Sakura walked into the village. Well, more like limped and wavered into the village. She had just come back from a mission. She had to go and act as a spy for the village to see what a village in another country that was supposed to be an ally of the Leaf, but Tsunade had her doubts. When Sakura was assigned the on-man mission two and a half years ago, she didn't question Tsunade's thinking, because she had always been right before when it came to allies and enemies. She had told the young kunoichi that she would only have to stay there for a few months at the most, but the leader of the village had caught on and decided to hold her captive. They had beat her with every kind of weapon you can imagine— kunai; shurikan; whips; barbed wire that they would wrap around her neck. When they weren't beating her, they had her hand tied behind her back and hung her by her wrists-the pain for her was unbearable.

One day, they were late in their scheduled torture for her, so she took the risky chance and ran for it. She had now been on the run for at least two weeks, but now, as she entered Konoha, she was down to a limped kind of slow walk. Sakura had absolutely no chakra left in her body, but just enough to keep her going to the Hokage tower- she had to report to Tsunade before she did anything else. Then she realized something— it was the day before Christmas. She stopped walking for a moment to think about how her friends were doing. She looked down at herself. Her clothes were ripped and badly torn in a variety of places. There were cuts, bruises, scars, and deep gashes all over her body. She honestly wasn't in the mood to have them see her and gawk in horror at her injuries. She gathered up just enough chakra to transport herself directly to the Hokage Tower.

She found herself in a long hallway that led to Tsunade's public room where missions were assigned. 'I guess my focus is off today'. Sakura thought. She couldn't deny it, though. With all of the blood she had lost in the past week, there was no word to descry how dizzy and light headed she was from the loss of blood. Sakura looked ahead of her. Her vision blurred and she was finally starting to see double. She trudged on, though. She had come this far without too much of these side effects, she wasn't about to pass out again, not when she was so close to help.
Ten minutes later, Sakura was standing outside the door that led into the Hokage's public study/conference room. She tugged on the handle. It wouldn't budge. She pulled on it with all of the strength that she could muster. The door opened. Sakura's head was downcast, too tired to hold it up any more. She took each step slowly, leaving a small trail of blood behind her from the moment she arrived in the building. Tsunade looked up.

"Who the heck is insane enough to be walking around in these temper—" she gasped.

"Sakura!" The old woman stood up and rushed over to the young ninja. Sakura finally collapsed from total exhaustion. She caught Sakura in her arms and looked at her bloody body.

"Shizune!" she called. Her assistant rushed into the room and saw the boy in Tsunade's arms, and she recognized it immediately. "Shizune, get all of the other ninja that were close to Sakura. Quickly!" she yelled. Shizune nodded and rushed out of the room to call up all of Sakura's friends. Sakura's parents had died in war, so Sakura didn't have any real family with her. Tsunade put Sakura's body on a clear desk after putting a thick cloth on it to soak up any blood. She grabbed her medical tools, ready to get this girl healed before it was too late. Just as she was about to start the procedure, everyone came rushing into the room in this order: Naruto; Ino; Lee; Hinata; Neji; Shikamaru; Tenten; Kiba, and then Sasuke. Everyone stood there in the doorway, looking at the site before them. Tsunade motioned for them to come in. Slowly, they entered the room and gathered around the table, which Tsunade had put in the center of the room.

"I'm going to try everything I can to save her before the worst can happen, but I am going to need you guys to hole her down. She may not have any strength left in her, but even the lightest of movements can ruin everything. Everyone took their places around her, gently holding her down, trying their best not to hurt her injuries- there were so many of them. Kiba and Neji had one leg, with Lee and Shikamaru on the other. Naruto had one side of her waist, Tenten the other side. Hinata was up by Sakura's shoulders. Ino and Sasuke had to hold down her arms. Tsunade started the surgery by stopping to bleeding, then going to any broken bones, which she had plenty of those, then to all of the cuts and gashes. This all took a good 45 minutes.

During the whole time, Sasuke had one hand on her upper arm, and the other was holding her hand through the whole thing. As he held her cold hand, he rubbed his thumb on the back of her hand in a circular motion. He wasn't sure if she could feel it or not, but it not only was to calm her, but him, too. He would never admit it to anyone, but he missed her so much. When he heard from people in the council that she probably wouldn't be coming back because of how long she had been gone. When he heard the news, she was always his last thought before he went to sleep. In the past two New Years Eve parties, when he saw everyone kiss someone as the new year rolled in, he always wished it was Sakura that he would be kissing. He would not kiss any other girl, no matter what. In the summertime, whenever he wasn't raining, he would sit under the large cherry blossom trees and his thoughts would stay fixed on her. He never thought he would admit it before she left, but, he loved her—more than anything in the world.

