HOLIDAY CHEER
As the season neared everyone took on a sudden bout of responsibility. Girls flurried about in their grey pleated skirts, hopping in and out of the village to gather foodstuffs and decorations.
Everyone scurried about, usually dropping by their lieutenant (of whom everyone was admittedly concerned) each chance they had between their day to day activities. Even if the myth was perhaps nothing more than an old children's custom, it didn't hurt to hope that their Christmas wishes would be granted.
All their best efforts were to be put into that one singularity because after all, it could have been the very last Christmas they ever had.
Hinata was especially active in adorning the halls with jolly. She dug from the old supply rooms a small morsel of tinsel alongside a sad looking little tree, but somehow (with a trip to town or two) she helped weave the place into a home no less warm than any.
She had found a piano up in the attic and, since it was compulsory in a Hyuuga's education that they know a little something about music, softly encouraged the group to run a sort of holiday band. Its purpose was "to raise the spirits of all the ailing and melancholy". The idea at first came with a wave of doubt, but in the end no man could resist the charming innocence of compassionate young Hinata and decided to go about borrowing instruments and foraging through boxes and donations to find suitable pieces to fiddle with.
Gifts were difficult to come by in times like those, but everyone made an effort with the bare essentials. The nurses bought a bit this and that from home, embarking on a knitting spree that seemingly would never end. The soldiers had no homes in the vicinity, so they did their best by borrowing from nature.
Lee, who was ever so eager to please Tenten and his newfound buddies, secretly piled on more work for himself. He worked hard day and night, only to eventually have lumbered enough wood to sell for a bountiful amount of money. He toiled until the latest hour of night, when the moon was high above that one intimidating hill to the north, when his fingers where no less completely occupied with blisters and cold sweat formed from his brow in temperatures quite possibly below freezing point. Eventually, from it, he fetched an amount enough to get something decent for Tenten at least.
Though when his first job was done, there were still forests to gather before he could sleep.
Tenten herself was terribly stuck with whatever she was to give to Lee. She was sure he would be happy with nothing at all, but she loved to surprise him the odd once or twice.
At first she'd thought she'd get a hold of the nun-chucks he had wanted for so long, but the realisation came that such a thing was quite impossible to get at times like those.
But a second revelation came soon enough. It was bemusing how quickly she had forgotten, and then recalled, the months spent back at her father's smithy. How could she forget that one workshop, where it smelt of metal and wood and all things sharp and pointy, where she spent her time crafting lethal weapons, never leaving until they were refined to the highest quality? How could she have forgotten that her practised hands were once masters of hewing fear? Perhaps she was losing herself much earlier than she had first hoped.
There was one problem with that, however. Though nunchucks were one of the more painless creations one could construct, it took time to refine a good pair of them. In fact, only several years subdued in mud would do the trick, and Tenten had a hell of a problem there with time constraints.
She paced the bench she had been sitting on, trying to think of what else she might get for him. She thought hard, nails practically tearing through her mittens...
And it came to her.
When was—When was the last time Lee had gotten his hands on some good old imported curry?
Neji's pockets had always been heavy; even if he was a lower born Hyuuga he was still very much entitled to the family's fortune. Not surprisingly Hinata's had always been heavier; you wouldn't expect any less from the first daughter of a great empire.
By Hinata's insistence and his own free will, Neji and his overtly generous cousin both chipped in their money to prepare the men a feast that was to be grander than any they had known. Well in actuality they needn't of; most of the villagers were more than willing to contribute.
And even with this one boon, they had more than half the fortune in plain tangible form to purchase some decent, individual gifts. "Might as well spend it while we can", Neji would say after a loose shrug.
Neji bounced back fast from his ailments after a day or two filled with nothing but worry. He was quick to return to his duties, now even more efficient with his stretcher-bearing. Charged.
He even took the time to help others with any of their chores, be it lumbering wood or delivering parcels, he would assist to the best of his ability. And though Neji generally seemed to have a new, positive energy about him there was no doubt that this newfound obligation had something to do with a certain someone's passing. It was still however, amusing to see him scrubbing the floors and tackling the laundry right beside the women.
In fact, whilst looking in on them from behind, he almost fit perfectly into the picture, if even that was solely credited to his flowing, dark hair.
Fang, not as wealthy as the Hyuuga were, spent his time stocking up for his presents (mainly he bothered to impress Hinata) and decor by hunting down the odd bird or two down in the frozen wood. At all times he had Akamaru flanking his left, save for when said pooch was ordered fetch back the loot.
