34 The Land of Snow Part 2

Kibo smiled as he turned to the rest of the team, "Go follow Naruto, I will hold off the Yukikage."

Kakashi looked to Kibo and asked, "You got this?"

Kibo nodded his head in response, Kakashi gave the signal for the rest of the team, Karin wanted to stay, but Kibo convinced her to go because of confidently he said, "I'll be fine. You know I don't bluff." Karin nodded her head as she chased off after the rest of the team. Kibo performed a series of hand signs as he unleashed a Great Yang Fire Ball, the attack shot towards Setsuna melting the ice pillar attached to his leg.

The gold flames erupted covering what was left of the train, turning into a pile of molten slag, a new quest alert chimed in his head, as he found himself dodging dozens of Ice spikes that came out of the snow beneath him.

[Detain the Yukikage without killing her. Reward, 1 Teleportation Relic, and 1 Star Chamber Relic]

Kibo didn't wait as he used his Wind Lord's Step and shot around the battle field, "Ice Storm Giant's Hammer!" An enormous 100 foot, crystal clear double sided ice hammer smashed into Kibo's body and sent him tumbling to the ground. His feet sank into the snow as he held up the massive construct of Glacial Chakra with a single hand.

"Impressive, your physique is quite strong, let's see how well you handle two." The Yukikage summoned another Ice Hammer and smacked into the hammer Kibo was lifting. A shock wave spread out cracking the land for miles, when Kibo suddenly shouted "Raijin's Spear!" A sharp purple colored lightning bolt shot a gaping hole through the Ice constructs.

As the lightning bolt rotated it collected energy from the environment and grew into a large 300 foot ancient looking Samurai's spear made of pure Chakra. Kibo pointed the lethal weapon at the Yukikage, with a quick flick of his finger, the spear brush past her body and flew into the sky beyond them. The snow beneath them and around the mountains had completely evaporated, leaving a green field of grass in its place.

Kibo smiled as he put his body into the Azure Dragon's Tree Stance, his feet entered the ground, and placed his arms upward in a blocking position, he placed his thighs together and every muscle and joint in his body pressed together tightly, giving him solid protection of all his organs and vital areas. He pulled in a large source of earth energy, and smiled before saying "Come on, Yukikage. Show me what you got."

Setsuna was baffled, although she could attack him from any direction, she felt as if there were no openings for her to exploit, and the longer he stood there the frighteningly concrete his stance became, she felt like she was looking at a massive tree that could withstand all the weight of their world, neither storm or flood could effect this young Ninja's stance.

"Ice Giant's Shuriken!" Hundreds of massive spinning ice shaped snowflakes appeared out of the atmosphere, they all hurled towards Kibo at an alarming speed. As the made contact with his body, they shattered only leaving small cuts and bruises. Kibo stayed firmly in this position until the barrage ceased, the Gate of Healing in his body began to make its move, as his wounds recovered at a rapid pace. "Really such a terrifying physique." The Yukikage said as she used her lightning quick hands to perform a new Jutsu. "Yin Ice Dragon!" A pitch black crystal scaled ice dragon soared out from her fist as she punched at Kibo, the Ice ran into his body sending shivers all down his spine, the dark Ice attempted to invade his lungs, but Kibo continued to absorb crazy levels of Earth energy to fend off the attack.

After a few seconds the black Ice fell from his body, and he felt the stance's defenses become even stronger. Kibo watched as the a new Yin Dragon had appeared around her fist, but it didn't stop there, Setsuna continued to gather more of her chakra, two smaller version of the flood dragon slithered around her arms like snakes, then three appeared and four. By the time Setsuna had completed charging her attack there were 9 Yin Dragon outlines forming into one.

"Dance of the 9 Headed Hydra!" The giant dragons circled him making a powerful tornado; black ice appeared around him as sharp projectiles cut against his flesh. Kibo fought through the pain and laughed; he laughed so loudly that Setsuna was beginning to question his sanity. As the attack came to the peak of its might, the dragons all dived into the eye of the cyclone charging directly on top of Kibo's head.

The 9 Dragons exploded turning into a super massive ice flower, Setsuna believed the boy to be dead, she shook her head and looked off into the distance where Kakashi and the others had ran off to. She was about to give chase, when the grounds began to shake. "AHHH!" Kibo screamed as the ice flower started to crack.

"Impossible!" The Yukikage exclaimed with great surprise on her face. Kibo had entered his wood sage mode, increasing his body's defenses another 10 fold. His body remained in the Dragon Tree stance but the Chakra waves coming off his body made him look like a mighty oak tree standing on a withered frozen mountain. With a loud dragon's roar the air shook and the ice fell, "How? How are you unharmed!?" The Yukikage was beginning to think that this wasn't a kid at all, but rather a monster in disguise.

Kibo had to admit that her attacks were very powerful, if he had taken any of them outside of his stance or sage form, he definitely would have been severely injured. His body was covered in wounds, but only small ones that looked worse than they were, his gate of healing began to push out the black ice particles from his skin and bone and heal at a rapid pace. The wood sage form was the best choice for this stance, it granted him additional healing properties and augmented the effects of the technique with much greater synchronicity than if he'd used his earth form.

