The Eastern Glacier~

Yukie calmly walked up the glaciers and heard the sound of the breeze, children laughing, children complaining, and the sound of the impact of snowballs on both sides. She had to help the losing team win because the other side seemingly had an unfair advantage. She thought of herself as something that would give the losing team an even more unfair advantage, though. However, it was her mission and was also training so it would be better to just do it.

As she approached the area of the snowball fight, she saw a snowball flying towards her and she sighed, tilting her head to one side to avoid the snowball.

"So I guess this means that the battle has started..."

She dropped her katana and short blade to free her movement and also to make sure she doesn't hurt someone unintentionally. She then walked up to a small pile of snowballs her teammates already had made. Quickly but gently, she tossed a snowball with her foot and with smooth and flowing movements, she grabbed the snowball with her hand and threw it with impressive speed at one of the 'other children'. It was a direct hit on the forehead and the child fell down, although it was not enough to even cause any damage that will hurt enough to make a normal person cry. It simply had enough force to knock an unprepared child down.

"Now the battle officially starts... Don't get in my way..."

I was nearby on the northern glacier when I heard children laughing and screaming and seeming to have a lot of fun. But what was even more intriguing is when I heard giant footfalls in the snow and then metal touch the ice. That sounded like a sword. Thinking that the children were in danger, I quickly tied the present Kazuki gave me around my arm and ran off, with incredible speeds, reaching the Eastern Glacier.

"... Is everyone alright?" I panted as I arrived on the glacier. It seems all the children were doing was having a snowball fight, none of them would have swords, so what was that noise...? Then I caught sight of a female shinobi, she seemed young, and it seemed as though she was helping the other team win against the others with an unfair advantage. I walked up to her and dodged all the snowballs, asking..

"Hey. What's going on?"

She was about to repeat the move but she heard someone call out to her. When she turned around, it was another girl. Her assumption was that she was there for the mission as well, but that might not be it as well. Yukie's glance was cold and piercing, almost like a glare even if she just meant to look normally at someone.

"... A snowball fight... You do see it right in front of you, don't you?"

The children from the other team all focused their snowballs at Yukie now, seeing her as the most potent threat so far. She sighed and turned to face the other children again as she kept tossing up and throwing snowballs unfazed even as she was being pelted as if she felt almost nothing at all. The snowballs that she threw missed a few but most of them were direct hits that knocked the hit targets down.

She was offered help. It seemed like her assumptions were correct and maybe that girl was on the same mission as her too. However, she decided to let the girl figure out that they were both in the mission and play like she has no idea for a while.

"Do what you want... I don't want to be 'unkind' and influence your decision, don't I? Miss 'kind stranger'..."

She said it with an almost toneless voice, showing no emotion whatsoever with her reply. She proceeded with her next move, jumping away from the girl as she kept dodging the snowballs, the number of hits on her reducing as time passed. Yukie grabbed three smaller-sized snowballs in each hand and once she got into a clear spot, threw one by one at each of the "other children" that were defenseless and hit them cleanly, knocking them back again.

Yukie paused for a while when she saw the other girl attacking the other team. Seven large snowballs were flung towards the other children and some of them even started to leave, knowing that it was getting too dangerous. The atmosphere around that other girl... it was as if she was competing with her. Competition was not too big on Yukie, since she didn't want to get into physical confrontations in the first place. She was only there for her mission.

"Hm.... She might be taking this a bit too seriously..."

She thought of it as she decided to stop treating this as a simple childish game and treat it as a casual competition as well. Yukie went to another pile of snowballs. There were about five regular-sized snowballs in the pile. Carefully but smoothly, she kicked up the snowballs into the air, all five of them. The fifth one was thrown higher than the rest. She grabbed each one and threw them simultaneously before they even reached the ground and it kept hitting the children. As the last one started to come down, she turned around and performed a backflip not to kick it but simply push it with her foot towards one of the children. She landed on both feet gracefully afterwards. The force she exerted again was not too bad to hurt someone greatly but only enough to knock them off their feet.

[color=white]Show off....

"Nice one, but now it's my turn."

Then I gathered 5 regular sized snowballs as well. I looked at her for a little making sure she was watching me do this. I tossed all of them up at the same time. The instant that they were in the air, I began charging my chakra power and getting ready to do a technique. All 5 of them began to descend and then...

"Shikimori Ninjutsu Art: Air Burst!"

All of the snowballs were fired at the children at extremely fast speeds and it was sure to hurt them, bruise or whatever seeing as how it was thrown really fast. Or rather blown. The air burst from my hand reached the snowballs in time when they were falling and pushed them all forward. Many of the children were bruised on the other side now, but that wasn't over. We couldn't quit until they gave up.

She shook her head and sighed as she kept dodging the now slower snowball throws towards her. The children were about to give up as they got hit and bruised by the other girl's attacks. However, she still thought that that girl was a bit too serious about a simple snowball fight. She didn't want to use any jutsu against the other children since it might be a bit too hard on them. Jumping to her side to dodge several snowballs and landing beside the other girl, she faced her with the same cold stare that she has and began to question her.

"... I wonder... Why are you competing with me when we are on the same mission...?"

There wasn't much for her to ask, since she really didn't care about anything but that at that time. Being too competitive might end up getting someone badly hurt, especially in a snowball fight. It wasn't that she cared about anyone there, it was simply just because of the fact that if there were any major injuries in her mission, she might fail it.

She chuckled slightly after hearing the girl talk about her wanting to rough the kids up a bit and having connections of people in the medical field. Yukie's connections were, well... gone. Since then, she has been alone and has been trying to be alone. She didn't want to lose any more people. The images were still fresh in her mind, like a vivid photograph of everything that happened.

"... Yes, this is a mission... About me being a kid...? Of course I was a child..."

She picked up a snowball again and kept tossing them at the other kids to drive them away while dodging continuously. Her moves were very smooth and coordinated, as if it had been practiced many times. There were a some gaps where she was completely open or where she would slip so it was obvious that her movement wasn't perfect. She then looked again at the girl who she was in the mission with.

"... Oh, one more thing... Never ask a stranger about her past..."

"... Hmph..."

She returned her focus to the other team as she threw the last few snowballs before the other team retreated. She finally finished the mission with the outcome slightly off than what she expected but still she was satisfied. Dusting snow off her clothes, she looked back at the other girl.

"... They backed off, it's pretty much done..."

Saying that, she picked up both her swords, the long one and the shorter one, and tied the sheaths to her dress. The children that she helped went and thanked her and she simply nodded with not much enthusiasm or emotion as a reply.

Yukie paused before she can take a single step away from the glaciers and turned around to face the girl who was asking her name. She fell silent for a while as the wind blew across. Finally, she spoke with the same voice that barely showed any emotion or interest.

"... Yukie Komachi..."

She didn't need the other girl to tell her her name, since she didn't want to make a connection with anyone. It was more like she was afraid to make any connections at all so she simply pushed everyone away.

She really didn't like answering so much questions about her personally. However, since the other girl was of help, she decided that she would answer this one since she did not want to owe someone a favor. Sighing, she closed her eyes and replied.

"Obviously, I'm from Aurora... Where I exactly live, that's nothing that you should know..."

Yukie turned back around and stayed there for a while, thinking about everything that happened in that mission. She thought about the children and all the fun they were having seeing that they're winning.

"... Fun, huh...."

She was also thinking of that competitive girl who seemed to want to know her better. With that, she walked away back to wherever she would take herself.