The last day of travel passed with supernatural speed. With the destination spotted so early looming over them the entire time, it was hard not to feel a dreadful weight. Sakura was the first to notice the plain, stone tower jutting out against nature and well above the treeline. It wasn't even noon when she did. Even the promise of warmth and soft beds wasn't enough to overpower the persistent dread of admitting to their failure.

Naruto did all he could to hold his optimism, his hope that they'd receive partial payment and that maybe even the cart some miles behind them wouldn't be picked clean before it could be salvaged. They had killed one of the raiders, and two of them had seen that their group had an actual giant! That might scare them off, right?

Sasuki was pessimistic that they'd survive the trip home. Sakura had loaded up with all the foodstuffs she could carry, but even with rationing it wouldn't be enough. Not with how much a giant ate. They'd have to rely on hunting in winter, or obtain supplies from the tower that was a million miles from nowhere and paying a premium to have food delivered to them. Neither option offered much hope.

It was still their best chance though; they needed rest.

So there was at least some relief washing over them as they finally closed in on the gate. Oddly, there was no real wall, just a great pile of rubble, rock, and shoveled dirt. Some sort of archway had been connected here though, with a gate wide enough for a cart and tall enough for a giant to avoid bumping their skull.

Sakura knocked louder then any man possibly could.

After five minutes of listening to nothing but their chattering teeth, she did so again, even louder.

"We're sure this is the right place?"

"Y-you don't see any other square t-t-t-towers nearby, d-d-do you?" Sasuki bit back. Holding firm and not objecting as the pink-haired titan turned around to stroll by.

"I'm going to climb the wall; go knock on the tower's door," she declared, hearing no objections. Both of the smaller folk shuddered out a breath, both thinking with all their power of what to say when the door did open. Rather, using the last few moments they had to continue thinking about this looming conversation. Though all that planning was for naught when Sakura called out in that monotone voice of hers. "Huh. That's a lot of orcs," she called out from atop the ten-foot wall of rubble.

"ORCS?!"

"Annnnd their coming towards me now," she continued, seeming to ignore him even as he climbed up after her, quick as his stiff, gloved fingers could manage. "Oh, I see what this is-" she added with a sudden air of realization, just as he reached the top. High enough at least to see what she did. "-their undead,"

The site of more than a hundred shambling, beefy bodies clamoring towards and up the barricade like a mindless collective certainly supported her theory. Nevermind the fact they were naked in what had to be far below freezing, loitering around in a frozen empty courtyard. Naruto groaned weakly. While those climbing up to them were making especially slow progress, faceplanting and crawling more often than not, this wouldn't buy them more than a couple minutes.

Being stripped and being corpses apparently hadn't emptied their hands of weaponry either.

It occurred to Naruto in this moment that he should have practiced loading his crossbow while wearing thick gloves at some point. Would a crossbow even slow these things down? Frustrated, he dropped the wooden instrument and unstrapped his spear, feeling a sliver of comfort in having a weapon with decent reach out. Still, most of his hope was pinned on Sakura.

She made an inspiring sight, sending the first foe up the wall flying across the fort with little effort, but those were just the prologues. The zombies closest to the wall when some tasty, warm flesh appeared in their vision. Soon, they'd be facing waves of those mobbing up at the base of the rubble.

"Aim for the spine, as close to the top of their head as you can," Sasuki said, dagger in hand and appearing from nowhere on his right. Chattering teeth were silenced by sheer willpower as her mind entered its tactical mode. "We can do this. It won't be easy, but if we're careful, it's possible. This might even be a good thing if the tower's overrun and the employer is dead!"

She lunged forward and buried her dagger in the back of a zombie's neck, taking advantage of its crawl and turning her eyes immediately to the next closest! It was almost enough to comfort him. Being sandwitched between two deadly fighters, either of which had now killed an undead with relative ease.

They just had to do it ninety-eight more times. Minus whatever he could kill. Assuming the estimate was accurate and there weren't anymore inside the building. Best to focus on the moment. His first thrust was a failure; worse, it was a trial just to keep his spear gripped while lodged in the still-squirming, and still quite strong, attacker.

