Summary: MadaSaku prompt: snowed in. For Madara's birthday!

Dedicated to my friend ollia. Thank you for always cheering me on and here is the first part of our fic exchange.

Merry Christmas!

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Let It Snow

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As she slogged through the waist-high snowdrift, Sakura deeply regretted taking the mission to the Land of Frost in the middle of the winter. She had thought two weeks would be enough to get there, administer the new vaccine and return in time for the winter holidays in Konoha, but now she was stuck in the middle of the wild plains. A thick layer of snow covered the landmarks like a blanket and even more of the white fluff was falling down so densely that the visibility was next to none.

Sakura's sense of direction was shot, she was cold and there was no shelter in sight, unless she built herself an igloo. Even circulating chakra wasn't enough to keep herself warm anymore.

If only she could see...

Sakura gathered chakra in her fist and punched the air, creating a shockwave which wiped out all the snow from her field of vision for a moment. She glimpsed dark shape in the distance and hurried towards it with a newfound energy. It was a forest!

She wandered around the trees, which gave her coverage from the harsh wind, but soon she began to lose hope. Her strength was leaving her just as quickly as any warmth she had in her body. In utter frustration she kicked a tree and the snow fell off it. But some of it disappeared in the thin air.

Sakura blinked.

"Kai!"

The genjutsu collapsed, revealing a cabin. Smoke came out of a chimney. Sakura stumbled to the door and knocked. She didn't really care who was hiding inside there, it could be even the worst criminal, as long as it was warm, she would stay...

The door opened and she stared up with eyes as wide as platters at the face she was used to seeing on the first page of her bingo book.

"Uchiha... Madara?!" she gasped out. She could scarcely believe her own bad luck.

There he was before her, the most infamous missing-nin of Konoha. Since he had lost the clan leadership and left the village without a trace, many speculated about his plans to take revenge. What were the chances that she'd find him here, in the middle of nowhere?

Madara looked her over, lingering on the Konoha headband. There was a hint of confusion in him when he failed to recognize her and then it occurred to Sakura that she became better known in the village and among his clan well after his defection. To him, she was just another Konoha ninja that found out his hideout.

And none of those sent after him ever returned. The thought was more chilling than the biting arctic winds.

Sakura's panicked mind spun in circles. Why couldn't she have feigned ignorance? Now he knew that she knew who he was. Was it too late to back away and flee from him? Sakura calculated her chances of escape to be next to none. Even if he didn't pursue, she wouldn't survive for long in this snowstorm. If the only choice she had was between an almost certain death and a certain death, then it was obvious what she should do.

Sakura took in a steadying breath and squared her shoulders with determination. She couldn't really see through his stony façade, but he had to be going through similar calculations at the same time. She had to hurry before he decided to annihilate her on the spot and close the door!

"Look, I'm sorry!" she blurted out, then winced. Ugh, what do you say to the deadliest missing-nin alive so he doesn't kill you? She chanced a look at him. His brow went up a notch, but he appeared to listen to her for the moment. Encouraged, she carried on with the momentum. "I mean, I'm sorry for bothering you, but it was an honest accident that I found you. I was just passing by, returning from my mission, and the snowstorm caught me, you know, and then I noticed the genjutsu-"

"Get in. You're letting the cold inside," he cut in as he stepped aside.

Dumbfounded, Sakura nodded and entered the cabin. She took off her boots in the entryway. The snow started to melt on her and drip on the wooden floor. Madara threw her a towel and she dried herself off quickly.

The interior of the cabin was small, but cozy. It looked like a hunter's abode, with stuffed animal heads decorating the walls. Sakura made a beeline to the crackling fireplace.

"Ahh..." she sighed when she squatted on the white rug and held out her icy hands to the fire. Self-consciously, she glanced over her shoulder at the man. He was… She blinked.

He was putting a kettle on the stove, his back turned to her without a care in the world.

Sakura gaped at the blatant disregard towards her. Did he consider her a non-threat? Was it because of her embarrassing rambling earlier? Still, it stung that he thought so lowly of her ability.

"I could kill you like that," she spoke up before thinking it through. "Easy. One stab and you're dead."

One black eye (not even a Sharingan!) gave her a lazy once-over. "Then why don't you try?" the man asked, his voice laced with amusement as he leaned against the kitchen top, arms held loosely at his sides.

Sakura flushed. "Because… because I have manners! You let me in and it's polite not to attack your host," she justified, poorly.

The man smirked, looking even more entertained as he leaned towards her. "If you're so polite, then why don't I know your name, girl?"

