I know some of you have already read this, no COTK didn't steal it. N.M. Smith is now working with her.
--
Let It Snow...
Naruto shivered in his winter coat, holding himself in the frosty air while walking down the unfamiliar trail to the clan's compound. It had been the same way all day: The sky was grey and foggy, waiting on the weather to become cold enough to start letting out it's flakes.
He was wearing an orange and blue coat with the tall orange like muffler hooked to it because not only had Sakura given it to him as an early Christmas present, but it reminded him of his old jacket before it had gotten ruined with all of Jiraiya's training, but for some reason, even though it was really thick, he could still feel some of the cool air leaking through somewhere. But being kind, Naruto gave Sakura a long magenta trench coat with dark pink fluff trimmings that he's seen her look at through Trend'zy Palace. It was very expensive and tore a hole into his wallet frog's belly.
Sasuke had actually taken time to go Christmas shopping this year which seemed to surprise almost everyone besides Team Seven, knowing he had a little Christmas spirit somewhere in him (they knew this because he wasn't going around Konohagakure saying 'Bah humbug!' to anyone who wished him a Merry Christmas). Sasuke had given Naruto a large pack of of ninja supplies, including a guide of basic techniques that he remembered him having some difficulties on back in the Academy. Naruto gave him a bear hug for remembering and also a book called So You Have To Get Revenge On Your Older Brother?.
It was really surprising knowing that Sasuke went for Christmas, but when Kakashi actually recalls the precise date for the holidays it is truly something. Kakashi had given Naruto a fruitcake. There wasn't anything big for it, but at least it was thoughtful, and when Kakashi had said fruitcakes are really common and are openly appreciated at this time of year, Naruto couldn't help but to like it. Kakashi was extremely excited for his gift which was an Icha Icha Exchange first addition with the maker's autograph. Later on that day, Naruto had received another gift from Kakashi labeled 'To My Favorite Student'. When he's opened the lazy wrapped present, it was a picture of Kakashi with out his mask. Under it in the white filmed place said 'Merry Christmas. And DO NOT show this to Sasuke or Sakura'.
Yamato had joined in on the fun, too. He gave Kakashi a red and white mask for the season, Sasuke a bottle of anti-depressants, Sakura a little kid medic's book, and Naruto had also received a book, but Yamato gave it to him in secret. The book was titled How To Hold In Your Own Extreme Chakra. And since everyone felt in on the mood to give the holiday cheer back to him, Team Seven took Yamato to Ichiruka Ramen Shop for a big bowl of ramen. Yamato reluctantly ate it anyway, seeing how he deserved it.
Naruto smiled at his Christmas Eve day and entered the Hyuuga's compound just as soon the first snowflake fell on his nose.
Oh the weather outside is frightful,
But the fire is so delightful,
"Oi!" Naruto called, "Neji-san!" The wind was starting to pick up, causing the snow to fall at an even faster pace. Already the snow was sticking in it's place.
Hyuuga Neji turned around from the wood pile to see Naruto. He waved warmly at him and beckoned him closer, meaning it was alright for him to enter. Before Neji even said a word, Naruto stooped down and picked up some decent pieces of wood that he thought would catch great and followed Neji down the path to the door of the main household.
"So what are you doing here, Naruto-san?" Neji asked. Naruto came up beside the jounin and sighed, watching his breath come out in smokes before him.
"I came to see Hinata-chan," Naruto answered, "I saw Shino today and he said she seemed very sick enough not wanting to do a little bit of practice." And for some reason, Neji laughed.
"Sick?" Neji chuckled and then explained, "No, no. She's quite fine I assure you, Naruto. In fact, she's as healthy as a horse at the moment. She just doesn't like to go out on the holidays, but just to spend time with family and the friends that will come and see her."
Naruto smiled, "It makes perfect sense on wanting to, don't it?"
"That's 'doesn't it', Naruto," Neji corrected.
"Whatever."
