A/N: Wow, we've crossed 50,000 views for this little adventure and I'm loving the helpful feedback; it helps make the story grow and, if it grows less frustrating for readers it becomes more enjoyable to share as a writer. Case in point, best review this time goes to heartfanglives.

Heartfanglives: You have done an impressive job of cataloguing the different ideas that have crept into this story. To be honest, I knew I have included a lot but didn't think that many were still open.

Case in point, Akimi is officially out of his life. The poor girl was unable to reconcile him being the "demon brat" and her departure, that final look of guilt on her face as he spied her inside Ichiraku's, was their parting shot for lack of a better term (in keeping with the theme of loss for Naruto). Not every relationship in his life will end up happily resolved as it is human nature to be… human. Naruto has accepted, like we all do, that sometimes people just fall out of our lives and there is little we can do about it.

Naruto's personality clones, on the other hand, have been intentionally whittled down over the course of the first seventeen or eighteen chapters, a point I reinforce as he increasingly refers to them in the past-tense. In fact, Naruto makes an excellent summary of his dwindling relationships, to include the disappearing clones, in CH16. I have intentionally reduced their appearance and impact on his life as Inoichi reincorporates his shattered psyche into some semblance of a coherent construct as the story moves on. Perhaps I'll include a parting Omake on the matter before the end, but you never know; they were never meant to be a permanent device (but that doesn't mean someone else couldn't take up that challenge?)

Several of those points in the story aren't closed out yet but will be soon. Ebisu has not been forgotten and neither has the Root would be demon-catchers. They just haven't been dealt with appropriately, not something entirely uncommon as Kakashi took ten years to finally resolve the Land of Snow issue in canon and Naruto has only been a Genin for eight months now. Give him time.

I could talk at length on a great deal of these, but I won't take up a lot of space this time around. I will say that Asuma's relationship with Naruto has been continually maturing over the course of the fic, much like Naruto's relationship with Ino. It's not meant to be an immediate-resolution sort of thing; someone trying to beat you to death takes a bit of a while to get over. I do signal a clear turn to the better once Anko officially requests to return to normal duties in Ch 13, signifying the team has matured to the point she no longer feels a babysitter is needed. Despite her troubled relationship with Naruto, she is a professional through and through and would not have made the request if she felt otherwise.

Last but not least, I've not forgotten the Falna blessings they received from Hestia. They were planned to be forced out in this chapter given the chakra armor of the Snow shinobi but there are reasons why he doesn't rely on the gift. There were some that viewed this as an unnecessary power up but fail to realize what a double-edged sword Falna blessings were/ are. Keep in mind, the strength provided did not measure up to straight chakra users for multiple reasons which I have yet to fully explain. So, while Istoria was not meant to be a permanent part of the story, like many of Naruto's canon adventures, it was planned as a way to help shape the Genin's experiences and help him mature into a capable shinobi (how often did Naruto return to the Land of Demons or go back to fight the Air Kingdom in canon?)

Thank you for being a very attentive reader and I'll make a point of closing out these smaller plots either in the story or as part of opening comments as it progresses. For now, I think we can mark items #1 & 3 off the list.

Editor's Note: Caught an error in a previous chapter (CH 23) when I mis-stated Shika was aligned with Fūton; he has a Katon affinity for my story, same as in canon.

As always, please let the staff know what you think! Review!

~Siva'a-tasi

~III~

Chapter 25: A Snowball's Chance

~ Previously on No More ~

"TRAAAAAAAIN!" Koyuki's voice was frantic, a steady stream of, "We're not going to make it," "It's too fast!" and a bunch of indecipherable screams.

Naruto pulsed his chakra three times dropping his resistance seals and yelled for her to, "Shut up for a minute!" The shocked Princess Koyuki blinked as the blond dug deep and began streaking through the tunnel in a blur, his eyes almost glowing an eerie blue color as his gaze took on a faraway look.

'Please let us be at least halfway!' He could do nothing but lower his head and sprint for all he was worth.

~III~

~ Yuki no Kuni, North of the Capital in Some Damnable Tunnel ~

Koyuki Kazahana was many things. At one time, she was a happy princess to the Lord of the Land of Snow. At another, she'd been a frightened fugitive on the run with a dashing one-eyed brigand. She'd been a struggling actor before reaching the top of her profession. Oh yeah, she had also been (and still was) a cold-hearted hermit afraid of commitment and social ties. She'd at some point lived or embodied all of those roles, oft times embodying several at the same time. That was then and this was now.

Her latest role was as the horrified passenger helplessly bundled up in her own coat because the lowest form of mankind tried to tear her clothes from her body leaving her in a mangled bra. Her current role involved her being carried Princess-style by a young shinobi from a land not her own as he thundered down a set of train tracks drilling through one of the mountains of her home country. Supporting her role's motivation was the white-knuckled grip her hands had on that same shinobi's neck while she screamed uncontrollably in holy terror, her eyes staying locked on the monster train hissing steam not ten paces from his pistoning heels knowing that, if he fell right then, their death would be bloody. It would be gruesome. It would be assured.

