Hey everybody! Velvet here... duh. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and all sorts of cheer! Hope you enjoy this! I know, it's a Naruto Fanfic but it's all Christmas themed! Which is going to be especially interesting since idk if Ninjas even CELEBRATE Christmas. Hell, I don't even think it SNOWS in Konoha, so this is very AU. Enjoy! And for tomorrow, MERRY CHRISTMAS! (If you celebrate it of course. I do, which is why I wrote this, as opposed to another holiday celebration.)
Naruto Uzumaki was NOT having a good day. In fact, this was one of the worst days he'd ever been through. The holiday season was SUPPOSED to be a happy time, but for some reason it just brought out the worst in his fellow villagers. Even worse, his team couldn't be less cheerful. Except for Sakura, but she was the only one on the team who had a family, so she was busy.
Naruto stared out the window as a rare snowfall began. He watched the flakes drift in front of the glass, and sighed heavily. The first white Christmas he'd ever seen, but now he'd just get beaten up in the cold. Even though he knew what was coming, he always went out to eat every Christmas Eve. He wished Iruka-Sensei would come with him, but he was always busy. He was just glad that he had Teuchi to keep him company.
Naruto got up slowly and picked up his heavy jacket and scarf. He zipped up his coat, and wrapped the scarf around his neck. He turned to look at his apartment, which was so lacking in the holiday spirit department. He'd stopped decorating when he found that having the decorations depressed him more then not having them. He sighed again, and left his apartment, locking the door behind him and pocketing the key.
He walked down the streets, ignoring the glares he received from the villagers. He walked towards Ichiraku, but stopped short when he reached the restaurant. It was closed, with a sign saying that Ayame had come down with something and Teuchi was busy taking care of her. While Naruto was worried and upset about Ayame, he couldn't help but feel depressed. This was the only cheer Naruto got from the whole Christmas season.
At that moment, he was pushed to the ground. He looked up and saw someone walking away, seemingly ignoring Naruto altogether. However, Naruto knew better. The villagers never beat him up directly, it was all side checks, and seemingly accidental abuse. However, Naruto always saw the slight malice inside the eyes of the people who did it, and knew it was actually on purpose.
Naruto got up and dusted himself off, shaking it off. He decided to ignore it, engaging just made it worse. It always made it worse. He kept walking, not sure where to go from here. He didn't want to go home, but it was his only safe haven at the moment. As he went, more people pushed him down and he just kept shaking it off. However, his patience was wearing thin. He walked by Sakura's house and considered knocking, when he saw something in the window.
Sakura's parents were smiling and laughing around a table, with Sakura smiling and laughing with equal enthusiasm. Behind the table was a large, decorated tree. In the window was a single lit candle, flickering along with the laughter, as if it was just as glad to be there as the people inside were. He turned away, clearly depressed, and walked back in the direction he came from. A few blocks down, someone else ran into him. This time, knocking him into the wall. He felt his wrist crack slightly as he tried to catch himself.
"Oops." The person spoke with such insincerity that Naruto just snapped. He was tired of all this abuse, he just wanted peace. He wanted to be able to enjoy walking around the village, not fear it. He turned to face him, his eyes red, with black slits for pupils. The whiskers on his face became much more pronounced. The person took a single step backwards, and Naruto lunged. He punched the man with both fists, ignoring the pain shooting up his right one.
"Why the fuck can't you all just leave me the fuck alone!? I didn't do a SINGLE GODDAMN THING TO YOU! WHY THE FUCK DO ALL OF YOU FEEL THE NEED TO TREAT ME LIKE A PIECE OF CRAP!?" He was breathing heavily, glaring at the now very injured man. The people around looked at the man on the ground in concern, and one woman held him in her arms.
"Are you insane!?" She took one look at Naruto's eyes and screamed loudly. She pointed a shaking finger at him, and yelled, "M-MONSTER! You monster!" She took the man away quickly and everyone looked at Naruto with fear and anger. Before Naruto knew what was happening, the villagers were closing in on him.
They attacked him with such intensity that even Kyuubi would have been unable to heal all the wounds. Not that Naruto would let him heal him. When the villagers were finished with him, he was on the ground, bloody, with much more than just a fractured wrist. He felt a single tear streak down from one of his eyes and he knew he needed to get out of there.
He turned over onto his side and tried to pick himself up off of the ground. As he tried to lift himself, pain, too intense to bear, shot up his arms. He groaned in pain, and crawled his way into the shadows. If he was going to be forced to lay in the cold, he wanted to do it without the audience. Without the sneers and the insults. He curled up in a ball, shivering as snow fell down on him.
