A note from the wolf:

This story was originally a one-shot that I wrote in the winter of 2007 (just over 7 years ago!). I recently decided to revamp and extend the story and split it into parts! The process has been a relaxing way to spend my down-time between studying and working. AND get me into the Christmas spirit! :3

This story aims to leave you in a warm and Christmas-y mood, so I invite you to snuggle up with a fuzzy blanket and a hot chocolate or tea before you read! Enjoy! :)

Story Context: Team 7 in their prime. Canon pairings!

Declaimer: The characters in this story belong to Masashi Kishimoto, but this plot is rightfully mine.

Summary: A SasuSaku Christmas special. Sasuke won't attend the Academy Christmas Party but Sakura is determined to keep him company on Christmas Eve... even if it takes getting lost in a blizzard. Can Sakura melt his heart of ice for this one special day of the year? Warning: This story will make you feel warm and fuzzy.

Let It Snow – Part I

With his head hanging and his feet dragging, Naruto Uzumaki was on his way to the training grounds.

Now is it just me, or is something wrong with this picture?

Instead of emulating his usual explosive passion for training, Naruto was sulking – that's right: Naruto was sulking – to his second favourite place in Konoha (after Ichiraku's ramen shop of course). And at this particular time of year, you would expect to see the total opposite attitude in this spunky blonde, with it being both training-time and only one week until Christmas.

Now if there is one thing Naruto loves (besides ramen noodles), it's Christmas. Besides the Academy's Annual Christmas Party on Christmas Eve, and Iruka's promise of treating him to lunch on Christmas Day, Naruto especially enjoyed Christmas cookies, presents, Christmas decorations, caroling, presents, mistletoe, snowmen, sledding, presents, hot chocolate with marshmellows, warm fires, and, of course, presents.

So what could possibly be the matter with Naruto?

He arrived at his team's meeting place (a bridge), yet to turn his frown upside down. His two team mates were waiting, leaning against the rails. Sakura Haruno, the adorable, pink-haired genius, was the first to speak. "Last one to arrive again?" she said with a sneer. Yes, Sakura was cute and brainy, but she was also intemperate, stubborn, and basically acted like a bossy big sister. She also had a huge crush on the third member of Team 7, making her an impossible catch. But Naruto tended to ignore these facts and he took every opportunity to ask her on dates despite his hundreds of past failed attempts.

Sasuke Uchiha, the third and final member of their party, grunted his welcoming. This was far more acknowledgement than he usually afforded Naruto's dramatic appearances. Sasuke, who Naruto claimed was his arch-nemesis, was the only descendent of the prestigious Uchiha clan to have survived the mass homicide committed by Sasuke's own brother, Itachi. Everyone in the village knew of Sasuke: for his unique bloodline and the ninja skills that accompanied it, for his aloofness and self-isolation, and for his mysterious and sexy demeanour. The females of Konoha were all either totally infatuated with or totally afraid of him. Over the years, most of them shied away. Not that he cared. He was not a people person. Sure his team mates had a special place in his heart, but that didn't mean he could endure their presences outside of training and missions. Frankly, they both annoyed the hell out of him ninety nine percent of the time. They were distractions. He needed to focus on avenging his clan, and to do that, he needed to focus on getting stronger.

"I'm not last," Naruto whined, his dramatic flair sparking once again. "I'm next to last. Kakashi-sensei still isn't here." After a moment he added, "Believe it" while stomping his foot and waving a threatening finger in Sakura's face for dramatic effect. He had forgotten about being sad for the moment. Naruto was just about as smart as Sasuke was charming.

Sakura shook her head, annoyed. "Look Naruto, Kakashi-sensei is always a few hours late, so I hardly think he's worth –"

"Kakashi-sensei is as much on team 7 as we are!" Naruto interrupted. "He is just slower than me. So I always beat him."

"Okay, okay FINE! You win!" Sakura groaned, realizing that she couldn't win an argument with someone as stubborn and dense as Naruto.

