AN: Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to those who celebrate. I am not sure where this came from, but I was able to get it done in a short amount of time. I hope you all enjoy this little omake from Naruto's point of view.
Naruto had never seen so many lights on a tree before. He had seen houses decorated, even the stores had some decorations, but he had never seen a real Christmas tree before. The shopkeepers kept him away from any display they had. Well, at least they used to before Haru-nee and Kaka-nii started taking care of him. There were lights and other decorations on the tree. Masahiro's brother and sister were helping Masahiro to place ornaments on the tree.
Naruto watched in awe as the three siblings placed small balls onto the tree.
"Haru-nee!" Masahiro yelled, "You need to put your hand the tree too!"
"Hold on Masa-chan! I am almost done with the hot chocolate!" A voice called from the back of the house. The voice was getting louder as she continued, "Besides, I thought that you wanted to wait for Naruto to get here before you started decorating the tree?"
Naruto smiled as Harumi walked into the living room with a large tray. This was the same tray she used when she was serving tea when they would practice in the back yard and she and Kaka-nii were sitting on the porch talking about books. But instead of a teapot with a few cups, there were six large mugs, a bowl of little marshmallows, a cup of small candy canes and a can of whipped cream.
"Naruto!" Harumi grinned, "How long have you been here?" Haru-nee was Naruto's favorite adult, right after the old man and Kaka-nii. Haru-nee was always happy to see him and always had something nice to say to him. She also read stories, helped him with his homework and didn't make fun of his love of ramen. As far as he was concerned, Haru-nee was the best person in the world.
"Not that long," Naruto shrugged.
"Well get on over here, grab a cup of hot chocolate and help those three decorate the tree!" Harumi laughed.
Naruto ran over to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, squeezing as hard as he could. Naruto could feel her warmth spread through him as she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and ran her fingers through his hair. Giving her one last squeeze, Naruto walked quickly over to where Masahiro was waiting near a long box.
"It is my fault we started early," Hideaki said, "I have patrol this afternoon and I wanted to put my ornaments on before I had to go."
"And it is a tradition that we all put our hands on the tree at the same time!" Masahiro said.
"Okay then," Harumi took a mug off the tray, added some marshmallows and hooked a candy cane on the top of the mug and walked over to the box.
Naruto's mouth dropped as he looked at all the glass balls in the box. There were clear balls, colored balls, some with decorations, others with something written on them, there were glass candy canes. At one end was a whole row of glass deer, each a different size or style.
"Here Naruto."
Naruto was shaken from his awe by a clear glass ball in front of his face.
"What?" Naruto started.
"This is for your handprint," Masahiro answered. Pointing at the tree, "Every member of the family has their handprint put on the tree so that even when you are not here for Christmas, you are kind of here. So this one is yours, all we need to do is put your handprint on it."
"How do I do that?"
"Well Haru-nee said something about paint," Masahiro said.
"Yes, I have some paint in the kitchen and we can put Naruto's handprint on the ornament and then once it is dried, we can quickly hang it up with the rest of them," Harumi waved her hand at the tree.
Putting her ornament on the tree, Harumi waved a hand, "Come on Naruto, time to finish your ornament so we can put it on the tree before Hideo needs to leave."
Naruto followed Harumi to the kitchen where she had red, white, orange, black and green paints sitting on the table. There was some paper covering the table and a small stack of paper plates near the paints.
"Okay Naruto, pick the paint color you want to use," Harumi told him as she moved to the paints.
"Orange," Naruto yelled.
"Of course," Harumi laughed. She quickly opened the orange paint and poured some onto a plate. "Now I need you to put your hand in the paint, make sure it covers your whole palm, then we will put it on the glass ornament."
Naruto shoved his hand into the pile of paint and lifted his hand up. Harumi was holding the glass ornament and Naruto grabbed the ornament with his hand.
"Wonderful, now gently lift your hand, trying to not wiggle it too much," Harumi instructed.
Naruto lifted his fingers first, then his palm. He smiled when he saw his orange hand on the clear glass orb.
"Looks great! Now we just need to let it dry." Harumi placed the wet globe on a clean paper plate. "While we wait, go and help the others decorate the house. They should still be working on the tree, but soon they will move onto the rest of the house."
Naruto grinned and ran back to his friends.
A while later, after the tree was covered with glass, plastic, and deer. The living room had all sorts of decorations, covering every flat surface. In the corner on a metal stand hung six stockings, each decorated with a highly stylized symbol of the Hidden Leaf. Four of the stockings had a circle with three slightly wavy lines that Naruto had seen often at the Nara compound. But what had Naruto walking closer to the stockings were the other two stockings, one had a diamond that was cut into nine smaller diamonds. The final stocking had a circle with a spiral in the middle, a symbol that Naruto saw on the back of every Hidden Leaf vest.
"Haru-chan?" Naruto asked.
"Yes?"
"What is that?"
Harumi walked over to the stockings, "These are our stockings for Christmas. The ones with the Nara symbol on them are mine, Hideaki and Maiko. The one with the diamond is Kakashi's and the spiral is yours."
"But why does it have those symbols on them?" Naruto whined.
"Well, they are all the symbols of our clan. It makes it easy for us to know which stocking is whose."
"Okay."
"Come on, your ornament should be dry and I am pretty sure that Masahiro is about to burst with waiting." Harumi put her hand on Naruto's shoulder and gently guided him back to the kitchen. Grabbing the now dry ornament that she tied a green ribbon into a loop. "Here you go."
Naruto slowly brought the new ornament to the tree. He studied the tree, looking for a place to put it.
"Here, Naru-chan, right next to mine!" Masahiro pointed.
Naruto followed his friend's finger and saw, a single branch without any type of decoration.
"I saved that spot just for you because you are my best friend," Masahiro continued, his little voice very serious.
"No he isn't," Hideaki called out from across the room where he was doing something with a glass bowl.
Naruto wanted to sink into the ground, he was so excited when Masahiro called him his best friend. But Hideaki would know if that was true or not. But Naruto didn't want to believe that Masahiro would lie.
"Hey! He is too!" Masahiro shouted.
"No," Hideo insisted, "He is your little brother. Which is better than a best friend."
Naruto felt his eyes well up with tears, his chest felt tight and he swallowed a sudden lump in his throat. He looked at the tree in front of him, all the lights twinkling, the glass ornaments reflecting the light. He looked up and saw his handprint, in line with the others. All the handprints were different sizes and different colors and there on the end was his orange hand. He remembered what Masahiro said when Naruto came in, that every member of the family had a handprint.
"Okay," Masahiro agreed, "I guess having a little brother is better than a best friend."
Harumi laughed, "Naruto can be both, Masahiro," leaning over she grabbed Naruto and Masahiro and gave them both a hug, "being a brother and a best friend is the best combination in the whole world!"
Naruto glanced up at the tree, then over to the stockings. He nodded his head. Having a best friend is good, but having a family to spend Christmas with was the best thing ever. Maybe even better than ramen.
Maybe.