Greetings!
Here's my first contribution to the lovely Naruto fandom, specifically the KakaSaku fandom. If you like wham-bam-thank-you-man! types of fics, then this is not for you! I like exploring characters internally, digging into their heads and really fleshing out the goodies that make a person tick. This is romance, and there isn't really going to be much 'plot' per-se (because this is a character driven story), so it's going to be a long run. Anyway, this is unbeta'd so if you see any weird mistakes, let me know! Also, the story is mostly finished, so updates will be pretty regular as well.
Hope you all like it, and that it's a worthy contribution to this beautiful fandom (and fabulous ship)!
Chapter One
Something Borrowed
Wiping her hands on her apron, she turned towards her little creation and grinned.
Perhaps it was a bit terrifying, due to the fact that she was alone and smiling almost demoniacally to herself, but she didn't mind. Her creation was absolutely brilliant in her opinion, all swirled with colour and little baubles that were made of sugar, large tiers of icing, and décor, and there would be death to anyone who said that she couldn't cook like the best of them.
A frown popped up on her lips but almost immediately disappeared, tipping back to the wild grin. Well, technically it had been baking but it was the same concept! She had a cake that looked like it had been created by the goddess of pastry decorating, if there even was such a thing, and she had photographs to prove that she had baked the cake herself in her own damn kitchen. If anyone called her out on it, convinced it had been made at the pastry shop, she was going to whip her Polaroids out like singles in a strip club and start shoving the pictures into people's faces like a woman scorned.
Her team had just expected her to have a cake made, didn't they? The little bastards had teased her mercilessly about her inability to cook even the most basic of foods, but she could damn well bake now couldn't she? The cake was a masterpiece, the greatest cake that had ever been created, and she was going to force her boys – and Ino, for that matter – to grovel at her feet before they would even be allowed to taste its gloriousness. And it was glorious, because she had eaten off the shavings she'd cut off while shaping the damn thing into its tiers and it was delicious. She wasn't even saying that because she was biased – it really was just that delightful.
She slipped out of the kitchen, thankful that she didn't have any pets or children to mess up her piece of art, and stripped as she went, headed to the back of her two-bedroom flat in the outskirts of the Konohagakure no Sato. By the time she was peeling off her knickers with the nimble grace only a kunoichi or a dancer could pull off, she had made it through her bedroom and into the bathroom, merrily humming a tune as she turned on the water.
She took extra care in the shower, still vaguely humming as she concentrated on washing and conditioning her hair, letting the latter stew on her head as she began the process of bathing the rest of her body. She didn't bother with grooming – being in complete control over her body with chakra was a divine thing, because she could pretty much just counteract everything that she wanted to in her own lithe form. Shaving? Please, she just got rid of the hair follicles when they popped back up under her skin. Gaining weight? She'd speed up her metabolism and all would be well in the world. Acne? A never-ending process of reducing oil build-up and make her pores smaller than a grain of sand. Period? She just increased specific hormones while cancelling others and the result was better than any implant.
She loved being a medic-nin.
The saving-people thing had a lot to do with it of course, and was her primary motivation, but being able to manipulate her body was a beautiful bonus.
She frowned again. Not that it made any difference what she looked like, really. She'd only been in one actual relationship and it was a bloody miracle it had lasted the few months it had, with her boys being over-protective and all. It was one thing being unattractive, and another thing entirely when the only reason she wasn't in a relationship was because her boys were terrifying. Then again, she hadn't even been too bummed about it because it was just a little summer fling anyway and she wasn't looking for anything serious. If she had been too sore about it, she would've fought harder for the guy when her boys threatened him and she simply hadn't. They had been growing apart regardless, so it had only been a matter of time. They hadn't had a lot in common, and he had been admittedly boring anyway.
She'd live to be an old maid, if she managed to make it past thirty. Kunoichi were notorious for dying young if they didn't settle down with some nice guy and push out a few kids, and she wasn't planning on doing that ever.
She rinsed her hair, relaxing in the shower until the water started getting colder, and only then did she grudgingly turn off the water and reach for a towel. Drying off methodically, she began humming again, but it was almost absently done, as if she wasn't aware of doing it. She went through the motions of getting ready – brushing her teeth, drying her hair, brushing her hair, and applying the barest amount of make-up, just the same standard routine in the same standard order – as her mind began whirling with thoughts.
It was the first Christmas in nearly a decade that she'd physically been in Konoha and to say she was looking forward to it was an understatement. It wasn't going to be a large, exuberant party or anything, because that was being saved for the New Year. Just a few close friends in front of a warm fire, watching the snow fall as they ate a hearty dinner and sipped hot cocoa, trading presents that were under a specific budget just to make things simple, maybe playing a light-hearted game of shogi or cards while carols were sung over a muted stereo. Of course, it probably wouldn't be that romantic in reality, because it was her best friend's new flat they were congregating at and their entire group of friends, but maybe it wouldn't be too crazy. It wasn't often that the lot of them got to just be human together, and she didn't imagine that anything in the world would break that bubble of warmth and camaraderie.
She paused, then knocked on the (faux) wood of her sink. Just in case.
There wasn't really a lot she could do with her hair, being as short as it was, so she just left it down, pinning up her bangs with some green barrettes that would go nicely with her sweater. She glossed on some clear balm, not bothering with much else except light mascara since she had no one to impress and hadn't been a girly-girl in years, and then meandered her way lightly into her bedroom, throwing on her emerald turtle-neck and a pair of comfortable jeans. She wouldn't be going far but Konoha was under a cold spell, and so she threw on a thick coat and tied on her winter boots. She was a bit worried about the cake despite the merciful absence of strong wind and the cake box she had conned Mikaru at the bakery to sell her for cheap, so she skipped gloves and instead wrapped a scarf around her head, knowing she would need her full grasp on the heavy cake in order to keep it pristine.
