The Fox's Third Flash of Hope

Chapter 24

Hallo~

Those people that comment stuff, even if it's just a word or two, may you be blessed by the protection of all my OC's that are going to appear in this story~

In the distance the mountain had looked like a normal mountain. You know, made of rocks and minerals and dirt and stuff. The slightly weird blueish coloring was credited to the never ending fog.

However, as soon as they got within a mile of the landmark the team of genin realized that the mountain was definitely not made of normal mountain-y stuff. That much was obvious, even from a decent distance. But, it wasn't until they actually got to the sheer cliff sides that the true material became known.

The over sized hill with smooth, slippery, and nearly perpendicular to the ground hillsides(can there be a worse combination when it comes to mountain slopes?) was made of one single, gargantuan chunk of translucent ice.

Kansen pressed her hand onto the chilly surface. She could see deep within the frozen water, since there were no visible dark spots that told of frigid rocks and soil within. Penami gazed up at the sky in wonder, trying and failing to see the top of the glacier that was obscured by the clouds.

The sun was setting in the horizon in blazing streaks of pink and orange. Niju frowned at the golden half circle. "It's sunset already? We couldn't have been running for more than an hour."

Kansen backed away slightly from the purest and thickest ice she had ever seen. "We probably got teleported to a place with a different time frame. Even if we left the village at 9:05 A.M., we could have landed here at 9:05 P.M. or perhaps even later." She glanced down ruefully at her wristwatch. It was completely useless now, but she decided to keep it on just for the sake of the familiarity.

"Our clue was 'the place where the moonlight becomes solid'," Penami recalled. "Well, at least there'll be moonlight now."

"I guess," Niju replied. "That's the only positive thing now since we're practically lost and with rations that may or may not survive our five days in this god forsaken place."

"Since we're 'practically lost' and have nothing else to do, let's explore around a bit, eh?" Kansen smirked slightly and began walking, keeping her head turned towards the ice. Her teammates silently consented and caught up to her.

The ground here was less powdery and more solid than what they had been running on for the last hour or so, probably due to more ice mixed in and under the snowy surface. Whatever the reason, the new terrain saved a lot of energy.

On an outcrop about fifty feet above them, three shinobi looked down at the ground below, one holding a pair of binoculars up to his eyes. "Hey, it's just a group of kids," he reported.

"That doesn't matter. Kids or not, they're participants. Let's go," a male stood up behind him, his authoritative aura marking him the obvious team leader.

"Right," the third was a kunoichi, and she was the first to leap off the ledge. None of them wore a village symbol.

Kansen heard the kunai coming from a long way off. She smoothly hopped to the side, the knife deeply embedding itself in the hard snow a few inches away from her foot. Before the thrower of the weapon could fall within close range of her, the redhead leaped up above her attacker.

When the older kunoichi looked up in bewilderment, Kansen had already positioned herself to land with her foot on top of her adversary. The jinchuriki pushed the enemy heavily into the snow, shortsword lightly resting on the back of the kunoichi's neck.

The entire span of that lasted less than two seconds. The enemy group hadn't even made it properly onto solid ground before a third of their team had been incapacitated.