Christmas Spirits Day 10 - Snow Days
Gettin' older... and I'm not just talking about the kids! XD
Series :: Christmas Spirits
Title :: Snow Days
Rating :: G [kid!everyone + teen!other people]
Summary :: AU. Every winter, Konoha Gakuen and its University Hospital would take its students and able patients north to see the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri (Sapporo Snow Festival) in Hokkaido. Set the year after Fallacy of the Fat Man. (They're 8 and 9 years old. Older kids, about 17 and 18.) Since it's an elevator system technical school attached to a University Hospital, they can start interning at about that age and start taking primarily medical classes at around 14/15. [SO SAYS I!]
*****
Minato sank back against the railing on his end of the seat and slid a glance at his charge. Kakashi sat stiffly staring ahead, feet dangling high off the floor. His backpack looked like it might be moving, but Minato couldn't be sure. He didn't know what a straight-laced kid like Kakashi would be doing smuggling things on the bus anyhow.
A sound from across the aisle caught his attention and he saw Kushina giggling and showing Iruka how to play some silly string game. She was still a bit pale from the chemo, but at least she wasn't as thin as she used to be and her hair had grown since she'd stopped shaving it in support of her treatment; now thick and long and trailing over the seat like a dark red wave. It would probably get stuck in a crack somewhere and she'd regret leaving it down. He snickered to himself at the mental image of her stuck to a train; a bright orange blob hanging from the doors as it departed.
He felt a sudden chill of disapproval and turned back guiltily, meeting Kakashi's blank stare. His face heated and he shrugged helplessly, twitching a bit with the desire to look back.
Kakashi frowned and tugged his light orange scarf up over his nose and huffed. Kushina was not only a girl and therefore icky, but she also liked orange as evidenced by the scarf he was wearing (a gift from when she had first learned to knit, now thankfully a less blinding neon than when he'd received it and thereby barely acceptable to wear in public) and that fact alone was enough to make her one of the enemy; one of the unclean. He had no idea why Minato felt the need to be friends with her.
Something moved in his bag and he tightened his grip a little, casting a surreptitious glance toward his chaperone and relaxing slightly at his now regular distraction. At least Kushina was good for something. It meant he couldn't sit by Iruka though, and that bothered him.
It bothered him almost as much as Gai who was sitting on his knees backwards on the seat and staring him down, an embarrassing carrot nose stuck to his face. He insisted he was pretending to be a snowman. Kakashi couldn't disagree that the boy's head wasn't full of slush.
“Stop that,” he muttered under his breath.
Gai looked down at Kakashi's wriggling backpack and grinned, shaking his head and bouncing on his knees. He reached out with a stick and poked at Kakashi's arm.
Kakashi growled under his breath and shrugged off the stick, glaring all the while.
Gai reached out to poke him again.
“Gai-kun, please turn around,” his seatmate yawned. Gai looked at his chaperone, Shikaku, who nodded his head towards the seat behind Minato and Kakashi where another intern, Yoshino was busy giving them a death glare. He gulped and sank to his seat, peeking over before turning around.
“Good boy,” Shikaku mumbled, closing his eyes again. “We would have all been disemboweled.”
Kakashi smirked to himself, freezing as his bag shifted again. He snuck a look towards Minato and this time, the teen was looking back from under his eyelashes, smiling a little. Minato rolled his eyes and shook his head before opening a book and ignoring him.
Kakashi frowned. He hated to be at a disadvantage.
The kids piled out of the bus a few hours later, crowding the platform in a chaotic herd against the half-hearted protests of their chaperones; half of whom were excitedly casting about for sights of snow. Izumo and Kotetsu, best buddies since they now shared desks at school, ran around trying to see everything, occasionally stopping each other short by the shared scarf that tethered their necks. Their chaperon, Chouza, had found it impossible to eat his stash of snacks and watch them both at the same time and the makeshift hobble kept his hands free.
“That was genius of you,” Shikaku mumbled, flinching when Yoshino shot him a dirty glare as if she knew he was thinking about doing something ill-advised.
“Your kid is the one that needs a leash,” Inoichi commented, pointing at Gai who was busy trying to climb atop a statue; most like a representation of some sacred Ainu god who would curse his immortal soul for the desecration. Next to him, a purple-clad Anko was doing the same, only from a different direction.
“Yours too,” Chouza said between bites of takoyaki. “Both of them.”
The three boys watched as Ibiki latched onto Anko's leg and began to pull while she kicked and shouted curses no 8-year-old should know. Asuma and Kurenai joined in the fray in an attempt to dislodge Gai who had started to laugh maniacally.
“Why are you all so useless,” Yoshino hissed, rushing in to subdue the children.