She made her way back downstairs, moderately toasty, and eyed her magnificent creation warily. What if she dropped it, or tripped and fell on top of it? Hell, what if the box didn't protect it from the inevitable movement it would suffer through before making it to her destination? It wasn't a very large cake, to be honest, just three-tiered and rather small, but the decoration was perfect and she didn't want to mar it. She probably should have just accepted the offer of her best friend's kitchen, but considering the amount of cooking that was going on in that flat, she would've felt guilty taking up even more space. Especially since Sakura had destroyed her own (admittedly small but effective regardless) kitchen in her endeavour of baking her masterpiece.
Totally worth it.
She grumbled to herself about needing to master the shunshin either without seals or with a single hand, though she knew it would be close to impossible for her to learn it. She had never been able to get the hang of one-handed seals, let alone seals without signs, and that particular form of ninjutsu had never been her strong point in the first place. She wasn't too far away from Naruto's place but it made her briefly aware of her shortcomings. She was never going to be like Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, or Kakashi-sensei, and that was all there was to it. She had her strengths and weaknesses just like any other shinobi, though hers were rather obvious. Someone like Kakashi-sensei, for instance, had very subtle weaknesses, and Naruto was a one-man powerhouse of pure, raw talent courtesy of his own stubbornness and Kurama in his stomach.
Sakura picked up her masterpiece gingerly took a deep breath, and then managed to make her way to the door. She lifted a toned, jean-clad leg up high, an action that would've made Naruto throw out an intentional but good-natured comment out about her flexibility or something, and pushed down on the door handle with the end of her boot, grinning triumphantly as it opened. She hurried out into the night and slammed the door behind her with a smoothly executed back kick, not bothering to lock it since anyone who dared steal from her was asking for the most painful death imaginable. Besides, she didn't have much of anything to steal anyway, so what would be the point?
Between Kakashi-sensei's dogs' noses (and Kakashi-sensei's for that matter, as it was almost as keen as his pups) Naruto's indignant personality in regards to his friends, and Tsunade being Sakura's shishou, woe be the day when any shinobi decided to rob her flat on Christmas Eve.
She gingerly made her way down the road to Naruto's new place, cake in hand, unwilling to slip even a tiny bit. Luckily Konoha didn't get much snow or ice due to the hot climate that was characteristic of the southern regions, so she didn't have to worry too much about losing her footing, and thankfully the wind still hadn't picked up like she had feared, but nevertheless she still reinforced all of her body weight and movements with chakra-enhanced gracefulness. Naruto's place might've not been far, but she was damn convinced that the only thing that would ever destroy this magnificent creation would be her cold, dead body falling to the ground.
Instead of a five minute walk to Naruto's new flat, or the one minute trip she could've accomplished by rooftop with chakra, it took her nearly fifteen minutes to finally find herself at the doorway to his building. He had finally moved away from the apartment that the Third Hokage had arranged for him after Konoha had been destroyed by the invasion early in the war, though he hadn't actually gotten around to doing it for a while after the war had ended. He had always been out in the field, just like all of them had been, until the Eternal Mangekyō had been lifted due to Otstsuki Kaguya, the Mother of the Sage, being defeated (and Sasuke too, but that was kept hush-hush).
By the time the Konoha shinobi had returned home from the battlefront, most of them either drunk or sexually sated as they celebrated the victory, most of said shinobi had returned only to remember that the village had been destroyed and all their lives would have to be rebuilt.
By that time, though, Naruto had finally gotten his head out of his arse in order to tentatively talk to the Hyūga patriarch, which led to promises and drug deals (metaphorically speaking) and gods only knew what other kind of nefarious actions that that given Naruto permission to court Hinata. Not that Naruto knew what courting meant, but nodding and agreeing had always been Naruto's default response when he had no idea what in the hell was going on. It was something he was going to have to work on before he took over as Shichidaime Hokage in the next few years, because he couldn't simply agree to everything he didn't understand and cause another great war.
Naruto was smart, sure, but he was an idiot too, and Sakura could believe that with utmost love for the man. She was just thankful that he was going to be covering his arse with advisers, just like all the other Hokages had and did.
Hinata and Naruto moving in together had caused a bit of a riot – well, the Hyūga's version of a riot anyway, which consisted of the elders nearly taking Kakashi-sensei's head off and refusing to allow any of their shinobi or kunoichi to service the village for nearly a year – but it had all died down when Hiashi had fused the branches together in Neji's honour. Sure, it wasn't perfect because there were still biased elders to take into account, but Hiashi was doing a good job by keeping the clan from going off the deep end. The last thing Konoha needed was the Hyūga clan pulling a bloodstained page from the Uchiha's playbook and getting themselves offed for it.
Then again, there was no way in hell that Naruto, Kakashi-sensei, Hinata, or the rest of the shinobi villages across the globe for that matter would let that happen, and to be honest, the Hyūga clan didn't have the ovaries to try and stage a coup.
Sakura snorted to herself as she climbed up the steps gingerly. Ovaries indeed, because testicles were the weakest point on a man's body and ovaries could (and did) take a beating.
Again keeping her balance, she managed to use her ankle and Achilles tendon to open the door handle to Naruto's building, using her back to cautiously hold the door open and manoeuvre the boxed cake into the warmth of the main foyer. Eventually, Sakura was fully inside, and made her way to the stairs and therefore the top floor, where Naruto's shared flat with Hinata was located. Already, as she made her way down the nice but not overly fancy hallways, she could hear loud, boisterous laughter and a few loud crashes that could only mean that someone was throwing cutlery at another's head. Sakura's money was on Ino, because she had become a damn nightmare after getting pregnant, and most people tried to avoid her at all cost until her hormones mellowed out. Well, until she returned to her normal hormonal self, which people were already used to.
Regardless, it was Christmas Eve, and that was a time for makeshift families, whereas the actual families converged on Christmas Day if their families were still around. Sakura knew that she would be spending the majority of Christmas Day at the hospital, something that she loved doing on the holiday more than anything when she was in the village, passing out gifts and sweets for the patients that couldn't go home.
