3AM Ramblings

New Year's

It was the New Year's Eve party between the three best friends who shared a house together. There were streamers hanging from the ceiling, a banner proudly displaying "Happy New Year's!", red, orange and blue balloons sticking to the walls of the room, and a large cake in the middle of the dining room table. Empty ramen cups, onigri wrapping film, umeboshi packaging littered the floor as Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura waited for the countdown to a new year. It was generally quiet, quite surprisingly, for by this time Sakura would be punching or berating Naruto or Naruto would be having an (rather loud one-sided) argument with the Uchiha or trying to win someone's attention by calling Sasuke "a bastard with a pole up his ass". Sasuke, on the other hand, stayed silent. He preferred to brood while wearing a ridiculous-looking party hat.

As the time drew near, the question of whot to cut the cake at the stroke of midnight was brought up but was dismissed as insignificant quickly. So the trio returned to their staring at the clock when all of a sudden, Sakura suddenly broke the comfortable but unusual silence that had settled amongst the three friends.

"Naruto! Did you hear that?"

"What, Sakura-chan?" Naruto was, for once, glad that Sakura was turning to him to help and not to Sasuke.

"The noise, Naruto, from the living room…" Sakura was thoroughly scared by now.

"Never fear! The great Uzumaki Naruto-sama is here to punch bad guys and save the day!"

Sakura rolled her eyes at her long-time best friend's immaturity while Sasuke jumped at the chance to insert a snide remark.

"Tch, dobe." You were scared this morning when you saw a spider in the shower. You screamed like a little girl."

Naruto scowled at the comment and huffed indignantly.

"First of all, I did not scream like a little girl. I simply gave a, uh, manly shout. Second of all, did you even see the size of a spider? It was huge. Third and most importantly, I was merely surprised. I mean, after all, the great Uzumaki Naruto scared of anything."

In the background, Sakura giggled. Sasuke raised a dark eyebrow.

"Really,usuratonkachi? I recall that you were crying and blubbering about vengeful spiders coming to eat you."

Naruto spluttered, turning into an interesting shade of red. He glared at the Uchiha.

"My eyes were really itchy and I was yawning a lot! It was the morning!"

Sakura fell off her chair, laughing hysterically.

"That's him, alright!"

Naruto scowled.

"You guys are the worst best friends ever. Hmph!"

Sasuke smirked triumphantly at the blond who went to sit in the corner of the room, fondly dubbed 'The Emo Corner'. Now the mystery man, who broke into the trio's home, entered the room. He rubbed his head sheepishly with one hand while the other was holding onto a large green sack.

"HO! HO! HO! Merry Christmas, everyone!"

Naruto, who was finished brooding in The Emo Corner, turned around and screamed, in perfect time with Sakura, "YOU'RE LATE, KAKA-CLAUSE! IT'S ALREADY NEW YEAR'S!"

Said man looked sheepish and replied smoothly: "Maa, I kinda got lost around the South Pole…"

Now, it was during this time in which Inner Sakura decided to take control.

"SHANNARO! WHAT WERE YOU DOING IN THE SOUTH POLE?"

Before she could get answers, Naruto decided his question was more important than Sakura's.

"Ano sa, ano sa! Kaka-Clause, where is my present, dattebayo?"

Kaka-Clause eye-smiled fondly at the three friends. Dropping the large green sack on the floor the kitchen, he began to affectionately ruffle Naruto's hair, earning a "Hey!" from the blonde.

"Maa, they're all here. I hope you like it."

Staring at his two friends act like a pack of rabid dogs when tearing open their presents, Sasuke unconsciously scooted the chair he was sitting on a little bit away from his friends.

"I'm bored."

Kakashi eye-smiled at him and patted the raven's head. "Maa, why don't you open your presents?"

"Because I like to open them alone, thank you very much."

The clock ticked and struck midnight when cheers erupted from the room. The cake was cut, and the three best friends, and a super-late Kaka-Clause sat down together and enjoyed the coming of the new year together.

A/N: I know this is not as good as my previous ones, which is probably less awkward than this one, especially because it's also in the middle of July and I REALLY COULD NOT RESIST THE TEMPTATION. I lack willpower, I know. Do read and review, though, and let me know what you think.

Lots of hugs and chocolate-chip cookies,

kookieznkream