A/N: Wrote this for the KakaSaku LiveJournal Community December Feature/Challenge (though, I lost miserably). The pairing is obvious from the name of the community, and really the only guidlines were that a scarf and/or blanket needed to be included in the fic somewhere, and the plotline had to be Konoha's first snowfall in three years.

Well, enjoy, and any feedback you offer is appreciated!

Snow Angel

There had been a chill in the air as of late, wilting the flowers in their beds, hardening the ground into a cold and unforgiving surface that was preferably not landed on. And yet, she found herself on it once more. Her chest rose and fell sharply, and she could see her breath puffing up and away into the darkening air, evanescent smoke carried away on the wind. Like the last few years of her life.

She hauled herself up, feeling joints ache and pop, her whole body protesting, calling blatantly for the rest she would not give it. Grimacing, she kneaded at her shoulders, pink hair like strands of flowing ice against the back of her neck and hand. She knew that she should not be pushing herself so hard, but Sakura relied less on her common sense nowadays. She still felt so weak, the past six years she had spent training to become a medic-nin appeared almost as a waste in her mind. She was a strong healer, for sure, but she was still, physically, the weak twelve-year-old she had been. So what if she had passed both the chuunin and jounin exams? They were worthless to her. She had needed help for those. She was so weak when relying on her own strength.

The training grounds had been deserted for hours, no one to bear witness to her struggle. No one had really seen her in so long. Naruto - off training with Jiraiya. Kakashi - away constantly on high-level missions, Konoha still struggling from Orochimaru's attack from years ago. And him.... him...

Her team had shattered. The family she had found in them, the camaraderie and companionship, gone in a moment. Gone when she really realized that she was so weak and helpless because she had to watch him walk away, without being able to lift a finger. Really, it was her whole life; it was broken.

She moved briskly, body flowing into a complex series of taijutsu maneuvers, arms arching, legs twisting, like some dance. Her torso whipped around, her eyes slitted against the cold, her hands frozen on her wrists, her toes curled tightly to her feet. Sweat ran down her face, giving her shivers from the mix of warm skin and cold air. She blinked her weariness away and kicked high, back flipping, soaring through the air, landing. Her throat was so raw that each breath was a stab into her chest. Deciding she'd rather go home and face defeat than collapse and end up sleeping outside, Sakura gathered up her weaponry and turned in the direction of home.

She walked slowly, eyes moving over the blue-white of the ground and buildings, over the peace and quiet of it all. It was so still that it was akin to death. She loved it. She loved the long walk home without a soul out to bother her along the way. It gave her time to think about the past, about the present and the future. It was painful to think of any of it, but she did it anyway.

Feet padding softly against the pavement, her eyes moved over familiar places that were full of memories. The Ichiraku Ramen shop was shuttered against the night, the playground where she had played as a child stood empty. She approached a familiar bench along the side of the road, and she stopped momentarily in front of it. Smiling, but not at all in a happy way, Sakura reached out to touch the rough wood and smooth, cold metal of the bench, and shuddered at the contact. Withdrawing her hand, she closed her eyes and saw the pale face and black hair that she had lost so long ago.

Looking beyond the bench at the small hill and monstrous tree sitting atop it, she recalled a time many years past. She remembered the day so vividly, though it was such an insignificant and unimportant event. It had been mid-afternoon in the winter, and Sakura had been on her way home from the market, her mother's requested purchases bagged and swinging from her hand. She had been bundled up in a heavy coat and scarf that day, because there was a little snow on the ground, and more to come. Someone shouted her name, and Naruto came running up to her side, all smiles and talkative as ever. She had smiled at him in turn, and walked slowly together. Snowflakes began to drift around them, landing and catching in their hair and clothing. She had looked at Naruto, giggling as a snowflake melted on his nose, and questioned him easily when he stared at her. He had smiled widely and responded in his carefree voice:

"With all that snow in you hair, you look like a snow-angel, Sakura-chan."

She had blushed furiously and, when he wasn't looking, she stuffed a snowball down the back of his shirt. He, of course, returned the favor, tossing snowballs at her while she shrieked and ducked for cover. As he took aim once more, a snowball had smacked him right in the side of the head. He had complained loudly and turned to see who had done it. Sakura looked as well, and was shocked to see Sasuke standing there, wrapped in his own coat. Naruto retaliated, and Sasuke dodged, and it all became a game for them. Sakura didn't question why Sasuke was playing along, but enjoyed the moment while it lasted, leaping up into a tree to avoid the flying snow. Sasuke jogged up to the tree, running by, and in that moment had looked up and Sakura saw for a spilt second, just the tiniest moment of time – there had been a smile on his face. A tiny lifting of the lips, but a smile all the same. She supposed that that was why the seemingly miniscule event had become something worth remembering, even six years later.

Sakura forcefully pulled herself from the reverie. All she did these days was daydream. It was all she had left of her teammates. And standing there in the bitter cold, she realized how truly lonely she was. She missed Naruto and Sasuke and Kakashi so much that it hurt her.

She was close to her little apartment, and the stinging cold had turned all her body to ice, but she couldn't bring herself to move. She would have laughed had she realized how much of a memorial stone that this bench had become to her, and how she must have looked like Kakashi, standing in front of it night after night. However, tonight the reminiscing didn't seem so bad. She had even remembered something good, so simple as a memory of a romp in the snow. She felt a little better than she had in a long time. And as she stood, she began recalling more and more cherished memories, until all the bad things she had seen and felt seemed tiny in comparison.

She knew she wouldn't cry, but something inside her was tearing, breaking, and she had a horrible feeling that this is what it was like to let go. Her shoulders were shaking. Her breath puffed out in little clouds faster and harder than before.

Something was dropped around her shoulders, and she jerked around to face whatever it was. The blanket fell to the ground, and she looked at it in wonderment. Two feet stood next to it, and her eyes traveled up the legs, up the chest, to the face. And she nearly cried out. There stood no other than Kakashi, smiling softly at her, judging by the curve of his visible eye. And in the blink of an eye, she was moving to him, and she was pleased to see his arms open wide.

His arms closed securely around her, and she clung to him, cold nose pressed hard into his neck. She distantly heard him speak, voice quiet in the night. "Sorry I'm late, Sakura. I got lost on the road of life…" And she laughed, genuinely for the first time in years, laughed, even as she felt feather light touches on her skin. Looking up at his long-missed and dear face, she watched the snow blanket him, dusting his hair and shoulders. As she looked at the sky, letting loose it's torrent of white flakes, she felt him release her, and heard him shaking the discarded blanket out. Moments later, it was wrapped securely around her. He came back into her field of vision. And she was struck with a thought, which she voiced.

"Haha, Sensei, you look like a snow-angel."

He led her home, smiling at her childish entertainment with the snow, smiling because she had the face of one who was finally ready to move on. And now that he was back, he would make sure to be there to help her untie the strings of the past from her, so that she could begin to look ahead and not behind.

The snow fell about them, and as they passed down the street, it closed behind them like a blazing white curtain.