The Ice Queen in Konohagakure Chapter 9: Betrayal's Aftermath, a Naruto + Frozen Crossover fanfic

Worry warred with anger inside of Elsa as she made her way through the village the next morning. When she had woken up, her thoughts had immediately gone to Naruto and the fact that she still didn't know the reason for him missing the party last night. Unable to ignore the feelings that thought ignited in her, she had gotten dressed and left the house with a quick explanation to Greta on her way out the door. The troll had tried to respond but Elsa was moving so fast that she didn't hear anything the rocky creature had said. Elsa felt somewhat guilty for ignoring her long-time caregiver but at the moment the majority of her focus was on checking in with her friend.

When she arrived at the door she immediately began knocking furiously. She wasn't sure if the first thing she would do when she saw Naruto would be to hug him or slap him, but above all she needed to see that he was ok. After a few minutes of her knocking, the door finally opened revealing the sleepy face of her friend.

"Wha?" Naruto said rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Elsa took stock of him as she stood in the doorway. He didn't appear severely injured, though he did look exhausted, so she guessed he either hadn't slept for long or hadn't slept well. Either way, there was no clear evidence that would explain why he hadn't come to the party the night before. The lack of explanation was the last straw and anger finally won the battle for her mood. Gripping her hands into fists, she shouted at her friend.

"Don't 'Wha?' me Naruto Uzumaki! You better have a good explanation for what you pulled last night. We were planning that party for weeks and you decide to just blow it off to pull a dumb prank? Explain yourself right now!"

Her sudden shout shocked the boy awake and he stared at Elsa in shock. They both stood there in silence one expecting an answer and the other lost for words. After a moment more of this, however, Elsa couldn't stand it and had to shout once more.

"Well?"

Shame overcame Naruto's expression and he looked away, unable to meet her eyes. Before he looked away, however, Elsa saw the guilt he felt and her anger abated letting the worry she had felt come out in full force. Her eyes became watery and she spoke again softly.

"Please tell me, I was so worried when you didn't show up. Then Iruka-sensei came looking for you and I could tell that something bad had happened. Please don't hide it from me. I am your friend."

The guilt that burned in Naruto's chest doubled in intensity at the pain he heard in Elsa's voice and was joined by a heap of self-loathing. How could he have been so foolish to allow himself to be manipulated like that? Was he so petty that he would take any opportunity to one-up Sasuke? How could he ever be worthy of Elsa if he was willing to do something so low as to throw away his other friend? As these dark feelings built up inside of him he finally spoke quietly, saying,

"I'm sorry," and with that, the dam burst and he told her what had happened, only leaving out the fact that he and Sasuke both had feelings for her. As he spoke, Elsa's eyes slowly widened in shock. When he finished telling her everything, he was silent for a moment then said,

"I know that I was wrong. I can understand if you can't trust me anymore and don't want to keep being friends with m-" He was cut off as Elsa grabbed him in a hug. No words were shared, but the message was loud and clear for Naruto, Elsa still cared for him greatly. Eventually, the hug ended and Elsa held the boy out at arm's length.

"I am still mad at you," she said sincerely, "but it is because you didn't trust me. How could you think that something as small as being placed on different teams would end our friendship? I would still spend my free time with you, and train with you, and eat at Ichiraku with you. Nothing would have changed. I will forgive you for being tricked but from now on you are not allowed to doubt my friendship, understand."

Tears pricked the edges of Naruto's eyes and he grit his teeth trying to hold them back. "Yes," he said, "thank you, Elsa, thank you."

They hugged once more each taking solace in their connection. When the hug broke Naruto wiped his eyes and sniffed trying to clear any sign of tears from his face.

"We- " he began but had to stop to clear his throat because his voice still sounded watery, "We should go visit Sasuke. I am pretty sure he's still in the hospital from the wound Mizuki gave him."

"Right," Elsa said quickly before backing away to wait. Naruto ran inside to change for the visit, shutting the door behind him.

