Chapter 341: Land of Snow and Ice

"Rin, Rin, look! Such a huge piece of ice!" Obito, bored on the boat, looked around and suddenly spotted a giant floating ice floe in the distance.

Rin followed where Obito pointed, and a massive piece of ice reflecting light under the sunlight came into view. Her eyes sparkled—this truly was a sight unseen in the Land of Fire.

"This is nothing. When you reach the Land of Snow, you'll know how common ice and snow really are." Sandayū Asama said with a smile.

The Land of Snow didn't have much else, but it never lacked ice and snow—the country was covered in it year-round.

"By this month, there should already be heavy snowfall."

"But isn't it only September now? Would there be snow at this time?" Obito asked Sandayū Asama in confusion.

"Yes, there would. Otherwise, why would it be called the Land of Snow?" There was a hint of helplessness in Sandayū Asama's words.

Though a world of silver white was beautiful, having it snow this often wasn't exactly a good thing.

Normally, people pray to the Rain God for rain, or to the God of Wealth for riches. But in the Land of Snow, they pray to the Snow God to make it snow less.

As they drew closer, Muyue's Byakugan could already see the snow-covered country.

During the whole trip, Muyue had frequently used his Byakugan to observe. He felt that in a special environment like the sea, extra caution was necessary—once the ship was destroyed, the sea itself became a danger.

Of course, for a ninja of Muyue's level, it wasn't that bad. He had brought plenty of food in his scrolls; even without the ship, he could run across the water back to shore, and if he got tired, he could even create an ice block with Ice Release to rest.

After entering the vicinity of the Land of Snow, it was indeed as Sandayū Asama had said—it was snowing, and heavily, with large snowflakes. On the boat, Obito flickered, catching snow in his hand; Rin breathed out warm air and looked up at the swirling snow; Kakashi narrowed his eyes, observing the surroundings.

Muyue also reached out his hand, feeling the snowflakes fall and melt, bringing a hint of winter's chill.

Actually, Muyue quite liked snow, and he liked playing in it too. The joy of having snowball fights with friends as a child ranked among the best memories of his entire childhood.

Though he liked snow, Muyue hated the cold. So for a while, he was extremely conflicted—wanting it to snow, yet not wanting winter to come.

Transmigrating into the Naruto world solved that problem for Muyue, because with his current physical strength, he wouldn't feel cold even if he went naked in winter.

"Welcome to the Land of Snow." After arriving ashore, Sandayū Asama said to Muyue and the others with a ceremonial tone.

"Wow, it's really thick snow!" Obito scooped up a handful of snow from the ground with curiosity.

Though it was called the Land of Snow, Obito had never imagined before coming that there would be a country completely covered in ice and snow—after all, the Land of Fire wasn't all volcanoes.

"Kakashi, take this!" Seeing Kakashi with his back turned, Obito decisively kneaded the snow in his hand into a ball and threw it at Kakashi.

Though Obito was ambushing him, the sharp Kakashi noticed the incoming snowball and immediately sidestepped to dodge. But he didn't expect that Obito had anticipated it—after throwing the first snowball, Obito quickly grabbed two more handfuls of snow and used two snowballs to preemptively cover both of Kakashi's dodge directions.

Feeling it would be hard to dodge, Kakashi simply stopped dodging. He grabbed a few handfuls of snow on the spot and threw them using his ninja tool throwing technique. One snowball accurately hit Obito square in the face.

Pfft. Rin couldn't help but laugh at Obito's snow-covered face.

"Damn Kakashi!" Obito roared inwardly, entering a state of total concentration breathing as he threw more snowballs even faster.

Kakashi also used the extreme speed of Lightning Breathing to dodge and then counterattack.

The intensity of their snowball fight left Sandayū Asama astounded—he realized he couldn't even track the movements of these nine-year-olds in a snowball fight.

"So this is what ninja are like." Sandayū Asama sighed inwardly. He had done some samurai training himself, but he couldn't even beat ninja children in a fight.

Slap! Slap!

Two transparent air strikes precisely hit Kakashi and Obito on the foreheads.

"If you want to play in the snow, you can play all you want after completing the mission. Do the mission first." Muyue withdrew his hand and said.

After speaking, Muyue showed an apologetic expression to Sandayū Asama.

"Oh, it's nothing. The princess is still inside Fūka Castle right now, so protection isn't really needed." Sandayū Asama said with a smile.

Fūka Castle was the palace of the Land of Snow, and in Sandayū Asama's mind, it was the safest place in the country.

"After all, this is a guard mission. We should at least know who we're supposed to protect first." Muyue suggested that Sandayū Asama take them to see the princess first.