The pair turned a corner and Neji stopped to push the door open and Naruto followed him inside to place down the firewood. As Naruto stood back up, he was aghast. The inside of the compound was lovely decorated! A significant Christmas tree stood next to the door covered in white lights, metallic silver trimmings, and red glass ornaments around the tree, giving it a royal look. There were even some small boxes on the branches. Below it was a red skirt embroidered in white beads in a snowflake pattern and white lace at the edge with many presents upon it. The presents were wrapped in many colors, but mainly in a green or red color for the season.
The next thing Naruto noticed was the mantel piece above the large fire place. It hung three small red stockings, bulging with the tiny gifts such as hard candy or miniature games, and on top of it was fake branches of pine, lit with the same white lights, but also had a gold painted metal structure that said Noel right in the center. There were beige candles at each end of mantel, giving the room a small earthy feeling along with the pine branches. Above the Noel piece was a wreath tangled in poinsettias and a over powering red bow at the top of it.
The entrance hallway that was connected to the next room had a green trimming, and this time, wrapped in colored light of red, green, and blue. On the niches and the middle of each way was three (six if you count the other side) more red bows, the middle one was a beautiful bronze metallic. The table on the side of the square arch held two more candles in the same beige cream color, but these were lit, creating a lovely glow on the wooden table.
"Good evening."
Naruto was startled by the voice behind him and turned to see an older man with the Hyuuga eyes. Neji was behind him and was mouthing Lord Hiashi and made a movement of bowing. Naruto thought he should do that and sunk low and raised slowly back up. The man was smiling and called Neji to his side and whispered something in his ear. Neji left at once.
"You must be Naruto, correct?" He asked, "I am Hyuuga Hiashi. It is nice to actually meet you in person, Naruto."
"Thank you for allowing to enter into your home, Lord Hiashi." The clan leader turned away from him for a minute to the window and gestured for Naruto to see out it, too. His jaw dropped.
"I think you might be staying all night," he laughed, "Or unless you want to walk out in this blizzard..."
"Uh..." Hiashi laughed again.
"Please make your self comfortable, Naruto." And he made a wave towards the dark violet couch which Naruto didn't take long to get to, enjoying the over warmth of the fire. Neji returned with a pillow and blanket and handed it to Naruto, who gave his thanks and turned in for the night.
And since we've no place to go,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
It doesn't show signs of stopping,
And I've brought some corn for popping,
A loud shriek brought Naruto to his senses and out of the warm sleep. At once he was on his feet and ready for the danger any brought up. His eyes were droopy and his stance was wobbly, but this seemed to make the offender laugh. As Naruto's eyes began to focus, he began to remember where he was: the Hyuuga Clan's compound. He immediately stood straight and his eyes became full focus to see a younger Hyuuga girl (around Konohamaru's age) having her hand over her mouth, trying her hardest not to let out another giggle. He looked around to the people.
Hiashi was standing near the blazed fire, looking fairly content. Neji was leaning over Hinata, who seemed to have fallen to the ground. He was used to Hinata's faint attacks. They were odd nor understandable, but it became accustomed for her to do something like that every now and then when he was near.
"Good morning and Merry Christmas!" The younger girl drew his attention back to her, "I'm Hanabi Hyuuga, Hinata's little sister."
"Hello, Hanabi." Naruto gave a smile and a wave, "Is it Christmas really?" She giggled again.
"Of course silly." She turned to stand next to her father and it was then when Naruto noticed the Hyuuga's formal kimonos. They, too, were delicate. Hanabi had a smokey blue kimono with swirls of grey clouds and her obi was pure white with a blue silk opening. It looked like yesterday's weather. Hiashi's was a more darker; It was a type of timber wolf hue with white dots everywhere, not a lot, but quite a few, and the obi was a about five shades under black and a black opening. Neji's was more lively with the usage of colors, well, Christmas colors. Neji's was a crimson red, with the silk opening a pine green and the same pine color obi. And Hinata's was extravagant as well, Naruto noticed as Neji helped her on to her feet.
