Hey there again, this is another fic Kaira-chan15 and I have come up with. Actually, due to a reviewer request (she knows who she is), we are in a way continuing an earlier fic called "One Messed up Party," so if you haven't read that then you won't understand this one, because you'll get confused very early in the story. Also, this is NOT ItaSasu, simply brotherly love. Ok, enough rambling, now to the fic.

Disclaimer: we don't own any of this.

The Best Christmas

"Where did you say you sent Itachi?" asks the Akatsuki leader who has had his patience pushed to the limit.
"He went to get the eggnog yeah," answers Deidara spinning around in his chair. The rest of the Akatsuki members look at him. "What? How can we have a party with no eggnog?"
"It does not take this long to fetch eggnog!" yells leader, "I want you to find him and bring him back now!"

"Yeah, ok," says Deidara not wanting to cause a scene. He went to get up from his chair when a hand rests on his shoulder. The blonde looks up and sees Kisame smiling at him.
"I'm coming with you. Itachi-san is my partner and no one knows him better than I do," the shark-looking man takes a glance towards leader, "I hope you don't mind."
Leader smiles, even though it is not seen. "Very well then. Go."
Deidara and Kisame leave the Akatsuki hideout and head out towards their destination.

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"Sakura-chan, you want to do truth or dare?" asks Naruto grinning widely.
"No! We have to wait for Sasuke-kun to come back," states Sakura annoyed, "Besides, we have to wait for Kaka-sensei to get back from the bathroom."
"Who cares about the teme, he probably ran away for all we know," the blonde folds his arms, "and sensei is probably reading his porn book, he's not coming back any time soon."

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Sasuke remains in the elder's embrace, letting all feelings of hate and revenge drain from within. He can't help but enjoy this precious moment when the older Uchiha actually acts like the loving brother he once was. A stinging pain escape from Sasuke's eyes from trying to hold back on tears that are making to break from his eyes. Itachi rests his chin on the younger one's head, as he sighs slowly. Sasuke keeps his face buried in Itachi's cloak; both Uchihas refusing to say a word.

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"That's it!" shouts Naruto suddenly, "I am going to get that teme!"
"Naruto, I don't think that's a good idea," says Sakura, "Maybe, he did go home."
"Either way the teme would have to say 'bye' before leaving, even though he has no manners," the blonde gets up from the floor and makes his way to the door, "Besides, it's getting cold outside and if he stays out for too long he'll get a cold."
"You mean you're worried about him," says Sakura sweetly.
The blonde shinobi blushes slightly, "No! If Sasuke gets sick then I won't have anyone to bug, that's all!" With that Naruto storms out the house.

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A strange feeling filled Itachi from head to toe, a feeling he couldn't name. Was it bliss? No…was it contentment? Was it peace? No, it wasn't any of those. All he knew was that he hadn't felt it in a long time. Being there, with his younger brother in his arms like it used to be before the massacre, flooded him with this feeling.

Both Uchihas never wanted this moment to end. It had been five years since either brother had spent Christmas with someone they were truly close enough to, to consider them to be family…since they had actually been with someone they loved on Christmas…

Ah, so that's what that feeling was. Love.

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Naruto huffed in irritation as he jumped from roof to roof, trying to spot the raven haired Uchiha. "Stupid teme, making Sakura and I worry about him…" the blonde trailed off when he realized he said Sakura and I.

Naruto recalled Sakura's words from before. "You mean you're worried about him," says Sakura sweetly. The kyuubi holder sighed. "I guess Sakura-chan is right. I am a little worried about Sasuke-teme…Where is he anyways?"

After passing what seemed like a million more houses, Naruto finally found the Uchiha. Well, Uchihas actually. What he saw was Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke, the two brothers who supposedly hated each other, hugging?!

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Naruto remained in the roof top, looking at the scene in front of him. What do I do? Should I go down there? The blonde kyuubi holder gulped and was about to jump down when he suddenly stopped, seeing the eldest of the Uchiha's become alert as if sensing the presence of another.

Sasuke looks up at his brother, feeling the older's chin move from his head. "What is it?"