Ten minutes later the two friends entered the hospital and asked at the front desk for Sasuke's room. The receptionist looked at Naruto with disdain so he left the interaction up to Elsa. Though many in the village had begun to see him in a better light, due to his connection to Sasuke, Hinata, and Elsa, that was mostly among shop owners and people around the commercial districts that the friends frequented. There were still plenty of people around Konoha who seemed to hate him on sight. Whenever he and his friends met one of them it usually helped if he stepped back and allowed whoever he was with to take the lead. Elsa grabbed the woman's attention and the receptionist's face lost the ugly look she had been wearing, changing to a professional smile.

"How may I help you?" The receptionist asked.

"Hello, I would like to know what room number Sasuke Uchiha is in," Elsa replied, "He is a dear friend of ours and we would like to check on him."

The receptionist looked from Elsa to Naruto suspiciously.

"I am sorry, but I can't give the information of a patient to people who are unrelated to them." The receptionist said.

"What?" Elsa asked, "I just told you we are his friends, we are all he has. If we aren't allowed to visit him who would be?"

"Unfortunately," the woman behind the desk's voice became haughty as she spoke, "I have no proof of your connection so I can't give you his room number."

She then turned away from Elsa and began to focus on some paperwork. No matter how hard Elsa tried, she was unable to get the older woman's attention again. Gritting her teeth in frustration, Elsa turned away from the desk and walked back to Naruto.

"Can you believe this?" Elsa said incredulously, "They won't let us see Sasuke because we aren't related."

"It could also be because I am here," Naruto said, the dour outlook caused by the shame he had already been feeling from that morning.

"No," Elsa said firmly, "how people act is their own choice, you are not to blame if you haven't even talked to the person before. You have never pulled a prank on the hospital right."

"No, I always figured it was too important of a place and didn't want to risk anyone getting hurt," Naruto said.

"Exactly, so nothing you did is making that woman act this way, she is doing it herself."

The two friends were quiet as they pondered their next move. After a moment Naruto had an idea.

"Hey, go see if you can get Iruka-sensei's room number." He suggested.

Elsa gave Naruto a questioning look but decided to go along with it knowing that Naruto was often the best at finding unlikely but surprisingly effective solutions to problems. Walking back up to the desk, she cleared her throat to get the attention of the receptionist once more. Again the woman ignored her so Elsa just started talking.

"Listen, I am not trying to get Sasuke's room number anymore," she explained, making the older woman pause before reluctantly turning to face Elsa. "I also heard that my teacher from the academy, Iruka Umino, was admitted and would like to thank him for helping my friends."

The woman looked at Elsa with narrowed eyes.

"It's true," Elsa said before pointing to the forehead protector she was wearing, "look, see I just passed the academy graduation exam yesterday."

The receptionist looked at the headband then at Elsa's face and judged that the girl's age corroborated her story so she sighed and said, "Fine, one moment." before reaching over to a binder with the records for admissions to the hospital. Turning to the page with the names of the people that had been admitted most recently, she ran her finger down the list and found the name she was looking for. Right as she was about to speak, however, the receptionist noticed someone leaning over her shoulder and looked to see a nurse with shoulder-length brown hair and wearing blue scrubs looking into the binder.

"Nasu, what are you doing here?" the receptionist said startled by how close the other woman was. The nurse jumped back as well grabbing her chest in surprise,

"Ms. Hisho, you startled me," the nurse said, taking a couple of breaths to calm herself, "sorry if I snuck up on you, but I needed to check on which room my patient was in and you looked so busy I didn't want to bother you. Anyway, I saw what I needed, thanks bye." The nurse spoke rapidly before bowing and walking toward the patient rooms. The receptionist blinked for a moment before shaking her head slightly in confusion.

"Odd, Nasu is usually much more level-headed than that," she mumbled to herself.

Elsa cleared her throat to regain the woman's attention, "The room number please," she said calmly.

The receptionist immediately put on her practiced professional personality out of habit. "Yes, of course, room 129."

"Thank you," Elsa said and walked toward the patient rooms herself. As soon as she turned a corner, Elsa saw the nurse that had been at the desk leaning against a wall.

"Who is the nurse and how were you able to copy her so well? Elsa asked.

