Promises in Snow and Ice

by KnighteWolfe

What do you get when a temperamental actress with a penchant for escaping is given an ultimatum by her elder council? A remembered promise and a shinobi's heart.

3. Chapter 3

And the story continues

Promises in Snow and Ice.

Chapter 3.

Iruka Umino, Jonin Academy Professor at the Konohagakure Academy for Shinobi and Kunoichi, lifted his head from the stack of exams on his desk and looked out the window of his office. The everyday happenings of Konoha soothed his mind and he smiled as those who had the Will of Fire, whether shinobi or civilian, went about their everyday lives. Gazing up at the mountain where the faces of the five Fire Shadows who had lead and were now leading the village were carved, Iruka spotted a brilliant flash of golden light that surpassed the brightness of the sun and recognized it as coming from his one time favorite student as he made his way to the place he went to think.

Settling back in his seat, Iruka closed his eyes and let his senses fan out. Since it was nearing lunchtime, he could detect the chakra of his fellow shinobi as they gathered in the cafeteria. Putting names and faces to each disparate chakra flow, Iruka could, with a more than ninety percent success rate, figure out everyone who was in the cafeteria, approaching the cafeteria, or leaving the cafeteria. Iruka could even tell which of his fellow jonin were in the special ANBU Black Ops. Annex to the cafeteria.

Here were his fellow recently promoted Jonin Izumo and Kotetsu shooting the shit at a table by the coffee and tea station. There Ebisu, Jonin Sensei for the Genin team of Konohamaru, Udon, and Moegi sat quietly reading the paper. Across from him were Kurenai Yuuhi, Yugao, and Hana Inuzuka conversing over chocolate and nut brownies. In a seat next to the red-eyed Genjutsu Mistress, Iruka could sense the developing chakra reserves of her four year old son as he quietly listened to the conversation between his mother and her friends. Over near the sliding glass door leading to the balcony, Iruka could sense Maito Gai and his student Rock Lee as they lightly worked out after eating all the while proclaiming about the 'Spirit of Youth'.

Opening his senses further, Iruka could sense the Hokage's assistant happily diddy bopping and bouncing down the hallway towards the cafeteria. The academy instructor could almost sense the happiness oozing off the woman as she went about her business. There was even a subtle sense of sensuality mingling with her happiness along with something else.

"Wait a minute! I've felt that emotion coming from Shizune before. It's lust. Granted, last time I felt it, she was directing it my way. Kinda like Kurenai, Yugao, and Hana do now when they think I don't feel it. The Hokage's assistant is lusting after somebody in the cafeteria but who is it?", wondered Iruka as he leaned forward in his chair and tried to focus his Kekkai Genkai on the happy woman now entering the cafeteria.

Once again thanking his family for his special ability, Iruka sighed and went back to looking out his office window. He pondered the trait that allowed members of the Umino Family (not Umino Clan; never Umino Clan. There were too many family clans in the Village Hidden in the Leaves already. Like one of his distant cousins who also taught at the academy, Iruka felt that Konoha had more than enough clans to need one more) to detect the chakra reserves of other shinobi at levels far surpassing what Jonin-and even the Sannin-could dream about. This trait helped him immensely when he was teaching mischievous academy students. It was a well-known fact that Iruka had never fallen victim to any of his students' pranks. Often times, Iruka's students were awed when he would dodge whatever a student tossed at him with his back turned.

Even though his parents had died in the Kyuubi attack nineteen years ago, there were still a few Uminos'-and their related families-in Konoha. Though Iruka wasn't close to any of his cousins, aunts, uncles, and paternal and maternal grandparents, he still kept up appearances and showed up at family gatherings to represent his branch of the family. In fact the last Umino Family Gathering had been two days ago and the elder family members had again expressed their displeasure at his continued bachelorhood. Although some of his female cousins had chuckled when it was revealed that he had recently been designated as one of 'Konoha's Most Eligible Bachelors, Over the Age of Thirty' according to one of the civilian fashion magazines written and printed in Konoha (hell, he was in the top five of that list).

"Damn Cousin Sayoko for absentmindedly mentioning that Kurenai, Yugao, and Hana were chasing after me as a possible love match. And curse my grandparents for ordering me to look into such a match.", growled Iruka as he thought about his cousin Umino Sayoko and her long, two-tone green-blue hair taunting him at the meal after the meeting.

Iruka knew that if his twenty-six year old cousin (a Chunin and protégé of Anko Hatake) wasn't presently away from the village on a mission with her team, he would surely challenge her to a spar so he could force her to mind her own damn business when it came to the personal life of her thirty-something year old Jonin cousin. Growling to himself again as he gazed at the stack of yet to be graded papers on his desk, Iruka Umino, Jonin Academy Instructor and, according to Lady Tsunade, the shinobi on the longest running and deadliest S-ranked mission in existence to teach the new academy students about shinobi life, threw himself back into the job he loved.

&&&

Master Jiraiya glanced up from his position at his writing table to check on his sleeping wife. Tsunade was happily snoring away from her position in the bed where he'd lain her down after unceremoniously picking her up and whisking her away from a council meeting with their late Sensei's teammates and taking her home before putting her to sleep with a powerful sleep jutsu (much to the annoyance of Homura-Sensei and Koharu-Sensei).

Jiraiya was going over some of the reports from his vast intelligence network about the goings on of various persons of interest to Konoha and their allies while writing the introduction to his new Icha Icha book. The one-armed Toad Sage was also writing in a couple of journal scrolls as he sat pondering new scenes. One scroll was filled with different jutsus and their uses. The other was a diary of some sort. Chuckling to himself, Jiraiya rolled the scroll of family jutsus up for later use when he would transcribe the different jutsus Tsunade used for the life or lives growing within his wife. Next he closed the scroll where his thoughts and dreams were and sealed it with an above Kage-rank privacy seal so that his nosy wife wouldn't find out about his thoughts. Tsunade had done the same with her diary and Jiraiya had yet to find a way to get around her own seals. The accursed woman had used a seal the seal master side of him had recognized as being both a Tsunade original medical jutsu as well as a difficult (almost forbidden) variation of another high-level medical jutsu.

Forming a familiar hand-sign, Jiraiya summoned two of his clones to replace the scrolls where they belonged and leaned his head back against his remaining arm and watched his sleeping wife with a soft gaze. He was about to get up and join her in bed after yawning when one of his contracted toad summons appeared with another scroll tied to his back. Jiraiya's eyes narrowed as he recognized the scroll color as one he'd assigned to information about a certain foreign shinobi he and his student had met on their initial training trip many years ago.

"Hey Gamasukeichi, did your father send you?", asked The Toad Sannin in a low voice as he leaned forward to retrieve the scroll.

"Yes Master Jiraiya. His Most Imperial Cool-Dude Toadness, Lord Gamabunta, sent you this scroll about the subject in question. Lord Gamabunta somehow got in touch with the heads of both the Demon Artic Fox and Demon Desert Fox Clans and requested this information. Both Clans sent the information but with the stipulation that it not be revealed to the container of the Head of the Demon Red Fox Clan. There is still some hostility between the three clans that Lady Tsunade's Head summons, Lady Katsuu is mediating. Lord Gamabunta and his counterpart of the Snake Summon Branch Clan are both worried as it seems the mediation is not going well.", replied the tri-colored toad with a shake of his head.

Jiraiya grunted and crossed his arm pensively over his chest after tossing the summons several pieces of butterscotch candy. The medium sized toad croaked in happiness as he used his webbed feet to unwrap several pieces of the butterscotch goodness and insert them into his mouth. Unrolling the scroll and starting to read, Jiraiya thanked the toad and patted him on his head absently. Seeing that his master was occupied with his reading, Gamasukeichi finished his treats and dispelled himself. He had to report back to his father, That Most Awesome Toad Dude Lord Gamabunta, the results of his errand. And he had to rub the fact that he got some candy into the faces of his brothers Gamakchi and Gamatatsu.

Besides there was a sporting event in the world of summons that pitted Lady Katsuu's Slugs against a clan of those damnable Owl Summons that promised to be interesting.

&&&

Naruto Uzumaki sat in his usual spot on the head of the Yondaime Hokage and pondered what he should be doing. He couldn't go hang out with Shikamaru for a bit. Lady Yoshino had temporarily banned the other three members of Konoha's Party Boy Posse from the Nara Compound after they had brought her son home from another bash thrown in honor of Naruto's return soooo drunk, Shikamaru had fallen down in her nice clean living room and passed out next to his father, who'd just returned from a night out with his friends Chouza Akimichi and Inoichi Yamanaka that had ended up with them at their favorite watering hole. The Yamanaka Clan Head had regaled his two friends with stories of his dirty-blonde haired grandson, Inoiki Yamanaka. Ino had left her son in the caring hands of his grandparents while the newly demoted to Genin Kunoichi had left on her mission with Lady Hatake.

Lady Nara had chased the trio of her sons' friends and fellow Jonin out of HER house with a flurry of senbon needles, shuriken, and kunai. Thus demonstrating once again that, even though she was on inactive duty; Yoshino Nara was still a kunoichi to be feared by everyone when she was pissed off. In fact, it was widely known around Konoha that the Matriarch of the Nara Clan was the only person to ever intimidate the original wild kunoichi Anko Mitarashi. Naruto laughed to himself as he remembered the small woman chasing both Kakashi and Jiraiya out of her well cared for house after the pair had brought Shikaku back from the pub where all of the male shinobi had celebrated Kakashi's bachelor party a bit too lively. Naruto had created a clone and had the clone henge into his Oiroke form of Naruko and drop in on Anko's bachelorette party where she found out that every so often Lady Yoshino liked to get as trashed as her husband when out with her friends. She was just better at recovering from a hangover than her husband (Naruto also found out that Lady Yoshino was a fellow Jonin and extremely effective in discovering and dispelling a snooping and henged Kage Bunshin at a 'Kunoichi's Only' party before it got too wild and revealing).

