Just a short one-shot I decided to write in celebration of the snow here in England.
No real plot, just snow.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but neither do any of you, so I don't mind.
Summary: Whilst travelling in the Land of Fire, Gaara and his siblings come across a strange white substance that falls from the sky and coats the ground. What on earth could it be? The three sand siblings are about to find out.
First Snow
Gaara looked up as the first drop of wetness landed on his nose. Assuming it to be rain, Gaara was surprised to see white stuff falling from the sky. What was it?
He had never seen this type of rain before. The village hidden in the sand did not have rain like this. It was rain, wasn't it?
It felt like rain, but it didn't look like it. It looked like bits of fluff falling from the sky, except that it was cold.
It didn't seem to be dangerous. The sand wasn't rushing to protect him, but maybe the sand didn't know what it was either.
Turning to the side, Gaara saw Temari and Kankuro were also watching the cold white fluff with expressions of awe on their faces.
"Hey Temari," Kankuro said slowly, "What is this stuff?"
"How should I know, I've never seen it before either." Temari looked slightly annoyed that she had no clue as to what the fluff was.
"Hey Gaara...?" Kankuro began.
"I don't know, it's strange. I don't think it's rain though."
Gaara turned away, back to contemplating the sky. Maybe this was a phenomenon that only occurred in the Land of Fire.
"Let's find a town, maybe we'll get some information about this ... stuff... there," Temari suggested.
By the time they reached the next town, the fluff had settled on the ground. Gaara noticed that before it had melted on contact but now it sat there, piling up. The fields were all turned white by the strange substance and it was getting very cold.
It covered the roofs of the buildings they passed and the children were running around and throwing it at each other. This seemed a strange thing to do and added to the mystery of the white fluff.
Just then a ball of whiteness come flying through the air and, having missed its target, hit Kankuro in the back of the head.
"Hey!" Kankuro whipped his head around looking for the culprit.
"Sorry mister," spoke up a small child, "It's Chishou's fault, he ducked."
"What! You threw it!" cried another boy.
"Ok, fine, just watch where you're throwing that stuff." Kankuro turned back to his brother and sister. "That stuff's harder than it looks."
"Strange. But these people seem to know what it is, maybe we should ask someone." Temari always had a plan.
"I don't know, that would make it obvious that we're outsiders. We don't know how they'll take to us." Gaara was suspicious, these people might not like having strangers in the village so it was probably best to keep a low profile.
"Oh Gaara, we're allies with Leaf village now. Surely these people won't attack us," said Temari exasperatedly.
"All the same, I don't want to test that theory."
"Fine, let's hope we can find out some other way," Temari huffed.
"Oww! They got me again!"
"Sorry mister!"
"Yeah right," Kankuro mumbled, rubbing the back of his head. "Let's move away from here, please."
They started down the street again, passing more children playing with the fluff and adults yelling when balls of it hit them or their homes.
When the three sand siblings rounded the corner, they saw a little girl, of about three and her mother standing outside a building. The girl had her hands outstretched to catch the falling fluff. She had a huge smile on her face and giggled each time a bit of the fluff landed on her hands.
"What is it?" She breathed in awe.
"It's called snow," her mother explained, leaning down to hug her around the shoulders.
"Snow," said the girl, testing the new word on her tongue. "Snow!" she repeated, giggling wildly.
"That's right. It falls in winter and covers everything like a big blanket. You can roll it into balls and throw it, like those children." She pointed towards another group of kids throwing the snow at each other. "They're having a snowball fight."
"Wow," said the little girl, staring up at the sky and the falling snow. "But where does it come from?"
"It comes from the clouds, like rain does. Snow is rain that's been frozen by the cold weather. Which means that you need to put your scarf and gloves on," laughed the girl's mother. The three sand ninja watched the little girl run inside, followed by her mother.
Snow," said Temari, also testing the new word.
"Frozen rain," said Kankuro slowly.
"That's why we've never seen it before," said Gaara. "There is no winter in the Sand village, rain doesn't freeze, that is why there is no snow."
"Ah, but I'm starting to like this snow stuff, can't we take it back home with us," whined Kankuro.
Gaara ignored him, instead turning to watch the playing children. Temari on the other hand ...
"Don't be stupid Kankuro! Frozen things melt, we'd just bring back a load of water. Not that that's a bad thing with all our deserts. But it wouldn't work!" Temari yelled.
"Okay, I was only suggesting ..."
"Well don't!"
"Alright! Don't bite my head off."
"Shut up you two," Gaara growled. They were giving him a headache.
"Sorry Gaara," they spoke in unison.
Now that there was silence, Gaara looked up at the sky and watched the falling snow. It was quite beautiful really. A bit too cold to stay out in for long, but it was nice to look at. It was a shame they didn't have it in the Sand vill –
"Argh, not again!"
"Kankuro!"
Gaara turned around to see what the fuss was about and – met a wall of sand.
He heard an intake of breath from the other side and as the sand fell away, he saw a small pile of white snow at his feet.
"That's not fair, I've been hit three times now and Gaara gets protected. I'm the one who needs protection," Kankuro sulked.
"Oh, be quiet Kankuro," Temari sighed.
Gaara, however, allowed himself a small smile as he slowly reached down to touch the snow on the side of the road. It was cold against his skin, much colder than any rain. And seeing as they would have to leave it behind when they returned to their village, they might as well have some fun now.
Squashing the small pile of snow into a ball, Gaara turned to face Temari who was still berating Kankuro.
"- making a fuss out of nothing. Don't be so silly Kanku – GAARA!"
This began the sand siblings first ever snowball fight, and as usual in a fight, Gaara didn't get hit once.
"GAARA!!"
Thank you for reading my first Naruto fic.
I hope you enjoyed it, please review.
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