Chapter 12 – A Chance Sighting

It had been just under a month since the fan-girl incident and school had finished only a few days ago for Christmas, something Sakura was extremely grateful for. Since then, she'd been having long lie-ins and late nights, doing absolutely nothing except for relaxing – oh and going on dates with her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend.

Biting her lip, Sakura looked away from her phone and up at her mother, who was currently preparing a late breakfast. It was a Sunday morning and they had both slept in until noon, though for different reasons. Sakura was simply being lazy whereas Mebuki had been working a late night shift at the diner, but had no work today so she was allowed to sleep in.

She was seated on one of two sofas, her foot digging into the cushion, leg bent at the knee, while the other was stretched out in front of her. It was an awful habit she was slipping into, but Sakura had yet to get dressed, so was currently lounging around in her pyjamas, which consisted of a vest top, a pair of shorts and a thick, warm dressing gown. The dressing gown had matching boot styled slippers, though they were resting at the side of the sofa.

As for her mother, she was still in her pyjamas too, but was in the kitchen. The only reason Sakura could see her was because there wasn't really a wall to separate the kitchen and the living room – the wall only reached her stomach at most, so it was technically a divider that allowed her to see inside of the kitchen. On the other side of the wall/divider were simple counters, one of them holding a sink.

The television was on and it was showing a catch up of the soaps she enjoyed, but Sakura's attention was torn between her mother and her phone. Why?

'I want to officially meet your mother.'

That was why.

Uchiha Sasuke, her boyfriend, wanted to meet her mother. Was that too soon? They'd been together for about a month now and both of their parents knew about the relationship, as did their friends and everybody in the school. Granted, Sasuke had met her mother a few times before, but only for a few brief seconds when he picked her up for dates. As well as that, Sakura had met both Itachi and Shisui (one being his older brother while the latter was like his older brother).

What would they even do for the meeting? Sit around and watch television? There was a dining table behind them, big enough for four people, so perhaps they could have dinner? That was what people usually did when introducing their boyfriend/girlfriend to their parents, right? But…

'If you're meeting my mom, I want to meet your parents as well.'

She was already nervous.

'They want to meet you, too.'

Oh no!

What if they were disappointed when they saw her? What if she somehow offended them? Oh Gods, what would she wear? And her hair. What the hell could be done with it? Hopefully, Sasuke didn't want to meet her mother today, or for her to meet his family today, because it would take hours to sort through the rat's nest on top of her head. Nothing could be done with it today.

'When?'

Closing her eyes, Sakura took a deep breath. There was no use in getting wound up about meeting Sasuke's parents, was there? Itachi seemed like a decent guy and was definitely a gentleman, so perhaps their father was, too? Or maybe it was their mother that they got the kindness from? Whoever it was, Sakura hoped that they took a liking to her – wait, no. She hoped they both liked her.

'Christmas Eve?'

The deep breath she had just taken got caught in her throat.

Christmas Eve… It was a holiday shared between lovers – like Valentine's Day. Did Sasuke mean for it to seem–

Wait.

That was only a few days from now!

The lazy mood she had been in since waking up vanished as Sakura quickly shot to her feet and down the short hallway, all but bursting into her bedroom. Just the sight of it had her groaning. Her laziness was obvious even in her room because instead of putting things in their rightful places, she'd been throwing them on the floor. Books, sheets of paper, clothes and shoes. There was only one thing Sakura had been managing to put in the right place and that was rubbish.

First things first… She opened the curtains and then her bedroom window despite the chill it let in so that she could air out her room. In her hand, her phone buzzed, effectively distracting her and the moment it did, she sat down on her bed. Sakura would have sat on the chair in her room, but it was currently being used as a clothes hanger.

'We could have lunch with your mother, dinner with my family and then go to the festival after.'

That sounded quite nice, actually and the idea of spending all day with Sasuke had a smile pulling on her lips.

'Yeah, I think we should do that.'

