Disclaimer – Kishimoto owns Naruto and the characters therein.

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Memories Of Others

Chapter 58

A Chunin Triumphant

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"Both captives… and corpse… sent back to Konoha." Naruto said. Predictably, Kakashi didn't even bother to look embarrassed over the fact that he was the only one who had killed his adversary rather than capturing them for Ibiki to question.

"Team ten ready for action." Asuma stated from where he and his trio of genin had been waiting after Naruto had brought them back from Konoha. "What's the plan?"

"We don't know much beyond the fact that Anko's in a room on that airship thing." Kakashi said, pointing at the distant speck just above the horizon. "I'd suggest two waves. Team Hiraishin first, then your team brought in by Naruto's clones in order to help secure the airship."

"Yeah, makes sense." Asuma agreed. "We're primarily a capture team with a secondary of defense, great for backup, not so great for taking down large numbers of enemies."

"By the way, how's Yukie-san?" Naruto asked.

"I think she's about to marry that lech Jiraiya or something." Ino grumbled. "She's always on his arm and laughing at his stories…"

Hinata and Naruto exchanged horrified looks.

"I thought that Pervy-sage's boasts were just boasts…" Naruto breathed.

"It's not like that." Asuma sighed. "Jiraiya's been assigned as her protector while in Konoha and several of our other shinobi are helping. Heck, Ino's dad's giving her some covert therapy. With luck, we'll be able to persuade her to accept a couple of advisers when she claims the throne of Snow, giving us another ally. Given what lies ahead of us, the more allies we get, the better."

Naruto nodded in agreement, as did Hinata and Kakashi, then Naruto twitched.

"That was another pulse." Hinata mused. "Naruto-kun, Kakashi-senpai, I think we should go, or Anko-san will become annoyed with us."

"On it." Naruto declared, creating half a dozen clones who promptly took position beside the other shinobi. "Kakashi, do you want give the command?"

"Actually, I think I'll follow your lead." Kakashi said with an eye-smile. "Think of it as… another test."

Naruto gave him a flat look, then waved for the first two clones to get ready.

"Aim to surround Anko in five… four… three…"

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"Hahahahahahahaha!" Doto laughed as he held the crystal necklace up so that it sparkled in the light. "At last, the key to the treasure that my damned brother hid away, the treasure that will let me build an army to conquer the lesser nations, then the greater ones! Soon, I shall rule over an empire!"

"I wasn't aware that this was a film." Yukie sneered from where she had been tied to a chair mounted in the center of the bridge. "I mean, you have the whole villainous monologue down pat… did you write it yourself, or did you get someone who actually had a brain to do it for you?"

Doto froze, his hand slowly descending as he turned to stare disbelievingly at his niece.

"You do realize that the only reason I'm keeping you alive is in case your father encoded the lock to your chakra, right?" He asked and Yukie tossed her head defiantly.

"Ha! You really think that you'll be able to get whatever you're after?" She scoffed. "By now, those three idiots you sent down have been defeated and you are about to join them."

Doto blinked several times, trying to work out why she wasn't reacting like he had expected her to.

"Your plan is ill-thought out and makes no allowance for things going wrong." Yukie continued. "Things like unexpected shinobi, for instance."

A trio of people suddenly materialized around Yukie, dropping into defensive stances.

"About time." Yukie said as she was suddenly engulfed in smoke. "What kept you?"

Doto's eyes widened as Yukie was replaced by a female shinobi wearing little more than a skirt and coat with fishnet mail, a shinobi who shed the ropes binding her as easily as if they hadn't been tied in the first place.

"Guards!" Doto screamed and the hatch at the back of the bridge opened, revealing a dozen of his soldiers. "Kill the intruders!"

Another four shinobi appeared and the oldest of the newcomers pointed at Doto.

"You three capture him, we'll take the others down! Hinata, bridge crew!"

Doto raised his hands to begin making the signs that would unleash a smaller version of his main attack, only for his arms to freeze.

"Heh, looks like chakra armor doesn't block my shadow bind." The teenage boy with the pineapple hairstyle smirked as the other shinobi tore into his guardsmen. "I was worried that this would be troublesome… Choji, thunderclap him."

Doto strained to escape as the second boy stood before him, his arms spread out, then Choji swung his arms forwards and Doto found himself turning so that the suddenly-large hands slammed into him from the front and rear at once, leaving him feeling as if a pair of barn doors had hit him. A sparking from his chestplate indicated that the impact had shorted out his chakra shield, then the girl spoke, her hands forming a handseal he'd never seen before.

"Shintenshin no jutsu!"

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Naruto lunged forwards, his hands flickering as he used everything Tenten had taught him to send a barrage of shuriken screaming into the room filled with Doto's thugs. Although the shuriken were too small to deliver any fatal injuries to the armored warriors, the ricochets and resulting cuts caused almost half of them to flinch, stumble and even fall, hampering the attacks of the other guards. One guard managed to lunge forwards and Naruto delivered a chakra-infused tree-felling punch that sent him hurtling to the rear to the guardroom.

Kakashi and Asuma accelerated past Naruto and plowed through the first rank without even slowing, Asuma's blades seeming to ripple due to the futon chakra layered over them while Kakashi's kunai sparked with raiton chakra, glowing trails briefly showing the arcs and slashes that he used against his targets. Within seconds, all of the guards were down, crippled or unconscious.

"…wow." Hinata said quietly as the last member of the bridge crew collapsed by her feet. "I… I've never seen someone attack like that before… wow."

"Doto captured!" Choji announced and everyone turned to see Doto, his armor removed, writhing and squrming as he tried to escape the ropes that held him captive, his threats and shouts muffled by the gag in his mouth.

