M-D13: Like promised, here is chapter 1 in conjuction with the prologue! Now, I won't update with chapter 2 (even though I have it typed) because I want this up for a bit, to see if people are even interested in reading it. I'm not fishing for reviews- I hate people who pull the "I'll only update once I get 15 more reviews!!!" because that's just stupid. I'll update whenever I have a decent sum of the later chapters typed up. So, I hope you'll look forward to it! Again, as promised, this is longer ^^

And because I gave Pein a vacation (-mutter- more like temporary firing), I'll do the disclaimer myself: DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything that is brought up in this storyline, all characters belong to respective owner, yadda yadda yadda ... My, I sound like Pein now. o_O Been hanging around in these disclaimers too much, it seems.

Chapter 1: That Person Closest to You

The doorbell rang about an hour later, startling Naruto, causing the boy to lose his balance from the ladder he had been standing on. With a large crash, he and the ladder both went crashing down to the ground, successfully tearing down the decoration that Naruto had just put up. With a trembling hand due to shock, the blonde clutched at his throbbing head. Now he had a headache. He craned his head back, looking at the front door,

"Just come in!" Naruto shouted to the person outside, hoping they heard him. He couldn't be bothered to get up and move the few feet to the door. A moment later, the door opened to reveal a bundle-up Sakura—always the first to arrive to anything. She smiled down at her through the scarf around her neck, but it was soon replaced by a frown as she saw that he was sitting on the floor, a fallen (flimsy) ladder behind him.

"Naruto," she started gently, chiding slightly, "What did you think you were doing?" The pink-haired girl quickly took off her winter apparel, hung them on the equally flimsy coat racket, and rushed over to him. "Are you all right?" She asked, kneeling down beside him.

He offered a cheeky grin as he rubbed his head a little bit, "Haha, don't worry Sakura-chan … I was just trying to hang some mistletoe," He provided, chuckling. "Guess the ladder wasn't as sturdy as I thought it was."

She frowned and let out a sigh, "Moron…" She murmured, extending her gloved hand in an offering of help. Naruto grabbed in without too much thought and she tugged him up from the ground. "Why mistletoe?" Sakura wondered aloud as the boy was pulled to his feet. Naruto just brushed himself off idly, and simply shrugged,

"Well, it's Christmas, isn't it?" He mused absently. "It ain't Christmas if you don't have some mistletoe in the doorway. Plus it's amusing to watch people try to avoid it." Sakura just smiled lightly, letting out another sighthough this time it seemed to be in amusement. She just shook her head,

"I suppose Christmas isn't Christmas without it," she agreed, causing Naruto to grin widely. Sakura just chuckled and pointed to the ladder, "Well, I know what your Secret Santa is going to get youa new ladder." The blonde just stuck out his tongue and was about to retort and say that the pink-haired girl could, in turn, use some hair dye, when the door opened suddenly. Both of the Chuunin to jump in surprise as a cold air rushed in, along with a black-haired youth in all definition.

"Naruto! I have arrived!" Rock Lee yelled excitedly, grinning as he kicked the door shut behind him. The tacky orange scarf around his neck was pulled down, to allow better speech, as he gave a mock salute, "I hope I am not too early!" He paused, "Oh, Sakura-chan! Nice to see that you have arrived, as well!"

Sakura idly raised a hand in a wave, smiling warmly, "Hey, Lee."

"Bushy Brows!" Naruto chirped, laughing and waving his arm above his head in an excited greeting, "Hey!" He grinned at the older boy, and Lee flashed his signature (and always sparkling_ smile. "Not too early at all!"

"Yosh!" He cracked a wide smile again, but it was soon lost as curiosity replaced his facial features. "Naruto, what happened?" The older boy questioned, blinking. Naruto looked confused for a moment, until Lee pointed to his own forehead to simplify. "Your forehead is bleeding," He clarified. The blonde idly touched his forehead, bangs flopped over top from the lack of headband, and brought his fingers to his face; blood was tainting the digits at a slightly alarming rate. Naruto scowled,

"Aw, dammit," He murmured, cussing, and allowing a sigh to escape from his lips. He could feel the blood dripping down from his forehead nowif he didn't clean it up soon, he'd probably end up with it in his eyes. "I'll go clean it up quick, before every else arrives." He flashed a smile to Lee's worried face, to reassure him silently that he was fine, and then wandered off towards the bathroom. The other guests arrived eventually (and luckily all after Naruto had cleaned himself up), one by one, or in a group. Most of the teams came together or in pairs, or the couples … if there even were any. Naruto figured a lot of people would be hooking up around this time (which was actually his secret motive for the mistletoe, but, uh, don't tell Sakura!) perhaps even the Secret Santa might spark a few flames. Nobody really knew.

