I do not own Naruto Shippuden or any of the characters.
Icy Introduction
The next day, Yukie burst out onto the deck and started shouting at Kakashi to turn the ship around. No one listened.
"She's not going to be much fun to guard is she?" Tenten questioned.
"Nope," Naruto sighed. "This is going to be a long mission."
"Yep," Sakura agreed.
After about fifty minutes or so, the camera crew was ready to shoot and assorted weapons had been driven into the deck to make it look like there had been a battle. The actors and Yukie took their places, Brit and Tsukuyaku both leaning against the railing behind the camera while Shishimaru lay down amidst the weapons with Yukie on her knees facing away. After a moment, she turned around and acted sad, making all of the Leaf genin stare in awe except Lee who Naruto thought might start drooling soon. After a moment, Yukie told the camera man to stop and asked Sandayu for her eye drops. He rushed forward putting two in each eye making tears stream down Yukie's face. Naruto rolled his eyes and looked to Tsukuyaku for any form of explanation.
"Yukie hasn't been able to cry for along as I've known her," the actor stated. "She's always had to rely on those eye drops. During the last movie, we had to halt production for a week when she ran out. No one was pleased."
"She never cries?" Lee questioned, sounding disappointed.
"Sorry Lee," Naruto grinned. "You're going to have to cry on your own shoulder."
The two actors both burst out laughing as did the ninja and the Director simply sighed, since they were finished the scene anyway. His assistant was restraining a laugh of his own. The weapons were cleaned up quickly and the deck cleared of the majority of the people who seemed to prefer being below deck. Naruto walked over to stand beside Hinata who was looking out at the sea before them.
"You've been quiet since we got back," Naruto noted. "What's going on?"
"Nothing," Hinata lied unconvincingly.
"Hinata," Naruto sighed. "You shouldn't lie to your friends. Especially when you aren't very convincing."
Hinata sighed and looked down at her reflection in the water.
"My father had an argument with Kurenai Sensei today," Hinata sighed. "He made Hanabi the heiress and would have disowned me altogether but Kurenai convinced him that me not being heiress was punishment enough."
"Punishment, for what?" Naruto questioned.
"For refusing the marriage arrangement he tried to make," Hinata muttered.
"Marriage arrangement?" Naruto gasped. "He tried to marry you?"
"Not yet," Hinata stated shaking her head. "But he tried to promise me to one of the wealthier Hyuga families."
"Do I even what to know what the price was?" Naruto questioned.
"I don't know," Hinata sniffed. "But he said it was a lot higher than he would be happy to pay."
She began to sob and he pulled her into a hug, letting her bury her face in his chest to muffle her sobs. After a while, she pulled away and Naruto sighed.
"I'm sorry," Naruto apologized. "I can't even begin to know what you must be going through. Both of my parents hate the idea of arranged marriages. If Dad was awake I could have him reject any arrangement propositions but with Tsunade being Hokage, I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," Hinata sighed. "There's nothing you could do."
"Well, there is one thing," Naruto grinned. "I still have to teach you to fight with a sword."
Hinata grinned and nodded and Naruto drew his Double-Edged Swords separating them and handing one to Hinata. Then, he showed her the basic form that Itachi had drilled into him. Shisui had taught him a bit of sword play but was largely his hand to hand combat teacher while Itachi was the reverse. After a few minutes he stepped back and she went through what he had showed him first in the same order then at random as he called out the names with him correcting her as needed. After she had gotten the basics down, Naruto stepped back a bit and formed a clone for her to fight. She attacked him and he was careful to only throw attacks he knew she could block. As they sparred, Hinata's skill slowly improved. It was nothing massively incredible like his own training had been thanks to his clones. After several hours, the sun began to set behind Hinata and she stepped sideways, allowing the sun to blind Naruto's clone while she killed him. Naruto grinned and clapped and Hinata blushed. Naruto created a new clone and stood at a ninety degree angle to the sun with Hinata and Hinata attacked him. This one used a bit more advanced maneuvers and a bit more speed. Again Hinata was able to keep up, slightly, but Naruto released the clone when the sun disappeared over the horizon.
"Alright Hinata," Naruto stated. "I think that's enough for one day."
"W-what?" Hinata questioned. "N-no! I'm n-not tired!"
"I know," Naruto smiled. "But in the dark, you wouldn't be able to see where the clone's sword is and I would hate to see you get hurt. We'll continue tomorrow. I promise."
Hinata nodded and handed him the sword which he connected to the first and put away. Then he and Hinata walked into the ship and found their rooms, which were, coincidentally, across the hall from each other. The next day, Naruto awoke when the entire ship shook. A moment later the Director's assistant shouted about a problem and sounded panicked.
