CHRISTMAS LISTS FOR DUMMIES: A GUIDE TO GIVING THE PERFECT GIFT

AUTHOR: fantasylover12001

RATING: PG-13/T

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Naruto. That's why this is FANfiction.

PAIRING: You haven't figured it out by now?

AUTHOR NOTES: Thank you to all those who gave Happy holiday wishes and reviewed the last part.

CHAPTER 6: STEP 7-DON'T FORGET WRAPPING PAPER OR CARDS!

Tip: Don't forget to buy Christmas cards. It's very easy to do. Wrapping paper should also be festive and fun. No newspaper wrapping please. Unless you're dead broke, then at least make the wrapping creative. If you are dead broke after buying expensive gifts then just make cards.

It took some doing and arguing but Christmas Trees were eventually bought for Naruto, Shikamaru, and Sasuke. They had split up into three smaller groups to get the trees to Naruto's apartment, Shikamaru's place, and Sasuke's mansion. After they were done setting up Naruto's tree in its stand, Sakura, Lee, and Naruto headed over to Sasuke's mansion to help decorate. They had decided to tackle Sasuke's place first because according Ino, Sasuke hadn't even put up a Christmas wreath on his door.

The Uchiha mansion was in a part of Konoha Naruto didn't venture into often. It was where most of the prominent families resided. In fact, the Hyuuga main branch lived just down the street from Sasuke's place. The mansion itself was rather creepy like Ino claimed and looking at it just made Naruto feel sad. 'No wonder Sasuke brooded so much when he was kid. Oh wait, he still broods.'

The interiors of the house were rather traditional and Naruto noticed that the clan symbol was a rather prominent feature. He couldn't help but wonder just what had gone on through Sasuke's head when he was younger and living on his own here. 'Maybe if someone had taken the time to actually try and get to know him for himself and hadn't always seen him as the last Uchiha, the whole Orochimaru incident would never have happened.'

"Naruto, you coming?" Sakura broke him out of his thoughts as he stared at the Uchiha clan symbol engraved on the gate doors.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm coming."

SasuNaruSasuNaru

Sasuke was seriously annoyed.

Any minute now he was going to let a kunai fly. Preferably in Ino's direction. It had been bad enough that she ordered Chouji to follow him around everywhere until he bought a Christmas tree, now she was demanding to know where the decorations were.

He had decorations. They were in the storage area like the rest of the objects that had belonged to his parents and relatives. Since he had no use for them they stayed there every holiday. There were a lot of decorations too. One of the things he remembered about his mother was that she had adored Christmas and that was always the time the house looked its best.

But he wasn't about to show Ino the storage area. The well-meaning, but nosy girl would poke around there and start to ask questions about his family. He didn't like talking about the clan to anyone. It wasn't like he could tell them much anyway, his memories of them had become dim over the years.

"Sasuke-kun, are you SURE, there are no old decorations around here?" Ino asked, raising an eyebrow at him. Damn, she didn't believe him. Sasuke found himself actually missing the blind fangirl who had once thought his word was sacred and would never have dreamed of pulling the stuff she had been pulling on him lately.

Before he could say he was sure Sakura, Lee, and Naruto came into the room. "All right, where are those decorations! Lets get some cheer into this place!" Naruto announced his presence and rubbed his hands. The blonde looked around and noticed that the tree was still leaning against the wall. "You haven't even set up the tree yet?"

"Mr. Grinch, over there refuses to tell us were the decorations are," Kiba said with a derisive snort. Naruto glared at him and put his hands on his hips.

"Stop being a jerk, Sasuke!"

Sasuke stubbornly didn't move from his leaning position against the wall and kept his arms crossed. "I said I'd buy the tree. I never said anything about decorating it, or my house."

"You're wasting money!"

"So?" He had tons.

The blonde scowled. "Look. We're not going to leave until you let us at least get some ornaments on the tree, so unless you want a group sleep-over, you might as well just tell us where the decorations are. After you tell us, you can just leave. We're not going to make you participate or anything, even though you should since it's your place."

"Fine. But I'm just showing you," he snapped.

Naruto blinked and looked at him curiously. "Why just me?"

"Because I don't trust any of these idiots around my house," he muttered.

The blonde caught onto the unspoken 'but I trust you' and smiled shyly. "Okay, lets go."

Kiba, who had been looking forward to another famous Sasuke/Naruto argument shook his head at the two. "You two have the weirdest relationship."

