Konoha Holiday Tales
by Maskedgoomba
Disclaimer: I
don’t own Naruto. Get it? Got it? Good!
Quick Facts: A Christmas Fluff piece, so it naturally has to be before a certain ninja
goes AWOL. So in fact, I will put this little fic right after the events of
Volume 19 and Chapter 172. Everyone seems to be mildly happy then-- kinda...
Tale 1: Destined to be Something More - The Two Blondes?
Naruto
hugged his jacket closer to his body as he walked through the tree-lined paths
of the Konoha Park. Snow was falling more than per-usual for the winter months
and the nippy, brisk days of previous years were now replaced by freezing,
subzero nights. But despite cold weather and the odd-burning feeling of
frostbite around his nether-crotch region, Naruto felt unusually calm and
meditative as he walked along.
It
was his yearly tradition. Every year on Christmas Eve, a little bit before
midnight, Naruto would come to the park and visit the large, ornately decorated
Christmas tree in the park’s center. Every year he came to the tree for
something different; to offer a silent prayer, to have some place to think.
Nothing would stop him from visiting the tree-- damn the weather, or his
health. No matter the circumstances, he would be at the tree when before it
became midnight.
Standing
in the same exact spot from years past, Naruto gazed upward at the Christmas
tree. Was it smaller? It seemed to be. Even a year ago, the tree looked so
wondrously huge and amazing-- with it’s decorative lights looking like colored
twinkling stars, and it’s unfathomable size that seemed to reach up and touch
the very heavens. But this year’s tree looked so plain. It’s size looked almost
identical to every other tree in the park, and its lights were dull as if a
sheet of wax paper had been pulled over his eyes.
Naruto
shook his head in disappointment; the Leaf Elders neglected their Christmas
duties this year. Anyone could see the difference from previous Christmas
years. It was obviously noticeable; last year everything was so bright and so
full of spirit. But now--
Naruto’s
internal monologue was interrupted as he saw a black shrouded figure emerge
from the forest and approach the tree. He squinted his eyes trying to catch a
glimpse of the figure’s face, but the person was hugging the hood so close to
their face that the only feature Naruto could make out was the nose. And what
an ugly nose it was; big nostrils, and a short and stubby shape that almost
looked like the snout of a pig...
But
he could tell the person’s height-- about his own height, give or take a couple
of centimeters. The rest of the figure was shrouded in a baggy cloak. And he
couldn’t help but wince a little when he saw the figure visibly reach down,
scratched their butt, and then pick at a very entrenched wedgey.
Naruto
quickly decided it had to be a guy for reason being a girl wouldn’t be vulgar
enough to do that with someone watching, but was quickly proven wrong when a
strong gust of wind blew off the hood.
“Ino?”
he said to himself, but loud enough that she heard.
“Huh?”
she said, surprised by his voice. She turned her head and squinted at him. A
look of recognition lighted her face. “Naruto? What the hell are you doing
there? And, um, just how long have you been there?” she said, looking rather
abashed.
“What?
What did you just say?” he yelled. He knew Ino was talking, but he couldn’t
hear the foggiest thing she was talking about.
“Say
again? I can’t hear you!” she yelled back.
Naruto
took a deep breath then yelled, “I said, I can’t hear you!”
“Well
then, come closer if you can’t hear me so well!”
He
shrugged his shoulders and then started to pad his way over to her. After
walking no more than three steps forward, he could hear her start to cough. And
what a terrible cough it was, sounding as if one of her lungs was trying to
force its way up her throat and out her mouth.
He
picked up his pace, slowing down as he drew closer to her side. He put a hand
on her arm. “Ino, are you allright?”
When
she spoke, Ino’s voice seemed a little hoarse. “I’m okay. Really, I am! Oh take
that look off your face. With that expression, you’d think I was dieing, which
I can assure you I’m not.”
“You
sure? Cause that cough sounded pretty nasty...”
“I’m
just fine,” She chuckled a little then observed, “But I think I’m starting to
lose my voice.”
He
looked at her face. She didn’t look sickly or pale faced-- she seemed fine
enough. He stuffed both his hands in his front sweater pockets and grinned at
her.
“Hey
Ino, you do know why people lose their voices, right?”
“Of
course I do...” she said, her voice sounding sure of herself, but her face
showing she hadn’t the foggiest. “Umm, actually, I don’t. No clue. Why?”
“Cause
they use their voices a little too much, that’s why.”
