Chapter Thirty

"This sucks," Tomoko grumbled.

"Yes it does," Ken agreed blaisely. "But it's the mission, and so we suck it up and work."

Both members of Team TAK — second edition: Tomoko And Ken — were making their way across the grassy steppes of the Land of Frost for their latest mission. They were assigned to capture a shinobi scientist who had defected from the Leaf with sensitive research. They were to locate the scientist, last seen in a small town to the northwest of the country, and capture him alive to return to the village for trial. Lord Hiruzen had stressed that letting the target die was not an option, as he would need to bring the data back with him to the village.

Both of them had noticed Lord Hiruzen had been unusually temperamental during their assignment, and Tomoko had a feeling her uncle was having recollections of his wayward student, Orochimaru.

But while this mission offered a high B-rank payout, it meant trekking across these open, barren grasslands to a small town where the target had been spotted. And as it was the middle of February, the height of winter — Naruto's birthday in October seemed so long ago, now — the Land of Frost was living up to its name with not only the thin ice covering the grass, but howling winds buffeting the duo, often accompanied by stinging sleet. The icy conditions and lack of trees meant they couldn't even push their pace, which only stretched out the time they would spend in this misery.

"I'm not sure why Lord Third didn't assign ANBU to this," Ken said from behind his scarf. Both of them were decked out in winter gear, grey for Ken and green for Tomoko, though it felt like it hardly helped. "It seems like just their wet-work kind of mission."

"From what I know," Tomoko replied, "Uncle doesn't like sending ANBU on international missions unless he really has to. Something about it casts a dark shadow on the village's image. Or something."

Ken nodded his head in silent, begrudging understanding. The pair kept moving for a few more hours until the sun touched the horizon, which meant the temperature was about to fall even further. In silent agreement with his partner, Ken unsealed two tents and they began setting them up before the cold began to really set in for the night.

As he was putting the finishing touches on his tent, Ken looked to the west and watched the sun set, painting the patchwork clouds in glorious color as it sank beneath the horizon. So entranced by the sight, something you just couldn't see in the forested Land of Fire, a powerful gust of wind kicked up and caught the open flap of his tent, filling the interior and ripping from the ground to fly away at breakneck speed.

"Hey!" Ken shouted, ready to chase the tent on reflex before his reasoning caught up to his reflexes and he realized that he'd never catch up. His tent was gone. "Dammit," he muttered.

"How unfortunate," Tomoko giggled. "I hope your stuff wasn't in there." When Ken didn't respond, Tomoko's smile faltered and she tried another tactic. "C'mon, just pull out another one, Mr. Sealmaster."

"There is no other one," Ken said dejectedly. "This situation never occurred to me, and so I only packed one tent." Ken turned around and unsealed a large, bowl-shaped rock from his collection of storage seals, placing it on the ground, flat side down, in front of Tomoko's perfectly grounded tent. The curved surface of the rock was carved with swirls of sealing formulae, which he triggered with a pulse of chakra. When the seals began to glow with faint orange light, the stone emitted heat like a campfire. This was a project Ken was actually quite proud of: a sealing matrix that absorbed fire or Fire chakra and then reemitted the heat. This meant no more collecting firewood or trying to light a blaze in rain or snow.

Ken unsealed cooking equipment and a package of instant ramen, craving the comfort of some kind of his favorite food after that disaster. And as a pick-me-up to brace him for the cold night to come. As he began preparing his food, pouring water into a pot and setting it on the camp-stone to boil, Tomoko sat beside him.

"Why so glum?" she asked, her tone teasing, but her eyes concerned.

"I'm not exactly looking forward to a night in the open, with howling winds and freezing rain," he groused. "I still have my blanket, but that'll be cold comfort. Literally."

Tomoko stared at her teammate's words, realizing that he was completely serious. Bracing herself for the coming awkwardness, she spoke up, "You could share with me, you know."

Ken stared back at her in surprise. "You don't think that would be, uh … untoward?"

Tomoko was silent for a single heartbeat before she burst out laughing, cradling her sides at the force of it. "'Untoward'? Come on, Red! Who talks like that anymore?!" She dissolved into further laughter at Ken's cheeks rapidly coloring to match his hair and his affronted look. Regaining control of herself with moderate effort, Tomoko sobered up and gave him a level look. "C'mon, Red. It's only as 'untoward' as you make it." She reached over and took his gloved hand in hers. "You're my teammate and my friend. Of course I'm not gonna let you freeze out here if I can help it."

