Five Golden Rings

~*G*O*L*D*E*N*~

Nothing.

Sasuke had come back from her last final. She was finally free from school for the rest of the year and had actually been excitedly anticipating whatever Naruto had in store for her today (even though she did not consciously admit it).

Yet, when she reached her apartment that evening, there was nothing in front of her door. She stormed into her apartment in a huff and slammed her door shut. Yesterday, he had practically begged her to accept his little game and today he had done nothing.

Was he just messing with her? Making her trust him and then shutting her out? But, Naruto would not do that to her. Would he? "He better have a reason!" she growled and threw her backpack across the room in her anger.

This morning, she had even gone to the café and had a pleasant conversation with Naruto before heading to campus. He had seemed happy, but maybe he really was mad about her questioning his motives. Maybe he had decided he was not going to continue with his plan because he thought she had doubted him or something.

But, she did trust him at least as much as she was able. When she had asked why he was sending her gifts, she did not think he would take the question to mean that she was doubting him, but rather she had kind of hoped to learn that he was doing this because he had liked her. Did she want him to like her? Did she like him?

"Argh, I feel like a stupid fangirl," Sasuke groaned. "Why can't I stop thinking about this?" She clutched her head in frustration. A moment later, she sighed and walked languidly into the living room. Then, she took off her coat and shoes and settled comfortably into the couch.

Normally, she was not a big fan of tv, but she had gotten a tv for the rare occasions when she did feel like watching something. And now, she was grateful that she had because she really needed something to lighten her mood.

After grabbing the remote from where it sat on the coffee table covered in dust from misuse, she turned the tv on to some random channel. Ironically, she found herself watching the Grinch movie with Jim Carrey.

She had been called a grinch many times in her life, and though she understood the general idea of the term, she had never seen the movie that went with it. Maybe it would give her some insights into the popular American view of Christmas that might be driving Naruto.

Surprisingly, she was enthralled by the movie. As the movie got to the part where Cindy Lou confronted the Grinch, she could not help but laugh. If she was the Grinch, than that made Naruto the short, strange little Cindy Lou.

Then, she became sad as everything went wrong for the Grinch. Is that what would happen to her for opening herself up like the Grinch had? Although she had not gone on a destructive rampage, she sure had felt like it for a moment. The broken look the Grinch gave chilled her heart. She never wanted to feel the emotions behind that look ever again.

Maybe it was better that Naruto had backed off. Maybe she should not allow him to get to her, to make her have any expectations. Perhaps she was just setting herself up for disappointment.

By now, she was locked onto every single action in the movie. What would happen to the Grinch? What would happen with Marth May? What would happen when everyone woke up with all their Christmas stuff gone? Why did Cindy Lou still trust the Grinch?

Did Naruto still like her? Well … at least in the … friendly sense of the word 'like.' The thought caused her to blush, but she did not notice that she was doing it.

The end of the movie was so amusingly happy that Sasuke actually started crying and laughing at the same time. "I am loosing my mind," she said between chocked laughs.

After the credits, she turned off the movie and walked leisurely into the kitchen. She grabbed a salad from the fridge for the turtles and a box of oreos from the cupboards for herself. She needed some serious chocolate to work through her worry.

Even though the movie had a happy ending, she just did not see herself spontaneously reuniting with Naruto. Ironically, even though she did not relate to the ending of the movie, she was still worried that her life would fall apart like the Grinch's after the whobilation. It was an absolutely crazy thing to believe in, but love does make people crazy … not that she was in love …

"Hey guys, you hungry?" Sasuke said softly as she entered her bedroom. "Here you go." She dumped the salad into the terrarium and then sat down at her desk.

It was strange not to reach for her books to study. Even though she had gone through this several times, the end of the semester always disturbed her routine and set her off balance. Naruto's strange behavior was just adding to the problem. She really did not know what to do with her time.

Usually, over winter break, she would catch up on all the things she had wanted to do during the term, but did not have the time for, like books she wanted to read, new stores or restaurants she wanted to visit, or shows or movies she wanted to see. She even kept a list of all the things she wanted to do on her desk to remind her that she would get to have fun once the term was over so she had to work hard during the semester.

But, looking at the list now, all she could think of that she wanted to do was hang out with Naruto and see what he had planned for the rest of the days of Christmas. She wondered if Naruto would give her that.

After staring absently at the turtles and eating oreos for a few minutes, she decided she would just turn in for the night. Maybe tomorrow she could go talk to Naruto and figure out what had gone wrong.

She changed into a loose pair of pajama pants and a tank top before snuggling into her bed and hoping that tomorrow would be better than today.

*Knock*KNOCK*KNOCK* "Sasuke!" "SASUKE!"