"Nice work." Asuma said as he send a pulse of futon chakra down his knives to clean the blood off them before returning them to their concealed holsters. "Now, what do we do about the other airship?"

"They won't know that anything's happened." Naruto stated. "If they find out, I can throw a kunai across and use that to jump."

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed as he examined the controls, ignoring the groaning pilot slumped to one side. "So, where are we headed?"

"Naruto, send the survivors to Ibiki." Kakashi commanded. "And bring back Yukie and Jiraiya."

"Hai!"

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"Over there, that valley." Yukie (or as she now agreed to be called, Princess Koyuke) said, pointing to an otherwise unremarkable dip between two of the lower mountains that surrounded Kajiyachō, the capital city (and primary locus of manufacturing) of the Land of Snow.

"It'll be interesting to see what this treasure is." Jiraiya said from where he was sat at a portable desk, his pen darting over several pages as he worked on turning one of his books into script form, Sandaya standing just behind him and occasionally offering advice on word choice and how things would appear through a camera. "Princess?"

"I don't know." Kuyuke said with a helpless shrug. "Father said that it would end the eternal grip of winter, but he never went into details. Not even the teams he commanded knew what he was up to."

"I only managed to rescue Koyuke from her uncle's forces because of their sacrifice." Kakashi said from his perch by the window. "The engineers covered our escape… quite explosively."

"I remember the explosions." Koyuke confirmed in a whisper. "Once I've taken my throne, I'll have a monument built for them."

A long silence settled over the shinobi on the bridge, only for it to be broken by an unexpected source.

"You know, I don't think I've ever been here before." Kurama mused as he looked out of the floor-to-ceiling glass wall at the slowly-scrolling landscape below. "Huh. Over four centuries of running around avoiding people and it never once occurred to me that simply by snuggling down in a snowy valley, I could stay hidden."

"I… have no clue what to say about that." Kakashi admitted.

"Altering course, starting our descent." Shikamaru said from his position behind the control wheel. "Sensei, can we get one of these? It beats walking, hands down."

"Sorry, but it's a bit too obvious." Asuma sighed. "We need stealth for capturing our enemies and this thing can be seen coming from miles away."

Shikamaru sighed and turned his attention back to the control levers.

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The airship came to rest with only one bump and Shikamaru nodded in satisfaction as he slowly shut down the engines.

"The other ship is landing behind us." Hinata said, the veins around her eyes bulging as she observed the other craft. "Only twenty people on board… most of them still putting the final bits in place."

"Uncle deployed an airship while it was still under construction?" Koyuke gasped in horrified shock. "What was he thinking?"

"I'll head over and deploy clones to take them down." Naruto said as he transformed to look like the now-in-captivity Doto. "I'll leave a couple of clones to bring reinforcements over. Sorry, Shika, but I think Hinata and Kakashi are best for this."

"Recon and assassination." Asuma nodded. "Once they've landed, I'll escort Koyuke-sama to the place her father told her to put her necklace before…"

Asuma trailed off rather than talk about the assassination of the previous Daimyo of Snow, earning a grateful look from Koyuke.

"I'll go with you." Kurama said as he trotted across from the windows. "I'm sensing odd chakra around here and I want to see what it is."

"Then we have a plan." Naruto said as he strode out of the hatch and stepped down to the ground.

"Be careful!" Hinata called after him and Naruto waved at her before concentrating on projecting the air of arrogant entitlement that Doto had displayed right up to the point where he had been overpowered. As he walked towards the airship that was touching down, he put a slight scowl on his face. The expression worked and the outer hatch was snatched open even before he had arrived at the bottom of the three steps leading up to it.

"Lord Doto." The captain saluted. "What are your orders?"

Naruto raised his hands and suddenly the cabin was filled with duplicates who moved almost instantly, taking down the crew before they could do more than start gawking. An instant later, Kakashi and Hinata were beside him, looking round.

"Huh, you could have left some for us." Kakashi half-joked as the last crewmember was tied up.

"Well, let's scroll them up and… send them to Konoha?"

"Actually, I have a better idea." Naruto interrupted. "Remember where Gato's men were put back in Wave?"

"The quarry." Kakashi agreed. "Do you think that they'll let us use it for that again?"

"I'm already asking." Naruto countered. "Aaaaaaand…. Yep. Tazuna says to go for it. Hah! Cheeky bastard's threatening to charge it as a C-rank since these guys'll need guards to keep them from running off."

"Tell him we'll knock a high-D-rank off the reparations owed and then send a message to the outpost to get them to provide the guards until someone can sort out those merely following orders from those who actively supported Dono." Kakashi decided. "Oh, and send a clone to Tsunade to let her know my decision."

"Already on it." Naruto laughed, then he blinked. "Um, wasn't it all snowy out there a moment ago?"

"What. The. Hell?" Kakashi asked in shock.

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"Climate generators." Asuma said as the trio jogged towards him, glancing round at the giant slabs of faintly-glowing mirror-rock arranged around the central crystal pillar. "Sanduya was kind enough to explain it to us… thanks for letting us use two of your clones to retrieve him, by the way, it turns out that he was assigned to protect the project manager in addition to his other duties. The generator creates a bubble which warms things up inside it, allowing for more crops to be planted and so on. Apparently it's based on an old Uzumaki design."

"Like the one that Kono…" Kakashi started before cutting himself off. "Oh, right. While you're probably cleared for that info, Naruto, I'm afraid that you aren't, Hinata. Sorry."

"Hey guys." Shikamaru called from where he and his team-mates were standing guard over Koyuke and Sandayu. "The report for this mission is going to be very troublesome…"

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