AN: Hello everyone, bet you never thought I'd update this! But I wanted to do something for Christmas and according to my poll this is everyone's favourite Dash story so I thought I'd give it a go. It's also dedicated to ugottalongway2go who wrote the 100th review of my Remember Me story. My only spec from them was to have fluff so this is a little fluffier than my usual but hey, it's Christmas and I suppose it's the season for fluff rather than heavy angst so excuse the divergence from my usual just this once

For those of you who have read the entire series, think of this as a fun little side note I did up as a Christmas/Yule/Hanukkah/Quanza (or whatever you celebrate or don't at this time of year) present for you all. It has no major bearing on the story and I won't delve into complicated plot. Just think of it as a nice time of year with our boys not too long after Sasuke returned to the village. I'm not touching Sasuke's possibly-not-totally-gone abilities in this one because I haven't decided for certain whether I will forever leave this series alone yet and if not, that will be something I would prefer to leave for later.

Something I should probably admit to because it will become painfully obvious soon enough…I'm not too clued up on what Christmas is like in Japan. I realise it isn't celebrated like it is in western culture because it's a religious holiday mostly and that December 24th Christmas Eve is something more like Valentine's Day, a night to spend with a special person and trade gifts. So with that in mind, I thought I'd write a little piece sort of centred on that tradition instead. I apologise profusely if I get it too wrong, because it's bound to happen and I took liberties by design because Naruto World isn't a real world kind of anime. It'll only be half loosely based on what I think I know and what I can make up (this is fantasy after all) so hopefully it won't suck too badly

- Dash.

WNL Yule Special.

"So what are your plans for Yule, Naruto?"

Naruto hadn't really been paying much attention to his teammate. He and Sakura had come out to the training ground to meet with Kakashi but had been waiting now for twenty minutes for their perpetually late team leader to arrive. So instead of waiting in the freezing wind for Kakashi to turn up they had taken shelter by a nearby tree and wrapped their cloaks around them in an effort to warm themselves up a bit.

They could have just started training without him, but Naruto was frankly sick of training. He was still officially off team missions till Tsunade was happy enough that Sasuke wouldn't try to destroy the village the moment the village hero had left him behind so basically all Naruto did these days was train and hang out with Sasuke. The last part of his village confinement wasn't too bad, but not being able to go on missions was starting to get to him a little. He felt a little stir crazy actually and it was a feeling that only lessened when he was hanging out with Sasuke. But Sasuke wasn't here now, and though he had to follow Naruto just about everywhere he went, he wasn't allowed near him when he was in the Hokage mansion and just generally didn't want to come out to watch when Naruto was training. He couldn't join in and the reminder of abilities lost was probably a bit too much for him. So whenever he stayed behind, three Anbu watched Sasuke like a hawk.

Which would have been fine if Sasuke didn't do everything possible to try and lose his unwanted Anbu tail whenever the opportunity presented itself. Sasuke might have had his chakra flow cut off, but he was still quick on his feet and knew how to lose people when he wanted to. It made Naruto worry and it made Tsunade furious. But it could have been worse. Sasuke was only doing this mild form of rebellion because he was bored without Naruto around. It wasn't like he did anything bad, sometimes Naruto suspected Sasuke only did it to see if he still could, sort of like a test of skill. And because Sasuke had been cut off from his true power because of him, Naruto found it hard to really berate him for the behaviour. Pity Sasuke realised this too.

"I don't really have any plans," Naruto responded after a moment. "What are you doing?"

"Oh not much," she replied shrugging. "I love decorating the house, that's always fun. Oh and I hope we get a cake this year. I was wondering though, do you think Sasuke might like to go out and do something on Yule Eve?"

It took all of Naruto's willpower not to wince. Neither of them had told anyone what was going on between them, it just didn't seem to be worth it. Too many hassles, too many questions and way too much gawking. But it made him uncomfortable whenever Sakura bought up things like this. She always wanted to include Sasuke in things or hinted more than occasionally about asking him to do something with her of a date-like nature and each time Naruto had tired to steer her in thinking that it was too soon and she should probably let him adjust more before pressing him about anything more.

He felt horrible about it of course. Sakura really seemed to love the guy and there was really no way Sasuke was ever going to return her feelings. He wasn't completely sure Sasuke even liked her much as a friend anymore. She was flirty when they were together just like the old days and the attention she paid him didn't help to endear her to him very much. In fact the only time Naruto had ever bought it up Sasuke had told him that he thought she'd never really grown up. When she was around him she was just the same old Sakura that used to pine away for him when they were twelve. It had vaguely annoyed him then, and it bugged him even more now. In the past before returning he'd been mean to her, tried to kill her and yet still she seemed infatuated. If only she'd talk to him like a regular person then at least they could be friends, but Sakura just didn't seem to get the message. He'd even suggested to Sasuke that she might change a bit if he had a talk with her, let her down easily, but he basically wasn't interested. He'd just told Naruto that if Naruto was that eager he'd happily tongue molest him in front of her to help her get the message and Naruto had hastily let the matter drop in mortified embarrassment at the mere thought.

"Uh, you want to ask him out on one of the most romantic nights of the year?"

Sakura frowned. "Still too soon?"

"Probably," Naruto replied honestly.

But it did give him an idea. Yule Eve was a pretty romantic night and while he was still having trouble fitting 'Sasuke' and 'romantic' into the same sentence even now, it might be nice to get him a gift and maybe a cake for the occasion. If nothing else it might help show his appreciation of everything Sasuke had given up for him.

"What sort of Yule cake do you get?" Naruto asked curiously. He hadn't really had that tradition since it was more of a family thing so he was curious about what it was like.

