- Two Steps from Hell: "Norwegian Pirate" (Archangel)
19. The Girl from the Whirlpool
The village was more crowded than Minato had ever seen a village before. There seemed to be thousands of them, crammed in the streets because of their numbers, moving around to find an available room to live in. Something close to a police force was trying to guide them here and there so the already settled villagers could get to their destinations; there was loud talking, discussions and the atmosphere was filled with what seemed awfully like desperation.
It had affected their little group of six, too. His team had dropped their jaws (Kakashi's expression told him as he couldn't see behind his mask), and the two other jounin tried and failed to find possibilities to get through the mass of people without being noticed.
It seemed, Minato had to admit, impossible.
"Okay, it's not so bad," he said, but didn't sound at all convinced. Kushina gave him a look of incredulity.
"There are thousands down there!" she hissed.
"And they're distracted," Minato pointed out, trying to reassure himself that what he was saying made sense. "They're desperate to find somewhere to stay, and everyone else seems to be in trouble as well. They won't notice if we try to pass them."
"We could walk along the water," general Hiromu said. "They're fewer there as far as I can tell."
"Where are we meeting our transporters?" Minato asked.
"We're meeting a middle-man on the smallest port," the general replied and pointed. "He's going to show the way. The smugglers can't reveal themselves in the open."
The general took a deep breath.
"Let's do this," he said, and crawling away from the edge, he got up and walked as silently as he could towards the ocean, where the least light hit the stone wall. The others followed.
The stones were slippery and cold as they walked down them, and even though their chakra sources helped them keep to their feet, the pitch-black ocean and the matching sky did nothing to improve their way down to the village; despite being unnoticed by the darkness of the night, they could barely see where they placed their feet, thus making their progress slow.
Finally, they landed on solid ground, and sneaked their way to the seaside, avoiding street lamps and light coming from houses.
There were more people than they had expected, and far from few by the water. Luckily, Minato was right; they didn't pay any attention to the six Konoha-nin. Everyone seemed to be talking to someone already, and in loud discussions. Though for the safety of it all, the general suggested they used Henge to stand a little less out. After all, some of them were pretty known; the general was spoken of in every country, Kakashi didn't look much different from his father and Minato was listed in every bingo book.
Plus, both Minato and Kushina's hair colours were hard to oversee.
Impersonating regular villagers made it easier to move around, but it was hard to not look suspicious. Every time they walked underneath the light of a lamp post, Minato avoided looking at anyone. A few policemen tried to speak to them – maybe they thought they needed a place to stay, too – and a few salesmen came running towards them, but lost them as soon as they had trickily slipped inside a dark alley or a shortcut. Finally, after receiving only a few suspecting glares, which still concerned Minato, they reached a small port, populated by only a few men. The general signaled for the other five to hide behind a small, red boat house, while he walked around the corner and approached an old, round-bellied man sitting on a chair, smoking a pipe.
He handed the man a letter, which the old man read thoroughly. They spoke a few words to each other – the other men looked as though they were trying hard to listen – and then the old man pointed towards the sea.
The general came back, and told them what Minato had already figured.
"We have to cross the sea by ourselves for a few hundred meters," he said. "The ship is banned from these ports."
Making sure the coast was clear, they walked to the water, activating chakra in their feet. Minato walked behind his team to make sure they were all right – not that they couldn't control their chakra well by now – and they set off in the direction the old man had shown them.
It was a cold walk. The November wind blasted over the water, and salty drops hit their faces and clothes. Soon they could easily have taken a quick shower and feel as equally wet. The ship they were supposed to go aboard had turned their lights off, making it a barely visible, dark spot against an already dark canvas, and it seemed to be miles away. Minato took one quick look behind him – the village was far away, looking like a glittering stone with all its lights.
He looked back at the boat and assumed they were halfway there.
Splash.
The six of them stopped dead in their tracks, Minato shoving the three kids behind him before he could properly see what had come up from the water. It wasn't one thing – it was at least twenty shinobi surrounding them, facing the six intruders.
The twenty shinobi raised their weapons, carefully approaching them.
"You are not villagers from this town," one of them said.
"No," the general said; denying it would be useless, seeing as six people, dressed as regular civilians as though they weren't shinobi, were walking the ocean.
"Who are you?" another said.
