Hello Readers,
Well I am alive. I am so sorry about the loooooong hiatus that this story was on. it just took a while for the writing bug to bite me again I guess. Now it has bitten me extra hard because I don't know if you noticed but I actually started a second story as well. Was that a good idea when I already had so much trouble keeping up with this one? I don't know. But, I hope that you enjoy this new chapter of Ice Queen in Konohagakure. I will say that one of the things that really got me back in the swing of things was seeing how much traffic this story was getting. So, thank you to everyone who read, rollowed, favorited, and commented on this story. One last thing before I go, this chapter has my first ever attempt at writing an action sequence into a story, it is not very long, but I hope that you find it entertaining. Please let me know what you think with a review.
TL:DR It has been a long time since I wrote a chapter for this, thank you for the support.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or Frozen characters. Please support the official release.
Elsa woke the next morning to an amazing smell emanating from the kitchen of the small apartment she now called home. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes she stumbled out of the room to peek into the main living area which included a small sitting area where there was a couch and small table. A dining area with a table and some chairs and finally a kitchenette where Elsa spied Greta humming to herself as she worked over the stove. As she fully entered the room Greta must have heard her footsteps because she suddenly stopped humming and turned to face Elsa before speaking.
"Well good morning child." Greta greeted happily.
Hopping down from the step stool she had been using to reach the stove Greta crossed the kitchen to grab the girls hands in a warm greeting.
"How did you sleep?" Greta then asked.
"Um," Elsa said softly, fighting off a combination of sleepiness and surprise in order to give a good answer, "I slept well."
"Well, that's not surprising given all that you went through yesterday." Greta responded, "Tell you what. Why don't you go wash your face and get ready for the day and when you are done I will have a nice breakfast waiting for you, okay?"
Elsa smiled and nodded her head before she turned back around and moved toward the bathroom that was across from her bedroom. Entering, she reached up to turn on the tap and began to wash her face and take care of her basic hygiene needs. She contemplated bathing but decided to wait until that evening due to the fact that she didn't know exactly when the escort she had been told about yesterday would arrive to take her to the academy.
After finishing she re-entered her bedroom and let her hair out of the braid it had been in while she slept. Grabbing her hair brush she began to brush out her hair to work out any tangles. She chuckled as she went through this familiar ritual, normally she would also do this for Anna because the girls often didn't bother braiding her hair before bed and would therefore wake up with a practical bird's nest on her head. After finishing her chore she again put her hair into a simple braid for the day and then dressed in the outfit she had planned for the day, a sturdy dress that ended at the middle of her calf with thick stockings underneath. She had been told during her preparations for this trip that she would be asked to do some physical activity as part of the academies curriculum so she had brought a number of outfits similar to this one to use.
Finally ready for the day Elsa headed out into the main living area again, this time fully awake and ready for the day. There she found Greta now working at the counter on something, again the troll showed her well developed awareness of her surroundings and turned nearly at the same moment that Elsa entered the room.
"Well don't you just look ready to take on the world." Greta said in a fond tone. Elsa blushed slightly at the troll's complimentary tone and smiled.
"Go ahead and have a seat at the table," Greta instructed, "I have your breakfast all laid out and I will join you once I finish getting your lunch ready."
Elsa made her way to the table and sat in front of the breakfast spread out there. She felt joy spring up at seeing such a familiar sight. There was a bowl of oatmeal already sweetened with some brown sugar, cinnamon and raisins, along with a small plate with some meats and cheeses next to a sliced loaf of bread for her to make some sandwiches. Beside the food there were also two tall glasses, one with orange juice and the other milk. A few minutes later Greta joined Elsa at the table and granted the girl another small comfort at not having to eat alone.
As she finished eating Elsa looked to her caretaker and said, "Thank you, for everything you did for me this morning. I don't know what I would have done without you."
"Your welcome dear," the troll replied, "we troll's are one of the main reasons that you came here so we want to make sure that you are taken care of. I know how hard it is to be away from your family at such a young age, so I am going to make sure that you know that we will take care of you."
Elsa was touched at Greta's sincere words. She spoke not like she was here just for a job, but like she actually cared about Elsa. Elsa smiled back and continued the conversation,
"Will you be able to come back this evening?' Elsa asked.
