Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. Copyright to Kishimoto Masashi.

A/N:

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Here's a cute explanation of where Sasuke was in the epilogue. He was travelling to get his daughter Christmas present. I will reveal it tomorrow when it is Boxing Day. This is a Christmas Special two-shot and post canon. The first chapter is T-rated and the second is M with adult humour and a heated kissing scene.

Enjoy the read! Review would be the best Christmas present I could get as a writer. Thank you very much.

- Athrna

Chapter 1 - A Note to Santa

"What are you reading, darling?" Sakura asked.

The mother just finished with the laundry and found her daughter smiling brightly to herself on the sofa, hugging a book fondly. It was a brand new book and it was borrowed from the Academy Library. The stamp on the corner of the cover told her that. Sakura was curious what had gotten Sarada all interested that she was smiling so contently. Much to her dismay, her daughter had inherited the father's not-so-smiley gen. Sarada certainly knew how to smirk in all sort of situations, but smiling and smirking were not the same.

Definitely not, Sakura thought.

"About Christmas." Adjusting her glasses, Sarada opened the book again.

"It's a foreign festival that we don't traditionally celebrate." Sakura made her way to sit beside the girl who indulged herself in the book.

"That's right. We've been opening up to the wider world in the last two decades, so lots of foreign traditions and religions have come into Konoha." Sarada kept flicking through the pages as she was trying to find that section where it talked about Christmas wishes. She found it and pointed it to show her mother. "Here."

Taking a quick glance, Sakura sighed. "Yes, Santa. Just a chubby, white-haired, old-man with beard. What's so special about him?" Personally, she wasn't very interested. There wasn't much to look forward to. She knew about Santa when she was young. Like Sarada, she had made a wish, but it only gave her disbelief. She prayed for his return all those years ago and it was not answered until many more years later. Although he came back in the end, that was not Santa's doing. It was Naruto's. She failed and he succeeded. At least they made it.

"He makes people's wishes come true. He brings people presents on Christmas night when we're sleeping." Sarada was the opposite. She was very much looking forward. Running away and coming back, she held a folded piece of red cloth with a white fur edge. When she loosened it, it was a man-size stocking that fell on the floor. It was gigantic! Sakura gawked at her daughter and Sarada just nodded her head excitedly, pointing to a piece of paper she hung on a Christmas tree. "I've put my wish up on the Christmas tree already. I just have to hope Santa keeps his promise."

"Wait a second." Sakura then spotted a fully decorated pine tree by the entrance of the living room. She had no idea when it came into her house and she had no idea how it got in. "Did you buy a tree?"

"I didn't. It's a Christmas present from Hokage-sama. Every household has a child under sixteen gets a pine tree to decorate this year," Sarada said. She pointed to the wrapped presents underneath the tree. "Those are from friends in the academy. I won't open them until Boxing Day."

Sakura took her guess. Yamato must have been pulled into this. The Seventh ordered the retired shinobi for a favour, and what a favour it was! There was just no way there was enough pine trees to be cut down for that many families within the Land of fire and they could afford that. They would risk the decrease in oxygen level as well as damaging the ecosystem. As the Hokage, Naruto must have taken that into account. Even if he hadn't, Shikamaru would have reminded him. The Wood Release user had it coming when their reigning Hokage decided to celebrate Christmas in Konohagakure no Sato. Naruto going all diplomatic and educational to the young was weird, but he had to do it the most unconventional way.

After all, he was the Show-Off, Number One Unpredictable, Noisy Ninja. Uzumaki Naruto had always lived up to the reputation.

"What's that stocking for? It's huge." Sakura took it her hands and lifted it up high. It was even bigger than her. She couldn't help but to weirdly at her daughter. "What did you ask for?"

Sarada had her lower lip protruded in a sulky pout as she stared outside the window. The snowy sky was filled with gloomy grey. She tried to be hopeful. Forcing out a smile, she looked up to see her mother. "To fit daddy in it, of course."

Sarada missed her dad badly and she missed her husband very much, too. It was not typical of her daughter to fall for a children's tale like that. Clearly, she was desperate.

Sakura softened the doubts in her eyes into a longing gaze. She gently caressed the girl's ebony hair and wrapped her in arms protectively. Sasuke was out of the village very often. Too often for their liking, in fact. He would take all the chances to travel around the world, to learn more and to see more for himself. He was always on that never-ending quest in searching for truth. It only got Sakura wondered sometimes.

Sarada and herself. They were real. They were true. Were they not enough?

She would give him anything and all he needed to do was to ask. Let her know. He loved his daughter to bits. There was no doubt about that, but strangely he wouldn't spare too much time on her. Sakura did not get it. After all these years, her understanding of him was still very little. Yet, he knew all of her.

