First Snow

A/N: A first of December Fanfiction for my little sister (she'll know what I mean ).
Anko is about 12 in this story I couldn't find when Orochimaru had left her exactly but I figured that age was alright, besides it fitted the story line

It was a chilly cold day, this year's first of December, gleaming white snow had fallen the night before and now carpeted the landscape and the streets of Konoha.

Anko watched her fellow Genin and the younger children enjoying the frosty whiteness, playing in the snow, participating in snowball fights. For once enjoying their time without constant reminder of the wars still raging. A was a false perception, Anko knew, the snow's blinding white merely softened the edges of dreary thoughts, its coldness only bestowing misleading tranquility.

It didn't work for her though, her memories maintained painfully sharp edges, her sensei's betrayal, even though months ago, still held a coldness that even the snow could not match. So instead of joining the others she just passed them without a second glance. It would do little good anyway, Anko still felt them avoiding her whenever possible and even though not openly hostile they weren't sympathetic with her situation either.

The young Kunoichi trudged through the ankle deep snow, towards the training grounds. The place where she spent most of her time anyway, snow would not make a difference, except maybe preparing her for more uncommon battle conditions.

She stopped at the outer reaches of the forest bordering the training fields, which lay sparkling and still in front of her. But it was not the peaceful scene, or the glistening reflections of the winter sun that caught her eye, but the solitary figure that already occupied the training grounds. The sun reflected off his silver hair as much as it did off the snow but his black costume was a stark contrast to the white that was everywhere. She had seen him around the training grounds often, her elder by only two years he was already a Jounin of Konoha, Hatake Kakashi.

Anko moved out to greet him, she might have known he'd be here, for like herself he had memories to dark to be swallowed by the all encompassing white, to deep to be filled by the cushioning softness. And of course he liked to train, preferably as for from where Gai might suspect him as possible. Anko cheered at that thought in this weather she could almost see Gai challenging his 'eternal rival' to a snowball match or something of the like.

Her heart just a little lighter she approached Kakashi, nodding to him in greeting she proceeded to warm her cold muscles to join him in training. She was sure he wouldn't mind, he was one of her few trusted friends, always lending reassuring support that all was not as bad as it sometimes seemed.

He watched her thoughtfully, his own expression well hidden beneath his mask he scanned hers. The shadow of doubt still lay behind those brown depths and it was obvious to him that the snow was not a pleasure to her, but rather a melancholy thing. So taking a rest from his training he addressed her with his usual calm: "It's rather cold today, isn't it?"

"Yes, training in this weather will probably be very taxing, how long have you been out here today?"

He gave her one of his unreadable expressions, he had noticed her lack of excitement, though usually taxing and great were pretty much the same to her. He didn't really like her subdued mood, well maybe training would cheer her up. "About an hour now", he answered her question, "well then let's start."

There was a mischievous twinkle in his one visible eye as he charged her and began their sparring match. He fought hard as he knew her to be a worthy opponent and she fought back, just as hard, with every bit of strength she had. But their sparring match had not been on for long when suddenly Kakashi stopped dead in his tracks. It was all Anko could do not to punch him as he had completely lowered his guard.

"What happened?", she asked him. But the only answer she got was a muttered curse as the silver haired ninja still stared at something behind her. She turned around to see for herself and noticed a small green dot, practically bouncing through the snow. There was only one person who could run through a snowy landscape in that matter. Kakashi was annoyed, this was going to be troublesome, but then he threw a sidelong glance at Anko and a shadow of an idea formed in his mind.

"Aaah, my eternal rival, finally I have found you. Shamefully have you been hiding out here"

"..in the open", Kakashi muttered, contradicting the accusation that he'd be hiding from this lunatic.

But Gai wasn't fazed in the slightest, barely pausing in his tirade he continued: "But I have come to remind you of the honorable battles that have to be fought as to prove who of us is the better ninja. Prepare yourself!" And without any further warning he threw himself at Kakashi, who dodged the blunt attack with ease.

The green clad ninja landed face first in the snow but his fervor was unbroken as he jumped back to his feet and turned around, just to find a snowball flying right in his face. Stumbling back in shock he wiped the snow off his face and was about to make a loud, accusatory comment about honor and fighting spirit when he caught sight of his opponent. Kakashi was standing opposite him, he had not moved an inch since he dodged his attack and seemed completely unfazed. More importantly he had raised his hand and with a simple gesture pointed to Anko, the obvious culprit.

Anko was taken by surprise and totally perplex when Gai attacked her, now really screaming something about fighting honor and the deathly sin to interrupt the fair fight between men. But as she caught the twinkle in Kakashi's eyes she knew exactly what he had done and while dodging a rather difficult kick of her opponent she grabbed for the snow and when she had the next opportune moment threw it towards the silver haired Jounin.

His return snowball hit Gai, who took that opportune moment to start another attack on Anko, but when he felt the impact he recalled the earlier snowball and made the difficult task of linking them together. Kakashi, his eternal rival had thrown the first snowball and had therefore broken the manly rules of the honorable battles they fought. He turned around to attack the Jounin, all the while admonishing him –loudly- about the severeness of his actions.

Anko laughed helplessly as she saw the silver hair of her friend disappear in the distance as he tried to outrun his opponent on the slick white snow, while his hair still tried to outglisten said white substance. As she picked up another handful of snow a mischievous, dangerous glitter was in her eyes, she formed a perfect snowball and set out to join the fray. Maybe snow wasn't so bad after all, it certainly provided some good weapons.

The End

whoah a lot longer than I planned it out to be, well anyway hope you liked it! if you did just review , that would sure make me happy :o) And I wish all of you a happy pre-christmas-time