"Like I said last night, I will be here whenever you need me, just call me with the scroll and I will pop right out." Greta said reassuringly.
"Then, do you think I could get you to bring a letter to my parents today?" Elsa asked shyly.
Greta brightened at the question, almost literally it seemed to Elsa as some of the gems braided into Greta's mossy green hair seemed to catch the light.
"That sounds like a marvelous idea." Greta responded, "you can tell them all about your first day at the academy."
Elsa smiled happily at Greta's enthusiasm to her suggestion and opened her mouth to talk some more when suddenly they were interrupted by a knock at the door.
Yugao yawned and stretched as she walked into her kitchen that morning. Setting out a pot to boil water for coffee, she then grabbed a few granola bars to stave off hunger until she had a chance to pick up something more substantial for a real breakfast.
"Maybe I will stop by Hayate's and raid his fridge." she said to herself with a smile.
Then her smile dropped slightly as she remembered that she probably wouldn't have time because she would need to drop the village's visitor off at the academy today. Her mind went back to when she was given the assignment.
"Neko," the Hokage called, prompting her to drop from her hidden position and land kneeling in front of his desk.
The ANBU forces that normally were stationed throughout the office had just been called back after being dismissed for the duration of the Hokage's meeting with Jiraiya. This was a common occurrence when the toad sannin visited their village leader, a precaution taken in order to protect ultra sensitive information. The Hokage would then share any necessary secrets with the parties that needed to know. The only person who knew all of the secrets of the village at once was the Hokage himself.
"As part of Jiraiya's report he brought with him a visitor that will be joining this year's new academy class." the Hokage explained, Neko began to dread what she suspected would be coming next, "I am assigning you to be her watcher while she is in the village, her safety is your responsibility."
Yep, there it was, she was being given babysitting duty for what was probably either a spoiled deposed noble, or a street urchin. Yugao tried not to feel resentful of being given the responsibility as the Hokage handed her a dossier with information on the girl. At the prompting of her village leader she opened the file and began reading the description of her new charge. She was partly right about her being from nobility. When she got to the bottom of the page however it took every ounce of her training to not react in any way. There in the middle of one of the paragraphs describing the girl was a coded message that used an ANBU cypher.
In the message there was a time and place as well as orders to burn this file secretly. Looking up at the Hokage she saw that even though his body language portrayed boredom at the day's monotonous tasks, the man's eyes were focused and deadly. Yugao recognized immediately that this task was anything but simple. So, putting her own acting skills to use, she accepted the task with the same emotionless body language and voice that was expected, and as she spoke she did her best to put in a fake suppressed tone of bored resignation as would be expected of any ANBU given such a guard duty.
"At your command Lord Hokage." It was an unofficial rule that ANBU who were not happy about their given assignment used this phrase when accepting. It was a respectable way to tell the Hokage that you were dissatisfied and the Hokage even encouraged it so that he was able to judge the feelings of his soldiers. The Hokage continued to play his part in the little two person charade that they had going and put an indulgent, almost grandfatherly smile on his face.
"Thank you, Neko, I am sure that we will eventually get a rotation going for this responsibility so that we don't lose your talents for long." he said. "For now your charge was just taken by Naruto to be shown around the village and to play, I'm sure you won't have too much trouble finding them with him involved."
No she wouldn't, after all it was easy to find him normally, you just had to follow the resentful whispers of the civilians he passed. Bowing once more to the Hokage she vanished from the room and soon was out moving along the rooftops. While she had been moving she hid the dossier with the secret message into one of the secret storage seals that she had added to the inside of the detached sleeves of her ANBU uniform. As she hopped from roof to roof she focused her awareness to try and see if she was being followed. Unsurprisingly, given the subterfuge that the Hokage had deemed necessary for this mission she found that she was.
Politics in a ninja village were often just as cutthroat as espionage against an enemy state in war. Even though everyone in the village was allied with each other, they were still a collection of professional liars and killers, no matter how romanticized stories of ninja were for the general public. Yugao unfortunately had no way of knowing who was following her. The few times she changed directions they expertly hid until she was past them. They were so good that Yugao doubted that she would have noticed them if she hadn't been put on high alert by the Hokage.
