I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.

Trouble Shooting

Ryuu ducked under Yugao's kick, standing and blocking a punch, catching her arm and spinning, throwing her. She flipped, landing on her feet and motioning for him to attack. He sprinted forward, slowed considerably by the weights. When he reached her, he threw a kick at her, Yugao catching it and shoving his foot upward. He flipped backward, landing on his hands and feet just in time to throw himself to the side away from an axe kick. He landed in a roll, standing and blocking a series of punches before tripping as his leg failed to rise high enough as he tried to step backward. Yugao managed to keep from tripping over him and helped him up, nodding.

"You're getting better," Yugao nodded. "We'll have to up your weights tomorrow."

Ryuu nodded just as Kakashi stepped into the clearing, visible eyebrow rising.

"You weren't told, were you?" Kakashi asked.

"Told what?" Ryuu asked.

"You're coming on a mission with us," Kakashi said. "We're escorting an actress while her next movie is filmed."

"We are?" Ryuu asked. "Who is it?"

"Have you seen the Princess Gale movie?" Kakashi asked.

"That one about the magic knights fighting hollow suits of armor, and the princess has that overpowered rainbow chakra at the end that just destroys everyone in one shot?" Ryuu asked.

"That's the one," Kakashi nodded.

"Nope," Ryuu said, flipping onto his hands, a shadow clone forming to help him keep his balance. "I take it that's who the actress is."

"That's right," Kakashi nodded. "She's a bit reluctant to go, so we're going to make sure she actually goes as we are to protect her."

"Where are we going?" Ryuu asked. "And what's the mission ranked?"

"It's an A ranked mission," Kakashi said. "And we're going to the Land of Spring."

"Isn't that the place that's always winter?" Ryuu asked.

"That's right," Kakashi nodded as Ryuu finished his handstand push ups and set his feet down.

"Alright," Ryuu nodded. "I'll go pack and meet you guys at the gate."

"We're meeting in twenty minutes," Kakashi said. "Dress warmly."

Ryuu nodded and Kakashi left, Ryuu sighing as he turned to Yugao. "I guess we'll up the weight when I get back."

"Keep the weights on for the mission, if you can without dying," Yugao said. "It'll be good practice, and will give you a temporary speed boost when you first take them off."

Ryuu nodded and left, heading home and quickly sealing several sets of his identical outfits into a scroll, along with both of his cold weather cloaks. Then, he let Yomo out of his cage and left the house, Yomo siting on his shoulder. As he was passing the closet, he grabbed his tent, sealing it as well, before heading to the main gate. As he arrived, he found the others waiting with Yukie Fujikaze, the actress they would be escorting, her three costars, the three bodyguards of Princess Gale in the movie, and Yukie's manager, an older man with a worn brown cloak, spectacles, and a small red tanto with eyedrops hanging from it.

Yukie had long dark blue hair, a beautiful face, and a colorful and obviously expensive kimono. She also was passed out and in a cart. One of the three costars was bald with n average face, though in the movie he wore warpaint, one was a handsome man with long brown hair, and one was a slightly older and heavy-set man in his late thirties with short dark blue hair.

"Finally," Sasuke said. "You always this slow?"

"Who was it that did better against Fu?" Ryuu asked.

"Lee," Sasuke snorted.

"Fair enough," Ryuu nodded.

"Alright, everyone, this is the last member of the team, Ryuu Uchiha," Kakashi said. "Sorry he's late, he wasn't told until a little bit ago that he was coming."

"That's quite alright," the older man said. "My name is Sandayu Asama."

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Ryuu bowed.

"He's very polite," the one with brown hair chuckled.

"We should go," Sasuke said. "We need to be on the boat before she wakes up. We can do introductions on the way."

"True," Kakashi nodded. "Alright. Let's go."

