A/N: I actually wrote this Christmas Day last year, I just didn't have an account at the time and by the time I did I felt it was too late to post it. So here it is now. Lighthearted fluff.

SUMMARY: All three members of the InoShikaChou trio discover something shocking about Santa Clause.

DISCLAIMER: Characters aren't legally mine... yet.

Santa Blues

A little hand gripped tightly on the bedroom door handle, the small child being cautious not to make too much noise as she opened it. The last thing she wanted was to have her position given away before she got the chance to see him, all dressed up in red and white. She opened the door the slightest crack, enough so that her tiny eyes could peer out into the lounge. Her vision was met with a multitude of bright sparkling colours; red, green, gold, blue, purple and silver.

She scanned the area for any life form, and after a few moments of straining her ears she could hear faint sounds coming from the direction of the kitchen. Ino gazed toward the kitchen, and the source of the noise, to see a man dressed in red and white emerge seconds later, her mother following close behind.

Ino gasped silently in horror as she watched the two enter into the living room. Not only was Santa too thin, and looked too much like her father, but he was standing far too close to her mother. The girl then became even more appalled when Santa Clause wrapped his arms tightly around her mother's waist and she responded by wrapping hers around his neck. Santa then pulled her mum closer to him and kissed her. Ino very nearly screamed.

She turned around hastily, closing the bedroom door softly behind her, before scurrying over to her bed and crawling in. She grabbed her flower print bed covers and yanked them up to her chin. Her lip started to quiver uncontrollably. If this was the way her mother acted when Santa came around, she didn't think she wanted him to come back next year. There was no way she was going to let Santa Clause take her mother away from her.

-:O:-

A spiky-haired boy tiptoed down the stairs in his family's home quietly. He smirked; his mother had always told him Santa only comes once you've gone to sleep. So he did, for three hours – before he got back up again. And since it was now technically Christmas Day he figured his presents should be there awaiting him. He smiled somewhat self-satisfactorily. He hadn't been outsmarted this time.

As he approached the lounge he heard voices, so he pressed his ear up against the wall in an attempt to hear them better. From what he could make out it sounded like his mother, even more, it sounded like the tone his mother used when she was speaking to his dad.

Shikamaru's face fell. If his parents were there then Santa wouldn't be, and he wouldn't be able to gloat over being the first out of Ino, Chouji, and himself to see Santa. What was even worse was the fact that if his parents were there in the lounge then he wouldn't be able to get to the presents.

Despite his now downheartedness Shikamaru continued on to the end of the hall so that he could gain a decent view of the lounge room. Even if he couldn't open his presents, he might still be able to look at them.

What he saw when he reached the living room wasn't what he had expected. Although it was his mother's voice he had heard, it wasn't his father she was talking to. Instead, she was standing cuddled up to the man whom he recognised to be Santa Clause. What Shikamaru couldn't begin to understand was why she was using that tone of voice if she wasn't talking to his father. His disgust only seemed to grow when his mother began kissing Santa the same way she always kissed his dad. Oh how funny it would be for his dad to walk in right now and see this.

-:O:-

The young Akimichi snuck quietly along the wall of the hallway that separated his family's bedrooms and living area. He stopped at the end of the wall and poked his head around the corner stealthily to see an empty living room. The room looked as though it had when he had left it to go to bed a few hours ago. The tree and decorations were still in place... but then he noticed the difference. Under the tree were situated many presents which hadn't been there before. That meant that Santa had already come.

Chouji pouted in annoyance; maybe he wouldn't see Santa then. However, his face then brightened joyfully at the thought that in the morning he might be able to open his presents that Santa had already left for him. As he was pondering all these things, sounds started to come from the backyard. He strained his eyes to see a round man with a white beard, clothed in red and white, entering into his house via the back door.

Chouji gawked, that wasn't right. Santa was supposed to enter through the chimney, everyone knew that. He wasn't supposed to use a door.

Just when he was in the midst of having all his childhood hopes and understandings crushed his mother entered into the lounge from the bathroom and walked over to the man. Santa smiled at her before placing an arm around her shoulder. He then led her under the mistletoe in the centre of the lounge where he bent down and pressed his lips gently up against hers.

Chouji gasped in horror at the realisation that his mother had known Santa all this time without having told him.

A/N: Just some good fun. I hope you liked it. Review :) and I wish you all an early Merry Christmas.

God Bless

ARC