Glancing down from his location, Naruto saw the village he hoped to lead one day as a Hokage like his father, Namikaze Minato; the Yondaime Hokage, before him. Naruto also saw that by his side and being his gentler yet fierce side, like his mother Uzumaki Kushina was for his father, a woman he loved and cared for. Sensing several sets of feminine footsteps and a few feminine chakra reserves, Naruto grumbled to himself and launched his seated form off the mountain as a gang of shinobi and civilian females tried to pounce on their prey and get him in a compromising position.

"Oh great, fangirls! Now I know how both Neji and the bastard felt back in our academy days. Sheesh, will I ever escape them. It's like they think I don't know what they want. Mainly me! Although a few of them want to have my children. I would bet that somewhere in Konoha there's a secret magazine circulating among the unmarried women of child bearing age that documents my every move. At least Tsunade-baachan and Shizune-nee-chan are the only ones allowed to perform my medical check-ups and complete physicals. Especially after it was revealed that there was ring of nurses in the hospital running a secret sperm bank out of the hospital stocked with samples of my DNA. I'm glad that baachan was able to recover every sample either stolen or sold from the operation as well as quietly request that the kunoichi that had had herself artificially inseminated to allow Lady Hokage to end her pregnancy. Although I did have to promise to allow her to bear one of my children after I'm married and have an heir on the way. Dammit, I even had to allow her to adopt either the Namikaze or Uzumaki last names when I make the decision about which one I'm going to use when I'm Hokage.", muttered Naruto as he hurtled through the air towards the village he so loved.

After freefalling several hundred feet, Naruto used his elemental affinity to slow his body down and allow him to rotate so that he touched the ground feet first. Taking a minute to get his bearings, Naruto turned in the direction of his favorite restaurant. Six bowls of the delectable yummy-ness known as ramen would help him put things in perspective. He took several steps in the direction of Ichiraku Ramen when an unbelievable force collided with him and knocked him on his ass.

"Owwww damnit, shit. What the fuck!", exclaimed Naruto as he angrily looked over at who knocked him down.

Seeing the trademark bluenette hair that signified a woman of the Hyuuga Clan, Naruto sighed in resignation. He recognized the short hairstyle as that of one of his Genin Team. Naruto knew that Hinata, recently demoted, much to his surprise, was presently out of the village on a mission and that there were a few more of the distinctive Hyuuga women now moving around the village reveling in the new freedom given them by the head of the clan. The Jonin also knew that of those women (both branch family and main family) there was only one who would be out running during lunch.

"Yes Hanabi, what is it?"

"Naruto Sensei?!? Oh god, I ran into you? I'm sorry sensei, I'm so sorry!", stuttered the fourteen year old genin as she jumped to her feet.

Naruto sighed to himself as he rose while listening to the second Hyuuga Heir as she babbled her apologies. Ever since a sparring match between the two sisters had turned into an all out war, the previously quiet Hanabi had become extremely loquacious. Naruto knew that he'd better stop her before she rambled on and raised his left hand to halt her speech while holding his throbbing head with his right. At least Hanabi still spoke in the formal and semi-formal styles required by Hyuuga Main Family members away from the expansive compound (Hyuuga Branch Family members were allowed a bit more leeway in their speech. Some had even started speaking like their matriarch TenTen Hyuuga).

Asking his student to tell the story over a bowl of ramen (that for some odd reason Hanabi had fallen in love with), Naruto led the genin to Ichiraku's. When he arrived, he wasn't surprised to see the other two members of his Genin team sitting at the counter waiting for him. Seeing the familiar eyes and hearing the familiar speech of one of Hanabi's cousins, Naruto sighed again. Everyday he wondered how he, of all the Jonin Sensei's, had had the misfortune to have two members of the famed family (and another of those distinctive bluenette females) as his students. Glancing at the forehead of Chitose Hyuuga, Naruto was relieved to see that the member of the Hyuuga Branch Family didn't have the same seal as her clan head denoting her place in the branch family.

Naruto remembered the uprising in the Hyuuga Clan when Lady Hinata had finally lost her temper with her father Hiashi Hyuuga and challenged him to a duel for leadership of the Hyuuga. Hinata had won, much to the amazement of every member of the clan as well as the village in general except for Naruto and Neji, and had ascended to the position of Hyuuga Clan Head in a ceremony in front of the entire village. After the ceremony that day, Hiashi had taken Naruto aside while still recovering from the wounds inflicted by his eldest daughter (he'd ended up on Tsunade's shit list for leaving his hospital bed in order to preside over the ceremony and pass over the robes and scrolls signifying his former position over to the new head of the clan) and expressed his pride at Hinata's ascendance to the position she was born to. Of course being the sly Hyuuga that he was, Hiashi had betrothed Hinata to Naruto as his last act as Clan Head.

Naruto was surprised, Tsunade was miffed, Neji (the other bastard) had laughed, Hanabi, Sakura, and Ino had frowned at the action. A few members of the Hyuuga Clan Council had smirked, others had growled their displeasure, and still others hadn't worried about it. For her part, the new clan head wasn't happy. In fact, Hinata was extremely livid and had quietly and gently requested the members of her council and her father to join her in the council room of the Hyuuga Clan and had ordered Neji and some of the branch family members to keep everyone else out.

Ultimately, several members of the Hyuuga Clan Council had ended up in the Intensive Care Unit (often called the stupidity ward) of Konoha's General Hospital with serious Jyuuken-caused damage to their chakra systems. Hiashi ended up booking himself into the hospital for several more weeks to recover from the new damage he'd incurred. He didn't have to worry much though, during his extended stint under Shizune's care, a few more members of the Hyuuga council joined him.

Naruto ceased his reminiscing and brought his attention back to his team as Hanabi and Chitose started bickering over some little thing or another. The lone male of the team, Iketani Junichi, observed his two female teammates with an undisguised glee as it became apparent that the escalating argument between them was gonna lead to a catfight. He couldn't wait for that to happen because he could write about it and send it in as an entry for a writing contest sponsored by Master Jiraiya's publisher.

"Junichi is a pervert in training. He's gonna learn the hard way that it doesn't pay to stick his nose into a girl's fight without reaping the consequences. Whoops, there he goes! As many times as I've told him not to antagonize his teammates, you would think he would've learned by now. I'm glad that I hadn't decided to teach them Ero-sennin's 'Invisibility Jutsu'. I'd have every Hyuuga female as well as the old hag after me.", mused Naruto as he watched the fourteen year old boy go flying out of the restaurant with the help of two Hyuuga Kaitens'.

The nineteen year old blonde watched as his red-headed student collided painfully with a tree eighty yards up the road and crashed to the ground. Naruto winced in commiseration as Junichi's head lolled around. Turning to his two female students, Naruto frowned as he watched the two glare daggers at each other. Deciding to have them work off their adrenalin rush and train at the same time, Naruto cleared his throat and told the two Hyuuga to retrieve their teammate (who was now attempting to groggily rise to his feet) and report to Training Ground Eight.

"And no fighting between the three of you on the way there; you don't want me to do the same thing I did last time the three of you got to fighting? I know for a fact that both Gai Sensei and Lee Sensei would love to have you join them for early morning Taijutsu Training tomorrow.", stated Naruto off-handedly as he ignored the looks of fear on the faces of the two Hyuuga women.

"Yes, Naruto-Sensei, we understand. No more fighting among us.", chirruped Chitose and Hanabi with barely concealed fear in their voices as they remembered the last time Gai and Lee had tortur-err trained them.

Hearing the remorse and worry in their voices but feigning that he didn't, Naruto bit his thumb and calmly called out:

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!"

A puff of smoke appeared and when it had dissipated, there sat an orange and blue toad.

"Whatcha want boss?", asked Gamakichi excitedly.

"Oi Kichi, my genin are fighting again. Think you can find Gai-Sensei or Lee-Sensei and inform them that it's possible that my team might be joining them for early morning 'Youthfulness' training tomorrow?", asked Naruto as he idly cleaned his fingernails with a handy kunai.

"Sure boss. Gimme some candy and I will!"

Naruto laughed at his toad friend as he heard the paired exclamations of the Hyuuga Kunoichi as their imaginations filled them with images of the two Beautiful Green Beasts of Konoha keeping up a numbing monologue about their youthful spirits as they did five hundred laps around the village on their hands and having to deal with a bunch of their sensei's Kage Bunshins following them and shouting encouragement. Last time they'd angered Naruto-sensei to this point, he'd sent them for training with both Gai and Lee and had made them wear copies of those gawd-awful horrible green jumpsuits while doing so, much to their great embarrassment. It had taken them months (and a couple of beat downs on their fellow genins. Konohamaru Sarutobi and his teammates still occasionally walked with a limp when they were tired) to live that mortifying moment of infamy down.

"Hey Naruto, I know that you are one of our favorite customers and you always bring us business, but why do you torment your students that way?", asked Ayame Ichiraku as she set another bowl of pork ramen in front of Naruto.