"Okay, everyone. The surgery is over. Now, I'm going to need you guys to leave so she can get some rest. I just needed you guys here so that you knew that she was okay. I will call you back when she wakes up," Tsunade said. She started to move them out of the room. As everyone else was being filed out of the large room, Sasuke stayed by Sakura's side, still holding her hand. "Sasuke, did you hear me? I said that you need to leave for a while."

"Tsunade, do you mind if I…just stay here, with her?" he asked her. The last two words in his question were a whisper. Tsunade was about to protest and tell him to leave, but then she saw the look in his eyes: there was a mix of sadness and deep, passionate love. The Hokage smiled softly at the boy. She had a better idea for him.

"How about this. You take Sakura to your house, and spend all of Christmas day with her tomorrow. I trust you will keep an eye on her and take good care of her?" she said with a smirk on her

face.

Sasuke looked at her for a moment, wondering if she really meant what she head just said. When she nodded, he gave the smallest smile. He turned back to Sakura, gently, and carefully, he picked her up in his arms. Once he had a good grip on her, the two disappeared in a gust of wind and leaves.

Sasuke arrived at the Uchiha estate, one of the largest mansions in the village. They were standing in the main room of the house (if someone could really call it a house). It was a large room with black marble floors with an abstract design of different shades of grays and whites. The walls were light beige. Above the front door was a large, circular stain-glass window that was divided into eight sections. There was a hallway straight ahead from the door that leads to a large dining room. Above the entrance to the hallway was spiraling staircases that lead to the upstairs, where all of the bedrooms and studies were, including a small library.

Sasuke looked down at Sakura's sleeping form. His gaze rested on her peaceful face. Along with the look of peace on her soft face, Sasuke could see the pain on her face from the surgery. He didn't want to see it, so he put his attention on carrying her up to the bedrooms. He desperately wanted to have her in the same be as him, to really make sure that she was safe from any harm, but he didn't want her to wake up, in some guys arms, and have to deal with all of the confusion and have her think that he was a pervert. So he took her to a room that he decorated himself. The door on the outside in the hall was a dull wood door. But once you open the door, the first thing you notice was that the walls were a pearl with painted cherry blossom trees on them. The trees were surrounded by enlarged cherry blossom petals that were painted in different shades of pink. He floors were a polished wood. He felt that when she woke up here, she wouldn't feel so bad. Well, that was what hoped. He laid her down on the large bed on the right side of the room that was set against the wall. As he laid her down, he thought that she might get a little cod, so he moved her body so that she was under the soft white sheets. The bed sheets were a light pink camouflage design. Sasuke looked down at her sleeping form again. He couldn't help but caress her cheek lightly with his finger. It was so soft, even after all of the torture she had been through for so long. He looked at the clock in the room: it was already 9:00 P.M. Sasuke reluctantly left the room, closing the door behind him, and walked down to the kitchen. As he walked through the door, he noticed that there was mistletoe hanging above him.

'Naruto' he thought. 'He must have secretly hung it up the last time he and the others were here.'

Sasuke walked further into the kitchen and made himself a cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream on it. As he sipped his drink, he heard movement from upstairs.

'Sakura.' he thought.

Sakura woke up, but kept her eyes closed. She felt blankets on top of her. They were so soft and warming. She didn't remember the sheets at the village hospital feeling so good. So then where was she? Sakura slowly opened her eyes to see that she was in a room with pretty white walls and they had pink Sakura trees painted on them. She then noticed that the only colors in the entire room were white, different shades of pink, and the wooden floors. She stood up, quite shakily, and walked over to the door. She opened the door, and found that she had more strength than she did before. Then she looked down at her body. There were no cuts, no gashes, no bruises, only a few faint scars from her injuries that she knew would disappear quickly.
Sakura looked both ways down the long hallway, saw no end to either side, and decided to go to her right. After walking down the hall, it turned a sharp turn to the right. She looked down the hall. There were no more doors, or openings to other hallways. It was just a long hallway with pictures on both sides of the hall. She walked slowly down the newly discovered part of the unfamiliar place. There were pictures of a family. And after seeing a few of the pictures of this family, she noticed that is was an Uchiha family. She looked at the youngest person in the pictures. Immediately she recognized who it was.