Finally she found her charge, the girl matched the description that the dossier had given her and she was also moving next to the excitable blonde boy that every ANBU had at least a passing familiarity with. They seemed to be heading to a park that was a few blocks away, and Naruto was excitedly pointing to things as they passed, though he never seemed to stay on any one thing sling so Yugao doubted that the girls following him would remember any of the landmarks he was pointing out.
Silently she landed on a nearby perch to observe the pair of children, while expertly splitting her attention to not lose track of her pursuers. They stayed at a safe distance where she was sure they were also splitting their attention between the new visitor and herself, so she decided to use a different tactic and bore them away. She began to again put on the perfect act of an ANBU agent that wasn't doing anything important with their time.
She wasn't being sloppy per se, after all ANBU were trained to be constantly vigilant, if she truly began to drop the ball they would know that something was up. Instead she was just sloppy enough to seem like she didn't fully care about her current job. She left a slightly too big cloud when she performed a shunshin, she picked the second best spot to hide in to observe her charge. When she moved from place to place she left a barely perceptible mark where her feet had been. All signs that even ninja might miss, but that ANBU were able to avoid leaving when they were truly focused on a job that the security of the village depended on. No matter what she did however her unwanted shadows stuck to her.
So she went through her day splitting her attention between watching where the girl went and doing her best to not lose track of whoever was following her. She was somewhat surprised when the kids she was following ran into a nearby grove of trees and found the Hyuuga heiress being bullied by a trio of civilian children. She felt mixed feelings about the situation. Sure it was nice that someone who would have received training from the time she could walk would be unwilling to lord that over others, but at the same time it wasn't right for someone of such high standing to just roll over and let others berate them. It would hurt the reputation of her house and it was not a very desirable trait for a future shinobi. There were ways to be both kind and strong-willed.
Yugao then winced when she saw the result of Naruto stepping into the situation. It was never nice to see someone who was being a good Samaritan be beaten down by the group they were standing up to. A part of her wanted to step in and stop it, but ANBU had strict rules to only interfere when it came to the boy if his life was threatened. As her charge was dragged off she left knowing that the other ANBU agent who had been assigned to him for the day would watch over the boy unseen.
The next hour or so was spent sitting outside the Hyuuga compound, she had thought about following her charge in, and she would have if she weren't being followed, but she was still trying to trick the other party into thinking that Konoha's newest visitor was nothing special. So she sat and waited and watched. She had been able to catch glimpses of her tails as the day went by normally nothing more than a shadow or a flash of white. Regardless, she knew that they were there. And so she waited and she planned, these interlopers would not get away. They were most likely leaf ninja so she wouldn't be able to just kill them outright, but she would capture them and bring them before the Hokage to face his justice.
Finally, the girl emerged from the compound again. She began moving through the town, but she clearly didn't know enough to navigate properly. Eventually Neko resolved to reveal herself, appearing before the girl and doing her best to not seem threatening. She made a self introduction.
"Greetings Lady Elsa," she said in a calm voice, "My name is Neko and I have been assigned to aid you for now. Do you need help finding your way?"
Elsa jumped slightly at the sudden appearance and looked somewhat uncomfortable at being confronted by a stranger with no previous notice.
"Yes" she replied, "I need to get back to a park that I was at earlier; my friend was left there."
Yugao felt a small prick of shame that she had no intention of bringing the girl back to the park. She had some unwanted guests to take care of and needed to get this girl back under the protection of the Hokage in order to do it.
"Do you know which park it was?" Yugao asked, knowing that the girl would not be able to remember.
"No," Elsa said sadly, "I can't remember any specifics, it all happened so fast."
"Hmm," Yugao hummed softly, "How about we go back to the Hokage's tower so that you can finish getting settled in."
Elsa agreed and allowed Yugao to use the shunshin technique to move them back through the village quickly. Yugao smiled inwardly at the girl's reaction to the technique. She played it off for her passenger as nothing special, but internally it was always nice to wow the uninitiated with such a simple skill. She sent Elsa into the building in front of her knowing that she would be safe. As they had arrived Yugao had the opportunity to peek into the windows of the Hokage's office and had seen that Jiraiya had returned. The girls would be well taken care of for the rest of the evening she was sure. Which left her free to do some hunting.
Battle had many aspects and one of the most important is the psychological. Early in the day she had started acting sloppy to throw her enemies off. She had then incrementally increased how poorly she did her job. By now her pursuers must think that she was nearly incompetent as an ANBU, even if they didn't fully realize it. Due to this underestimation she was then able to move now using every ounce of skill she had honed through her years in ANBU and to the eyes of the ninja following her, she vanished.