But yet Hinata's looked like the night sky during the summer. Her kimono sparkled in the white lights and was a midnight blue almost black with white snow or stars going at a spiral motion. Her obi was like her sister's, all white and the opening was her father's, but in Naruto's eyes, it looked lovey.
"O-Ohayou, Na-Naruto-kun," whispered Hinata with her fingers lightly touching her lips, "And Me-Merry Chrisma-mas."
"And the same to you, Hinata-chan!" Naruto smiled.
Passed the half-hour Naruto watched the Hyuuga family tear into their gifts. It was fun, really, especially when Neji remembered to place his gifts under the tree to him and Hinata. He didn't care that they didn't get him anything, he wasn't much on the receiving, but the giving.
Naruto gave Hinata a lavender gem necklace in the shape of a circle with a rune marking upon it meaning 'Sweet' that came from Land of the Moon. She, Hinata, seemed to like it a lot. (And that necklace tore the rest of Naruto's little frog's stomach because with a real rock and Sakura's coat (Who, Sakura, by the way, helped picked out Naruto's gift) all in one week.) Naruto helped her put it on and complemented it on how it matched her eyes very nicely. Neji and family had complemented it as well and Hinata seemed to feel weak under their comments and swayed, but didn't collapse.
Neji had received from Naruto a new weaponry kit, Naruto remembering him saying something about needing to get more supplies. Not only did it have the standards, but shuriken in different sizes and a built stronger wire for laying out traps. Neji graciously thanked him for his generosity.
"Are you hungry, Naruto?" Neji asked him. It was now around three in the afternoon and the snow was still blowing in heavily, but had quieted down so much after the past hour. Naruto looked at Neji with hopeful eyes.
"Do you have ramen?"
"Unfortunately, no."
"Damn."
"But, we do have popcorn," said Neji, knowing he probably haven't had popcorn before.
"What's pop...corn?" Neji smiled widely and didn't answered him but left the room to fetch the fluffy snack.
"Hinata-chan... What's popcorn?" NAruto asked to the shy girl sitting next to him on the couch.
"P-popcorn is a sn-snack that is made when c-corn kernels are over h-heated..." Hinata explained, fingering with her necklace absentmindedly.
"Ah..."
The popcorn was good, Naruto found out, but it needed just a little bit more salt, though it was fine the way it was for the most part. For the rest of the time (until their popcorn was gone) Naruto, Neji, Hinata, and Hanabi talked about their latest missions and thought of what kind of Christmas everyone else was spending was like. At this time, since it was mid-winter, the sky was getting understandably darker.
The lights are turned way down low,
Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
Hinata and Neji ran as fast as they could to get out of the falling snowballs' way, trying to let it hit the ground instead of them. And Naruto made out a new discovery; Hanabi was better at snowballs than she looked and he and Hanabi made a good team. Naruto hid behind a tree and tried to make a big snowball quickly, because the Hyuuga's were cheating and using their Byakugan and it could see through thick items.
Naruto jumped to a higher level in the tree with the giant snowball above his head like a boulder. His aim was either Neji or Hinata or both at the same time which would be great. The rules were if you and your teammate lost all chakra before the other team or if both of you were on the ground at the same time, you lose. After this point, in the cold, with everyone puffing, Naruto found it hard to tell if anyone was almost out of chakra.
Naruto set his weapon down carefully in the branch's crook and made a clone to help him out. Naruto smirked; he was unstoppable when it came to clones.
He jumped from the tree and scooped up some snow into his hands and formed it and aimed for the closest enemy, who was Hinata. But with the Byakugan's 360 degrees, Hinata easily managed to break it with Gentle Fist, busting it into pieces. Naruto smirked and a puff noise came from under Hinata as the clone caught a hold of her ankle, causing her to fall over. Naruto made another clone and it quickly went to get the boulder sized snowball.
Making sure he was in Neji's blind spot, Naruto threw it hard at him, he almost made it until it went out of target at the last moment and Neji destroyed it in a second, but didn't block Hanabi snow attack right in his face, knocking him flat on his back.
