The cell door hit the wall with finality. Hinata heard it bolt. She and Koyuki were left alone, sitting in dark rooms separated by a wall. Hinata knew Koyuki was still there because she could hear the girl breathing.
When the net was hauled into the blimp, the girls had been apprehended by a squad of Yukigakure ninja. Although individually they seemed no more threatening than the duo Hinata defeated before, she dared not fight back here, surrounded by the enemy while Koyuki was with her. Hinata chose to be taken captive with the princess, leading to their incarceration here.
Koyuki's breathing grew uneven. She was crying.
"I-It's okay," Hinata said, but Koyuki didn't stop.
"I never should've come back. Why did I do this movie? Now Sandayū is dead, and they've caught you because of me, and Naruto and the others are all fighting… It's my fault!"
"We all did what we th-thought was best—"
"I should've never run. I should've stayed with my father. I should have just died!"
As Koyuki sobbed once, twice, three times… Hinata didn't interrupt. She felt strange. Lightheaded, as if her mind was a great distance away from her body.
"It's so easy to think that," Hinata said.
Something about her voice calmed Koyuki. At least, it stopped the sobbing.
"Once you start, it's hard to stop," Hinata still sounded calm, mostly because her voice barely felt like it was her own. "My uncle died for me when I was three years old. Another village wanted my Byakugan. When my father killed the one who took me, they threatened to start a war. Konoha gave them the head of his twin. That was Neji's dad. He had his own family, a life… And then it was gone. Wouldn't it have been better if they took me?"
"Hinata…" Koyuki said.
"Uncle Hizashi was important. He was the leader of the Branch Clan. If he was still alive, Neji might be even stronger than he is now. But if I were gone, they wouldn't have lost anything."
The silence lulled. It was only a handful of seconds, but it felt much longer.
"We sure are useless, aren't we?" Yuki said.
"You're not useless! You're a famous actress, with a thousand fans!"
"No, that's Yukie Fujikaze. I'm Koyuki Kazahana, the princess who ran away."
Hinata leaned her head on the wall separating them. She was rubbish at comforting others. She'd always been shy, developing a terrible stutter after the Kumo affair. Hinata didn't know if she should tell Koyuki that she was wrong, assure her it was all okay, or just be quiet and let the older girl cry.
Since she was so hopeless at this, she just said the first thing that came to her head. "Is it b-bad to run away?"
Koyuki didn't answer immediately.
"It means you're a coward," Koyuki said, which seemed like a mantra she was used to saying in her head, possibly ever since she was a child first fleeing the coup.
"I don't agree with that," Hinata said. "S-sure, I ran away… but so did Naruto! And he's not a coward at all. He never backs down!"
Greeted with silence from the neighboring cell, Hinata kept going. "He just went and found a bigger world. I haven't been outside of Konoha for very long… But I've already seen so many things. I think it's b-better to stay alive, even if we feel like we don't deserve it, because tomorrow might be different."
Koyuki hit the wall with some part of her body, possibly leaning her head against it the same way that Hinata was doing. "Are you preaching to me, Hinata?"
"N-No! I was just… It's only a th-thought—"
"Relax!" Koyuki laughed. "I liked it. You know, I think of acting that way. One day I can be me, and the next I can be someone different! Princess Gale would always come back and beat the bad guy. Sometimes, it's fun to be someone like that, even if it's only while the cameras are rolling."
"You think of yourself as someone else?" Hinata asked.
"Why not? It's pleasant. And then, when the cameras do cut, sometimes I remember what I was like when they were on. If I ask myself, Would Princess Gale do this? Then I can change myself in little ways, over time." Hinata heard a hearty sniff from the other side of the wall. "Princess Gale wouldn't cry because she was captured. She would come up with a plan."
"What about me?" Hinata asked. "Could I also become Princess Gale?"
Koyuki chuckled, already sounding more confident. "You're my co-star, aren't you? You should already know the answer."
O-O-O
When Doto Kazahana arrived in front of his niece, he stopped and observed carefully, even going as far as to rub his face. He had a broad head with deep jowls, perched atop a muscular body more fit for a soldier than a ruler. Unsurprising, perhaps, in a man who took the throne by force.
"A cheap ruse," he said. "Have you no respect, greeting your uncle after so long in such a pitiful way?"