The walls streaked by in muted blues and grays, the thick ice hiding details even as it glittered like the night sky from the lights on the trains armor-plated grill. She couldn't see the conductor up above them, but she was sure he could see them, the evil bastard no doubt cackling with glee at the sheer terror etched on her face.

She'd begged with him to surrender. She'd pleaded for release from her fear not three minutes into the chase, but the stubborn youth ignored her. Something about not being ready to just roll over and die just yet but, if she really wanted it, he'd happily toss her from the cliff once they got out of the tunnel and let the train by.

That comment seemed awfully rude at the time striking a chord of rebellion in the strong-willed woman. It irked her enough that she almost struck him, the crappy smirk on his face making her hackles rise for just a moment.

Then the train's whistle obliterated her brief moment of bravado and tore her gaze from the fiercely-concentrating face of her rescuer and back to the metal beast howling for her blood.

That was five minutes ago. Five horribly long and torturous minutes of the incredibly strong body running for both their lives and she'd moved decidedly beyond surrendering. She was urging him to run faster, her arms tugging on the back of his neck as if she could pull them both along to freedom. She would reflect on the impossible feat of outrunning a chakra-powered locomotive later.

She wanted to live first (so she could pummel him later) and that meant they both had to survive first and foremost.

She stopped listening to his mantra-like chant for what seemed like ages ago.

"Come on! Come on! Almost there! Don't stop! Don't fall! Breeeeeeeaaathe!" It was constant. It was steady. It was rhythmic.

His feet were striking the wooden beams hard enough to split them between the rails, but she felt no jolts along her spine while he ran. The wind howled in her ears, her ebony waves of hair fanning out behind them like a flag. He was a machine. A perfect, living, breathing machine.

For a second, she could believe again.

All of the noise vanished as a bright light began to cloud her vision when she looked ahead at what should have been bleak darkness. She was screaming but heard no sound. His mouth was open in a silent snarl as her eyes clamped on to his face, the train too terrifying to stare at any longer. Then the sound returned in a roar as their bodies struck the snow bank and they slid to a stop just outside the cavern.

For several agonizing seconds, as she registered every tense muscle in her body, Koyuki simply laid there in the freezing cold, her body too petrified to move. Her heart was thundering in her ears as she gasped for oxygen, almost as if she'd made the mad dash herself through the tunnel ahead of the hungry beast out to end their lives. Somewhere in the distant recesses of her mind, she registered the fact that snow was inside her coat and melting on her frozen chest, her buds growing rock hard from the cold shock, but that didn't matter. They'd won. He'd won.

Then she heard it.

It started as a soft chuckle, the laugh of a young male not quite believing that he was still alive and in one piece. The sound grew though, slowly but steadily as realization began to settle in. Soon it was a deep rumbling laugh surging up from the belly and, believe it or not, Koyuki found herself joining in, her own giggle mingling in with the more male sounds of her newfound hero.

He'd succeeded when she'd been ready to pack it in. He defied their fate and, in the process, saved both their lives.

She laughed for the first time in years surrendering to the joy of being alive and a heavy weight began to dislodge itself from her chest. The tears would come later when the faces of her almost-rapists came back to haunt her in her sleep but, for now, she had the armor of her blond stalker, er… bodyguard.

And they were alive. Maybe, on the rare occasion, a snowball could survive in hell.

~III~

~ Aboard the Doto Battle Train ~

"The boy is fast." The taller of two figures standing at the rear of the train looking back towards the tunnel entrance seemed almost impressed. His eyes betrayed very little, the wide face and flat nose as unremarkable as the rest of his hulking figure. Doto knew he was not a handsome man like his brother but that didn't matter to him; to Doto, power was far more attractive than physical looks that faded with time. Power never faded.

"Mizore said the boy was skilled, far stronger physically than he expected." The lavender ponytail from several days before was staring in the same direction, his apathy becoming almost a physical manifestation.

"It's too bad he doesn't bear our gifts," the larger man commented almost smiling in a way that would make small children cry.

"Too bad," lamented Nadare. The arm of Yuki no Kuni's recognized ruler rose from the voluminous cloak covering his body from neck to shins bringing up with it a microphone. His thumb clicked the mic button as his dead smile faded away.

"It's been a long time, Koyuki. It's been ten years in fact. Come now, don't be shy. Let us get a look at that face so we can see how much you've grown."

~III~

At the sound of Doto's deep, gravelly voice, a great unpleasantness washed over Koyuki. Memories of a creepy man watching her with dead eyes made her back itchy in places she could not reach and her skin crawl with a bone-deep chilling sensation. Even as a small girl, that man made her uncomfortable and listening to his voice now made her feel like a tiny girl all over again.

"Doto…" Her voice was hollow but loud enough for Naruto to hear it. Seeing the fear in her eyes reminded him of another terrified child, one with no one to stand up to the Doto's of his life. Suddenly his displeasure at the apathetic woman lying next to him in the snow found a new subject to fasten on to.

Naruto rose to his feet and strode forward just enough to place himself between Koyuki and the smarmy bastard gloating from the back of his fancy train replacing her face with his own. For good measure, he flipped both men on the wooden and metal construct the middle finger, one hand for each bastard.

Doto, safe on his train, was less than impressed.

