Christmas Wishes
I don't own Naruto. Or Christmas! That hasn't stopped me from writing about them. And both at the same time too... Whatever. Enjoy :P
Naruto
He bounded down Konoha's main street, stirring up flurries of snow as he ran. He spared each shop a passing glance, but didn't have time to stop and look properly. He was meeting someone.
He skidded around the corner, eyes wide, head going from side to side comically fast, like some hyperactive cartoon character. His eyebrows drew together in an anxious frown. She did say this shop, didn't she? He was about to turn and dash back the way he came, when, a-HA!
He'd seen her.
Had she seen him?
And if she had, had she seen that he'd seen her?
And besides, would he have been able to see if she'd seen that he'd seen her?!
Naruto had to sit down in the snow for a moment to sort out his head a bit: Thinking wasn't exactly his strong point, and he had a tendency to get ahead of himself, leading to massive headaches and, in extreme circumstances, prolonged cases of dizziness. In fact, Naruto decided, when you think about it, thinking isn't such a great idea after all...
Anyway, having determined that he had not yet been spotted – surely she would have come over by now? - he decided to take advantage of the fact. He waited for his target to turn her back on him, looking at the display in the shop she was standing by, then crept over.
Two meters away.
One meter.
Half a meter.
A QUARTER OF A METER!!!
He had to pause there. What came after a quarter?
Oh who cares!
REALLY REALLY CLOSE!
Naruto pounced.
"HEY HINATA!!!!!!"
It was loud enough to wake the dead. Probably. It was definitely loud enough to scare almost every shopper within a four-mile radius.
But never mind the shoppers! Poor Hinata, having had a fairly stressful morning, was in no condition to take the sudden – and very noisy – arrival of tho orange-clad ninja.
You guessed it, she was lying in the snow, her knees seeming to have temporarily turned to jelly.
Naruto, laughing like the lovable maniac he is, helped her to her feet.
"I'm really sorry Hinata, are you ok? You look like you're ok. Did I really scare you? I'm sorry. I got you though! I mean I really, really got you! You never heard me coming! Believe it! Oh, but I am-"
She cut him off with a soft giggle, "I'm fine, really. Um, who do you still have to get presents for again?"
Naruto considered for a moment.
"Sakura, Kakashi-sensei, Shikamaru, Kiba, Choji, I promised I'd get Gaara something if he didn't kill anyone for two months... I still haven't got anything for Bushy Brow..." Hinata gazed at him in mounting horror, "Naruto, this will take forever! We only have two hours before the shops close, and tomorrow you're going on a mission until Christmas eve. What are you going to do?"
The blond appeared unperturbed by the outburst. He suddenly broke into one of his trademark, face splitting grins. One of the ones that is so pure and innocent and joyous, that it seems the whole world is a better, kinder place for a moment. Hinata's breath caught in her throat.
"Don't sweat it Hinata. We're shinobi! This'll be a piece of cake! Believe it!"
She relaxed, and laughed. "If you say so, Naruto. Where do you want to go first?"
After an hour and a half, miraculously, everyone on Naruto's original list seemed to have been catered for. Hinata put it down to the fact that, though he hadn't gotten round to doing any shopping, Naruto had obviously had an idea of what he was getting who for quite a while. It was a simple matter of finding the – sometimes pretty obscure – gifts that Naruto had come up with.
Before you go thinking that it must have been easy, you try translating:
"I wanna get grandma Tsunade something for her office, kay, like, a pen-holder, but she never uses them, so not. And it has to be kinda squishy, like a stress ball, but not a ball. Hey, but maybe grandma Tsunade needs a stress ball! But I think she'd lose it. But maybe she'll lose anything I get her... But it HAS TO BE SQUISHY. 'Cos she'll probably throw it at me. Heeey, maybe I should get her some glue! So she can stick things to her desk! Then she couldn't throw things at me so much! NOOOO, what if she stuck ME to her desk??? Never mind. I'll go with the original idea. So where d'you think I can get one of those, Hinata?"