On his left, a barren cell held a beautiful young woman, standing and looking defiantly at him with a knife in her hand. In the cell on Doto's right, an identical young woman gave him the same look. The only difference between them was the knife held by the copy on the left. Doto slowly looked between the two, his pupils sliding side to side. He hadn't even brought underlings. He believed he didn't need them, or there was something about this conversation he didn't want anyone overhearing.
"Two Koyuki Kazahanas. Two of the runaway princess. Two of the terrible daughter that left her father to die," Doto said.
"Take that back!" snarled the Koyuki holding the knife.
"I won't be preached to by the one who killed him!" said the unarmed Koyuki.
"Yes, I killed him. Do you even know why?" Doto paced to the left, moving to the armed Koyuki. "He was hiding a great treasure. Yet, he wouldn't share it. Not with the people of his frozen country. Not even with his brother. Someone had to bring an end to his selfish ways."
The Koyuki he was closer to pointed her blade at him. "You're the selfish one! You just wanted the treasure for yourself!"
"Then surely we're as bad as each other, your father and I?" Doto said. "He hoarded, and I coveted. But his self-serving ways defied belief. Even when I took the entire country, he hid the key to his private treasure. He sent it away with his only daughter while foreigners smuggled her from the country."
Both Koyuki's touched their necks. "My necklace…" they said in unison.
Doto paused.
"I see you've shared everything you knew with your double," he said. "Yes, that amulet you wear is the key. It will be mine today, though there's no reason for me to take it off a corpse. Your samurai are dead and soon those shinobi will follow. I have nothing to fear from a helpless little girl. Hand over the necklace, and I'll send you back to the Land of Fire to play a princess on as many movie screens as you want."
In the cell on the right, Koyuki tightened both her hands around the green jewel of her necklace. In the left cell, Koyuki held the necklace with one hand, raising her knife in her other. Doto looked between them. He was wearing a regal cloak with a high collar, stitched with the white and gold colors of Yuki no Kuni's royal family.
He grabbed the cloak now, yanking it off with one of his bearlike fists. His muscular torso was garbed in black chakra armor that was at least as advanced as what his elite shinobi had worn during the attack.
"You were captured with one of the missing-nin you hired," Doto said. "A chuunin with nothing special about her except her clan. Did you think I hadn't researched your group? I have eyes everywhere, Koyuki. I'm sure this Hyuuga has used a Henge to disguise herself as your double. Presumably, you hope that I will approach the wrong one, giving her a chance to strike." He shook his head, looking genuinely disappointed. "I'm not so easy to fool."
"We will see, Uncle," said the unarmed Koyuki.
Doto approached her. He leaned forward and looked through the bars. His eyes were cold. There wasn't a lick of familial affection anywhere in his expression.
"Your father's last words were begging me to stop," Doto said.
"If you're going to lie, make it believable," Koyuki said.
Doto smiled. "How could you know? It's impossible to understand a person until you see them when they're about to die. I wonder what your last words will be… Hyuuga."
The Koyuki in front of him shrunk back, her eyes widening. "I'm K-Koyuki!"
"A stutter!" Doto said. "My spies informed me of that trait. Once a failed ninja, always a failed ninja, it seems."
He turned away from the cell and went directly to the other one, ignoring the way the unarmed Koyuki pitched herself against the bars. Doto wrenched open the second cell and marched in as his niece shrunk away.
"If your plan was to bait me into the wrong cell, you would surely have given your weapon to the kunoichi," Doto said, advancing on Koyuki. "But it was a bluff. I know of the Hyuuga Clan's unarmed attacks. You are the real Koyuki! And no scrap of metal will save you."
In one big step, Doto backhanded the knife from Koyuki's hands, using his chakra armor to do so without fearing the blade. Koyuki's back hit the wall.
"S-Stop!" was the shout from the other cell.
"For your petty tricks, I'll be taking your amulet and your life," Doto declared, grabbing the green gem looped around Koyuki's neck.
At the same time, her hand tapped his chest.
Doto's fingers tightened on the key he'd spent years of his life chasing. His head was full of visions of the treasure he would lay claim to, finally taking what he felt his brother owed him. His fantasies lasted until his body shut down, collapsing to its knees.