For the first hour or so, the snow melted on contact with his body, but his body temperature was dropping rapidly. Within three hours he had a light layer of snow over his shivering body. Nothing was helping, the cold was seeping into his skin, he could practically feel it as it penetrated each layer. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice.
"Dobe?" Naruto cursed inside his head, this was the last person he wanted to let see him like this. He wanted nothing more than to just melt into the shadows, but he couldn't. He sighed and looked up a little, having some difficulty due to his extremely stiff neck. He gave up and just spoke. He could feel his entire body struggling to form even a single word.
"T-T-T-Teme, g-g-go away." He knew it was pathetic, but it was all he could do. All his frigid, suffering, body could handle. He didn't hear the voice speak again, and wondered if he'd left. But after a minute or so, he felt a warm hand glide down his back as it gently brushed off the layer of snow that had formed there.
"You're shaking, Naruto." He knew that the teme wouldn't speak his name, only ever call him 'dobe' unless he had a good reason to call him by his name. He couldn't think of a good reason, however, that he would call him 'Naruto'. Just then, he felt something warm make contact with his shoulders. He touched this warmth with a trembling hand, and noticed the navy blue color of the fabric.
"D-d-don't... g-g-give me... your... c-c-coat. You'll... f-f-freeze." He still couldn't see the teme's face, but he was sure it was giving him a look that said something along the lines of 'what the fuck?'. He knew that he was in no position to talk about freezing, his fingers had turned blue about twenty minutes ago. He felt the teme help him stand, and the minute he let go, he fell to his knees. His legs couldn't hold him up, they were too cold and weak. He was frozen to his very core.
His body had stopped shivering, and the boy helping him knew it wasn't a good sign. He'd read health books on this before they went on that mission to the land of snow, and knew the signs of hypothermia very well. He knew that shivering was a good thing, so if a person stopped shivering it meant something was wrong.
"Naruto... How long have you been laying there?" Naruto gave a small shrug, and grimaced. His entire body ached and hurt with every movement he made. However, he could finally see the face of the person helping him. It was full of worry and concern. Not a usual look on the boy in question. The boy picked Naruto up off of the ground, realizing he wouldn't be getting anywhere on his own two feet.
"Where... are... we... g-going?" The teme didn't say a word as he ran to the unknown destination. The two arrived, rather quickly, outside the door of an apartment that Naruto didn't recognize. The teme kicked the door a couple of times and waited, rather impatiently, for an answer. After a few minutes, in which Naruto laid there motionless in the arms of the teme as said teme tapped his foot impatiently, the door opened to the strange sight.
"What do you-" The person standing there was shocked to see what was waiting for him outside his door. He didn't say a word, just stepped aside and gestured to the inside of the apartment. "Sasuke-" He was ignored as Sasuke brought Naruto inside the warm apartment. He laid the orange clad boy on the couch and immediately removed Naruto's coat and scarf.
"Are you going to help, or not?" Kakashi faltered for a minute, before walking over to see what was wrong with his student. He noticed Naruto looked almost frozen, and had clearly lost consciousness, and he looked at Sasuke for answers. However, it didn't look like he'd have too many.
"What happened to him?" Sasuke looked concerned, and slightly annoyed at the same time. It wasn't a normal look for Sasuke, and Kakashi wondered if he should be worried about both of his students. However, he supposed it wasn't really a bad thing to see Sasuke care so much about Naruto's health. However, if he started to cry or something he might have to worry a little bit.
"Best guess? Hypothermia. Why in the hell he didn't get up and walk away, I don't know." Kakashi ignored the last comment. He knew that, at this stage of hypothermia, Naruto would need to start getting warmed up, and soon. It needed to be slow and gradual, heating him up too quickly would be bad, but they needed to start. Sasuke seemed to be getting Naruto's wet, cold, clothes off quickly enough, so Kakashi went and found spare clothes and lots of blankets.
Once they had gotten Naruto out of the clothes he was wearing and into the warm, dry clothes Kakashi had found, they turned the heat up slightly in his apartment. They wrapped a couple of blankets around him, and Kakashi told Sasuke to go and get Sakura. She had been training with Tsunade and would be able to help. Sasuke nodded and left, no questions asked.
Sasuke ran to Sakura's house, and knocked on the door. Sakura's mom answered, and raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha. He was panting, and it was clear that he had rushed there.
"Did you need something?"