He got her there, well, she basically let him. Sakura bit her lip, debating what to tell him. She wasn't sure if sharing her name with him would be a good idea. On the other hand, he already saw her and the pink hair was a dead giveaway of her identity. She stifled a sigh.

"It's Sakura. Haruno Sakura." She stood up, gave a small bow and extended her hand to him. "Nice to meet you."

After a small moment of surprise at her forward gesture, he took her hand and gave it a firm shake. His big palm dwarfed her slender one, but his grip was warm and comfortable. A pleasant tingle went up her arm at the contact, but she chalked it up to how cold she still was. She almost didn't want him to let go.

The kettle whistled sharply and Madara turned away to pour hot water into prepared mugs. He handed her one. Sakura happily closed her hands around it, warming herself. She took in the soothing smell of tea and smiled, but then she had to quickly put it away when something irritated the inside of her nose. She sneezed powerfully. Then she sneezed again.

And a third time.

Madara apparently didn't care about politeness, because she heard no 'bless you' from, but when she was done sneezing, she found a handkerchief dangling before her eyes. She snatched it and blew her nose. Then she saw that she spread her snot all over a nicely embroidered Uchiha crest.

"Keep it," he said, saving her from the dilemma of what to do about the hanky.

"Thanks." Sakura pocketed it and grabbed her tea. She sipped the brew silently, her keen gaze observing the abode and its owner over the rim of her mug.

Now that she had a moment to think about it, Madara looked older than on his picture in the bingo book. It made sense, that photo was twenty years out of date. The man had left the village when she'd been just starting at the Academy. How old was he, forty? No, he had to be fifty at least. Her trained medic's eye carefully assessed him. His hair may have had grey in it and the grooves on his face ran deeper, but she noticed no discolorations or other signs of poor health. In fact, Madara appeared fantastically preserved for a man his age, especially in their profession. She wagered that he was just as capable as in his prime. Her gaze lingered on the bulging muscles of his forearms under the thick sweater he wore. Even now, in a relaxed state and drinking tea, she could tell he was ready to jump into action at a moment's notice.

One thing was for sure—if she was looking for any hidden weaknesses he might have, a casual observation wouldn't reveal anything. She'd have to give him a real physical to find out more.

Sakura took a break from burning a hole in his sweater with her gaze and looked into her tea, frowning to herself. Why did she consider giving him a physical? He was a dangerous fugitive, not one of her patients! Not that he would ever consent to letting her get that close with her chakra. That would have been a lethal mistake and Madara was many things, but not stupid or naïve.

This rumination brought her greatest worry to the forefront of her mind. Just what were Madara's intentions towards her? Why did he let her stay and what was his ulterior purpose? In any case, she needed to figure out a way to return to Konoha unscathed. Her mood darkened and, as if in a response to it, the wind outside howled at length as it lashed at the cabin.

"That sounds pretty bad. I hope it'll calm down by morning. I'm already running late," Sakura commented.

Madara snorted. "Good luck with that. This snowstorm will clear up, but in a few days," he told her.

No. Way. She stared at him with wide eyes and mouth open in horror. She was going to spend winter holidays trapped in a cabin with him?!

"Don't look so surprised now. This is the Land of Frost, it's winter here almost all year round. What did you expect, coming here in December?" he said, then cocked his head quizzically as he considered her again. "You should have been taught that at the Academy, I'm quite certain we made geography a part of curriculum."

Sakura glared at him. "Yes, I was aware of the weather when I took the mission," she gritted out with forced calm, when all she wanted was to slug him in that smug face.

A glint appeared in his eye for a second. He sipped his tea. "You running away from something?"

"Excuse me?"

"If you were telling the truth and you didn't come here to find me, then obviously you came here to hide from your actual problems. This place is basically the end of the world," Madara nonchalantly explained.

"Right, an international fugitive like you would know," she replied sarcastically. It didn't faze him.

"Well, am I right? Are you hiding?" he prodded.

"No, I'm not hiding," she said with annoyance, then looked away and lightly bit on her lip when he gave her a disbelieving look. "I just needed some space to think," she reluctantly admitted.

"About?"

"None of your business," she said stiffly.

Madara gave her a careful look, but she wasn't going to give in to his interrogation. She'd rather turn the tables on him. "What about you? I don't have to ask who you're hiding from, but why here? Weren't you running some criminal organization?"

His gaze sharpened, centering on her with a laser-focus in sudden interest. "Organization?"

She was non-plussed. What was he doing, acting coy, as if she'd be fooled. "Yes, those Akatsuki guys. Black cloaks with red clouds. We know you're behind them," she said challengingly, setting one hand on her hip.