Doto coughed, letting go of the necklace and putting both hands to his mouth. They came away red. He looked up as blood trickled from his mouth. There was a puff of smoke, and when it faded, Hinata Hyuuga stood in front of him.
"H-How—?!
"Princess Gale wouldn't stutter," Hinata said.
"But it seems you do now, Uncle," Koyuki said from the cell next door. "I guess men do sound different when they're dying."
As Doto fell back, Hinata pilfered the key for Koyuki's cell. When she opened the door, the first thing the outrushing Koyuki did was fling her arms around Hinata.
"We have to go!" Hinata protested. "His shinobi could still catch us!"
"Thank you," Koyuki said. "Thank you, Hinata. Thank you."
As worried as Hinata was about being caught, she couldn't hear any pursuit coming after them yet… So she patted Koyuki's back, returning the tight embrace.
O-O-O
"—and now they're hugging."
Ranmaru spoke very carefully, looking at Naruto between every word. He had to be loud to be heard over the wind, which was leaking in from a massive hole in the blimp's outer wall, signifying where Naruto had blasted a way in for them. Twenty unmoving Yukigakure shinobi were scattered on the floor, making up a ring around Naruto and the Mizu no Kuni boy. Naruto and Ranmaru were sitting cross legged, Ranmaru's head pointed downward and his eyes glowing red as he used his Dojutsu to observe what was happening underneath them.
"Why didn't you help?" Ranmaru asked.
"I wanted to see if they could handle it!" Naruto said. "It seemed like they had everything under control. Besides, it's not like I was far away."
"What…" Ranmaru hesitated. "What if I lied about what I saw, so you wouldn't help when you should've?"
"Hmmm. Then I would've had to throw ya!" Naruto said.
"Throw… me?"
"Thrown ya!" Naruto said.
He pantomimed an overhand toss in the direction of the hole wind was whipping in from. Ranmaru swallowed.
"But I don't think you'd do that!" Naruto said. "In fact, you seem pretty decent! I mean, your eyes are annoying to fight, but you feel like a good kid. So let's have a talk when we touch down— You, me, Raiga, and Misuno."
"You want to talk to us?" Ranmaru said.
Naruto held up his hands, telling Ranmaru to wait a minute. The royal blimp was starting its descent, closing the distance between it and the ground. Naruto turned his head toward the hole in the wall, waiting patiently. Ranmaru blinked, his Dojutsu still active, and Naruto saw his eyes widen.
"Raiga!" Ranmaru said.
The ex-Swordsman of the Mist couldn't match Naruto's Jinchuriki leaping prowess, but with natural lightning pouring off his body he was able to bridge the reduced gap up to the descending blimp. Behind him, Misuno was riding a water jutsu shaped like a bird, doing her best to keep up.
Raiga disappeared from sight for a moment, hitting the airship below the hole that Naruto had opened. Seconds later, he crawled into view. As soon as he saw Naruto he started to attack, howling while wielding both halves of Kiba. Just as fast, he saw the unharmed Ranmaru sitting next to the missing-nin and stopped short. This wasn't what he expected to find.
"Sup!" Naruto waved. "We were waiting for ya!"
Mizuno arrived, leaping from her jutsu to crouch behind Raiga, cocking her head. "For us?"
"Yeah, you! It's time for me to unveil my ultimate secret weapon," Naruto said.
Mizuno shrunk back, holding her swords tighter, while Raiga combined the halves of Kiba into one in preparation, but Naruto didn't move.
"What is your secret weapon?" asked Ranmaru, who was beginning to adjust to Naruto's predictable unpredictability.
"A stern talking to," Naruto said. "Now sit down, kids. Naruto Uzumaki's guide to being an upstanding missing-nin is in session!"
O-O-O
"I ain't taking life advice from a brat half my age," Raiga insisted.
That's what he said, but he was sitting with his arms crossed, making up one-fourth of a circle. They had swapped the royal blimp for a seat on top of a windy rampart of the Yuki no Kuni Palace. Far underneath them, Hinata and Koyuki had been joined by Kakashi and his team, who had recovered from Ranmaru's Genjutsu. Thanks to them, Naruto felt safe to leave the girls for a little bit longer and focus on the ex-Kiri ninja.