Itachi does not answer, but remains looking with narrowed eyes towards the distance. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a poof of smoke appears in between the two Uchiha's and a giant shaver-like blade is swung around forcing the brothers to move out of the way. Itachi and Sasuke jump opposite ways and in the middle are two figures dressed in black cloaks designed with red clouds. The figures become clearer as the smoke disappears, revealing them to be Kisame and Deidara.

"Where's the eggnog, yeah?" asks Deidara, ignoring the fact that Sasuke and Itachi had been hugging only seconds ago.

"..."

Kisame looks over at Sasuke and then back to Itachi, grinning. "So, this is why you took so long. You came to see your precious little brother." The shark-like man turns back to Sasuke and walks towards him. Sasuke is frozen in place, unable to move for some odd reason...fear perhaps. Kisame stops in front of the boy, bends down, and is about to pat his head when a hard fist comes in contact with the gilled blue face. Kisame flies a few feet away, sliding against the snow covered ground

"Are you ok, Sasuke-teme?" asks the all too familiar voice. Naruto remains standing in front of Sasuke, but does not take his eyes off the Akatsuki members present.

"Kisame, he hit you pretty hard yeah," states Deidara looking down at his blue faced partner, "It's ok, yeah, I'll get rid of the brats, both of them." The blonde gets ready to attack when a firm hand grips around his shoulder, ready to break it in half.

"You will not lay a finger on my otouto," says Itachi with a deathly tone that sends goose bumps running down the other's spine.

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"Where are those two?" asks the pink-haired shinobi growing inpatient from sitting alone for so long in the living room.

"You mean, they have not come back yet?" a voice asks suddenly, making Sakura jump from the floor.

"Kaka-sensei, you scared me! I thought you were in the bathroom?"

"I was, but I'm done now. I figured by the time I was done read-I mean doing my business Sasuke would have come back. Now, Naruto is gone and Sasuke never did come back." Kakashi sighs. "I guess we better go and find them before the rest come."

"There are more coming?"

"Well yes, did you think I only invited you, Naruto, and Sasuke?" Kakashi grins from underneath his mask and he heads out the door with Sakura.

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"Why are you getting so protective, yeah?" Deidara questioned, wincing under the Uchiha's vice-like grip. "Since when do you care if your little brother is hurt? If you don't remember, you killed off his entire family and left him alone for the rest of his life, yeah!"

Itachi's eyes widened slightly and he released Deidara's shoulder, letting the blonde's words sink in.

"That's much better, yeah," Deidara said, rolling his shoulder. "Now, to get back to business." He turned towards the two youngest shinobi, and before either of them could make a move, dug his hands into his bags of clay. The mouths on his hands gnawed on the clay, and in no time at all, produced miniature birds. "Alright, are you ready, yeah? Art is a blast!"

Deidara released his birds and they zoomed towards Naruto and Sasuke.

"Ready, Naruto?" Sasuke attempted to reach for his weapon pouch but found that he was frozen. Why can't I move? The birds were mere feet away now. This is it-we're going to die!

The two boys clamped their eyes shut, expecting the worst-but it never came. Through their eyelids they saw great flashes of colors and heard the roaring of explosions, but they did not feel their bodies being blown to bits.

Sasuke cracked an eye open to see the ground in front of them tore up and obliterated, but the two boys themselves were untouched. What happened?

"Sasuke, Naruto-don't you know how much Sakura and I have been worried about you?"

The avenger snapped his head around to the sight of two very familiar people.

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FLASHBACK

"Where could those boys have gone?" Sakura asked in irritation as she and her sensei jumped from roof to roof.

"Does that answer your question?" Kakashi replied as he slowed down on the roof of a house at the very edge of Konoha.

"Oh my gosh…Is that Sasuke and Itachi…hugging?!?!" Sakura exclaimed.

"That's what it looks like to me," Kakashi responded.

"How are you being so calm about this?" Sakura asked in amazement.

"I don't know," Kakashi said with a shrug, "but we need to get down there. Things are getting pretty bad."

Sakura looked down to see what her sensei meant by that, and soon found out. Two other Akatsuki members appeared and Naruto also.

"Sakura!" Kakashi suddenly exclaimed with widened eyes. "Let's move-now!"

The pink haired girl didn't bother to ask questions. She leaped after her sensei. She then saw what excited him-two clay birds were soaring towards Naruto and Sasuke, and she doubted that they were friendly.

