Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ A Naruto Christmas Carol ❯ Ch 2: The Ghost of Christmas Past ( Chapter 2 )

                         &nb sp;                    A Naruto Christmas Carol

                        &nb sp;              Ch. 2: The Ghost of Christmas Past

     Hello! I would like to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter. Reading all of those really made my day. ^_^

       Also, I would like to say ahead of time, although it will NOT be in this chapter, that I am not in any way promoting the pairing of Rock Lee and....... well, the character who will be playing Mrs. Crotchet. You'll just have to wait a little longer before you get the shock of your lives.

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           &nb sp;Kakashi sat on a chair inside of his house. The fire in the fireplace had long since burned down to embers, but he made no attempt to start another one. Dust had accumulated on most of the furniture throughout the house, and Kakashi felt no need to do anything about it. It wasn't as if he was in his house much, anyway. It was only there for him as a place to rest when he wasn't at the shop or away on missions. It was a spacious abode, but few of the rooms contained more then a few pieces of furniture.

         &nb sp;  From his spot on the chair in the living room, where he was reading up on ways to save chakra while still using jutsus to their full power, he could hear the roaring sound of the wind outside. Strangely, it seemed to be yelling his name......

     "Kakashi!!!!!!!" A voice cried out, seeming almost as if it was inside of his house. Immediately, he jumped behind the chair and pulled out a kunai. The sound of chains rattling filled his ears, and footsteps could be heard, ever so slowly shuffling their way towards the room. Slowly, the door swung open, and all the lights, save one, were extinguished. The light coming from the small lamp next to where Kakashi was standing flickered, but continued to cast its dim glow on the room. A figure stepped out of the shadow, and the rattling momentarily stopped. Kakashi's eye opened widely in shock.

          & nbsp; "Kakashi!" It shouted, its voice sounding eerily distant. "It is I, Zabuza, your former partner from the scroll shop, who died from being crushed by a falling shelf!"

                       &nb sp;  "I....... kind of figured that out already..."

         &n bsp;  "Really?" Zabuza asked, looking surprised. "I figured you as the type of person who didn't believe in ghosts."

           ;  "When someone that you know is dead is standing in front of you and can be seen through, it sort of clicks in your head."

          & nbsp;         "Okay..... I guess that explains it. Now, do you want to know what I'm doing here and why I'm wearing chains?" Zabuza asked, readjusting the chains for emphasis.

         &nbs p;            & nbsp;       "Actually, I was rather curious about that."

            ; "Well, here's the basic gist of it all. Some divine being or beings got mad at us, apparently because of the ways we have treated holidays and some people. To make up for the multitude of not so nice things I have done throughout my life, I have to wear these chains for all of eternity, and you, Kakashi, will find them waiting for you as well upon the day you die!!!"

             "And you came to tell me this because????" Kakashi asked, wondering why his friend couldn't have left him to live the rest of his life in ignorant bliss.

     "I have come to tell you because you can still save yourself from this fate." Zabuza replied. "Three spirits shall visit you tonight. The first at ten o'clock. The second at eleven o'clock. Finally, the third one shall come at---"

          " Let me guess, twelve o'clock." Kakashi ever so rudely interrupted.

     "Actually, no, he'll come at twelve thirty. He was originally scheduled to come at twelve, but he had...... other jobs to deal with. And I'm not supposed to tell you so don't ask." Kakashi promptly shut his already opening mouth, having been about to do what he had just been told not to.

     "What exactly are these spirits like, and what are they going to do to save me?" Kakashi finally asked.

         "They themselves can't save you as you have to do that yourself. However, they are going to show you what has been, what is, and what will happen if you don't change."

        "You do realize that you have just confused the hell out of me, right?"

             "Yeah, I felt the same way when I was told about what I had to tell you. But," Zabuza announced. "My time here is now up, and I must leave. See ya in two years."

       "But I'm not that old!'" Kakashi exclaimed, shocked. "I'm only in my thirties! The grayish silver hair is my natural color! And I'm too awesome of a character to die on a mission!"

