Great...its almost Christmas again...everyone's getting together and having fun...everyone but me..why am i always alone? The golden haired shinobi asks the soundless question to the empty night, then look back down as he wraps his arms around his knees and pulls them close to his chest. a few pearly tears trickle down his face, as he sits alone in his dark room, wishing someone, anyone, would actually care about him for a change. The blonde haired boy slowly cried himself to sleep, as the first snowflakes fell.
"Alright, we're going to have a few sparring matches, then I'll let you three have a break for the holidays," Kakashi said. "Hmph," was the reply from Sasuke, no different than usual. Sakura, however, was overjoyed "Thanks Kakashi-sensei!" now I'll have time to do my Christmas shopping..and find that perfect gift for Sasuke! Naruto was the only one that didn't say anything, which was extremely uncharacteristic of him. he had been like that all day. he had barely said two sentences, and wasn't training with his usual enthusiasm.
Sakura looked over at Naruto, her expression a little concerned "You alright Naruto?" He turned and looked at Sakura, and gave her one of his usual grins "yeah Sakura-chan. I guess I was just thinking and not paying attention." Sasuke gave a small snicker "Be careful. you might strain yourself, dobe" "grr..go to hell Sasuke!" Naruto flung a kunai at the ebony haired youth, which was easily dodged. Sakura let out a small shriek of suprise and anger "Naruto! leave Sasuke alone!" Naruto was about to fire off a retort, but a chakra-infused fist stopped short anything he was about to say.
The blond haired boy sprawled to the snow, and stood back up, slightly dazed and soaked from the snow "rrr..why do you always take Sasuke's side, huh? to you and everyone else, he's so perfect! hes incapable of doing anything wrong!" Sakura clenched her other fist, quickly becoming more enraged at Naruto "Maybe if you weren't always trying to pick a fight and cause trouble, people would like you more! thats all you are, is just a troublemaker!" Naruto looked down, trying to stop the tears forming in his eyes, then raised his head to look at Sakura "Well then, since im nothing more than a troublemaker, I'll just stay out of everyones life then!" And with that, he ran off, quickly disappearing from sight. Kakashi, having watched all of this, just merely let out a sigh "well, I guess that's it for todays training. Have a happy holiday kids..."
A week passed by, and no one had seen or heard from Naruto. Some people started to get a little worried about him, and were wondering where he was. Sakura in particular felt a little guilty, since she had yelled at him, but he had it coming, right? He should have left Sasuke alone, the way she saw it. Speaking of Sasuke, he had been saying less and less lately, and had been in a particularly foul mood the past several days. Nothing Sakura did even seemed to faze him, except earn her one of his patented death glares. Oh well, she thought, ill get Sasuke the perfect gift, and he'll realize that he really does love me! Besides, im sure Naruto's fine. He's probably just sulking.
That night, Sasuke went to Naruto's apartment, determined to find out if the dobe was even still in Konoha or not. his lights hadn't been on at all this past week, and Sasuke had the feeling that something was wrong. Upon trying the knob, Sasuke was unsurprised to find it locked. He took a piece of metal and deftly picked the lock, and pushed the door open. Yeah, he was still here alright. Sasuke could smell the sweat that comes from being cooped up for a long time, and his eyes widened as he recognized another scent...blood. Sasuke rushed to where the smell was most pungent, and turned on the lights, his heart filling with terror. On the floor lay Naruto, laying in a fresh pool of blood, bleeding from identical slices on his wrists, while next to him was a note. Sasuke briefly considered the note, then decided that it could wait.
He rushed to find help, and soon a team of medical-nins had hurried Naruto to the hospital and were working frantically to keep him from dying. Sasuke sait in a tree outside the hospital, his eyes starting to brim with tears at the short message written there: I'm sorry for being a burden to everyone. At least now I don't have to feel the pain of being alone anymore
Many hours later, the doctors had gotten Naruto stabilized and now sleeping. But now, slowly he starts to wake up, and the first thing he sees is.. "Sasuke..?" "Yeah, i just came to drop something off" Sasuke walks over to Naruto's bedside, and sets a vase of flowers on the table next to the bed "Why did you save me?" Sasuke doesn't answer, just leans across and kisses Naruto gently on the lips. Naruto goes rigid with shock, as the feelings he had once had for Sasuke and finally given up on, just like everything else, came flooding back. He gradually relaxed, and kisses Sasuke back. Then, the kiss is suddenly over as Sasuke pulls away from Naruto. "You'll never be truly alone, dobe" Sasuke says, and smiles the first real smile Naruto has ever seen from him. "Merry Christmas Naruto."