(P.S. The time this happens is between the last match between Sasuke and Gaara when in the story Sasuke would have been training and perfecting his Chidori and not being with Naruto.)

All I Want for Christmas is you

It was Sasuke who came upon Naruto giggling, the foolish sound so odd for a boy such as him. With his back turned and Naruto obviously not paying attention to the black haired boy who was used to receiving so much adoration, Sasuke let himself admire the sight of Naruto. His eyes took in greedily the sight of the spiky blonde hair, reminiscent of an angel when he actually let himself think of Naruto that way, in a way that wasn't arrogant. He discreetly swallowed the saliva that formed in his mouth as his eyes finished trailing along Naruto's body, from the delicate shoulders to the way his waist tapered down into a small size that just begged to have Sasuke's pale arms wrapped around…

Sasuke shook his head and decided that he needed to get a grip on himself. "Hey baka, what the hell are you doing?"

Naruto cursed at himself and turned around, just what he needed, stupid Sasuke to show up and ruin his plan. "Will you shut up!"

Sasuke raised a perfectly arched black eyebrow, "excuse me?"

His tone was like ice and would have made any of his fan girls pale like snow and run away screaming and crying, especially a certain pinked-haired girl with a large forehead, but to Naruto the tone meant nothing, he was on a mission and that was what mattered at that moment, not Sasuke with the soft midnight black hair that begged to be touched or the lips that he couldn't help but stare at when he talked. Naruto shook his head and paid attention once more to the scene he had been spying on, one that had taken very careful planning and consideration for 2 months to happen.

Within the classroom that he spied upon, Iruka was meeting with his sensei, silver-haired Kakashi, who at that moment happened to be sitting at a desk, reading Ichi Ichi Paradise despite the presence of Iruka.

Iruka cleared his throat, "excuse me?"

Kakashi continued to read, making a noise close a grunt, his own way of laughing out loud hysterically but the sound was in no way an acknowledgment of the brown eyed ninja, though it should have very well been.

"Excuse me!" said Iruka a little bit more loudly, an annoyance he couldn't mask in his voice.

Kakashi, once again like the stubborn person he was, continued to read the perverted book.

"Baka!" whispered Naruto in a furious tone; he hated the way his current sensei was treating the one who was so close to his heart.

Naruto's whispered words intrigued Sasuke, he sighed, just to make Naruto think that he was joining the spying out of sheer boredom and not out of a curiosity, a wanting to know what his angelic blonde was so enraptured with.

He dragged another chair that was in the deserted hallway the two were in and moved it beside Naruto, standing slowly upon the plastic to make sure it could hold his weight. When he was satisfied that it would not collapse upon him and hurt him in some way he stood and saw what Naruto did, the rude Kakashi and the frustrated Iruka.

"I don't understand," said Sasuke after a moment's internal debate of whether or not he should speak, "why are they meeting like this and why is Kakashi ignoring Iruka?"

"Shut-"

"Naruto if you tell me to shut up again I will hit you." Sasuke looked at Naruto, his brow arched again; he really hated being told to shut up.

The blonde haired boy shifted on his feet, the chair he stood upon creaking as he sighed. Naruto looked at Sasuke, his piercing a gaze making Sasuke's heart skip a beat, oh how he hated that.

He sighed again before he spoke; patience was and never would be his forte. "I've been trying to get Iruka sensei and Kakashi sensei for-"

"WHAT?!" Sasuke exclaimed before Naruto did two things and his words were swallowed by his own lips with a very un-Uchiha like squeak.

Naruto had grabbed Sasuke's shoulder and turned him to face him, his other hand clamping over Sasuke's mouth. As a result of the sudden movement, Sasuke's body ended up leaning against Naruto's.

Two surprised eyes met, Naruto's caribbean blue gaze just as surprised as Sasuke's inky black ones. The moment of surprise passed and Naruto pulled Sasuke down so the loud exclamation wouldn't be noticed by Iruka and Kakashi in the room nearby.

