I have no words to say except to sit back and enjoy the first chapter of the Icecrown Arc.

Bold- Inner Sakura/Kyuubi/Summons

Italics-Thoughts/Letters/Flashbacks

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto or WoW. I DO however own the OCs, the story, and the idea of the story itself.

Konoha was bustling as they continued the clean up left from the invasion, but it was also buzzing with the newest piece of news. When the meeting about Operation Swordbreaker was over, they council informed the public of their decision to aid the Ebon Blade which was received negatively by the populace. Almost everyone found the idea of sending five teams of rookies as well as a handful of their top Jounin to help an ally in a foreign land ridiculous, not to mention risky. A lot of civilians tried to make their opinion known about the matter, but it was easily swatted away by Hiruzen who was not tolerating their complaints.

Naruto, Mac, Gaz and Grimes were standing in the Hokage's office for a quick meeting with Darion who requested to borrow Hiruzen's office for the hour. As they stood in front of the desk, Darion took the time to lay out a long cloth and place four sets of clothes on it. Darion crossed his arms and nodded at the clothes and his men stepped forward and picked them up.

"What are these?" Gaz asked.

"These are your new uniforms," Darion replied. "Everyone from Konoha taking part in this operation will wear these as the joint task force uniform."

"These look sweet!"

Gaz held on to the jacket which was the main top of the uniform. The tactical jacket was grey and had many compartments on the front for their equipment. On the back of the jacket there was a combination of two the Ebon Blade emblem and Konoha's leaf. The symbol had a sword and a kunai crossed and swirls of crimson leaves dancing around them. On the shoulders of the jacket there was the main symbol for both the Ebon Blade and Konoha. On the right shoulder was the eblem of the Ebon Blade and on the left was the red spiral.

"This is a cool uniform and all, but I don't suppose I can get one that matches my eyes?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"You'll be getting a thin towel for a cold weather top at this rate." Darion smirked back.

Naruto only laughed as he looked at the rest of the uniform. It was similar to what his team wore now. The uniform was light, but he could feel and sense the light plate inside the stitching. The plate, although not as thick as the true plate armor that the other Death Knights wore, was infused with special magic to give it the power to take stronger attacks.

"So is there anything else that we are getting?" Mac asked.

"Actually, yeah," Darion answered as he raised his hand.

His hand started to glow a dark purple and a small portal formed above the desk. There was a loud clang as three blades dropped on the table. Upon seeing the blades, their faces lit up.

"Think of these blades as a late promotion gift," Darion said as he picked one of them up to examine it.

The blade was long like their current greatswords, but it looked stronger. The blade itself was red and black. The hilt and guard were a greyish black with the guard having two red gems inside of it to give it a demonic appearance. Darion handed the blade over to Naruto who took it eagerly and stood back so he had room.

Gripping the blade's hilt with both hands he closed his eys and concentrated. His eyes snapped open and he swung the blade once, twice, three times. With each swing of his blade there was a loud whoosh as it cut through the air violently. He gave a loud battle cry as he swung again. He stood up with a large grin and looked down at the blade again. This blade was a big improvement from his old one. While longer and not as thick, it was easier to swing which meant it would be easier to block incoming attacks.

"What was this made from?" Naruto asked.

"They're made from Fel Iron," Darion replied. "You can thank Thassarian for that. He knows a blacksmith in Stormwind that was able to forge these blades."

"Nice!" Gaz smirked as he picked up his own blade. "I'm looking forward to killing some undead pricks with this!"

As Gaz and Mac were examining their blades, Naruto was strapping his to his back.

"Naruto, what did Darion say that blade was made of?" Kyuubi asked.

"He said it was made Fel Iron or something like that," Naruto replied. "Why?"

"I can sense traces of demonic energy in it."

"Seriously? How's that possible?"

"I'm not sure, maybe you should ask Darion when I'm done talking to you. That aside, the reason I brought it up is because this demonic energy can be combined with mine to make your blade stronger."

Naruto was stunned when he heard that. The blade he was holding had the capability to absorb Kyuubi's chakra as a medium to prevent it from harming him. If that was true, then he would not have to worry about using Kyuubi's chakra as much.

"How much would it affect me if I tried using your chakra like I did against Kabuto?" Naruto asked.

