A tough life Christmas Omake
A Christmas celebration
Gaara sat meditating on top of the house he and his siblings share, to him it was just another day of the week in the month of December, why would it ever be anything else? He could feel a familiar presence buzzing around their home. Nia had decided to spend the week in Suna with them, and ever since she had arrived strange things had begun popping up around the house.
First were the lights, vibrant and multicolored all on the windows and covering the walls in the halls. Why? Did she not understand that the desert had electricity too? Or perhaps she did not believe they had enough lights? Was she afraid of the dark maybe? Gaara decided he needed to figure this out, but instead of rushing off, he sat back and observed.
After the lights came the second weird thing. Large fuzzy things that could only be described as socks were hung on all the bedroom doors and their names were on them. Gaara's red 'sock' hung on his door, his name carefully sewn on. Temari, Kankuro, and Nia had one as well, Temari's was purple, Kankuro's was dark blue, and Nia's was a pale green. Every day that passed the 'socks' would grow heavier as they were slowly filled with items wrapped in brightly colored paper and what appeared to be gold coins. This confused Gaara more, especially when he went to see what was wrapped in the bright blue paper only to have his hand slapped gently by the auburn haired girl then to be scolded that he couldn't open it until Christmas was here. Who was this Chris Mis Nia was speaking of and why were they offering wrapped items in brightly colored socks to him? Gaara simply walked away with ever growing confusion.
The third thing was the strangest by far. When Gaara and his siblings returned home from sparring practice they found a live pine tree inside their living room being decorated in those multicolored lights, glass balls on hooks and other….things by the Konoha ninja. The trio stared in shock and Temari was the first to speak.
"Is….it that a real tree?" the blonde said dumbly.
"Yep!" Nia replied happily still decorating it.
"Where did you get it?" Kankuro asked in shock.
"I found it."
"Is this in honor of Chris Mis?"
"Yes, it's Christmas eve so tonight were going to spend together doing all sorts of holiday type things."
"Temari, Kankuro can I talk to you outside?" Gaara asked as he began walking from the room leaving a busy Nia alone with the tree.
"What's up baby brother?" Kankuro asked as he leaned against the side of the mansion.
"Can somebody explain to me who Chris Mis is, and of all places why Nia chose our house to sacrifice a tree covered in glass and lights?" Temari stared in shock, sure Gaara didn't have many Christmases, but surely he should know about them right? Just as she was about to open her mouth to answer, Kankuro beat her to it.
"Ahh the dreaded Christmas…Chris Mis is the vengeful spirit of a man who once lived on the north pole called Santa Clause, or also known as, Chris Cringle."
"Kankuro!"
"Temari, please Kankuro's explaining this to me." Gaara said turning his full attention back to his older brother." Temari simply face palmed and sighed as she listened to Kankuro's tale.
"As I was saying… He used to bring presents to little girls and boys who were well behaved, but because there were so many bad children, he and his elf slaves made far too many toys, so while he was putting them away a tower of heavy toy boxes fell on him crushing him to death, now his angry spirit comes around every year, and to appease it we hang socks called stockings and fill them with wrapped offerings so he will pass by us and not curse us with his curse. The tree is where the major offerings lie, and usually extra worried people who fear being possessed and controlled by the spirit leave out food offerings of milk and cookies. This year it is said that his spirit will be descending upon Suna searching for those to plague with his curse." Temari stared at her brother who now held a lit flashlight under his face as he finished his story.
"Wha? Where the heck did you get that?" As his siblings began to bicker neither noticed as Gaara vanished in a swirl of sand.
"You can't tell him things like that Kankuro! Gaara takes things literally! Gaara don't- Gaara?"
"You really think he believed me?" in seconds he was struck in the head by Temari's heavy metal fan.
"Of course he did! He was expecting a serious answer to his question you you CLIENT!"
"What kind of name is that!"
"Shut up and go find Gaara Kankuro!"
As the two fanned out, neither actually decided to check inside the house for their brother, had they thought to do so they would have found him spying on the Konoha kunoichi. Gaara watched as Nia began mixing various ingredients into a bowl. Flour, butter, eggs, brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla, baking soda, salt, chocolate chips…. He stared, his brother was right! Nia was making the food offering just as Kankuro had said. If that was true, than indeed the whole story about the vengeful spirit must be true as well! Just before he could turn to leave, his sleeve was caught by a passing Nia.
"I could feel you eye hunting my cookies Gaara. They'll be ready in about ten minutes or so, wanna help me wrap some presents for Temari and Kankuro?" Gaara didn't answer, but followed Nia into the guest room anyways.
"Here, you'll need wrapping paper, Tape, scissors, bows, and the gift to wrap. Now pay attention, I'll show you how it's done." Nia said as she grabbed a rectangular box and placed it on the paper.
"You place it in the center and take the side and pull it to the middle like this. Now take a little bit of tape and tape the paper to the box. Now do you see how this paper is still attached to the roll?" Gaara nodded. "You bring the paper across the present until it just covers the area you just taped over. Now that you know how much you need, you fold the paper at the edge of the tube and cut it off with the scissors. Tape the second side down, fold the sides in on themselves and tape them down too, and tada! You have wrapped a present. This one was Temari's so take a label, write her name on it and stick it to the present. Think you can do a few more?" Gaara nodded as he began to wrap, they started out nowhere near as good as Nia's but slowly they began to improve. Nia smiled and hummed as she wrapped and Gaara just couldn't understand, why was she so happy about a holiday that involved an angry vengeful ghost and a crazy amount of offerings? Finally he just decided to ask her.