"Ayame nee-san, it's not torment if they learn how to get along as a team. Their final genin exam was a mess. They barely passed the bell test. Even when Team Seven underwent the same test back, we did slightly better than my Team Nineteen. It doesn't help that Iketani is discovering girls and has a crush on Chitose, while Chitose is trying to prove to Hanabi that even though she came late to training, she's every bit the developing kunoichi as Hanabi is. Chitose also has a burgeoning crush on Junichi while Hanabi is learning to express emotions other than the famed Hyuuga stoicism and indifference. I've used the invisibility jutsu Ero-sennin taught me to observe them when they think I'm not around. So far the latent expert teamwork is there, underneath their present dodgy teamwork but they haven't discovered it yet. It's frustrating to see them this way. Now I know how Kakashi felt each time Sakura, the teme, and I got into it. By the time Sasuke left the village and turned traitor, the Teamwork of Team Seven had improved to the point where when we were out on low C-level missions during that time, some enemy shinobi were afraid to face us because they couldn't predict how we would react.", answered Naruto as he finished his ramen and got up from his seat.

Turning towards the curtain that marked the exit, Naruto paid for his meal and the meals of his team before waving goodbye to some of the first people who acknowledged him when he was younger and fed him when he had no money as a child scorned and hated by the village unable to feed himself. Naruto glanced back at Ayame and her father Teuchi, saw how old he was in the lines of his face and hoped that when he did marry and have children, he could introduce them to his adopted godfather and godsister and their wondrous world of ramen.

Whistling a happy tune, Naruto ambled off in the direction of the disappearing dust cloud that signified his students and philosophized about what he was going to teach them today. Deciding to ask Kakashi to pass on a message to Anko when she returned, Naruto smiled at the bright blue sky and golden sun warming his skin before using a shunshin to arrive at that specified training ground to wait for his team to arrive.

&&&

Temporary Genin Hinata Hyuuga growled to herself as she tried to clean the last of the spilled blood from her latest assassination victim out of the white silk kimono that had given her the nickname: 'Konoha's Ivory Widowmaker'. It had been a rough assignment for the six of them and it wasn't over yet. Team Six-Six had been assigned a mission involving a series of several assassinations of Chunin and Jonin level missing-nins. Unfortunately, it seemed that there were several assassin teams from the different Hidden Villages also after the targets and the disparate teams were bumbling and stumbling over each other and occasionally attacking long-time enemies and allies.

Luckily, her present team leader had been in the area before and knew every little hole-in-the-wall bar and unscrupulous club where the targets would congregate and bandy around lies about their prowess as they drank themselves into a stupor. Anko was well known in some of the establishments and entered them all the time. A few times the team had entered a bar and walked into a vicious barroom brawl. But all it took for the fighters to calm down and start spilling information on the designated targets was somebody noticing the arrival of Konoha's Smiling Mistress of Death and her infamous grin. When that happened and Anko made her interests known, an extremely long line of willing informants appeared at their table within seconds of their sitting down. The only payment Anko promised the men and women was that she would allow them to live.

Holding her kimono up to the light, Hinata sighed and figured that she'd done the best she could and washed the majority of blood out of the shining silk and walked across the room she was sharing with TenTen, Sakura, and Ino to hang the garment up where it could dry. Glancing at the clock (while absentmindedly noticing the….interesting pattern of blood splotches on the silk), Hinata saw that dinner time was nearing and she had enough time to dash off a quick letter to her beloved Naruto-kun before meeting the others down in the hotel restaurant and lounge.

"I bet the blonde and pink haired hussies are already down there getting their drink on while plotting to take my baby away from me. Those bitches!!", snarled Hinata as she snatched her writing utensils off of the night stand next to the bed she was sharing with TenTen and stormed over to the desk in the room.

(Hinata absolutely refused to share a bed with either Sakura or Ino. Her reasoning being that she might 'accidentally' kill either of them in their sleep. The wenches in question had rolled their eyes in a 'yeah right' movement while Anko had yelled at them to figure out the sleeping arrangements on their own.)

Dropping into the chair and placing her stationary on the table, Hinata propped her bare feet up on the little footstool and inspected the pink polish on her toenails critically before deciding to avail herself of a pedicure and a day of pampering in the hotels' resort day spa tomorrow while Ino and Sakura carried out their assignments and took out their designated targets.

"Maybe I'll ask Cousin TenTen to join me in the spa. It would be a good thing to just hang out with her tomorrow doing girly stuff and relaxing. I could also ask her about her and Neji's…..activities before we left to meet the others at the village gates. Those rope burns on her arms looked pretty bad. Come to think of it, Anko-sensei had similar marks on her arms and legs when she showed up. Well I have to request that she and Neji keep their voices down when they're….enjoying each others company. Last time they went at it, I had the damn Clan Council representative banging on the door to my private rooms at four in the fucking morning asking me, nicely for once, to go quiet those two down. Ruined the dream I was having about my Naruto-kun for the rest of the night, Dammit! I hope Hanabi and Chitose are taking care of the poor guy during his recovery.", mused Hinata as she placed the tip of her pen against the corner of her mouth and thought about what to write in her letter.

Several minutes later, TenTen Hyuuga entered the room and spotted her cousin leaning back in her seat with a dreamy grin on her face and some blood dripping from her nostril. TenTen shook her head in exasperation and went about divesting herself of her clothes so they could be washed. Slipping into a simple robe and retrieving her bathing supplies, a curious TenTen looked over her cousin's shoulder and started reading what Hinata had written so far. It didn't take long for TenTen's own nose to start bleeding from the extremely imaginative and descriptive actions Hinata was writing her beloved about.

"Woah, damn! My virgin cousin Hinata has a really freaky perverted side when it comes to the blonde idi…HOLY SHIT THAT'S DESCRIPTIVE!!", shouted TenTen as she backed away from her cousin the ecchi.

Taking a hold of Hinata's shoulder and giving it a shake, TenTen made a decision to help her cousin get her beloved and get laid when they returned to Konoha. A dazed Hinata came out of her erotic stupor and TenTen passed her a whole box of tissue paper.

"Hunwha… oh TenTen, I didn't know you'd returned to the room.", slurred Hinata as she confusedly accepted the box.

"Hinata. Cold Shower. Now!", stated TenTen in a staccato voice.

Hinata looked up at her cousin and wondered why TenTen had a piece of tissue rolled up and stuffed into each nostril. That was until she noticed the slow leak of crimson coming from TenTen's nose. Realization hit and the Hyuuga Main Family Head gasped in shock and whipped her head around to the sheets of parchment on the desk. It only took one glance at her indelible words and Hinata knew that her cousin had read her supposedly private letter. Oddly, Hinata wasn't ashamed, embarrassed, or even angry. She knew that TenTen wouldn't tell anyone of the fantasies Hinata only wrote down in letters to Naruto.

Sighing to herself and asking her cousin if she would assist her in her private quest, Hinata was happy to see TenTen's nod of approval and grinned at her new partner in crime to steal the heart of Konoha's Golden Whirlwind and get him into her boudoir where she could practice all of her fantasies with him. Even though Hinata had thrashed the Clan Council (and her father) after she'd found out about his last act as Clan Head, it was more out of embarrassment and proving to the old fogies that she could be as hard as a diamond-tipped kunai of titanium alloy when the situation warranted it, Hinata had been ecstatic on the inside and immediately started making mental plans for a wedding that Konoha wouldn't forget. Unfortunately, before her plans could go into effect, a new protest group sprung up out of nowhere and raised such a ruckus about the impending nuptials that Hinata had conversed with Lady Tsunade and a few others and had, for the sake of the village, reluctantly agreed to put those plans on the back burner for now.

As Hinata thought back on that incident while retrieving her toiletries and heading off to join TenTen in the bath, she realized that the Twin Harlots had to have been the ones behind the organization of the 'Women Against Naruto Marrying Hinata', movement and wasn't surprised. It would've been par for the course for Ino and Sakura to block the wedding.

"Hehehe, those two can do what they want. In the end, I'm the only one Lady Tsunade slipped the key to Naruto's apartment to with the map to get around all of the hidden traps he has laid in his place of residence. Now if only my little blonde-haired stud-muffin had been home the other night. I wouldn't be in my present situation and if things had gone my way, in nine months there would've been a blonde addition to the Hyuuga Clan. Damn Ino! Damn Sakura!", grunted Hinata as she forcibly slammed the door to the hotel room shut and stalked out towards the open air bath house.

Downstairs in the restaurant and lounge Sakura and Ino both sneezed as they ate dinner. Across from the two, Temari lifted her eyebrows in exclamation and sipped her drink calmly while their team captain slugged down another shot of a new alcoholic beverage she'd taken an instant liking to. The drink, called bourbon, was imported from lands far across the sea and seemed (to Anko at least) to go down real smooth. Temari had been convinced by Anko soon after they got into town to try some and had been intrigued by the smoky smooth taste until she staggered off to bed late that night and realized that this bourbon had a potent kick if one indulged in too much. The taste numbed one's senses enough to impair their judgment about how much one has actually drank and made them think that they hadn't had as much as they had actually had.

Come morning, Temari's head had pounded like a kettle drum and she suffered a temporary bout of vertigo. The twenty-one year old Suna Kunoichi had somehow made it to the bath that morning to recover from her intoxication and had reveled as the warm scented water had cleared her sinuses and cleaned the fogginess out of her mind. Of course it had been quite amusing when her four teammates had staggered in and joined her in the bath for the relief it promised. Everything had been fine until the silence of the bath had been disturbed by the arrival of a severely hung over Anko. Temari and her four teammates learned that a hung-over Anko + a warm bath = a whole lotta naughty fun that left everyone breathless and completely relaxed.

