[Naruto] Holiday Story Preview

I found this in my drive. I read over it, did a couple edits, but for the most part left it as I first read it. My treat for people who actually look at my blog is to get the preview of it. I feel that it needs more added to it. The ending I'm not fond of, but I think I may have it follow Shino and Sakura little bit more.


Holiday Fic #1

Fandom: Naruto

Pairing: Shino x Sakura; mentions of Shikmaru x Naruto and Sasuke x Naruto


It was cold outside, below freezing, and the skies looked as if they would open up at any moment. All week they had been dealing with freezing rain and sleet, but no snow as of yet. They were all anticipating snow.

Sakura shifted from foot to foot, her breath visible before her. She was wrapped up in a tan coat that had fake fur trim around the hood, the hem, and the bottom of each sleeve. It was wonderfully warm, though with the hood up, it disguised her always noticeable bubble-gum pink hair. She regretted wearing her skirt since, even with the leggings underneath and thick moccasin boots, it was still terribly cold. And the wind was horrible.

“Ino,” she shouted, jumping up and waving at her friend. “Over here!”

The blond girl waved back before reaching back and dragging along the two guys behind her. Naruto and Shikamaru were trudging along looking as if they had just rolled out of bed. They probably had. It was barely 8 a.m. and she knew for a fact that Naruto didn’t wake up before noon on his days off. “Hey Sakura,” Ino said. “Been here long?”

Sakura shook her head. “Not long normally, but feels like forever in this weather.”

“And why are we doing this again?” Shikamaru complained. He pulled his coat closer, his neck sinking into the fabric.

Ino sighed. “Its tradition, idiot.”

Shikamaru and Ino had grown up as friends. Their fathers worked at partner companies, and the families lived just two blocks away from each other. The two fathers always hoped that Ino, vivacious and beautiful, would end up with Shikamaru, lazy and genius, but the two never showed any signs that that their relationship would go beyond friendship. Ino seemed more interested in the boys from the prestigious Suna Academy, and—if Sakura was reading it right—Shikamaru was involved with a different kind of blond.

“Hey Naruto,” Sakura began. “What are you doing for the holiday? Aren’t your grandparents still in Kyoto?”

The sunny blond nodded. “Yeah. They’ll be back in a couple more weeks.”



“What are you going to do today?”

Naruto shrugged. “Wanna do something? Your parents are still overseas, right?”

Sakura smiled politely. She hadn’t really planned on doing anything after her friends split—well, nothing except calling her parents to wish them a happy New Year’s. They were currently over in America. Her dad had gotten a promotion in his company and they had moved almost immediately. She had been given the chance to go, but she had declined. She was mid-way through high school, only one more year left, and she didn't want to start anew so close to the end.

“Leave her alone, Naruto. Who would want to spend New Year’s with you?”

The group turned to their left. Kiba was walking up smirking. The pissing contest always started immediately when Kiba and Naruto got anywhere near each other. They had all gotten use to it by this point, though it was sometimes annoying—and had, on occasion, gotten them kicked out of restaurants.

“Guys, don’t you think you could stop that just for today? It’s not really the day for it. And it’s annoying.” Ino chided.

Naruto shrugged, not really into it today anyway. The group of friends continued to talk quietly, shifting about to deal with the cold, waiting on the rest of their friends.

“We should really think of a different place to meet up in,” Tenten declared as she walked up to the group. Shino was just behind her, large headphones covering his ears and his usual sunglasses over his eyes.  Kiba walked up to him, snickering. The two were close friends--a fact that led Sakura to theorize that loud people were always closest to quiet people. Naruto and Shikamaru were very close, after all, and Naruto and Sasuke had been close before....well, just before.

Sasuke was someone no one tried to think about too much. He had been in their group since primary school, but had left them for a more prestigious school an hour commute away (by train). They still saw him--he lived near them--it was just that he had new friends, a new school, and little time to hang out with them. Sakura did invite him for their annual trip to the shrine, though she doubted he would show up.

