Chapter Twelve: Act 5, Scene 1

When Sakura was younger, one of her favorite things was tracing the ink cherry blossoms on her father's arms. She marveled at the way the branches of the cherry blossom trees wrapped around his arms and the way the flower petals danced across his skin. He carried Spring with him all year round.

"I thought your father was walking art. Everyone was always trying to make a statement back then. I thought there was a deeper meaning to all of those tattoos considering he used so much of his body for them," Mebuki had once told a giggling Sakura as she tucked her into bed. "Turns out that he was just a goof that really liked soft things like flowers."

Kizashi Haruno was the softest punk Sakura ever met or saw. He was a big man, tall and burly, yet very gentle and liked to bake cakes and give free coffee and scones to stressed out looking students. He made awful dad jokes that according to her mother he had been making since he was nineteen when she met him.

"He use to follow me around trying to get me to go out with him and he scared all of my friends. He was already so tall and he wore his hair in those spikes." Mebuki used her hands to create a point at the top of her head.

"Papa's not scary." Six year old Sakura frowned. "He's silly."

"Yes, he's very silly. But he's all mine. And yours too."

Kizashi was all Sakura's and except for the rough patch when she was a pre-teen, she loved every part of him. And no one was going to mess with him.

"Let go of me!" The man Sakura had in a headlock grunted.

"Hand over all of the bread you pocketed and I'll let you go." Sakura tightened her hold.

In the bakery part of the café, the Haruno's had baskets of different packaged treats like cookies and brownies and scones. Some of their more popular packaged goods were different small breads filled with things like red bean paste or coffee cream. The sort of thing no one would actually try to steal normally, especially since Kizashi offered a Soup Of The Day which was a free cup of soup for anyone that asked, you just had to deal with the fact that it was a vegetarian dish.

It was something mostly latchkey kids that didn't want to go home yet took advantage of and Kizashi usually included pieces of baguettes or rolls. Regular patrons usually left money in the tip jar at the register to help cover the cost of the free meals.

Which made the act of thieving even more reprehensible.

"Jesus Christ, lady." Sakura was a petite woman but very strong. Izumi Uchiha had even taken it upon herself to teach Sakura self-defense when she was younger.

"You're super cute and you need to be able to protect yourself from creeps. Naruto and Sasuke aren't always going to be there."

"Sakura, let him go. It's only bread." Kizashi's voice was soft and gentle instead of it's usual loud and jolly tone. He placed a hand on her shoulder and Sakura's eyes narrowed in frustration. Her father was too nice for his own good.

"Hand over the bread and don't come back. Ever. We will call the authorities next time," Mebuki said sternly and extended her hands to receive the sweet breads. The young man dropped all of the breads he pocketed in her hands. As soon as Sakura released him he ran out the door, the chime tinkling aggressively from the force it was opened with.

"Papa!" Sakura followed her father into the kitchen. Marco, the boy in his early twenties that helped out in the kitchen, quickly headed into the walk-in freezer and hid inside.

"Weren't you supposed to be done with your shift already, blossom?" Kizashi carried on with food prep casually, as if nothing had happened. "Don't you want to go home and get ready for that party you're going to tonight?"

"Papa." Sakura frowned at her father. He chuckled and tweaked her nose.

"You look like your mother when you do that."

"Papa." Sakura gave him a stern look and pulled away the kale he was chopping up for a salad. Kizashi tried to scold her for putting her hand so close to a knife in use but she cut him off. "You shouldn't be so easy on people like that. That's how you get taken advantage of."

"It's the holidays, Sakura. And you don't know if maybe he really needed it."

Sakura shook her head, the frustration giving her a headache. Sometimes Sakura wished her father was one of those in-your-face-take-no-shit type of punks. No, her father was a pleasant and friendly vegetarian that needed to be the father of the community. Sakura wondered sometimes if maybe Kizashi would have been mayor if he had the ambition for it instead of Minato Namikaze. He was a smart man and well liked by the people of the town but he didn't care for politics. Or authority figures.

Which explained why he and Fugaku Uchiha couldn't seem to get along. That and how they disagreed on how children should be raised.

"Come on. Get going." Kizashi took his bundle of kale back. "It's New Year's Eve and you already agreed to go and have fun with your friends. Don't make me get your mother."

Kizashi gave Sakura a mock glare and waved a finger in front of her face. Sakura sighed and untied her apron and hung it on it's hook. She headed behind the counter to say goodbye to her mother.

"That was uncouth, Sakura." Mebuki didn't even bother to look up as she prepared the coffee maker.

"He deserved it."