"Kill the brat, bring me the-." His voice was cut off as something heavy rammed into the side of the train cars, the entire structure rocking on the tracks. A quick glance showed no major damage beyond the door tracks on one of the cars being knocked off its rails by the logs someone sent rolling down the mountain face. No matter.

They still had seven more cars to rain death from.

Looking up along the snow-covered rockface, Naruto and Koyuki saw several dozen men wearing feudal body armor popular ten years or more in the past. Yelling right along with the group of idiots waving swords at the unimpressed Snow ningen was Sandayu. Koyuki's mouth fell open in shock.

Doto turned to his henchman and frowned. "I thought you eliminated all of the insurgents?"

Oddly enough it didn't really sound like a question. Nadare had the decency to look almost embarrassed, however, before he could summon his minions and sally forth, Doto stopped him with a raised palm and that eerie smirk he'd become (in)famous for throughout the Land of Snow.

Nadare shivered knowing full well men were about to die by the score.

From where Koyuki reclined in the snow as strength returned to her shaky limbs, she couldn't quite make out Sandayu's shouting. Whatever nonsense he was spewing out, his squad of back-up actors was buying into it shouting their own encouragement. Her eyes darted between the small mass of men on the hill and the armored train waiting patiently, its release of steam almost like a great beast bored with the meal presented to it by less than enthusiastic caretakers.

She couldn't make out their shouts, but Naruto could. More importantly, he could see them begin to charge pell-mell down the mountainside, their weapons waving above their heads as the meager force of fifty-one charged the juggernaut laced with sharp and pointy shinobi death. The many masked figures climbing onto the roof manning kunai launchers did not bode well for the insurgents.

Naruto then realized that he was too far away to do any good. To make it worse, saving Sandayu meant leaving Koyuki defenseless so he gritted his teeth and willed them to stop charging. 'Run! Hide you fools!'

The train drove in the final nail to their coffins when the inboard panel sections of the cargo compartments slid open, large panel doors gaping wide to reveal hundreds upon hundreds of launcher slots concealed in the train body. Naruto's heart sunk as he silently screamed for them to turn back. A mythical ideal of their missing princess was not going to save them this time.

~III~

Asuma grinned as his second Genin joined up with him, the trees flying by as they rushed back to the convoy's location. Naruto's triple pulse on their earpieces was a good signal; it meant he'd found the Princess and was returning to the convoy. At least, for now, the mad scramble would end and they could finish up this waste of time looking for the Rebellion's secret base.

Asuma had a weird shiver run down his spine at that thought, a sense of foreboding, but shook it off.

"We need to find a better way to keep track of this crazy lady," Ino cursed out.

"We asked you to stick close to her-." Shikamaru's admonition faded abruptly once she snatched a branch in passing only to release it into his face.

"No one wants to stay close to her, Shika. She's a monster in human skin." While Asuma could not refute the incriminating evidence of her behavior, they still had a job to do.

"Tighten up, you two. Regardless of our personal thoughts on the matter, she's our client and her safety comes first. We don't have time for more of these shenanigans. Until further notice, you're her shadow, Ino. She gets up to go pee in the middle of the night, and, like all girl packs at the club, you go with her."

Ino's irritated grunt was the only response but it would have to do. Until they could cobble together a better plan, this one would have to work.

His thoughts were growing less and less focused the longer this mission dragged along. Not too long ago he discovered the disturbing truth behind their client. Sandayu, for all his well-intentioned feelings, managed to get his Genin team tangled up in a political nightmare, a succession feud among royalty of the same house. This was normally a job for ANBU, or an elite Jounin team at a minimum. It was definitely not a job for a still-green team of yearlings from the academy.

It didn't matter how well-intentioned his motives were. Royalty tended to throw morals straight out the window when it came to holding on to that power. Asuma saw more than enough examples during his stint in the capital of Hi no Kuni. Power was more addictive than any drug, more corruptive than any poison, and those that sampled its sweet ambrosia rarely surrendered its embrace willingly.

Sandayu may have meant well but you could be damned sure Doto shared no similarities of conscience. You can believe that man killed to climb his personal mountain. Rest assured he would kill again to keep it. That's why it was almost prophetic when the three Leaf shinobi crested a rise higher up the mountain to see a monstrous metal construct unleashing a torrent of pointy death upon a motley crew of armored civilians.

"We need to separate that train from any survivors," Shika cursed out, his mind already moving a kilometer a minute.

"What are you thinking, Shika?" Asuma had no trouble deferring to the Genin's brilliant mind as he fired up another cig. He wasn't as good as Naruto off-the-cuff, but he was still fairly dependable.

~III~

It's difficult, Naruto realized, to swear appropriately when you were trying to stay undetected while hauling your body up a wire tied to one of your kunai, a kunai looped around the rear banister of an enemy dirigible flying away with your captured princess onboard. He was still trying to get his head wrapped around how this happened but, for now, his first priority was to get onboard and hide away until he could come up with a plan. He would settle for any plan at the moment as anything would be an upgrade from the mess they'd left behind.