"Even though the blade is compatible with my power, it's not strong enough to absorb all of it. I would say it would be able to at least absorb half of it which would lower the physical strain on your body tremendously," Kyuubi replied. "The blade will grow stronger when you send my power to it, but it cannot hold all of it, so you will suffer some physical damage if you do it regardless, but nowhere near the amount you would if you weren't using it."

"Well, that's better than nothing."

Kyuubi cancelled the link between them leaving Naruto to his thoughts about the conversation they had. He was glad that he would now be able to mitigate the stress his body would take from Kyuubi's power. This still left him wondering about the demonic energy the blade had which intrigued him.

"Hey, Darion," Naruto said, getting the attention of his commander.

"Yes?" Darion replied.

"Where does Fel Iron come from?"

"It's an ore found only in the Outland."

"Where all those infernal demons are from, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

Naruto then explained the conversation he and Kyuubi had moments ago and its capabilities were with Kyuubi's chakra. To say that his friends were surprised was an understatement. They were ecstatic to hear that their friend would be able to use Kyuubi's chakra safely with minor consequences which could help them tremendously in the mission.

"I have to say that's probably the first bit of good news I've heard all day," Grimes said, ruffling Naruto's hair.

The evening came too soon for the shinobi taking part of Operation Swordbreaker. They were all standing on the roof of the Hokage's office and decked out in the new uniforms that Darion gave them earlier. In front of them was Tsunade, Hiruzen, and Darion and they were looking at all of them with serious expressions.

"You are all about to embark on what can be considered your most dangerous mission yet," Hiruzen began as he puffed smoke out from his pipe. "Now, to give you a brief overview of what you will be facing, I will turn this over to Darion."

Hiruzen stepped aside and Darion nodded at him in thanks and cleared his throat before holding his hand up. A dark blue aura appeared in front of him and vanished seconds later to show a large map. The map was large enough for all of them to see and it had a lot of markings on it to show updated information. Darion stood to the side and pointed at the map with his stick.

"Allow me to shed some light on the terrain you will be operating in," Darion said as he looked at all of them.

He beckoned Naruto, Mac, Gaz, and Grimes to come and stand with him to help explain and answer any questions that would be asked. He waited for them to stand at ease before continuing his speech.

"I won't go into full specifics here as you will learn more when we get to Icecrown, but I will tell you about your enemy and the fighting conditions," Darion continued.

Naruto, Mac, Gaz and Grimes listened to Darion as he began to explain the conditions of what they would be up against. First he talked about the Scourge and what they were. Darion told them that they were a massive army of undead beings that consisted of mindless zombies, death knights, abominations and a bunch of other hideous creatures. They were restless and would continue fight until they were either destroyed or until they killed their target. Since they were undead they were not prone to pain which would make it more difficult to fight them. They were also immune to the weather conditions that would affect normal living beings.

"So what happens if we get surrounded by a bunch of them and we're on our own or there's too many to handle with our group?" Kakashi asked.

"Break contact, regroup and counterattack unless told otherwise," Darion answered. "Do not, and I say this with the utmost sincerity, do not try to take these things on if you are outnumbered. They will swarm you and kill you. Once you die, you will turn into one of them. I've seen it happen to a lot of my men."

Kakashi merely nodded, not fond of the idea, but if Darion was giving him a direct order against an enemy he had yet to meet, he would heed it. After answering Kakashi's question, he moved on to the next important bit of information being the weather and terrain they would be fighting in. They would be fighting in temperatures that were far below freezing and only got colder during the nights. The only way to stay warm was to keep moving or stay huddled in a group since fires would attract the enemies during the night. It came as a surprise to a lot of the shinobi that the weather was the biggest killer of the soldiers in Icecrown. The weather could be calm one minute, but could then change into a raging blizzard which could go on for hours, even days. If one got lost in a blizzard, they would succumb to the cold.

"Out of curiosity, what's the survival rate should we follow your advice on fighting the Scourge and staying together to avoid being casualties from the weather?" Shikamaru asked. "I get the feeling that even if we do as you say, it's not very good."

"I won't sugarcoat it, Nara." Darion turned to him. "Your survival rate should you follow what I told you will be at forty percent, but that sounds a lot better than zero, doesn't it?"

