Hello guys! AmusedLight here with a Christmas theme for this story! Sorry if it seem rushed but i had this idea in my head for a year now.
Please enjoy the chapter.
The land of Iron, a country that was known to be covered with snow and cold non-stop, which was not a pleasant experience for the men in the trenches.
Speaking of the men in the trenches Naruto was sleeping who had a small unshaven beard was leaning against the hardened earth that was covered with wood planks, he was wearing a brown coat that covered his whole body, underneath it he wore his uniform with an extra jacket he got and he lastly wore winter boots as any other marine who received one from HQ for precaution.
Naruto was snoring silently as he then heard a loud.
BANG! A shell just landed on No-man's land.
He woke up from the impact of the shell and sighed in frustration as he threw his hands against his temples "Urgh! Stupid artillery."
Some of the marines who were around him tried to suppress their laughter, they soon stopped when they saw Naruto give an ugly look to them. Shutting them up quickly.
"Hey Naruto." Naruto turned his head to the right and saw Shikamaru walking towards him with a cup of tea in each hand. He also wore coat but his was button down.
He gave him the cup of tea "Here, helps with the cold." Shikamaru offered.
Naruto smiled and took the cup of tea and replied "Thanks."
They both took a sip from the cup of tea and started a conversation.
"It's almost Christmas eve isn't?" Naruto asked as he saw how some of the marines took the time to light some candles and even make some handmade Christmas decorations from nearby bushes and started hanging them around the trenches.
"Yep it is." Shikamaru replied.
Naruto took a look into his cup of tea and then took a look over the trench to the other side, to where the enemy's trench was.
"Naruto?" Naruto turned around to see Foster, Chouji and the masked lieutenant walked towards them with some wood and a lighter.
"Mind if we make a small fire?" Foster asked.
Naruto shook his head "Go ahead." He replied as he saw other marines and shinobi soon started grabbing some wood and make a small fire around them to warm themselves. Even when the smoke could reveal the position of their troops, Naruto somehow doubted the enemy would attack.
Soon small groups of 4 people would sit around the fires and would exchange words to break the time and eat the rations they had left and use their last cartons of smokes.
They still had their rifles close to them since they still were careful with what could happen.
Naruto sat around a fire with Foster, Shikamaru, Chouji and the lieutenant. Chouji was eating his last rations (Which he hates to eat) and Shikamaru was playing a game of Shogi with the lieutenant.
Naruto saw that Foster was looking at the cracker he got in his box, it was the last rations he got and it didn't look tasty, but he wasn't a complainer.
"Mail. I got mail." A marine was passing through the trenches while calling the names of marines who had mail, most of the times the marine received their mail while sometimes when the marine called out a name, no one responded meaning the receiver was a fallen marine.
"Foster, Jack Foster." The marine called out.
"Over here lad." Foster raised his hand. The marine walked towards the group and took out of his bag a small brown package.
The marine then grabbed a small wrapped up present and handed it over to Naruto "This is yours captain."
Naruto took it and started unwrapping it and thanked "Thanks marine."
"You're welcome sir. Merry Christmas everybody." The marine said as he left the group.
"Merry Christmas." Everybody replied back as the marine left them alone and continued trying to deliver all mail.
Naruto unwrapped his package and saw it was a scarf. There was a letter sended with the scarf and he began to read it.
Dear Naruto,
It's been 3 months since we've seen each other and I hope you receive this gift I sended to you.
I knitted the scarf myself and I hope you like it and that you can use it.
I hope I'll see you soon.
Naruto grinned as he rolled the scarf around his neck, it felt warm and cozy. He finished reading the letter and took a look at Foster.
Foster was unwrapping his package and it was a letter with a chocolate bar, he smiled at the gift he received.
He began reading the letter but then frowned a little bit and sighed as he puts the letter away.
Naruto noticed Foster's facial expression and asked him "What's wrong Foster? Something bad happened?"
"Ahhh it's nothing." Foster waved off like it was nothing but then he began explaining "…It was a letter of my mom. You remember that girl I spoke about?"
"Yes your sweetheart, Vicky right?" Naruto said, recalling the time Foster told he was surprisingly in a relationship.
"Well my ma found out she was hanging around with this man, a noble to be precisely." Foster said, gaining the attention of other marines who already saw where this was going.
"And then she found out she was cheating on me with that guy." Foster ended up explaining.
The reactions were sympathetic, many marines had experienced or knew someone who was being cheated while being oversea.
Naruto shook his head and shook the shoulder of Foster and said "She doesn't know what she has done man, you deserve better."
Foster smiled and chuckled a little bit "You're right." He then started waving the chocolate bar he received from his mother "My mom send me this to all of you, I will share this with ya'll later, is that alright lads?"
Everybody chuckled and laughed and responded positively.