The image of the nurse poofed away into a cloud of smoke and revealed the smirking form of her friend.

"She was walking around behind the desk for a bit when we first got into the hospital, luckily scrubs aren't very form-fitting so I didn't have to focus on body shape and could just focus on getting the face right."

"Regardless, I am shocked that worked," Elsa said.

"Well, I remembered that we are ninjas now, so why not use what we were taught?" Naruto said happily, "Oh and by the way, Sasuke's room number is 147"

"Perfect," Elsa said smiling back at her friend.

Sasuke sighed as he sat in his hospital bed. Thanks to a healing jutsu, the stab wound in his leg was already closed up with only the barest hint of a scar. Unfortunately, the hospital had the policy of monitoring patients after admittance to watch for unforeseen side effects from poisons or genjutsu so he was stuck in here until noon. Luckily, he at least had a window so he could see the sky which helped him keep his mind from dwelling on the nagging feeling of betrayal that he felt from what he had been told about his friend the night before. Sasuke shook his head to try and drive the thoughts away before standing up and moving to the chair that sat in the corner of the room right next to the window.

Sasuke didn't like being alone. When he was alone the dark thoughts and feelings that still plagued him from the time of his family's massacre would always drift back in. Naruto and Elsa were both so bright and happy, and they wanted him to be that way too, so when he was with them he found the strength to push the darkness away. When he was alone, however, slowly but surely he lost that strength, and instead, he began to remember. He remembered the happy memories of his mother and father; of all the Uchiha clan members that he loved and respected and how they were all taken away by the brother that he had respected the most. His burning desire for revenge would reignite, and he would begin to question why he bothered with friends and connections when all they did was open new avenues for him to be hurt. The answer was normally that Naruto and Elsa were there when he needed them most and they had never disappointed him. But that answer felt hollow now.

He had forced himself to give Naruto a fist bump the night before to reaffirm their friendship because Sasuke knew about the other boy's own difficult past from the times they had been together and Sasuke had seen the dirty looks some villagers sent Naruto's way. Sasuke also knew that Naruto's first real friend was Elsa and that she had saved Naruto from his loneliness. Given all of that, Sasuke could understand intellectually how his friend had been manipulated by their teacher. Naruto was always quick to trust those that showed him care and support, and Mizuki had done that from their first day in the academy. It was understandable then that Naruto would take the man's words about not being on Elsa's team at face value and given his connection with the girl it would prevent him from thinking rationally. Sasuke understood all of this in his head, but in his heart, it hurt that his rival would try to undermine him in this way. Sasuke couldn't help but hear the voice of his brother whispering in his ear the same way he had the night of the massacre saying.

"Naruto doesn't care about you. All he cares about is Elsa. Given the choice between you, he will pick her every time. All you are doing by staying with them is giving yourself a weak spot. You will trust him to have your back, but he will be too preoccupied with Elsa leaving you vulnerable."

Sasuke leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees before bringing his hands in front of his mouth with his fingers interlaced. His eyebrows furrowed in concentration as he tried to push the thoughts away. Outside a cloud moved in front of the sun leaving the young man in shadow with his thoughts. He was interrupted, however, by a knock on the door which made him sit up quickly. The door then flew open and the cloud moved away letting the sun stream through the window and illuminate the form of Elsa as she walked through the door followed closely by Naruto. She looked around the room until her eyes landed on him and she made a beeline to the chair and hauled Sasuke up into a tight embrace.

"Thank you," Elsa said as her arms encircled him, "thank you for going to him and helping him." Letting go of the hug, Elsa pushed Sasuke gently back until he was at arm's length before she continued speaking. "Naruto told me about what happened, and why he did it. I know it must have been hard for you to hear that, but I am so proud of you that you didn't let it keep you from staying by his side. You are a good friend and a great person." She smiled at him then and her happiness dispelled the dark clouds in his mind, just as it always did. A smile came over his face as he spoke.

"Of course, I couldn't leave him alone after all. Though really, I only went looking for him so I could punch him for missing the party." His confession made her giggle slightly which lifted his spirits further.