Bowing her head over her plate of food, Temari hid the blush that was threatening to break out over her face. However, Ino and Sakura spotted the developing flush. The fiancée of Shikamaru Nara knew that she was in for a merciless session of torture as the pair tried to dig out what was making Temari blush like so. Resigning herself to the inevitable, Temari waited for Ino to use her family jutsu to delve into her private thoughts. When nothing happened, Temari was curious. Her curiosity was assuaged when she heard the familiar voice of Ino and Sakura's eternal rival.

"Ino!!! I knew that you just couldn't control yourself and gave in to the urges to go traipsing through somebody's mind! Dammit, can't you keep your mind to yourself just once!!!!", Temari heard Hinata growl as she approached their table with TenTen.

"Oh stifle it, little miss perfect virgin! This doesn't concern you! I was just trying to find out why Temari was blushing and tease her about it! What's it to you, slut?", screeched Ino as she glared at her number two rival for the love of one Naruto Uzumaki.

Before Hinata could respond to that, TenTen cut into the conversation and idly informed Ino that she'd contradicted herself by referring to Hinata as virgin in one sentence and as a slut in another. Of course, TenTen being who she was couldn't resist a parting shot at Sakura and Ino as she flipped open her menu to order.

"No matter what either of you two mommies do, I bet Hinata will have Naruto-kun in her bed with a ring on his finger doing all sorts of erotic things by the time of her twentieth birthday!", chuckled TenTen.

Before either of them could comment on TenTen's words, a familiar irate voice whipcracked over the table and cut through the tension rising from the five kunoichi and everybody paled. Anko had arrived.

And she was extremely pissed!!

&&&

Several miles away from where Anko Mitarashi was chastising her team, Yukie Fujikaze was about to have a nervous breakdown. The actress had just received two messages from The Land of Spring. And neither one of them boded well for her plans.

It seems that her council wanted to be sure that their princess was truly returning to her homeland at the end of her six month tour of duty. In less than a month and a half, the council from The Land of Spring as well as her ladies-in-waiting were going to arrive in time to attend the wrap party for her latest movie. At the party upon the stroke of midnight, Yukie was ordered to revert to her birth name as Koyuki Kazahana, Princess of the Land of Spring.

"Dammit, this sucks!!", shouted Yukie as she walked through the streets of the city incognito.

Nothing could be done to keep the council from arriving and screwing up her detailed plans to get away. Even her producer and her director couldn't keep the old decrepit men and women from showing up. Somehow they knew exactly when the party was going to take place and how long it was going to last. Yukie narrowed her eyes as she realized how not only the council knew but her ladies-in-waiting knew as well. And one of those ladies-in-waiting was presently traveling with the princess as her manager.

"Damn that woman! Damn Misato!! She had to go and open her blasted mouth about the wrap party. Now instead of melting away into the crowd covered by Director Makino's excuses for my leaving early, I gotta stick around and deal with the asinine assholes. Shit, shit, shit, double damn fuck, shit!! I'm caught between a rock and a hard place here!", raged the thoughts in Yukie's mind as she sat down at a ramen stall to rest her feet and get something to eat.

An hour later, a full Yukie strolled back towards the hotel by way of a slowly meandering course. As she walked, the princess tried to figure out a way to ditch her council and court when they arrived for the cast party. Still not finding a way, Yukie took a seat on a bench next to a forested area on the outskirts of the town. Leaning back and tasking her mind to search for anything that could help her, Yukie was sidetracked by the sounds of combat coming from behind her. Reaching in to the pocket of her trench coat, the actress grasped the kunai knife secreted there. Rising to her feet and letting some of her basic shinobi training come to the fore, Yukie stepped quietly into the forest.

Following the sounds, she soon came upon an odd sight. A fourteen year-old boy wearing a tiger-striped pattern of shinobi clothing was battling two humanoid figures. It wasn't until the boy landed a kick on the figure to his right that spun him broadside to the actress that Yukie saw exactly who or what the boy was fighting. Her knife dropped soundlessly to the ground as her eyes took in the sight of a six-tailed artic fox. Yukie's gasp of surprise stopped the boy and his remaining opponent from continuing their fight and they both turned to the source of the noise. As the child's other opponent became visible, Yukie's eyes grew even wider.

Both of the boy's opponents were humanoid six-tailed foxes; one with the snowy white and light grey coat of an Artic Fox while the other had the light brown and tan fur of a Desert Fox. Before anyone could say anything, Yukie Fujikaze passed out.

"Oh great, now look what we've done you two! I told you that this was not a good place for us to train. Crap!", muttered the boy as he walked over to the prone woman and checked to see if she was alright.

Seeing that the beautifully familiar lady was okay and had just suffered a sudden loss of consciousness, the boy sat on his haunches and waited for her to wake-up. Sighing to himself in resignation, the fourteen year-old reached into his back pocket and brought out a bag of jerky to snack on as he waited for the woman to arise.

Ten minutes after her sudden voyage to dreamland, Yukie's eyes fluttered open and she groaned as a pain in her head made itself known. Trying to remember what happened, the actress lifted her torso off of the ground only to come face to face with a set of young inquisitive eyes giving her a concerned look. Clearing her throat, Yukie tried to speak only to cough as the dryness in her mouth became readily apparent.

"Here you go lady, have some water. It'll help you recover quicker.", came a young tenor.

Nodding her thanks, Yukie accepted the canteen the boy held out to her and lifted it to her mouth to swallow a few drops so her throat would be properly lubricated. The cool clean trickle of life-giving fluid went a long way to clearing her head so Yukie quietly put her thoughts together before speaking. Handing the canteen back to the child, actress watched as he recapped the canteen and replaced it in the canvas pouch on his left hip. Taking a deep breath, Yukie started to talk.

"You're a shinobi from one of the Hidden Villages aren't you?", asked the actress.

"Yes ma'am. I'm from one of the Hidden Villages. I can't tell you which one because revealing that would be the cause of my execution when my fellow shinobi found out. What I can tell you other than my name, is that I'm fourteen years old and hold the rank of Jonin in my village. Unfortunately, in a few months I have to be in Konoha to take part in that dammed Chunin exam to prove to the shinobi of Konoha and the other Hidden Villages that the shinobi of my village are not to be underestimated if they ever come against us in battle. I'm also going as a representative of the leader of my village as well as try and find one of our special ops kunoichi who we've lost contact with.", commented the boy as he stood up.

"Don't forget the other reason your sister sent you out on this quest!", chimed in one of the two-legged foxes holding up a tree nearby.

"Shut it furball!! Why don't you and your cousin return to where I called you from and leave me alone!", yelled the boy as he made a series of rapid hand-signs that caused the two foxes to disappear.

Yukie lifted an eyebrow as she saw a pair of brief flashes glow through his shirt and figured that he must have some sort of seal or seals on his body. The young boy caught the movement and sighed. Whenever he met a new person it always came down to this.

"Before you say anything, I'll explain. Do you know what a jinchuuriki is?"

Yukie rolled the term around in her mind. She half remembered it from somewhere but couldn't place where. Deciding to allow the boy to explain so she could gain his trust, Yukie signaled that she had a passing knowledge of the term with a nod. Seeing her nod, Yukie observed as the boy continued his story.

"Well to make a long story short a jinchuuriki is a human being that has sealed within him or her one of the Nine Great Tailed Demon Beasts or one of their lesser tailed cousins. Sealed within me are two Rokubi-no-Kitsune demons, lesser cousins to the strongest of all the Bijuu, the Kyuubi-no-Kitsune. Also known as the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. Legend has it that almost twenty years ago; Kyuubi attacked Konoha only to be weakened enough by the Yondaime Hokage so he could seal him away within a new born infant. However, unlike Konohagakure no Sato, in my village the two demon foxes sealed within me when I was a baby voluntarily chose me to be their container. Through the years, I've learned how to manifest them in this world to help me fight battles or to train and make me stronger.", stated the child with his head bent low.

Yukie could hear the hurt in the young shinobi's voice and it tugged at her heartstrings. Here she was bitching because her plans for a successful escape were on the verge of being ruined and this young boy; no young man traveling around the Five Great Nations by himself going from town to town, village to village making a few friends but having to hide his curse (or blessing however you want to look at it) from those he makes friends with. Suddenly an idea popped in Yukie's head and she asked how well his control over his two guests was.

"Oh, it's pretty good. Once I manifest them, I rarely ever have to worry about them causing problems. The Desert Fox is usually the troublemaker but his impulsiveness is countered by the patience of the Arctic Fox.", replied the child with a hopeful glint in his light hazel eyes.

Yukie laughed at the eagerness of the young shinobi and asked him if he could help her out of her present predicament. She offered to pay him a suitable amount of money and pass on to him any information regarding the kunoichi he was searching for. All he had to do was be at her hotel and she would get him into the party.

"There's one last thing I want you to do. However, it's for when you get to Konoha.", asked Yukie as she leaned forward.

"Sure, what is it?"

"I need you to deliver a scroll to a shinobi of Konoha named Naruto Uzumaki. At the Chunin Exam, he'll either be one of the test proctors or his team of genin will be entered in the exam. Look for a jonin with blonde hair, blue eyes, and six whiskers-like birthmarks on his face; three on each cheek. If you can't find him, just ask around. Somebody will either point him out to you or they'll tell him that you're looking for him and he'll find you."

