Sorry for the longish break. :P
Props to Kaleidophoenix for being unbelievably awesome, as well as thanks for supplying the OC this chapter introduces.
Blizzards.
She thought she'd get used to them after the first week, but that particular deadline has been long since overshot. For the weeks she's been plodding around through this forsaken tundra, all she saw were damn blizzards and the occasional bear... at least she could eat the bears.
And the cold... always the cold, amplified by the lashing winds, currents allowed to run rampart by the obvious lack of forestry... a very intentional bit of landscaping done by the ninja of Yukigakure. They didn't have the ingenious concealment solutions Taki had, nor did they have the walls and positions of the major villages.
All that remained were the trees and the blizzards... so they went with blizzards.
The thick furs hugged her shoulders more tightly, but neither them nor her usual jacket helped stave off the cold in any way. What did the whipping winds care for a lone girl and her ambitions?
Another thick cloud briefly passed her eyes, only occasionally registered by her distracted mind. It was amusing at first, seeing one's breath; it was something she never saw in Suna, and would never be able to, had she stayed there... of course, homesickness wasn't something she could exactly focus her mind on either.
ANBU at seventeen, nuke-nin at eighteen... the story of Shakuton no Moyase wasn't a terribly new one in this world, but it was an interesting one nonetheless. Born to the sister of the woman who became known as the Hero of Sunagakure, the girl always had someone to look up to in her aunt, the woman who ascended into legend after her actions against Iwa in the Land of Ashes.
Every success of Pakura's was simply another goal for Moyase, and the girl seemed fully capable to match the deeds done by her aunt if given enough time to grow and develop. Absorbing everything her village could teach her, the young Moyase had finally attained the rank of chunin...
Not two days later, aunt Pakura was summoned to act as an envoy to Kirigakure.
Politically, it was the sound choice - trading a single woman for an entire ocean's worth of trade routes and potential raiding sites. However, no matter how clever the Yondaime Kazekage was with his politicking, he never could properly assess the worth of a shinobi.
He thought he'd be trading a woman for an ocean... what he did was sacrifice a hero for a handful of ships.
Of course, Moyase knew none of this; Had she known, odds were she would have given her life trying to end the fourth's. She was valuable, yes, but her skill could be replaced... there were enough Shakuton bearers in Suna and the Land of Wind to replenish the ranks, and insubordination couldn't be tolerated.
No... all the girl knew was that her aunt, her idol and mentor, the woman she intended to one day overtake and see smile in response, was dead - killed by the butchers from Kirigakure. The village wanted people to say it was Iwa, taking long overdue revenge for the Land of Ashes, but those who were really in the know were aware that it was little more than an attempt to placate a bunch of madmen.
Shakuton no Pakura, the hero of Sunagakure, died at the hands of Kirigakure ANBU, a sacrificial pawn in the never-ending games of the ninja nations...
Her niece, Moyase, left Suna a year after that, slipping out of the village during the Lunar festival with nothing but a pack of clothes and the Naginata on her back.
She swore an oath, but the oath was forgotten. She had a man she loved, but the man had betrayed her. She had the four letters of ANBU etched into her skin by the practiced hands of a tattoo artist, but they were little more than a decoration now.
She was a loyal shinobi of Sunagakure, but her loyalty was a casualty of their lies.
One day... when this is all done, when the blood of the men and women who killed her aunt had long since been wiped off of her weapon, she would go back to the Sand and turn herself in, take any punishment they decide to give her... but for now, all she had were links in a chain, names and locations, stories and lies.
She would follow the chain, see every link through to its' inevitable end, or better yet, end it herself.
If they were dead, she would kill their descendants, if they were retired, she wouldn't care, if they still lived, she would find them - Shakuton Moyase could not live any other way. If she left the chain alone, it would suffocate her, wrap tighter around her heart until it failed under the pressure and until she was no more.
Maybe this path... this warpath, would be the death of her. Maybe her death would be a senseless one, the kind her aunt always preached against, her body left as little more than another corpse born of the quest for revenge, but she did not have the strength to forget what had happened. She didn't have the strength to forgive.
