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The sun dipped toward the horizon as Naruto reached the outer walls, casting long golden shadows that stretched across the cobblestone courtyard like fingers. The dying light painted everything in warm amber hues, making the castle's pale stone walls glow like they were lit from within. The castle gates were closed and heavily guarded by armored soldiers—men who stood with the rigid posture of career guards, their metal plates gleaming, their eyes scanning the approaching crowds with practiced vigilance. But Naruto, being Naruto, didn't even hesitate.
Sneaking in was way too easy.
The guards were normal humans, not shinobi. No chakra signatures to worry about, no explosive sealing tags hidden in the stonework, no genjutsu traps waiting to snare unwary intruders. Naruto had spent most of his life dodging ANBU black ops with their terrifying masks and silent footsteps, outrunning prank-hunting Jonin who could track a butterfly through a thunderstorm, and evading Iruka-sensei's legendary chalk-throwing accuracy. Compared to that constant game of cat and mouse, scaling the outer wall of this castle was nothing more than a warm-up exercise.
He circled around to a less crowded alley, his footsteps muffled by years of practice at moving unseen through Konoha's back streets. The alley was narrow and shadowed, filled with the scent of old stone and something floral—maybe the gardens beyond the walls. He paused at the base of the wall, judging the height with a critical eye honed by countless escapes from angry shopkeepers and pursuing chunin.
"Tch, easy," he muttered under his breath, flexing his fingers as he studied the handholds.
With practiced ease that came from a lifetime of climbing everything from the Hokage Monument to the Academy's tallest tower, he leapt up. His chakra flowed naturally to his hands and feet, that familiar warm tingle that let him cling to any surface like a spider. The technique was so second-nature now that he barely had to think about it. His sandals barely made a sound as he scrambled over the edge and dropped down into a deserted courtyard, landing in a crouch that would have made his Academy taijutsu instructor proud.
Naruto straightened up, brushing dust off his sleeves, and looked around with a wide grin that could have powered the village's street lamps.
"I'm inside!"
And what a place to be inside of.
Marble floors gleamed beneath the flickering light of ornate torches, their surfaces so polished he could see his reflection grinning back up at him. Wide staircases spiraled upward with elegant curves that seemed to flow like frozen water, leading toward towering halls decorated with rich tapestries and banners bearing a snowflake crest that caught the torchlight like real ice. The walls were adorned with paintings of stern-faced royals and landscapes so detailed they looked like windows to other worlds. Everything was clean, pristine, and absolutely massive—the kind of wealth and grandeur that made the Hokage's office look like a modest apartment.
It was like something out of a dream. Or maybe a really expensive fever dream.
He wandered carefully through the corridors, his ninja training keeping him in the shadows even as his curiosity pulled him forward. Every sense was alert—listening for footsteps, watching for guards, feeling for any sign of danger. But the castle felt strangely empty, as if most of its occupants had gone to bed early or were busy elsewhere. His soft-soled sandals made no sound on the marble as he moved deeper into the maze of halls and chambers, letting instinct and that indefinable pull of mystery guide him toward whatever secrets lay in the castle's heart.
Somewhere inside, behind these heavy doors carved with intricate designs and beyond these elegant halls that smelled faintly of lavender and old stone, was the mysterious queen he had overheard the townsfolk talking about in hushed, reverent tones.
Naruto's heart raced with excitement—and just a little nervousness. The kind of nervous energy he got before a particularly challenging mission, or when he was about to attempt a jutsu he wasn't entirely sure he could pull off.
Who was she? Was she really someone powerful, like the stories suggested? Did she have some kind of special ability, or was she just another political figure like the daimyo back home?
More importantly—why did everyone seem to speak about her with such a mixture of hope and worry?
---
He didn't realize that his life—and hers—were about to change forever.
All because of a simple question burning in his chest like a small flame:
"What kind of person is a queen?"
---
But the deeper he went into the castle's heart, the heavier the air felt. Not in a threatening way—there was no sense of danger, no killing intent or hostile chakra. Just… lonely. Like every hallway was holding its breath, waiting for someone to break the silence that had settled over everything like a heavy blanket. The very stones seemed to echo with emptiness, as if the castle was too big for the people who lived in it.
It reminded him, uncomfortably, of his own apartment back in Konoha during those long nights when the silence felt so thick he could almost taste it.
Why does this place feel so sad?
The question nagged at him as he continued exploring, climbing narrow servant staircases and peering through keyhole into empty rooms. Finally, he found a narrow spiral stair that seemed to lead upward toward the castle's highest towers. The steps were worn smooth by countless feet over the years, and they curved ever upward in a dizzying spiral that reminded him of climbing up inside the Hokage Monument.
The stair led to a private balcony high above the castle grounds, a small stone platform that jutted out from the castle's main tower like a bird's perch. The view was spectacular—he could see the entire kingdom spread out below, the town with its warm lights just beginning to twinkle in the gathering dusk, the harbor with ships bobbed at anchor, and beyond it all, mountains that stretched toward a darkening sky painted in shades of purple and gold.