The general didn't reply to this. Instead, he gave Minato and Kushina a sort of sideways nod – Minato knew he meant that they had to get to the boat quickly – and drew a weapon. But before he had done anything, Kushina interrupted.
"I'll handle this."
The general didn't seem convinced that this was a good idea.
"Let her do it," Minato said, receiving a rather surprised look from Kushina (the effect was not the same, seeing as she was dressed as a thirty year old housewife). However, the general knew of Minato's judgement, and had more often found it good. He nodded.
"Let's get these away from here," the general said and placed a hand on Obito's shoulder.
They neither felt nor looked very impressive, so the twenty Iwa-nin surrounding them grinned and got ready to face the girl, twenty-on-one.
"A lesson for you," Minato said in a low voice, crouching between Rin and Kakashi. "Of why you shouldn't underestimate your enemies. Watch closely."
Kushina crouched down and placed her palm on the top of the water. It started to respond to the chakra, making tiny swirls.
After all, Kushina's nature was water.
"Are you going to -" Minato started, and Kushina nodded. Rummaging in his pocket, he took out one of his Hiraishin kunai; Kushina accepted it without second thought.
"Just pick me up when I'm done."
A gap between two of the shinobi appeared in the water; it was there for half a second before two large waves erupted from each side of it, raising above the two tall men – they were distracted and backed off -
"Now!" the general shouted, and shoving Obito, Kakashi and Rin in front of them, Minato and Hiromu slipped through the gap and ran towards the boat.
"Follow them!" he heard someone behind them say, but they didn't look back; soon, they heard a splash behind them, a noise that sounded as though someone had been swallowed in the water.
Kushina wanted to make sure the five of them were safely on the ship before she did her final technique, but managed to hold the enemies back. She had perfect control of the whimsical water; she was, after all, quite whimsical herself.
The ship towered above them as they reached it, and a shabby ladder was lowered down to them. The youngest went first, then Minato, and the general last. They climbed aboard the ship, and without looking at any of the crew members, the general got out a torch light and flashed it once to show Kushina that they were safely aboard.
The sea became violent. The ship was too far away to be affected by Kushina's technique, but it rocked more and more; a large whirlpool was forming itself where Kushina was crouching on the water, too quickly for the twenty shinobi to escape. And Minato knew that a strong whirlpool was too strong for even the user to get rid off – hence the kunai – and a strong whirlpool was what Kushina needed right now.
The shinobi were sucked inside the swirling water, and Kushina used as much chakra in her feet as she could just to keep to the edge of it – suddenly, a single man showed up behind her, and she turned around just in time to react – making a move with her right arm, the water behind them rose in a large wave that was without doubt going to end them both inside the swirling mass of the gigantic whirlpool, and Minato disappeared from the boat, reappearing in time to get a firm grip around Kushina's waist before he felt his body being forced down and something hit him hard on the back – cold ocean swallowed them, disabling them from breathing, and he nearly lost the grip around her, and barely able to think, he pictured the seal he had placed on the boat -
He suddenly felt fresh, cold air hit his face as he fell to his knees on wood and both he and Kushina drew their breaths hard. His head felt heavy with the seconds that had passed in which he had been watching the dreadful scene and then almost been drowned by the stream; clutching Kushina in an even firmer grip, water dripping from his again blonde hair and his regular clothes, refusing to let go, he thought with dread what would have happened if he hadn't given her the kunai.
"You two all right?" the general asked; he had rushed over as soon as he had seen them reappear. It seemed to wake Minato up; a little reluctantly, he let go of Kushina, but stole a look at her.
"Yeah, we're fine," he breathed.
"Not a second too late," the general said, patting Minato on the shoulders, who leaned against the wooden wall surrounding the ship.
"Had you shown up a second earlier, we wouldn't have been drenched like this," Kushina said as she stroked strands of wet hair from her face, but grinned at him. Minato raised an eyebrow, but smiled.
That girl was really something.
The crew members seemed to be enjoying their company. They were interested in almost everything they had to say, and provided them with food, water, and, mostly for Minato and Kushina's sakes, thick woollen blankets. They were still wet to the bones, but warmth spread slowly from the blankets to their bodies. Also, they soon found out that a smuggler's diet tasted far better than they had expected.
The chef had taken a seat beside them as the food was served, and he proved to be both a good cook and a knowledgeable man.
"Maybe you know why the small villages have been abandoned?" the general asked.