Sandayū Asama found Muyue's words very reasonable, so he led Muyue and the others to Fūka Castle.

"A living princess... what would she be like?" Obito recalled the descriptions of princesses in novels and began to look forward to it.

The snow scenery of the Land of Snow amazed Obito, but after arriving at Fūka Castle, he found the Land of Snow rather ordinary—he had seen many palace buildings like this before.

"Asama, are these the Leaf ninja who took on the mission?" A black-clad man with a somewhat stern expression stopped Sandayū Asama and asked.

"Yes, Lord Dotō." Sandayū Asama, seeing it was Fūkabashi Dotō, immediately bowed and replied.

Fūka Nodate is not only the younger brother of the Snow Country daimyō, but also a high-ranking official of Snow Country—he can be said to be the second most important person in Snow Country.

"Don't let their ages fool you—they are all chūnin of considerable strength, and Muzuki is a reliable Konoha jōnin." Asama Sandayū added this because he feared Fūka Nodate might underestimate Muzuki's team due to Obito and the others being young.

"Mm." Fūka Nodate responded with a faint nod and left, apparently not very interested in Muzuki and the others.

Muzuki glanced at the departing Fūka Nodate and performed an appraisal on this movie version boss.

【Name: Fūka Nodate】

【Chakra:】

【Skills: Water Nature Transformation, Water Release: Black Dragon Blizzard...】

As a future boss, Fūka Nodate's stats were quite ordinary, hardly better than an average jōnin.

It was worth noting that in the system's judgment, Fūka Nodate's ninjutsu were all Water Release, not Ice Release.

Muzuki was not too surprised by this. If Snow Country's ninjutsu could be copied by Kakashi's Sharingan, then it certainly wasn't a kekkei genkai—at best, it was a Snow Secret Technique that could only be used in Snow Country.

Muzuki believed that the visual effect of their ninjutsu resembling Ice Release was likely due to Snow Country's environment, as well as the Snow Country people's research into Water Nature Transformation.

"Lord Nodate is the daimyō's younger brother, and also a key figure in maintaining the nation's operations." Asama Sandayū briefly introduced Fūka Nodate to Muzuki and the others.

"Speaking of which, Lord Nodate is half a ninja himself. When he was young, he went to the Snow Ninja Village to learn ninjutsu for physical training. I heard he was quite skilled. If he didn't have to handle state affairs, he might have become a powerful ninja."

Muzuki looked thoughtful, believing this might be related to Fūka Nodate's future coup. With a ninja's combat power added to his royal status, it was only natural for his ambitions to swell.

Obito was not interested in Asama Sandayū's story about Fūka Nodate. He just wanted to see the princess quickly and fast-forward to saving her and becoming a hero.

In the end, Muzuki and the others were led to a brightly lit hall to wait.

Tap tap.

When Obito heard footsteps, an excited expression instantly appeared on his face. But what came into view was not the beautiful girl he had imagined—it wasn't even female. The first person Obito saw was a middle-aged man with glasses who looked very kind.

The second person Obito saw was a little girl wearing a purple kimono. She was very young, at most five or six years old. Then there were guards. Obito looked around but couldn't find anyone among them who looked like a princess.

"Kakashi, princesses are usually girls, right?" Obito asked Kakashi doubtfully.

Kakashi:...

He couldn't believe that was a question a person would ask. What else could a princess be but a girl?

"Lord Sōsetsu!" Asama Sandayū knelt on one knee and respectfully bowed to Fūka Sōsetsu.

Muzuki and the others stood quietly watching. Ninja have their own rules; they did not need to perform grand formalities toward these nobles.

"Get up quickly. It's not a formal occasion anyway." Fūka Sōsetsu said with a kind smile.

Fūka Koyuki held her father's hand, looking at Muzuki and the other strangers with curiosity.

"Hello, Lord Sōsetsu. I am Hanyū Muzuki." Muzuki greeted him with a brief introduction.

Fūka Sōsetsu nodded with a smile and then said to Fūka Koyuki: "Koyuki, quickly say hello to the big brothers and sisters. They'll be playing with you until the Snow God Festival."

"Hello, Big Brother Hanyū." Fūka Koyuki obediently greeted Muzuki, her big eyes sparkling.

Even though it was their first meeting, Fūka Koyuki felt that Muzuki was a good person.

"She's the princess? No way?" Obito said incredulously, looking at Fūka Koyuki's chubby little face.

This was not the princess he had imagined. She was just an ordinary little kid you could see anywhere.

Kakashi wordlessly covered his face. They had immediately offended their protectee.

