Konnichi wa!

Writing the flashbacks are hard. XP I prefer just writing the Chunin exams Arc, but then we get no nice, fluffy/hot ZabuSasuHakuness.

So I bear with it. XP

Please enjoy!

Promises Not Made are Promises Never Kept

Flashback Two – Snow

Sasuke barely managed to set his cup down before rushing out the door, the other two immediately following.

"Dearheart!" Haku cried at his back, but he ignored both the other and his wounds as he ran out into the forest.

Haku arrived at his side momentarily, looking at him as the Uchiha stared upwards at the sky.

Little dots of snow were falling down – Sasuke had been right. The youngest of the three watched – entranced – as a snowflake fell down in front of his eyes, landing on his nose.

Haku smiled as Zabuza surveyed the area for intruders.

"Did you know, dearheart, that no two snowflakes are exactly alike?" Haku asked softly. Sasuke shifted his gaze to look at him.

"No – I didn't. How do you know?"

Haku gave him a small smile.

"I know because my mother told me the same thing," he replied. Sasuke's eyes turned dark and his eyebrows narrowed. He glanced back down to the ground.

Mother…

He forced the dark thoughts from his mind – there was no sense in breaking down AGAIN.

Haku noticed his discomfort.

"What is it, dear one?" He asked softly. Sasuke shook his head, looking back to the sky.

"Nothing," he murmured. Haku blinked at him before his own eyes narrowed in uncertainty, and he looked to see a few feet of snow already around them. He glanced back up at Sasuke.

"Dearheart?"

Sasuke looked at him. Haku smiled at him.

"Have you ever made a snowball?"

Sasuke blinked.

"A snowball? No – it never snowed in Konoha."

A SHARP PAIN ERUPTED IN HIS CHEST –

Haku laughed and took Sasuke's hand.

"Well, I will show you." He kneeled and gently tugged the littler one down with him. He took a handful of snow, showing it to Sasuke. "See? When this type of snow is fresh, it sticks together better. You gather a handful, and pat it into a sphere." Haku demonstrated, showing the ball to the other. "See?"

Sasuke grumbled and looked away.

"This is so stupid – a waste of time," Haku heard him mutter. He smiled and tossed a bit of snow into the pitch black hair in front of him, making the Uchiha glare at him.

"You wanted to see snow, dearheart – might as well have some fun with it now that God has given it to you. Come – try it."

Giving Haku another half-hearted glare, Sasuke slid his fingers into the powdery, crisp snow, effortlessly pulling up a large handful.

He glanced at Haku, who immediately realized what Sasuke was trying to say. Smiling softly, the older of the two took more snow in his hands and molded it slowly, allowing Sasuke to study and mimic his movements.

"You press and mold it softly – gently," Haku taught as they worked. "It takes time to form the perfect snowball. Become impatient or angry, squeeze too hard –"

The snow underneath Sasuke's fingers burst from the inside out, showering both of them in white fluff. Haku giggled and smiled as Sasuke silently fumed.

"And it WILL burst. You have to be patient." Haku took more snow in his hands and tipped the whiteness into Sasuke's own palms. "Try again."

Shooting Haku a glare, Sasuke complied.

Zabuza watched – dare I say amusedly? – as Sasuke, at first stiff and unwilling and grumpy, slowly lost his bad mood to the challenge of molding his first perfect snowball while Haku looked on with a happy smile, shaping his own snow sphere expertly without looking. The Uchiha watched with wide, curious eyes as Haku demonstrated exactly where to press and where to smooth to make the snow sphere perfect. Sasuke's eyebrows were furrowed with the most absolute of concentrations, his fingers gliding over the snow and pressing, growing more and more skilled at the strange art. The glare that had formerly filled his eyes was lost entirely.

Haku and Sasuke spoke as they worked – merely about the snow. Haku told the Uchiha all the myths and legends of the snow and winter he could think of – anything to keep the curious, attentive gleam in the dark orbs. All the while their fingers moved, shaping and smoothing and curving the white purity underneath their fingers.

Sasuke was so intent on listening – so intent on the story of a goddess that cried snow when she was happy – that he didn't notice the snowball in his hand.

Haku however, did, and he smiled at Sasuke, finishing the story.

"Dear one," he began softly. He cupped Sasuke's hands in his and raised them, allowing Sasuke to see his own snowball, which was cupped in the younger one's palms. "Look."