His lips turned up for the corners for just a moment, itching to pull his mouth up into an infamous Naruto grin, but then he remembered: he was depressed. "You got that right, Sakura. But unfortunately for you, I am in no mood to celebrate my win. I am very depressed."

Sakura raised her eyebrows. "Is that so?" she said, unable to contain her surprise at this uncharacteristic remark from the village's feistiest ninja. Sasuke's eyebrows were furrowed and he was taking slow, deliberate breaths through his nose.

"Believe it," Naruto said in a far more monotonous voice than usual. He leaned against the rail of the bridge and folded his arms. "I'm almost starting to understand what it feels like to be the cold-hearted, black-haired cranky pants over there," he said, nodding in Sasuke's direction.

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded. "How dare you say –"

"That's enough, Sakura," Sasuke said calmly. "No need to stand up for me against someone as pathetic as Naruto." Sakura immediately clamped her lips together and resumed leaning on the rail in silence. There is no better way to put it: she was whipped. And despite his coldness and general unresponsiveness to her persistent advances, she clung to those ever-so rare moments when he dropped hints (or were they even hints?) of having more interest in her than, well, most other humans. And it were those moments that kept her clinging to the mysterious jerk.

"What did you call me?" Naruto asked loudly, forgetting his depression. "Is that a threat? You want to go, Sasuke?" His volume was rising with each word. "Come on! You and me. Right here and right now. Hand-to-hand combat! The winner gets Sakura!" He reached into his weapons pouch for a kunai-knife, but instead pulled out a small bowl of instant noodles. "Whoops," he muttered, shoving it back in and pulling out the weapon he was searching for. Sakura put her head in her hands. It was so amazing how theatrical Naruto could become at a moment's notice.

"No," Sasuke dead-panned.

"Scared?" Naruto asked with a sly grin. "You big wimp!"

"Wrong again, loser," Sasuke said while rolling his eyes. He was making no effort to hide his agitation now. "I came here to train. Not to fight with a pathetic loser."

And that's all it took. The fire was back in Naruto's eyes and he was charging at Sasuke, kunai-knife flailing in his hand, while unleashing a battle cry. Just then, right on cue, someone appeared between him and Sasuke in a cloud of smoke, blocking Naruto's path. "Sorry I'm late," the newcomer said. "I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life."

"Liar," Sakura said casually and shaking her head, ignoring the feud happening before her. "We've heard that excuse before, sensei."

Kakashi was the team teacher and leader. He was a generation older and two ranks higher than his students. He had long, straight silver hair, an army-green Jonin vest, and a mask that covered half his face. "Well, well. What's going on here?" he asked, eyeing Naruto suspiciously. "Don't tell me you two were bickering again," he said, nodding towards the two boys.

"Sasuke started it," Naruto said immediately. Sasuke rubbed his temples with his fingers.

"Ah," Kakashi said, folding his arms. "That's a very likely story." Not giving Naruto a chance to butt in again, he continued. "Well then, on a happier note, I am pleased to inform the three of you that we have all been formally invited to the Ninja Academy's first Christmas party!" He handed each of them green envelopes sealed with red ribbons.

They scanned the contents of the envelope. "It's on Christmas Eve. That's in four days," Sasuke noted.

Naruto slapped his forehead, an idea popping into his head. "Oh-my-gosh! I nearly forgot!" he exclaimed. "I'm really depressed right now!"

"You don't say?" Kakashi asked, clearly puzzled by Naruto's very un-depressed demeanour.

"Man, and I thought you'd all have noticed too! Don't you all realize that Christmas is only in a few days?!" They all stared at him wide-eyed without the faintest idea what he was getting at. "Rugh! I can't believe it. There isn't any snow! Now how can we have Christmas without SNOW?!"

Kakashi put his head in his hands. "Naruto, you do realize that it hasn't snowed in Konoha in many years –" but Naruto cut him off.

"Who cares about the other years? I want it this year!" Naruto yelled, fisting his locks of blonde hair with agony.

