An Uzumaki in Arendelle
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Disney's Frozen.
Key:
"Speaking Japanese"
"Speaking Norwegian"
"~Kristoff Speaking For Sven~"
-Start Chapter-
It had been several days since the state dinner at the castle, and all of the visiting dignitaries had returned home. Bringing stories about Queen Elsa's intended with them. Ensuring that many nobles would want to come and eventually meet the blond themselves.
For Arendelle itself, there hadn't been any snow the previous night, so the roads were clear. Although there were still large piles of snow on either side of the walk way. Giving the children plenty of places to play, which most of them were doing.
Although, once the snow did thaw, the town was ready to begin planting this year's crops. Which would, hopefully, be next week. But until then the children were all making sure to spend their time playing. Except for two little girls, who were more interested in spending time with their friend.
"We're so high up," Ingrid said as she sat on Naruto's shoulder. Using her hand to shade her eyes as she looked around the town.
"You're really tall Naruto," Hedda said from the ninja's other shoulder.
"I'm not that tall," the lone male chuckled. "Kristoff is taller than me."
"Yeah, but Kristoff is a giant that was raised in the woods," Ingrid claimed. "At least that's what Mr. Hansen says at the orphanage."
"And how does he know about Kristoff?" Naruto asked curiously.
"He says he and Kristoff used to live in the orphanage together," the blonde girl answered.
"But then one day Kristoff left the orphanage, with a baby reindeer beside him," the redhead finished.
"That sounds like something Kristoff would do," Naruto chuckled.
Both girls joined in as they continued to ride on their friend's shoulders. Waving at some of the other townspeople as they passed.
"Do you think I could survive if I went into the woods?" Ingrid asked suddenly.
"Well," Naruto hesitated, "It depends on how prepared you are." The blond thought for a moment. "Do you remember when it first started snowing, and I taught you how to build a fire to stay warm?"
"I remember," Ingrid cheered from her perch. "You also taught us how to make markers so we won't get lost in the forest."
"I remember the fire, but nothing else," Hedda admitted.
"That is alright," the lone boy of the group encouraged. "It takes time to learn new things. Which is why you should be prepared when you try something new. Like living in the woods."
The girls took a few minutes to think over his words. Ingrid silently thinking over the situation, and reciting what she had learned from her fellow blond. While Hedda soon lost interest, and began to look around, keeping track of her surroundings.
A sudden gust of chilled air stopped the group on their tracks, as the last bit of cold refused to leave the village. Causing the two girls to shudder
"I'm so jealous of your hair Hedda," Ingrid called out. Using her gloved hands to shield her ears. "You have so much, you must be warm."
"It's not that much warmer," the red head complained, pulling her pink jacket close.
Naruto tried not to chuckle at the two, but found it difficult. While he was no longer overheating, his body temperature was still higher than normal. Keeping him comfortable in the early spring weather.
"How about I buy you something to warm you up," the ninja said. Flexing his shoulders to signal the girls, who dutifully jump to the ground.
Walking up to a clothing stall, Naruto began to look at the selection. All of the clothes were left over from the previous winter. And with the spring thaw only days away, few were interested in new cold wear. However, after only a minute of looking, Ingrid had a large blue hat, with ear flaps, placed loosely on her head.
"There you go," Naruto said proudly. "By next winter you will have grown into that."
As one girl began to dance around with her new hat, the blond turned to the other girl. Her large hair did offer protection from the cold, so she didn't need a hat. But a new scarf would be nice.
Which is how the redhead was given a lime green scarf that clashed horribly with her pink jacket. Naruto thought the colors were striking together, and Hedda didn't care as she danced around with Ingrid.
"Okay you two," the blond said, kneeling down to the girls' level. "I need to head back to the castle soon. There is a lot of furniture I promised to help move."
"Ahh," the two girls whined. "But we still want to play."
"I will be back to play with you two, tomorrow, but until then I want both of you to play together."
"We could pretend to climb mountains," Hedda suggested.
"If we use the snow mounds around town, it'll be like we're making our way to the Forbidden Lands," Ingrid added. "So we'll be ready to go there in the future."
Naruto chuckled at the enthusiastic girls, "That is what I meant about being prepared. I could have saved myself a lot of trouble when I was younger if I had been more prepared."
