Konoha High : The Badass Style

by b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b0r3d

Four new girls come to dominate Konoha High without knowing it. Will they change the school for good? And maybe the Badboys that inhabit it? Really bad language. The story's horrible at first, but I swear it gets better KibaxOC SasuxOC GaaraxOC ShikaxOC

36. Merry Shitmas and a Happy New Year

I was walking along the sidewalk with Tenten clad in black leggings, gray boots, a large white sweatshirt with a thumbs up sign on it, and a black beanie. I tied my hair into two low ponytails and was sucking on a swirly lollipop.

"So, how was your family reunion?" I asked cheerfully, skipping beside her.

She shrugged. "Nothing much really. The same old, same old. What about you guys? I heard you guys decorated your house with the Jacks."

I laughed and nodded. "Yep! That was really fun! Man, I wish you were there."

"Yeah, I wish I was too," she sighed. "But whatever. I'm so excited! Neji and I are spending our first Christmas together!"

"…First…Christmas?" I asked, tilting my head in confusion. I've never heard of such a thing. I mean, Tenten was 15. Fifteen Christmases meant that the First Christmas already happened.

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "You have so much to learn, Yumi! What I meant was, it's Neji and I's first Christmas together as a couple!"

"Eh?"

She sighed and walked into a coffee store. "Hold on, I'll explain in a bit." She turned towards the clerk. "One vanilla latte please."

"Chocolate Frappe," I nodded. Once we got our orders, we walked outside to sit in the outdoor tables.

"So what about a first Christmas?" I asked again, sipping in my frappe.

"Well, after a couple gets together, there are many events indeed," she smiled at me and I giggled.

"Of course," I grinned.

"One of the events that you spend with your boyfriend is your guys' first Christmas!" Tenten exclaimed. "It usually signals the beginning of your relationship."

"Oh…" I nodded my head. "Where are you guys spending it?"

She put her palms to her cheeks and her elbows on the table. She held a sweet expression on her face as she blushed. "He told me that we would go to the Town Center and there would be a surprise waiting there for me!"

"Wow! How romantic, Tenten!" I was happy at how flustered she was. "Ne, how cool is Neji? I wish Shika was just as sweet."

"Don't worry, Yumi, I bet he has something planned for you guys too," Tenten reassured me.

"Tha-," I was interrupted by the song 3 by Britney Spears.

I stared at Tenten.

"What?" She asked sheepishly as she fished out her LG Shine. "I love her!"

"Yeah, and the way she shaved her head was really cool too," I snorted, rolling my eyes.

She stuck her tongue out but put her phone in front of us.

"What are you doing?" I asked her. "My phone's broken," she sighed, "Whenever someone calls me, I can't hear them unless I put it on speaker."

"Tenten?" Neji's serious voice reverberated through the phone.

"Hi Neji!" Tenten squealed excitedly. "What's up?"

"I'm sorry, but we'll have to cancel our date on Christmas," he sighed.

I could see Tenten almost burst in to tears right there. Uh-oh. "I-It's o-okay," her voice cracked.

"Alright then," Neji said. "But is it okay if we reschedule on New Year's?"

Tenten sprouted up like a daisy in the soil. "Sure!"

"'Kay, see ya then, bye," Neji hung up.

Once he did, Tenten squealed in joy. "Oh, my gosh! I'm so happy!"

I smiled at my overly joyful friend. "Wow, Tenten, you're so jumpy over Neji."

"Of course!" She squealed once again. "I'm starting to think I love him!"

I gasped. "Tenten, I envy you! You're so cool and romantic!" I couldn't help but sound cliché. I've never seen someone so in love though. It was a first for me.

"Thanks Yumi," she grinned at me, but her face fell. "I still don't know what Neji feels about me though."

"What is Neji like though?" I asked, hoping to get a better perspective of Neji. Aiko told me she recently befriended him and Sasuke. While I, on the other hand, have befriended no one. T.T

All I got was Shikamaru and maybe Naruto.

But then again, I convinced myself that Aiko's just better with guys, that's all.

"Hmm…I guess he was a big jackass before," Tenten mused.

"Well, yeah I already know that," I rolled my eyes. "I mean before, before."

"Nope, I'm not kidding," Tenten nodded. "He was a really big jackass. More so than now."

I gasped. "Is that possible?"

"Yeah, it is." Tenten sipped her forgotten latte, preparing to get into a serious story. "Here, I'll tell you about Neji."

I nodded. "Okay. But don't tell anybody that I know. I don't want him getting mad at me."

Tenten waved it off and started. "You see, Neji's dad died when he was young. He believed it was his uncle's fault-,"

"His uncle being…?" I inquired curiously.

"That's Hinata's dad," Tenten explained. "They have a weird family business thing. Hinata was the heir to their multi-million dollar company, and Neji was supposed to be under Hinata's authority. Though everybody knew Neji had more talent and potential than Hinata, it couldn't be helped. He was just born into the wrong part of the family."

"Ahh…I see…" I nodded, No, I didn't see. Just keep nodding, Yumi, just keep nodding.

"Well, anyways, Neji's dad died protecting the main family. Somebody from a rival business was trying to kill Hinata, but Neji's dad got in the way and killed the guy instead. Their business suffered and it was decided that Neji's father would be compensation for the rival business' loss."

"Ooh…" I winced. Not good.

"Neji blamed the main family for all his problems, but nonetheless kept his quiet and calm demeanor. He brushed off everybody that tried to sympathize with him and believed in all this destiny crap."

"And then?"

"Well Naruto came along," Tenten laughed. "Believe it or not, the little knucklehead made a difference in Neji's life."

"How?" I spit out half of my frappe, hearing about Naruto's near-impossible accomplishment. The stupid dumbass could barely tie his shoes!

Well, neither could I, but still.

"He was a student at our middle school, and of course, Naruto being Naruto, shot his mouth off and got himself into an after-school fight with Neji. Everybody thought that Neji would win, seeing as he definitely got the upper hand being a genius and all and Naruto was a complete retard back then, more so than now, but to everyone's surprise, Naruto actually won."

At that sentence, I spit out my whole frappe. "What the fuck?"

"Yeah, that was my reaction too," Tenten grinned. "Turns out, the fight had a little side-bet. If Neji won, Naruto would have to move schools. If Naruto won, Neji had to stop acting so, BLEGH. Neji stated that even if Naruto won, he would never change the way he acted. But, after a few inspiring words, Naruto managed to put Neji in the light. Since then, even if it doesn't look it, Neji holds Naruto in high regard and holds immense respect for him. He claims that Naruto pulled him out of the darkness and helped him through."

"WHOA." I was at a loss for words. "I can't believe that dumbass actually makes a difference in anybody's life, let alone serious-ass Neji!"

"Yeah, well, even if Naruto looks like a dumbass, he's not as bad as he is," Tenten said softly, staring at the white snow beneath our feet. "Kakashi-sensei even told me something I didn't realize until this year, when you girls came."

"What was it?" I asked, throwing away my empty cup of frappe.

"Naruto has this thing. This thing he does that can change people's minds. I don't know what, but he's changed my mind one way or another as well," Tenten finished. "I mean, everybody used to think he was just some show-off idiot who had nothing to show off. Nobody spared him a second glance. That is, until to make fun of him or belittle him. But he's always done something amazing and inspiring to change our minds. We underestimate him a lot and because of that, none of us really know how strong Naruto is."

"Hmm…" I mused, rubbing my chin and raising an eyebrow. "Maybe I should spend more time with Naruto."

We both laughed.

"Hey, it wasn't just because of Naruto that Neji's mine," Tenten grinned at me. "It was thanks to you guys too!"

"How so?" I asked, feeling the love for my love-stricken friend over here.

"Well, sure Naruto pulled Neji out of the darkness, but he wasn't completely out yet," Tenten sighed. "~BADASS8~ remember?"

"What does that have to do with us?"

"Well, you guys gave him the last tug that he needed," Tenten smiled at me. "He finally asked me out because of that!"

I laughed. "Well, I'm happy for you Tenten."

"Wahh! I'm so happy we became friends!" Tenten bawled, pulling me into a hug.

I hugged her back while laughing. "Me too!"

Most things that come out of my mouth are lies. I'm glad that this one wasn't.

Day of Name's Birthday Banquet

"AIKO!" Name called from upstairs. "Did you retrieve our clothes from the dry cleaners?"

Aiko groaned from beside me and threw me the remote. "Retrieve my ass! I'm not some lap-dog who kisses ass all day!"

A large rumbling was heard upstairs and Aiko and I glanced at each other nervously.

"You did it now…" I warned Aiko as I ran inside the fireplace. Sure, it was dark, ashy, and dirty, but that was heaven compared to what Name was sending down towards Aiko.

"Hehehe…" I snickered as Name came down with a chainsaw and a hoard of bulls behind her.

"AIKO!" Name growled, revving up the chainsaw. The bulls stampeded behind her and I was glad I took refuge in the fireplace.

"Holy shit! I get it, I'll get the damn clothes!" Aiko yelled, grabbing her keys and coat as she ran out the door.

Name dropped the chainsaw and the bulls stopped moving. I crawled out from under the fireplace and examined her carefully.

"Chainsaw's plastic and the bulls were a painting from my friend Sai," Name explained monotonously, making her way up the steps again. "He has a tendency to create extremely realistic paintings."

"But what about th-,"

"Sound effects from the National Geographic Channel," Name waved around the remote as she retreated to the Entertainment Room.

I shook my head. The people that live in my house never cease to amaze me.

Aiko POV

I drove to the dry cleaners as fast as fuck could get me.

Name was intellectual, intelligent, and articulate. But I also forgot that she was as an insane as fuck, psychotic-ass bitch whose purpose in life is to "completely alter the scientific world, amaze those in the insanely difficult medical field, and leave those with the judicial profession in utter and absolute astonishment".

"Geez…" I muttered, slamming the car door and walking into the dry cleaner's store. "Makin' me drive out in the cold…snow in my damn cheap-ass ghetto shoes…my fucking hair sticking out like motherfucking pick-up sticks…" My ramblings were cut short as I boredly walked up to the counter and spoke to the woman.

"Yeah, uh, I'm here to pick up my crap," I yawned, unable to suppress my boredom.

The woman glared at me. "Then go check in the toilet. This is the dry cleaner's miss. I expect you to watch your mouth." Was this her not-clever way to call me a potty-mouth?

I spared her a weary glance but mumbled a "Whatever" and took a seat.

"So uh," I paused, not knowing her name. "UH, Laundry Lady…"

"Yes?"

"You got my clothes or not?" I asked, suppressing a yawn. The Laundromat was quaint and not very sophisticated looking. More like a commoner's place. But I liked it anyways. Being around those rich boys made me forget where the fuck the old places were at.

Glitz and glamour got me all fucked up.

Though it was weird to see a Japanese woman own a Laundromat. It's usually those Chinese peeps. No racism intended though.

The lady looked up at me sharply, but quickly went back to her paperwork. "In a minute, miss."

I sighed and waited patiently for our clothes. I hated the dry cleaner's. Seriously, what is the point of it if you already have a fucking washing machine at home? And a drier.

"Miss." I stood up and walked to the counter lazily.

"Ye—Crap, is that you Shikamaru?" I gasped and dramatically pointed a finger at the lazy boy behind the counter.

"What?" The presumed-Shikamaru lifted his head from the counter. "Aiko?"

"No shit!" I grinned, surprised by the sudden appearance of my lazy friend. "Dude, why're you here?"

He stiffened as he looked around for somebody.

"Huh?" What's up with him? Acting like he's James Bond and shit…Pretty suspicious I say…

"I was uh," Shikamaru paused. "It was my shift. I'm working here part-time."

I tilted my head in confusion. "You're rich. Why need a stupid-ass job?"

"'Cause my parents are, um, trying to teach me a life lesson," he nodded, "Yeah, that's it. And they want me to earn my own money from now on."

"Ha!" I snorted, jabbing my finger in his face. "Serves YOU right! You see how hard it is to be poor, huh rich boy?"

Shikamaru glared (a rare occasion! O.O) and pushed four dresses with plastic bags wrapped around them. "Whatever. Just take it and go."

I glanced at him one more time before walking out the door with the dresses. "Geez, somebody's pissy 'cause they gotta be poor for a day…"

I shoved the dresses in the car as I drove off towards my house.

Hmm, I COULD get fast-food, don't ya think?

I mean, if Yumi's cooking tonight, I might as well eat before I go. Girl cooks shit she calls dinner.

And if you wonder what's so bad about fast food and me is that Name barely lets us eat it.

Yes, on certain occasions she'll let up, but MAN, she only lets us eat fast food three times a week! Three times a week, motherfucker. I swear, I'm starving as fuck by then!

So I usually egg Sasuke on to buy it for me before he sneaks into my room. That's when we have a full grub-on and we pig out to the max.

"Aiko!" Yumi waved as she hopped into my car. I had stopped in front of a red stoplight in search of my wallet. And sure enough, a blonde-headed dumbass just jumps in right when it turned green.

"What the hell?" I asked in surprise as I stepped on the pedal. "Bitch, where'd you come from?"

"I escaped the house to buy candy," Yumi whispered to me like it was a big secret. "Don't tell Name."

"Chicken Thigh," I shrugged, hoping that my random saying would make her shut up.

"Where're you going, Aiko?" Yumi asked me accusingly, looking at how fast I was driving. I skidded into the McDonald's drive-thru to order.

"Three large French fries, one large Coke, two 8-piece nuggets with BBQ sauce, a large vanilla milkshake, a hot fudge sundae, no nuts, and…do you sell chili? Eh, gimme a bucket of chili, three Big Macs, no onions and no tomatoes and you better be damn sure there ain't no fucking mustard in that shit or I'll sue your ass all the way to Burger King, and…what the hell, throw a happy meal in," I shrugged as I spoke into the box.

"Alright, will that be all?" asked the bored guy's voice from the box.

I turned to Yumi. "You want anything?"

The Drive Home

"Ooh, hey, guess what?" I said to Yumi as I drove home.

"Fart?" Yumi guessed.

"Idiot, what is it with you and your obsession with farts?" I grumbled, overtaking a stupid-ass driver.

"Not an obsession, a fascination," she corrected, holding her index finger up. "And, what's the big deal?"

"I saw Shikamaru at the Laundromat!" I exclaimed, running a red light that I barely noticed. "He said he was working behind the counter as a part-time job! Stupid, right?"

"Retard! There was a cop right there!" Yumi yelped, ignoring my previous comment.

What the HEYULLL? Did she not care at all that I just saw her somewhat-boyfriend working at a commoner's place? It was big fucking news to me, anyways.

I pulled over and waited patiently for the cop to give my ticket. "This is bullshit, man. It turned red when I was already driving!"

"No," Yumi eyed me all weirdly, "You were already driving when you saw it turn red!"

I glared at her. "What are you, fucking CSI? Don't act like you saw what I did…"

"Uh, but I did see what you did."

"Shut up, smart-ass." I slapped the back of her head.

"Stupid Asian." She rolled her eyes at me and crossed her arms.

"Excuse me, asswipe, but you're Asian too!" I snapped.

"Open your eyes!"

"Open yours!"

"I'm made like this!"

"What, an ugly ass?"

"At least I know the traffic rules," She stuck her tongue out at me.

"Hey, so do I. Green means go, red means stop, and yellow means speed up."

"Hey, miss, you are aware that was a red light, right?" The cop asked me gruffly, interrupting my wonderful saying.

Well, when in doubt…

"Oh, well, I guess so…" I mumbled innocently. If they don't fall for the innocent girl bit, I guess I'll have to use the Girly bit.

The cop scoffed and took of his motorcycle helmet. "Won't work on me, hooligan. As you can see, I'm a woman."

My jaw dropped and my hand slipped onto the horn, making it sound loudly. I was so in shock that the horn just kept going EHHHHHHHHH!

"Excuse me," the cop woman grinned at me, amused, "But my son is taking into the police business. A soon-to-be cop when he grows old, y'know? Mind if I let him give you the ticket?"

When I wasn't responding, Yumi slapped my head, crashing it into to my dashboard.

"Sure!" Yumi replied for me.

"Kay, thanks," the woman turned back to the police car. "HEY! GET OVER HERE,BOY!"

"Boy?" Yumi whispered to me while her back was turned. "What kinda mother talks to her son like that?"

"I'll tell ya," I whispered back. "A motherf-."

"Quiet!" the brown-haired lady snapped at us. "Boy, give this girl a speeding ticket."

"Okay mom," the boy jogged up to us as the mother returned to her motorcycle. "Sorry, here."

"KIBA?" I fell outta my seat."Why are YOU here?"

"Aiko, Yumi? Small world!" Kiba grinned, giving me the ticket.

"Dude, what's up with your ma?" I whispered inconspicuously to him, "She's crazy!"

His expression turned serious. "I know. I live with her." He looked the other way and sighed. "Dammit."

"Poor you," Yumi snickered. "Well, anyways, see ya tonight. We gotta get home quick. Name's all up in our grill again."

"Name?" Kiba's ears perked up at the sound of her name. "Hey, hey, did she say anything about me?"

"Wellllll…" I stretched out the word to stall.

You see, Name is very hard to read. You seriously couldn't tell if the girl liked this or that unless she told you the shit. She certainly wasn't going to open up about Kiba anyways. Well, I mean she said that she was interested in him and shit, but never if she liked him. Granted, we all know she does like him, but she doesn't know that she likes him either so yeah.

Though, it was painfully obvious that Kiba's head-over-heels for her.

Ahh, Name you heartless heartbreaker.

"WAHH! I told you guys she didn't like me!" Kiba bawled, crying tears into my car.

"Dude!" I yelped. "Stop crying! The transmission migh-, oh wait, never mind. This car's so sick it's waterproof." I took any moment I could to brag about my beautiful car. It's the way I am. :D

Kiba stared at me monotonously. "So does she like me or not?"

"Wellllllll…" Back to square one.

"KIBA! Stop flirting and get your ass back here!" Kiba's mom barked as I cringed. BLEGH.

The types of moms the Jacks had. There was Sasuke's sweet mom and Kiba's demon mom. Wonder what everybody else's mom was like.

"Egh, sorry guys, I gotta go. See you later!" Kiba waved as he climbed back into his police car.

"Well, that's good," I shrugged to Yumi. "At least we didn't have to answer his question."

"And I expect my answer by tonight!" Kiba added as he drove past us, his mother on a motorcycle following him.

"Dammit!" I cursed at my unluckiness. "Why do all the bad things happen to me?"

"Shut it, you ugly-ass SOB," Yumi taunted as I stopped at a STOP sign.

"SOB?" I repeated angrily. "You POS and if you call me that again you're SOL!"

"SOL? LMS!"

"WTF? If you seek Amy!" I declared.

"WTH? OMFG, how gross!"

"F-U-C-K YOU!" I gave her the birdie, tired of this SMS talk. Fucking texter…

"Ah, CRAP!" I swerved as I saw what I thought was a cat and Yumi and flew around the car.

"Shit, I forgot to put on my seatbelt!" I yelled, bouncing around the car as if I were on a NASA rocket.

"Me too! OW!" Yumi bawled and then yelped when her face smashed up on the car window.

So here we are, my car flippin' all over the place like burgers on a grill, and us just flying around the car like fucking astronauts on the moon…Yep, we're idiots. But we were cool idiots. There's a difference.

At Home Rai POV

The door slammed open as a dirty looking Aiko and a wide-eyed Yumi stepped in with our dresses.

"What happened?" Name asked, a hint of concern in her voice.

"You care?" Yumi gaped at Name's surprising show of concern.

"Yeah," she walked towards them with a worried expression on her face. "My babies!"

Yumi outstretched her arms for a hug, but then Name passed her for Aiko.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Name exclaimed, extending her arms.

"Yeah, me too!" Aiko grinned, taunting Yumi because Name was gonna hug her instead.

"Ah, did those idiots hurt you?" Name grabbed hold of the dresses, giving them big bear hugs.

XO "What."

"The."

"Hell."

"I thought she actually cared!" Aiko ranted.

"Me too!" Yumi threw a fit.

"Idiots…" I grumbled, snatching my dress and going upstairs to get ready. A girl who hugs dresses and the other two were dumbasses who get upset over the girl who hugs dresses.

So many dumbasses in such a small world.

Aiko POV

Instead of doing the shit that I should be doing, I climbed out my window in a big red Mickey Mouse sweater, a short gray skirt, black leggings, red knee-high boots, a black scarf, and a gray and black beanie with red stripes on them.

I tied my hair into a side pony-tail as I shoved my hands into my pockets and stuck a toothpick in my mouth. And I strapped on a gold watch.

OH YEAHH…I'm awesome.

Anyways, there wasn't much to do in this town but walk the fuck around. Yumi took me sight-seeing once and everything was just the same damn shit as the other.

I stopped in front of a big store with my favorite words on it: SALE.

Hey, why do these clothes look way fucking better than they did before? I shook my head and kept walking, confusion lodged in my mind.

As I passed each used-to-be fugly store, they seemed to be pimped up for Christmas. It almost made me wanna…break out into song and dance!

Christmas List by Simple Plan

Santa is coming tonight and I wanna car and I wanna life
and I wanna a first class trip to... Hawaii I skipped by a rental store full of cool vacations stuff
I wanna lifetime supply of skittles and slurpies and eskimo pies
I wanna DVD, a big screen TV I walked by a TV place full of 50% off Plasmas :DI started laughing like a maniac at the Comic Store full of funny gags
and I want everything
I just can't wait I saw a little girl, bought her a lollipop, and ran away laughing (That's how insane I am)
Christmas, so don't stop spending
I wanna million gifts, that's right I skipped by a clothestore, bought a shirt, and threw it at a hobo who yelled at me. "I WANT MY PEANUT BRITTLE!"
Don't forget my Christmas list tonight
Cuz now it's ChristmasThere's the candy store…
to take me straight to midnight...I'll be all right
I wanna girl in my bed The BDSM store…
who knows what to do
a Playstation 2 GAMESTOP :O BUY. BUY. BUY.
I wanna shopping spree in New York CityI walked out with like 5 bags worth of video games
Cuz now it's Christmas
and I want everything COD, GOW, Halo, Left For Dead, and Resident Evil…YES.
I just can't wait
Christmas, so don't stop spending I don't wanna say it but the Christmas spirit is getting to me
I wanna million gifts, that's right
Don't forget my Christmas list tonight I stopped at the mall and watched with happiness all the happy people shopping
Cuz now it's ChristmasI started dancing and a buncha people put money in my beanie
and no matter what I get tonight... I want moreI donated the money to a nearby animal shelter, feeling good about myself
I just can't wait
It's Christmas and I want everything now I helped a lost kid find her parentI even gave my watch to another hobo
Christmas, so don't stop spending
I wanna million gifts, that's right I entered a bountiful toy store that made my heart leap for joy
and I can't wait till midnight
Don't forget my Christmas list tonight It was so pretty! Trains, circling the perimeter of the store…Bells, lining the ceiling and jingling every time someone opened the door…Dolls and nutcrackers, bows and sparkles, everything Christmas belongs here!Wow…
(Can't wait for Christmas)
Cuz now it's Christmas I was so amazed, I didn't even notice Chiruki and Simure glaring at me in the corner
(Can't wait for Christmas)And then…
Cuz now it's Christma- *record scratch* "Oof!"

Just bring me things that I don't need
Cuz now it's Christmas

Somebody take me away
or gimme your time machine

Just bring me things that I don't need

I wish I could take this day and make it last forever

It's Christmas and I want everything

Christmas and I want everything
I just can't wait

(Can't wait for Christmas)
Cuz now it's Christmas

Yep. They did the cruel.

They tripped me while I was in my ecstatic skipping.

A moment ago, I was totally feeling the Christmas spirit. I was actually helping out people. I gave that hobo my gold-ass watch!

Now, all I can think is…

Those bitches.

Night Time (Haha, sorry for all the time skips. But I just don't want to bore you with boring banter that's so...BORING.'Nuff said) Rai POV

"Wow, wow, this is really exciting, isn't it?" Yumi bounced around the room.

"Stop doing that," Name ordered sternly. "You'll mess up your hair."

"I'm sorry, all I heard was Bleh bleh bleh!" Yumi insisted childishly.

"Dude, this is so uncomfortable," Aiko complained, texting Kai on her phone. "By the way, Kai says "You're all retarded. Hahahahahahaha!"."

"Tell him to suck his own cock," I grunted, leaning my head onto my palm and my elbow on the table.

"When're they getting here?" Yumi whined, suddenly energy-depleted. Uh-oh. She was getting into whiny-mode. Me no likey whiney-mode. "I'm tired!"

"Save your energy for later," Name said, pulling out her cell phone as well. "You'll need it and transform it into grace. Remember, this is not some random party. It's a dinner. Behave yourselves."

"Yes, Princess McBossy-Ass Pants, BLAH," Aiko said like a rehearsed line.

Now, for the dresses.

Aiko wore a form-fitting strapless plain black dress with a gold ribbon tied at the waist. She crazy-curled her hair that went to her chest now and wore golden snowflake shaped earrings. She had on black strappy heels and a single gold bracelet.

Well, ain't she the hottie?

Miss Whiney-Ass over here curled her hair and put it half up and half down with her bangs falling out. She wore a flowy purple dress that had white flower patterns on the side and white strappy heels (Yes, they all have strappy heels XD I like them ^.^). She put on a silver chain bracelet, lavender circular earrings, and a silver necklace.

I wore a red spaghetti-strap babydoll dress with a black belt, ruby red pumps, my birthday necklace, bell-shaped black earrings, and a black charm bracelet. My hair was pin-straight and I just left it down.

Name had those elegant, placed curls in contrast to Aiko's messy ones. She wore a gray dress that had white swirls around it. She wore white heels, white bracelets, a white necklace, and silver star-shaped earrings.

Yes, we are dressed up just for this one night, so don't think anything of it.

JOY TO THE WORLD!

"Nice," I snorted. "I can't believe you replaced the doorbell with that song, Yumi."

"Hey, you're lucky I didn't rig it so it would blow up into a buncha fireworks!" She warned and made a bunch of blow-up noises. "BLEWGH! Ka-pow! Boom!"

"Aiko, go get the door," Name yawned, completely ignoring Yumi's abnormalness and walking downstairs into the kitchen.

Aiko POV

What am I, their stupid messenger bitch? Geez and crackers, so annoying…

"Hey, what's up?" I grinned as Hinata, Shizumi, Temari, and Tenten came through.

"Here." Shizumi handed me a red and green wrapped present with a golden ribbon.

"Thanks," I threw it under the tree with all the other presents. "We have some for you guys too."

"Hey, how was your day today?" Tenten smirked. "I heard from Facebook that you got a pretty interesting facial today."

"Facial? What kinda facial?" Hinata asked.

"Like a faceplant facial," Tenten howled with laughter. "Ahhh, sorry, but I have to give props to Chiruki and Simure for this one. What the hell were you doing anyways? I hate to say it, but they actually saved you from more embarrassment…"

"Sor-rryy," I stuck my tongue out, "I was feeling Christmas-y today."

"Dude, rockin' outfit," Temari grinned at me, eyeing my clothes and thankfully changing the subject. "Little bro's gonna love that dress!"

I looked away, embarrassed, but muttered, "Whatever."

"Where is he anyways?" I added after a thought.

"Oh," she rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed, "The drama queen didn't want to leave with me. He said, no demanded, that he ride with Sasuke and them."

I snickered. "Drama queen eh?"

Temari smirked knowingly and nodded. "He may seem cool at school, but at home, he's just like any other emo teenage boy."

The thought of Gaara in his room with the curtains closed and the blackness in the air and him cutting his wrists made me laugh out loud. I almost pissed my pants right there.

"Nice dresses," Rai complimented the four girls as she trotted downstairs.

I don't really wanna get into what they're wearing, so you go imagine how awesome they look. XD

"Happy birthday!" Tenten greeted Name as she walked downstairs as well.

"Ah, Tenten, you've returned," Name smiled. "And happy birthday to you as well. I understand yours was some days before mine?"

"…Yeah…" Tenten nodded sheepishly. "How did you know?"

A mysterious glint entered Name's dark blue eyes. "I have my connections."

"Sounds like she's just a stalker," I whispered to Yumi with a hand up to cover my mouth.

"Mhm." Yumi agreed with me, already eating the big pig that was set upon the dinner table.

Name walked swiftly past us, knocking our heads together, and took her place at the table. "I heard that, buffoons."

"Pfft…buffoons…" Rai snickered.

"Shut up!" Yumi and I bawled.

"Hey, hey, Tenten, it was your birthday?" Rai inquired cheerily as she sat at the table as well.

"Yeah, yeah, why didn't you say anything?" Yumi pouted as she bounced into her seat. I shrugged and followed after her. The four girls in the living room sat as well.

"Well, I didn't want anybody throwing me any surprise parties or anything," Tenten said nervously. "I hate surprises."

"I feel your pain," Name deadpanned, obviously directing her statement at us. I snorted and waved a fork at her. "Be quiet. At least you get something!"

"What are you talking about?" Name scoffed at me. "You are well aware that we host a barbecue party for you every summer on the fifteenth of July."

"'Fifteenth of July'," I mocked her stupid way of talking. "What are you, fucking Harry Potter? British bullshit and crap…"

"Anyways," Rai cut in, "Tenten, we have to have a party for you!"

Tenten blushed. "O-oh, no…i-it's really nothing…"

"Here," Name placed her head on her palm and leaned her elbow onto the table, "Why don't we just dedicate half of this party to you?"

Tenten blushed even more. "What? N-no, you r-really don't have to!"

"C'mon, if Name's willing to," I urged her on, followed by a chorus of agreements.

"Fine, but I'm not doing anything," Tenten huffed.

"Oh, well, good enough," Temari shrugged. "On with the party!"

"Yay!" We all yelled and at that moment, the doorbell rang. JOY TO THE WORLD!

"Damn, I hate that doorbell," I grumbled, getting up to open the door.

"Aiko!" Naruto jumped on me, followed by Kiba and a "hn" from Sasuke and a "hey Aiko" from Gaara.

"Dudes, get off," I poked Naruto and Kiba in the ribs, "I'm hungry as fuck, I haven't eaten in hours, and I'm wearing heels. That's enough problems."

They laughed. As I thought, they were ticklish. Stupid idiots.

Gaara pulled me up and smiled. "You look nice."

I grinned. "Sure, sure, I do. And we all know that you do too."

He snorted as I led all of them into the newly decorated kitchen. Wreaths, ribbons, with the red and the green and all that jolly shit.

"Wow, this is awesome!" Naruto drooled at all the food. "It all looks so delicious!"

"Yes, courtesy of P.F. Chang's," Rai answered sarcastically. "Just kidding. Sit down and shut up."

So the boys all sat down as I asked, "Where're the rest of you shiznits?"

"They're coming soon," Kiba shrugged. "They said that they had some stuff to take care of."

"TCB?" I raised an eyebrow. "You don't mean-,"

"NO!" Sasuke threw a breadstick at me. "We're not freaking gangsters!"

"Ow!" I rubbed my head as my twitched in anger. "You numbnut! What the hell is wrong with you? Throwing breadsticks at random girls…"

"Yeah, man, at least throw a turkey leg," Yumi suggested. "It's harder and it'll hurt more. Breadsticks are pretty soft."

"Soft my ass!" I smacked her with a breadstick. "How soft was that, huh Pampers?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she faked a voice, "I'm busy now. Can I ignore you some other time?"

"Dumbshit, you're not ignoring me if you took the time to answer!" I yelled, shoving some corn down her throat.

"MEH!" She hit me and a thus we started the I'll-shove-this-whatever-it-is-down-your-throat contest ensued.

"Eat this!" Yumi shouted as she stuffed stuffing down my throat.

"I-Idiot!" My voice was muffled because she was sticking her hand in my mouth. "I'm already eating it!"

"Aren't you guys going to stop this?" Kiba asked, though not making any attempt to stop it himself.

"I don't know, it looks pretty funny," Naruto shrugged.

"Don't worry," Rai waved a hand at them. "We'll stop them when we spot blood."

JOY TO THE WORLD!

Oh, thank peanut. Someone's going to save me!

"Aiko, get the door, Yumi, get off her," Name finally ordered, sitting amused at her chair.

"Ha! Take that, ugly-ass!" I smacked Yumi's head as I downed the last parts of the stuffing and walked towards the door.

"I'd hate to see you go, but I'd love to see you leave!" She responded sarcastically.

I didn't reply as I opened the door. Sometimes, you just have to let idiots be idiots. And that was exactly what I was doing.

Oh, what the hell, you know I can't help it.

"Yumi!" I called as I opened the door. "I didn't know you were smart enough to use the computer and steal that line!"

"Fuck you!"

I rolled my eyes. How unoriginal.

"Yo." I greeted the rest of the Jacks that stood at my door.

"Here." Shikamaru shoved a pile of 3 large presents onto my hands.

"In the kitchen," I told them as I closed the door with my foot and set the presents under the big-ass, ten-dollar Christmas tree.

I sighed, walked back to the kitchen, and sat at my seat. "So, should we get this party started or what?"

"Yep," Hinata agreed, smoothing her dress out.

"So, how does this go?" Neji asked curiously after giving Tenten a sweet kiss.

"Oh, we just eat then wait till midnight then after that, we open the presents, have a big blast, and sleep," Rai explained in one breath.

"The funnest part is opening the presents!" Yumi added cheerfully.

"Cool," Kiba grinned, "Then let's eat!"

1 Hour Later

The dinner was great. Not kidding. The food was D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.

"Augh!" Naruto grunted as he collapsed on our couch. "I'm stuffed!"

"No shit, Sherlock, we all are," Sasuke retorted as he carefully sat himself down on a pillow. We all decided to chill in the Living Room, seeing as we were all too fat to walk anywhere else.

I dimmed down the lights so the Christmas lights would glow and I put a candle in the middle of our little retarded circle/oval thing.

