"You are enamored with me. I see it in your eyes… In the way that you move, how you talk to me— you need me the way a body needs food. Like thirst, your life requires me. So open your arms! Don't fight what you know is in your heart!"
Hinata watched from the sidelines as Koyuki spoke without the slightest hitch in her voice. Cameras were trained on the actress from three sides on the outdoor set, all under the watchful eye of the director. A two-dimensional backdrop had been erected to make it look like Koyuki and the male lead were speaking outside a chic manse, instead on the fringes of a frozen forest. Makino nodded, tapping his foot with excitement as he watched his scene come to life.
Koyuki reached up, touching the cheek of the handsome male lead. Hinata pictured herself in the stance of her co-star, running her fingers over whisker birthmarks. She had to shake her head to clear it. Bad thoughts!
"And… Cut!"
Makino clapped his hands to end the scene. Koyuki and the actor separated. It was incredible watching how quickly Koyuki's face changed— the passionate, heated gaze she'd fixed him with became dull and guarded. Koyuki was a kind woman, Hinata truly believed that, but she had a habit of hiding her emotions. Maybe because she was such a good actress, it was too easy for her to cover up what she was feeling. Koyuki's face never gave anything away. She could be pouring her soul out to a lover one second, looking for all the world like she meant it, then sheathe all that emotion at the sound of one clap.
Hinata wished that she had that skill.
"Watching and learning, I hope," Koyuki said, approaching Hinata.
"Yes! You were very good…" Hinata said.
"It's my job." Koyuki didn't phrase it as a brag, just a fact of life. "It's not my performance that worries me. Three days, and so far no trouble."
Koyuki looked into the distance, past the work crew that was scrambling to disassemble the outdoor set. She fixed her eyes on the icy horizon. The Land of Snow, Hinata found, exceeded her expectations.
It wasn't completely devoid of life, only human life. There were tall trees wrapped in thick bark armor. Birds sometimes flew between the branches or bobbed on the water, many of them with stark white coats. Equally white rabbits hopped around the edges of the set; Hinata enjoyed watching those. Once, she'd seen a fox with a snowy coat. That had been her favorite.
But Koyuki wasn't looking at the wildlife. Hinata didn't have to activate her Byakugan to see Neji perched atop a boulder dozens of feet away. Tenten was on the opposite side of the set while Lee ran laps. All of them were on guard in their own way. So far, no disturbances had reached the set.
"Perhaps your uncle didn't expect Konoha Ninja?" Hinata suggested. "They could have given up."
"That would be fortunate," Koyuki said.
Of course, neither of them believed it.
Koyuki took her by the hand. Hinata didn't generally like contact, but she and the actress had spent untold hours practicing over the boat ride and the cold days here. Hinata considered her a friend, something that she didn't have many of. It was something Koyuki lacked too— she had untold fans, but few friends.
"While the peace lasts, our time is better spent practicing than theorizing," Koyuki declared. "Your first scene is scheduled for tomorrow. On my name as a princess, I'll have you ready before then!"
When Koyuki spoke like that, Hinata couldn't tell if she was in-character for Princess Gale, or if she was swearing on her real-life status.
Either way, she let the older girl pull her toward the canvas tent that was serving as her room on-set. Kakashi's team maintained their vigil. Although, curiously, the man himself was nowhere to be seen.
Hinata wondered where he and Naruto had gone.
O-O-O
"M-Monster!"
Three men ran through the woods, devoid of the grace typically associated with shinobi. They stumbled, tripped, scrambled, and gasped for air as they pushed their bodies to the limit. It wasn't enough.
"Foooooouuuuuuuund youuuuuuuuuu…!"
The man in the back screamed. He spun around, fanning the hem of his white parka. There were blood spatters on it; not from him, but from the rest of the group the trio had splintered off of. The shinobi shoved his arm out upside down, activating a device on the underside of his wrist. A kunai shot out as fast as a Raiton ninjutsu, attached to a hissing cable.
The kunai deflected off of an arm sheathed in lightning. The shinobi was pierced— his body was carried backwards, a single blow driving through the chests of all three of the ninjas. The man's last sight was his face reflected in a black pupil, and a shock of silver hair.
"You're brutal," Naruto said.
He appeared standing on a branch, delicately poised without disturbing the snow piled under his feet. Beneath him, Kakashi removed his arm from the enemy ninjas. He looked up at Naruto and crinkled his eyes, implying a smile under his mask, while making a peace sign with the hand that just killed. Blood dripped off his fingers.
Naruto jumped down, landing smoothly in the snow. He and Kakashi were wearing cape-like cloaks over the top of jackets. Kakashi had even added a scarf below his mask and above his collar. As the man cleaned his arm, he spoke up casually. "Did you handle the others?"
"They won't go after Koyuki anymore."
Kakashi squinted. "Did you kill them?"
Naruto's gaze was even. "Yes."
"I wasn't sure you were the type."