Everyone fell over laughing, blowing snow in each other's faces and Hinata and Hanabi making snow angels for good luck on Konohagakure.
It was finally time to realize that it was too cold to stay out any longer, so Hanabi helped Neji up, who helped Naruto, who helped Hinata. Hinata tripped over a piece of snow ice and fell forward onto Naruto, making them both fall over. For a moment they stared at each other and there was no blush. They were both leaning in to each other until Neji made a cough that sounded knowingly. Then now there was blush, finally knowing what was about to happen.
Hanabi and Hinata served hot chocolate to everyone and they sipped happily in front of the fire, content of the day.
When we finally kiss goodnight,
How I'll hate going out in the storm!
The grandfather clock chimed low nine strokes. Hanabi had went to bed around seven, tired out of her Christmas. Neji was in the kitchen, cleaning out the cups that they had used for the sweet drinks, leaving Hinata and Naruto on the couch alone together.
"It was a great day, Hinata-chan," Naruto said quietly, getting quite sleepy.
"It was, wasn't it?" Hinata was pleased very much of what had all happened that Christmas. It had been the best, she thought. She glanced at the clock and her smile faltered some.
"You have to go soon, right?" She asked. Naruto nodded.
"Yeah... Eh? Wait a moment, Hinata, you're not stuttering!" Naruto looked up to see her face and was surprised; her eyes had more life into them, no longer half-closed out of shame or anything, but they were dancing beautifully in the fire light, and ever since they had hot chocolate, her voice seemed to be louder and stronger. Hinata had a sweet voice when she used it, really. She was smiling with a small hint of blush on her cheeks, making her face full of color, too.
"I think you helped me confront my fear Naruto," she stated, "when we were that close to each other this afternoon..."
"Hm? How'd I do that?" Without them knowing it, they were both leaning in closer out of instinct.
"By allowing me," Hinata's voice was softer as they neared, "To be me..." Naruto captured her and held her close, his hand gliding smoothly down her silk covered back. Naruto's left hand entwined with Hinata's right and her free hand was on his shoulder. This is no crush, Hinata told herself.
This is love...
They took a breath and Hinata buried her head in his chest and Naruto squeezed her tightly.
But if you'll really hold me tight,
All the way home I'll be warm.
It was very late, and even Neji had gone to bed.
Naruto and Hinata were up passed two talking about anything that popped up first like why there was only one girl on each three man squad. They had a long discussion about that. Hinata had given the idea of the sexists in the office, while Naruto gave a crazy idea if there were two girls, they might molest the guy during sleep (He had a vision of younger version of Ino and Sakura doing that to Sasuke. When he gave that picture to Hinata, she merrily laughed at it). They both agreed on each others and decided to let the subject rest.
It fell quiet for a minute until Hinata gave a small 'Oh' of surprise when Naruto pulled her on top of him so her back was laying on top on his chest, him laying down fully on the dark violet couch. Her squeezed her again and came up close to her right ear.
"I love you, Hinata-chan." She gripped Naruto's hands at his words.
"I love you, too."
The fire is slowly dying,
And, my dear, we're still good-bye-ing,
It was around three o'clock in the morning before they both fell asleep like that, but only an hour later until Naruto woke back up again, the smell of lavender lingering under his nose. He ran his fingers through her long hair, surprised how long she had let it grow out. He smiled sadly; if her father was to walk in the room for a mid-night snack, even in the lightly lit embers would be able to cast shadows on their position, and he, Hiashi, would surely run Naruto out of the compound and make sure he'd never come back.
Naruto carefully lifted Hinata enough so he could slip under her. It proved to be an easy task enough.
He kissed her lightly on the cheek and made his way to the door.
But as long as you love me so...
Hinata felt him leave under her and his tender kiss. She let one eye open to see him out and found him staring at her.
And then Naruto whistled out a low tune, hardly even heard able to the human ear, but she heard it fine. And in the same tone she finished it.
"Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..."