When their exchange ended, Elsa looked at Sasuke fondly for a moment more before turning to Naruto, prompting him to follow her gaze. Naruto was looking away, his face showing shame once more. Before either Sasuke or Elsa could speak, he walked up to Sasuke and bowed deeply.

"Sasuke," Naruto said, his voice thick with emotion, "I am sorry, you never did let me say it last night, but I am sorry. Because of me, because I betrayed you, you were hurt and if it had been anyone else who we were fighting against you might be dead right now. I am only alive because of you. I owe you everything."

Sasuke was taken aback by Naruto's sincere tone. Seeing the other boy bow to him and pour his heart out in that way helped Sasuke to feel more secure in their friendship and just like last night, he made himself hold out his hand in a fist.

"Get up Naruto, what did I tell you last night." Naruto stood up and saw the fist making him slightly tear up. As he moved to finish the gesture Sasuke quickly opened his hand and grasped the other boy before pulling him into a one-armed hug. "You are my friend Naruto and I still trust you."

Sasuke spoke fiercely, not just to the boy he now embraced, but to the mental apparition of his brother. He would not allow Itachi to take away his new family as well. As hard as he tried however Sasuke still couldn't push away the darkness completely and it was almost like he could hear one last whisper from Itachi's phantom.

"We'll see."

Once the three friends had finished reaffirming their bonds they all found places in the room to settle into. Sasuke went back to the bed, Elsa took the chair by the window and Naruto wandered about the room unable to keep still.

"So how much longer will you be in here?" Naruto asked, "Is your leg completely better?"

"Yeah," Sasuke answered, "I am healed but I have to be under observation at least until noon."

"Ok then," Elsa said, "that works out. We all have to go to the Hokage Mansion to complete our Ninja registration between noon and 2:00 so why don't we pick you up then and we can all go together. What time is it now?"

"8:30," Naruto said, looking at the clock on the wall.

"Oh shoot," Elsa exclaimed as she got up, "I need to go meet up with Yugao-sensei, she said she had a special lesson prepared for after I became a ninja."

"Ok," Sasuke said, hiding his disappointment at her leaving.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "you go do your sword thing and I will stay here with Sasuke, we will see you later."

"Are you sure?" Elsa asked Sasuke.

"Yes, you can go," he replied, giving her a reassuring smile.

With that Elsa thanked them one last time and left to meet her teacher. Naruto made his way over to the seat she had vacated and sat down himself. The two friends sat in silence for a moment before Sasuke spoke seriously.

"Naruto you told Elsa about last night right?" Sasuke asked.

"Yea?" Naruto replied.

"Did you tell her everything? Even that…" Sasuke paused and looked at Naruto meaningfully.

Naruto looked puzzled for a moment before his face went ashen.

"Are you crazy?" Naruto said, his voice dropping due to the irrational fear that Elsa might hear the conversation. "There is no way I could talk about that with her. I am not ready for it and I would never break the bro code like that."

Sasuke sighed in relief. "Good," he said.

After another pause, Naruto spoke again.

"Besides, I am pretty sure you won out between us," Naruto said more quietly. "When she saw me this morning she yelled at me, but you got a hug. I am pretty sure I ruined any chance I had last night, and even if I didn't, I don't think I feel worthy of her."

Sasuke looked at Naruto when he finished. A part of him felt that he should say something to refute that statement. To reassure Naruto that he was worthy, that one mistake didn't make him a failure. But, in the end, when it came to this topic, Sasuke was just as irrational as Naruto. So he said nothing, and the two boys sat in silence.

Elsa rushed across the rooftops of the village trying to make it to the training grounds in time. She knew that if she explained where she was that Yugao would understand and forgive her but she would still be punished for tardiness. So Elsa hurried, vaulting over obstacles and leaping from foothold to foothold, her chakra pulsing through her giving her strength and speed. Finally, she leaped off of the rooftops and sprinted to the usual area that Yugao used for their training. When she arrived, she looked around quickly for any sign of her sensei and sighed in relief when she couldn't see her.