"Duuuudee," I groaned out. "I feel like my stomach's gonna explode!"

"Take a crap then," Neji snorted at me.

"You know wha-" I started to threaten him but Rai quickly intervened, "OO-KAY, let's wait till midnight!"

"Here," Neji handed Tenten a small package wrapped in silver and a ribbon of sparkly gold. "Merry Christmas, Tenten."

Rai sweat-dropped. "Didn't I just say to wait till midnight?"

"Oh, my gosh!" Tenten opened the box and it showed an expensive-looking tennis bracelet, in the process ignoring Rai's comment. "Neji, I love it!"

"Of course you do," grumbled Rai. "Who wouldn't? That thing is like 50 pounds of pure gold."

I nudged her. "Dude, shut up."

"Hey, can I try it on?" Yumi asked, standing up excitedly.

Shikamaru pulled her down though. "Please don't."

"Aww, but Shika, I wanna see how heavy it is!" she continued to whine.

"No, it's okay, here," Tenten gave her bracelet to Yumi.

When Yumi put it on, I shoved a pillow under her and, as expected, she fell to the floor.

"Ack! Neji, what the hell kind of joke is this?" Yumi yelped, quickly giving Tenten back the bracelet. "It's like a ton of bricks!"

"That, Yumi, is 100% pure gold," Neji smirked. "And the design makes it extremely unique. It cost me a fortune, for it is very rare, but anything for Tenten."

"Aww, Neji, you're the best!" Tenten smooched him a big one on the lips and clasped the bracelet in.

"Ewwwww…" We all fake gagged. PDA: No. Just no.

"On the contrary…" Name added boredly, leaning on the palm of her hand and her elbow on the coffee table. "If that was real 100% gold, then it wouldn't be able to be that strong."

"EH?" We all scratched our heads.

"Name, just let it go and let's move on," I sighed, trying to get out of the big explanation she was bound to say.

"I don't get it!" Yumi complained.

"That's a surprise…" Rai muttered.

"What do you mean, Name?" Kiba asked.

"What she means is," Shikamaru cut in, "Gold is an element. Pure, pure 100% gold cannot be strong enough to take form itself. It would bend and therefore would always bend when Tenten puts it on."

"AND," Name interrupted, upset that Shikamaru stole the spotlight, "That means no one can ever make 100% PURE gold jewelry. They always mix chemicals into them to help them harden and therefore cease bending."

"So basically, what you're saying is that Neji got ripped off from the guy that sold him fake gold?" Naruto summarized.

"Yeah, pretty much." Both of the geniuses shrugged.

"Shut up, shut up!" Neji sulked in the corner.

"Moving on…" Sasuke whistled.

"Wait a minute!" Naruto put his hand up. "How come when Yumi puts it on, she falls and when Tenten puts it on, it's perfectly fine?"

"That's 'cause Yumi's a wimp," I explained to him slowly. At that moment, Yumi smacked my head. "Am not!"

"You're stupid too!"

"I'm a blonde! What's your excuse?"

"Asswipe full of-," Name covered my mouth and patted my head. "That's enough, little hothead."

"Whatever," I huffed, crossing my arms and turning the other way. "Just open the other stinkin' presents."

"Ooh, ooh, me next!" Naruto scrambled from his place and picked out a poorly wrapped box with the ugliest wrapping paper I've ever seen.

"Dude, did you dip that box in shit and just bring it to our house?" Rai eyed him weirdly O.o

"No! I made the wrapping paper myself! Can't tell the difference between it and expert wrapping paper, huh?" Naruto grinned cockily.

"Uhhh….sure."

Of course, nobody had the heart to tell Naruto how ugly his craftwork was. Seriously, it looked like a Kindergartener made it. No, worse than that. So much worse.

"Here you go, Hinata!" The idiot gave the box to the blushing Hyuuga as she tore it open.

"W-wow, N-Naruto, it's…"

"WOW! That is THE ugliest piece of-," Rai put a hand on my mouth to keep me from insulting Naruto's piece of shit present anymore. Luckily, Naruto still had that stupid grin on his face, so that means he didn't hear what I said.

"Do you like it, Hinata?" Naruto asked cheerfully, excitement and anticipation sparkling in his clear blue eyes. Hinata, on the other hand, was at a loss for words.

"Oh stop! That cannot be it!"I declared, regarding the present as a joke.

"Oy, poor girl. She has to get that as a Christmas present," Yumi whispered to Rai.

"Dude, man, that's just sad," Rai responded, shaking her head. "Oh, Naruto, what is wrong with you?" Rai muttered this to herself as I waited for Hinata's reaction, just like everybody else.

"Naruto…" she said softly one again. Then her eyes finally looked up. "I love it!"

"What the fuck!" All of us, literally all of us, (Shikamaru, Gaara, Sasuke, Shino even!), just collapsed onto the floor with a big THUD!

"S-She's got to be kidding…" Sasuke sweat-dropped at Hinata's unexpected answer.

"She has to be!" I declared angrily. "What kind of girl, no sane person, would like that?"

"That is so scary." Temari looked horrified as she stared wide-eyed at the little thing.

"Guys, cool it," Tenten shrugged. "Maybe she really likes it."

"HA!" Kiba started to laugh loudly. "AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

I started to laugh as well. "HOLY CRAP! AHAHAHAHA!"

Kiba and I were laughing hysterically, followed by Yumi. Kiba held himself up on the staircase with tears rolling down his face from the insane laughter. Yumi was on the floor, her whole body shaking with her uncontrollable laughs. And I was clutching my stomach in pain and just kept laughing and laughing. Oh god, Naruto!

"Oy, what's so funny?" Naruto whined, pointing a finger at us.

"Don't worry, Naruto, I bet they're all just jealous," Shikamaru assured him lazily. Well, I'll be damned! Shikamaru can be funny!

"Alright, I'm sorry…HA…I'm sorry," I stood up, gasping for air. "Okay, Hinata, please tell me how that," I jabbed a finger at the monstrosity Naruto regarded as a Christmas present, "can make you happy at all?"

"It's cute," Hinata answered simply.

"I'm sorry, what?" Name rubbed her ears, as if she heard wrong. "Did you just call it cute?"

"Yeah!" Hinata insisted. "I thought it was very s-sweet of N-Naruto give me such a cute present."

Rai started bumping her head, like water was going to trickle down her ear. "Well, okay, if you say so…"

"Naruto, that was quite amusing," Name smiled. "Next?"

"How troublesome…but here," Shikamaru handed Yumi her present. It was nicely wrapped, I have to admit. I wonder if Shikamaru exerted the effort to actually wrap it or make his mother do it.

"OH! Wow, thanks Shika!" Yumi said with surprise, hugging him. "This is great!"

Yumi received a paper rose. That was it. It wasn't even colored. Just plain, plain white. It was even on lined paper! Wide-ruled too. Cheap-ass lazy son of a bitch couldn't even buy college-ruled paper.

"All right, what kind of joke is this?" I deadpanned. "All these presents are crap."

"Aiko!" Yumi slapped my arm. "Crap? This is awesome! Don't listen to her, Shika. I love it."

"What a drag…" he trailed off boredly, staring into space.

"Alright, bring in the next present," Sasuke shrugged. Seriously, did nobody see how shitty these presents were?

Naruto's indescribable piece of trash, Shikamaru's effortless paper flower, and Neji's rip-off tennis bracelet.

Shino gave Shizumi a medium-sized box that was wrapped in decorative paper. "Merry Christmas, Shizumi."

She smiled and tore it open. She held up a pretty blue dress. Feh. Wal-Mart material. If it was over 10 bucks, probably JC Penny's.

"Cheap…" I whistled. Sasuke smacked my head.

"OW! Geez, is it Smack Aiko Day or what?" I grumbled.

"Don't be rude," Sasuke said emotionlessly. Fucking stupid little emo kid.

"Whaat? I'm just saying…" I muttered but kept my mouth shut anyways. Man, what a suckish Christmas this turned out to be.

Sasuke gave Rai a pencil. But, oh no, not just a pencil, it was a mechanical pencil! Woo-hoo, isn't he the best?

No, that was sarcasm, retard. What kind of rich-ass, big-shot, company owner's son gives his girlfriend a penc—no I'm sorry, mechanical pencil? A fucking cheapskate, that's who!

There wasn't even any led in the thing!

And of course, Kiba gives Name a stick. The stick up Sasuke's ass? No, not that stick. The "magic" stick. Yes, my friends, it was a stupid-looking Harry Potter rip-off.

Geez, I bet it would've been better if Kiba gave Name Lady Gaga's disco stick.

You wanna know what Gaara got me? My very own private jet plane? No, better. 3,000 dollars worth of Strawberry puffs? No, way better. Yes! He got me a book!

Not just any Twilight shit-like book—a book about super-rich, spoiled, lying bitches! No, someone did not make a book about Sakura and her Sluts, but made a book about some other group of Sluts and Bitches!

I knew the second he showed me the book that I'd just end up throwing it in Rai's room so I'd never find it again.

It's called The Clique by Lisi Harrison. I know, isn't Gaara the best boyfriend ever? EGHHH! Wrong! Don't get me wrong, I love this boy, but seriously, a book about bitches?

Uh-uh, ain't right. Give it to Chiruki, but don't give it to me.

Riki had sent a package to our door for Temari. She eagerly ripped it open and she almost died of happiness.

"He's giving me a trip to New York!" She squealed, jumping up and down. "I'm going to New York!"

"Have fun freezing your ass off," I snorted. She gave me a glare before continuing her happy dance. "Who cares? I'm going to New York!"

"What is she, on replay?" Rai muttered, secretly wishing she had a trip to New York as well.

Well, this was a suckish Christmas, I'll say that again. Whatever, at least we had fun with it.

"Shika!" Yumi pulled out a creatively wrapped box. "Merry Christmas!"

Shikamaru eyed it suspiciously before taking it in his hands and tearing the wrapping paper off. "Wow…uh, thanks."

"You like it? I made it myself, you know," Yumi smiled.

"Well, that's pretty obvious," I muttered. She grew a tick mark and backhanded me. "Stupid!"

What the fuck? Who backhands a girl?

Ugh. Might as well explain the present. It was just a light blue pillow with Yumi's face in chibi formation and a whole buncha little candies outlining it to give it some design. Damn chick even added some tacky-ass fluffy crap to the corners.

"Hey, that actually looks okay," Naruto commented, crossing his arms.

"Better than your present," I whistled so no one would hear me. And then dumbass Name hits my head. It's like every fucking word I say is monitored by these demons.

"But why put your face on it?" Gaara asked in curiosity.

'So he could see how ugly she is' Of course, I wouldn't say it outloud. I'd learned by now.

"So I can be the last thing on his mind before he goes to sleep," Yumi said dreamily, closing her eyes and wiggling around. All of us sweat-dropped.

What a crazy-ass bitch.

"Here," Name gave Kiba a really big box. "Last one on the shelf."

"Thanks!" Kiba was obviously a happy-ass just because Name actually thought of giving him a present. He rapidly tore the paper off the box and the next thing I know, he and Naruto are jumpin' around like some kind of man-apes.

"OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" They yelled like Zac Efron obsessed 13-year olds. "IT'S AN XB0X 360 ELITE! I'M GONNA DIE!"

"If you two idiots don't shut up, I'll kill you before you get the chance to use that," Sasuke said, eyes closed but fist raised.

"No shit!" Naruto ignored Sasuke's comment as he pulled out a video game. "It comes with Call of Duty: Black Ops? What the fuck? That doesn't even come out in stores yet!"

"I LOVE YOU!" Kiba practically tackled Name, who looked embarrassed as fuck.

"It's, uh, n-no problem…"

He finally let go of her. While his eyes glittered, he held it up to the light like it was baby Jesus. "The. Best. Damn. Present. Ever."

"Great, now they can spend hours at each other's houses shooting Russians," I whispered to the nearest person to me, who happened to be Shizumi. She giggled. "You're just jealous because you begged Name to buy you one too."

I pouted. "Shut up. No one needs to hear you talk."

"But she wasn't even talking," Tenten tilted her in confusion.

"Shut up. No one needs to hear you talk either."

"This is my baby," Kiba said from the background, hugging the piece of shit I wanted so bad.

"Hey, Hinata, where's my present?" Naruto said with puppy-dog eyes. Obviously, he was hoping for something amazing like an Elite and Black Ops.

"U-um, I'm sorry if it's not as g-good as what K-Kiba got…" Hinata stuttered.

"Don't worry!" Naruto pulled out his signature grin. "I'll love it as long as it comes from you!"

Hinata blushed and pulled out a small box. "It's not much b-but M-Merry Christmas."

He quickly tore it open and pulled out a credit-card type thing.

"What is it?" Tenten asked.

"It's a free pass to Ramen Land. It's an a-amusement park and you c-c-can take as many p-people as you want," Hinata said. "E-Everything's free."

"YAYYY!" Naruto hugged Hinata. "This is great! It says I can use this for a year!"

Holy hell. How come they get good-ass presents and all I get is a fucking book about rich kids?

"My turn!" Rai gave out a big grin and scooted closer to Sasuke. "Here ya go!" She handed him a long rectangular box.

Sasuke smiled and said Thank You before he even got the present. He gently tore the wrapping paper and opened the box carefully.

"HOLY SHIT!" I jumped in the air. "What in the HELL? Why did you get HIM that and not ME?"

"Whoa." Sasuke pulled out a katana, bright and shiny in the light. "This is amazing."

Rai smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her neck. "Oh, well, I heard from Itachi you were into katanas and all that, so yeah, bought you a sword."

"Thanks Rai," Sasuke gave her a big hug, causing a light blush to appear on her cheeks. "Man, I can't get over it. I could stare at it all day."

"Feh, you guys make me feel poor," I said stubbornly, crossing my arms. What the hell was this? All the guys are getting good-ass presents and Gaara's gonna feel like shit once I give him the crap I wrapped.

They all stared at me.

"That's because you are poor," Name said bluntly. My eye twitched. "Shut it! Buying an Elite for somebody else! Fuckin cheater!"

"I do recall informing you one day of the purchase I was about to make," She reminded me. "I told you I was buying it, so don't act all surprised now that you've forgotten."

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled, looking at the clock.

"Neji-kun!" Tenten giggled. Ew. "I have your present!" Neji opened it and it was…a brush and comb set?

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" I burst into laughter, along with Naruto.

Tenten grew a tick mark and started to strangle me. "What's wrong with my gift, Aiko?"

"BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Tears sprouted at the corner of my narrowed eyes. I stopped for a second but then I looked at Tenten and then the brush & comb set complete with a hairdryer, hair ties, and clips and then I couldn't hold it in. "HAHAHAHAHA!"

"Freaking hilarious!" Naruto choked out, holding his stomach in pain. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Neji looked annoyed, but said, "Forget those idiots, Tenten. I love it."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" I cupped my mouth, trying to suppress it. It WAS rude after all.

While me and Naruto were dying in the corner, Tenten and Neji got all mushy in the other corner.

"I guess it's my turn." Once Naruto and I calmed down (Not really. We were still in a fit of giggles every time we looked at one another), Shizumi shyly handed a surprised Shino a present. "Merry Christmas, I hope you like it."

"Thank you." He slowly unwrapped the gift and pulled out a bug thingy. You know, where they keep your ant farms? All made of glass and stuff so you could see through the dirt? Yeah, that's what Shino got. Only his was WAY more elaborate. "Wow, I've always wanted one of these."

I tried not to look at Naruto, but once we made eye contact, we burst into laughter again. "BWAHAHAHAHA!"

"He, he g-got a BRUSH and a-a-a c-comb b-bec-,because he has l-long hair!" Naruto said, his eyes squinty as tears flowed down.

"Look!" I brushed my hair, pretending it was super long like Neji's. "I'm Neji and my hair gets into tangles! Whatever should I do?"

"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Naruto guffawed, grabbing a leftover fish spine from the dinner table. "Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your long hair!"

"BWAHAHAHA!" My stomach hurt SOO bad. I felt like I was getting a sixpack just laughing about this shit. "Pfft!" I pointed at Naruto's face.

"What's wrong with my face?" Naruto asked.

"Y-You chink!" I laughed some more as I rolled around the floor. "You look so fucking Vietnamese when you laugh!"

"BWAHAHAHHA!" We ended up rolling all over the floor and crying and shit.

Sasuke got annoyed and backhanded both of her heads, making us flip twice and land like a pile of steaming shit five feet away. "You two dumbasses better shut up before I sew your mouths shut."

"I've gotten that threat from Tsunade a few weeks ago," I sighed in remembrance as I sat up, "Ah, good times."

"Really? I got it from Asuma during the Christmas Dance," Naruto scratched his chin, "And from Kakashi when I was singing while taking a piss."

"I could totally imagine that," Yumi said, strangely peaceful.

"Just. Shut. Up." Rai demanded through gritted teeth. "Geez, whatever," I rolled my eyes.

They all stared at me again.

"What? I said I'd shut up." I hate when people stare at me. It makes me wanna piss my pants and then puke and then take a shit and then piss while taking another shit.

"It's just…" Kiba said uncomfortably, his eyes darting from me to a certain fellow redhead, "You're the only who didn't give Gaara a present."

My eyes widened. "Oh, pssh, you guys thought I didn't have a present for him? What am I, a cheap-ass hobo."

"Yes." Ouch. It sucks that they all said it at the same time. Unanimous.

I sweat-dropped. "Well, I'm not, okay? I actually bought some shit, Actually, I didn't buy it. I bought materials to make it, but-,"

Temari put a hand up to stop my pointless talk. "Just give him the damn present."

"Fine." Impatient fuckers. I ran under the tree and dug in there until I found the right one. You know, I spent like fucking two days making this shit. If he don't appreciate it, I'ma beat the crap outta myself for thinking he'd actually like it.

"Merry Christmas," I muttered, looking at the ceiling while giving Gaara my present. I felt him take it from my hand and I hid behind the tree in anticipation. This is it. Moment of the fucking truth.

"What the fuck?" Kiba's voice hit a high note. "What is this shit?"

"Aiko, what the hell?" Yumi's mouth hit the floor. "This is…"

I looked at Gaara. I didn't care what the fuck those dumbasses said. I only cared what he thought. And he was staring at it like it was fucking talking to him.

UGH. Shit. I messed up.

"Okay, okay, I know it's shit, but it was the best I could do," I shrugged, giving myself an excuse. I stayed behind the Christmas tree. Dammit. This was fucking embarrassing. "I spent like a fucking week looking for all the shit that I only had like three days to make it and crap. So, it's crap-,"

I was interrupted by Gaara walking up to me and hugging me so hard I swear my bones would shatter right then and there. When he finally let go, I stared at his aquamarine eyes like what fuck?

"OHHH," I said in realization, raising my arms up. "It was a pity hug! You felt bad that I made such a crappy present so you hugged me!"

He twitched and pushed me behind the tree while popping a tickmark.

"You're an idiot," Neji said.

"Fuck off!" I gave him the finger while sitting up. I turned back to Gaara. "So…"

"This is completely and utterly amazing."

Eh? Diiid he just say that or did I drink a bottle of Jack and imagine that?

"Dude, this is fucking inhuman!" Rai said, her eyes on my handmade present.

"Ok. Where the fuck did you get enough brains to make that?" Tenten pointed at me skeptically.

Even Name joined in, bug-eyed. "This is…quite different. Aiko, I say, this is brilliant! The way these metals are extravagantly shaped and the dramatic curve of this simple curl—it's all magnificently made actually." We all stared at her like she was a fucking duck having a fuck with another fucked up duck.

She recollected herself after realizing that she just complimented me. "What I mean to say is, that um, this is simply impressive for someone who usually spends their time of day sorting pickles."

I popped a tickmark. "HEY! I have a reason for that!"

"I'm sure you do," Name said, bored again as she returned to her usual behavior of smartness and big worded-ness. "And there's another reason why you didn't state your reason.

"I feel like making you a blonde."

I heard Tenten whisper to Yumi. "And that means?"

"Oh, she's just insinuating that she could possibly urinate on Name's hair, thus making it yellow-colored; blonde," Yumi shrugged, like it was an everyday process. Tenten stared at her in awe.

Yumi sighed. "She wants to take a piss on Name's hair."

"So, this is the product of spending two days in the garage," Rai said, rubbing her chin and circling my gift that Gaara was holding. "Hmph. Fairly well."

"SHAATAPP. You know you think it's awesome," Temari said smugly, nudging Rai. "You just can't admit that she did something right for once."

"I'll cut your fingers off and shove 'em up Riki's ass."

"Walking away…"

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," I put my hands up again and looked at Gaara with hope in my eyes, "So you like it?"

"Of course I would."

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY. YES. YES, YES. YES. YES. He likes my present. My life is now complete.

Well, I'm guessing you guys wanna know what it is, right? Alright, I'll tell you. It's a…

Psyche! You thought I was gonna tell you, huh? Well, I'm not. I'll just leave you guys in mystery as to what I gave him that was so incredible. Psyche again! I'm not that cruel—well, not on Christmas Eve.

I made him a little sculpture with a buncha swirls and circles and badass shit. I can't really explain it well, because, it's just that indescribable. It was a sculpture had a tree on it and I carved G.S. + A.M. and I put a heart there. It was bronze, since they wouldn't sell me any silver or gold…

But all in all, it was some pretty badass vintage shit.

"Hey, do you think that Tsunade would really make us do Classroom D?" Hinata asked suddenly, her mind obviously somewhere else.

At the mention of Classroom D, all the Jacks shuddered and our friends stared horrified.

"Ugh, I still can't believe you guys have to do that," Tenten shook her head. "Classroom D...horrible."

"Blame Tsunade," I scoffed, lying back with my arms behind my head. "The big-titted principal wants us to volunteer over there."

"Big-titted?" Naruto tilted his head in confusion.

"Good lord, Naruto," I sighed out. "Big-titted. Tit equals booby. Tits, plural, equals boobies. Big tits equals big boobs. Big-titted equals woman who has big boobies. You get it now?"

"Ohhhhh!" He said in realization. "YEAH, I get it! Kinda like ebonics!"

"Idiot." Was what we were all, no doubt, thinking in our heads.

"Anyways," Tenten interrupted my explanation, "Tsunade's harsh, but she's never sent anyone to Class D."

"Whatever," Yumi rolled her eyes. "I bet it's not that bad. We start in January though. Got a long time till then."

"What they look like anyways?" Rai grunted, clutching her stomach and slightly moaning. HA! The retard's backed up. Serves you right for eating all the chocolate.

"I heard that most of the guys are big and brawny. The kinds you don't want to mess with," Kiba hissed.

"Yeah, and they always have at least one gun on them," Naruto added.

Big and brawny plus violent too? I could practically picture them hanging me by the hood and taking turns slapping me to sleep.

…Yeah…that could happen…

"Well, Class D can kiss my ass," Rai said. "Let's see how gangster they can be when I'm there."

"Royal Cobras…" Sasuke grumbled, recalling what I told him the day we switched bodies and sat in Itachi's room.

"What was that?"

Crap. Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, crap, CRAP!

"Royal Cobras," Sasuke repeated more clearly. Rai stiffened. Everybody was curious as to who and what the Royal Cobras were.

"Oy, Sasuke what's that?" Naruto scratched his head, dumbfounded. (Isn't he always?)

"Where did you hear that name?" Rai almost growled. I whistled and looked around. Hopefully she won't notice me.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!

"Aiko told me about it."

HOLY SHITTY CRAP! Okay, this whole chanting of poop thing is not working. Why don't I just dig my own grave right here right now. Under the Christmas tree. Where I can catch all the ornaments with my mouth and kill myself with tinsel.

"Aiko. Why." Rai stated it rather than questioned. Though she did seem just as menacing. Thanks a lot, Sasuke.

"We were bored!" I explained. "We needed something to talk about!"

"How much did you tell him?" Yumi jumped in, getting strangely serious for once. Uh-oh.

"Relax, I didn't tell him everything," I assured them with my hands up.

"What? But you said-,"

I cut Sasuke off with a glare. "I didn't say jackshit."

"Wait, wait, wait," Temari put her arms up. "What the hell are you guys talking about?"

I glanced at my sisters and they shrugged. "Why not?" Name looked at our friends. "I don't have a problem with it."

"Me neither," Yumi nodded after seeing Name agree.

"Whatever," Rai scoffed as she rolled her eyes.

And so I retold the story of our lives, with more detail added. It was a lot to say, but it was worth it to see their priceless faces!

"Oh geez," Shikamaru rubbed his head like he was having a headache (which he probably was). "You guys are too much trouble. Don't you ever try to live your life simple?"

"Every day," I heard Rai mutter.

"Anyways, that's it though," I said, scratching the back of my head. "We'd really appreciate it if it didn't spread, you know…"

"Yeah, we get it," Kiba nodded, "Secret's safe with us."

"Us too!" Temari grinned. "But wow, you guys are more badass than I thought!"

"Depends on what you thought," Name raised an eyebrow.

"True," Temari shrugged.

"Meh, I don't like talking about this anymore. I'm goi—HEY it's 3 minutes till midnight!" I exclaimed, pointing at the ghetto-ass cracked clock on the wall.

"What's with the crappy clock?" Naruto asked monotonously.

"What's with the crappy present?" I countered, putting on my coat and walking outside.

"For the last time, it is NOT crappy! Right, Hinata? Right?"

"Is he blind?" I heard Rai ask Sasuke.

Sasuke shook his head and kept his face impassive as always."No. Just stupid…And partially retarded."

"Partially? Try practically," I muttered.

"Hey! Hey! Fireworks!" Yumi yelled happily, jumping up and down as we followed her up the roof.

It was a cold, starless night. Even though it was starless, it didn't mean it wasn't beautiful. There was still snow and every house I could see from up here was lit up all bright.

And in about a minute, the whole sky and would be blown away with colorful fireworks.

"AGH, crap." Rai struggled to climb the gutter.

"Aren't you supposed to do parkour?" Shikamaru asked lazily, probably not really caring if she did or not.

"Yeah, but she's too much of a fatass to get up here," I said apathetically. Ah, the joys of Christmas dinner.

"Hey!" Rai shouted from below, attempting to get over a balcony. "I heard that!"

"You were supposed to!" I retorted, getting impatient about the fireworks. Actually, I didn't even know why we didn't get fireworks ourselves. I am a well-known pyrotechnic after all.

Well, I did know why we couldn't use fireworks, but it still annoyed me that we couldn't get fireworks like every other year.

Name said that to get each of us fireworks, that'd cost us a lot of money and we already went over the budget.

I shook my head at the memory of her scolding me about the fireworks. Oh well. There's always New Year's.

Hehe…New Year's…

"I told you not eat all the mashed potatoes!" Naruto taunted from above as Rai was nowhere near us.

"You're a dumbass!" Was her simple reply.

"The fireworks!" Tenten exclaimed, pointing to the sky.

And, sure enough, the brightly colored sparkling thingies blew up in the sky, lighting up our amazed faces.

"WAHH! I'm getting a shitty view!" Rai whined from below.

"Whose fault is that?" I said boredly. The fireworks were amazing. I always get all worked up over these kinds of things.

I see them more than once a year, I can make them happen, but still. It never ceases to amaze me.

"Is it time?" Rai's distant voice yelled.

"Girl," I started, "It was time a LONG time ago!"

"Time for what?" Kiba asked, confused. "You'll see," Name smirked.

"GO!" Yumi gave the signal.

"Everybody yell Merry Christmas!" Rai said suddenly.

"What?"

"Now!"

Despite the fact that they were all confused as hell to what we were doing, they act pretty damn quick on their feet.

"MERRY CHRISTMAS!"

…No. No, it really wasn't.

5 Seconds Later

"What now?" Naruto asked, scratching his head.

I shrugged. "I don't know, I feel kinda stupid."

"Huh? Why's that?" Tenten asked.

"Well gee, we yelled Merry Christmas to the entire neighborhood, probably annoying the fuck outta our neighbors," I snorted.

"What neighbors, we only have McKoy," Yumi said. "Oh, yeah, huh," I mused.

"What now?" Naruto repeated.

"I know!" Yumi yelled.

"What?"

"We can-,"

"Bother the neighbors?" Name finished knowingly. "YEAH!" Naruto and Yumi high-fived.

"Guess what, stupid?" I crossed my arms.

Yumi stopped. "What?"

"If you were completely deaf about 3 seconds ago, you would've heard that our only neighbor's McKoy."

"…Oh. Yeah, huh?"

10 Minutes Later

"This is so stupid!" Sasuke hissed from the bush we were hiding behind. I smacked him behind his head. "Don't be a pussy."

"CAT!" Yumi yelled, pointing to one climbing on the roof. "Shut up," Rai rolled her eyes.

"I repeat, this is so stupid!" Sasuke said. I responded. "And I repeat, don't be a pussy."

"Well, why do we have to do this in my neighborhood?" Sasuke whispered furiously. "What if we get caught? I'm the one who's gonna be in deep shit 'cause all my neighbors know me, not you guys!"

"Shut up," I said again, getting really annoyed. "It's not like we're doing it near your house. We're here to fuck up Sakura, not you and your prissy neighbors."

"Still!" Sasuke insisted.

"How could you not tell us that you lived near Sakura?" Rai hissed. "That is like, vital information to withhold."

"Mean Girls," Kiba grinned smugly, remembering the quote from the movie. Yumi stared at him, horrified.

"What?" Kiba asked.

"Guys shouldn't watch Mean Girls," Yumi said awkwardly. Kiba made up a quick excuse. "I thought they were hot."

"Riiiigghht," Temari whispered from behind us, making Hinata giggle.

"Can we PLEASE get out of here?" Sasuke asked, panicking. "Don't be such a pussy," I said again, taking out my binoculars.

Yep, those whores were having their own Christmas party in Sakura's bedroom. They were all dressed up in half-tank tops and short shorts that showed their ass cheeks, prancing around with fucking retarded reindeer headbands and Santa hats.

"Those sluts!" I hissed. "They need a good ass-beating."

"What are they wearing? What are they wearing?" Naruto scrambled to snatch my binoculars. Rai tackled him. "PERV! WE GOT A PERV IN THE BUSHES!"

"WAHHH! Don't shout it out!" Naruto bawled. "That's embarrassing!"

"Yeah? So are you!" I scoffed, shoving him to the gentle arms of a very red Hinata.

"I-It's s-s-so c-cold," Neji shivered behind me.

Y'know, I just noticed…but these are some big-ass bushes. They can hide all of us. Fuckin rich-ass people.

"Aww, babe, here take my jacket," Tenten offered, slipping off her heavy-duty coat. "Thanks," Neji said.

Kiba sat with a question mark over his head. "Somehow…I feel that it's supposed to be the other way around."

"True that," Yumi agreed. "Behold, Neji and Tenten, the inverted couple!"

"Shut up." The said couple glared.

"AWW CRAP."

"Naruto, shut up!"

"I stepped in shit!"

"Go wash it off then, you retard," Gaara spoke for the first time in awhile. Ahh, his voice. Wait a minute. Oh god. I'm fantasizing about his voice. Oh god. This is bad. This is really bad.

"Dude, that stinks," Rai said, crawling to the side opposite of Naruto. It was true. He was smelly as shit. Nobody really wanted to stand next to the shitbomb.

"Man! These were my favorite shoes!"

"Who wears their favorite shoes to Sakura's house?" Name asked pointedly.

"Well I didn't know we were gonna prank Sakura!"

"Alright, are we gonna do this shit or not?" I asked, clearly annoyed how my friends got so distracted easily. Seriously, you step on crap and it's like the whole damn world's out to get you.

"Okay, okay, pushy," Naruto said with his hands up.

Sakura POV

*crash* "Dammit!" A voice hissed. "Shut up, ya dumbass!" said a another voice.

"Guys, did you, like, hear that?" Ino stopped, looking around.

"Um, no, like, what're you talking about, Ino?" Simure said, stopping her totally sexy belly dance.

"I, like, heard a really big, like, crash from downstairs," Ino said nervously. "Yeah, I like, heard it too!" Emiko said, putting her hand up.

"Guys, don't get so like, scared. Let's go, like check it out," I said, walking downstairs with the girls trailing behind me. I was like soooo happy Michi wasn't here. She was always stealing my thunder.

Before she came, I ruled the school. Now, she's like, acting like she's the boss of everyone. She pisses me off more than Rai sometimes. I'm like so happy that her parents took her to like New York for some stupid business trip. The whore like seriously needs to get away from us.

"AH!" Chiruki screamed as I jumped.

"Chiruki, what's wrong?" Ino-pig trembled in fear. "I just remembered that I peaked inside, like, the present my mom gave me and she like, gave me a diamond necklace!" Chiruki squealed in happiness.

"Aw, like, really?" I whined. "I peaked inside my dad's present and all he like, gave me is, like, new sweatpants from like, Juicy Couture."

"Pssh, I have, like 5 of those," Emiko waved her hand, "Don't worry, Sakura, like, I bet you'll get a better present from your mom. She's like, a pushover anyways!"

*Ding Dong*

"Huh?" Ino-pig said. "Who could that, like, be?"

I opened the door with all the girls huddled up behind me. "Like, huh?"

Deck the halls with boughs of holly! Fa-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la!

"OH. MY. GOD."

Normal POV

Aiko, Kiba, and Rai all pulled down their pants and underwear to reveal their asses with letters spelling out Merry X-Mas on it. And in the background, Yumi and Naruto sang Deck the Halls to serenade the gaping girls at the door.

Fuck the whores who hate our guts! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha Ha-ha-ha-ha Yumi sang, changing the lyrics to the song.

"Get out of my house!" Sakura screamed, turning beet red.

"Make us," Rai stuck her tongue out, and pointed to her ass, "Tell ya what, if you kiss it, we'll leave WITHOUT totally trashing your house.

Tenten and Temari were laughing like crazy in the background as Yumi and Naruto continued to sing. The rest of the people, the serious people, snickered, smirked, or giggled.

