The train station was half-buried in a glacier.
A massive, steam-belching locomotive sat on the tracks. It was a mechanical beast, built specifically to survive the frozen hell of the Land of Snow.
Team 7 boarded the train with the film crew.
Kenji didn't sit down immediately. He walked the length of the passenger car, his dark eyes scanning the engineering.
Rail heating system. Chakra-powered engine. Steam-pressure stabilizers. Anti-freeze seals.
It was brilliant. The Land of Snow's technology was decades ahead of Konoha's archaic carriage system.
Kakashi leaned against the aisle door. His visible eye was deadpan.
"Do not steal the train, Kenji."
"Don't be ridiculous, Sensei," Kenji smirked, running a hand along a steel pipe. "I was thinking bigger. Like the patent rights."
Kenji walked back to his seat. He sat directly across from Princess Yukie.
She stared out the frosted window. Her hands rested in her lap. She wasn't holding a bottle of sake. The trembling was gone.
"You're quiet," Kenji noted, kicking his feet up onto the empty seat beside her. "I almost miss the screaming."
Yukie didn't flinch. She slowly turned her dark eyes toward him. Her gaze was sharp.
"I am saving my voice," Yukie said coldly, "for when I order your execution."
Kenji smiled. Her defiance was returning, but the drunken hysterics were dead. She was finally focusing.
Two rows down, Sasuke Uchiha sat in agonizing silence.
His torso was tightly wrapped in medical bandages. Every breath felt like inhaling glass. Kakashi had offered him painkillers. Sasuke refused.
"Don't fight recklessly if we get hit again," Kakashi warned from across the aisle.
"I know," Sasuke grunted, staring at the floorboards.
"No, you don't," Kenji called out loudly from his seat. "But you are bleeding quietly today. So that's progress."
Sasuke's jaw clenched. He didn't snap back. His mind was too busy replaying the bitter truth. His raw power meant nothing against the snow armor's absorption capabilities. Hatred wasn't a tactic. It was a blindfold.
BOOM.
The entire train violently lurched. The screech of tearing metal echoed from the roof.
"Ambush!" Kakashi yelled, drawing a kunai.
"Can't even have a moment of peace" Kenji said sighing.
Outside the frosted windows, sleek figures glided alongside the speeding train. Elite Snow Guards riding chakra-propelled hoverboards.
Above them, flying on mechanical wings, was Fubuki.
Nadare was nowhere to be seen. Kenji's Haki-infused punch had likely put him in a medical bay.
"They're targeting the engine!" Sandayu screamed as glass shattered in the next car.
Naruto didn't yell. He didn't blindly rush the door.
He crossed his fingers with absolute calm.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Seven clones popped into existence.
"You three, guard the film crew!" Naruto barked, pointing down the aisle. "You two, seal the broken windows! The rest of you, watch the roof and support Kakashi-sensei!"
The clones scattered immediately, executing the orders with military precision.
Sakura watched from the corner, her green eyes wide. Naruto was coordinating. He was acting like a squad leader. The loud, incompetent idiot she used to look down on was rapidly leaving her behind.
The heavy passenger door was kicked open.
An Elite Snow Guard rushed in, brandishing a chakra-laced blade. He locked eyes with Sasuke.
Sasuke pushed through the pain of his broken ribs and blurred forward.
His hands moved to weave the signs for a Fireball. Then, he stopped.
He remembered the flames vanishing into the armor's core. He remembered the feeling of utter helplessness.
Sasuke dropped his hands. He reached into his pouch. He threw two shuriken, wide and deliberately off-target.
"Missed!" the Guard sneered, raising his blade.
Sasuke yanked his wrist backward.
Ninja wire glinted in the dim cabin light. The shuriken hooked around the steel overhead luggage racks, pulling the razor-wire taut right at ankle height.
The Guard hit the wire at a full sprint.
He tripped violently, his hoverboard flying out from under him. The Guard crashed face-first into the reinforced steel door, instantly knocked unconscious.
Sasuke stood over the body, breathing heavily. He didn't win with raw power. He won with his brain.
"Good," Kenji said, walking past the downed guard. "The Uchiha learned not to lick a hot stove twice."
Sasuke glared at Kenji's back, but internally, he accepted the lesson.
Suddenly, a massive explosion rocked the front of the car. Fubuki had launched an ice swallow through a side window.
Glass exploded inward like shrapnel.
"GAAH!" A camera assistant collapsed into the aisle. A jagged piece of glass was buried deep in his shoulder. Blood poured onto the floor.
Sakura froze. Her heart hammered in her chest.
Move, she told herself. Do something!
She dropped to her knees next to the screaming man. She didn't know medical ninjutsu, but she knew basic first aid. She pressed her hands over the wound, channeling a desperate, raw flow of green chakra to stem the bleeding.
It was clumsy. Her hands shook. But the bleeding slowed.
"T-Thank you," the assistant gasped, his face pale.
Sakura exhaled a shaky breath. She actually did something. She felt a strange, unfamiliar rush of pride.
Footsteps stopped right beside her.
"Well look at that," Kenji murmured, looking down at her blood-stained hands. "You finally did something productive."
Sakura's breath hitched. The mix of genuine praise and vulgar mockery hit Sakura like a drug. It sent an involuntary, heated shiver straight down her spine. A sudden flush burned her cheeks—a split-second, confusing rush of craving for his dark validation.
Before she could even process the twisted thrill flaring in her chest—
SCREECH.
The train violently pitched forward. The brakes screamed in protest.
"She blew the braking system!" Kakashi yelled from the roof. "We're heading toward a damaged bridge! We can't stop!"
"I got this!" Naruto yelled.
He jumped out of the shattered window, spawning a dozen clones alongside the moving train. They grabbed the steel wheels, using their bodies to create massive drag. The real Naruto slammed a raw, grinding Rasengan against the steel tracks to create pure friction.
Sasuke leaned out the opposite window. He channeled a focused Chidori into his hand, dragging the lightning blade along the rail line to warp the metal and slow their momentum.
Kenji blurred to the front of the passenger car.
[Observation Haki: Active]
He stared at the exposed, sparking control panel of the ruined brake box.
[Skill Activated: Steal]
Space warped. A heavy, intricate piece of metal popped into Kenji's hand.
The train groaned. Deprived of the malfunctioning regulator, the engine pressure dropped.
Combined with Naruto and Sasuke's drag, the massive locomotive shrieked, sparked, and finally ground to a violent halt.
They stopped less than ten feet from a massive, collapsed gorge.
[System Notification]
[Tech Acquisition Update]
Item Acquired: Rail Heating Regulator
Item Acquired: Chakra Propulsion Board Fragment
Snow Technology Analysis: 35%
The steam cleared. The roaring wind died down.
Kenji walked back into the passenger car. Yukie was standing up, looking out the frosted window.
Her breath hitched. Her dark eyes widened in terror.
Looming in the distance, surrounded by jagged glaciers, was a massive, frozen fortress.
"This is it," Yukie whispered, her voice cracking. "This is where Koyuki died."
Kenji walked up behind her. He placed a heavy, dominant hand on her shoulder.
"Then let's go dig up the corpse."
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