Mistletoe Mishaps, a naruto fanfic

Summary:

Sakura thoroughly believed that she must've been blessed with extremely badass ninja skills in one previous life or another, as she once again expertly evaded another obscuredly placed mistletoe upon her classroom's door frame.

It was absolutely essential she avoided those malicious green monsters as Sasuke Uchiha— the resident school flirt— had sworn to her and himself that he would absolutely without a doubt steal a holiday kiss from her via mistletoe no matter what the cost.

Pairing: Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Mistletoe Mishaps

She glared at the half-hidden shrubbery and made a mental note to take it down later.

For every year during the holidays, Sakura had always successfully maneuvered herself out of avoiding every mistletoe precariously placed around her school, her home, her friends' house, the local convenience store, the public library, the girls bathroom, the gym— anywhere in existence that they could possibly put those atrociously annoying Christmas leaves!

He had set this goal to capture her lips since they were twelve and Sakura had been using every means in her arsenal in order for this not to happen.

"Lighten up, Forehead."

Sakura refocused her glare towards her best friend, "Easy for you to say! You don't have a bloodhound on your tail!"

The dramatics made Ino roll her eyes. "Uchiha's nowhere in sight and even if he was, just pucker up and get it over with already."

The rosette huffed and crossed her arms. "Over my dead body."

Suddenly, she felt a soft breath tickle the shell of her ear. "What was that about your body?"

It was instinct next, Sakura's fist flew as she turned but being Sasuke meant that he was all too used to being the subject of Sakura's punches, this made it easier for him to duck and move to the side.

Sakura growled as she shook her fist. "Get back here!"

"What? Cause you missed me?" Sasuke smirked, "It's only been an hour or two since first period, Sakura-chan."

"I literally missed hitting your head!"

"My head that you find attractive?" He quipped.

Sakura was livid. "Your head that I want to hit square in the face!"

Sasuke only laughed in response and turned away heading towards his friends. "I'll see you later, kitten."

The girl turned to the blonde at her side exasperated. "You said he was nowhere in sight!"

Ino shrugged. "It's not my fault you guys have some weird ass ninja skills."

Sakura sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as she leaned against the lockers. "He's going to keep popping up because he likes to annoy me, especially during the holidays."

Ino tsked in disapproval. "He doesn't like annoying you, he likes you."

Sakura scoffed. "Debatable."

Ino raised her hands in surrender, not wanting to get into the same argument with her best friend. "Whatever you say, Forehead. Good luck dealing with him when you go to his family's Christmas dinner though."

Sakura groaned slumping downwards and brought a hand to her face. "Ugh, don't remind me."

"Now you just have to deal with him for the rest of the week before the holidays!"

Since her guardian Granny Chiyo always worked the holiday shift in the hospital, Sakura often spent Christmas alone. Unfortunately, Sasuke came to know about this little predicament of hers when he rapped on her door one early Christmas morn to find that she was covered in Cheetos crumbs, ironically clad in her pastel pink cat pajamas. Of course, he told his mom, and Mikoto being the angel that she is, invited her to Christmas dinner every year. Mikoto could never let her live off Cheetos for the holidays when she had a perfectly warm meal served up in their home that was good enough to feed an entire army or two.

Now Sakura stood in front of the Uchiha manor with a pitiful box of fruitcake and wondered if she should just bolt and tell Mikoto she had a stomachache.

Before she could high tail it out of there though, the front door opened and out came a tall man with long hair and dark obsidian eyes.

Itachi smiled at her, surprised. "Oh Sakura, are you here to see Sasuke?"

The holidays were one of the only times Sakura could spot Itachi Uchiha. Going into Konoha Law, he hardly stayed at home anymore and instead frequented his college dorm room.

Sakura shifted on her feet. "I, uhm, Mikoto invited me," she said scratching the back of her neck awkwardly.

Itachi nodded. "Well come in, it's much too cold outside. I'm just leaving to get some last minute things and errands."

As Sakura entered their home, Itachi took her winter coat and placed it inside their closet. "Mother should be in the kitchen. Make yourself at home."