Her bloodline kept her warm, kept her protected from the harsh winds of the Land of Snow. If she were so inclined, she could go around the tundra in the nude and wouldn't suffer for it in the least - her chakra was fire and air, the scorching heat of the desert that always trumped the fanged winds of this land. She couldn't feel cold.
Then why did the blizzards bother her so?
The village hidden in the Snow - Yukigakure.
Situated on an island on the north sea, the men and women of the hidden Snow primarily plied their bloody trade in the northlands, taking the long, cold and hard jobs that the soft Iwa ninja simply refused to do for reasons of comfort and practicality.
Their missions were hard, and they bred hard ninja, individuals that could go toe to toe with some of the best the major villages could offer... or at least they did.
As with all things, the village too began to decay. No longer did the leader accept the hard missions, his attention focused on the new technologies acquired from the vast northlands. Ships, weapons, technology that the ninja continent never could imagine... and the crown jewel - chakra armor.
Why waste time and lives building men and women into skilled shinobi when you could simply put them in chakra armor and make them unstoppable? The technology was so exquisite, so advanced... there was simply no reason not to employ it.
Given time, an individual from the village would become a powerful warlord, finalizing his plan and reaching out to reclaim the lost treasure of the Land of Snow. While his plan was ultimately fated to fail, in this particular rendition of his destiny, it never even reached its' highest point.
One day, he simply disappeared, the only trace of his existence being an unmarked grave somewhere in the tundra...
As it was, the village was dying. It would last for a while yet, but few doubted that collapse was inevitable. The prisons grew fuller, the streets more desolate. Children were rarely allowed outside of their homes, and the markets had all but closed down permanently.
It stood on a plateau, atop the sole mountain on the island tundra... Perhaps its' obvious positioning was foolishness, misguided confidence in the village's power; many rather claimed that it was a silent testament to the tenacity of the ninja that inhabited the Land of Snow, a sign that no matter how furious and hostile their environment was, they would always rise above it.
Yet, even from afar, the once proud symbol of defiance against nature was slowly succumbing to it. The tundra desired to take it back, to erase the ugly mark upon its' face. Perhaps it would succeed... eventually. By the time it could, no one would remain there.
Her eyes finally settled on the village. As expected, it was a far cry from the one picture from her school books. Were she not in a hurry, she'd stop and ponder the message behind the village's fate... as it was, however, she needed only find the next link.
It always worked the same way, find someone involved, see their place in the chain... and make them talk. One person always pointed to another...
She sighed. This was as good a time as any to dump her gear; her cover was one of a civilian trader.
Pulling the glove from her hand, she drew blood from her thumb, weaving the set of hand signs most every ninja knew how to perform.
"Summoning Jutsu," she muttered, gently pressing her hand into the snow. There was a brief puff of smoke, and her personal summon looked up at her with almost blank eyes.
"Gah!" it shouted, flapping its' wings in a panic, "what is this white powder!?"
Ayazuru was, for better or worse, a very inexperienced summon when it came to things other than combat. Hailing from a family of cranes with roots in the Land of Mirages, the green-feathered stork shared her summoner's sense of fashion and preference for hot and explosive techniques, but all their similarities pretty much ended there.
Not six seconds after seeing snow for the first time, Ayazuru the crane had tried to set it on fire.
"It doesn't burn?" she asked, tilting her head inquisitively, "so it's poison then?"
Moyase said nothing, having had prior experiences similar to this one... though, trying to set sand on fire was certainly a new one in her book. Best wait her out, let her get off her 'powder high', and only then focus on the task at hand.
"Hey, Moyase-sama! Could you please taste this powder for me? I want to know if it's poisonous."
And there's another one for the book...
The girl shook her head, crouching down in order to be at eye level with her summon, "Ayazuru, what we're standing on is just snow."
"Snow?"
"Water cold enough that it becomes a powder."
"So... it's not poisonous?"
Moyase facepalmed.
Enthusiasm she understood, it was natural for a young summon and she could respect that... however, dealing with this sometimes made her wonder why she ever bothered... Still, their fighting was always on point, so that's probably a big part of it... probably why they managed to outdo bounty hunters on such a regular basis..
"Listen to me," she spoke, voice sounding tired all of a sudden, as if the week of plodding around in thick snow had only now gotten to her.
