Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Naruto Christmas Carol ❯ Ch.1: The Opening ( Chapter 1 )

           & nbsp;           &nbs p;            & nbsp;   A Naruto Christmas Carol

 I blame this idea on the drama club. Thanks to being on the stage crew, I was able to memorize every little line at the loss of bits of my sanity, and now I bring to you ' A Naruto Christmas Carol'. It's loosely based on the great master piece written by Charles Dickens. And no, I do not own Naruto. It may seem odd who I have chosen to play as certain characters, but I think that it all fits together pretty well. Or at least it will in the end. I'm going to be splitting this into a few chapters, and the last one shall hopefully be out on Christmas day. Anyway, please enjoy my twisted little version of this great classic and Merry Christmas and happy Hanukkah and Yule and anything that was not mentioned here.

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      The story I am about to tell you takes place on Christmas Eve and is about a man named Kakashi, although some people later came to call him Scrooge, all thanks to a very odd mistranslation. He was a stingy man who loved nothing besides collecting jutsus and money and making everyone else miserable. Once, he had been a rather laid back but kind person, but that all changed after the death of a close friend and several other unfortunate events. In particular, he held a great amount of contempt for Christmas.....

          It was cold and windy outside, but the streets of Konoha were crowded none the less. Young children played in the snow while others talked with friends while drinking steaming cups of hot chocolate. Parents shopped, and every where the sound of Merry Christmas could be heard. All the stores were decorated with bright lights and garland, with the exception of one. No lights decorated the outside of Kakashi and Zabuza's Scroll Store.

       The inside of the store was nearly as grim and uncheerful as the outside. There were no decorations, and the heater wasn't even turned on. Near the corner, hovering over an old and battered desk, was Rock Lee. Repeatedly, he carefully dipped a brush into ink and drew intricate symbols, looked over his work, and then started again on another scroll. A large pile of scrolls had accumulated in the corner, obviously from hours of work. As the clocks chimed 6 o'clock, the doors opened.

           "Kakashi-sama! Welcome back! We sold scrolls by the dozens today! I've finished most of the new ones to replace them, and I should be able to restock the shelves in a few minutes." Lee practically danced and shouted with holiday glee, while Kakashi decided to refrain from speaking until he had taken off his cloak and gloves.

       "Have you written that letter to the committee yet?" Kakashi enquired as he sat down at his desk.

         "Letter to the committee.... letter to the committee... Oh! No, sir, I haven't had the chance yet due to all of the customers and the need for more scrolls, but I will as soon as---"

         "See to it that you get that done, and don't leave until you have!" Kakashi barked. "I don't want to be held responsible for any misuse of forbidden scrolls or jutsus. Last year I thought that there would be a riot in front of this store. Besides, it not as if we sold those scrolls directly to the kids that wound up almost burning down the school! If anyone's fault, it's the parents. What kind of person would use a powerful scroll as a stocking stuffer for some little kid that doesn't even know how to use it?!"

          &n bsp;   "Don't you mean 'What kind of person would give a powerful scroll to a kid'?"

          & nbsp;           &nbs p; "Nope, just the ones that don't know how to use them."

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      "Udon, Moegi! Look at this! I got this awesome scroll from some random person passing me on the street, and thanks to watching some shows on TV, I know how to use it!" Konohamaru yelled to his friends.

          &nb sp;  

         &n bsp;   "REALLY?!" They shouted in unison.

     "Yup, watch this!" Became the famous last words that many people later enjoyed making fun of.

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             "Anyway, Lee, I don't want you to leave until you have finished that letter!'

           ;"Yes sir!" replied Lee as cheerfully as usual as he went back to work. All was silent for a few seconds until.....

       "AAAAAHHHHH!!!! No, I don't want to take part in any snowball fights, I have to get home soon! What.... wait!!!! Why are you all aiming at me?! No, stop!!!------" SLAM!!!! The walls of store shook at the force of someone slamming into the door, hard. Kakashi sighed and rested his head on his desk. He knew what was coming next. Just knew it. It happened every year without fail, and there was nothing to stop it from happening again this year. In fact, considering that now the little-bugger turned into a clumsy-fool and then turned into an in-love-and-clumsy-fool was newly married and probably feeling sentimental to his mother's old and miserly brother, Kakashi was about to go through an annoyance of the most troublesome sort. Turning the doorknob and beaming at his Uncle as he entered with his usual naive yet endearing smile, was Kakashi's nephew, Uzumaki Naruto.

         "Uncle Kakashi! Guess what!!! I was wondering if you wanted to---"

          & nbsp;   "No." Kakashi answered immediately, already knowing what was going to happen. Naruto was going to tell him about his Christmas party, and then ask him to come. He would say no, and then Naruto would pester him until it got to the point where he would tell Lee to throw him out, to which Lee would always look shocked and do nothing, and then Kakashi would be forced to throw him out himself. And then he had to lock the windows as well since Naruto had one year realized that they could be used as doors if you could manage to squeeze through them.

         &nb sp;"But Uncle," Naruto said, still as determined as ever. " You should get out and do something enjoyable for once, I'm sure that then people would come to like and look up to you as they once did years ago."