Placing her phone down on the bed, Sakura once more looked around her small bedroom, wondering where to start. She was tidying it on the small chance of Sasuke seeing it when he came over. Of course, the possibility of her mother allowing him inside of her bedroom was rather slim, but that was beside the point. There was always compromise, after all. They could leave the bedroom door open and–

Why was she even thinking about it? It could be left until closer to the time. Sighing, she fell backwards onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling. Things were going great in their relationship and Sakura was no longer surprised by that fact. No, she was slowly learning to expect good things from Sasuke and not bad. She was beginning to trust him and that trust grew every single day.

Since their first kiss, he'd taken to kissing her every chance he got and Sakura was definitely not complaining. Kissing Uchiha Sasuke was becoming one of her favourite past times. And he made sure not to push too much while also making his attraction obvious, which sounded impossible but it really wasn't. Public displays of affection in school weren't forbidden, but it wasn't encouraged, either, so Sasuke settled on giving her short kisses before they parted ways, or to greet her. It drove his fan-girls insane. However, thanks to Sasuke's threats and Ino's warnings, none of them dared to try anything with Sakura. They didn't push her to her limits. Also, the brunette who had ambushed her gave her the full amount for a new text book (and the money was immediately given to Iruka, who hadn't been too pleased, yet had been understanding and grateful for the speedy payment).

Ino… was difficult. Many times Sakura had tried speaking with the blonde, to try and thank her for what she'd done, but she seemed so unreachable to her and honestly, Sakura couldn't blame Ino for pushing her away. It was fair enough when she really thought about it. She had ended their friendship, after everything Ino had done for her, over a guy. However despite that, Ino continued to stand up for her and always had her back, protecting her. It made Sakura realise that Sasuke wasn't the only one who made a huge mistake. It also made her realise that, like Sasuke, she had a lot of work to do to earn Ino's trust and friendship again. But where to start?

"Sakura, breakfast is ready!"

She sat up in an instant. "Coming!"

Meeting each other's parents.

It was… It was a big step.

Leaning back against the wall outside of the mall, Sasuke scrolled through his phone to pass the time. It was freezing out and the temperature was continuing to rapidly drop, so much so that he actually listened to his mother's words for once and wrapped up warm. Wrapped around his neck and the lower half of his face was a dark, knitted scarf and it had been a gift from his mother not too long ago.

He was supposed to be meeting Naruto for Christmas shopping (which he was not so secretly dreading) and afterwards, they would be meeting up with Sakura and Hinata. Only last night had Sasuke discovered that supposedly minor detail to their plans but he didn't argue about it. The thought of seeing Sakura was what was getting him through this ridiculous shopping trip in a ridiculously overcrowded mall.

"Oi, teme!"

There wasn't time to even think of a reply before a large hand was slapping down on Sasuke's shoulder, almost causing him to drop his phone and while sending a vicious glare over his shoulder, he quickly locked said phone and shoved it into his pocket.

"So, Hinata told me that Sakura-chan told her that you want to meet her mom."

"And?"

"And… It's a big step."

Freakishly enough, that had been his exact thought. "I don't care."

"But does Sakura-chan?"

He paused in turning to enter the mall, once more glaring at the blond idiot stood before him. "What has Hinata told you?"

"Buy me ramen and I'll tell you."

"Naruto–"

"Ramen."

Ten minutes later and they were sat at the ramen stand in the mall. Like Sasuke had known it would be, it was overcrowded and there was barely enough room to squeeze through people without hurting them, not that he was overly concerned about that fact. It was mostly others their age but there was the odd elderly person struggling to push through the crowds.

Sasuke took a deep breath to calm his building anger and out of the corner of his eye, he watched as Naruto slurped down yet another bowl of ramen. And of course, it was Sasuke who was paying for it. When was it not? If the blond was paying for himself, then he would only be having one bowl. If it was Sasuke who was paying, he took full advantage of the opportunity and ate as much as his stomach could take – sometimes even more than that.