Sasuke clearly enjoyed this display of disrespect to the Sluts and although looking lazy, Shikamaru was bursting with joy. Name was snickering, unable to hold it in and Hinata and Shizumi giggled. Gaara, stony-faced as always, actually cracked and grin and Shino even chuckled. Neji was smirking like no tomorrow and it seemed like the night was going WAY better than expected.

"AUGH! Like, get out of my house!" Sakura shrieked, pointing towards nowhere.

"Um, technically, we're outside…" Kiba grinned cheekily.

Sakura was just about to blow her top before everything stopped and all was silent. Ino was on the phone.

"Yes, like, Mr. Haruno? Yes, there are like, some hoodlums-,"

"Shit, she called the parents on us!" Aiko gritted her teeth as she pulled up her pants. "Run for it!"

"Kiss my ass, bitch!" Rai said as she ran with the others.

"Merry fucking Christmas, whores!" Aiko added with a cackle. Ah.

Aiko POV

"Oh man," Naruto laughed, clutching his stomach, "Fucking funny as hell."

"Hey, wanna hear a cool song?" Rai asked with a knowing smile, pulling out her cell phone.

"Um, random, but okay," Temari shrugged as they we all ran further down the street. Hey, we didn't want those pre-mature Barbie doll bitches calling the cops on us and actually giving them good descriptions of what we wore.

We all probably looked like a bunch of hobos hobbling towards the bushes anyways.

Merry Christmas, Kiss My Ass by All Time Low

And I hope you're happy with yourself

'Cause I'm not laughing

Don't you think it's so damn trashy

What you did this holiday

(So trashy!)

I laughed, immediately recognizing the song. Rai started playing it at the end, so here came the chorus.

I gave you my heart and you ripped it apart

Like a wrap in paper trash (wrap in paper trash)

So I wrote you a song

Hope that you sing along

Here it goes

Merry Christmas (BITCH!)

Kiss my ass

We all burst in laughter at the literal meaning of the lyrics. We were having such a nice time laughing our asses off, we didn't even notice some dumbass car swerving and hitting a damn fire hydrant.

"I'll call the cops on you!"

"RUN!"

Hahaha, maybe this wasn't such a shitty Christmas at all.

2 Hours Later

"Alright, it's almost time to go to bed. I just have one question," I held my pointer finger up.

"Shoot," Kiba shrugged.

"What up with the crappy presents, man?" I groaned. "I mean, at least get us a puppy or something. Paper roses? Mechanical pencil? Super fake gold?"

At that last one, Neji glared at me.

"Well, excuse us if we don't know our way to a woman's heart!" Naruto snorted, crossing his arms.

I don't know what the hell was up this year. I mean, all the other girls loved their presents! I have no idea why I'm the only one who sees the shit they gave us.

"Um, last I heard, you're part of the ~BADASS8~. AKA, Playboy Central!" I waved my hands in the air. "You're supposed to know your way to a woman's heart anyways! YOU ARE RICH."

"Don't bring wealth into this, stupid-ass," Sasuke said from behind me. "That has nothing to do with this."

"Ooh, touchy," Yumi whispered to Temari.

"This Christmas really sucked," I huffed, "Scratch Christmas. It was more of like a Shitmas to me."

"Anyways," Shikamaru shook his head, trying to prevent any more fights. "Shouldn't we be getting to bed now?"

"Whatever." I rolled my eyes and changed into my jammies. Don't be hatin' on my bunnies.

"Just forget what she said, guys," Yumi waved it off. "She's just cranky she didn't get a wrench for a Christmas present.

"Shut up, blondie," I threw a pillow at her. "You're just pissy 'cause your face is like that."

"Eh?" Yumi scratched her head. "What's wrong with my face? Isn't YOUR face the one that's messed up?"

"Shut up," I said again, "You know I'm the SHIT."

"More like a shit." Yumi said under her breath.

"Wha—,"

"Nighty night!" Name turned off the light.

"BLEGH."

"Bye."

"See ya tomorrow."

"Alright."

"Kay."

"Peanut!"

"Naruto, stop kicking me!"

"I'll stop kicking you if and when your face gets outta mine!"

"Guys, shut up! I'm trying to go to sleep!"

"I am too, but YUMI here is drooling on my hand!"

"That is disgusting."

"Totally didn't need to know that."

"Wahhhhhh, you guys are mean!"

"Great, now you made her cry."

"Not like I meant to!"

"Well you did."

"I farted."

"I honestly could've gone the rest of my life without knowing that."

"Haha, you said that when I told you what tampons were and how you put them in!"

"What the fuck is a tampon?"

"Oh my god, Naruto you're a dumbass."

"Naruto didn't ask that, I did."

"Aiko, you're so stupid."

"Wanna shut the fuck up before I cut your mouth off and stick it up my ass?"

"Shut up and stuff a tampon in your mouth."

"I wouldn't put anything I didn't know into my mouth."

"PANCAAAAKKKEESS!"

"…"

"What the fuck?"

I want to go to sleep. And what the hell is a tampon?

The Next Morning

I woke up to the smell of ass and ass. Plus cheek.

Great.

"Ugghhh…" I heard Naruto groan behind me.

"EW! Why is your butt on me?"

"'Cause your ass is on mine!"

"I wanna go home!"

"Can someone please explain why everybody's ass is on somebody else's?"

"Stop saying ass! It's annoying."

"Ass."

"You're not funny, Naruto."

"Huh? I didn't say that."

"Then who did?"

"Guilty."

"Wha—"

"WILL. YOU. IDIOTS. PLEASE. SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP." I finally demanded. They were all getting to my last nerve; arguing like shit's going on when there's not.

They argued till 4 AM in the morning. 4 fucking AM. In the gotdamn morning.

Once I finally fell asleep, I woke up to this fucky place.

'Oh, my ass! My ass!' NOBODY CARES. Your fucking ass is there for a reason. To be soft!

"Alright, everybody outta my house. You ain't got to go home, but y'all gotta get the hell outta here," Rai yawned as she ushered everybody out.

"Alright," Hinata grabbed her clothes and waved as she left with Neji. "See you guys later."

"Thanks for the food," Temari grinned as she grabbed Gaara before he could protest.

"Thanks!" Kiba hollered and ran out the door, followed by a wordless Shino.

"Bye." Was all Sasuke said before he left with Naruto, who wanted a race.

Shizumi and Shikamaru just nodded and walked out and Tenten stumbled out the door, looking like a dumbass drunk.

"Well that was eventful," Rai shrugged, not really knowing what to say next.

"I'm gonna go piss," I said grumpily, stomping up the stairs.

"You people give me a headache," Name stated as she went back to sleep on the couch.

"Shower! Shower!" Yumi just ran away.

Ugh. Damn Christmas morning blues.

Later On In the Day

"Aiko, what the hell's your problem?" Sasuke asked as he assumed his position on my windowsill.

"Um, well, excuse me, bitch, but I just found out something that devastated the fuck outta me," I said gloomily in the corner. "I want to die."

"Stupid emo."

I popped a tickmark. "Why don't I slit your throat and watch the bugs crawl out?"

"AIKOOOOOOO!"

"What the fuck now?" I snarled, suddenly growing horns and a dark aura swirling around me.

"Seriously, what is your problem?" Sasuke crossed his arms, obviously used to my mood swings. "PMSing?"

"What's YOUR problem?" I countered, crossing my own arms. "Growing breasts?"

"Aiko!" Yumi barged into my room, looking tired as fuck with eyebags under her eyes. "Fucking pick up your shit in my room."

"Yeah, whatever," I said, almost as if I were dead.

Yumi stomped over and picked me up by my collar. She held me above the ground when her pupils dilated and she actually looked crazy as fuck. It was so fucking scary. "Listen," she started shakily as she breathed and panted, "I am so sleep-deprived I feel like dying the fuck out. Cut the emo shit and pick up the crap you left in my room. Pick it up. Get out. Simple as fuck."

She dropped me and sauntered back to her room like a devil.

"Yumi cusses?" Sasuke asked curiously after the shock wore off. "We all do," I replied morbidly, picking myself up. "You've heard her cuss before. It's not new."

"She doesn't cuss as much as you and Rai," Sasuke pointed out. "And I've heard her cuss excessively when you two bicker, but that's just to call you names.

"She only cusses like us when she's SUPER mad," I informed him, dragging my sorry ass to Yumi's room to take the food I left in there. "And when we bicker, of course."

Yumi was sleeping in her room, Name was reading a book while trying to stab her steak that seemed to be moving, and Rai sighed as she got off the couch. "I'm bored!"

No one responded.

It was completely silent in my room and that's why I could hear her loud-ass voice.

Sasuke knew I didn't feel like talking, so he didn't push it. He just sat there and waited until I felt like saying something. See? This is the kind of friend we all should fucking get. Someone who didn't go, "Oh, are you okay?" and start randomly hugging you because they think you need it.

He was someone who didn't expect you to cry on his fucking shoulder like some little girl and if you did, he wouldn't give a fuck. He didn't try to comfort you with words that don't mean shit; he didn't comfort you at all really. He didn't ask what was wrong, all that he knew was that something WAS wrong.

He just sat there, waiting for you. Waiting for when you would be ready to talk. Sasuke's a really good friend. A man of no words but a millions expressions or actions. The best you can get.

Meanwhile, downstairs…

"Name, come on!" I could hear the struggle as Rai tried to pull Name out from her magical fuckery of books. Why the hell does she read those anyways? Too many fucking words.

"Fine, I will follow you, but only in the hopes that you will leave me alone after," Name sighed. I could hear their footsteps banging up the stairs. Loud-ass fuckers.

Uh-oh. I know where they're going. And it's not a good idea.

"Yumi, open up," Rai said, knocking on Yumi's door. Uh-uh. This is not good at all. Never disturb Yumi while she's trying to sleep. At least not now, since she's all eye-baggy and cranky and shit. She's gonna cuss them the fuck out. "Yumi?"

"Ow!" Sasuke glared in my direction as my gun-shaped pillow hit his head. Without looking at his eyes and keeping my gloomy aura, I pointed to the door. "Go warn them before they die."

He grumbled some shit but went outside anyways. "Your pillow's shaped like a gun.

"I'd shoot you with it if I could."

He glared but walked away.

I could always watch them on my cool-ass flat screen TV. I flicked it on and used my remote to put it onto the right surveillance camera—the one right in front of Yumi's room.

"I'd rather not go in there," Sasuke said to the two girls, scratching his head.

"Eh? Why not?" Rai asked him, suddenly feeling conscious now that Sasuke was here. I snickered. Oh how those two pussies needed to know how much they liked each other.

"She came barging into Aiko's room today and was really pissed off. She even cussed at Aiko," Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance to my name. I twitched. I'm gonna get you for that, dumbass. "So she told me to tell you guys not to knock on her door. She's trying to get sleep."

"I guess it can't be helped then," Rai sighed, walking towards my room. "Where is Aiko anyways?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes again. "Sulking in her room. The little drama queen has some emo crap going on." I grew a tick mark. I'm gonna remember that, you dickface.

"Let's go check on her then." Oh shit.

I threw the remote on my bed and turned off the TV. Back to the corner!

I turned off the lights, closed the curtains, and resumed to being all sad and shit. They don't need to fucking know.

"What the hell?" I heard Rai say. I peeked under my bangs to see them in the doorway, looking at me.

Sasuke rolled his eyes as he leaned on the doorway. "She's been like that since this morning. I guess something pissed her off."

"That's very Aiko-like," Name's quiet voice spoke up, though her eyes didn't leave her stupid book. "But her attitude ruins the experience of the apparent joys of Christmas morning, as described by the book I finished 10 minutes ago."

"Christmas morning's supposed to be happy and peaceful and you're supposed to have your family all around the tree," Rai said, glaring at me. "Go stick your head under the tree, Aiko."

"After I shove it up your ass, Rai," I mocked her, keeping up with my gloomy mood.

She twitched but stomped over to yank my arm. "C'mon, Scrooge. We're gonna do some Christmas shit to make you feel Christmas-y today!"

"Eghhhh," I groaned. Why the hell do I still Christmas crap when I did a shitload of it yesterday?

I even showed Sakura and them my ass! That's fucking personal, but I did it for the sake of Christmas.

"Get dressed." She threw clothes at my face. I stood still. I sure as hell won't dress myself up to go have another shitty day. Uh-uh, no sirree.

So the bitch has the nerve to dress me up herself.

She dressed me in a jean skirt, black leggings, a white long-sleeve with a yellow A in the middle, a sleeveless green army jacket, a gold chain necklace, and a yellow beanie. And then she made me do the worst thing possible. She made me wear Uggs.

"I'm not wearing that shit!" I protested, squirming the fuck out of her grasp.

"What the hell happened to you? Weren't you all 'the world hates me' before?" She growled, pulling my hair.

"No matter what the fuck you do to me, I'm not wearing that piece of fuck!"

Downstairs

"I was waiting for you guys," Sasuke said lazily, flipping through the channels and lying on the couch as if it were his. "What took you so long?"

"Sasuke, look what she's wearing," Rai said sweetly, stealing Sasuke's attention from the TV. He instantly smirked when he saw me.

"I like you Uggs, Aiko," He grinned, "And I like how they're the color of pee."

"I'll kick your ass, Uchiha." It wasn't a statement. It was a damn forewarning.

"I love you too, Aiko," He snickered as he walked towards us. "So what, are we going now?"

"Where the fuck are we going?" I asked, my voice low. This is fucking ridiculous. They didn't say no shit about going anywhere!

"Shut it," Rai put a finger to my mouth. WTF? She turned back to Sasuke with a grin. "We're out to the Town Center near the Shibuya Crossing."

Name spoke up. "You're crazy."

"Yeah, you are," I agreed more calmly, "What the fuck is wrong with you? It's fucking New Year's and we're going to the Shibuya Crossing? We'll suffocate!"

"EGG-ZACTLY!" She pulled me into a headlock. "I bet all those people will get ya into a good mood!"

Rai POV

I wore a white and grey striped longsleeve turtleneck, a sleeveless leather jacket, black shorts, black boots, a white beanie and a black cross. I even curled the ends of my hair just to look awesome. 'Cause I am :D

I made Name dress into a black shirt and a black skirt but I put a big light blue with purple outlines buttoned coat over it. I made her wear grey and blue striped knee-highs and black combat boots. Then I put a lavender scarf on her and a black beanie. I even made her hair all wavy just to make her look nice just in case we ran into Kiba, y'know? Winkie, winkie.

Geez, they were just like kids. I always had to dress them and whatnot.

"What about Yumi?" Sasuke asked, restraining Aiko from jumping out the window.

"She's quite petulant when given poor sleeping durations," Name said, not taking her eyes off her book. "She's cantankerous and significantly crabby. Her ornery attitude might infuriate you and you might confront her, thus infuriating her, herself, and causing a domino effect of irritating each other."

"Uh…" I ran up the stairs. "Be right back!"

I had to escape her twisted way of thinking. It was too much to handle!

I wonder what was up with these shitheads today. Like, they all woke up disturbed. Isn't Christmas morning to be like some peaceful shit and stuff? They're definitely not making it peaceful. It's actually pretty morbid.

Name's too self-absorbed in anything other than us to care, Aiko's being a dramatic emo, and Yumi's sleep-deprived, thus making her super-cranky.

Although it seems that Aiko can beat anyone's ass and Name can kill you with just plain words, Yumi was the scariest out of all of us. Even Aiko didn't wanna cross paths with her when she was cranky i.e. this morning.

Yumi was the sweetest and the girliest and the nicest. But boy when she got pissed, it's like fucking Satan out of hell. Do not bother her when she's pissed. She might mess up your body to unrecognizable points.

When Yumi was pissed, she'd act like Aiko—all foul-mouthed and easily annoyed, always glaring and all that. The main point of my explanation: Do not piss Yumi Tamachiki off.

"Yumi?" I knocked on her door. God help me. I hope she doesn't cut my knuckles off.

"…"

"Yumi?" I knocked some more. "I know you're awake."

I heard a crashing noise and a loud beeping. Aw man. She just broke the alarm clock. (HAHAHA, I typed "alarm cock" on accident. HAHAHAHA. Excuse my spastastic-ness)

"I would be fucking sleeping if it wasn't your stupid fucking voice," I heard her demonic voice from behind the door. Right then and there, I almost resisted the urge to piss my pants and run away. But I kept strong.

"C'mon, we're going out," I tried to say as nice as possible.

"Fuck you."

I sweat-dropped. This is really not working out. What the hell am I supposed to say now?

"Shikamaru's coming…" Please work. Please work. Please work. Pleas—

The door cracked open and I saw a gleam of Yumi's green eye. "Where are we going?"

"Just at the Town Center, near the Shibuya Crossing," I said, trying to keep the triumph from my voice. HA! Mentioning that lazy bastard actually worked!

"Five minutes."

When she closed the door, I did a little Running Man victory dance in the hallway. YES! Oh yeaaaahhh! Asian Persuasion!

"I like your dance," I heard Sasuke snicker from behind me. I froze. Oh crap. He saw me. I'm dead. I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead. This is so embarrassing.

"Uhhh…" I slowly turned to face his smirking face, "I was just kidding?"

He laughed and came up to me. "You're funny."

I raised an eyebrow. "Are you saying I wasn't before?"

He pressed me up against the wall, looking down on me. Damn his stupid height. Why'd he have to be so freaking tall? "No."

If he was trying to make me uncomfortable, it wasn't working. I smirked. "What are you trying to do here, Sasuke?" He had me cornered and just a tiny bit inside me thought I was gonna get raped, but then another part of me would've liked it.

"I don't know, what do you want me to do?" The suggestive tone to his voice did not help my frantic heart-beating and my crazy imagination.

"Ahem." I jumped as someone cleared their throat.

Yumi stepped out in a black skirt, purple knee-highs, black laced-up boots that went up to her calves, a tight white sweater with Beavis and Butthead's face on it, and a purple Members Only half jacket. She wore purple hoop earrings and tied her hair into a ponytail, her purple streaks matching her outfit.

Oh shiz. When did she get there?

"If you guys are done fucking each other, I'd rather we get going right now," Yumi said monotonously. She was different. There was a dead look to her eyes that replaced the happy one and she radiated danger.

"Be careful what you say," I whispered to Sasuke as we went downstairs. I almost forgot what me and Sasuke were doing there. Almost.

…

"Why am I here again?" Shikamaru asked me as we walked around the Shibuya Crossing.

"Because," I whispered to him, "Yumi's cranky 'cause she didn't get any sleep. We're trying to cheer her up."

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "And that involves me?"

"Yeah! She agreed to go only if you went," I said, crossing my arms. "Girl would do anything for ya."

He just sighed once more and said, "How troublesome."

"Shut up!" I hissed. "Don't let them hear you. I swear if they get pissed, your ass is mine!"

He rolled his eyes again. "What a drag."

Him and his stupid catchphrases. "If you say that again, I'll drag your ass all the way to-,"

"Rai!" Sasuke yelped for help. (OOH, rhyme! Can't touch this, can't touch this)

The three girls were surrounding Sasuke with their deadly "Kill Christmas" attitude. Seriously! I've got to do something to get the Christmas spirit into these dumbasses. I'm not giving up until these shitbags feel the Christmas spirit!

"Okay guys, today we're gonna do a whole mess of good things for the sake of Christmas!" I declared energetically, pointing at my so-called sisters.

Name looked up from her book, Aiko was glaring needles at me (HA! You thought I'd say daggers, eh?), and Yumi spared me a glance. Great. Now I've got their unwanted attention.

Sasuke was in the back, looking scared as fuck.

"Where are we going?" Name demanded.

I smiled at them. Yumi was what kept us happy. She was what kept us from wringing each other's necks. If it weren't for her and her optimism, we'd all be dead by now and missing at least three fingers. And since she's cranky today, I gotta be the happy one to keep their spirits up.

No matter how bad they piss me off, I gotta be patient. Remember Rai, these bitches are like little kids. They're stubborn so you have to be patient.

Agh, what the fuck, why am I talking to myself? Oh yeah, it's called thinking. Then doesn't that mean everybody talks to themselves? I wonder if—

"Oi." I was brutally knocked in the head by Yumi. "Stop acting like a spaz and listen."

Don't punch. Don't punch. "Sorry."

"Where are we going?" Name asked again, impatience clear in her voice.

"We're going anywhere and to anybody that needs our help!" I said cheerfully, striking a cool pose. My plan was to buy a whole buncha stuff that orphans need and we'd wrap them and put them under the big Christmas tree in the Town Center. "We're gonna do good on Christmas!"

Cue the music!

All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey

I don't want a lot for Christmas I pulled them all along with me
There's just one thing I need The wind blew in our hair and we looked like cool people on the street!
I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree I pulled them into a candy shop where Yumi rudely ate everything she liked
I just want you for my own I tried to take it away from her, but she bit my finger
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true While I was crying the in the corner, Shikamaru sighed and pulled the lollipop out of Yumi's hand
All I want for Christmas is...
You She momentarily glared, but once she saw Shikamaru, she hung onto him. "How troublesome."I asked Sasuke to carry the bags while I took them to the animal shelter
I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree Five minutes later, we walked out because Aiko got pissed that a cat scratched her face
I don't need to hang my stocking
There upon the fireplace Somewhere in all of this, Sasuke had grabbed my hand and hey, I wasn't complaining
Santa Claus won't make me happy
With a toy on Christmas day We jumped into a toy shop, where I bought a whole buncha crap
I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know But we got kicked out, as expected, when Name started "fixing" one of the toys; instead of singing, it is now programmed to mimic your movements
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you Aiko got us kicked out of all the other stores, so we had nowhere else to go
You babySo I decided we go to the park to feed ducks
I don't even wish for snow And you know what? Yumi stepped on a duck and now it's dead.
I'm just gonna keep on waiting That shit is fucking insane.
Underneath the mistletoe
I won't make a list and send it Oh well. At least a I bought a little girl an ice cream
To the North Pole for Saint Nick That is, until, Name told her that Santa Clause wasn't real
I won't even stay awake to
Hear those magic reindeers click And then Yumi ate her ice cream
'Cause I just want you here tonight And then it got worse; the little girl called her big-ass gorilla of a brother
Holding on to me so tight Who crushed Aiko
What more can I do
Baby all I want for Christmas is you But then Aiko kicked his ass nice and well
Ooh baby
All the lights are shining It was getting a little dark
So brightly everywhere
And the sound of children's "WAHHH!"
Laughter fills the air Oh great. Name made ANOTHER little boy cry
And everyone is singing And then Aiko beat up the Christmas carolers because they were annoying her. "Shut the fuck up. We have a radio, we don't need you to sing!"
I hear those sleigh bells ringing "She slapped me!" another man protested against Yumi.
Santa won't you bring me the one I really need "You're a creepy pedophile, that's why!" was her argument
Won't you please bring my baby to me... Oh god. Is she really arguing with a guy about this right now?I face-palmed. I just want these Christmas-less shits to be good
This is all I'm asking for Dear god, please help me
I just want to see my baby
Standing right outside my door I look to my right and Shikamaru's hanging off some random tree
Oh I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know To my left, and Sasuke's getting chased around by random girls
Make my wish come true Bitches better get off him before I slap the flirt off their face.
Baby all I want for Christmas is...
You My life sucks.

I don't want a lot for Christmas
There's just one thing I need

I won't ask for much this Christmas

Oh I don't want a lot for Christmas

All I want for Christmas is you... baby

~…+…~

"You guys…really…are impossible," I said in between breaths as we had to run away from all the girls Sasuke attracted. I was ready to backhand those bitches, but I did all I could not to because Christmas isn't about backhanding slutty whores.

"Fucking big-ass Christmas tree," Yumi commented, her mouth full of croissants that I had to buy her.

We were walking into Town Center and of course, it was the center of the town, so naturally, they'd put some five-hundred foot Christmas tree in there. (It's not really five-hundred feet, but that's the way it looks like to me. IT'S HUGE, let's just say that)

People from some charity organization were decorating the Christmas tree and some more of them were setting up a stage so performers could sing. I've seen them working on it every time I passed Town Center, so it's easy to say that they've been working hard on this shit.

They were almost finished too. There were snowflakes hanging from the shops and a bunch of wreaths on everyone's door. Lights were everywhere and all that crap, so it helped set the perfect mood.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Aiko asked in all her gloominess. I was carrying like two hundred pounds worth of Christmas presents so we could wrap them and give them to charity.

"Um, obviously, to feel the Christmas spirit," I said, heaving the bags over my shoulders so they wouldn't fall. God help me if they fell. It'd take some sort of bulldozer to pick up all the presents we bought.

"Oh goodness! Are those the presents for the orphans?" An old lady wearing one of those ugly Christmas sweaters your grandma gave you (She was probably the grandma making them) approached us.

"Yes ma'am!" I smiled my best I'm-Sorry-About-The-Bitches-Behind-Me smile and added, "Where do we put all this?"

"Buy the Christmas tree, dear," the kind old woman pointed towards the gargantuan excuse for a Christmas tree, "There should be a table of donations there. The charity people will wrap the presents for you."

"Good. C'mon guys." I saluted ugly sweater lady and made my way towards the table with the pack of Piss-Offs behind me. It took like ten minutes to get there because there was a whole shitload of people moving around and crap.

"Whew! Isn't this fun guys? I mean, don't you just get a good feeling knowing you're helping an—guys?" While I was standing in between Sasuke and Shikamaru, the three Piss-Offs migrated towards the front of the big Christmas tree.

Name was examining it and the remaining two idiots were bickering.

"Hey what are you guys doi-,"

"This is a rather poor-quality Douglas fir," Name mused, rubbing her hand on her chin. She circled it once and came back to us. "The tree has a slight tilt and is losing about a foot due to the heavy weight of the myriad of unnecessary ornaments and decorations."

A worker two feet from us turned red, hearing what she had said. "Hey! I'll have you know that I chose the tree myself," Oh great. What luck. The guy who picked the tree just HAPPENED to hear what Name had to say about it, "And I do a pretty damn good job tree-picking."

"Obviously not," Name retorted, "Added to the slight but obvious tilt and decreasing height, the branches are too far out, thus diminishing a look of thickness that an ideal Christmas tree would possess."

The guy glared. "Why you-,"

I could tell he was about to physically impair Name, but was stopped by the two idiots that I forgot should never be left alone. Even worse when they were both pissed off.

The guy was shoved into the tree. "What the-,"

"SHUT UP! You're so fucking annoying!" Aiko growled, pulling Yumi's hair. "We all know fucking Santa doesn't exist!"

"You can shut the fuck up 'cause we all know that you're fucking stupid!" Yumi replied with equal menace, gripping Aiko's shoulders.

"What kind of fatass can parade around people's chimneys without getting fucking arrested! Huh? You tell me! And fucking explain to me how this four-hundred pound lard-face gets into your chimney without fucking getting burnt, getting his crusty fat stuck inside, or turning straight up charcoal-ass black! Fucking impossible!" Aiko yelled. "These are facts ya dumb bitch!"

"You know what else is a fact?" Yumi asked as they tumbled around the place.

"Oh dears, please don't do that around here," the old lady pleaded as everybody was watching the little commotion. "Appropriate language please!"

"It's a 100% proven fact that YOU'RE a dumbass who still thinks the tooth fairy is a myth!" Yumi declared as they fought around the charity place.

"Do you know how fucking retarded sound right now?"

"Please girls! Don't do that here!" the old woman said and the rest of us kind of watched in awe. The two shitheads fought around the place—punching, pushing, kicking, and screaming.

Everything they hit turned to ashes. Not literal ashes but they just destroyed all the presents and stepped on them and ripped off all the tinsel. They were like a freaking tornado and a windstorm and a tsunami all up in one.

"Oh my hell, I hope you get fucking coal for Christmas!" Yumi said.

"Oh yeah? I'd want coal too—so I can shove 'em up your ass!"

"AHH!" Everybody screamed when the retards finally hit what everybody was expecting them to hit. Yep. The big five-hundred foot Christmas tree. What was sad was that it probably cost a shitload of money.

".." Sasuke and I said in awe and unison.

"What a drag," Shikamaru said in his usual detached voice of his. We all stared at the tree as it shook and came crashing down to the ground. We heard most of its ornaments shattering under the trees weight and most of the decorations had been ruined.

I took a look around and boy did we bring disaster.

The stage was ripped and ruined, decorations littered the floor, tables were overturned, the majority of the presents were damaged, even some of the shop's decorations were pulled off.

And all because these two motherfucking, ungrateful, Christmas-ruining shitheads of a shitbag were bickering over a topic as stupid as Santa's existence.

~…+…~

"I hate Christmas." Aiko said glumly, emanating that dark overcast aura again in the corner. We were quickly thrown out of Town Center and were now roaming the streets in shame. WHAT FUCKERS.

You'll never feel embarrassment until you get kind, hard-working, usually forgiving charity workers yelling at you and restraining one another from giving you a good well-deserved ass-kicking.

Yumi on the other hand was fast asleep on Shikamaru's back, but she peeked open an eye to say, "Fuck this Christmas. I'm so fucking tired."

"Um gee, is it because we ruined Christmas for a bunch of little orphans or is it because we wrecked a display that charity people spent all day on?" I crossed my arms in obvious sarcasm and put a finger to my chin, "Hmm…I wonder what it could be…"

"Christmas is not joyous as people perceive it to be." Oh god. Here we go again. Name and her intellectual rants that no one can keep up with 'cause her vocabulary's over the top. "You are expected to be cheerful, but what happens when you are not? I'd rather not celebrate Christmas. It's rather tiring and I'm fairly sure that the only person enjoying this poor excuse of a get-together is you, Rai."

HOLY HELL. That is it!

"I'd rather be by myself and my book. That way, I don't have to waste my Christmas on you bumbling and boisterous idiots parading around the town and embarrassing me and yourselves."

No, that was it. That was the snap I was waiting for.

"FUCK IT!" I yelled in the middle of the street. Everyone stopped to look at me. It was twilight by now and I had just spent the whole day trying to please these ass-faces called friends.

"I am sick and tired of all of you complaining that you 'hate Christmas here, Christmas sucks' there. It's fucking ridiculous! First of all, you guys are above the age of freaking ten. ACT LIKE IT. You," I pointed at Yumi, "You act like you're fucking four years old!"

"You get like what, five hours of sleep and you wake up all irritable and cantankerous! What the fuck does cantankerous even mean? AUGH! Stop acting like a stupid little drama queen because you didn't get what you wanted for once." Yumi widened her eyes in surprise as she slowly slid off Shikamaru's back.

"And you," I pointed to Aiko. "Oh you." I smiled sadistically.

"You're a freaking stupid-ass! You wake up pissed and you sit in a corner and cry to yourself all day. You remind me of the freaking Grinch. Stop being all doom-and-gloom. Nobody died. Nobody fucking ate your sandwich. It's still in the fridge, I checked. And—wait a minute. What the fuck are you being mad about? You didn't even tell us the shit that got you all up in arms."

"Still not telling you," She said monotonously, acting as if she didn't care though she blatantly did. She was a good liar, but not right now. Not when I'm so damned pissed.

"Whatever! Just get rid of your black clouds, your black aura, and your black shit in general! It's fucking depressing and I feel like cutting my wrists when I look at you."

"And you," I stared at Name who stared right back. "You're probably the worst out of all of them."

Name seemed somewhat surprised. "Me? I beg to differ. I was the one who kept out of trouble and harm's way. Why, if anything, I helped you since I caused the least amount of trouble. I did nothing but tranquilly read my book in silence in the far back of all your incessant chaos. I did nothing."

"Exactly." I said, arms up in frustration. "You did nothing!. Well, you got us kicked outta the toy shop and you made a few little kids cry, but that was pretty much it. Oh and let's not forget when you pissed off a charity worker. A charity worker for fuck's sake! Actually, you even complained about us a few times. We were loud and embarrassing. You didn't even want to be with us."

"Neither did they," Name said casually, looking towards the shocked, mouth-slacked open Yumi and Aiko. It made me even more pissed to see that Name's eyes remained the same 'I-Don't-Care' look as before.

"Yeah, but I knew that if they weren't having bad days, they'd actually want to come here and have fun. They'd give an effort and all that. It's only because they started off the morning wrong that they weren't as energetic as usual."

"Hm? And how do you know I wasn't having a bad day?" Name challenged. This was becoming into a spectacle. Guys formed a circle around us, in hope of a catfight. Let me tell you. I don't like to disappoint.

I snorted. "Because you NEVER have a bad day. You never care about anything. You just breeze through life like nothing's gonna touch you. You'd rather be alone with you and your book, right? On Christmas Day? Well, Merry Christmas Scrooge, your wish is just about to come true."

I took one last look at the two shocked girls and the one that seemed uncaring, her dark blue eyes glazed over. Shikamaru stood, leaning against a trash can as if he knew it was going to happen and Sasuke was waiting for me to finish up.

"I'm done with you guys. Thanks for ruining my Christmas. I just wanted to spend it with my family."

"Bye," Name challenged. She really wanted me to fight her, huh? "I hope you realize that you can't force anybody into happiness. Christmas is just not that exciting for certain people."

"I hope you tell that to the orphans when they wake up present-less."

"…"

"Give it up, Name. You know what it's like to be an orphan. We all do. That's why we're so fucking sad to look at. We're a couple of girls, living alone with no one to take care of us. People walk by and gossip about how we dress, how we act and how nobody's there to tell us from right or wrong. We didn't want pity, but these are children. Do you remember when we used to believe that our parents would come back?"

"…" Name said nothing.

"Yeah, well, believe it or not, there was a time when we'd wake up and wish our parents were fucking alive so we get all the love we fucking needed. Guess what? These—these children have nothing to wake up to. Yeah, we got used to that a long time ago, but some people aren't like us. They're not as strong or forgetful as us. Those kids will remember everything about their childhood. How on their birthday nobody was there to celebrate it with them and when they finally got that song on the piano right, nobody's there to congratulate them. How nobody's there when they make their first goal or when they graduate. It'll always be like that for them. And at least we have each other. Have some sympathy, Name, these are children—orphans. Don't make them go through what we did."

