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1.
“I wish that old bastard would hurry up,” Naruto grumbled, arms folded while he sat Indian style on the bridge. It was their normal team meeting place and as usual, their sensei was nowhere to be found.
Naruto and Sasuke wore their impatience on their face, but their female teammate seemed perfectly content to stare out at the water under the bridge. “Maybe he’s not coming? He could have cancelled the mission, today is a holiday after all.” The pink haired kunoichi hummed.
Upon the mention of ‘holiday,’ Naruto’s face lit up. He instantly rose to his feet and began skipping with glee across the bridge.
“Say say! Today IS Halloween!” He yelled out as if the decorations all over town didn’t make it obvious enough, “When we get done with our mission, I’m going to go to every house in Konaha and get as much as candy I can!” He rubbed his hands together while he schemed, eyes closed from smiling so wide.
Sakura seemed to share the same enthusiasm regarding the holiday. “My mom made me a costume! I’m going as Lin, the heroine from that War movie that came out last month!”
Sasuke stood against the railing, not paying any mind to his teammates antics. He thought Halloween was dumb.
Sakura leaned towards her dark haired teammate, hands clasped together, “What if you dressed as Lane, the prince Lin married, Sasuke-kun? We could go trick or treating together,” The young Kunoichi batted her eyelashes and put on her prettiest smile in an attempt to convince him.
“BUT SAKURA CHANNN-“
“Boo.”
Kakashi appeared behind Naruto, seemingly out of nowhere. The young blonde was startled, losing his balance. He reached for Sasuke’s arm to hold onto, but the ninja purposely stepped further away, leaving his teammate to fall into the water below them.
Sakura then resumed her previous pose as if nothing happened, while Naruto flopped around like a fish. Sasuke scoffed at the sight. “Tch. Loser.”
Kakashi took the distracting moment to pop a piece of chocolate in his mouth, he had clearly made a pit stop on his way to the bridge.
2.
“Sorry I’m late! I thought I would be out of the hospital by five but then we had to do an emergency surgery. Some stupid prank gone wrong,” The kunoichi gruffed, her thoughts still focused on the reckless kids from earlier. She sat down across from Naruto and Sai, both of whom were dressed in ridiculous costumes.
Sai sported a fake mustache and a beret. Sakura recalled him mentioning a famous artist earlier in the week. Naruto wore what was a poorly cut white sheet, tied around his neck, with messy red scribbles on it.
Sakura squinted her eyes at Naruto and his mess of a Hokage costume. “Let me guess..a toga-no, no, a super hero-no, wait-“
“Not funny Sakura-chan!” Her best friend whined in response and she almost felt bad for poking fun. “It’s granny Tsunade’s fault, she wouldn’t let me borrow her cloak..” he began mumbling incoherently, too afraid to voice his thoughts loud enough for the Hokage’s apprentice to hear.
Sai put a comforting hand on Naruto’s shoulder, who quickly shrugged it off in annoyance. He then turned towards Sakura, “why aren’t you wearing a costume? Didn’t you explain to me that everyone dresses up on this day?”
“Well, not everyone..” She rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment. She always loved Halloween and when she described it to her socially inept teammate, she made sure to elaborate on the importance of a meaningful costume. “I’ve been so busy today, I just didn’t have time! I might just go home and sleep after we eat..”
“What? No way! You promised to go to Kiba’s party with us!” Her ever so loud teammate yelled out.
“I’m tired, Naruto!”
“But that’s no way to spend your Halloween!”
She huffed in response. She wanted to argue that her rest was more important, but she had been looking forward to this night for the past few weeks…
“Yeah..I guess that’s no way to spend my Halloween.” Her best friend’s essence instantly brightened up and he shoved his fries towards her, in a rare gesture of sharing his food.
She picked up a fry and began twirling it around in her fingers. “Food is meant to be eaten, not played with, ugly.” Sakura rolled her eyes at her annoying friend.
“I was just thinking.”
Naruto noticed the far away look in her eyes and spoke up, “Are you..do you think..I wonder what Sasuke’s doing for Halloween.”
Sakura wasn’t even surprised that Naruto had the same train of thought that she did. Something about the holiday’s made the hole in their team seem even larger.
“…sleeping, probably.” She answered.
They both stared at each silently. A moment went by and the two teens bust into a fit of laughter.