They'd been sat down at the stand for over five minutes now after spending the first five searching for it. It was near the opening of the mall, mixed with all the other food stands and market stalls. Only after they passed through them did they reach the actual mall.

Personally, he didn't like ramen though could withstand eating a single bowl of the stuff. Whenever he ate ramen it always felt like it never filled him, so Sasuke would be hungry again in a couple of hours, if that. That was why he didn't class ramen as a real meal. To him, it was more like a snack or a light lunch.

"Well," Naruto spoke and not for the first time, it was with a mouth full of food, "Hinata told me that Sakura-chan thinks things are going really well between you both."

Yes… He knew that already. Sakura would have told him if she was unhappy or uncomfortable. She would have told him if she didn't think things were working out. What was the point in trying to earn her trust if she wasn't willing to be honest with him? After the incident at the restaurant on their date, Sakura was pretty much always honest with him.

"And apparently she's not worried about you meeting her mom. Mebuki already likes you."

Really? Even after all he'd done to Sakura when they were younger? "Did she say why?"

Naruto smirked behind his bowl of ramen, slurping back the leftover soup. "I don't know. Sakura-chan wouldn't tell Hinata that part. Just said that she can tell a bad guy a mile off or something like that."

Kizashi's face flashed in Sasuke's mind and he clenched his fists beneath the table. There wasn't a chance in hell that he'd ever treat or harm Sakura the way Kizashi had Mebuki. Not only because she would break him in half in under a minute, but because Sakura was… She didn't deserve it. Nobody deserved to be hurt by the people they cared for.

"She's just really nervous about meeting your parents."

"Why?"

The look Naruto sent him was disbelieving – annoyed, even. Placing down the now empty bowl, he signalled to the woman stood behind the counter they were sat at and asked for another before turning back to Sasuke. "Think about, Sasuke. Sakura-chan is… Sakura-chan's… scary when she wants to be and she has the worst anger ever. She's worried they'll say something to set off that anger and she'll act impulsively or says something she'll regret."

He shook his head, holding back a smirk. "My mother is hoping she does."

Blue eyes went wide. "What? Why?"

"In her own words, she dislikes the girls of our generation. They're pushovers. I mean…" Turning in his seat so that he was facing the other way, Sasuke reached forward and grabbed one of the signs, lifting it up so that they could see out into the mall. "Look. Girls our age rely completely on guys. They're either obsessed with them or they're cursing them and there's never an in between with most of them."

Naruto followed his line of sight and frowned thoughtfully at the group standing at one of the market stalls. It was mostly guys although there were a few girls there and they all seemed to be in the year below them, if Sasuke wasn't mistaken. The girls were clinging to the guys, hanging off there every word but there was one girl who caught his attention in the group.

She looked younger than the rest of them but was taller than the other girls, practically towering over them and her long, strawberry blonde hair fell naturally around her shoulders. And after a moment, he realised that she looked so much younger than the other girls because she wasn't wearing any makeup, whereas their faces were caked in the stuff. The girl continuously sighed with what he presumed as annoyance, often rolling her eyes and muttering under breath, sending discreet glances over in the guys' direction. Her brown eyes showed her dislike of them without a shred of hesitancy, without a care.

Understanding what Sasuke meant, his friend twisted around in his seat once more and thanked the woman serving him as she placed down yet another bowl of ramen, smiling at him.

"Thanks, Ayame!"

"Just don't overdo it this time, Naruto-kun," she told him sternly, yet there was still a friendly smile on her face and the air around her still felt like that of an older sister. "You'll get stomach cramps again."

"It's so worth it, though."

She laughed and shook her head, walking to the other side of the stand to serve another customer.

"I get what you mean," Naruto mumbled over his food. "But Sakura-chan wants to make a good impression, you know? She wants them to like her."

Sasuke sighed and rolled his eyes. "She already has Itachi's approval and he's the most difficult to win over."