She kicked at Naruto's door just loud enough for it to be heard over the ruckus in Naruto's flat but not enough to send the door flying into the other side of the apartment. She allowed herself four good, solid kicks before she waited impatiently, ready for the utter ingrates she called her family to see that she could really bake, and the Polaroids in her pocket seemed to burn into her denim-clad leg. She was almost wary that something terrible would happen in the time it would take for her to unveil her masterpiece, just because karma had always been a bitch to Sakura, but the door didn't swing into the cake and no one barrelled out of the room like mad to tackle her, and she was welcomed into the loud madness of...
"It's Christmas Eve!" Sakura shrieked furiously, just barely keeping her mind intact from the rage in order to safely place her cake onto the bar counter. "Why in the hell would you be playing beer pong?!"
"What were we supposed to do, Sakura-chan, play board games and sit in front of our non-existent fireplace sipping cocoa?" asked Naruto, cheeks pink with the flush of alcohol in his bloodstream. Despite Kurama in his stomach that lent him his relatively god-like tolerance to alcohol that could put Tsunade to shame, Naruto was absolutely terrible at drinking games and therefore generally got sloshed. A lot of people in their peer group were under the impression that he lost on purpose just so he could drink more, but Sakura disagreed. Naruto could hit a target with accuracy and weave signs and destroy entire villages with his power if he wanted to (and thank the gods he didn't), but that was his job and his dream. Naruto tended to get a bit stupid when it came to having fun though, and generally tended to do poorly on everything he attempted simply because he didn't have a real competitive streak. Well, unless Sasuke was involved, and then all bets were on and pricey between friends as they waited for the dust to settle.
"Yes!" Sakura screeched, feeling her face heat up with the cosy atmosphere and the urge to throttle her best friend until he choked to death. "You're playing beer pong on Christmas, Naruto! Who even does that?"
"Well, to be fair, Sakura, they're using spiked cocoa and port as their beer, but I get what you mean," remarked Tenten, sipping a glass of her own spiked cocoa in a clear mug.
Sakura didn't bother to glare at her, even though technically she had agreed with Sakura and therefore shouldn't have been glared at whatsoever, opting instead to smile sweetly at Hinata. She could see Naruto pausing his game with a rapidly paling face, recognising the signs that Sakura was about ready to go on the offensive, and it made Sakura light up in glee. "Hey Hinata, will you protect my cake with your life? I can't wait to show it to you because it's amazing, but I need to kill Naruto right now and that takes precedence."
Once upon a time, Hinata might've squeaked or stuttered something about being careful, but being in a relationship with Naruto, while not making her a social butterfly, had encouraged her to relax a bit. She nodded once with a small smile, cheeks a bit pink from her own light alcohol consumption (because Hinata didn't drink very often, and most certainly not a lot), and made a simple show of standing in front of Sakura's masterpiece, protecting from all harm.
"Thank you, Hinata-chan," Sakura said sweetly, and then launched herself with all the ferocity and precision of a jōnin-level kunoichi as could be expected. Luckily she got fortunate when she ploughed into him, because while Sakura was a jōnin and the head director for an entire hospital, and quite literally the most powerful kunoichi in Konoha – to her intense embarrassment, but she had always known that she would end up in the Bingo books one day courtesy of Tsunade's bragging and her own feats – Naruto was still the next Hokage and quite literally the most powerful shinobi in Konoha and the entire known world.
Which pissed Sasuke off, but Sakura thought it was amusing.
They didn't break anything in the assault, Sakura carefully throwing her body towards the sofa in the living room in an effort to not tear a hole in the wall of Naruto's new flat. The two bodies on said sofa, both of them brooding grumpily at the fact that they had been dragged along in the first place, immediately flickered out of sight to save themselves. After all, a ball of pink and yellow barrelling towards anyone would be enough for a change of scenery, so she didn't exactly blame them.
The couch made a groaning sound and banged against the wall loudly but the wall thankfully stayed intact, and Sakura proceeded to hit him upside the head once for his utter damnation of the Christmas holiday. Perhaps Sakura was being a bit touchy about traditions, because she was in Naruto and Hinata's place and should've been playing by their rules, but still. It was Christmas, and playing beer pong with any type of alcohol was something to be saved for New Years. Besides, there was a pregnant woman in the room who was probably extremely pissed due to the fact that she couldn't drink with everyone else, and they really didn't need Ino any more irritable than she already was due to their game being thrown in her face.
After Naruto had apologised a dozen times in quick succession, Sakura finally let her poor ex-team-mate go, standing up and glaring at her best friend with sharp, beryl green eyes. "Now, all of you non-believers are going to join me in the kitchen so I can unveil my masterful creation of lore. If you don't, I will drag you in there, and I will list all of you as my next patients for routine exams at the hospital. As head director and medic, it will be mandatory and will include many painful tests to make sure that you are in tip-top shape for duty."
No one argued with her after that, not even the two grouchy individuals that had been previously moping on the couch. Sasuke made his way over to Hanabi, avoiding Ino and Sakura like the plague and looking almost too-calm with where he was standing. Sakura didn't exactly know what to think about that – or the fact that Hanabi was even at this party in the first place, being fifteen and the clan heiress – and decided to ignore it, because those two were weird. Sasuke was standoffish and a pain in the arse, and Hanabi was nosy and hard-headed, so they were strangely in tune with each other. Sasuke had practically taken the young girl under his wing for some indescribable reason, which had raised a few eyebrows at first until they realised that it wasn't for some perverted reason, and they trained together pretty regularly. Her father wasn't too pleased about it, but there was no denying Sasuke's part in saving the world and his impressive skills in the battlefield. Hanabi could really have no better teacher when it came to dojutsu, even out of her clan, due to Sasuke's mad rinnegan and sharingan mix and his proficiency at using both of them.
It was kind of amusing to see Sasuke adapt so well at having a protégée to be honest, and strangely enough Sasuke did make a good faux-sensei. One day, if he decided to be a jōnin sensei, he would probably be a hardarse but he'd be damn good at it, which was what a lot of fresh Genin needed in a sensei. Not to mention, it would really benefit Sasuke, especially since he was so set on having a one-woman baby factory in the future to restore his clan. The idiot really needed to learn how to react and converse with children or he'd be utterly out of his depth when he did manage to have a few kids of his own with some woman.
