The crystal flakes of snow fell delicately at Sakura and Ino's feet as they shuffled along behind Kakashi and Genma through the white blanketed ground. As usual, Ino was talking Sakura's ear off, babbling on and on about the latest gossip to hit her family's flower shop. Honestly, Sakura wasn't paying attention to what her friend was saying. She was too focused on the slouched, grey-haired form in front of her, her eyes trained on his mop of hair made whiter by the snowfall.
"Sakura!" Ino snapped, waking her companion from her reverie. "Are you even listening to me?"
Sakura shook her head to clear her thoughts, causing bits of ice to fly from her hair and sting Ino's rosy cheeks. "Sorry, I was thinking about something," she mumbled.
"'Bout what?" Ino chuckled. "Let me guess. Kakashi, right?"
"Ino, come on." Sakura kicked at the slush beneath her feet. "You know it's not like that."
"Do I?" The blonde bombshell bent down and gathered a chunk of the drift in her hands, shaping it into a round shape. After a few seconds, she extended her arm out to observe her creation and smiled. "Perfect." Sakura barely had time to protest before Ino stopped, pulled her arm back, and launched the snowball forward. The object reached its target - the back of Kakashi's head - perfectly.
Snow splattered against the back of his head and fell down like a miniature snow storm. Upon witnessing the spectacle, Genma gave a hearty guffaw and spun around to face the women. "Which one of you did that? Come over here and high five me!" he laughed.
Ino skipped over and happily acquiesced, leaving Sakura and Kakashi to complain about their friends. With a pink flush of embarrassment touching her face, Sakura shuffled over to her former sensei and said, "That was absolutely, one-hundred percent not my idea."
"I believe you," Kakashi sighed. "I know you're not as asinine as some of the other young women in this village."
Sakura giggled not only at his comment but at the sight of him trying to brush the snow out of his hair. "Here, let me help you." She pushed herself up onto her toes and extended her arms to reach around and brush through the back of his messy head of hair in an attempt to dislodge the rest of the ice from his tangled strands. With a few swipes of her hands, the remainder of the stuff was either on the ground or melted. "There," she smiled.
Ino stopped her giggling and turned to tell Sakura and Kakashi to get a move on, but once she saw that the two of them were having a bit of a moment, she decided not to interfere with their connection and left them in peace.
Kakashi returned Sakura's grin through his mask, but after a few seconds, his smile faded. "Uh, Sakura?" he murmured.
"Yeah?" She titled her head at him, waiting for his question, but then realized he had no question at all. He was simply wondering why her hands were still buried in his hair. "Oh, sorry," she apologized, bringing her arms back to her sides.
"Don't worry about it." He ruffled her hair - which always made her feel like a little kid, but that was okay when it came to Kakashi - and sped up his pace to meet back up with Genma.
Ino nonchalantly skipped over to Sakura's side and whistled innocently until her friend sighed, "I swear I'm not in denial."
"Oh, okay," Ino played along. "You just keep telling yourself that the snow is the only thing falling fast."