The boy cocked his head and gave her a questioning look. He was kind of curious at why this nice lady wanted him to deliver a message scroll to this Uzumaki. What was he to her? Yukie saw the look and blushed before mumbling out an answer. When he asked for her to repeat it she just told him that he'd understand when he got older. The boy sighed and allowed the topic of the non-verbal discussion to drop (much to Yukie's relief). Hearing the growl of the boy's stomach that indicated it was displeased at being empty; Yukie told the young shinobi that she'd take him to get something to eat. While he was eating, Yukie would write the message she wanted delivered and got the boy to promise that he wouldn't hand it over to anybody but the person in question. He agreed as he ate at a rapid pace. Yukie smiled as she watched the youngster before turning her attention to the blank scroll resting on the table in front of her. Pursing her lips for a minute, Yukie thought about what she was going to write. When the words came, the actress uncapped her autograph pen and started writing.

"In the sunlit cavern of snow and ice,

The snowshoe hare awaits her beloved

With his crimson-gold fur ablaze in the sensuous

Moonlight, the hare dreams of the time

when two will become

One."

Finishing her short little missive, Yukie wonders if Naruto will understand the message. She hoped in her heart of hearts that he will. Signing the message with a flourish and, as an added incentive, Yukie kissed the sheet of parchment reverently and rolled it up as tight as it would go. Reaching into the inner pocket of her trench coat, Yukie pulled out a signet ring engraved with the custom design she'd created just for sealing message scrolls written specifically for Naruto. The princess giggled in delight as she realized that this was the first time she was actually going to use the seal for its intended purpose.

Requesting a small container of melted wax from the waitress, Yukie slipped the ring on her finger and dipped the engraving into the hot wax and waited a second for the concoction to adhere. Lifting the dripping ring out of the wax, Yukie applied it to the rolled up scroll, thus sealing the private message within and keeping the scroll from unraveling from rough handling. Wishing she knew enough to create a sealing jutsu to further secure her message, Yukie handed the scroll over to the young boy with a deep breath. She hoped and prayed that her message would get to Konoha and the very special ninja that resided there.

&&&

Lady Tsunade was not in a good mood. Standing at attention in front of her were the four members of Konoha's Party Boy Posse. Sitting on her desk were two complaint reports that indicated that on two different occasions at least three members of the notorious group instigated activities detrimental to the health and safety of others. Reading between the lines, Tsunade knew that what the reports were saying is that one of the four Jonin in front of her had started a fight.

"Alright you four, start talking. Shikamaru, Kiba, and Naruto first off I want to know how a simple mission to retrieve Naruto from his train somehow ended up with the three of you practically destroying a neutral shinobi bar. Then I want to address this second report where the owner of a popular club here in the village had to call the Konoha Police Force to keep you from making a developing incident worse than it already was. To top it off, I have Lady Nara demanding that I drop kick the lot of you into the stockade for a few weeks so that all of this youthfulness crap can be safely expended. Right now I am seriously tempted to follow her suggestion and just lock the four of you up; however, I'm going to punish the four of you in a different way. For the next two months half of all your pay will be 'donated' to the cost of repairing both bars.", growled the Hokage as she stared at her troublemaker quartet.

There stood Naruto, his ever-present sheepish grin on his face while trying to look innocent. Next to him stood Chouji Akimichi, one of her strongest shinobi and always eating from his bag of chips. On Naruto's other side stood Konoha's Lazy Genius Shikamaru Nara, the look on his face telling Tsunade that he was still feeling the effects of the party two days ago, and last but not least, The Wildman of Konoha, Kiba Inuzuka; a smirk painting his features. It didn't take a brainiac to guess that Kiba was the instigator of the separate events. The Hokage continued her discourse on the punishments she was dishing out.

"Furthermore, I'm also sentencing the four of you to other duties. First off, Shikamaru it has come to my attention that Sunagakure no Sato has a vacancy in their strategy corps. You are to travel to Suna and fill that vacancy until Lord Kazekage promotes somebody to that position. You leave tonight. Upon arrival in Suna, you'll report to Kankuro no Sabaku. He's waiting for you and I believe that the two of you will have a lot to talk about.", Tsunade stated calmly while trying not to react to the dark look of terror that spread across Shikamaru's face.

"I got him over a barrel and really shafted his plans for when Temari returns from her punishment mission as a part of Anko's team. Shika, you're smart but don't you think you should have waited to request that day and the next three days afterwards off. Alright on to my next victim.", thought Tsunade as she watched her genius of strategy leave her office after she dismissed him and turned her attention to the remaining members of the Konoha's most notorious group of wandering lotharios.

Next up was Kiba and Tsunade quickly sentenced him to three weeks on the wedding present from his wife and not complaining about it. Kiba had wanted to protest (loudly) but Shizune opened the office door and the irate voice of Kiba's wife Aisha ricocheted off the walls and into the unprepared eardrums of the three nogoodniks standing in front of Tsunade. The Hokage had to smother a grin when one of Aisha's attack dogs came bounding into the office and clamped his mouth on an intimate part of Kiba's anatomy and waited until his mistress stepped into the office, and with apologies to Tsunade, led her husband out of her office by his ear. Kiba tried to get Tsunade to go easy but it wasn't possible to do much with his wife's hand on his leather jacket and one of their ninja attack dogs (loyal to Aisha only) trailing behind, nipping at Kiba's heels if he showed even the slightest sign of slowing down.

Chouji was tasked with joining a team of ANBU Black Ops on a month long survival training mission in the Forest of Death with what he had on his person at that moment. Ironically, the training mission he'd just been assigned was the very one Anko had been tasked to oversee three days previous until she found her team of temporary genin desecrating her responsibility.

Finally, Tsunade sat observing her possible successor as Konoha's next Fire Shadow, as he fidgeted uncomfortably in place while awaiting judgment. Tsunade knew that whatever she sentenced him to; Naruto would perform his punishment to the highest level. The hyperactive jonin would bitch and moan but he would do it as long as required of him. Offering up a wry smile, Tsunade knew her adopted brother would do anything to keep his dream alive and advance up the next wrung of seniority till he ultimately sat in her spot as the Sixth Fire Shadow of Konoha. Tsunade also knew that when she decided to finally step down and retire to raise her family, if the Legacy of the Fourth Fire Shadow was selected as her replacement, Naruto would lead Konoha and all of those who have the 'Will of Fire' into a new golden age of peace. A peace that would last long after Naruto was gone.

"If he does become Hokage, I have a feeling that his tenure as Hokage will last far longer than the tenures of all those Hokage's who came before him, even mine. Sarutobi Sensei, Jiraiya my beloved, Kakashi the three of you were right in your own ways. Within Naruto Namikaze-Uzumaki, The Will of Fire Burns White Hot! It burns so hot that it is an eternal flame that will never die! Nawaki, my brother, Dan my first love; here in front of me is the manifestation of your dreams. I know that as long as Naruto follows his nindo, the sacrifices the two of you made will not be in vain!", thought Tsunade as she reached for a tissue to dab at the wetness that was gathering the corners of her aging eyes.

Eyes widening at a sudden revelation, Tsunade hurriedly jotted down a note and passed it to her assistant. Shizune glanced down at the note and did a double take. Lifting a questioning eyebrow at her mistress, the medical kunoichi asked Tsunade for confirmation of the written request.

"Only if that comes to pass, Shizune.", answered Tsunade out of the corner of her mouth.

"Yes milady. I understand.", Shizune replied noncommittally.

Naruto wondered what had just transpired between his Tsunade-baasan and Shizune-neesan. He brushed the thought away for now as he prepared for whatever the Hokage was going to set as his punishment for his actions. Naruto hoped that he wasn't going to be demoted like Hinata, Sakura, and Ino. He'd worked too damn hard to reach his present position and he'd be damned if he was gonna be forced to give it up no matter how temporary it was. Naruto felt that he'd even go as far as to become a missing-nin to keep his rank. Tsunade saw the fiery glint of determination in those bright blue eyes that every woman in Konoha wanted to fall into and sighed in resignation. She hadn't planned on demoting him for his minor transgressions (she knew the battle she'd have on her hands if she did. And with her pregnancy in its final month and a half, Tsunade knew that she wouldn't be able to beat him without dying herself and causing the life within her womb to cease as well).

Naruto had truly become the most powerful shinobi in all of the Five Nations. In the numerous shinobi bingo books, The Golden Whirlwind surpassed his father The Yellow Flash in ranking. Naruto was the first and only shinobi in the world to have a rank that the bingo book authors could not categorize. The synopsis beside his entry in the bingo book had only one sentence: 'Avoid At All Costs!!!'

There was only one thing that kept Naruto from having an entire bingo book volume devoted to him and him alone.

Those Dammed Uchihas'!!!!

Seeing Naruto flinch at her show of the deadly killer intent that always managed to manifest itself whenever either of the infamous Uchiha Brothers came up and worrying about what her rage would do to her unborn child (her baby kicked like a pissed off mule on soldier pills whenever Tsunade got angry), Tsunade calmed down to a point where Jiraiya Junior was happy and relaxed before facing Naruto. Taking a deep breath, Konoha's Fifth Fire Shadow told the nineteen year old young man that she was sentencing him to teach at the academy alongside Iruka.

"Besides Naruto, you can use your Kage Bunshin and their henge ability to teach history lessons about each of the four previous Hokages. I'll even let you use some of the classified information in the Hokage library to help your lectures. I know you already have a few of his specially designed kunai and have learned or figured out the basic mechanics of his Hirashin so you can demonstrate that jutsu to the students. You may have doubts about teaching but all you have to do is be yourself. You're already the academies number one success story. Each individual of the Genin Twelve, with some notable exceptions, are shinobi the newer generations can look up to. Naruto, you and your eleven friends are the living epitome of the Will of Fire that burns throughout our village and keeps it strong. Neji, TenTen, Lee, Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, You, Sakura, and even Sasuke; the twelve of you are the Eternal Flames of Konoha. The present day academy-age students need the benefit of your hope and inner fire. Out of the twelve; only you, Sakura, and-if he hadn't turned traitor-Sasuke would have possibly been added to the list of possible future hokages.", exclaimed Tsunade as she saw his eyebrows wrinkle up in preparation for his denouement of the assignment.