Naruto got dressed and rushed to the deck, finding Kakashi waiting, standing beside the Director and staring at a massive glacier that they had run aground on. It was massive in size, with a fairly level ground where they were and then a large slope and another level area before cliffs that surrounded them. Above the cliffs they could see two mountainous spires of ice rising easily a hundred feet into the air. Naruto couldn't tell why but had a bad feeling about it, which simply got worse when the Director said they would shoot a scene on it. They all got off the boat and someone dropped the anchor, just to be safe.
Naruto and Hinata walked a ways away so that he could continue her kenjutsu lessons and this time, she started out doing a bit better than when they had stopped the night before. Naruto realized she wasn't using her Byakugan and grinned. If she was, he could never land a hit without her seeing it coming. Not that he was trying to, or planning on, landing a hit anyway but still. After a few more minutes, Naruto's clone tripped Hinata and caught her and she blushed.
"Very good," Naruto smiled. "You'll have to work on your speed and your technique but eventually you'll be more than a match for me."
"I doubt it," Hinata stated, face downcast. "You're so good already. There's no way I could beat you."
"The only reason I'm as good as I am is because I use clones to speed up my training," Naruto stated. "Plus I learned from Itachi who is the best teacher I've ever met."
"Thanks a lot," Kakashi cut in walking over. "The scene's almost over. You two should get ready to board the ship."
Just then, Mao, who was supposed to attack Yukie and her companions, pointed two fingers at Yukie just as the side of the cliff behind him exploded shaking the glacier. The actor of Mao turned around asking if the explosion was a part of the scene but Kakashi, knowing it wasn't was already in front of Yukie, Naruto and Hinata on either side of him.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" the Assistant Director shouted.
"Everyone get back," Kakashi ordered.
As they watched the smoke rise from the point of the explosion, some stood from under the snow after the smoke cleared. He threw the blanket he had been covered with aside and smiled down at them.
"Welcome Friends, to the Land of Snow," the ninja greeted.
He wore a white full body suit that looked to be armored with a round piece of metal on his left shoulder with a white and blue Yin-Yang symbol in the center and large blue tubes running across his armor from it. His right arm was uncovered by his armor revealing a grey sweater sleeve. He had blueish hair in a ponytail with a single lock hanging on the right side of his face, pupilless turquoise eyes, two thin purple lines running downward from his eyes, and his eyebrows were large thick dots. He had a metal gauntlet on his right arm with an opening over the back of the hand that looked like it would launch something, likely a net or kunai.
"You!" Kakashi growled under his breath.
Suddenly, a second ninja, a female, appeared on top of an ice spike off to one side. She had pink hair with two pieces sticking out of the top of her helmet that held her forehead protector, green eyes, eyebrows similar to the first ninja's, and similar clothes. The metal piece was on her back with two pieces of metal on the sides that connected to two large curved metal spikes with wheel bearings.
"Greetings, Princess Koyuki," the woman stated. "I do hope you're still carrying around the Hex crystal."
Kakashi suddenly gasped and looked back at Yukie in shock. Then, he whipped around as a third man stood from under the snow.
"You're as good as they say Kakashi," the third Ninja sneered. "Unfortunately, it's not good enough."
He was tall and fat with a mask-style forehead protector, short messy purple hair sticking out of the top, beady black eyes, eyebrows like the other two's, and the same kind of outfit. His Yin-Yang symbol was on his stomach with tubes going first to a pauldron on his left shoulder with a flat-topped spike in the center of it, then down the same arm to a massive robotic gauntlet. It had a cannonball for a hand with metallic fingers attached to it and a hole in the palm that would likely function the same as the first ninja's gauntlet. The man also had a snowboard that had sharpened edges making it a usable weapon and could fold in half. It had two holes in the middle about where his feet would go that had a metal rod through the middle of each running lengthwise that served as handles.
"Everyone get back to the ship!" Naruto shouted. "Kakashi, you take ponytail. Lee, you got fatso."
"Fubuki, Mizore, I leave the princess to you," the one Kakashi was already running toward stated.
"Very well then," the girl, Fubuki sighed hopping off of her Ice spire as Mizore, the fat one, threw his snowboard and jumped on, propelling himself forward in a blur with chakra.
"Lee, sick 'im," Naruto grinned.
Lee smirked and darted forward, jumping into the air as Mizore drew near and spinning, planting his foot in Mizore's face and sending him flying away. Lee landed on his feet and looked back. The snowboard had continued, going airborne and blurring at Yukie. Just as it neared the others, Naruto swung his sword and sent it flying into the water with a gust of wind then leapt into the air as Fubuki threw several kunai at him while flying around using the metal spikes on her back as wings powered by chakra. The kunai had balls of ice tied to the end and the balls exploded into massive ice spikes that spread outward rapidly. Tenten grabbed Yukie and she and Sakura jumped out of the way while Hinata was picked up by Fubuki. Tenten set Yukie down and moved to help Lee, who was fighting Mizore and winning. Tenten's ninja tools bounced off of an invisible force field around Mizore that repelled everything except people, as Lee was still able to hurt him.
