I'll Be There. I Promise.
This story is inspired by Miharu Tengoku. I'm not the biggest Naruto fan (And she is trying to change that, I assure you.), but here's a go at a Christmas story for this franchise.
The Village Hidden in the Leaves needed a name change when November gave way to December. Snow cascaded all over the town from the first day, chilling everyone to the bone, and yet warming everyone's hearts. Family, friends, and even acquaintances from years past from all over the Five Nations came together to celebrate the holiday season together. Wreaths and lights encircled every post and shop in Konoha, training dummies were replaced by Christmas trees and well-dressed snowmen (although that did not stop aspiring genin from lodging shuriken into them as well), and Ichiraku Ramen sold nearly as many gallons of hot cocoa as it did soup.
Sarada Uchiha payed little mind to all the festivities, though. If she was going to become Hokage faster than anyone, she had to take even the precious time she had off from ninja missions to prepare. She sat cross-legged in the snow that blanketed her backyard, eyes closed and focused on one thing.
Each snowflake. Right through the middle. Straight as an arrow.
Deep breaths now. Not an inch of movement other than the rise and fall of Sarada's chest. Frozen droplets slowly descended from on high and dotted the girl's black hair and bare arms.
Then the moment came.
Sarada sprung to her feet and backward from her original position. In the same instant, she flung her right arm and sent a kunai rocketing toward the huge oak tree near the fence. The knife barreled through the wood right to the hilt and added another wound to the tree's sizeable collection.
"Ugh, missed a couple…" Sarada droned, taking off her glasses and rubbing her eyes. Her visual prowess allowed her to see the subzero precipitation being torn asunder, but she wasn't quite as successful as she wanted.
"No matter," she whispered as she sat in her place again. "Practice makes perfect."
Suddenly, the air whipped around Sarada as something ensnared her shoulders. She gasped and tried to move but couldn't budge as a black mass enveloped her.
"And reckless exposure to the cold makes you sick." Sasuke Uchiha said.
Sarada sighed and hung her head. She wriggled a little bit, unable to escape her father's arm clenching his cloak around her body.
"I have to be ready to face the elements without any armor, Dad," she explained. "Nothing should faze me in battle."
Sasuke repressed a smile. "True, but there's an element nobody can withstand if they enrage it."
"What elem…"
Bum. Bum, BAM!
Three heavy snowballs whacked the left side of Sarada's head. The teenager quickly got her bearings and turned to face the assailant. Sakura Uchiha stood at the back door to the house, her face blood red.
"Get in this house before you freeze, NOW!"
"There's no way I'll get any better if I don't keep training, Mom!" Sarada protested after gulping another mouthful of vegetable soup.
"You two have been working for the past five days," her mother replied matter-of-factly. "It's almost Christmas and last I checked, there's no Great Ninja War breaking out again. You are going to train by holidaying with your family. If I can have a few days off, so can you."
"But…"
"Eat."
Sarada froze for a second and nodded, taking a bite of the thick toasted bacon, lettuce, and cheese sandwich Sakura had prepared for her. She knew better than to push her mother too far and didn't want the new house that surrounded her and her parents to end up in scraps like the last one. Sakura may have been the top medical ninja in Konoha, but she could pack just as much of a wallop.
Once pained without the reassurance that Sasuke and Sakura were her real parents, Sarada drove Sakura to a destructive response. A long journey led to the three being reunited for the first time in years, something Sarada had dreamed about ever since her father left for his mission. Sarada desired to be the best shinobi in the world, as strong as her parents, and sometimes she dove into the obsession that once clouded Sasuke's heart. But she remembered her family, and if Sarada had to sit in the kitchen, stuffed in a fuzzy reindeer-pattern sweater, and eat lunch instead of clashing iron, she would do that time and again to make them happy.
Sakura smiled and kissed her daughter's forehead. "That sweater is so cute. I love it!" she remarked. Sakura wore an elf-themed jumper that matched the shade of her hair. Sarada grinned as well.
Sasuke sat at the end of the kitchen table, his calm expression never fading. He finished the rest of his sandwich and got up from his seat.
"Thank you for the meal, Sakura," he said. "I'll be back down in a bit."
Sakura turned and blushed as her husband walked out of the room. It wasn't quite "Thank you for lunch, honey," but Sakura knew he wouldn't say that in front of Sarada. But it made her heart swell just the same.
"Okay," she replied. "And could you put something on that's a little more festive?" She giggled after her question.
"This is festive enough," came the response. Sasuke shook his head and ran his hand over his deep green vest. Green was a Christmas color, after all.
Sarada continued eating and hummed along to the digital radio that sat on the counter. Demi Lovato's version of "Wonderful Christmastime" was playing. Sakura finished her own food and began to clear the empty dishes.
"The big day is not too far away," the woman said. "What do you want Santa to bring you? And before you protest, if giant toads and nine-tailed foxes that can level cities are real, a jolly old man who brings everyone gifts in a single night can exist too."
Sarada shrugged and raised her eyebrows in dismissal. "Well, besides becoming the next Hokage, it would be nice for us to spend more time together. You know, just you, me, and Dad. I know I've been training and seeming like a bump on a log, but still."