Naruto halted his developing protest at Tsunade's decision when her words registered in his mind. Closing his eyes and crossing his arms across his broad chest as was his wont whenever he was thinking hard, Naruto weighed the pros and cons of the Hokage's punishment. Deciding that he could weather this little setback like he had weathered all of the others in his nineteen formative years, Naruto nodded his acceptance of his new assignment and tried to mentally schedule his day so that he and his team could still do D-Rank missions. Snapping his fingers in realization, the ANBU Black Op known as Coyote asked the boss if his team of genin could be his assistants during class. Tsunade agreed but on the condition that Hanabi, Chitose, and Junichi not be allowed in her personal library since they were only genin and as such, had nowhere the clearance to read or research anything in Konoha's Hokage Library. Usually Naruto didn't have the clearance either but Tsunade could request that he be cleared to research anything in the library except for the items classified 'Hokage's Eyes Only'. Hell, when Tsunade herself decided to do her on research on those items, the whole library was cleared and nobody was allowed in. Even Shizune, aide to Tsunade, wasn't allowed entry into the library when her Hokage wanted to read those highly classified materials (although somehow, Jiraiya managed to gain entry to the Hokage Library one night while his wife was doing some classified research. Of course, Tsunade made him pay for his boldness after she returned home that night).

Seeing the acceptance of his punishment in those clear blue eyes, Tsunade suggested that Naruto go home and relax. He had a busy day of teaching to prepare for tomorrow. Once the blonde had left, Tsunade sighed and leaned back in her chair and turned to a blank section of the wall.

"Alright hon, drop the jutsu. I've known that you were here ever since those four troublemakers first arrived. Your 'Invisibility Jutsu' is good but you still have a little bit of work to do on it. You've been leaking miniscule amounts of chakra for quite awhile. Now c'mere and take me home. Your child is giving my belly a workout.", commented Tsunade.

"Awww puddin' cup, I was hoping you wouldn't notice me. I just wanted to hear their excuses. You know me; if they were good, I was gonna put 'em in my next book. You ruined my fun!", whined Jiraiya as he let his jutsu fade out.

"Yeah, I do know you. That's why I ordered them to tell me the straight skinny and cut them off before they could even start making excuses. Although Shikamaru's saying that they were only helping a lady in distress, I didn't believe it for a second. First off, if she was just a lady, she wouldn't have found the place. That leads me to believe that the woman in question is a kunoichi of immense skill. And second, the description those three imbeciles gave me reminds me of someone I knew years ago. Long starlight hair curled up and draped over a shoulder, white mask with black stripes along one side of the front, scarred face, and cinnamon brown eyes.", mused Tsunade as she tapped a pink painted fingernail along her chin.

"And don't forget the C-cup chest Kiba mentioned. I believe he said that the woman was almost as big in the chest as you and Shizune. Naruto mentioned something about stacked but I didn't catch it.", joked Jiraiya as he gently settled his large hand on Tsunade's shoulders.

Tsunade rolled her eyes at her husbands' words. Of course he'd mention something like that. Granted she was grateful that the dog handler had politely mentioned her sore 'assets' in a politically correct, non-perverted way. Deciding to chastise her husband for his words and secretly hoping for another one his orgasmic massages, Tsunade turned around in Jiraiya's arms and faced him.

"Dear, I love you most wholeheartedly but you are such a baka about the simplest things. With our child growing within me I'm nearly an E-cup in the chest, or so says Shizune. Plus Shizune's tits are a small D-cup not a large C-Cup. Kiba must be blind or he's been comparing the breasts of other women to those of his wife. I just hope he's using his eyes only and not his hands. Aisha would castrate him if she discovered he was using his hands in non-shinobi ways.

"Either that or she would make him 'forget' by giving him a long workout. I have a feeling that she's going to be requesting that her husband gets a few days off for 'recovery from wounds sustained in a full contact sparring match.' Don't you?", stated Jiraiya as he rested his chin on top of his wife's head.

Tsunade heard the change in the timber of his voice and knew he had something on his mind and was deciding on whether or not to tell her. Wanting her massage and wanting to know what was troubling him, Tsunade joked that she had already mentally granted Aisha Inuzuka's request.

While Jiraiya and Tsunade were enjoying the blissful silence that came with being completely relaxed around each other, Naruto was entering his house. Slipping off his shinobi footwear, Naruto sighed and headed for the comfortable chair after closing the door. Stopping by a small memorial shrine with seven black framed pictures, Naruto knelt and began praying for his deceased jinchuuriki contemporaries.

"My seven brothers and sisters, even though we never met during our combined time on this planet, I feel that we have been together in spirit. I feel your life's trials and tribulations as if they were my own. We are from separate villages but we shared a bond closer than blood relatives. If those evil men and women from Akatsuki had not been around, I believe that we would've found each other and realized that the differences and hatred between our villages could've been resolved without war. I believe that if they had continued to treat us with wariness and hatred, the nine of us would have more than likely started our own village where we would have helped each other deal with our curses and brought our plight to the attention of everyone in each of the Five Great Nations and beyond. I would have fought to protect you and I know you would have returned the favor. We would've defended ourselves and those that followed to the last. Each and every day I am alive, I will fight with all my heart and soul to remember my family of fellow outcasts. My jinchuuriki brothers and sisters may your souls rest in peace. I, Naruto Uzumaki, will fight to keep your memories alive so that when I rejoin you in the afterlife you will be proud of me and we can reunite and be the family were weren't allowed to be in the living world.", prayed Naruto as he lifted his head and opened his watering eyes and gazed fondly at the portraits of his brothers and sisters.

If one had been there, one would've noticed that the blonde's eyes lingered for a second longer on the picture of a laughing blonde woman. If they had read the name carved into the frame underneath the photo, those bystanders would have gasped in shock as they made the connection. The laughing blonde Naruto gazed lovingly at was Yugito Nii, the container of the Nekomata; Nibi, the Two-Tailed Cat.

Finishing his moment of retrospection, Naruto rose to his feet and continued on into his spacious kitchen. He remembered the fight he'd had with Ero-sennin when he requested that the Toad Sannin acquire the pictures. Jiraiya had refused point blank. Naruto had erupted in to a rage and cursed the famous author while chasing him all over Konoha. Finally, after Naruto had threatened Jiraiya with a public castration at the hands of the Konoha Kunoichi's Club, the aging author had relented and sent word out to his spy network to gather, by hook or by crook, the requested photos. Of course Jiraiya, being himself, had changed his tune when he saw a picture of Yugito and recognized her naturally ethereal beauty.

Passing through his living room, Naruto spared a glance at the full-size portrait hanging up above the fireplace. The portrait was of two Jonin level shinobi dressed in exquisite formal wear. The blonde shinobi in the picture was recognizable to everyone in Konoha. Indeed, his visage solemnly gazed out over his responsibility from the mountain behind the tower that had been his office for a tragically short time. He was Konoha's Fourth Fire Shadow; The Yondaime Hokage. His name: Minato Namikaze. Konoha's Yellow Flash Ninja.

And the father of the hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja known as: Naruto Uzumaki

Sitting in the chair next to Minato was a beautiful redhead with an impish grin hidden within her genuine smile shining from the portrait. With her gloved hand resting possessively yet lovingly upon the hand gently grasping her shoulder and her ninja headband securely fastened above her forehead and proudly proclaiming her as heralding from the former Hidden Whirlpool Village with its engraved symbol of a series of lines swirling away from their nexus, Kushina Uzumaki looked as if it was the happiest day of her life, not foreseeing the tragedy that would come to the newlywed couple a few years later.

Entering the kitchen, Naruto paused for a moment as he looked around at how organized his mother had kept the kitchen; a place for everything and everything in its place. From the gleaming pans hanging over the kitchen's island counter, to the expensive silverware locked in their drawers, Naruto knew where everything was. Stepping over to the stainless steel sink, Naruto grimaced at the few dishes he'd left to be washed after cooking and eating breakfast that morning. To him, the dishes he'd left in the sink made Naruto feel as if he was dishonoring his mother by not promptly cleaning his dishes when he'd finished his morning meal.

Gazing out the clear window over the sink at the small secluded forest, Naruto washed his dishes and put them away after they were dry. Going over to the modest refrigerator and opening it, Naruto retrieved a bottle of orange juice and headed for his favorite spot in the entire house. Leaving the kitchen after deciding to cook later, the teen headed for the atrium and settled into his favorite comfortable chair and turned to watch the sunset. Listening to the quiet and peaceful neighborhood sounds, the nineteen year-old Jonin again marveled at how he had received the house he presently lived in.

Upon becoming a Tokubetsu Jonin, Naruto had returned to his apartment only to step inside and realize that while he'd been out, his dwelling had changed. Somehow, the apartment seemed to recognize its residents' new rank and had revealed some of the secrets that had been hidden within. One of those secrets had been hidden behind Naruto's closet where a panel had noiselessly slid aside and revealed a unique kunai embedded in the wall. A curious Naruto had tried to pull the kunai out only to fail miserably. Irritated at his failure, Naruto had formed a Rasengan and altered it to where the fluctuating sphere of blue chakra had formed around his hand like Kakashi's Raikiri or the teme's Chidori.