With that, they headed out. A few hours later, they were on a ship, sailing out to sea, and a few hours after that, Ryuu was training in his room on the ship when he heard Yukie screaming at Sandayu. He sighed, shaking his head as he continued his handstand push ups. She was going to be a very difficult client. Over the next two days, he spent the majority of the time training in his room, though he went up on deck long enough to watch the crew film one scene, one where the heavy-set costar died after a battle. It was amazing watching Yukie act. One second, she was an annoyed, unwilling bitch who wanted nothing to do with the movie. The next, she was a heart broken heroine whose friend was dying in her arms. At least, until it came time for her crocodile tears. For that, she needed to have everyone freeze while Sandayu used the eyedrops to force her eyes to tear up. Aside from that she was amazing.

After that, the crew cleaned up the set and Ryuu returned to training. Sasuke stayed to watch this time, impressed that he had been training with the weights for most of the trip. In truth, Ryuu was running on fumes. He needed to rest, and Sasuke looked like he was entirely too happy to be light.

"Here," Ryuu grinned, taking the weights off and holding them out. "Your turn."

Sasuke grinned, strapping them on and instantly losing his smile. "Shit. This will be hard."

Sasuke began to do exercises of his own as Ryuu began to practice the Transparency Jutsu again. He was finally able to perform it again, but was trying to learn to do it without any hand seals, the way Hayate could. Finally, Sasuke gave up and Ryuu took the weights back, strapping them back on and heading to bed.

"Director! We've got a problem!"

Ryuu shot out of bed, looking around. The director's assistant had clearly been panicked. Ryuu grabbed his scroll of spare clothes, along with his tanto and trench knife, strapping the trench knife on and slipping his tanto's harness on as he ran to the deck, meeting Sasuke on the way. However, when they reached the deck, they found that the only problem was that the ship had had to stop to avoid hitting a gigantic iceberg, one that above the water was easily ten times the size of the ship, if not more.

"Do you know what this is!?' the director, an older man with grey hair with streaks of white, a yellow sweater, and a red bull horn in his hand at all times.

"Um, an iceberg, sir?" the assistant asked.

"It's perfect!" the director shouted. "We're changing everything! Get the crew ready! We're filming here!"

So, a half hour later, Yukie and the two supposedly surviving bodyguards were on the iceberg, her costars getting their makeup and costumes ready and Yukie standing beside a heater with Naruto, both with their arms crossed and yawning widely at the same time, both equally disgruntled to be awake. Ryuu conceded that it was early, and that it was freezing cold, the cold-weather cloaks doing absolutely nothing to keep them warm, but it could be worse. Kakashi was only wearing a scarf for warmth. Ryuu stood beside Kakashi as they watched the actors get ready, soon including the main antagonist of the Princess Gale movie series, an older, very heavy-set man with a white mustache, thinning white hair, a purple robe, and a khakharra. Finally, when the actors and Yukie were ready, they took their positions. Yukie and her two bodyguards were standing on the first part of the iceberg, a low flat area. Then, after that, the flat area sloped up to another flat area about twenty feet higher. The actor playing the antagonist stood off to the left on the higher section. Beyond that section, there was a pair of massive mountains with a valley in the center, both mountains reaching roughly a hundred feet in the air.

"Everyone ready!?" the director shouted to the camera and sound crew. "And...action!"

"So, Princess Gale, you've arrived!" the antagonist actor began.

"Mao!" the one with brown hair shouted. "We're here to stop you! Your reign ends here!"

"We'll just see about that!" Mao said, pointing two fingers at Yukie. "HA-"

He stopped as the mountain behind him exploded, Mao turning to look at it, thoroughly confused. At the same moment, Kakashi appeared between Yukie and the explosion and Ryuu landed beside him a moment later.

"Is this a part of the scene?" Mao asked.

"Mao, get out of the way," Ryuu instructed, Mao instantly complying.

As the smoke thinned, someone stood beside the crater, throwing a white blanket off of themselves and smiling as he crossed his arms and watched them. "Welcome friends, to the Land of Snow."

He wore a white bodysuit that looked to be armored with a small metal plate bearing a white and blue yin-and-yang symbol on the left shoulder, blue tubes leading from the edge of the plate to various parts of the suit. The right arm was uncovered by the suit, exposing a black sleeve with a metal bracer on the right forearm that had an opening on the front, as though it could fire something. He had light purple hair in a ponytail with a single lock hanging in front of his mask-style Hidden Snow Village forehead protector and his pale green eyes.