Luckily, Hinata could occasionally use her Byakugan to cheat and find things that she would otherwise have spent hours searching for.
"But Naruto, please don't tell Neji... I don't think he'd approve..."
Eventually, Hinata turned to Naruto. "Is that everyone?"
He looked at the floor, shuffling his feet. "Well, there's one more person..."
She tilted her head a little in curiosity. She knew it couldn't be her present; Naruto had already 'subtly' asked her what she would, hypothetically speaking, want for Christmas. He'd then bought it. Right in front of her. Nice one, Naruto.
He looked her in the eye. "I saw a book about the Sharingan in one of those shops we passed."
Hinata frowned. "Is that for Kakashi-sensei?"
Naruto shook his head emphatically.
"Sakura?"
Again with the head shaking. Hinata gave him a questioning look, and after a long pause, he spoke. Softly and sadly.
"You never know... he might come back... you never know. For Christmas."
Hinata's face softened. She took his hand gently, and began to walk back to the book shop.
Sasuke...
Sakura
She sat on the sofa, gazing at the fire flickering in the old grate. She smiled to herself; it was worth the trek to Ino's house to sit by a fire on Christmas eve. She leant forward, resting her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. She knew that the firelight would turn her hair a darker, more red-pink, and make her eyes sparkle like emeralds. She'd only been told about the phenomenon about a million times; "Hey Sakura!" Naruto would exclaim, "You're really pretty by a fire!"
Whether the remark was greeted by a laugh, or a whack round the head, would depend on her mood. Lately, he would more likely get a weak smile for his efforts.
The blond host herself came through from the kitchen, carrying two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. One, she set down on the coffee table in front of Sakura, and the other she curled up with on the deep three-seater.
"Sakura, did you remember your wish list?" Ino was grinning at her. Sakura grinned back, "But of course. How else is Santa supposed to know what I want?!"
Ino laughed at that. "Well, you know how to post it, right? You wanna go first?"
"Mmm, yeah I guess."
Sakura moved forward towards the grate, drawing a smooth piece of paper from her pocket as she did so. Ino pouted. "Heeeeey, aren't you gonna show me what you wrote?" Sakura raised an eyebrow, "Doesn't that mean it doesn't come true? I'm not gonna risk it." Her tone was light, but Ino could see the look in her eye. It was easy to read; Don't push me. And Ino could respect that. She laughed again, "Fine, fine. But in that case, don't expect me to show you what I wrote."
Her pink-haired friend snorted a little at that. "Oh yeah, 'cos I'm just burning with curiosity."
The piece of paper was over the flame now, and as it caught, Sakura let out a little sigh. She held the paper until the fire was almost close enough to burn her fingers, then she let it go.
Ino doubted Sakura herself had noticed that she was mouthing the same words over and over, please, please bring him back, please. Ino tactfully said nothing.
The two girls sat in comfortable silence until all traces of the paper were gone, then Ino moved forwards with her own wish list.
"Okay, budge up billboard-brow, it's my turn!"
And as she burnt her own wish list, she shuffled closer to Sakura, and put an arm around her shoulders.
Sakura tilted her head, resting it on Ino's shoulder. She'd only written one word on her "wishlist", after all, there was only one thing she wanted.
Sasuke...
Kakashi
"AHA, Kakashi there is no point attempting to hide from me. I, Maito Gai, can see through any deception with the power of YOUTH!"
"That must come in handy."
The silver-haired man allowed no sign of the irritation he was feeling to show. Not that it was likely to matter if he did let it slip – Gai's skin was thicker than his ridiculous eyebrows.
"As of our epic Christmas eve challenge yesterday, the score stands at 79-80 to you. Today, I intend to remedy that!"
Kakashi closed his one visible eye and sighed. Normally Gai wasn't this bad. Sure he was always a pain in the backside, but, unfortunately, he'd chosen today to be a particularly loud and pushy pain in the backside.
"And, as I am sure you are aware, since yesterday it was your turn to choose the youthful challenge, today it is my responsibility! And believe me Kakashi, it is a responsibility I take on with the utmost solemni... solemeni... seriousness."