With his hand so covered, Naruto had once again taken a hold of the kunai and pulled. This time the knife reacted and before he knew it, Naruto was engulfed in a bright flash and the familiar surroundings of his apartment disappeared only to be replaced by the unfamiliar sights of a beautiful garden in desperate need of care somewhere on the other side of the village. Shaken out of his amazement by the smell of the garden, Naruto had looked around. Stepping off the circular stone he'd reappeared on, Naruto's stubbed his toe against what looked like a rusted kunai buried hilt-up in the dirt. Confused, the seventeen year old had knelt down to study the hindrance only to come fully upright when he heard an unfamiliar pair of voices.

"It took him long enough but I knew he would ultimately make it.", came one voice.

"It's about time too. Another few months and we would've been forced to kidnap him and bring him here before dispelling ourselves. That would not have been a good thing. There are still things he needs to learn bout his inheritance.", replied a distinctly female voice with a familiar tone to it.

Naruto had whipped around and for the first time in his life saw his parents in person. As he learned a few minutes later the two shinobi in front of him were not his parents but were a pair of Kage Bunshins created by his parents and tied to their house soon after Lady Kushina had become pregnant with him. At the time of the sealing, both Minato and Kushina had known that they wouldn't live to see their son grow up. They also knew that once both of them had passed into the afterlife, unscrupulous beings (most notably those dammed Uchiha's and that bastard Danzou from Root) would do anything and everything to get into their home and find all of the secrets the Namikaze's were hiding.

So to protect the family secrets after the death of their primaries, the clones were programmed with a memory block that could only be removed by one of Namikaze Blood. Therefore, the secrets hidden within the house wouldn't be discovered. According to the clones, Naruto was supposed to have been given this house when he made Chunin. When he wasn't, the clones found themselves in a quandary. Their chakra levels had dropped to just above the level needed to keep themselves from dispelling and they hadn't been able to find a way to replenish themselves since Tsunade had started sealing up Naruto's DNA with a special jutsu they couldn't get around to protect Naruto's sacred bloodline. The two clones had discussed this problem in depth and were seconds away from enacting their plan when the child of their master and mistress found his way there on his own.

Finishing his orange juice and rinsing his glass out, Naruto gazed out at his backyard and suppressed a sigh. Naruto knew that less than a thousand feet away from him in a deep thicket was a place so sacred that an above Kage-level subtle Genjutsu protected it. Village lore stated that after his battle with the rampaging Kyuubi, the body of the Yondaime was cremated and buried under a magnificent headstone in the shinobi cemetery.

Only half of that legend is true.

The cremated remains of The Yondaime Hokage, Konoha's Yellow Flash, and those of his wife Kushina; the Whirlpool Village's 'Crimson Cyclone', were buried at the request of their extremely classified wills, deep within the forest behind their modest two story house. Since Master Jiraiya was the only person who knew exactly where Minato and Kushina wanted to be buried (they'd shown the area to him many times whenever the old pervert visited to check on how Kushina's pregnancy was moving along), Jiraiya and the Sandaime had come up with a plan to move the remains from where they were interred to the location designated by their wills.

Knowing what the Pervy-Sage had risked to abide by the last wishes of his student and also knowing what Jiraiya risked if it ever became public knowledge that he had removed the remains of the beloved Fourth Fire Shadow and his wife from their eternal resting place, Naruto kept his mouth shut and allowed his respect and esteem for the Toad Sage grow. Deciding to go and visit the two modest headstones and spiritually converse with his progenitors, Naruto stepped out on his back porch and slipped his feet into a pair of moccasins and stepped out into the twilight. Strolling away from the house, the blonde came upon a well-worn natural cobblestone footpath. Following the path's meandering line for several yards, Naruto came to a well-hidden dirt path traveling further into the trees. Twenty or so paces up the dirt path, Naruto came to a pair of hidden statues whose faces were worn away by their years of standing guard over this place.

Stepping in between the statues, the nineteen year old Jonin put his hands together in a handsign so ancient, no one presently alive in Konoha knew of it. Concentrating on what he had to do, Naruto whispered 'Kai' and the illusion cast over the area by the most powerful Genjutsu Mistress of the Yondaime's time wavered and allowed Naruto to step into the clearing finally see with his own eyes the two headstones he'd visited many times since moving in.

The granite markers standing before him had been secretly transported here by the same Genjutsu user who had cast the illusion spell in the first place and had given the scroll to Jiraiya to pass on to Naruto when he came of age. Once that had been done, the Kunoichi had committed suicide to keep the secret she knew from being revealed. She was buried in the cemetery next to where the village thought their Fourth Hokage and his wife were taking their eternal rest and her name was on the memorial statue.

Engraved in the headstones were the names of the shinobi entombed underneath them, the years they were born, and the year they died. Also engraved into the polished granite was their befitting epitaph. As usual Naruto's laser blue eyes always alighted upon the other engravings within the stone: A nine-tailed fox surrounded by the personal crest of his parents, the combination of the insignias from their respective villages to form a more elaborate version of the Uzumaki Swirl Naruto wore on his shinobi gear.

Kneeling in the center of the stone circle in front of the headstone, Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated. Soon he could feel the mental link he had with the spirits of his parents tingling. A sure sign that the connection was being made. Soon, through his minds eye, Naruto could see the spiritual figures he'd came converse with. With their battle coats flowing in some ethereally (I love that word!!!!) spiritual breeze, the two figures approached the image of their son. As usual, the specter of Lady Kushina Uzumaki-Namikaze opened up the family conversation with a joke. Naruto didn't mind, he loved to hear her jokes.

In a dark corner of Naruto's mind, a blazing pair of slitted ruby red eyes observed the actions of the spiritually reunited family with a sense of loss. This time, the reunion was taking place as if it were a family dinner. Kyuubi wondered what could have his container so mentally disturbed that the moron would consult with his deceased parents instead of with him. The nine-tailed fox didn't harbor any malice towards the man who'd sealed him here. On the contrary, he respected him. He was protecting his precious people. If the situation were reversed, Kyuubi would've done the same thing.

As he continued to watch the interplay between the two blondes and the redhead, Kyuubi sighed in resignation. He missed his family and wondered how his two fox cousins were doing. Occasionally, he was invited to participate in the discussions between his container and the spirits of his container's deceased parents although he had to be loosely restrained from causing any mayhem. During the meetings he attended, Kyuubi and his sealer got along smashingly well, much to the surprise of Naruto and to the amusement of Lady Kushina (Kyuubi still remembered the last meeting he attended. And the spiritual Hang Over that had resulted from it).

Deciding to leave the family alone for a bit, Kyuubi sighed and closed his eyes. He was tired and wanted to get some sleep.

&&&&&&&&

In Konoha, a month had passed and everything was almost back to normal. Anko and her temporary team had returned from their mission (fifty assassinations in two weeks. Anko was a very giggly kunoichi on the way home). Shikamaru Nara had returned from an assignment to Suna that got quite physical. Temari helped her fiancée recover from Kankuro's rough treatment. (Lady Yoshino had banished her son and future daughter-in-law to a small three room house on the Nara Clan Lands because they got too loud and interrupted her sleep at night). Kiba was finally off the couch (but still very much in the doghouse).

Over in the Hokage's building, the Hokage's staff was all taking bets on whether Tsunade would go into labor before, during, or after the Chunin exam. Since her mistress had decided to take the month off, Shizune was acting Hokage while Tsunade rested under Jiraiya's care (he refused to let anyone visit his wife during this time). Often times, the Toad Sannin was spotted as he ran errands.

There was a bit of hostility between the Yamanaka, Haruno, and Hyuuga Clans that made council meetings a bit of a chore. Somehow, the inevitable had happened and the Hyuuga Clan head had beaten her two rivals into the bed of one Naruto Uzumaki and, according to a blushing Lady Hinata, he'd been most charming and had helped her get over her nervousness at her actions . What was being kept secret was the fact that Hinata had conspired with Shikamaru and Kiba and had managed to get the blonde Jonin extremely drunk and had cast a strong Genjutsu over her prey.

Sakura and Ino had been royally pissed. They'd seen everything Hinata had done from right on the balcony of Naruto's apartment where the two of them had landed in separate attempts to do what the formerly quiet bluenette was presently doing. It turns out that Hinata was quite vocal when she's in the throes of passion.

Outside the Hokage's Tower, Sakura sighed in resignation as she remembered that night. She'd planned it so well, from purchasing the perfect lingerie (in shades of orange and black and quite sheer) from the specialty store 'Kunoichi's Secrets', to getting her parents to babysit her dark pink haired daughter Satsuki Haruno. Nothing could have stopped her from waking up in the warm embrace of her teammate. Unfortunately, Ino and Hinata had ruined her plans.

"Damn those two!! Damn them to hell and back!! It was MY night, MY NIGHT to be his!", hissed Sakura as she pushed Satsuki in her stroller up to the bench she had chosen.

Taking a seat on her bench, Sakura unbuckled her daughter and lifted her out of her stroller and into her lap before letting the large diaper bag she carried slide off of her arm to rest on the ground. The almost two year old baby-girl looked around with an interested twinkle in her seagreen eyes (green eyes were a dominant trait among women of the Haruno Clan. Sakura's eyes were a cool mint green in color while her mother's eyes were a pale emerald green). The twenty-year old mother sighed in a relaxed happiness. With her shishou out dealing with her own pregnancy (and being spoiled rotten by her husband) and Shizune running things, Sakura had been able to bring Satsuki to work with her today. Usually, while she was at work, Satsuki was either in the daycare center at the hospital where Sakura was one of the senior department heads or her precocious little girl was being spoiled rotten by her grandparents.

