Naruto's eyes opened slowly, the world around him seeming too bright quickly had him closing them again. His entire body was in pain, like he had just ran thirty laps around Konoha as punishment from Iruka for one of his pranks, but somehow worse. His head seemed to spin around and he couldn't feel anything, the world cold to his touch.
He tried to open his eyes again, and the blinding white of the world once again purged his eyes, sending a spike of pain through his head. He tried to prop himself up with his arms, only to feel the ground crumble to his touch and felt his arms descend into it, the cold eating away at his limbs.
It was then that Naruto remembered something, his sensei clashing with the enemy ninja, how him and his teammate had been trapped in the mirrors and the pain of the senbon piercing his skin. Then everything had gone wrong.
His eyes flew open, and he jumped up so fast he almost flew, and looked around.
The flash of white, his fellow genin falling to the floor, then the searing pain that hit him from behind and the darkness that followed. Where was he? What had happened?
He looked around, eyes narrow and he searched the area, covered in freezing snow. Naruto's arms flew around his body to keep him warm as best they could. How long had he been lying in the snow for?
He saw something a bit away, only a few steps, black hair sticking out of the snow. Naruto ran forward and his hands flew into the single seal to form the Shadow Clone Jutsu and create more of him to help dig out the boy stuck under the snow.
After a few seconds of scooping he saw that some of the snow had been stained red, and dragged the boy out. He was cold, but shivering and alive. For how long he didn't know. Naruto wished he had spent more time listening to Iruka about what to do in cold climates rather than daydreaming.
He looked over the boy, the countless holes littering his body from the senbon that had seemingly killed him. Naruto didn't know how he'd survived, but he could tell he wouldn't last much longer in the snow. Naruto had some of the clones help get the boy onto his back, when a cold blast of wind popped a few of the clones and the boy fell to the ground.
Panicking he got the boy lifted up to his back and started searching for his other teammate, hoping that the girl was still there and alive. His clones started removing the top layers of snow in hopes of finding her.
It took him almost five minutes to find her and drag her out of the snow, but Naruto knew something was wrong. She wasn't cold but warm, far, far too warm. She was sweating and seemed to be burning.
Fumbling for a moment, Naruto quickly got her situated on his back next to the boy and started walking in the direction of… he didn't know. But standing around there would get them killed and he didn't know how to make a shelter fast enough in the weather they were in. Every second he could feel the cold eat further into his body, and knew that if he didn't find something for them quick they'd die, and he wasn't ready to die.
He walked through the snow, his feet sinking in up to his knees, then rising up and dragged through the snow. His clones had all popped from the cold, and his legs felt like lead, but he kept on moving, keeping the two on his back from dragging in the snow.
He didn't know how long he walked, the snow stinging his face made it impossible to fully open his eyes to take in landmarks, the snow too heavy and wind too fast to turn around, his tracks gone the moment they were behind him.
Naruto didn't even register the cave, he just walked into it and collapsed, falling unconscious the moment he no longer felt the wind.