"Oh it's beautiful!" Sakura lit up after her depression about not being able to ask Sasuke out. "Vanilla sponge with whipped cream and strawberries, it's so delicious."

Naruto nodded. Well at least it was somewhere to start.

Kakashi showed up a few moments later and they started their drills.


On the walk home after training Naruto put a lot of thought into what sort of present he might get Sasuke. And after about half an hour of careful thought he got really depressed instead. The problem was that Sasuke didn't actually seem to like anything. Well except for him. And although Naruto had no qualms giving himself to Sasuke as a present it wasn't exactly a special thing when he got that most nights nowadays anyway. He supposed he could try to make it special, a little different than the norm, but the idea of doing anything like that made him go bright red immediately. He just imagined himself trussed up naked with bright red ribbon and didn't know whether to laugh at himself or die of embarrassment. And besides, Sasuke's idea of kink was a lot more varied than Naruto's could ever be so whatever he could come up with would probably be too tame in comparison anyway.

And besides, he wanted to get something for Sasuke to keep. The one and only present he'd even given to Sasuke had been a ornate dagger he'd bought on their little vacation together and sure he'd seemed to like it, but he couldn't give Sasuke any form of weaponry because he wasn't allowed to. Even now that dagger he'd given Sasuke was sitting locked up in the Hokage mansion along with his sword, neither of which he was likely to get back any time soon. The one consolation was that Naruto had bought two of the same dagger and kept one for himself that was practically identical. Occasionally Sasuke got it out and looked at it like he missed his own and that gave Naruto another thought: Sasuke had seemed to like the idea that they had the same thing, two identical pieces of memory that were only separated by space. At least that's how Sasuke had put it in an uncommon moment of sharing. So that gave Naruto an idea, maybe he could do the same thing now, buy two of the same thing, something that wasn't a sharp weapon, that Sasuke could have with him even during his confinement within the village. But that's where the idea fell flat. Weapons were the only thing Naruto could think of that Sasuke might like and it needed to be something small and easily hidden that he could keep with him always without giving the bizarre fact away that they had matching 'things' which was probably a little too romantic if they wanted to keep this whole relationship to themselves.

The whole way home, Naruto looked through various shop windows trying to get inspired but nothing really stood out for him by the time he was opening the door to his apartment. He looked around the main room and seeing no one around made him frown. Of course when he was training Sasuke could still leave the apartment tailed by Anbu, but it always made Naruto worry that he might get himself into trouble.

Deciding to have a shower to take his mind off it, he was just stepping into his bedroom to get undressed when he found his new housemate standing in the middle of the room holding up two shirts and looking between them like they'd offended him somehow.

Since coming back Sasuke hadn't had much in the way of clothes. The ones he'd shown up to the village in had been dirtied and ripped to the point where it was either burn them or use them for compost in Sakura's garden. So after ridding himself of the clothes, he'd had nothing to wear at all not having bought anything else with him. During the first few days back in the village they'd been practically secluded in the apartment where clothes were unneeded and really unwanted, but after that he'd had to find something to wear. And more than most of the time he'd been wearing Naruto's clothes. Not the orange, never that, because Sasuke said he'd rather wander the streets naked than wear that getup, but he did wear some of Naruto's plainer, relaxation or training clothes. They had been a bit big but they still more or less fit enough for decency but wearing nothing but loose pants and t-shirts all the time seemed to make him depressed. Naruto knew why, it was because they weren't really combat friendly badass ninja clothing. Sasuke was pretty touchy about not being a full ninja anymore and not being able to use ninjutsu or genjutsu and wearing casual clothes all the time seemed to be a constant reminder of that.

So Naruto decided to get him some new clothes. Now, Sasuke might be the closest person to him in the whole world, but he'd rather set his own hair on fire than take Sasuke out clothes shopping. They argued about everything even when talking about shopping for groceries so Naruto preferred to not give himself the ulcer. Going out shopping on his own was also out of the question because as Sasuke had not so subtly pointed out by carrying on about Naruto's orange and black outfit, Naruto had about as much fashion sense as a blind monkey. So desperately wanting Sasuke to feel better about himself, he'd enlisted Sakura's help. In retrospect it might not have been the wisest move. While Sakura might have had more of an idea of what was cool, she also seemed hung up on dressing him as she wanted to see him rather than what he might actually want to wear. Naruto had realised his mistake when he presented the clothes to Sasuke only to have Sasuke less than impressed with the selection. He hadn't hated it necessarily, but it was obvious it was more for looks than it was for comfort.

The pants had been black and okay really though a little more fitting than his last pair. The few shirts he'd gotten had been either revealing or tight or both and he hadn't really been happy about either of them. The only thing he'd salvaged from his original outfit where his sandals and his arm guards both of both of which he was wearing now while he stared daggers at the two shirts. When he noticed his audience though he dropped his arms to his sides apparently in relief.

"I was about to come looking for you," he said which also explained the reason he was dressing in something other than Naruto's stuff for a change and why he was wearing shoes in the house. "I'm glad I didn't have to go out in this stuff though."

Naruto leant on the doorway and grinned at him. "Forget the shirt, the outfit looks better without it anyway."

Sasuke gave him a less than amused look. "I'd be flattered if I didn't feel like you two were playing Sasuke dress up with me."

"They were Sakura's choices, I more into playing Sasuke dress down. You know I kinda like that dark red one. It matches the crazy in your eyes."

"Funny dobe," Sasuke muttered tossing the shirts onto the bed and sitting on them with obvious disregard for them before bending down to take off his shoes.

"Were you really going to go out into the village looking for me?" Naruto asked after a moment.

