Chapter 49
Stranger on the Tundra

Minutes felt as if hours as he stood in the cold waiting.

Standing with arms crossed against his chest alongside a pillar of the forest gate, Kankurō let out a tired sigh while he waited for his younger brother to return. It had been more than an hour and yet no sign of Gaara, and dusk was soon approaching. Catching his curiosity, he heard a brief rustle of the pines behind him, directing his attention towards the forest path covered in frost. A smirk upon his lips, he turned to their entrance. "Well now," He sighed, watching the two step out from the eclipse of the trees. Standing hand in hand before him was his brother, at last – and Nomasaki. Luckily, their journey to the north was not a waste. After two years, they were finally together – his sight confirming it to him that snowy day. "That was fast… and about time!"

As the couple met with him while the snow faintly fell, Nomasaki timidly averted her glance as her cheeks turned pink, retracting her hand back into the dark cover of her warm cloak, while Gaara stood calm and unfazed before his elder brother's smug smile and remark. "Yeah," Gaara nodded. "You haven't received word from Sunagakure?"

Kankurō shook his head, looking up to him with a stern glint to his eyes. "We should get a move on back to the village," He said. "Baki is covering for you, right? We shouldn't be away from home for too long in case they suspect you're gone. Not only that, but in an entirely different country."

"Right," Gaara answered, averting his gaze slightly.

"Something I just realized… Nomasaki–," Kankurō began, directing his attention to the timid young woman beside his brother. Hearing her name jolted her slightly, her lilac eyes alerted. "You deserted our Kazekage while on an assignment to protect him. If we don't get back to Suna by daybreak, you could potentially be classified as a missing-nin. So technically, you've committed treason."

"Eh?" She stammered, her expression frozen – stunned by the realization. She had been so caught up in the moment that she failed to realize her mission was still ongoing when she left him in a saddened rage – she left her Kazekage unattended and unprotected for days. It had been a while since she failed an assignment, and her abandonment only seemed to make it worse. Unlike the calm, collected shinobi she was trained to be, she acted irresponsibly and without code. Between the two brothers, she stood ashamed and embarrassed by her selfish actions.

"Kankurō…–!" Gaara muttered, upon seeing her face go blank in distress from his words. With a whispered "Don't blame me", Kankurō gave a shrug of his shoulders in response to his subtle glare.

"I-I suppose I did," Nomasaki stammered, bowing slightly as she turned to Gaara at her side. "I'm sorry."

"Never mind that," He answered, glancing at her. "Were you… planning on coming back to Sunagakure with us?"

"I will," She nodded, a light smile on her face. "I just want to let my father know first before I –," A scent of a chakra struck her. She sensed an unknown presence on the winds. Slightly alarmed by the presence, she turned towards the winds – the feeling brisk and unnerving to her as she stood in the cold. It felt similar to a chakra she sensed during the war – a dark and unknown presence that chilled her.

Noticing her widened eyes to the winds, Gaara gave her a concerned look. "What is it?"

"There's a stranger in our midst," She spoke, starting for the path that led towards the mountain village. "There's clansmen at the mountain's base. I have to see them." Slightly surprising her, she heard footsteps crunch in the snow beside her. Pausing, she looked to her side, meeting Gaara's calm and stern eyes.

"I'll go with you." He spoke with a nod, taking back his cloak from Kankurō. Glancing to his brother as he fastened the latch, he met his dark eyes. "Kankurō–?"

"I'm staying here," He grimaced, his face tinged with the cold. "You go on ahead. I'm going to find someplace warm."

"There's heat by the hearth at the chieftain's manse," Nomasaki entered. "My father will gladly let you rest by the fire, if you want."

Relief swept over his shivers. "R-Really?" Kankurō stammered, wide-eyed. Seeing her nod, he gripped the straps of his puppets on his shoulders under his thick cloak. A grunt passed through his lips as he started on his way. "In that case, I'll be seeing you two later. The sooner we return to Suna, the better!"

After giving Gaara a soft smile, she turned back to the icy-ridden path that led down towards the village slope. "Follow me."