One moment she was standing in front of the Hokage's tower and the next she was behind a pair of ninja on a nearby roof. Finally she was able to get a good look at her unwanted shadows for the day. They were nondescript, both dressed in standard issue ANBU cloaks and face masks, though the designs on their masks were more subdued than what would normally be seen on an ANBU member. Now that she had their backs she pressed her psychological advantage, she had learned from the great Hatake Kakashi himself how dangerous some theatricality can be in a fight.
"Well, well, well," she purred, "it seems that this cat has caught a few mice."
Finishing her line she exploded into motion. A kunai seemed to appear in her hand and flew forward, pinning the ninja on her right's pant leg to the roof. Continuing forward she lashed out and kicked him in the head, the blow was glancing enough that she knew it wouldn't knock him out but it would leave him dazed and slower to react. Turning then to the other ninja on the roof, she saw that he had been able to pull himself together enough to draw a kunai in a reverse grip. Rushing into his guard faster than he could react, she grabbed his wrist to control the weapon and brought her other hand up grabbing his upper arm, almost to his armpit. Stepping in closer, she rammed her hip into his, destabilizing him and allowing her to heave him over her shoulder and bring him slamming down onto his ally who had just finished recovering from her first kick. Not letting go of the wrist she had grabbed she quickly positioned herself into an arm bar intent on dislocating the limb and hampering its owner for the rest of the fight.
It was her highly honed danger sense that saved her from a serious injury. She just barely picked up a slight whooshing sound that prompted her to disengage and roll away from the combatant that she had pinned. As she moved a pair of kunai struck the space she had previously occupied. Neither hit would have been fatal but they definitely would have taken her out of the fight. Rolling to her feet she stood to see a third ninja join the fray. He was in the same uniform as the other two though he seemed noticeably younger. He had probably been stationed further back because his stealth skills weren't high enough, but he had obviously been close enough to give combat support. Standing off against the trio of opponents they and she stared at each other for a few moments each contemplating their new situation.
For Yugao she had now lost the psychological advantage that she had built up at the beginning of the fight, and she was now even more outnumbered than before. The positives for her however were that it was unlikely that they would try to kill her as a first option, it was much more likely that they were trying to escape. For them they now had the short-term advantage given their numbers but they were still relatively close to the Hokage tower meaning that with every moment it was increasingly likely that their battle would be noticed meaning that reinforcements would come to Yugao's aid, let alone the chance that Yugao purposefully signaled for help.
Completing these mental calculations Yugao made a decision. It was very unlikely that she would be able to capture any of these shinobi to be interrogated. Therefore, the next best thing was to gather as much evidence as she could. Resolved, she drew the sword from her back and got into a basic read stance, the sword extended outward in front of her. Seeing her actions, her three opponents tensed as well. Sprinting forward she attacked at the Shinobi standing to her left, he was the one she had been able to damage the most in the initial exchange so she hoped that he would be the slowest to react. She was correct in her assumptions leading her to be able to attack, not at the body, but at the man's mask. The mask split cleanly down the middle as she finished the follow through of her strike. Staring at the man's face she memorized his features.
He was a very generic looking person, there were no distinctive traits to signal him being a member of any of the well known clans of the village. His hair was brown as were his eyes. The most notable things about him were his emotions. He was completely void of any of them. His eyes had an emptiness that signaled to having been broken psychologically. As she looked at him all she saw was a machine in human form. Keeping her momentum she shoulder checked him in the chest knocking him back and allowing her to quickly lean down and scoop up the mask. Turning back she began to move away from him quickly, as she moved she touched the masks to her arm causing it to vanish in a puff of smoke into the hidden storage seal there. Sprinting back she focused on her next target and dove, grabbing the two kunai that had been used against her when she had previously pinned one of the enemies. Snapping them up they then also disappeared into her other sleeve in a poof of smoke. Whirling around she faced the other ninja once more back in her starting position with her sword again in its ready stance.