"Yes," Sasuke replied without looking at him.

Which was frankly pretty brave of him. There weren't a lot of people around that didn't know who he was or what he'd done. It was entirely possible that the only thing that had saved him so far was that those people who might want to hurt him also knew he was Naruto's best friend. And being the best friend of the village hero counted for a lot these days. But still, going out without Naruto's company was tempting fate when you couldn't fight back to the best of your ability.

"Are you that bored?" Naruto asked before being able to stop himself. As soon as he'd said it, he'd actually winced.

Surprisingly though Sasuke didn't seem to take much offence. He just finished with his shoes, sat up and shrugged. "Sometimes. You train a lot."

"You only get bored when I'm not here?"

"Mostly."

"But even when I am here half the time you're reading and I'm watching TV. Sometimes we don't talk for hours so how could it make a difference?"

"It just does."

Naruto blinked in surprise. "Wow Sasuke," he said honestly. "That was almost… nice."

"You think I can't say nice things?" Sasuke asked with a smirk.

"Not generally. I mean I know you're capable of it, but it's usually buried under so many layers of jerk that I can't see it for what it really is."

Sasuke didn't reply, he just kept his smirk and patted the bed between his legs for Naruto to sit down. Naruto did so but climbed on him rather than sit next to him. Doubtless it had been what Sasuke really wanted anyway. Sasuke ran his hands gently up Naruto's clothed back before grabbed him and swiftly toppling him off his lap and onto the bed where Sasuke leaned over him and grinned down at him.

"You want nice?" Sasuke asked somewhat inappropriately darkly.

"Actually I want shower. I must smell like a rank dog right now."

"Nonsense, I can barely smell Sakura on you at all."

Naruto winced, his slightly aroused moment leaving him in about a second. "See, you can't do nice."

Sasuke sighed. "I can do nice, to you."

"But no one else?"

"I don't think you would want me to be that kind of 'nice' to other people."

"I just meant in general. C'mon lots of people here missed you and tried to help you."

"I didn't come back here for them. We had this discussion before, nobody really knows me except you. How could they know me enough to really care?"

"I'm not the only one who cares about you."

"Yet you're the only one I seem to be interested in knowing about. Go figure."

"Gah, teme! You're going to make me insane."

"Going to?"

"You are such and asshole."

"It's a knack."

Sasuke was just leaning down to kiss him when there was a knock at his door.

"Don't answer it," Sasuke told him.

Naruto lifted an eyebrow at that. "I'm rooming with a psychopathic ex-rogue ninja and you want me to make people believe I'm unable to answer the door?"

Sasuke frowned. "Fine, have your shower, I will answer the door. Do not get dressed."

Naruto couldn't really see the harm in that. The only people that were likely to come to his place weren't people that would hurt Sasuke. Probably.

"Okay, it's probably Kakashi anyway. He said something about coming around to check up on us anyway."

And to check and see if my chakra was still subdued, Sasuke thought to himself as he got off the bed and started toward the front door. He heard the shower start up just as he pulled the door open and about half a second after that he really wished he'd thought to put a shirt on.

Sakura spent a good few moments looking at him dressed in nothing but his pants and arm guards before blushing really red and stuttering for a few moments more. Sasuke figured that if she didn't start to make sense soon he'd shut the door in her face and she could try again later. But there was a niggling little voice in the back of his head that he vaguely recognised as Naruto warning him to be nice.

"What's up Sakura?" he asked in a monotone.

"I uh, well, wow, I picked good didn't I? Those pants really bring out your…erm…I mean, they look nice."

Sasuke forced himself not to roll his eyes. "Naruto's in the shower. Didn't you just see him at training?"

"Oh, I didn't come here looking for Naruto. I uh, wanted to talk to you. Can I come in?"

Sasuke sighed. Being nice was difficult. All he'd wanted to do was get rid of whoever was at the door then fuck his dobe senseless up against the shower door. Was that too much to ask for?

He reluctantly stepped back and allowed her to come inside. While she sat on the couch he took off his arm guards and stood there wondering if he should go grab a shirt or something after all. He decided not to, really hoping that Sakura wouldn't be here long enough to bug him too much with her staring anyway. He supposed he probably should just be thankful that she wasn't wondering why he was walking around Naruto's apartment half dressed while said owner of the apartment was taking a shower.

"I was, er, wondering what your plans were for Yule Eve?"

Well, he hadn't been expecting that. He hadn't even realised that was even coming up.

"I'm staying in," he told her. With a naked Naruto tied to his bed, Sasuke added internally.

"Oh, because I was wondering if you might like to do something."

"I am doing something," he reminded her.

"No, I uh mean, with me. If you wanted to."

Boy, this girl just couldn't be let down easily.

"So just you and me and my three Anbu guards then?" Sasuke asked pointedly.

Sakura looked mortified for a moment like she figured she'd just said something horribly insensitive. "I'm sorry, I forgot about that."

Thankfully Naruto took that moment to re-appear after his shower. Possibly unlucky for him though that he'd heeded Sasuke's last order not to put on any clothes as he just wandered in. Obviously he thought their guest must be Kakashi too because Naruto wouldn't be bashful about his teacher seeing him in a towel and little else. But his eyes got real wide when he saw Sakura sitting on the couch staring at him with just as much shock.

"Oh um, hi Sakura-chan. I'll just uh, go put some clothes on then," he muttered before disappearing into the bedroom and closing the door behind him.

Sasuke watched him go and frowned darkly. Now he was really annoyed.

"Was there anything else?" he asked Sakura a little too sharply.