A dark cloud passed over his face before receding.

"Oh, am I?" he muttered drolly and turned away to put his empty mug down with a sharp clink.

Sakura furrowed her brows at him. That wasn't the reaction of a discovered criminal mastermind that she expected out of him.

"You can drop the act. It's no use, you're found out," she told him.

Madara opened a drawer and took out a knife. The sharp edge glinted dangerously as he inspected it. Sakura stilled as her heart jumped into her throat.

"… What are you doing?" she asked faintly, her hand inching to her weapons pouch. She didn't dare blink, her eyes trained on his every move.

"Catch," he said and flung the knife at her without looking. Before it would have buried itself in her eye-socket, she barely managed to snatch it out of the air with her free left hand. Fumbling, she righted herself, then caught another projectile hurled at her. It was a daikon radish.

"Make yourself useful and cut that up. I was going to make dinner when you showed up," Madara instructed.

Sakura clenched her jaw in aggravation but didn't object. She'd forgotten all about her hunger while she'd been busy battling the elements, but now that she found warm shelter, it came back with a vengeance. She put down the knife and radish and went to the sink. There was a pot of cold water beside it which she used to wash her hands.

Sakura kept an eye on Madara as they worked side by side, but he didn't return her regard. He looked completely absorbed in his cooking as he boiled water and prepared the meat. He'd gathered his long spiky hair in a ponytail, but the long fringe still stubbornly fell over his left eye.

"What are we making?" she asked.

"Stew," came a laconic response.

Sakura rolled her eyes. Gosh, was every Uchiha man like that or did she have the bad luck to only meet the black sheep? "Yes, but what it's made of?"

"Bear."

Sakura's gaze snapped from the cutting board up to him before she hissed in pain and sucked on her injured finger. She looked over the small cut, then healed it with a small flick of green chakra. She didn't notice Madara's attentive glance in her direction.

"You killed a bear for food?" she asked incredulously. "Did you run out of reindeers around here or what?"

Madara shrugged. "I didn't hunt for a bear specifically. It was more of a self-defense kill and I won't waste good meat," he explained.

Sakura nodded slowly. That sounded reasonable. "Will it taste any good?" she asked with skepticism. Carnivorous animals didn't make for a tasty meal to her best knowledge.

Madara shrugged. "You don't have to eat it," he replied. Sakura opened her mouth to protest in outrage when her stomach gurgled loudly. She pressed her hand to it, blushing heavily. He gave her an amused look. "But something tells me you won't complain about the taste anyway," he added, then with a snap of a finger created a tiny spark to light the stove. He put chunks of bear meat coated with batter into the frying pan.

Sakura watched him cook, alternating between stirring in the skillet and preparing the broth in the pot with ease born from obvious experience. It made her feel weird. She never associated missing-nins with skill in the kitchen, which on the second thought was silly, because they were people and needed to eat like everyone else. Still, the fearsome Uchiha Madara, cooking like her mom? She imagined him in her mother's flowery apron and bit the inside of her cheek to stop a smile from emerging. She couldn't say she entirely succeeded.

"Is something funny?" he asked as he put the vegetables in the pot with a look of intense focus.

Sakura's eyes widened in panic as she suppressed her spasming chest muscles with a force of will. Don't laugh, don't laugh, don't laugh! She thought desperately. "No," she muttered, casting a desperate look around. "This place… how did you get it?" she awkwardly changed the topic.

"What do you think?"

Sakura paused, had an internal image of Madara stabbing the previous owner of the cabin and discarded it. "You bought it?" she guessed instead.

He snorted. "Do you take me for a fool?" Despite the wording, his tone was actually mild, but her guard still went up. She shook her head mutely in response. He continued, "The point was to stay off the grid. If I ever bought any property, I'd have to kill everyone who knew about it."

A chilly sensation went up her spine and the skin on the back of her neck broke into goosebumps.

"You could have done that," she said softly, fists clenched at her sides.

Madara slowly turned to look at her pale, resolute face, staring up at him. His utter absence of expression unnerved her, then a shadow flickered over it and he closed his eyes with a pinched look on his face. The tension drained and he just looked… tired.

Sakura was trying to wrap her head around this when he spoke up.

"I built it."

"Eh?"

"I built this cabin myself. No one knows about it," he elaborated.

"Except me," she pointed out despite herself, her tone halfway between hollow and defiant.

Madara gave her an appraising look and she stiffened once more. However, encouraged by the lack of Sharingan, she returned his gaze, searching for any trace of hostility in him, anything that could be an early warning.