"Well, yes, of course he did," Mebuki rolled her eyes and then sighed in defeat. "Aren't you going to go and have fun? Remember, I would rather you not drink at all but if you or your friends do drink I would rather have a phone call from my inebriated child needing a ride home at whatever hour of the night than a call from a cop with bad news."

"Yes, Mama." Sakura kissed her mother on the cheek. "I know better."

"Be safe," Mebuki said sternly. She tried to keep a serious expression on her face but she broke out into a gentle smile. "And have fun. Please?"

"Yes, Mama. I'm going now."


Sakura tried really hard not to snort out her hot chocolate but Ino was making it really difficult. Every time a guy tried to give any of them a flirty look and call them over Ino would pantomime throwing up or make a disgusted face.

"You don't hold back at all do you?" Karin smirked, blowing out a long train of smoke. Sakura had given up on getting her to stop smoking after Karin attempted to bite her.

"It's really cold out here. Can we please go inside?" Sakura was shivering and no matter how close she got to the bonfire she couldn't warm up.

"No," Karin said firmly.

"You're going to have to face him sooner or later." Ino wrapped her arms around Sakura and tried to share her body warmth. Sakura curled into her, trying her hardest not to rest her head on Ino's chest so much.

"How about never?"

"He's playing beer pong with Naruto and is extremely distracted. I'm sure Sui won't even notice us."

"Don't call him that," Karin snapped at Sakura. "It will only encourage him to be even flirtier."

"Well, we're tired of freezing our asses out here. Come on, Sakura. Let's go find Sai. Hopefully he's not drunk painting again. Kiba was not happy with what he drew on his wall last party."

Ino took Sakura by the hand and led her into the crowded kitchen from the back door, making sure to hold on tight so she wouldn't lose her.

"You're not being a good Party Mom, Ino. We shouldn't leave her alone."

"Pfft! She'll be fine. This is their foreplay. They get in a fight at the start of every party and then the girl ditches me to go fuck him in whatever room is available. You would know these things if you came to more parties."

"You know, you could leave me to my own devices and hang out with Sai. He's probably face down somewhere right now. He gets so weird when drunk."

"He'll be fine. I have Shika and Chouji watching him." Ino tugged hard, steering Sakura into another room and used her other hand to slap at a random guy that tried to reach for Sakura's arm. "Besides, I'm more worried about what your boyfriend would do if he found out I left you alone all night. Too bad he couldn't come."

"Yeah, too bad."

Sasuke didn't really go to parties anymore and even if he did let himself be dragged to one he wouldn't have been able to go to the one tonight. His family always had a party on New Year's Eve. Sakura and Naruto use to go to them every year to keep him company but that was when the Harunos use to be invited to the Uchiha party and Naruto was dragged along with his parents.

Sakura found it strange to call it a party. It was more like a dinner party and everyone had to dress up for them. Sakura and Sasuke usually spent the night keeping Naruto in order and in his formal clothes so that he wouldn't get in trouble with Kushina.

Sakura tried to have fun and dance with Ino. It was working considering Ino was a huge goofball and kept twirling her around and making funny faces. She had been right about Karin. They found her later sneaking up the stairs with Suigetsu. Sakura was confused as to how their relationship was so secret if they were so open at public events.

"I want to head home now," Sakura giggled. Ino had started ruffling her hair as they swayed their bodies to the music.

"You don't want to stay for the countdown? It's in like forty-five minutes." Ino checked her phone for the time. "Forty. Close enough."

"There's somewhere I wanna be at midnight."

"With Sasuke?" Sakura looked up and saw a tipsy Naruto making his way over. He frowned at her and rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't think anyone here is sober enough to drive. You should just stay here."

"Not true!" Ino chirped. She wheeled Sakura away from Naruto and toward the door. "Shika's sober. You know he doesn't drink. He thinks drinking is troublesome and not as fun as we all make it out to be."

"What are you dragging me into now, woman?" Shikamaru sighed as he rose from the couch closest to the exit. Even though he made a face as if he were annoyed he grabbed his coat and checked his pockets for his car keys.

"You need to go home, squirt?" Temari, Shikamaru's girlfriend who was visiting during the holidays, joined them as they walked out to the street looking for his car. "Aren't you too old for a curfew?"

"I'm just tired. And I have someone waiting for me at home."

"Ah. Alright. We'll drop you off and then come back for Ino and Company," Temari offered without consulting Shikamaru. He just kept his mouth shut like he was use to it.

"I knew I loved you." Ino wrapped her arms around Temari's shoulders and squeezed. "Shika would usually just go straight home and leave me and Chouji to fend for ourselves or get Sai's brother Shin to pick us up."

