Giving Thanks for Small Things
It was so very cold. The wind was bitter and people's breath rose in front of them like puff of cloud. But Sakura found that she didn't care, she was wrapped up tightly in her cloak and gloves with a long sleeved jumper underneath. Even with all that she was still shivering slightly but she was having too much fun to be bothered by that.
They had been on their way back from a mission, successfully completed with ease, but when all they had to do was search for someone's missing cat there wasn't much where they could go wrong. And Sakura was ashamed to say that Team 7 was getting unfortunately good at pet retrieval missions much to Naruto's disgust. Despite him thinking it demeaning for them to be stuck doing D rank missions all the time animals seemed to take against him for some reason and he was stuck, yet again, with scratches up him arms as the cat had tried to claw itself out of Naruto's hold. Sasuke had done nothing to stop it and Sakura, herself, had been too busy laughing at Naruto's expression to even consider helping him.
At least this one had taken place outside of Konoha and it had been on the journey home that they had found the town all lit up with Christmas lights with market stalls decorated like gingerbread houses selling bits and pieces and the smell and sizzle of food cooking in the air.
Sakura had felt slightly bad about laughing at Naruto later but with the scratches somehow healed up already and Naruto's tugging on her cloak constantly as they approached the strings of Christmas lights her sympathy had dried up to be replaced by annoyance.
She let him get away with it if only to distract herself from the fact that Sasuke would never let her do something like that to him, or that he would never approach her in any way. It was both depressing and slightly selfish of her that she was completely ignored by the person whose attention she wanted most of all while someone she didn't want to like her that way was happy to try and vie for her attention.
"We might as well stop here for the night." Kakashi said, closing his book as he looked around him. Sasuke gave him a sceptical look as Naruto cheered loudly. Sakura grinned excitedly.
"Do you really mean that Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.
"Sure why not?" Kakashi said off-handishly, "it's a good a place as any. Just all stick together and it'll be fine."
"Where are you going Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked and he shrugged slightly.
"I'll find us a place to stay and catch up with you later. Just remember not to go wandering off on your own." He added.
"We're not children." Naruto muttered and Kakashi seemed to smile down at him.
"Technically you are. But if anything it would do you all good to spend time together outside of missions and training. Think of it as an exercise in teamwork if you have to." He said glancing at Sasuke who hadn't said anything the whole time. Sakura glanced thoughtfully between Naruto and Sasuke and realised it would probably be up to her to try and separate them if they got into an argument but she doubted she could do much to stop them. Still she deliberately stepped between the two boys to keep them apart.
"Thanks Sensei." She said and Kakashi patted her on the head slightly.
"Good luck Sakura," he said quietly but from the look Sasuke shot them she guessed that he had heard. In a louder voice Kakashi added; "you three try to have fun now." And then he left, effortlessly melting into the crowd until they couldn't see him. It was moments like that when they could see, despite his messing around, that Kakashi was an amazing jonin. Sasuke made a small noise of annoyance in the back of his throat.
Sakura felt distinctly uneasy as Naruto and Sasuke eyed each other, confined to each other's company on Kakashi's instructions. At the moment Sakura didn't seem to register to them and she was getting used to feeling left out with those two. It was like they shared something she would never be able to understand.
"Well," She said brightly, "what do you want to do now?"
"Let's get some food!" Naruto said eagerly, "it smells amazing." Sakura glanced at Sasuke who looked as if he didn't care either way what they did so she smiled at Naruto.
"Sure, sounds great." She said and then, after steeling herself for a few moments, she grabbed each of their hands and led them both into the crowds.
Naruto had instantly curled his hand around hers and Sakura felt secure next to him. In contrast Sasuke's had taken a few moments of being pulled along by Sakura's strong grip before he had enclosed her hand in his. Sakura felt a small amount of pride that he had actually allowed her that, it wasn't something she did often. So, hand in hand with each of her team mates she fought through the crowds of people, where most of them had congregated near the stall grilling meat.
They paused and Sakura let Sasuke slip his hand away from hers so he could fold his arms. Naruto seemed to notice and squeezed her hand in sympathy and before he tugged her forward towards the vendor.
"Want me to buy you something Sakura?" He asked, "That way despite being stuck with a grumpy Sasuke it can be like a date."
"And how is that supposed to encourage proper teamwork like Kakashi asked." Sakura said.