Normal POV

As soon as Rai left, the crowd dispersed in disappointed "awes" and the girls were left in silence as the guys waited in anticipation.

Sasuke knew he shouldn't go after her. If he did, he'd just make things worse, so he decided to stay put where he was and wait for these girls to just sort it out themselves.

Aiko scratched the back of her head. "Well, that didn't go well."

"No shit, dipstick," Yumi retorted maliciously. "State the obvious, why don't ya?"

Aiko instantly narrowed her eyes. "Shut up, you don't even cuss so stop trying to act like you do. Being mean doesn't suit you, so do us all a favor and get out of our lives. Go to sleep."

She slightly gasped and then her eyes widened, as if she couldn't believe Aiko said that to her of all people, but then she ran away. Stupid girl.

"You too, Aiko. Snap out of your pointless whining and complaining. It's not going to change anything. When you said that to Yumi, you should also think about yourself. Don't act like something you're not. You're not fooling anybody, so just go away. We don't need to be filled with your negative energy."

Aiko couldn't move. They were telling her to go away? Well, that hurts. Soon enough, Aiko slowly walked away and the sky darkened.

Shikamaru rubbed the side of his neck. "What now?"

"Just walk away dramatically."

"Eh, why not?" Shikamaru did as he was told, dramatically walking into the cold dusk. Soon enough, Name was left with just Sasuke.

They stood in silence as Name breathed out fog. "You leaving too?"

"Not unless you tell me to," Sasuke answered, staring straight ahead.

"Leave."

"Yes ma'am," Sasuke nodded and turned away. "But y'know…" he kept his back turned, "If it's any help, I'm sure Rai wouldn't be that mad if you just apologized. She's a very forgiving person. It is partly your fault, but it's partly hers to force you guys into something you didn't want to do. No wonder you guys snapped at her, but appreciate her a little bit, you know?"

"Bye." Name tried to emphasize that she didn't want him there anymore.

"Will do, ma'am." Sasuke saluted her nonchalantly and stuck his hands in his pockets as he disappeared into the sea of people.

And soon, Name was left alone, like she wanted to be. Just her and her book.

Strangely enough, it didn't feel as self-satisfying as she thought it would. She thought that Christmas would feel better without those loudmouth idiots wreaking havoc in public, but it actually felt…worse. A little lonely to be specific.

Damn the Uchiha boy. He was right. No wonder Aiko talked to him about her problems. He had incredible insight on things despite his initial attitude.

She stuffed her hands into her pockets and hid her frown beneath her scarf. That way, nobody could see that she was unhappy with her foolish choice of words.

~…+…~

Yumi was sitting alone in a coffee shop with her head in her palm and her elbow on a table. She was contemplating everything Rai said and she hated it because she was right.

She was too much of a baby. She did ask for too much. Aiko had every reason to snap at her. She would be the hypocrite if she criticized anybody else for not being themselves.

Her, herself, had been moody just because she was stolen of a few hours of sleep that she could've gotten tonight had everything went alright. Yumi now felt bad for Rai.

She tried so hard to unite them and try to get them to feel the Christmas spirit. Yumi felt the spirit alright, but it was a pity she didn't get to feel it with her most treasured friends.

And the orphans, oh god the orphans. She felt like killing herself when she imagined what their faces would look like when they didn't get any presents for Christmas. And all because of her.

"Feeling bad?" A cup of coffee was set down in front of her as a chair scraped the floor and a guy sat beside her. She was NOT in the mood for another pickup.

"Look I-Who the hell are you?" She said in surprise, blinking.

In front of her was standing a handsome raven-haired guy with kind dark blue eyes. He looked kinda like Naruto, but older and more Sasuke-ish. But you couldn't take away the fire in his eyes, just like Naruto.

He looked to be in his later teens.

"May I join you?" The older teen asked, even though he was already sitting. Yumi nodded, dumbfounded. Who was this guy and what did he want with her?

The guy said, "A teenager. Alone on Christmas. Huh."

Yumi narrowed her eyes and stubbornly stared straight ahead. "I wouldn't be talking. You're a teenager too and besides, I messed up my own Christmas. I deserve this shit."

The young man chuckled. He'd seen it all before. "Well, no matter what one does to mess something up, there's always a chance to fix it, don't you think? I suppose it matters if you are willing to fix it, of course."

"Of course I'm willing to fix it! I don't wanna be freaking forever alone," Yumi said, throwing her hands up into the air. "But what am I supposed to do? I just yelled at my friend and my other friends banished me. I was too afraid to stand up for myself and tell them that I was just having a bad day. I'm a loser if I can't even do that much."

All of a sudden, he stood up and grinned while ruffling her hair. "Don't say that. I was…in a similar situation when I was a kid. I had a friend and we didn't get alone well and we just basically ruined Christmas for my other friend."

"What'd ya do?"

"I…" He looked nostalgically ahead with a sad smile on his face, "I joined forces with the enemy and tried to make her happy. We let go of all our differences with each other and completely surrendered our biases to make her Christmas memorable. She said just seeing us two work together and get along was good enough. After that, we hung out, all three of us and it turned out to be the best Christmas ever."

Yumi stared wide-eyed at the dark-haired teen. "It was that easy?"

He laughed, beginning to leave. "Easy? I was the gas and he was the match. One spark was all it took for us to blow up at each other. And it didn't help that back in those days, I was an obnoxious snot-nosed brat. Call it a Christmas miracle or not, but we got rid of everything we had against each other for that one person."

"Yeah," Yumi smiled to herself, "I get ya."

"Good luck, kid and remember, don't be afraid to get in the ring."

Yumi grew a tick mark. Kid? He wasn't much older than her herself. And why the hell was he quoting Guns N' Roses? It was a little weird.

She watched him walk out the door and her eyes followed his body. She was shocked when he was supposed to pass in the window in front of her, but he just…disappeared.

What? Did…that just happen?

"You okay?" She shook her head and stared up at Shikamaru. She felt her heart flutter, but she frowned. "Obviously not. I feel like a bitch."

Shikamaru smiled at the girl. She was obviously learning how to grow up. Accepting your mistakes also makes you an adult. "Don't worry about it. No doubt, they're all cooling off by now. Just wait, okay? Everything's gonna be alright."

Oh how she hated those words the most. 'Everything's gonna be alright'. Yeah fucking right. When do those words actually work?

But as strange as it could be, it didn't bother her when he said it. Nothing about him bothered her. The words actually did what they were meant to do—comfort her.

She gave him a small hug and smiled. "Thanks Shika."

~…+…~

Aiko on the other hand was kicking trash cans all over the place and fuming. "This is fucking pathetic!" She groaned as she slumped against a wall in front of a pub.

"Dammit. I messed up again," She said to herself as she downcast her eyes to the floor and sat in her self-loathing. Why couldn't she just shut her mouth for a day? Just once, for Rai and them…

Granted, the other two girls didn't want to be there either, but at least they weren't pouting in the corner like a pathetic little puppy. Damn. When did I become so weak?

She looked up above for a sign that was sure to not come, but surprisingly, she found anyways. Maybe I just need a drink.

She walked inside the pub and ordered a beer. It wasn't her first time drinking. Besides, she wasn't an easy drunk. It took about ten bottles for her to start being woozy. And it's not like she's a frequent drinker or anything. She only drinks to relieve the stress of life.

She listened to the band onstage as she lazily sat in her seat. Her eyes widened as she recognized the band that was playing. No fucking way!

Christmas in Hollywood by Hollywood Undead (Check this song out. It's…AWESOME)

She couldn't believe they were onstage right in front of her eyes. They already started the song, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy it.

It's Christmas in Hollywood, Santa's back up in the hood

So meet under the mistletoe, let's fuck

It's Hanukkah in Inglewood, the dreidle's spinning in the hood

So meet me by the menorah, let's get drunk

Oh, man, Aiko loved this song! It immediately brought her spirits up as she grinned.

J-J-J-Just a little story about last Christmas

About some bad kids who were full of wishes

We gave some gifts and then we gave some lovin'

The weird kind of love you give to your cousin

"WHOO! You guys rock!"

Little Timmy stole from 7-11, so we stopped by house with a pair of sevens

We drank in his room with some dude named Kevin

But there was still some bad kids who deserved some presents

Zack got caught with a bottle of Jack

So we slipped down his chimney with an 18-pack

He didn't leave cookies but we needed a snack

So we took the beer back and I…

"FUCKED HIM IN THE ASS!" They let the crowd finish the lyric.

It's Charlie Scene, got eggnog in my flask

The holidays are back and all my presents are wrapped

Like Oh my god is that Saint Nick

Kids give me your list like it's the twenty-fifth!

Aiko couldn't help but get her spirits raised by this song and the band. It was an odd way to get her Christmas spirit going, but hey, we all have our different ways. Ooh! This was her favorite part.

Been accused of being a bad kid

B-B-But I get presents as is

Mrs. Clause just Myspace'd me

I blew off a date on Christmas Eve

So I don't give a fuck if you're naughty or nice

You might still get a Rolly and a game device

So write your list and never have no fear

Have a Hollywood Christmas…

"AND AN UNDEAD NEW YEAR!" Aiko could feel herself joining in with the crowd, though she still sat on the barstool with the bartender behind her. "FUCK YEAH!"

Now watch the language…HO! HO! HO!

Aiko laughed at the Santa voice.

It's Christmas in Hollywood, Santa's back up in the hood

So meet me under the mistletoe, let's fuck

It's Hanukkah in Inglewood, the dreidle's spinning in the hood

So meet me by the menorah, let's get drunk

The whole pub was bursting at the seams. It was an ideal Christmas song for Aiko. It was her kind of thing anyways. It was better than doing a bunch of shit she didn't want to do and feeling bad about the things she did do.

I'm about to serve it up for all you boys and girls

Good kids, bad and even Da Kurlzz

We were chillin' at home and deckin' the halls

So I check my phone and Santa had called

He said he'd swing by at a quarter to twelve

He said that his jolly ass needed some help

He said Christmas ain't a day, but a way of life

"If you guide my sleigh, I'll let you fuck my wife."

Aiko laughed and turned to get another sip of her drink. The bartender was a young man with dark blue hair and pale skin. He looked strangely like Sasuke…but this guy looked way nicer. But they were both the same rate of handsome. He smiled at me and asked, "You like the music?"

So we jumped in his sleigh and it started to jingle

Funnier than fuck, you can ask Kris Kringle

So we all took flight and something was fishy

He asked for road head and started to kiss me

Underneath his suit was just a bunch of pillows

Instead of bags of presents he had bags of dildos

"How could you not?" Aiko grinned some more at the last line. She put her elbow on the edge of the counter. "Merry Christmas, right?"

I pulled down his beard and it was a monster

It wasn't Saint Nick, it was a fucking impostor

When we found out, he started to pout

I took my bandana and choked him out

"Doesn't sound very merry coming out of your mouth," the bartender raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Sounds pretty shitty, actually." Aiko chuckled.

I pulled off his beard and I fucked his mouth

Hi-jacked his sleigh and headed down South

I had a lot of wild nights but tonight's the craziest

Met a lot of Jeff's but this one was shadiest

"Well, I had a pretty shitty Christmas," Aiko responded, her eyes darkening as she remembered the incident that happened not too long ago. "Wanna talk about it?" The bartender asked, dropping the Corona beers and leaning towards Aiko to show that he was listening.

When it comes to cheer, that motherfucker's a Grinch

Aiko flinched. That's what Rai called her before she stormed off into oblivion. Ouch.

So if you don't like Christmas, FUCK YOU BITCH!

That's sort of what Rai said too.

You kids are in big trouble…Oh boy…OH-OH!

Aiko laughed again at the Santa voice and turned to the bartender. "Well, long story short, I was a bitch and pissed off the one person who was willing to make Christmas special…"

It's Christmas in Hollywood, Santa's back up in the hood

So meet me under the mistletoe, let's fuck

It's Hanukkah in Inglewood, the dreidle's spinning in the hood

So meet me by the menorah, let's get drunk…let's get drunk

"Ahh," the bartender said in understanding, picking up his towel, "It's happened to me before. Same day, same time, and hell, same situation." Aiko stared at him. Who was this guy?

She blocked out all the angst-y pub-goers and the awesome band to the man who struck up a conversation with her. "So what happened?"

"Well," the guy wiped the marble countertop with a look of nostalgia on his face, "Me and my friend realized we were being stupid to the one person who actually put an effort into making our Christmas special. So we put ourselves into reverse and met that one person and we apologized our asses off. After that, best Christmas ever."

"…" She stared at him.

"What?"

"Are you feeding me bullshit?"

The bartender laughed, pulling out glasses for some martinis. "I absolutely am not feeding you any kind of shit whatsoever. Not shit from a bull, not shit from a chicken. That is a 100% true story."

"So all I gotta do is say sorry to shitheads I call my friends?" Aiko asked, slouching forward in her seat.

He laughed again and handed the perfectly arranged martinis to two ladies on the other side. "Don't call them shitheads. It makes you seem ungrateful. And yes, just apologize. You'd be surprised to see what happens when you do."

She sighed. "Yeah…Maybe."

"Just remember, don't blow up at anybody that tries to reason with you. Don't be a Rocket Queen."

She stared at him. "Why you quoting Guns N' Roses?"

"I'm not quoting Guns N' Roses," the raven-haired teen denied.

"Yeah, Rocket Queen's one of their songs, 1987 off of Appetite For Destruction, don't think I don't know that," Aiko said, raising an eyebrow.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Quoting Guns N' Roses? That's chance is one in a million," he said, referring to her assumption that he was using song titles from Guns N' Roses.

"There! That's another one!" Aiko pointed at him suspiciously. "You just said, One in a Million. 1988, G N' R Lies.Definitely Guns N' Roses."

"I don't get it."

Aiko closed her eyes in frustration. Seriously. This guy just named two prominent songs from Guns N' Roses. All he had to say was 'Welcome to the Jungle' and she would choke him.

When she opened them again, she was dumbfounded as to where the kind-hearted teen went. Just a second ago he was there and when she closed her eyes for five damn seconds, he's gone. What weird-ass shit.

"Hey kid."

She turned her eyes to the right and there stood another bartender, but not the one she was familiar with. This one had brown hair and brown eyes and wasn't nearly as handsome as the raven-haired one.

"You talking to yourself?" The smug bartender asked, as if Aiko were stupid.

Instead of cussing him out for thinking she was crazy, she blinked and asked, "Where did the other bartender go?"

The brown-haired one scoffed. "What other bartender? I've been here since noon. There ain't nobody else taking my shift. Not that I know about, anyways."

Aiko slightly gasped. Was she seeing things?

No way. That's not possible because she could see him there. He talked back to her. She wasn't talking to just herself. That was just plain stupid.

She scanned the dance floor for any sign of the young bartender. She just wanted some comfort and reassurance in that she wasn't completely insane.

There! She spotted familiar raven hair and the pale skin. She desperately ran over there and grabbed the supposed bartender.

"What the hell?" The guy turned around and it wasn't who she was looking for. It was Sasuke Uchiha. "Aiko, why are you here?"

She shook the shock off. "N-Nothing. I thought you were someone else."

"Who else looks this good?"

Aiko grew a tick mark. "A narcissist, that's who!"

Sasuke rolled his eyes and they pushed their way outside. "So, what, did you simmer down yet?"

Aiko sighed and shivered. The fog that came out of her mouth floated up to the sky to nowhere. It was getting seriously cold. "Yeah, I had a talk with a guy…that I don't really know exists or not, but he kind of told me to just let it go and start being nice. It is Christmas, after all."

Sasuke crossed his arms. "Good. You guys were getting annoying."

"Says you, you self-absorbed boy!"

~…+…~

This is my December

This is my time of the year

This is my December

This is all so clear

Name wallowed in her own sorrow as My December by Linkin Park floated its melody throughout the wasteland that she sat in.

This is my December

This my snow-covered home

This is my December

This is me alone

She scoffed at the accuracy of the lyrics. After walking into oblivion, she wanted to find a quiet, peaceful place where she could reprimand herself without people thinking she was crazy. And she found it at the back of the local Konoha mall. It was smaller than Diamond Bridges, but that was because Diamond Bridges was for rich people.

And I…

Just wish that I didn't feel like there was something that I missed

And I…

Take back all the things I said to make you feel like that

And I…

Just wish that I didn't feel like there was something that I missed

And I…

Take back all the things I said to you

She hung out in the back, where the dumpsters were and, although she would never admit it due to her immeasurable pride, she was freezing her ass off in the December weather. She felt stupid at that moment. The snow slowly drifted down to dampen her mood further.

And I give it all away

Just to have somewhere to go to

Give it all away

To have someone to come home to

She was alone. On Christmas. And it was snowing. It was a sad day for her. And the sad song that stretched miles and miles into the dead silence. She related to the words. She related to the words too well.

This is my December

These are my snow-covered dreams

This is me pretending

This is all I need

Again, the lyrics were dead on. Name ran a hand through her hair and stared at the cracked mirror in front of her. She was sitting near the dumpster and right across from her, leaning against a chain-link fence was a cracked, broken, dirty mirror.

And I…

Just wish that I didn't feel like there was something I missed

And I…

Take back all the things I said to make you feel like that

And I…

Just wish that I didn't feel like there was something I missed

Name stared at herself, ashamed of what she's come to be. When did she turn into such an ungrateful and disrespectful cretin? When did she become so mean and…selfish?

And I…

Take back all the things I said to you

The dirty reflection in the mirror paralleled her appearance, in her eyes at least. She was dirty and cracked. Filthy and foul. She didn't deserve such good friends.

And I give it all away

Just to have somewhere to go to

Give it all away

To have someone to come home to

She was truly disgusted with herself. She was frustrated. On the edge. Whenever she looked straight at the mirror, she only saw herself in all her tainted glory. She was not worthy. As she thought this, she stared at the shard of glass where the mirror sat. It was sharp.

This is my December

This is my time of the year

This is my December

This is all so clear

This one incident was a reminder of all the failures that occurred during her life. What had she failed to do? What would've happened if she didn't let down her friends? Would they be happy like always, or sad that she was changing?

And I give it all away

Just to have somewhere to go to

Give it all away

To have someone to come home to

As the song drifted to an end, she thought, maybe she should just disappear. I mean, all she did was disappoint anyways. She didn't cause any happiness since she was so characteristically dull. Mayb—"God this music is so depressing."

Name jumped. She didn't expect to hear a voice with her.

To her side, she saw black leather shoes and her somber midnight blue eyes traveled up to a kind, handsome face with raven-colored hair and determined dark eyes.

"If you're not careful, it may bring about suicide," the young man joked, sitting down with her. She looked at him with a vacant expression. She couldn't have cared less if this older teen had come to rape her or to kill her. That was it. She couldn't have cared less than she already didn't anymore.

"Suicide is dramatic and overrated," Name finally said, looking at the dreary gray sky. The snow gently fell along her face and piling up beside her. "It bothers me how youth these days could see it as the only way out. Escaping your life because it oh-so-miserable…just ridiculous."

The teen breathed a sigh of relief. "Whew. I thought you were gonna take part in the cultural trend these days. Suicide never is the answer, actually."

"I know that," Name said directly, keeping her eyes on the sky. "I wasn't gonna slit my wrists here."

"Good."

"I figured I'd do it in the woods where no one could possibly stop me and once I died, the animals would eat my gradually decaying body and take my DNA with them. I will then be one with nature."

The older boy laughed at the latter's dark humor. If it wasn't for his former friend's sarcastic humor, he'd have thought this girl was dead serious. But he knew she wasn't. She never was.

"I'm sorry to interrupt your seemingly interesting reverie, but I wonder…are you here for some sort of reason? It couldn't just be to impede my nonexistent suicide," Name's voice cut through his thoughts.

"Well, I was walking around town and I happened to come across a very depressed looking girl who looked like she was about to slit her own throat but it just so happens I was mistaken," the young man grinned, taking a seat next to her.

"What an outlandish presumption," Name almost laughed, "I take it you are inefficient at deductive reasoning?"

He pouted. "I wouldn't say that, but I guess I was never the best student when I was your age."

'When I was your age'? Name thought in confusion. He looked to be about her age. What in the world was he talking about?

"But I'm guessing you're having a lonesome Christmas?"

Name snorted. "Lonesome is not the only word. You should've added awful, guilty, and shameful."

"Now, what did you do to make yourself so shameful?" That was the real question. That was what his senseless banter was leading up to anyways.

"I don't believe in confiding to a stranger about personal problems," Name took a breath, "But…seeing as how I've been deserted for awhile now, I see no harm in doing the following."

"…" He was looking at her, to show he was ready for whatever she was going to say.

"I've seemed to express resentment towards my friend, who upon seeing our spiritless Christmas, had desperately tried to reunite us in a series of meaningless events and errands. I, who throughout the whole day remained perfectly calm, had gotten fed up with her futile tactics to bring us together and impulsively spat out words that I did not mean."

"Now, we've just arbitrarily ruined Christmas for orphans and I've lost my friends' respect," Name finished, hugging her knees and keeping her mouth in her scarf.

"Wow," the raven-haired teen whistled, "Some Christmas you jacked up."

Name glared, immediately locking with similar dark blue eyes. "Are you this good at consoling my blaring guilt or is this just some foolish way to direct me towards the right path?"

"Something like that," he chuckled, placing his elbows on his legs and letting them hang. "I'm not in any position to give you any advice, but I'm…your guiding spirit, let's just say that."

"Well then, spirit, guide me," Name grumbled, obviously waiting for some type of answer to make itself clear to her.

"A wise man once said "Don't hang your head in sorrow." I know how you feel inside and I've been there before, so don't think this whole thing's worth nothing," he said.

Using lyrics from Guns N' Roses? Name thought.

"After all, everything happens for a reason. Who knows, maybe after this problem, there's another one waiting to knock you down again. What matters is if and when you decide to get up."

Name sat in silence, continuing to stare at the ground. She knew what she had to do, but she just had too much pride to do it.

"Then again, since you're so stubborn…"

Name popped a tick mark in the middle of the serious moment. Since I'm so stubborn?...What the hell is that supposed to mean?

"You might not be strong enough…or willing to apologize."

"Hmph. As usual, your assumptions are wrong," Name scoffed, plastering an annoyed smirk on her face. "Of course I can apologize, you nitwit! Deductive reasoning truly isn't your forte…"

She heard him chuckle. "Good. Then my work is done."

"Wait a minute. You seem awfully insightful about this. Have you experienced this before?" Name asked in suspicion.

She felt his hand on her head and she subconsciously stared at the mirror in front of her. "There was a time…"

She stared at the mirror in shock. She still felt his hand on the top of her forehead, but all she saw was herself. Her beanie was dented as if to show pressure had been added. In other words, a hand was on her head, but there was no body reflected in the mirror but hers.

And...

"Do you have some type of obsession with Guns N' Roses or something?" Name inquired, slightly irritated. But somehow, she couldn't keep her eyes away from the mysterious mirror. She didn't even want to check if he was still there or not with her own eyes for fear of the answer. "I've heard your reference them numerous times."

"It's not an obsession," corrected the slightly older teen who removed his hand from her head, "It's an…admiration."

"Still…" Name said, "Why use their material?"

"I'm not using their material."

"Yeah you are."

"Oh well. I'm walking into the Street of Dreams now."

"Oh come on, you just said Street of Dreams. How is that not Guns N' Roses?"

"Yup. You're crazy."

Name's eye twitched. She didn't need him of all people to tell her that.

She turned her attention back to the mirror. Why had he not shown on the mirror? Was he a vampire or something? She could see his footsteps in the snow slowly disappearing, but she couldn't see his body anymore.

That was strange. He had just left about ten seconds ago. How had he crossed a mile of deserted land so quick?

The snow had covered everything and had thus showered a blanket of white on everything. There was no way he ran—she would've heard his feet crunching on the snow. He just…disappeared. And how come when he approached her, she couldn't hear him coming?

Granted, she was lost in her own thoughts, but surely she would've noticed a loud crunching sound coming from his shoes.

She shivered as a cold chill went across from her. And this time, it wasn't the snowy wind. It was different and she hated to say it, but she was sort of scared. Where had he come from? And where did he go?

~…+…~

"Stupid people, stupid friends," Rai grumbled as she carried boxes inside the Town Center. It had taken her ten minutes of begging and pleading and reassuring that her insane friends wouldn't come back.

It was a sad sight to look at, the Town Center. Everything was left in ruins after the charismatic blonde and the fiery red-head had torn their way through. It was dark now because those two cut off the electrical circuit that connected all the lights. They could barely see.

The charity organization's workers were exhausted as it was, but now they had TWICE the workload to do thanks to those two dumbshits.

"Ugh!" Someone had shoved her, again.

"My bad," sniffed a blonde charity worker as she lugged a box of plush toys as if they were fifty pounds of bricks.

Rai glared at her but nonetheless continued her work. Charity workers had been bumping into her "by accident" here and there and no doubt it was because of the incident earlier.

Now, they were not able to raise the tree due to its enormous weight and they had to leave it there, tackiness and all, until the towers came the next morning. They spent at least two hours cleaning up the mess the dumbass duo made and now they had less than an hour to re-decorate the place.

Rai called in her skater friends, but they were all busy and no way in holiday hell would she call in the three girls that caused all this in the first place. She'd rather get her legs shaved with a lawnmower.

And she'd attempted to call Sasuke, but he never picked up his phone while Shikamaru answered and then rudely hung up. She'd called in Temari and them, or "the Rebels" as people were calling them nowadays, but they said they'd be really late due Hinata's father setting a curfew.

The last option on her list were the Jacks, but she'd have to swallow her pride for that one. Not only would she shave her legs with a lawnmower, but she'd also brush her hair with a chainsaw.

So basically, it was just Rai trying to save the world all by herself here.

"Hey, Christmas Ruiner, grab the scissors would you?" One of the charity workers addressed her.

Tragically, that's what they'd officially dubbed her as and if she wanted to save orphans' Christmas, she'd have to deal with it. What you give is what you get after all. She'd forced the Piss-Offs to spend their day with her and now she's enduring humanitarian hell.

"Here." She'd grabbed the scissors, only to get them thrown back to her. "What the hell?"

"You idiot! Get the BIG scissors, Christmas Ruiner!" The charity worker reprimanded her. "Can't you see I'm trying to cut a ribbon, not a damn piece of paper! God, you dumbasses can't do anything right."

Rai almost punched him, but was stopped by her own kind self. It's Christmas. Be nice. Somehow, reminding herself to refrain from being violent really didn't help.

"Well sor-ry," Rai snorted, "It's kind of hard to see in the dark like this."

"We can't light up the lights because they freaking broke!" He glared at her. "Because of your friends."

Wow, Rai thought, Those dickheads better thank me for this. I'm taking a bunch of shit from these so-called good-doers.

A bell was rung and all workers froze and dropped their equipment.

"Granny Ai, is that really it?" The blonde girl showed some concern, asking the old lady wearing the ugly sweater.

'Granny Ai' as they called her sighed and looked down sadly. "Yes, I'm afraid so deary." She then turned around and spoke to the entire charity work force. "I'm terribly sorry everybody, but it seems that it's just not enough. The orphans will be here in a few minutes and I guess I'll be the one to have to break the news."

"What?" Another worker protested. "I-It can't be! We've worked so hard. So many months-!"

"Hmph," A spiteful charity worker scoffed, "So many months of hard work gone to waste because of that stupid blonde and her band of dumbasses!"

"Yeah!"

"I think so too!"

"Stop it, you all," Granny Ai didn't shout, but her voice demanded your attention, "Now, it is not this young lady's fault that we did not meet the deadline. Don't ever blame anybody else at hand when you're the one at fault. Yes, her friends DID destroy the Christmas tree and obliterate any chance of making those orphans happy again, but that's not her fault. It's her friends' fault. So if you're mad, take it out on those weird-haired hooligans."

Rai sweat-dropped. "T-Thanks Granny Ai, b-but I think it's alright."

"Alright?" The blonde raged, grabbing Rai by the shirt. "You're stupid-ass friends are the ones who caused this! Oh, that's right. Why the hell would you care? You're rich, aren't you? I've seen you at Konoha High. I work there for a living. Don't pretend like you give a shit when you really don't. And get your shiznit friends away from charity because frankly, nobody wants them here."

Rai's eyes were hidden behind the shadow of her bangs. She slowly looked up and brushed the other blonde's hand on her, ruby red eyes glowing. "Don't talk to me as if you know me. And yeah, so what, I'm not the poorest of people, but don't think as if I don't understand what the value of money is. When I was growing up, I didn't have a fucking dollar to feed me for the day. So don't go around announcing that I'm rich as shit because I'm not."

"And second of all, never, ever insult my sisters. Do it behind my back, I don't care, but DON'T do it in front of my face or else you get a hardcore ass-kicking," Rai growled. Everybody was silenced.

"And excuse us for wanting to help out your charity! We're clearly not organized, but we tried to help. I know they're not perfect, hell, they're just straight-up messed. They're stupid and crazy and they jack everything up just by being there. For example, today."

Some of the charity workers chuckled.

"Sometimes, they just don't know when to stop and they piss me off to the highest level that any other person CAN be pissed off. They're noisy and annoying and they always eat my food, but…" Rai smiled. "I love them."

"They're stupid, and that's why they're funny. They're messed, but they can fix it. They're crazy, and that's what keeps me sane. They piss me off, but I wouldn't be happy without them. You see, I feed off their energies. They don't exactly scream perfect, but I love how they're not."

"And yeah, I know they messed up your Christmas thing and I'm sorry about that. I truly am. If there was anything, absolutely anything I could do about the orphans, I really would. I've been there, I'm an orphan myself. But I tried. We tried. Isn't that what matters the most?"

"I'm sure you've heard this corny line done WAY before, but, it's true. Christmas ain't about what you get guys. I mean, sure it's nice to get something cool for Christmas, but what makes you happy is hanging out with the people you love the most."

"Orphans don't have that and I understand what you're doing here. You had this event so they could get presents to replace their parent's love. But instead of doing that, you could make sure they all get along and then they could earn some friends. People worth fighting for. People worth dying for."

"Someone precious to protect…that's what I'm aiming for. When you gain friends, you learn to grow with love. You forget about what you don't have because you learn to appreciate what you DO have. Friends. I know I treasure my friends the most. And that's why…"

Rai glared straight at the blonde, who rolled her eyes at her. "Anyone who antagonizes my friends, antagonizes me. Don't make an enemy out of me. I'll tell you now, I don't go easy on people who pick on my friends."

….

Intense silence.

*Clap, clap*

"Eh?"

The darkness was illuminated by the sudden burst of Christmas lights. It seemed that the lights in front of the stores were fixed and looked even better actually.

"No way," the blonde touched one of the lights, "LED lighting? We couldn't even afford that. Not with all the things we had to light up."

"Whoa, look!" One of the workers pointed towards the tree, which was gradually making its way up again.

"Well, I'll be damned," Granny Ai said in awe as the tree was getting pushed up by a group of people under it.

There was absolutely no way that that four-hundred pound tree was being lifted off the ground right now, but hey, there it's never too late for a Christmas miracle.

When the tree was put up again, there stood Aiko, Yumi, and Name with the rest of the ~BADASS8~ and the Rebels behind them, grinning and smirking and shit.

Aiko stood with a badass grin on her face, Yumi with a thumbs up sign and a huge grin, and Name with a smirk. You could say they looked cool. Better than cool. They were sparkling.

"What in the hell?" the blonde choked out when she saw the girls under there, especially with gorgeous guys behind them.

Rai looked at them in surprise. "Shiiiittt..."

"Hey, I liked your speech," Aiko smirked, crossing her arms.

"I liked when you said that we're what keeps you sane," Yumi said with wide eyes, licking yet another lollipop. "It's weird 'cause you're just as insane as us."

Rai grew a tick mark. "Not the right time, Yumi."

"Well, with us, it's never the right time," Name answered, walking towards Rai with her hand outstretched, "I suppose I owe you an apology."

The other blonde tilted her head at it. "Hm."

Name rolled her eyes. "Just shake it."

Rai broke out into a grin, "Yeah, yeah…whatever."

She shook it and Yumi yelled, "YAYYY!" She jumped on Rai while Aiko caught her in a headlock and messed up her hair.

"Awww," Kiba grinned smugly, "Now that's what we like to see."

"You guys…can't breathe…y'know…slowly squeezing life out…ugh…" Rai said in the middle of the semi-group hug.

"Alright, alright, enough with this mushy shit," Aiko rolled up her sleeves and pulled off her beanie to tie her trademark bandana on her head. With all the winter fashions and stuff, they almost forgot what she looked like with one on.

"Don't we got some crap to fix?" Aiko grinned some more, flashing her canine-like teeth.

"YEAH!" Yumi yelled, punching the air. "I'm totally gonna kick ass!"

Aiko popped a tick mark and flicked the air-headed blonde's head with her eyes closed. "Whose ass? Your own?"

Yumi's mouth twitched. "Why don't I light your hair on fire and watch you run around with a fireplace on your head?"

"I dare you to do it."

"I'd be happy if I did. Then I'd get my own personal heater."

"I'll stick my head up your ass and set it on fire with all the hair you got under there! I'll cause a fucking brush fire!"

"You're right. You should stick your head up my ass. That way, you'll be an ass-head in both ways!"

"WHY YOU-,"

"Hold it!"Granny Ai decided to stop this before it escalated into another Christmas disappointment. Besides, the girls were about to kill each other anyways. Aiko and Yumi had one of their arms on each other's throats and the other one pulling at each other's eyes and their legs pushing against each other's stomachs. What complete idiots.

"So, are you here to fix our Christmas set-up?" Granny Ai asked hopefully as she clasped her hands together.

"Of course, old grandmas with ugly sweater!" Naruto declared foolishly, climbing on top of Sasuke to strike a cool pose. "We're the heroes sent from above to fix your Christmas display! We're awe—SOOOOMMMEE!"