"Look I have my reasons okay?" whispered Naruto with a roll of his eyes. For some reason he really wanted Sasuke to understand. Ever since they had met Sasuke's opinion had always mattered too much to him, more than adults, sensei's or even his other peers.

Sasuke sighed and moved away from Naruto, dislodging both his of the blonde's arms but still keeping close so that his whisper could be heard. He shook his head once to dislodge the feeling in his lips, a soft tingly feeling where Naruto's fingers had touched his lips. "Would you explain your reasons?" he said with a tone of voice that person takes when they are trying to find patience.

"I don't wanna," said Naruto, loathing the idea of sharing his delicious secret.

"If you don't Na-ru-to," each syllable of his name emphasized, "I'll really yell and get their attention."

The one beside Sasuke choked on his words, he was so surprised that the pale boy would even be that low that he couldn't speak.

A smug smirk played over Sasuke's pink lips, he was sure that Naruto would cave.

He allowed himself a sigh before he began to speak, Sasuke was surprised when he found himself not only drawn in by the tale but by the sound of Naruto's whispering voice.

Naruto explained to Sasuke how he had been following Iruka sensei for a while out of sheer boredom one day when Kakashi had passed Iruka. Even for one as dim as Naruto it was still plain to see the wanting and well…lust in Iruka's eyes, even more pathetic being the way that Iruka just watched with longing as Kakashi passed by and never even gave Iruka a second glance. Naruto had thought it odd and a tad bit amusing, how funny it was to know that his favorite teacher wanted his new one!, but he let it slip past till one day there was an incident with Kakashi.

Naruto had gone away from the pervert Sennin for a while, it was the end of the day and he desperately needed a break when he heard some people talking in his favorite Ramen restaurant, two old women discussing gossip as that was really the only thing they had in their lives, sad but true.

"I wonder when he's ever going to find a nice young lady," said an old woman in a faltering voice. Naruto was confused for a moment as to who the person they were talking about was till the next lady, just as old as the one next to her and just as indistinguishable to Naruto, said a comment.

"Who are you kidding Kai, you should know by now that Kakashi will never look at a woman. Honestly, you aren't that blind."

Naruto's eyes opened wide but the old lady with the faltering voice spoke again, "are you making fun of my blindness? And what do you mean for Hokage sake?"

She sighed, "Kakashi wants Iruka!"

"No!" said Kai, gasping and putting a shaking hand to her wrinkled face.

Her friend nodded, "if you just paid attention instead of trying to catch a man you would realize you old fool!" That woman didn't take into consideration that she was just as old, if not older than Kai.

At this point the two old woman began to fight with each other, hurling insults like some people would baseballs or stones and Naruto tuned out, thinking hard and remembering the look on Iruka's face; that soft, yearning look that he could not ignore.

"I've been trying for about 2 weeks now to get them together but it hasn't been easy with the missions they have to go on and Kakashi sensei's stubbornness, the man won't do anything unless you tell him why!" Naruto said to Sasuke, he had finished his tale and was now speaking in his normal voice.

"Are you sure that you should even try? You don't know that Kakashi even wants Iruka, or even if Iruka really does want Kakashi!"

Within the room Kakashi looked up from his book when Iruka happened to be looking elsewhere and stared back at the page in front of his eyes. Naruto would have been very happy to know, ecstatic really, that Kakashi did indeed like Iruka…it just was the wrong time to act on his desire. He was having a hard enough time controlling himself as he sat there at his desk, the object of his desire so close and yet so far from his fingertips. Oh how Iruka had haunted his dreams, how he had sweated at night as he thought of the muscles that Iruka hid underneath his ninja gear, how his kind brown eyes and easy smile hid his dangerousness that was so often taken for granted…

Kakashi groaned lightly, he wasn't helping himself keep a cool exterior. He told himself that he could keep control; he needed extreme control that time of the year. He sighed and rose, "we're wasting our day by being here like this," he said and stretched slightly.