The party already seemed to be in gear. Throughout Naruto's small (but, for this occasion, clean) home, everyone was scattered about through the kitchen (where a table with food and drinks had been set up) and the living room, happily chattering amongst themselves. Well, everyone except for

"Sasuke," Naruto hissed in annoyance, eyes scanning over the faces in the two rooms, and, surprise surprise, sour-puss himself still had yet to show his "pretty little face." Irritably, the blonde sipped at a cup of punch, looking around as if he expected Sasuke to appear and materialize out of thin air. Of course, he wasn't, so Naruto settled for scowling blindly at a spot on the wallbecause, you know, the whole incident was the wall's fault. Naruto probably could've found some way to blame that very wall, just like he could blame Sasuke and Sasuke alone for being at least an hour late (it couldn't have been the snow's fault or anything). Since the Uchiha's arrival home, he had acquired the bad habit of being late. Personally, the blonde chuunin blamed Orochimaru after all, why would you want to be early to anything ihe/i taught? Naruto shuddered at the thought.

The blue eyes scanned idly over the faces again, brought out of his train of thought, seeing everyone laughing and talking with someone (or just enjoying the company, in the case of Shino with Hinata) ... well, everyone except for one.

In the far corner of the living room, behind all the music and talk, with his head hung and eyes fixated onto the floor, was none other than Gaara. There was a visible empty circle, a vicinity, that no one had occupiedcoincidentally, it was around the Kazekage. It wasn't that no one here liked him, because at least a few of them did (obviously Gaara's siblings liked him), but everyone seemed too engrossed with the other faces at the party to notice him. So, that was where he stoodin the corner, by himself, looking just as lonely as he had when he was 12.

The eyes of the Kazekage looked hollow, alone, and he made no movement whatsoever as he leaned against the wall, silently watching the ground.

Naruto frowned at the scene, before forcing a grin, "Gaara!" He addressed, wandering over to the silent boy. The Kazekage brought his eyes up, and Naruto couldn't help the pang that was suddenly in his chest as he looked into Gaara's hollow eyes. They held a loneliness that Naruto knew, but hadn't seen in years. He hadn't seen the same pain in Gaara's eyes in awhile, which meant something was desperately on his mind. Though it wasn't like Naruto could help the boynot that he didn't want to, but Gaara didn't ever seem like he wanted to speak of his problems.

"So, uh," he started off awkwardly, "What're you doing over here, all by yourself?" Naruto asked curiously, leaning on the wall beside him. Gaara shrugged lightly, and then returned his eyes silently to the floor. He couldn't tell Naruto that he didn't want to talk to anyone that was here (not like any of them were talking to him anyways)— nor could he admit that he was actually waiting for a certain someone to show up. No, he couldn't tell him any of that, no matter how close the two of them had grown. After all, Gaara hadn't even told Temari or Kankuro—so why should he tell Naruto?

The Kazekage decided to make something up, "Everyone else is busy." The lie slid off easily, and Naruto's eyes lit up in an understanding. 'Pity,' Gaara thought to himself, 'He will believe close to anything I say … Does he really, or is just a way to avoid pushing me? I wonder.'

As if to reassure what Gaara was saying was true, the fox's baby blue eyes trailed across the faces of the crowd. Kankuro was currently preoccupied with talking about Karasu to a curious TenTen, while Temari was off flirting with an oblivious Shikamaru. Neji, who spoke with Gaara on occasion, was talking with Lee (who spoke with and considered Gaara a close friend, whether he liked it or not), but was obviously distracted as he kept a close eye on TenTen and Kankuro. The boy frowned, seeing that everyone else who spoke to Gaara was, indeed, busy.

"Well," Naruto started absently, "Mind if I hang with you?" He smiled at the shorter red-haired boy, who simply shrugged again.