Naruto's voiced faded away as he was sent flying into the night sky and sparkled like a star.

Sasuke brushed the dirt off his shoulder. "Hmph. Dumbass."

"We've made them wait long enough," Rai said with a grin, "Let's get to decorating, guys!"

"Wait!"

"UGH, what now?" Temari snapped. "We went through all the formalities, blondie. We even looked cool like twice! It's time to decorate not wait."

"Excuse me, but you're blonde too," the blonde charity worker stuck her tongue out childishly, "And I just got a call from the band. Even if you guys DO fix up the display, the show won't go one without the band."

Rai sighed. "It's like god's doing this on purpose."

"Yes, he's doing this on purpose," Name answered, walking to the Jacks. "He's doing it so we can learn how to solve problems. Now…" She began to whisper to the confused boys.

"Hmph! Of course we can!" Naruto pumped up his fist. "They don't call us badass for nothing!"

"For once, the idiot's right," Kiba grinned, "Let's do this!"

"What'd you tell them to do?" Tenten asked the blue-haired girl. Name responded, "Simple. I instructed them to create music."

"What if they're horrible?" Rai asked, doubting their abilities.

"They're not," Name reassured her with her arms nonchalantly crossed across her chest, "Like Naruto said, they're the ~BADASS8~, revered for being perfect. They can't be perfect without learning the art of music composure."

"Very true," Aiko nodded from beside them. The aforementioned boys were currently fixing up the stage and Neji was on his phone, telling his people to bring in equipment ASAP.

"WHOA! Look at all these people!" A small child's voice was heard behind them and they all turned around to meet with a crowd of children.

"Um… the orphans?" Hinata guessed nervously.

"Obviously." Rai kneeled down and ruffled a black-haired girl's hair. "You ready for Christmas, kid?"

She sniffed. "Yes."

"Hey you." Aiko was addressing a boy who was crying in the back. She approached him, looking dangerous and intimidating. She couldn't help it. That's what she came off as to everybody she met. Big, small, tall, young, old—everybody. "Why you crying?"

The boy wiped his eyes. "A b-bully broke my t-toy c-c-car…"

"Hmph," Aiko smirked, pulling out her wrench and walking towards the tree, "Kid, just you wait. Just wait. Something good's comin' along. Consider it as a present from me."

"O-okay," the boy nodded, feeling a little bit better.

"Hey, you guys just watch, okay?" Yumi smiled at the children, who were staring at the glowing LED lights behind her. "We're gonna do a lot of cool stuff tonight."

"So you're sure those unbelievably handsome boys have got the entertainment covered?" Granny Ai asked nervously. She just met these people. In a whole day, they'd ruined her annual display and brought it back up again. It was abnormal.

"Nah, granny, they are the entertainment," Aiko laughed as she was constructing and bending a piece of metal into something. Something obviously meant for the small crying boy.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by *N'Sync

Shino began to play on the grand piano brought in courtesy of the Hyuuga company and a whole mess of musical instruments were brought in.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

The people cheered as soon as they heard the tune. "WHOO!"

Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas,

Happy Holidays

Surprisingly, Neji and Sasuke were at the mike, their smooth voices floating all over the place.

We've been waiting all year for this night

Rai helped repair the streamers on the stage with some of the orphans, who were eager to help.

When the snow is glistening on the trees outside

The white specks slowly drifted towards the floor and the kids were happy and all of them stuck their tongues out. Especially Yumi and Naruto who were more than happy to choke on snow.

And all the stockings are hung by the fireside

Aiko carried out two ladders and propped it up against the giant Christmas tree. Gaara was next to her, making a fire since it was so cold outside.

Waiting for Santa to arrive

A box of new wreaths came in, thanks to the helpful donation of the Uchiha family, and Name walked to the front of each store, hanging up fresh new wreaths. "Need help?" Kiba asked, taking the box from her. Name smiled. "Why not…"

And all the love will show

'Cause everybody knows

Tenten blew kisses to Neji while he was onstage singing and Neji blew kisses back, which made Aiko burst out laughing and caused Neji to glare at the red head. Which then caused the other redhead aka Gaara, to glare back at Neji for glaring at his redhead. Neji then had to turn away before Gaara took action and did more than glaring. But from the corner of his eye, Aiko pulled her eyelid down and stuck her tongue out. Neji now wanted to rip her tongue off, but it would cause Gaara to rip his dick off.

It's Christmas time and…

All the kids will see

Temari sat down with the kids to tell them a story of how four girls magically fixed Christmas…

The gifts under the tree

The charity workers were making up time pretty quick. They already had the majority of the presents that Rai bought earlier that day wrapped. But they still had a long way to go since Sasuke and Neji decided to pitch in and buy a couple (A LOT) of presents themselves.

It's the best time of year for the family

They were starting to attract a crowd and a lot of people wanted to help out now. People were helping out clean boxes and throw away trash.

It's a wonderful feeling

Feel the love in the room from the floor to the ceiling

The shops opened and the owner of one of them, a bakery shop, talked to Hinata and gave her leftover gingerbread houses that he made that morning. "Thank you, sir!" Hinata said and happily presented them to the orphans, who ate them with glee.

It's that time of year

Christmas time is here

Shizumi was lighting candles and setting them in front of shops and stores, near the stage, and randomly around Town Center, making the place glow.

And with the blessings from above

God sends you his love

Yumi climbed the ladder that went up the Christmas tree and helped place Christmas lights on it, which was a really hard job. She also put up red and gold bows, ornaments, icicles and all that.

And everything's okay

Gaara and Aiko set up candy canes so they looked like a path that led to the Christmas tree. They put up little boxes of presents everywhere, giving it a Christmas-y feel.

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays

Shikamaru attempted to make a snowman, but he failed miserably. Yumi giggled and climbed down from the ladder to help him out. "Make it circular, Shika," she instructed, molding a perfect snowman.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays

Shikamaru smiled, seeing how much fun she was having just by simply making a snowman. "Now he needs a scarf," he said, pulling her scarf from her neck and placing it on the snowman. "And sticks for arms!" Yumi laughed, placing sticks on the sides of the snowman.

Bells are ringing

It's time to scream and shout (scream and shout!)

Name finished with the wreaths and pulled out the bells that were also donated (or bought) by the Hyuugas and the Uchihas. They were the two most powerful families after all. The bells jingled as she placed them on the tree. She dropped one and Kiba and her simultaneously touched hands trying to pick it up.

And everybody's playing 'cause school's out

"Sorry," Kiba blushed, immediately pulling his hand away. "You know," Name started, grabbing his hand and looking at it, "It's pretty cold and you don't have any gloves…" "Neither do you," Kiba replied, but he didn't want to complain. His hand in Name's felt so right. "You'll freeze to death," Name said, keeping her eyes low. "Maybe I should hold your hand. Y'know, to conserve heat and all…" Kiba grinned. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea."

Celebrating

The special times we shared

Yumi and Shikamaru were side by side, both on ladders, decorating the tree with onion-shaped ornaments. "Shika," Yumi giggled, "You think this'll keep the vampires away?" He chuckled. "Maybe." Unbeknownst to all of them, Shizumi was taking pictures of everybody.

Happiness 'cause love is in the air.

Naruto finished wrapping the tinsel around the tree and approached Hinata with something behind his back. "Naruto?" Hinata asked timidly as she decorated telephone poles with blue Christmas lights. "Here! I spent all day making it just right!"

And all the love will show

'Cause everybody knows

Naruto pulled out retarded looking cookies that were supposed to resemble Hinata and himself. They were poorly made, yes, but it was cute to see the boy try. "How cute," Hinata smiled, making Naruto blush. She ate a cookie and it turned out to be really delicious. "Yum! Did you really make this, Naruto?" He scratched the back of his head. "No…I actually made Shikamaru do it for me…" Hinata sweat-dropped. "W-well, it's the thought that counts."

It's Christmas time

Rai went around and passed cookies (donated by the generous bakery) to the orphans and the people. Sasuke picked her up and gave her a sudden piggy back ride. "Stop!" Rai laughed, hanging on tight.

And all the kids will see

The gifts under the tree

"Wow! Look at all the gifts!" One of the orphans cheered as Kiba and Name carried out the neatly wrapped presents and placed them under the tree.

It's the best time of year for the family

"Here, kid," Aiko gave the boy who was previously crying a bronze model of a 1930 Bentley 8 Litre. "Sorry if it isn't colorful. I just welded it." Aiko sheepishly rubbed the back of her head.

It's a wonderful feeling

"This is great! Thanks, lady!" The little boy took Aiko by surprise and hugged her around the waist. Her features softened and she hugged him back. "Alright kid, don't say I never did nothin' for you."

Feel the love in the room from the floor to the ceiling

It's that time of year

Yumi and Naruto ran around, putting Santa hats on random people. It was like an epidemic. Anybody who got a hat put on them immediately broke out a smile.

Christmas time is here

Shizumi wrapped blinking lights around the palm trees and Temari was having a snowball fight with Tenten.

And with the blessings from above

God sends you his love

"Okay, just point and spray. The color'll come out of the can and you can make a picture out of it," Aiko explained the mechanics of a spray paint can to a small orphan. "So, I can make anything I want?" the kid asked. "Yeah sure. Just don't get crazy with it," Aiko grinned.

And everything's okay

Hinata hung stars from the second floor balcony of the stores and Rai spread ribbons around the balconies as well.

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays

"This is great!" Granny Ai squealed with joy. "This is just—just spectacular!"

Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

Neji left the stage and took the mic with him as he ran through the crowd, singing to people and making them smile.

"Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays."

He sang to a group of tweens, making them faint. "Oh my gooood," they squealed from the snow. Neji chuckled and moved around the crowd, singing some more.

No matter what's your holiday

"It's the time to celebrate."

Sasuke sang with him, charming the enormous crowd that was gathering and growing by the second. "YAH!" Rai grinned. "Go Sasuke!" Sasuke turned a bit red, but continued to sing.

Put your worries aside

And open up your mind

See the world right by your side

"Everybody sing now!" Aiko said into the mic, singing herself. The crowd found themselves in the Christmas spirit, the warmth radiating through the air. Only Christmas could provide this feeling.

It's Christmas time

"Clap your hands now!" Yumi grinned, taking a mic for herself as well. "C'mon!"

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

The people clapped to the beat and it made a pleasant sound to Neji and Sasuke's vocals.

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays

"Sing it everybody!" Rai yelled, pumping up the crowd, dancing on stage. "Let's do this!"

Merry Christmas

"Come on now!" Aiko added, finding herself smiling.

Merry Christmas

"Let me here ya!" Sasuke laughed, clapping his hands. "Louder!"

Happy Holidays

By now, people all the way from the Shibuya Crossing could probably hear them. The lights lit up the night and the music was wonderful. People were swarming into Town Center

It's a wonderful feeling

Feel the love in the room from the floor to the ceiling

Rai took a little boy on stage and started to dance with him while Temari piggy-backed another one. "Wee!" Their squeaks of joy were heard all throughout, making people happier than they already were.

It's that time of year

Christmas time is here

Kiba carried two kids on his shoulder, making Name and the kids laugh at his supposed "strength". "Yay! Go Uncle Kiba!" The kids giggled.

And with the blessings from above

God sends you his love

Naruto picked up the crying little boy, who was now grinning like there was no tomorrow.

And everything's okay

"Whoo-yeah!" Rai smiled, watching Naruto and the boy climb up the ladder to the top of the Christmas tree.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays

The blonde haired blue-eyed wonder handed the boy the star and held them up like Simba and Mufasa and all that in the Lion King. "C'mon kid, you're special. Put that star on the top of the tree!"

Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas

The boy's wide green eyes grew even wider as he put the star on the Christmas tree.

"WHOA."

Happy Holidays

Everybody marveled at the sight of the illuminated Christmas tree and the glowing star sending light waves all the way to the moon.

~…+…~

"That was amazing!" Granny Ai congratulated the four girls as they sat on the second floor balcony of the Town Center stores.

Yumi smiled at the twinkling eyes of the old woman. "No problem, granny. It's payment for ruining Christmas in the first place."

"Oh, no it's alright," Granny Ai's smile touched her eyes, "We've been at this event since 1970 and never have I seen it so alive! No doubt, it's our most successful year by a landslide."

"Glad to be of service to ya, Granny," Aiko grinned and narrowed her eyes as she pulled up her thumb. "Even better 'cause it's for those orphans."

"Guess they're pretty happy now, huh?" Rai said, keeping a gentle smile on her face while she watched the happy people below her. Sasuke and Neji took a break and surprisingly, Michi and her cronies went up stage and began singing

Michi, Sakura, and Chiruki were singing up front and the rest of the sluts were backup singers. They were wearing skimpy Santa suits that barely covered skin and they did look sexy. Because of their sudden appearance, the male population increased at the foot of the stage, drooling at their provocative dance moves and sultry singing.

"Dammit," Aiko cursed, referring to the whores on stage, "Hate to say it, but they're pretty damn good."

"I knowww…" Rai groaned, throwing her head back, "It sucks!"

"It sucks that they don't suck," Temari commented behind them.

"True that," Aiko replied.

8 Days of Christmas by Destiny's Child

On the eighth day of Christmas my baby gave to me

A pair of Chloe shades and a diamond belly ring

The whores pointed to their exposed midriffs where shiny jewels glittered in their belly button under the Christmas lights. "TAKE YOUR SHIRT OFF!" exclaimed a horny guy. The girls smirked and continued their onstage whore-dance.

On the seventh day of Christmas my baby gave to me

A nice back rub and he massaged my feet

They kicked off their shoes and revealed their painted toenails. Sakura sang this part; her sultry voice was enough to pop boners through every guy under the stage.

On the sixth day of Christmas my baby gave to me

A cropped jacket with dirty denim jeans

The three upfront Sluts turned around dramatically and popped out their asses and flipped their hair back.

On the fifth day of Christmas my baby gave to me

A poem that he wrote for me

Confetti rained down around the testosterone-filled crowd, making them hornier.

Feelin' that I feel is so good feelin'

The backup sluts stomped up front while the three upfront sluts strutted to the back. Simure winked at Shikamaru from afar and sang just for him. "I'll kill that whore," Yumi growled, fire taking place for her eyes.

I feel so in…lo-lo-lo-lo-love

If he only knew what he does to me

Ma man, ma man, ma baby

Oh he makes me feel so lovely, so sexy

The flirtatious girls dropped down and spanked their butts and stayed like that, squatting and moving and gyrating on the floor. "Holy shit…" moaned out one guy.

I'm so in lo-lo-lo-love

How I love him for his generosity

Ma man, ma man, ma baby

Michi, Sakura, and Chiruki strutted in a line with all the other sluts and leaned down over each other's butts.

Doesn't it feel like Christmas?

It feels lovely…

Doesn't it feel like Christmas?

Feels so lovely…

Doesn't it feel like Christmas?

Ooo, yes it feels like Christmas

Doesn't it feel like Christmas?

It feels lovely…

Sakura and Ino sang these parts, singing to each other as they touched themselves onstage.

On the fourth day of Christmas my baby gave to me

A candlelit dinner just to me and my honey

Michi was singing again, walking slowly around the stage, bending down so guys could check out her nonexistent tits and big ass. That's all she had anyways. A giant ass. She flipped her hair and licked her lips at Kiba, who couldn't help but get a slight hard-on. Hey, just because he loved Name didn't mean he was any less of a guy. Name, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow.

On the third day of Christmas my baby gave to me

A gift certificate to get my favorite CDs

It switched back to Sakura, who walked down to the crowd full of guys who were eager to grab her and grope her all around. It didn't matter though. She reached her destination—Sasuke Uchiha. She gave him a licentious lap dance as he grew hot in the face; he couldn't help it. She was a girl, he was a guy. That's how it worked. Rai gritted her teeth. Oh hell.

On the second day of Christmas my baby gave to me

The keys to a CLK Mercedes

Chiruki sauntered over towards Gaara, who happened to be standing near the stage. The crowd was watching in anticipation as to where the bombshell with shit-colored hair was going. She sat in a surprised (and red) Gaara's lap and swung her arms around him. She kissed him on the cheek and all the guys groaned. "Aw, what the shit?" Aiko grumbled, crossing her arms. "That isn't fair. He was caught by surprise, that's all."

On the first day of Christmas my baby gave to me

The whores reunited on stage and sang together as they gyrated on the floor together as well.

Quality T-I-M-E

"WHOO!" the males below them cheered. The backup singers flipped their hair and sang.

Feelin' that I feel is so good feelin'

I feel so in lo-lo-lo-love

They clapped their hands and put their hands to their swinging hips.

If he only knew what he does to me

Ma man, ma man, ma baby

Oh he makes me feel so lovely, so sexy

They pulled off their hats and waved it around their heads.

I'm so in lo-lo-lo-love

How I love him for his generosity

Ma man, ma man, ma baby

Aiko POV

Those whores! What the hell are they doing sitting in that horny idiot's lap?

And then the lap dance for Sasuke along with the lick-lipping for Kiba! And that wink for Shikamaru…? What kind of shit are they tryin' to pull?

"Holy shit," Tenten sighed, slapping her forehead with her hand. "And here I thought we'd end this like a happy ending and get on with it."

"Yeah I thought so too!" Rai grumbled. "Granny Ai, isn't this type of performance inappropriate for the orphans?"

Granny Ai started to sweat and she looked nervous. "Y-Yes I thought so as well…but I can't help it. They just jumped up there after the boys' performance. It was already too late."

"They jumped up there to show us that we're not the only ones who can get the attention and shit," I said, wagging my finger. "They're the Christmas Ruiners."

"Yes, and for lack of better words, I hope they get raped," Name said lethargically, her legs dangling over the balcony.

"Well I hope they get tied to a flagpole upside down and someone fucks the living shit out of their ass and they get AIDS and crabs crawl up their hairy asses while they have a hardcore seizure in the middle of the Sahara Desert in July where the scorpions eat their eyes and they can burn like they're gonna burn in hell."

Everybody slowly turned towards Yumi, who looked like she was about to murder somebody.

"Good job," I clapped her on the back, "That's how I feel about you when you piss me off."

"Uh…what the hell?" Temari's voice was high-pitched.

"Hey, check it out," Temari nodded towards the whores, who were shaking their small asses of the stage, dry humping any guy they saw.

And then I saw it.

"Oh fuck no, motherfucker," I breathed, watching Emiko flirt with Naruto, who was flirting back? My eyes automatically darted to Hinata, who looked downtrodden at the sudden event.

"Um, is this some kind of trick photography?" Yumi commented, blinking her eyes.

"Ya dumbshit, it's not trick photography if there wasn't no damn picture taken," I replied, smacking the back of her head. Sometimes this idiot was too idiotic.

"It was an expression, you lard-ass!" She twitched, pulling my hair.

"Expression my ass! You can barely express coherent words!"

"Shut up, you two," Name said, grabbing our shirts. "Now, let us see what's the meaning of this…"

Yumi and I snickered simultaneously.

"What'cha laughin' at?" Tenten asked, confused.

"Lettuce."

~…+…~

"U-um, guys, do I r-really have to do t-this?" Hinata asked shyly, pulling on the edge of her sweater.

"Hmph, if that guy wants to flirt with that black-haired dumbshit, we'll show him what he's got to lose before he loses it," I said dryly, getting up on my stool in the middle of the stage.

"B-but, what if I-I m-mess up? I-I don't want t-to-,"

"Girl, shh," Temari put a comforting hand on Hinata's head. "You'll do fine. Especially with Ms. Redhead over here playin' guitar for ya."

I grinned and gave them a thumbs up. "Don't worry, I'll take care of her."

"Ahem," Name's voice spoke into the mic, "We have another entertainer on stage here for you. Please applaud to the musical stylings of Hinata Hyuuga and Aiko Mitsuhashi."

I grew a tick mark. "Hey, why does her name go first?"

"Be quiet you dumbass," Tenten whistled as the Rebels walked offstage. My right eye twitched but I breathed out. The fog floated up to the sky and looked kinda magical…

"Ready, Hinata?" I smiled at the worried girl who was fidgeting with her perfectly fine sweater.

She nodded, unsure. "I g-guess I'll h-have to be." I laughed. "You learn well. Now a one, two, three, four…"

I started playing Happy Christmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon. (If you wanna hear the girl version, check out Happy Christmas (War Is Over) by Charice. She's awesome :])

So this is Christmas

"WHOO! You go, sexy girl!" I laughed, hearing Rai and Temari cheer from their place in the balcony. Hinata blushed.

And what have you done?

Play the guitar. Play the guitar. Don't get distracted. If you do, you'll mess up Hinata's future with that fucktard Naruto. Play the guitar. Strum it. Strum it.

Another year over, a new one's just begun

And so this is Christmas, I hope you have fun

This is the acoustic version right? So I don't have to make it sound all fancy. AH! Strum. Strum. Steady strumming.

The near and the dear ones

The old and the young

Below us, I could see the people start to relax after the upbeat music of Michi's song. They started to slow down and look around; they started to be peaceful.

A very Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

We let the orphans sing this part. They looked like they were having fun anyways, so what the hey?

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

It was Hinata's turn to sing again and everybody was comforted and delighted to hear this song. It brought back memories.

So this is Christmas

(War is over)

The children sang in the background. Somehow, they magically made their way up stage without me noticing.

For weak and for strong

(If you want it)

For rich and the poor ones

(War is over)

The world is so young

(Now)

The people beneath us began to sway in calmness and Rai flicked on her lighter. "This is Christmas," Rai said, waving her lighter.

And so happy Christmas

(War is over)

I kept strumming and smiled subconsciously at the serene scene before me. People took out their cellphones, lighters, and got candles and waved them around like people would during a session of Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynryd.

For black and for white

(If you want it)

For yellow and red ones

(War is over)

"YEAH YELLOW!" Yumi yelled, momentarily breaking the undisturbed peace shield and making people laugh. I chuckled and shook my head. That dumbass will never change. And I'm kinda glad it'll stay that way.

Let's stop all the fight

(Now)

Then it was the kids' turn to sing again. Their high voices reaching the angels.

A very Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

Suddenly, Hinata threw the mic at me. Uh-oh. Can I sing while playing in front of hundreds of people at the same time? That's like…hardcore multi-tasking.

So this is Christmas

(War is over)

And what have we done?

(If you want it)

Amazingly, I found my voice and it came out loud and strong. The crowd under me was swaying to the music of my guitar and the tranquil melody of my voice. They had their lights up and swung back and forth like this was some kind of hippie concert.

Another year over

(War is over)

A new one's just begun

(Now)

The lights dimmed down, adding to the soothing mood. The only light you could see was the faint glow on the Christmas tree and the soft beam radiating from the store shop's Christmas lights. All the candles were blown out and a fire was fed on stage behind Hinata and me to add affect. There were beaming blue light coming from the stage because it was outlined by Christmas lights. Those were the only lights kept on.

And so happy Christmas

(War is over)

We hope you have fun

(If you want it)

The near and the dear ones

(War is over)

At that lyric, the couples unintentionally pulled their significant other closer to them and parents hugged their child. Sister and brothers, friends, anybody who knew each other well enough tightened their grip on one another as an act of Christmas love.

The old and the young

(Now)

Back to the orphans and their cute way of singing.

A very Merry Christmas

And a happy New Year

Let's hope it's a good one

Without any fear

Snow slowly drifted down onto the accidental concert and the happiness and comfort was lifted into the air. The song brought feelings of joy and peacefulness with it. The people relaxed hearing its melody and just listened along softly with lighters in their hands and moving back and forth.

War is over

If you want it

War is over

Now…

The kids' voices faded and everything was silent.

Oh shit. Did we do as bad as I thought we didn't? Man. I bet we messed this shit up. I mean, we sounded alright up here. Maybe we sounded like complete crap down there…Oh damn. What if I sucked up here? I was tone-deaf after all.

All voices sound the same to me until they get past the point of unrecognizable to horrible.

But it couldn't be that we were bad…We made them sway like fucking worms in an apple with their lighters and cellphones and shit up!

"YES!" Tenten and Rai clapped loudly, breaking the awkward silence and making the crowd erupt in a flurry of applause.

Hinata and I both sent out a sigh of relief.

"Thank god," I breathed, rubbing my red and orange acoustic guitar. "I thought we sounded like chicken shit up here."

"M-me too," Hinata nodded furiously, clasping her hands together. "I was afraid th-that they w-wouldn't like u-us."

"Oh no, they'd like you, but they'd probably hate me and shiz," I groaned, shutting my eyes. "Look, Naruto's already walking up here. Ugh, I suck cock so bad."

"Do you now?" I opened my eyes in surprise as a new, deep voice hi-jacked my train of thought. Once I saw a smirking red-headed god in front of me, not only did my train of thought get hi-jacked…it was also tagged and crashed into a donut shop.

"Eh?" Was the smart reply that came from my mouth.

"Don't say you suck cock," Gaara said, standing behind me. "People are gonna think it's not mine."

I glared. "Excuse me, but I don't suck cock period. And if I did put my oh-so-talented mouth on a dick, it wouldn't be yours." I knew my answer would piss him off and that's what made is so funny. I sniffed. "…It'd be Ryan Sheckler's."

Gaara's eyes turned to slits. "Ryan Sheckler? That stupid-ass excuse of a pretty boy on a skateboard?"

"Just kidding. Calm down," I stuck my tongue out. I love when he gets jealous. It's so fucking hilarious. Gaara glared but kept his stance behind me.

"Hinata, you're awesome!" Naruto grinned, hugging the blushing Hyuuga.

"T-Thanks," Hinata smiled.

"Oi, pretty boy rock, get off Emiko's ass and onto Hinata's," I said, my eyes bored. "That's right, don't think we didn't see you flirting over there with that cutesy ass whore."

Naruto glared at me. "I'm a guy, she's a girl half-naked. It's simple."

"I'm a girl with a fist. It's simple." I countered, crossing my legs.

Naruto gulped and turned away. "W-Whatever."

"That was great!"

"Good song choice!"

I scanned the crowd for scowling faces, and yep, there were the scowling gaudy faces I was so familiar with. The whores. I gave them a smug look to tell them that I'd won. Because I did.

The rest of the night was just singing and dancing and laughter. When the kids opened the presents, I was happy because they were happy. You should've seen how their tiny little faces lit up—it's something you don't ever get to see too often.

I played another song on my guitar and put it down. "Merry Christmas, everybody!"

Day Before New Year's

"Hey, hey, did you guys get a New Year's date too?" Yumi bounced up and down on her seat.

"Stupid. Stop talking. We are in spa. To relax. I am in a mud bath. We are all in mud baths. I can't tell if this brown stuff is your shit or mine." Ughhhh. That's my new word. "ugghh".

I use it too much, so why not make it my word? UGGHHH.

"Aiko, be quiet. She's just excited," Rai waved it off as she ate the cucumbers on her eyes.

We were in a spa. How Temari dragged me here, I'll never know. But it feels pretty damn good now that I tried it out.

Just us and the girls here in one big-ass mud bathtub! No, it's not gross. The girls would tell us if they like shitted or not.

"What's with this New Year's date again?" Hinata asked in a relaxed voice.

"You should know. Naruto asked you too," I snorted, keeping my eyes closed.

"Well, apparently, all the guys have asked us out to New Year's dates!" Tenten giggled.

"Not me," Name shrugged carelessly.

"Oh don't worry, I'm sure Kiba will come around," Temari waved it off. "Anyways, what happened?"

"Neji's taking me to the Town Center! He said there would be a surprise there waiting for me," Tenten winked.

"Grosss," I gagged. She ignored me and continued tittering her tittery laugh. Pfft. Lovesick hussies. JK.

"Well, Riki's taking me to New York!" Temari grinned. "YEAH, BABY!"

"Get over it," I muttered under my breath.

"N-Naruto asked me to attend a dinner with him. Somewhere c-called Fancy Restaurant," Hinata smiled.

"Pfft!" I laughed along with Shizumi. "Only Naruto would take you to a stupid-ass restaurant named that!"

"It's probably some cheap-ass restaurant that makes you sit on the floor," Rai snickered.

"I know," Hinata sweat-dropped. "But it's the thought that counts."

"Shika's taking me to a candy shop!" Yumi announced cheerily. "He says it's the best in town."

"I heard that Sukino girl asked Ryuu to hang with her at Starbucks," Rai said knowingly. "Ryuu said that they were just gonna hang out and watch the big starlight thingie. Whatever that is."

"Didn't Sasuke ask you to Neverland or whatever?" I asked, not really caring for an answer.

Rai stuck her tongue out at me but answered, "NO, for your information, we were just gonna chill on a roof. Y'know, to get a better view of the fireworks and everything."

"Oh, that's right," Tenten rolled her eyes. "Chilling on a roof. Very romantic."

Rai just scoffed but kept quiet. I could tell she didn't mind just hanging on a rooftop on New Year's day. It sounded like her kind of thing.

And we needed some time away from each other. Not that we didn't enjoy each other and shit, but we spend every. Fucking. Day. Together.

We need some space and I guess the best way to do it is hang with your man.

"What about you, Shizumi?" I inquired the usually silent girl. Girl ain't got no bark or bite, so all she does is sit.

She answered with bright and excited eyes. "Shino said we could just walk around the Quads until the Starlight Event occurs."

"Cool," Rai grinned but then stopped. "What is the Starlight Event?"

"Ooh, I've heard of that!" Temari exclaimed. "I saw it somewhere, but I forgot. Anyways, I heard it's like the most romantic thing to do during New Year's."

"What shit happens there?" I yawned.

"Well," Yumi started excitedly, lifting a finger up, "At first, all the couples write their names on beautiful glass candle holders and place them on a giant thing that looks like a square Christmas tree. Then, by midnight, they light all the candles and it looks really pretty! If the couples kiss at the exact moment the last candle is lit, it is said that the couple will last forever!"

Rai whistled. "Corny, cheesy, and beefy all around…"

I repeated the whistle. "More like shitty, crappy, and shitty on all corners…"

"Oh shut up you two," Tenten said playfully, splashing me with mud. "You don't have a romantic bone in your body."

"That's what you think," I winked at her suggestively. Y'know. Just to try it out. Heh. Heh.

"You whore!" Temari laughed, splashing me with more mud.

"Oh yeah?" I threw a chunk of mud at her and laughed. "Take that, dickwad!"

"Uh-oh," Name rolled her eyes.

"It's on, bitch!" Temari smirked.

And thus started the War of Mud.

1 Hour Later

"Thanks for letting us stay here," Tenten smiled politely to the spa owner.

"You're welcome." The woman responded with a smile.

We all filed out of that bathhouse like we some bats outta hell. It's stinky as fuck in there! What with everybody else's dirt all up in the drains and vent system, it should be smelly as fuck.

So we just relaxed in Temari's brand new black Hummer with the air conditioning on and the music up to full blast.

"So…you guys are all taken for tonight?" I yawned, putting my legs in Hinata's lap, who was sitting on my left.

"YEP!" they all responded cheerily.

"UGH!" I threw my head back, "A lonely New Year's to spend alone."

I waited for a response, but NOO.

All they do is exchange their suspicious looks and shit, tryin' to act like they Sherlock Holmes or something.

Somethin's up but they just trying to be aloof or whatever.

"Sure…" Temari trailed off, a smug smile on her face.

"Alright, whatever, you bunch of smug-smiling candy-asses," I snorted, "Be as mysterious as you want, but I'mma find the fuck out anyways."

"You noticed that you're cussing more than usual?" Tenten asked, looking at me strangely. "Kinda like Hidan."

"Who the fuck is Hidan?" I spat, "And what the hell, NO. I'm a natural born sailor and that's the fucking way it's gonna stay, heifer."

"Did she just call me a heifer?" Tenten squinted, asking Rai.

"Well, I sure as hell didn't just call you a jellyfish or whatever the fuck you heard," I scoffed, crossing my arms.

"Somebody's got their ass in a knot," Tenten whistled, instead of getting mad at me. "Just like Hidan."

"What the hell? How the fuck can you get your ass in a knot?" I said. "And who the hell is Hidan? Don't be sprouting names and shit when I don't know who the fuck they are."

"Hidan is Itachi's friend," Rai sighed, closing her eyes. "I've met him before and Tenten's right. You're just like him."

"Hell no, I ain't like nobody. I'm me, myself, and I dickwad," I proclaimed. "Go tell that Hidan or whatever to fuck off."

"You should meet him," Hinata nodded in agreement, "You guys would either be best friends or worst enemies."

"Fuck that!" I declared, with a finger in the air (Guess which finger). "I'm my own friend!"

"See where cussing gets you…" Yumi inconspicuously whispered to Temari.

"I know," Temari nodded knowingly.

"Can you guys stop making fun of me?"

Rai POV

That little stupid-ass can cuss her mouth off, but by the end of tonight, she'll be coming home like she's high off crack.

"Have fun by yourself, Shit," I yawned as we pushed Aiko off Temari's car when we stopped at the mall. "We're going shopping."

"Again?" She whined from outside the door.

"Funny, I thought these Hummers were sound-proof," I mumbled to myself.

"Anyways, we were gonna get outfits for our dates tonight," Tenten threw a paper ball at Aiko, "I suggest you do the same."

"What the fu-," Temari stepped on it and we zoomed into the parking lot.

"BITCHES!" Aiko jumped onto the windshield. Like literally jumped onto the windshield. Bitch's smudging the Hummer!

"Holy shit!" Temari swerved and I crashed into poor Hinata. "Get that bitch off my car!"

Aiko POV

"Fuckdammit!" I cursed as I almost lost my grip on the car. Hell no, these shit-faces were NOT gonna leave me here alone! "Get the fuck off my car!" Temari yelled, purposefully spilling her slushy on me.

"Blegh!" I spit it out, despite the maroon colored ice now spread across my shirt. "Bitch, this ain't fucking Glee!" I licked my lips and added another comment. "You whore! You know I hate Raspberry!"