Sai did his little smile, thankfully a bit more genuine than usual, and took a seat at the bar, clearly ready to see. After all of the teasing that he had participated in, accusing Sakura of not only being a terrible cook but having as much creativity as a boulder, she wanted to rub it in his face that she had clearly made the most phenomenal cake that had ever existed. Even now she smirked at him evilly, excited beyond belief about unveiling her creation before the eyes of her peers. He simply raised an eyebrow at her devilish expression, seemingly not concerned in the slightest, and Sakura decided to ignore him because she would show his arse soon enough.
Naruto cheered her on like a good best friend, wrapping his strong arms around his girlfriend's waist and grinning at Sakura from behind her shoulder. Hinata blushed delicately, a far cry from her fierce blushes and fainting spells from her youth, and smiled bashfully at Sakura, lifting her hands to grasp Naruto's wrists lightly. Sakura smiled back, sincerely happy for the billionth time that the two of them had finally figured things out, and nodded excitedly.
She dramatically made her way to the bar, which now had their large group of friends surrounding it, and chirped, "Drum roll please!" Lee and Chōji both happily obliged, both of them banging furiously at the bar, leading a chain reaction that had Naruto (still with his hands around Hinata's waist) and Kiba joining just as rambunctiously. She grinned in delight at the enthusiasm, not even bothering to glare Sasuke, Sai, or Shikamaru, all three of them not looking very happy to be there, or at Ino, who was eyeing her boxed cake more hungrily than excitedly.
Well who was she to deny her pregnant friend the glorious cake she had made?
She felt a brief moment of apprehension, again almost convinced that she would unwrap it and it would be utterly destroyed from her short trek to Naruto's flat, but when she managed to cut down the back of the box and gently pull it off, it was still just as damn fantastic as it had been back in Sakura's destroyed kitchen.
There was a unanimous ooooh from all of her friends, though she knew that some of them were just being polite, but it still made her glow with happiness. She had actually made this thing from scratch, something that everyone had deemed impossible – including Sakura herself to be completely honest – and she was unbelievably proud of it. Of course, people would begin tearing it to pieces as they ate it, but it was worth it in this moment.
Sakura knew that she wasn't the most feminine of girls. She was twenty-years-old and could barely figure out how to keep herself from burning water, let alone cook even the simplest of dinners, and survived on take-out and hospital food. She was clean, yes, and she took care of herself and her own apartment, but it wasn't the most spotless home that had ever existed because she was so damn busy all the time. She was rubbish at making flower arrangements and flirting and make-up and she wasn't particularly bothered by it anyway. She saved lives for a living, and sometimes she went on missions to kill people for a living, all in the service of her village that she protected with her life every day she breathed, usually breaking large objects along the way. That was her calling, not baking or keeping a home or raising children or any of those stereotypical things that girls were supposed to do. She was a kunoichi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, and she was proud of that.
But still...there was something about wowing everyone occasionally with the perceived 'womanly' things. Like when she had baked this cake, or when she went to the far-and-few-between parties and got to dress up for once, or when she helped Ino's mother at the flower shop on her days off just to immerse herself in flowers and scents. It was a nice feeling, even if she didn't plan on feeling it every day, and she soaked it up like a child soaked up love from their mother.
"Thanks guys!" she exclaimed, beaming and likely red in the cheeks from exhilaration. "I actually made this thing! I told you I could do it!"
"It's pretty impressive Sakura-chan," Naruto proclaimed loudly, his grin widening and his eyes crinkling closed. "I'm sure it tastes just as good as it looks!"
As Lee went on a lengthy proclamation about youthful creativity and other associated Gai-esque topics that no one but Tenten had the stomach to listen to, Hinata broke away from Naruto's arms with a small kiss on the future Hokage's cheek and made her way into the kitchen. She began pulling out iced teas and other beverages from their refrigerator to put on the bar, finally gesturing to all of the food either cooked or bought from the store. "Everyone, please feel free to get whatever you would like," she told them all politely, and it was a madhouse from there.
Sakura joined the crowd of their friends, all of the old Rookie Nine plus a few miscellaneous others (and excluding Neji, which caused a brief stab of pain to throb in her heart), to grab some of the assorted foods that everyone had pitched in for Christmas dinner. Naturally, she laughed giddily when everyone hastily parted to let Ino get first dibs, the hormonal blonde grumbling about being seven months pregnant and eating for two, and Sai smiling genially at the antics of his fiancée. Naruto bellowed something inappropriate at her, which led to a tirade of insults directed at Naruto's less-than-desirable intellect, which certainly didn't insult Naruto that much. He simply snickered and took it all in stride, fully aware that no one in the world thought him to be a genius nor the village idiot and comfortable in that knowledge.
Sakura managed to get a plate of turkey, candied sweet potatoes, a few makizushi, and a large amount of assorted vegetables on her plate before she found a seat at the dining table between Kiba and Shikamaru. She staked her claim by placing her full plate down and finally taking off her coat to hang on the seat, doubling back to grab some of the port wine before it was all gone. There might've been a lot of it, but there were still a dozen people in the flat and she didn't want to take any chances missing out on her Christmas drink.
She made her way back with her port and a glass of water for good measure, and began eating as she joined in the conversation. There were only six chairs at the table, so the others had taken up seating at the bar or in the living room, grouping together mostly outside of their professional teams. They all knew their teams the best, sure, but it was nice to get out of their comfort zones and converse with other people for a change. After all, Sakura trained with Naruto and Sai on a daily basis, and while she didn't see Sasuke much due to his training of Hanabi and council schmoozing (as well as her general avoidance of him in entirety and his frequent forays outside the village), there was always the weekly lunches that they were all forced to attend courtesy of Naruto.
She had a rather pleasant conversation with them all, to be honest, chuckling at Shikamaru's banter with Tenten in regards to pranks their Genin students had pulled lately while listening to Kiba and Konohamaru's attempts at embarrassing Shino to no avail. She gave her own experiences to the two jōnin senseis with being on the prankster Naruto's team, and sided with Shino when Kiba and Konohamaru got a bit too graphic at the dinner table while brandishing her chopsticks at the two morons mock-threateningly.
