Nomi: GOMENASAI MINNA-SAN!!!! I HAVEN'T UPDATED FOR SOOOO LONG! I BROKE MY PROMISE! BUT I PROMISE I WILL NOW!!!!!!!

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Chapter 4

I welcomed Shikamaru into the house. He was the fifth person to arrive for the party. I decided to keep the door unlocked now, for I had just put a sign on it that said

Welcome to the Christmas Party! Please enter!

So far there were five people now: Kakashi-sensei, Ino, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Neji. Hinata told me that she had convinced her cousin to come, and deep down inside, Neji probably did want to come.

I was surprised to see that Naruto was the next person to arrive. I predicted that he would be lost, along with Kakashi-sensei. But I was glad he was here.

Kiba and Shino came next, the rest of Hinata's team. By now, most of the senseis were here already. Then I saw Lee-san, Gai-sensei, and Tenten come through the door. Lee-san looked at me and smiled, so I smiled back.

Chouji had arrived with Asuma-sensei a while ago, and he began eating his own food he brought along right away. The sand group was the last to arrive. Gaara's attitude had calmed down a lot since the last five months, so the party wouldn't turn into a disaster with him.

Now that everyone was here, Kakashi-sensei was going to make a short announcement.

"Minna-san!" he said, catching everyone's attention. The guests quieted down and faced towards him. "Welcome to this year's Christmas party at Haruno Sakura's house. First the boys and girls will split up, then we will have dinner, and after that we can exchange gifts." Kakashi-sensei directed everyone to put their gifts at one of the empty corners in living room. Soon there was a large pile there.

Everyone followed me upstairs to the two rooms for the girls and boys.

I waited for all the girls to fill into my room. After everyone was in, I closed the door and went to sit on my bed.

"I was thinking of this activity we could do," I said.

"What is it?" Tenten asked.

"We'll each pick a name of one of the boys," I started explaining. "Whoever's name we get, we have to make a Christmas card for that person."

"Hmm, sounds interesting," Ino said. I could tell that she wished Sasuke-kun was here too.

We began drawing names from one of my small baskets. Ino was the first to reach her hand in. She drew Shikamaru's name and smiled slightly to herself. Tenten got Neji and Hinata got Naruto. Temari looked disgusted when she picked Kiba's name. I had Gaara.

Most of the girls were seated at my desk. Hinata and Ino sat on the floor. They began working, but I was just sitting on my bed. It wasn't the fact that making a card for Gaara would disgust me; it was just that I had too much about Sasuke-kun on my mind.

"What's wrong?" Hinata asked me. I looked at her. She could tell what was wrong. We decided not to talk about it and kept our mouths shut. Hinata continued working.

A while after, we heard a knock on my bedroom door. I went to open it.

"It's dinnertime," Shikamaru said.

"Hai," I answered. The girls began getting up and leaving their cards and the art supplies where they were working. We began exiting the room. I stayed behind to organize the art supplies so they wouldn't get lost and be just laying around.

"You need help?" Hinata asked.

"No, go on ahead downstairs," I replied. "I'll be down in just a minute.

"Okay." Hinata left my room. I heard her walk down the stairs.

I picked up a few boxes of markers and set them on my desk. Several fell onto the floor. I looked outside through my window. It was snowing. The night was beautiful. Then I noticed something on my windowsill. It was a small piece of paper. I picked it up and unfolded it.

Merry Christmas Sakura

it said. I wondered whom it was from. The handwriting looked a bit familiar to me, but I still didn't know whose it was. I could tell it was written quickly… in a sort of messy cursive.

I left it on my bed and ran downstairs to join everyone else. First it was Sasuke-kun's scent, and now an unsigned note. I had a mysterious feeling about what would happen next.