Summary: The yearly Christmas party is coming up abd this time its Kakashi's turn to organize it. Little did he know he would get help from a person he didn't expect.

Christmas party:

Every year in Konoha was one big event every jounin and chuunin went to, the yearly Christmas party. It was always held on the day before Christmas. Last year it was the honor of Anko to organize the festivities, this year however the honor belonged to one Kakashi Hatake.

He never minded a party once in awhile but never liked big crowds. That's why he only let his face show for a few moments at the Christmas party before taking off again. He always had an excuse not to organize it because if you did you are bound to stay the whole way through and clean up the terrible mess after.

He was so close to succeeding in yet another quiet year when Naruto had given him a friendly slap on the back, something he was totally unprepared seeing as he was taking a nap in the meeting, and which made him jump up in surprise. But of course as was Kakashi's luck right at that moment Tsunade had asked who wanted to organize the yearly Christmas party. So seeing Kakashi jumping of his seat, he was chosen to do it.

Glaring at the blonde next to him, he sat back down. Opening his book on the page where he had last stopped before reading further. Since then he had received some questions here and then about how the preparations for the party were going. He replied back by saying it was all going as he'd planned.

Then on the day before the Chirstmas party he was lying on his couch in his apartment. He'd already done his morning greeting by the memorial stone and planned to stay in his apartment for the rest of the day to catch up on his reading. He was coming to a good part when three hard knocks where heard upon his door.

He choose to ignore it, probably it was the neighbour from next door complaining about the noise he never makes. Flipping over another page he continued to read when a female voice came through the door.

"I know you're there Kakashi-sensei, I can sense you."

Sighing he marked the page he had been reading before lying the book down on the table next to his couch whilst getting up. Stretching slightly he made his way over to his front door. But he wasn't greeted by the sight of pink hair or emerald eyes like he had expected.

"Well it's about time Sensei," Sakura muttered walking into his apartment without waiting for his invitation.

"What's with the boxes Sakura?" Kakashi asked, slightly curious. With a soft push he closed the door again and walked back into the living room where Sakura had placed the three boxes she'd been carrying on his table.

Sakura turned around, her white scarf still tightly wrapped around her face. Her cheeks were a bit red from the cold making her look quite adorable.

While unwrapping the scarf and unzipping her coat she replied back. "Knowing you, you haven't done anything about the yearly Christmas party yet. I'm even willing to bet you don't have any decorations done or set for the evening, so I thought I'd help you out this time."

"What would I do without you Sakura?" Kakashi asked smiling while taking her coat and hanging it back by his own stuff.

"Yeah, yeah you can thank me later. I just don't want you lying in the hospital for three weeks because you haven't done anything about the party. That happened to Ibiki you know? He refused to do it and when he was chosen he waited till the last minute and quickly made something out of paper. I've never have seen Anko so scary," Sakura said, shuddering at the memory.

Wincing inwardly Kakashi thanked kami that Sakura came by to help him. He remembered the party Sakura was referring to, the poor man didn't know what he had coming. He tried to just bluff through it and in the end he'd woke up one month later all covered in bruises and with multiple broken bones.

Shaking the image out of his head, he walked towards the three boxes Sakura had brought with her. Curiously he peered into one of them seeing all kinds of decorations for Christmas, the other two were full of the same stuff. Tilting his head up to look at the pink haired woman beside him he raised an eyebrow confused.

"How come you have so many decorations?"

"My mother always loved making these kinds of things. When she passed away I didn't have the heart to throw it all away," Sakura said softly grabbing one of the small Santa's her mother had made. "My mother always loved this holiday. It was one of the rare moments we would all be together and she wanted to make it special. She would fill the house up with candles and little Santa's and reindeer's and every night I would pick one while she was making a cup of hot chocolate. We would sit before the fire place and she would tell the most wonderful Christmas stories about the Santa I'd picked."

Kakashi's eye softened while he listened to her little story. He never knew Sakura was so close to her mother back then, but then again he'd never heard her talk about her parents at all really. Probably she didn't want to bring that conversation up since she was the only one in the squad who still had her parents back at the time they were all still a squad.

"She sounds like she was a wonderful mother."

"Yeah she was," Sakura said smiling. "My father hated it that I wanted to become a shinobi but my mother was the one who convinced him to let me go. She always supported me in everything. She said no matter what I did, she would always be proud of me."

She laid it back down, caressing the soft fabric of the Santa outfit before turning her head towards her teacher. "Enough about my mother. What did you do for the party?"

"Well…" Kakashi laughed sheepishly, his hand scratching the back of his head nervously.

"Just like I thought," Sakura said smiling while shaking her head softly at the man before him.