          &n bsp; At this point, Kakashi was shocked. Who was he to mention anything about how people thought of him, or how they once did. Sure, he might be his nephew... but that didn't mean that.... well.... maybe he had the right as family... but still!!!! However.... At that point Kakashi decided to stop arguing with himself.

           ;  "Please... my wife extends her invitation as well, and she would be ecstatic if you came."

        Kakashi simply sighed and rolled the one eye that was showing. Then he put his head back on his desk and went back to ignoring Naruto, wondering why he had even bothered to lift his head up before.

      "Look!" Naruto shouted, finally losing his patience. "If you don't agree to come, then me and Sakura are just going to go to your house and drag you there!!!"

        Looking at his watch to see how much time had been wasted, Kakashi grabbed Naruto by the collar, opened the door, and threw him head first into a pile of snow. Before Naruto's mind could even register what had just happened, Kakashi had slammed the door and quickly performed a jutsu that would prevent Naruto from entering while still allowing others in. There was no way that he would close the doors on last minute shoppers just to keep one brat from getting in.

         As Naruto brushed the snow off of himself, two people wearing large winter cloaks that nearly covered them plus scarves and gloves and hats walked right up to him. They were so bundled up that Naruto couldn't even get a single glimpse of their faces, no matter what angle he looked at them from.

      "Good evening, sir." The first one said. "We're raising money to help the poor. Would you like to donate anything?"

         &nb sp;Naruto smiled angelically, and reached into his wallet, promptly forking over 10,000 yen. Then, noticing where they were headed, he said in a loud stage whisper "I wouldn't go into that shop if I were you. My Uncle doesn't really like Christmas, and he isn't exactly in the best of moods right now." Without waiting for an answer, Naruto hurriedly began to run towards his house, knowing that Sakura would be very pissed if he got home really late on Christmas Eve. And when she was pissed.... well, things tended to fly across the room, and he usually happened to be one of those things that went flying.

             Meanwhile, the two 'charity workers' had decided to ignore his warning and enter the scroll store anyway. As they entered the store, Kakashi looked up, and the two went straight to his desk.

 "Should I presume that you are either Kakashi-sama or Zabuza-sama?" The first one asked.

       Kakashi, now wary of what they might want to talk to him about, simply answered with "I'm Kakashi. Zabuza died seven years ago on this very day."

      Glancing momentarily at the other, the second one decided to explain. "We are raising money to provide the poor with food, drink, and means of warmth since they suffer very much in this cold season. Would you care to donate towards this benevolent cause?"

       Kakashi, for the umpteenth time this day sighed. Solicitors, the one thing that he hated nearly as much as Christmas. They came in large numbers this time of year, and never seemed to notice the 'No Solicitors unless you wish to suffer a painful death' sign that he had hung by the front door. Although the neighborhood boys may have stolen it yet again.....

      "No." He finally answered, snapping out of his train of thought. "I would not like to donate any money to your bloody benevolent cause." With that, he showed/dragged the two to the door and slammed it shut for the second time that day, this time flipping over the open sign to 'closed' as her turned to go back to his desk. It was getting late, and he wanted no more to do with the annoying people that just loved to bother him.

      Upon making sure that no one was in sight, the second of the two individuals pulled down his scarf and took off his hat to readjust it, revealing silver hair and glasses. Turning to the other, he muttered "Orochimaru-sama, do you think that he saw past our disguises and recognized us?"

        "No, Kabuto. I think that he was simply being a stingy ass. Not that it matters. We've already collected enough money to fund the 'Orochimaru World Domination' campaign. Let's head back to my village and begin planning stage one of 'The Plan'. Ku ku ku ku.... come, join me in my evil laughter."

         &nb sp;                "Yes sir" Kabuto replied dutifully. The two walked off into the darkness, laughing evilly all the way.

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     "Kakashi-sama, I've finished the letter you asked me about." Lee said, setting the said letter onto the his boss's desk.

       "Hmph. I suppose you'll want all day off tomorrow?"

         &nb sp;         "Yes, sir, if possible" Lee said, smiling happily.

       "Yeah yeah, if I didn't let you have the day off, I'd probably have some people from the Scroll Maker's Union following me around all day just to get a chance to scream at me just like all the other people in this town."

       Lee hurriedly grabbed his coat and ran out the door, barely listening. His family was waiting for him, including his poor son who he loved ever so dearly, and who suffered so horribly from an ailment that he would not mention right now due to it spoiling the plot. At least, he concluded, his son had perfect physical health. Mentally.... well, he wasn't sure of that. In fact, he knew that something there wasn't quite right, but that was something to think about later. Right now, he was going to head home to see his wife and children!

        Locking the door, Kakashi hurried home as well. However, his night would not be as happy as the on that Lee was looking forward too. In fact, he did not at all expect what was going to happen in just a few hours time.....

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    Yes, the end of the first chapter! But fear not, dear readers! I promise that the next chapter shall be up soon, school permitting or not. However, it might be awhile before I'm able to update my other Naruto fanfic, although I will eventually, as soon as I have time to finish formulating ideas for the third chapter and typing it up. Anyway...

         Who is the ghost of Christmas past? And which characters have taken the place of Tiny Tim and the other members of the Cratchet family? And who is Scrooge's dear sister? Find out in the next chapter of 'A Naruto Christmas Carol'!