Learning to feel happy in Christmas
Note: I wrote this for Christmas since this is December, and nearly everyone is in a Christmas spirit. The flashbacks will be written in italic. Ah, yeah, and I forgot what did Naruto call the Third in Japanese, so I'll just write it with 'grandpa'.
Disclaimer: Masashi Kishimoto
It was Christmas Eve in Konoha town. The ground was full of snow, nearly every house was bright with colorful lamps from their Christmas tree, every shops sold Christmas accessories; Santa and elves dolls, silver angels for the top of Christmas trees, red and white candies, Christmas turkey, and others. Uzumaki Naruto ran down the street, his eyes sparkling with excitement. Christmas was something special for him since he was a child. He was wearing a yellow long coat with orange buttons, the end of his coat touching his black boots. He swung the department store door open, pulled a trolley, ran to the meat corner, and asked for the biggest turkey there. The man there stared at him strangely before he wrapped it and gave it to Naruto. But he didn't care, cause today is Christmas Eve, and nobody can spoil his happiness, even those people that hated the Kyubin inside him.
After putting the turkey in his trolley, he ran again and stopped at the cheese corner. He grabbed two packs of cheese and went to find other food. After he took everything he wanted for his special dinner at Christmas, he went to the cashier and payed for the food.
Then he went out and walked home. Feeling the snow falling gently at his body, he smiled warmly. He always liked snow, it was cold but amazingly it made his heart warm. Suddenly he remembered of his first story book, it was about Christmas, about Santa Claus and his elves packing presents for every children in the world, so every child will be happy. He got it when he was still three, and since that he believed in Santa Claus and his elves. It was from the third Hokage. "Grandpa", his heart felt torned apart when he remembered the Third.
SMACK! "Ouch! What the…" the yellow haired boy turned his head and saw Kiba grinning at him.
"Hoi, Naruto, what are you doing here? Btw, your clothes are different." Kiba made another snowball and throwed it to Naruto, but Naruto managed to avoid it by jumping to a tree. "Pretty good, Naruto!" Kiba grinned. "But you've lost since the first one smacked right to your head."
"What? It wasn't fair, I was thinking about something."
"Huh? What was that about?"
"About my first story book! It was about Santa Claus and his elves. Today it's Christmas Eve, isn't it? It's the day when he will come and spread presents to all of us!" Naruto spread his arms widely to show how great Santa Claus is.
"What? Santa Claus?" Kiba blinked one time, then blinked once again before he burst into laughter. "Hahaha! It's…really…funny, Naruto! There's nothing such as…Santa Claus, baka! You're not a little child anymore, aren't you? Santa Claus and his stupid elves only exists in little children's dreams!"
"Kuso…don't say that to Santa-san! He's really kind you know…and he's real!" Naruto punched Kiba's cheeks , then he ran away with anger.
Kiba rubbed his cheeks, then blinked. "What? Why is he so angry? I was only kidding," he asked himself with confuse.
Naruto swung the wooden door of his house open and slammed it. He put the plastic full of food on the table and throwed his body to his bed. "Kiba you brat!" he shouted loudly to release his anger. Then suddenly he regretted. He didn't know why he was so angry, he knew Kiba was only kidding. And usually he's not the type of people that run away after punching their friends. "Probably it's because Kiba made fun of Santa-san"
Naruto woke up from his bed and searched under his bed. There was a big wooden box there. He opened it and took out a big blue book and a big brown teddy bear with a purple ribbon. Then he smiled, these are his precious treasures.
"Naruto, this is for you," the Third hold a big present wrapped with green wrapping paper and gave it to Naruto.
The innocent blue eyed boy looked up at the Third, his eyes showing an is-it-alright expression. He remembered this morning he saw a lady giving presents to her children. Her children laughed happily. Wanting to know what is inside the wrapping paper, he runned to the family and asked the children. The children smiled and wanted to show it to Naruto, but the lady pulled them away saying that he is just a little brat that isn't any good to receive presents. "But the lady said that I'm not good enough to receive a present," he told the Third.