"Well I don't care about the guards. Besides, I don't think it would be difficult to ask Tsunade-sama to let you off just for one little night."

Sasuke was pretty sure Tsunade would rather drown herself in a recently used and unflushed toilet than let Sasuke off for five minutes. Since he'd gotten back they hadn't exactly gotten along real well. It was totally his fault of course. After all she obviously couldn't help being such a controlling bitch all the time.

"I doubt that," Sasuke told her and he could see from her expression that she hadn't really believed it anyway.

"Oh well I don't mind if we had company I-"

"I'm going to stay in. It's not really my thing."

"Oh, okay. Well couldn't hurt to ask. I just thought it might be nice, this being your first time back in the village for years and everything."

"Thanks for the offer," he said trying to sound at least a little polite knowing that Naruto probably had his ear to the door right about now.

He'd thought it was a pretty dismissive sentence, but Sakura stayed seated where she was while the silence dragged on.

"Did you want something else?"

"You don't like, have a date already do you?" Sakura asked quickly. Obviously the question had been bothering her.

"No," he replied honestly.

"Okay then. I better get going. Say 'hi' to Naruto for me."

She got up and left and Sasuke was careful to lock the door behind her before going to the closed door of Naruto's room. Before he opened it he called very loudly at the wood at about the height of where he suspected Naruto's ear was pressed, "Sakura said to say hi!"

He heard a muffled 'fuck' before Naruto wrenched the door open and glared at Sasuke. "Did you have to deafen me?"

"You know it's rude to eavesdrop."

"You're giving me a lecture about what's rude?"

"I thought I was being nice."

"Maybe for you that was nice, but for us regular humans it wasn't the best effort."

"She said my new pants really bought out my erm," Sasuke told him accusingly.

Naruto winced. "Sorry. You know, I thought I'd managed to talk her out of asking you out. But hey, another few conversations like that and she probably wont want to ask you anymore, nice erm or no."

"Well it keeps you coming back for more despite the fact you think I'm a jerk."

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts," Naruto quoted. "Kakashi told me that. Even if most of your parts are made up of asshole, jerk and bastard."

"Better than dobe, moron and annoying."

The words lacked any real malice though probably because he was still only wearing a towel and Sasuke didn't seem in the mood to pick a fight. He grabbed the front of the towel and dragged Naruto closer.

"Now where were we?"

"I called you a bastard," Naruto said as Sasuke leaned in toward him.

"Before that."

"Jerk."

"Before that," Sasuke said flicking his tongue across Naruto's bottom lip.

"Assho-ah…"

Sasuke had trailed his lips down Naruto's neck till he reached a spot that he knew could make Naruto stop talking and refocus on what he wanted. Naruto's little weak spot in the crook of his neck. Sasuke nibbled it while pushing him backwards through the bedroom door.

"Getting closer." Sasuke murmured against his neck with a smirk.


Naruto couldn't sleep. He lay with his elbow crooked and his head in his hand and watched the gentle rise and fall of Sasuke's chest as he slept next to him. The moonlight filtered in through the open blinds and it made Sasuke's skin look like creamy milk. His free hand rested on Sasuke's stomach with Sasuke's hand laying loosely over the top but Naruto wanted the use of his hand to flick away one of Sasuke's bangs that had fallen over his face obscuring Naruto's view of him.

As soon as he moved his arm though, Sasuke woke up with a small sigh and stretched a little while Naruto took care of the offending bit of hair. Sasuke's eyes flicked over to him briefly before closing again.

"Are you watching me sleep? Because if you are, it's really creepy."

"Then I'm creepy. Hey Sasuke, is there anything you want?"

Sasuke opened his eyes again, locking his gaze onto Naruto's. "Why?"

"If you had heaps of money, what would be the first thing you'd go out and buy?"

"Better clothes."

"Teme! I'm serious."

"Look I can't know what to say if you don't tell me what this is about."

"What? So you can give me the answer you think I want?"

"Basically."

Naruto made an irritated noise and dropped onto his back. Sasuke must have sensed the question was more serious than it sounded because he rolled over and turned Naruto's head to reconnect their eyes.

"What is this about?"

"Nothing important I guess. I was just wondering if there was something you missed having, that's all."

"There is something," Sasuke replied after a moment. "But it's not something I can go out and buy."

"What is it?" Naruto asked fearing he might start talking about his inability to use chakra anymore.

Sasuke frowned slightly. "I miss not feeling lost."

"Huh?" Naruto asked confused when it wasn't what he had expected.

"It's hard to explain. I miss not having a clear purpose, I miss feeling like I belong."

"You belong here," Naruto told him quietly.

Sasuke sort of moved his head in a small shrug and rolled away to look up at the ceiling instead. "With you maybe. But I don't really feel connected to the 'here' part. Before I had a mission, clear goals and something to strive for. Here, I don't have that. And I can't return to a family or anything else that might immediately make me feel at home either."

Naruto hadn't meant to depress Sasuke, he'd just wanted to find out what he wanted in the way of presents. But he could see why Sasuke was so hard to buy for, he only wanted the things in life that couldn't be purchased with money. But Sasuke had unintentionally given him an idea and the more he thought about it, the more he liked it.

He reached across and laid his arm over Sasuke again knowing that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep without the touch and yawned widely.

"Yes you can."


Naruto made himself scarce while Sasuke was still in bed this morning leaving him a note about needing to run some errands before training. Which was partially true but he'd left out a lot. Today was Yule Eve and Naruto had some shopping to do. He'd incessantly bugged Sakura on the details of what her family traditions were around this time of year. Apparently there weren't many and basically consisted of a chicken dinner, Yule Cake and if you were the romantic type, going out on a date and presents.

