~Chapter Thirty-Six~

Jafar found Winter sitting beneath a towering oak tree, her knees pulled up to her chest, and her chin resting on her kneecaps. Her arms were encircled around her legs loosely, her eye distant and her hair shifting with every movement of the wind, although most of the long, inky black strands were curled up on the ground. As she sat there Jafar was struck by a sudden realization. Winter was younger than him. It'd been awhile since he'd thought about her age, but now that his mind was on this track, he remembered that she was just barely sixteen.

She was nearly two years younger than him and yet she acted as if she was the older the one. He supposed that all the others had forgotten this as well. It was rather easy to forget that Winter was the youngest Original, and one of the youngest in the village, simply because of her mannerism and her accomplishments.

Now Jafar wasn't the best at comforting people, in fact he usually would tell someone to deal with it and get on with their life, but he wasn't that callous. Mustering up any gentleman like skills he might have left, Jafar sat down next to Winter, clasping his hands together. He doesn't talk. He just sits there, looking at the scenery around them and observing the way the sunlight dappled the leaves, the way a small bunny twitched its nose before darting deeper into the forest, how the clouds moved ever so slightly with each passing minute. Despite being relatively reserved around others in a way that made he come off either cold, rude, or humorous, Jafar did care about a handful of people. He just didn't show it very well.

He didn't show a lot of things actually. He was a lot smarter than he let on, and could tell quite a bit just by observing. Like how he could tell that while Winter's mind was here in the Storm Village, her heart was far away. Or that Emiko and Daiki had been secretly seeing each other for quite sometime, which would make sense seeing how those two were the primary pillars that supported Winter and spent plenty of time together. Or that the war had already started but Winter had yet to make a move, simply because the Storm Village wasn't ready yet.

"I was really confused when I woke up all those years ago." Jafar breaks the silence after a while, keeping his gaze trained on a seemingly interesting blade of grass. "I woke up amidst the smoke and ruins of the village, covered in ash and blood. At first I thought it was a nightmare of sorts. It took about an hour for the reality to sink in, by that time I had gotten to my feet and was wandering around. As a shinobi the dead aren't supposed to scare you... but when it's your neighbors, your classmates, friends, family... well any rational thought escaped my mind. All I knew was that I had to get out of there now. So I did. I ran and ran and ran and never looked back.

It was only later on that I realized that I never saw you. I tried not to be foolish and hold onto too much hope, but somewhere in my heart I just knew that you were still alive. So I wandered around. I trained in forests, abandoned villages, deserts, jungles, pretty much anywhere. After all you were my best friend when we were younger, and I figured I should grow strong before I saw you again.

I was about... oh eleven or so when I met my sensei. Well I suppose I shouldn't call him my sensei, he was more of a supporter than anything. He was really weird, a total perv, and not all that attractive. But I was starving, on the brink of death, and had just attempted to pickpocket him." Jafar chuckles softly. "He treated me to a simple meal but it was heaven for someone who'd been living off of grass for the past few years. He noticed my bruised knuckles as well and told me to stick with him, only for a little bit. He was a writer apparently, and he wanted some company. I traveled with him for a month, and in that month he helped me hone my skills with my blades. Then we parted ways. Neither of us were too upset about it, and to be honest, we both knew that we weren't going to stay together for a long time. In fact we never told each other our names. But that month of training, that month of counseling, was enough for me to get my head on straight. I started going around and taking on small jobs, I started earning money instead of stealing it, and... well eventually I got sucked into being a bounty hunter. I had conditions, I'd only take certain targets and they'd have to be pretty bad people." He runs his left thumb over his knuckles as he pauses to gather his thoughts.

"I was near Iwa when I heard your name for the first time in many years. I'd thought I'd misheard the vendor so I stuck around and eavesdropped. But they said it again. Yuki Ookami, a ninja of the Hidden Leaf, one of the last Storm Shinobi. I don't think I'd ever run so fast. But by the time I'd reached the Leaf Village you were nowhere to be found. I stayed for a few days, lying low under one of my alias, but I had to leave soon. I could see that I was causing suspicion. However on my journey out of the Land of Fire I ran into that writer. He was still the same pervy man I knew, but this time he had a loud mouthed blonde with him that constantly called the writer 'pervy-sage'."

Winter's head snaps up and she looks over at Jafar, the latter smiling slightly at her reaction.

"Ah those two made quite the duo. I didn't wish bother them but I knew writer-san sensed my presence. So I made myself known. Of course he was surprised, but I think the blonde was much more entertaining, because as soon as he heard that I'd traveled with writer-san before he challenged me to a fight. I won, of course, but that was mainly due to experience and that my jutsu is a bad matchup for those that use wind jutsu. I did sense something on him though. It wasn't insanely strong, and my sensing abilities were never the strongest, but I could feel you." Jafar looks at her, "You blessed that blonde boy with your protection... didn't you?"

Her voice is slightly hoarse as she answers, "Yes."

Satisfied with her answer, Jafar continues on. "I bid them farewell and wished the brat luck on his training. And then I set out to find you." His face darkens slightly and he cracks his knuckles out of habit. "I still needed money though, so I still took on bounties. I took one I shouldn't have, got in a scuffle, showed up on Judal's list, and a few months later I was thrown into the Coliseum. You saw what it was like in there so there's no need for me to explain what happened, and three years later you were thrown in there as well. You know the rest." 