While the cold winds grew stronger, the two reached the base of the towering mountain of snow. Encroaching on the vast freezing lands was a tundra that painted the only flat expanse of the Land of Mountains. Spreading for miles on end, the white lands seemed to have gone on forever. Not even the trees behind them were visible in the blinding winds of frost. Clouding the sun, the sharp winds whipped against the snow and ice at their feet as they stepped out onto the land. Sensing the chakra grow closer, Nomasaki narrowed her eyes at their presence – their chakra striking her suspicion. The cloak rested heavily on Gaara's shoulders, shielding him from the cold that soon grew harsh. He may have been growing used to the cold of the mountaintop, but the tundra was an especially unforgivable place. Bones of weary travellers and animals stuck out from the ice as they trudged through the snows, near hidden by the blinding white. He swore he saw the bones of a great monster with tusks that twisted out from the snows, but Nomasaki assured him they once belonged to a most unlucky mammoth.

Mammoths.

As if the mysterious lands could have been any stranger.

Sensing the chakra draw near, Nomasaki turned towards the west as they paused upon the tundra. Shortly after a wolf appeared at her side, near invisible from the cover of snow and ice around them. Its size was the same as hers, the strong limbs and powerful jaws resembling the tales of direwolves. A clansmen. Placing her palm on its head, she gave the beast an assuring glance. Its purple eyes were locked upon the chakra it sensed, a faint snarl rumbling through its closed muzzle.

"Here," She spoke, directing her nod towards the chakra.

Swiftly, the wolf dashed ahead towards the dark silhouette in the near distance, its growl dancing on the winds around them. The figure was shrouded by the icy winds – their shape only visible from the faint breaks of sunlight that desperately tried to reach the unpopulated country of tundra and mountains.

"They can sense the chakra?" Gaara asked, turning to her. "Is it a threat?"

"I don't know," She answered, her eyes cautious. "But I have a hunch... the chakra is powerful. We'll find out soon enough." The winds blew furiously in the silence, whipping against their fluttering cloaks with the falling snow. Striking her senses, she felt the chakra draw closer. Their footsteps faintly danced on the winds, the snow crunching beneath their feet in their journey. Whoever it was, their chakra was as powerful as it was worrisome. "Who trespasses these lands?" She called out, stepping forward in the snow – her eyes narrowed while a serious expression painted her face. "Show yourself!"

While the winds slowly began to calm, Gaara examined the cloaked figure before them thoroughly with suspicion. Surprising him from the sight, his seafoam eyes widened at the young man who stood before them, surrounded by a snarling pack of large wolves whose coats were concealed by the eternal snow. While the wind struck the silent stranger, his black cloak and empty sleeve fluttered like leaves in the winds. As the man raised his darkened head towards them, the faint sunlight reflected upon his eyes, revealing both a gleaming Rinnegan and a Sharingan.

It was the Uchiha.

He felt his guard rise slightly, his shoulders tensing. "It can't be…" He spoke to himself. "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Uchiha Sasuke…?" She jolted, glancing to him at her side. "Do you mean…–?"

His eyes narrowed, Gaara nodded at the person approaching them. "Yes, it's him."

As his confirmation sank into her psyche, she looked back to the stranger who stood before them on the tundra. Although his chakra was not as menacing as it was during the war, there was something about it that still made her feel uneasy – and his eyes made it worse. The man Gaara told her stories of years before - the man clouded by hatred and darkness - as he was once in the past. Tales of the Uchiha clan spread far and wide across the lands even before her days as a shinobi, but it all haunted her, nonetheless. They both came from clans destroyed by hatred, but his by far held the greater power. Even standing as far from him as she was, her instincts rose her guard from his strange and frightening chakra. It was tainted with a darkness that forever left its mark.

Taking two steps forward, she solidified her stance in the snow, her lilac eyes holding a subtle glare. "What are you doing here? What business do you have in Yamagakure?"

Pausing, Sasuke lifted down the hood of his blackened cloak, gazing upon the young woman with an emotionless glance that seemed almost smug in nature. Snarling silently in their muzzles, the wolves around him arched their backs in defensive aggression. "I'm no threat," He spoke. "You can calm your wolves, I'm here to request a meeting with your leader... not fight the Yamamori. Let me pass."

"How can we trust you after all you've done?" She questioned, slightly alarmed by his request. "You've committed crimes that–!"

"I've atoned for. If you won't let me pass, I'll just go on ahead alone. I'll force my way through, if need be… if that's my only option."