"Shut up, Kiba," they both said in unison and then looked at each other. Sasuke couldn't help but smirk and then headed down the hall, knowing Naruto would follow him.

Kiba watched them go and muttered, "I was just saying what everyone else was thinking." Hinata smiled softly and patted her boyfriend's back in sympathy.

SasuNaruSasuNaru

'Man, this place is like a maze.' Naruto thought as Sasuke led him down yet another hall. Out loud he asked, "Don't you ever get lost?"

"I don't use much of this place. Mostly just the living areas and my room. The rest of it I leave alone." Sasuke answered.

"Oh," the blonde said quietly. Then he bit his lib and asked hesitantly, "Don't you ever get lonely?"

"Not as much as I used too," Sasuke answered quietly.

They finally reached the end of a long corridor and Sasuke opened a large sliding door and led them into a large room filled with boxes. There were also things that looked like paintings covered in sheets leaning against the walls and some old looking furniture pieces.

"Decorations are somewhere in there," Sasuke said, gesturing towards the pile of boxes.

"Okay," Naruto stepped forward and was grateful that the boxes were marked. If they weren't, the two of them would be in there for hours. He finally found one marked ornaments in near the back of the room. As he started digging it out of the corner he noticed that one of the sheets covering the painting next to it was starting to fall off. Unable to stop his curiosity the blonde lifted the sheet to look at the painting.

The painting turned out to be a portrait of a woman. Even though he had admitted to himself that he was attracted to men, even he had to admire the woman's beauty. She had dark hair that was pulled into a tight bun, and dark mysterious eyes. There was something familiar about her even though Naruto was sure he had never seen her before in his life.

"What are you doing?" Sasuke's voice came from directly behind him, causing Naruto to yelp in surprise.

"Don't do that!" he said indigently. Then he noticed Sasuke glaring at the painting and then back to him and gulped. "Sorry, it...fell off." That excuse sounded lame even as he said it. Judging from Sasuke's raised eyebrow, he didn't believe it for a minute. But instead of calling Naruto's bluff, he simply covered up the painting again.

"Who was she?" Naruto asked hesitantly, nodding at the now covered up portrait.

"My mother," Sasuke said stiffly.

"Oh," he said in surprise. No wonder the woman had seemed familiar to him. She had the same dark features and the same annoying smirk that Sasuke sported whenever Naruto made a fool of himself.

"She was very pretty," Naruto said as Sasuke lifted the box of ornaments on the ground.

"I guess," Sasuke said. "Lets go."

Sensing that it wasn't a subject Sasuke wanted to talk about, Naruto grabbed the second box of ornaments and followed him out of the room.

SasuNaruSasuNaru

On Christmas Eve morning Naruto slept in. It wasn't surprising, after all last night he had been very busy. After the group had finished decorating Sasuke's Christmas tree they had gone to Shikamaru's apartment next since it was just a few blocks over. They would have put up other decorations in Sasuke's place but he threatened them when they started to ask where the Christmas wreath was and wisely left.

Then after Shikamaru's place was done they had all wandered over to Naruto's apartment. The decorating had been briefly interrupted by his annoying neighbor who complained about the music they were playing. The old hag had been chased away by Sakura and Ino though who both called her a few choice names. Seeing the old woman who had harassed him since he was a kid get told off by the two outspoken girls had been immensely satisfying for Naruto.

Everyone had finally left around ten and then he had a patrol shift which lasted well into the early morning. Around three AM he had finally crawled into his bed tired but happy.

His Christmas Eve afternoon was spent wrapping the gifts for the party that night. This was the only part that he hated. Naruto freely admitted that he was a horrible gift wrapper. Most of the wrapping was sloppy and when he could help it, he just put the gifts in bags to make things easier on himself. But things like Kiba and Hinata's wall scroll wouldn't fit into a bag so he was currently sitting at his table, surrounded by pieces of green and red wrapping paper, trying to wrap Sasuke's scarf.

'I should have gotten a box for it' he thought as he tried to make it so the tape wouldn't get caught on the yarn.

Finally, at around five-thirty PM he was finally done which was a good thing because the party started at six. As he gathered his gift he silently prayed that Sasuke would like his gift and then headed towards Sakura's place.

AUTHOR NOTES: Almost coming to the end! Happy holidays to everyone and PLEASE REVIEW!