The other three shinobi were still standing in much the same position they had been before. Judging by the blank expression on the face of her one maskless opponent she doubted that the other two were having any more of a response. Slowly she began to circle her opponents so that they were in a line rather than in a position to flank her when she struck. Once she felt she was in a good position she launched herself forward and swung at the nearest enemies leg, hoping to cripple him so that he would not be able to escape; just because there was a small chance that she would be able to catch one of these people, didn't mean she wasn't going to try.
As her sword swung at her target however the shinobi that was now in the center of the line leapt up into the air and launched a volley of shuriken at her causing her to abandon her attack and instead defend against the missiles that had just been launched at her. This in turn opened her to attack from the shinobi she had previously been targeting and he lunged forward to stab her with his kunai. His attack collided with her armor however, and it prevented the thrust from penetrating very far, though it would definitely bruise later. Using the force of the attack she moved back outside of her opponent's melee range. Even though her sword did give her a range advantage in melee she would still be at a disadvantage if whoever she targeted had friends pelting her with attacks from long range. Seeing that there was no chance of her winning this battle without heavy sacrifices, she instead reached into the slim pouch at the back and pulled forth a modified explosive tag. Holding it up she ignited it with a small application of chakra making it flash brightly in a regular pattern for a few seconds.
The enemy seemed to recognize the pattern and immediately they all vanished into the night. They made it just in time because right as they disappeared five ANBU agents seemed to appear on the roof around her.
"Neko," said one the first to arrive, "what's the situation?" He was wearing a mask with a dog's face painted on it and he spoke as someone with clear authority.
"Code 16374" was Neko's response.
The ANBU around her tensed at the use of that code. It indicated that someone was currently on mission for the Hokage and was unable to give details about their situation. Nodding his head the man who had spoken continued,
"Understood, are you in need of any assistance."
"No," Neko responded with a sigh, "you showing up was all I needed at that moment."
Looking at the agents nearby she spotted one in particular. He wore a mask designed to look like a rabbit's face.
"Usagi," she suddenly said, "is there anyone hidden nearby."
Usagi was one of the best sensors in the ANBU ranks. After she asked the man bowed his head and seemed to be concentrating. A few seconds later he looked back up and addressed Yugao.
"No, all I sense are civilians in the buildings below us, no one with a presence like shinobi." Usagi reported.
Giving the man her thanks she then nodded to the rest of the agents there before they all dispersed back to their respective duties. Yugao herself re-entered the Hokage's tower and made her way along the secret corridors installed for ANBU to a hidden alcove. Pulling out the dossier she had received earlier in the afternoon she re-read the time and place for the meeting that had been coded into the document and burned it with a small fire jutsu. The alcove had a recessed chimney and ventilation system to clear the air, so in a few moments not even the smell of smoke remained.
Making her way up to the Hokage's office she peeked in from one of the hidden viewing portals. The fact that it was open was permission for ANBU to do this. If there was a sensitive meeting taking place these holes would be shut and the ANBU on duty would be alerted via an alarm seal if they needed to act. Inside the office there was no one else present other than the Hokage himself working on the stack of paperwork that never seemed to end. Seeing that her charge was not present Yugao quickly moved to try and follow. The dossier had included the address where they planned to board the girl while she was in Konoha so she made her way there. It had been a little surprising to find that they had been able to secure the unit right next to Yugao's own, but she figured they thought that it would be the most secure.
Doing a quick perimeter search she found no signs of continued surveillance, so she settled down into a good place to watch the building. Finally the scheduled time approached and she made her way to the training ground named in the coded message to find Jiraiya sitting under a tree writing in a notebook. Seeing the legendary ninja she decided to land in a tree branch above him and wait for him to notice her. Immediately when her foot touched the tree he spoke without looking up.
"Good, you made it." he said.
Yugao fought down the sense of disappointment she felt at failing to sneak up on him and responded.
"Reporting as requested. Please tell me why this assignment is so important and why, exactly, it is being treated so clandestinely." she said.
"The dossier you received wasn't completely false, the girl is a part of a noble family from a far away land. The issue is that she appears to be in possession of an extremely valuable bloodline limit and she has connections to a previously forgotten summoning pact originally lost in the warring clans era." Jiraiya explained, "The reason for the secrecy is because the Hokage and I fear that certain bad actors in Konoha may see the girl as a means to increase our village's capacity in war rather than as the girl who approached us for help."