"What took you so long?" a voice said from behind Elsa, startling her. Spinning around Elsa saw Yugao leaning casually against a nearby tree.

"How?" Elsa said in disbelief.

"You weren't looking hard enough," Yugao explained nonchalantly. "Now, why are you late?'

"No," Elsa denied, "I am not late, you said 8:45."

"And what time is it now?" Yugao asked.

"I… don't know," Elsa said, "but I left the hospital at 8:30 and there is no way I took more than 15 minutes to get here."

Yugao smiled, "You're right, you weren't late. I was just having some fun watching you squirm."

Elsa pouted at the older woman, "I can't believe you."

Yugao smiled at the childish behavior Elsa was showing. As she had watched the foreign princess through the years, Yugao had noticed that Elsa rarely acted her age, so she cherished times when she could fluster the young woman and get her to behave as she was now. As the two women walked to the spot where they would be practicing Yugao opened her mouth and asked,

"So why were you at the hospital?"

"I was visiting Sasuke," Elsa said, then went on to explain what had happened. "I can't believe one of the teachers at the academy would do something like this," She said as she finished the story.

"It is a sad fact of life that you can never truly predict where a threat will come from," Yugao said solemnly. "All you can do is try to trust the right people."

Yugao had been briefed on the events of the night before when she had reported for duty that morning, and a small vindictive part of her hoped that Anko got a turn at interrogating the slimeball of a man. Yugao had grown to care for Naruto due to his connection to Elsa and she was appalled that someone would take advantage of the boy in that way. He already had enough people in the village suspicious of him and if word got out that he was part of a plot to undermine the village then it could do irreparable damage to his reputation. Luckily the scandal was rectified and the truth of the matter had spread quickly through the ranks of Konoha's ninja population.

Putting the issue aside, Yugao focused back on her pupil. Despite everything else, seeing the forehead protector that marked someone as a ninja of Konoha on the young woman in front of her made Yugao's heart swell with pride. Today would, unfortunately, be the last day that they would be able to meet for a regular lesson. When Elsa was formally on a team, her Jounin sensei would be fully briefed on her situation and would take over as her primary watcher, relieving Yugao from that duty. But even though Yugao's connection to Elsa would no longer be an official mission, there was no way she would let the relationship she had built with the girl in front of her fade away. They had a bond through the style of swordsmanship they shared so she would make sure to continue to foster that skill in Elsa for as long as she could and one important aspect of that was giving the girl a sword of her own.

"Elsa," Yugao said, grabbing the attention of her student, "put aside your worries about last night for now. Your friends are safe and healthy. What I wanted to do today is a special ceremony for users of the Dance of the Crescent Moon. Today you earn your sword."

Elsa's eyes widened in awe as Yugao pulled out a scroll then unsealed a beautiful ninjato. The handle was wrapped in a light blue cord and the hilt was rectangular with intricate engravings on the bottom. The scabbard was covered in matte blue lacquer. Elsa reached for it but Yugao turned away from her and took a few steps. Raising the sword above her head she drove it down into the ground so that it stood upright, still sheathed.

"I did not say," Yugao remarked seriously, "that you would get your sword. I said that you would earn it. A shinobi is one who endures the harsh truths of the world and strives to complete their mission. Your mission now is to claim this sword." Turning around Yugao unsheathed her sword and held it in front of her body. "Show me what you have learned and prove that you are worthy of it."

Elsa was shocked for a moment at the apparent change in her mentor's attitude. Yugao was usually kind but firm with Elsa; now, however, she showed a deadly serious face. Elsa could tell that, even though she wasn't wearing her mask, Yugao had assumed her Neko persona. The times that Elsa had dealings with Yugao's Anbu side were few and far between but whenever Yugao appeared before Elsa with her Mask on the princess knew to take the woman seriously. So, Elsa reached down to her thigh holster and pulled out one of her kunai before lowering into her own ready stance.

