Disclaimer: Not mine.

Warning: Slight OOCness.

Their first C-ranked mission.

And it just had to turn out like this.

"Guys!" Naruto cleared his throat with obnoxious volume, demanding attention from his teammates, as well as the members of Team Gai—well, half of Team Gai. Strangely, the green, running trees of youth, who were usually if not always a few hours too early, had not yet arrived. "Cinderella. Snow White." He snuck in a foxy grin. "Which will it be?"

Sakura scoffed. "Cinderella, obviously." She flicked a pink strand of hair away from her ridiculously wide forehead. "And it would be my honor to play the main—"

"Snow White," a blank voice intercepted.

She exploded with visible bewilderment. "Sasuke-kun, don't you mean Cinderella?"

"No." He looked at her. "I prefer snow."

"What?" The pinkhead screeched and sputtered in an unladylike fashion with disbelief. "But—why? I mean—" She paused, and reminded herself that this was her dear Sasuke-kun she was on the verge of screaming at. But still, she wanted that damn Cinderella role. But still still, it was indeed her Sasuke-kun, and it would be best to agree with him. But still still still, she wanted to play the role of the princess who her perfect prince charming—namely Sasuke-kun, of course—would chivalrously sweep right off the ground, and in the process, save from the evil clutches of her step family! Not some way-too-pale and way-too-innocent maiden who spent her days logging with seven dwarfs and suffering from food poison with wicked witches. No way. Cinderella was clearly the only option. "Sasuke-kun, do you even know...what Snow White refers to?"

Another scoff, except a much less audible one, traveled across the auditorium. "Of course he does. As ignorant and foolish as Uchiha might be, I'm sure even he has witnessed the sight of winter before," Neji stated coolly.

Sasuke inwardly launched an atomic bomb of utter hatred at the Hyuuga. "What is that supposed to mean, Hyuuga?"

The older lad inwardly dodged his weapon of mass destruction. "It means whatever you want it to mean, Uchiha."

"Neji," a voice knifed through the air. "Sakura wasn't referring to winter."

The bubblegum haired girl nodded with emphasis. "That's right. I meant—"

"Of all people, you were one of the last that I had expected to act this irrationally," Neji spoke as his lavender eyes casted a condescending look toward his teammate, "Tenten."

That definitely rubbed her the wrong way. "Well, of all people, Neji, you were one of the last that I had expected to act this clueless," she countered. A breath of agreement left Sasuke's lips. She whipped her head to his direction. "You too, Sasuke-san."

The latter male blinked in muse. Who did this girl think she was, directing her dull insults toward the two prodigies—one being much more intelligent and handsome than the other, of course—in this way? The winter had snow. And snow was white. What else was there to decipher? Unless…

It suddenly all made sense! To Sasuke, at least. It would be wrong for a genius like him to not understand this simple, simple predicament.

"Hyuuga, there seems to be a hidden meaning behind it," Sasuke announced firmly, nodding at the long-haired male's direction.

"Just as I suspected…" Neji furrowed his eyebrows in scrutiny. "Snow White. It must be a code."

Tenten slapped her forehead frustratingly, and then buried her face into hands in mortification. How could her teammate be this stupid? It was embarrassing!

Apparently possessing a level of Byakugan that could now infiltrate thoughts as well, Neji turned his head to Tenten. "Kindly refrain from intentionally making a fool out of yourself with those hand gestures." He shot her another degrading look. "You're humiliating the team."

With her mouth agape and her chocolate eyes wide, she lost it. "Neji, you're the humiliating one. Just in case you haven't opened your supposedly all-seeing and all-knowing eyes yet, I'd like to burst your little bubble—"

"Oh?" His stare only turned more belittling. "Enlighten me."

"That's exactly what I intend to do." She held her chin high with equal haughtiness. "For your information, Hyuuga Neji, Snow White is a fairy tale."

And cue Sasuke's obese ego. "And that is where you are incorrect." The Uchiha folded his arms in an unbelievably arrogant manner, which Neji through these years had secretly always hoped to achieve, and blinked disapprovingly at Tenten. "It isn't very surprising that an inexperienced individual like you is unable to identify the similarities between the four seasons and their weather tendencies, Tenten-san," he paused a second for suspense, "so I'll take a moment to explain it to you." Insert another demeaning blink. "Snow White refers to the frozen precipitation of winter."

Sakura barely caught her pool of drool. That was by far the longest sentence she had ever heard her beloved Sasuke-kun utter. And the fact that her Sasuke-kun's sentence was directed at Tenten was inexcusable. Absolutely unforgivable! Yes, she was aware of the anger boiling within her inner self. And yes, she was aware of the green-eyed monster creeping out. But there was no time for further contemplation. This called for war. This called for—

"Sakura!" Tenten whipped her infuriated head to the green eyed girl. "Please inform your man about the Snow White we're talking about."

Jealousy was kicked to the curb. Informing Sasuke-kun was a task of much higher priority. She spun around, in the most elegant and graceful way she could possibly manage, to face the man of her dreams. "Sasuke-kun, Snow White is a fairy tale. A fictional piece of narrative featuring folkloric characters and—"

"Sakura, fairies aren't real."

Despite how amazingly attractive the man looked when interrupting, Sakura felt a thread of irritation snake its way up her temper. "Sasuke-kun, that's not the point. Snow White is a story. And a story is what Tsunade-sama ordered us to practice reenacting today, in preparation for our grand play next month. Which is why we have to choose one, either Snow White or Cinderella, to practice." A smile grew. "In my opinion, we would fit the main roles of Cinderella perfectly, so I'd like—" Her voice trailed off as she noticed how every single word she had said went through her Sasuke-kun's one beautiful ear and immediately, out the other. He wasn't listening at all.

Sighing in defeat, she turned to Naruto, who was seated comfortably on his folding chair, which donned a misspelled 'director' on its back. "Just count us as two votes for Cinderella."

The blonde gave an enthusiastic thumb up and marked two tallies. He directed his attention toward the sane duo of Team Gai. "So? Cinderella or Snow White?"

Neji rubbed his temples in deep thought. "I have solved hundreds to thousands of complex codes and ciphers, but never have I stumbled across something this difficult," he mumbled silently to himself, completely unaware of—or perhaps simply ignoring—the menacing glare his female comrade was shooting through his skull.

After a moment longer of irritation, Tenten exhaled tediously and faced Naruto. "I guess we'll go for Cinderella too."

"No." Neji cleared his throat confidently. "We'll accept the challenge of handling the winter one."

Tenten groaned. "But—"

"Naruto, snow," Neji cut in.

The blonde male nodded and recorded two tallies for Snow White. "It's a draw!" he announced dramatically. "You know what that means!"

Tenten raised an eyebrow. "A revote?" The immature male didn't respond immediately, instead flashing a mischievous grin and an equally antic set of twinkling cerulean eyes. Tenten grew anxious. That face definitely meant trouble. And trouble meant no good.

She looked toward Sakura hopefully for some sort of female support, but failed to catch her eyes. They were glued to Sasuke's face after all. Tenten then turned to her high and mighty teammate, only to find him scribbling formulas on a piece of paper, appearing to go all-out on cracking the Snow White 'code'.

She exhaled exasperatedly, left no choice but to return her attention to Naruto. His smile had only grown more mischievous. This was definitely not good.

"So…what does the draw mean?" she asked reluctantly.

Naruto instantly sprung up from his director's chair with utmost boisterousness, which almost shined equivalently to Lee's displays of youth, and pointed a passionate finger in the air. "We'll reenact both!"

Tenten sighed, mentally slapping herself to death.

Not good indeed.

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