“Man,” Inoichi said. “Your girlfriend is really scary.”
“She's not my girlfriend!” Shikaku yelped, cringing when Yoshino shot him a dark glare.
Across the platform, Kakashi waddled-yes, waddled-with his backpack in front of him, the zipper gaping open as a little wrinkled face appeared and looked around curiously before blinking at him. The dog's eyes flattened into a concentrated look of intense need and Kakashi huffed.
“I know, I know. I'm putting you down now,” he whispered, sneaking behind a bush and depositing his illicit burden.
Pakkun's little feet touched the icy ground and he began to soft-step, looking around with distress and shaking. He looked like a multicolored marshmallow in his snowflake sweater. He looked like a multicolored marshmallow that couldn't decide if it had to pee or not or, failing either, if it could just will its pee back until a warmer toilet presented itself.
Pakkun stared at Kakashi with soulful eyes, but Kakashi's expression didn't change.
The pug seemed to sniff and, with his eyes on Kakashi, minced to stand by him and casually lifted his leg. Kakashi danced out of the way and glared as Pakkun seemed to snicker.
“That would have served you right,” came a thoughtful voice from over the bush.
Kakashi and Pakkun jumped and looked up guiltily. Minato grinned and winked before giving a toss of his head.
“Come on, you guys. We're going to see the sculptures now. Iruka's already by the Ice Dragon.” He added, just to see Kakashi's eyes light up.
He chortled to himself as Kakashi hustled Pakkun back into his cocoon and bumbled towards the rainbow-lit Ice Palace where a sinuous blue-and-purple Ice Dragon danced in the courtyard. The kid always tried to seem so unaffected by life, but really he was still just a kid. It was great to see him so unguarded.
Iruka was nowhere to be found at the Ice Dragon, though Kakashi thought he had caught sight of his antlered beanie. He'd thought he'd seen the other boy for a brief moment, oddly distorted by the sloping back of the ice sculpture, but it ended up being Gai with his snowman-arm stick tucked into the back of his jacket who was trying to lick the stupid thing while a sallow looking Hayate feebly poked at him and told him not to.
Shikaku stood there weakly tugging at Gai's pom-pom scarf and uttering quiet “hey's” while Chouza gave a running commentary on the viability of turning the whole park into a giant shave ice dessert. Inoichi, unusually, wasn't anywhere near them but considering there was a pretty girl giving a demonstration on special winter ikebana, his disappearance wasn't that unusual.
Kakashi monitored the unfolding events dispassionately from a distance, inching his way towards the ice ramp leading to the snow sculptures.
“Odd,” Minato muttered, coming up the long set of ice stairs, sliding a bit on the penultimate death trap--step. Hokkaido officials frowned upon any part of their festival being referred to as a death trap.
“I thought I saw them, but I may have been mistaken,” he said, patting Kakashi on the head.
“You could hardly miss a giant mikan,” the boy deadpanned, ducking his head away and starting down the ramp.
Minato's eyes bulged a little and he snickered, giggling unmanfully into his gloved hands.
“If only Kushina-chan heard that! You'd-”
A snowball landed on the side of his face with a wet smack. He blinked and looked around furiously like a hunted animal, scrubbing at his cheek and pushing Kakashi.
“She did,” he hissed, hustling them down the ramp.
“That was just a coincidence,” Kakashi insisted. “No girl can throw like that. Especially not one dressed in that much orange. We'd be able to see her.”
“Oh no. She's good,” Minato insisted, flinching as they passed a snow statue of a carousel.
“There is no way-”
It was Kakashi's turn to be cut off as the snow mother and snow child beside them suddenly came to life with loud roars and piled snow on them.
*****
OMAKE
“I'm sorry, Pakkun, I didn't mean to,” Iruka cried sorrowfully, lying a tiny wet sweater on the stones before the fireplace as the pug glared at him.
“Why are you telling him sorry,” Kakashi grumbled, wiping the damp away from Pakkun's wrinkles with a tea towel.
“You have to admit,” Kushina chortled, brushing her hair, now a frizzy wet snarl. “That was really funny.”
“It was only funny when you two couldn't get back up after the snow froze around your legs and we got to return the favor,” Minato said, carrying a tray of hot chocolate from the cafe.
“In your jackets.” He smiled smugly.
NOTES
Sapporo Yuki Matsuri celebrates ...snow. With lots of ice and snow sculptures, some of them entire buildings with implanted lights you can walk on and in. It happens in February every year.
Ainu - indigenous native peoples living in the north
mikan - basically the orange/tangerine that normally appears on mochi
ikebana - the Japanese art of flower arranging