Disclaimer: We don't own Naruto, nor any places, characters, things, or ideas therein. The aforementioned belong to Masashi Kishimoto, Shounen Jump, Viz Media, TV Tokyo, etc. We wrote this fic for entertainment purposes only, not monetary gain.

Summary: Was Santa Claus really having a party on their roof? Uchiha Hinata wondered. Or was something else going on? :Sasuke x Hinata, light and fluffy holiday fic:

Rating: T

Warnings: Semi-detailed descriptions of the foaling process

Universe: AU

Pairings: Sasuke/Hinata, Neji/Tenten, Itachi/Temari

Part: 1/1

Author's Note: Mama Jo and I decided we wanted to do something extra special this year - we wanted to write a Christmas fic together! So The Christmas Foal is a collab (our second, after Labyrinth), though Mama Jo always serves as my most wonderful beta. We really enjoyed writing this fic, and we hope you enjoy reading it! Thanks for checking it out!

*~The Christmas Foal~*

.:fyd818 & Mama Jo:.

Santa Claus was having a party on the roof...

...To a recurring snippet of "The Carol of the Bells"...

...Accompanied by a flashing light.

As Uchiha Hinata jerked to full wakefulness, the rather strange thought which had first occurred to her tired mind skittered for cover. But the loud knocking sound which had originally wakened her was still going on, though it clearly wasn't coming from the roof.

Next to her under the covers, her husband Sasuke took one look at the digital clock on his nightstand and pulled his pillow over his head. "It's barely two in the morning, and we don't have kids!" he groaned. "Why are we awake at two in the morning on Christmas morning when we don't have kids?"

"Someone's knocking on the front door." Hinata, not really a night person either, dragged out from beneath her covers and reached for the robe she had draped over the chair in the corner of the room. "And ringing the doorbell. And calling us," as her cell phone went off again, flashing urgently. She snatched it up just as it went to voicemail. "It's Temari. I wonder if there's an emergency." She couldn't quite keep the worry from creeping into her tone as she said that, or her hand from trembling as she clutched the beautiful polished wooden handrail while hurrying down the steps to the first level of the house.

She heard Sasuke banging around upstairs behind her as she swiftly crossed the spacious foyer to the front door. The Christmas lights on the outside of the house, still glowing in their multi-colored splendor, showed Hinata's blonde sister-in-law on the other side of the heavy leaded glass-paned front door. Unlocking the door, she opened it, wondering if her hair looked as tangled as the blonde's. "What's wrong?" she asked anxiously.

Stamping her booted feet, Temari glanced over her shoulder to the snowy landscape behind her as she rubbed her gloved hands together. Over the sound of the running motor of the all-wheel-drive Jeep in the driveway, she said anxiously, "The mare's in labor early."

What little sleepiness remained in Hinata's mind fled. She heard Sasuke swear before he started back up the steps, from the sound of it taking them two and three at a time. "Come in, come in," she urged, stepping back to let Temari into the house. "Give us a minute to put on something warm, and then we'll be right back down."

"Hurry!" Temari called after Hinata, closing the door behind her after she stamped her damp boots on the rug outside to knock off excess snow.

Upstairs, Hinata pulled on the warm clothing she had already laid out for the morning exercise. The training, care, and exercising of very expensive and very successful Thoroughbred race horses waited for nothing, not even Christmas.

And, apparently, Thoroughbred mares kept their own clocks when it came to giving birth.

Sasuke, who had already pulled on jeans and tugged a sweater on over the t-shirt he wore to bed, ushered her downstairs after him as he hopped on one foot, pulling on his boots as they went. "How far in is she?" he asked as they reached the bottom step.

Temari looked relieved to see them. "She's ready to go. This is her first, which makes her delivering early even more worrisome. Come on, you two!"

Hinata climbed into the passenger seat as Temari took the wheel once more and Sasuke got into the back. "Do you think...?" She trailed off, not wanting to give voice to the thought. It was too terrible to entertain, at least aloud.