"You sure were angry when I nabbed Ranmaru," Naruto said. He was sitting with one of his knees raised, resting his elbow on it.
"No shit! He's my team's support!"
Despite the clinical diagnosis, referring to Ranmaru just by the role that he filled, Ranmaru perked up and looked proud. Naruto shook his head. "Are you sure it's just 'cause he's valuable?"
"Obviously! You've seen what his eyes can do," Raiga said.
"Yeah… That's why you chased me down screaming that you'd kill me, even though you knew that ya couldn't."
Raiga stopped, his lips hanging open.
"You've done this long enough to know when you shouldn't take a fight," Naruto said. "After fighting me on the ground, did you think you'd win if you tried again? Nah, you knew better. You just weren't thinking. Because you were mad that I took him. Because you care!"
Raiga slowly drew his lips closed. He didn't disagree, and Ranmaru leaned forward. "Is that true, Raiga?"
"Quiet, kid," Raiga muttered.
"See? You're a softy." Naruto crossed his arms. The smile he'd developed turned to a frown. "But you took a job to steal Koyuki and deliver her to her uncle. How would you feel if someone stole Ranmaru from you? You should know, since I just did it. It makes you feel pretty shitty, right?"
Raiga glowered.
"To be a shinobi is to be a hypocrite," Misuno said. Her auburn hair was blown by the wind whipping past them, crinkling the procedure mask she wore over her mouth. "We fight for our village, killing others who fight for their village. You protect your teammates, in order to kill someone else's. We are creatures of contradiction."
"Is that why you didn't turn on Raiga?" Naruto asked.
Misuno flinched slightly. "I don't know what you mean. As you should know, he is stronger than me—"
"But I was kicking his ass. And instead of helping me do it, you kept fighting with him. Admit it, you started to like these two."
"What? You turned into a softie?" Raiga said.
Misuno stayed silent for a few seconds. "We've worked together for two years. Is it so surprising?"
"I think it's pretty normal," Naruto said. "That's why I'm saying, you've gotta change! Just because we're shinobi doesn't mean we have to be monsters. I've only taken jobs I like for the last ten years, and I'm still going strong!" He pointed at his chest with his thumb, emphasizing his continued existence. "If that's too hard, it's not the only option. I talked to someone from Kiri recently who used to be a missing-nin. They're back with the village now… Got a whole new Kage and everything! If you went back, especially with that nifty sword of yours, I'm willing to bet they'd take you in. Village life ain't perfect, but it's less brutal than life on the move. Safer, too."
Not just for active ninja. The main difference was that in a village, Raiga could leave Ranmaru behind and know that he'd be safe. That wasn't an option when you were on the run.
Sooner or later, someone would get to Ranmaru the way Naruto had. And when that happened, chances were, they wouldn't be as gentle.
"We'll think about it," Raiga whispered gruffly.
Naruto clapped. "Great! Now usually, I'd hold a grudge about Koyuki and Hinata getting taken… but it all worked out, so I'll forgive ya this time!"
The other three developed a shiver at the idea that a group like theirs which could easily tackle A Rank missions needed to be forgiven by one person, but they couldn't deny a sense of relief that they wouldn't see that toxic red chakra again.
Naruto stood up and stretched, popping his back. "Whew! That feels good. My body always gets tense after I go all out, y'know?"
He walked to the edge of the rampart, looking down the stone walls to where a crowd was forming. The palace was in the middle of the Land of Snow's largest city, which was really more of a village, and it was clear Doto hadn't been a popular ruler. Instead of an angry mob, the crowd was greeting Koyuki like a celebrity.
"Time for me to go," Naruto said. "I've got a movie to watch… And a princess to congratulate."
He hopped off of the rampart, running down the side of the stone, sticking in place with chakra. Misuno, Raiga, and Ranmaru were left alone. They knew they had an incredible amount to talk about, and important decisions to make.
But the thing Raiga said first was, "That kid freaks me out."
Ranmaru shivered. "He said he would throw me."
"Throw you?" Misuno asked.
"Throw me..." Ranmaru moaned.
Naruto kicked off of the wall, hurdling the crowd, and landed beside Hinata, dragging her into a hug.
Instead of panicking or turning into a stuttering mess, Hinata hugged him back.