It was only just Christmas Day in Konoha, and everything was well with the world…
Well, not quite. Unfortunately, some drama was happening, which involved absent gifts and presents not yet bought.
5:00... AM! Dah-dah-dah daaah!!
Naruto hurried through random shops, searching for something passable to give to Kakashi. And Sasuke. And, in fact, every single one of his friends.
He screeched to a halt halfway through the mountaineering aisle of the local sports store and stared at what he thought- nay, knew- was the perfect gift for Kakashi. They were perfect, they were wondrous, they were gonna make Kakashi faint with delight…
… they were real authentic Panda Man brand masks. Naruto picked up five; after all, what with all the fights he fought, Kakashi tended to go through three masks a month. He took them to the checkouts, paid for them to be gift-wrapped and hurried out of the store. One down, several to go.
Some time later, Tenten was trudging through the house that she shared with the rest of her team and attempting to rub the sleepy out of her eyes. Getting up early to place her presents in the others' rooms had seemed like such a good idea yesterday. Now she was beginning to see the flaws in her plan. For a start, all she wanted to do was crawl back into bed and join in the snoring contest. For another thing, Lee's present (purple legwarmers) had mysteriously vanished and was nowhere to be found.
She looked under the stairs.
It wasn't there.
She looked in her wardrobe.
Not there.
Finally, in frustration, she looked in Lee's room.
Lee was lying on his bed, gently snoring and surrounded by the wreckage that had once been Christmas wrapping. He looked faintly happy, despite the fact that he was probably dreaming about playing tag with vultures in Madland. And he was wearing the purple legwarmers she'd bought for his Christmas present.
Tenten didn't know whether to be relieved and go back to bed or to carry him outside and chuck him in the lake.
Later still, Gaara was walking through Konoha's marketplace, desperately seeking a gift for Lee. He'd asked several people what he could get for Lee, and all the information he'd got out of that was what everybody else was getting for the spandex-clad ninja (for some reason, Tenten had bought him purple legwarmers). So he still had no idea what he'd get for him. Idly, he browsed through a selection of chocolates in many freakish shapes, including what looked like toenail clippings but were probably really just a bad impression of crescent moons.
Suddenly, the answer came to him while he was closely inspecting a chocolate pencil.Quickly, he grabbed a random selection of chocolates, bought them at the front counter and walked out the door.
Having finally bought all the necessary presents, Naruto was going through the process of wrapping them, although unfortunately it is never easy for a sleep-deprived ninja to do this without accidentally getting sticky tape stuck across their face. Having said that, Naruto had somehow managed to wrap every single gift without getting too much stuff stuck to his various bits and bobs, so now he just had to give them to the right people and then go home for a nana nap.
Sounds easy, right?
(Insert evil laugh here) You're gonna have to wait 'til the next chappeh to find out what Gaara gets for Lee!
And now, a subliminal message from the author:
Review,
Review,
Review.