Face pale in the glow of the dashboard, Temari shook her head as she drove a little too fast down Konoha Farms' long, winding, driveway. "I don't know. I hope not. We're really counting on this foal - its lineage can't be beaten. Between the mare's pedigree, and the stallion's, we've got a potential winner that hasn't been seen in years, if ever."

A rather lofty and optimistic way of looking at things, Hinata thought, but not out of the realm of possibility. Of the 450 horse farms in the region, at least 150 of them in Lexington and Lafayette County alone (the horse capital of the world!), Konoha Farms and its illustrious neighbor, Suna Farms, pretty much held the monopoly on top-notch Thoroughbred horseflesh. Whereas Konoha, run by the Uchiha, was dominated by racehorses, Suna and the Sabaku were known for their dressage, show jumping, and cross-country winners. People brought horses from all over the world to be bred and trained at both farms.

The fact they had both been united, in a way, by the marriage between Temari, owner of Suna Farms, and Itachi, Sasuke's older brother and owner of Konoha Farms, was just the icing on the cake for many. The tours they held in the spring, summer, and fall were always well-attended and some of the most popular in Kentucky.

Temari had the jeep running at sixty soon after she hit the main road. The late hour and relative isolation of the farms meant there was no traffic to contend with, but the winding lanes made Hinata cling to the arm rest as trees, fields, and miles of fences whipped past her window. She kept the dozens of questions boiling inside her firmly locked behind her lips, sensing her husband in the backseat doing the same. Her sister-in-law had always been a bit of a lead foot, and while the situation was dire, Hinata would rather get there to see Suna's top mare give birth rather than hear about it later while stuck in a hospital bed - on Christmas morning, no less!

Gentle, drifting snowflakes had given way to a slushy mix by the time Temari stopped the jeep outside Barn 4 on Suna's sprawling 400-ish acre farm. The three occupants tumbled out and ran the short distance to the barn, the sleet, snow, and howling wind chasing them the whole way.

Hinata's nose prickled with the relative warmth of the barn as they entered. Temari pulled the door shut behind them; immediately, Hinata's gaze sought towards the small, quiet group of people gathered outside one of the barn's spacious birthing stalls.

Careful to make as little noise as possible, Hinata crept up to stand next to her tall brother-in-law. "How's she doing?" she whispered. As Sasuke halted at Hinata's side, she leaned forward a little more to see into the stall better. The mare, a beautiful dappled grey with a narrow white blaze on her face and two matching white socks, was in the middle of pacing, her bulging sides looking ready to pop. Her eyes rolled anxiously as she tossed her head, whuffling and stomping her hoofs.

Itachi smiled down at her before turning to look at the mare again, his smile turning into a worried frown. "She's still in labor and really nervous. She keeps getting up to pace, lying down, then repeating the process. I'm trying not to think that something's wrong, but the truth is we don't really know how long she's been in labor." He absently put his arm around Temari, who had slipped up to stand on his other side while he spoke to Hinata. "If she's going to be an early deliverer, we'll have to adjust her lighting schedule next season to adjust for it."

On either side of the stall, perched on the walls and ready to jump out of the way if necessary, sat Hinata's cousin, Hyuuga Neji, and his wife, Tenten. Neji, the on-site vet for both Konoha and Suna farms, looked ready to do his job, his long hair pulled back out of his worried face, sterile gloves peeking out of the bag of instruments he held in his free hand. Across from him, Tenten, who always served as his assistant, had her hair pulled up in her two signature buns, the sleeves of her red-and-black checked shirt rolled up past her elbows. The two exchanged concerned looks often, wordlessly communicating in the puzzling but very effective way they had.

"It's a good thing you always bring your mares in a few weeks before their expected due date," Sasuke remarked. "It'd be a really bad thing if this were happening out in a paddock somewhere. Good someone thought to check on her tonight."