The chef shuddered. "It's a horrible tragedy," he said darkly. "I don't usually like people from the Earth, but no one deserves to experience such a disaster."
"What happened?" Kushina asked as she filled her spoon with soup.
"Their children started to disappear. At first they were a few, mainly from one village. They thought they had gotten lost and were sure they would return. But they never did. Then, several more disappeared from their homes. And soon, more of the smallest villages were affected. No one knows who the culprit is, or how many they are … But after a while, everyone decided to leave for the bigger villages. None of them have been affected so far, and they have tighter security. I guess they went there to get help, but all they've done is to cause a chaos."
"And there are no signs of where the children are?" Kushina asked, looking concerned.
"Nothing," the chef replied. "Disappeared as though they never existed. Gone."
Rin looked to be on the verge of tears; Minato patted her consolingly on her head.
"They may still be alive," he reassured her.
"Maybe," the chef said, shrugging. "I try not to think too much about it. Not much I can do, anyway."
They went to bed after their meal, exhausted from the long walk from Konoha. A smuggler's bed, however, was a hammock; a little less comfortable than expected, but better than hard ground.
It was unusual to be on a boat. Minato had seen several, but never been on one before; neither had his companions, it seemed. The general had fled to the deck for fresh air, and Kakashi looked a little green as he lay down in his hammock. Kushina, who was no doubt used to the sea, had fallen asleep as soon as she had drawn her blanket over her. Minato felt a little shabby himself and gave in to sleep soon enough, but it was an uneasy one.
He dreamed that he was running through a forest full of thick, tall trees. He was lost from his group. He could hear them far away, but no matter how fast he ran they never came closer; suddenly, he stood on top of a large, wet cliff, staring out into the ocean which was full of storming whirlpools; in the middle stood a red-haired girl, frightened, staring at a large wave that rose above her, and it hit her, she fell over and disappeared in the strong stream of ocean, he screamed -
Minato woke with a start and almost fell out of his hammock. Clutching to it as though his life depended on it, he realised that he was on the boat, and that all of his companions – Kushina, too – were sleeping dearly in their own hammocks. Taking one last look at Kushina, he got up and went to the deck to see the sun get up.
The journey on the ship took five days, and with each day, the weather grew colder and whiter. During their third day, they could enjoy seeing snow for the first time in their lives – if you didn't count the tiny snowman placed on the very end of the ship. But Minato was used to the warm weather of the Fire Country, and he wasn't alone in wrapping himself up in woollen blankets and warm coats.
It was a quite lazy trip where not much happened. Being on a smuggler ship provided them with more alcohol than necessary, but taking the small genin into consideration, Minato decided to leave the alcohol for later. Most of the crew members, however, seemed to be drinking from dusk 'til dawn – even the captain came swaying for lunch one day – so the general gave Minato and Kushina the task of keeping watch.
During one particularly boring watch, Kushina had joined Minato at the seat he had taken next to the snowman, staring out in the white distance.
"Cold?" Minato asked, offering her to share his blanket. She accepted it happily, and Minato suddenly found it awkwardly weird how close they were; they had been sitting close to each other several times, but they had never shared a blanket before.
It was just something about it that made Minato smile.
"What're you smiling at?" Kushina asked, taking a sip of the hot tea she had brought.
"Nothing," Minato said quickly, copying her move.
Happy that he wasn't interrogated more about his facial expressions and their reasons and happy for being able to share a blanket with the red-haired girl, Minato found himself sleeping better than ever before. And on their fifth morning on the smuggler ship, a beautiful view met them as they went up to the deck.
In front of them was an island, not a big one; but on it, from one end to the other, was a large wall, protecting a fortress, and trees and roofs were covered in white. Around the island - which the captain mentioned was, indeed, called 'Big Island' - were several smaller islands, some quite far away. They all had names related to the winter; Penguin Island, Frozen Island, Crystal Island.
In front of the fortress was a tiny village, no doubt existing to serve the port, and people approached them as they neared the island. They looked curiously at the six strangers landing on solid ground – Minato still felt that he was swaying slightly, which was not a good feeling – but the captain of the ship led them straight through the village and over to the large front gate of the fortress.
The sight was not what they had expected.