It was nice to converse outside of work or missions or life-and-death situations, simply enjoying each other's company and relishing in the fact that they were all in one place for Christmas Eve. Well, at least the ones that were left. Neji had died in the war, leaving a little hole in everyone's hearts (though Tenten hurt the worst, even over Hinata in a way), and there were still too many people that were gone and missed. Their peer group had been uncommonly lucky in a way, losing only one instead of the dozens Kakashi-sensei's peer group had lost, but in every moment the memory of Neji weighed heavy on their hearts.
Eventually people made their way back in the kitchen, washing their dish so they could pile second helpings or dessert onto their newly clean plates. Inevitably, Ino was the first to cut into Sakura's masterpiece, taking a big mouthful before even sitting down, and she swallowed before glancing at Sakura with a raised eyebrow. "Can't believe I'm saying this because I've never met anyone as useless in the kitchen as you Pig, but damn girl. This is divine."
Sakura grinned so brightly, chest tight with self-pride, that she was vaguely afraid that her entire body was going to spontaneously explode.
She tasted her final product with the cake herself as well, sighing happily as it was even better with icing than the shavings or batter. Everyone managed a slice, or two in regards to Naruto and Ino, and she was pleased when even Sasuke cut off a sliver despite his dislike of sweets. He nodded at her once, stoically, before carefully eating his tiny bit, and he nodded again after he had dissected the taste of it. She didn't exactly get along with Sasuke well, after all of their shaky history and the dark moments where he had tried to kill her over the years, but it was still nice to see that he was trying in his unapproachable way to make up for his past wrongdoings. It would never be enough for Sakura to really call him a friend ever again, but at least it warmed her heart enough to call him an occasional acquaintance, and Sasuke had never really tried to pressure her into being anything more than that.
To be honest, the only reason Sasuke and Sakura were making the small attempts to be civil towards one another was because of Naruto, because they would've avoided each other for the rest of their lives had Naruto not been around to pester the two of them. Naruto was the glue that kept a lot of people together, and while Sakura still wished that she had killed the Uchiha when she had had the chance, she was glad that Naruto had followed through on his promise in the end. Sasuke being home was the last piece of the puzzle that had been missing, though it was hard to get over Sasuke's numerous years as a missing-nin, and now that he was back it seemed like everything was right in the world.
Even if her childish love for Uchiha Sasuke had devolved into dislike-borderline-hate over the years.
Eventually they all were full and slightly buzzed with good conversation and wine, all reminiscing about the years. Naruto got the brunt of it, due to his prankster years and how much he had grown since, especially since he would be finally achieving the role of Hokage in a few years. Despite Naruto's elevation as the strongest, most loyal shinobi in all of the nations, their small group of peers would always remember him as the gutsy idiot that had failed the Academy multiple times and used the reverse sexy jutsu on the most formidable villain ever faced (to some success, even).
After the clock edged closer to midnight, their friends began saying their goodbyes and Happy Christmases in small groups. Ino and Sai left first, Ino practically asleep but Sai easily lifting her heavily pregnant body gently despite his lithe frame, and then others followed suit. Predictably, Sasuke was right after, not that anyone was expecting much socialising from him. It was a miracle that he had managed to stay as long as he had in the first place, so everyone simply said their holiday adieus to Sasuke and eventually followed his lead.
Konohamaru, Lee, Chōji, and Kiba had teamed up to clean the kitchen, though Hinata did attempt to help a few times before being thrown out of her own kitchen, and between the four of them the whole area was remarkably spotless considering who had been responsible for the tidying up. As Sakura cut off two chunks of cake to wrap up on separate plates, leaving the rest for Naruto and Hinata as a gift (and to keep herself from eating it all), she could swear that she could see her reflection on the granite counter-tops in Hinata's kitchen.
She took her leave with a large yawn just after one in the morning, belly full of spiked cocoa and chocolate truffles, giving Naruto and Hinata hugs despite the two plates of plastic-covered cake she had in her hands. She giggled as Naruto swung her around with a snicker, and then said happily, "Thanks for the Christmas dinner. It really was something special, wasn't it?"
"You bet it was," answered Naruto with his trademark grin, Hinata tucked under his arm lovingly as Hanabi moved around in the background, already in her pyjamas. Apparently she was staying over, though Sakura knew that they were heading to the Hyūga estate in the morning to do Christmas with the family, Naruto included.
From beside her, Shikamaru added, "Yeah, it was nice that everyone got together tonight."
"Agreed," said Hinata lightly.
They said their goodbyes and Shikamaru walked with Sakura downstairs. The Nara compound was a bit away from Sakura and Naruto's place but as they were both headed in the same direction, they both fell in step with each other in a companionable silence. A light flurry had started falling, leaving little droplets of water on the plastic wrap covering the cake as the snow melted instantaneously, but Sakura didn't mind. It was rare that they ever got snow in Konoha, and even though it likely wouldn't stick or even fall thickly, it was still lovely to see in the Christmas moonlight.
"It's practically poetic," she mentioned to her companion, sticking out her tongue to catch some of the flurries on her tongue.
Shikamaru, who had lit a cigarette and was smoking it methodically, shrugged and said, "I suppose so. It's too cold to really enjoy it though."
"Oh I like the cold," Sakura said, glancing over at him with a teasing smile. Shikamaru was a dear friend of hers, even if they did tend to run in different circles. He was a jōnin instructor and was constantly out on missions with his brats, whereas Sakura ran a hospital. They had gotten close when they had both started training together for the jōnin exams, both of them well-matched against each other since they were both tactically minded. As she was a short-range fighter and he excelled in long-range, it had been a game of cat-and-mouse that had been incredibly rewarding in the end since they were able to really challenge each other on their respective weaknesses. Combined with the tutelage of Kakashi-sensei, who had offered to train them both as a unit – well, after Sakura had blackmailed him into it with mandatory hospital check-ups, which tended to work on all of her friends – they had both kicked arse at the exams.
She eventually added mischievously when he didn't answer, "It's easier to be cold than hot. In cold weather, you just bundle up or turn your heat up. In hot weather, there are only so many clothes we can take off before we get arrested, especially for the girls."