"I know it's Christmas Eve, but I need Sakura-Chan to come with me right away." Her mom looked like she was about to protest when Sakura appeared behind her. She was wearing an outfit much different from her usual one. It was fur lined, and much more festive.
The red dress she was wearing went to just below her knees, and had a dark red pattern stitched in to the candy-apple red dress. The fur lining the dress was white, and she was wearing a red hair bow rather than her ninja headband. Her shoes were not ninja shoes, rather, they were black flats. He felt a little strange standing there in is usual outfit, with only a cloak added, for warmth.
"Okaa-San, who-" Sakura interrupted herself. "Sasuke-Kun? What are you doing here?" She seemed shocked, almost too shocked to act the way she usually did around him. "It's really cold out why don't you-" Sasuke shook his head. He knew Sakura was about to ask him to come in, but he needed her to come with him immediately. He didn't have time for anything else.
"Sakura, I need you to come with me. It's Naruto. He needs your help." Sakura raised an eyebrow and looked at her mother. She grabbed her winter coat, gloves, and scarf, and followed him out the door. As they ran, she looked over at him. She'd never seen him look so worried before. Especially not for their teammate. He was never this concerned for Naruto before.
When they arrived at Kakashi's apartment, she was shocked. She saw Naruto laying there, completely bundled in blankets and jackets. She went over, and checked him over quickly. Her eyes widened in surprise, because it wasn't just the cold he was suffering from. He had some serious injuries. Some that she wasn't capable of healing just yet.
"I need a thermometer." Kakashi nodded at Sakura and fetched the thermometer from his bathroom. He brought it back and Sakura took Naruto's temperature. She looked at it and read the number out loud. "78 degrees." The people in the room all looked concerned. "I can get the number higher, but we're going to need Lady Tsunade to look over his injuries."
"What injuries?" Both Sasuke and Kakashi looked slightly confused, they hadn't noticed anything sooner. Although, they'd both been a little preoccupied with warming him up, to look for anything else. Sakura looked slightly shocked, but responded calmly, like Tsunade had taught her.
"Fractured and cracked ribs, multiple arm fractures as well as muscle tears in his arms and legs. They're pretty substantial, but nothing life threatening. We probably shouldn't move him from here until those are taken care of, however." Both Kakashi's and Sasuke's eyes widened at how calm and collected Sakura was. This wasn't her usual persona.
"I'll get Lady Tsunade." Sakura had the same look her mother did when she was about to protest what he'd said, but he raised his hand to stop her from speaking. "I'm going." He grabbed his cloak and left before anyone else could even try to stop him. He rushed to the Hokage's tower and knocked on the door of her office. He knew it was a long shot but he had to start somewhere.
He received an answer and walked in. He was more than relieved to see Lady Tsunade standing there. He walked in and immediately began to speak.
"I need your help, Naruto has been hurt. Sakura said she can't handle the degree of damage." Tsunade nodded and immediately followed him to Kakashi-Sensei's apartment. When they arrived, Naruto was fully conscious, and drinking a hot beverage. With help from Kakashi-Sensei. "What's his temperature?" Naruto looked up at Sasuke when he spoke.
"88 Degrees. They just took my temperature." Sasuke nodded, and Tsunade went to check out his wounds. Sakura told Lady Tsunade what she found and Tsunade confirmed everything.
"Good job, Sakura." Lady Tsunade healed Naruto's wounds. After she finished, she set all the breaks to let them finish healing. She looked at Kakashi and the rest of Naruto's team. "Don't move him for 24 hours. Especially because of the hypothermia. Alright?" The group nodded. She then turned to face Sakura. "You should be able to take it from here." Sakura nodded, and Lady Tsunade left.
"Hey, Sasuke..." Sasuke turned to look at his teammate on the couch. He couldn't help but wonder what Naruto had to have been through to be injured so badly. Not to mention that he now understood why Naruto didn't just get up and walk away from where he had been. He sat down in a chair near Naruto before speaking to him.
"Yeah?" Naruto looked hesitant to say anything, which wasn't normal for him. Usually he was outspoken, not afraid to say what he was thinking. Now, he just looked scared. Like he was worried about what Sasuke's reaction was going to be.
"How did you see me?" Sasuke was more than a little shocked at the question. He was't sure what he was expecting, but it certainly wasn't that. After he got over the shock of the question, he responded.
"Well I was walking towards you, and saw a shaking pile of snow. Then I saw the orange and realized it was you." He knew it sounded ridiculous, but that was what he saw. He almost missed him, to be honest.
