PT: OMG. Arigatou gozaimasu for those of you who have been supporting me in this fic. I humbly thank you. Anyway, sorry to keep you waiting; I had other fics and writer's block on this one. Yes, well, writers' block will never stop me! I'm going to complete this story, 'coz I never give up! On with the story!
Time: This is before the Chuunin exams and after the Land of Waves mission.
Disclaimer: You have Kishimoto Masashi and Charles Dickens to thank for opening up their wonderful worlds to you.
I don't own any of CASCADA's songs and have no wish to; I can't stand to sing with someone listening! Besides, they kind of ruined What Hurts The Most in their music video.
Note(s): Does Uzumaki Kushina qualify as tall or short? She's about the same height as Minato and he's 5"11, about six inches taller than me and I'm twelve. To me, they're short, but I'm not so sure. Oh, and Team Gai's there because, for the sake of this fic, Team Seven met them after they got back from the Land of Waves.
Christmas Eve-Konoha, 11:20 P.M.
Sasuke's eyes snapped open and the young genin awoke with a gasp. He choked on his own breath and his eyes watered.
Huh?
Sasuke wondered why, at the first thing he noticed, he was in bed, wet.
Did I wet the bed?
Sasuke blushed, even though no one was there.
He pushed the covers aside and noticed that there were a lot of puddles on the floor and jumped off his bed. Sasuke cautiously bent down and touched one on the floor. It was slightly cold.
The blizzard was roaring outside, but Sasuke could see that one of his windows was loose… Well, it looked loose. A cool draft was coming from its edges.
Hmph. Obito, when I die, you will pay. I will pant you in front of that Rin person you've mentioned.
Sasuke shut his eyes. It was a dream… A dream…
He tried to convince himself but it wasn't so. What had just happened…was no dream…
He turned, cautiously looking for more spirits. He could not see any, but he was wary. He was surprised by his mother and Obito; that will not happen again.
Why did ghosts make a clunking noise? Sasuke did not know, but he kept his ears pricked, knowing that there would be a noise.
"Hmph, think you could actually be alerted to me?"
Sasuke spun around. That voice… It was feminine, yet had a hard edge to it, sharp as Sasuke's sharpened kunai.
He was prepared this time, but he could see no resemblance to anyone he knew in this ghost. He knew this person was a ghost, but he wondered why she made no noise, unlike the other spirits. What…?
"Who are you?!" he blurted out. He saw resemblance only in her face, slightly.
She had the same eyes, same mischievous look on her face as…
"Are you related to Naruto?" Sasuke added.
The deceased kunoichi made a face. Her hair was unusually long, about as long as Jiraiya-sama's, but it was straight and fiery red. Her eyes were blue and had the same shape as Naruto's eyes. She was kind of tall for a woman like her and Sasuke noticed that her hitai-ate had a symbol that he had never seen before.
There was a look of sorrow in her eyes and pain on her face. She quickly erased the expression with a grin.
"Listen, brat," the woman said, pointing at his chest, "I need to know about Naruto. How is he?"
Sasuke was puzzled. "Nani? Why?"
The woman rolled her eyes. "Just interested. I just knew his father."
Sasuke raised an eyebrow. He had never thought of Naruto's parents before. Who were they?
"Who was his father?" Why'd he leave his son alone? he added silently to himself.
The kunoichi scowled.
"None of your business," she said sternly. "All I could say is that he was a great man."
Sasuke kept his tongue after that.
The woman cleared her throat. "Anyway," she began, "I'm Kushina and I'm here to be the Ghost of Christmas Present tonight. Time to see what's goin' on now!"
Sasuke's eye twitched slightly. There was definitely no way out of this.
"Fine," he sighed.
Kushina grabbed his hand – how could a ghost touch him anyway? – and hauled him over to the window, where the blizzard was still pounding mercilessly at the glass.
Sasuke's eyes widened.
"Oh no!" he groaned, but made no attempt to jerk his hand away; his last encounter with Obito had taught him enough.
"Aw, come on." Kushina glanced at him. "You're not scared of a little cold and wet, are you? Take it like a man!" Her eyes gleamed merrily in amusement.
Sasuke closed his eyes and sighed inwardly.
Easy for you to say; this blizzard won't affect you.
Sasuke reached out reluctantly and grasped the window's edge. With a final, forceful shove, he slid it open…and was pelted with what felt like endless showers of freezing cold needles.
Sasuke's hair blew back and his face was already visibly turning rosy, seeing as he was freakishly pale.
Kushina's hand tightened on his wrist and with a leap, she jumped out the window, bringing Sasuke with her.
Sasuke's reddened face paled; he was falling to the ground from his room, which was pretty high… At least, high enough to break someone's neck if they jumped out of it.
The Uchiha gulped and nearly screamed as the wind blew into his face, his stomach produced a sudden, swooping sensation and the teen panicked. He snapped his head left to look at Kushina instead of the ground, with a somewhat pleading expression on his face.
