Summer Snow

A/N: Hello AFF! After much deliberation, I finally decided to register an account on AFF. This particular story, while not my first ever fanfiction, is the first fic I've ever posted here. This is a HUGE WIP and, seeing as how school will be starting soon, will be updated rather sporadically. I tend to update my LJ before anything else, so if I haven't updated in an ungodly long time, check there.
Pairing : KakaSaku
Warnings : Lemon (in later chapters), SoloF, SoloM, language, oral
Disclaimer : I, obviously, do not own Naruto.
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It was one of those lazy summer days which seems to beg for one to lay around, dangling their toes in a cool stream while basking in the flickering shadows of ancient trees. Birds were singing; white, fluffy clouds were whipping across the vibrant blue sky, occasionally obscuring an unusually merciful sun. It was the kind of day that warranted a temporary moratorium on all incoming missions.

But the world was at war.

It had emanated from the Wave Country, the fire of rebellion sparked by the wresting of control from Gatou, and the restoring of it to the people.

Eventually, however, "the people" became several smaller groups of people, each with distinctly different beliefs as to how the country should be run. This led to heated arguements, breaking of ties between families, and, finally, the assassination of the leader of one of the major groups.

This paved the way for some of the smaller, more obscure groups to attempt to take the reins.

News of the dissent spread across the bridge like lightening; igniting conflicts in nearly every country, even bleeding across the sea to the Water Country in the short span of only three years. It had yet to take root in the Fire Country, but the airborne seedlings of dissidence were threatening enough to cause Konoha to more or less shut down, no longer accepting mission bids from fellow countries. To do so could place two Konoha shinobi on opposite sides of the battlefield from each other, and Tsunade was wise enough to realize that.

Instead of accepting incoming missions from allied countries, the blonde Hokage had begun assigning missions to members of ANBU, sending them to neighboring countries with tokens of good will and requests for alliances. She had also dealt out a good deal of scouting missions to unknown countries. It was under the premise of being assigned one such mission that Hatake Kakashi found himself in the Sixth's office, listening to the obligatory "Good of Konoha" speech. The jounin's shoulders slumped with an inaudible sigh, 'Why on earth is she assigning me to this? I haven't been with ANBU for years.'

"I realize this may come as a shock to you, Hatake, but we really do need all the ANBU we can get." Kakashi nodded solemnly, silently.

"In fact, since you haven't had the chance to train with the ANBU much lately..." Looking to the age-defying woman seated before him, his single, dark eye widened as she drew out her team-assigning cards.

"Ah, here we go! Say hello to your new teammates, Kakashi."

Flipping two cards onto the surface of her desk, the jounin's eyebrow disappeared beneath his hitai'ate with shock and, deep within his mind, relief.

"But Naruto and Sakura are only chuunin, Hokage-sama."

The cherry blossom-pink lips of the sannin curved upwards with a grin, "Only because the jounin exams haven't started yet. You'd be amazed at how far they've grown in their skills. Besides, I know how much you miss them."

It was certainly true; he had missed his former students a great deal. They had become almost like family to him, but the fact that Tsunade had figured him out so easily was a bit discomfiting, 'Am I THAT obvious?'

Tsunade tossed a mission statement scroll at the silver-haired jounin, a confident smirk plastered across her face. "Go get Team 7 ready, Kakashi. Dismissed!"
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A/N : I will update this as often as I can. Comments, negative or positive, make me write faster! Please read and review!