Post Insurgent Charge Flashback

The doomed insurgent charge went exactly how he expected it to. Doto's train unleashed hell on the civilian honor guard as their kunai launchers sent hundreds of pointy metal objects through the air and into the soft bodies of the poorly-trained militia. Each man went from charging fanatic to stumbling pincushion inside of ten seconds, Sandayu receiving a final volley for good measure as the last man standing.

Then explosions began to rock the train. Naruto's eyes caught a blond blur as Ino launched kunai laced with explosive notes as wooden panels blew off the train in dramatic fashion. He even saw a kunai launcher blow its stack, the manned turret pancaking its human passenger as it flipped over once airborne. Apparently, the foot soldiers and equipment weren't protected by the same chakra-draining technology. This was good information to have.

As Doto's forces were about to disembark the train and counter-attack, an explosion further up the mountain unleashed a growing torrent of snow, a large enough section roaring down its face in a landslide. The train surged briefly, chugging away before the snow could bury it fully only to have the entire back half drop into a chasm once the wooden spanner bridge beyond the tunnel blew sky high.

The blond Genin pumped a fist enjoying the small taste of revenge as the lumbering behemoth broke in half sending a good portion of it into the ravine below. Whatever it carried inside those cars must have been volatile as sections erupted into gouts of flame setting fire to whatever remained. It was a small measure of justice for the honorable men that died on that mountain. Naruto could only hope that the evil bastard was onboard once it exploded but something in his gut told him not to hope for too much.

His gut would be proven right as the movie crew, with the help of Naruto's clones, began to gather the dead.

Sandayu's body was a mangled mess, most of his front unrecognizable and bloody. Koyuki recognized him by the tiny ornamental blade he always carried as he'd made a habit of tying her eye drops to the decorative scabbard. You see, despite how accomplished an actress Koyuki was, she'd never mastered crying on command hence the eyedrops she used to simulate tears.

Taking up the small blade, Naruto expected her to say a few passing words to honor the man. He expected her to thank him for his years of tireless service. Instead, he listened gob-smacked while she belittled his intelligence chastising the dead fellow for getting her involved in this debacle of a movie.

SMACK!

Koyuki was stunned, one palm held to her stinging face as her eyes began to water.

Ino, Shikamaru, and Asuma-sensei were all equally stunned as their eyes flickered from Koyuki's shocked face, to Naruto's exposed palm hovering half an arm's length from her rapidly reddening cheek.

The director and his entire crew had their jaws wide open, the vast majority staring dumbfounded while the small cadre of gofers and assistants silently pumped their fists in celebration.

"Is that legal, sensei?" Ino's question was a whispered hiss barely picked by Shikamaru standing not a foot from her.

Asuma's head was slowly shaking left to right. He was sure Naruto broke four or five shinobi rules of conduct with that slap. Oddly enough, after all they'd been through, he couldn't bring himself to care enough to intervene.

Post Insurgent Charge Flashback – Kai!

Naruto winced even as he continued to climb the wire connecting him to the large blimp trying to run away with Princess Koyuki hidden somewhere inside. He remembered the betrayed look on her face, the sheer shock in her eyes as she turned and ran towards the line of vehicles that brought the entire movie crew up the mountainside. Of course, he turned to give chase only to pause as the blimp he was now trying to steal away on rose up from the ravine, the large shinobi he fought on the iceberg wrapping her body with a chakra line from his metal gauntlet as the blimp's fans roared their escape.

It was as the pink-haired snow kunoichi launched a handful of weird metal orbs tied to kunai that he leaped off the cliff face and snagged the railing with his own tethered kunai. Several small explosions back on the ground, a series of rapid concussive "whump" noises like air pockets bursting, whipped his head around to an amazing sight; a forest of icy spikes, each spire of ice sporting many jagged branches of ice spears, had sprung up to disable the convoy.

It would appear that he was on his own for now until the others could catch up. It was a good thing they probably knew exactly where he was headed.

He was nearing the railing when he heard a door open followed by a startled gasp. Looking at the underside of the blimp compartment, he was more than five meters or so away from the railing as a pair of hands reached through the bars to begin sawing at the wire with a kunai.

His chakra began to build even as the kunai slipped off the wire with the first yanking motion. His heartbeat thundering in his ears, Naruto focused on the railing and released his burst of energy in one go, his eyes focusing on his goal, his desire even as the kunai severed the thin wire on the second heaving slice.

The faceless shinobi stuck his head over the rail to peer below, at first tentatively then with more courage. He could still see the wire falling to the earth far below and he giggled nervously.

"Yeah, that guy's a goner," the nervous shinobi chuckled out, his eyes still looking for some sign of the falling enemy.

"Serves him right for trying to sneak aboard Doto's convoy." The nameless shinobi agreed with the sudden voice coming from just over his left shoulder.

"Yeah, serves him… wait a minute!" The shinobi spun around eyes wide open in terror as he glimpsed a pair of dark blue eyes and a flash of golden hair. Then everything went black.

~III~

Inside her floating cage, Koyuki Kazahana was anything but comfortable with her current situation. Her uncle, Doto, was standing less than a half dozen paces away monologuing about why he needed to take power from her father, about how the country's coffers were nearly bankrupt, and about how the masses were crying out for him to save them from their destitution.