Yugao grimaced in distaste at the thought. Yes they were a village of Shinobi so honor was always a questionable virtue for the forces. But, that paled in comparison to those who saw Shinobi as nothing more than living weapons and felt the need to gain every possible advantage over other Shinobi villages no matter the cost. Having thought that, she remembered the face and eyes of the man she had been able to unmask. He had been lifeless and cold, practically a living corpse, or perhaps she should say a tool that just happened to breathe. Her musings were interrupted by the man below her.
"I heard that you had some kind of confrontation. Care to give details?" he asked.
Yugao gave a quick report of what she had experienced throughout the day and of the fight that it culminated to. Reaching for her arms she released the mask and kunai from their seals and dropped them to the grass below so that Jiraiya could inspect them. He looked at the kunai first before tossing them back up to Yugao.
"These are no help, they look like the same generic kunai that all ANBU use, no distinctive markings or design that we could trace, and no maker's mark. They might as well be brand new with how little use they seem to have had." he explained
He next picked up the mask and examined it as Yugao placed the kunai into her own pouch; waste not want not after all. Looking down, Yugao saw that he seemed to be staring intently at the two halves of the mask, like he was trying to piece a puzzle together.
"Do you think they were trying to go unnoticed by disguising themselves as ANBU agents?" Yugao eventually asked.
"No," Jiraiya said, "This was made by the exact same person as the masks all ANBU wear."
"How can you tell?" Yugao asked.
"If you look here under the left eye, there is a nearly invisible maker mark," Jiraiya explained, "it is specifically placed their to prevent enemy ninja from being able to impersonate an ANBU and infiltrate the village. Only shinobi that have held a commander rank are taught how to identify it."
"Then why are you telling me?" Yugao asked, shocked at the new information. After all she had been wearing this mask for years now and she had never noticed any kind of mark.
"Because sensei trusted you enough for this mission." Jiraiya responded, "During this mission your worry will not be outside forces, instead you will need to be more worried about your fellow leaf ninja."
Yugao grimaced at the thought, especially with how true it was. She only had to think of the life of her dear friend Anko to know that even Leaf ninja can harbor dark motives.
"So," Jiraiya continued, "now that I have given you the full info about your charge and you have reported I will give you your final instructions for this assignment." Looking up he met her eyes and kept speaking. "Tomorrow you will be her guide to get to the academy. You are to do this without your mask." Yugao's eyes widened in surprise at the instructions. "We don't need you to only be her bodyguard; we need you to be her confidant. If she has issues and goes to someone for help, that someone must be you, for her safety. Understood."
She nodded, accepting the responsibility. Seeing her response the toad sannin smiled and said to her in a softer voice.
"Just so you know, I have gotten to know her over the last few months and you will find that before you know it you sincerely care about her well being. She is a surprisingly competent girl and there is something about her that just makes you want to root for her."
Yugao nodded once more and then vanished from the tree to get home and rest while she could. She was pulled back to the present by the whistle of her kettle telling her that the water she had been heating up was ready, so she poured it into a mug with a few scoops of instant coffee followed by cream and sugar. As she drank her morning pick me up she pondered on her new situation. She was never fully comfortable around children. She didn't hate kids, and never liked to see them hurt, but the idea of trying to actually form a relationship with one made her nervous. She just couldn't wrap her head around what they might have in common. She spent most of her life now worried about not dying as she went through her missions. She had no idea what most children even did in their spare time.
Sighing to herself she looked at the clock and saw that it was about time that she got to work on this new assignment. Finishing her drink she placed the mug in her sink to clean later and made her way to the apartment next door. Putting her best approximation of a kind smile on her face she raised her hand and knocked.
Greta had bid Elsa farewell when the knock came. Wishing her good luck at the academy, and once again promising to be there for her that evening, Greta stood in the middle of the room and winked at Elsa as she puffed away in a cloud of smoke. Now alone again Elsa began to feel nervous at her situation but she had come to trust the Hokage after the time she had spent with him yesterday, and she knew that whoever was on the other side of the door must have been sent by him. Approaching the door she opened it nervously and peered out at whoever had knocked.
On her doorstep she saw a tall beautiful woman with long purple hair waiting patiently with a smile on her face. With the door fully open their eyes met and Elsa was struck with a sense of familiarity.
"Neko?" she asked, somewhat unsure that she was guessing correctly.