"What a drag…"

"As negative as everything I've said sounds, I can assure you that if you listen to what me and my men tell you, you will have a high chance of surviving."

Uneasy murmurs went through the crowd of shinobi as they absorbed Darion's words. Some of them were having second thoughts about the mission after hearing what they were going up against. Darion took a look at his pocket watch before tucking it away. Before he could transport his task force to the Skybreaker in Icecrown he needed to have help from another person to open the portal. He did not have to wait long to get his wish as a dark blue portal appeared beside him and a lone silhouette was visible. The figure stepped out moments later and was revealed to be a woman of average height.

The woman was wearing a somewhat revealing, two piece outfit. The most outstanding features of the woman was the long blonde hair, the staff and her electrifying blue eyes. When she came out of the portal, Naruto, Gaz, Mac and Grimes gave her a salute to which she smiled at them and dismissed the formal greeting.

"There's no need for formality." She smiled. "It's good to see you four again."

The death knights nodded and stood at ease when she told them to and watched her stand next to Darion who gave her a curt nod.

"Is this your task force, Highlord Mograine?" She asked.

"Yes it is, Jaina." Darion nodded again. "I gave them a brief overview of the environment we will be working in, but I will not get into the full details until later."

"Very well. Before we leave, I should introduce myself."

Darion stepped aside to allow the woman, now known to the shinobi as Jaina to speak. Jaina rested a hand on her hip and took a long look at the large group in front of her. As her eyes took in the sight, her mind drifted back to the conversation she and Darion had about the operation and who he was bringing as allies. She did not know much about his new alliance with this village of Konoha until he approached her with the mission proposition over a week ago. All she knew about Darion's new allies as that he trusted them enough to help with the mission and that they were not to be underestimated.

"My name is Jaina Proudmoore, the leader of Theramore as well as acting advisor to King Varian Wrynn of Stormwind," Jaina began. "I will be your support on this mission with intelligence and have a small group of mages to act as a QRF should you need it. Are there any questions?"

Her eyes scanned the crowd and came across a lone arm raised in the air by a raven hair boy with an unusual hair style. She smiled at him and nodded so he could speak. She saw the smirk on his face and was curious about what he was thinking.

"So if you're leader of this place called Theramore, what do you do? What powers do you have?" Sasuke smirked.

"I am a mage. So my prowess lies with arcane magic and spells, which is similar to what you call ninjutsu and genjutsu," Jaina replied.

"I don't suppose we could see a demonstration?" Kakashi added.

"You will see what I can do later should you need the help of my QRF during this mission, but we need to get a move on as we're behind schedule."

Sasuke and Kakashi ceased their questions and stood up with the rest of the group when Darion and Hiruzen motioned for them to do so. Jaina and Darion held out their hands and a light blue aura emitted from them as they started to create another portal. When the portal appeared, the group could see a dark sky in the background of it. Darion, Grimes, Naruto, Mac and Gaz stood in front of the portal before the group could move towards it.

"Once you step through this portal you will be on our main support ship being the Skybreaker. It will also be very cold, so I suggest you put on your cold weather gear now," Darion said as he turned to face the portal. "I will see you all on the other side."

With that, Darion stepped into the portal and vanished from sight. Grimes followed with Naruto, Mac and Gaz following close behind. Once the death knights had gone, the group started filing their way into it. First was team seven, and then team eight, followed by nine and ten. Jaina was going to be the last one through with Shizune who was operating as head medic for the task force. Before the two of them left, Jaina turned to look at Hiruzen and Tsunade one last time.

"I will be sure to update both of you on our progress report of the mission every twelve hours, and I will make sure that none of your shinobi are left behind," Jaina said with a bow.

"Thank you, Lady Proudmoore." Hiruzen returned the bow. "I'm sure my shinobi will be alright."

Jaina smiled and entered the portal which closed behind her leaving Hiruzen and Tsunade alone. The former master and student stood in silence and shared a look before they began their trek back down to Hiruzen's office.

"Do you think that group can pull this off without losing anyone?" Tsunade asked.

"I'm sure they can. That group is very talented for a bunch of rookies and I'm sure they can handle this, otherwise I wouldn't have sent them in the first place," Hiruzen replied.

