Chapter Text
On the eve of the New Year…
Team Seven was mucking around the outskirts of Fire Country.
Sakura swatted away a noisy bug by her ear in irritation, before realizing that the low bzzzt sound that had been ringing about her head for the past minute and a half was not a bug, but rather the low keen of a dying radio. She hastily unclipped the box from her side, and gave it a few rough shakes before the red light flickered back to a dull green.
Placing the radio back, she turned her head and scanned the lake’s edge. In the dark, it was difficult to see, but the reflection of moonlight on the water was just enough to light up the surrounding shore. Somewhere in the dark trees, Sakura knew that there were enemy ninjas lurking about. Two self-proclaimed tough guys from Cloud Country, to be exact. The newest terrors to a small local village, and who vandalized and stole from the hardworking farmers.
Her ear-piece crackled to life. Sshhhrrrk. “…Sakura—?”
Sakura calmly raised a hand to her ear. “This is Sakura,” she said quietly.
There was a long pause before more Sshhhrrrk’s and Krrfftts’s rang out. “…you… need help… Krrfftt…?”
Sakura listened closely with a frown. “Hold on.” She took the radio box again, shaking it back and forth again with a vengeance… before the static died down, and she calmly clipped it back to her belt. “Sorry, sensei,” she whispered again, and continued to dart her eyes back and forth over the water. “What did you say?”
“I was asking if you were in trouble,” came his soft reply. Sakura could just imagine him crouching down in a tree somewhere overlooking a clearing in the dark woods… not too far away from her own position. She wondered if Kakashi had been trying to contact her for long.
“Sorry, no trouble here… but my radio is on the fritz.”
“What was that?”
“I said my radio is on the fritz,” she said slowly, and enunciating every word.
She heard him sigh on the other end. “You’re still not coming through clearly.”
“I said MY RADIO IS ON THE FRITZ.” Her voice echoed through the trees, startling a flock of birds.
Another long pause. “There’s no need to shout,” she could hear him say lightly.
“Sorry about that,” Sakura murmured in a solemn whisper.
She just hoped that her shouting didn’t give away her position.
Or maybe she did. When a tree branch snapped to her right, Sakura looked up with a little too much hope in her eyes, and drew her kunai. Adrenaline pumping… nerves on edge… ready for action. Only to discover the culprit of the noise was nothing more than a lone rabbit, hopping about the woods.
“Gahhhwd.” She let her hands drop down in disappointment, and let threw her head back in a Naruto-esque whine. “When is there going to be any action?”
“Mm,” was Kakashi’s only response. She wasn’t sure if he was agreeing or disagreeing. For sure, it had been a very quiet past eight hours standing guard over this sleepy part of the world. Naruto and Sasuke—who paired up and were guarding the opposite end of the woods—were probably going mad with boredom. Sakura was by no means a patient person, but usually stake-out missions didn’t leave her this restless and jittery.
She wondered if it was just this night in particular. Glancing up towards the moon in the clear sky, she estimated that it was probably nearing midnight soon, and that her friends at home would be celebrating in true Konoha style: with tons of flash and revelry to welcome in the New Year.
Meanwhile, she was stuck with her teammates in some dinky little forest.
“Hey, Kakashi-sensei…” She whispered into her ear piece again. “Do you suppose they’ll still be celebrating when we get back?”
“…You mean four days from now after we hike back to the village? No, somehow I don’t think so.”
Well, Sakura was half-expecting that answer, though, she thought she’d try asking anyway.
Sensing no enemies nearby, she decided to take a seat and plopped down by the water’s edge. In the distance she could hear the low croaking of frogs and feel the muggy heat rise up from the lake. Stray mist swirled up like ghostly shadows. Even during the traditional cold season that took over the rest of the land, the Land of Fire stayed consistently warm…
“That’s too bad, because I was really looking forward to the New Year’s festival this time,” she continued, resting a chin in her palm, and softly drumming her fingers on one knee. “I even bought new robes.”
“Mm.”
“Then there would have been fireworks, and games, and bonfires… and I would have met with Ino to get free food and candy… then we would have laughed at all the dorky people in costumes walking around… and played that stupid game where you catch the fish in a net.”
“I like that one,” Kakashi agreed.
“Then we would have met with the other Nine at a party later, and would have gone carousing until we crashed later in the wee hours of the morning… are you still listening, sensei?”
“Mm hm,” she heard his low voice say, but she had a suspicion that he probably wasn’t.
She let out a drawn-out sigh. “You know… but what I was really looking forward to this year was getting a midnight kiss.”
There was a long silence on the other end.