Shikamaru snorted, rolling his eyes at her with exasperation, but there was a familiar quirk to his thin lips that convinced Sakura that she had been successful in humouring him. The poor man had been through so much since his sensei had died and the war that had followed, becoming a lot more serious and willingly taking the jōnin exams in order to become a sensei himself. He wanted to 'pass on the Will of Fire to the kings', he always said, referring to the children of Konoha, and she really respected that drive in him. While she healed and saved, he protected and taught, and Sakura was impossibly glad that she had had the opportunity to actually get close to him.
Sakura didn't have a lot of close friends, contrary to popular belief, though she had a lot of friends. She didn't consider Naruto a close friend, because that blond haired nut was her brother through and through, no matter what, but the others she most certainly did. Sai, Shikamaru, Lee, and Shizune were people that she trusted with not only her life (which was something she trusted to the majority of Leaf shinobi) but with her mind and heart, which was odd considering the former two. Amusingly enough though, Shikamaru would help her out logically with any problem she ever had, whereas Sai would be almost brutally truthful no matter the conversation. Sakura knew that not one of them, including Naruto, would dare embellish the truth, or hide anything from her, because they simply weren't the kind of people to do such things, and she really appreciated it.
Ino was a friend that kept Sakura lively and young, Hinata was a shoulder to cry on and giggle with, and the others were great people and dear to her heart, but Shikamaru, Lee, Sai, Shizune, and most of all Naruto were the strange, unlikely five that were her family. Sakura herself never would've believed it a decade ago, because Shizune was so much older than her, Sai was an automaton that drove her crazy half the time, Lee had had a crush on her for years before finally getting over it, Shikamaru was lazy and had always seemed more like Ino's friend than Sakura's, and Naruto was, well, Naruto. But she couldn't deny, at the ripe age of twenty, that these five were her family regardless.
She was torn from her musings by the sound of a body landing almost silently in front of her, a large box in his hands, mere steps away from the front door of her flat.
She stopped very suddenly, shocked at the sudden arrival of a flustered and obviously drunk Shiranui Genma in her path, and tilted her head questioningly when he pushed the box in her arms. She took it awkwardly while taking care to not squash the cake, opening her mouth to speak, but Genma beat her to it, saying hastily, "Don't tell anyone I gave this to you and I'll give you a share of the bet winnings. And as it's running close to triple the price of an A-ranked mission, it's a good chunk of cash. Just keep it safe and hidden 'til I come back for it, deal?"
"Twenty-twenty-sixty, and you have that deal," Sakura said, knowing that Shikamaru wouldn't care one way or another. He wouldn't have told anyone regardless, because that required time and effort and the willingness to gossip, and Genma probably knew that just as well as Sakura did. Shikamaru's quirks were known all around the village, especially amongst the jōnin that he occasionally worked with. Sakura herself knew how to keep a secret, unlike the majority of her friends, and people tended to talk to Sakura just because they knew she would keep it quiet.
"Deal. Just keep it safe for me and I'll fill you in later," replied Genma, winking once before launching himself into the air and speeding off towards the centre of Konoha via the rooftops.
Shikamaru sighed and muttered something under his breath, but Sakura didn't have Kiba's or Kakashi-sensei's stupidly good hearing so she missed it. She manoeuvred around a bit until it was a bit more secure in her arms, still holding the two plates of cake in her hands, and began waddling towards her front door. Shikamaru followed her, and Sakura motioned to her door with her head before Shikamaru resigned himself to opening the door for her.
"I don't want to know what the bet is for," mentioned Shikamaru when she had placed the massive box onto her coffee table, nearly knocking over a half-finished glass of cold tea from breakfast in the process. "Just leave me out of it because I didn't see anything. I'll still take five percent of the winnings though, if he manages to win the bet."
Sakura laughed and agreed quickly, just so Shikamaru wouldn't have to think about it any more. He would probably forget about it until the day she turned up with his cut, which she would turn up with since she would be damned if she let thirty-five percent of three A-rank missions slip through her fingers.
With a payout like that, there was no telling what kind of goodies were in the box.
She heard Shikamaru call out a goodbye as she disappeared into her kitchen, putting the two pieces of cake into her fridge to keep them fresh. She returned the sentiment along with a Happy Christmas, hearing the door shut quietly behind her friend, and started on a pot of tea to calm down her body before she would go to bed. With the light buzz of alcohol still in her system, she would be awake for hours if she didn't have a warm cuppa before laying down, and a nice chamomile sounded pretty lovely anyway. She put the kettle on the stove and readied a teapot, putting a few teaspoons worth of loose leaves in the bottom as she waited for the kettle to boil.
She sat on the top of her messy counter after getting out a mug and an infuser, completely content in the silence of her home. It wasn't a very large place, despite the fact that she could afford a much larger one on the outskirts due to her salary as the hospital director and her savings, but she enjoyed the cosy feel of it. It wasn't as if she needed a lot of room, since it was just her in this place and she was barely ever here anyway. She spent more time at the hospital, often sleeping in the staff quarters due to the constant stream of medical help she had to provide on a day-to-day basis. They might've been at a time of peace, the war nothing but a bad memory, but shinobi and kunoichi still tended to get just as gravely injured despite the concord.
If she had had a significant other or even a room-mate, there would've been more than enough room in her two-bedroom, two-bathroom flat to house them both. Of course, if kids were ever a serious option in her future – though she couldn't see that happening for at least a decade, if ever – she would have to find a bigger place, but for now it was more than enough room for her.
She glanced around her kitchen, groaning inwardly at the thought of the cleaning she would have to do in the morning before her trip to the hospital, but was thankfully distracted from her ponderings when the kettle began to whistle, keying her to the fact that she had been lost in her thoughts for at least five minutes. She hopped down lazily and turned off the burner, pouring the boiling water into the teapot in order to steep her chamomile.