Tsunade did not question her old master any further. She knew him well enough that he would not have made a decision unless he was comfortable with it, but she could not shake the uneasy feeling that something was going to go wrong. With what she saw during the council meeting about the mission, she had a hunch that it would be team seven that would cause the problem.

The only sound that filled the frigid air of Icecrown was chattering teeth. To say that it was cold was an understatement. It was freezing and the howling wind was not helping as it graced the skin and eyes of the shinobi. The cold air was making their eyes water and then freeze to their cheeks.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me take this time to welcome you to this frozen hell!" Gaz grinned.

"Can we please go inside? It's freezing out here!" Tenten shivered.

"You better get used to it, Tenten. It's going to be like this until we leave." Naruto shook his head. "But hey, maybe you can kindle your flames of youth to stay warm."

"I'd clock you right now, but I'm too damn cold!"

Naruto only laughed at Tenten as she snapped back at him. While Naruto was laughing, Darion stepped forward with two new people that the Konoha shinobi did not recognize, but they could tell they were important since Naruto, Mac and Gaz were standing at attention. One of them was another man who had shoulder length white hair and markings on his face. He also had two blades strapped to his back which tipped them off that he was a proficient fighter if he could dual wield. The other was another humanoid, but he looked different as he had long pointed ears and long white hair that stopped at the middle of his back.

"Allow me to introduce you all to your fellow officers." Darion looked at both of the newcomers. "On my right is Lieutenant Thassarian Bauer and on my left is Lieutenant Koltira Deathweaver."

"Damn, I can tell by their last names that these two are badasses," Kiba muttered.

"It's a pleasure to meet all of you," Thassarian said with a nod. "I'm glad we can scrounge some of you to help us with this mission."

"That being said, when we land at the Argent Vanguard, you will head to the main tent for your briefing," Koltira added as he crossed his arms. "Since we are short on time, I ask that all of you keep your questions pertinent to the mission when we land."

With that, Koltira, Thassarian, Darion and Grimes left the group and went towards the main cabin to discuss the upcoming brief. When they left, the shinobi relaxed and then started to walk around the deck in a desperate attempt to stay warm in the arctic temperature. Despite the fact cold was cutting them to the bone, they were fascinated with what they had seen. They were surrounded by snow-capped mountains and ice that had built up over hundreds of years. Not only that, but they were flying high in the sky with some new type of transportation that they had never seen before. Far below them they could see small figures which were undoubtedly the Scourge trekking through the snow and around the open holes of ice that gave way to the frozen water.

"So, Naruto, what exactly is this thing?" Shikamaru asked as he leaned on the railing beside him.

"This is the Skybreaker. It's a ship that was designed to fly in the air to shorten the amount of time to get to a destination around Northrend," Naruto replied. "Truth be told, there are other methods of travel around here like boat, gryphons, or portals."

"Interesting. So how many of these things does Darion have under his command? If we have more of these it can really help with this mission since we would have air superiority."

Naruto grimaced when he was hit with that question. He was not looking forward to giving Shikamaru the answer as it would not be the one he wanted to hear, but it was something that he needed to know.

"Uh, well…" Naruto laughed nervously. "This is the only one that we have in Icecrown."

"You're shitting me, right?" Shikamaru raised a brow.

"No, but wait! There's more bad news you need to know!"

"I don't think I want to hear it now."

"Well, I have to tell you anyway. So, outside of this being the only one that the Alliance has and the fact they serve as the primary air defense of the Alliance faction, it gets called all over the place often. With that in mind, they will only answer to the group who is closest to them."

Shikamaru buried his face in his hands as Naruto continued to list off the bad news. It only got worse when he learned that there was an enemy ship known as Orgrim's Hammer that patrolled Icecrown for the Horde who was considered their enemies.

"So with Orgrim's Hammer flying around I guess that means they'll shoot at us if they get the opportunity?" Shikamaru asked.

"Only if some of their combat units spot us and call in an airstrike," Mac answered as he appeared beside him. "The Horde may hate the Alliance, but if we are on the ground and they are flying above us, they won't waste any of their firepower on us unless it's necessary."

"That's the only good news, right?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

"What a drag."

Shikamaru sighed and scratched the back of his head as he walked off to find his father to tell him what he learned. When Shikamaru was gone, Mac and Naruto looked over the edge of the railing and to the mountains as they continued the journey to the outpost.