"Sasuke."

As she went further down the hall, the pictures changed from being pictures of his family to being pictures of team seven, and other ninja that were friends of Sasuke's. There was one of some

girl punching Lee for hitting on her, and one of Kakashi getting his mask pulled off by Naruto. Then Sakura came to the near end of the long hallway of pictures. Then she noticed another thing. The final 20 or so pictures were of Sakura. But the thing was, they weren't taken by a camera. They were painted, and they looked so real. A small 'wow' escaped from her lips.

"Do you like them?"

Sakura turned around so quickly, that she lost her balance and started falling to the ground. She closed her eye, waiting for the impact, but it never came. She opened her eye to see someone looking down at her with dark, onyx eyes. Sakura squinted up at the man who caught her.

"Sasuke? Is it really you?" she asked quietly. Sasuke looked at her and smiled.

"Welcome home, Sakura." Sakura's eyes widened and she wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him. Sasuke quickly put his arms around her waist and held her as close to him as possible without hurting her. This gesture took Sakura by surprise.

"Wait, you're hugging me back?" she wondered aloud. Sasuke pulled back and looked her in the eyes. It was then that Sakura noticed how close their bodies were. She blushed deeply and as she started to make some space between them, Sasuke picked her up as he did before. As he was about to carry her down the hall to take downstairs, she stopped him.

"Wait," she said. "Why do you have all of these pictures of just me? And… who painted them for you? Because I know that they aren't from a camera and—" she doubled over from sudden pain, and fell out of Sasuke's arms. Sakura lay on the ground, clenching her stomach in pain. Sasuke knelt down beside her.

"Hey, Sakura, what's wrong? Are you alright?" he asked worriedly. Sakura slowly stood up from where she was.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I'm just so hungry that it hurts. Those village people didn't feed e too much a week, and I have not eaten anything since I busted myself out of there."

"Well, how about you come downstairs and I get you something good to eat. How does that sound?" Sakura looked up at him and smiled.

As they were walking through the halls, Sakura gazed at this new Sasuke. He had gotten a little taller since she left for the mission. His skin was only the slightest bit darker, but it was almost too hard to tell even if you looked hard enough. His hair was about an inch longer, but she was okay with that. Sasuke also had a bit more of a muscular structure to him. But there was one thing that really caught her attention.

His eyes.

The look in his eye wasn't as she had remembered it. They didn't give off this, cold, icy stare. Well, they were still a bit cold, but there was some warmth to them. Or maybe she was just thinking there was something there because she was unconsciously comparing his star to that of the people who abused her.

"Is there a reason why you are staring at me like that?" he asked. Sakura looked away, embarrassed that he caught her.

"Sorry, it's just…you look a little different, that's all." Sasuke smiled as he continued to walk, starting his way down the stairs.

"Well, you look a little different, too," he said softly. As they entered the kitchen, Sasuke made Sakura a hot meal (you guys are creative, you think of it!). He watched as she ate the food he had made for her. He got the odd feeling that she didn't like. Apparently it had showed on his face.

"Relax, Sasuke, your cooking is fine. I'm just tired, that's all. Hey, do you know what the date is?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, it is Christmas Eve," he said emotionlessly. All of a sudden, all of the lights in the house went out. Sakura let out a yelp of surprise. Sasuke couldn't help but laugh at her a little bit.

"What's so funny?" she asked. Sasuke just gave her his usual grunt and walked around, looking for the flashlight. 'I know I left it around here somewhere…..' he thought. He accidently

bumped into her, making her give out a short scream. That was when Sasuke found the flashlight and turned it on to find that sakura had jumped at least half way across the kitchen.

"What was that for, huh? You really scared me there, Sasuke!" she watched as Sasuke smirked at her. Then his smirk faded as quickly as it came.

"Um, sorry, Sakura. I didn't mean to harm you, or anything. Why did you get so freaked, though?" he asked her.

"Back when I was being held captive and tortured, that was how I knew that they were going to give me a really harsh beating….by turning to the lights out and running into me from behind." She whispered. Sasuke looked at her for a moment, and she could almost swear that he saw sadness in his black eyes. But when she looked again, his face was downcast, unreadable. Sakura

didn't know what to make of it, so she shrugged it off. The two then walked to the common room in the mansion, where Sasuke started a fire in the large fireplace. After a few minutes of messing with it, he got the fire to be big enough to greatly illuminate the entire room. Sasuke walked over and sat by Sakura on the couch. There was an awkward silence between the two.