"I already talked with Ayame-san to do the food and I spoke with Misses Hudenki of the Tea shop for the drinks. I also spoke with Iruka-san and he will deliver the stereo from the academy to the party place with some Christmas CD's, so all we need to do is decorate the place and stuff like that."

"Thank you for helping me Sakura."

"It's Christmas after all. What would Christmas be if we didn't all help each other out once in a while?" Sakura replied smiling. "Now I'm going to need your help for the Christmas trees…"

The next day Sakura and Kakashi went to the place where the party would be held. Kakashi was hanging up the lights outside while Sakura was decorating the place inside. In the end everything looked perfect, Sakura even found a Santa doll along with a sleigh and some reindeers. How she got that was still a miracle to him, but she'd done it anyway. It was late in the afternoon before they were finally done and Sakura went home to prepare for the party.

The party in the end was a big success minus the part where Lee managed to get hold of some alcohol and tried to kill the Santa doll outside. Kakashi didn't like the fact that because he'd organised the party he was also the host, meaning he was forced to stay till the very end of the party. His Icha Icha book was even taken away by Tsunade and she had glared at him saying he would get it back at the end of the night and that he was not allowed to be anti-social tonight, to which of course he had sighed but resigned himself to a night without his beloved book.

"Well I never thought you could pull it off Hatake. I was almost sure I'd have to reserve a hospital bed for you."

"I had a little help from a Christmas spirit Hokage-sama," Kakashi replied smiling.

"And my desk work is done by Santa's little elves. Here's your book." She tossed the orange covered smut back at the owner as she replied sarcastically and then stopped at the entrance. "I want this place cleaned up before tomorrow morning."

"Hai Hokage-sama." Kakashi replied. But when the last guests left and he took a damage report, his eye widened when he saw how much junk and trash was lying around. He sighed very much depressed now. There went his good night's sleep.

Suddenly he heard a bit of rustling in one of the other rooms. Raising his eyebrow confused he watched as a couple of Sakura's came out of the opening, all of them carrying plastic bags and beginning to fill them with the trash and junk lying around. Walking into the main room he saw the real Sakura taking down the decorations she'd put up earlier with his help and placing them in one of the boxes.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" She asked mockingly in return. She didn't halt her movements at all.

"I know what you're doing, what I actually meant was why?"

"Because not even I am that evil to make you clean this up all on your own," Sakura said, this time stopping and smiling brightly at him. "It's not like anybody is waiting for me to come home anyways."

Kakashi couldn't help but smile back at the girl, she could be doing so many other things right now but she decided to help him out, even though she didn't have to. He softly thanked the heavens for giving him such a caring student, and such a bright one at that. Even though she hasn't been under his tutelage for years, they still met up regularly for sparring sessions and he'd even helped her with some of her own jutsu creations. The twenty two year old Sakura wasn't the little girl he had started to train anymore. No, this was one whom had fully bloomed into a beautiful flower, a surprisingly strong and capable one at that.

Summoning some of his own clones, he started to help Sakura in cleaning the place up and in the end only the real two were left since they hadn't had the strength to keep the clones up for any longer after the long night they'd just had.

Sakura placed the last Santa into the boxes and smiled relieved, brushing the sweat off her forehead. She let her eyes wonder over the room to see if she had forgotten anything and she saw the mistletoe hanging above the doorway between the two rooms. She looked over it because she was so tired.

Grabbing a chair she stood upon it and tried to reach it. She almost could reach it, nearly there! Standing on her toes she tried again but yelped surprised when a pair of arms wrapped themselves around her waist, pulling her off the chair and pushing her against the wall. A pair of warm lips met with her own and she tasted the lingering taste of hot chocolate the person had been drinking. Opening her eyes she stared at the lidded gaze of none other than her former sensei.

When they finally parted Sakura's blushed furiously and felt the warm breath of Kakashi hit her flushed skin. "Mistletoe."

"You only did that because of the mistletoe?" Sakura asked in disbelief.

"Yes and no. I used it as an excuse to kiss you. I've liked you for awhile now Sakura." He told her. Instead of giving a reply she leaned in again kissing him softly on his mouth.

His eye widened with surprise before smirking inwardly at her boldness. One thing led to another and the next morning Kakashi woke up in a room which was not his own. A warm delicate body was pressed against his side and when he turned his head to see who it was he saw a few strands of pink lying across his chest.

Smiling softly he wrapped his arms around her bare waist, kissing her lovingly on her forehead. Sakura blinked, turning her head up to look at him.

"Merry Christmas Kakashi," Sakura said smiling.

'Merry Christmas indeed,' Kakashi thought happily while he leaned in for a morning kiss.

~x~

Happy holidays everyone!