All around the wall and across the area between the port village and the front gate, hundreds of snowmen had been made, all of them with pointy sticks for arms and pebbles for eyes and mouth. A few of them were awarded old hats, and others glared, not at the village or the ocean, but at them. Even though it was child's play, it was quite freaky.
"Who are you?"
The voice came from behind them, and they all turned around.
"Ah," the captain said. "There you are. I'll leave these to you, then."
With a final nod to the Konoha shinobi, the captain returned to his ship.
The person that had appeared behind them was a girl, not much older than Minato and Kushina. She was wearing a long pair of pants – a smarter move than Kushina's usual shorts and leggings – and a thick jacket with a furry edge on the hood, and her hair was barely blonde, almost as white as the snow. She had light blue eyes and pale skin, but her cheeks were pink.
"We're shinobi of Konoha," the general said. "My name is Yuuhi Hiromu."
"You're the organised leader, I believe?" the girl asked.
"That's right."
"And which of you is the strongest?"
A moment passed in which Minato contemplated why she was demanding such information, but at last, he took a step forward.
The girl didn't reply. She looked at him for a moment, before she drew a kunai from a pocket, still keeping her eyes on his. The move was unexpected, yet she didn't attack, and Minato understood; this girl was their strongest soldier, and she had one task: to fight him. And she wasn't going to wait.
Minato signalled for his team to get out of his way, and they did so, following the general to the wall. Kushina lingered a moment to observe the girl, who had crouched on the ground.
Though when Kushina took a step away, the girl's eyes shot at her, and Minato realised before it happened -
She's after her.
Ice shot up from the ground, sneaking around Kushina's legs and trapping her, and suddenly, the girl vanished from the spot and appeared in amazing speed before Kushina; however, before she could strike, Minato had blocked her.
The girl jumped back and smirked.
"I see, so you're fast as well," she said. "Let's see just how fast."
It didn't take long before Minato had figured out the girl's strategy. They battled for a moment; a few times, the girl made to attack Kushina, at which Minato always appeared before her (Kushina was still keeping the kunai Minato had given her during the fight with the Earth) and kicked, hit or threw the girl out of the way.
It looked at first as though the girl was using a technique similar to the Hiraishin technique; she appeared at random places to strike at different angles. Though one thing remained with every disappearance and reappearance: she was always replaced by a snowman, and appeared where a snowman had once been.
This tactic made it more difficult to defend Kushina, seeing as he had to defend himself from attacks involving snow and ice and that the girl was very fast. Kushina was still stuck, frustratingly enough, and everything she did to crush the ice only made the situation worse; the ice became thicker and stronger.
While Minato had in the beginning thought that the girl was after Kushina because of the Kyuubi, the fight didn't seem to be for that reason at all. Whenever Minato kept his distance to the girl to attack, she charged at Kushina, forcing him to battle on short range, and he was relieved when he realised that this girl had no idea who Kushina was.
"Hide your chakra," Minato told Kushina after throwing the girl away again; she landed next to a snowman and disappeared. "The ice responds to it."
Kushina did as she was told and closed her eyes to concentrate, not bothering with keeping an eye up for the now deadly fight that happened inches away from her. Slowly, the ice started to melt away, and Kushina began to fight against her impatience that came with what undoubtedly was anger at being trapped.
Minato crouched and inserted chakra in the ground; a violent wind erupted from it, throwing the girl backwards, snow dancing in the wind like dust.
Kushina was now free, and out of anger, her head worked the wrong way; she made an attempt in throwing quick, sharp water towards the girl, but they froze to thin, sharp shards of ice stuck to the ground. However, Minato saw the fragility of the ice, and working up enough wind, he blasted at them, they broke free from the ground and raced towards the girl, who disappeared. Minato had foreseen where she was about to appear and drew his sword just in time to block the kunai she was striking with from behind Kushina -
"That's enough."
The voice came from the large front gate. The girl immediately withdrew her weapon and straightened up, while Minato only lowered his sword. A man in his fifties had appeared from the gate, wearing magnificent colours of light blue, purple and yellow. His face looked very kind and gentle; plus, he was somewhat fat.
"I'm happy to see you've figured out a bit more about Konoha's strongest soldier," he told the girl smilingly, who smiled back. He turned to Minato. "I have no intention of fighting with you, as you may well see – I'm not exactly built for battle – but do enter, please."
He made a gesture towards the gate, welcoming them inside. The general nodded, and after Minato had placed his sword back in its sheath, they followed the girl inside the wall.