"You still haven't answered my question from earlier, you know. About the paintings of me?" she said.

"Well, first off, I didn't have someone paint those for me…I painted them myself," he said, embarrassed.

"Okay, but why would you paint pictures of me?" Sasuke sighed. He stood up and walked a few steps away from her, facing the opposite wall. He was really nervous in this subject.

"I was . . . afraid." Sakura looked at him with a curious look, though he couldn't see it.

"Afraid? Of what?" she questioned. Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and had his head bent down. He watched for a moment as the light from the fire flickered on the wall in front of him.

"I was afraid I wasn't going to see you again, so I painted some pictures of you as not to forget how you looked," he whispered.

"Why would you think that you wouldn't see me again?" Sakura was so confused at this point. Sasuke huffed out some breath, and turned his gaze back towards the ground.

"You didn't hear them. You didn't hear what everyone was saying while you were away."

"What were they saying, Sasuke?"

Sasuke remained silent for a few minutes before answering.

" . . . Everyone was saying that you were dead . . ." he said more quietly than before.

"What?" Sakura didn't understand why he would care so much about if she were alive or not.

"You don't know what it was like to hear them say such things. Every time I heard something like that come out of someone's mouth, I just was wanted to punch them out and tell them to shut up, but that would reveal the biggest secret I have ever kept."

"And what would that be?" Sakura had a feeling of what was coming next.

"Sakura…………. When I saw you in the Hokage's office earlier today, I was so happy that you were alive. Sakura…………….. I think, no, I KNOW I love you. When the surgery was over, I immediately wanted to wake you up and kiss you, just to show how much I care and how much I have missed you over the past few years. But I wasn't sure if you loved me back after all this time." Sakura was so shocked. Though she had seen it coming, it sent her heart soaring to cloud nine. All this time, she thought he hated her, but it turned out to be the total opposite.

'Wait, what if this is all some holiday joke? What if he is just messing with my mind?! Is it possible that he really feels this way about me…….. ?' she thought.

"Prove it."

Sasuke looked at her with almost no emotion on his face. And for what little emotion there was, she didn't recognize it. He walked over to her. Sasuke looked at Sakura in the eyes and put one hand in his back pocket. After a moment's hesitation, he pulled out mistletoe. Sakura looked at the small holiday symbol and gasped. He put the mistletoe above both of their heads, and smirked.

"Merry Christmas, Sakura," he whispered. Sasuke brought his lips to hers, kissing her softly. Sakura was shocked, she pulled away.

"What are you doing?" she questioned. Sasuke looked at her. 'Is she seriously asking that question?' he thought.

"I'm doing just what you told me to do. Proving my love," he said, mater-of-factly. "Do you mind if I continue?" he asked, just a bit annoyed. Sakura gave him a smile/smirk.

"No, you're done. Now, it's MY turn." Sakura leaned in and kissed him back, but with a little bit more passion. Sasuke dropped the mistletoe and wrapped his arms around her waist, while she put her arms around his neck. After a few minutes, Sasuke pulled back, a sweet smile on his face. 'He hasn't smiled for over eight years,' Sakura thought. He brought her into an embrace and

she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Sasuke?"

"Hm?" he responded.

"I-I love you," she whispered. Sasuke pulled back enough to look her full in the face. There was no longer a smile on his face, but there was definitely a smile in his eyes; they gleamed with it.

"I'm glad!" he said. Sakura noticed how happy he sounded. All of a sudden, the power came back on, but the lights in the room remained off, still having the fire illuminate everything. The radio turned itself on from the sudden power boost, and there was Christmas music playing. They recognized the current song immediately. It was a pop version of "Let it Snow," by an unknown artist.

'Oh, the fire is slowly dying

And my dear, we're still goodbyeing

But as long as you love me so, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!'

Sasuke walked over to the radio and turned it off, right when a large clock in the town struck midnight. (they only do that on certain days) Sasuke walked over to Sakura and picked her up bridal style.

"Sasuke, what are you doing?" she asked.

"Hn. You must be exhausted from earlier. It's midnight, and you should be getting some sleep," he answered. There was a small smirk on his face. He didn't take her to the room he put her in before, he took the two of them to his room. Sasuke laid Sakura on the bed, and then lay down beside her. As he wrapped his arms around her waist, he gave her one final kiss for the night. This only made Sakura snuggle into his embrace.

"Merry Christmas, Sakura." He said again.