Darkness Falls

Chapter 25

 It had been nearly two days since Naruto and Koyuki had rejoined the convoy, and it had gone about as well as the blonde hanyou had expected. Throughout the day, Sakura would watch over and converse with the princess, telling her further embarrassing stories about Naruto, much to the blondes dismay. Kakashi continued to assign Naruto to other sections, away from the princess and had at least one more time, attempted to assign Sasuke to her. Which had backfired spectacularly in the masked perverts face when the princess had erupted in another tangent and had not so kindly reminded the man that the brooding emo had nearly killed her with his egotistical rant not too long ago, and that it was only due to Naruto that she had survived. Something the masked jonin did not like being reminded of.

Aside from that, the blonde had continued to plan for the inevitable ambush. Though he could see that both Kakashi and Sasuke were not taking his warning seriously, prompting him and Sakura to plan to pick up the slack so that none had to pay the price for the duos blind ignorance. During his planning, Naruto had also discovered that while Koyuki and himself were in the cave, Asama had sent a scout ahead of the convoy through the snow to gather the rebels from the village, in hopes of creating a counter ambush, having taken Naruto's warning seriously. With the life of the princess at stake, the elder man did not want to take any chances. Though while the man had meant well, that had left Naruto with another problem. How to protect the rebels as well?

Naturally, he knew Kakashi would refuse to aid the rebels, citing some bullshit that it was not within their mission parameters, and technically he would be correct. However, Naruto would not allow others to suffer if he could do something about it. It was only a matter of determining how the ambush would happen. Imagining a multitude of scenarios that could happen. Everything from the snow shinobi attempting to overwhelm them with sheer numbers, triggering another avalanche to bury the convoy in the snow, or use of technological superiority; judging by the armor that the three snow shinobi had worn during their first engagement.

But, he had settled on one plan that should cover all angles. He just hoped it would work.

"It's about to happen any moment now, isn't it?" Sakura asked, as she came up beside the blonde who was staring out through the window at the snowy mountainside, snapping the teen out of his thoughts.

"Yeah. Be ready for anything, Sakura-chan." Naruto replied before turning to face her, a true look of concern in his eyes. "And above all, be careful."

"I will, Naruto-kun." She replied as she leaned into the blonde and laid her head on his shoulder. Closing her eyes as she fell into her mates comforting presence.

From the corner of the cabin they were in, Koyuki could only mentally sigh to herself as she peered over the script she was pretending to read, as the couple consoled one another before the upcoming ambush. Like her producer, the young princess and also taken the blonde hanyou's warning seriously, and was intent to do her best to not be a burden. As she watched the couple, she couldn't help but think back to how it felt to be wrapped in the blondes embrace while they were in the sleeping bag, a small blush creeping across her face, which deepened even further as she recalled the lack of clothing neither of them had.

"Koyuki-hime!" The director of the film shouted as he swung open the door of the trailer they were in, allowing a burst of cold air to invade the warm interior. "We need to find a male lead for the film!"

The young princess could only sigh as she knew this was going to be brought up eventually, since she had not notified any of them that she had requested Naruto to take the role. Though before she could respond to the director to reassure him that she had already secured a male lead, the masked jonin stood up and places his hands on Sasuke's shoulders in a manner to present the arrogant Uchiha as a candidate for the role.