Gnashing her teeth in frustration for the suspicious foreigner, she brought herself forward. Surprising her, she felt something grasp her shoulder. Turning to him, she saw a calm and assured glance from Gaara's ringed eyes. "Let him through, Nomasaki." He said, his tone holding a hint of sternness. "Remember, he's on a special assignment by the decree of the Five Kage… including myself."

"Gaara," As they turned back towards the cloaked Uchiha, he gave them a glance from the cover of his stoic expression, the wind whipping his inky black hair across his face. "I don't know why you're here, but perhaps you can speak some sense into this one. I'm running low on time as it is."

"Sasuke," Gaara answered back, his glance slightly narrowed. "The last time we crossed paths was when you were in the darkness. I understand that times have changed, and you've paid the price for your crimes… but seeing you in this circumstance is certainly unexpected." As they exchanged glances, his glare softened. "I take it this has to do with your mission?"

"Yes," Sasuke replied, nodding once with a stern expression. "Now… let me pass."

Gritting her teeth as she shot the Uchiha a glare, she reluctantly signaled her clansmen towards the mountain's peak, their disgruntled growls guiding their way back through the icy winds surrounding them. As they vanished into the white land like ghosts, the winds seemingly howled in protest. Glancing back to the stranger, she caught the glimpse of his eerie red eye.

With a bitter tint to her eyes, she turned away, guiding the stranger to her village in the mountains.

The room was as unmoving as the mountain the village sat upon.

Sitting with bitter eyes locked on the Uchiha, Nomasaki sat on her father's righthand at the front of the chieftain's meeting chambers that early evening. Along the adorned paper walls sitting on white cushions that dotted the floor were high-ranking villagers, Yamamori clansmen, and Yamagakure Council members. Dressed in honorable garbs of fine and fur-lined fabric with katanas sheathed on their backs, the listening elders and clansmen sat exerting a sea mixed of dark and violet eyes. Appearing out of place, the two visitors from Sunagakure were seated close to the chieftain and his daughter, taking note of the pairs of purple eyes that watched them and the stranger closely.

The tension could have been cut with a blade.

Seated in the center of the meeting chambers was the Uchiha – Sasuke the wanderer – looking up in silence to the chieftain after telling him of his reasoning for his journey. With a troubled and concerned glance, Kyō narrowed his eyes at the stranger. "Is this true?" Kyō questioned, placing his fingers near his white beard in thought. "Could there really be evidence of the Ōtsutsuki clan on our lands?"

"Yes," Sasuke nodded. "I'm here to investigate the shrine located on your village's mountain, the Yamamori Shrine… or so I've been told by my sources."

"That's a sacred relic!" A disgruntled villager stood up from his seat, his violet eyes filled with shocked anger. "Our people have been without a true home for generations! The shrine is an important artifact of our clan's history and culture! No outsider can go near the forest or our shrine! It's forbidden –!"

Holding up his palm in calm retaliation, Kyō silenced the man. Although the chieftain was of good nature, his stern air was to never be provoked. His unmoving eyes of hazel proved it, the years of battle weighing heavily on his aged face. Begrudgingly, the Yamamori stepped down, returning to his cushioned seat at the floor. Turning to her father with a concerned glint to her guarded eyes, Nomasaki reached to him. "Father –,"

"If what you say is true, I have no choice…" Kyō sighed, closing his eyes in a breath. Opening his eyes, he gave the Uchiha a stern and dutiful glance. "Very well, Uchiha Sasuke. You have my permission as chieftain to enter the Yamamori's forest. If you do find anything, please report to me at once."

Standing up, Sasuke gave a brief bow of his dark hair. "Thank you, Kyō-sama."

"Ekashiba," Kyō signalled, drawing the man up from his seat from the call. "Escort our honoured guest to the shrine through the forest, if you please."

With a nod, the bearded Yamamori started for the doors and the Uchiha soon followed. Silently and without incident, the stranger left the chieftain's residence. After the sound of the closing doors filled the air, the murmured and hushed voices of the villagers erupted into the silence. Seeing her father struggle to gain his footing with his cane, Nomasaki held his arm as he stood to help him. "Father, here," She spoke, quietly. Lifting him, she feigned a smile tinged with unease. "Don't push yourself, please."

