Ice—bitingly cold and numbing his backside, a fierce pounding behind his eyes, the quiet sounds of his students breathing, and the warm press of flesh against his were all things Kakashi registered as he slipped back into consciousness and tried to piece together the events leading to being stuck in an ice cave and huddling for warmth.
Ah. That's right. Once again a seemingly simple mission has turned complex. The family heirloom ("only precious to me, I just want it to get home safely") Team Seven had been transporting was actually valued at the GDP of the Land of Tea and as such every two-bit crook, vagabond, and ninja-for-hire were after them from the start.
They had made it all the way to the snowy mountains of no-man's-land (several countries had a claim on it, and Kakashi suspected a few skirmishes were about to break out over control of the mountain range) when a brutal fight broke out between his team and a horde of bandits with a few ninja dispersed among them. Someone had foolishly caused an explosion, resulting in an avalanche. He was trying to get to his kids when-nothing.
He must have blacked out.
Whatever happened, his team found eachother and him and relocated to an ice cave. Kakashi was proud of them. He could do without the cuddling, however.
Pressed against his left side was Sasuke, who was in a seated position with shuriken at the ready. It appeared as if he was on watch last, but had been lulled to sleep by the warmth of the…Yondaime help him…cuddle pile and exhaustion. (He was going to need to give them remedial lessons: they were still in enemy territory, after all, and could have been discovered while no one was on watch. Kakashi had seen it happen to many a squad—and many times had been the ambusher.) On his right side, Sakura was curled into a ball and seemed to have decided that using her sensei's shoulder as a pillow was acceptable. Naruto was wrapped around Kakashi's lower half, chin digging uncomfortably into his abdomen and arm's clinging around his waist.
All in all, his kids were much closer to him than he ever wanted them to be. At least no one was around to document it.
It was warm though (except for the bits directly in contact with the ice—his students had tried putting down a blanket as a buffer, but the cold easily leached through it.)
They needed to get going. Their enemies would likely be on their trail again shortly, and the team only had a short way to go before the so called "worthless" family heirloom would be delivered to its final destination and they could return home to Konoha.
Maybe he would give them five more minutes.
…And then Naruto started drooling. Nope, it was definitely time to go. With a few quick hand signs, Kakashi swapped positions with one of his student's packs. The kids fell rather ungracefully and let out a few curses.
"Time to go."
Notes: Standard disclaimer applies. Leave a note of what you thought!