"No way," the blond exclaimed with a shake of his head, slamming his bowl down. "Your dad's the worst by far. At least Itachi is nice enough to speak respectfully to people. According to Hinata, Sakura-chan thinks he's a real gentleman. Your dad's nothing like him. He's cold and harsh and always gives me a strange look whenever I come over to your place."

Unfortunately, it was the truth. Uchiha Fugaku disliked Naruto, mainly because he believed the blond to be a bad influence on his son. He wanted Sasuke to pass everything with the highest marks, with excellent scores. He believed that it wouldn't happen if Sasuke was friends with a troublemaker like Naruto, somebody who didn't care for his exams or studies in the least.

His mother, on the other hand, enjoyed Naruto's company and had apparently been good friends with his mother before her passing. That alone was enough to win Naruto over, to make him push aside his childishness and his pranks. Knowing that Uchiha Mikoto was a friend of his mother's? It meant the world to Naruto, so he always made sure to be respectful towards her, to always ask her how she was doing whenever he visited. He was always asking her to tell him stories about what his mother had been like. Half of the time when Naruto was over at his place, he spent a great fraction of the time with Mikoto instead of Sasuke.

And like he did Sakura, Itachi also approved of Naruto being Sasuke's friend. He was respectful to their mother and he had Sasuke's back. That was all that had been needed to win Itachi over. Not only that, but Shisui liked Naruto, too. He enjoyed his personality and his character, saying that he was definitely entertaining to be around.

But that wasn't what mattered. Did Sakura really worry about his parents not liking her? What if they didn't? Sasuke couldn't predict their thoughts or what they felt. All he knew was that his mother appreciated women who stood their ground and didn't allow men to walk all over them. His father spent very little time, if any at all, on idiots and would make his displeasure obvious (need he use the Naruto example?) but Sakura was no idiot. She was the brightest in their school if they didn't include that lazy ass Shikamaru.

There was every chance that his parents wouldn't like Sakura, just like (despite Naruto's words) there was every chance of Sakura's mother not liking him. And even if that happened, it hardly mattered in his opinion. He and Sakura were the ones in a relationship, one that didn't include their parents. They simply wanted them to get to know the other. Sasuke wanted his parents to know who Sakura was, just like he wanted Mebuki to know who he was and by doing so, they would realise that his and Sakura's relationship was serious.

"Sasuke!"

His eyes snapped to Naruto's, narrowing. "What?"

"Damn it, stop brooding! I said," the blond growled and rolled his eyes, "what're you going to do if they don't like her?"

He shrugged, facing forward once more. "Then that's their problem."

His answer seemed to please Naruto, because he gave Sasuke a grin and slammed down yet another finished bowl of ramen, standing as he did so. "Good! Now we just need to find her a present."

That was why Sasuke was dreading going shopping.

What the hell was he supposed to get Sakura for Christmas?

Hinata smiled at Sakura, trying to calm her. "M-Maybe you should just buy him some chocolate?"

Christmas wasn't a holiday that a lot of people celebrated, but her mother, after divorcing her father, had always enjoyed celebrating it and spending the entire day with Sakura. They woke up in the morning and exchanged gifts before cooking together, eating Christmas cake and singing along to music and simply… being happy. Sometimes, there were fireworks being set off in certain parts of Konoha and they went to see them, too.

Sakura knew that, in Suna, they didn't celebrate Christmas at all and, there was also no Christmas break. Unless it was a weekend, students still went to school and adults still went to work. In Konoha, however, it was celebrated and Christmas Eve was known to be more for couples and because of this, there was always an annual festival to celebrate love. Sakura had never been to one of the festivals before, considering she had never had a boyfriend at the time, but she had heard that the festivals were beautiful and breathtaking and there was always so much to do. Usually, after the festival had begun to die down, couples went to hotels and…

Her cheeks grew pink.