"I'm listening!" the summon answered, although her attempt to pack away a small bit of snow into a jar wasn't terribly subtle.
"I need you to hold onto some of my gear."
"Going swimming?" the crane wondered, casting a few glances around, "I don't see a lake here, Moyase-sama..."
The girl closed her eyes for a bit longer than a standard blink, briefly shaking her head, "Can you just do it and not ask so many stupid questions?"
The crane tilted her head sideways once again.
"..."
"Ayazuru?"
"Oh!? Sure, sure!" she answered, moving a few steps to the side.
Giving a half-content nod, Moyase went about placing the majority of her gear on the snow, starting with her headband and throwing weapons pouch. A minute passed, and the pile on the ground had grown considerably... the last thing to leave was the eye-catching weapon on the girl's back.
Naginata weren't terribly common among ninja. The length often made them more sluggish than the other bladed weapons, and the weapon's sheer size made seals a necessity when trying to move it around without drawing attention. However, the shape and manner of its' use made it one of the better weapons for applied chakra flow, and that made the weapon worth using in the girl's eyes.
Besides, with that on her back, she had little issue blending into the town guard of any major city...
Glancing at her reflection in the polished blade for only a moment, Moyase dropped the Naginata into the pile as well, motioning for her summon to pack it away and head back home.
Amber eyes locked onto the image of the village in the distance as the telltale 'poof' briefly echoed behind her, the desire to achieve her goal once more beating common sense...
No sane ninja would willingly enter a hostile village and go undercover, bloodline or not. No matter how skilled or assertive one was, surviving having your cover blown was next to impossible... unless you were an extraordinarily gifted liar, of course.
"Open up! I got another one!" a man's voice shouted, aimed at the top of the prison's outer wall.
"Back so soon?" came the voice from above, tinged with amusement, "another pickpocket, eh?"
"Just open the bloody gate! I'm freezing my dick off out here!"
Lo and behold, the door opened. Her unassuming captor seemed to be among the better respected among the guard, but his status hardly mattered now that she was in... somewhere in this prison lies a woman with knowledge of what had happened on that day, and she would undoubtedly lead her to another one with the same knowledge... It was only a matter of time until she finds a lead that doesn't finish with a dead end.
She was marched through a courtyard of sorts, one partitioned by thick metal fencing. Women on one side, men on the other, twelve meters between the two... not that it mattered, really. Most kept themselves near the building, trying to leech off as much heat from it as possible; prisoner's uniforms weren't really meant for sub-zero temperatures.
"A plague on this village your kind are, pickpocket..." the guard drawled, a torch in one hand and her chains in the other, "soon enough, we won't have a place to throw you in..."
"Not really my problem," she replied somewhat absently, attention focused on seeing if her mark was out in the yard. At least she'd be easy to find, being one of the few blondes in the prison... that also meant that having her 'disappear' for a while would be that much more difficult.
"You're in the right... your problems are only going to get bigger from now on, thief."
"I'm shaking in my boots."
"Oh, I'm sure it's from the cold," he deadpanned, placing a few sharp knocks on what looked like a very old wooden door.
It opened, revealing a young looking guard who took the offered chains and pulled on them far too forcefully before closing the door behind them. All her hopes that the inside of the building was less chilly were quickly dashed, the harsh reality being that the only difference was a lack of wind.
Hard stone walls, colder than the air around them, colored the overbearing grey that seemed to consume your mind and energy worse than the cold.
"Pickpocket, eh? That's 24 hours in chains on entry, you know?" the guard began, steadily pulling at the chain, his persistence with the action slowly getting on her nerves.
"I'm sure I'll learn my lesson by the time it's over."
"If not then, you're still going to have the mandatory three months," he replied with a half-hidden smirk, his face concealed by shadows cast by the torchlight.
"Can't wait," she deadpanned, watching with indifference as the guard came up to a single door in a corridor full of them, prying it open with a combination of force and luck before shoving her inside.
He was kind enough to exchange her tight bindings with slightly less tight bindings, muttering something about food before slamming the door and leaving her in the dark...