Naruto tried to chase Fubuki but she kept him at bay with a combination of ice bomb kunai and a jutsu called Tsubame Blizzard that sent razor sharp ice birds at him. After a couple minutes, Naruto dodged sideways and swung his sword, sending a massive blast of wind at the birds, destroying them then spinning and sending a gust at a group of kunai Fubuki had thrown at him. The kunai scattered, most exploding at random points around the glacier or in the water but one flew at Fubuki. She dropped Hinata out of surprise just as the kunai exploded against her own force field and sending ice spike raining down around Hinata. Naruto sent the majority flying with his sword then grabbed Hinata and leapt out of the way of several kunai.
"Ice Prison Jutsu!" Fubuki said landing and pressing her hand to the ground.
Massive pillars of ice shot toward Naruto out of the ground in a trail. Naruto shoved Hinata away just as one shot up around him, trapping him. Fubuki grinned and walked over to gloat just as Naruto turned into a wood stove with a paper bomb attached. She gasped as it exploded, sending her flying. As she flew, she extended her wings and righted herself just in time for Naruto to smash both feet into her back. She flew into her own ice pillars and smashed them, crashing to the ground.
Just then, Lee and Tenten crashed into Sakura as Mizore landed beside Naruto. He swung his gauntlet in an uppercut while thrusters on its elbow activated, smashing his fist into Naruto's side hard enough to send him flying.
"Naruto!" Kakashi shouted running over just in time to pull a dazed Naruto out of the way of Fubuki's kunai.
"I don't like their armor," Naruto stated.
"It's chakra armor, created by the ninja here in the Land of Snow," Kakashi stated. "But it's definitely a lot stronger than it used to be."
"You remembered," Nadare, Kakashi's opponent called out. "The armor increases the chakra within the body, strengthening a handful of the more useful jutsus. A chakra barrier gathers around us as well, able to deflect the chakra of our enemies as well. As a result, Ninjutsu and Genjutsu are rendered useless."
Naruto growled in annoyance and extended his left arm's Garian blade just as Nadare began making hand seals.
"Ice Style, Dragon Versus Tiger!" Nadare shouted.
"Water Style, Water Dragon!" Kakashi shouted forming his own seals.
A creature made out of ice with the front similar to a saber-toothed tiger and a dragon's rear exploded out of the ground behind Nadare as a water dragon shot out of the water behind Kakashi and shot toward Nadare, spiraling around the Ice creature. The dragon froze and fell away and the ice creature shot toward Kakashi and Naruto.
Naruto exhaled a Vacuum Sphere which smashed through the ice creature, reducing it to dust. Just then, Mizore shot toward Yukie, shooting threads of chakra laced string out of his hand and catching her before Sakura cut them with her kunai.
Just as Mizore threw a punch at Sakura, Naruto appeared, catching his robot arm then driving his Garian blade up through Mizore's right arm.
"AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!" Mizore screamed trying not to move his arm while seeing Naruto's red eyes with slit pupils.
"Yukie, hurry, get to the ship!" Sakura commanded.
"Hinata!" Naruto shouted. "Get her to the ship, Sakura and Tenten, go with her. Lee, Handle this fat ass."
He retracted his Garian Blade and dropped kicking Mizore away then sprinted at Fubuki who was staying away from him, now wary of his blades.
Kakashi rushed to help the others as Koyuki passed out and Nadare began forming hand seals.
"Ice Style, White Whale Jutsu!" Nadare shouted.
Just as Kakashi approached them, the glacier exploded, a massive white whale exploding out of it then collapsing on it, breaking a third off and knocking the ship loose which began floating away, the crew hauling the anchor up as fast as they could.
"Okay, that was impressive," Kakashi stated landing on an ice spire, his forehead protector pulled up. "Now it's my turn. Naruto, get everyone onto the ship!"
Naruto created clones who picked up everyone, carrying them to the ship as he followed.
Kakashi began forming hand seals then shouted, "Ice Style, White Whale Jutsu!"
"Still copying my moves?" Nadare questioned forming the same hand seals. "You're not going to settle the fight that way."
"Settle the fight?" Kakashi scoffed. "That's not really what I was aiming for at the moment."
Nadare looked up at the two massive white whales they had created crashed into each other stopping and falling straight down, completely destroying the glacier and nearly crushing the three Snow Ninja. Kakashi fled to the ship while Naruto's clones pushed it, giving it an extra boost in speed to get it away from the glacier. Then, they all released their jutsus and Naruto bent over, sighing in relief. It wouldn't be long before they were at the port they had been heading for and Naruto wanted to be rested. For that reason, he headed below deck to his bed, Kakashi wanted to do the same but couldn't.
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