Ken felt his cheeks continue to burn for some inexplicable reason as Tomoko kept looking at him with those soft, dark eyes and her hand stayed curled around his. 'Probably the cold,' he thought to himself, denying any other possible reason. "... Okay," he replied.

Tomoko nodded, declaring the matter closed, and pulled a sealing scroll from her winter coat — loaded with pre-prepared storage seals as a gift from Ken — and unsealed a packet of dehydrated potatoes and gravy. Both of them ate in silence, too hampered by the cold and embroiled in their own thoughts to keep up conversation. Soon enough, their food was gone and the garbage disposed of.

Which left them with a cold night and a single tent.

"Ladies first," Ken joked weakly, earning a faint smile from Tomoko, whose face was also red. 'Gotta be the cold, too,' he thought, a touch desperately.

Closing the tent to cut out the wind, Ken triggered another much smaller fire-stone hanging from the center of the tent's ceiling, an addition he'd made to both of them for this exact mission, as Tomoko lit a lantern for illumination. The interior of the shelter slowly grew warmer until it seemed the freezing winds outside were part of a different world.

Ken produced his bedroll and unfurled it, doggedly looking anywhere but Tomoko until he couldn't stand it anymore. He glanced backward and immediately wished he hadn't as he caught a glimpse of short shorts and a low-cut tank top before they disappeared into her bedroll. Tomoko glanced at him with a blaise expression and asked, "See something you like, Red?"

In a bout of intuition, he knew any answer he gave could be misconstrued as either embarrassing or insulting, so he elected to remain silent. With a sigh, he removed his shirt as he always did before sleeping and slipped into his bedroll. The tent was wide enough for a whole other person to have slept comfortably between them, but it felt exceedingly close to Ken. "Good night," he said.

"G'night," Tomoko replied, turning off the lantern.

Unbeknownst to Ken, Tomoko was as far from sleep as she could be as her heart hammered in her chest. Even as warm as the Uzumaki's device kept her tent, and as far as she knew he was laying from her, unease was coiling in her belly. Not fear; she could never be afraid of Ken, and she knew he would never try to hurt her. Heck, she'd been moulding sensory chakra when they were outside as an experiment and had picked up his honest flustered surprise at her invitation.

No, she was concerned because … she rolled around in her sleep. And she had a definite feeling that this habit would come back to bite her very, very soon.

"Bye Mom!" "Bye Kaori!"

Both Uzumaki children waved to their mother and maternal-figure as they made their way into the Academy for the day. With Ken gone on his mission, Kaori remained as their primary caretaker — something Ken had been grateful to heaven for when he'd realized it.

As they entered the building, Karin and Naruto shared a hug before separating for their classes. Naruto had been sad to find out that Karin would be in different classes due to being in the year ahead of him, but he'd bounced back and made the most of it. He made it to his class and sat a few rows back from the front. He grit his teeth and arranged his books across the space of his desk, just as Karin had "suggested" he do to improve his grades.

"Suggested" meaning with a slap to the back of the head.

Naruto waved to each of his new friends as Iruka entered the room and began preparing for the day's lesson. Ino and Choji waved, while Shikarmaru was too lazy and Shino too stoic to do more than nod. But he appreciated the effort anyway. Hinata gave a tiny smile and small wave before burying herself in her coat and directing her attention to the lesson.

As Naruto did his level best to pay attention to the lesson — lest he incur Cousin Karin's wrath over "not pulling his weight in his own education" — he didn't notice Ino glancing at him every now and then with a pensive look and mischievous twinkle in her eye.

Tomoko sighed as she burrowed deeper into her pillow, pleasantly warmed in the tent. She allowed herself a few more minutes of rest before she began to rouse herself to start the day. They should be arriving at their destination today, so they had to be ready for a struggle.

Tomoko stretched in place and rubbed her face further into the pillow … which was larger and firmer than she remembered? Her eyes snapped open and she found herself nuzzling something vaguely peach-colored. A horrible thought occurred to her and her gaze traveled up to lock eyes with a pink-cheeked Ken Uzumaki.

"Good morning," he said, his tone surprisingly level.