"Who else are we waiting for?" Shino asked, coming up to Sakura.

She was grateful; he blocked the wind. She grabbed onto his arm so he wouldn't move away and smiled. "Neji, Hinata, and Chouji. Lee is going to meet us there. Temari and her brothers are going to meet us for lunch afterwards."

Shino nodded. Not bothering to move from Sakura's grasp. If he was cold, he didn't let on.

"Hey, there they are!" Naruto shouted, waving his arms wildly.

The group turned to see the remaining friends walking up. "Finally," Sakura puffed. She let go of Shino's arm and moved from his warmth to greet the Hinata. She nodded at the two boys with her. "Let's get on the train quickly," she said, her teeth beginning to chatter.

There was a hum of agreement and the group filed towards the gates, train passes in hand. Chatting with each other, they entered the platform and waited for one of the many trains to pull up. Sakura smiled and commented to something Naruto had said, the other teen standing on her left. She felt something brush up against her. Looking to her right, she saw Shino standing there. His attention was on Kiba and Chouji who were recounting something that had happened to them the other day. Kiba bounced up and down with the story; Chouji's head unconsciously nodding to the same beat. Shino smiled slightly, probably more at the two's unknown synchronization than at the tale itself.

"Hey Sakura," Naruto called, getting her attention again. She turned to look at her blond friend again. "Did you say Gaara was going to meet us later?"

"Yeah."

A smile broke his face, threatening to split his face in two. Sakura rolled her eyes. "Please don't start anything. It's bad enough with you and Kiba going at it all the time..." she trailed off. Most of the group was snickering except for Kiba, who was looking at her as if she had grown a second head, Naruto, was blushing and stammering, and Shikamaru who was looking at Kiba through narrowed eyes. She was lost.

Thankfully Shino leaned near her and whispered what the joke was. "Seriously?" she gasped, putting her hands on her hips. "Grow up,  you know I didn't mean it like that."

Chouji and Ino continued to snicker, but the rest of the group seemed to drift off. Shikamaru moved to stand closer to Naruto, taking the blond's attention away from the others. Sakura sighed, he's glowing. 

The station intercom crackled to life and an announcement of their train coming in was made. "Finally," she grumbled, realizing that she wasn't feeling the cold anymore because she couldn't feel most of her extremities. The train would be warm simply because of the amount of people that would be crammed into each car. 

Except she forgot the chill it would bring before the warmth inside. Sakura gasped and tried to push her skirt down from the clip of wind that the train caused while passing by. She knew that she had leggings on underneath it, so she wasn't really going to flash anyone--but propriety dictated she still act like she needed to protect her modesty. Hinata did the same for her cute, wool mini--she was even wearing bootleg pants underneath. Ino didn't seem to care, though her dress was just above her knees and didn't seem to plume up that much.

Sakura felt herself jump as someone stepped up behind her. She turned her head quickly, the proximity of the other person not allowing her to turn completely. Her eyes widened when she saw Shino. "What a--?"

"You seem to be worried about your skirt. I thought it would be inappropriate to push it down..." he trailed off.

Sakura nodded, understanding but not really getting why he had done it.  She turned around, catching Kiba and Chouji staring at them and making comments. The youngest Inuzuka smirked then winked at her. She stuck out her tongue in return. The doors of the train had opened, and the passengers already departed. With her nose held high, she stepped onto the train, Shino immediately behind, and the others piling in soon after. 

"Man, I'm glad it's warm in here," Ino sighed. She was sitting on Tenten's lap. Kiba and Chouji sitting on the two seats down from them. "You know," Ino said to the two guys. "You could get up and let the ladies sit in the chairs." 

Kiba looked at the female blond then laughed. "You have a seat already," he answered. He looked over at Sakura and winked...but he didn't wink at her, he winked at the person behind her.  Sakura turned around to see Shino standing there. He looking to his right, away from the group, a blush crawling up his neck from under his jacket. Ino hummed then laughed.