"You!" Kakashi growled, narrowing his visible eye at the ninja.

Suddenly a second shinobi, a female this time, appeared on top of an ice spike on the far right side. She had pink hair with two pieces sticking out of the top of her helmet, on the front of which was her forehead protector. She had green eyes, small dot eyebrows, as did the first shinobi, and a similar outfit, except that her own had the yin-and-yang sign on the back with two metal pieces extending straight out from either side of it before turning a right angle downward, ending in a spike.

"Greetings Princess Koyuki," the woman spoke up. "I do hope you're still carrying around the Hex crystal."

Kakashi's eye widened and he stared back at Yukia in shock. Then, he whipped his head around as a third, much larger shinobi, stood in the center of the iceberg.

"You're as good as they say, Kakashi," the third ninja commended. "Unfortunately, it's not good enough."

He was about six and a half feet tall and fat with a mask-style forehead protector, short messy purple hair sticking our of the top, beady black eyes, eyebrows matching the other two, and the same kind of uniform. His own yin-and-yang symbol was on his stomach with tubes going first to a pauldron on his left shoulder, then down his left arm to a massive robotic gauntlet. It was about a foot wide over his arm with a cannonball for a hand. The hand had three flat, metal fingers and a thumb, a hole in the palm for God knows what, and a sword with the handles being a pair of metal rods set into semicircular gaps in the back of the blade."

Ryuu narrowed his eyes at the largest of the three. "I'll take the female. I'm assuming the one with the ponytail is the biggest threat."

"Yes, but they're all dangerous," Kakashi warned.

"Understood," Ryuu nodded. "Sakura, get everyone back to the ship! Naruto, protect Yukie! Sasuke, handle the fat one."

"Got it!" Sasuke shouted.

"Gotcha!" Naruto nodded, jumping over to stand in front of Yukie, drawing a kunai.

"Understood!" Sakura shouted, turning to the film crew. "Everyone on the ship!"

They all complied instantly, turning to run, except Yukie, who fell to her knees, staring at the three shinobi in utter terror.

Ryuu turned back to the girl as she grinned, leaping into the air and hurling several kunai. Ryuu flipped out of the way, but just as the kunai hit the ground, massive spikes of ice burst out of the ground, growing rapidly as the kunai headed for Naruto and Yukie. Ryuu used the Body Flicker technique to get in front of them, running through hand seals.

"Fire Style, Giant Fireball Jutsu!" Ryuu shouted before exhaling a massive fireball, blocking the last of the kunai and melting their ice spikes, as well as the first bunch. "Yukie, get to the ship! Now!"

Yukie didn't respond so Ryuu sprinted away from her, drawing his trench knife and a kunai, holding both in reverse grip as he leapt at the woman, slashing. She spun out of the way, slashing at him only for him to block it and shove the knife away, slashing at her. She spun out of the way, leaping backward and forming hand seals.

"Ice Style, Tsubame Blizzard!" she shouted, ice forming from the air into small ice birds and streaking at Ryuu. Ryuu used the Body Flicker Technique to get out of the way, then hurled his kunai at the woman as she was airborne, the woman grinning and flipping, blocking it with one of her own, dropping hers. Ryuu dove to the side as ice spikes shot past him. Then, she landed, slamming her hands into the ground.

"Ice Style, Ice Prison Jutsu!" she shouted.

Massive pillars of ice began to shoot up from the ground in a trail after him. He began to flip backward as quickly as he could in successive hand springs. Finally, it became clear he couldn't escape it and he leapt into the air. The next ice pillar grew faster than the others, catching his foot and halting him, then encasing him in ice. The woman grinned, landing on it and grinning down at him.

"Too slow," she grinned.

"Guess again," Ryuu said, appearing behind her as the Ryuu in the ice began to expand, the ice cracking.

"What?" she shouted.