Foster then turns to Naruto "And what about you? I see that you got yourself a fancy scarf, who sended to you?"
Naruto smiled "This girl I met in Konoha, she's a sweet girl. I like her." He replied.
"Okay." Foster said while laughing a little bit "You sure now how to handle yourself Naruto." Naruto and Foster laughed.
Soon everybody started doing their daily choirs.
Some began cleaning their weapons, other were still talking, and some began sleeping.
Foster and Naruto where the only one of their group awake as Shikamaru walked around, checking the shinobi, Chouji was half asleep with some rations in his mouth and the masked lieutenant was either sleeping or was staring at the fire on which they could not see duo the hoodie.
It was Christmas Eve.
One marine was about to take a bite of the stew with his spoon, but then he heard something unusual.
It wasn't the sound of incoming artillery, nor the crack of a sharpshooter.
No, it was the sound of singing. And it came not from his trench, but from the other side.
The enemy trench.
Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Every marine, shinobi and samurai stopped what they were doing and started listening to the sound of hundreds of men singing the song they all know, but still it sounded different to them since the only thing they heard for the past year was flying bullets and exploding shells.
As the enemy were singing the first verses again, they wouldn't be alone.
Silent night, holy night
1 marine began singing along. He gained the attention of his fellow peers as they also started singing it.
All is calm, all is bright
Then they was joined by several other marines and shinobi and samurai.
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child.
The voices combined, turning it into a beautiful duet.
Holy infant so tender and mild,
Naruto saw his men started singing along, he turned his head to Foster who turns his head to Naruto and they both smiled and nodded heads, as they started singing along.
Sleep in heavenly peace
The melody multiplied through the whole front somehow, with the sound of soldiers singing in harmony this song, that made all of them forget the war they were in for a moment and replace it with a moment of gracious peace.
Sleep in heavenly peace
The Front went silent for the rest of the night.
The next morning
It was Christmas and the front still was experiencing a relative uneasy peace, a small bird flew across the empty and middle ground of No-man's-land as it stopped in front of Jack Foster who noticed the bird and could only look at it.
The bird stood there for a minute before it flew away.
Foster looked to his right to see Naruto was still sleeping. He couldn't sleep by the thoughts that were going through his head.
He looked down his hands, he wore fingerless gloves, which made it hard for his hands to get warm since he couldn't find any decent gloves anywhere.
But he couldn't get the thought out of his head of something he needed to do.
Every time he looked at his fellow marines, he knew that for most marines it was the first time they weren't celebrating Christmas with their families and that they quite were missing their loved ones.
So he decided to do something incredibly stupid that could either go both ways.
Few minutes later
"A marine is coming!"
Naruto opened his eyes to some noise he heard, it sounded like it came from the enemy trenches, he quickly grabbed his binoculars and scooped at the enemy lines, to see that some of their riflemen were yelling.
Naruto heard the cracking of someone stepping on a ladder and saw it was Foster climbing up the ladder. Without his rifle and with his hands in the air.
"Foster! Don't do it!" Naruto heard Chouji yell as he just saw what Foster was doing. Naruto stood there still.
When Foster exited the trench, everybody thought he would be shot down any moment.
Surprisingly, nobody of the enemy trench fired at Foster.
"What the? Why aren't they shooting at him?" a marine said while he was aiming for the enemy.
"Look! Somebody is exiting the enemy trench!" this made every marine ready to shoot from their sniping spots at the enemy.
Naruto looked through his binoculars and saw that an Akatsuki member with the black coat with red clouds also exited the trench, with no rifle and with his hands up.
A marine that stood next to Naruto was aiming for the enemy soldier. Naruto looked at him and pushed the rifle down and shook his head.
He turns to his men and ordered "Hold your fire."
The men slowly did what he asked and lowered their rifles, meanwhile Foster still had his hands up and decided to walk forwards into no-mans-land. As did the Akatsuki member.
Shikamaru ran through the trenches and finally met up with Naruto "Naruto. Some idiot is walking up no-mans-land without a rifle and-"
"It's Foster." Naruto replied.
"What! Call him back he's gonna get himself killed!" Shikamaru urged Naruto to stop him.
"Shikamaru don't you see this." Naruto pointed out at the field. Shikamaru looked to see that an enemy soldier also was walking to the middle of no-mans-land.
Shikamaru was shocked at what was happening "I can't believe this, nobody is firing."
"Yeah, it looks like nobody wants to fight on Christmas day." Naruto figured out. He went to the ladder and started climbing up slowly up, shocking his men on what he was doing.
"Sir what are you doing?" a marine asked.
"I'm following Foster." Naruto replied as he took another step.
"But what if the brass finds out?" The marine asked, talking with the enemy was highly prohibited.
