A/N; My first ever official fanfic. As this is my first, advice & critiques are welcomed & encouraged please! This is an AU setting, and it's not a very white christmas, because Konaha is in the land of Fire, so I imagine the weather doesnt get too cold there, so I went with it for this. Enjoy!)

She stood before the floor length mirror, holding back her wild red hair, the letting it fall, the repeating the action all over again. Up or down? How should she wear her hair for tonight…

"Geeze Karui, will ya just decide so we can go already? It's just hair." Kiba walked into the hall where the mirror stood with his girlfriend looking irritated.

"Just because you have mutt-hair, doesn't mean I shouldn't give a damn either. I'm trying to look nice. Up for seriousness, or down for casual - "

"You don't need to impress anyone - "

"It's a freaking Christmas party at the Hokage's. Of course I need to make an impression! I'm not the one who grew up with these people, and you're not the one who beat up the Hokage when you met him!"

Kiba sighed and rubbed his neck. "you look fine either way… why don't you just put your hair up now, and let it down later if you want to."

Karui mentally slapped herself. She slid the dangly hair tie off her wrist and pulled her hair up into a ponytail.

"Now can we go?" Kiba asked her impatiently, holding out her coat to her.

"Yeah, yeah, alright." she took her coat as her boyfriend put on his own jacket. Grabbing her bag, Karui the hurried down her front steps to Kiba's car parked by the sidewalk.

They were driving to now to the home of the Uzumaki's for Kiba's work party. The 'Hokage' was a nickname for the head of the Konaha District of the Kage Corp. The current Hokage, Kiba's boss, was currently the newly promoted Naruto Uzumaki, (how he managed to rise up through the office Karui would never know.) Unfortunately, Naruto was nowhere near the top when Karui had first met him. And due to a misunderstanding she didn't like to think about, she had no problem beating him to a pulp. Their friends laughed about it now, but Karui would still like to make a better impression then that time.

Naruto had actually been a friend of Kiba's from high school. So it was really more of a plain friendly Christmas party, but seeing as everyone was still in shock about Naruto's promotion, referring to it as a work party felt like a good joke among friends.

When the two finally arrived at their destination, Karui stepped out of car, wearing a cream-coloured headband and burgundy coloured heels with thin straps winding their way up her shins, that had not been there when she first got in the car

The home of the Uzumaki's was big but not over the top. Kiba reflected on how different it was from the small apartment Naruto used to live in. Being Hokage sure must be good.

It was Naruto himself who answered the door. "Hey Kiba! Glad you could make it!" He greeted them with his characteristic grin. "Just make sure Karui doesn't get the urge to pound me again, heheh!"

Karui silently face-palmed. Thankfully quick salvation came. "Leave Karui alone Naruto-kun…" Hinata, Naruto's own girlfriend chastised him. She wore an elegant, strapless, pale blue dress with a layer of lace woven with dark blue roses, that fell to the ground from just above her stomach. A matching flower pinned up her long dark hair. "It's so good to see you Kiba-kun," she smiled sweetly. "And you too Karui! Naruto will take your coats for you. Right?"

"Heheh… yeah," the blonde man offered out his hand. "Sorry Karui, couldn't resist, y'know?"

Karui merely smiled at him amused, and proceeded to give him her coat. Taking it off, Karui revealed her dress underneath. It was made of a shiny red material, with a layered sash around her waste, coloured yellow, white and green. The dress came down just to her knees, and over her left shoulder, with a thin strap going over the other. A clip of holly berries were attached at the base of this strap. Her headband which she had put on in the car, was only holding back most of her hair, two strips of her longs bangs still came down framing her face in a graceful way. The rest of her hair was still tied up high on her head. And to top it all of, she had replaced her regular rounded earrings for two golden stars hanging from her ears.

Kiba's outfit was simply a red dress shirt and a black tie, with dark brown slacks. Much to Karui's annoyance. If Hinata, quite, calm, Hinata, was able to get her wild beau in nice suit, then why couldn't she? The ways of Naruto would always remain a mystery to her…

They walked down the hall, into the main room where most of the other guests already were. Naruto sure was making use of his bigger home, it looked like he had invited everyone from work, friends from way back in school.. and all of their friends. Many of the people she recognized, others she guessed at who they were from hearing about them. Among the faces, she saw the back of an emo's head that she'd never forget. "Can we steer clear of Sasuke here? I don't want to cause any of the other guest any inconvenience."

"Ah, right." Instead they walked over see Kiba's sister Hana and his old friend Shino. Karui wondered if the whole night would be like this.