"Are you ready, Sakura?" Kakashi questioned, pulling a kunai out of his pouch as they landed on a tree branch overlooking the scene.

"Do you really need to ask?"

The two sent their kunai flying towards the clay birds and shielded their eyes as dirt and smoke spread everywhere.

"Sasuke, Naruto-don't you know how much Sakura and I have been worried about you?" Kakashi questioned when the smoke cleared.

End Flashback

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Neither shinobi answered their sensei; they cast their eyes down as a response.

"Omg Sasuke-kun, I thought something terrible happened to you!" shouted Sakura suddenly, wrapping her arms tightly around the Uchiha, closing the oxygen path from his lungs.

"Hey, what about me?" whined Naruto, waving his arms around in the air.

Sakura gives him a death glare. "No, you're stupid for leaving in the first place."

"But-" the blonde is cut off by his sensei.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, this is no time to play around."

"This has gone far enough," states Kisame getting up from the ground. He wipes away some blood from the side of his mouth. "We did not come to start a battle. We only came to get Itachi-san."

"He is here now, get him and leave," warns Kakashi.

"Why are we leaving? We were just starting yeah," says Deidara looking over at the shark.

"We can not fight against the Copy Ninja. Besides, leader only wanted us to fetch Itachi-san. We can not defy him," Kisame turns over towards the older Uchiha. "We must leave now Itachi-san."

No response. He merely puts on his straw hat and turns away, walking without saying a word.

Kisame smiles. "Let's go Deidara."

"What about the egg-"

"Forget the eggnog!" snaps the blue-faced ninja.

The blonde Akatsuki sighs and follows the other two members.

Sasuke is taken aback by his brother's sudden ignorance. He's leaving just like that? With no 'good-bye'? The young Uchiha escapes from Sakura's grip and makes a run towards Itachi, but is stopped when Kakashi firmly grabs the boy's wrist.

"Let it go Sasuke. We don't want to start unnecessary things."

"...but..." Sasuke whispers as a tear drop slides down his pale cheek. He looks towards the already disappearing figure ahead; the back of Itachi's Akatsuki cloak is the only visible thing blowing against the snow. You've always given me your back...until today.

"Come on Sasuke, let's go back to my house," Kakashi says gently, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder. Sasuke doesn't answer, and the jounin sighs. "Sakura, Naruto, let's head back. Sasuke, catch up when you're ready."

"…."

Kakashi gives him a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder then leaves, with Sakura and Naruto in tow and shooting worried backward glances at their friend.

Sasuke watches them leave, the wind whipping snow around him in pure white swirls. The numbness of the cold finally reaching him, he surrounds his hands in the familiar warmth of his pockets, only to feel something that definitely doesn't belong there.

"What…?" the young Uchiha pulls the strange object out of his pocket to find it is a folded piece of simple notebook paper. He gently unfolds it; curiosity fills him from head to toe and for the moment, makes him forget about Itachi's abrupt leave.

The note read:

Dear Otouto,

I know that seeing me here in Konoha must have given you quite a shock, but I had to see you. You are probably surprised and confused; I killed our clan, and then came to spend Christmas with you? But trust me; I am not tricking you nor lying to you. I might not be able to see you for that long; I am sure that the Akatsuki has sent someone to look for me. But let me tell you this; I love you, otouto, and this is the best Christmas I've had in a long time.

Love,

Itachi

Sasuke couldn't hold it in; warm tears were streaming freely down his face, leaving pale lines on his already pale skin. Itachi...no, nii-san must've slipped this in my pocket when he hugged me… "I love you too nii-san…and I always will," he whispered softly.

Sasuke was clutching the note tightly to his chest, to his heart. He spins around on his heel and jogs in the direction to Kakashi's house. Itachi took the words right out of his mouth; this truly was the best Christmas in a long time.

XXX

So there you have it, our fic. It was a little late sorry, but hey it's better late than never right? Anyway, please leave reviews for Kaira-chan15 and I because we both equally put the effort into this fic. A/N this fic was for our buddy SpacePirateGirl so she better leave a review! lol. If anyone would like us to write more fics like these you can request them in your review. Thanks for reading and I hope u enjoyed!