Neji shrugged slightly. "She was showing some waxing yesterday, but no elongation or softening of the hip muscles. I don't know what made me come down here to check on her, except for the fact I was up anyway." He flicked a glance at Tenten, who turned slightly pink. "But things had definitely shifted into high gear when I did. If she doesn't deliver within the next fifteen minutes or so, I'm going to do an exam on her, to see if something is impeding the birth process."

Hinata automatically glanced down at her wrist, then remembered she hadn't taken time to put her watch on when she dressed. A knot of nerves twisted in her stomach, making her want to fidget. Sasuke tucked a calming arm around her waist, drawing her against his side. She repeatedly fought the urge to ask how long it'd been, while inside the stall the mare continued her own fidgeting.

At last, just when she thought she couldn't stand it any longer, Neji slipped down to stand on the floor of the stall, catching his wife's eye as he did. "While I gear up, see if you can't get her down, Tenten," he said, "then stay at her head." She nodded and immediately went to the laboring mare, crooning to her soothingly as she urged the horse to lie down. It took a little doing, but Tenten had a marvelous way, Hinata thought, with animals. By the time Neji was ready, the panting mare was on one side as her cousin's wife kept one hand on the light halter and calmed the animal with the other.

This was the part Hinata could barely stand to watch. Her eyes flicked nervously between Neji and Tenten as Neji inserted one gloved hand and arm deeply into the mare's birth canal. She felt the tension flowing through her husband's arm around her waist; sensed an equal tension coming from Itachi and Temari on her other side. After a couple of seemingly endless moments, Neji said, "Ah! There's the problem. One of the foal's forelegs is drawn up and keeping the delivery process from happening. All I have to do is straighten it out-" the expression on his face grew even more focused "-like so, and it shouldn't be long now."

He finished off his words with a wince as a contraction trapped his arm briefly; with a sigh, Neji was finally able to regain his hand. Pulling off his glove, he eased back and finished, "It's all up to you now, girl."

Despite the comfortable temperature of the stable, Hinata shivered. There was something about watching the birth of a foal which frightened her - things could still go wrong, after all - but at the same time left her feeling somehow awed. The entrance of this new, fragile life into the world on this early Christmas morning, in the holy hush of the star-spangled darkness outside...

It sent chills up and down her spine, prickling the fine hairs along her arms. Hinata held her breath and leaned a little more into Sasuke's side, unable to tear her gaze from the mare's laboring form.

Tenten hummed softly, soothingly, weaving musical encouragement to the mare into the tune. "That's it, girl," she half-said, half-sang, "Just a little longer now and then we can meet your beautiful baby."

Though there was no babe growing in her own womb, Hinata found herself absently rubbing her stomach. Perhaps soon she and Sasuke would try for a child, for she suddenly found herself aching with the need to hold a baby of her own in her arms.

With a series of increasingly powerful pushes (and a few interspersed groans), the mare finally delivered a gangly foal, coal black like its sire save for one white sock and a narrow blaze down its nose.

"Good girl!" Tenten crooned happily. She rewarded the mare with a scratch or two on the cheek before backing away so the new mama could get to her feet and go to her baby.

Neji had already cleaned out the foal's nostrils and made sure it was breathing all right before retreating to the side of the stall, leaving the rest to the mother so the two could bond.

The entire group of people watched breathlessly as the mare tiptoed over to her foal, nudging it once, then twice - quizzically, as if not quite sure what to make of this long-legged, struggling thing in her stall - with her nose. Then she whuffled softly and began to lick her baby, making happy noises deep in her throat as she cleaned the new little life from its shiny cocoon.

While the mare was occupied, Neji and Tenten slipped out of the stall to join the others.

At last Temari couldn't seem to take it anymore. "Well?" she asked impatiently, albeit in a whisper.

Neji, who was an excellent vet but not so much of a people person, glanced at Temari out of the corner of his eye. "The foal is very healthy. See how it's already trying to get to its feet? It has excellent conformation and already possesses quite a bit of fire in its eye, just like its sire. This horse will definitely be a champion show jumper, or my name isn't Hyuuga Neji." He smiled with just a hint of pride.