Naruto took a moment to think and simply replied "No-one needs to know it." Naruto climbed up the ladder and was now on the normal ground and followed Foster going past the barb wire and held his hands up.
The action that the captain was the 2nd to exit the trench was astonishing by both the friendlies and enemies who saw him and recognized him as the leading officer of the enemy.
Then some of the Akatsuki started exiting their trenches and joined the lone soldier in coming unarmed forwards.
Shikamaru sighed "What a drag," he turned to Chouji and asked him "Want to come join him?"
Chouji looked scared "Uhhm I don't know, I think I will stay here with…Wait where is-"Chouji meant the lieutenant. He then saw the hooded lieutenant exit the trench also, leaving his swords behind and following Naruto.
Chouji then saw some of the marines and shinobi also drop their rifles and exit the trench. Soon Chouji noticed he was the only one left in the trench and panicked "Hey! Wait for me!" he quickly exited the trench and caught up with Shikamaru.
In one minute, everybody on both sides of the battlefront was out of their trenches without their weapons and were slowly and nervously coming closer to each other in the middle of No-mans-land with the unknown revolutionary who wore a hood over his head.
Foster now stood in front of the hooded person and extended his hand "Hello lad, my name is Jack Foster."
The marines that were overlooking the scene saw that the Akatsuki member didn't extend his hand, instead he took his hood off and revealed his identity on which it shocked the marines and gave amusing smirks from the Akatsuki.
The person was a female with purple hair in an onion-like bun style. She had light green eyes with black pupils. She first had an emotionless expression on her face, but it then turned into a small smile with small blush that was barely visible.
She then took his hand and shook it "Ajisai, my name is Ajisai."
Foster smiled at the girl and shook her hand "Nice to meet you Ajisai." As the both of them started to have some small talk. People on both sides of the front started talking to each other.
Naruto now stood in front of the current officer of the Akatsuki. It was a man with a mustache and an officer hat.
"Sugio mokaro, commander of the 12th revolutionary infantry." Sugio saluted.
"Captain Uzumaki D. Naruto of the 9th Damned division." Naruto replied back as he looked around see there were only Akatsuki revolutionaries out of the trenches "Where are the pirates?"
"There are no pirates, it's just us." Sugio admitted "Captain, I would like to make a ceasefire."
Naruto raised his eyebrow.
"Just for today." Sugio said, Naruto could see that the commander meant it. Every marine, revolutionary, shinobi and samurai waited for Naruto's response.
Naruto offered his hand and smiled "I find it okay." Naruto expressed his support of a Christmas truce and both officers shook hands.
The Christmas truce was official.
Cheering could be heard on both sides.
People started to talk among each other and got to know each other.
Some men started going back to the trenches to pick up some chairs, tables and equipment.
"Hey captain, do you need shaving?" an Akatsuki member who used to be a barber asked with razors and a chair.
"Sure thanks." Naruto took off his coat and scarf and sat down on the chair as the barber started covering his small beard with shaving cream and he started shaving it professionally.
At the time he was receiving a shaving, he saw that Foster was still talking to the girl Ajisai and that that Shikamaru was playing Shogi with some members of the Akatsuki.
Chouji was having a feast, eating fresh meat the Akatsuki had in stock.
Then out of nowhere, a marine brought a football out and kicked it. Making some of the men eager to play a game.
Foster joined the game with Ajisai, she was the goalkeeper for her team and he was the striker for the marines. The guys put their coats on the ground to make the goal posts.
"Aaand done." The barber cleaned up Naruto's chin with a towel and he was given a small mirror to see his work.
Naruto looked into the mirror and saw it was clean shaven "Thanks." Naruto gave the man a carton of cigarettes.
"Thanks man." The man took the carton of cigarettes and took 2 out and gave one to Naruto and grabbed a lighter and ignited the smokes.
Naruto took a puff from his smoke and walked away to see the match for himself. He started walking next to the pitch and stopped next to the masked lieutenant.
"So, what's the score?" Naruto asked.
"2-2" he replied. Just as he said it Foster came running with the ball towards the goal of the opposite team and shot the ball at the goal, only for Ajisai to stop it.
Everybody was cheering and some were laughing. Ajisai got up with the ball and smiled at Foster who clapped his hands and gave a thumbs up.
Then loud bangs could be heard. Everybody got an expression of fear on their faces.
The fighting was about to restart again.
Everybody quickly started gathering their stuff and even shook the hand of each other and wishing each other a very Christmas and good luck.
Naruto sighed. It was fun while it lasted.
"Everybody back into the trenches!" Naruto yelled as he was about to re-enter his trench.
"Oh! My coat and scarf!" Naruto quickly went towards the barber who still there.
Naruto found his scarf but couldn't find his coat. Unknown to him was that the barber secretly shoved a letter into his pocket.
The barber tapped his back and gave him his coat "Here man."