Muzuki ruffled Obito's head. Kenji was still hard to teach.

Upon hearing Obito's words, Fūka Koyuki puffed out her cheeks, making her already round face look even rounder.

"Hahaha, I told you, Koyuki, you need to learn more etiquette. See, others don't think you're a princess." Fūka Sōsetsu laughed loudly at his daughter.

"Oh, Father!" Fūka Koyuki didn't expect her father to not defend her and even laugh at her. She immediately let go of his hand and turned her face away to show she was angry.

"I was wrong. Koyuki is the cutest princess in the world." Fūka Sōsetsu immediately coaxed her.

Hearing her father praise her as cute, Fūka Koyuki's mood improved again, and she took Fūka Sōsetsu's hand.

However, Fūka Sōsetsu was after all a daimyō; he couldn't rest during the day. He soon left due to affairs, leaving only Muzuki's team, the princess, Asama Sandayū, and a group of guards in the hall.

"Listen up, you rude guy—I am Fubuki Koyuki, the princess of the Land of Snow, and the only princess." Fubuki Koyuki said seriously to Obito.

Obito reluctantly nodded, thinking he'd been tricked. This mission would have been fine if he'd taken it ten years later.

"And I'm not that guy either. I'm Uchiha Obito, the only Uchiha Obito in the world." Obito mimicked Fubuki Koyuki's tone as he spoke.

"Hmph, that's not necessarily true. The name Obito doesn't sound special at all." Fubuki Koyuki denied Obito's uniqueness.

"Hello, lovely Princess Koyuki. I'm Rin Nohara." Rin Nohara greeted the princess with a gentle smile.

Rin Nohara knew how to handle a kid like this—praise her, and you can easily win her over.

"Hello, Sister Rin. You're lovely too." Fubuki Koyuki immediately broke into a smile after being praised.

"Hatake Kakashi. I'll be in charge of your security from now on." Kakashi said coolly.

To him, it didn't matter whether the princess was older or younger—actually, younger was better, because a younger princess wouldn't be let out of the castle, and guarding her within Fubuki Castle would be much less stressful.

"Mm-hmm, Big Brother Kakashi looks really reliable." Fubuki Koyuki thought Kakashi's hair was quite nice.

"It's nothing special just because a little apple called him big brother." Seeing Kakashi get treated in a way he hadn't, Obito felt a bit bitter.

"Fubuki Koyuki isn't a princess; she's just a little brat." Obito could only frantically hypnotize himself in his mind—that made him feel a little better.

…………

"Hanyu Muyue—defeated Iwa's Explosion Release user Kari in the battle between Konoha and Iwa, and played a role in the battle against a jinchūriki…" Fubuki Dotō put down the intelligence on Muyue, his brows deeply furrowed.

Fubuki Sōsetsu suddenly hiring Konoha shinobi made Fubuki Dotō very uneasy, because he was plotting a coup. As soon as he learned about Muyue and the others, he immediately sent people out to gather information.

This investigation immediately gave Fubuki Dotō a big shock. Ordinary people might not know what these achievements meant, but Fubuki Dotō, who was familiar with shinobi, understood very well—especially that item about fighting a jinchūriki.

A jinchūriki is the ultimate weapon of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Anyone who can play a role in a battle at that level is unquestionably powerful.

Fubuki Dotō even thought that if the Snow Shinobi Village had two jinchūriki, it could become one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

"It was so well hidden—how did they find out? Is there a problem within the Snow Shinobi Village?" Fubuki Dotō wondered where he had exposed himself.

He was sure that Fubuki Sōsetsu had discovered something. Otherwise, there was no reason for him not to support his own country's shinobi village, and the ninjas he hired were far too strong. Fubuki Koyuki didn't need such powerful protection—it's just a festival.

"I must investigate this thoroughly." Fubuki Dotō decided to find the mole first.

Although the intel showed Muyue was strong, Fubuki Dotō didn't think he was losing. No matter how strong Muyue was, he was only one person, while he had the entire Snow Shinobi Village on his side.

Even if there was a mole in the Snow Shinobi Village, Fubuki Dotō believed it was just a few individual shinobi. After all, Fubuki Sōsetsu had been cutting the Snow Shinobi Village's funding, while he, Fubuki Dotō, had clearly stated that once he took power, he would vigorously develop the military. Any sane Snow Shinobi would know whom to support.

PS: My mind was fuzzy writing today, and I only wrote 4k again.

To push myself, I'm setting a self-imposed rule: if I don't write ten thousand words tomorrow, I'll send a fifty-yuan red envelope in the reader group. I'm going for it!