"Too bad, it matches your hair!" Temari stuck her tongue out and made another quick turn.

Shit—I'm gonna let go. But before I do…

"Ew!" Hinata screamed. "She just sneezed on your windshield!"

"That's disgusting!" Yumi added in a horrified tone. "Look at those green babies all up in those wipers!"

"I'm not surprised," Name replied monotonously as always. "Either she'd sneeze on it or deliberately upchuck her breakfast."

"CRAAAPPP!" Temari finally shook me off and I crashed through the windows of an old, beat-up 1978 Monte Carlo Landau.

"Ugghh…" I groaned as I smelled the sweet scent of sweat and pizza in the car. It was absolutely repulsive. It looked like one of those cars that hobos lived in.

There were dirty clothes strewn all over the car seats; Pizza boxes littered the broken carpeted floor and various stains decorated the once white, but now brown, seats. Newspapers, paper cups, air fresheners, towels, brown sacks, plastic bags, and partially eaten food added to the cluster and made it look even messier than it already was.

But my favorite part was the pair of green dice hanging on the rearview mirror. It added a homey feel to it.

"What the fuck?" A guy outside yelled. "Whoever the hell you are, you have five seconds to get away from my car!"

"Whatever…" I groaned, opening the door and scratching my Raspberry slushy filled head. "Fuck my backkkk…."

I didn't even turn to look at the guy whose car I wrecked. Too much trouble.

"HEY! You!" I turned around and I swear, my tongue rolled outta my mouth as my jaw subsequently dropped.

"No. Fucking. Way." My eyes were wide as I saw who was standing in front of me.

"Hm? What, is it weird to see a teacher after-school?" The spiky white-haired pervert said nonchalantly as if this were a normal occurrence.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING LIVING IN A SHIT-LOOKING CAR?" I exploded, feeling anger towards my beloved Science teacher. This is just sad. Seriously, the word "pathetic" was spray-painted onto this car. The bright green graffiti was fresh.

Jiraiya sighed opening the car door that had a cracked window in it. There wasn't even a side-mirror! "I live here because my wife just recently kicked me out."

I leaned on the F-150 next to his car, interested. "What for?...And holy fuck, you have a wife?"

He sighed again and started his old-ass car. "Yeah, I have a wife. You know her too. She kicked me out 'cause she thought I was watching too much porn."

I raised an eyebrow and asked in a suspicious voice, "Who's your wife?"

He looked me dead in the eye. "Tsunade."

"HOLY SHIT? Why are you even watching porn? Tsunade could be the definition of porn herself! The lady has boobs that weigh 40 pounds each—an F cup! You're an IDIOT!" I said that all in one breath. Jiraiya's even stupider than I thought. Who would watch porn when you have a blonde-headed milf in your bed?

"I know, I know!" Jiraiya banged his head on the steering wheel. "So I messed up…big time. Now I'm living in this stupid-ass car."

"How long have you been living there?" My nose wrinkled as I smelled the stench of dead squirrel. Ugh. I hate squirrels. Remember when I grilled that one squirrel during the camping trip?

"A week," Jiraiya responded miserably. "It's horrible! I wanna go homeeee!"

I rolled my eyes. Men. "Apologize. That's exactly what your wife wants to hear—an apology."

"I already tried! But she won't answer her phone!" Jiraiya whined pitifully.

"Fine, if I see her, I'll slap some sense into her big-ass boobs," I sighed, taking pity on the lucky man. "Geez, Jiraiya-sensei, you have a beautiful wife and yet you watch porn. Ungrateful."

"I KNOW!"

I began to walk away. "Whatever. I'll fix it."

"Thank you my beautiful student!" He blew kisses at me.

I rolled my eyes again, though he couldn't see it. I put a hand up and kept walking.

Now I've gotta pay a visit to Granny Tsunade so I can patch things up with her and her "husband" (I cannot believe she married that pervert) so everybody gets a Happy New Year.

Great.

Aiko aka Cupid's new love mission commence!

Rai POV

"Do you think that was a little cruel?" Hinata asked nervously, already feeling guilty about Aiko's totally deserved punishment.

"No, it's not like she died or anything," I waved my hand as if it weren't a big deal because it wasn't. "She'll be alright. Plus she had a 3-second head start before the owner of that car caught her."

"Well, if you say so," Hinata agreed uneasily.

"Forget about her!" Temari said all too happily. "Let's shop till we drop girls! We've got big dates tonight!"

I inwardly sighed at the word "date". Seriously, we weren't even together and they're already assuming that we're engaged and that I'm pregnant or something.

Everything was unofficial.

"Hey, Rai, look!" And there came one of my favorite stores—Tilly's.

"What the hell are we waiting for!" I declared, zooming into the store. "Let's buy all this shit!"

Outside I could hear Name explaining my behavior.

"—favorite store. She's crazy."

After shopping at that awesome place, we hit the food court.

"Alright, what's the shit, Rai?" Tenten asked me with a knowing look. "You've shut your trap all the way from Tilly's to Forever. No one's silent at Forever unless they're farting in awe."

"I fart in awe sometimes!" Yumi said like the airhead she is.

I sighed and put my elbow on the table. "Nothing much. Just that there's no progress with Sasuke at all."

"So?" Temari said. "It'll happen someday, you know. We all know that he likes you."

"Does he?" I asked dramatically. "He's never said it to me before. You all just assumed that we got together and that was it."

"Whatever, suit yourself," Tenten waved her hand at me. "Just you watch, before you know it, you and Sasuke will have four little kids and a wedding ring."

I blushed. "That's a little out there, don't you think?"

"Well, Neji and I have decided that we want two kids—twins!" Tenten giggled, holding up two fingers. "After we get married in his giant backyard of course."

"Wow, you guys have everything planned out," Hinata said sheepishly. "Naruto-kun hasn't done much yet."

"Oh please, that idiot's retarded," Yumi said. "He's probably never had a girlfriend before, right?"

Temari laughed. "Yeah right! The kid's almost had more than Sasuke Uchiha himself!"

"It's true." Shizumi nodded. "He's the second most popular—after Uchiha-kun of course."

Pfft. I knew that if I decided to go for Sasuke that I'd be up against a lot of girls, but the way they explain it seems like the whole fucking school wants him. Now there's a way to make you feel insecure.

"They're right," Hinata added timidly. "Naruto's dated almost every girl in Konoha High plus our neighbor school."

"Whoa, I never thought that many girls would go after an idiot like that," Yumi commented with an impressed voice.

"Well, let's remember that he even lost his virginity to Itachi's girlfriend," Name said in a calm voice. "Obviously, he's not as innocent as he seems."

My eye twitched and everybody else seemed to be frozen as they remembered that fact.

"That's different!" I growled as I stood up from the table. "They're all sex-crazy morons who would go for anybody!"

"Yeah!" Yumi stood up. "That part just pisses me off. The fact that they got into a fight over this whore who slept with each one of them—stupid!"

"We don't need them," Tenten huffed, turning the other way with a hurt expression on her face. "That was the stupidest thing they ever did."

I put my hands on my hips. "And seriously, what the hell were they thinking? That just reminds me that they're super desperate."

Temari rubbed her eyes. "Oh geez."

"Forget them!"

We all just glared at the table with humorous angry faces.

Those douches.

Aiko POV

"Alright, what the fuck kinda joke is this?" I pointed at the sick shack in front of me. The roof was made of leaves and the body of the house was made of sticks. It looked like it came from the Philippines.

Actually, the whole neighborhood was like that. All the houses looked the same. And it was uncharacteristically dark due to the heavy use of plants. It shaded all the sun's light away.

It looked like a village. A scary, scary village.

"Look, you asked for a Tsunade and I showed you where she lives, now pay up," the man stuck his grubby hands out.

It's embarrassing, but who else would I ask directions from? The fucking tooth fairy? I think the fuck not. So this random bum comes up and I tell him what I need and he shows me this shit of a house.

"This house sucks ass. It's some sort of sick fuckery."

"You're some sort of sick fuckery!"

"Get outta my sight, fucking prick," I growled, taking hold of his shirt.

"F-Fine!" He scrambled away as fast as he could.

"And if these directions are wrong, I'ma kick the shit outta ya!" I declared, throwing a frog at him. Frog? Ew. Where the hell did that come from?

What the fuck? Now to think of it, this shit-place is full of toads and frogs and whatever the hell looks like it!

WAHHH!

I ran all the way to the front door of Tsunade's house. I can't help it, this place is like a swamp!

"Hey! Hey! Open the door! This is fucking disgusting!" I cried, banging on the door.

I fell inside as the door opened up to me.

"Uhhhh," I groaned as I looked at the red nail polish on perfectly manicured toes. Surprisingly, there was a hardwoord floor and the house didn't stink like shit.

"What the hell are you doing here?" A rough yet feminine voice spat at me. I lifted my eyes to meet the ungodly sight of THE Tsunade aka Principal of "prestigious" school, dressed in raggedy gray robes and torn pajama pants.

Her hair was unsightly and stuck out in various different directions. She looked like she just woke up (which she probably did) and she wore no makeup on. IT WAS DISGUSTING.

She looked like some big-breasted hobo.

"Pardon me, bitch," I grunted as I pushed myself up to lean on her doorway. "But I believe I'm here to fix your fucked-up marriage."

"Excuse me, but you can't just talk to me like that," Tsunade flicked my forehead. "Show some respect, brat."

"Oh well, we're not on campus, so I don't have to follow your stink-ass rules," I shrugged, letting myself in. "Now, where's your couch?"

Five Minutes Later

"Oy, Granny, I thought you were sick 'cause I messed you up and stuff," I pointed out as I was sprawled over her smelly-ass couch. "What's with this deception?"

She looked at me in plain annoyance. "I was sick, and now I'm better. Read your Science book you uneducated little thief."

"Whoo, someone's pissy 'cause I woke her up from her hangover," I whistled, rolling my eyes. "I'd read my Science book, but my poor Science teacher is nowhere to be found! Now where could he go?"

"Up your ass and out mine," She growled menacingly. You know, for a big-titted lady, she's not very sexy.

"Alright, alright," I put my hands up in surrender, "I trust you know why I'm in this fuckery of a house."

"Did my idiot of a husband seek help from a juvenile delinquent again?" Tsunade rolled her eyes as she crossed her arms.

"Excuse me, Captain Sarcastic," I put my finger up to emphasize my seriousness. "But I'm over here working my ass to make your marriage some kind of heaven on Earth kinda shit! Be a little more appreciative, thankyouverymuch."

Tsunade sighed and tapped her foot. "Alright, explain yourself."

"Well, you see, Ms. Principal ma'am, girl," I yawned, sensing a long-ass day. "My shiznits—friends I mean, threw me onto your husband's car and he just happened to be there, y'know? And then this whole damn mess was in my hands when he begged me to win you back. So here the fuck I am."

Tsunade stared at me like I was some dumb bitch.

"Okay, so what am I supposed to do about this?" Tsunade said finally, looking extremely exasperated.

"Compromise."

She rubbed her temples. I seriously had no idea why the fuck people did that. It looked so fucking retarded. "Alright, if you bring him here, unscathed and willing to apologize, I will…consider his apology."

"Whatever." That was good enough for me. As long as I bring him to this fuck shack and they get all lovey-dovey, I'm all good. Cupid's got a mission tonight.

Name POV

"Hey Shikamaru, what are you doing here?" I asked the lazy boy as I rounded the corner of Frog Lane. No, I'm not attempting to humor you.

That's the actual name of this street…or "swamp". It certainly looked like a swampy place.

"Oh, n-nothing much! Uh, I-I was just…walking by!" It seems that I've surprised him. Fairly odd. Shikamaru was rarely surprised, let alone at a loss for words. What was wrong with him?

"Um, okay?" What was also somewhat abnormal was his location. Frog Lane was where the unfortunate lived. And here I found Shikamaru sitting on some unknown civilian's porch as if it were his own. Though he denied it, his body language said otherwise.

There was a creaky ancient looking porch with a large porch swing hanging from the roof. Shikamaru was strewn all over it, sleeping comfortably as if it were an everyday event.

No doubt, I took notice of this. It's not every day you find a member of the ~BADASS8~ casually lounging around in a swamp. And this member seemed classy too.

And "walking by" to him meant sitting on a random person's porch and napping? Wrong answer.

"It's uh…rather cold, isn't it?" Shikamaru said, standing up unsteadily as he attempted to change the subject without my noticing it.

As I locked eyes with him, he seemed to hold an air of defeat.

Of course, he failed at his attempt to change the topic of the pointless conversation based on weather and he was fully aware of that. But, being the kind and considerate person I am, I decided to pretend that I had no idea of the very obvious conclusion that I had come to.

"This place…a bog, is that what it's called?" I shivered involuntarily. It was eerily cold here; foggy with gray clouds clumping overhead. The green stacks of bushes and grass were endless as they scattered themselves abundantly through the town.

Most of the meager houses were surrounding a lake type thing anyways. A lake, a bog, a marsh, or a swamp, it all held the same characteristics. It was wet and humid and full of green.

"Maybe," Shikamaru shrugged. His second mistake. His first being his lack of speech combined with his unusual stuttering. This was so unlikely of Shikamaru.

He would never give such an indefinite answer. "Maybe" was simply unacceptable. Just what was he hiding?

"Now to the real question," I scrutinized him as I leaned on the porch railing with a hand on my hip. "…"

I could see him start to slowly panic, a sweat breaking out on his forehead. Third mistake. Shikamaru never panicked. This was some sort of impostor.

"Do you like the color blue?" I asked, flashing him a quick grin. A test.

His sweat had evaporated in a mere second and his usual bored and sleepy stare returned. "Obviously that question is completely ridiculous so therefore, I shall not answer in regards to its importance to my life, or lack thereof."

I dropped my forced grin in a millisecond and assumed my previous face. "Very well. You pass for now...Shikamaru. Though I've got to say, that was an odd display of your emotions just a few minutes ago. I suggest you don't show them to me again. That is, if you do not wish for me to expose your secret."

His eyes widened and his bored mask broke again. "H-how….?"

"Do not take me for an idiot, Shikamaru Nara," I shook my head as I shoved my hands in my coat pockets and began to walk away. "I could find out everything about you. You better tell me now before the secret reveals itself."

I heard no reply as I began my trek to the nearby grocery store. I came to this repulsive town for a reason anyways. The grocery store possessed the absolute best chocolate cake I've ever tasted.

There was no other place to get it but here. So here I am, walking through the bog.

Although I tried to steer my mind away from it, Shikamaru's secret always nagged at the back of my head.

It simply refused to be forgotten.

Rai POV

"You know," Yumi started when her voice was all muffled 'cause she was eating all the popcorn at the same time, "It's realf lonelphy withouft Aikfo and Naphme."

I leaned my cheek boredly into the palm of my hand as I stared at the movie in front of me. And then it dawned on me.

What the hell am I watching?

"Ofm my gofd!" Yumi squealed, the popcorn flying right out of her mouth. I stared at her with a disgusted look on my face. "What the fuck are you screaming for?"

She looked at me with excited eyes, a piece of popcorn hanging out of her mouth. "He just asked her to marry him!"

I picked up the case for this DVD and immediately felt idiotic. "Well, duh, ya dumbshit. It's called The Proposal."

"Oh."

Rolling your eyes was a must with this girl. I have no idea how Shikamaru puts up with this and why he likes it.

I shook my head. "And second of all, we watched this movie three weeks ago. He doesn't even ask her to marry him, he was forced to."

"Stop spoiling it." She waved a hand at me with her green eyes staring intently at the screen.

"What the hell, we watched this three weeks ago if you were deaf right now."

"…"

Aw, damn. Whatever. Let her have amnesia.

All we were doing was watching a movie. No big deal.

Well, to be more specific, after we ditched Aiko and finished shopping at the mall, Name went off to buy some "important pastries that will change the course of my life" or whatever the hell that means.

It really bugs me how she says that shit with a straight face.

"And, and then-, he, and AHH!" And then this idiot was the lucky girl I got stuck with for the next few hours until it was New Year's date time.

Temari and them went home to get ready, which I have no idea why because their dates were like fucking 10 hours from now.

Yumi was my last resort. And now she's making me watch a movie I have no interest in whatsoever.

"Did you—did you, did you-," Yumi stuttered with tears pouring out of her eyes. "Did you s-,"

"Yes I fucking saw that!" I snapped.

Yumi stared at me for a full 3 minutes before turning back to the movie with the hearts back in her eyes. "IT WAS SO CUTE!"

I slapped my forehead with the palm of my hand. This was ridiculous.

Aiko POV

"I'm tellin you, I didn't order any fuckin flowers!"

"Well, I'm fuckin tellin you that some shitbag told me to deliver to these to some red-headed chick with a big-ass mouth. And guess what? I think I fuckin found her!"

Do you ever get those moments where you meet some random-ass guy in your favorite store who shoves a purple-ass rose in your face?

No? Well welcome to my fucked up life.

"What the hell is your fuckin problem?" I smacked this guy's head to the side. "Are you trying to prick me with those thorns or something? I'm gonna fucking sue you!"

"I would seriously kick your ass right here, right now bitch, but I got specific instructions not to," he growled.

"Someone's a pussy," I grinned smugly, trying to piss this guy off. It wasn't that hard, really. This guy has a shorter fuse than I do.

"Just read the fucking card, you shiznit."

I flicked his forehead but did what he said nonetheless.

OK, the card says…

Your first rose. Throughout the day, you will get various presents that symbolize my feelings for you. Please play along :) I promise it'll be worth your while.

The lavender rose symbolizes love at first sight and royalty.

You are my princess no matter what anybody else says.

And the moment I saw you, I knew.

You're the girl I wanted to screw.

Alright, what is this bullshit?

"What kinda joke is this?" I asked the purple-eyed guy who looked at me as if I was some sort of cockroach. "This is a shit poem."

"Don't fuckin ask me about it," he snorted, running a hand through his slicked back silver hair. "I was just told to bring you the fuckin flower or whatever the fuck this is. And what the hell are you talking about? That poem's the shit! Fuckin Shakespeare right there."

"Shakespeare my ass," I scoffed. "You're the girl I wanted to screw? That's just fucked up. If this guy's trying to tell me he likes me or whatever, screwing is not part of the deal. This is bullshit."

"Alright, whatever," he said, rolling his eyes. "I'm just a fuckin messenger anyways."

"Who are you again?"

"Hidan." And with that, he left with a stupid look on his face.

Okay that was a weird-ass situation but whatever. I'm at the boardwalk at my favorite store to buy myself a bracelet. I figured before I came to get Jiraiya I had to buy some crap first.

I was gonna buy a porn mag for Jiraiya 'cause the porn store was right next to Biggy's, my favorite store. So why not buy myself a little somethin' somethin'?

And then all of a sudden, this douche of a guy comes up to me and yells about a purple rose and shit.

"It's not purple, it's fucking lavender!" he said. Pfft. What a dumbfuck. Purple, lavender, whatever the flying shit it means.

But I gotta admit, he was kinda hot. When a hot guy comes along, you can't just NOT stare. I mean, he's got the prettiest damn eyes I've ever seen on a guy. They're all like purple/pink. And he wore a black jacket with red clouds on 'em.

But the cocky son of a bitch zipped it halfway so you could see his hard-ass abs and pecks all up in there. This guy KNOWS he's hot and he's showing it. Arrogant bastard.

Hidan was his name, right? Isn't that the guy Rai said I'd be friends with or shit? Fucking retarded, she is. Friends my ass. We got into a fight and we didn't even know each other!

"Are you 18 or older?" the guy said boredly behind the counter, interrupting my thoughts. Obviously, he didn't wanna fuckin be here.

"Um, does it fuckin look like I'm 18 or older?"

He looked me up and down with even bored-er eyes. "…Nope."

I grew a tick mark but kept my calm. "Whatever just let me buy the shit."

"Are you lesbian?" The guy asked, his voice void of genuine curiosity.

"No, this is for my teacher you nosy asswipe." I snatched the bag away after paying for my shit. "Good day, motherfucker."

"What a vulgar girl."

…

Next stop, the Chocolate Factory so Jiraiya could win Tsunade's heart back with the sweet savory taste of milk chocolate.

So here I am, having the time of my fuckin life eating all the brown shit I want, being a fatass and all that, until another gosh damned fucker comes up with a green rose in his hand. Crap, not again.

"For you," was all he said.

"And you are?" I'm getting tired of this shit. This guy wasn't even hot. Well, I couldn't really see his face that good. He had all this wrapping goin' on. But the weirdest thing was his eyes. Freakin glow-in-the-dark green. They almost looked like the fuckin rose itself.

"Kakuzu," He nodded before sticking his hand out.

I was going to shake it but he pulled it back. "What?"

"I don't want you to touch my hand," Kakuzu said, "Pay me."

I stared at him with a WTF look. "What the fuck? I'm not gonna fuckin pay you for flowers you gave me. That's fucked up!"

In a split second, my feet were off the floor and I was staring straight into Kakuzu's glowing green eyes. He glared.

"Listen kid, I don't do this kinda shit for free. It's 5 dollars. Spare some cash, you cheapskate," Kakuzu said. This guy was intimidating, I'll say that.

"Alright, alright, fine. Just put me down and I'm go ahead and give you your money," I said with my hands up, trying to convince this asshole to put me the fuck down.

"Hmph." He grunted but put me down anyways.

I reached into my pocket, pretending to grab some money while tucking the rose into my back pocket. "Um…lemme see…"

"Hurry up, kid. I got business to do," Kakuzu said, looking at me like Tsunade would.

"Umm…RUN!" I dashed outta that store quicker than roadrunner.

"HEY! I WANT MY MONEY!" I could hear Kakuzu yelling even though I was like 50 feet away already. But then I knew I was fucked as soon as I saw him running for me.

"AHHH!" Holy shit, this reminds me of the time I switched bodies with Sasuke and we fucked up the whole pier. HAHAHAHAHHA! Ahh, the good times.

So anyways, here I am, trying to get the fuck away from this dude when I stumble into the street.

"Whoa," I panted to myself as I wiped the nasty sweat off my forehead, "Man, I didn't even know where the boardwalk ended…"

I saw the cars whiz by and Kakuzu getting closer.

Oh, fuck it, if I'm gonna die, let me die.

I stole some kid's skateboard while he was walking by and grabbed onto a random car's bumper.

"Hey!" the kid said, trying to catch attention that I stole his skateboard.

"Shut up, shitface! Can't you see some guy's tryin' to kill me?" I yelled, but it was no use. They probably couldn't hear me by now.

The guy driving this car was probably doing like 80 an hour. Just my fucking luck.

I pick up a speed car! But it's all good. As long as Kakuzu's off my ass.

Then I heard the noise that was all too familiar. It never failed to make my heart stop, my breath hitch, and my insides to turn to jelly.

Police sirens.

Yumi POV

"What the HELL are you doing now?" Rai asked impatiently as I assumed my yoga position.

"Yoga!" I replied cheerily, like I should. "C'mon, you should try it, Rai."

"And why in the world would I take my sweet time and waste it stretching and looking like an idiot?" I'm sure Rai was being sassy for a reason. Oh well. Not everybody can be as happy as me, unfortunately.

"It's really fun," I said with optimism, "It relaxes your muscles and helps you stretch."

"What in the hell do I need to stretch?" Rai scoffed, crossing her arms as she stared at me on my yoga mat. "Are you telling me I'm unstretchable?"

"Oh shush now," I said with a grin, "You're starting to sound like Aiko. I'm just saying, yoga is really good for you. Kim Kardashian does it."

"And she also has a giant ass, so do I want that too? Hell no."

"Wow, you just drip happiness, don't you? What's your problem today? We're supposed to be happy, y'know. With all the guy taking us out and stuff, you should be bouncing off the fucking walls," I gave up monotonously.

"Wow, I must've really pissed you off." Rai arched an eyebrow. I rolled my eyes. "What, is it THAT obvious? Darn. And I thought I was being so damn subtle."

She walked by and smacked me on my head. "You cuss when you get pissed. Sorry if I'm being annoying but I don't know, Sasuke's getting me all confused. Should I ask him out first or what? But don't you think it's kinda weird for a girl to ask out a guy? I mean, I know it happens a lot, but to me, I think it's better if the guy asks the girl out first. It's gentlemanly, you know?"

While Rai blabbered and answered her own questions, I was busy doing the butterfly position. Ahh, I might as well talk back to her. I'm gonna feel sad for her when she finds out that she's basically talking to herself.

"Look, here's the thing 'cause seriously, all your whining is pissing me off," I said, all traces of kindness and patience disappearing from my voice. I was tired of her always talking about Sasuke as if there was nothing she could do about him even though she had a whole shitload of things she could do with him if she just cut the crap and stopped being dramatic.

I know that she's confused and that she doesn't know what to do with Sasuke, but she could at least ease up on all her complaining about him.

"What you should do is get the fuck over yourself and start being more confident. I know you. I've been friends with you for so many freaking years. And I know that you're not the kind of person to be shaken by a guy; let alone Sasuke Uchiha. If he doesn't like you then fuck him! There's a world with 6 billion people in it or 5 billion, or however many the hell humans reproduce. Granted, about half are woman and children and the elderly, but there are TONS of teenage guys out there waiting for you. Freaking get yourself together!"

I huffed and puffed and panted as Rai stared at me wide-eyed, a water bottle halfway to her mouth.

"Oops. Sorry." I quickly apologized.

Have I mentioned that I'm not an avid ranter?

Aiko POV

Greed or jealousy, none of it matters

Nature and life, I hope this flatters

Calm and tranquility, that definitely isn't you

But luck and richness, that part is true

Your second rose, the color green. It symbolizes calmness and fertility, luck and greed. Each rose you receive means you're one step closer to finding out who I am. Enjoy :)

What the fuck is this supposed to mean? This kid REALLY sucks in the poetry department. But at least he had the balls to try. Good enough to me.

But you know where I was reading this from? Yep, a fucking jail cell. It's been awhile since I've been in this shithole of a County Jail. And you know the fuck what? Those assholes recognized me from the time I escaped!

So you know what they did? Yeah, they put me in maximum security and labeled me as 'Extremely Dangerous. Do Not Approach Unless Advised To Do So'.

I mean, I'm flattered and everything, but how the fuck am I supposed to get out now? Nobody knows where the fuck I am 'cause they ditched me at the mall, and the only person who'll notice is Sasuke. But he's too busy getting all pussied up for his date with Rai. What a dumbass.

This is fucking retarded. They didn't even let me go with my one phone call! And they're stupid-ass reason was that I knew too many people and that they knew my friends could break me out in a blink of an eye.

"Hey psst."

What the fuck?

My jail cell was black with 4 solid walls. Not even a bed or anything. Just plain black stone walls. No windows, no shit. It's weird how I can breathe in here.

"Hey, I'm talkin' to you, you fire-crotch!"

My eye twitched. "WHAT THE HELL? JUST 'CAUSE I'M RED-HEADED DON'T MEAN I'M A FIRE-CROTCH, YA DUMBASS!"

"Shut the hell up!" the voice hissed. "Can't you see I'm tryin' to fucking break you outta jail?"

I snorted, standing up and putting my hands on my hips. Is it wrong to think you're a complete idiot when you think you're talking to thin air?

"Down here, you ass-shit."

I looked down and sure enough, there was a motherfucking air vent right below me! And then it hit me.

"Holy hell. You're trying to look up my skirt!" I yelled with embarrassment and realization as I jumped up and inched into a corner.

"You shit-brain, you're wearing pants! FuckDAMN, why am I even helping you?" The guy cursed underneath me. "You're a fucking retard!"

I stomped onto the vent, smashing his fingers. "ASSHOLE."

"Ouch! Fuck!"

The grate was removed and out slithered Hidan, my hero. Well, I'll be damned! This guy WAS useful!

"Hohoho, what do we have here?" I asked smugly, crossing my arms. "Hidan, right?"

"Not just me, you stupid dickwad," Hidan growled, pulling up another mass of red. "Say hello to Sasori."

Sasori? That hot kid with the red hair?

Sasori came out with that bored-ass look on his face as if his day just went as shitty as mine. He sighed and lazily pulled out yet another motherfucking rose that had a yellow base with red tips. Where the fuck do they get these colorful-ass roses? "One more."

I sighed as well, grabbing it and quickly skimming over the card.

The third rose of the day.

Enemy or friend

Even though we offend

Falling in love

It's more than a trend

This yellow/red rose symbolizes friendship and falling in love. Story of my life. Good luck.

Hmph. Whoever's writing this crap's getting better and better with each damn flower. And what the fuck, good luck?

I stuffed the rose into my back pocket, but pricked myself on accident. "Shit!" I cussed, feeling the stinging sensation through my finger.

"HAHA!" Hidan laughed, pointing at me. "That's what you get for being a retarded bitch!"

I was about to smash his face in before I was taken by surprised by Sasori taking my finger and putting it in his damn mouth!

"Uhhh…what the fuck?" I asked, all confused and shit. Who the fuck sucks a bloody finger? That's like me trying to sniff smelly dick. Some weird-ass shit.

"Be quiet," Sasori ordered, somehow managing to shut me up. "I'm sucking the blood so it doesn't get messy and the guards won't know we're here."

I nodded, not wanting to go against his word. Who knows what he'll do if I go against his orders? Oh cheesefuck, he's got some kind of 'Follow What I Say or Else' aura and shit. Fuckin scary-ass dude.

"Okay, okay, enough with this vampire crap," Hidan said, breaking us apart. Well that's embarrassing. "We don't need you sucking her blood, Sasori." Sasori, in turn, gave Hidan an icy glare that could rival that of the Uchihas'.

"Okay," I said awkwardly, wishing they'd just left me here to suck cock and die. "SOO, anyone have any idea how the fuck we dig outta this shithole?"

"Lucky for you, princess, we already dug the fuckin tunnel. All you need to do is walk the fuck through it," Hidan snorted. I pushed him and dived into the hole.

"Bitch!"

"Fuck you, dickhead!"

I could hear Sasori sighing and climbing into the hole with me. "People who curse get on my nerves."

"Really?" I got real close to his ear. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck."

I heard Hidan howl with laughter as he slid in with us. "Good one, sweetcheeks!"

"I'd love to," Sasori said, his gaze on me. I tilted my head in confusion. "Love to what?"

"Oh, nothing."

Oh well. Whatever the fuck you wanted to say probably wasn't important anyways. I hate when people don't tell me what the fuck's on their minds. It's like, um geez, why mention it when you don't wanna talk about it anyways? Damn those indecisive fuckers.

Hidan sighed. "Sasori, how long was this tunnel again?" Sasori looked at Hidan with a look of complete annoyance. My guess was that this guy was like Sasuke—always pissy. Haha, I gotta tell that one to him one day. "I don't know. Weren't you the one who dug it?"

Hidan's mouth twitched and I practically see a fucking vein popping out of his small-ass head. "Oh yeah. How could I forget that you didn't do shit while I worked myself to the fucking bone digging this dumbass tunnel?"

The rest of the tunnel was just Hidan and me bickering. It was some long-ass tunnel and we had to do something. Sasori tried to remain calm, but I was quick enough to notice that occasional twitch of his fist meaning he wanted to beat the crap out of us. Ah, man, I love pissing people off.

"Hey Sasori," I grinned as Hidan snickered behind me. My fellow red-head looked at me from the corner of his eye, trying to figure out the shit I was about to do to him. "…"

"Is your hair really that color?" I asked in a high-pitched voice. Wait for it. WAIIIT FOR IT. *twitch* Yes. There it is. My grin slowly melted into a motherfucking badass smirk.

"Yes." Sasori's voice seemed strained, almost as if he didn't wanna answer my good-ass question. Oh man. This is gonna be fun.

"So…" I clung onto Sasori's arm and nestled my head on his shoulder, "What do you like to do in spare time?" With my free hand, I twirled a piece of my hair like a ditz. From behind, I could hear Hidan dying of suppressed laughter. Fuck yeah.

"Make puppets."

"Ooooh, puppets?" I giggled. "How…childish."

Sasori's eye twitched and I could see him tightening his fists. "I beg to differ." He responded calmly but sternly.

"Yeah, I bet you do," I smiled. "But really, who plays with puppets nowadays? Kinda kiddish, don't ya think?"

I could see his jaw set and his teeth clench. "No."

I purposefully tripped and caught myself. "My bad. I'm a bit…ditzy." Sasori glared at the walls, resisting the urge the urge to yell FUCK YOU to me.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Hidan burst into laughter, clutching the wall for support as tears ran down his face. "I'm sorry, I tried to fucking hold it in, but it was so fucking funny! HAHAHA!"

I laughed too, letting go of Sasori's arm. "Oh man, sorry Sasori. Haha, rhyme. Anyways, sorry, Hidan told me that you got like a soft spot for puppets. Couldn't help it."

Once Hidan calmed down, a big smug expression stuck on his face. "Yeah, I told her that you get all defensive over fucking puppets and that you get so pissed off at ditzy girls. My bad."

Sasori gave us the meanest, leanest, most scariest glare that I've ever gotten. It didn't even look like Sasuke's glare. Sasuke's glare was like saying I-Wanna-Fucking-Murder-You. And Itachi's glare goes like this I'm-Glaring-At-You-To-Make-You-Uncomfortable-And-Maybe-You-Might-Piss-Your-Pants. And Yumi's ultimate death glare was like Imma-Choke-Your-Ass-Until-You-Turn-Fucking-Mauve.

Fucking Sasori's goes like I-Will-Cut-Your-Fucking-Ear-Off-And-Boil-It-And-After-That-I-Will-Find-Exactly-25-Men-To-Rape-Your-Sorry-Ass-ANAL-And-Then-I'll-Make-You-Eat-Your-Boiled-Ear-And-Then-I'll-Gouge-Your-Eyes-And-While-You-Sleep-I'll-Sew-Your-Mouth-Closed-And-Drag-A-Knife-From-The-Beginning-Of-Your-Scalp-To-The-End-Of-Your-Toes-While-Running-Your-Arms-Through-A-Woodchipper-With-Your-Veins-Hanging-Out.