"I don't like killing. I don't do it when I don't have to. But these guys? They were going after Koyuki. No matter how good of an actress she is, she's still a civilian. That's crossing the line."
"You won't hear me complain," Kakashi said. "If you hadn't finished the job, I would've had to!"
Naruto couldn't make sense of the Jounin. He'd heard of him before. Kakashi had all kinds of nicknames— the Copy Nin, Thousand Jutsu Kakashi, Kakashi of the Sharingan. The last one was pretty interesting, but Naruto found all of them misleading. The man was strangely chill. The only time he got serious was when Yukigakure ninja tried to interrupt the movie. Whenever that happened, all bets were off.
Three days, three attacks. Naruto and Kakashi were outnumbered every time. So far, they hadn't struggled. It helped that Kakashi turned into a crazed killing machine.
Kakashi took out the orange book he read whenever he had free time. As he and Naruto walked back to the set, retracing their steps over disturbed snow, he giggled to himself, flipping the pages with his thumb so that he could read one-handed. He wouldn't want to get blood on his precious book.
"These chuunin couldn't summon a bolt of lightning," Kakashi said casually.
"I know. They couldn't move glaciers, either."
Kakashi flipped a page with his thumb. "Mhm."
Naruto looked at him, trying to get a read on the man's thoughts. It wasn't easy with eighty percent of his face covered.
"They're feeling us out," Naruto said.
"Then we'll just have to be ready."
Kakashi said that like it was so simple. Maybe it was. Still, Naruto never liked this kind of mission. Guard duty put you on the back foot, making you the one who had to react every time. It made him uneasy. He liked to be the one doing things, not the one having things done to him.
"Don't waste your time on idle worries. Rest until they attack, then slaughter them. Simple," Kyu said.
"I don't like waiting," Naruto grumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing," Naruto told Kakashi. Looking for a distraction, his eyes fell on the bright book in Kakashi's hand. Other than protecting the movie set, it was the only thing Naruto had ever seen that excited the man. "What're you reading anyhow?"
Kakashi grabbed Naruto's shoulder so fast, the missing-nin almost reacted like it was an attack.
"You don't recognize it?" Kakashi's eye wasn't blinking.
"Maybe I've seen it before? The cover looks a little familiar…" Naruto pried Kakashi's hand off his shoulder. The man was getting bloody fingerprints on Naruto's cloak. "Should I?"
"Every man should know Icha Icha on sight!" Kakashi said. "It's only the best story ever put to paper! The most epic series any author has ever devised! The best selling, highest rated — by me — books in the history of the art form!"
"Icha Icha…" Naruto mumbled. The name rang a bell.
"It's porn," Kyu said. "Or whatever it is you humans call fictional sex. The farmer's daughter you seduced in Kusa wanted to try positions from her book."
Naruto's eyes widened. "Right, Icha Icha!" A second later, he squinted at Kakashi. "That's what you're reading? All the time? In public?"
"We kill people, Naruto," Kakashi said. "What I read is far from the worst thing I've done."
"...Know what? Fair enough," Naruto said.
All the same, for the rest of the trip, he walked a little bit further away from the reading Kakashi. It was hard not to hear those giggles in a new light.
"Perhaps we should steal that book," Kyu mused. "If it's so inspired, I'm sure we could discover new material to spice up our nights."
"I don't think Kakashi is going to give that up without a fight, Kyu."
"Then perhaps we'll pry it from his cold loose hands. When the mission ends, so too will your arrangement."
"...I'll leave it up to them."
If the Konoha ninja waved goodbye and sailed back for warmer climbs, Naruto would wish them the best. However, if they went after him or Hinata…
Well, they were welcome to try.
O-O-O
Dinners were chaotic. Lunches were taken whenever people scrounged time out of their schedules, naturally staggering mealtimes throughout the day. By dinner, filming was done. The film crew, the samurai guards, the director, and every hired shinobi all filled the biggest tent, sitting around a narrow table and eating a thick curry prepared by the on-set chef. That meant over twenty people eating at once, including Lee, who made as much commotion as another ten men when he shoveled food into his mouth with two spoons.
"My compliments, Mr. Chef!" Lee shouted, spraying a few little droplets of curry on the table.
He'd said the same thing every night. Naruto had to admit, the guy had spirit. He kind of liked him, haircut and fashion sense aside.
Koyuki turned to Naruto, who was next to her— something that gave him a thrill. "I noticed you were absent from the set today."
"I went to poke around the woods a little," Naruto said. "Pretty scenery. They're really full of wildlife!"
Kakashi had asked him to keep their work secret. It wouldn't do any good to make the crew panic, was the man's reasoning. Naruto thought Kakashi was a little too scared of the filming ending early, instead of just focusing on keeping everyone safe, but he was willing to play along. Down the table, the Jounin smiled.
"I see. Try to refrain from taking such a long walk tomorrow," Koyuki said. "Hinata will be filming her first scenes. She would appreciate your presence."
"I'd never miss something like that," Naruto said, "or my name's not Naruto Uzumaki!"
