Title: Christmas Challenge 1 of 12 'Here Comes Santa Claus'

Authors: Kiterie and Fuyu no Akegata

Summary: Parties, Santa Suit, Gifts

Disclaimer: We do not own Naruto or any of it's characters, if we got paid to do this we'd quit our jobs and do nothing but... and there'd be more smut. :P

----

Kakashi was only paying partial attention to Tsunade. Then again, he'd heard everything she was saying at least twice before... she was repeating herself, now.

"Kakashi, you aren't even listening to me." He really should have paid more attention to the coldness in her voice.

Kakashi looked up from his orange book, "Did you say something, Hokage-sama?"

"Kakashi..." The loud voice cut through his daydreams.

"Yes, Tsunade-sama?" As amusing an idea as the previous scenario was, and as much as he didn't fear danger, he didn't have a deathwish.

"I said that since Ebisu is out of commission from that little stunt you pulled, you're going to have to cover for him on his mission."

Kakashi blinked. He hadn't gotten to be a jounin by ignoring his instincts, and everything in him was screaming to tread carefully. "With all due respect, Tsunade-sama, it's not my fault he got caught in the traps at my apartment, or that he was there for so long before he was found. I wasn't there."

The Hokage's gaze narrowed. "Kakashi... traps inside the village are to be non-lethal."

"It wasn't a lethal trap, Hokage-sama... It was dye." And entirely justified... he wasn't going to let his mysterious benefactor get the better of him this year, leaving holiday gifts scattered throughout his apartment in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

She sighed. "It was dye... made with the shells of a crustacean. Ebisu is allergic to shellfish, and your dye came from an inferior source. There were shells of small shrimplike creatures with the crustaceans that were supposed to make up the dye. If Aoba hadn't stopped by your apartment to 'borrow a training manual,' and don't think I don't know he was referring to Icha Icha, Ebisu could have died."

"It was an honest mistake, Hokage-sama..." He felt bad for Ebisu. The bright pink dye and the hives were definitely not a good combination.

"So you admit it was a mistake, brat." Kakashi stopped still, alerted by the smug tone in her voice.

"Uh... well..." He hesitated, knowing that tone boded ill for someone, and this time it was most likely himself.

She handed him a scroll. "Here's your mission, Hatake. It's non-negotiable. You're replacing Ebisu. Have fun, and you're dismissed." She turned away and went back to her paperwork as Shizune ushered him from the office.

He let himself be pushed into the hallway, and finally opened the scroll.

Tsunade smiled evilly when she heard the yelp of dismay.

----

Iruka rubbed the back of his neck, wishing the day was already over. Admittedly they were nearly done with decorating the gym. They'd gotten the garland's strung up rather quickly with only one scraped knee from when Moegi tripped running across the hardwood floor. Cutting hundreds of snowflakes had taken a lot less time than he'd predicted, and he had to hand it to Konohomaru, hanging them from the rafters using string and paper airplanes had been fun even if it had taken longer to do it that way.

"Iruka-sensei, we're out of purple frosting," Hanabi informed him, frowning and holding her cookie up to show him. "Konohomaru ate it." She turned to glare her classmate who was grinning and showing Udon his discolored teeth. "And now I don't have enough to finish my cookie."

Sighing, Iruka picked up a bag of red frosting and handed it to her. "You're going to have to get creative then."

"But Hinata-chan wears purple." The young girl stared at the frosting then back up at him.

"I'm sure she'll love anything you make for her. Besides, they're christmas cookies, dress her in a christmas outfit," he said, smiling and pattting her on the head.

Hanabi sighed and shook her head as though his suggestion was the stupidest thing ever suggested, but she left him alone and went back to decorating her last cookie.

His head hurt and he looked longingly at the clock, ten more minutes and his savior would be here. The minutes ticked by agonizingly slow and as the kids finished their final project sent them off to clean up, hoping that would kill the last few minutes.

"Santa will be here any minute, if you guys can get this place cleaned up before he does maybe he'll even bring you a gift early." Iruka picked up the plate of cookies they'd made just for santa and let the scoop the various materials into tupper ware containers, boxes, and gift bags. 'Four more minutes and at least they're not fighting...' The table was wiped and and he sent two of them to put the supplies in the teachers' lounge.

Five minutes later 30 pre-genin were whining about being bored and he'd had to seperate Kichiru and Aki because he'd stuck his wet finger in Aki's ear and Aki had hit him. Two minutes after that Hideaki had gotten up to go to the bathroom and tripped over Mei's cookie bag crushing several of the cookies in the process. Iruka had given her some of the cookies he'd decorated for the santa plate and after promising her that her mommy would understand she finally stopped wailing at the top of her lungs.

He was ready to kill Ebisu when he looked at the clock. His old teammate knew better than to be late and he was nearly five minutes late by this point. When the door finally swung open he actually had to bite down on the urge to scowl at 'Santa.'

And, when a very skinny Santa stepped through, dragging a big black bag, a bright orange book poking out of one of the fur trimmed pockets, Iruka prayed to whatever kami would hear him. 'NO! please tell me that is NOT him and I'm just delusional from all the glue we used making christmas ornaments.'

"Yo." The red-suited Hatake waved jauntily. At the sensei's glare he added, "Sorry I'm late, I got caught up waiting for a herd of caribou to cross my path. Ho ho ho?" Kakashi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.