As she looked across at Yugao, Elsa pondered the instructions she had been given. The older woman was always a fair teacher who gave specific instructions so that Elsa would know exactly what was expected of her. Yugao had said that she was to show what she had learned, and prove she was worthy of the sword that now stood in the ground waiting for her. Deciding to probe her teacher's defense, Elsa ran forward, then threw the kunai in her hand, and changed directions to run around Yugao toward the prize. Yugao easily deflected the thrown weapon and in doing so brought her sword up into position for a swift downward cut toward Elsa. Seeing the attack, Elsa leaped back to avoid it then paused to analyze what she had learned. She had sparred with her teacher before and seen her demonstrate techniques, so Elsa knew that Yugao was holding back enough for her to have an actual chance at success. That didn't mean it would be easy though, the attack appeared to be slightly faster than Elsa was confident that she would have been able to perform it herself. Elsa's eyes narrowed; this was a test to give Elsa the chance to showcase all of the skills she had honed over the last five years of training. Putting all else from her mind: the worry about Naruto and Sasuke, her conflicting desires to stay in Konoha and return home to Arendelle, and the nervousness she felt at the disconnect from her family, she instead hyper-focused on her one current goal, getting that sword.

Flashing through hand signs, Elsa flared her chakra as she performed the clone technique so that a cloud of smoke erupted around her obscuring her exact position. An instant later three copies of Elsa ran from the billowing column. The first ran straight at Yugao and launched a volley of shuriken. Another ran to her teacher's left with a kunai in hand, then cut in to run directly at the teacher and lunged at Yugao's neck. The final copy ran to the right and attacked low, aiming for the thigh. Yugao's eyes flashed to either side, analyzing each of the Elsa clones before speaking with a smirk.

"Impressive, for someone fresh from the academy, using the clone technique to create a distraction so that you can get behind the target with a substitution."

Spinning around Yugao's sword flashed out so that the point was centimeters away from Elsa's nose, the girl having been sneaking toward the sword in the ground.

"Did you count the shuriken?" Elsa asked, making Yugao's eyebrow rise in question.

That was when the attacks from the clone hit. The kunai attacks from the left and right, as predicted, phased harmlessly through Yugao's neck and thigh, confirming their illusory nature. However, while most of the shuriken had no effect, Yugao flinched lightly at the sharp impact of a projectile hitting the back of her shoulder. Elsa had apparently taken the time to throw a shuriken in concert with her clone before substituting. The attack didn't cause any lasting damage, the throwing star lacking the weight and velocity necessary to pierce the armored vest Yugao wore, but the impact caused her to flinch giving Elsa the moment she needed to duck under her teacher's weapon and grab the sword from the earth before retreating. Yugao rolled her shoulder to rid herself of the slight sting then assumed her ready stance once more.

"Very good," Yugao said, "you have your sword now let's see if you can keep it."

The swordswoman stepped forward and sliced her blade forward aimed at Elsa's left shoulder. Elsa quickly unsheathed her sword and brought it up to defend. The edge of Yugao's blade collided with the flat of Elsa's causing a clear ringing sound to echo through the training ground. The sound made Elsa pause a moment as she realized that for the first time she was fighting Yugao with a real sword. Up until now, she had only sparred using a weighted bokken, now however the danger was real. Coming back from her thoughts Elsa pushed Yugao's sword up and away from herself before delivering a counter cut at her teacher's midsection. As the blade approached her friend, Elsa hesitated and was punished for it by Yugao giving her a swift kick in her chest knocking Elsa back. In a second, the tip of Yugao's blade was at Elsa's throat making the girl freeze.

"Hesitation equals death," Yugao said seriously, then sheathed her sword and offered her hand to the younger woman.

"I am sorry, I just… didn't want to hurt you by accident," Elsa said looking down in shame. She then felt a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"I know," Yugao said, "This is one of the most important things I wanted to go over with you today. First, go get your sheath." Elsa ran over to where she had thrown the item and retrieved it. Sheathing her new sword she returned to Yugao.

"Congratulations Elsa," Yugao said, smiling, "you have earned your sword." The pride in her voice helped lift Elsa's spirit and made her smile in return. "Now, for today's lesson," Yugao continued, "we are going to make sure that you will never hesitate when using it. You have trained for so long that you must trust yourself to be able to control your weapon. So draw and let's get started."

