words.
Finally the headman spoke. "I do not think we have enemies here. This valley is good only for farming and herding. We pay our taxes, when the weather gives us enough to harvest, and sometime we ship timber, but there's no great trees here. No minerals neither, not like some of the mining valleys further north. We aren't even important enough to merit an ashigaru post. So why would anyone bother us?"
Suzumebachi watched the man's thick face. He was telling the truth. At least his reasons were logical and believable, and he himself believed them, but there was something else, something she could see. Though she could not pinpoint what, the man clearly had some secrets about his valley he wished to protect. However, it was clear he would not yield them openly. "Very well, it seems there is nothing to do but search out the cause," Suzumebachi told the men. "We will make a circuit of the valley walls, starting tomorrow I think. Have you accommodations for us?"
"Um, well," the headman looked uncomfortable once again. "We have food for you certainly, however much you need, and you can use the bathhouse by the river as you wish, but, well with the blizzard, and so many herdsmen scared, there's no room in any homes," his expression grew sour. "You have my apologies, but I did not really believe anyone would come. You are free to sleep in this hall of course, if you wish; it is warm at least, though the floors are not comfortable."
Suzumebachi looked out of the corner of her eye at Kuroari. Her cousin's eyes moved slowly all the way to the right, and then back all the way to the left, a clear, silent signal of no. The wasp ninja agreed fully. She did not like the eyes of the men in this place. The headman was likely sincere, but there was great danger in such an isolated area as this for young kunoichi, and having to sleep in shifts would simply not work between only the two of them. "We'll make camp I think, it will keep us closer to the field. Yet, I will not hesitate to take up your offer of a bath, and after that a meal."
"Huh," the headman appeared slightly snubbed, but there was nothing he could do about it in front of the ninja. "As you wish."