Iruka jolted slightly in his chair, he was so unprepared for Kakashi to speak that when the masked man finally did he could only utter incomprehensible words like an idiot.

Kakashi's lips twitched, Iruka looked so damn cute and sexy at that moment as he struggled to say a proper word.

"I'm sure that Hokage would like to talk to you," he said and couldn't help it as he smiled, it was the first thing that Iruka had seen that was like his normal, it dissolved the one sitting in the chair.

Iruka rose and shook his head, "you're probably right," he said and sighed, believing that it had been a waste after all to come to that room, expecting…something. He walked quickly past Kakashi and didn't notice how the taller man sniffed the air that he stirred in his wake, searching for the scent of Iruka.

With an ache in his heart Kakashi walked out of the room, his head slightly bent as he watched the sight of Iruka go down the hall, the yearning in his eyes he could not hide nor thought to hide as he was totally unaware of the two boys still huddled close together on the two chairs.

"I just know alright, I'm not dumb!" said Naruto before he realized that his sensei was right there. He turned a bit paler.

Sasuke hid his surprise by blinking, and then blinking more when Kakashi turned around.

"What are you two doing?" said Kakashi, putting on a mask of his usual happy casualty though he felt far from it.

"Talking!" said Naruto brightly, but knew it was a mistake to say that the moment it came from his lips, he and Sasuke NEVER talked…at least without name calling.

Sasuke put a hand to his forehead and sighed, "Planning a battle sensei," he said in an exasperated tone, not far from his usual tone of voice when Naruto was near.

"Have fun with that," said Kakashi and left, too distracted and plagued by internal thoughts to realize the holes in Sasuke's statement.

When Kakashi had truly disappeared Sasuke hit Naruto upside the head.

"OW!"

"Baka!"

"Okay okay, I get your point. I shouldn't have said that. But no harm came from it right!?"

Sasuke's reply was a roll of the eyes.

Naruto sighed, "I plan to get them together."

"How?" said Sasuke and finally sat down in the chair normally, his tone of voice normal and not a conspirator's whisper.

Naruto did a flip for the hell of it and landed in front of Sasuke. "A campout!"

"Campout?" Sasuke's head was tilted.

Naruto nodded and then grabbed boldly grabbed Sasuke's hand and lifted him to his feet, "come on I'll tell you on the way to the ramen shop!"

God not the ramen shop again… thought Sasuke but he listened again, he could not deny himself how much he loved to hear Naruto's voice.

As the two boys walked to the ramen shop quickly Naruto explained that he had been thinking long and hard about what to do. He reasoned, after many hours and many large headaches, that he had to get Kakashi and Iruka alone but he had to make sure that he was still nearby the pair to make sure his plan did not fall apart. He came up with an idea for a campout, a way for his graduating class to be together with all the different sensei's. The trick was of course that there was no real campout, only a idea of one that would get Kakashi, Naruto and Iruka camping together without the interruptions of others and missions to go on.

"And when they finally get together then there will be no problems! I just have to let the rest to happen!" said Naruto and jumped up and down once in eagerness, he was so happy at the thought of Iruka and Kakashi getting together and so proud for having thought of the campout.

Sasuke wished intensely at that moment that he was as naïve as Naruto, as optimistic. How many times had Naruto believed that everything was going to be alright when Sasuke had believed that the world was going to end? He shook his head, "It's not going to go that way, mark my words."

"Don't ruin my luck!" exclaimed Naruto.

Sasuke sighed, Naruto seemed to always rip sighs out of him, "I have to come along, there's no other way to ensure that you don't screw this up."

Naruto opened his mouth to retort when a sickeningly sweet voice rang sharply through the air.

Bright pink hair came into Naruto's and Sasuke's vision, they had just sat down at the bar when Sakura appeared.

"SASUKE!" she squealed in a voice that damn near broke glass.