That's how motherfucking scary Sasori looked right now.

I put my hands up, looking apologetic. "Sorry dude, lesson learned. I ain't gonna make fun of your dolls and shit again-," I was interrupted by a fist hitting me square on the mouth.

"OH SHIT!" Hidan cursed.

"Oh my god!" I said, clutching my mouth. "You fucking punched me!"

"Holy shit, man!" Hidan tried to help me as I bent over. "You hit a chick!"

"Aw, crap," Sasori closed his eyes in annoyance. "That wasn't meant for you."

I groaned. "Fuuuuckk."

"Shit, dude, you okay?" Hidan asked me, actually looking concerned.

"Um, no, you stupid fucker, does it look like I'm okay?" Okay, so didn't mean to snap at him, but I hate it when people ask me if I'm okay when I'm obviously not. Like, what the fuck? Need glasses?

"I can't believe you fucking hit a girl," Hidan said, eyes wide at Sasori. "That's some hardcore shit."

"Shut up," Sasori said, bonking his Hidan's head. The remorseful red-head walked over to me and awkwardly patted my back. "I'm…sorry?"

"Fucking mean it!" I groaned again, wiping the blood from my mouth. "Don't say sorry if it doesn't mean a fuck."

"Sorry," Sasori mumbled, but looking straight into my eyes. Somehow, I felt that it was genuine enough. He was one weird guy.

"Ah, it's cool," I said, straightening up and spitting out more blood. I grinned. "How do I look?"

"Ooh," Hidan winced, "You got a bigass purple thing right around-," Sasori nudged him. "I mean, you look gorgeous!"

T.T "Dumbass," Sasori and I said in monotone as we walked away.

"COME BACK!"

Name POV

"Shikamaru." Yeah. There was that spiky-headed boy behind the counter at the Laundromat looking as bored as always. I was starting to wonder why I'd been seeing this boy all day. An omen? Maybe.

"Name? Again?" From his tone of voice, he was polite, yes, but I could tell that he was slightly exasperated from the fact that he'd been seeing me during his personal business and/or errands. It didn't help that I'd been snooping too; asking him questions that he clearly did not want to answer.

But he had a secret. And I had to find out.

"I'm beginning to think you are following me, Shikamaru," I said, amused as I sat down on one of the benches that faced the opposite wall. "Or are you popping out everywhere for a reason?"

"Simply a coincidence," he insisted lazily, placing his head in his palm as he leaned on the counter.

"Perhaps," I shrugged, crossing my legs and placing my hair over my right shoulder.

There was a silence.

"So, are you ready to reveal your secret yet?" I asked casually, inspecting my clean nails as if there was one miniscule speck of dust tainting them. And even though my eyes were not on him, I could feel him stiffen and the air shifted from anticipation to immensely tense.

"Secret?" Oh, so he's deciding to play it dumb. A pretty childish and immature strategy clearly seen through, but that's what I'm overlooking. He knows it's a poor strategy, but the fact that he was willing to use it made me suspicious. He has a trump card.

"You're quite odd, Shikamaru," I stated politely, confining my eyes to the various lines on my cuticles. "You're highly intelligent if not a first-rate strategist. Not to mention you have excellent skill in the art of deception. But," I stood up and walked to the counter, staring him straight in the eye, raising the pressure of the intensity between us, "What you fail to notice is that I also excel in the art of detection. I've noticed a handful of oddities about you which no one else has. And I'd like to say that it was normal at first, but the way you acted, it was…very suspicious."

I heard him swallow. That was the nail to his coffin—admitting defeat before all the facts were set straight.

"So…" I leaned closer and tilted my head in mock curiosity, almost piercing him with my concentrated stare, "Care to share what you so desperately attempted to hide?"

We stared at each other for awhile, waiting to see which one would break. I would obviously not break since I was the interrogator in the first place. All I was waiting on was for him to admit what he'd been hiding.

He sighed and let out a deep breath of air. "I'll tell you."

I cracked a smile. "Took ya long enough."

I sat back down and patiently waited for him to recollect himself. The art of detection does not come without the art of interrogation and discovery. In an attempt to explain this as clearly as possible, once you first become suspicious of something, or someone, you observe it for awhile, am I right? Then you interrogate the person, in my case, and find methods to pressure them into telling you what you want to hear. And then, you've discovered the secret. Voila.

"I'm poor," Shikamaru said bluntly without any additional and supplementary information.

I fell out of my seat in a comical manner. "EH?"

He smirked and I quickly picked myself up. "What an inarticulate way to express your surprise, Miname."

I twitched. No one's used my full name in awhile. It was…unfamiliar.

I hardened my gaze and sat back on the bench. "Please elaborate on your previous statement."

He sighed and leaned on the counter once again. "I'm poor, nothin' much to it."

"But you're a member of the ~BADASS8~. Aren't you all excessively rich?" I asked, baffled by the new information I'd received. Shikamaru…was poor? It just didn't add up.

He looked annoyed. "Isn't that what people perceive us to be? The majority of the badasses are all good-looking and athletic and gifted in the fine arts. You'd expect them to be wealthy as well, right?"

"That is…correct," I said quietly. It was true. Because it seemed that they had it all, it would be peculiar if they were not rich as well, right?

"My parents simply do not make as much money as theirs. Their parents all have extravagant jobs. Sasuke's father is the owner of a prosperous company and Sasuke is the heir. Gaara's father is notorious as a kingpin in the world of crime, though that's just a rumor, but we all know that drugs can give you extreme amounts of money. Shino's parents are filthy rich for discovering a new species of insect and maintaining their mass knowledge of bugs makes them respectable members of the science community."

"You don't understand. My parents—they, they just own this little Laundromat. I work here just to help them out. I don't get any pay. A-and, you know that restaurant you guys wanted me to go to that one Saturday?" Shikamaru seemed to be getting emotional.

It was…sort of distressing to look at. To see someone who is usually apathetic and unconcerned about the world to be showing such emotion; heartbreaking.

"Yeah…" I said, my voice low.

"I told you I couldn't go because I didn't want to. That wasn't the truth. I really did want to go, but the reality was that I worked at that restaurant. I didn't want you guys to see me there, looking like such a lowly busboy. It was embarrassing."

A question popped into my mind. "So I take it the rest of the ~BADASS8~ are not aware of your current financial position?"

His eyes lowered. "No."

Realization dawned on me like waves crashing onto the seashore. "All those times you refused to associate with us on weekly hangouts, it was because you had a job?" He nodded.

"Hm. This is quite ironic," I said, rubbing my chin.

"How so?"

"Well, as a member of the ~BADASS8~, you all are expected to originate from a wealthy and industry-based family. As I have found out one of the members is just a commoner, it was the wrong one." I tried to explain the best I could, but my mind was that type of indescribable.

"Hm?"

"What I'm trying to say is, is that if one of the members were to be poor, you were far from what I expected. It'd usually be, no offense, someone like Naruto or Kiba. You, my friend, are quite polite and was raised with gentlemanly manners. It seems quite unfitting that you are the underprivileged one amongst your rude friends. You actually somewhat radiate an air of eloquence. If anything, you deserve the wealth the most, in my eyes at least."

Shikamaru seemed shocked I would say that about him, but I was speaking the right truth. He really did seem far from poor and it was quite unfortunate that he was the one who ended up poor anyways. Shikamaru was not a hard-working person, that was obvious as it is, but I could tell if the effort was given, he could do a number of great and remarkable things.

Though he did not aspire to be much, I believe that he could make himself a splendid man.

"Thank you?" It was laughable to see Shikamaru's reaction to an unexpected compliment.

"Anyways, I've got to get going," I said, standing up. "Don't worry, I'll keep the secret. Well, until the time is right, that is."

He smirked but agreed silently nonetheless.

As I opened the door, he said, "Wait!" I stopped. "Didn't you come here for something?"

"Eh, just send it off to my house," I said, waving my hand carelessly. "I don't care if I have to pay extra, I just don't wanna lug it all the way home."

He laughed as I walked out the door and I could hear his parting words. "That's almost as lazy as me."

I smiled to myself.

Normal POV with Aiko

"YES!" Aiko screamed her lungs out as she burst free from the sewer. "FUCKING LAND!"

"Augh, shit!" Hidan cursed as he crawled out with Sasori. "It smells so fucking bad in there."

"And I bet we stink like shit too," Aiko added, brushing herself off. The tunnel was long, but they covered enough distance a minute to make it there in half an hour. It ended up leading into the sewer and they had to walk through the human waste sludge to find their way up.

"Uhhh…"

"Mommy, there's blood on that girl's hair!" A little boy pointed at Aiko's hair rudely, pulling his mother along.

"Eh?" Aiko held a face of indifference. Who was this kid, going around pointing fingers and telling her she had bloody hair?

She suddenly locked eyes with the mother and she was scared as hell. Aiko could tell. She was aware of the feeling and the look of it very well.

"Listen, kid," she leaned down to be eye-level with the brave boy, momentarily forgetting the mother, "My hair's not-,"

"Look another one!" The boy pushed Aiko aside, causing her to tip over. "He has blood on his hair too!"

"What the fuck, kid?" Aiko said angrily, popping a tick mark. "Hidan, where the fuck did we end up?"

"Um, gee, ya snotbag, if you haven't noticed, we're in a fucking park," Hidan snorted, scratching his balls. It seemed that guys did that at the randomest times, though Aiko didn't care. She'd been around guys for so long that it didn't seem weird to her anymore.

"Are you all brothers and sisters?" the boy asked, wide-eyed.

Hidan's eye twitched. "What makes you think that, kid? We look nothing alike."

"No, no," the boy insisted, pointing that rude finger of his again, "You and that girl have the same pinky purple eyes and that boy has blood on his hair just like her. You have to be related!"

They all exchanged looks. What a weird kid. Even they didn't notice that they were more alike than they thought.

"Sorry but we're not related at all," Hidan said. "Go run along now."

Where the hell was his mom? Aiko scratched her head. Wasn't she there just a second ago?

"Where's your mother?" Sasori spoke her thoughts. "You were pulling her along before, weren't you?"

"Oh, she went with Daddy. After they take me to the park, they leave me here until they wanna take me home, so I just play by myself." The little boy kicked at the sand with his feet.

At that moment, Aiko felt a twinge of…sympathy? The boy's story was tugging at her heart strings, bringing familiar emotions back. She pitied him and…understood him. She remembered her pain when her parents were no longer there.

She could relate to this boy.

She leaned down once again, but this time put a hand on the top of his head and smiled. "Wanna hang out with us then?"

The boy's bright green eyes lit up. "Really?"

"Hey, what the fuc-," Hidan was silenced by the glare Aiko sent him. She was serious. She wanted this dumbass kid to follow them around all day. Fucking bitch.

"Yeah, sure thing kid," Aiko said, standing up. She stretched. This whole thing was pretty tiring. You try walking through a dark-ass tunnel that leads to a sewer for who knows how long with a pissy redhead and an impatient curse machine.

They started to walk out of the park, Aiko jingling the coins in her pocket.

"So," the kid said, walking beside the odd trio, "Why's your guys' hair so bloody?"

Aiko twitched again. "Kid, are you trying to say some bitch sat on our heads during her time of the month and just let go?"

Hidan snickered behind Sasori, whose expression was the obvious unreadable.

The boy scratched his head. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Wh-," Aiko was cut off with a girl who had purple hair and a paper rose in her hair shoved another rose in her hands.

"What the hell?" Aiko sighed, "Another one?"

"Hidan, Sasori, let's go." The girl said, her serious expression never faltering.

"What? I don't wanna go back! I don't have shit to do!" Hidan complained, crossing his arms like a child. Sasori, on the other hand, took the situation quite well. "Understood."

"Konan, why the fuck are you here anyways?" Hidan yelled, waving his arms all around the place. Konan remained expressionless as she answered, "Obviously to deliver the rose. Now, let's go Hidan. Our job isn't to stay with her."

"I don't wanna go! Fucking tell her, Sasori!"

Sasori was apathetic as he stood beside Konan. "Orders are orders, Hidan."

Hidan grew a tick mark. "Why the fuck are all my friends so fucking serious? Somebody could be fucking raping you in the ass and you wouldn't even give a second fuc—OWWW!"

Konan had had enough of Hidan's senseless rambling and had grabbed his ear while dragging him away. Sasori looked back at the curious-looking Aiko, who held the white rose. "I'll see you later."

"Later?" Aiko repeated as the new trio disappeared from her sight. "What the hell does that mean?" When she got no answer, she sighed and read what the white rose said.

Purity and humility

All signs of you and me

Innocence and virtue

That's you and me too

Don't forget, we've just started

You and me, we're also bighearted

Just a few more :) 3 Your most devoted admirer

"Hmph." Aiko crossed her arms. "Guy's got play. Too bad this is my game."

"Hey, hey," the little boy pulled on her shirttail, "What's a fuck?"

"Something that you shouldn't be doing in a long time."

"Hey, wait for me!" The boy squeaked as Aiko began to walk ahead of him.

"Gotta catch up."

"So have you had a fuck?"

"Quit asking questions kid."

"So that means that you haven't had a fuck?"

"I'll gouge your eyes out."

"Do fucks taste good?"

"Hey kid, do you like your mouth?"

"Umm, yeah."

"Good. Close it before I rip it off your face."

"Oh, fuck!"

Meanwhile, Rai and Yumi were so bored, they've resorted to dressing up so they could look good on their dates or "friendly hangouts" and Rai likes to put it. She was in denial, but she shouldn't worry. The denial will soon melt away.

Name soon came home and the two bored sisters attacked her. They didn't even let her utter one word of surprise as they carried her Indian-style to Yumi's room and did their work on her.

"I expect there was a reasonable excuse for ambushing me in my own house?" Name asked in her usual apathetic manner, sitting on Yumi's bed while said blonde pulled out her Hooker cart.

"Just sit still and I'll make you beautiful," Yumi reassured the already beautiful blue-haired wonder. Her intimidating gleaming blue eyes almost made Yumi stop what she was doing, but years of living with this girl made her accustomed to her occasional glares.

In about twenty minutes, Yumi had finished her hair and makeup. Name adamantly refused to wear any makeup, but Yumi had bargained with her and ended with a box of spam if she let her put just a touch of makeup.

Name now had a relatively nice amount of black mascara and the lightest amount of black eyeliner on just to accentuate her shiny midnight sea eyes. Yumi added smoky blue eye shadow and a dark purple lipstick.

"I look like a Barbie doll gone wrong," Name stated bluntly as she looked herself in the mirror. "So hideous."

"Shut up," Rai bumped her head while looking through a collection of clothes and accessories, "You can say shit about yourself, but we all know you're pretty as fuck."

"For a second there, I almost, just almost, missed Aiko," Name said in surprise as Yumi fixed her dark blue hair into loose waves.

"Ya, ya, love ya too, sweetie," Rai said, finally picking out an outfit for Name. "Yumi, what time is it?"

"It's only ten," Yumi shrugged. "We've got plenty of time."

"Awesome."

"There!" Yumi said, clapping her hands, "Now I pass you onto Rai so you can have perfect clothes."

Name felt like a rag doll, being carelessly tossed around from here to there, getting random clothes thrown onto you, and having your face messed up. She didn't care though. It's not like she had anything else better to do.

"Okay, I finished Name," Rai said, gesturing towards the uninterested girl picking at her nails in the corner.

She now sported a gray tank top that had a blue Pitbull on it and said World's Most Dangerous on it. Paired with an open black cardigan, black shorts, black goth boots, and gray tights. She had dangly silver hoop earrings on and a silver chain necklace.

And just for the sake of accessory, Rai added a glistening silver charm bracelet.

"Ooh, somebody looks hot," Yumi giggled as she turned around to work on Rai.

In a minimum of thirty minutes, Rai had her hair in two curly low-pigtails and Yumi had her makeup done.

Rai had a lot of mascara and eyeliner, making her red eyes glow, and a little bit of red eye shadow. She had cherry lipstick on and red beaded earrings that dangled from her ears.

Her clothes consisted of a red-and-black striped beanie, a black long-sleeve that said LOVE ME in red and in a hollow heart, and black short shorts. She also wore a ruby red half-hoodie with a half leather jacket, red mesh tights, and black knee-high boots.

"And somebody's dressing to impress," Name raised an eyebrow, eying Rai up and down. This time, Rai didn't get flustered at the insinuation of her romance with Sasuke. Instead, she radiated confidence. "Damn straight I am."

Ever since Yumi's tirade earlier in the day, Rai thought, well what the hell? I've waited long enough, I think I deserve a little something. I'm not just gonna sit here like Cinderella, waiting for him to do something for me.

Rai finally realized that if he wouldn't make a move, then she'd have to do something about that.

"And last not but definitely not least…" Yumi chuckled to herself as Name and Rai flanked her sides to do her hair while Yumi did her own makeup.

They straightened her hair and her side bangs pin-straight, something they haven't seen in a while.

"I almost forgot what you really look like," Rai snickered after finishing her hair. Yumi pouted, "Shut up."

She dressed herself up in a white long-sleeve that said TOKYO GIRL in orange, a knee-length dark brown leather jacket, a light brown leather skirt, and dark brown combat boots. Beneath that, she wore a caramel & dark chocolate striped socks and over that, an orange and white striped scarf.

She wore heavy mascara and eyeliner, because those were her favorite cosmetic products, and a light orange eye-shadow. She wore a pinkish natural lipstick and her orange diamond shaped dangly earrings.

"Okay, so now we look like hookers," Rai shrugged, "What happens when we get raped?"

"Tell the guy to avoid a creampie," Yumi shrugged herself, sitting on her bed and licking yet another lollipop.

"What's a creampie?"

"You'll see when you get raped."

Back to Aiko

While Hidan and Sasori were gone, some guy with a half white half black face popped up and gave her a burgundy colored rose and left without a word. It was weird, yes, but then again, she was used to weird. Anyways, the rose said…

Beauty is something I love about you

It's because it's the most obvious part of you

You're always so pretty, without a doubt

It's frustrating to see all the boys scout

But don't fret my dear

Because, you see

You're better than what I expected you to be

Your beauty is not a fairy-tailed myth

That and, you're someone I always want to be with

Other than that, walking with the kid eventually tired Aiko out. All he did was ask unnecessary questions that she really didn't feel like answering until he was above the age of ten. Where he'd eventually learn about human reproduction.

"So if you fuck someone, you get a baby?" Aiko groaned. Couldn't she take a nice stroll around town without this kid asking about fuck every five seconds?

"Yeah, but it doesn't happen all the time."

"Why not?"

Aiko sighed and face-palmed. "Look, I'm out to do something. I let you follow me 'cause I felt bad for you. Now don't make me think twice about dropping you off back at the park."

The kid pouted. "Fine. I'll shut up."

Thank the lord.

And here comes another guy with a rose. This guy was blue and all that shit and he was sorta creepy looking. He had a freaky smile on his face as he extended his fishy hand to reveal a pink rose.

"The name's Kisame. Don't forget it." Aiko, who was used to the freaks that showed up with random roses, disregarded him as weird and shrugged. "Sure, why not."

"Hehehe…" Kisame chuckled evilly before slowly walking away.

"Creepy fish face," Aiko said under her breath as she leaned on a nearby wall with the kid to read the card.

Sweet and gentle as can be

This isn't you, really

Nothing reminds me of you to a pink rose

Except for perfect happiness I suppose

Just a little bit left…3

The red-haired girl sighed and tucked it into her pocket with the rest of the roses, which were digging in and causing a few cuts on her hands.

"Let's go." She arrived at a Hallmark store and bought a wife and husband card for Tsunade and Jiraiya. It said…

I'm sorry for losing your hard-earned trust

And all other things for the sake of lust

Please understand, I am a man

With a cut-short attention span

And I'm very sorry for all the lies

You're the perfect woman in my eyes

What I failed to notice was how beautiful you are

And strong and kind too

You are the one and only shining star

In the sky of many truthless truths

"That old pervert owes me big time for this shit," Aiko grumbled, stuffing the card into her other pocket along with the chocolate and the porn. They walked out of the store casually, as if everything were normal.

"OH MY GOD!"

"What now?" Aiko cracked open her right eye to see what the fuck was up. "Hey, kid, what's goin' on?"

"That is my son!" Suddenly, an enraged woman yanked the boy from Aiko and protectively held him against her with the cops right behind her.

"Um, what the hell?" Aiko was in shock. She'd had everything and anything happen to her. Why was this crazy lady taking the kid and calling the cops on her?

"You!" The lady jabbed a finger in the tired teen's face. "You kidnapped my son with your hoodlum friends!"

Aiko's expression turned from disinterested to furious. "What the fuck are you talking about? You left him at the park!"

"Doesn't mean you can just take him!"

"Are you fucking crazy, lady? This kid told me you'd leave him there until god knows when so he could be alone," Aiko growled. "Don't try to act so fucking innocent here."

"What lies are you spouting?" The lady feigned an innocent voice. "Police, she's telling lies! Arrest her!"

Police? POLICE. Oh shit! Aiko started to run, but it was one second too late. They had already grabbed her and cuffed her. When she was shoved into the cop car, the boy she took care of for about an hour or two looked at her in confusion.

Wait a minute, was that even his mother? He didn't seem to be as loving towards her as he was back then.

Shit! Aiko cursed as she kicked the car seat. When did I mess up so bad?

She was taken to a different jail other than the usual high-tech security prison. This jail was a more ghetto one. When she was taken inside, she realized that she was the only prisoner there and that it was a one-cell jail with a desk for the sheriff to sit. Where in the hell was she?

Of all the jails she's been in, this was the poorest one. It was just sad to look at. She felt like she was in some low-class box with holes inside it.

And who the hell goes to jail twice in one day? That's just straight-out pathetic.

"Stay there, criminal," Some dopey-looking cop eyed her like she was trash and sat behind the desk. Aiko sighed and casually sat on the floor of the dirty prison cell.

It was nearing about five o' clock and the sky was darkening while the snow was falling. She had places to go, people to see. She still hadn't brought Tsunade and Jiraiya together. I mean, without her help, it would be another impending divorce, wouldn't it?

The world doesn't need any more of that shit.

And most importantly, she still didn't know who this mystery guy writing all the poems was. If she didn't have any feelings for Gaara whatsoever, she might've given this dude a chance. She sighed. Gaara.

She remembered the whispering around the Christmas tree and the suspicious glances her sisters threw at her. Just what was his surprise? And why the hell is it so mind-blowing? Is he like giving her a fucking diamond or something?

"Kid."

The voice of a commanding officer snapped her out of her reverie. She instantly narrowed her eyes. Yumi might've liked cops, but she was part of Dragon's Inferno. Dragon's Inferno would always get away from cops 'cause they were just that sneaky. Aiko was from World of Demons. They could fight like hell, that's true, but they all had the same loud-mouth attitude that got them jailed, hence the reason Aiko detests cops. It was just instinct.

"You got a visitor," the cop snorted at her angst-y attitude. He resumed his nonchalant pose in his chair and napped. "Teenagers."

"Who the hell could be visiting me? Nobody even knows I'm here," Aiko said, puzzled. Her confusion turned into, well, more confusion.

"Uh…what are you doing here?" Aiko said, pointing casually at the older Uchiha.

Itachi snorted at her impoliteness. Kids these days. "Oh please. You've been receiving flowers from the Akatsuki all day. Don't think I'm here to just say hello."

Aiko jumped in realization. "No way! That's why they all looked so motherfuckin' familiar! Akatsuki, duh!" She slapped her forehead. "Man, am I dumb!"

"You could say that again," Itachi and the nappy-headed cop said in unison. They shared glances but shrugged and went about their business.

"Alright, shut up," Aiko sat down again, seeing as how Itachi wouldn't get her out of jail, "Just give me the shit and leave. Unless you're willing to pay my bail."

"How much?"

Aiko closed her eyes and smirked. "Five-hundred."

She felt a rose hit her face and the start of footsteps. "Bye."

Her mouth twitched. "Cheap-ass bastard."

"Kid, shut up," the cop said, with no authority in his voice to enforce the command. "I'm tryin' to watch Oprah here. This guy just cheated on his wife with a teenager and got her pregnant. He doesn't even have a job and he has eight kids with his wife."

"Wow," Aiko whispered to herself and huddled in the corner. "Didn't no cops were such candy-asses."

"What was that, hoodlum?"

"Nothing, oh beautiful one!"

"Thought so," the cop snorted in victory.

Aiko rolled her eyes. She let him have that one. He was like a five-year old kid tryin' to pick a fight with the bully.

She forgot about the childish cop and continued to sit in the corner. "Might as well read this shit," she sighed, opening up the note from the rose. It was black this time, contrasting greatly with the other colorful roses.

Death, tears, sorrow, and despair

Anger, frustration, and a thousand dagger glares

You give me all these feelings, far or near

But despite this, renewal and love takes place here

Our relationship and admiration, designed to endear

Do not take this black rose as a serious offense

To believe otherwise, well it's common sense

So I guess it's time to set this straight

Tonight at 11:50 PM in the Quads and don't be late :)

Despite her feelings toward Gaara, she was feeling slightly flustered. She had read somewhere that black roses could not be made naturally, but florists would dye them to make it seem as if it were real.

Regardless of its authenticity or not, the rose petals were soft like real ones and it smelled like it should.

She inwardly scoffed. Leave it to Itachi to give her the most emo rose…

She re-read the note again and noticed the location. Quads? Where the hell is that?

She was interrupted by a sniffle and she took a double-take at the guard up top.

There he was in all his scary guardliness. He was in the chair, bringing a tissue up to his face because he was crying his eyes the fuck out and saying, "Oprah, for Kami's sake, she's just a child!"

Aiko snorted and returned to her plans. She wondered. How would she escape this place? It seems that she's run out of luck. She was always lucky; escaping the cops and getting out of trouble in the nick of time—it was all routine to her.

Now that she's been caught and there's no one to call and no one to save her…well, simply, what the hell was she gonna do now?

She sighed and leaned her head against the cheap brick wall while pulling her knees up loosely and hanging her arms over them. She looked everywhere for a sign of escape.

Like Shikamaru's tactics, she also had a thinking technique.

One that no one would expect from her. Her technique was to observe her surroundings; to be able to use anything and/or everything…

Aiko tried to use her resources. She felt the walls and the ground for a weak spot and found a few. She patted herself to see if she could use anything in her pockets other than the cheesy Hallmark card and the number of roses in her ass.

"A-ha!" She whispered to herself triumphantly as she dug out the spoon she used earlier to eat that completely disgusting frozen yogurt. "I'm gonna dig myself outta this shithole!"

She cackled to herself at her seemingly ingenious plan.

"Nothing could possibly go the fuck wrong. This is the best plan ever!"

One Hour Later

"Holy…shit…this ground…is so…motherfucking thick!" The firecracker panted to herself as sun set from outside of the jail. With each breath she took, she stabbed the ground with the plastic spoon she had previously gotten from a horrible yogurt desert.

Her current position was her with her ass up and her cheek pressed to the cold ground. Her spoon was in her fist and she stuck it halfway through the small crater she managed to make in an hour. She chipped the ground after ten minutes of digging.

After thirty minutes of digging, she had managed to create a centimeter of hole. And by time it reached an hour, she got a bowl shaped hole about half an inch deep.

She stared at her progress with maniacal eyes. "This shit needs to break the fuck down."

And to think…her super-smart, genius, fool-proof, Einstein-status, ultimate jailbreak plan was to dig a hole from the inside out. And after an hour of incessant digging, she had created something not even a mouse could fit in.

Her unbreakable plan soon turned out to be a Titanic. She was a failure.

"Gotta…keep…going…" the determined redhead continued to scrape the floor with the white plastic spoon, "Can't…give…up…I—,"

*SNAP*

It seemed as if the whole world froze.

The once strong-willed redhead shakily raised up the plastic spoon. Well, if that's what you call a white plastic bottom of a spoon. Yes, ladies and gentleman, the spoon was broken.

The circular counterpart had snapped off and bounced all the way under the chair of the sleeping guard.

"Oh my shit," Aiko bawled, thrashing around and throwing an immature-like tantrum, "I fucking hate my life!"

"Well, it was bound to break anyways."

"Great!" Aiko sniffed, flipping her bangs out of the way. "Now I'm starting to hear the perv's voice. I'm going fucking insane!"

"HEY, I'm not a perv! Call me that again and I'll fail you into oblivion!"

"Might as well," Aiko kept going. She failed to notice the smirking figures in the doorway. "Since this is a hallucination, I should just go ahead and tell you your hair looks like an ancient rat's nest, your porn mags are cheap as fuck, I mean seriously, get some class and at least go for Playboy, and the boil on your nose pisses me the fuck off. It's just THERE and whenever I talk to you I can't just NOT look at it. It's like the fuckin' mole on your thigh. There. Now I've got nothing to lose."

"I'LL WRING YOUR NECK, YOU LOUDMOUTHED DUMBSHIT!"

Her eyes widened. It sounded so realistic.

"Eh?" The downtrodden girl tilted her head in newfound confusion as her eyes found the figure she was looking for. "Pervy Science teacher?"

And there were the two figures. The fuming white-haired aforementioned Science teacher and the slit-eyed blonde F-cup bombshell were standing at the doorway, looking at the jail cell she was in.

"AND YOU'RE A DUMBASS WHO SUCKS AT SCIENCE! Who doesn't know what Pangea is, huh?"

"For your information smart-ass, Pangea falls into the category geography!"

"OH MY DAMN, YOU STUPID TARD. Geography is part of Earth Science! Do your homework for once!"

"Wow," Tsunade whistled monotonously and put a hand to her hip, "My student, the over-achiever."

"Excuse meeee," Aiko mimicked, crossing her arms stubbornly. "But in your school, I follow the rules. Out here, I can do whatever the shit I want."

"Obviously," Jiraiya muttered, "I bet you spend your weekends digging for food in the dumpsters."

"I hope your penis blows up when you jack yourself off tonight."

Tsunade shook her head at the imbeciles in front of her. She found herself asking the same question she asked almost every day of her life. Why did she deal with these people again?

"HEY! Who are you assholes?"

The once-snoring guard had regained his alertness and finally noticed the two strangers in the cramped doorway of the small jail.

"The girl's ours. We got the money to pay for it," Tsunade responded gruffly, narrowing her eyes at the guard, who was finding it very hard to keep his eyes to her face.

"Really? Then show it to me."

Aiko was bursting with happiness. She couldn't wait to get out of this place! "C'mon Pervy teacher, show him the money!"

Through the slits in the jail cell, Jiraiya grabbed her by the shirt and shook her until her eyes rolled around. "Listen you little dumbass, we're bailing you out so you can shut your mouth before your grade becomes a permanent F."

"I've got F's in almost every subject anyways," Aiko shrugged, trying to recover from the dizziness, "Go ahead."

Jiraiya's eye twitched. "Don't be a smart-ass. Shut your trap and I won't think of leaving you here."

"Hush, you two," Tsunade pulled Jiraiya back as the guard opened Aiko's jail cell. "We're-,"

"I'M FREEEEE!" Aiko yelped and screamed, bolting out of the ghetto jail and jumping in the streets. "TAKE THAT YA SHITBAGS! NO ONE CAN MESS WITH—OOF!"

"That idiot," Tsunade slapped her forehead as she heard skid marks and groans of pain. "She got hit by a car."

Aiko grabbed her stomach in pain but stood up. "I'm okay."

"Watch where you're going, firecrotch!" the driver yelled out his window as he sped away.

The "firecrotch" blazed with newfound aggression. "I'LL KICK YOUR BALLS, YOU SUCK-ASS ASIAN DRIVER!"

"This is Japan, you shiznit! We're all Asian!" The hit-and-run driver shook his fist out of the window and revved his engine.

"Hmph." Aiko stood up and brushed herself off as she walked towards the sidewalk. "Everybody's a smart-ass these days."

"Including you," Jiraiya bumped her on the top of her pretty red head. And in doing so, the porn magazine she had bought earlier flopped out.

All three of them stared at it as people walked by at the odd trio.

"Uhhh…" Aiko tried to explain but couldn't quite find the words.

"Is that…?" The pervy Science teacher tried hard not to look at the nude magazine. Not with his wife right there and still sore about the earlier problem.

"Aren't you a little bit too young to be reading this kinda stuff?" Tsunade raised an eyebrow as she picked it up. Oh yes, she was used to seeing porn magazines. "I usually catch the boys reading this. Why the hell do you have it?"

The teenager looked accusingly at Jiraiya. "WELLLL…"

"Spit it out, I haven't got all day."

"Temari and Hinata and Rai and Yumi and Tenten and Shizumi kicked me outta the car 'cause I was cussing and I landed on the hood of Temari's Hummer and they kept driving and I got slushied and they ran me into the pervy Science teacher's nasty car and I asked him why it looked like shit and he said that he got caught with porn and he got kicked outta your house and that he had to live in his crappy car now and I said 'No worries, I'll fix it!' so I tried to but I ran into this guy named Hidan who REALLLLY pissed me off and I bought a porn magazine so I could help pervy teacher," Aiko said in one really big breath.

Jiraiya was picking at his nails while Tsunade stared at her pointedly. "So you heard about our little spat."

"Yes ma'am." Aiko nodded diligently.

"Do you know what it was about?"

"Yeah 'cause you found his porn stash," Aiko answered proudly. She felt good because she knew the answer to the question and it made her feel smart.

"And you bought porn because you thought it'd make me forgive him for reading porn?" The blonde principal crossed her arms, trying to make a point.

And the point came across as Aiko's face twisted into one of confusion and realization. "…Whatever! Sor-ry for trying to help!"

Jiraiya sighed and patted her shoulder. "Don't worry, everything's fixed. No need for your help anymore."

Aiko's jaw dropped. "What!" She put her hands up in the air. "I spent all day getting you crap that you were supposed to give her!"