"I know," Taking his wooden cane from his daughter's hand as he stood on his feet, he gave her a fatherly nod in gratitude. "Now then–,"

"Kyō-sama!"

In an instant, a Yama ninja appeared before them from a cloud of smoke – knelt with an expression of urgency on this face.

"What is it?" Kyō asked, stepping forward.

"A blizzard is approaching fast!" The ninja exclaimed. "It's headed from the northwest of here! Our scouts say it will strike the village by nightfall."

"Very well, then." Kyō nodded, his face stern and calm. "Prepare the rations and make sure every villager is safe inside their homes. Those without a fire can use this area for refuge when it approaches."

"Yes, sir!"

Within the motion of a single hand-sign, the Yama ninja disappeared from the residence – gone to complete his given task. As the villagers began to disperse back to their homes, the sounds of the howling winds began to beat against the large home – rattling the doors slightly from the cold. Hearing the sound of footsteps across the tatami floor grow closer, Kyō turned to his side. Pausing before him was the Kazekage and his elder brother, their expressions marked in curiosity from the ninja's urgency and disappearance.

"A blizzard?" Gaara asked, his expression curious yet stoic. Not once in his life had he or his brother experienced a blizzard – and if the winds were any indication, the approaching storm would be unlike anything he had seen.

"Kazekage-sama," Kyō began. "I suggest you and your brother join us in our residence until the snowstorm passes. It's too dangerous to venture out into the lands as this time."

Heeding the warning, Gaara gave him a nod. "Right," He replied. "Thank you, Kyō-sama."

As they made their way behind the chieftain to his living quarters, something struck Gaara's curiosity. Turning to his side, he noticed that Nomasaki was missing. Perplexed by her silent vanishing, he stood with eyes wide all but for a moment – unsure of where she went during such a dangerous time.

The skies darkened as the day fled from night.

As nightfall finally approached in the mountain lands, the storm was climbing the mountain at a steady pace – leaving the tundra near completely impassable. Quietly, Sasuke sat knelt before the small stone wolf before the Yamamori Shrine's aged and worn altar, writing down notes on a scroll laid out on the snowy ground. From beyond the cover of the frosted trees, a wolf with piercing lilac eyes watched him. Cautiously it took in the sight of the outsider touching the relic, the final true remnant of her clan's past existence. From the corner of his eye, he shot a narrowed glare of his dark eye towards the forest boundary – knowing he was being watched by a beast.

"I could sense you following me up the mountain," He spoke, his tone cold. "What is it you want from me?"

Stepping out from the shadow of the icy forest, the wolf paused behind him, a faint snarl on its contained jaws. It towered over him, its strong limbs and massive jaws appearing as if a monster. It was larger than the others – and its eyes were piercing in their glare. As the winds blew past the creature, it changed into the shape of a human dressed in blue. Standing with her darkened cloak on her shoulders, Nomasaki examined his closeness to her clan's shrine with a protective glare mired in suspicion.

"I wanted to talk."

"To talk?" He repeated, unamused. "It sounds more as if you want to lash out at me... I can sense chakra just as well as you can. I may not be a beast like you, but I can tell from your uneasy glare at my back that you don't want me here."

Her eyes narrowed. "Last time I saw you, you were imprisoned and in chains."

"What of it?" He snapped, breaking his aloof silence. "I remember you, too... you were trembling when you saw me. Fear was there, and so was something else. Hatred... an emotion I'm all too familiar with. I sensed it in you, and I still can as you stand behind me. You hate me, but it's not because you're afraid. You hate me because you saw part of yourself in that dark cell. Is that it? Did I decipher your motive, wolf? If that's all you have to say to me, then go back to your village. What my mission is doesn't concern you... or Gaara."

"Uchiha Sasuke," She began, her gold hair flickering against her face in the rising winds of the night. "I've heard about you, and the things you've done. You have done unspeakable things for the sake of revenge… yet you're forgiven all because of the war."

"And?"