Dear God, was the man still talking? Kakashi glanced at him. Yep, still talking.
"I have put a lot of thought into all of the youthful possibilities,"
Still. Talking.
" and I have come to the conclusion that, today being Christmas, it must be a particularly youthful task,"
Still talking
" for how else are we to match the youthful celebrations of our students? No, we must not allow ourselves to be out-youthed-"
"Gai, that isn't a word."
He couldn't help it, he had to say something! He met the blank stare of the only grown man in the land of fire who thought that a green jumpsuit was a sensible choice of clothing.
Ok, and now he was just staring. Had Kakashi said something so difficult to understand?
The baffled look was starting to get a little creepy, and Kakashi was beginning to wonder if he would have preferred the talking, when Ibiki chose to put him out of his misery, grabbing the masked shinobi by the arm as he passed.
"Wonderful," Kakashi muttered, rolling his eyes expressively, "saved by the torture expert."
Ibiki chose to ignore him.
"I have no idea why Anko insists on throwing these parties. Nobody ever enjoys them."
Kakashi smiled thinly, "You have to wonder why a group of fairly smart ninja would choose to do something they don't enjoy year after year. Anyway, I wouldn't say that nobody is enjoying it; Kurenai seems to be having fun."
They looked over to the far side of the room, where a very drunk Kurenai was sitting on the lap of a very amused Asuma, spouting fluent nonsense into his ear at about two hundred words per minute.
Ibiki's eyes narrowed slightly. "Not that you were here last year, Kakashi. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't you spend last Christmas with your gennin team?"
Kakashi looked coolly at the interrogation ninja. It wasn't something he wanted to revisit. Luckily, Ibiki was an observant kind of guy. He got the message.
Kakashi moved over to the window, not even slightly interested in whether or not anyone was following him. He peered out through the densely falling snow. He could see Naruto's house from here.
He watched the window of his shortest student's house, waiting. It didn't take long. A hopeful face, topped with an unruly mop of blond hair, appeared on the other side of one of the panes of glass. Kakashi averted his eyes. He didn't need to watch to know what it would look like as the boy's face fell. And what made it even worse was that he knew, about two and a half miles away, the exact same thing was happening at the Haruno household.
Kakashi sighed. What a mess.
What a ridiculous, painful, mess.
He wondered, what would his missing student think of the hole he'd left behind?
Would he be amused?
Would he be ashamed?
Would he care at all?
Sasuke...
Sasuke
He sat in his room,
room? More like a cell.
In his room, thinking.
Brooding.
Ok, reminiscing. About the old days. About this time last year.
That would be last Christmas, right?
Right. Last Christmas. With his teammates. With Naruto, and Sakura, and Kakashi. Here in Sound, Christmas was just another day. For training and learning and getting stronger. Just the way it should be.
Just the way it should be? Who do you think you're kidding?
He brushed a lock of his black hair out of his eyes, betraying his unsettled state of mind. Yeah, if he was being totally honest, he liked last year better.
It's still so easy to picture, as if it happened yesterday. Kakashi showing up 2 hours late, but with a Christmas cake to make up for it. The snowball fight, and the closest Naruto ever came to being murdered, when he built a snowman around himself using a shadow clone, then jumped out at Sakura. He scared her silly! Exchanging gifts around a campfire in the woods...
Yep, he liked last year better. They were probably doing something similar this year; hanging out in the snow together, sitting by a roaring fire together, talking and laughing and running together. Well let 'em. They're not getting any stronger eating cake, are they? What good did Christmas presents do anybody. Sasuke stood up and stretched. There was still more training to do.
You miss them.
...Shut up.
Thanks everyone, and enjoy the holiday period whether you celebrate Christmas or not :). Hope you liked the story. Please, PLEASE review, please? 'cos there's nothing more disheartening than writing a story that nobody reviews. It's just utterly depressing. Even if you HATED it, I'd like to know so that I can improve. Thanks again!