She
looked puzzled. “Cause they use their voices too much-- hey, wait a second.”
She scowled at him and then punched him solidly, yet playful (at least in Ino’s
opinion) on his arm.
“Ow
damn it, that hurt!” he looked at her balefully. “It’s zero degrees, Ino! Zero!
Do you know how much punches hurt when it’s this damn cold?”
“Wimp.”
She said, “You know, I hope I gave you a bruise too. Trying to say I’m too
loud, the nerve on you--”
“Violent
bitch...” He muttered to himself.
Her
eyes narrowed at him. “Excuse me? Would you care to repeat that? Maybe you
could talk a little louder. I couldn’t quite hear you.”
“Ummm,”
he laughed uneasily. “Repeat what? I didn’t say anything.” Discretion was the
better part of valor after all.
“I
thought so,” she said, and then muttered under her breath. “No balls--”
It
was his turn to narrow his eyes. “I’m sorry, I think I missed that. Say that
again?”
She
didn’t respond, instead she tried to be flippant. “Are your legs hurting? Cause
mine are absolutely killing me.” Not wanting to cake her butt in a big layer of
ice, she looked around and saw a broken, dead log. She straightened her black
cloak under her thighs and then sat down. “Whew, much better.”
He
didn’t say anything or call her on changing the subject so abruptly. What they
said to each other were friendly insults. And after he thought about it, they
said what they said because they both wanted to have the last word in.
“Hey
Naruto, you don’t have to keep standing, you know.” She said, cutting into his
thoughts. “There’s more than enough room for the both of us. Look...” She
scooted a little to the side and patted the empty spot next to her and smiled.
“C’mon, sit,” she coaxed. “I don’t bite you know.”
He
looked momentarily startled, then grinned at her appreciatively before he took
a seat.
The
two sat in silence, not quite comfortable, but not awkward either. Naruto
glanced out the corner of his eye and was half amused and half embarrassed to
see Ino doing the exact same thing. He moved his gaze off of her so fast he
gave himself a slight case of vertigo such that the twinkling tree lights were
beginning to spin in tiny circles.
“Umm,
Isn’t the tree beautiful this year?” Ino injected.
“You
think so?” He gazed at the tree again, but his opinion from before still held true.
“The tree doesn’t seem that... well... I don’t know-- festive this year, I
guess?”
“Really?”
She gave the tree another cursory glance. “Bright Lights-- check. Pretty
decorations-- check. It’s tall-- double check.” She looked at him doubtfully.
“I don’t know, Naruto. It seems pretty damn festive to me. Tell me, what kind
of screwed up definition of ‘festive’ are you going by?”
“That’s
not what I meant.” he said, sounding just a little annoyed.
“Then
what?”
“Well,
umm...” he paused, having trouble forming his thoughts into words. “I don’t
know how to really say it, but I guess I’m trying to say is that, well... the
tree doesn’t come close to comparing to how it looked last year.”
“Really?
Looks the same to me. And I happen to know it is the same--”
“It
isn’t the same. Trust me. I still remember the tree. When I came to see it last
year, I remember thinking to myself ‘wow, they’ve really outdone themselves.’
But when I came just tonight, I remembered thinking, ‘what the hell happened to
the tree this year?’ ”
“You
know, before you had rudely interrupted me, I was going to say that my
big sister is part of the committee that supervises holiday decorations--”
“Give
her my regards that a blind monkey with a brain tumor could decorate better
than her.”
She
sent him a sharp, piercing look telling him to ‘shut up the hell up’ before
continuing. “Where was I before you open your fat mouth, oh yeah... And she
told me that since the budget is pretty low after the whole Sand-Sound incident
during Chunnin Exam, the committee was forced to reuse the old tree decorations
from last year.”
He
waited for her to continue, thinking that perhaps she had more of to say, but
after a waiting for a few moments, he realized she was done speaking. And when
he turned to look at Ino, he saw she was wearing a curious expression: eagerly
waiting for his reaction to what he just said.
But
he had no reaction; he didn’t have any idea what the point of her little spiel
on budgets and decorations was.
He
looked at her with a blank expression. “That’s nice to know and all, but what
the hell does re-used decorations have to do with anything?”
She
sighed, and then after fixing him with a look that seemed to say ‘you’re an
idiot’, she said, “Naruto, you’re an idiot--”
“Would
you stop calling me an idiot!”