He had to admit that the pristine panorama was sorta, in an exceptional way, beautiful. And that very beauty had nothing quite to do with those round plump things otherwise known as uh, watermelons. Fang wasn't the world's most poetic guy, sure, but even he could tell that the views really were something special.
The ice was cloaked in a silvery light, and the trees faded with an all too familiar poignancy which was yet at the same time so utterly new to him. Snowflakes were each autonomously intricate and pretty, and it was rather amazing how long his eyes had been closed off to nature.
Tenten would join him some of the time, and as the better marksman steal from Fang most of his game. Of course he usually would be drolly mad at her for doing so, but Tenten usually would choose to be kind in return and let him share half of their collective efforts, regardless of their individual merits. This act of compassion bought on a whole new level of respect from Fang, and managed to further deepen that relatively fresh bond of friendship.
There was always a recurring situation in which Fang would tell her his sob stories, though, of how his mother and sister kicked him out of their home and having nowhere to go Fang had no choice but to join the army. He did well to capture Tenten's pity, but when the atmosphere became what could only be described as too solemn, Fang would usually clear up the muggy conversation with a well played and often inappropriate crack.
Tenten was getting rather used to his stale and over exaggerated jokes, and she found herself genuinely laughing about them in more instances than she had liked to admit.
Shikamaru couldn't quite be bothered to take a stab at arranging gifts for anyone. Why? Because it was a petty, annoying and convoluted process in which he never participated unless either of his two lovers said so. Just thinking of those two caused his brain to hurt, with cells dissipating by the millisecond.
The loose soldier gave a grunt and lay back against his new favourite trunk. It would be kind of embarrassing if everyone showed up with something and he had failed to, but oh, when the hell had he begun to feel concerned about what others thought of him?
Well, actually he knew the exact answer to the question: it was curvaceous, headstrong, and blonde with windy spunk. But right that minute he didn't quite want to reflect on the situation, so instead of receiving a migraine from recalling that damn troublesome woman—troublesome women, technically speaking—Shikamaru decided to get off his butt and do something about this thing. Well, get off his butt and take it to Chouji (probably busy concocting his brilliant recipes), anyway. It was the thought, not the actual gift that counted.
Shikamaru then confirmed that he hated Christmas almost as much as having have to wake up in the morning.
Shino had quite a sharp distain for winter, the antithesis of his most beloved spring and summer seasons. Because the latter of which held the time in which the venerable clan of cicadas flourished, because one his most favourite things had involved watching a colony of ants slowly develop a mound of their own, perhaps studying the patterns on a butterfly's wing, and alas, with the onset of winter those endearing hobbies no longer bore their fruit.
Ice slowly but surely made its way over everything, engulfing all in its blue-white sludge. And that included an unwarrantable death sentence for every bloodsucking mosquito, every last ant, and every unsuspecting leaf. Of their fates Shino would be well aware of, only he had never really known where all the fish went during the harsh months of inexorable frost.
The entire population of the entomologist's kindest and most trusted friends had already been wiped off the face of the earth—well, the country at least—and he had none to turn to except for those pitiful beings they called humans.
Very well then – Shino would have resort to human contact. It was a dire situation! He could either accept his fate, or die of the ultimate boredom. But to do just that, it meant he would actually have to partake in this social event they called a "Christmas", a festivity more aggressive than the mating ritual of the dragonfly. And therefore, he assumed these celebrative tokens called "mistletoes" and "snowmen" were rather important toward them.
So Shino began his mass production of his biggest giveaway ever. When the right time and temperature came, the insects would rise again to meet the sun, and that was the day Shino would collect his gifts.
Sasuke wasn't the most enthusiastic about the whole Christmas business. Mostly because the only way he would be able to contribute was by, put simply, whoring himself out.
He fingered the soft blue wool on the stand. The colour more than simply reminded him of Naruto; the texture of it was a perfect translation of his amiability into fabric. And, since he had heard the other man incessantly cough and sneeze and whine as soon as the winter settled in, Sasuke thought the scarf an appropriate gift.
The merchant had been eyeing him from metres away, with a certain glint within.
"Y' dun see quality like thissun nowadays," the boy said. He seemed younger than Sasuke, yet he still stared with the lustful intensity of a man beyond his years. Sasuke gifted him with a smirk, reared his face up and met him eye to eye. The sky was dark then and it was about time to return to the infirmary, but Sasuke could probably spare a few hours. He was a big boy; he could take care of himself.
Sasuke could see that the peasant's face was awash with freckles. He had a decent face, olive eyes and a nice smile. But the real deal-maker was the impressive build of his shoulders, and everything below it.
