Chapter 17 : Choice

The storm had finally quieted, leaving behind a haunting silence. The biting wind no longer screamed through the fjord. Only the soft crackling of snow against the ice and the faint, steady pulse of heartbeats filled the air.

Hans struggled beneath him, still trying to twist free, his breath coming in quick, panicked bursts.

Naruto didn't speak. His eyes—cold, clear, and calm—locked onto Hans's.

This wasn't rage. It wasn't vengeance.

It was choice. A choice he made

Naruto hate manipulators like this—people who smiled while stabbing from the shadows. People who talked about peace while planning betrayal. Mizuki had been one. Hans was another.

He'd hesitated once. On the day of his graduation, when he struck Mizuki harder than he meant to—too hard. It haunted him. The shock of that first kill. The fear of what it meant about himself.

But this was different.

Hans hadn't just betrayed Anna. He had tried to kill her. He would have killed Elsa. And if they let him live, he would try again.

Some enemies don't stop.

Naruto tightened his grip, the frost biting at his knuckles. His clones had subdued the guards. The storm was fading. And yet, Hans still smiled that poisonous smile.

"You're just like me," Hans breathed. "A killer in disguise."

Naruto looked down at him, eyes unblinking.

"No," he said softly. "I protect what I care about. I made this choice, and I'll bear the consequences that come with it."

A single strike. Clean. Final.

Hans went still.

Naruto sat there for a long moment, breathing hard. Not shaking. Not grieving. Just... still.

Because he knew what he had done.

And why.

He stood slowly, the wind brushing past him like a whisper.

Elsa, still kneeling beside Anna's frozen body, turned slightly at the sound, but Naruto didn't approach yet. He looked back once at Hans—at the quiet truth of what that choice meant—then forward again.

His path wasn't clean.

But it was his.

---

The wind had nearly stopped.

Snowflakes still drifted down, but gently now, like the sky was exhaling after a long scream.

Naruto stepped away from Hans's body without looking back. He walked to where Elsa knelt in the snow, still holding Anna's hand.

Her shoulders trembled, but she made no sound. Her breath was shallow, her eyes red and wide with silent grief. The cold didn't touch her now — not out of power, but numbness.

Naruto stopped beside them. For a moment, he didn't say anything.

He just stood there, watching the two sisters — one frozen in place, the other frozen in sorrow.

"I failed her," Elsa whispered.

Naruto knelt slowly, resting his hand lightly on Anna's other arm. The ice was hard beneath his fingers.

"You didn't," he said. "She chose to save you. Even when she couldn't stand."

Elsa shook her head. "It's my fault. All of it. I pushed her away. I was so afraid of hurting her... and I did anyway."

Naruto didn't argue.

Elsa's hand trembled around Anna's fingers.

For a long, still moment, nothing moved but the snow.

Then Elsa closed her eyes.

She remembered Anna laughing in the palace halls as children. Running barefoot in the snow before the doors closed. Reaching for her even after years of silence. Willing to die — just to protect her.

Not because of fear.

Because of love.

Elsa's breath hitched.

She leaned forward, wrapping both arms tightly around her sister's frozen body, pressing her forehead to Anna's.

"I'm here," she whispered. "I'm not afraid anymore."

The ice shimmered.

A quiet pulse.

A single crack echoed through the fjord.

Then another.

Naruto flinched as the ice shifted under Anna's body — not violently, but gently, like something melting.

Elsa gasped.

A faint warmth bloomed at Anna's chest, like the first glow of morning sunlight on snow.

Naruto felt it too — a soft rush of chakra that wasn't his. A life spark.

Then—

Anna gasped.

Her fingers twitched. Her eyes fluttered open.

Elsa pulled back, wide-eyed and breathless.

"Anna?" she whispered.

Anna blinked slowly, confused and squinting through tears. "You're... warm."

Elsa laughed, a broken, joyful sound, and hugged her fiercely.

Naruto let out a long, shaking breath.

He turned slightly away, just for a second, to swipe at his eyes with the back of his glove.

The snow stopped falling.

And for the first time since the storm began, the sun broke through the clouds.

---

Anna's arms slowly wrapped around Elsa, her body no longer stiff with ice but trembling with life. She clung to her sister like a child waking from a nightmare, burying her face in Elsa's shoulder.

"You came back..." Anna murmured.

"I'm sorry," Elsa whispered. "For everything. I was so scared of hurting you… I didn't see already was."

Anna pulled back just enough to meet her eyes. "You didn't hurt me. You saved me. Just... in your own weird, dramatic snow queen way."

Elsa laughed — breathless, tearful — and held her close again.

A soft thump and squeak echoed nearby.

"True love!" Olaf cried, slipping on the melting frost and rolling headfirst into a snowbank. "I knew it! I knew it!"

Naruto grinned, kneeling to help Olaf up. "You're tougher than you look, little guy."

Olaf blinked his coal eyes. "Was there ever any doubt? I'm powered by summer dreams!"

Then he paused, turning his twiggy arms toward Anna and Elsa.

"And love," he added, his voice smaller. "Lots of love."

The last clouds broke apart above them. Sunlight streamed over the fjord, glinting off the melting ice. Snow puddles formed at their feet, soaking into the earth. Trees once frozen straight began to sway in the warm breeze.

The storm was over.

---

Later, in the Courtyard

Hans's body had been removed.

No announcements were made — only quiet orders, carried out in silence.

Naruto sat on the edge of a fountain, watching children dance in the re-thawing streets of Arendelle. The spring air carried laughter now, not wind.

Anna stood nearby, her arm looped gently through Elsa's. They spoke in low voices, rebuilding their bond one word at a time.

Naruto said nothing.

He wasn't sure what he could say.

Killing Hans hadn't felt like revenge. It hadn't been wild or furious — it had been still, sharp. Decisive. A clean line drawn between who he used to be and who he was becoming.

He remembered Mizuki.

How he'd struck without thinking. How the blood had felt hot, the world too loud afterward.

He'd had nightmare.

But this… this wasn't like that.

This time, he had chosen.

Not out of hate — but to protect someone. Someone he'd come to care about.

And in that moment… he didn't feel like the lonely boy with no family anymore.

He felt like a shinobi.

Someone who stood in the way — not of pain, but of its reach.

Elsa approached quietly, her boots tapping against clean stone.

Naruto looked up.

"Hey."

"Hey," she said softly. She sat beside him, folding her hands in her lap.

For a while, they just listened to the birdsong.

"Thank you," Elsa said at last. "For protecting her. And for helping me remember… I don't have to be afraid of myself."

Naruto smiled a little. "You don't."

He looked toward Anna.

"She didn't give up on you. Even when it hurt."

Elsa nodded. "She's good at that."

"You both are," he said. "I think that's what saved her."

Olaf strolled up then, humming cheerfully and juggling three melting snowballs.

Naruto watched him for a second, then glanced at Elsa.

"So... uh. Any chance you can keep him from melting?"

Elsa smiled. She flicked her fingers, casting a light frost over Olaf's body.

He wiggled his arms in delight.

"Permafrost!" he cheered. "I am living the dream!"

Naruto leaned back with a sigh, hands behind his head.

The sun was warm on his face.

For now — there was peace.

---