"Oh. And why did you help me?" That, Sasuke wasn't sure how to answer. He didn't quite know himself. He just knew that he saw the state Naruto was in and was worried about his safety. He was a little surprised at the fact that he even CARED about the dobe's safety.
"I don't know." He knew it was more than a little pathetic, but that was all he had to say. Naruto just nodded and laid back on the couch. He had a few less blankets on him now, and they had agreed to take his temperature every hour until he was back to normal.
As the hours passed, Sasuke wondered why they had all stayed in Kakashi's apartment. Sakura needed to stay, because she was their resident medic, and Naruto couldn't be moved, and Kakashi lived here, but why had he, Sasuke, stayed? He could have gone home, and spent the night there. After the massacre, Sasuke had never really cared for Christmas. In fact, he was pretty sure the only one here who cared about Christmas was Sakura.
"You know, I think I'll just head home-"
"No you won't!" Sasuke was taken aback by Sakura's outburst. She then told everyone she would be back, and left without another word. He raised his eyebrows at her as she left the apartment.
About thirty minutes later, she came back with a large brown... well the only thing Sasuke could call this thing was a sack. She looked around, as if she was surveying the apartment, and pulled out the first thing. She had brought Christmas decorations. She turned to Kakashi, who nodded before she could speak.
After fifteen minutes of Sakura running around putting up lights and such, she looked around and admired her handiwork. Even Sasuke had to admit, she had done a nice job decorating. She hadn't gone too overboard, there was just enough to make it look... well... pretty. He then noticed that she had placed a small tree in the middle of the room, and there were wrapped presents underneath.
"What is this?" Sakura smiled at the men in the room, who were all looking at the presents in confusion. He bent down and noticed the names written on the tags. There was two for each of them. He noticed that three of them looked exactly the same.
"They're presents! I was going to give them to you guys tomorrow, but since we're all pretty much stuck here..." Sasuke looked a little bit guilty. He hadn't gotten anything for any of his teammates. He could see Naruto was thinking the same thing. Kakashi, however, excused himself, and came back with packages as well. He placed them under the small tree and smiled at his students.
"Well, I should be glad. I'm not the only one who got presents for people." Sasuke felt even more guilty, if that was possible. He wasn't sure what it was about this Christmas, but it seemed to have some kind of effect on him.
"Well I didn't get anyone anything, and judging by the dobe's face, he didn't either." Naruto gave Sasuke a glare, but didn't say anything. He laid back on the couch, not bothering to get up. He was in more than just a bad mood. He'd let Sasuke see him when he was most vulnerable, hell his entire team had seen it. Now he was stuck on the couch for twenty-four hours. He was ticked off.
"So what? It's just another day." Naruto's team looked at him in surprise. The last thing they expected from the blonde was that a day like Christmas was just another day. The boy was all about happiness and cheer, so this was the last thing they expected. Sakura looked at Naruto with slight worry, wondering what could be going on in his head. Sasuke, however, couldn't agree more with what Naruto had said.
"He's not wrong." Sakura and Kakashi weren't nearly as shocked when he said it, but Sakura still seemed a little curious. Kakashi, however, seemed to understand what his students were thinking.
"Why do you think that?" Kakashi saved Sasuke and Naruto from answering Sakura's question.
"I think it's because neither of them have families to celebrate with this time of year, so it doesn't mean as much to them as it does to you. It's not fun to be alone on Christmas Sakura." Sakura seemed somewhat shocked, but she also had another look. Pity. She was pitying the boys, and they could see that. And they both hated it. However, they said nothing to their teammate.
The next morning, they all woke up in positions that surprised them. Except for Naruto, who was still on the couch. Sasuke and Sakura had fallen asleep next to each other on the other couch, and Sasuke's head was on Sakura's shoulder. He jerked his head up in shock. Sakura woke up when Sasuke moved, more than surprised to see how close he was sitting to her. Kakashi was laying on the ground of all places, mask still on his face.
"Hey, Sasuke." Sasuke turned to Naruto, who was whispering to him from the couch. "Take his mask off now, while he's sleeping." Sasuke was about to protest the idea, when he realized he was just as interested as Naruto was. He looked over at Sakura, who was nodding at him to do it, and sighed.
He crept over to where Kakashi-Sensei was sleeping. He reached over to the edge of the mask and grabbed it gently. Just then Kakashi-Sensei's head came up quickly, smacking into Sasuke's, causing him to fly back a little bit. He groaned, and rubbed his forehead.
"What, exactly, were you trying to do?" Sasuke wasn't sure how to respond. He wasn't about to say 'I want to see what your face looks like under the mask!' nor was he about to sell out Naruto. He Faltered a bit, trying to figure out what to say.