The raven-haired boy winced and didn't acknowledge her, Naruto stared dumbfounded and wondered how he could have ever had a crush on her. When had she become so sickeningly annoying, so much so that she made him want to pull his hair out? She used to be everything to him, his sun AND his moon, but now when she stared at her he saw her for what she truly was, a person so sickening that she tempted you to jump off of the proverbial bridge. Suddenly Naruto looked upon Sasuke with a new light of admiration, admiration for dealing with her constant fawning and nauseating syrupiness.

"Sasuke, Sasuke are you excited for your match!? Huh huh!?" said Sakura as she bounced up and down beside him, her hands held together almost as if she was doing some kind of pogo-sticking.

Sasuke sighed and grumbled under his breath, his hands gripping the hot bowl of ramen that the owner had put in front of him tightly.

"I think Ino just called you a big fatheaded freak Sakura," said Naruto casually, pointing out to where Ino was innocently passing by, arguing with Shikamaru and Chouji as she usually was, she was even more of a bossy person than Sakura.

Sakura turned red, almost as red as the vest she wore and ran outside to begin to hurl her usual insults at Ino but there happened to be her ramen bowl conveniently placed beside Sasuke's.

With Naruto's whole new insight on Sakura and hearing Sasuke's sigh as he began to slowly eat his ramen, Naruto reached into his vest and pulled out a small vial filled with some crushed up herbs.

"Hey Sasuke, put this in her ramen," said Naruto and jerked his head toward her bowl.

Sasuke looked at Naruto, "and why would I do that?" his eyebrow was raised again, his black eyes on the verge of cool and hot from his annoyance. "Don't tell me its one of those love herb things."

"As if!" said Naruto, now seriously offended. "It'll make her sick."

Sasuke turned more to look at him, his head was tilted, "where did you get that?"

"Hey, you can't be playing tricks for so many years without having some kind of herb mixture to make others sick," said Naruto with a devastating sly grin that made Sasuke's heart beat faster and his cheeks heat.

He took the vial from Naruto's fingers, looked at it and wondered if he should. There was no denying that Sakura made him want to bash his head into the nearest brick wall but was it really worth it took make her sick? After a moments consideration he decided: he took off the stopper and put it in her food, stirring the herbs in the ramen so that it would look like the other things floating around in her noodles.

Even though Naruto would have loved some Ramen he stood and stretched, "let's get out of here, its best not be around when the sickness hits her." He smiled slyly again, producing again the same reaction in Sasuke before he walked out of the ramen restaurant, Sasuke following slowly behind him.

Two days later two boys and two men walked into a clearing surrounded by trees, the top opened up to the glorious blue sky, it was perfect day with the fluffy white clouds that begged to be stared at and examined for shapes.

"There are oh so many people here Naruto," said Kakashi as he gave his student a look that begged for explanation.

"This was the place on the card, see?" said Naruto and waved around the 'invitation' briefly.

Iruka sighed; he really wished he could figure out what Naruto was up to, let alone the silent Sasuke who stood beside Naruto, hands in pockets and looking around. "It's a shame Sakura-chan couldn't come with us, I hear from her parents that her sickness was so sudden. Apparently the owner of the ramen restaurant is being questioned."

"Who would've thought?" Naruto looked up to the sky.

Kakashi shook his head, "have fun setting up the tents boys," he said and walked away, hands in pockets. He was glad for the trip to get away from the village but he still felt stifled in a way, the pressure on his chest, heavier than the usual stress, would not let up its grip on him.

When Kakashi left the presence of the boys ceased to matter in Iruka's mind, he followed the other ninja into the woods that they had just stepped out of, coming upon Kakashi looking at a gurgling stream, the sounds it made so peaceful and yet so quiet.

"Kakashi," he whispered and stepped toward him, his eyes kind and full of sadness for on Kakashi's face he saw pain, a pain that he could no long mask, was too tired and weary to hide.