Subtly, Sasuke's tongue traced the rim of his lip.
"Don't have any money on me now, kid," Sasuke murmured, advancing ever so slightly toward him now. He put one hand on the fabrics. "But I promise to make it worth your while."
The boy gulped. Sasuke shrugged. He knew what he was doing, but the boy certainly did not.
"I'll take the lot." Sasuke tip toed to the edge of the timber that separated them, slipping off his mittens. "How 'bout it?"
The reply came slow and deliberate. "Yessum! 'S a deal, s-sir!"
He seemed visibly excited by his new catch, but Sasuke could only swallow the fact that the stranger had accepted him and was taking him home so easily. Though, it could be said that he was more or less was used to it—it wasn't the first time he'd participated in such a method of trade.
It was just the honest truth of how Naruto would never know that really bugged him. Though that one fact was also a relief as well as a burden; Sasuke would never want him to feel that he was filthy. Never.
He would rather die.
In the meanwhile, little did the object of Sasuke's affection know that his best friend was thumping and moaning and whimpering against a wall in some stranger's hut. Even more obscured from him was the fact that he was offering such services in return for Naruto's very own Christmas gift.
He hummed a jolly Christmas tune as he climbed up a wobbly ladder and placed a wreath on the front of the gate. It would seem that on the surface, all memories of Kakashi's death had been swiped from his mind. And that moment, it really had.
At the same time somewhere not far off, Sasuke howled with phoney gratification.
Then in abashed fashion, Hinata arrived on the scene with a tree in tow. She tried her best to avoid his direct path, though he caught her anyway (probably because of the massive fir behind her).
"H-Hinata! That's such a cool tree," he yelled as the ladder trembled again beneath him.
"Be c-careful, Mr. Naruto!" she shrieked as he landed flat on his butt. Naruto moaned in pain as he rubbed the poor spot. Sure as hell it was going to bruise.
"Oh, stop calling me that!" he snapped at her.
Sticks and stones, thought Hinata as she shied away even further from him. She was instantly submissive, though Naruto had read the expression on her face and was instantly apologetic. It really wasn't his intention to sound so harsh. "I-I... I didn't mean it that way! I'm sorry, Hinata! I really, honestly am."
"It's alright, it's just..." Hinata took the wagon and all but limped forward. In his guilt Naruto stepped forward despite his rear pain, to assist.
"Lemme help with that," he said, trying to tug the wagon from her. She shook her head because she needn't his trouble, though he snatched it right back. Unfortunately for him, Naruto whipped his hand back with such a force (quite accidentally) that it forced them both to topple over and land in a very indecent position. Hinata was out, cold.
And as though prearranged, both Fang and Neji had to return at that peculiar time and place.
Neji stopped in his tracks, prejudice clear in his eye while Fang rang up to the fool and whacked him over to the right. Tenten, with him at the time, stifled a small giggle.
"What do you think you're doing?" Fang barked whilst Neji's glare bore right through.
Naruto was going to bruise in all the wrong places. "No, I-it-uh, but..."
Fang picked her up by the waist and lightly slapped her cheek in an attempt to rouse her. It succeeded, and once she was awake he fanned her with his hand. As much as he would've liked to fight Naruto then, both Neji and Tenten instructed Fang to cool off elsewhere. So instead of landing a few more hits on Fishcake, Fang gingerly led her inside to place the glittery gold star on the tree.
"Someone's been naughty this year, hm?" Tenten sneered as she retreated from the scene.
"B-but it's not what you—" said Naruto for the last time, before Neji dropped his shovel on him.
CHRISTMAS IS NIGH!
42 reviews, 3,200 hits! *cheers*
Unfortunately, I think I will get rid of the summary in favour of a new one since there are a few people who have commented, informing that they had gotten the wrong impression upon seeing the word "cross-dressing". I hate to give people the wrong impression and... Guh, I couldn't think of anything else that got through just as exciting. Well, take two is on its way...
I've been AWOL for a bit, so sorry guys for not updating. Of course, I do have an excuse to back this up, like I always do... More assignments and tests, of course. And really, really distracting games. But I'm back now and that's all that matters! How's a Christmas special chapter (or two) sound, guys? (And I have to work on a KuroFai Chrissie fic, too by the 24th. Gah... so little time.) Oh and just so you know the next chapter will be started from scratch. Hopefully I can get it up earlier than usual. :D
Yeah and I got lazy with the editing again. Turned out a little more materialistic here than I intended, though I will fix that in the next chapter. I so need a beta.
Sorry, sorry, sorry.