"Wow," the woman responded, "I am surprised you recognized me right away, you seemed so distracted yesterday."
"Well" Elsa responded, "you are the first person I have ever met with purple hair so it kind of stuck with me."
"I will have to remember that." Neko responded, "Though now that you have seen me out of my mask, how about a proper introduction." as she finished saying this she leaned down to be closer to the girls eye level. "When I am not in uniform you can call me by my name, Yugao." the woman said, and then held out her hand, "a pleasure to make your acquaintance."
Elsa extended her hand in turn, grabbing onto the older woman's and giving it a firm shake. "It's nice to meet you, my name is Elsa Oldenburg of Arendelle." she said.
"Alright, now that we got that out of the way why don't we get you to the academy. We wouldn't want you to be late for your first day." Yugao said, stepping to the side so that Elsa could walk out.
Elsa quickly ran back into the house and grabbed the bag Greta had put together for her. Inside was her lunch along with some basic school supplies. Now prepared for the day Elsa rann outside and closed the door making sure to lock it and keep the key with her as she had been instructed to do by Jiraiya the night before. Turning back to Yugao she then asked,
"Are you going to do the fast travelling skill again like you did yesterday?"
"No," Yugao responded, "I figured since we have the time we can walk there and hopefully you can start to learn the route for yourself just in case I am unable to be your guide."
Elsa nodded in thanks, happy for the opportunity.
As the started their trek Yugao pointed out important landmarks, starting right away.
"The first thing you should know is that I am actually your next door neighbor." Yugao said as they walked past her door. "If you ever need help you just need to come out here and give me a knock. If I am available I will be happy to help. I actually have a few other friends in the building who I will try to introduce you to at some point."
"I should definitely ask the Hokage if it would be ok to bring those two in as additional back up for this mission." Yugao thought to herself. So far this interaction seemed to be going well. She had been genuinely surprised that the girl recognized her out of her mask. As crazy as it sounds many people ignored details like hair and body type when staring into an ANBU face mask, of course if someone can see her mask then they are usually more focused on dodging the point of her sword.
As they walked through the village on the way to the academy Yugao made sure to take the time to point out important buildings, like the nearest grocery store, and other unique pieces of architecture that Elsa would be able to use as landmarks to find her way home if necessary.
"Thank you for this," Elsa said after a while, "As nice as it was having Naruto show me around, he didn't really take the time to teach me how to find my way like you are."
Yugao smiled down at Elsa at hearing the thanks but she paused at seeing the sad expression on her face. "She must still feel guilty about leaving Naruto in the park yesterday." Yugao reasoned.
"Don't worry about your friend Elsa," Yugao said attempting to offer comfort for the little girl. "I am sure that you will see him at the academy when we get there and you can work out everything may have happened yesterday."
She continued to play dumb about the events of the girls evening before she introduced herself. She knew that most people could get creeped out by the idea of someone following them without their knowledge.
At her words the girl's head immediately perked up and she began to walk a little faster, "Really?" she asked. "Then would you mind if we sped up a bit? I really want to apologize to him."
So they sped up. Yugao didn't spend quite so long pointing out landmarks and soon she pointed out the dull orange roof of their destination. As they approached the building they saw a crowd of parents all milling about waiting to get their child signed in for the first day. As they approached the back of the line Elsa began to strain and look around for her friend. Finally unable to see over the crowd she turned to her guide.
"Yugao, can you see Naruto? He has bright blond spiky hair and lines on his cheeks."
Yugao chuckled inwardly at the fact that she knew exactly what the boy looked like and began scanning the crowd herself. She found him quickly sitting on his own on a swing hanging from a tree next to the school building. His head was bowed so she couldn't see his expression, but she was slightly disturbed by his body language. She had known the boy for a while, and acted as his silent shadow more than once, and she had always seen him as a bright energetic child. But looking at him now she saw none of his normal energy, he just sat there.
"There he is." She eventually said to Elsa signaling toward the tree.
"Oh," Elsa said, "his parents must have already checked him in. May I go talk to him or do I need to stay with you until we get to the front of the line."
Yugao was still distracted by the boy so she didn't fully register the girl's remark, but she did understand the request and allowed her to go offering to hold her bag for her.
Elsa took off as soon as Yugao grabbed her bag running up to her friend. As she approached she started to get nervous that he would be angry with her and she would lose the first friend she had made in this new strange land. When she was close enough she called out to him.