Well going out wasn't going to happen, not this year at least. But the rest could be done and Naruto was determined to start some traditions of his own. Besides, this wasn't just for Sasuke in some ways because Naruto had never experienced these kinds of traditions either so he was pretty excited about it himself.

So he ordered the cake, one just like Sakura said was her favourite, ordered dinner and the present had been ordered over a week ago. Everything would be ready for him to pick up on his way home from training. So he turned up to training with a big smile of his face and a spring in his step.

Tonight was going to be awesome!


Sasuke got up not long after Naruto left and after taking a shower and staring at the walls for about half and hour he decided that even wandering around the village was better than sitting here all day with nothing to do. He'd read all the books Naruto had bought home to him from the library so he figured he might as well go get more if that's all he had to occupy himself with these days.

He got dressed in the clothes Sakura had bought for him, the black pants and the dark red shirt that Naruto seemed to think was the pick of the bunch. The shirt was okay he supposed. It was a sort of sleeveless knit shirt with a zip up the front. It clung to him more than he'd prefer but at least it was better than wandering around in Naruto's clothes all the time.

So he left the apartment with his books under one arm and feeling very naked without his weapons in what he considered to be hostile territory. He scored a few glares and stares as he walked through the village, which he'd gotten good at ignoring. This was however the first time he'd left the apartment without Naruto by his side and he could see the difference in people's attitudes already. When he was with Naruto he was best friend of the village hero who mustn't be too evil after all if Naruto trusted him. But alone he was just Uchiha Sasuke, ex-rogue who was nothing to this village except a traitor.

Well, whatever, like he cared what they thought. He was only here for one person, the rest could die in screaming agony for all he cared.

He was just passing the park when he had that thought and as though his wish had been granted he did hear a scream or rather more of a distressed yell from somewhere amongst the trees, out of his line of sight. The sound was enough to make him stop for a moment but only because of the coincidence before he started moving on in the direction of the library once more.

Why exactly he stopped the second time he heard it, he wasn't quite sure. Even more mystifying when he found himself heading toward the sound to see what the issue was.

He walked in amongst the trees, stopping short when he saw five boys pushing around a sixth kid who already had a bleeding nose and a soon to be very swollen eye from the beating he had already taken at the hands of his aggressors. The boys hadn't seen him yet and Sasuke hadn't made an effort to make his presence known because he still wasn't quite sure what he was going to do about all of this or even whether he would do anything at all. After all, what did it matter to him what happened to this boy? He was simply part of a village that hated him and certainly wouldn't thank him for his interference.

And if the boy didn't have slightly blood smeared bright blond hair, he would have just moved on. Naruto had said to him in the past that he could have been Sasuke given his start in life. He could have hated the people who seemed to hate him, given up and sought revenge just like Sasuke had. This boy could grow up to hate his fellows for being disliked and beaten, or he could be shown that not everybody was an enemy and that there were people that cared just like Naruto had.

Fuck me, Sasuke thought morosely, It's because of Naruto isn't it? I wouldn't care one bit about this if it weren't for him.

Sasuke didn't think of himself as any sort of hero like Naruto was, but for today, for this boy, he supposed could seem like less of a devil.

He stepped into view of the boys and cleared his throat. "Five against one, that's brave of you," Sasuke said openly mocking the bullies.

The bullies didn't seem to recognise him, they were all about five years younger than him after all. All they saw was a regular person with a stack of books under one arm. They all had headbands themselves, probably village genin, and therefore didn't see Sasuke as much of a threat.

"What's it to you book worm?" The apparent leader mocked him with what he must have assumed was high humour to judge by the way he laughed at his own joke. They were completely unafraid of the older Sasuke who wore no signs of being a village shinobi. "This little punk thinks he's better than us just because he's the only one that could hit the kunai target in class. We hate show offs."

Well then they were about to hate Sasuke a lot. Sasuke activated his Sharingan and stared at the leader whose face had just gone from smug to petrified in all of about three seconds. He might not recognise Sasuke by first sight, but he recognised the infamous Uchiha kekkei genkai when he saw it. His clan might be dead, but everyone had heard of the traitor Uchiha who'd come back to the village.

"Run!" The leader yelled before all five boys tried to scurry off between the trees at a fast pace.

But Sasuke was faster, not even dropping his books he ran forward and grabbed the leader by his collar before he could get away. He threw the kid by his collar onto the ground and put a foot on his chest before the kid could think to rise again.

"I'm not going to demand an apology," Sasuke told him letting the terrified kid stare into the depths of his red eyes, "Because I know you wont really mean it right now. But I promise you that if I see you ganging up five against one again, against someone who is supposed to be your ally no less, I will make you feel sorry for ever taking your very first breath in this world. I will rip a meaningful apology from your throat by that point made too sore from screaming in pain at what I will do to you. Do you understand me?"

The kid nodded quickly, his eyes never leaving Sasuke's. Sasuke watched him for a moment longer before finally deciding that he had gotten the message before removing his foot and watching the kid bolt into the trees.

Sasuke then walked over and helped the initial victim of the beating to his feet and crouched down to give him a brief inspection. "You'll live," he informed the boy before straightening up.

He was just about to turn and leave when he felt a tug on his arm and turned to see the boy had a hold of his wrist. Sasuke didn't really like people touching him so the look he gave the boy must have been warning enough for him to let go as though Sasuke's skin had burned him.

"Uh, you're Uchiha Sasuke, aren't you?" The boy asked timidly.

Here it came, the hate, the revulsion. Whatever.

"I knew it wasn't true what they said about you. I know you're not bad, you saved me. That was so cool what you did. I'm surprised he didn't pee his pants!"