That wouldn't be happening any time soon, but it still happened with other couples. Because of that tradition, it was pretty much impossible to get a reservation at a hotel and not only that, but also at a restaurant if you were taking your other half out for a meal.

Also, normally, gifts weren't given for Christmases (or birthdays) but Sakura liked the thought of giving somebody a gift to show her appreciation of them. It showed that you were thinking of them and thought hard about what kind of gift they'd like.

Which was why she was currently panicking.

She couldn't think of anything for Sasuke.

Already, she had her mother's gift. All there was left to find was Sasuke's. She would have bought one for Hinata and on their first Christmas as friends, she had, but it turned out that Hinata's father was extremely strict and traditional, and still lived in the olden days or something along those lines. He refused to allow his daughters to celebrate a commercial holiday, so treated Christmas like it was just a normal day.

If she bought Sasuke chocolate as Hinata suggested, then it meant she was serious about the relationship and her feelings were true – well, if she bought him honmei choco then it did. Although… That was usually given for Valentine's Day.

What did she do?

Closing her eyes, Sakura took a deep breath and thought about it. They wouldn't be exchanging gifts until the festival, meaning she had a couple of days still. All she had to do was think about his character and what meant a lot to him.

Her eyes snapped open a moment later as she immediately came up with something that meant a lot to him.

"Come on, Hinata," Sakura suddenly exclaimed, grabbing her hand and dragging the girl through the large, noisy crowd. "I have the perfect gift."

"Are you sure she'll like that?" Naruto questioned, squinting down at the gift Sasuke was planning on giving to Sakura. "It looks… old."

Instead of listening to him, he nodded once to the man at the counter, who was quick to place the gift into a box and carefully wrap it up.

No, Sasuke wasn't sure if Sakura would like it, but he'd noticed that she took a fair amount of interest in history and she enjoyed learning new things about the past. There was a story behind gifts such as the one he'd picked up for Sakura, which was what she liked most: stories.

So now he had everybody's gifts. His parents, his brother, Shisui and now Sakura's. His father didn't particularly enjoy celebrating Christmas, as he believed it wasn't traditional, but his mother was able to talk him over and last Christmas, he'd even smiled.

Also, Naruto had Jiraiya's gift, which Sasuke wasn't even going to go into detail about. He'd been stood outside of that damned adult stand for so long and so many people had looked at him like he was a damned pervert. Stupid Naruto. Why he took so long choosing a dirty movie, he'd never know. Then again, knowing Jiraiya, the old pervert probably had most of them already. He didn't even bother to hide them at the home he shared with Naruto, saying the blond could watch them any time he wanted as long as he took care of them.

And now Naruto was carrying around a bag that made it obnoxiously clear where they'd been.

"I wonder what–"

"Uzumaki Naruto!"

He paled instantly, much to Sasuke's amusement and when Naruto slowly turned around, fearing the worst, his fears were confirmed when he found Sakura and Hinata stood mere feet away, the former shaking with her anger while the latter was looking anywhere but Naruto, her red cheeks only growing redder by the second.

"I-It's not what you think, Sakura-chan!"

"You're a filthy pervert is what I think!"

When she stomped over to them, dragging Hinata along and grinding her teeth the entire way, Sasuke couldn't help but smirk at the sight of his angered girlfriend. He liked that she instilled fear among many with just a certain look and how the crowd was now parting and making room for her, for fear of her anger being turned on them. Sakura didn't seem to notice or if she did, then she didn't care.

Sasuke caught Sakura's arm just as she released Hinata, raising it to grab Naruto and instead pulled her to his side. "It's really not, Sakura," he told her. "It's Jiraiya's gift."

Her cheeks burned even as she continued to glare at them both. "You were both at the adult store."

"I–"

"We had to find him a film he didn't already have!"

Sakura's eyes widened and met Sasuke's. "We?"

He wanted to strangle Naruto. "I didn't look at anything."

"Sure."

Turning his back on the other two at her sarcastic reply, Sasuke more or less towered over Sakura, leaning closer to her. "I have no reason to."

