Naruto had never left the Hidden Leaf before.
Everything here felt like another world—like stepping into someone else's storybook.
The buildings were too tall, the streets too clean, and the people too quiet. There were no kunai in sight. No mission boards, no ramen stalls, not even a grumpy old man yelling about laundry. Just layers of cobbled stone roads, heavy coats, and voices that echoed between walls like the cold air carried secrets.
[Ding! You have already arrived at the Ice Castle Mission's dungeon: "Frozen."]
[Main Task Unlocked: Melt the Heart of Winter
Time Limit: 6 Days
Difficulty: S]
[Branch Task: Find a person who makes ice.
Time Limit: 2 Days
Difficulty: A]
Naruto blinked at the translucent blue system screen, then waved it away with the same dismissive gesture he'd use on Sakura's lectures.
"Yeah, yeah. I'll get to it. After I check that place out."
The mission could wait. Curiosity couldn't. And right now, his curiosity was practically vibrating under his skin like chakra before a Rasengan.
He wandered aimlessly, hands tucked behind his head in that familiar pose that had driven his Academy teachers to distraction. Here, though, nobody seemed to care. Nobody even looked twice at the blonde stranger in the bright orange jacket. They were all too wrapped up in their own conversations, their voices creating a constant murmur that reminded him of the busy streets back home—except quieter, more subdued, like everyone was afraid of speaking too loudly.
His ears, trained from years of eavesdropping on conversations he probably shouldn't have been listening to, caught fragments as he passed.
"Did you hear? The queen's coronation is only three days away—"
"The castle gates will open for the first time in forever!"
"Have you seen the decorations? Her Majesty will be so beautiful!"
"My grandmother says she remembers when the gates were always open..."
"Shh, you know we don't talk about before—"
Queen?
Castle?
Coronation??
Naruto's steps slowed, his head tilting like a confused fox kit. He'd heard of daimyos before—the Feudal Lord of Fire Country was someone even the Hokage had to show respect to—but this was different. These people weren't talking about distant political figures. There was something personal in their voices, something warm and excited and... hopeful? It all sounded like something out of the storybooks Iruka-sensei never managed to keep his attention for, the ones with princesses and dragons and happily ever afters that seemed too good to be true.
Still… something about it tugged at his curiosity like a hook in his chest.
He followed the flow of people, their thick cloaks and heavy boots creating a river of movement through the cobblestone streets. Every few minutes, he'd veer off to tug someone's sleeve with the same shameless directness that had gotten him in trouble countless times before.
"Hey, what's a coronation?" he asked a woman carrying a basket of bread.
She paused, looking down at him with the kind of patient smile adults reserved for children asking obvious questions. "It's when the crown passes to the new ruler, of course. You must be from far away, huh?"
"Yeah…" Naruto scratched his cheek with a sheepish grin, the gesture so automatic he didn't even realize he was doing it. "Real far."
The woman's expression softened further. "Well, you picked a good time to visit. Tomorrow's the coronation—Princess Elsa becomes Queen Elsa. The whole kingdom's been waiting for this day."
"Waiting? Why?"
But she was already moving on, swept up in the crowd's momentum, leaving Naruto with more questions than answers.
He tried asking others. A blacksmith paused in his work long enough to explain about royal succession. A flower seller mentioned something about the gates opening for the first time in years. A group of children, not much younger than him, chattered excitedly about seeing inside the castle.
Each answer only made him more curious.
By afternoon, he'd somehow found himself at the edges of the town, where the cobblestone gave way to a winding path that led up a gentle slope. And there, rising from the landscape like something out of a dream, he'd seen the castle up close.
Towering spires reached toward the sky like fingers, their peaks lost in wisps of cloud. Thick gates stood closed, flanked by guards in uniforms more formal than anything he'd ever seen—even the ANBU didn't dress this fancy. Glimmering glass windows caught the sunlight like crystals, each pane reflecting the light in patterns that made the whole structure seem to shimmer.
"That's a castle?" he whispered, taking a step forward, then another, drawn like a moth to flame. "And someone lives in it? That's… crazy."
It was bigger than the Hokage's office building. Bigger than the Academy. Maybe even bigger than the entire administrative district of Konoha. And it was all for one family? One person?
He was going to turn back. Really. The mission screen had mentioned something about finding someone who made ice, and he should probably start looking instead of gawking at fancy buildings like a tourist.
But then he caught another snippet of conversation from a pair of elderly women walking past.
"Such a shame, really. The poor dear has barely been seen in public since..."
"Shh, Martha. You know we don't speak of it."
"But still, shutting herself away for years like that. It's not natural for a young woman."
"The coronation will change things. It has to."
And just like that, Naruto's curiosity flared again, hot and insistent as the fire in his belly.
What kind of queen hides from her own people? What had happened that made everyone speak in whispers and half-finished sentences? Why had the gates been closed for so long that their opening was cause for celebration?
A hidden queen. A cold palace that somehow felt colder than the mountain air. A mystery the size of the mountain itself.
And Naruto was very, very bad at ignoring mysteries.
There was only one way to find out.
His blue eyes, bright with determination and that familiar spark of mischief that had gotten him into more trouble than he could count, locked onto the towering silhouette in the distance. The sun was beginning to set behind it, casting long shadows that seemed to reach toward him like an invitation.
The castle of Arendelle.
Tomorrow, those gates would open.
And Naruto would be there to see what secrets lay behind them.