It was all utter fantasy festering in his fevered brain, stories concocted to justify the regicide of his coup. None of it mattered to her just like his smarmy attempts to win her over with courtesy and his own oozing brand of familial love, the same love she reminded herself ended up with her family dead and her a refugee from her own home.

"…yuki." Her eyes glanced up from the untouched glass of water resting on the coffee table in front of her. Apparently, his monologue had petered out and he was looking to interact verbally with her.

"I'm sorry, what was the question?" His annoyed look would have brought her some satisfaction if she weren't hopelessly outnumbered and surrounded. Most likely, she'd be dead as soon as he got what he needed from her so there was little point in humoring the fool.

"I asked if you had the hex crystal?"

She blinked innocently even as she stood to remove the purple trinket from around her neck. "Of course, I do. Is that all you're after?" She didn't care about the Land of Snow. There was nothing here but painful memories, Sandayu's gory death a recent addition to a long list of crappy childhood ones. As far as Koyuki was concerned, he was welcomed to whatever remained.

"Don't you care about why I want it? What I would use this for?" Even Doto was surprised at her unemotional shrug of the shoulders. The girl gave new dimension to the word "apathetic."

"If it saves me listening to some long-winded diatribe, take it and enjoy. I hope you and whatever this unlocks are happy together."

He started cackling gleefully the moment his beefy claw grasped onto the purple crystal, her eyes not catching his empty hand raising to give a signal as she turned to head back to the semi-comfortable couch. She only vaguely noted the abrupt ending of his laughter until his empty hand reached around to spin her back to face him. Suddenly, his gleeful expression now resonated with delirium, his eyes wide and panicked.

"What is this?!" Koyuki blinked in obvious confusion, her eyes darting back and forth from his crazed expression to the chain dangling from his closed fist.

"You think I can't spot a fake?!" Here Koyuki felt a sudden rush of disbelief mingling with her growing sense of concern.

"That… that's not…" Realization dawned and along with it came a name. "Asuma!" she hissed out.

Doto's unbridled rage mellowed into mild distrust and speculation. "Explain!"

Koyuki sighed and described the afternoon following their first encounter with his three goons. She'd been out of it, lying in a state of semi-consciousness as the ship sailed on to harbor. She awoke several times to the hazy image of Asuma and her aid, Sandayu, talking in her cabin but their hushed voices sounded heated, angry. At one point, the shinobi entrusted with her safety pointed to the hex crystal laying on the small table of her room, his voice rising as he chastised the smaller civilian for his deception with their contract, at one point snatching up the crystal and waving it angrily in front of the shorter man's face.

It was the only time her necklace had been off her person. Even when she bathed, it stayed next to her skin.

"Never fear, Lord Doto. We can round up the Leaf shinobi for you without trouble," the slimy Nadare cooed. Doto's hand released its hold on Koyuki's jacket as he motioned for his thugs to stand down.

"No. There is no need especially when this Asuma will come to us." His gaze pivoted back to the unhappy face of his niece. "He will come as we hold all of the cards." His hand crushed the glass trinket into powder.

"Make sure our… guest… is comfortable when we arrive."

~III~

Blending in with the many faceless recruits was a simple matter of keeping his mouth shut. With their masks on, no one recognized the other. Most of them grunted and nodded as you were either a peon, a ringleader (one of the few shinobi wearing a tabard-style haori of pale grey over their battle kimono, or you were one of the boss' trusted elites (and there were only three of those).

Most of the time they lurked about waiting to receive orders, each hooded figure afraid to move unless provoked or directed to do so. From his kneeling position near the sleeping quarters, Naruto smiled as he reached under another door panel, this one for a pantry closet, and concentrated just enough to etch a mid-grade explosive seal on the underside of the door. His almost silent whisper of "Fae Borealus" dying quickly in the empty hallway.

If he remembered correctly, that made for twelve such hidden surprises, each molded with a remote trigger set to fifty meters. Looking up from his handiwork, Naruto grinned beneath his cloth mask and slithered off to find another quiet perch to set up more chaos for later.

A small part of him wondered why even bother. He was sure the girl would have blithely given away her father's dream and her nation's future with a shoulder shrug and a frown. There was no fight in her, no urge for self-preservation. If she assumed Doto would let her live peacefully afterward she was… Then it hit him. No, she had to have known he would betray her the very first chance he could. A greedy man like Doto would never let a potential heiress live on. Her threat to his rule would be like a knife always to his throat.

It was an assured death and she'd complained time and time again about being so tired of running. She'd would have given up hoping to die so she could finally rest, the coward's way out, and if he wasn't allowed to just curl up and quit then neither was she.

Naruto supposed his work wasn't done just yet once he got her out of there. Someone needed to slap a little sense into her, and he'd volunteer happily for the job.

He was working his way back down through the engine room mindlessly acknowledging the nods of his fellow faceless ones when the entire blimp shuddered. 'Ah, we must have arrived.' Blending in with the flow of ebbing bodies, he melted into the nameless horde flowing into the overly large fortress Doto called home.