"The word of a missing-nin. That really means a lot," Tenten said.
The long-range weapon specialist had thrown these occasional insults over the last week like she was lobbing kunai. They didn't bother Naruto. He'd heard worse.
"From my point of view, I see no difference between you and him. You're all shinobi, are you not?" Koyuki said.
"We have a purpose. We fight for something bigger than ourselves," Tenten said.
"Yet I hired you, effortlessly, with a pittance of money." Considering this was an A-rank mission, only someone as affluent as Koyuki could call it a pittance, but her point stood. "At least Naruto and Hinata chose to help me. You were merely assigned to this. I can tell you which position I would rather be in."
"He stands for nothing." Neji had been keeping quiet, but he couldn't any longer. "His life means nothing. He has no clan, no village, no purpose. It's his fate to be a blip on Konoha's path to further greatness and nothing more."
"I would like to pluck his teeth out," Kyu said. "May we?"
"Listen," Naruto said. "It's Neji, right?" Of course it was. But it was clear that Neji had kind of a weird personality, defeatist and arrogant at the same time. Acting like Naruto didn't remember his name for sure was bound to get under his skin. "I get you don't like me and all, but let's just finish the mission. Because when it's done, you're welcome to take a shot at me." Naruto leaned over the table, smiling to his right, toward Neji's seat. "I mean, if you think you can handle it."
Neji started to rise. "Naruto-san, please do not provoke him!" Lee said. "I asked to fight you first! It's not fair if Neji skips in line!"
In one motion, Kakashi pulled Neji back into his seat and slid a covered bowl of curry down the table, where it stopped in front of Naruto. His eye crinkled at the missing-nin.
"Why don't you take that to Hinata? I'm sure she's hungry."
The runaway heiress had volunteered as a lookout while everyone else ate. She was outside, in the cold, guarding against sneak attacks. Naruto took the fresh bowl of curry and stood up, carrying it to the tent door. He shrugged his cloak on before he left. Prior to stepping outside, Naruto looked at Neji. "Y'know, Hinata told me something funny when we started traveling together. I asked why she ran away, and she said your clan has this seal. It makes you do whatever someone else wants… and it goes right on the forehead."
Naruto looked straight at Neji's forehead protector. Ever since they met, even at night, the Hyuuga had kept it fixed in place.
"What d'you think it is you stand for?" Naruto asked.
"Hinata's getting hungrier," Kakashi said, blocking Neji from answering.
"I'm going, I'm going!"
As Naruto left the tent, he was aware of Neji's glare searing into his back, trying to summon a Katon ninjutsu with nothing but his eyes and his anger.
Any thoughts of heat were blasted out of Naruto the moment he stepped outside. He couldn't tell if it was snowing, or if the wind was stirring up old snow. Either way, Naruto had to tuck the curry dish under his cloak to keep the lid from getting knocked off. He forced his way forward, his feet springing off the snow with an application of chakra control.
Something filtered to him over the shrieking wind.
"You… won't… true!"
Naruto followed what he was hearing. Leaning around the side of one of the biggest tents, he spotted Hinata.
"Your love won't match mine! Compared to your false feelings, mine are true!" Hinata said. She was holding a copy of the movie script, reading by the light of an oil lantern. Her form was huddled around the pages, protecting them from the fierce weather. "Your love won't match mine! Compared to your false feelings, mine are true!"
She repeated the line more than ten times. Naruto never heard her stutter. Alone in the cold, she drilled the single line until it was part of her, only then moving to the next one. Periodically, she would start the scene over, ensuring she hadn't forgotten the prior lines.
Naruto smiled. He ghosted into her blindspot, moving without making a sound. Naruto set dinner down where she would see it when she turned her head. Then he moved back, darting away.
When he was far enough away for the wind to cover any noise he made, Naruto started to whistle. He was in a good mood. Neji had no idea what he'd started.
"Did you see the title of the movie?"
Kyu's tone was off. She didn't sound upset; rather, she seemed mischievous. In spite of his mood, Naruto immediately became wary.
As much as he loved his copilot, she could have a really twisted sense of humor. Things that she considered fun he, often, didn't.
"I wasn't really paying attention… Does it matter?"
"I don't know, perhaps you could tell me. Obviously, as a superior being, the antics of mere humans mean nothing to me. But seeing as you've taken a liking to that Hyuuga kit and her success, you might think something of it. The script said Icha Icha, after all."
Naruto stopped walking. "The same one Kakashi's always reading?"
"Unless there's another story of that name."
"Oh," Naruto said. "Ohhhhh…"
All of a sudden, it was making a lot of sense why Kakashi turned into a killing machine every time the set was threatened. It wasn't just dedication to his mission. This was personal.
And Hinata, whose stutter came out with the slightest physical touch, was going to have to act her way through a love story.
"I'm sure she's got this!" Naruto said.
He really wished his voice could've sounded a little more confident. Kyu rubbed salt in the wound as her laughter echoed in his ears, drowning out the howling wind..