Sasuke blinked at the kid in shock. He probably should have said something nice or polite at this point, but he was too surprised to pretend right now. "Maybe you should learn to save yourself in the future."

Instead of taking offence though, the boy seemed to find the words encouraging. "I will Uchiha-sama. Thank you!"

After watching the boy for a confused moment longer Sasuke turned and started back on his way to the library, still pretty unsure how to take that particular compliment.


When Naruto got home he kicked off his shoes and not seeing Sasuke in the main room, put the dinner he'd bought in the oven to keep warm and made a beeline for the bedroom. He found him there, laying on his stomach, shirtless and facing the opposite direction, propped up by his arms so he could read his book.

"I'm home!" Naruto announced coming into the room balancing a cake in one hand and shoving two small boxes into his pocket with the other.

"No shit," Sasuke replied not looking around.

Nonplussed by this reaction, Naruto climbed onto the bed put one knee either side of Sasuke's waist and leaned over to kiss the exposed skin of his shoulder while sliding the cake in front of Sasuke's face on top of the book he was trying to read.

"Merry Yule, Teme."

Sasuke looked at the cake silently for a moment as though trying to work out why it was sitting on his book. "What's this?"

"It's a Yule Cake!" Naruto informed him happily.

"I know what it is Dobe. Why do you have one?"

"I've never gotten one before so I thought I'd get one this year."

"Why?"

Naruto frowned, his happy moment slowly being beaten down in the face of Sasuke's blunt questioning.

"Because this is the first year I…" Naruto didn't want to sound too mushy because it would only lead to bad teasing. "You don't like cake?"

"Not really."

"Oh," Naruto replied crestfallen. "How can you not like cake?" he persisted after a moment. "Everyone likes cake!"

"Not me."

"You like strawberries though right? I know you like strawberries. You can eat the strawberries off the top."

Sasuke reached forward and plucked a whole strawberry off the top of the cake which came away covered in cream and icing, stared at it for a moment before passing it up toward Naruto. "Lick the icing off for me."

Naruto bent forward to comply when a blob of cream dropped off hitting Sasuke's shoulder.

"It just dripped on me didn't it?" Sasuke asked with faint annoyance.

"Don't worry, I'll clean it off," Naruto assured him. He went ahead and sucked the icing off the strawberry first though. And while Sasuke took a bite of the newly cleaned fruit, Naruto ducked his head down and sucked the cream off Sasuke's shoulder. He was perhaps being a tad too thorough though when he ran his tongue over his shoulder and up his neck.

Sasuke disrupted him by turning over then, careful to slide down so he didn't end up putting his head into the cake.

"Maybe cake isn't so bad after all," he allowed.

Naruto grinned down at him and then kissed him while reaching up to grab another strawberry. He intentionally made sure it was well covered before drawing back and holding it over Sasuke's chest. Very slowly he drew the strawberry over Sasuke's skin leaving behind a trail of cream and sweet icing. He managed to get most of the mess onto Sasuke before teasing along Sasuke's lips with the fruit. But when Sasuke opened his mouth to accept it, he took it away and covered Sasuke's lips with his own slipping his tongue into the open mouth sliding it against Sasuke's tongue momentarily before drawing away to lick and suck the mess he'd left behind on Sasuke's skin. He slid his tongue slowly up the cream trail deviating occasionally to nip and suck at a nipple. Finished, he sat up just as Sasuke was opening slightly glazed eyes.

"You have cream on your jacket," Sasuke pointed out with a light smirk.

Naruto frowned at his jacket noticing what had happened before taking that and his shirt off and giving them a toss onto the floor.

"You look like you could do with some more cake," Sasuke told him.

Naruto couldn't help but smile at that one. But this time, instead of the strawberry he ran his finger through the top layers of the cake and used that to trace sticky lines over Sasuke before licking them thoroughly away. He took his time, sliding his tongue over warm pale skin whether there was anything to lick off or not. Sasuke wasn't making a great deal of sound, but Naruto could tell he was getting to him. The not quite regular sound of his breath hitching occasionally and his muscles tensing and un-tensing every so often.

Naruto licked his way down to the waistband of Sasuke's pants, deftly undoing them and kissing the small vee of newly exposed skin.

It was at this point Sasuke apparently had enough. He sat up and grabbed Naruto, rolling him onto his back and settling himself between Naruto's legs.

"What do you think you're doing?" Sasuke asked leaning over him.

Naruto tried his best to look innocent. "Eating Yule Cake?"

"Uh huh. Since when do you tease me?"

"If you didn't want me to learn, you shouldn't do it to me so often."

Sasuke watched him carefully for a few silent moments, gazing into his eyes without blinking. Then Sasuke sat up, confusing the hell out of Naruto. He'd thought things were going well, great even, but Sasuke didn't seem to like what he'd seen in his eyes.

"You're trying too hard."

"What?"

"You look apprehensive about something. I don't want…" Sasuke began, but like usual before he could share too much he just shook his head and began to move away. "Forget it."

Well, fuck that.

Naruto sat up quickly and grabbed him before he could move too far. "What the fuck Sasuke?"

"Let go."

"No."

"You're hiding something," Sasuke accused.

"You're one to talk. I thought things were going well."

"So you are hiding something."

"Sure I am. But it's a surprise."

"A surprise?" Sasuke asked blinking at him.

"Well sure. What did you think I was hiding?"