He departed soon afterwards and Sakura was left to navigate through their larger than average home by herself. Luckily enough, she had spent most of her childhood with the Uchihas so it wasn't that difficult for her to consult the mental map she had developed in her brain to navigate through their large halls.

"Sakura, is that you?" bellowed Mikoto.

Her kitchen was as busy as it always was during this season, where one could always see Mikoto in a whirlwind of dish preparations and assortments.

Sakura had no desire to disturb her, in the previous years she had tried helping the Uchiha matriarch in her rituals, but Mikoto had always politely refused saying children of Sakura's age ought to spend time with the other young ones instead.

"Just checking in with you, Mikoto. Need any help?" Despite knowing the would-be-answer to her question, Sakura's instilled manners simply couldn't deter her from asking.

In true Mikoto-like fashion, she simply shook her head and gave her a reassuring smile. "We're all good here, dear. Sasuke and Shisui are out at the back. Go ahead and have fun!"

Sakura nodded at the woman, placing the box of fruitcake she brought on the counter, and waved in parting. "I'll check them out. Thanks!"

"It's a pleasure to have you here, Sakura."

Sakura took careful steps within the Uchiha's premises. If school was a pain, the Uchiha manor was ten times worse in terms of mistletoe abundance. Sasuke was infuriatingly persistent and Sakura had to be extra vigilant in treading towards their backyard. She had counted fifteen mistletoes in total when she reached the large glass doors that lead to the outskirts of their house.

"Sasuke, you little shit take this!"

The moment Sakura opened the sliding door, her face was met by a speeding snowball courtesy of Shisui's pitch.

Sakura wiped the brittle ice off her face, she willed her expression blank but beneath it was obviously poorly masked fury.

Shisui gulped, his eyes wide. Sakura was notorious for her temper and being at the receiving end of her rage usually meant something very very painful especially since he and Sasuke had had more than enough instances in testing her patience.

Sasuke lay on the floor at Sakura's feet, clutching his stomach in laughter. "You're in for it now, Shisui!" He said pointing at his cousin.

Sakura narrowed her eyes at the figure below her. "You think this is funny, Uchiha? You're dead too!"

The boy smirked. "Not if you can't catch me."

In a second, he bolted. Sasuke was always too fast, and though Sakura was athletic, her short stature often made her lose any running bouts they ever had.

From behind them, Shisui watched them in amusement. "Stay safe, lovebirds! Use protection!"

'We are not lovebirds!' Sakura screamed in her head, but in fear of losing more oxygen as it is, she grit her teeth in annoyance instead.

Years of running to maim the raven haired nuisance had given Sakura enough of an advantage to know his usual escape route, his one destination being his bedroom, of course. That was a place that Sakura absolutely abhorred because it had too many mistletoe booby traps for her liking. Plus it had all his stuff and a functioning bathroom where he could stay locked up forever. It was his home court advantage.

She couldn't let him lead her to her own demise, so with as much strength as she could muster, she pushed her legs forward and tackled the boy in front of her to the ground.

"Ha!" Sakura gloated in glee. "I got you!"

She had him straddled with his arms pinned down on either side. She'd expected him to be more disgruntled however instead on his face was a wide cheesy grin.

"Of course, you do." He didn't look the least bit bothered by their position much to her chagrin.

Sakura fought to suppress her blush and maintain her glare. "This isn't going to be your year, Uchiha."

Sasuke remained unphased. "I can assure you my victory will be absolute."

"I can avoid any mistletoe, this isn't happening." She said stubbornly.

"You sure about that?"

Strong arms that were once pinned down, broke free and Sakura's world suddenly capsized. Perhaps Sakura was a fool to think that she could hold down a boy twice her size as now she was a squirming mess beneath a triumphant looking Sasuke Uchiha.

"Let me go!" Sakura did not like the close proximity of their faces, especially since it felt like her heart was about to burst out of her chest for reasons she could not explain (nor admit).

Sasuke sported a sinister smirk and his eyes had a glint of mischief. "Shisui, get me a mistletoe!" he beckoned behind him.

