Gentle Caress

Ice and Snow

They found a cave in a forest in the middle of gods' know where. Sai collected fallen branches and arranged them as Naruto had instructed him, Naruto then grabbed a fistful of dry leaves and threw them in. "Makes it easier for the fire to catch and spread." Sasuke insisted on lighting the fire. It gave him the chance to practice his fireball jutsu. He wasn't very good at it, but he was improving. Before he could only summon a wisp of smoke, now he could create a fireball the size of a soccer ball. It was quite impressive.

They huddled close together in their temporary home, happy that they managed to get out of there before the rain caught up to them. Hinata looked into the flames, the red glow reflecting off her light purple eyes. "Winter is coming. What are we going to do then?"

Naruto sighed. Winter's in Konoha weren't bad, or long. But they weren't in Konoha anymore. They were approaching Kiri and from what they had heard from some of the towns they walked though, they had some rough winters. He looked at the group, his friends. Even in the dead of winter, when he was locked outside, Naruto had never gotten sick. But... His friends weren't like him. They weren't jinchuuriki. "We'll figure it out when we get there. Don't worry about it for now." He smiled at the Hyuga girl. As the time went by, Hinata's crush on the blonde had turned into pure admiration. The way he completely forgets his own needs to help others, his crafty and creative traps that caught dinner or kept them safe while they slept. His feral nature when he gutted a rabbit or fish for dinner. How he gave his afternoon's rations to a begging mother. Naruto had proven himself to be a good person.

Watching him in the firelight, seeing the leader he was already, filled her with pride. She was both proud and honored to call him her friend. Neji tapped her side, and she leaned into him. Her eyes started to droop as the light crackling of the flames lured them to sleep.

The morning light shone through the mouth of the cave, hitting the Uchiha in his face. The boy groaned, throwing his arm over his eyes to block the assault. After a few minutes, he gave in and sat up. He looked up at his friends, doing a headcount. Neji and Hinata were huddled up together, Sai to the right of them, Sakura let out light puffs of air at his left, Naruto snoring loudly at his right. Gaara was playing with his bear not too far from him. The redhead signed a goodmorning then continued to play with his bear. The fire had died out at some point in the night, he shivered a drift blow though. "I'm stepping out for more firewood. Might check the traps while I'm out there."

"Okay."

"I'll be back soon."

"Don't go too far." Sasuke nodded, stepping into the cool air. The wet ground squished under his feet as he picked up twigs and fallen branches. Two of the five animal traps had gone off last night, one had a small racoon, and the other had a fox. He sighed and cut them loose. Naruto has this thing with foxes, they just seem to follow him wherever he goes. And racoons... well they didn't seem to taste all that good. Yeah, he may be homeless but he will never swoop that low. He came back into the cave to see that mostly everyone was awake. Neji was rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Sakura's hair was in a giant mess but she didn't seem to care. Naruto was still snoring loudly. "Dobe!" He kicked the blonde in the shin.

"I get it! I'm up! I'm up!" He sat up and glared at the raven head. "Did you check the traps?"

"Yeah. Nothing worth eating."

Naruto clicked his teeth, getting to his feet. "Seems like it's ration bars again." The group groaned but waited as the blonde unsealed the food. They each were given a bar, which they chewed slowly.

Sakura sighed, "how do you think things are going in Konoha?"

Sai grimaced as he took another bite from the bar. He had gotten the hang of regular emotions, and could smile normally. "Not any better than us. What about Suna? We did kidnap their jinchuuriki."