Sasuke opened his mouth to reply but closed it again almost immediately. Eventually he said, "I thought you might feel guilty. You hardly ever spend any free time away from me. And now cake and this…"

Naruto didn't have to ask what guilt Sasuke was referring to. And the truth was that he did feel guilty about all Sasuke had been through to be here with him. He knew it, Sasuke knew it and even though Sasuke often would use it to his own favour to win a lot of arguments, Naruto could see that it really bothered him. Not only what he'd lost, but how Naruto felt about it too.

But, "If you think this has got anything to do with that you've got another thing coming. You think I'm spending so much time with you because I feel guilty? I might feel guilty, but that's not why I do it. I'm doing this because it makes me happy and I'm hoping that it makes you happy too. I know that's an alien concept to you and everything but you gotta learn that people sometimes do things for you because they want to, not because they have some other motive. Jeez, and you call me a moron!"

Sasuke didn't look like he was going to move away again but he looked perfectly serious when he replied, "You are a moron."

Naruto smiled crookedly at that. "See, why would I want to spend any time away from you when you say such nice things to me."

"I see you've picked up sarcasm from me too then, not just the ability to tease."

Naruto leaned in and kissed him once briefly and murmured, "Maybe if you try hard enough something else of yours will rub off on me too."

Sasuke kissed him back a little less chastely than the one Naruto had given him and pushed him back to where he had been before with Sasuke pressed up against him, with lips moving against one another. Clothes were kicked off and hot skin met hot skin and Naruto groaned thinking, and why the hell would I want to be anywhere else?


"Oh shit!" Naruto said sitting up quickly in bed.

"What?" Sasuke asked stretching a little and wincing at sore muscles. They'd been quietly dozing next to each other after having…cake and Sasuke had been quite content to drift off to sleep where he was.

"I forgot about the chicken!"

Sasuke spent a few moments trying to work out why chicken was so important right now, or really at any time, and eventually gave up.

"I'm sure the chicken will forgive you."

"No, I mean I bought home chicken dinner for us. I put it in the oven to keep warm, I hope it's still good."

"As long as you didn't cook it, it should be good," Sasuke replied turning over and trying to get comfortable again.

"Funny, asshole. Are you hungry, I could go get you some?"

"I'm not hungry after all that cake. By the way, I think the rest of the cake ended up on the floor."

"Oh, did it?" Naruto leant over him to inspect what was left of the demolished cake on the floor. "Pity, that was tasty."

"I'm certainly a convert."

"I got that special you know. I didn't know what to get but Sakura told me all about the family traditions and I wanted to get it right." Naruto told him leaning back and sighing. "I guess I kinda suck at this."

There was no way Sasuke was going to drift off to sleep with a comment like that left unquestioned. So he sat up so he could look directly at Naruto. "What do you mean? Why do you care what Sakura and her family do?"

"Well it's Yule. I thought I could make it special and I didn't want to ask what your family…never mind. Look I shouldn't have bought it up."

Sasuke did remember the family traditions. His father always used to bring home a cake, he remembered now, and then they'd have a family dinner. It didn't really hurt to remember such things like Naruto must have assumed it might. It sort of made him ache a little, but he generally just tried not to think about it.

"So this was for me?"

"Well mostly. I don't know about family traditions 'cause I've never had any. Traditions or family really. This year, well, you're my family now and I wanted to start some new traditions."

Sasuke watched him for a moment thinking that through carefully. Naruto obviously didn't like the silence though because he just looked more nervous as the seconds went by without a response.

"Well you're off to a good start," Sasuke told him eventually. "We should definitely have cake more often."

It probably wasn't the response Naruto had been hoping for but he smiled just a little anyway. "You're such a perv."

"So," Sasuke continued. "Is this about the other night, when you were asking me what I wanted? You think I wanted this?"

"Not really. I guess I wanted this more than you did. But you said all that stuff about family and not belonging and I wanted you to feel like I was your family I guess."

"I already told you I felt like I belonged with you," Sasuke reminded him. "You aren't the problem."

"Oh yeah, the present!"

Sasuke watched baffled as Naruto found his pants that were slung over the end of the bed and rooted around in the pockets till he found what he was apparently looking for. He retrieved two flat though small boxes one blue box, one red. He handed the blue one to Sasuke.

"Don't open it yet, I want to show you this one first."

"You bought me something?"

"Yeah, this is supposed to be like a romantic night or whatever. I'm supposed to get you a present. That was the surprise."

"I didn't get you anything," Sasuke pointed out more bothered by that than he expected to be.

"You're here aren't you? Considering what you had to do to be here, I think that's present enough for me."

Naruto opened the red box and pulled out a silver chain and held it up for Sasuke to see. Dangling on the end of the chain was the red and white Uchiha crest about the size of his thumbnail. It looked finely done and pretty expensive. Sasuke reached out to take it but Naruto drew it away.

"I know this symbol is a part of your family heritage that you're really proud of. I know that this is what makes you think of family, but I don't want you to wear it."

Naruto took the chain and slipped it over his head so that the little Uchiha crest dropped down against his chest. Sasuke reached over and fingered the crest sitting against Naruto's skin before looking up into hopeful blue eyes.

"This isn't necessary," Sasuke told him.

"What, you don't want me to wear it because I'm not part of your clan?" Naruto asked getting the wrong impression.

"That's not what I meant. You don't need to wear this for me to think of you as family."

Naruto grinned and reached up to take it off but Sasuke stopped him. "Doesn't mean I don't like seeing it there though. I like having you marked like that."

"Possessive much?" Naruto asked with a wry grin.

Sasuke just smirked and shrugged. "So what's this one?" He asked tapping the box in his hands.

"Well that's one for you to wear. You can open it if you want."

Sasuke did so. It was the same kind of long silver chain but at the end of this one hung the red spiral symbol of the village. Sasuke looked at him quizzically.