"I know, I know…" Sakura said. She couldn't stop smiling.
Sasuke kept his movements swift and his gaze alert. He would activate his Sharingan if he had to. He rustled around the small, dark space and stopped in his tracks when he heard footsteps coming from behind.
"Glad it's you," he whispered, putting a cut section of wall back into its place.
Sakura rolled her eyes. "It's just a Christmas present, dear," she said. "It's not the scroll from the chunin exams. And Sarada doesn't peek."
"She's thirteen."
"She's not Naruto in the bathhouse."
Sasuke stifled a laugh. "I just hope she likes it. Truth be told, I'd rather her learn how to play the guitar than kill a warlord."
Sakura laughed. "Me too. Hey, maybe she'll get famous, forget about becoming Hokage, and sell out arenas when she grows up."
"Knowing Sarada, she'll end up doing both."
Sakura nodded at her husband's comment and pulled something out of her pants pocket and held it above both of their heads. Mistletoe.
"What's that doing outside the bedroom?" Sasuke asked, his eyes growing so wide that even his long hair couldn't cover them.
"Does it matter?" Sakura inquired back.
Sasuke immediately reached around his wife, pulled her close, and kissed her.
"No, I guess not."
Minutes later, the Uchiha family sat comfortably in the living room. Sarada was in between her parents on a huge plush couch flipping through TV channels. Her father was reading the paper and her mother was engrossed in the latest medical journal. The usual fare blinked across the widescreen device: news reports, a documentary series on the Mizukage line, commercials, some movie called Jingle All the Way, music videos.
"Nothing too exciting here," Sarada thought.
In a second, Sasuke snatched the remote away from Sarada and clicked back a few channels.
"Hey! What was that for, Dad?" she asked.
Sasuke didn't answer, he clicked until he reached the channel Jingle All the Way was on. Arnold Schwarzenegger was on the screen in some hectic-looking office.
"Dad?"
"Just keep watching," Sasuke said in a cold tone. "Nothing that happens here leaves this house."
Sarada blinked a few times. Her father was only this serious concerning the fate of the ninja world.
Sakura chuckled and put her journal down. "It's your father's favorite Christmas movie, Sarada. It's actually the first one we watched together."
"Mhm." Sasuke's eyes were glued to the TV screen.
"This must be a very important and heartwarming film, then," Sarada said to herself. "Now I can see how Dad really feels about the holidays and why he holds this so close with Mom!"
As the movie progressed, Sarada became more and more confused. She figured her father was a different man around her mother but that his taste in film would be very refined. Instead, she saw his stoic expression slowly turn upward as shoppers burst into stores for the coveted Turbo Man doll, Sinbad and Arnold bashed each other to get ahead, and American kids performed poor martial arts while they play fought.
"Put that cookie down! NOW!" Arnold screamed into a payphone as he verbally jousted with a lecherous neighbor.
Sakura laughed as did Sarada, even though she was puzzled. A noise escaped Sasuke's throat, the mighty warrior trying not to laugh out loud.
"This is funny, but it's so…unlike…you…" Sarada finally spoke.
Sasuke put a hand on his child's shoulder. "Everyone has something they enjoy that's unlike them," he explained. "Besides, this character is so bullheaded like your favorite Lord Seven."
"That's true," Sakura added. "Plus, this movie just gets more and more real for parents as the years go on. Remember when you asked for that dinosaur robot when you were five?"
"Barely," Sarada answered.
"I do."
Jingle All the Way finally moved to the chaotic scene in the shopping mall where patrons fought over lottery balls to try and win the Turbo Man doll. Arnold finally got one but got a face full of pepper spray from Sinbad's mailman character.
"He got two! He got two!" Arnold screamed in pain.
"Get the mailman!" a shopper screamed. And the dogpile began, right along with Sasuke's laughter, loud and fractious.
Sarada gasped in shock. She had never heard her father laugh before. This new development hit her like the shock of a Chidori strike, but she was broken from her trance by a jostle from Sakura.
"It's rare, but it happens," she confirmed.
An hour later, the movie was over, and so were the mad-cap brawls between Austrian-American strongmen and scuzzy Santas, explosions at radio stations, and the main character giving the downtrodden antagonist the doll he always wanted so that his son could have a Merry Christmas. But laughter and smiles were abundant in the Uchiha living room. Sasuke was the first to compose himself.
"Like I said, this doesn't leave this house," he warned the two females.
"So same time with a different movie tomorrow?" Sakura asked.
"Let's do A Christmas Carol for a change of pace."
Sarada finally caught her breath, her cheeks stinging after all the hilarity.
"This was so fun!" she exclaimed. "We need to get Dad to be like this all the time!"
"Hmph," Sasuke uttered, straightening himself up. "You'd have a better chance finding a Turbo Man doll on Christmas Day."
Sarada sighed in contentment. She reached her arms out and drew her parents closer to her.
"I already got my Christmas present," she said.
Sasuke and Sakura smiled, putting their arms around their daughter and each other in a group hug. They all got their Christmas present that day.
The End