Sandayu had called Kazahana Castle an architectural masterpiece before Doto burned it to the ground, something no one would ever confuse this gothic eyesore before him of being. It must have been built to commemorate the new future of the struggling nation, its dark and fortress-like design reminding him of the campy action movies with over-the-top villains. Waving away the all-too-easy "overcompensation" string of jokes, he stepped into the lower levels he'd seen a pair dragging off Koyuki to.

Finding her, once the guards locked her away and left the dungeon complex? Inside he frowned at the blatant unprofessionalism before he could correct himself and mentally sweep away his disappointment. Their sloppy unprofessionalism worked in his favor. Besides, every other cell was occupied by a skeleton so it wasn't hard to hear the one heartbeat in the place despite its enormous size.

Doto had carved a large chasm underneath his "modest home" and then lined both sides of the rock walls with cave dugouts. A really simple affair but effective. With the Land of Snow already being inhospitably cold, prisoners normally died of hypothermia within hours, days at most depending on their stamina, chakra use, and clothing. It struck him as odd that the evil bastard hadn't murdered her outright.

'Something must have gone not according to plan.'

Seeing as no one was around to question it, he pulled up next to the bars to have a little chat.

"So, I see this happened." She started at the sound of his voice, her head jerking in its direction to see a nameless shinobi with startlingly blue eyes. For a split second, Naruto recognized hope and excitement in her violet-blue eyes right before it died out with her feigned favor of apathy.

"Come to gloat?" she hissed out. "Come to tell the famous movie star 'you told her so'?" He had to resist the urge to reach through the bars and slap her once again, especially with that containment seal plastered over the lock of her cell. Good thing that helpful guard loaned him the key.

"I don't gloat when I'm right. I'd rather let your own conscience kick the snot out of you." She only scowled in return.

"What did you think would happen once you surrendered your birthright?"

"…"

He leaned in with one hand cupping the side of his head. "I'm sorry, didn't quite catch that witty comeback."

She looked down but he couldn't tell if it was in annoyance or disappointment.

"You were hoping he'd send you to be with your father, weren't you?" Her silence said it all, stoking his anger even further.

"Coward." It was guttural, barely more than a snarl in her direction but it was enough to provoke a response; she jumped sluggishly to her feet as blood resumed normal circulation through her legs and spun her around to face him full of righteous anger and vindication.

"What do you know about my pain?! What do you know about trying to live up to the expectations of thousands of people? About living up to some hopeless ideal and being the savior of people that don't know the first thing about you?! I didn't ask for any of this-!"

"-and it's not fair?" He wasn't yelling like she was, but his acidic voice cut through her tirade fairly effectively. Something in his eyes told her she'd gone a bit too far, but the anger had taken over, swept her away with its flow.

"You think you're the only one with unfair circumstance forced down their throat?" She blanched when his deep blue eyes flashed a midnight purple color for the briefest of moments.

"Imagine if you will, Princess," he bit the word off like a curse, "being chosen to bear an unbelievable burden on the day of your birth because of your family's bloodline. Imagine, if you will, that the cost of the choice was the lives of your parents, the only people that knew and loved you." Koyuki blinked and the red tinge to her cheeks began to fade a bit. "Now imagine that failure to live up to those expectations would result in the death of over three hundred thousand people, the overwhelming majority of which hate you for the very burden you carry thus ensuring their ungrateful lives, people that have tried repeatedly to assassinate you because they feel that killing you removes the burden from existence."

He shed his borrowed uniform. Chances are he wouldn't need it anyway once he sprung her from her cage. Then he lifted the front of his shirt revealing the mesh armor and his stomach underneath, which forced Koyuki to try to force down a different sort of blush. That effort became much easier when he tensed his stomach and something dark began to take shape over those blessed muscles etched into his core. It looked like a spiral tattoo with waving lines of script radiating out from its center. She knew enough from her roles as an actress to see a seal, a very powerful one at that.

Her eyes shot up to meet his and he could see the question in them.

"My own teammates don't know that I have this, and I plan to keep it that way as long as possible because the moment they know, they'll turn their backs on me. Asuma knows though. All Jounin know but I'm not sure about the Chunin." Koyuki guessed he was talking about shinobi ranks and nodded.

"Surely there is someone there that accepts you despite…" her voice trailed off as she nodded to the fading mark on his rock-hard abs.

"Our Hokage, a ramen stand owner and maybe his daughter, my adopted older sister, and perhaps my sensei. I'm not sure about him." Naruto's brow furled up for a moment as he lowered the hand that now held up five fingers. "I thought he hated me for this when we first met, and we fought the day our team formed. Turns out he was just pissed that he didn't get the legendary Ino-Shikz-Cho formation like he wanted." Koyuki's face twisted up in confusion at his babbling and he waved his hand around in the air to brush it all aside.

"That's not important. My point is, Princess, that you don't get to call dibs on the shittiest life draw award and throw in the towel. We all have our crappy role to play in it and, whether we asked for it or not, people depend on us to live up to that responsibility." He leaned in to scowl at her through the bars. "So, don't expect sympathy from me lady because your life sucks right now."

She scoffed, something between a "pfft!" and a chuckle. 'Well, definitely not the response I was expecting but I think I can work with that.'