"Was it painful Iruka to have no parents?" whispered the masked man as he continued to stare at the water, the light rippling off of the blue.

"Y-yes it was," he took a deep breath, "it was rather hard."

"But did you ever have to live under their shadow?"

Iruka didn't know how to answer. He stared at the water like the one beside them and in the moving liquid saw the memories he had of his parents, the few memories in his mind before his parents were murdered in the fight to contain Kyubbi. "In a way yes, I always have and always will be living under their shadow."

Restless, Kakashi paced back and forth. "I always hate this time of year," he muttered, "I can never run from my father's shadow during this time of year."

Iruka took a hesitant step forward, wishing he could do anything to relieve Kakashi from his pain.

"I hear it everywhere, whispers of him, always of him. I can run far and I can run long but it'll always be there, there's no way I can run, I can't run!" his hands rose to grip at his hair tightly, his breathing quicker from emotions.

Iruka did the first impulsive thing in his life; he reached forward and pulled Kakashi's arms down to give him a kiss. At first it was just a simple kiss, meant to sooth and calm, to ease the pain so present on Kakashi's face and in his voice; a soft, gentle meeting of the lips and nothing more. But when Kakashi's arms suddenly wound tightly around Iruka he found he could not resist, he could not deny showing the passion that he felt for the one who held him so tightly, he could not stop himself, nor did he want to, from letting his tongue fight and wrestle with Kakashi's, not really surprised in an odd way when he found that Kakashi was kissing him back just as passionately. His hands let go of Kakashi's arms and snaked up to his hair.

As they kissed passionately beside the stream teeming with life Kakashi wondered how Iruka did it. How did he make him feel better just by standing nearby, just by speaking in his quiet voice, just by listening? The thoughts that ran through his mind made him hold the one in his arms tighter; he wanted to show what he couldn't express through words through a kiss. 'I want you', he wanted the meeting of their lips and tongue to say, 'I always have wanted you. I need you with everything in me, can't you see? Can't you see that you matter to me more than anybody else does?'

Like most everything they did, putting up the tents and setting up the camp became a race between Sasuke and Naruto, and in the end when a perfect camp had been erected they still were not satisfied. They mutually agreed to have a mini battle but without the use of any jutsu's, just straight fighting.

Naruto had stripped off his orange vest, the black shirt he wore underneath visible, what muscles he had in his arms bunching and releasing as he blocked blow after blow from Sasuke. His breath came in controlled bursts but at a quickened pace, there was no way he would hide the strain that Sasuke put him through. He smiled a disarming smile at his opponent, glad to see that he was making Sasuke tired as well.

When Sasuke did a flip through the air to land at Naruto's back he wondered how the pathetic boy had gotten so good. Sasuke was using all of his strength and prowess to stay on top of Naruto, to make sure that he was winning in their match. It failed to go through Sasuke's mind that they hadn't even set a limit as to how the match would end but in reality all he saw was Naruto's beauty, his magnificence. The way his blue eyes were so bright, bluer and brighter than the sky, the ripple and smooth move of his body as he executed move after move, the hair that the sun glinted off of…

Sasuke was musing so much that it gave Naruto a chance to knock him to the ground, but somehow Sasuke managed to grab on and they flipped, landing on the ground with Sasuke atop of Naruto. The most awkward thing of all, even more awkward than their body touching the other's in every place was the fact that Naruto's hands were firmly grabbing Sasuke's behind. Somehow, in someway, Naruto's body had gripped on while they were flipping and falling.

Their breaths held, two surprised eyes met once again, it seemed as if father time held the second that their eyes met exclusively for them. Naruto was the first to let out a breath of air and break the artificial stillness around them, sound came back to their ears as did the awareness that they were not the only two alive on the planet. Sasuke searched Naruto's innocent eyes, his mouth moving closer to the blonde's till he was kissing him. It wasn't a tame kiss either, it was a kiss that robbed the breath and tilted the world upside. Their kiss went further before they were aware of it, it seemed as if their bodies knew the right thing to do and were not confused by logic, emotion or the heart.