No wonder Yuki was a minor village, they didn't even have the foresight to populate the prison guard with sensors... after the events of the second great war, most every ninja village learned to station their sensors even in the civilian sector. So often did an unassuming trade caravan hide foreign shinobi, and so often did those shinobi cause damages untold before anyone even knew what was happening.
And these bindings... escaping them was something an academy student could do, if the chains allowed it; they were short enough to prevent bringing one's hands together. Of course, that wasn't anything close to a setback.
The Shakuton bloodline, known among the uneducated populace as 'Scorch Style', allowed the user to mix air and fire chakra, enabling them to control the temperature of the ambient air and objects they laced with their chakra...
A common misconception was that those who possess kekkei genkai only had access to unique techniques, ones that went beyond the limitations of the basic five element transformations; the truth was somewhat more complex, as the more educated among shinobi could tell. For example, a user of Shakuton was naturally resistant to fire and heat, their skin being able to produce incombustible oils in order to protect the user from their own techniques.
This very ability is what made her aunt Pakura so deadly; while other Shakuton users lived their lives without knowledge of the extent of their own power, a chosen few took enough of an interest to study the limits of the bloodline, realizing just how deadly their ability made them.
She channeled her chakra into the chains, the screw that held them together, to be exact. While the hot metal would ruin the hands of any other ninja, Moyase was protected, simply taking the near-molten bindings off after softening them up enough.
After that was done, it was only a matter of time before a guard passed by her door. He would feel the heat welling up from her cell, come in to investigate, and stay bound as she walked out, henged to perfectly match his or her appearance - a simple plan, but enough against civilians.
oOoOoOo
She found the link the very next day.
It was a damn snowstorm outside as usual for the village, but she hardly cared. Approaching the prisoners for one bullshit reason or another, she picked the blonde woman out, dragging her into the white swirls, disappearing out of sight.
In truth, she had simply shunshinned them away. If the village had sensors around, she would be signing own death warrant with that decision, but with the way things were, she might as well try and simply chain shunshins out of the village; hardly anyone would notice.
The woman gasped upon realizing what had happened, "Y-you... you're a shinobi!"
Smirking as her henge fell apart, Moyase crouched down, willing a small orb of orange embers to form in her hand, "Quiet down, will you? The more helpful you are, the less likely I am to deep fry you from the inside out, ok?"
The blonde blinked. It was a girl, but her age could be concealed by those ninjutsu of theirs... She had the typical athletic build of a shinobi, and had her soft brown hair dyed a dark green, tied into a traditional bun... Pakura!
"H-how?" she stammered, unable to understand, "you died! I saw you die, Pakura!"
The girl frowned, the fireball in her hand flaring up for a moment, "I am not Shakuton no Pakura... But I do want to know who are the men who killed her."
She knew that that stupid mission would be the death of her... Envoy to Sunagakure, they said. Sent to judge if what they had to offer was worth easing the pressure on their navy in the southern seas. She thought they'd send gold or scrolls, or whatever shinobi valued, but all she saw was that woman.
Hero of the Hidden Sand, they called her... her death was a miserable one.
And now that same death had found her here, in the one place she thought she would be safe from the life she had led in the past. The life of a political prisoner in Yukigakure wasn't too bad, she needed only survive the semi-frequent excursions to the yard; her cell was comfortable enough, and the information she slowly fed to the village authorities ensured that the moderate comfort would last for years to come... after all, her primary concerns were the safety and isolation of the hidden snow.
"Alright... I'll tell you everything I know..."
"Summoning Jutsu!"
There was a puff of smoke, and Ayazuru appeared, several scrolls hanging from the tan leather vest the summon always wore.
"Moyase-sama? What are we- Woaaaaah!~"
The girl smirked, perhaps summoning the crane as she was surfing a slab of stone down the mountainside atop an avalanche wasn't the best of ideas, but she needed the confused bird's proficiency with Futon.
"Hold on!" she simply commanded, regaining her balance yet again, shooting lesser firebolts in response to the various icy beasts the pursuing Snow ninja shot at her. Ice met blaze repeatedly, the only trace of their confrontations being the small wisps of steam that quickly disappeared in the cold air.
"Why are we running away from angry white tigers and deer and elephants and... oh, what's that animal called?" the clueless summon listed her questions, apparently unconcerned with the fact that they were all but plummeting down the mountainside.