"What keeps you going when all you want to do is lay down and die?" she blurted out. Naruto thought about for half a second before blurting out his response cockily.

"The job satisfaction of kicking entitled pricks like Doto in the ass and setting things right."

It was a simplistic answer to a very complicated political problem, but it resonated with her. Koyuki wasn't sold on the whole, "Riding to the Rescue" story he was pitching but it beat waiting to either freeze or starve to death in this freezer they called her living quarters. Speaking of which…

"Well, that sounds peachy and all but there isn't much I can do about it from inside here." Her hands had risen palms-up to indicate her cushy accommodations.

Naruto promptly ripped the tag from over the keyhole, produced a key ring, fished around until he found the right one, the calmly opened her cell stepping to the side to allow her egress.

"Any other weak ass excuses?" This time she did snort, taking his hand as the two began their hasty exit from the Kazahana dungeons. Maybe she could make Doto a permanent resident once this was all over?

As they were climbing onto the freight elevator that would lift them from the cellblocks, an explosion rocked the castle wall making rubble bounce off the roof of the elevator and fall into the darkness below. Naruto smiled.

"Looks like the cavalry has arrived."

~III~

Nadare Roga's voice was tense, just the barest tightening of his consonants. "The enemy has arrived," he whispered in his otherwise normal drawl, his words punctuated by another explosion.

"Good." Doto seemed unconcerned. "Let them find their way here. Capture the sensei but kill the kids." Nadare's eyebrow gave the smallest twitch, something Doto noticed causing the corners of his mouth to turn up into a smirk.

"But Lord Kazahana, our men-."

"-can be replaced. See to it, Roga." The Snow country elite bowed even as his teeth clenched. Sadist that he was, there was still something to be said about being the mini-Kage of your own shinobi force. These setbacks were becoming all too common with the Lordling's willingness to sacrifice his troops. Didn't he understand the difficulties in pressgang recruiting? Didn't he understand the amount of effort that went into training them to be semi-functional agents?

With a hateful, "As you wish," he backed away dimming the lights in the ridiculously grandiose audience chamber as directed.

~III~

The elevator stopped at its apex, the door sliding open with a pleasant chime – which Naruto considered decidedly odd given the area it serviced. Grasping the taller woman's hand, which produced a heated blush to her cheeks, he surged out of the metal box and promptly dropped the two sentries standing there as they faced the fleeing princess with shock stamped across their faces. A quick flurry of punches, two heavy thuds as their bodies struck the ground, and the two were off to the races once again.

Across an icy bridge span three more Snow shinobi popped up and Naruto slid into his Tetsuken stance, his hands forming fists surrounded by swirling torrents of air. The taller of the three shinobi, the one wearing the tabard of a mid-level underling, threw up his hands to forestall the upcoming brawl and ripped off his mask to reveal Asuma-sensei. Before long his two teammates made their appearance and the happy quartet began a quick round-robin game of catch-up… before another explosion rocked the compound and staggered everyone on the swaying bridge.

"How many bombs did you guys plant?" the blond asked with an odd mix of shock and pride on his face.

"Not enough?" came Shika's prideful smirk.

"Talk later, escape now please!" None of them could deny the royal request as she streaked past them into the tunnels and stairways leading up and out of the dungeons, their escape soundtracked to the booming percussions of chain-linked military-grade explosives.

Naruto took point while Koyuki steered with a quick "Left!" or "Right!" When needed they ascended behind a timely "Stairs!" It was efficient flight interrupted only by the quick pops of fists striking bodies when Snow shinobi tried to arrest their progress.

Asuma had to admit his point man was living up to the hype as he juggernauted his way through underling after underling without breaking stride, often times incorporating seal-less clones into the mix so they could keep moving while his copies cleaned up the riffraff.

'You're going to have to face them again, you realize that, don't you?' Naruto nearly face-faulted at the nearly-forgotten voice of his resident hate monger.

'As I live and breathe,' Naruto almost smiled as he slid underneath a surprised Snow nin sending an elbow into the poor kunoichi's midsection, her softer body folding in half as her arms draped over his back. Ino tsked loudly as she pushed the gasping woman off of him muttering something about her boobs being bigger if he wanted something soft pressed against his back. Koyuki blushed at the blatant foreplay from the gorgeous Leaf kunoichi, her own eyes sizing up the younger girl and finding something decidedly unpleasant floating through her heart.

Choosing flight over a discussion, Naruto resumed their fast-paced run trying to listen to the Kyuubi while ignoring its perverted snickering. Turns out the large fox took after the Icha Icha author and enjoyed spying on his interactions with Ino to his disturbing realization.

'Yeah, I get what you mean but they can use chakra while we can't. That kinda makes it tough to work through.' The bijū's disgusted snort heated his face with annoyance. It was bad enough the creature was centuries older than him, but it often made him feel like the ignorant child without seeming to half try.

'Must I think of everything?' Whatever the ancient being was hinting at wasn't sinking in and he could literally hear its furry paw slapping its muzzle in frustration. 'Have you forgotten Hestia's gifts already? You truly are a dumb monkey parading around in human skin.'