"Uh, I don't really have a family crest like you do, but this is better anyway. That's the symbol for the village. I know you don't feel like you really belong here anymore. And I'm sorry to say this Sasuke, but a lot of that is your fault. People here don't like you for what you did, but you aren't making an effort to change their minds about you either. You're rude to everyone, you glare at them and you hide out in here reading books most of the time. But I know now that's because you don't feel connected to anyone else. I figure that if you could feel connected in some small way you might to start to think of this as your home. You said a moment ago that you liked me being marked as yours, then I want you to see yourself marked with the symbol of the village. I belong to you and you belong here. See you can go home to your family Sasuke, because I'm your family, me and everyone else that cares about you. You just have to make that connection again and I think a reminder like that will help."

Even two days ago, Sasuke might have scoffed and told Naruto exactly what he thought of belonging to this village, swearing included. But Naruto had put a lot of thought into this. Obviously he thought that if Sasuke wore the symbol he'd feel more like he belonged. He wasn't sure how it would make him feel to wear it but it sure as hell wasn't the cure all that Naruto seemed to think it was. Still, he remembered earlier today, helping that boy out. The boy had thanked him, shown him respect even knowing who he was. Perhaps it wasn't too much to hope for that he couldn't at least start to fit in a little more in the future.

So Sasuke slipped the chain over his head and watched Naruto's eyes flick down to it and smile.

"We're both marked now," Naruto told him. "Let's hope we can live up to it."


Naruto and Sasuke spent Yule day on the training ground. Previously Sasuke had been resistant to spar knowing full well that he couldn't use ninjutsu. Well not much, and not that Naruto or anyone else knew. But Naruto had just wanted to spar like the old days, no ninjutsu, no genjutsu, just beating each other up and having a little fun. Sasuke was a little rusty, he had to admit, but he was pleased to discover that he could still beat Naruto in a taijutsu match even if Naruto did give him a good run for his money. Of course if both of them were able to fight at full strength against each other Sasuke knew the win would not have been so easy.

"I can't believe you can still beat me," Naruto lamented as Sasuke helped him up off the ground.

"Believe it, dobe."

"Yeah well I-"

"Hi guys!"

The pair turned to see Sakura jogging up to them, a smile on her face. Sasuke wanted to roll his eyes, but he didn't. Naruto just waved back and waited for the girl to get closer to them.

"Happy Yule!" she greeted. "I looked around everywhere for you both. What have you got planned for the day?" The question was mainly directed at Sasuke but Naruto answered for them.

"Nothing much. Have you got plans with your family?"

"No, not really. I came to see if you guys wanted to get dinner tonight."

"Your treat?" Naruto asked hopefully.

"Dream on Naruto. Oh by the way, how was the cake? You got the one I told you to right?"

It took all of Naruto's willpower not to grin like a maniac at the question. But he could really say oh, it was awesome, I spent half the night licking it off Sasuke's body. So instead he settled for.

"It was good. Thanks for the suggestion."

"Did you get to have any of it Sasuke-kun or did pig Naruto end up eating it all?"

"The strawberries were nice," Sasuke told her watching out of the corner of his eye as Naruto's own eye started twitching from not being able to laugh. It was probably a good time to get Sakura away from Naruto before he lost it. "Sakura can I talk to you for a second?"

"Oh, of course."

Sasuke led her away from a confused looking Naruto till they were out of earshot. "Dinner tonight? Was that invitation really for both of us?"

Sakura might seem like she was a fatuous girl sometimes but she wasn't stupid, not really, and she knew what he was really asking.

"It's for the whole team actually. Kakashi sensei wanted me to ask you and Naruto. I'm going to check with Sai after this. But if you wanted to, one night we could-"

"I don't want to date you," Sasuke told her bluntly. Her expression was somewhere between mortified and upset. "But I would like us to be friends," he continued a little more solicitously.

Okay so that kind of eased her expression as she seemed to take it in. She still didn't look happy, but she smiled despite it. Even Sakura must have realised what an olive branch this was and although her feelings probably weren't going to go away overnight, at least she knew where she stood and if she wanted it to be, it could be as one of his friends. Something Sasuke was in very short supply of these days.

"I want that too. Thank you, Sasuke."

The two parted after a moment more of making plans and Sasuke returned to Naruto a small smile on his face.

"What was that about?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke shrugged like it wasn't a big thing. "Just making friends."

Naruto plainly didn't understand at first but eventually the meaning sunk in that Sasuke was trying to be nice and that he had pretty much called Sakura his friend too.

"I'm proud of you Sasuke."

"Don't get too gushy. Sai's coming tonight as well apparently."

Naruto grinned. "Just don't murder him before the main course and I'll still be proud of you."

"I make no promises."

The End.


Wow, that was long! So much for one chaptered fluff, it was bigger than two of my regular chapters. Hope it wasn't too hard to get through. And I do aplogise for the lack of descriptive sex, apparently my smut muse takes Christmas off, who knew. But it was a huge chapter, my biggest to date so hopefully that's compensation enough.

Oh and any and all Tsunade bashing was all Sasuke's doing and not the personal feelings of the author. Haha, just because I like her most of the time doesn't mean Sasuke has to lol. Sorry, I felt I might get a little singed for that one. Anyway, I hope it was a nice little read and you all enjoyed it. I just wanted to do something nice to everyone who has been so nice to me during the writing of this series and afterwards. I may or may not continue this story though probably not in the near future. I haven't decided. For now, think of this as a little Christmas treat and I hope you enjoyed it!

Meri Kurisumasu,

Dash.