That's when he saw her.
A solitary figure stood at the balcony's edge, as still as a statue carved from moonlight. A royal cape the color of deep winter sky was draped around her shoulders like liquid shadow, its fabric stirring gently in the evening breeze. Platinum-blonde hair, so pale it was almost white, shimmered in the fading light like spun silver, stirred gently by the wind that carried the scent of snow from the distant peaks. She gazed out over the snow-blanketed valley with the kind of intense focus that suggested she was seeing far more than just the landscape, cloaked in a silence that didn't feel peaceful—it felt hollow, like the echo inside an empty shell.
Frost glittered faintly in the air around her, tiny crystals that caught the last rays of sunlight and threw them back in miniature rainbows.
Naruto's breath caught, creating a small puff of vapor in the suddenly cold air. Not from the temperature, though he noticed the chill—but from the stillness of her presence. Like she was part of the view, as natural and untouchable as the mountains themselves… and somehow apart from it all, isolated even in this place that should have been her domain.
There was something about her posture, the set of her shoulders, that spoke of weight. Not physical weight, but the kind of burden that settled into your bones and never quite left.
Then she turned.
Her movement was fluid, graceful, but there was a wariness in it that reminded him of a wild animal that had just noticed it wasn't alone. Her eyes—pale blue like winter ice—found his immediately, as if she had known he was there all along.
"You're not supposed to be here."
Her voice was quiet, controlled, but not unfriendly. More like she was stating a fact than making an accusation.
Naruto yelped—a completely undignified sound that echoed off the stone walls—and stumbled forward, nearly tripping over his own feet in his surprise. "Ah! Sorry—sorry! Didn't mean to startle you. I was just—uh… sightseeing?"
The explanation sounded weak even to his own ears, but it was technically true.
She didn't move from her position at the balcony's edge, didn't seem startled by his sudden appearance or his obvious status as an intruder. But her eyes flicked toward him with a sharpness that reminded him of Kakashi-sensei when he was evaluating a potential threat—not afraid, just alert, measuring and cataloging. Like she sensed more than just unexpected footsteps.
"You climbed in through the upper terrace."
It wasn't a question. Her voice held the certainty of someone who had noticed details he hadn't even realized he'd left behind.
He scratched his cheek with one finger, that automatic gesture of embarrassment, grinning sheepishly in a way that had gotten him out of trouble more times than he could count. "Yeah… kinda. I heard people talking about a queen and some big coronation, and, well—" He gestured broadly at the castle around them. "Huge fancy castle? Had to see it for myself."
It was the truth, if not the whole truth. The system's mission had brought him here, but curiosity had drawn him to this balcony, to this moment.
She studied him for a long moment, her pale eyes searching his face as if looking for something specific. No anger flickered across her features, no outrage at having her privacy invaded. Just… curiosity, mirroring his own.
"You're not from Arendelle."
Another statement, not a question. She had the habit of speaking in certainties, he noticed.
Naruto tilted his head, his spiky blonde hair catching the last of the evening light. "Aren-who-now?"
A flicker of amusement touched her expression, so brief he almost missed it. Like sunlight on water. "Where are you from?"
"Far," he said, with that trademark crooked grin that had charmed academy instructors and irritated village elders in equal measure. "Really far."
She didn't ask for clarification, didn't press for details or demand a more specific answer. That caught him off guard. Most adults—especially authority figures—wanted to know exactly where he came from, who his parents were, what he was doing there. Her acceptance of his vague response was refreshing and somehow sad at the same time.
He took a careful step forward, close enough to see that her breath misted slightly in the cold air, that frost really was forming in delicate patterns around her feet. "I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village. Though I'm guessing that doesn't mean much here."
Her eyes narrowed slightly, not in suspicion but in concentration. Recognition—or maybe just intrigue—passed through them like a cloud across the moon, there and gone before he could be sure he'd seen it.
"I'm Elsa," she said softly, her voice carrying easily in the still air. "Queen of Arendelle."
His mouth dropped open so fast he probably looked like one of those fish in Ichiraku's tank. "Wait—you're the queen?"
She nodded, quiet but steady, as if confirming something they both already knew.
"…Huh." He blinked several times, processing this information. "You don't really look how I pictured."
Her brows lifted slightly, and for a moment she looked less like a distant royal figure and more like any person curious about an unexpected observation. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
Naruto rubbed the back of his neck with one hand, a gesture so familiar it was practically unconscious. "I mean… I figured queens were supposed to be old and bossy, sitting on big golden thrones and ordering people around. You just look…" He paused, studying her face in the growing twilight, noting the shadows under her eyes, the careful way she held herself. "Kinda tired."
That made her pause, her carefully composed expression shifting as if he'd said something she hadn't expected to hear. Something shifted in her face—surprise first, then recognition, then the faintest trace of a smile that transformed her features completely.
"Maybe I am."
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