Naruto blinked in shock. 'Didn't you say that it wasn't truly whatever magical nonsense she said it was but Nature chakra manipulation managed by that Falna seal she placed on me?' He could feel the Kyuubi's large head nod from inside its den. He remembered the great monster taking great pleasure in dragging its host back into the mindscape so he could tear down the mana theory using his own seal to illustrate the tie into it. 'But won't their armor just absorb it like it does ours?

'Do they not teach you monkeys anything in that miserable place you call a school? Nature chakra is not like the internally-generated mess you humans generate, feeble and ineffectual as it is. Most meat sacks cannot even sense nature chakra unless they've undergone Senjutsu training – DON'T ASK ME, TALK TO THE STUPID LIZARDS YOU RENTED OUT MY HOME TO!' Kurama could feel his mouth opening to interrupt the conversation and really didn't want to deal with the whole, "Senjutsu is awesome" conversation that it would have derailed into. 'One of two things should happen. Their suit will either absorb it because it's pre-mixed with your chakra through the Falna seal thus turning them to stone, or it will bypass their absorption field and reach the ningen within. Either way, I believe you would call this a win-win.'

Message delivered, the ancient being curled in on itself and prepared to doze off again.

'Kyuubi, I could kiss you!'

'Try it and I'll rip your penis off. I can live with the pain until it grows back especially since I do not have one.' Naruto did stumble this time as two sudden realizations struck him. One, could he regrow missing… items? And two, Kyuubi wasn't male? What the-!

"Naruto!" His head snapped back to Ino for a moment. "Focus scatterbrain!" He blushed not having realized they come all-stop in a series of carpeted hallways while he had his soul-bearing conversation with his tenant. They must have reached the upper levels and he never realized it running purely on auto-pilot.

"Sorry." Like a shot and with the prodding of Koyuki's outstretched arm pointing down a hallway to the right, they sped off once again.

Mid-flight the five of them slid to a stop as blinding lights flooded a large chamber they were passing through supposedly on their way to the exit.

"Welcome." The voice was by now familiar to Naruto as he straightened up to glare at the pompous ass adorning the throne. By now they were all accustomed to the earth rumbling explosions slowly tearing the ostentatious castle to the ground.

"I'll be sure to bill Konoha for the damage you lot have inflicted upon my poor nation. I was thinking of adding a summer castle in the highlands after this anyway." Asuma took the time to scoff while lighting a fresh cigarette, his fingers deftly slipping a piece of flint between his teeth.

"You're going to have to be alive to collect on that debt, Doto Kazahana." The bulky man frowned even as his three goons appeared at the bottom of the throne's unbelievably high dais. Shikamaru's face scrunched up in surrender at the number of unnecessary stairs leading up to the man's throne.

"Kill them. Bring me the crystal. I do not care in which order you do so." Doto rose and began slowly descending the stairway as his three strongest henchmen closed the distance on Konoha's Team Ten.

Naruto stepped forward and raised his arms into the first stance, his smirk growing as he placed himself between the larger of the three and his team. Off to his left, Ino squared off against the pink-haired kunoichi and his sensei stared down Nagare to the right.

"[Ifrit Salamander]," he hissed out, his words raising a circular eyebrow on the face of his larger opponent. It started as a bubbling heat in his stomach that flashed through his chest, his legs, then his arms. The air started to heat up and mist around him, the tiles at his feet beginning to scorch and bubble. With the popping sound of flint being struck, the very air around his body burst into flame, his whole body cloaking itself in a fiery sheath as waves of heat radiated out from his frame.

The flames were a cherry red, their weakest level since he rarely practiced with this gift. Naruto knew it was dangerous as, at the moment, he couldn't use any of his Falna "blessings" beyond fifteen minutes without going mind down as Hestia had put it. She'd calmly stated that lots of use and practice would strengthen his gifts, but they recharged painfully slowly, and he couldn't risk being helpless in a village that would most likely slit his throat while he was unconscious and helpless. No, he'd need a training ground absolutely safe from the people of his own village hence the fact that he often forgot about this gift from Istoria's resident Goddess of the Hearth.

He really, really hoped Kyuubi was right about this as his power finished cycling up coating his vision in a reddish haze of flames and heat, his voice finishing the chant with, [Burning Wrath of the Apocalypse].

~III~

[Justsu Used in This Chapter]

[B-Rank Equivalent] Fae Borealus – Originally labeled as a magic-based ability granted to Naruto when he received Hestia's Falna blessing; Endows the caster with the ability to inscribe normal and magical runes into corporeal objects (only) through use of mana.

[C to A Ranked based on proficiency] Ifrit Salamander: Burning Wrath of the Apocalypse – Originally labeled as a magic-based ability granted to Naruto when he received Hestia's Falna blessing; Self-Immolating flames providing complete immunity to natural and magical flames below draconic strength (reduced effectiveness); Monstrous levels of combustion and absorption through direct contact; Branching point for mastering additional forms of fire magic. For jutsu purposes, it grants immunity to Katon jutsus below A-Rank when fully mastered. At Naruto's current level, he can shrug off D-Ranked and below Katon techniques without adverse effect. Trying to absorb a stronger jutsu would drain his Falna reserves and result in either a Mind Down state or death.

~III~