"Well then I guess I could force Sasuke to buy you some kind of desert and then that's sort of teamwork there." He said and Sakura found herself laughing slightly.
"I'd like to see you attempt that." She said archly.
"Hey," Naruto protested. "You don't think I can take Sasuke on?"
"Naruto you had problems taking the cat on earlier." She said and Naruto scowled at her.
"That cat was strangely cunning." He protested.
"I think she means that you've not got much going for you when you can get out smarted by a cat, even a 'cunning' one." Sasuke said suddenly making Sakura very aware that he had heard their entire conversation. Naruto opened his mouth to argue back but Sakura physically got between them, letting go of Naruto's hand to nudge him slightly.
"How about we drop this argument." She said, "Naruto I was only teasing you." She glanced up at Sasuke who was oddly enough not trying to stare down Naruto but was looking at her. Although his inattention to Naruto seemed to enrage Naruto further than glaring back at him would have.
By this time they had all been jostled to the front of the queue and Sakura was relieved when Sasuke turned his attention away from her, there was something about his scrutinising gaze that had made her feel uneasy.
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked and Sakura blinked. "Both of you, what do you want I thought you were hungry." He added shoving his hands in his pockets. Sakura smiled slightly as Naruto ordered it was probably the closest thing they had ever gotten to a Sasuke kind of apology.
"Thanks Sasuke." Sakura said softly taking a bite out of her appropriately names "sausage in a bun" as Sasuke paid for their food, unfortunately in her first bite all she got was a mouthful of bread. Naruto was resolutely ignoring the fact that Sasuke had just bought them all food but as Sasuke hadn't given any sign of caring about that Sakura decided to not try to force Naruto into an apology, it would probably only cause resentment anyway. She took another bite of her food and this time managed to bite off some of the freshly cooked meat. It was good.
Sakura nudged Naruto so they could move out of the way of the people massing around the hot food stand and she could tell that Sasuke was following them, no physical contact required. Together they wandered up and down the rows of stalls and while Naruto had complained at Sakura's spending far too much time at a stall selling handmade soaps in bars of swirling colours, Sasuke was surprisingly complacent about it all.
Whether it was because he didn't mind being stuck with Sakura due to what Naruto termed her 'girlish tendencies' or if he thought it was too much hassle to complain she didn't know. Still he stood next to her while she bought something and for that she was grateful, Naruto had disappeared somewhere and was nowhere to be seen.
Before she had the chance to appreciate some rare time with just Sasuke, Naruto came running back clutching something in his arms.
"Look what I got us," he said breathlessly. "Roast chestnuts, the man selling them said that they're very Christmassy." He added handing Sakura a small paper bag of the warm nuts. Then, surprisingly enough he handed Sasuke one too with a sort of shrug as if him buying three lots was almost commonplace. Sasuke seemed to find it to be unexpected as well as when Sakura glanced over to gauge Sasuke's reaction he seemed to hesitate slightly before taking his share from Naruto.
They ate in silence, although Naruto seemed excited and was constantly shifting his weight from foot to foot.
"Stop acting like an overeager puppy." Sasuke said suddenly and Sakura tried not to snicker at the fact that Sasuke of all people said the word puppy. It wasn't that she didn't think it was in his repertoire it just seemed strange to hear him actually say the word.
Naruto just scowled at him.
"Sorry for being excited to be able to actually spend Christmas with people who actually seem to care about me for once." He said and if it wasn't Naruto saying it Sakura would have thought the words sounded almost bitter. Sasuke didn't look remotely abashed and as Sakura shifted awkwardly between them he just gave Naruto a stony look. One Naruto tried to match and failed as someone as cheerful as Naruto couldn't even attempt to imitate the same expressions Sasuke could do easily.
"Of course we care." Sakura said stepping in to diffuse the situation and Naruto gave her a grateful smile. She easily slipped her arm through Naruto's and offered a tentative hand to Sasuke, that he actually took. So arm in arm with Naruto and hand in hand with Sasuke she dragged the two of them to the next stall.
"Now," She said, "Who's thirsty and I was thinking that as you two have kindly bought me something then it's my turn."
"I didn't buy you those so you'd feel you'd owe me." Naruto protested.
"Well it's only fair." Sakura said shrugging, "isn't it Sasuke?" She said turning to Sasuke, hoping for once that he and Naruto weren't going to gang up on her with their overbearing 'let's protect Sakura' routine that seemed to apply in missions, in dangerous situations and often from splitting the food bill evenly. Sakura had come to assume that it was some kind of bizarre male pride thing.