"...my brother and I were captured by the Shadow Shinobi who invaded." Winter started speaking a few minutes after he's finished, her voice soft. "We were blindfolded, chained, and forced to walk for miles on end. I had no sense of direction but I knew that I was heading further away from the Storm Village. We were brought to the Shadow Village and thrown into the prison. I was left mostly alone, after all I was only seven years old. We were there for about two months. During that time Aiden was tortured relentlessly for information about ancient Storm Village jutsu's, none of which he told them about. It was later discovered that he'd erased the jutsu's from his own mine as a last ditch effort to make sure they didn't fall into the enemy hands. And so, with no use for us, the Shadow Shinobi dragged us in front of their village."

Her jaw tightens and she somehow made the words to come out, "They forced Aiden onto his knees and... they executed him." She pressed her eye close, taking a deep breath that rattled in her chest. "I lost it. He was the only person I had left, my safety, my everything. That was the day I activated my kekkei genkai. That was the day I destroyed the half of the Shadow Village. I don't remember much, just screaming and crying and blood. I woke up on the outskirts of a forest with Aiden's still body next to me. It took me quite sometime to pull myself back together and then somehow I made my way back to the Storm Village. Since it was winter time the bodies were frozen and kept from decomposing. I became numb and started the process of burying bodies and digging graves. I kept on doing this until everyone had a resting place. I slept for short periods of time, waking up quickly, and surviving on whatever I could find that was edible.

I started making headstones as well. This entire process lasted until spring. At that point I had no idea what to do. I was able to find some scrolls from my parent's bedroom and study the jutsu, I still wanted to a be a ninja even if it was only to finish off the Shadow Village." Her mouth twisted into a wiry smile, "And I self taught myself a jutsu that should've killed me. I was eight when I packed a backpack and attempted to do that jutsu. The result?" She waves a nonchalant hand in the direction of the storm barrier in the distant. "That. The actually jutsu was supposed to be a barrier of lightning but it turned into a storm dome. Naturally I passed out and woke up about four days later.

I ran to Konoha after that, I knew we were allies with them. Inazuma Kuro found me when she was helping with a class field trip. The Third Hokage talked to me, had me talk to a therapist guy for a few weeks, and deemed me able to live on my own. I started going by simply Winter. I was able to move into my family's cabin on the outskirts of the village. I was enrolled in the academy a year above my age group because I was ahead seeing how in the Storm Village we start training a year earlier.

I met these twins, Ryu and Riku, and the three of us became fast friends. Within a few days we were our own family. It took a little convincing, but eventually the Hokage allowed them to move in with me. Once we graduated we were put on a team together with Inazuma as our sensei. We had a lot of fun missions, the highest rank we ever went on being an rather random C-rank where we gathered information. Mostly we spent our time training. I don't like to brag... but we were strong. We were an ideal team, balancing each other out. We could cover each other's weaknesses and encouraged strengths. We could communicate without talking. If they were still alive today, I know that without a doubt they'd be extremely strong shinobi. But one day Ina-sensei had an A-Rank mission and she left, giving us the week off. We, Team Arashi, decided to perfect a team jutsu. On the day before she returned we were training outside of Konoha's walls because of the destructive force of the jutsu. We'd managed to pull it off successfully for the first time when we were attacked. Fourteen rouge shinobi and Raiga Kurosuki attacked us. They all held some form of judge against either Konoha, Ina-sensei, or a mixture of the two. Either way we were clearly out matched. Long story short... the twins perished and I barely survived.

I came back to the Storm Village a few hours after their funeral to get the scythe Aiden intended to give me when I finally unlocked my kekkei genkai. It was pure black and made out of the claw of a dragon. I turned it into a sealed weapon to kill Raiga. I only practiced with it, never using it on missions unless I intended to kill that person.

I went on missions with Ina-sensei, just the two of us, until the Elder's interfered and decided I needed to be put on a team. I was hoping to be put on Gai's team, who helped me when I had trouble with any taijutsu move, but I was put on this ex-Anbu's team, Team 7, lead by Kakashi Hatake. The members? 

Sakura Haruno, Sasuke Uchiha, and Naruto Uzumaki."

Winter proceeded to tell Jafar all about her training sessions with her new team, their C-rank turned A-rank mission, the Chunin exams, the attack on Konoha, and the letter from Emiko asking for her help to rebuild the Storm Village. They take a break to drink some water and eat onigiri, before Winter continues, recounting her training sessions with Emiko and her self employed missions. She brings the white haired male up to date with everything on her life and once she's done, it feels as if a huge weight had been lifted off of her chest.

Jafar looks at her, Winter now having her legs down against the ground and her back against the bark of the oak tree, her arms behind her neck. "The village is almost all the way rebuilt, we're going to be entering the war within a week or so, and once all that's over... will you go back? To him? Or will you stay here?"

For once in her life, Winter didn't want to answer. 

Whew, that was a bit longer chapter than normal and quite a bit of information. So now you all know Winter's past, how does that feel? Anything surprise you? 

QotC: Do you ship Winter with anyone?