Chapter 10: Snowy Shenanigans

The Village Hidden in the Leaves. It is in a temperate climate zone. It doesn't snow all that often. Possibly a few times every year. Never in large amounts. Once every few years when the winds change. The easterly winds trade places with the westerly winds. The polar vortex winds decide that they had enough going around in a circle. They want to extend further. End result, Konoha gets a healthy dumping of snow.

Snow removal in the ninja village isn't hard. It is a delicate process to make sure the roads don't end up covered in mud. That certainly makes a headache for shop owners to clean their floors. Sakura Haruno loves the snow. Everything is always quiet and peaceful in the snow. The sounds of the town are tuned out as she walks down the path. While walking, she notices footprints in the snow and two lines. Deciding to make use of her budding ninja skills, Sakura investigates.

"Hmmm." She places her own boot next to the footprint. "Not that much bigger than mine." Her mind starts to decipher. "So it probably is at least someone with the same build as me. The depth of the print isn't that far and you can't see the dirt and grass underneath. That further proves to me that its someone around my size. Possibly even my age."

Next, she starts inspecting the two lines made in the snow. She looks to her left to see where it came from. "So, it came from that side…..and then the person is making their way up the hill." Getting onto her knees, she takes a closer look. She puts her arms in the two grooves to measure how far they are apart.

"WHOA! LOOK OUT BELOW!"

Startled. Sakura hunches her shoulders and turns around. The sight of Naruto on a sled barreling towards her floods her vision. Using more of her basic ninja training, she efficiently sidesteps the incoming projectile.

"LEAN, LEEEAANNNN!" Naruto zooms past the pink blur.

"BAIL OUT!" Naruto rolls off the sled and Kurama is pushed off as well. Both are now covered in snow as the sled comes to a stop a little further ways away.

"You call that steering!"

…..

"We almost got killed!"

…..

"MY FAULT?! Say that again you idiot!"

Naruto and his stuffed animal tumbles further down the hill away from Sakura. Picking up some twigs in their clothing.

"HEY! OW! Stop BITING ME!"

They eventually go far enough away that their voices are just muffled in this distance. Sakura turns to head back home. "Summer can't come soon enough."

At the base of the hill, Kurama and Naruto eventually made it back to their sled. Smiles on the faces of the duo. "Whee. Let's get the sled out of the bushes and do that again."

"You know what we need for our sled. A siren." Naruto replies.

"Always room for improvement. But out of all the things we didn't get from Santa-san, I'm glad we got this."

Naruto nods in agreement. "Yeah, definitely going to be lots of fun to be had on these snow days. Let's go back to the top and do it again!"

"Maybe we go even higher up the hill. Get more speed!" Kurama excitedly says back.

Whilst traveling back up the ginormous hill. Naruto decides to practice his philosophy.

"Always peaceful during a snowfall. Like the whiteness of the snow masking away all of the world's bad….ness."

Kurama just rolls his eyes. 'Was going well until the end there.'

"I'm a man of few words." Naruto states with his head held high in a 'dignified' pose.

Jumping at the chance, "Maybe if you read your ninja books more often, you'd have a larger vocabulary to improve your philosophical quotes."

Pausing a little, Kurama finishes, "Plebian." With that, Kurama runs up the hill with Naruto and the sled in hot pursuit. Along the way, Naruto hatches a plan.

Reaching the summit, Naruto starts to enact his plan. "On these days, I'd like to just lie on the sled on my back and just look at the sky."

Naruto motions of Kurama to try it for himself. Kurama, none the wiser, takes the bait.

"It's just gray and silent. No birds singing. No bugs buzzing. Everything, muffled by the sound of the snow falling." Naruto says in his poetic voice.

Kurama, completely at peace on the sled.

"Imagine what it would be like without any houses or people around. It would be. Completely. Peaceful."

Naruto then looks up with Kurama.

"Pretty neat, huh?"

Kurama, finally responding, "Yes, very peaceful. Much better second ate-AHHHHHH!"

Naruto kicked the sled down the hill with his foot. "I hate all the silence. But this. This is music to my ears."

Naruto hadn't liked snowy weather before. His apartment has a heater, but it doesn't do that good of a job. Most families buy an electric blanket to help them, but Naruto just thought this was one of those classic "it builds character" moments. But, his present from Santa-san makes these cold weather days something to look forward to.

Later in the week, it snowed once again. With his newfound joy of snow, Naruto puts on his heavy winter clothing. It finished drying from the morning activities a few hours ago. Rushing to put them on, Naruto flies out the door, down the stairs from his second story apartment and towards the red Hokage building.

The Hokage is sitting at his desk, reviewing documents that needed his approval. He has an electric blanket on his lap and an electric stove near his desk in the oval room. The window panes have a bit of condensation from the temperature difference as Hiruzen takes a sip from his freshly brewed tea. The sun casting long shadows in the room as it is about to go below the horizon. Releasing a sigh of content, Hiruzen puts the tea on the coaster and returns to his documents.

His door quickly opens as Naruto speaks, "Hey, hey! It's snowing outside, what are you doing in here, come on! Let's go outside." Naruto points towards the window with one hand and motions the other towards the door.