"No… I suppose I don't mind," Gaara replied idly, his eyes trailing from the floor up to the faces of everyone around. Kankuro now found himself in a bad position, with Neji ready to attack the boy for starting to flirt with TenTen. Temari had wandered over to the scene and demanded them all to just "shut up and have fun for once" and that Kankuro "should just stop harassing people" (which just sparked a fight between the older Suna siblings). Hinata was attached to Shino's hip, as per usual when they were in large crowds of people, and was staring in Naruto's direction every now and then, with the Kyuubi-holder never noticing. Kiba was plucking food from the table in the kitchen and feeding the large Akamaru with it as well as himself. Chouji was accompanying him and stuffing his own face, a plate full of food in his hand. Everyone was seemingly happy, and content around the presence of the others (well, Gaara noted, except for Ino and Sakura, who were currently in an heated argument with each other—Sai was watching them like you would a tennis match, his head moving in time with their come backs).

Gaara felt himself frown, in despite of Naruto's (silent) company. While it was nice to at least have someone near him, Naruto was the sort of person who was nice to everyone and even went out of his way to achieve this. The redhead brought his gaze to said blonde, who was currently turned away and laughing at something Lee had said. 'It's not really fair,' Gaara thought to himself bitterly. Everyone at this party had someone that they were especially close to, and that someone was usually the closest to the other. Unlike everyone else, he didn't have that, not with anyone. Sure, he was close with Naruto (and his siblings), but there were still so many things that Gaara would never speak of to the blonde.

Maybe it was because Naruto … wasn't the person that Gaara wanted to be close with.

There was a sudden, loud knock on the door— a simple, hard rap that seemed to almost silence all the chattering (or bickering) voices. Naruto looked over, and then slowly made his way over, drink still in hand. Even though there were no more knocks after that first one, Naruto knew there was someone behind it. The blonde accidentally let the door swing open from the sudden strong wind, but then cracked a wide grin as he saw who was behind it. Standing on the mat and shivering, with flakes of snow falling into his hair, was none other than who he had been expecting.

"Sasuke!" Naruto chirped, but the smile fell as Sasuke glared at him.

After a moment, Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You gonna bother to let me in, Dobe? It's cold," the Uchiha murmured, in a bad mood already, as Naruto moved aside huffing.

"Yeah, sure, but it's about damn time you came!" The fox snapped as he slammed the door (again, by accident— the wind was rough that night) behind his teammate. Sasuke shook his head, ridding the snow from his hair, and started to take off his jacket.

He scoffed as he hung the apparel on the other abundance of jackets on the coat rack, "I had told you when you announced the party that I couldn't get here on time. I said I'd be late," Sasuke argued.

Naruto gaped, "No you didn't!"

"I did too."

The two began to bicker, and soon afterwards, the party came back to life, especially after a shout of "nice of you to show up, princess!" from none other than Kankuro, who, everyone knew, hated Sasuke heatedly. A couple more shouts of "hello" and "nice of you to finally make it" were heard to everyone else but Sasuke, who was already into a heated shouting match with Naruto. The said blonde was starting to revert in maturity, and had clapped his hands over his ears, singing "la la la la I'm not listening" as he tuned out the other boy.

Gaara was the only one in the party who did not "come back to life," not like he was before Sasuke had arrived, anyway. He watched the two boys childishly ridicule each other, completely unaware he was staring … more specifically at Sasuke. His eyes stayed locked on the teammates, unaware of his own falling features. Bitter, he quickly turned away, tearing his eyes from the two and started out of the room. 'Naruto … is that person closest to Sasuke…' he thought to himself, unaware of how much that really hurt to think. His chest clenched, and Gaara shut his eyes as if that would rid it. With precision, he silently exited the room, thinking he went unnoticed, and headed towards the back door. He needed to be alone.

With precision, he silently exited the room, thinking he went unnoticed, and headed towards the back door. He needed to be alone.

Only Sai saw him leave.

M-D13: Ooooh, cliff-hanger! Ahaha, sort of. Anyways, I'm lazy, and don't have too much of an end authors note xD; Chapter 2 will arrive soon enough, whenever I feel like posting it. Let me know if there are any errors, I skimmed it over but I may have missed some things... especially formatting errors, since I had originally had this in an HTML format for another site.

Anyways! ^_^

R&R Please! Thanks for reading!!