The Dragon Tree Stance weakens Earth Chakra and strengthens Wood, if he had relied on his Earth sage form, he would have weakened both his form and defense.

Setsuna started to see hope, "I wonder if you can really keep me here long enough for your friends to succeed." Kibo chuckled, and said "Well, if you're having trouble with me, than the rest of team 7 can easily beat down your false Daimyo."

Speaking of team 7, Naruto had arrived at a large stone fortress that looked like a Gothic Medieval Castle. Naruto stayed hidden and followed the Ninja that were carrying the princess in tow, they proceeded through a maze like interior where one could see countless bridges crisscrossing one another leading into multiple dead ends. After a few minutes of tailing the Yukigakure Ninja, they had carried Koyuki into a large prison area full of hundreds of concrete and iron cages.

They threw Koyuki into a random empty cell, and as they began to leave Naruto jumped out of the shadows knocking out the guards while stealing their keys. He looked over to Koyuki, while swinging the iron band key chain around his finger and smiled as he asked in a cocky tone. "Did ya miss me Princess?"

"Naruto when?" Koyuki said with surprise, "I've been here since they took you away; I was just waiting for the right chance to strike." Naruto explained as he unlocked the prison cell, he moved inside and removed her restraints as well before picking her up. "Hold on I'm gonna move fast." As Naruto was started to run the castle shook with a massive explosion.

Koyuki looked worried when Naruto said, "Don't worry that's just Kakashi Sensei and the others. How about it, do you want to see the fall of the pretender to the throne?" Koyuki looked up to him; she couldn't understand how Naruto could be so strong, and persevering. "Where did you get your confidence from, how can you believe so firmly in your ideals?"

Naruto looked to her like an idiot, "If you give up on your dreams, isn't that the end of your life. You can run, but you'll never escape forever. Eventually someday you'll come to regret not making these hopes dreams come true, especially when you know it's possible through the use of your own hard work and efforts. Rather than live with regrets, I'd rather live my life to the fullest." Naruto managed to say all this as he was jumping around the building's interior.

While Koyuki was lost in her thoughts, and Naruto was busy running along one of the bridges, a ninja in a standard Yukigakure outfit appeared in Naruto's path, he put Koyuki down and charged at his enemy when the foe blocked his first punch a familiar voice rang out in Naruto's ear "Easy Naruto! It's me!" Kakashi said as he pulled down his disguise.

"Kakashi Sensei!" Naruto said as he saw more enemy Nin being beaten up by his fellow teammates. Once Hinata saw him, she rushed up and leapt into his arms, "Baka Naruto!" Everyone was surprised, this was the first time they heard Hinata scold him, "How could you leave on your own!? Why didn't you wait for us?!" Naruto hugged Hinata and said, "I'm sorry! I won't go off on my own again."

"I hate to break this moment up, but we should probably get moving." Yamato said as there was a large group of enemy Nin incoming. Kakashi picked up Koyuki princess style and ran at the front of team 7, being given directions by Koyuki they made their way through the castle without getting lost or confused. The group ended up in a large spacious throne room, there was a single flight of stairs that led up to a platform with only the Daimyo's stone throne on its surface. Doto was sitting on his brother's throne looking down at the 7 Ninja's who invaded his territory. "Well this was faster than expected. I hope you didn't disappoint me Kakashi, I trust that you brought what I desire." Doto said as he stared down team 7.

Kakashi grunted as he placed his hand on his pocket, when he realized that the hexagonal crystal key had vanished from his pocket. Koyuki then quickly ran up the stairs and stopped next to Doto. She smiled when she looked back at team 7 while giving over the key to her uncle and saying "What were you expecting? I mean, I am an actress after all!" Just as he took hold of the item he desired, Koyuki pulled out a sharp dagger and jammed into Doto's chest.

Being taken by surprise, Doto placed out his hand and grabbed her neck, using his free hand he grabbed the knife and pulled it out from her grasp. The sound of cloth tearing reverberated throughout the hall as it revealed Doto's Chakra armor. It was made of some kind of pitch black metal that looked somehow flexible, the material was set close to his skin. Blue metal outlines on the armor accentuated his stout built body's muscles, two blue chords the circled around his neck a focused into a component in the center of his chest, which had a blue and white Yin-Yang inside its concave circular center, lastly he had two black metal arm guards on that wrapped around his fist and opened up near his elbows.

"What is that Kakashi?" Yamato asked, when Doto answered for him, "This is the latest type of Chakra Armor Prototype, only the Yukikage is wearing the perfected version, but to deal with you all, it's more than enough."

Everyone tried to move in order to rescue Koyuki, but Doto wasn't having it, he placed the knife up to her neck and shouted, "If you move so much as one hair; niece or not, I'll cut her down!" A drop of blood started to drip down Koyuki's neck when a large explosion went off behind team 7's backs. A dozen or so squads of Yukigakure Ninja's invaded the throne room, and began their assault as they used dozens of Ice type Jutsu. Doto taking advantage of the confusion sent a grappling wire through a hole in the roof. He pulled Koyuki into his grasp and held her with one arm as he ascended. "Come Koyuki, let us go to where your father hid his treasure; let us go to the Rainbow Glacier."