Elsa gave a nod before quickly strapping the sheath of her new sword to her back and then drawing it out. The two women stood at the ready before darting forward and engaging in rapid-paced combat. The training ground was filled with the ringing sounds of their spars for the next hour and a half. Finally, Yugao called a halt to the session and Elsa panted as her arms hung tiredly at her side. She had trained to handle the weight of a real sword but swinging it for so long still left her feeling fatigued.

"Ok," Yugao said, "once more, then we will be done. I don't want you to be late for the Ninja registration office."

Elsa nodded and summoned the strength that remained in her body to lift her sword into a high stance with the hilt held beside her head. Yugao held her sword in a low stance with the blade pointed down and to her right. Yugao initiated the exchange, dashing forward and cutting up toward Elsa's hip. Elsa's sword dropped to intercept it. When the two swords struck Yugao used the impact to help reposition her weapon for a downward strike at the crown of Elsa's head. Elsa easily brought her blade up parallel to the ground to block the strike. As it came into contact with her sword, however, instead of stopping its momentum Elsa allowed the tip of her weapon to dip down causing Yugao's sword to slide along its length. Stepping to her left she disengaged from Yugao's weapon and rotated her own to deliver a downward strike as well. What followed was a series of high-speed exchanges each combatant parrying then attacking. The training ground filled with a staccato rhythm of ringing steel. As the back and forth continued Elsa felt her strength wane. She fought off negative thoughts focusing only on making her next cut when suddenly Yugao made an error. She had put too much weight behind a horizontal slash leaving her sword out at her side and her body open to attack. Moving on instinct Elsa took advantage and drove the tip of her sword toward her opponent. At the last possible instant, she halted the blade's movement a hairsbreadth from her mentor's chest. Yugao smiled.

"I yield," she said, standing up and putting her sword away.

"D-did you do that on purpose?" Elsa asked, gasping slightly for breath.

"It doesn't matter," Yugao answered. "What matters is that you saw an opening and you seized it with no hesitation. You have learned this lesson well. I know that you will become a wonderful ninja."

Elsa stood and sheathed her own sword before bowing deeply, "Thank you," she said sincerely, "Thank you, for everything you have done for me and taught me. You have been such a great friend and mentor."

Yugao smiled as Elsa stood back up and placed a hand on her shoulder. "When you first came to the village I was told to take care of you, but I never thought I would come to care for you so much. You are like the little sister I never knew I wanted."

With those words, Elsa hugged the older woman fiercely and said, "and you were the big sister I never knew I needed."

When they broke apart Elsa gave one final farewell and then took off for her home to freshen up before she met back up with her friends.

Yugao looked after Elsa fondly as the young woman left the training ground. She really was surprised how attached she had become to her charge. She sighed as she thought about how much less time she would get to spend with her honorary sister.

"You know, when I was in ANBU we tried to avoid becoming emotionally invested in the people we were assigned to protect," a voice said as a figure stepped out from behind a nearby tree.

It was a tall thin man dressed in standard Jounin attire with the addition of a mask over the bottom half of his face. One of his eyes was covered by his forehead protector and he had spiky hair with a grey color that didn't match how youthful his face was.

"If you were to spend any time with her you would see how hard it is to avoid coming to care for her. She has a very magnetic personality." Yugao responded before turning around and looking at the man. When she faced him her eyebrows dropped in disappointment at seeing the book he was reading.

"Well I am sure that I will get the chance," he said without looking up, "I am going to be her Jounin sensei after all."

"You better not read that kind of garbage around her," Yugao threatened.

"But she is already so familiar with the author," the man rebutted.

"And we talked to him as well," Yugao said, remembering the conversation Kurenai, Anko and she had with Jiraiya which had involved many threats about what would happen to his manhood if he acted untoward around Elsa.

"Well, we'll see," Kakashi said before disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

"I am going to tell Elsa to turn that book into confetti," Yugao mumbled before jumping off herself.

Special thanks to ACreativeMindAtWorkHere for being the beta reader.