"Nia, what does this Chris Mis mean to you?" Nia looked up from her wrapping just as she slapped on a purple bow and tossed it to the Temari pile.
"I think Christmas is a beautiful thing, it's a time where- What's that look for?"
"What part of Chris Mis could be a beautiful thing? He's the vengeful ghost of a toy maker who receives vast amounts of offerings to avoid his curse. You were even baking the food offering!" Nia stared in shocked confusion.
"Who the hell told you that? Christmas is a holiday not a vengeful ghost of a …wait by toy maker did you mean Santa Clause! Santa never died! Why would he be vengeful, he was the most giving person on the planet!" She sighed as she rubber her temples. "Kankuro told you this didn't he?"
"Yes, this isn't the story behind Christmas?" Nia laughed as she led Gaara to the kitchen.
"That's not even close Gaara-kun, Christmas is a time for giving. It's a time of miracles, and for each culture, the meaning's different. For some this holiday celebrates the birth of their god. For others, it's a celebration of the changing of the seasons were they party and give each other gifts to make amends should they have ever faulted their fellow man. Now, Christmas is focused more on the decoration of Christmas trees and the giving of presents to tell someone that you care for them."
"But what about the food offering of cookies?" Gaara asked watching as Nia pulled out the tray of golden cookies from the oven.
"The cookies are a tradition, think of it as a thank you to Santa Clause for bringing gifts to the children of our planet. Me personally, I just like chocolate chip." Nia said as she took an already cooled cookie and handed one to the red head who bit into it and savored the melted chocolaty goodness.
"What are the socks for? And why wouldn't you let me see the wrapped stuff inside?"
"The stockings hold the smaller gifts, usually little trifles here and there, like an example would be Kankuro's make-up, or a small ornate fan for Temari."
***Somewhere in Suna***
"ACHOO!"
"Must you be so obnoxious?" Temari asked sending a withering glare towards her brother, but Kankuro brushed it off as he rubbed his nose.
"Some big breasted babe must be talking about me." He said with a smirk, however the smirk didn't last long as he was soon bashed in the head by his sister.
"IDIOT!"
*** Back with Nia and Gaara***
"What about the gold coins?"
"Again Gaara tradition." Nia said as she ripped the plastic mesh open and began depositing handfuls of coins into the stockings. "Besides, it's not really gold. It's chocolate, see?" She said giving him a gold coin as she began peeling the gold outer foil from hers and popping it into her mouth. Gaara nodded as he followed Nia around the house as she finished final touches to her Christmas cheer. Finally together they brought the presents down and placed them under the tree.
"Who are those for?" Gaara asked indication the presents with the red bows. While wrapping the gifts he had only seen purple and green bows for Temari and Kankuro, but not red ones.
"Those are for you Gaara-kun, did you think you wouldn't get anything?" Gaara didn't answer the question, but instead went into the kitchen and grabbed another cookie. Handing one to Nia as he passed. Nia sighed as she shook her head.
"Hey, have you seen Temmi-Chan and Kanky-kun? I haven't seen either of them in hours." Suddenly out of the blue, the door burst open.
"I give up! He's freekin gone!" Kankuro snapped as he ripped his kitty eared hat from his head.
"I just don't know where in the world he went!" Temari said tossing aside her fan as she crossed the threshold into the mansion.
"Who are you looking for?" Nia asked.
"GAARA!" They said in unison.
"What are you guys talking about he's been with me the entire day." Nia said to Temari before rounding on The middle child.
"And YOU Kankuro, I've got a bone to pick with you! Why the hell did you tell Gaara that Christmas was a holiday about some kind of vengeful ghost! Didn't you know he takes stuff like this seriously!" Kankuro winced as the much smaller girl yelled at him. He was head and shoulders over her and still cowered in fear as she raged at him. After sending him a sharp eyed look, Nia turned away from the middle Sabaku child.
"It's late, we should head to bed, there's lots to do tomorrow and I'm honestly debating bringing all your presents back." She said as Kankuro crept over to the tree nudging a box with his name on it. Quicker than the famed Yellow flash, the puppet ninja went to his room for the night. One by one the inhabitants of the Kazekage's mansion went to their sleeping quarters, all except for one red headed jinchuriki who sat quietly on the roof. He watched the moon as it slowly made its way through the sky, finally he sensed a presence climbing the steps to get to the roof.
"You should be asleep, it's late." He said as the girl sat down next to him.
"It's Christmas though, and I wanted you to be the first person to get a present." Nia said as she handed him a small rectangular box.
"What is it?"
"Open it and find out." Gaara gave her a look before slowly unwrapping the box. Inside was a sash much like his own, but on the end a symbol was embroidered into it.
"An 8?"
"No, flip it sideways. This symbol means infinity, forever, never ending. That symbolizes our friendship. I want it to be something that lasts forever."
"Thank you, Merry Christmas."
"Merry Christmas Gaara-kun"
Tis my Christmas Omake. I figured that Kankuro would do something like that, I actually got quite into it imagining random scenarios that could go on in my head LOL, anyways happy holidays people, and to those who don't celebrate the holidays, have a happy new year.