Naruto's eyes had closed when they had kissed and his hand had risen to grasp Sasuke's hair hard like he had seen other kissing people do, it seemed a natural move. As the minutes passed, 2…3… a trickling of awareness filled Naruto's brain and he opened his eyes, his mind realizing with a jolt the situation. His hands moved to Sasuke's shoulders and pushed Sasuke off of him but he stayed lying on the ground, breathing hard from emotional intensity alone.

"You know," said Sasuke panting, "I want to wager you a bet."

Naruto looked at the one who lay beside him and glared, glared with the deepest ferocity he had in his entire life. "And what is your brilliant bet?" He refused to think about what had just happened.

"Or rather its more of a dare."

A sigh of frustration came from his lips, Sasuke was rubbing more off on him than he realized. "If you dress up and sing to me and the sensei's tonight wearing a Santa outfit, I'll tell you why I kissed you."

For a few minutes Naruto was silent, trying to get passed his own surprise and curiosity, he tried his best to decide the path to take. In the end he went with the thing that had yet to let him down in his life, the thing that had gotten him out of so many scrapes and through so many trials: impulse. "Deal."

Later on that night when darkness had surely fallen and the millions, if not billions or more of stars were blinking and twinkling in the night sky, the two sensei's and Sasuke waited for Naruto to appear. A fire was roaring nicely, the eager flames greedy for more life but watching with a shifting gaze how Iruka was nestled in Kakashi's arms, Kakashi's legs open so that Iruka's back could fit snugly against Kakashi's chest. The two men gave a sigh of happiness; there was no denying that now they were a couple, an item. After that heart wrenching kiss it had all spilled out and they couldn't have been happier for how things have turned out.

Sasuke's foot twitched and he sighed when suddenly Naruto appeared before them wearing only his red boxers and strangely, red boots with a Santa hat on. Sasuke began to laugh, it really was quite hilarious but his laugh was swallowed when he saw the twinkle in Naruto's eyes, nearly as bright as the stars above them.

Naruto stood in the middle of the three, the fire behind him but he was in no danger of its grasping fingers touching him. He smiled, what was becoming his trademark disarming smile before he began to sing in a voice that surprisingly was a good one, one that was pleasant to hear.

"Santa baby Santa baby, slip a sable under the tree, for me/I've been an awful good girl/Santa baby, and hurry down the chimney tonight…"

Sasuke's eyes opened wide at the choice of song that Naruto chose, despite the weather in Konoha it actually was Christmas time and Naruto played up that fact well. His eyes opened wider when he saw Naruto split into copies every time he said 'Santa' again, at the end there were 11 Naruto's and they song the last note of the song with a clarity that rang nicely in the other's ears. Naruto smiled at Sasuke, he had done the dare and now he would get his reward…

Later that night when the fire was out, when Kakashi and Iruka had retreated to one tent to sleep and talk, Sasuke stood and walked over to Naruto, wrapping his arms around the blonde who had been staring up at the night sky and the twinkling stars. Naruto jolted slightly, he had changed back into his regular clothes but didn't don his orange vest. "You never told me you know," said Naruto in a voice that feigned casualty.

"You want to know why," whispered Sasuke in a soft voice, his eyes equally soft as he moved Naruto's face so that they could look eye to eye, so that their lips could be aligned. "You want to know why I kissed you, why I want to be with you, why I need you?"

Naruto gasped, the "ye-yes" that he uttered almost too soft and too quiet to hear.

"You idiot, I love you." Sasuke had a large grin on his face, he had never felt happier.

Naruto closed his eyes slowly, but a small smile, so reminiscent of a fox was on his lips. "Well you idiot I love you too."

As their lips met for a kiss so gentle it melted their bones, a shooting star streaked across the sky above them, blessing their union and what was to come.