"Umm... Well... You see-" Naruto interrupted his failing, which he was kind of glad about.
"Kakashi-Sensei, why do you wear that mask? What are you hiding?" Kakashi had never given a thought to his students wondering what his real face looked like. No one else asked, though many of the adults knew from his childhood. From before he started wearing the mask.
"Well, I use it to hide my amazingly handsome face. Keeps people from staring." He winked at his students, who just stared at him, dumbfounded. They didn't know whether or not to believe him. Deciding that that was probably all they were going to get, they dropped the subject.
"Hey, it's Christmas..." Sakura spoke quietly, as if Christmas was a forbidden word. She looked out the open window, shocked to see all the snow that had accumulated overnight.
"Sakura, you don't have to avoid the word. Besides, it seems like this year won't be so bad." Naruto gave Sasuke a look. "Well, at least you get to spend Christmas Day with people." Naruto gave a shrug that basically said 'well that's true'. She smiled at Sasuke and gestured to the tree. The meager pile of presents was sitting there, waiting to be opened.
"Lets open presents!" Sasuke gave a small, rare, smile. He then nodded at Sakura and the two distributed the presents. Sakura went first, only having one present to open. She opened it, and saw a a small stash of medical ninja supplies. She looked up at Kakashi with a smile. "Leave it to you to get me something practical, Kakashi-Sensei." She laughed a little and he just shrugged his shoulders at her. "You go next!" She was pointing at her Sensei.
"Alright." He opened up the first present, the one that looked the same as the two others that Sakura had gotten. Inside, was a scarf, clearly purchased, though he could tell it had been customized. It was green and had the same symbol as his flak jacket. The next present he opened was a ticket to see the latest Icha Icha movie. He thanked Sakura, and looked to see who would be next. Sasuke offered to go.
"I can go next." No surprise, he had also gotten a scarf. However, his was a dark blue, with the Uchiha fan sewn into it. His second present was a set of kunai. He went to touch the blade of one of them, to check its sharpness, when Sakura stopped him. He looked at her in confusion.
"Don't touch that! Those blades are laced with poison! It will make you very sick if you let it so much as scratch you!" Sasuke grimaced at the thought, then smiled at Sakura. From Kakashi he had received a book of different fire element techniques. He thanked Sakura and Kakashi and then allowed Naruto to open his presents. Naruto received a scarf as well, his being orange with the same symbol that Kakashi had. He had also received a set of poison laced kunai. However, from Kakashi he had received a credit for Ichiraku Ramen. He thanked Kakashi, and then thanked Sakura, who then decided to check on his injuries while Kakashi made breakfast in his kitchen.
As they ate, Sasuke noticed all the smiles in the room, simply because of a few decorations and presents. He supposed that before Itachi had betrayed his whole family he had happy Christmases, but he never seemed to remember them. It was like he blocked out the happy memories because they just made him sad. He hated missing something he knew could never have again.
"Something on your mind, Sasuke?" He looked over at Kakashi, who had somehow managed to eat all of his breakfast while they weren't looking. He sometimes wondered how his Sensei knew the things that happened with them. It was like he had a sixth sense or something. Kakashi shook his head at Sasuke. "Don't lie."
"It's just... Been a while since I've had a Christmas like this. That's all." It wasn't a total lie. They finished breakfast in silence, though it was in no way awkward. None of them had ever actually eaten dinner last night, and they were starving.
"So, Naruto, I have another Christmas present for you," Sakura started as they finished eating. Naruto looked up in curiosity, though both Kakashi and Sasuke seemed to have an idea of what Sakura was going to say. They looked almost as interested in what she had to say to Naruto.
"Your injuries appear to have healed completely. You can get off of that couch now." She had a smile on her face, one that seemed to be mixed with laughter and happiness. Naruto took off the last of the blankets and stood up. He wobbled for a second, then took a few steps. He had a huge grin on his face as he grabbed his, now dry, winter clothes and walked outside. His team looked at him in confusion.
The group watched as Naruto walked outside, and waited for something to happen. Just then, a snowball flew through the open door and hit Sasuke square on the forehead. He frowned, then smiled. He supposed that, just for today, he'd call a truce with the dobe. After all, it was Christmas.
So, OMG that was SO CHEESY! I apologize, but so many Christmas themed things are cheesy that it's hard not to make it cheesy. Either way, I'm just SUPER GLAD I got this finished before Christmas!
Happy Holidays!
~VelvetRose529