"Yeah, I know. He can be an ass like that."

"The ass can hear you, you know," Shikamaru called out. He had walked ahead of them when he found his car.

"Thank you Shikamaru," Ino and Sakura chorused. "We love you Shikamaru."

"Yeah, yeah."

"She better get home safe, Shika," Ino warned him, pulling Sakura into a hug. "See you next year."

"See you next year, you goof," Sakura giggled.


Sakura carefully made her way through her backyard, lifting her knees high to avoid the bags of leaves that had been raked earlier. She smiled knowing that Mikoto had probably asked Sasuke to help out. She was always doing stuff like that, trying to help out when she noticed that Sakura's parents were really busy. Mikoto would probably have come over to help with the annual intense cleaning if she could. Sakura already took over the task for the past few days, cleaning up the Haruno home all alone because her parents wouldn't take off until after tonight and then go back to work on the third.

Sakura didn't want to waste her parents days off by spending them cleaning.

Sakura reached the iron wrought fence that separated her yard from the Uchiha's and grabbed one of the bars. It was icy to the touch but a warm hand covered hers and then lifted it off the bar so that it could interlock their fingers.

"Did anyone notice you leave?" Sakura asked Sasuke. He shook his head and tightened his grip on her hand. "It's almost time for the countdown."

"I'm practically invisible at these things, especially when Naruto doesn't come." There was an odd slur to his words. Sakura sniffed and there was a smell of alcohol.

"Have you been drinking?"

"Yeah. Shisui got me some rum. He's awesome."

"Rum? Great. My boyfriend's a pirate." Sakura gave him a cheeky grin. "And you are drunk."

"No I'm not."

"You just said that Shisui's awesome."

"Shit. I am drunk."

Sakura giggled and reached her hand through the fence to pull at Sasuke's tie. He wore a red and black plaid patterned button down dress shirt with a skinny black tie under a black cable knit cardigan. He had a gray and white marbled thick wool scarf wrapped around his neck.

"You look dapper."

"You look cold."

Sakura had left her coat open to reveal her thin, shimmery red v-neck sweater dress and her stockings. It wasn't the warmest outfit but it was pretty and she wanted to look nice when she met Sasuke. It wasn't often that she dressed up and Ino had dolled her up for the party.

"Yeah, but I look cute." Sakura winked at him and Sasuke rolled his eyes. He pulled his scarf off and wrapped it around her as best as he could through the fence.

"You're cuter when you're warm." Sasuke's voice became lower and huskier. "But yeah, super cute. Really. Cute. Always cute." Sakura flushed pink. Sasuke was always more likely to flirt with her when he was drunk. Being inebriated had him dropping his guard.

"This kind of reminds me of a Shakespeare play." Sakura grabbed onto a bar and shook it.

"Please don't say it reminds you of Romeo and Juliet. They died in that one."

"No, no." Sakura waved her other hand in front of her face in protest. "The comedy with the play within the play. Midsummer Night's Dream. The wall scene."

"Ah. That one."

"O Wall, full often hast thou heard my moans, for parting my fair Pyramus and me!" Sakura whispered dramatically. "My cherry lips have often kissed thy stones, thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee."

Sasuke's eyes squinted and he looked up at the sky, trying to remember the next line in his inebriated state.

"I see a voice? I think that's how it goes. Now will I to the chink, to spy and I can hear my Thisbe's face. Why the fuck is it hear her face? Thisbe?"

"Very good," Sakura laughed. "My love thou art, my love, I think."

"Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace? That's it right? And like Lim-something am I trusty still."

"The next line is awful. Helen of Troy is the most famous adulterer. I guess that's supposed to be funny through irony or something."

"Yeah and I'm sure Lim-whatever didn't love her anyway. Blah, blah, blah. Oh, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall."

"I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all," Sakura whispered back, eyes downcast. She wanted him to come over but it was likely that someone would wonder where he was soon.

"Hey." Sasuke tipped her chin up and through the space in the fencing kissed her. The icy bars stung her cheeks and his tongue was coated in rum but his mouth was warm and soft. Sasuke's hand snuck through the bar and he held onto her hip. "Fuck this fence."

"I can't wait until we're back in school and I can see you all I want without this stupid fence in the way." Sakura pressed her forehead against the bars and pouted when Sasuke mimicked the action. She felt more of the cold metal than Sasuke's skin. "Do you think it's gonna snow a lot this year?"

"I hope not. We can't walk on our roofs when it starts to get icy out."