He was not interested in conversation at all, judging by his icy retort. Her glare easing, she tried to come to terms with what she wanted to ask of him – something that bogged her mind for the last few years of her shinobi life. "Your entire clan disappeared, as mine did… I just wanted to know how you decided to steer on this new path." She pressed, her voice calmer. Looking down for a moment, she remembered her past feelings of her father, Ishi, and of Suna – and how wrong she was to feel those things. Reflecting upon it twisted her inside, but also gave relief as the faces of her comrades and friends entered her mind – appreciating their acceptance and support for the orphaned foreigner who stumbled into their desert lands. Gazing down at her open palm while the snow fell, her lilac eyes closed halfway. "I, too, was once going down a path of revenge, but my duty to my village and my comrades saved me from approaching that… darkness." Her glance holding sympathy, she looked to his back with a softened gaze. "Was that… also your resolve?"

His hand flinching for a moment on his brush's stroke, he gave a subtle nod – although not visible from the cover of his cloak. "In a way, yes." He replied, rolling up the scroll at his feet and packing it away in his satchel. "I had a friend who never gave up on me, and he literally beat his point into me that I shouldn't continue on an avenger's path. As annoying as he was, I listened. He… was right."

"Was it Uzumaki Naruto?"

Standing up, Sasuke did not face her, his black cloak flowing in the icy winds between them in the meadow. "Yes," He said. "Thanks to him, I can atone for my past sins by protecting the shinobi world. Although a sentence for my crimes, it's a sentence that will protect not only Konoha, but every village. That's a sacrifice I'm willing to make."

From hearing his response, she looked on with a subtle frown – understanding the sincerity of his words. Surprisingly, his chakra no longer felt as sinister as it did earlier. Although it still held onto the essence of unimaginable strength she could not understand, she began to feel as if it was not entirely a threat – albeit a subtle one.

Could she have been wrong to misjudge him?

Turning towards her, he gave her a calm expression, his Sharingan seeming less intimidating than earlier. "Speaking of which, your shrine had no trace of the Ōtsutsuki clan being tied to it… so rest assured, this region may not have been in their reach." Looking back to the shrine, he gave a faint smile towards it on his pale lips. "Your clan is lucky to still have this remaining. Times have changed in the shinobi world… Hopefully your clan and mine can survive and live amongst the rest of the world… without hatred."

"Yes," She nodded, her glance saddened slightly as she gazed at the cracked wolf relic before her. "That's something we can agree on." As she sensed him turn back to face her, she gave him a stern expression – all traces of sympathy disappearing. "It must be true then, that you are indeed a changed man." She began, meeting his narrowing glance of suspicion from her words. With a nod, she held onto her glance of silent seriousness, unwavering in her stance. "If Gaara can trust you, then I will trust you… Uchiha Sasuke. However, I still have my suspicions about you… and for good reason."

"Fair enough." Sasuke said, starting on his way towards the meadow's end, walking past her in the snow.

As if in a blink of an eye, the Uchiha was gone without a trace in the winds – his strange powers allowing him to vanish as if into thin air.

While she stood before the shrine that night as the winds picked up, she wondered if she carried the risk of turning the same as him back when she was a child. How different my life would have gone, and how miserable, she thought to herself.

Although holding contempt for Ishi for their massacre of her homeland, she knew it was not the villagers of Ishi who committed the crime – it was their past leader and his renegades. Since meeting with Zenken before the war began, forgiving Ishi and moving past her hate for the Land of Claws grew more faint as time went on – although painful at times, but worth the closure. Her father was a different story. Since finding out he was alive, she made it her goal to meet him one day and face him for the abandonment and strife he caused within her family. However, upon meeting him did she realize that the circumstances for his abandonment were not what she previously believed to be true – he did it out of love and honor for her family, not from fear and disgust of her mother's heritage. She knew she was wrong to judge in such a way – and she judged too fast on all accounts.

In the back of her mind, the scarce remnants of hatred boiled within her blood from the shattered memories of the men who burned her home those seven years ago. Their emblem upon their black armor was concealed by the flames that surrounded them, but she remembered the fear she saw in her own eyes as her reflection wept and trembled before their drawn sword. The rest was a blur. Shaking off the thought, she caught herself breathing frantically. Seeing her breath in the cold startled her, bringing her back to reality.

Hatred was still there – but so was fear.

Wolves do not fear, they devour fear, she reminded herself, But I am allowed to be afraid. Part of me is human, after all.

As the freezing winds of snow picked up around her, she put up her hood of her cloak as the frost began to gnaw at her ears – trudging through the snow towards her father's residence to tell him of the Uchiha's findings…