"Are you afraid?" he asked.

"Shouldn't I?" she shot back even while her heart rattled in her chest.

"Depends on what you're so afraid of."

"Your bingo book entry has a 'flee on sight' order," she supplied drily.

"Then why didn't you?"

Sakura drew blank for an answer at first. Then her gaze flitted to the window and the swirling mass of snow outside. I guess I had nowhere else to flee to.

Madara caught her glance and understood it in an instant. "No matter," he conceded smoothly, "it's a little too late for you to follow that order now," he said with quirked up lips. No doubt he found the idea of her screaming and running from him into that blizzard darkly amusing. "The point is to know when fear is useless in your circumstances," he told her.

"And then what? Just switch it off?" she demanded, ironically forgetting her fear of him in her frustration.

Madara smirked. "No. Then you're afraid of the right thing."

Treating the matter as closed, he refocused on cooking while Sakura mulled over his words, trying to discern their meaning. The sizzling of oil and aromatizing scent of fried meat thoroughly distracted her.

Madara took the pan off the stove and slid the fried meat into the pot. He closed the lid and set the fire on the burner low.

"Done. Now it's going to stew for five to six hours and then we can eat dinner," he announced.

That long? Sakura nodded, fighting not to show her disappointment as her stomach tightened with a pang of hunger. Madara took the hair tie out of his ponytail and shook his head to let the strands fall down naturally. He took up the wide, comfortable-looking chair by the fireplace. Having nothing better to do, Sakura also sat down on the furs near the fire but maintaining a healthy distance from the man. She dug into her pack and pulled out a field ration, which she crunched on without enthusiasm. It would serve to fill her belly, but it tasted absolutely horrible.

She thought more about what he'd said. Useless fear, huh? Sakura rolled her eyes. The man was speaking in riddles, if she ever doubted his true age, here was the proof. Only the older generation, like Nidaime or Mito-sama, gave cryptic advice like that. But Sakura had the time to kill so she would solve his riddle.

The way he'd talked implied that her fear of him, specifically, was useless. On the surface, she felt there was some insult contained in this assessment. Just what was useless about it? Fear was a normal reaction, it was a part of self-preservation instinct. Sakura had confidence in her strength as a shinobi, but also enough honesty to admit that she stood no chance against a ninja legend of Uchiha Madara's caliber. He was a chakra powerhouse and, despite not being a sensor, she could still feel the compact, heavy reserves tightly wound up within his body. He'd betrayed Konoha and left death and destruction in his wake. How many loyal Konoha ninjas had he killed? She was right to fear him.

He could mean that her fear was useless because it wouldn't help her survive. She was already as good as dead, another on the list of his victims, all to preserve the secret of his sanctuary. That would be the logical conclusion and yet it felt wrong to her. Incomplete.

He said, "to be afraid of the right thing". What was the right thing to fear, if not her own death? A thought came unbidden, the memory of a fellow shinobi literally taken apart by the enemy, the horrific injuries that had given her nightmares back when she'd been still a genin. What's scarier than death? A slow and painful death.

Sakura shuddered and glanced at Madara. She'd never heard of him using torture, as he was known more for his unparalleled strength on the battlefield. He had a reputation of killing swiftly, be it with a blade or his formidable fire ninjutsu. However, all shinobi had a more than a passing knowledge of how to really hurt another human being.

Get a grip, Haruno! She rubbed at her temples. Madara really didn't seem like torture-happy type and he had to realize she didn't have any worthwhile information. He'd just kill her when it would suit him best. He probably didn't do it yet because he didn't want her corpse messing up his place. He'd get rid of her after the snowstorm.

Still, that didn't tell her what was the right thing to fear in this situation. She took another discreet look at Madara, struggling to understand him. The fire cast a warm glow over his defined jaw. She looked back on their interactions. The fact remained that he didn't kill her… yet. He let her into his house, saving her from freezing to death in the blizzard. He gave her a handkerchief. He made her help him cook and he was going to share his food with her. That was plenty of unnecessary hospitality he'd shown her and she couldn't overlook that, however rude he was, he didn't treat her like an enemy. Quite the opposite.

Even if he planned to eventually kill her, for now he decided to let her live. Sakura took reassurance from that simple fact. Maybe her situation wasn't so hopeless. She thought about what her teammates and teacher would do in her situation. They wouldn't just give up and neither should she. She just had to try.

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to be continued...

AN: Thanks for reading! I hope you liked it, ollia and all other readers. I had enough of this story to chop it into parts, though next one is really long and unfinished.

Until next time!