Sakura's eyes widened as realization dawned upon her. "Heck no! You planned this!"

Sasuke had the gall to look innocent. "That you'd chase my ass because you were pissed then tackle me because you're short stuff?"

A shadow loomed over their figure and a bored looking Shisui held a mistletoe up above them yawning. "This has been going on for way too long. I think it's time for you and my cousin to kiss and makeup, Haruno. This is already too much foreplay."

Sakura wriggled and thrashed but in terms of weight and strength, Sasuke was built like a rock.

This was it.

Sakura knew she shouldn't have made that bet with Sasuke. She knew this was her fault. The terms were that anything went and technically duping her into getting this mistletoe kiss wasn't breaking the rules since there were none so in the first place.

In that moment, she decided to give in and shut her eyes, waiting for the feel of lips against hers but it never came. The weight on her body suddenly vanished and when she opened her eyes, Sasuke was dusting off his pants while Shisui stared at his cousin amused.

"All this trouble and he's still too whipped." Shisui muttered. "I'm heading back. You two do your not-kissing thing or whatever."

Sakura barely paid attention to the curly haired boy leaving. Instead she focused on the timid looking Uchiha who looked as if he was looking at everywhere else but her.

"You didn't do it," She accused.

Sasuke shrugged, "You didn't want me to."

Sakura stared at him dumbfounded, "You care about my consent?"

Sasuke kicked at some of the snow at his feet. "Of course, I do."

Sakura shifted in her feet and crossed her arms. "Explain."

"I like you," He said simply.

"No," Sakura shook her head, "You like messing with me."

"It's the only way to get your attention."

Sakura raised a brow.

He rolled his eyes in response. "Would you honestly give me the time of the day if I didn't constantly annoy you out of your wits?"

Sakura swallowed, clearing her throat, "I would have."

Sasuke froze, his eyes wide. "You would have?"

She nodded. "Yes, I would have."

He walked the small distance between them then, his eyes on her only. "You'd go on a date with me? If I asked?"

Red bloomed in Sakura' cheeks as she bit her lip. "Yes."

Sasuke blinked. "Would you have hated it, if I kissed you then?"

A pause.

"N-no."

If Sakura were to be honest, the only reason that she antagonized the entire mistletoe mishap was because her pride couldn't take losing. Kissing Sasuke hadn't been all that appalling to her, she had an inkling towards how he actually felt, however how could she ever take his affections seriously if he had never made them clear to her in the first place?

Now though, Sakura had enough. She had openly placed her feelings out in the open as it is. This was giving her enough embarrassment and mortification for a lifetime. She basically told her long-time crush slash frenemy that she would be totally fine if they dated and or kissed, right after years of multiple protestations on her end.

Sasuke Uchiha just stood in front of her unmoving, jaw slacked. He might've been surprised by this revelation but his processing time was doing nothing to make the situation less awkward for her.

"I'm-I'm heading back."

Sakura made her way towards the glass door and was just about to step within the inside's precipice when her arm was pulled back by a strong tug. All she felt afterwards was the softness of his lips that were warm despite the coolness of the snow.

Their lips parted and Sakura had to relearn how to breathe.

"Hey Sakura?"

"Mhm?" She replied, not quite trusting her voice to come out breathless.

Sasuke pointed at the shrubbery above them and on his face was the smuggest smirk in existence.

"Merry Christmas."

"I can't believe you fell for the oldest trick in the book, Forehead!"

"I tackled him first!"

"He let you tackle him! He's twice your size!"

"Shut up!"

A/N: all those dramatics because of pride and embarrassment lol well they are shy oblivious teenagers but damn i just wanted them to shut up and kiss already.

this was originally intended to be a snippet - which to me is supposed to be less than 1k words otherwise i turn it into a oneshot. so I guess here we are now 2k words later with me posting this as a standalone instead of another fic in my drabble collection. this is also my entry for day 6 of #ASasuSakuChristmas which is now way way late asdkjslkfjdsdthis

this was incredibly rushed because i was trying to beat a deadline but c'est la vie?

anywho, happy holidays! and thank you for reading!

- rex