A couple of hours had passed, and Karui had let her hair down like Kiba had suggested. She had emerged from the washroom with her hair brushing past her shoulders, the holly berry clip moved to the head band, and the hair tie on her wrist doubling as a bracelet. Karui scanned the room. Her boyfriend was also missing.

She started wandering around the room trying to locate the lost dog, when she spotted two familiar faces. The sister of the Kazekage, Temari was chatting with Tenten, the fiancé of one of the heads of the Hyuga company. With a sigh of relief Karui headed over to her friends.

"Hey! Nice dress Karui." Tenten greeted. The brown-haired girl had her hair out of her usual buns, and instead had it in a neat plait down her back. What look like mistletoe berries were at the end. She was wearing one of her trademark mandarin collared dresses, in a flattering deep blue, down to her ankles.

"Thanks. I got it on that trip Ino dragged us along on."

"Mine as well. Or at least the accessories." Temari showed off her gold bracelets and small hoop earrings. "Can you remind me not to agree to go out shopping with her again? At least not near the holidays… insane girl…"

Said blonde was standing with her own boyfriend, getting irritated with him for taking one too many snacks from the buffet.

"Ha ha, yeah, how many fights did she get into again?" Karui laughed at the memory of the outing.

"It's too bad I couldn't make it, it sounds like it was pretty eventfully." Tenten said smiling. "Sure would have beat figuring out the seating arrangements for Neji's family. Man was that a bore."

"Oh yeah, where is he?"

"Over there with Shikamaru," Temari indicated the brunette's fiancé talking with Temari's own boyfriend across the room. Neji was wearing a neat suit, in contrast to the Nara's casual turtleneck look. "That lazy-ass idiot thought it was 'too troublesome' to consider dressing up. What's with these guys? After all the trouble Ino made us go through too."

Karui couldn't help but notice that Temari's outfit was a rather simple one too, (besides her accessories.) A short green dress ending just above her knees, tying up behind her neck, and leaving left her back open, with a thick brown belt around her waist. Her hair wasn't anything to special either, it was also let down for the occasion. Temari didn't really care about impressing anyone. Then again, she was the Kazekage's sister so…

"Hello ladies." the trio turned to see a man with long spiky white hair, a dopy grin and, judging by the red in his face, was already fully drunk.

Temari gave a little smirk. "Isn't that…"

"Yep." said Tenten, rolling eyes. "That's Naruto's godfather. The 'Great Jiraiya' himself"

Karui who had never seen the man before asked "I heard he was supposed to one of the 'greatest novelists of our time'."

"Oh sure he is," Tenten waved off. "That is, when he's not around women or booze."

"What are you gals doin' over here chatting all by yer'self? Why don't you ladies join me for a dance?" the 'Great' Jiraiya smiled innocently at them.

"Maybe next time." Temari laughed. "Shouldn't you be somewhere else, old man? I'm pretty sure your lady friend was looking for you."

"You girls are no fun. And 'old man'? I'm not that old yet…" The older man stopped and stared at Karui. He blinked a few times. "…Wow, you are really flat."

Karui flushed. Must… resist… urge… to pummel… Hokage's godfather…

"Jiraiya!" the man was hit on the head by another woman's fist. "You idiot!" she turned to the girls, it was Tsunade, the previous Hokage. "Sorry about that. I'll just take my friend away here and dunk his sorry head in a sink somewhere." and she pulled her friend off somewhere.

"Well that was unexpected." Temari chuckled.

"Not entirely considering who he is."

Karui joined her friends in laughing when something caught her eye. A very familiar looking mutt-head.

"There you are!" Having finally spotted Kiba she grabbed his arm and pulled him towards her. "What the hell did you ditch me for?"

"Ah… sorry about that. I thought you would take longer this time, y'know, considering how much you care about your 'impression' tonight." he grinned slyly.

"S-shut up." Karui sputtered, now over trying to impress anybody tonight. "That still isn't any excuse for disappearing for almost half an hour. Where the heck were you? And you better have a good reason." she crossed her arms and gave him one of her looks.

"I swear I have a good reason." Kiba raised his arms in self defence. "Just come over here and I'll tell you." He directed her to an doorway.

Karui stopped and crossed her arms. "Alright. Now why'd you disappear?"

"Well… you could say it was a distraction, or more of an excuse if guess."

"Excuse? What kind of 'excuse' does ditching me at a party relate to?"

"It gives me an excuse to get you to come over here." Karui looked at him blankly. He laughed, a slight reddish tinge crept on his face. "Well how else was I supposed to lead you over to the mistletoe 'accidentally'?"

Karui looked up. They were indeed under a lock of the berries. "Well, well, aren't you quite the ninja."