"Naruto," she said, grabbing his attention.
At the sound of his name the boy looked up and met her eyes. The widened in surprise before his face split back into a grin. He jumped off the swing and approached Elsa, ignoring the increased volumes of the whispers at seeing a child being allowed to get close to him.
Elsa was initially relieved to see the smile come back to the boy's face but stopped at seeing a still healing bruise on his cheek. Suddenly she was overcome by guilt and had to fight to keep her tears of shame from falling.
"I am so sorry Naruto." She said, when they were within arms reach of each other. "Just left you there, an-and… I'm so sorry."
Naruto's face showed shock at her words. Suddenly his smile was forced back into place and he rubbed the back of his head bashfully.
"What are you talking about Elsa?" he deflected, "I am just fine and we saved that girl right? You got her out of there, it doesn't matter what happened to me."
Now it was Elsa's turn to be shocked. How could he say that? Of course it mattered what happened to him, Hinata had been fine Elsa was the one in the wrong for abandoning him hurt and alone in the woods. Seeing him try to brush this off rubbed Elsa's sense of justice wrongly so she rebutted in a firm voice.
"No," Elsa said, again bringing shock to Naruto's face, "no, that isn't right. What I did was wrong. Hinata was safe she could have gone with the man that showed up. You needed more help, you were the one that was actually hurt. I should have stayed with you."
Again Naruto smiled trying to deflect, "I-it's okay E.."
"No," Elsa interrupted, "it's not ok."
One important lesson Elsa was taught by her parents was the importance of justice. It was ok to be forgiving and kind but people should be held responsible for their actions, so Elsa wasn't going to let Naruto let her get away with what happened.
"Why aren't you getting mad at me? What I did was wrong." Elsa insisted.
Naruto was quiet. He looked to the ground and his hair fell down shadowing his eyes. He sat there quietly until he finally said in a quiet voice.
"Because if I get mad then you won't want to be my friend."
Elsa was stunned at the idea. What kind of person would stop being friends because the other person got mad, she and her sister got mad at each other all the time and they would never stop being friends. She reached out and grabbed Naruto's hands.
"No," she explained, "if I do something wrong I need you to get mad and tell me so that I can be a better friend. I was the one who was afraid that you wouldn't want to be friends anymore after what I did."
"Then," Naruto continued, "you'll be my friend even if I get mad."
"Yes" Elsa insisted.
"And," Naruto said, getting slightly quieter, "you would still be my friend even if I cried."
Confusion began to creep into Elsa's face. She didn't fully understand but she answered truthfully, "Yes."
"The-then," Naruto asked, his voice beginning to break, "can I cry right now?"
Elsa didn't understand what was wrong, but she remembered a lesson her mom had taught her once when she had fallen and hurt her wrist on some ice. She had turned 5 and wanted to be a big girl who didn't want to cry, after all baby Anna cried enough for two people so she didn't need to anymore.
"It's ok to cry if you are hurt Elsa," her mother had said, "That way we know that you need help."
With that thought in her mind Elsa answered Naruto saying, "If you are hurt then you should cry so I know you need help."
Upon hearing those words the dam broke. Naruto looked up and Elsa saw his eyes overflowing with tears and pain. Instinctively she grabbed him in a fierce hug right as his first wails in anguish began to leave his body.
The crowd was shocked. Why was the demon boy crying, who was the girl holding him. Deep in their hearts though a seed of shame began to grow. It is easy to wish misfortune on a child that never seems affected by how you treat it. But now to see the near broken boy before them, they each remembered times they had scorned him, or turned their children against him. Now they saw the true effects of their actions and they knew shame.
Yugao watched the scene from the crowd with an emotionless look on her face. She had thought just like all the ANBU that Naruto was fine. He was always happy and energetic. How could she have known that underneath it all so much pain was brewing. She needed to report this to the Hokage, there needed to be something done.
None of the audience was aware that there was another person present at that moment. Hidden nearby Jiraiya grabbed his face and collapsed in shame at hearing the cries of his godson. He had justified his absence for so long thinking that the boy was safe and well taken care of in the village. He was sure that nothing would happen to him there. He now knew he was wrong. He had failed his student, the man he saw as a son, and he would not let it continue.