In order to occupy herself as she waited, she made an effort to at least clean a bit of the disaster area she called a kitchen, rinsing her dishes before putting them into the dishwasher. Naruto always called her crazy for doing it, but it was better to rinse them off beforehand rather than finding a few of the dishes hadn't gotten completely clean. A dishwasher was for sterilising dishes of bacteria, not an automatic scrubber in the end, and she hated rewashing things just because she was being lazy. Better to get it right the first time than being forced to redo the work all over again.
Naturally, she ended up getting distracted by it, and by the time that she remembered that she had brewed tea, she had finished all of the dishes that she could fit inside of the dishwasher and had hand-washed all of the pieces left. She groaned outwardly to herself, drying her hands and making her way to the teapot, praying that it wasn't too bitter or cold. Chamomile was a pretty sweet tea in the first place, and needed to steep for fifteen minutes or so, but as far as she could tell she had spent the last half-hour cleaning her dishes, and that just made her grumpy.
She poured the tea through the strainer that was on top of her mug to filter out the leaves, pleased when there was still a bit of steam coming off the top of the liquid. It still looked good to her, and she didn't feel like brewing another pot. She didn't have any of those quick bags that went in the microwave, since she was a bit of a snob when it came to tea, so it was this or nothing.
She took a quick sip, smiling gently when it tasted just fine and was the right temperature, and then left the pot on the counter to make her way into the living room. She sat down on the couch languidly, taking another small sip before placing the mug on a coaster, and then hefted the box to the cushion right beside her.
If Genma had believed for one second that she wouldn't snoop then he was the worst shinobi that had ever lived, and she knew from his stats and medical records that this most certainly wasn't the case. After all, he had been serving as an elite bodyguard for the past three Hokages, which was something only few shinobi had the honour of doing, and he was ANBU as well. The man was an impressive shinobi despite all of his teasing and good-natured fun he liked to have at the expense of others, and was most certainly not a slouch.
He hadn't told her not to snoop anyway, which gave Sakura free reign to do whatever she pleased. If anything truly incriminating was in the box, it would've been well protected and would've had chakra seals on it, which it didn't. In fact, she opened the box pretty easily after picking the lock, grinning wickedly to herself as she finally set eyes on all of the...oh dear gods, what had she gotten herself into?!
There was no doubt when she picked up one of the books, reading the handwritten note from the late Jiraiya on the inside cover, that these were Kakashi-sensei's Icha-Icha novels.
Sakura groaned.
Kakashi-sensei was going to murder her if he found out that Sakura had them.
She replaced the book, finding a few other trinkets inside of the box along with the seven books that Jiraiya had released before his death, and she wondered if they belonged to Kakashi-sensei too. A few videotapes, three pictures inside of frames, a medical pouch that looked worse for wear and quite old, a pair of orange goggles, a delicately painted ANBU mask that looked old but well taken care of, and a strange kunai with kanji along the blade. It was all mismatched and due to that she was pretty sure that these items were personal, because the books themselves were personal and the other assorted items were so out of place that they had to be close artefacts as well.
She picked up the first frame, smiling nostalgically at the sight of her own face with Team Seven so long ago, eyes crinkled in a grin as Naruto glared at the grumpy Sasuke. It brought back memories of better days, when Sakura had been head-over-heels in love with the Uchiha and Naruto had been a louder, more irritating version of himself. Kakashi-sensei looked just like he always did, even after the near decade that had passed between then and the present, with his lazy smile and his horrible posture that spoke of newly budding affection for his young wards.
Like it or not, the three of them had grown on Kakashi-sensei eventually, though Kakashi-sensei's closeness with Sasuke had gotten just as cold and bitter as Sakura's was. It was one of the many things that Sakura and Kakashi-sensei had in common, that dark dislike over Sasuke's actions in the years he had been a missing-nin, and Sakura knew that she wasn't alone in her feelings toward the Uchiha. It was quite a difference in contrast to their past selves, since Kakashi-sensei had always clearly favoured Sasuke and Sakura herself had been a lovesick idiot back then, and now both of them barely tolerated Sasuke.
She picked up another frame, noting the immediate similarities between Team Seven and this team. By this picture, Sakura was utterly certain that all of these knick-knacks in the box were personal, because Kakashi-sensei was the only reoccurring image here. She recognised him quickly, though he looked incredibly young and grumpy just like Sasuke and didn't have the sharingan yet. His two team-mates were mysteries to Sakura, though the boy with the familiar goggles looked a lot like Sasuke with the same smirking features, and her eyes flickered down to the goggles in the box. These were definitely the same ones, no doubt about it, and she wondered what had happened to him. The two team-mates were probably dead, to be honest, since she hadn't seen him or the brunette with the strange purple marks on her cheeks around the village in her life as far as she could recall. She knew that his sensei was dead too, because there was no mistaking those features so eerily similar to Naruto's, and she knew that the Fourth had died sealing Kurama into her blond best friend.
She felt a twinge of unease. It seemed wrong all of the sudden to be snooping in this stuff. It was Kakashi-sensei's personal relics, and she would've been livid if someone had done the same to her priceless belongings. She put the frame back gently, not willing to break the glass nor smudge it with her fingerprints, and hesitated above the third frame which was still hidden against the side of an Icha-Icha novel.
Finally though, she grasped it and let her eyes widen at the sight of two individuals in the frame. She had a suspicion that she was looking at the legendary White Fang and his wife, since the male in the picture looked so much like Kakashi-sensei that it was almost unbelievable. She could finally understand why Chiyo and various others had mistaken Kakashi-sensei for him, even despite most of Kakashi-sensei's face being covered up for the most part and the White Fang's face being bare in this particular photograph. Perhaps Hatake Sakumo had covered his face up as well, but had been much more lax in showing it for pictures and around his comrades.