         &nbs p;  "Ha! That trick always works! Well, good bye for now." With that, Zabuza took his leave, and all of the lights slowly flickered back to life. Kakashi, thinking about what had just happened, was in a state of shock. It wasn't everyday that you saw an old dead friend, and it was even more unusual to be told that you were going to be visited by several more spirits in only..... Kakashi now took the time to look at the clock on the fireplace mantle. Approximately only an hour and a half until the first spirit was to arrive.

             Kakashi looked around the room on impulse and then scoffed. He had to have been imagining things. There was no possible way that he had just seen the ghost of his former business partner, and the chance of being visited by three spirits was even more unlikely. What would they do, chat with him over a cup of tea, telling him about everything he had done wrong throughout his entire life? As if. Most likely, he concluded, something that he had eaten had caused him to hallucinate. Probably the kakiage (deep fried prawns and corn, tempura like. No, as far as I know, it does not cause hallucinations.)

       Going into denial about everything that had happened in the past few minutes, Kakashi decided to go to bed and wake up early the next morning so that he could go outside and torture any caroler that dared to sing when he was near. After that, he could go up to little children and tell them the truth about Santa Clause, and then........ Slowly, he drifted off to sleep.

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           &nb sp;Ding, Ding, Ding. The clock chimed the hour, ten o'clock. Startled, Kakashi sat up. Ten o'clock. The hour of the arrival of the first spirit.....

         &n bsp;  Almost as if on cue, a bright flash by his door caused him to close his eyes. Upon opening them, he was shocked to find a blonde woman standing in front of him. He gaped at her, speechless.

         &n bsp;  Noticing his stupefied stare, she decided that an introduction was needed. "I'm the Ghost of Christmas Past." She said. "But since that's a long title, you can simply call me by my name, Tsunade."

         &nbs p;  Finally snapping out his shock, Kakashi asked "Are you the spirit that I was told about?"

                       &nb sp;     "Yes, I'm one of the three." She answered, simply.

             Kakashi was still in a slight daze, and couldn't think of anything to say. Finally, breaking the silence, Tsunade said. "I'm supposed to show you scenes from your past, all of them taking place around Christmas time."

          & nbsp; "But why?" Kakashi asked. "I know about my past since I lived it. I know that there was good and bad, but why can't it all stay buried? I have no use for it."

          &nb sp; "It's my job to show it to you, and it could help you change the way you view the holidays and how you act towards people. Well, let's go, I've only got an hour's time to show you everything that you're supposed to see." With that, there was another bright flash, and Kakashi felt dizzy. He closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was no longer in his room.

          &n bsp; The new setting was that of a classroom, with books strewn all around. It was completely empty, except for a young, silvery haired boy sitting at a desk in the back corner of the room. Several wide windows took up a large portion of the back wall, and figures hurried by on the outside. Curious, Kakashi went to look out of them, only to me shocked for the fourth time this night. The people walking by were his old friends and comrades from when he was training to become a great ninja. He turned to Tsunade, who already had an answer for him.

"These are images from your boyhood, back when you were in the academy. Notice the boy over there?"

             Kakashi turned to look at the boy, knowing what he would see. It was him, thirty years younger, and all alone. Piles of books lay beside him, and he was slowly turning the pages of one, digesting all of the information. However, he seemed quite bored and in his own way, lonesome.

         &nbs p;  "As you know, it's you" Tsunade continued. "Instead of going home to be with the only family that you had left or to spend time with friends, you constantly studied and worked hard for much of the day."

          &n bsp; Kakashi moved closer to the boy and kneeled next to him. "Yes, I remember that." He said. "I wanted to train hard so that I could rise to the top of the ranks and be like my idols. I didn't bother to make time for anyone else."

          & nbsp;   Tsunade smirked, as if knowing what would happen next. Which, as the ghost of Christmas past, she probably somehow did. "Yes." She said. "But later in the day....." She never got a chance to finish her sentence, as the door exploded right then, and someone pretty much flew into the room. Startled, both Kakashis looked up, the younger one dropping his book to the ground as he jumped off of the chair.