“Sasuke is pretty good at being evasive, but Ino and I had a plan this year. This time we were going to get him so liquored up that we could corner him, tie him up in a chair, and—”
Sshhhrrrrrrrrkrffffft.
Whatever Sakura was going to say next was cut off by the sudden hand wrapped around her throat in a near death-grip. Flailing her arm out, she hammered her hands against a hard chest, and the radio wire became yanked away from her ear as her attacker threw her down to the ground.
The sudden impact completely knocked the air out of her lungs.
Even with her head ringing and eyes watering up, Sakura could hear the two different sets of footsteps as her assailants circled in.
Dammit. She let her guard down.
And now some random Cloud-nin nobodies knew of her holiday plans.
Gritting her teeth, and with spots dancing before her eyes, Sakura gathered up chakra into her fist and braced herself for an earth-shattering hit that would surely swallow up her enemies, but before she could fully slam her fist into the ground—a hard boot suddenly made contact with her stomach, sending her flying through the air.
If she wasn’t winded before, she was now… and for that brief moment she went soaring through the sky, she caught a glimpse of her two assailants—standing on the shore like dark looming shadows, and the faint crackle of her radio as someone called out her name.
Then there was a loud splash! and complete darkness as the water swallowed her into its chilly depths. The bubbles rose up all around her in a frantic haze, and the lake water immediately rushed up her nose and ears.
She kept her lips sealed shut. Her lungs were burning from the lack of air, and she felt the overwhelming need to cough as she remained doubled over from the powerful kick.
She was sinking down into the darkness. In the back of her mind she knew she needed to rise back to the surface—kick, flail her arms, perform a jutsu… anything. But as she weakly brought her hands up to form a seal, the strong undercurrents of the lake continued to drag her down.
The black spots were growing bigger. She was losing consciousness.
It felt like a small eternity before familiar hands grabbed her shoulders in a strong grip, and a warm mouth sealed over her own.
The person was trying to blow air through her mouth and insistently tapping a tongue to her sealed lips, as if asking for access. Sakura eagerly opened her mouth and took in the life-giving breath. Her lungs still burned, but she could feel herself returning from the edges of unconsciousness, as the warm moistured air went down. She held onto her rescuer in the cold dark, and with her body giddy from light-headedness, it truly felt as if they were floating through an endless void.
Then the mouth pulled away, and she was being dragged back to the surface of the lake, surrounded by a chaotic rush of bubbles. The strong arms held on to her tightly by the waist, pulling her through the water, and she kicked along in an attempt to help, but her arms and legs felt weak and were burning painfully from the lack of oxygen.
They broke through the surface with a loud splash, both gasping for breath. The moonlight rippled on the black surface of the lake, and Sakura was dimly aware of the pop of distant fireworks from the small village just beyond the forest. Bright colors filled the lower part of the sky and reflected off the waters. On the shore were the two unconscious lumps of the Cloud-nin she fought and lost to just moments before.
Kakashi was bobbing in the water next to Sakura, with an arm still wrapped around her middle. Very slowly, her vision began to clear, and she was aware of the flash of skin from his bare face and the glint of silver hair. Droplets of water dripped down from the top of her head into her eyes
“Happy New Year,” Kakashi said, after tearing his gaze away from the sky. As his face came into focus, Sakura could see that his expression appeared quite serene—as if he hadn’t just made an impossibly quick dash from the clearing to the lake, single-handedly wiped out the enemy, completed the mission, and rescued his student from the murky jaws of death before she lost consciousness.
From the look of things, they could have been out for a midnight swim. Albeit, Kakashi was awfully closer than usual… and they never took midnight swims.
“Happy New Year…” Sakura could only agree weakly.
“Now, I don’t know about the whole festival thing with the costumes, and games, and bonfires… and partying till morning, but…”
Kakashi leaned over, wiping the wet strands of hair from Sakura’s face. Their lips connected. Warmth and pleasure mingled together as he captured her in a long and satisfying kiss.
…A kiss that also left her thoroughly disoriented and made bright colors dance before her eyes that had nothing to do with fireworks. As they separated, new and disturbing thoughts began to burgeon in the back of Sakura’s mind. Ones that would leave her thinking long and hard in the many sleepless nights to come.
“Now…” Kakashi said, in a completely serious voice. “Do you still want to find Sasuke and tie him down? We could probably sneak up on him and Naruto if we’re quiet enough.”
Sakura couldn’t help but laugh at the joke, or at least what she hoped was a joke, and Sakura and Kakashi quietly climbed back to the shore… with the warmth of her first midnight kiss lingering on her lips.
And so began the New Year.