Dark grey met topaz. He smiled at her. "Merry Christmas Karui."

His face leaned into hers. Their lips met and-

"OH GOD, WHO LET LEE NEAR THE SAKE?"

The two lovers broke apart at this shriek. Many peoples heads were turned in alarm to hear such a horrifying announcement. Within seconds the taijutsu star had cleared a small portion of the room, and Naruto and Neji, along with several others were trying to subdue him. "Happy Christmas everyone! AND MERRY VERY NEW YEAR! Wheeeeeee~!"

Choji attempted to pin Lee to the ground but he quickly swooped out of the way. "Whaaaaaaat? Y'wanna fight? ALRIGHT THEN!" He literally tore off his suit's jacket and started to run head on at the large man who had yet to stand up, yelling "LEAF HURRICANE!"

Many of the guests in the room flinched as Lee sent Choji flying into a wall. Thankfully he wasn't severely harmed, but Naruto had just tackled Lee's back, resulting in another disaster. "A new opponent, ehhhh? BRING IT ON BLONDIE!" And then he then he proceeded to run backwards into the wall behind him, Naruto wailing like a siren. Another round of flinches ensued.

Karui leaned over and whispered in her boyfriends ear. "Do you think anyone would mind if we left?"

"With all this going on? I don't think they'd notice." he whispered back smirking.

"Then let's go, now."

Fast as they could the two stole away to the hall where they grabbed their coats, and ran through the door with a final battle cry of Lee's following them out.

"AND TO NIGHT A GOOD ALL! Wheeeee~!"

By the time they were in the car again, Karui was already untying the heels from her legs. She sighed in relief as she kicked off the shoes and flung then somewhere in the back seat.

"Do ya wanna go somewhere before I take you home?" Kiba asked with a smirk as he turned of the Uzumaki's street.

"Ah…" she thought, relaxing in her seat. "Um… oh, I know. I could really go for something hot right now. Remember that café I told you about?"

"Oh no."

"Hell yeah. Now onward chauffer. I desire hot chocolate."

Again, it was Ino, the social butterfly, who had told Karui about this place. She had been wanting the girls to come here for a while. So of course Karui would have to try it out with Kiba first, just to spite the blondie for the horror she put the girls through last week.

Once Kiba and Karui had sat down at a small table by the wall, they had ordered Karui's hot chocolate and Kiba's coffee. Sipping her desired drink, Karui had to admit, that for all the girl's annoying traits, Ino sure did know how to pick 'em.

Karui put her mug down at looked Kiba in the eye. "alright you still haven't explained where you disappeared to."

He started rubbing the base of his neck again. "Uh… well, I…" he sighed. "You're gonna keep this up, aren't you?"

"You bet."

"…Fine, why not, I'll tell ya." he put his hands in his coat's pockets. " I went to talk to talk to Sai."

"Sai? Really?" Since when was Kiba good buddies with Sai? She'd barely even talked to the pale man herself. "What about?"

"Well, you see, I wanted him to order something for me, 'cause I don't know much about it or where to order it from. So I figured he would know more and could help me out…"

"…So what did you order?" She was curious about her boyfriend could possibly need from such a polar opposite.

He stared back at her, then finally took his hand out of his pockets. "As long as you promise not to open it yet…" and he held out a small box in front of her. "It's a gift specially ordered for you, so I'm not gonna let you ruin the surprise completely yet." he smirked devilishly yet again.

Karui just sat there with her eyes open. "You ass! How dare you dangle that in front of me like that?" she huffed and sat back in her chair.

He just continued sitting there grinning like a puppy up to a trick. "Come on, you got your answer. You're not getting anything else out of me."

"Well then I guess your gift can wait 'til later too." She came back with her own foxy grin. Two could play at this. "I was going to give it to you tonight, but if you're gonna be like this…"

"H-hey! You got me a gift?"

" 'Course I did. What did you think Ino dragged us out for? Not just for dresses, that's for sure. And I was gonna give you a little bonus tonight…"

Kiba leaned forward on the table. "well how bout we make a deal then? I give you gift, and you give me mine. How does that sound?"

"hmmm…" she pretended to contemplate the matter seriously. "Alright. But I go first. After all, I planned mine out for tonight, while yours was a surprise."

"Okay then. What is it?"

Karui rested her elbows on the table as well. "Come in closer and I'll tell you."

He tilted his ear towards her. She moved closer a whispered, "let's pick up where we left off with the mistletoe."

Kiba turned his face to hers. He slanted his jaw up, lining with Karui's. They leaned in towards each other, 'til their faces were centimetres apart. Kiba said softly;

"Karui… There's no mistletoe here."

"Just shut up and kiss me."