Temari, whose face was beginning to match her crimson sweater, clenched her free hand into a fist at her side and said with exaggerated patience, "Colt or filly, Dr. Hyuuga?"

Hinata hid a smile in Sasuke's shoulder, knowing Neji pulled this trick every now and then. He didn't joke often, but when he did it was because he knew the foal he'd just helped deliver was a good, healthy one who held a very promising future.

After sharing a meaningful look with Tenten, who seemed at the same time amused and a bit stern, Neji turned back to Temari and replied calmly, "You, ma'am, are the proud owner of one of the finest colts I have ever seen."

As if to prove the words, the colt managed to get all four spindly legs to work at the same time, shakily gaining his feet. He looked around at his new world, then leaned into his mother as she nudged him toward his first meal.

Itachi kissed his wife on the side of her head and said with relish, "We've got us an Olympic gold medalist here, if I don't miss my guess." Though he and his family did specialize in race horses, he'd learned much about show horses during his time with Temari.

Hinata, though she was an exercise jockey for race horses and not a competitor, couldn't help but agree. There was something about this colt that proved its strength, its ability, its potential. She'd never seen a new foal get to its feet so quickly, and though he was still stumbling around a bit on his wobbly legs, the lines of his lean body and the proud arch of his neck fairly screamed winner. As a Thoroughbred, his speed would help him in the cross country competitions, his grace would give him a leg up in dressage, and his long legs would make him a natural, powerful jumper.

She couldn't help but think she was looking at a horse as close to perfect as had ever existed.

Almost an hour later, the group left the new mother and baby under the watchful eye of the head of the stable, Genma. He perched on the edge of the stall, signature extra-long toothpick clenched between his teeth, watchful eyes gazing admiringly down at the Thoroughbreds.

Neji and Tenten bid everyone else goodnight and took off in their car. They had a short drive ahead of them to get to their comfortable house, settled on a small plot of land exactly halfway between the two farms so they would be close by when needed.

Itachi and Temari climbed into the front of their jeep as Hinata and Sasuke took the back.

"Sorry the Jeep's not still warm," Temari apologized as Itachi pointed the vehicle's nose toward the road. Leaning forward, she messed with the temperature until a blast of warm air poured out of the vents upon its shivering occupants. "It seemed like a good idea to come get you at the time, like I did with Tenten, but now I'm wondering."

"Any vehicle would be cold by now," Sasuke said. His arm tightened around Hinata as she snuggled a little tighter into his side, eager to soak up as much of his warmth as she could. "We appreciate the gesture."

The drive back to their house was considerably tamer with Itachi driving instead of Temari. As the Jeep's taillights disappeared around a curve in the driveway, Sasuke and Hinata stood on their front porch, waving after them. Hinata wrapped her arm around her husband's waist and smiled up at him, admiring his profile in the glow of the Christmas lights adorning their house. "I love you," she whispered. She feared if she spoke the words any louder they would break the perfect peacefulness of the night.

Looking back down at her, Sasuke leaned forward to kiss her forehead. "I love you, too. Merry Christmas, Hina."

Tucking her head under Sasuke's chin, Hinata looked out over the land they both loved and replied, "Merry Christmas to you, Sasuke."

It was the best she'd had to date, and it had just barely started. She could hardly wait to see what else this magical day held in store for her and her beloved family.

*~The End~*

Author's Ending Notes: Mama Jo and I decided we wanted to do something extra-special this Christmas, and collab fic seemed just the thing! This is our second after Labyrinth, but Mama Jo is my beta and I've found her touches always add that extra little something awesome to my fics, so it was great doing a collab with her! And you'll probably be seeing some more oneshots set in this universe in my upcoming NejiTen oneshot collection... But more on that at a later date. Until then, we hope you enjoyed this fic, thank you so much for reading, and have a very Merry Christmas! See you next week with another fic in the Entanglements universe!