He was a good-looking man, Sakura admitted, and very young it seemed, possibly in his early twenties if the clear age of the picture was any indication. He had a very masculine face, which was surely a bit different than Kakashi-sensei's since the Copy Nin's mask was rather skin-tight and had already given Sakura an idea as to what he looked like under the mask. Kakashi-sensei's face was more angular whereas Sakumo's was much more square in a way, with a strong jaw and a less-pronounced chin, but they had the same sharp nose and eyes. Sakumo's eyes seemed to be dark blue in colour in contrast to Kakashi-sensei's charcoal grey orbs (both eyes since Obito's gift had faded, leaving him with only his two natural eyes and the familiar scar), though the eye shape was the same, but that was really the only noticeable differences between the two. They both had similar skin tones, the same lazy eyes, the same spiky silver hair though Sakumo's was longer and tied back, and looked to be rather tall. They had similar body structures, Sakura could tell just by Sakumo in the pictures, though perhaps Sakumo was a bit more stocky than Kakashi-sensei's lean but powerful frame.
The woman was the one with the dark charcoal eyes it seemed, though her eyes were a bit more narrower and mysterious than Sakumo's (or Kakashi-sensei's for that matter). She had fair hair, a white-blonde if the picture was to be trusted, that was long and stick-straight, flowing gracefully over her slender shoulders to mid-back, contrasting greatly with the jōnin vest she wore with the standard kunoichi uniform. Sakura almost felt intangible as she stared at her, because dear gods the woman was absolutely beautiful, and the two of them together was a sight to behold. She was convinced that this was the most attractive couple she had ever seen in her life, and that was pretty amazing in and of itself because Naruto and Hinata were not to be ignored whatsoever.
They were also clearly in love. Sakumo's face was almost in profile, his nose brushing the white-blonde locks of his...girlfriend? Fiancée? Wife? They weren't wearing rings so it was hard to tell, since most shinobi and kunoichi didn't as it was a security issue while on missions. Regardless, he had a soft smile on his thin, shapely lips, looking softly down at the woman with so much affection in his eyes that it almost made Sakura blush, feeling as if she was intruding on a private moment. The woman herself had her eyes on the ground, but the orbs were soft, and she had a quiet smile on her full lips that completed the picture of pure comfort and familiarity with the man at her side. They were holding each other, Sakumo's arms around the slender woman and the woman with her hands grasping Sakumo's arms lightly, both of them clearly oblivious to the world around them.
Sakura returned the picture to the box, her heart pounding in her ears. That had been way too tender, and it made Sakura uncomfortable. Those two people had loved each other, so much that Sakura could distinctly feel it even through a mere photograph, and she wondered what had happened to them. She knew that Sakumo had committed suicide when Kakashi-sensei had been young, though she didn't know how old the White Fang had been, but what of the woman that was clearly his mother? Sakura realised that she didn't even know if the woman was dead or alive, although if she wasn't dead then she didn't live in the village because Sakura would've recognised the woman's gorgeous features and burned them to memory. Had she died before Kakashi-sensei had been able to get to know her, had she died or left after Sakumo's suicide, or was she simply out of the picture? It irked her that she didn't know, because despite the fact that her and Kakashi-sensei were relatively close due to their many years together on the same team, he was still just as closed-off as he had been during their first meeting.
She glanced at the videotapes but opted out of watching them, not at all comfortable with it. If they were Icha-Icha movies then she had no urge whatsoever to watch them, if it was of his mother and father then she had no right to watch them, and if it was of Kakashi-sensei and his team then she would feel dirty to watch them. Any combination of them would've been even worse. If he had wanted to show her these things, he would've shown her himself, and she wasn't quite that nosy. Though it was very likely that she would never have an opportunity like this one to watch them in her life, since Kakashi-sensei was so reluctant to be close to people in a personal matter, she decided against invading his privacy to that extent because that was just wrong. She had no right seeing any of this stuff in the first place, and it was enough of an ill thought to finally get her to close the box, locking it once again with her pick.
She replaced it on her coffee table, her quick mind wondering where she was going to hide the damn thing even though it was close to nil that Kakashi-sensei would ever think to search her flat for his belongings. She simply didn't want any of her other frequent house guests to find it and snoop themselves. After all, most people weren't as respectful of personal items as she was, especially since Kakashi-sensei was an enigma and they were all shinobi at heart.
She decided to place it in the spare linen closet, since no one in their right mind would anticipate her hiding anything in there instead of her bedroom. She hid most things in her closet and drawers after all, because even though Ino regularly trashed both hiding places and drilled her on her discoveries, most people would go there first to find what they wanted. Better for them to find her own personal items than Kakashi-sensei's, which was a weird thought but a true one just the same. She was much more of an open book than her sensei was, and she didn't want to break that trust any more than she felt she already had by looking at the contents of the box. She wanted that payout of course, but she didn't have to forcibly intrude on Kakashi-sensei's personal life in order to get it.
She finished her tea quickly, still feeling a bit wound up from her discoveries and the alcohol she had consumed earlier, and returned to the kitchen so she could refill her mug. It was still warm when she poured the tea, but not hot enough to burn her hands when she securely held the mug in one hand instead of by the handle. With a bit of chakra to balance the weight, she lifted the box easily in her left arm, placing it on her shoulder so she could walk to her bedroom without it moving around wildly. She managed rather well since she wasn't worried about squashing her cake this time, making it to her bedroom in one piece and placing the mug on the nightstand. She turned back to the hallway, placing the box on the ground so she could move things around in her linen closet. The box was a pretty good size, but luckily it wasn't too tall, and she was able to put it in the very back of the bottom shelf with the blankets. She was pretty sure most people wouldn't squat to get blankets and would instead just pull one out without care, so she was confident that no one would see the box should a blanket be removed. Even so, she still strategically placed it in the back corner, placing blankets around it to hide its location from any nosy idiots (namely Naruto) who would ruffle through her things.
It was pretty unlikely anyone would though. She was the only one who really opened the linen closet, in order to get blankets or even towels for any visiting guests taking showers in her place, because she was polite like that.
She finally made her way to her bedroom once again, stripping out of her clothes in order to get into her comfy pyjamas. She eventually settled into bed after washing her face free of make-up and brushing her teeth, grabbing a book from her nightstand and reading to the light of a lamp by her bedside, periodically taking sips of the unsweetened tea from the mug beside her. When she finally felt tired enough to sleep, she flicked off the light and settled into bed, twitching and turning occasionally to find that sweet spot, and gradually slipping into dreams she wouldn't remember in the morning.