Naruto: Of bone and ice

The three mist ninjas who came to my aid almost carried me away. They said that we were retreating to a small base camp located on the border of Hot Springs and Frost Country. They were patrolling the area when they accidentally stumbled upon me and saved my life, thank god they did because I didn't want to die again!

Once we arrived at the base camp, I had to give a full report of the battle to the commander, after which I was allowed to rest and given food, water, and new clothes, as mine were full of holes and stained with blood. Word spread like wildfire about the huge battle between Hidden Stone and Hidden Mist against Hidden Cloud. Rumors were circulating that the Third Raikage had perished along with our Mizukage.

"Apparently, three days before his death, the Raikage took out ten thousand soldiers." One of the mist ninja said. The others chipped in and chatted among themselves, panic over the death of the Mizukage began to spread, our commanders tried to keep the rumors to a minimum, but to no avail. Two days passed, and I had fully recovered from the previous battle.

Rumors spread that I was the only survivor of the battle with the hidden leaf, even surviving against the third Hokage. I was called to my commander's tent, told that I was being assigned to a new unit and given new orders.

I entered the tent, heading towards where the commanders were gathered around a large table with a map laid out on it. They were discussing strategy and recording enemy information to send to headquarters. I bowed and greeted the jonin, waiting for his permission to move. He acknowledged me and told me to raise my head.

"Is Fuyun Yuki right?" He was more of a statement than a question. I nodded silently. "A message came from headquarters, what to do with you, boy, it seems you've been promoted to Chunin. Congratulations on that, not many Genin survive their first battle. You've been assigned to a new unit to gather information about the hidden leaf. You'll be working in a ten-man squad, the coordinates for your meeting are on this scroll, you should be there at noon. You're free to go."

I was given a new assignment, promoted, and told that I was returning to enemy territory. Our training at the Academy taught us not to ask questions and only obey. With little choice, I bowed and left, restocking my gear and heading to the coordinates on the scroll. It seemed that I was heading back to the land of hot springs and meeting my new team just before the border with the land of fire.

As I jumped through the trees to make my way to the meeting place, I realized that this was the first time I had time to think alone. What could my presence in this world mean, did it mean anything at all? What did the future hold for me? Would I meet Naruto and the other main characters? I had so many questions that before I knew it, I had arrived at my destination.

It seemed that I was the last one to arrive, and the others were waiting for me, they noticed my presence and stared at me as I approached. The one who I guessed was in charge stepped forward and greeted me. "So you are the last runt they are sending? Another child." He said in a hoarse voice.

"Ao, you're not much older than him, he's your responsibility." I turned to look at him, he looked no older than 16. He didn't say anything and I turned my attention back to our squad leader.

"Okay, you, excuse me, Look, I'm your squad leader for this mission. Yohachi herself." The man spoke. He had a large figure and rough features, he was bold and had a thick black beard. Like the others, he had a headband on his head and wore the standard Mist battle attire. I was the youngest in the squad, next was Ao, whose name I had heard but couldn't remember where, also with us were three women, and the rest were men.

"Our mission is to gather information on the supply lines supporting the Hidden Leaf. Intelligence indicates that they are supplying their troops with food and equipment through these supply lines. We must find the source and destroy it. This should prevent their frontline forces from receiving the supplies they need, giving us and our allies an advantage."

It was a straightforward mission, simple sabotage. I thought.

- Intelligence also shows that these supply lines are guarded by a detachment. The capabilities of which are unknown. So be prepared for anything. We'll be moving out in ten minutes, get your gear ready for battle, you're free."

The others went about their business as no one seemed to know each other, the squad captain seemed to know Ao and one or two others started talking. I decided to check my equipment and go about my business. Ao came and leaned against the tree next to me, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I heard you're a member of the Yuki clan?" He asked.

I nodded without looking at him and placed my Kunai back into the weapon holder.

- How old are you, baby?

I turned to look at him and had to consider his question for a few seconds. If I remember correctly, I turned nine the day before.

"Nine, I'm nine," I answered.

Ao chuckled to himself, "Well, kid, let's hope you live to see ten." And with that, he left to tend to his equipment.

From everything I had experienced, the mist ninja were nothing like the Konoha ninja I had seen in anime and manga. They were cold and ruthless killing machines. The Hidden Leaf seemed warm and welcoming, but the mist was nothing like that. Sama quickly pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Okay, all of you, let's get moving!" He shouted, jumping up into the trees and leading us on our mission. We all quickly followed his example and followed in a funny looking diamond formation.

This was the basic formation we used when moving through enemy territory, and it was something we were taught even at the Academy. We had been running for more than half a day before we stopped to rest and set up our first checkpoint. Luckily, we did not encounter any enemy scouts. We were given time to rest and eat, our food was simply our basic rations. It had no flavor, but it gave us everything we needed to keep our energy levels up.

We couldn't cook anything, as the fire would give away our position, it was late, and the moon was a sliver in the sky, not giving much light. We took turns keeping watch while the others slept for an hour. I dozed off, looking at the stars, and for a moment forgot about everything that had happened to me.

The next thing I knew it was time to get up and I was woken up by a pretty hard kick to the bottom of my foot, I'd been woken up like that many times at the academy and you never get used to it.

We rose up in a military manner and soon destroyed all traces of our presence. We had covered a great distance and were now in the northwest of the land of fire. Further north was the land of waterfalls, and further northwest was the land of grass. The land of grass became the battlefield between the hidden stone and the hidden leaf and was the main center of the war.

We were approaching our objective and our intelligence indicated that the supply line would be delivering troops to the front lines today. This meant that we would set up an ambush to destroy the supplies and any resistance encountered.

Once the plan was made, we took up our positions and it became a simple waiting game. I was placed with Ao and the others were also placed in divisions of two.

It was a perfect ambush tactic that allowed us to strike hard and fast from all sides to gain a complete advantage over our enemy.

We must have waited for about two hours before the supply line came into view. Three large wagons were pulled by horses, and the wagons were filled with supplies. Each wagon had two people and four shinobi on each side. There was also a team of leaf ninja that looked younger than the others. Most likely a Jonin and his team of Genin or Chunin. In all, there were four civilians, eight shinobi guards, and one team of four. A total of twelve enemies and only ten of us.