Impossible to Forget

Chapter 29: The Past

Nori led us north, a dispersion jutsu removing our scent and tracks as we went. That dumb snake was sleeping coiled up my arm, its head resting on my shoulder and dangerously close to the exposed skin of my neck. Since it prevented me from using any chakra, Kakashi had to carry on me on his back so that I could keep up with Nori's fast pace.

My arms tightened slightly around his neck, and Kakashi gave my legs a slight squeeze is response. I was really grateful that he was there too. No matter how much I tried to tell myself that I had survived worse, I knew that simply was not the case. Unlike my research into her and her motives, Nori's research on how to best defeat Kakashi and I was quite real and seemed like it was proving effective. However, Kakashi had survived worse things than this. I mean, he did die during Pain's attack on the village. And he fought against Kaguya Otsutsuki and the Ten-tails with the rest of Team 7. Saving the entire world was probably more dangerous than defeating my mother.

The landscape was slowly morphing around us. The dry, rocky ground had become a sparse, coniferous forest which continued to increase in altitude until we were north of the Cloud Village and entering the mountains that the Raikage had mentioned. Snow was lingering at the base of each tree, flecked with dirt and pine needles even in the middle of the summer.

The mountains ahead of us were steep and craggy. Snow fields that would last year round contrasted with the dark shadows of the slopes and cliffs too steep for snow to accumulate on. It was gorgeous.

Some mountains are welcoming, like those behind the Leaf Village, but these were cold. It was almost like they dared you to come in and survive. In a way, their unwelcoming atmosphere reminded me very strongly of my mother. Cold? Check. Deadly? Check. Indifferent to the suffering of others? Check. Yep, the similarities were an little uncanny.

It was nearing the late afternoon, and the mountain air was going right through my long sleeved shirt and flak jacket to chill my very bones. As soon as the sunset, we were going to be very cold, and I could only hope that we'd find some sort of shelter before that happened.

I could see Nori looking around as we went, triangulating our location based on the peaks that we went by as she led us through twisting paths and over ridges and mountain passes. I just felt really badly for Kakashi. Hauling my weight through the mountains at our pace must have been rough, even for a ninja of his caliber. However, it seemed that the threat that the snake would kill me, if he didn't carry me, was plenty of motivation for Kakashi, which was actually pretty touching.

Since Kakashi was carrying his own weight, and mine, I decided to be of some use to us as well. I made a point of memorizing landmarks as we went so that if we made it out of this alive, we could also make it out of the mountains. Most of the peaks and cliffs looked pretty similar, but I tried my best to differentiate between them.

The sun was behind the mountains and the clouds above us were starting to turn pink when we finally slowed down. Nori held up her hand to bring us to a halt and gestured for Kakashi to set me down. I immediately missed his warmth as the cold air hit me in the face.

We were in a narrow valley, the ground at our feet was completely covered in snow, but at least there was protection from the wind that we could hear howling above us, making the trees sway and creak.

Kakashi and Nori channeled chakra to their feet to stay above the snow, but I wasn't so lucky. I glared at the stupid snake as my sandaled feet sank into the ice crystals. If I lost my toes to frostbite, I was going to kill things.

Each step saturated my shoes more fully with water, and my replaced hip grew stiff from the cold. I was not enjoying myself.

As she led the way onto a narrow ledge along the steep side of the valley, Nori began talking.

"As you know, Kaguya Otsutsuki was the first human to wield chakra. She ate the chakra fruit of the Ten-tails and gained immense power. Her son Hagoromo became the Sage of the Six Paths by sealing the Ten-tails within him, ending the rampage that the beast had been on. Not much else is known about the time before ninja.

"In the face of such power like Kaguya, or the Rabbit Goddess as the people called her, the Sage of the Six Paths, and the Tailed Beasts, people moved on from their previous beliefs. As with most periods of great development and progress, many things were deemed antiquated and extraneous and were thus forgotten. That was over three centuries ago, close to four.

"But then what about those things of the past that were forgotten? Did they disappear? Were things forgotten that should have been remembered?

"It took years, but I finally came across a series of scrolls in a temple in the Land of Earth detailing many of these forgotten things. The scrolls dated to before the birth of the Sage of the Six Paths. While Kaguya was the first human to wield chakra, the Ten-tails wasn't the only beast with the ability."

She wedged her way through a crack in the side of the mountain. Kakashi and I followed her in, and shockingly, it wasn't warmer in the cave like I had expected. It was colder. Every step seemed to lower the temperature drastically, and I had to clench my mouth shut to keep my teeth from chattering.

Nori continued in her lecture voice, "When I was a genin, my team and I were stranded in these mountains. Our sensei was dead, and an elite Cloud squad was on our heels. To hide our tracks, the three of us slipped into this very cave. Now, imagine our surprise when we came across one of these forgotten remnants of the past."

A/N: Sorry about the false update there. I misclicked and hit publish with the unedited draft of the next chapter. The edited version will be up later today.