The pink-haired girl was feeling oddly out of place. Sakura was smart--one of the top of her class, second only to Shikamaru who she had the unfortunate privilege of sharing a class with throughout her junior and senior high life--and she realized what was going on. Kiba had all but spelled it out for her. She bit her lip. 

For most of her life, Sakura had had a crush on Uchiha Sasuke. For all intensive purposes, he was perfect: handsome, smart, came from a good family, well mannered (until he was around Naruto), good at sports, just an all around great guy.

Except he wasn't. It had taken his treatment of Naruto before they entered high school for her to open her eyes to what a horrible personality he had, and how what she often saw as attractive in him was really keys to his arrogance that made so many hate him. It had taken another year to get over him completely.

"Yay, this is us!" Naruto cheered, grabbing Shikamaru's hand and pulling him towards the door, through the crowd. As the train came to a stop, all the train passengers began shifting towards the door. When it opened everyone rushed out into the cold once again, a large portion of them heading in the same direction as their group was going--to the shrine. 

"Quickly," Shino whispered to her, grabbing her arm and following after the hyperactive boys that were beginning to get ahead of them. 

"Naruto," Sakura yelled. "Slow down, wait for the rest of us!"

The blond boy turned around and waved that he had heard. He pointed to over his shoulder and Sakura followed the invisible line. Standing on a bench, Lee waved at them. They all made their way to him. "Hey Lee," Sakura greeted.

He smiled at the group. "You'll never guess who else met us here?" he said. 

"Gaara?" Naruto asked, looking around.  All of the sudden he tensed up. "Sasuke?"

"What?" Ino said, pushing up beside her fellow blond and looked at where he was staring. "Well what do you know, Mr. Stick-Up-His-Ass came out here."

Sasuke walked up to the group. "What are you doing here?" Kiba asked. 

"Sakura invited me."

Everyone looked at her. "What? He's our friend too--and we never get to see him." She bit her lip, beginning to think that she should have thought this out more.

"Whatever," Naruto mumbled. He walked past Sasuke and towards the shrine steps. Shikamaru jogged briefly to catch up with them. The others followed. 

"Sorry," Sakura said quietly. "I didn't know they'd treat you'd like that."

Sasuke shrugged. "I should have expected it. We didn't split so well." Sakura got the distinct impression he was talking about Naruto and not the group.

The Uchiha looked behind her at Shino, who was the only one still standing by the bench still (besides themselves). Lee was walking slowly, waiting for them to catch up. There seemed to be an unspoken conversation between the two boys before Sasuke turned his attention to the pink-haired teen. "We should catch up," he suggested.

The three of them walked to the shrine.

()

"So when did this happen?" Sasuke asked.

The rest of the group was making their wishes. Sakura had been one of the first, knowing what she wanted and wanting to get it out of the way. Sasuke didn't bother to approach the shrine, never really believing in the old traditions. 

"When did what happen?" she asked in return.

"You and Shino?"

Sakura coughed and looked down. "It's not happening. I just really figured it out today, not really sure what I'm going to do."

"You don't like him?"

She paused looking at Shino in the distant, through the crowd, and then back at Sasuke. "It's not that I don't like him...it's just, I guess I'm not that close to him."

"Not like me?"

"We were never really close," she sighed. "The only person you've ever been close to is Naruto."

Sasuke tensed then looked down. "And I fucked that up pretty well."

"You didn't fuck it up. If Naruto is anything, he's forgiving."

"Maybe..." Sasuke replied, trailing off. He watched as Naruto and Shikamaru made a wish together. The blond kept his hands clasped in front of his face longer than most, his whole body tense--it was obvious that he was wishing as hard as he could. He never did anything half-assed. "I don't think he and I can ever go back to the way we were."