"Then we'll get ready now, so we can be famous explorers later," the redhead announced. "As Hedda the Mighty, and Ingrid the Wise."
"And I will be there to cheer you on," Naruto said, patting the young girls on their heads.
The trio laughed. Happy in their knowledge that they will be friends forever.
Eventually the displaced ninja stood up and said his goodbyes, as he turned back to the castle. However, before he could leave, Ingrid gasped at remembering something, and ran up to grab his sleeve.
"Are you still coming to the school pageant next week?" the little girl asked.
"Of course I will be there," Naruto answered. "Elsa and Anna are also excited to see the show."
With that final question answered the two girls cheered and ran off to go play. While the ninja disappeared over the rooftops. Quickly making his way back to the castle.
Hedda and Ingrid rushed off down the road. Into a nearby alleyway that had a snow pile that went all the way to the roof of a house.
A minute later, Ingrid had found some discarded twine, and created a make-believe tether, for the two girls to climb their mountain. Where they imagined harsh storms and the freezing cold opposed their assent.
"I, Hedda the Mighty, have climbed this mountain and conquered the Forbidden Land," the red head called from her vantage point.
Ingrid smiled next to her, as both girls raised their hands to cheer. Happy with how their game of make believe was going.
"I find it hard to believe that you could conquer the Forbidden Land, when you don't even know where it is," a new voice called out. An older girl with black hair called from the bottom of the snow mound. "Maybe you should be called Hedda the Mini instead."
"As if you know anything about the Forbidden Land, Sara," Hedda challenged back to the girl.
"I know plenty about the Forbidden Land," the dark haired girl responded with a quiver. "Don't I Arn?"
Behind the older girl a boy with dirty-blond hair, and shorter than both Hedda and Ingrid, poked his head out. "Yeah, she does," he yelled out. Although he kept as close to the older girl as he physically could.
Ingrid stepped forward, ready to challenge Sara's claim. But before any words could be spoken, a giant snowball rolled between the two groups of children. Smashing to pieces against a far wall, revealing a living snowman at its center.
"That was fun," Olaf said, his carrot nose pushed back into his head. "Hi everyone, I hope I was a good pretend avalanche."
"Olaf, what are you doing here?" Hedda asked. While Ingrid snuck behind the sentient snowman and pushed his carrot nose back into place.
"I heard everyone talking about the Forbidden Land and wanted to play too. So I pretended to be an avalanche, and joined in the fun."
The sound of snow crunching was heard as Sara stomped her foot on the ground, "Avalanches aren't common in the Forbidden Land," she yelled. Her lips snarled, showing off her large front teeth.
"Avalanches happen all the time in the mountains," Ingrid countered. "Which is where the Forbidden Land is."
"Wouldn't it be called the Forbidden Mountain if that were true," Sara countered. Marching forward to tower over the other two girls.
"But there are already several forbidden mountains," a new voice broke over the argument.
Kristoff now stood at the end of the alley. Sven hitched to the ice sled was visible behind him.
"As I was passing by, I heard an interesting conversation, so I stopped by to join in," the blond man said with a stern look. "So what's this about a forbidden land?"
"It's nothing," Sara answered, turning her back to the ice harvester. "Come on Arn, we're leaving."
"We are?" the younger boy questioned, but didn't get to say anything else as he ran to keep up with the near-running older girl.
When the duo was finally out of sight Kristoff's face softened. "It honestly sounded like a fight was about to break out," he muttered to himself before turning to the two remaining girls and snowman. "I hope everyone is alright, but what's the story with those two?"
"Sara and Arn live at the orphanage with us," Hedda admitted. "Sara's older and bigger than most of us,"
"She's mean," Ingrid added.
"I understand," Kristoff said, shaking his head. "There was a kid named Gustav who lived at the orphanage with me. He was always picking on me because I was shorter than him."
"But you're so big and tall," Hedda yelled, craning her neck to look up at the blond man. "I don't think anyone would mess with you."
"Gustav was several years older than me," Kristoff answered. "And I only got this big and strong from living in the wilderness for so long. In fact, let me tell you a story."
The ice harvester knelt down to the girls' level. Meanwhile, Sven made a groaning noise before he too sat on the cold ground, the ice cart still attached to him. While Olaf sat beside the girls.
