Gene trembled in Shisuis arms and forced herself to not look away. She needed to see, this was reality now. 

Shisui had been silent ever since they saw the tower of Smoke raising. He held her tighter than before, so tight it almost hurt. She knew she would carry fresh bruises from his fingers tomorrow. 

He looked at the field in front of him and the slaughtered humans and the ruins. 

"Shisui?" 

She looked upwards and saw a pair of deep red eyes with swirling dots inside them.  

"Shisui!", She called out louder and his red eyes turned towards her the dark sports dancing and turning ominously in them. 

"Yes.", His voice was deeper, and she didn't know what to say all of a sudden and closed her mouth. "Sorry, this...", He fought to find words, "...this ... I have been raised during wartimes. I have seen and done things in war, cruel things, I am not proud of. But this, this is not war. This is slaughter. Slaughter of civilians, of children. They are no threat, they are harmless." 

"I understand that. You know that, why kill someone who poses no danger. Whoever did this.", She stopped and shuddered, "I wouldn't call them...human..." 

"Maybe ... we cannot lose sight of our destination." He turned away and jumped to the next branch. "For now, we need to head to the place I mentioned earlier. Even If they attacked there, they wouldn't have it as easy as here. This is fresh, they can't have come very far yet. We need to be careful none of us is in fighting condition." 

She nodded and in Silence they continued. 

"When are we going to reach the town you spoke about earlier?", She asked him. 

"Another hour." 

"No smoke, it has to be a good sign.", She muttered, hoping somehow to encounter something different from death. Up until now she hadn't seen much more of this world, and she desperately hoped to find more in this world than bloodshed. 

They passed by the trees and left the destruction behind. Dark clouds formed on the sky and soon the snowfall started again. She scent of fire filled the air. 

"Aaaaahhhh!" 

A high scream thundered through the forest. Shisui stopped and looked into the direction. "Tell me that is not the place we are headed to." Gene muttered. 

"It is." 

Shisui proceeded with more care than before. Crackling sounds and screeches were carried through the forest by the winds. Trembling Gene closed her eyes and looked at Shisui. 

"Can I trust you?", She whispered, "can you make an oath to me to keep my secret?" She asked him. 

"This is not the time for questions like that.", He growled and hid behind a tree. Together they looked into the destruction and the Shinobi fighting black clothed figures. He put her down into the snow. 

"Stay here I have to ...." 

The fire is far more dangerous and I can stop it, my ice can. Maybe. 

But. If he finds out. 

Will he...?

She grabbed his arm before he could leave. "We are not in any condition to be anything but a burden."

That is the last thing the defending Party needs. Burdens. 

"Answer my question." She demanded loudly "it depends on your answer if I can, will, help stop the fire or not!" 

"What do you mean? You! Stop that fire? You? You are nothing more than a civilian who happens to have Chakra, Chakra you can't use right now!" He said and ripped himself from her, and she forced the Chakra into her hand freezing his clothes. 

"Promise you keep my Identity and my ability secret, no matter what." She was speaking lowly and almost unhearable, and he stared at the frozen clothes. 

"Ice? Kekkei Genkai ... Yuki?", He muttered stared at the ice and looked at her with new eyes. 

"I don't know if I am. But I know if you get me close enough I may be able to stop the fires." 

I don't know that. I have to, no matter what. No more death. No more corpses. 

"Okay. I am desperate enough to try."  

He picked her up again and looked around before raising the corners of her coat, so it covered the lower part of her face.

She trembled and pointed at the first fire. "We start there." She muttered and Shisui stormed forward, past the Shinobi closer to the fire. The heat hit her right into the face as she forced as much Chakra into her hands as she could muster. Her hands glowed like two blue beacons of light. Taking a deep breath she shoved them right into the fire, Shisui an immovable block behind her and keeping her close. 

"You have my promise, never will I reveal your secret.", He muttered right into her ear as the Ice started spreading. She smiled weakly her eyes still closed as under the eyes of everyone the fires were frozen, extinguished by the cold. 

The attackers watched with the same amazement as the Konoha Shinobi. 

When Gene reopened her eyes surrounded by frozen fire, they glowed. Brighter than ever, a pair of clear blue eyes glowed accompanied by a pair of blood-red ones, observing, watching the enemy retreat. 

All but one of the black clothed figures had vanished when Shisui and Gene started to unconsciously relax. The black clothed person's eyes flashed deeply and darkly green in the light before the figure vanished following its comrades.

The same?