          & nbsp; "You little jerk!" The dark haired woman in the trench coat yelled. "You were supposed to be home hours ago to help me decorate! Take a break on the holidays, you idiot!" With that, she angrily threw a kunai at his head, and it imbedded itself in the wall as he ducked. While the young Kakashi trembled in fear on the ground, the older one laughed. "Yes, that was my older sister, Anko." He said. "She always had a taste for flashy entrances and dangerous stunts."

           ;  Meanwhile, Anko was picking her younger brother up from the ground. "Get up from that floor, baka! You're coming home right now, and you're going to help me decorate the tree. Then you're going to make the dumplings while I go shopping for the miso for the soup. And if those dumplings don't come out perfectly....." She grabbed her kunai out of the wall and glared at him to get the point across. Mess up the dumplings and die, simple as that.

          &n bsp; "She really loved to eat dumplings." Kakashi explained to Tsunade, who was watched the scene with an amused expression on her face.

          &n bsp; "She died a young woman and had one son, right?" She asked.

          & nbsp;   "Nope, she didn't die." Kakashi answered. "Although you are right about her having one son. My nephew, Naruto."

           ;  "Well, then what happened to her?" Tsunade asked.

        Kakashi sighed. "She got sent to an institution a little over five years ago. Apparently, she thought that some holiday charity workers were actually two missing nins in disguise, and chased them down three streets before the ANBU squads managed to stop her."

        &nbs p;   "Wow." Was all that Tsunade was able to say. "Just.... wow. Did anyone actually believe her?"

          &n bsp; "Of course not. Why would a missing nin want to disguise him or herself as a charity worker and collect money?" Kakashi scoffed. Somewhere, two shadowy figures were laughing evilly as they counted all the money that they had collected......

        &nbs p;   "I won't bother to answer that. I have another scene from your past that I am supposed to show you." Silver light blinded Kakashi once again, and when he was finally able to open his eyes, he saw that the scenery had changed once more. They were now in a large and cheerfully lit room , and people milled around laughing and gossiping as they worked on filling out forms. Wreaths were hung on the windows, and colorful lights were strung across the walls and ceiling.

          ;   "Do you know where we are now?" Tsunade asked.

          & nbsp; Kakashi looked around. "This is the office where all the jounin and chuunin file paperwork." He said. "I used to work in here a lot." Slowly, he walked around the room, investigating the people.

             "There's Gai, who thought I was his eternal rival! And Aoba! And Genma! You know, I haven't talked to any of them in a long time.... in fact, I don't think I've really even thought of them much in quite awhile."

           ;  "And those people over there are?" Tsunade questioned, pointing to a corner where several men sat reading through papers. Sure, she already knew, but this was her job. She was supposed to make him think about his past and how it could have been, instead of just letting him keep it buried. And she was doing a pretty good job, at least in her opinion.

           ;  Kakashi walked over to them, studying each of their faces. "Iruka" he said. "The guy was naive, but was friendly enough and worked pretty hard most of the time. And he was rather fond of my nephew, I think. And that one next to him is....... Jiraiya, my old perverted teacher."

         &nbs p;            & nbsp;"And the one between them?" She asked, pointing at the silver haired young man that sat in between them, who was being gawked at by nearly every female in the room... and quite a few men as well.

          &n bsp;             ;            &n bsp;    "It's..... my nephew, Naruto?!?!"

"You idiot!!!" She yelled, hitting him over the head. "Look! Silver hair!!! In your memories! Who is the one person that it could possibly be, dumbass?!"

         &nb sp;               "It's me.... when I was in my early twenties!" He finally said. "Jiraiya used to pretend to be filing paperwork, but he was really just there because there was a hot spring next door. I went there because it was part of my job to report all the missions I had just completed."

        &nb sp;   Tsunade sighed. It seemed like she would have to point out every little thing instead of just letting him realize it. "And that woman over there is???" She asked, pointing to a woman sitting at a desk, filling out paperwork and talking with Anko. Kakashi turned and gaped at her.