"My apologies Naruto. I have a lot of paperwork to do. I'd like to finish it before the sunlight completely dies out."

Naruto's face gets considerably less excited.

Hiruzen continues, raises his shoulders and has his palms turned up "I'm sorry Naruto. It can't be helped."

Feeling a little sad, Naruto replies, "It's okay. I understand…." His steps have a bit less energy as Naruto leaves the office. Hiruzen returns to his previous activity. It only takes him a few seconds of reading the paper before he sets it back down. He rests his left elbow on his desk while bring his hand up to his cheek to rest his head while he thinks.

He becomes more dissatisfied the longer he stares at the document. The casual dismissal of Naruto left a bad taste in his mouth. Looking through the window at the snowy weather, Hiruzen remembers an old saying from his youth.

'Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow.

Delay may give a clearer light as to what is best to be done.'

He looks out the window once again. These documents are not a priority. With his mind made up, Hiruzen puts the documents in his folder for tomorrow and makes his way towards the closet. He forgoes his normal Hokage garb for a more casual winter attire.

He finds Naruto not far away from the Hokage building starting to make a big snowball. The foundation circle for a snowman.

Not used to seeing his 'jiji' in non Hokage clothing, Naruto doesn't react until Hiruzen is closer.

"Old man! You're here! I thought you said you were…busy."

Smiling, Hiruzen replies, "You will find out when you grow older, but there are some important things to do. It can wait."

Naruto returns the smile.

Hiruzen continues, "Right now, we have a very important decision."

Perplexed, Naruto tilts his head.

"How big do you want it to be?" Making good use of his vast knowledge of ninjutsu for the creation of the ultimate snowman and other snow sculptures.

A steaming bowl of ramen awaited them at Ichiraku's for dinner.

Naruto and the Hokage were not the only ones who had the wonderful idea to make snow figures. The next day, Naruto and Kurama took a tour of the village, judging the abilities of their fellow artists.

The first clan compound the duo arrives at is the Akimichi, Nara, and Yamanaka. Some of the Nara recreated deer antlers for their snowmen.

"Look at that kid's snowman. What a pathetic cliché." Naruto judges.

Carrot nose.

Top hat.

Three stones on the chest in a vertical line.

Fairly common amongst the Akimichi.

Some were even more fancy. They had a shovel in one of the stick arms.

"Am I supposed to identify with this complacent moron and his shovel? This snowman says nothing about the human condition. Is this all the kid has to say about contemporary life?" Naruto comments once again.

"Does every snowman have to be a work of art?" Kurama questions. He doesn't really understand the complexity. It's all about fun isn't it?

"Well of course not. But look at everyone doing the exact same thing. The soulless banality of this snowman is just sad comment on the child's imagination."

Kurama looked at Naruto funny. 'Banality? What the heck does that mean.'

"I thought you were a man of few words?"

Naruto returns a stink eye at Kurama. "I moseyed myself to the library and immeasurably enhanced my lexicon. Come along my fellow ruffian and let us take an expedition to a moorland near our esteemed commander's quarters as that is where I constructed my own sculptures made of frozen two parts Hydrogen and one part Oxygen." He points to the direction of a field near the Hokage's office.

"You asked the librarian to help you with that one didn't you."

"Grrrrr."

Arriving at the clearing near the Hokage's office, there are an assortment of snow sculptures. Life size recreations of the previous hokage, a large bowl of ramen, and all the way in the back, Naruto's greatest piece of work. A true, avant garde.

Naruto, smiling proudly at his work of art, "I call it, 'The Torment of Existence Weighed Against the Horror of Nonbeing.'"

The 'snowman' was really just a head. However, the head is the size of a regular snowman. Its mouth is wide open in a silent scream. Sticks acting as arms on either side of its head with eyes not in sync, convergence insufficiency as the librarian said the other day.

Kurama is deep in thought as Naruto continues explaining his artwork. "As he melts, the sculpture becomes even more poignant."

Kurama, with his hands behind is back, "I admire your willingness to put artistic integrity before marketability." He walks away. Leaving Naruto to ponder his statement.

Naruto begins his work on his next creation. It starts out as a generic snowman. But, wanting to continue his philosophical nature, he adds some pizazz. He tilts the head down and finds a stick that is sufficiently strong enough to hold a snowball.

The end result is a snowman looking at a snowball. Which is the scene Kurama stumbles upon after taking a nice nap. "Why is the snowman looking at a snowball?" He says while pointing at the snowball.

"Don't touch it please. You have no idea how many times the arm has fallen off. He's contemplating snowman evolution." Channeling his inner Iruka sensei, "Obviously, if he evolved from a snowman, it raises tough theological questions for him."

Catching his drift, "Like the mortality throwing one's precursors at someone?"

Nodding, Naruto says, "Exactly, as well as shoveling one's genetic material off the road. Seeing it all around you and being made into new items just be destroyed."

"I like it better when we just go down the hill very fast. Simplify, simplify, simplify."

"Always appreciate the little things." Naruto grabs his companion and takes off back to the apartment to collect his sled.