50. Trouble in the snow(2)

Aiko and Jiraiya were given rooms in the castle and an official request for bodyguards was sent to Konoha as Jiraiya refused the offer to guard the Daimyo as he still had to search for Tsunade.

Aiko looked at the tall unfamiliar ceiling thinking about today's events, 'They were able to fly, and there was a layer of some energy surrounding the armour.' he thought remembering the battle today, even though it was over in a few moments, Aiko knew it was because he took the enemy by surprise.

"I wonder how they are doing?" muttered the boy, thinking about his acquainted in Konoha, Aiko during his travel had found a drawback of his Chakra Assimilation skill, he realised that the skill changed something fundamental inside him, modifying his body to be able to adapt to the characteristics of the assimilated chakra and this modification was permanent.

This showed itself in the fact that he could not sense any of the hiraishin seals he had left in Konoha after fighting with the dark style user as he had assimilated his chakra during the fight, because Hiraishin seal was individual to each user, which made it impossible to copy or tamper with once placed.

This meant that Aiko should be careful if he decided to use both of these skills in battle simultaneously as all the previous preparation required for the use of hiraishin seal might become useless or a hindrance.

Thinking about these things he slowly drifted to sleep, as he was pretty much mentally exhausted from the travel and the bed he was on was a little too soft and comfortable thinking maybe he should earn money to buy one for himself.

......................

"Are you also a shinobi?" asked the short haired girl curiously looking at the boy who was beside her, until the shinobis from Konoha came to the land of snow, Aiko was instructed by Jiraiya to act as the bodyguard for the princess while he went to 'collect' information.

It was just past noon , but you could already see the outline of the moon peeking behind the clouds.

"Not yet, you only become one once you graduate from the academy" replied the red haired boy

Looking at the garden in front of him, they had some of the plants and flowers he had never seen, making him curious about them.

Even though the snow continued to fall, the interior of the castle was surprisingly warm. Aiko found out that it was because the wall radiated heat, though he had no idea how.

"My name is Koyuki Kazahana, what is your name?" asked the black haired girl.

"Aiko Uzumaki" replied the boy continuing to look around causing the girl to pout as he wasn't paying attention to her.

"What, haven't you seen a garden before?" she asked with a bit of annoyance in her voice.

"No, the plants and flowers are different here" replied the boy looking at her face..

"Oh, what type of plants do you have at your place?" she asked curiously,"does it always snow in your village too?" she added as she had never been anywhere out of the capital city in her life.

Aiko thought for a moment and explained the weather and topography of Konoha, Koyuki listened with fascination, her eyes filled with curiosity and yearning.

"It's always winter here" she complained pouting cutely. " But, dad said he will invent a device to bring spring to our country." she added going back to her cheerful self and starting asking him a lot of questions.

Aiko looked at her a bit dumbfounded as she kept on talking non-stop, seeing her so energetic reminded him of Kushina, making him feel a bit homesick.

"Do you want to see what spring looks like?" he suddenly asked her to which, she nodded enthusiastically.

...............…

"You useless waste, now the whole plan is going to fail, because of you"said a man wearing dark coloured armour to another man in a similar costume.

"Sorry captain, he was at least Jonin level, we couldn't contend with him." said the other, keeping his head bowed.

"ENOUGH" came a harsh voice just when the captain was about to continue.

Both of them looked towards the sound and saw a silhouette of the man standing in shadows barely revealing his bulky figure.

"Master" said the two of them kneeling in unison.

"It is not the time for shifting blame , we are going to act tonight before the ninjas from the konoha come to meddle in our affairs." he said in a serious voice. "Call the others and prepare, we are going to make the land of snow great again." he finished going away.

'Sosetsu, I thought of sparing your life, but you are the one who is forcing me to be ruthless tch.' He thought with a vicious expression on his face.

...............…...

Sosetsu was sitting in his study surrounded by scrolls filled with different designs, he was holding an old scroll with a design of Armour looking at it intently with a serious expression on his face.

"My lord" called his assistant, bringing him out of his thoughts, "We have got a reply from Konoha," he said, giving him a sealed scroll.

"Thank you Amado" said Sosetsu and nodded his head reading the scroll and showed a relieved expression as it was said the ninjas will arrive by tomorrow night, the design ion his hands was the one of the prototype of the chakra armour developed during the second shinobi war, which was no longer in production now,

The attackers that day seemed to be wearing a similar one, but more advanced, which made him fearful that there was someone from his side, helping the assailants.

'As long as the guard force is increased everything should be fine' he thought, keeping the designs back in their place.

............…

The sky turned dark, Aiko and Koyuki were walking in the corridor when a huge explosion shook the whole castle, it was a lot bigger than the previous one.

They quickly stabilised themselves while men dressed in armour poured into the castle breaking the windows and walls, quickly attacking the guards and workers in the castle.

Aiko and Koyuki both started running towards the source of the explosion, while nearly ten people blocked their path all dressed in similar armour, causing Aiko to remove a kunai from his tool box standing in front of her protecting her behind him.

"Boy, we meet again, let's see how you save her this time" said one of the men, who Aiko recognised as the one who attacked them on the street.

Aiko did not waste time on trash talk, quickly throwing the kunai and a few shurikens towards his attackers as he ran towards them forming hand seals in quick succession as pale red chains broke out from his torso.

The people in armour raised their arms shooting Kunais and some made hand seals, Aiko noticed that their armours glowed with a faint blue light and their chakras spiked.

"Ice style: ice dragon jutsu", they shouted while a dragon made of ice of about five meters formed filling the whole corridor they were in rushing towards him.

'The armours assist in increasing power of their ninjutsu', he noted making a few hand signs increasing the amount of chakra he poured into the chains which in turn increased their strength and thickness.

"BOOM" there was a defending sound as the chains and the ice dragon clashed, the chains destroying the dragon into fragments filling the area in mist.

Koyuki was watching the battle with a calm expression on her face when the wall a few meters away from her cracked open revealing a secret passage and a man emerged from it quickly closing in on her, blocking her mouth to prevent her from making any noise.

"Come with me your father is waiting for you!" said the voice which she recognized as her uncle as he pulled her into the passage which automatically closed behind them earring any traces of its existence.

A small frown formed on Aiko's face as he noticed the movement behind him, and quickly attacked the ceiling bringing it down on the attackers as he vanished in a puff of smoke.

.............

Tsunade's day was different, she looked at the money she had won in front of her and instead of happiness, she felt a knot form in the pit of her stomach.

"Let's get out of here" she said to the black haired girl beside her who was counting the money Tsunade had won with a smile on her face, a little bit of pain and guilt flashed through her eyes looking at the girl in the black kimono but she pushed it aside like she always did taking a swing from the sake bottle held in her hands.

They were back in the snow filled streets going towards their residence. " Shizune chan do you want something to eat?" Tsunade asked, looking at the streets filled with warm food and the empty bottle in her hand.

The girl simply nodded her head in approval still counting the money, it was the first time she had seen Tsunade win a gamble in the two years she had been travelling with her.

Just when they were about to enter a shop for dinner a rough voice came from the alleyway in the side grabbing their attention.

"Tsunade Senju'' said the voice, " I would like to invite you to join our organisation." continued the voice as a figure slowly emerged from the darkness covered in a black robe with red coloured cloud patterns on it.