Sasuke and Naruto are making babies for Christmas. Flour babies.
Let's just say they still attend school a week before Christmas.
" What are we making this year for Christmas, Iruka-sensei?" questioned Naruto, leaping in front of Iruka the moment he stepped into the classroom.
Every year-end, 2 weeks before Christmas, students had to make gifts for whomever they wished. However, every gift had to be the same BUT personalized. For example, last year they had to give teddy bears. And Sasuke got 10 over teddies all wearing either black or blue tees and headbands. Either way… you get the idea. Another thing was that everyone had to get at least one gift. Naruto had received teddies from Hinata, Iruka, Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke.
The last 2 people only gave him teddies " because you're my teammate and Kakashi-sensei forced me to."
He was grateful to all of them but a little disappointed that Sasuke had only given the bear to him for the aforementioned reason. He'd expected Sasuke to say something like, oh; you're my best friend. That would've been nice.
Since Sasuke did not appear to be saying that sometime soon, Naruto figured he'd say it first, then try to find ways to get Sasuke to utter some reason that was not impersonal and uh… exactly the same as Sakura's.
Iruka-sensei smiled at him. "We're making flour babies, Naruto. Now get back to your seat or I won't let you make them."
Naruto hurriedly scrambled to his seat (right beside Sasuke's, something the fan girls felt he took for granted). He stole a peek at his neighbour and noted that he, the great Uchiha Sasuke had, surprise surprise, THE SAME BORED EXPRESSION AS ALWAYS.
Naruto wondered if Sasuke had only 3 expressions: bored, angry and almost happy but-not-quite, the last being the rarest of them all.
"We'll be making flour babies this year, class," Iruka-sensei announced, holding up a packet of balloons and gesturing to the packets of flour piled up on the teacher's table. "But not plain flour babies. I've got buttons, stick-on eyes, ribbons and some string for the hair… " He waved a hand at the containers to the side of the flour.
" But we've added something special this year… we've infused Christmas with an early Valentine's Day!" Iruka-sensei declared excitedly, with a goofy grin on his face.
There were exclamations of "lame" from the boys, cries of "ooh" coming from the fan girls, who were undoubtedly planning a mass showering of gifts upon Sasuke, and silence from those who didn't dare to express their opinions.
"You have to make gifts for your friends of course, not just your crush," Iruka-sensei stated. "Or else Sasuke-kun would receive majority of the gifts."
The guys groaned and Sasuke looked away; annoyed.
But whenever he looked away it was always to the left, and not the right. And Naruto sat on his left. Naruto met his irritated gaze, which had unintentionally fallen on him, and gave Sasuke a small smile.
" Make the one for your crush first; and give it to me. I'll then stick on a little rose-"- he showed them one-" and you can give it to him or her, if you wish. If you want it to remain a secret, I'm afraid that will be hard, because the flour balloon is meant to look like your crush, after all. Understood?"
The entire class nodded.
"Come get your balloons, a bowl of flour , eyes and string then! Please queue up in front of me, and remember, choose the colour of your balloon carefully." Iruka-sensei instructed.
Naruto smiled. He would take red; after all, Sakura was wearing red today. Heck, he knew she'd probably dump his flour baby in the bin, and he knew she'd pick a blue balloon (or if there were no more, black) to make a Sasuke flour baby. But somehow it didn't matter.
He took some pink string and a pair of stick-on eyes. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw fan girl after fan girl grabbing blue balloons and black string. He was sure there wasn't going to be enough.
Curious, he searched for the cause of the lack of blue balloons, and didn't see him anywhere. That was… weird… ah, whatever. Wherever Sasuke was, it wasn't Naruto's business whatsoever.
He sat down and began working on his flour baby, taking care not to spill any flour onto the balloon – or the table, for that matter. Or the floor. Occasionally he'd glance to his right, just to check if Sasuke had secretly reappeared without his knowing, but nope, the seat was still empty.
Time flew, and Naruto glued on the last "strand of hair". Proudly, he got up and handed Iruka-sensei his masterpiece. Iruka-sensei grinned. " Good job, Naruto. Let me guess… Sakura-chan?" he asked, with a wink. Naruto mumbled "Ehehe…" and scratched at his now slightly pink cheeks.