        "It can't be...." He said, gazing at the dark haired woman. "This must be earlier then I thought, cause I could've sworn that Anko was already in the mental institution by now."

          &n bsp; "That's not what I was talking about, and you know it!!!" Tsunade screeched, hitting Kakashi over the head again. "Anko didn't get thrown into the institution until five years after this! Anyway, you're supposed to answer my question!"

         &nb sp;  "Oh.... yeah.... that's.... ummm.... my ex-girlfriend. Kurenai." He replied, wringing his hands. "Believe it or not, we were once in love."

          & nbsp; "What happened to her?"

          &n bsp;     "I... uhhhh.... don't remember!!!" Kakashi lied, shaking his head and turning away.

          &n bsp; "Then let's go through your past and watch it. I think that it took place about two years after this."Tsunade said, knowing what his reaction would be.

          &nbs p;     "No, wait!!!!" A silver light engulfed them before he could say anything else. This time, he opened his eyes to find that he was at the bridge that was on the outskirts of Konoha, where Kurenai was sitting on the railing, waiting for someone.

           ;  "You liar. If you didn't remember, you wouldn't have panicked when I suggested coming here."

          & nbsp; "Okay, I remember perfectly." Kakashi admitted. "We.... broke up."

          &nb sp;             "You mean she dumped you, right?" Tsunade said with a laugh, before giving him an apologetic look. "Look, there you are." She pointed to the figure of a man walking down the road, towards the bridge. Kakashi sighed and sat down on the ground, knowing what would happen next.

          &n bsp; "Yo." Kakashi said, jogging over to where Kurenai sat. "Sorry I'm late again"

       "That's okay, I've gotten used to it." She said, smiling. Then her grin disappeared, and she sighed. "Kakashi, we need to talk."

          & nbsp; "About what?" Kakashi asked, looking baffled.

           ;  "I know that you love me, and I love you as well, but this just isn't going to work out. You have large, grand dreams that involve being the strongest ninja in all of the world. My being there would only get in the way."

          &n bsp; Kakashi started to say something, but she quickly interrupted him. "Also, I've agreed to date someone else."

          & nbsp; "Who?!" Kakashi asked, shocked. The look in his eye said that someone was going to suffer greatly, just as soon as he found out who that person was. Unless it was one of his friends, then he wouldn't know what to do. Like if it was.....

           ;  "Iruka" Kurenai answered. "He's a sweet guy, and he enjoys simply teaching, and wants nothing more out of life." All was silent for a moment, then she continued. "I know that you may despair now, but that shall eventually fade. One day, you'll wake up, and you'll only remember this as a useless, unproductive dream. Good-bye, Kakashi." As she walked away, Kakashi stared after her retreating figure for several minutes, then turned the other way.

          &nb sp; "Why didn't you follow her?" Tsunade asked the Kakashi that was sitting next to her. He glared back in response.

         &nbs p;  "I wish that you would allow these memories to stay buried! Going through them again isn't going to change a thing about me! I want to go back to my house, now!!!"

             "Fine, fine." Tsunade said, sighing. "I wanted to show you a few more things, but my time here is almost up. Remember, the past can be buried, but never fully forgotten." With that, a bright yellow light flashed into his eyes, and when he could see again, he found himself lying on the floor of his house, no spirit in sight.

          & nbsp; "Tsunade? Spirit?" Kakashi called out. There was no answer. Kakashi pulled himself up off the ground, and looked around. No one was there, living nor dead. He heaved a sigh of relief. However.......

         &nb sp;  Ding. Ding. Ding. The clock struck eleven.

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           &n bsp;This chapter was noticeably longer then the first, but I don't think that it was near as humorous. Oh well. I'll make up for it in the next chapter, I promise. Finally, you'll all get to see which characters make up the members of the Crotchet family, and Naruto is back, this time with Sakura and several of their friends. Until then, Ja Ne.