She was in luck. Sasuke gave her a small smile before leaning forward to peer at Naruto.
"Why not." He said, "You wouldn't want to deprive her of this would you Naruto?" Naruto spluttered slightly and eventually he managed to squeak out a; "no". Before they could shuffle forward together in the queue Sasuke moved closer to Sakura.
"You just need to know what to say to him." He said softly in her ear and Sakura smiled at him, enjoying the look of amusement in his eyes, it was almost as if they were sharing a private joke. Although part of her was slightly surprised at how well Sasuke could manipulate Naruto, despite all their arguments they seemed to have a greater understanding of each other than she had of either of them but she hoped that that would come in time for her as they spent more missions together.
"I wasn't that bad at the mission though." Naruto said suddenly, picking up on the conversation Sakura thought they had closed about half an hour ago.
"What?" She said absentmindedly.
You said there's no way I could beat Sasuke if I couldn't handle that cat." He said.
"Naruto it was meant to be a joke." Sakura said and they stepped forward to try and hold their place in the queue to get drinks.
"Yeah, I know." Naruto said "but it's just-" He hesitated and Sakura was astounded to see that Naruto of all people could be plagued with the same insecurities that everyone else had. "I've gotten better right?" He asked and she nodded slightly.
"Of course you have, we all have I think, a lot of this stuff comes with practise and experience so we'll all get better together and anyway someone like you Naruto will probably only get better." She said soothingly and she was dimly aware of Ino telling her something similar when they were much younger, she had always been good at picking Sakura's spirits up when she felt like a failure.
"She's right Naruto." Sasuke said and at that Naruto seemed to swell with pride, "a few months ago you would have been covered in scratches from that cat, this time you only got three." He added and Naruto glared at him. Sakura tried not to roll her eyes, typical, she couldn't believe she had even thought for a moment that Sasuke was going to say something completely nice to Naruto.
"Just keep trying," Sakura said soothingly "you're drive to keep going is admirable at least, you never give up so I'm sure that one day you'll be an amazing ninja. Come on, what do you two want to drink anyway?"
"That's a good question." Kakashi said appearing behind them. They all went rigid as none of them had even noticed him get close until he was right behind them. "And as I'm feeling particularly generous I'll buy them for you."
"I was going to buy them." Sakura protested and Kakashi waved her off.
"Oh shush," He said. "Allow me this one chance to spoil my little students." Naruto bristled slightly at the word 'little' but Sakura smiled and relented. Kakashi, it seemed had the odd habit of popping up when he thought they had displayed a good show of team work, like the time he passed them as a team.
So it was then that despite the cold Sakura couldn't help being happy. With Sasuke on one side of her, Naruto on the other and Kakashi following behind them, for once giving his surroundings his full attention and not looking at his book. She felt oddly warm and safe surrounded by her team, it was unlike the Christmases she had spent with her family, or the trips with Ino when they had been close friends.
It was certainly something when a group of people who had been shoved together by chance made up a little family, sure Sakura still had her own, her parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents with a whole host of cousins as well, but even she could appreciate what they had together was something a little special. Sakura could see Naruto's face radiating glee as he was practically grinning for ear to ear and she wondered if it really was the first Christmas he had really shared with other people and even Sasuke looked content. She turned round to give all of them a broad smile.
"What shall we do now?" She asked and Sasuke shrugged and then Naruto made some comment which led to them to start bickering amongst themselves. Kakashi didn't seem too fussed by them and smiled at Sakura pointing out a stall selling odd hair trinkets for her to look at.
Yes, Sakura thought, they had somehow become a dysfunctional little family even if she was sure that Kakashi would be unimpressed with being cast as a fatherly figure in their group. She knew that this would mean the world to Naruto and could only hope that it would offer Sasuke some comfort. She had no idea where Kakashi stood on these kinds of things considering he had made a point from the start with their introductions not to tell them anything about himself.
As for Sakura herself, she felt she was the luckiest one of them all, having two families, her real one and her teammates, to cherish. Something she planned to do for the rest of her life as despite all the annoyances Naruto's persistence, Sasuke's cold brush offs and Kakashi's perpetual lateness at this moment in time she felt that she wouldn't change them for the world.