It was a perfect snowball.

Sasuke blinked at the ball of white and smirked, a victorious, yet, mischievous look in his eyes.

Zabuza, who had lost interest a while back and was staring out into space, didn't think he would be attacked when the forest was completely empty save for him and two others that were loyal to him (albeit with Sasuke, by force).

However, he was.

The snowball Sasuke had spent so long making slammed into the assassin's head and burst on contact, covering Zabuza's shoulders and neck with a sheet of white. The force of the throw hadn't even made Zabuza's head twitch to the side.

Sasuke cheered, jumping up into the air and stretching his legs as Haku stood and smiled – amused – at Zabuza, chuckling behind a hand.

Zabuza – with one strong shake – forced off all the snow, but by then the wound had been made. He glared at the littlest Uchiha.

"So, you wanna play like THAT, do you?" He asked, making Sasuke calm down and blink at him. Zabuza unsheathed his huge sword. "FINE!"

He leaped forward and swung the sword.

The blade bit deep into the snow right in front of Sasuke's feet, and Zabuza yanked it upwards, showering the Uchiha in a wave of snow.

Haku chuckled a little harder.

Sasuke's head shot out from the resulting pile of snow, and he shook his head to rid his hair of the fluff. He glared up at Zabuza, who was smirking down at him, right next to the huge mound.

"Heh – serves you right," the assassin said.

The Uchiha exploded up out of the snow, showering Zabuza in the whiteness. The assassin glared at Sasuke, sheathing his sword across his back once more.

"Tsk – fine!"

There was silence for a moment.

Then the assassin bolted down into a crouch and grabbed some snow, immediately making a huge snowball and launching it at Sasuke.

"SNOWBALL FIGHT!"

Sasuke and Haku both launched into action, grabbing snow and leaping away as Zabuza fired snowball after snowball, making them with a precision that would have been lethal had he been making weapons.

Haku smiled and laughed as he threw a snowball at Sasuke, and the Uchiha countered by throwing his own snowball, making them collide in midair and bursting in a brilliant spray of white.

Then both Zabuza and Haku launched huge snowballs at Sasuke, and the Uchiha covered his head as both collided, covering him in snow.

Sasuke slowly looked up at them, then at himself.

There was silence for a moment.

Then it was broken.

Laughter flooded through the trees, and both Haku and Zabuza's eyes widened.

Sasuke was laughing.

No way…

The Uchiha's eyes were crinkled up in upside-down 'u's as he laughed, his arms still covering his head as he doubled over.

Haku and Zabuza could only stare at him for a moment.

Then something collided with both of the backs of their heads, and they whirled to see another Sasuke standing behind them, both arms outstretched and a victorious, lopsided grin on his face.

The Sasuke Haku and Zabuza hit vanished – it had been a clone.

Both of them exchanged glances and laughed, lurching down to grab more snow as they ran towards the real Sasuke, launching the snowballs.

Two hours passed, and Zabuza and Sasuke stopped for a long-denied break for breath. The assassin looked down at the Uchiha, and noticed the child's eyes drooping shut.

So the drug's finally working. Zabuza thought.

Sasuke couldn't keep his eyes open – the thin lines of flesh slid closed and he tilted forward, unable to stop his fall.

Zabuza simply raised an arm and caught the boy around the chest, easily lifting up the small body and cradling it in his arms.

"C'mon Haku," he called to the other, who had been silently watching from the side. "It gets late."

Haku nodded and followed.

Once back at the cabin, Haku gently undressed Sasuke, doctoring his wounds and doing the necessaries to prevent infection. Then he redressed the Uchiha's injuries and clothed the other – this time in pajamas. Sasuke didn't open his eyes once, and Zabuza lifted Sasuke up, carrying him to the couch where the Uchiha's bed was already made.

As the covers were pulled over Sasuke's shoulders, and Zabuza watched as the Uchiha turned onto his side and curled up into a ball, Haku came to the assassin's side.

There was silence between them for a moment.

"You know, I don't think Sasuke is the only one being changed here," Haku commented, glancing meaningfully at the older.

Zabuza smirked.

"Yes. You could be right."

It had never stopped snowing.

End Flashback Two – Snow

Awe… fluffiness by the truckload – thanks Haku! –waves to fluff muse-

I hope you enjoyed the second flashback!

Please review!

Ja ne!

DDB