The two of them stood there quietly, holding hands through the fence. The only sound was of the people inside counting off until the new year. There was a loud applause and cheers signaling midnight. Sakura pressed her face against the bars again and kissed Sasuke chastely on the lips.

"Happy New Year, love."

"Happy New Year, Sakura." Sasuke kissed her once more and then a second time before pulling away. "I should go. Itachi wanted to visit the shrine as soon as it was the new year instead of waiting until daylight. Hatsumōde and all."

"I probably won't go this year. Too many people came to take photos of the oh so exotic Japanese people last year. It pissed Ino off and she's not going."

"Why don't you come with us? There's room in Shisui's car for one more. And I'm sure Izumi would love to see you." Sasuke added the last part with a hint of distaste that made Sakura giggle.

"You guys go to Naka Shrine, right? Isn't that like a strictly Uchiha shrine."

"Nah. Izumi wanted to go somewhere else this year." Sasuke looked down at her thoughtfully for a moment. "Wait here for a moment."

Sakura watched Sasuke enter his home from the back porch. She stood by the fence, patiently waiting. A moment later Sasuke came back out, his mother following behind him.

"You're alone tonight, Sakura?" Mikoto gave her a worried look and then her eyes shifted to the house. The lights were still off because Sakura went straight to her backyard when she came home. "Your parents are still at the café?"

"They stay open later on New Year's Eve. Gives people a place to go that's not a bar."

"That's not good. You should have come over then. Shame on you Sasuke for not telling me until now." Mikoto lightly slapped Sasuke on the arm. Sakura giggled, loving how stern the petite woman was with her tall son. "The young people are heading off for the first shrine visit. You should go with them. No arguments."

Mikoto put a finger up to silence Sakura who had opened her mouth to protest. Sasuke gave her a lopsided grin from over his mother's head. If he had been sober Sakura was sure he would have smirked instead.

"They're getting ready to go. Go grab a hat and some gloves. That's a nice scarf. I think Sasuke has one like it."

Sasuke snorted and turned to leave. Mikoto shooed Sakura toward her house and followed her son back into the house. Sakura rolled her eyes and went to go do as she was told.

When Sakura met Sasuke and his brother in front of their house her jaw dropped when she saw the older Uchihas. The three of them were wearing full kimonos and Izumi even had a faux fur shawl around her shoulders.

"You guys really go all out." Sakura whistled. Shisui started posing for her which earned him a slap to the back of his head from Sasuke.

"This is for you Little One." Itachi handed Sakura a small envelope with a cherry blossom design. Sakura's eyes went wide and she tried to give it back but Itachi pulled his hands up away from her. "Nope. Take it. It's your otoshidama. Don't worry. I gave one to Sasuke and I have one for Naruto too."

"I forget how much of an old man he is sometimes," Izumi joked. "Just take the money. We should get going. I bet it's going to be crowded."

Izumi took a hold of Sakura's hand and led her to the car. Sasuke followed behind them grumbling. Sakura snickered, remembering how bad Sasuke was at sharing, especially with Izumi and Shisui.


Izumi was right to assume it would be crowded. The day crowd would be worse especially with the increase in culture tourists that would be taking in the sights.

"I'm going to get some charms." Izumi informed them all. "Especially for the students here. Come on you guys."

Izumi linked arms with Shisui and Itachi and dragged them away. Sasuke tried to follow them but lost them in the crowd.

"Be careful with him!" He cried out. Sakura put a hand on his arm and rubbed gently to calm him down. It was likely that he was going to shout at Izumi for dragging his brother away in a crowded place.

"He'll be fine. Let's get in line and hold their place."

"They better bring us some hot sake," Sasuke grumbled. He took Sakura's hand in his hand which made her eyes go wide. "Just making sure you don't get lost."

"Okay." Sakura nodded slowly. She didn't say a thing when Sasuke pulled her hand into his pocket. She just leaned closer into his body and closed her eyes as she laid her head against his arm.

They held hands, hidden in a crowd of hundreds.


Author's Note: so I ended up sleeping most of the weekend so the chapter ended up written later than Saturday. Whoops lol

I've decided that next chapter will be an Uzumaki POV chapter. Mostly from Naruto's POV and partial from Karin. After that there won't be another one for a while. A long while.

Kind of debating if I want a Mikoto POV. I will probably do one.

If you think Sasuke is too articulate while drunk and wondering why Mikoto didn't notice: my ex use to discuss philosophy and talk about different themes in his favorite literature. And except for being more smiley and giddy, most people wouldn't have noticed. In fact most people didn't.

The title is the part where you can find the lines that Sasuke and Sakura are reciting in Midsummer Night's Dream.

Next chapter will be out in a few days.