However, instead of being happy like he thought she would be, Sakura's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "You still have them." When there was no answer, she sighed, her hand holding his gently. "Just don't let anybody use your phone or your laptop – or anything you saved those things on."

They were speaking quietly enough that nobody else could hear them, the loud crowd covering their voices easily.

"You don't mind?"

It was the first time they had spoken about the pictures they had sent to each other (well, since the day they decided to meet up as Avenger–S and Fall–of–the–Blossom). Her cheeks were still pink and Sakura shook her head. "I… I trust you with them."

That was a lot of trust, Sasuke knew that. And in response he kissed her forehead. "And I trust you with the ones I sent to you."

The blush darkened. "…I forgot to delete them."

He smirked. "Sure."

"Oi, you two aren't going to start making out, are you?"

"N-Naruto-kun!"

Mood ruined, Sasuke glared over his shoulder at Naruto, his eyes narrowing further at the returned glare from the blond. That glare disappeared when Sakura looked around Sasuke's body and sent Naruto a glare of her own.

Hinata looked between the three of them, fingers fidgeting with the sleeves of her thick jacket. "U-Um… Maybe we should… go and get a hot chocolate?"

"That's a great idea," exclaimed Naruto as he threw his arm over Hinata's shoulders, either not noticing or not paying any attention to the fact her face was now bright red and her startled squeak. "There's a great little place in here somewhere, I just hope it's not packed."

He turned back to face Sakura, his glare slipping away as hers did and he reached out, taking her hand in his and guiding the way through the crowd, following after Naruto's loud voice.

"Sasuke?" He glanced over his shoulder at her. "Your parents… Will they expect me to be dressed formally?"

So Naruto was right, after all. Sakura was really nervous about meeting his parents. The thought almost caused Sasuke to smile, as it took a lot to make a girl like Haruno Sakura nervous. "Just wear what you're comfortable in, but nothing too casual. None of us, besides my father on occasion, have worn a kimono or a yukata since I was around eight years old."

She nodded, secretly grateful for that fact since she didn't own a kimono or a yukata. Sure, she had a qipao but it wasn't really suitable if the rest of them were dressed in a kimono. But since they weren't and they would be going to a festival afterwards… Perhaps she should wear her red qipao? And if it wasn't suitable, then Sasuke could tell her that before they left. Feeling happy that her outfit was already planned, she went to smile up at Sasuke, but instead of meeting his eyes, her eyes locked onto a completely different person, her blood running cold at the sight of him.

Her father.

His large arm was wrapped around a woman who appeared to be in her early twenties, the obvious age gap making Sakura's skin crawl and at the look in her eyes, the completely oblivious love, the nauseous feeling settling in her stomach doubled. It was enough to make her pause, to make her stare at them in horror and when she stopped, Sasuke also stopped, frowning down at her.

They looked… They looked happy. Her father had the same look she could remember from her childhood in his eyes. That was how he used to look at Mebuki whenever Sakura was around. He had showered her in affection and praises like he currently was with the new woman.

And she hated him for it. Did that woman even know what she was getting herself into?

"Sakura."

It was due to her lack of answer that Sasuke followed her line of sight, thankfully, as it meant she didn't have to explain what was happening. She didn't trust the words. She knew he'd caught on because his arm tightened its hold on her and he started pulling her away, ditching Naruto and Hinata who were still walking ahead of them.

"Come on," he murmured, gently guiding her backwards as he tried to find the nearest exit. "He hasn't seen you yet, has he?"

Just as Sakura opened her mouth, her father raised his head and through the large crowd, his eyes met hers, time seeming to slow down as the colour drained from her face, as she held onto Sasuke tightly and allowed him to guide her backwards. "…No."

Anger flashed in her father's blue eyes and Sakura was certain that it was because of the way Sasuke was holding her, especially considering the unmistakable murderous look he suddenly gave to the unaware Uchiha.