Chapter 3: Past Christmases told by Kakashi

At One O'clock in the morning, Sasuke woke up still thinking it was all a dream. He went into the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"Hello Sasuke!" Kakashi-sensei said, leaning against the refrigerator.

Sasuke startled, dropped the glass of water.

"Did I startle you Sasuke?" he said with a snigger. Sasuke didn't know what was happening. He heard Kakashi had died. Pein killed him.

"You're... your dead."

"Yes, and so is Madara." He said nonchalantly as always. "Didn't he tell you that you would be haunted by ghosts? Well spirits... I was able to go to heaven... and so did your second ghost in fact..." he said rambling. Sasuke hated when he rambled.

"What... what do you want?" Sasuke asked finally. If this was a dream he might as well go with it. He wouldn't get out of it otherwise.

"My task is to show you your Christmas past. To help you realize why you hate Christmas."

"Tch, why I hate Christmas? That doesn't have to do with anything."

"Yes it does Sasuke. Christmas is supposed to be the happiest time of the year, and you are thinking of nothing but negative things." He said poking one of his finger into his chest.

Sasuke was amazed to actually feel it.

"Come on," he said grabbing Sasuke's hand. They were suddenly back in Konoha in the Uchiha compound. He saw himself as a five year old. His father never cared for Christmas, but his mom and Itachi always loved that time of the year. He saw himself on Itachi's back and playing around. Sasuke smiled remembering how his beloved brother was.

The one time of the year Itachi was able to be himself. The one time of the year their father wasn't pushing him. The one day in the year he didn't have to follow orders. Sasuke would have cried, but he knew better than to show weakness.

"What's the point of this?" he asked annoyed.

"To let your heart melt instead of freeze." He replied seriously.

He just looked on as the years added up. He saw three years go by. When he was five, six... and finally seven. He noticed something in his seventh year that he didn't remember seeing. Itachi seemed more enthused about spending time with him. He must have been told his order before Christmas.

Sasuke wished he could hug onto Itachi and never let go. He wanted to apologize fro all the years he hated him. For all the years he missed. He wanted to make up for it all.

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

!-- /* Style Definitions */ , , {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} 1 {page:Section1;} --

They went outside, and Itachi dragged a seven year old Sasuke to the park.

There, they saw Sakura. Itachi grinned.

"Come on talk to her."

"No Nii-san!" he said pulling his hand back.

"Aw, come on you need to talk to her!"

"Looks like you had a little crush." Kakashi said smartly to him.

"Shut up..." Sasuke said.

However then he was going to the next year. He saw himself going around the village to get to the training area, and being stopped by people who were wondering why he wasn't celebrating Christmas.

"Who cares about Christmas?" young Sasuke yelled at the person. Sasuke hated seeing himself like this. The reason he never stopped training is to kill Itachi. Now that he knew why he did it he couldn't watch it again.

"I don't want to go here. Why do we have to go each year!" Sasuke said angrily.

"No, we don't have to go through each year. We can go to more recent if you like." He said.

Suddenly they were standing in front of the old team 7. Kakashi-sensei surprised them all with a party with all the rookie nine.

"Why don't we look at something you didn't know that I saw." He told Sasuke, as they traveled to a corner where Sakura was hanging mistletoe.

"Sakura..." a younger Sasuke said to her.

"Yes Sasuke-kun?"

"I have a present for you... but... don't get all excited I couldn't think of anything else."

"What is it Sasuke-kun?" she said coming down from the ladder. The younger Sasuke grabbed her quickly and kissed her on the lips for a good long kiss.

"Merry Christmas." He said after he finished. "Just don't tell anyone."

Sasuke looked down. That was when he started to like Sakura back. Now he wished he went on with that kiss. That he was able to show off his affection. He wished he wasn't such a coward as to not show her how he truly felt.

"Looks like you didn't hate her Sasuke." Kakashi said.

"No... I never hated her."

"Then why didn't you tell her how you felt? Why didn't you fight for her?"

"I thought it would protect her. I though my brother would have killed her. And then that Danzo you have. I shouldn't have thought that. I should have came home before Pein showed. You wouldn't have died either." He said sulking.

"I would have died eventually. To be honest, I was happy because I was able to see my best friend again. I even saw my father before I got there. We had a lot to talk about." Kakashi said.

Sasuke sighed. "Your not going to show me any more are you? I mean Christmas with Orocimaru didn't really count, and last year..." his voice trailed off. That was the year his life went into complete ruin.

"No, its time for me to go home anyway. The next ghost will come at two. Good luck Sasuke." He said as the room became his own again and he was alone. He tried to sleep again to try and wake up from this strange dream.