Sakura shook her head. "But friends is a good place to be."

The brunette looked over at her. "Like we are?"

She smiled shyly. "I would love to be considered one of your friends." She reached over and hugged him. He returned it. She pulled back when she felt him tense. "Sasuke?"

"I think you need to talk to Shino."

Sakura turned around to see said teen standing just a few feet away from her. Kiba was talking to him but Shino's face was an unreadable. "One of these days I'll find a way to avoid these random acts of drama," she grumbled. 

"Where are we meeting Kankuro and the rest?" Ino asked, a dangerous gleam in her eyes. Sakura rolled her eyes. "We're meeting at the Benny's on 4th street," she said. "If we walk, we'll get there just in time to meet them."

"Yeah, but walking in this weather sucks," Kiba spoke up.

"Too bad," Ino piped up. "I don't want to deal with the trains. We lucked out coming over here, but I don't want to stand in a crowded train and get my ass grabbed by some old pervert."

"Or some young pervert," Tenten said, looking over at Kiba. The teen smiled, not bothering to argue--though he only harassed his friends, ones he knew wouldn't call the cops on him.

"Let's go," Naruto said. "I think Hinata is freezing," he pointed out. The quiet girl was hiding under her scarf. Neji agreed that they should leave soon. And they did.

()()

"Shino," Sakura inquired. She had slowly, subtly made her way to the back of the group. He was walking next to her, his headphones back on. Normally you could hear his music when it was on, so she was confident he was listening to her, even if he didn't show it. "Um, can I talk to you?"

He looked down at her and nodded slightly. Sakura took a deep breath. "This is hard," she mumbled.

"I like you."

Sakura's head shot up and looked at him. He was staring ahead like he had said nothing. 

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"I'm not going to stop, even if you and Sasuke are dating." 

"What?" she exclaimed. "No, we aren't dating. We're just friends."

Shino finally looked down at her. "Really? Because--"

"No, we're just friends."

The two looked at each other, then ahead. An uncomfortable silence hung between them.

"Why all of the sudden? You've never seem to show any interest in me before--other than casual friends."

It took awhile for him to answer. "Truth is," he began. "I've liked you for a long time. But your interest was always...elsewhere."

"And why now?"

He looked back down at her and smiled. "New Years resolution?"

Sakura laughed. It was an utterly ridiculous answer, but it felt good for the tension to be washed away. 

"We only have a year and a half left in high school. After that, who knows what happens." He paused. "I got scared when it seemed like you were going to move to America with your parents. I didn't...don't want to lose the opportunity to be close to you."

"Shino--" she began.

"Even if just as closer friends," he added, desperation clearly overtaking his tone.

The pink-haired teen bit her lip, a bad habit she really needed to cure herself of, and looked down at her feet. Making up her mind, she looked up and called out to Naruto. 

"Yeah?" he answered.

"I'm going to have to cancel our plans today, okay?"

The blond tilted his head to the side. "Why?"

She smiled brightly. "Sorry, I've got a date."

She bumped Shino with her hip. His face began to turn pink again and he buried himself down into the oversized collar of his coat. Naruto smiled just as brightly back at his friends. "Way to go Shino!" he called, both hands extended with his thumbs up.  This time Sakura blushed too.

"Hey guys," Hinata interrupted. "Look."

She pointed up and the group all looked to the sky. "It's snow!" Sakura cried.

The group whooped and cheered--then realizing it was going to get colder--hurried off to the restaurant. They could play in the fresh powder after lunch--when it had piled up more. 

Sakura felt Shino grab her hand. "Remind me to call my parents and let them know I'm bringing home a friend."

"A friend? That's how our first date is going to be?"

He squeezed her hand. "And what should I call you?"

She hummed. "You're a smart guy, you figure it out." She bumped him with her hip again before letting go of his hand to run up to Ino. 

This is definitely a good start to the new year, they both thought. Both smiling.