"Like what?"

"Like…this…shit," she grumbled, rummaging through her pockets. As soon as she found what she was looking for, she threw the fancily wrapped chocolates and the husband and wife card at him.

"Hmm…impressive," Jiraiya flashed a smug grin as he checked them over. "Maybe I should've let you handle this."

"Who cares about that? How did you win her back? That's like impossible!" Aiko huffed, putting her hands to her hips.

"Well, I thought you were taking WAY too long to help me, so I finally took matters into my own hands and just apologized…on my knees," Jiraiya shrugged.

"Why didn't you call me and say you didn't my help anymore?" Aiko raged, hanging onto his shirt. "I've been out here for fucking hours trying to think of ways to fix your dumbass marriage! At least have the decency to call and say that you didn't my help!"

"Have you ever seriously heard of a teacher giving his student his phone number?" The white-haired teacher said monotonously.

Aiko let go. "True."

"Aiko, right?"

The redhead turned to face what she was expecting. Yep, another rose. It was being held by a man named Pein. She saw his name stitched on his clothing. Pfft. Loser.

He walked away without a word.

"Umm…" Tsunade was about to say something, but lacked the formation of words.

"Shit, kid, is that a blue rose?" Jiraiya asked his bored-looking student as she read the card.

A blue rose is almost impossible to attain

Like the romance with you I try to maintain

Our whole relationship is extremely complex

It's hard to see what really comes next

You're hard to reach and completely mysterious

Always silly and rarely dead-serious

You should know this rose is tremendously rare

But anything for you to show that I care

"Was that Pein I saw just now?" Tsunade asked, almost dazed.

"Yeah, you know him?" Aiko asked, stuffing the rose in her pocket with the rest.

"Of course I do. He was my former student," Tsunade nodded suspiciously. "How do you know him?" Then she added hesitantly. "…It's not…safe to be friends with a guy like him, you know."

"Pfft," Aiko scoffed. "I think it's not safe to be friends with a girl like me. And some guy's been sending me roses with poems attached to them. I don't know who it is, but I'm just wondering how they have connections to the Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki?" Tsunade arched an eyebrow.

"Nothing, never mind," Aiko waved her hand, feeling the need to not explain to the school principal the structures of gangs. "Anyways, what time is it?"

"Whoa," Jiraiya's eyebrows rose. "It's already eleven?"

"Eleven?" Aiko's eyes bulged. "Oh shit, I gotta go! See ya later, Pervy teacher and big tit principal!" She waved and started to run.

"If you call me that again, I'll expel you to Alaska!" The principal hollered as the redhead made her escape.

"I've got fifty minutes before I meet that person at the Quads," Aiko panted to herself. She looked at her surroundings. "And from here…that's about half an hour away to my house! And I still gotta get ready, fuck!"

Before she could kick into high gear, a yellow Ferrari Enzo skidded in front of her to a stop.

Aiko POV (Finally! :D Did ya miss me? X)

"Hey, what the hell?" I knocked on the hood to get the driver's attention since the windows were tinted and I couldn't see who was inside. "I'ma sue your ass!"

Seriously, what was up with these cars today? Are they all out to run my ass over?

The exotic car that was parked near the sidewalk caught the attention of everybody on the street, causing a commotion. I guess it didn't help that I was out there with my red hair and my potty mouth.

"I don't think you'd do that," smirked the driver as he slowly stepped out of the car, looking all cool and shit.

I was ready to punch his dick unrecognizable until I saw his face and thought otherwise. Now I just wanted to drill his nose into the back of his head.

"What the fuck?" I pointed at the Ino look-alike. "Why you here, Ino?"

He popped a tickmark. "Shut the hell up, Dyke-O! I'm gonna drive you to your house, un!"

I put my hands on my hips. "And why would you do that?"

"Because I was paid to, un!" Deidara pushed me into the other side of the car. "Just shut up and go, un."

I buckled up and crossed my arms in the car. "This better be fast."

The Ino twin smirked and put his black shades on. "This is a Ferrari Enzo, baby. It was made to be fast, un."

And I was quickly silenced when he stepped on the pedal and we sped through the streets. "HOLY SHIT!" I grabbed the edge of my seat. "Motherfucker, we're gonna get pulled over!"

"Relax and quiet down, un," Deidara said nonchalantly, weaving through the New Year's traffic as if it were as easy as putting his shoes on. "We'll be there in ten minutes tops, un."

Well that's good enough. That's less than half the time it takes to get to my house by walking. Fuck it, just get with the program.

11.5 Minutes Later

"Holy crap, just shut the fuck up!" I had my shoe implanted on his face since he tied my arms with the seatbelts. "You're so fucking annoying!"

"Get your smelly shit off my face, un!" The gay-ass wonder tried to swat my foot away while he concentrated on the steering wheel. "I'm trying to drive here, Dyke!"

"I will rip your blonde hair off and stuff it up your asshole!" I growled, pulling his hair.

"Thank god, we're here, un!" He skidded to a stop in front of my house and pressed the brakes. And our faces just damn smushed onto the windshield.

"Y-You crazy fucker…" I rubbed my cheek, slapping his thigh.

"Get outta my car, un!" He pushed me out the door onto my ass and threw a yellow rose at me. "Happy New Year, Dyke-O!"

And with that rude comment, he just drove the fuck away. "I hope you crash your car into a jail and they beat your ass up!" I yelled after him even though he probably couldn't hear me.

I started grumbling and read the note.

We started out as enemies and never as friends

I didn't even know when we made amends

But my feelings for you, no doubt brings me joy

But I also feel like just another boy

Your smile turns my bad day into something delighted

I hope my feelings don't go unrequited

"Pfft, whatever," I stuffed the rose where the others ones were and ran into the house. I've got no time to lose.

"Aiko? Is that you?" I heard Yumi's light voice as I entered my room and grabbed a bunch of clothes. From the distance of her voice, I could tell she was in Rai's room. I quickly climbed up to Rai's room and grabbed a random cookie on the floor.

If you ever wanted to pick up some random useful shit, Rai's room is like a fucking thrift store. ANYTHING could be in there and it was fucking amazing.

"Aiko? Where did you go for so many fucking hours?" asked an almost unrecognizable Rai.

"No time, gotta go, see ya!" I said hurriedly, swiftly dodging the boxing glove that was thrown at me by an equally distinct looking Yumi.

"Damn it, I missed!" Yumi pouted, crossing her arms.

"Bitch," I said under my breath, trying my best to get outta this damn room. I was almost out when-

"Hold it!"

DAMN. Before my speedy escape, Name had gotten a hold of my arm.

"Where do you think you're going?" She asked me suspiciously, raising her eyebrow.

"Look, it's a long-ass story but I gotta GO pronto," I said, ready to take off again. "Seriously."

Name raised an eyebrow. "…"

"Hurry the fuck up!" I pleaded, squirming to get over her iron grip. The girl was like a ten-foot five ton man. Her grip was firm and tight as fuck.

"…Fine," Name sighed and released me. "But if I have to undergo this horrendous torture categorized as makeup, then I suppose you must contribute to this indescribable torment as well."

"Whatever! Just make it quick. I gotta leave ASAP." I seriously could not have stressed that enough. If I'm late to the Quads, I'm gonna lose it. I've been through WAY too much shit to just go down now. If I do, I'm gonna be pissed the fuck off.

"Done!" Yumi smiled and turned me around in the chair.

"What the hell? I didn't even know I was getting painted on. And how the fuck did I get into chair?" I looked around, confused as hell. One second, I was thinking about how I'd murder these bitches if I got late and the next second this blonde dumbass just finishes putting makeup on me.

"Might as well dress you here," Rai shrugged, pulling off my dirty clothes.

"Those are disgusting." Name made a face at my grimy outfit. "What exactly did you do today?"

"None ya business," I grunted as Yumi pulled at my hair. "Hey, watch it up there!"

"Sorry, but your hair is a literal rat's nest. Look," She pulled a strand and dangled a rat tail in front of me, "It's just nauseating."

I laughed, remembering the time in the sewer and Hidan and I argued until we started wrestling on the floor. "So that's where it went."

Name made another face, looking more disgusted. "That is extremely repulsive. You seriously shouldn't be laughing right now."

"Whatever, just hurry up. I've gotta go in," I checked the clock on Rai's wall, "Ten minutes. Someone show me where the Quad is!"

"It's near Town Center," Yumi answered as she powdered my face some more. "You'll see it, I guess. In big words, it says Quads…Hey, what's this purple bruise on the side of your mouth?"

"What the hell are you talking abou-," My eyes widened. Umm…Sasori punched me? Nah, that doesn't sound right.

"Did you get into another fight?" Name sighed, exasperated.

"Yeah, what of it?" I lied shamelessly. Whew. Quick save.

She rolled her eyes. "Tomboys will be tomboys."

"Shut your trap."

I don't know how long they worked on me but in the end, I looked pretty legit. Well, I liked the clothes; the makeup made me look and feel trampy.

Yumi smeared some "concealer" to hide the big-ass bruise on the side of my face and made me wear some type of weird-ass "smoky red eye-shadow". Then she put on dark red lipstick on my lips, some mascara, and eyeliner, and whatever the fuck that was.

Name curled my hair and put it half-up half-down and put a gold skull necklace on me. She added gold hoop earrings and a gold eternity circle bracelet.

Then it was Rai's turn to fuck up my body by forcing me to wear some short-ass black shorts, red tights, black knee-high boots, and a red over-the-shoulder shirt that showed a black grenade on it.

"Wow." I scratched my head while hurrying to get out.

"You like it?"

"I look like a hooker."

Normal POV

"So you go to Konoha High as well? I believe you're in the same History class as me," Ryuu laughed, drinking some of his coffee. He was currently sitting in Starbucks with Sukino, who enjoyed his mere presence.

"Yeah, but I don't go to school often," Sukino smiled. "I work here part-time to get away from home. My folks don't like the things I do."

Ryuu raised an eyebrow. "Like what?"

"Nothing important. I was just getting more interested into the punk lifestyle. They didn't like it all," Sukino laughed in her beanbag chair. She felt comfortable in the nicely heated coffee shop. Starbucks was always relaxing for her and the smell of coffee beans was heaven.

They continued on with their small talk and waited for the Starlight Event.

"You know, I heard a TV crew's gonna film the Starlight Event from Town Center. They're gonna catch one lucky couple who kisses exactly at midnight," Sukino said.

"Wow, wonder who that lucky couple's gonna be," Ryuu snorted.

And across from the cozy Starbucks, Shizumi and Shino were walking around the Quads, engaging in trivial conversations about the weather and such. Finally, they took a seat on the bench and admired the scenery.

The Quads was like a gigantic shop alleyway for lack of better description. On both the left and the right sides, brightly decorated stores faced each other and at the end of the alleyway was the stack of rectangles, or a square branchless Christmas tree, where candles were being placed.

"It's beautiful, no?" Shizumi smiled at the dazzling lights. A blue butterfly fluttered in front of her and landed on her lap.

"Happy New Year," Shino said quietly beneath his scarf.

She closed her eyes and grinned as a sign of appreciation.

And above them, on the restaurant balcony sat the blonde-haired blue-eyed Uzumaki and the blushing Hyuuga. They sat in a reserved space, specially made for them by the Fancy Restaurant.

The Uzumaki could do a lot of wrong, but this was not one of them. The balcony seat was a perfect view of the Quads and the Starlight Event.

"T-This is really n-nice, N-Naruto," Hinata smiled, pulling on her coat tighter. It really was chilly out there. From the look of the sky, there might've been a chance of snow, but it definitely was not going to snow now.

"You think so, Hinata?" Naruto grinned his lopsided grin. "I worked really hard for it!"

"W-well, I think i-it's amazing," Hinata reassured him shyly, picking at her spoon and fork.

"I'm glad ya like it!" He chuckled, putting an elbow on the table and his head in his palm. "Great view too, huh?"

"I-It's very p-pretty," the beauty stuttered.

"Like you," Naruto grinned. She blushed and almost fainted on that spot.

"W-What? Come on, don't faint on me now!"

And to the right of Starbucks and in front of the Fancy Restaurant was Yumi and Shikamaru, in the candy shop he'd promised to take her to. And of course, she was ecstatic to be able to be in such a sugary-filled wonderland.

"Whoa, Shika, look at that lollipop!" said Yumi eagerly. She pointed to a lollipop as big as her head and Shikamaru couldn't help but crack a smile at her energized state from just being around candy.

"And look at that enormous Hershey's bar!" The blonde hung onto a Hershey bar as big as Stanley Jaret's body. "This is paradise, thanks a bunch Shika!"

He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "You're very welcome."

It pleased him to see how easy he could make her happy by just surrounding her with assorted sweets. It was…refreshingly delighting.

Meanwhile, on the Fancy Restaurant's roof, Rai hurriedly climbed up the staircase to meet up with Sasuke Uchiha.

Dammit she cursed If my hair's messed up, someone's ass is gonna be kicked, no doubt

When she reached the rooftop, it was dark, but she spotted a candle with a picnic-like setting on the ground. There was a blanket laid down and an assortment of chips with a 36-pack of Coke bottles. (Bottles, not cans :D)

There were boxes of candy there and in the middle of it all sat Sasuke, staring straightforward into the other vacant rooftop. He inwardly smirked. Apparently, no one had been clever enough to think of a rooftop dinner.

Though he was somewhat happy no one had thought to have a picnic on a roof. That way, the two of them could be lost in their own little world.

"Oh shoot," Rai said in amazement, causing Sasuke to turn around.

"You don't like?"

"I love," she nodded casually, walking over and sitting down next to him. "Very impressive, Sas-Gay."

"You haven't called me that in awhile," the Uchiha chuckled, reminiscing about the old nickname. "I kinda miss it."

"Oh?" Rai took a Coke bottle out of the stack, "So you want me to call you that in public?"

He shook his head. "I'd rather you not."

She laughed and took a sip of the Coke. "Good view."

"You're welcome."

"Yeah, yeah," Rai rolled her eyes but a smile was on her face. Sasuke was pretty romantic and definitely unpredictable. And she…liked that. Well, surprisingly.

And somewhere in all this, Name was sitting on Kiba's couch in his cousin's apartment. She felt undeniably awkward sitting there, on some unknown person's couch.

When Rai and them had all rushed off to wherever they were meeting their guys, Name refused to accompany them and remained at home. That is, until a certain canine-like cutie called her up and asked if she could come up to the Quads and meet him up in an apartment room.

She thought that it wouldn't cause too much trouble and opted to meet him at the apartment room in front of the Quads. This room was in the large alleyway where Starbucks and the Candy Shop was at.

In fact, it was exactly two floors above Starbucks and if you peeked your head out the window, you'd get a nearly perfect view of the Starlight event to your right and in front of you, you'd see couples dining at the Fancy Restaurant.

"Sorry I had to hang out with you here," Kiba said sheepishly, setting down two steaming hot mugs of hot chocolate. "It's not the best place, but it's a pretty good view for the Starlight Event."

"I never requested for you to go to such lengths just to get an adequate sight of an event we shall not even participate in," Name shrugged, sipping her hot chocolate and crossing her legs. She would never admit it, but she was feeling a long-forgotten emotion that she hadn't felt in awhile. She was nervous and tried not to trip over the words she was saying. She didn't want Kiba thinking she was a dumb girl who'd do anything he wanted.

She didn't want him to think she was weak or that she was clumsy. She needed him to know that she was strong on her own and that was that.

The Inuzuka boy sweat-dropped. "Uhh…okay, that's cool. But I thought it'd be kinda awesome if we got a good view, y'know. I heard it's a pretty sick thing to watch."

"Very well then," Name nodded, but then smiled. A lady must never forget her manners. "Thank you, Kiba."

When he saw her smile, it was like the angels from above just sparkled some kind of holy dust on her and she just glittered and radiated beautiful. His heart pounded against his chest and he forced himself to smile, just to make himself to not look as stupid as he already did. "No problem."

In Town Center, Neji was enjoying Tenten's company as she snuggled up to him in the cold weather.

"Neji, what's my surprise?" Tenten giggled, holding on to his arm.

"It's nothing special, really," Neji shrugged, taking out a plastic bag and handing it to her. "It's compensation for receiving such a shit present on Christmas."

Tenten shook her head while pulling out whatever it was from the plastic bag. "I don't care. The watch looks real and you can't even tell unless you've got some genius like Name or Shikamaru inspecting it. It's an okay present."

"Yeah well, it's still made me feel incredibly foolish," Neji rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm still sorry about it."

"No need," Tenten waved her hand casually as she gasped at the replacement present he had given her. "This is so cute!"

"I made it myself," Neji chuckled, "I kinda got inspired with Aiko's present to Gaara. Call me the copy-cat, but I couldn't help it. It sounded like a brilliant idea."

Tenten admired the antique-looking wooden teddy bear that donned two familiar looking buns beside its ears. It was holding a wooden scroll in its hands and inside, carved in a fancy cursive font, it said:

Love is a promise

Love is a souvenir

Once given never forgotten

Never let it disappear

-John Lennon

"Hello there, this is me reporting live from Town Center, I'm here surrounded by countless couples, all spending New Year's together," grinned some cheesy reporter from behind the snuggling couple.

"It is 11:55 right now, just five minutes away from the new year!" People cheered from behind the reporter. "And at exactly 11:59, a few seconds from New Year's, we will tune in to the Starlight Event and zoom in on that special couple that happens to catch our eye."

"WHOO!"

And somewhere across the world…

"Wow," Temari whistled. "Some fun they're having in Japan."

"Aw, don't worry baby, we're having fun too," Riki reassured his girlfriend, kissing her forehead. They sat nuzzling in one big blanket with the lights dimmed and the fireplace burning bright. The TV was on and they were both holding a mug of nice hot coca to beat the New York weather.

"It sucks that we have to be snowed in," Temari groaned, complaining for about the hundredth time today, "We could've been watching that annual Times Square Ball thing!"

"It's okay, it's okay," Riki sighed, trying to comfort her. "We'll just go see it next year, if I can afford another ticket, haha."

"You don't have to," Temari laughed, slapping his chest. "Besides, it's not your fault that a freaking blizzard's raging outside. UGH. Snow pisses me off."

"Just ignore it," Riki said, making the volume louder on the TV. "Let's see if we can find one of those dumbasses on television."

Aiko POV

"Shit, shit, shit, move shit-stick! Shit, shit, SHIT!" THESE STUPID-ASS BOOTS. Or whatever the hell these complicated piece of shit contraptions are! AUGGHHH.

It's already like 11:55! I'm five minutes late for that thing in the Quads. The irony was that I was here early. And then I decided to take a piss and now I'm here, running my ass off while looking like a dumbshit for having toilet paper on the bottom of my boot.

I lifted my leg and quickly peeled off the toilet paper while skidding to a stop in front of where I was supposed to meet this kid.

I gotta say, I was disappointed as hell when I hadn't heard a word from Gaara mentioning some type of New Year's date or shit, but then again, he's a busy dude. Maybe he had shit to do.

What's more is that I'm usually a lonely-ass person whose idea of a good time is sucking all the spiders and ants from the corner of my bed with a vacuum.

"I'm here! I'm here!" I panted as I reached the rectangular Christmas tree which was most likely the meeting spot for this secret guy. He never specifically said where to meet. He just said "at the Quads". But I'm assuming it's here where the Starlight Event is.

People are just so damn predictable.

"Uhhh…"

Everybody was looking at me like I had three boobs or some crazy shit like that. They were all paired off and I didn't see one single guy here. Which meant no one was waiting for me.

"Ugghh, what the hell?" I dropped to the floor and sat down on my ass. "This day is just SHIT."

I can't believe I went through all this fuckery for one guy that didn't even show up. It was just fucking ridiculous. And now I look like a dumbass.

"Hehehe, right there!" A girl giggled as her boyfriend set down a small glass candle holder with their names on it and put a candle in there. They placed it on the rectangular Christmas tree with all the other couples' candle glass holders.

I stared at all the glass candle holders, reading each and every name on it. There were about five Mitsuki's, three Yuki's, and a bajillion Amaya's. How very unique.

These people are starting to annoy the hell outta me. Looking all lovey-dovey and shit and—what the HELL?

Alright, author, explain to me why there's a glass candle holder that says Aiko + Gaara up there. I'm fucking confused. How the hell did that get up there?

Maybe there's another Aiko and Gaara around here. Yeah, that's it. No need to freak myself up over tha-, "AHHH!" I screamed and jumped outta my skin when somebody turned me around.

I started to do some lame-ass kung fu moves. "Who are you? What do you want? I don't have a vagina, so don't rape me!"

The guy was wearing a beanie and a big scarf that covered half his face. The only thing I could see was his gleaming teal eyes and his maroon colored hai—"Gaara!"

He chuckled and removed his scarf. "Did you miss me?"

"Yeah, I-," I grinned and started to talk, but then I narrowed my eyes and punched his shoulder.

"Ow!"

"What the hell, man!" I raged. "I've been running around all day, trying to figure out who this shitty guy is, and here you are and I still don't know who it is!"

He grabbed onto my shoulder for support. "Y-You still don't k-know who it is?" His words were muffled.

My expression softened. "W-well, it's not like it's your fault. You don't need to-,"

"Bwahahaha!" He raised his head and I was surprised to see his laughing face. "A-Are you s-s-serious? It's so obvious! Bwahahaha!"

I narrowed my eyes again. "It's not obvious to me, you nitwit."

He just kept laughing, not caring who was looking at us. I found myself staring at his usually impassive face twisting into one of complete happiness. And I couldn't help but smile too. It was just that contagious.

He wiped the tears from his eyes and put a hand on my head. "It's me, you idiot."

I stuck my tongue out and pouted. "Well, how was I supposed to fucking know? I'm not very attentive, if you've noticed."

"It's 11:58!" Somebody yelled. But I didn't hear. I was too lost in my world with Gaara.

"What, no red rose?" I snorted, looking unimpressed.

"Ah," And sure enough, he pulled out a red rose with a card attached to it, just like all the other ones, "You catch on quite quick."

"I'm smart, thank you very much," I scoffed, snatching the rose away.

In the background, people were counting down.

"10! 9! 8!"

Roses are red, Violets are blue

What I'm trying to say is

I think I'm falling in love with you

It was short and sweet and it impacted me like a bullet train running over my toe.

"7! 6! 5!"

"Gaara this is-,"

I couldn't find my words. It was lost just like my mind, my world, and everything else that kept me rational.

"4! 3! 2!"

"Happy New Year," He whispered and kissed my right there on the lips in front of everybody to see.

Normal POV

"Is that…Aiko?" Tenten gasped. "A-And Gaara?"

Neji squinted at the big screen at Town Center. "I don't know. All I see are two redheads."

"Ladies and Gentleman," the reported shoved Neji and Tenten glared at her, "Happy New Year! And this is the best couple at the Starlight Event!"

It zoomed in on the two redheads that locked lips and everybody "aww"-ed. "Yup, that's Aiko," Tenten nodded, crossing her arms.

"How do you know?"

"Well, where else would you see two redheads kissing? And that hair—it's gotta be here," She affirmed defiantly.

"Hey…" Neji narrowed his eyes again. "Is that Naruto and Hinata I see?"

"Where?"

Yup. When the camera zoomed out on the kissing couple, it showed the entire landscape of the Starlight Event and the Quads.

Hinata was seen dining and laughing with Naruto while Shizumi and Shino were sharing a milkshake under the balcony. Kiba and Name were shown sitting by the windowsill of Kiba's cousin's apartment above Starbucks. They were smiling and grinning like everything was fine and dandy.

Below that, Sukino and Ryuu were enjoying another free cup of coffee thanks to Sukino's employee's discount. They were sitting on bean bag chairs, watching the after-effects of the Starlight Event.

Yumi was prancing around the Candy Shop with Shikamaru holding bags of marshmallow ropes and boxes of assorted cakes.

And, although they were concealed with the darkness, somehow the helicopter had found the two (Sasuke and Rai), drinking bottles of Coke and enjoying their time together on the roof of the Fancy Restaurant.

"What? How come they all spent their New Year's together?" Tenten pouted. "We've been left out!"

"No, I don't think they know that they're all together," Neji said, exasperated at his dim-witted friends. "Just watch, something's gonna happen and they're gonna do something embarrassing."

And Neji was indeed right.

"Wow, a-amazing, N-Naruto," Hinata smiled as the rectangular Christmas tree glowed with countless candles lit and couples' names being seen from every possible angle. "That S-Starlight thing i-is really cool."

"Told you it was a good view!" Naruto grinned. "Hehe."

"I think I-,"

"WHOO!" The timid girl was interrupted by a loud whooping noise. "You go girl! Who's hot? Aiko and Gaara!"

The duo immediately turned to the source of the familiar voice. "Y-Yumi?"

"Huh? Oh—Hey guys!" Yumi waved to the couple in the balcony from outside the Candy Shop. "I didn't know this was where the Fancy Restaurant was!"

"You idiot, it says Fancy Restaurant in big, Broadway-ass letters," Another voice intervened. Hinata quickly looked up to see two pairs of dangling feet on the roof of the Fancy Restaurant.

"R-Rai?"

Hearing her name called in shock, Rai looked down and said nonchalantly, "Oh. Hinata. I didn't know you two were here."

"Sasuke-teme?" Naruto stood up from his table with his loud-mouth attitude. "Why the hell are you above me?"

"Cause I'm better than you, shitbrain," the Uchiha responded coolly.

"Knock it off, you two," Rai sighed.

"HEY! Would you dumbasses keep it down out there, I'm trying to-,"

Kiba and Name had stuck their heads out the apartment window to watch the event. In all the chaos, Name grew a tick mark and told Kiba to quiet down the noisy neighbors.

"Kiba? That you?" Unexpectedly, Shino spoke up from the bench he and Shizumi were sitting on from under the Fancy Restaurant's balcony.

"Shino, you too?" Naruto, the dumbass being a dumbass, leaned over the balcony, trying to get a better look of Shino.

"Hinata, quick!" Shizumi looked at Naruto with wide, fearful eyes as he held onto the balcony railing and his legs dangled everywhere.

"Oh my gosh!" Hinata grabbed his legs, trying to pull him in.

"That stupid dickhead," Sasuke shook his head, not even wanting to look at his best friend embarrass himself in front of Live National Television.

"You picked up on Aiko's sailor language, haven't you?" Rai asked Sasuke, downing another bottle of Coke.

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Across from the restaurant, Kiba held his stomach while tears sprouted at the corners of his eyes. "The shithead's gonna fall!"

Name took Kiba by the feet and hung over the window. "Not so humorous when the same situation's playing against you, is it?" She had a giant tick mark throbbing on the side of her forehead. "I'm getting tremendously aggravated."

Shikamaru slapped his head. "This is ridiculous."

"Kiba, what the hell are you doing hanging upside down from a roof?" Ryuu asked, hands on his hips as he and Sukino exited Starbucks due to the commotion outside.

"Wow, Ryuu, you're here too? It's like a freaking party!" Yumi exclaimed, running out of the Candy Shop and jumping on the intricately designed shrubbery in the middle of the alleyway. "Parties are fun!"

"Someone please get the girl outta the bush," Rai groaned. This was embarrassing enough, but everybody was looking at them now. They were causing a loud fuss and the camera crew even took their cameras away from the Starlight Event (even though it was over) to film the disorder.

"Hello? Still hanging from a balcony here!" Naruto cried, swinging his arms around.

"H-Hold on…" Hinata broke out into a sweat, struggling to keep the panicky Uzumaki from face-planting into the floor. He was way heavier than he looked.

"You're even more of a douche than I thought," Yumi pointed at Naruto. "Obviously Hinata can't pull your fat ass up 'cause you eat ramen like a pig!"

"Says you, you candy-obsessed three-year old!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh shit," Ryuu shook his head in disappointment. "That's gonna start it."

"Start what?" Sukino asked, confused and shocked at how calm he was taking this situation. Two of his friends were hanging out of a building, one of them hung out because he angered a girl, another one standing in the middle of a bush-plant, two sitting on a roof, and the rest watching in complete calmness.

Are they all absolutely crazy?

"That." Ryuu replied and just in time, Yumi grew horns and she tried to jump up as high as she could.

"I'll turn your orange ass into a tangerine, you dipstick!" The infuriated blonde declared, pulling a blonde hair from the top of his head.

"Ouch!" Naruto yelped, covering his fair-haired head.

"She can jump pretty high," Shino commented thoughtfully as Yumi jumped even higher to reach for Naruto's neck. It looked like she had springs on the bottom of her feet because it was impossible for anyone to jump that high.

"She likes volleyball because she can spike and basketball because she can dunk," Shizumi shrugged.

"Ahh! Get her off! Get her off!" Naruto punched his face as Yumi pounced on his face and started to scratch it out like a cat would.

"Oh damn," Rai sighed and cracked her knuckles. "Seems like nobody knows how to pull themselves up an elevated structure these days."

"You gonna get Naruto?" Sasuke asked in an unconcerned matter.

"Yeah," Rai nodded, squatting so she could jump directly onto the balcony. "You wanna get Kiba?"

"Nah," Sasuke shook his head, "That's Ryuu's job."

"You freaking kangaroo!" Naruto pulled out a swirly mint and threw it in a trash can.

"Candy, candy, candy, candy, candy." The previously enraged blonde forgot all about her target and ran over to the trash can to dig for the measly piece of swirly mint.

"Have no fear!" Rai jumped who knows how many feet to the balcony under her and helped Hinata pull up the boy who was celebrating his triumph at getting rid of the horrible kangaroo she-beast. "Rai the Best is here!"

"That is so corny," Name commented as she dangled Kiba from the window. "Seriously."

"Name, pull him up," Ryuu commanded, crossing his arms. Uh-oh. He meant business.

"Whatever." She rolled her eyes and obliged. "You owe me, Ryuu."

"Thank you," Kiba mouthed to Ryuu as he was dragged back into the windowsill painfully.

The audience clapped at what they thought was a rehearsed theatrical performance. "That was great!" and "Wow, I'm amazed!" and the occasional "How did they do that without any wires?" filled the air.

"Well…" Rai scratched her head as she smacked Naruto's cheeks repeatedly. "This was an interesting New Year."

In New York

O.O

O.o

"Oh. My. god." Temari dropped the remote in shock at what she just saw. Riki spilled hot cocoa on the front of his pants, but he was so stunned that he couldn't even feel the searing hot pain.

"They can't be serious," Riki shook his head in denial. "Did they just show the entire world that they're full-on dipshits?"

"Yeah." Temari said in a whispery voice while she nodded slowly, reassuring herself. "Yeah…they did."

"And did…Aiko just kiss your brother?" Riki pointed to the TV, which was already switched to the Weather Channel when the New Year Bash show was over.

"Yeah." Temari responded in her previous tone. "Yeah…she did."

"Wow."

And for the rest of the night, they stared at the television screen in silence and sat there like zombies.

Aiko POV

Gaara gave me his jacket as I rode his back into the Quads. It felt so…motherfucking surreal. Like the whole thing was some damn bizarre fantasy.

"So…we're official, huh?" I asked, yawning as I held onto his neck and tightened my legs around his waist. It was fucking freezing out here.

"Yeah."

I sweat-dropped. My boyfriend—not the one for words.

But I guess it's okay. I'm happy. Like, really happy and you better keep this as a damn secret.

"What the fuck?"

Gaara almost dropped me, but I held on. "Hey, what the hell?"

I moved to the side and saw what he was staring at.

My idiot friends were hanging each other out the windows and people were just laughing and/or staring. Wait a minute, why are they even here? I thought they were all going to differen—oh who gives a fuck. Whatever.

"Well, this is fucking embarrassing," I stated.

"I agree."

"We don't know them?"

"Correct."

Rai POV

When all the chaos was over, I sluggishly climbed up back to the roof to watch the fireworks. I'm tired as hell and all I wanna do is lie down on the cold hard roof and stare at the sky.

"Hey."

Well, it looks like I'm not alone.

I didn't even have to look to see Sasuke lying down beside me and watching the fireworks. It was cold, but I couldn't give a lesser fuck.

"Rai." He sat up.

I rolled my eyes and sat up too. "What?"

He didn't even answer me. He just kissed me and I guess that was supposed to mean something. Well to be truthful, it was FUCK. ING. AMA. ZING.

It was cold, but the kiss heated me up. The fireworks in the background were a perfect background and it was just damn magic.

When he pulled away, he just lied back down and closed his eyes.

T.T

I felt like choking him right there. Seriously? Boy, you kiss me how many times and you don't even have the decency to ask me to be your girlfriend? That tears it.

"Hey," I said roughly, punching his shoulder. He cracked open an eye as I stared straight ahead. "You're my boyfriend."

He closed his eyes again and breathed in deeply. "Yeah, and you're my girlfriend. So what?"

I grinned to myself. Mission accomplished.

Okay, I'm ending the chapter here. Whew! That was hard work. HELLO. Wow, I haven't posted anything since August. O.o I feel like a bitch.

And I believe I owe an explanation to you guys. First of all, I'M SORRY. I forgot my password and that's why I couldn't update this XD Yes, yes, I'm an idiot, I know. And second, I wanted this in by December so the seasons could match, but hence the whole password thing…

Another thing! I'm quite aware a lot of my chapters are revolving around Aiko X]

I guess it's because I want all the characters to have the same face time, and I think Rai had the most. So next time, I'll focus on either Yumi or Name, kay?

One more notice is that I will be replacing the old chapters with better versions. They're basically gonna say the same thing, but I just want to word it better 'cause I REALLY SUCKED BEFORE.

Like seriously, I sounded like some wannabe retard. In response to the flame I got, I wanted these girls to be perfect. Yeah, they're Mary-Sue, but come on. I typed the first few chapters when I was 11! Anyways, I wanted them to have like a cool life with all the friends and the big house with the cars and everything. So it's just based on what I wanted when I was a sixth grader.

And lastly, I'm also late in some greetings.

Happy Halloween, Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year

Have a great 2011 :)