"Daddy will be back. I'm sure," Sarada reassured her mother. Sakura withdrew her eyes a little from her daughter's sight, trying to hide her expected disappointment. No one ordered Uchiha Sasuke around. For Sarada, maybe, he would do it. Just maybe. There was no guarantee.

Sakura pulled out a smile before leaving to the kitchen to prepare dinner. "Let's hope so."

She didn't want to discourage Sarada; she didn't want to give her false hope, either.

Around one o'clock past midnight on the 26th December, Sasuke stalled into his own house by the back door to avoid making loud noises. He was moving around as discreetly as possible. His wife and daughter must be asleep at this hour. Making his way into the living room, he found the space was dimly lit up by the lights on a Christmas tree. The gold and silver tinsels reflected the warm colours shining off the fairy lights. Candy canes, hearts, and multi-coloured, mini presents were hanging on the tree's branches. At the top, there was a silver star and by its side, there was a note. It was a long note and seemingly it wasn't for him.

Dear Santa,

All I want for Christmas is my dad coming back for Christmas. Mummy and I miss him so, so, so, so much. I don't want to see mummy sighing when she cooks. I don't want to see mummy blanking out when she stares at nothing. I don't want to see that long face on mummy wears for another day. Actually, I also want a baby sibling to play with. Yes, I'm jealous of everyone else who has a brother or sister. For that particularly, I'm jealous of Boruto. I'll admit it now. There are times I do feel lonely. Anyway, if you can't help with my second wish, that's okay, but please bring daddy home for Christmas, Mr Santa. I want my daddy back and I promise I'll be good for the next year to come.

Best regards,

- Uchiha Sarada

Sasuke smiled to himself. He knew he shouldn't, because he was smiling at the implication of how his daughter had very few friends. In other words, she had inherited his antisocialness. It wasn't exactly something to be proud of; he felt weirdly happy about it and inwardly for the wrong reason.

Then, he noticed the dried but once damped surface on the paper and so he concluded. It was tears. Sarada did not cry usually. She played strong and stood tall. She would hide her weakness and pretend it was all good. Sasuke knew his daughter, because she was too much alike him. Sasuke chuckled a little, remembering how Itachi used to do the same. He recalled vaguely the time when he had caught his late brother doing something similar around the time of the massacre. Itachi was walking aimlessly in the street and wore a painstaking, emotionless face. As soon as he greeted his older brother, Itachi put on a bright smile in that instant and took Sasuke into his arms. The expression might not tell his feelings, but it told of his soundless frustration. Now he knew why, not back then when he was an ignorant child.

Sasuke remembered that very well. Maybe it was just an Uchiha thing, because he knew he was like that as well no matter how much he would deny it. Or, maybe Sakura had passed on her stubbornness very thoroughly to their daughter.

He would love to have more children with the woman he loved. He was reluctant to put Sakura through pregnancy again. The pain and suffering. It wasn't like he had not put her through enough. The immeasurable torment she had experienced during the process was unforgettable. He was there when she gave birth. He could only watch and did nothing to ease her pain. He saw. Sakura lost it. She could only express the agony she felt in earth-shattering screams. She couldn't even speak. No matter how tough and powerful a kunoichi she was, she was just an expecting mother in labour.

A woman.

That was another good reason why he needed to travel as much as he could. She was the woman who could make him ignore the rest of the world, but life did not work like that. When he was home, he would be drunk in her loving. Her tenderness. Her care. Her love. He would be so unproductive. He wouldn't want to leave her side - couldn't take his eyes off her, couldn't take his hands off her, couldn't take his lips off hers. She could easily turn him into another man that he wouldn't recognise himself before a mirror. He would be happily spend all day, every day with his family. He would happily sit beside Sarada when she did her homework and read with her, that was despise how much he was not interested in neither of them.

He would not risk it. Accidents happened in life. He knew he did not have control of himself. He did not want to put Sakura through all that again, because he loved her. And that, was what exactly hurt his wife and daughter: being away from them.

If he was honest with himself, he knew he probably missed them more than he would feel comfortable to let them know. He really did. He missed how his daughter would only become a spoiled child because her daddy was with her. He missed how Sakura would only show that hidden side of herself when no one else was around and only the two of them.

He missed his wife and daughter so much.

"Consider it done." And he meant for both wishes. A smirk crawled its way to his lips as he spoke quietly to himself. He was very amused.

Sasuke put the note back to where it was. He made his way to his daughter's bedroom first to drop off her Christmas present which he had gone all the way to the Land of Lightning to get her. If she would wake up to find him snuggling her present into her bookshelf, then she would be first to know.

He was home.