Iruka-sensei stuck on a tiny rose, and patted Naruto's shoulder. " Good luck," he said. Naruto nodded in acknowledgement and gratitude.
Slowly, he made his way over to where Sakura was, hunched over her flour baby, trying to glue black string on its top very carefully.
"Sa…Sakura-chan…" he stammered, shyly holding out the flour-baby version of her.
"What is it, Naruto?" she snapped, not bothering to even look up at him.
"Eh… um… I made you a flour baby. " He waved it in front of her still tilted- down-in-concentration head.
Suddenly, she snapped her head up and looked him in the eye.
Naruto could've sworn his heart had skipped a beat. (Author: please ignore how stupid and cliché this sounds.)
"Where's Sasuke-kun?" she demanded loudly, surprising Naruto.
Her exclamation made the other fan girls wonder and start to ask where he was too. They had been too busy making their gifts to even notice that the would-be recipient was gone.
Iruka-sensei smiled. "I gave him special permission to do it outside the classroom, just in case you girls decide to mob him. No use fiddling with the door-" he said pointedly to a Sasuke-crazed girl who was attempting to shake the doorknob till somehow the door would magically open. "- It's locked from the outside."
Naruto looked down sadly at the floor. Sasuke-kun, Sasuke-kun… once again, it was all about that damn teme.
And it was Sakura-chan who had started it!! Depressed, Sakura flour baby still in hand, he went back to his seat and sighed.
After school
After everyone had finished their flour babies, Iruka-sensei had dismissed them and the rabid fan girls all split up to find their beloved Sasuke-kun.
Only Naruto stayed behind in class, his hand-made Sakura flour baby in hand.
Iruka-sensei sighed. "Naruto," he called out, and Naruto forced himself to look at Iruka-sensei.
"Don't feel sad. I'm sure she didn't mean to do that," he said, referring to Sakura-chan ignoring Naruto. "If it helps, I know 2 people who took orange balloons," he continued, with a smile.
Naruto's eyes brightened. 2? He'd only seen Hinata shyly taking one, but who had the other??
"Oh Sa-su-ke," Iruka sang (which was rather unlike him) , " You may come out from under the table now. All your fan girls have left. The only one here is…"
Sasuke got up from under the table, and looked straight at Naruto. In his hand was an orange flour baby, with a few weak blonde strands making up its hair, and a pair of eyes.
"…Naruto." Sasuke finished Iruka's sentence.
Naruto was in utter, complete shock to say the least. He never expected the teme to ever like him. It just…didn't seem possible.
Oh Kami…
Sasuke turned his head away to hide his red face, and stretched his palm out to give Naruto his flour-baby self. "For you, dobe," he muttered.
Naruto blinked, and poked it in the stomach. Ooh, it was kawaii.
He snatched it from Sasuke's outstretched palm with a grin, feeling tons better than he had been mere moments ago.
"Thanks, teme," Naruto said with all honesty. He really did like the flour baby; and he was glad Sasuke had a crush on him. Well, kinda.
Sasuke tried to peep at the other flour baby with a tiny bit of hope, though he guessed it would most probably be Sakura. And he was right. He tried not to let his disappointment show, but Naruto could tell.
It was then that Naruto remembered he had nothing to give Sasuke in return. Seeing Sasuke disappointed made him feel embarrassed.
"I… I'm sorry I've nothing to give you, teme…" he began, then did something strange, unexpected, yet totally automatic.
He kissed Sasuke on the cheek.
"…But merry Christmas, anyway."
The end.
Man, I'm expecting either no reviews or many flames. I can't say which one is worse. This is so cliché… ugh… but as I always say, if somehow you found it bearable enough… then please do review!!
I got the flour baby idea when I was making them for choir souvenirs. The plot didn't exactly develop until now… it was originally meant to be HoroRen, but not like anyone would care. I don't give away stuff with reviews, but since it's Christmas time… you get sweet SasuNaru dreams, your choice of Naruto-character flour babies, and my gratitude. Merry Christmas! XD
