NARUTO POV:
"Oy Koyuki-hime, stop moping." Naruto said as he hit the bars of cell with the keys he had taken from the unconscious guard near them "Time to end this whole thing."
"Just give up, you can't beat Dotou." She said as she shook her head "I don't want you getting hurt too."
Naruto stared at her.
"I did not destroy an entire glacier for you to talk about people not getting hurt now lady."
Naruto sighed and sat down cross legged in front of her.
"You know what your problem is? You think way too much about this stuff. You don't need to believe in yourself if it's this complicated. Just believe in me instead."
She looked up at that.
"What…?"
"You don't need to put any of this on yourself alone. I'm here, my team is here, Sandayu-san is here. Heck, even the whole movie crew is here, by your side to pick up this weight you're being crushed by."
She stared at him before looking down again.
"For most of my life, I've just run. I kept running and lying, even to myself."
She looked up, and Naruto could see her watery smile.
"What's one more, right?"
Naruto gave her a bright grin before opening the cell and helping her up.
"That's the spirit."
"You really think a small knife is going to kill me?" Dotou laughed as he held Koyuki up with one hand in his throne room "Well no matter, time to claim my treasure."
With a quick motion, he sent out a metallic rope from his right hand and pulled himself through the ceiling.
"Is that a retractor?" Naruto asked, mouth agape.
"Don't be dumb" Sakura snapped " it's just rope being pulled by a motor."
"That's the same-whatever." Naruto shook his head as he went down into a crouch and channeled Liebe's void chakra "I'll pursuit via air, you guys make sure you deal with the three enemy shinobi."
With a nod and a surge of void chakra, Naruto leapt through the already crumbling ceiling, and flew like a shining black star behind Dotou.
SASUKE POV:
Sasuke slowly walked the ledge which led to the back area of the fortress, which was where (according to Haku) apparently the blueprints and prototype for the Chakra armor were.
They really didn't need them, but Sakura was insistent that the hokage would appreciate having a copy either way.
What a goddamn ass-kisser.
And he had to get them?
Why him?
Oh look, enemy.
Yay for distractions.
Sasuke peered through the darkness with his Sharingan to see the leader of Dotou's enemy force standing there with a heavily bandaged torso.
"I'm not the medic of my team, but I'd say you should be in bed" he said casually as he pulled his katana out and channeled fire chakra so it would emit a light orange glow.
"H-How did you infiltrate the castle?" the man let out, grabbing a nearby wall for support.
Sasuke sighed "My teammate has already roughed you up enough to the point of you barely being able to walk. What makes you think approaching me is a smart idea?"
The man grunted, but gave no actual response.
"Whatever" Sasuke muttered, already over it as he pointed the glowing sword at Nadare "I'm not one to pick a fight with injured or crippled people, but I am a ninja on a mission."
SAKURA POV:
Sakura exchanged blows with the burly man, releasing earth ryou from her hand to strengthen them to the point that even with the chakra armor he was being pushed back.
"How is a little girl this strong?" he questioned as he was forced to dodge a kick aimed at his nuts by jumping back.
"This 'little girl' is going to destroy you for saying that" she said as she aimed her retractor towards a nearby tree and disappeared with a swirl of Sakura blossoms.
Wait but that wasn't it.
There were Sakura blossoms everywhere, blowing around him in a gust of wind he couldn't quite feel.
And suddenly the petals turned into explosion tags.
"Sakura Fubuki no jutsu."(Sakura blizzard jutsu)
The poor bastard never had a chance.
HAKU POV:
'It's been quite some time since I've gotten to use this, but it seems like I'm not rusty quite yet.' Haku thought to herself as she darted from mirror to mirror, using steel tipped senbon (the ice ones wouldn't work because of the strange armor.)
She really should thank Sakura later for these senbon, she reminded herself. Being able to use stronger senbon without too much change to the balance of weight was really convenient.
She heard an explosion somewhere near her left, and absentmindedly went to another mirror.
'Sakura-san must be done too, and I doubt Naruto-san will drag his fight on either. Sasuke-san was sent on a fetching job, so I suppose I should finish this up too.'
She looked down, and sweat-dropped in embarrassment.
Clearly, Haku hadn't stopped attacking while thinking, because the enemy kunoichi was already unconscious, face down in the ground and so many senbon sticking out she looked like a porcupine.
NARUTO POV:
"Fuuton: Shinkugyoku!" (wind style: vacuum sphere)
The wind Jutsu was blocked by the stronger version of Dotou's armour, but it couldn't negate the momentum behind the attack.
The man was forced to put his hands up as he went downhill skidding, away from the panel where Koyuki's crystal was supposed to go.
"It's over Dotou!" Naruto called out from atop "I have the high ground!"
"You underestimate my power!"
"Don't try it."
With a yell , Dotou jumped up, using his wings to speed himself up in a charge.
Naruto ducked under the mad dash, and used his twin katana to carve up the energy core on the front of the armour.
"Fuuton: Kazakiri" (Wind style: Windslice)
The 'Daimyo' bounced on the ground a couple of times before rolling back down, right in front of Naruto's leg.
Naruto turned Dotou's limp body around and hovered his sword's tip lazily over the man's bruised face.
"You done?"
The man nodded frantically, tears of pain rolling down his face, and Naruto realized that destroying the core must have meant that his chest must have been badly burnt by the small blast.
And then dragged through ice.
Shuddering as he imagined the pain, he tied the man's hands behind his back and forced him up.
"Yosh, job done!" he said with a thumbs up as he looked at Koyuki, who was looking at him with tears in her eyes.
"You-you did it!" she whispered.
Naruto walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder.
"You playing along with this crazy plan of ours, and being brave enough to face him after everything is why we won. Make no mistake dattebayo, WE did it."
She nodded, tears still streaming down her face as she glanced down to see the Hexagonal Crystal Dotou had dropped when he blocked Naruto's attack earlier.
Naruto looked at it too, and said something without thinking twice.
"Hey, what is the great Kazahana treasure anyway? I gotta admit I'm curious."
'You idiot.'
'Wha-why?'
'she just got free from the fear of her uncle after so long, be more tactful.'
'Oh shit did I mess up!?'
She gave him a small smile though, and put the crystal into the its slot.
To their surprise (and Dotou's despair), there was no super weapon, nor a sudden pile of gold.
Instead, the ice and snow started melting, and the cold which had entered the Snow Country that horrible day, was replaced with warmth.
The duo looked up to see a giant projection of Koyuki as a child.
"Koyuki, what do you want to when the spring comes?"
Naruto glanced at her, and understood when she started crying again.
This must have been her dad.
"I'll be a princess" chibi Koyuki said excitedly.
"Hmm, what kind of princess" her father asked amusedly.
Chibi made a thoughtful face before answering
"I wanna be Kind, and Strong! A princess who believes in justice"
Her father chuckled, and came close to her.
"That's going to be hard, but I'm sure you'll be able to do it if you try hard."
"Can you see the beautiful princess standing here?" he asked, putting the Hexagonal crystal around her neck.
"I haven't decided yet" chibi suddenly said, and Naruto quirked a brow. "Theres another thing I wanna become!"
"and what's that?" Koyuki's father and Naruto said at the same time, one with a gentle smile, and the other with a knowing smirk.
"An actress!"
Both Naruto and her dad started laughing, and Koyuki couldn't help but join in too.
"Now that" Naruto said "Is a happy ending."