Then, the Ryuu she caught exploded into a massive fireball, obliterating the ice and throwing her away. She landed hard, rolling just before Ryuu yanked on metal wire, several strings of it bursting out of the snow below her, binding her instantly and yanking her front first into the only remaining ice pillar.

"Caught you," Ryuu grinned.

"Not yet!" she growled. Suddenly, the two metal spikes on her back shot upward, snapping the wire before transparent pink wings made of some kind of rubber-like material and in the shape of bat wings extended from them and she shot into the air, Ryuu staring at the wings jealously.

"Lucky," Ryuu grumbled.

Just then, a scream filled the air and Ryuu spun toward Yukie to see Naruto was holding the largest ninja's hands, both of them, in his own. Ryuu instantly noticed Naruto's red irises and slit pupils, sharpened teeth, thickened whisker marks, and claws. Then, he noticed why the ninja he had stopped had screamed. Naruto had the ninja's right arm twisted outward and had driven his knee up into the ninja's elbow, shattering it. At the same time, Naruto's other hand had crushed the cannonball.

"He's been studying," Ryuu grinned, turning back to the female, activating his Sharingan as she looked at him. "Your turn."

"What's with your eyes?" she demanded.

"Come and see," Ryuu invited.

She flew down at him, slashing his throat with a kunai, only for his body to disperse into crows. She spun, stopping as his upper body reformed from crows, the point at his waist where it stopped remaining a shifting mass of crows.

"What is this!?" she demanded.

"Your loss," Ryuu grinned.

Then, he dispersed again as seal script shot over her body from behind. Ryuu grinned but at the same time as the seal script finished, it faded, the girl spinning, a wicked grin on her face as she slashed. Ryuu managed to escape injury thanks to Sasuke grabbing him and leaping away. Ryuu stood, growling in annoyance.

"What the hell was that?" Ryuu growled.

"Their armor," Sasuke said. "It creates a chakra forcefield that blocks all Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. Only Taijutsu is effective."

"I see," Ryuu nodded. "I'll have to take them off, then."

"Ryuu, Sasuke, get to the ship!" Kakashi shouted suddenly.

Just as he did, a gigantic white whale with a spiraled horn on its nose burst out of the water, falling on the iceberg, shattering it and breaking a third of it off.

Ryuu and Sasuke both used the Body Flicker Technique to get out of the way, landing beside Sakura and Yukie on the ship, Naruto sprinting toward them from where the biggest shinobi had thrown him with his ruined metal hand. Naruto jumped toward the ship just as the girl flew toward him with a kunai. Ryuu crouched, unclipping his leg weights then shot off the ship, flipping in the air and slamming both feet into her back, then leaping off of her back, launching her into the ground and landing at his weights again, reattaching them just as Naruto landed beside him, sighing.

"Thanks," Naruto said.

"Good job breaking the big guy's arm," Ryuu said.

"I saw you use that one on Sasuke once," Naruto said. "Figured I'd try it out."

"Impressive," Ryuu nodded. "But you'll have to be careful who sees your eyes like that. It gives away your...Kekkei Genkai."

"You know?" Naruto gaped.

"My friend Fu, the girl with the green hair you tried to fight and lost to in one hit, has a similar one," Ryuu explained.

Naruto's eyes widened and he nodded, smiling. Just then, a pair of massive white horned whales burst out of the water, crashing into each other then dropping on the remains of the iceberg and completely destroyed it, the remains beginning to sink as Kakashi landed on the ship, the waves from the whales landing on the island shoving the ship away from the iceberg and toward the Land of Spring. Ryuu sighed, leaning on the railing.

"Who were they?" Ryuu asked.

"Shinobi from the Land of Spring's Hidden Snow Village, Yukigakure," Kakashi said. "The leader, Nadare Roga, the fat one, Mizore, and the female, Fubuki. They're dangerous."

"Noted," Ryuu said. "And the armor?"

"Chakra armor," Kakashi said. "It's a highly improved version from the type I ran into the last time I was here. When we inevitably fight them again, stick to Taijutsu."

"Understood," Ryuu nodded. "We should make sure everyone made it back okay."

Kakashi nodded and the five of them headed below deck to find the others.

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