The Third only smiled, he knew that lady said that because of the Kyuubin inside of Naruto. "What are you talking about, Naruto? Every children has a right to receive presents in Christmas. Santa Claus said so," the Third patted Naruto's head.
"Really?" Naruto asked. The Third nodded. "Grandpa…who is Santa Claus? Is he kind?" The Third nodded again.
"Wow…I want to meet him! Where does he live?" Naruto asked enthusiastically.
"Hm…let's see, he lives in the NorthPole with his elves and his reindeers. He has a big palace there, the place where he packs all of the presents. And at Christmas Eve night he will go around the world with his sleigh, spreading Christmas presents to every good children."
"Sugoi!!! I want to meet him. Can I?"
"Yes, of course, ng…but…you know, Naruto, he is very busy, so I don't think that he can meet you…" he didn't want to make Naruto sad, so he said that. He wanted to say yes to make the boy happy, but he himself has never saw Santa Claus, and he didn't know if Santa Claus really exists or not.
"Souka…maybe because he is too busy to meet someone like me, nobody cares about me except you," the light in Naruto's eyes faded. Then childish tears began to run down his cheeks. "I hate my parents! If only they didn't leave me alone, they're evil! I hate them!" Naruto shouted, his voice shaked.
The Third gasped, it's not usual for Naruto to say that, he didn't even know that Naruto kept hatred for his parents in his heart. "Naruto, there's a reason why your parents left you, it's because they loved you," the Third hugged Naruto.
"If they love me, why do they leave me?"
"Listen, when you're big enough, I believe that fate will bring you to the answer, now it's not time for you to know."
"Why?"
"Because you will be able to understand when you're already big. Your meeting with a lot of people, your sadness, and all of your pain now will make you learn about life, and it will make you understand and accept a lot of things, even the most painful things."
"Is it true?"
"Yes."
"Hokage-sama! I've searched for you everywhere! I have something to talk to you!" suddenly a teenager appeared. His hair was tied back, his skin is rather dark, and he had a big scar on his nose. He stopped when he saw Naruto, he knew that was the boy with Kyuubin. Naruto looked back at him, he was sure that that stranger would look with disgust at him. But, surprisingly, he smiled, one of the warmest smile that Naruto had ever seen.
"Naruto, I have to leave now, sorry, this is your present," the Third gave the present to Naruto and asked the stranger to follow him.
"Thank you, Grandpa. Ah, and thank you too neesan!" he waved at them.
The stranger turned back to face him. "I'm Iruka. You're Naruto aren't you? I've heard about you from Hokage-sama. Nice to meet you, Naruto! And maybe this is too quick since it's Christmas Eve, but Merry Christmas!"
Naruto was surprised. No one had said Merry Christmas to him since he was a baby except the Third. When he managed to release himself from surprise, the Third and Iruka had gone rather far from there. "Merry Christmas too, Iruka-neesaaaaaaan!" he shouted as loud as he can, to make sure that Iruka can hear him.
"Hahaha…he's a really funny boy isn't he, Hokage-sama?"
NARUTO
It was night and the moon was shining brightly. Christmas carols was heard everywhere, the town was full of light and families gathered together to celebrate Christmas. But Naruto wasn't with anybody, he was alone. He had finished his special dinner and now he was sitting at the staircases in front of the door, reading the storybook that the Third gave to him. It was about Santa Claus and his elves, he was really happy to know that, cause he can know a lot of Santa Claus from there.
After reading his book, he fell asleep until midnight. If someone didn't lift him up to his room, he wouldn't wake up. He opened one eye to see who was that. He was confused for awhile, he didn't even know who was that. "But…wait…I've seen him somewhere…hm, a long white beard, red clothes, a fat tummy, that red hat, and especially those kind eyes…AH! SANTA CLAUS! You're Santa-san, aren't you?" Naruto shouted cheerfully.