"Thanks. Merry Christmas." Naruto said as he shook his hand.
"Merry Christmas." The barber replied, both men then went to their trenches.
Akatsuki trench
The barber entered the trench and took his last glance at the marines going back to their trenches. Little did they know is that the Akatsuki was about to retreat the next day and the pirates would fight them off, which would sound like a blessing to meet with them before they would depart.
He took out his carton of smokes and took out another one and light it up. He looked to his right to see his friend Ajisai was not happy.
"Are you okay Ajisai?" he asked.
Ajisai shook his head "No Kida it's nothing. I just wished it to be longer." She said with a big sigh. For the first time she met a marine that was different from what she grew up with. She was a big believer in her leaders' goals and ambitions of peace, but now that she met someone like Foster she asked herself if this war was even necessary.
She then puts her hand into her pockets, only to feel something strange so she took it out. It was a bar of chocolate. How did this come into her pockets?
The barber saw what she found in her pocket and smirked "I think that marine gave you that as a Christmas present. Merry Christmas." The barber walked past the stunned girl to take care of something.
Ajisai smiled "Yeah…merry Christmas…Jack Foster." She said with a small blush.
Marine trench
Foster was looking at the cracker he still had since he decided to give his chocolate bar to that girl he admits like.
Naruto, Chouji, Shikamaru and the lieutenant came by and sat at the same place where Foster was.
"Ahh that was fun." Chouji smiled while holding a stack of meat in his hand, Chouji took a ate a big chunk of the meat while munching it like crazy next to Shikamaru who was already sleeping like it was nothing.
The lieutenant took off to get the latest message of HQ so only Foster and Naruto were left to do nothing.
Naruto felt something in his coat and reached into it. He pulled out a letter and he was about to read it until he took a look at Foster, still holding unto that dusty looking cracker.
"Say Foster, why are you holding that cracker, you have that chocolate bar don't you?" Naruto noticed Foster smiled when he mentioned that chocolate bar.
Foster replies "I gave it away." Making Chouji almost choke on his meat and cough it back up by the help of Shikamaru who woke up to the sound of his friend choking.
Naruto was surprised "gave it away? Like a Christmas present?"
Foster nodded "Yes." This surprised everybody, Foster wasn't a picky person or anything, but he rarely shared or gave away goods like cigarettes or candy that he received from his mother.
"Oh so who did you gave it to?" Chouji asked. He took another big chunk of his meat and was munching it very loud again.
"To someone special…." Was the only response he gave to his comrades.
Chouji finished his last piece of meat and groaned "Urgh, I'm going to look if there's any meat left." Chouji left the group for his quest to find any meat. Leaving a sleeping Shikamaru and both Naruto and Foster.
Foster then mumbled "It's too bad we've got to fight them the next day. I heard the brass had planned an attack for the next morning."
Naruto could only agree and then continued to open the letter and began reading it, he began reading it closely after reading it from who it was.
Foster saw Naruto's facial expression and asked "What is it Naruto?"
Naruto smiled "Looks like we maybe don't need to fight them." Naruto handed him the letter and explained "It says here that the Akatsuki are planning a full retreat for this evening. Meaning we won't need to fight them."
Foster read the letter. He was both surprised and relieved for this new development.
"Does the brass know this?" Foster asked.
Naruto smirked "They don't need to know that, I suggest letting those guys go, I prefer less fighting then unnecessary fighting." Naruto replied, he then took his bag and began looking for something.
"You know Foster, what you did today was reckless, stupid and even treasonous," He pulled out 2 cups and a bottle of sake "but you did all of us a great favor."
"Huh?" Foster was confused. Naruto started pouring the sake into the cups.
"You brought us a day of peace and unity, you took the risk either being shot or being court-martialed. You made a moment of humanity for all of us." Naruto handed him a cup of sake.
"Bishop would be proud of you." Foster took the cup.
Foster smiled, he knew what he did could have bad consequences for him, but he knew he had to do it.
"Thanks Naruto." He thanked him.
They both raised their cups of sake.
"Merry Christmas."
I hope you guys liked it and I wish you guys a happy Xmas and a happy new year. this is no disrespect to the soldiers of WW1
And even though 2017 was a shitty year for Obvious reasons like terror attacks, war, Xenophobia, nature disasters, Trump and corrupt politicians, there are achievments to celebrate this year.
Like ISIS has been beaten by Iraqi and Kurdish forces in Mosul and Raqqa, destroying their stupid calipath.
Giant Pandas aren't anymore an endangered specie.
Australia has legalized gay marriage and personally: Morocco finally qualified themselves for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in 20 years LOL.
What I want to say is don't Always look at the bad stuff, look at the good stuff also. Because we as humans still can do wonderfull things that can change the world around us.
I yet again wish you guys a merry Xmas and a happy new year.