Tomoko shrieked in sudden panic and lunged backward, only to get tangled in her own bedroll and kind of flop away to land with a groan. She fought her way out, just barely avoiding shredding the fabric to ribbons, and scooted backward on her rear, folding her arms to cover her cleavage she knew was showing. "I'm sorry!" she cried out, refusing to look at him and her face red with humiliation.

"It's fine …" Ken said, though his tone was unsure. Or maybe unsteady?

"No, it's not," Tomoko pressed. "I should have warned you that I move around in my sleep. I can't help it, it just-!"

"It's fine!" Ken barked, his tone more authoritative than harsh. "Look, I woke up about ten minutes ago with you like that and decided to just let you sleep." His cheeks turned a bit redder. "Besides, I'm pretty sure I'm not totally innocent, either."

"What do you mean?" Tomoko asked, her curiosity countering her embarrassment.

"I know you roll around in your sleep," Ken revealed. "I mean, c'mon, we've been a team for a while now and I always noticed you never wake up where you lay down." He rubbed his face. "But more to the point, I'm kind of … um," he paused and rubbed the back of his neck, "... a cuddler?" Tomoko blinked in confusion. "It's kind of like you rolling around. I just grab onto stuff at night and hold them tight. It helps me settle." He cleared his throat. "So I guess we're both at fault here."

Tomoko couldn't help but giggle. That was so cute! The giggles grew into a full-on laugh, and that spurred Ken to laugh too. Pretty soon they were both laughing like lunatics, tears streaming down their faces as the tension in the air was cleared away. After a few minutes they settled down and began gathering their things to head out. After a quick breakfast and storing up the camping gear, they were moving again.

The howling winds and infrequent sleet of the previous day seemed a far off memory as the sun shone down from a brilliant blue sky, illuminating the land and the frost on the ground. And rather than the awkwardness of last night, the duo made their way in companionable silence forged by past mutual embarrassment.

Soon enough, they made it to the small town where their target was last spotted. Ken slapped a Transformation seal on his cheek to change into his brown-eyed brunet guise and handed one to Tomoko that made her look blonde and blue-eyed. She smirked at him and rolled her eyes at the fact that she now resembled his little cousin, his answering grin telling that it was completely intentional.

The duo walked into a small alley and conjured about twenty staggered shadow clones each, which left the alley in pairs at two minute intervals. Once all of the clones had left, they would begin a grid search to find their target, mostly relying on Tomoko's clones' Sensory Technique in case he had the idea to walk around under a Transformation. If they spotted him, the clones would disperse and that would alert the real shinobi to converge on that point.

"This Technique is so useful," Tomoko giggled. "Now we just have to sit and wait it out."

Ken shivered in the cold. "Hopefully somewhere warm," he commented, noticing a tea shop. He pointed it out and Tomoko nodded. They had found their waiting spot.

Naruto happily munched on the sandwich that Kaori had made for his lunch, listening intently to Choji, Kiba, and Shikamaru's talk about "dumb clan stuff." As the heirs to each of their clan heads, they would be interacting for most of their lives and so their parents had apparently been urging them to get to know each other better. Or at least better than the "deadlast gang" they'd been for the last few years, which included Naruto, too.

After his birthday party, Naruto had slowly been more accepted by his classmates than merely tolerated. Choji, as nice as he was, had spearheaded getting his friends to bring the jinchuriki into their fold, which had led to the occasional training play dates like the ones Tomoko had brought him to. Kiba and Shino, who was sitting by himself and apparently conversing with bees, had begun to let him get closer, too.

And of course there was Hinata, who was trying her very best to make Naruto feel accepted. She had even reminded him on one of their play dates how they had first met when he defended her from bullies … and had gotten beaten up in the process. He'd remembered that, and had loudly declared that if it happened again he would beat them up to protect her, which had led to Hinata gaining such a powerful blush it almost looked like it hurt.

As Naruto tried to weigh in on the other boys' conversation, making sure to moderate his volume like Ken had been trying to teach him when talking in public, all of them looked up at the sight of two other kids approaching. Ino had her arms crossed and was smirking triumphantly, while her best friend Sakura Haruno was hanging back and smiling cutely.

"Hey guys. What's up?" Ino greeted.

"Nothing but the clouds, Blondie," Kiba sneered, drawing a complaint from Naruto about the nickname.

"Why are you two over here," Shikamaru drawled. "Playground rules, or whatever, say the popular kids do stuff together, especially girls. Losers like us don't mix."