Sasuki finished it off. This time she had to dodge and whip back her arm to keep the foe just behind from getting a grip on her. They were bunched enough on the wall now to make that a constant concern. Sakura, with a roar, swung a long underhand sweep, sending rock and bone flying as she scraped a half dozen of them off the wall to remedy this! Though inspiring as that way, it only cleared a small slice of the tide on the wall. He didn't even have time to check if they'd died. Well, died. With a cry of his own, he brought his spear down again, clean through the skull of the naked orc reaching out for him!

He kicked the thing's shoulder to free his weapon and looked up to see them in retreat!

Wait, retreat?

Even Sasuki looked confused, but still, a deep breath of relief was felt by all as the zombies stood, turned around, and returned to the tower. For those already climbing, this involved a lot of tripping and tumbling and faceplanting. It might have even been amusing under better circumstances. The woman strolling through the flesheating mob without fear did not look amused. She stood out from the group by the thick fur cloak that covered her and the clean, fiery red hair that poked out of its hood. Only in that way, though.

From above, and with so many to compare her to, it was clear that she was an orc.

"Are you the delivery crew?" she called out in a voice that was almost casual.

"Y-yes!" Naruto called back, seeing a lifeline.

"And the supplies you were to bring me are invisible?" she asked pointedly, her voice already dissatisfied.

"We were ambushed by orcs only a day south of here; they killed the snow donkeys pulling our cart before we repulsed them bu-"

"-the supplies are gone," she finished tersely.

Uh, w-we wanted to see if we could borr-BUY some animals to go retrieve it!" Naruto blubbered out without thinking, desperate to lessen their failure.

"You honestly think it's still there? That it hasn't been stolen by now? God's above and below," she grumbled out the last bits. The group atop the wall took the chance to share stares and communicate as much as they could in the brief window they had, while their employer rubbed her eyes wearily. "Alright, kill them,"

"Wait wait wait seriously?!" Naruto barked out as the massive, almost fluidlike flow of undead did another full 180 and resumed their attack. "Why? It's not like we stole from you or anything!"

"You won't survive the trip home anyway, and you did kill several of my guards," she justified, surprising all with the reply. Still sounding more annoyed than anything else. Besides, I've never worked on a giant before; I might learn something interesting,"

"YOU WILL NOT DESECRATE MY BODY!" Sakura roared, cudgel slamming overhead with such force that it sent rocks scattering down like an avalanche, burying more zombies than he could quickly count!

No more than ten though.

Hell, he didn't even know those burried were out of the fight.

"She's a tracker! I bet she can find the orcs who stole it; get the stuff back if you lend us pack beasts or...something" Naruto yelled, earning a curious glance but not a halt command. Rocks crumbled and trickled with the climb of their attackers as they drew yet closer to the top. Sasuki gripped her dagger and braced back into a crouch. Still, Naruto hesitated before his next words. "I'm a fey, an imposter, if you want unique shit to study! I even have healing magic!"

A hand was raised sharply at that, holding a large wooden whistle that made no noise but stopped all the shambling mob in its tracks.

"You. Come closer," she commanded, eyes still on the blonde boy. He stole a glance at his companions, hesitating before he complied. "Just you," she reinforced, glaring at the dagger master that had begun to follow him. Figuring that she'd just watched enough of the battle to know who the dangerous one was, Naruto pleaded with his eyes for Sasuki to comply. He even dropped the spear as he descended.

Doing so without rubbing shoulders with the various nude, maimed horrors was impossible, but even as he bumped and brushed into them, nobody moved an inch, not even the whistle woman staring coldly down at him.

"You're an imposter? Can you prove this?" she asked pointedly.

"Uhhh… I can prove my healing powers if you give me a knife or something," he suggested. "A-a fangfolk who smelled me up close was confident that I was,"

"That is fairly convincing. As you said, I could prove it simply….. alright, here's my offer," she began loudly, turning her gaze back up to his two companions. "You'll take twenty of my guards, go find their camp, and return what's stolen and anything else of value here to me; if you can manage that, I'll consider the delivery completed,"

The relief was almost physical. The weight all three escorts felt lifted from their shoulders at even a chance of escape. Not to mention payment.

Naruto took a single step forward before his fear was rekindled. A fierce grip took the back of his hood, his generous host not particularly concerned with the way this freed his ears and all else to the oppressive cold. She was at least a little stronger than him, and the angle didn't help.

Not that he fought it particularly hard.

"You're staying here," she explained, as if there was a need to.

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