"Hey, being real for a second here," Mac began, shifting his gaze to Naruto. "If Bloodbane is the acting general of this counteroffensive that the Lich King set up and our job is to round-up the last of our men and capture him, how likely is it we can pull both of those objectives off?"

"As much as I want to say we'll be able to do both, I don't think it's possible without sacrificing one for the other." Naruto shook his head. "We either take Bloodbane the first chance we get and leave the men behind or save the men and then send another group for Bloodbane who will probably try to escape the first chance he gets."

"Well, let's just hope Shikamaru and his dad can come up with another way to make this go smoother."

Naruto only nodded as he thought back to Shikamaru and his father. With the two of them it was a sure bet they could pull off the mission with few problems. He could only hope they could come up with an extra plan to capture Bloodbane.

The ship landed at the Argent Vanguard half an hour later and the group hustled hurried off to make their way to the big tent. The sooner they got out of the cold the better they would be. They filed into the tent to see many empty chairs in front of a massive board that had a map spread across it with various markings on it. Everyone started to take their seats and look at the map to get an idea of where their operations would take place. The map had different colors on the map being green, red, yellow and black. There were only three green marks which paled in comparison to the amount of yellow, red and black. The group turned their attention to the tent flap as Darion, Thassarian, Koltira, Grimes and Zara entered. The five death knights split off to stand on both sides of the massive map before Darion stood in the center.

"All right, we don't have much time until we move out, so I want to give you the brief as soon as possible. Save all the questions until I'm done talking." Darion rubbed his eyes.

Turning back to the map, Darion pointed at it with the long stick that was resting beside it. He first pointed to the green mark on the bottom right corner of the map.

"I want you to pay close attention to this map and the color marks as it will give you the idea of what to expect," Darion began.

The first mark Darion went over was the green mark. There were only two on the map. One was near the center of the map while the other was at the bottom right corner. The green mark indicated friendly positions with the two locations being the base camp and the center location was the Skybreaker. The yellow mark was the next that Darion explained. There were only three spots on the map and they were all near the center. One yellow circle surrounded a large village called Ymirheim and the other two surrounded the village's southeast and southwest sides. The yellow marked the areas where their friendly forces were engaging the Scourge.

"Now, those yellow marks are where we will be going as that is where we will be pulling our men off the line," Darion continued, turning to look at them. "As you can see, the village of Ymirheim, and those two spots near Mord'Rethar and Corp'Rethar are the only spots we have men at."

He turned to the map again and pointed to it again. He traced a diagonal line from Ymirheim, through the southwest yellow circle and back to the green circle in the corner.

"This will be our route of travel, but should something happen to our main direction of travel we will instead cut up through Mord'Rethar and turn into Ymirheim once we get through it," Darion said as he traced a secondary line up the map.

The task force said nothing while they took in all of Darion's words. Their mission was simple enough when it came to pulling off the remaining soldiers from the line, but when it came to their target Orbaz Bloodbane, they had no idea what to expect. From the small amount of information that they learned about him during the council briefing from earlier in the week, he was a very violent death knight, but he was also a coward that would flee. With that in mind, they had to come up with a solid plan to capture the elusive commander of the scourge counteroffensive.

"This brings us to the last bit of our briefing on our HVT General Bloodbane." Darion turned back to the task force.

"What's the plan to lure this guy out and capture him?" Shikamaru and Shikaku asked.

"He's not the kind of general to be on the field with his forces. He will stay in his headquarters to avoid enemy confrontation. Now with that in mind, this is where it gets difficult."

"How so?"

"We want to catch Bloodbane alive so he can be interrogated by Inoichi, but the only way we can get to him…"

"Is if we go behind enemy lines and get him ourselves."

"Precisely."

The task force now understood the high risk involved with capturing Bloodbane and they were more uneasy than before. If they were to capture Bloodbane, they would not only have to acquire a forward position to be close to his area to reach it in a short amount of time, but the job of capturing him would require a small team of their best men to make it possible.

"Although this mission is suicidal, I want you all to understand that if you do not wish to partake in capturing Bloodbane, I will not be upset at all and I can just as easily assign someone else to do it," Darion continued, crossing his arms.

"We all know the importance of this mission, Sir. We will be more than willing to face Bloodbane and bring him in for interrogation." Asuma puffed out some smoke.