“Well
stop acting like one then!” Ino retorted, before continuing the earlier topic
of decorations and budgets as if she had never been interrupted. “The point is,
if the committee used the same decorations from last year, wouldn’t you naturally
assume the tree would be the same as last years?”
“Well,
I guess so...” he said, “But if you are telling the truth--”
“Which
I am,”
“--And
the decorations are the same, why doesn’t the tree have the same, well-- you
know, impact as before?”
She
shrugged her shoulders. “Can’t really say. I’m not you. I don’t know how you
think. But if I were to venture a guess...” she paused thoughtfully before
saying, “I would say that since you’ve seen the decorations last year, perhaps
they wouldn’t impress you this year?”
“I
suppose so...” Her answer made sense, but something about it just didn’t ring
true...
Ino
smiled softly. “Or, maybe... just maybe... you’re not the same?”
He
turned to look at her anxiously. “What do you mean, Ino?”
She
met his gaze intently and spoke in such soft tones that if he hadn’t seen her
lips moved, he would have doubted she spoke at all. “The Naruto you are now isn’t the same Naruto
as before. I’m right, aren’t I? You’ve changed. We’ve all changed. So much has
happened to us this year, hasn’t it?”
“Yeah,
a lot has happened to us this year.” He said softly, a sense of sadness
creeping into his voice. “But sometimes I think a little too much has happened,
you know?”
The
smile fell from her face. “Yeah, I know. The Sand and Sound... and the Third...
You know, before the Chunnin Exam, it was like no matter how many missions we
went on and how many times we’ve been endanger, everything was going to be okay
as long as Konoha was safe and that we had the Third to watch over us, to protect
us...”
“And
as long as we had our home and as long as we had the Third, nothing could
really harm us, right?”
“Right,
even though we basically knew that evil men were out there planning evil
things; we believed our village was just simply out of their reach.”
“But
now it feels like our world is different now, right?”
“Yeah,
like our world used to be simple, safe, and set...”
“It’s
like our daily lives would be the same thing over and over again. We’d get up,
and then be mad that we had to go to school. And when we finally got there,
instead of learning from Iruka-sensei like students are supposed to, we’d all
focus our attention on the clock, trying to will it to go faster so we could
get the hell out of there. And then the next day it’d be the same. Sure, other
things would come up; like sulking about how Iruka gave us a hard and unfair
test, or wondering if that maybe the person you liked had noticed you, maybe
sent a glance your way, but everything was still mostly the same.”
“But
now it’s seems like the world... no, life itself is so different. And it’s
seems that every time you blink, the world around you suddenly changes again.”
Naruto
nodded his head, completely understanding Ino. “It becomes so different, so
foreign, so much so that we’re always struggling to not get lost in the
change--”
“--Or
sometimes we’re struggling to catch up with it. Like you, yourself are stuck in
one spot, never changing, but the whole word around you is changing and you
aren’t changing with it.”
Naruto
continued to look into her eyes, feeling such an affinity for her that he never
knew he could feel. It was like she knew instinctively what he was feeling and
thinking. Talking with her... he felt something inside him click as if a piece
of a puzzle he was missing before had just snapped into place. Where that place
was and what that puzzle was, he did not know. He just knew that something he
was bereft of before, was now filled and overflowing with Ino.
And
if not for damn beeping coming from her infernal wristwatch, he could have
sworn they were going to kiss.
She
broke their mutual gaze and looked at her wrist. “Hmm, midnight... it’s officially Christmas Day.” She said.
He
looked at her uneasily. “So I guess you’re back to your family, right?”
“I
should. They are my family after all...” She smiled warmly at him. “But then
I’d have to leave. And I’ve decided that sitting here and talking with you is
rather nice, despite the fact I think my butt is frostbitten. Is it even
possible to have a frost bitten butt? And would that mean they’d have to
amputate a butt cheek?”
Naruto
couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. “I don’t know about the frost bitten butt and
amputation. But you’re right, this is rather nice.”
And
despite the world changing around them and both mutually agreeing the world had
become a rather scary, strange place, sitting together on the broken log,
watching the brightly decorated Christmas Tree while white snow fell lightly
around them, the world didn’t seem so scary, so difficult, so confusing, so
big. If only for this one night alone, the world seemed so simple, so safe, and
so beautiful.
“Merry
Christmas, Ino-chan.”
“Merry
Christmas, Naruto-kun.”