"He has a bit of a point," Sakura admitted. "It would be nice to have a little snow." She cast a quick, nervous glance in Sasuke's direction. "I mean... It's festive. That's all."

Sasuke pushed himself off the rail of the bridge. "I don't understand why this matters to you all so much. I mean, whether there's snow or not, Christmas will come. And then it will go. And then we will continue training and completing missions as if it never happened. I really couldn't care less about it. In fact, I hate Christmas. It's a big waste of time."

Naruto gasped dramatically. "How dare you –!" he began, but even he was lost for words. In his mind, Sasuke had finally crossed a line.

"You... hate it?" Sakura asked quietly.

Sasuke turned to face his team fully. "Yes. I hate it. It's a waste of valuable time that I could be using to get stronger. And besides, what's the point of having Christmas? It's a time to be with family and friends, and some of us here might have a little more trouble doing that than others." Sakura's heart sank when she realized that part of Sasuke's remark was directed at her because, after all, she was the only member of the team who had a family left. Tears prickled at the corners of her eyes and she said nothing. Naruto frowned.

"But... what about the Christmas party?"

Riiiiiip.

Sasuke tossed his newly torn invitation onto the ground. "Humph."

Naruto growled and Sakura covered her mouth with her hands. "Bah Humbug is more like it," Naruto muttered under his breath.

Kakashi decided now would be a good time to change the subject. Christmas seemed to be a bit of a touchy topic for his team. "Just let Sasuke believe what he wants," he said in attempt to end the argument. "But in the meantime, we have to train."

The following week was long, stressful and filled with last-minute Christmas-gift buying. The streets of Konoha were filled with children pressing their faces to shop windows, mothers running in and out of said stores to grab ingredients and decorations, and fathers who were toppling off ladders while attempting to hang up Christmas lights. And despite all of the traditional holiday hustle and bustle, there still wasn't any snow.

"Hey, you're in luck," Kakashi said one day before training. Naruto and Sakura looked up hopefully. "There's a fifty percept chance of freezing rain on Christmas Eve."

Naruto groaned. "You call that luck?" he cried.

Kakashi shrugged. "Well it's closer to snow than what we've been getting."

And beside this impending risk of freezing rain, there was no sign of snow. Time was running out until the Christmas party too, which was taking place on the night of Christmas Eve. Sakura spent most of her time worrying about what Christmas gifts to buy her team mates. Well, besides Kakashi. She already made up her mind that she would get him a constructive book that might finally lure him away from the disgusting selection he currently read. And as for Naruto, she didn't want to give him anything he would take the wrong way. But he was her teammate, she didn't want to give him something too impersonal. She was wondering whether a gift certificate to his favourite ramen restaurant was a safe gift. Now Sasuke, being the Grinch himself, was by far the hardest to buy for. Would he be insulted if she bought him anything at all?

Naruto was stressed for very different reasons this holiday season. He was far more concerned with the weather turn-out than gift-buying. Heck, he'd probably grab Sakura, Kakashi, Hinata and the others a pack of gum to share on the way to the party. And Sasuke (the old Scrooge) would get a bop on the head. But if Naruto's wish came true, Sasuke would get a snowball to the head instead.

Sasuke isolated himself from the holiday cheer as much as he could, spending his time all alone at the training grounds. He was often forced to return home a little earlier than he would have liked since the temperature was steadily declining the closer it got to the big day. On his walks home, he couldn't help sparing glances in shop and house windows longingly. But he'd immediately snap his head back around when he started thinking too much about the old days when he still had a family to enjoy the holidays with. Yes, Naruto didn't have a family either, but he didn't grow up with his parents and didn't know what he was missing. He was also too busy thinking about snow to think about family.

As unprepared as everyone felt, Christmas Eve came at last... without snow.

Part II is coming very soon! In the meantime, feel free to leave me a review :)

And if you like my writing, I invite you to check out my Tumblr (link at the top of my profile). That's where I'll be sharing updates about upcoming projects!