"This is Naru," the man said, pointing at the girl Minato had just fought. "She goes as both our strongest soldier and our strongest weapon. The snowmen we have outside -" he pointed unnecessarily towards the gate, "- are hers. They keep watch for us, and if Naru activates them, they are quite fine soldiers, as well."
Minato was a little taken aback at this piece of news. He pictured a battle field, filled with deadly snowmen.
"My name is Shiho," the man continued. "I am the lord of this fortress. Our country does not have a name, we don't want to draw too much attention to ourselves. Though it does comfort to have allies on the big continent that we can trust."
"Of course," the general said. "You may know that we are in a quite similar situation, except that we live close to our enemies."
"I do," Shiho said. "Now, I am curious. Where is your strongest weapon?"
He looked at them as though expecting to see them take out something from their pockets, and his eyes lingered on Minato.
"Kushina is," Minato answered, gesturing towards her and making a mental note that he should apologise later for calling her a weapon.
"You don't say?" Shiho said with genuine interest. "Let's talk inside, I can see you are freezing. It must be warmer in the Fire country."
He led them through a pair of tall oak doors that led inside a small hall with a long table in the middle. The chef from the smuggler ship had apparently gone ahead and made food; he was standing by the chair on the very end, already having placed plates, glasses and different meals on the table.
"Sit down," Shiho said, placing himself on the end of the table. Naru took a seat on his right hand, while the general, Minato and Kushina found seats on the left. Rin, Kakashi and Obito sat down next to Naru.
"So tell me, while you tuck in," Shiho said, grabbing a piece of bread and turning to Kushina. "What is this weapon you hold?"
"The Kyuubi," Kushina said without hesitating. Shiho dropped the bread as he stared, and Naru's chopsticks stopped before they reached her mouth as she looked up.
"I had no idea you were in possession of it," Shiho said. "Personally, I have little interest in the tailed beasts, but it's always a comfort to know where they are. Not that they're likely to cross the sea."
"I think most of the tailed beasts have a host at the moment," Kushina said. "Though I'm not sure who."
"But this makes me curious," Naru shot in. "If you are the weapon, meaning you're hosting a tailed beast, how come you're not stronger than him?"
She pointed at Minato, and Kushina suddenly blushed a little.
"Well, the problem is," she began. "The Kyuubi is very hard to control. If I try to use its chakra, it will either drain mine or try to take me over. So the progress so far is taking a while."
"I see," Naru said.
"By the way," Minato said, something coming to his mind. "If you were supposed to fight me, how come you used Kushina?"
Naru smiled. She had come out as cold and merciless when they had first met, but now, her eyes were filled with warmth.
"I like to see how other people protect their comrades," she explained. "To see if they can earn my trust. That's what the whole point of the battle was, really. So I thought that using your girlfriend would be a good move."
Kushina choked on the salmon she was eating, and Minato blinked. Never, ever, in his whole life, had he met anyone who been that straight-forward. And never, ever, in his whole life, had someone spoken to him about Kushina in girlfriend-related terms in her presence.
"Oh, Kushina's not my girlfriend," Minato explained, trying to keep his voice calm. "We're just friends."
"Really," Naru said, gazing at the two of them for a moment and not at all sounding convinced. She had no doubt observed them through the snowman on the deck as they shared a blanket, and come to the wrong conclusion.
"Good friends, no doubt," Shiho smiled at them and waved at the chef to pour them more wine. "That's something we appreciate in our allies. Oh, I forgot to ask, who brought these?" He looked curiously at Minato's team.
"They're with me," Minato said, happy for the change of subject. He thought he could see Kushina staring very determinedly at her plate. "They're my team."
"I see," Shiho said. "Still genin?"
"Still genin?" Obito repeated, taking the question a bit offensively. "We've only been out of the Academy for, like, less than a year."
"Kakashi is unofficially chuunin," Minato added.
"And so young!" Shiho exclaimed happily. "And they're already out on a B-ranked mission. I'm impressed."
Rin beamed, Obito looked proud and Kakashi might as well have not heard it; his eyes showed no expression whatsoever.
"Well, eat up, I'll show you the fortress after," Shiho said eagerly.
Minato shot a look at Kushina, who looked back, and he winked at her. She looked down at her plate, blushing again.
Oh, how he loved to embarrass that girl.