"Ayazuru, shut up and give me my weapon," the girl deadpanned, catching the thrown weapon with unnatural ease.
It was comforting, holding the naginata again. The feel of the handle in her hands was near synonymous with safety, as there were very few people alive that could realistically threaten her when she held it. She might've snagged the chakra armor from that unfortunate shinobi, but not even it could make her feel as safe and confident as her weapon of choice could.
Smiling maliciously, the girl turned away from the fast-approaching cliffside, turning her attention to the pursuing shinobi.
"Cushion our fall, Ayazuru," she commanded.
"Aye, aye, Moyase-sama!" the crane cheerfully replied, bringing her wings together.
Both bird and girl weaved their hand seals at the same time, letting loose with different techniques near-simultaneously.
"Wind Style: Rising Current Jutsu!"
"Shakuton: Tensoren!"
The snow around the slab of stone exploded, a chakra-fueled whirlwind whipping around it hard enough to almost lift it off of the ground. Their makeshift raft would plunge off the side of the mountain soon enough, but with this jutsu, their descent would be little more than an inconvenience.
As for the girl, hot orange rings began forming at the blade of her weapon, shooting out with her thoughts, slicing though the faux-ice techniques and exploding on contact with ground or someone's chakra armor.
A few muffled shouts rang out through the air, and she soon realized that there was no ground beneath them anymore. Chakra instinctively rushed to her feet, sticking her to the stone's surface, and the watched with a mix of satisfaction and glee as the cliffside grew ever further, gravity pulling them down into the white darkness more quickly by the second.
She got the next link, but her cover was blown. Having no other choice, the snapped the Yuki-nin's neck, taking his armor for herself. By the time the majority of their forces were aware of the incursion, she was already setting off an explosive tag, parting the very stone she now stood on from the mountain, starting the avalanche she would use to make this escape a crazy possibility.
So she was going to crash into the tundra... big deal. Ayazuru knew her stuff, and the pursuit was most definitely broken. She might be a little rattled when it was all over, but she'd live... and she'd know where to go next.
They crashed.
"Oy! How much longer? My feet are killing me!" the younger man protested, despite the fact that they really weren't walking all that long.
"Be silent," the other briefly replied, right before something caught his eye...
Messenger hawk, headed in the collection office's direction; something is about to change on his list, and he had no idea why.
They were the immortal duo of the Akatsuki, and they had been travelling across the continent for months now, collecting those few with worthwhile bounties while sacrificing the rest of the rabble to Hidan's god.
Kakuzu didn't much care either way. So long as he got his payday, nothing else really concerned him.
So they walked. Neither spoke, neither did anything worth noting, but they did keep moving. Not too long after, and the visage of an old, run-down looking building appeared in their sight.
"A rest-stop in the middle of east bumblefuck nowhere? This is the place, isn't it?" Hidan offered, pleased that he'd get his well-deserved respite. Kakuzu always was a grouchy fuck, but it was far worse when he had a bounty to turn in.
Ignoring his partner, the oldest Akatsuki simply knocked on the door, acknowledging the scrawny-looking man that opened it with a brief nod, "I noticed that an update just arrived."
The small man nodded vigorously, motioning for the two men to follow him, "Indeed, sir. Shakuton no Moyase had reached your standard benchmark. Some business in Yuki, as far as I know."
"Shakuton? That's the fire thing, right?" Hidan helpfully offered from the side, only to be completely ignored once more.
"I see..." Kakuzu muttered, bringing up the scroll in which he stored the latest batch of bodies, low-payout thugs, but easy to access; Transporting them in scrolls wasn't much of a loss.
The transaction went by quickly and efficiently, and the Akatsuki's account was richer for quite a few million. Not long after that, the two had found themselves on the road again.
"So... what now?"
"We go to Kusagakure."
"Why?"
"If she left Yuki, that's where she'll go next."
"So we're going after the Shakuton girl?"
"Yes."
"You realize I'm going to need to sacrifice quite a few people from here to there?"
"I don't much care, Hidan."
So, I guess I should ask a question... oh, there's one!
'Who is your favorite Naruto character, and why?'
Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Do leave a review!