The girl in question woke with a start. She rubbed her eyes tiredly and tried to figure out what had woken her. "SASUKE!" That was a voice. She scratched her head. "SASUKE!" She knew that voice. "SASUKE!" That was Naruto's voice!

When she finally realized that Naruto was standing outside her apartment calling her name, Sasuke jumped out of bed and raced for the front door. "SAS~" She flung open the door in the middle of his shout.

Naruto was frozen. Sasuke was standing panting in the doorway with messy hair and rumpled clothing. And to make it worse, the cold from the open door was causing her cheeks to flush and her breath to become steamy. "Naruto," she whispered, slightly out of breath from the running.

Naruto felt blood rush to his neither regions. This was not good. He could not become excited right in front of her … at least not yet. He did not want to scare her away. He coughed awkwardly. He had to get his mind off of how sexy she looked right now.

"Go … ahem … go get dressed," he chocked out. "We are going somewhere."

"Naruto, what are you talking about?" she asked in a groggy voice and then yawned widely.

"God, Sasuke, just … just please go put some clothes on," Naruto barely managed to say. The cold had made her nipples hard, although Sasuke was too tired to notice.

"Ugh … what time is it?" Sasuke asked and stretched her arms above her head causing her shirt to ride up her stomach.

Naruto could not take it anymore. He shoved Sasuke backwards into her apartment and shut the door behind him. He continued to push her until they had reached her bedroom. He threw her onto the bed and then ran out of the room.

"GET DRESSED!" he yelled as he ran into the kitchen.

Once in the kitchen, he threw open the freezer and stuck his head in the ice box. That was too close. He had been seconds away from sticking his tongue down her throat, and while he would thoroughly enjoy it, it would ruin any chance he had of winning Sasuke's fragile heart.

"If you want to kill yourself, you are supposed to use the stove, genius," Sasuke said sounding only slightly more awake as she entered the room. As Naruto turned to look at her, he thankfully saw her wearing some jeans and a navy sweater.

"What were you doing, idiot?" she asked angrily. She was not normally a morning person anyway, but last night had been particularly hard because she had spent half the night tossing and turning because of this idiot.

"I … uh …. Um …" Naruto mumbled and started scanning the room for an excuse. Finally, he remembered the coffee in his hands. "I was just trying to cool the coffee down a little bit before giving it to you. Haha … yeah. That's all I was doing."

"Coffee?" Sasuke asked eagerly, completely ignoring how absurd his excuse actually was. She practically ripped the cup from his hands and went to sit down on the nearby barstools. As she busied herself with her coffee, Sasuke did not notice Naruto sigh in relief.

After a few minutes waiting for the caffeine to kick in, Sasuke asked, "What are you doing here Naruto?"

"I'm here to give you your fifth gift," Naruto said cheerfully and came to sit on the stool next to her.

"Really?" she asked in surprise. Maybe he had not given up on her. "Why today? Why not yesterday?"

"Well, today is really the fifth day of Christmas," Naruto explained calmly. "I had been giving you the gifts on the night before because you had classes during the day and I would not be able to see you. But, now that you are out of school, I can give you the gifts in person during the day on the right day."

To her and Naruto's surprise, she started laughing. She had spent all that time yesterday worrying for nothing. Naruto was staring at her in shock. "What's so funny?" he asked. He knew Sasuke acted weird when she was tired, but he had never seen her laugh like this because of it … she had never seen her laugh like this at all.

"Nothing *chuckle* I was just … just surprised not to find anything yesterday and I never thought to actually look at a calendar to figure out what day of the month it was," Sasuke finished. She had stopped laughing and was now blushing in embarrassment at her outburst. "Sorry. I did not get a lot of sleep last night."

"Because of me?" Naruto asked in excitement. She had wanted the gift and had even been worried because of him.

"I was just worried about what stupid thing you would do next. It was like waiting for a bomb to explode," Sasuke countered. "What are we doing today anyway?"

"Getting you five golden rings of course," Naruto proclaimed. "Let's go!"

Fifteen minutes later found them standing in front of a piercing store. "~Naruto~" Sasuke said dangerously sweet. "What are we doing here?"

"Like I said, getting you five golden rings," Naruto said in an overly happy voice. "I figured it would look weird to actually wear five different golden rings on your fingers, so I thought golden earrings would be a good compromise. Although if you would prefer a nose ring or even a nipple ring I would definitely pay for that too."

"NARUTO!"

At the end of the day, it was hard to tell who was in more pain: Sasuke from her five EAR rings or Naruto from the extremely large bruise on his head. Their love life was off to an interesting start.

~*A*N*G*E*L*~