Exhaling her exhaustion, Sakura leaned forward and attached a short length of material to the back of Satsuki's harness and placed her daughter on the well-manicured grass. Seeing the delight in those seagreen eyes, Sakura's heart skipped a beat and at that moment, Sakura knew what the most important thing in her life was. It wasn't being a jonin rank medical kunoichi nor was it lusting after her teammate. No, the most important thing in Sakura's life now was the eighteen month old life now crawling around in the grass in front of her. In her little jumpsuit, Satsuki Haruno had become the most important thing in her mother's life.

As she watched her child with a weepy smile on her face, Sakura heard familiar footsteps and looked up. Smothering her initial reaction to frown, Sakura gazed up at her blonde haired best friend and her equally blond son.

"Ino."

"Sakura."

"How are you and Inoiki doing?"

"Fine, just came from the hospital where he had a check-up. Mind if I sit down?", asked Ino.

Sakura looked up at the Yamanaka Heiress and slid over to make room. As Ino lowered herself to the bench with a sigh, Sakura saw that the former fashion-loving kunoichi had forsaken her old midriff baring tops and tight battle skirts for a comfortable calf-length purple sundress. The pinkette chuckled as she looked at her own attire. She'd gone from the knee-length battle dress she'd worn as a genin to short sleeved or sleeveless short battle skirt/shorts to wearing something similar to what either Lady Tsunade wore or what Lady Shizune wore. Of course it was in her favorite color and shade of red but still it was a big change for both of them. Ino heard her friend and narrowed her eyes as she placed her son on the ground next to Satsuki after attaching his own harness.

"What's so funny Forehead?", snapped Ino although the greeting lacked its usual insult and fire.

Sakura waved a hand at what two of were wearing before replying.

"This, this is funny. Look at us, we used to be two of the best dressed and most fashion forward kunoichi in our age group. Now here we are parents of our own children, by the same father mind you, wearing stuff that we vowed we'd never wear as we got older. You remember. We always said that when we became adults we'd dress like Anko or Kurenai.", chuckled Sakura.

Ino thought for a moment before letting a grin as a big as a ray of sunlight spread all over her face. She remembered those times, remembered them well. Ino's grin broke out into a laugh.

"Yeah, I remember. All the girls in our class except for Hinata vowed to wear as little as possible when we became Chunin and Jonin and were going on missions. Yet with all that we had to deal with, we could never manage it and our girlhood promise was forgotten. Although we did, unconsciously fulfill that promise when we were fifteen and sixteen.", replied Ino.

"Then it resurfaced again when Naruto became a jonin when we were seventeen. Plus our infatuation with Sasuke shifted over to Naruto.", returned Sakura.

Ino chuckled a bit more as she watched as her son and Sakura's daughter played quietly together with their toys. Adjusting her sunglasses, the blonde interrogator asked her friend when she'd fallen in love with the orange-clad shinobi.

"I don't know Ino. Probably around the same time as you did. During my pregnancy, the dear boy was always over at my parents' house checking on me, making sure I rested, making sure I ate. He even stopped by one cold morning just to carry me to an appointment I had with Tsunade midway through my pregnancy when I was really sick during my second trimester. It got to the point that I wanted him in that delivery room with me when Satsuki was born.", sighed Sakura as she brushed a strand of pink out of her eye.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. He was there for me as well. Naruto was more like an expectant father. Always walking with me to my appointments, checking up on me during the day when I was home. He told me once, and I believe that he did the same thing with you since we were pregnant at the same time, that if he had to leave on a mission during my pregnancy, whenever he returned he would come check on me before reporting to the Hokage and turning in his report.", replied Ino.

Sakura nodded as she remembered the kindness that Naruto shared with them equally. When she had her mood swings, Naruto was there to take any and all of her punches and kicks. Closing her eyes and smiling, Sakura thought about the times since Satsuki was born and he'd offer to take care of her whenever Sakura got busy. Sakura assumed that her teammate did the same for Ino and wondered what Naruto did to keep the attentions of both children since Satsuki always cried whenever her mother came to pick her up from her 'Uncle Naruto'.

Lost in thought neither Sakura nor Ino reacted when a familiar long-haired kunoichi timidly approached them. When the kunoichi was less than two feet away, both the blonde and the pinkette reacted and snatched weapons from their packs. It took a second for both women to recognize the addition to the group and when they did, the pair wanted to groan. However the look on the woman's face stilled their protests.

"Hinata.", both Ino and Sakura stated.

"Ino, Sakura. Nice to see you today.", replied the Hyuuga Clan head.

"Feelings mutual, how are you today?"

"Just left the hospital after taking a few tests and receiving my regular check-up. Other than that I'm fine."

Ino and Sakura glanced at each other out of the corner of their eyes. Something wasn't adding up here. This Hinata reminded them of the timid girl they knew back in the academy. Not the confident woman recently promoted to Tokubetsu Jonin and head of her own Clan. Before they could comment on it, the lavender-eyed girl broke down and started crying and beginning their forgiveness for her actions. Ino and Sakura looked at each other again with confused looks on their faces. What was Hinata apologizing for?

Seeing that she was closer, Sakura gently patted Hinata's head and soothed her tears. Hearing the hiccupped reason why Hinata was apologizing, Sakura stilled for a moment. Just as she was about to comment, the medical kunoichi saw her daughter crawl up in Hinata's lap and sit there with her thumb in her mouth while looking at her mother with those expressive seagreen eyes. Taking a deep breath, Sakura started to speak again.

"Hinata, why should you be apologizing to us about what you did? You loved him before either of us did and you stuck by him even during the time he was absent from the village. While Ino and I were still lusting after the bastard, you never wavered in your love for Naruto. You saw who he was and how kind he could be before we even realized it. You deserve to have lost your virginity to him. He was the first and only man you ever loved. Ino and I, we were fools. But now we realize what is more important to us than loving Naruto. My daughter is more important to me now than some lust for Naruto. I'm sure Ino feels the same. Right now, I just want to go back to our friendship from those times."

A teary-eyed Hinata looked up and saw the gleam of truth in Sakura's eyes and the same thing in Ino's eyes. Feeling a sense of sisterhood with the blonde and the pinkette, Hinata felt better and wasn't as worried about the news she' just received from her doctor. Taking a deep breath, Hinata decided to tell her rivals….no her friends the news.

Grasping Ino's hand with her left hand and Sakura's hand with her right, Hinata told them the news.

She was pregnant with Naruto's child.

Behind the three women, TenTen stood with Temari as both kunoichi observed the reborn friendship between the classmates. Grinning to herself, TenTen turned to her friend and exclaimed.

"About dammed time those three got their act together. It was beginning to wear on my nerves!"

Temari looked at TenTen and chuckled.

"Bullshit Ten-chan!!! To you this was like one of those pervy daytime soap operas you love to watch."

"I'm not the only one 'mari-chan. Remember you stopped by my house frantic about missing even a little bit of 'Shinobi Hospital'.", laughed TenTen as she turned her attention from where Hinata was playing with the newest additions to the Haruno and Yamanaka Households.

&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&

And with those words, I close the book on Chapter Two of 'Promises in Snow and Ice'. I hope you enjoyed reading this.

First off, I would like to give much thanks to one of the best Beta-Readers (and one Shit Hot Author in her own right) I've ever had. Lovesrainscent, Thank you again for helping me get this chapter done and keeping it legible and understandable. I owe you more than I can ever repay!  Y'all have got to read her stories, especially her YoshinoxShikaku story 'Holding Out for a Hero'. In this chapter, I wrote Yoshino Nara the way she was meant to be. LRS blazed the way with her portrayal of the Matriarch of the Nara Clan and the mother of Konoha's Lazy Genius.

Next, for those of you HinataxNaruto shippers doing the happy dance after reading the scene between Hinata, Ino, and Sakura, I am going to reiterate my point: This is a NarutoxYukie(Koyuki) pairing!!! Not A NarutoxHinata or NarutoxHarem fic!!! I wrote that scene because I felt that since I'm about to crush Hinata's dreams of marrying Naruto, I'd better give her the consolation prize of being the mother of Naruto's first born!! I'm not such a cruel guy afterall!!! 

Next, the part about Naruto reuniting spiritually with his birth parents was an in depth variation of something I read in Simon R. Green's book 'Beyond the Blue Moon'. Read that awesome book to figure out what I'm talking about.

Preview Time!!!!!

Next chapter, I'm going to reveal more about the mystery woman Tsunade was referring to when she was punishing Konoha's Party Boy Posse. Shizune gets some!! ;) You can thank LRS for authoring Shizune's lemon scene and find out who Shizune was lusting after earlier in this chapter. I GUARON-DAMN-TEE Y'all, its gonna come waaay outta right field and You'll be-hopefully-pleasantly surprised! Also, Tsunade gives birth, the Chunin Exam (and another surprise there), and possibly the start of Naruto's search to keep his promise; plus he learns a new jutsu.

For you Uchiha lovers, there is a strong possibility that the Uchiha brothers might make an appearance next chapter Since I haven't started writing the chapter yet, I haven't completely decided whether or not to let them slither their way in or have them cool their Sharingan heels until the following chapters. One last thing before I sign off for now; keep in mind that I'm only up to Naruto Manga Volume 31 so, I might be completely off the storyline in some respects as I write this story. I'm also introducing a new group of villains. I will reveal here that they are second tier (more powerful) members of the dreaded Akatsuki. I'm still mentally debating the addition so they may be 'round filed' before I even start writing about them.

Tune in for the next exciting chapter of 'Promises in Snow and Ice'!!! I'll sure as shootin' see you there!!

Knightewolfe

Knightewolfe's Lair

11/08