"Oh please, Shika," Ino scoffed. "We've been friends for years and we hang out all the time outside school. Besides, I'm not here for you two or the runt," she said, smirking at Kiba as his non-existent hackles seemed to rise. "Actually, I was hoping I could borrow Naruto for a sec?"

Naruto blinked in confusion at being singled out. "You could just ask me, y'know," he commented with a sly smile.

"Yeah, we don't own him," Choji commented.

"Fine," Ino shrugged. "Naruto, you wanna help with an experiment?"

Naruto thought it over for a second before shrugging and standing to follow. He followed the girls to a large tree that shaded the corner of the Academy training fields, finding Hinata there already. She looked up curiously at their approach before averting her eyes with an aura of shyness.

"Hey, Hinata," Ino greeted, and Sakura waved and greeted her too. Naruto, the delightful knucklehead, was bold enough to laugh and wrap the girl into a hug that made her blush like mad. "Thanks for agreeing to this, Hinata," Ino said, "it means a lot from someone I don't really know."

"So, hold up," Naruto interjected, "what are we doing here?"

"Well, I just learned a basic mind-probe technique from my dad to start off learning my clan's secret techniques," Ino explained. "And I had a crazy idea. I wanna read your mind, Naruto. And if we're lucky, maybe we can catch a look at the Nine-Tails!"

Everyone else was stunned for a secord before they shouted a collective "WHHAAAA?!"

"Are you nuts?!" Naruto shouted.

"Why would you want to do that?" Sakura asked. Hinata, on her part, was simply trembling at the very idea.

"Oh, Naruto," Ino chided, hands on her hips, "I would have thought the greatest prankster at the Academy would be all-in! It's your prisoner, and all." Then she addressed everyone else. "We've all heard the stories, but none of us were old enough to actually see the Fox. Heck, Naruto wasn't even a day old." She crossed her arms. "I think this'll be cool. C'mon, who's with me?"

Naruto thought it over for a few seconds before his frown curled into a grin. "You know, what can this dumb Fox do? Cousin Ken said the seal keeping it in is the best there's ever been! He said it was made up by the first First Lady of Konoha, Mito Uzumaki! I'm in!"

Ino looked at Sakura. "C'mon, Sakura. You don't even have to go in. Honestly, I don't think I could bring you in yet. But I can show you guys what we see." She leaned in closer and whispered. "Aren't you the one who's always trying to learn more? You'll learn about something no one our age can remember."

Sakura bit her lip, knowing full well what Ino was doing … and ashamed that it was working. Sakura loved to learn; this was one of the reasons she had the highest test grades in their class. Her mother had once told her "knowledge is power" and her father had always encouraged her to outthink problems instead of trying to "muscle" them. Her curiosity at the Nine-Tails, a creature of only horror and fear until now, kept growing in the span of seconds until she couldn't take it anymore.

"I'm in," Sakura sighed.

"Awesome," Ino said. "You know how to destabilize genjutsu, right?" Sakura nodded. "Well, if it looks like Naruto or I are in trouble, you'll need to knock us out of the mind probe. It's basically the same thing, it just needs more kick behind it, 'kay?" Sakura nodded in understanding.

"Why do you need me?" Hinata asked nervously. "Sakura can do fine, but why do you want my help?"

"You can see all around us with your eyes, right?" Ino asked. Hinata nodded reluctantly. "I want you as a lookout, Hinata. If you see teachers coming too close, let Sakura know and she can kick us out of it. That way she can focus on us and make sure we're okay. Okay?" Hinata looked down and pushed her index fingers together in a nervous habit, still unsure.

"Hey, Hinata?" Naruto asked, drawing her startled attention. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to, alright? We can do it some other time at the park or something."

Hinata blinked at the kind offer, offering her an easy escape. But looking into Naruto's eyes and seeing the determination in them made her resolve harden. "No, I want to help. I want to be here for you, Naruto." Her cheeks pinked even more. "And Ino and Sakura, of course!" she fumbled.

"Sweet," Ino cheered. "Let's do this thing." She directed Naruto to sit on his knees in front of the tree while she did the same in front of him. Sakura sat to her right and Hinata to her left, the Hyuga's back to the rest of the playground to shield what they were doing.

Ino closed her eyes in concentration and flicked through a long chain of hand seals before pressing her palm to Naruto's forehead. 'Astral Journey Technique,' she thought as the technique took effect.