Sai watched, confused at what could be so funny. This must be one of those “inside jokes” he read about. He didn’t want to feel left out, so he started laughing too.
3.
Kakashi stretched his arms out and exhaled loudly. The sun was starting to set, which meant it was time to call it a day and head home. This was his favorite part of the day, leaving the office. He really underestimated the amount of paperwork that came with being the Hokage.
He spent the entire day dreaming of his bed. Nothing sounded more appealing than getting some take out then getting some much needed rest. He sat with his chair facing the opposite of its usual direction, giving him a view of the sunset.
If only every day could be so simple.
As if on cue, a very fast, very loud, very blonde human being burst through his door.
“Kaka-sensei! There you are!”
Kakashi didn’t bother turning around, he already knew who it was.
“As if he would be anywhere else,” his pink hair teammate retorted behind him.
His two students were so much older now, and yet they still carried traits that reminded him of their genin selves. Naruto was as loud and boisterous as ever and Sakura was just as annoyed with it now as she was back then.
“Are you ready to go sensei? Sai’s waiting for us at his house.” His pink haired pupil chirped cheerfully, “Team 10 is supposed to be there too.”
Naruto seemed irritated by this tidbit. He spoke in a low voice, one he especially reserved for when he wanted to complain outside of Sakura’s ear shot, “It was supposed to be a team 7 halloween.”
He heard a loud clattering noise behind him and it didn’t take a genius to know that Sakura had definitely knocked Naruto into something.
“How many times are we going to go over this? It’s not my fault Sai told Ino!”
Kakashi thought about this so called Team 7 tradition that had only just started the year before because his former students were bored and wanted to do something together on Halloween.
He began running through excuses in his mind. He loved his team, but the idea of hearing Naruto and Ino’s inevitable shrieks while watching cheesy horror films gave him a headache.
“About that,” he began. Before he could finish, the sound of rustling on his desk cut him off.
“Hmm, what’s in this folder? Is this the paperwork about the grants I mentioned for the hospital? Wha-Kaka-sensei this looks untouched! Have you been avoiding-“
The older ninja whipped his chair around hastily, startling Sakura.
“So, it’s halloween huh? Guess we shouldn’t waste anymore time here,” he said with a grin.
Naruto and Sakura turned towards each other and then back to their sensei, each flashing a big, genuine smile and Kakashi’s heart was filled with warmth and nostalgia.
4.
There are a lot of things that Uchiha Sasuke has changed his mind about over the years, but his thoughts on Halloween are not one of them.
Sakura insisted on hand stitching Sarada a lady bug costume and was emotional the entire time that they went trick or treating. He really did not understand the logic of it - Sarada was barely a toddler and while yes, she looked adorable, was it really necessary? Her mother wouldn’t dare let her eat half the sweets they got and she probably wouldn’t remember the entire experience anyway.
As if that wasn’t exhausting, the movie night that Sakura and Naruto forced-er, insisted on was enough to make him hate the entire existence of the holiday.
Every year, his wife, best friend, and the other guy on their team made him sit through corny slasher movies that were predictable at best. Occasionally Kakashi would show his face but he usually left shortly after. Sasuke had a hunch that the older ninja was easily scared.
This year, they had decided to watch the latest addition to Nightmare in the Land of Snow. Naruto seemed especially skiddish tonight and his behavior didn’t go unnoticed. The opening credits had only just started when he began nervously chatting and suggesting another film in its place, cause his teammates to exchange knowing looks with one another.
Sasuke gestured in the direction of Sarada’s bedroom, “You scream and I’ll kill you.”
“I’m not going to scream you bastard! It’s going to take more than a movie to scare me y’know.”
Sakura giggled and threw a handful of popcorn in the direction of her bickering teammates, while Sai shushed them, intent on paying attention to the movie.
The atmosphere in their living room became tense as they all grew invested in the screen. All, except Sasuke. He felt the presence of chakra, familiar chakra, and out of the corner of his eye he could see a speck of gray. So, he decided to show up after all huh.
“Yo.”
“AHHHHH,” Naruto panicked and jumped up, clearly frightened by his sensei’s appearance. His teammates’ laughter at his response was cut short by the sounds of crying in the distance. Sakura groaned and made her way to her daughter’s room. Sasuke let out a huff in Naruto’s direction.
“Tch. Loser.”