The old man laughed. "Ho ho ho! Now, now, little boy, can you keep silent for a while? I'm afraid other people will wake up."
"Ah…gomenasai, Santa-san. But, why did you come here? Grandpa said you are busy, so you couldn't come."
"Ho ho ho! I am. But, then I saw you, and I decided that you will be sick if you stay outside."
"Souka…ah, yeah, I forgot, I read that you like biscuits and milk! Do you want to eat some?"
"Oh…thank you, little boy, btw, who's your name?"
"I'm Naruto. Uzumaki Naruto."
"Nice name," Santa Claus sat at the chair near the dining table and ate the biscuits.
After eating the biscuits and drinking the milk, he asked Naruto to choose his own present. There were a lot of stuffs there. Naruto looked at those staff, he knew that he couldn't afford them with his own money, and he really wanted them, but there was something that he wanted more than the toy cars, the rockets, the ships, the dolls, the mini-compo, and others.
Santa Claus looked at the little boy. "Aren't you going to take one of these?" he asked.
"Honestly, I want all of these, but there is something more important than all of these…"
"Really? What is it? Maybe I could help you."
"Ano, Santa-san, maybe this is strange, but, I want my parents back. I want to turn the time back and be a normal kid. Can you give that to me?"
"Sorry, but I'm not able to do that."
"Why? Why can't you? Grandpa said that you make every children happy at Christmas! So that was a lie! I don't need those toys to be happy! I just want my parents back! I want to celebrate Christmas with my family like other children! I want to get presents from them! I want to eat Christmas dinner with them!" the spiky haired boy burst into tears.
"Listen…Naruto, people doesn't have any right to rise dead people, and if I see you I'm sure your parents are kind and now they're resting in peace in heaven," Santa took his handkerchief and wept Naruto's tears.
"But…"
"Listen first, I'm sure they're taking care of you out there, you have to know their spirits are still with you."
"Their spirits?"
"Yeah, you still love them don't you?" Naruto nodded. "Then it's alright, maybe people always think that when their closest people die, then they are separated forever, but actually that isn't true. If you really love them, you won't forget them, won't you? It's the same for them. They'll never forget you. And that means that their heart and memories about them still lives inside of you, and vice versa. Maybe you won't understand this, but I'm sure later you will. And I think it's better if you understand this with your own heart. You have to know, I'm same with you, my parents got killed in front of my eyes during the war, my brother and sister too. And me…" he stopped and showed his left hand under his sleeve. Naruto gasped. It was a wooden hand. " They wanted to kill me. First of all, they cut my hand, then when they wanted to shoot me, a group of army suddenly came and shoot the armies that killed my family. I was saved, but I couldn't accept the reality that my family aren't alive again. When people mentioned about their death, I became angry. I knew that they're already dead, but my deepest heart didn't want to accept their death. Then, at Christmas Eve, the Santa Claus before me came to me and taught me to accept their death without forgetting them. Since then, I decided to become the next Santa Claus to spread happiness to every child," he smiled gently. Naruto could see his mouth curving up beneath his white beard.
"Ah…I'm going to be late if I keep chatting with you, this is for you," he gave a big brown Teddy Bear with a big purple ribbon on it. "I have to go!"
"Are you going to go? Can't you stay here?" Naruto pulled Santa's shirt.
"Sorry, I can't. But, I promise I'll come again. Goodbye and Merry Christmas!!!" and he went to give other children happiness.
Naruto smiled and waved his hand to Santa and his reindeers. The third person that said Merry Christmas to him. He hugged his teddy bear and walked to his bed to sleep. He couldn't wait to tell the Third about Santa Claus. For the first time in his life, he felt happy at Christmas. And since then he always got Christmas presents from Santa every year.
How was that? A pretty long fic and my first drama fic, usually it's humor. Please review!