the ice queen | hatake kakashi

49 ; lucky strike

It took the Umino a few days to master the paths. Now being confident enough to travel the tunnels all by himself, Iruka brought Kakashi into the tunnels as they try to find the councillors' residence.

He didn't expect Kōri to let out all his feelings that day. It made him realise that everyone has their own breaking point- and judging from how bad Kōri broke down that day.... he must have kept it to himself for a long time. And that thought brings Iruka to another question that he couldn't ask the servant; where is his brother? Or more precisely, what happened to him? If he too became a servant like Kori, shouldn't he be somewhere around the castle too? 

"Oi, oi. Are you sure we turned the right corner?" The Hokage's voice showed that he was getting restless. Couldn't they just sneakily enter the Queen's room like the ninja way and talk to Nami directly? Why bother going to old tunnels that probably only one person knows the routes like the back of his palm? "What if we entered the wrong tunnel and then ended up meeting those councillors that Kōri was talking about? What if he's leading us to them now? He might be a spy for them, you know." Kakashi still didn't trust the servant completely, those blue-gold eyes could be deceiving and Iruka may have a chance of being fooled by him.

"Hokage-sama," Iruka hissed. "Kōri helped us get into the castle and gave us a map for us to know where we are right now. Why would he help us when he could have reported about us immediately?" He couldn't help himself but sigh, the slow sigh echoed through the tunnels as puffs of smoke appeared from his mouth. How do people survive walking through the tunnels in this cold weather is beyond questioning. "You know, I thought you would be more rational in a situation like this now, Hokage-sama." Both ninjas stopped walking when they heard a loud creak from one of the pathways. Instantly, they rushed through the corridor closest to them, not giving a second to refer to Kōri's map. They'll worry about that later.

After assuring that nobody was trailing them and that the tunnel was as quiet as it's supposed to be, the brunette finally emerged from the dark pillar he was hiding behind. He glanced to his right to see Kakashi already wiping the dust of his clothes. Both of them looked at each other for a few moments before registering the same thing in their minds.

They were lost.

-----------------------

"Didn't we see that pillar for the fifth time now?"

"All the pillars look the same to me, Iruka."

"I can't believe we forgot to mark our last place before sprinting off like that." Iruka blamed himself for they've been running around in circles for hours now. Surely Kōri is beginning to be worried about them, right? Another sigh left his mouth as they decided to take the path in front of them this time. Times like these made Iruka grateful for the comfortable silence between them as he focused on trying to find their current location. It didn't help him much though for the tunnel was completely engulfed by the darkness- not to mention they were travelling at night. With the moonlight only giving them a little amount of light that passed from the small creaks of the tunnels, they both crawled step by step- until another pair of hushed voices attracted their attention.

"The queen is still resisting."

"Somehow, I'm not surprised with your report." The two shinobis silently walked closer towards the walls, their ears keen on listening to the conversation on the other side.

"She's crazy. She managed to bring down the first two defence walls all by herself. I guess she isn't giving up without a fight."

"That's Nami for you." Iruka seemed to have heard the voice before, but where? "Doesn't help that the Fuyuhana's are all those crazy idiots who just don't know when to quit and  the fact she's been trained as a ninja throughout her childhood." A few coughs could be heard before the old voice continued to speak again in a slower matter. "But I guess as long as she can't break the third wall we'll be okay now. So don't fret a lot, Ryu."