Kushina's face was expressionless.
Sasuke screamed, "Are you crazy?! ARE YOU TRYING TO GET US KILLED?!"
The words were out of his mouth before he remembered that Kushina was already dead. The boy… Er, he must have achieved the status of a man on his last mission, well, the man…the man/boy…thing…teen boy…teenage guy…felt incredibly stupid before remembering the situation.
With a sudden jolt, Kushina swooped forward and Sasuke felt himself being lifted upwards, higher…higher…higher… Before he knew it, the emo guy was floating in the sky, right in the middle of a cloud.
He looked down and saw Konoha below him, visible through the cloud's thick mist. Sasuke felt a lurch in his stomach; it was so high! Up there, the Uchiha felt incredibly scared and realized…he had acrophobia.
"We won't be going far," Kushina said and Sasuke remembered that she was holding him. The thought of being held by a transparent ghost kilometers above solid ground was absolutely horrifying. "We just can't be seen."
Sasuke rolled his eyes. People will think they've been hallucinating, he thought. A flying Uchiha? Come on!
The streets were busy with random villagers running around, doing whatever they did on Christmas, even it was just about midnight.
77777777777777A certain girl's home777777777777777777777777
Kushina and Sasuke descended on the balcony of –
"What are we doing at Sakura's place?" Sasuke asked sharply.
Why did it seem that this whole night was devoted to Sakura?
Kushina rolled her eyes. "You know, Naruto is here too."
Sasuke groaned inwardly. Damn… That dobe again.
He did not catch the anxious gleam in Kushina's eye.
Kushina dragged him over to a window that displayed the living room and muttered, "Be alert. You don't want to be caught spying on your girlfriend."
Sasuke immediately turned a violent shade of – think of the color Hinata's face would produce if Naruto ran up to her, hugged her, kissed her and screamed in a gooey voice, "I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH, HINATA, HONEY!!" – yeah, that color.
"N – N – NANI?!" he screamed in that whispery kind of way. "SHE IS NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!!"
Kushina just rolled her eyes again.
"Just look, dobe."
An invisible dull kunai end met Sasuke in the face, dead center.
Dobe? No one, not one person, ever called him dobe, ever.
"You–"
'Watch!"
There was, indeed, a Christmas party in Sakura's living room. All of the Rookie Nine were there, not to mention Team Gai. Only, Sasuke could see Sakura and Naruto in a corner, where no one noticed them. They were discussing something in what seemed to be quiet voices. Sakura was crying. Naruto's face showed a mixture of anger and sympathy.
"Activate your Sharingan," Kushina murmured. Sasuke glanced at her before he did so and was shocked to see the expression on the kunoichi's face. She looked as if she were about to cry, staring through the window, eyes trained longingly on something. Sasuke followed her gaze and found himself looking at Naruto. He was confused. Kushina was staring at him with pride and pain.
Sasuke was distracted, however, when he read his comrades' lips.
"It's okay," Naruto was murmuring to Sakura.
Sakura gave a huge sob and put her face in her hands, fresher tears flowing out. She seemed to have said something, for a moment later, Naruto murmured, "He's just like that. I'll bet that he likes you, but he's…well…"
Sakura flung her arms around Naruto and squeezed, sobbing into his shoulder. Sasuke's heart, already split in two, years ago, was ripped into quarters.
Naruto patted her back.
Sasuke could tell that they were talking about him and how he had treated Sakura earlier. He just knew it.
Last Christmas, I gave you my heart.
The very next day,
You gave it away
The song inside bled out through the windows and touched Sasuke's ears.
Unable to look any longer, the genin turned his back on the window.
His hair fell into his face, shadowing his expression.
"Naruto…"
Sasuke heard Kushina's voice, that longing lust in her voice, a melancholy tone to top it off.
"I'm so sorry, Naruto… You look just like Minato…"
Sasuke's ears pricked.
"Forgive us, please, I would have done anything to give you a better life…"
Sasuke twitched slightly as he put two and two together.
"Your father would have been proud of the person you have become."
Sasuke came up with the four.
"You," he said softly, his face still hidden, "you're Naruto's mother."
There was a soft gasp.
"Yes," Kushina murmured. "Naruto is my son."
It was funny, in the strange way, that she would admit it so willingly.
"Time to go, gaki," Kushina muttered.
Without another word, she turned to escort the onyx-haired ninja back.
PT: Phew, I'm so glad that I've updated! W00T! Yeah, I was still considering whether or not I would use Haku for the present ghost instead, but I imagined that Kushina would like to see her son and I thought about using ghosts Sasuke didn't know when they were alive. Anyway, I tried to put some humor in here. I think I've failed miserably, but I do like a lighter atmosphere ' Normally, I don't really like the pairing of Sakura and Naruto, but I thought I could give it a shot. They do, after all, bond a little more along the series. Well, ja ne till next week!