"Good. The comforting bit about all of this is that we have yet to pinpoint his location, so until then, I don't want you to worry about that."

"Wait, you want to capture this guy, but you don't know where he is?" Sakura raised a brow.

"We know the area he's hiding in, but it will take time to get an exact location."

"So which area is he in?"

Darion decided to humor Sakura, but it was mainly to shut her up so he would not have to keep answering questions left and right. He turned back to the map with his stick again and pointed near the bottom left corner and traced a cicle in the corner. On the map there were two marks to show fortresses.

"He's either in the Ice Crown Citadel or this fortress to the northeast of it," Darion said, glancing back at Sakura. "Does that answer your question?"

The pink haired kunoichi said nothing and shifted in her seat, embarrassed at questioning Darion's intelligence reports. While she continued looking down at the floor, Darion continued talking. He was about to continue, but another death knight burst into the tent gasping for air, garnering the attention of everyone inside.

"Highlord Mograine, our scouts have spotted a massive Scourge force to the northwest!" The death knight panted.

"Did they come from Mord'Rethar?" Darion replied.

"Yes, Sir!"

Darion cursed under his breath and looked down at the ground. The Scourge was on the move in an attempt to not only cut off their path to Ymirheim, but it also gave them a chance to attack them at their base and eliminate them. He was not supposed to send out the task force for another half hour, but now he had no choice. They would have to start their trek to Ymirheim now. Clenching his fists, he looked back up at the task force with determination.

"We will have to end the briefing here. Right now we need to engage the threat coming towards us and push to Ymirheim! Get your gear, regroup with your platoons and move out, now!" Darion ordered.

That was all it took to make everyone in the tent hurry outside into the frigid air. Once they were all outside they began to scatter all over the place searching for their platoons and prepare to lead them towards Ymirheim. In the midst of the chaos taking place in the camp, Naruto managed to find Mac and Gaz.

"Okay, since we are in separate platoons we will not be able to back each other up unless we meet up on the field," Naruto said, placing his hands on their shoulders. "Keep in contact with everyone in your platoon by using your squad radio."

"Got it." Gaz nodded.

"All right, guys. Let's do this!" Mac grinned.

The three comrades bumped their fists together and smirked. Now was the time to get some payback on the Scourge for killing a lot of their comrades as well as deal one more blow to the Lich King by capturing his general. Dropping theirs fists they split from each other and walked to their respective platoons.

"I'll see you both at Ymirheim." Naruto sent a wave at their retreating forms.

Turning around, Naruto continued his walk toward his platoon. His mood became a little sour when his eyes landed on the people in his platoon. On a normal day he would have been fine with his comrades, but given that he was helping lead Third Platoon with Kakashi with Sakura being paired with them as well, he was nervous. He was not sure how well Kakashi would do with leading soldiers of the Ebon Blade and Argent Crusade on the field, but he had a gut-wrenching feeling deep down that he was going to get a lot of men killed. Upon reaching the platoon, he quickly found his fellow squad leaders to do quick introductions and warn them about Kakashi leading them.

"Lieutenant Uzumaki, if Kakashi is a bad leader like you say, why don't you just take over for him?" Sergeant Wallace asked.

"Believe me, I would, but Darion wanted me to be a squad leader since I don't have experience leading a large amount of men at once." Naruto shook his head.

"So what would you suggest?" Sergeant Jaeger crossed his arms.

"If he makes a call that you don't agree with, do what you feel is right."

Sergeant Wallace and Sergeant Jaeger nodded at Naruto and returned to their squads to get their men ready for the charge downhill. Taking a deep breath, Naruto walked over to his squad to do the same thing, but he stopped again when his eyes caught sight of Hinata walking to First Platoon. She was one of the combat medics assigned for First and Second Platoon. He could see that Hinata appeared to be lost in thought. Thinking quickly, he hurried over to the shy girl.

"Hinata!" Naruto came to a stop beside her.

"Naruto-kun, what are you doing here?" Hinata stammered in surprise.

"I thought I should check on you before we started moving. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm okay."

Naruto frowned when Hinata gave him a smile since he was able to tell she was far from okay. She was scared. He could not blame her for being scared, but at the same time he could not have her being afraid when they were about to go into combat and where she would be needed from the getgo. He placed a firm hand on her shoulder and her eyes opened in surprise at the sudden contact.