Kristoff took a few seconds to collect his memories, before he began his tale. "Back when I was a kid, I used to sneak out of the orphanage at night to go see the ice harvesters at the lake. They were my friends, and were always happy to see me. One of them even gave me a lute to play. He said if I got good enough I could play for them while they worked."
The blond stopped talking for a minute as he looked towards his sled. The head of his precious lute was visible among the rest of his bags.
"But one night Gustav stole my lute, and he wouldn't give it back. I was so mad that I had to sneak out that night or I would have burst. Thankfully, this was the night I met my best friend Sven, and we saved each other's lives."
Sven put his head on Kristoff's shoulder. The blond rubbed his friend's snout in return.
"It was only a few days later that I left the orphanage to live in the forest. Because they wouldn't let Sven stay at the orphanage with me," Kristoff continued. "Gustav and I never got along, but I was able to meet my best buddy because of him."
"Well I've already got my best friend," Hedda declared, as she wrapped her arm around Ingrid's shoulders. "But I wouldn't mind if I made more friends because of Sara."
"As long as we're together I don't think there's anything we can't handle," the blonde girl added.
"That's the truth," Kristoff cheered, scratching Sven behind his ears. "There will always be people who want to give you a rough time, but as long as you're with your friends, you can do anything."
A certain snowman, who had been listening intently, jumped in the air with joy. "So everyone has to deal with mean people when they're growing up?" Olaf asked. "But as long as you have friends, they'll never be able to get to you. I'll bet even Naruto had to put up with jerks when he was growing up."
Everything went quiet for a few minutes as the two girls stared at each other. Neither one had ever thought that someone might try to pick on their friend. Especially since everyone in Arendelle liked Naruto.
"No way," Hedda declared.
"It's impossible to not like Naruto," Ingrid stated.
"He probably had his own struggles growing up," Kristoff added. "Why don't you ask him how he deals with jerks the next time you see him."
The two girls cheered, intent on doing exactly that the next time they saw their friend. Olaf also asked to be with them, curious about the blond. Although he joined in a dance with the girls, his personal flurry cloud struggling to keep up with his dancing form.
"Speaking of asking people something. I need to go drop off this ice, and then ask someone about a squeaky wheel," Kristoff gestured towards the ice cart still attached to Sven. "I'm going to head out, but I want you two back at the orphanage before nightfall. It still gets cold after dark, and Olaf needs to be back at the castle as well."
A round of agreements were heard as the ice harvester turned, and headed down the street, walking beside Sven. Unaware that by the next morning, Ingrid and Hedda had run away from the orphanage.
-End Chapter-
This chapter took way longer than it ever should have, I'm very sorry for the wait. The good news is that my move has been completed, so I should be able to get back to updating a bit more frequently. I really wanted this chapter out last week, but Thanksgiving got in the way of that.
This chapter is the first part of an ark that should be 3 or 4 chapters. Some of it will be focusing on Hedda and Ingrid, but the majority will be defining Kristoff's backstory. This is all based on the Frozen comic book "The Hero Within." But I've made some changes, so even if you've read the comic it should be a little different.
I knew I wanted to do this retelling of the comic for a while, and I'm glad we're finally getting to it. I had considered early on if I wanted to replace Hedda with Ingrid in the story, but decided several chapters ago to add her instead. I've found that I write Ingrid as a very quiet girl, although she talks a lot more in this chapter. Hedda in contrast is a very loud girl, always talking first and making her opinion known. But despite these differences, they are best friends and are both very brave. Ingrid being the first to run up and hug Naruto after he saves them from the burning orphanage.
I will, at some point, be going back to all the previous chapters and touching them up, no rewrites. During this period I was thinking about adding Hedda to some earlier scenes, but I'm not sure if I should.
Something I will be adding is a better explanation for why Naruto wasn't using a lot of chakra at the beginning of the story. The short answer is that he thought he was "resting" his chakra coils, when he needed to be using as much chakra as possible to burn off the excess he had from all his power ups.
I'm going to stop here before I run on too long. I want to thank everyone again for being patient, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I've also noticed that a lot more people have found this fic since it's crossed the 1000 review mark (once again thank you everyone). I just wanted to welcome everyone who's new, and say, I hope you're all enjoying this story.