Their surroundings seemed to turn grey before they resettled into what looked like a wooden shrine, the Uzumaki swirl carved overhead. "Where are we?" Naruto asked.

"We're in your head," Ino said proudly. "Dad said it looks different for everyone. It's supposed to be all symbolic about who you are and how you see yourself and stuff." She thought over their surroundings before pointing at the swirl. "That's the symbol for your clan, right?"

"Yup, the Uzumaki clan!" Naruto said enthusiastically. "Ken's talked about them a lot. He said they were these kickass warriors and sealmasters. And other stuff, I guess."

"Right, I was there for his demonstration thing, I got the gist," Ino said. "I think your mindscape has changed to reflect the fact that you know about your clan now." She pouted. "But this isn't the Nine-Tails."

No sooner had she said that than a menacing growl echoed from a hallway to their side. Both children looked at each other before smiling and following the sound. They kept following what sounded like deep-voiced grumbles and snarls and even snoring. Eventually, they wandered into what was like a somewhat flooded hallway, water up to their ankles.

"So what does this mean?" Naruto asked, stomping a foot into the water.

"No idea," Ino said. "I'm still learning, remember? Let's keep moving."

They kept wandering through a few more hallways, strange metal tubes lining the walls, before they found a pair of a huge, ornate metal gate blocking their way. A large piece of paper with the kanji for "seal" sat in the middle of the gates.

"Uh, Ino?" Naruto said. "Something feels … off. It's like … I dunno how to explain it, y'know. Just weird, in a bad way."

Before Ino could comment, a loud roar emanated from the gates. No, from behind the gates! A huge pair of burning red eyes and a fearsome set of fangs emerged from the darkness. Eventually they settled into the face of a leering monstrosity of a fox. The Nine-Tailed Fox!

"You," Naruto said, suddenly angry. "You're the one who attacked my home! Who made me into a freak and hated by the village!"

"I did nothing but escape, you insolent brat," the Fox rumbled.

"It can talk?!" Ino yelped.

The Fox snarled in rage. "I am no 'it', stupid girl!" The Fox snarled and slammed a massive paw against the gates, but they seemed to heat up and force him back with a pained growl. "It is not yet time," the Fox grumbled. "Now get out."

The fox opened its jaws wide and roared louder than the kids had ever heard, the force of its rage sending them hurtling back into the hallway-!

Both Ino and Naruto gasped as they woke up, their ears ringing from the psychic blast. Ino felt her lunch squirm and turned around before throwing it all up. As Sakura tried to tend to her best friend, Hinata covered her mouth in shock at the intense reaction.

"Naruto, what happened?" she asked, just a little frightened of the answer.

"We saw the Fox," he membled, his head hurting. "And he's a friggin' jerk!"

"It can talk," Ino whimpered. "It's sentient!" She paled even more, her complexion like a ghost. "And the hatred I felt in its words, in its very spirit. It's nothing humans could match."

"Well, the Fourth Hokage beat it real good!" Naruto shakily crowed. "And someday I'm gonna learn how to use that power for my own, like Ken said. And I'll become Hokage and use it to protect the village that the Fox couldn't destroy!"

Hinata smiled at the declaration, as did Ino even if hers was a bit shaky. Even Sakura, who usually thought Naruto was a loudmouthed moron, couldn't help but crack the tiniest smile at his pure spirit. And she suddenly realized he wasn't quite as loud or moronic lately. Must be his older cousin's influence.

It was then that the bell rang for classes and they all leapt to their feet and rushed for the Academy building. Because none of them had come up with a cover story for being late.

Tomoko was taking a sip of her third cup of tea when the memories came to her. A residence on the other side of the town where she had felt their target's chakra signature. Uncle had been kind enough to provide a diagram of his unique signature for her to study and she had examined it all during their journey.

She knew it was him, and Ken's widened eyes showed he had learned of it, too.

"Shall we?" she asked.

"We shall," he said with a wry grin as he paid for their tea and they left. Soon enough, they would bring in their first shinobi target.

Chapter thirty, everyone! Don't worry, CH 31 will pick up right were this leaves off.

*"Steppes" are flat, unforested grasslands, usually associated with Siberia. It makes sense to me for the environment of the Land of frost; as a cold contrast to the forested Land of Fire.

*The "Astral Journey Technique" is something of my own creation. Think of it as a novice-level mind probe.

As always, leave a review if you liked it or have questions.