"Listen, I know you're scared, but I need you to pull yourself together," Naruto began. "You will be fine. You will be by strong soldiers and our friends who will do everything they can to protect you, but they will need your help."

"I know they will need my help, but I'm afraid of not being able to save someone," Hinata replied with a shaky tone.

"Look, I won't sugarcoat it. You will not be able to save everyone. It's what you do today on that field that will make the difference for a lot of people here. Help as many as you can as best you can."

"I won't let anyone die. I never go back on my word!"

Naruto blinked in surprise when he heard Hinata's promise. Her nindo was also the same as his. His words seemed to trigger a new sense of purpose in his friend and he could only smile when he saw a new look of fire in her eyes. He gave her a pat on the shoulder and was about to leave, but he was stopped when Hinata wrapped him up in a hug. Although he and Hinata had some moments together over the past couple of months, he could not help but feel something was different with this one. He could feel that this was moment was more intimate with the way she held him tightly. His arms wrapped around her and they stood like that for a few seconds.

"Listen, if you run into trouble on the field, contact my radio. I'll find you and help you," Naruto whispered, breaking the hug.

"I will. Be safe, Naruto-kun." Hinata nodded, giving him one last smile.

Hinata ran to First Platoon in a hurry and Naruto continued to watch her until he could no longer see her. Remembering his task, he hustled back to his platoon and rounded up his squad. After introducing himself, he gave them a quick motivational speech about being too good to be killed by a bunch of mindless freaks and that if they listened to him, they would make it to Ymirheim in one piece. He was glad that he was successful in connecting with his squad and that they were ready to follow his orders and listen to him should Kakashi fail in leading them.

Naruto, being the first squad leader of the platoon was in the front rank with his men and he did a quick look up and down the line. He could see Gaz, Mac, Shikamaru, shino and Neji in the front of their platoons as well, looking down the hill towards a sea of undead creatures barely a mile away from them. He took a deep breath and drew his blade and gripped it tightly in his hand as we waited for the order to charge. He could feel his heart throbbing in his chest and his ears as the adrenaline coursed through his body.

"Soldiers of the Ebon Blade, it's now time to launch our counterattack against the Scourge!" Darion's voice boomed from the back. "We have men out there that need our help and failure is not an option! Give those mindless bastards hell and cut them to pieces! Let's show Arthas and his undead dogs that we are the Ebon Blade and we are not afraid!"

A deafening cry echoed around the mountains as all the every man and woman in the platoons gave the loudest battle cries that they could. The sound of blades being drawn filled the air when the cries subdsided and everything went quiet. The silence was broken when Darion gave the command everyone was now waiting to hear.

"Charge!"

Naruto gripped his blade with both hands and began sprinting down the hill with his squad beside him. His ears were filled with another loud roar when the other platoons followed suit and began charging downhill towards the large army. The thunderous footsteps echoed around the mountains and the sound resembled that of an avalanche. He picked his legs up higher with each step to keep his speed going through the deep snow. His eyes could now clearly see the first line of enemies in front them and it was filled with abominations, ghouls and death knights.

"Here we go!" Naruto began channeling Kyuubi's chakra into his blade.

His blade started to glow a dark red as Kyuubi's chakra flooded it, begging to be unleashed. When he was within one hundred yards of the first line, he made his first move.

"Kage-Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto bellowed.

A series of cracks filled the air and dozens of clones came into existence in front of him and continued for the first wave of Scourge. He smirked as he got ready to use his newest attack on the undead in front of him. He lept high into the air with his blade and gave the hardest swing he could. His blade released a large wave of crimson energy that shot at the undead like a bullet and his clones did the same thing at the same time. The large wave of crimson energy hit the front row of enemies and exploded after absorbing them, creating a large wall of smoke. He broke through the smoke a second later with his squad and swung at the first enemy that caught his eye, decapitating an unsuspecting death knight. His ears were filled with the sound of blades crashing together as the other platoons crashed into the army.

"Here we go!" Naruto yelled to his squad. "Hit these bastards with all you've got and push through!"

Thanks for reading, if you review the chapter, that'll be awesome, but if you don't, I really don't care either. See ya'll next time.