Tobi stared through his window, today had been awful. First, he had managed to piss off his sempai, it was actually the 22nd time today and it was only 9 am, Then he had burnt the cookies he was making, causing an explosion, and finally he hadn't seen any presents under his little tree, yes it was normal, but he usually didn't leave until the next morning to face the disapointment. You see, Akatsuki had a thing where each member can buy stockings and a tree, then decorate them.

When it was christmas eve, they put presents under each one. Every year, Tobi gave three presents to each person. They were carefully thought out, and no matter who you were, you appreciated them. Tobi, however, only got one present from Zetsu each year. It was usally a carefully preserved, rare species of plant and Tobi loved them. The only thing problem was that it was to delicate to be placed under a tree, so every year the bottom of every tree had presents, except for Tobi's.

So every year Tobi would stay in his room all of Christmas eve, so he didn't have to see the emptiness under his tree. Then the next morning before anyone else, put away his tree and set his presents under the other trees. As a matter of fact, he usally made the cookies in the morning to, but Tobi hadn't really been getting much sleep lately. He sighed, turning from the window and went to the closet. Akatsuki cloak, A couple of mission outfits, an extra mask, and...the presents.

He stared at them with unbridled fury, thinking about how no one noticed him until they opened the presents and stated they had nothing for him. Giving gifts made him feel so good, especially when seeing somone unwrap them. The reason he was so sad, was that they didn't appreciate him enough to make the effort to give him something, hell even some fucking rocks would be appreciated!

Tobi took a deep breath and looked at the clock, 12:00. Now that he had already broken the no leaving rule, he decided to go down and get some lunch, I mean why the hell not? As soon as he left his room, his aura changed from dark and gloomy to warm, sunny, and cheerful. As he bounced down the hallway smiling, he ran into Itachi. Itachi just looked at him, rolled his eyes, and shushined away before Tobi could even open his mouth. He blinked, a bit suprised that Itachi was acting so...odd today.

Shrugging, Tobi bounced his way down to the kitchen. "Oh hi sempai!" Tobi's exclamation caused Deidara to jump up and trip on the freshly mopped floor. Moaning, he sat up and glared at Tobi. "What the hell do you want, un?" Deidara spat as he rubbed his sore butt. Tobi appologized profusely and explained how he had just been coming to get some food. "Well to bad, un. I just mopped and you'll just have to wait, un." Deidara rolled his eyes while shooing Tobi out.

Tobi decided that he would just eat some take out, grabbed some money, and left the hideout. As he traveled through the trees, he noticed a river. Traveling by river is dangerous, so Tobi decided to veer off to the left of it. After he was a sufficent distance away, he continued towards Ame. When he got there, he headed to the Sushi bar on Rain blvd. After he ordered some sake, sushi and rice, he started to wonder what he was going to do for the rest of the day.

Maybe I should pick up Zetsu's present. He chuckled, the only one who actually appreciated him was the last persons present in which he got. The irony was not wasted on him. The only reason it was last this year was because the present had to be shipped. A beautiful green sapling made of crystal with one leaf dipping down, with just the tip touching an exquisite blue dish that was made of rough hexagon pieces. The fountain he bought for his dear friend Zetsu was quite a beauty.

Tobi was startled from his musings when the waiter placed his meal in front of him, apologizing for the wait. He just brushed her off, insisting it was fine and dug into his food. When he was done he payed and left. He decided that yes, he should get Zetsu's gift and headed over to the shop he was supposed to pick it up from. When he got to the shop his eyes widened almost immediatly. The sight before him was like no other, his thoughts on the fouuntain couldn't even begin to touch the surface of its beauty.

He payed for the fountain, and went out and bought tissue paper and a box. He got the box wrapped in white and finished it off with green ribbon and a black bow. After he snuck the gift into his closet he flopped back down onto his bed and checked the time, 5:00. It was almost time for him to go to sleep, so that he could get up at 2:00. Groaning he slung his arm over his eyes and rolled over. He yelped as he fell off the bed and cursed. Picking himself back up he got back into his bed, set his alarm, and went to sleep.

-Time skip-

Tobi's eyes shot open as his hand broke the alarm clock. Wincing, he assesed the damage to his hand. Thankfully it was only external this time, so he wrapped his hand and went over to the closet. He opened it, grabbed his bag of presents, and headed down to the living room. Tobi put down the present bag on the couch and went into the kitchen. He made cookies, cake, pie, steak, hickory smoked ham, and set out junk food and beer.

He put out the food out onto the tabletop and made his way over to the presents. He went over to the trees. He put the presents under them and decorated them with tinsel, glitter, fake snow, popcorn, christmas balls, and a tree topper each. For Hidan it was a statue of Jashin, Kakuzu a one hundred dollar bill, Kisame a shark, Itachi a small baby, Konan a paper fairy, Pein a star, Deidara a bomb, Sasori a marionette, and Zetsu a human hand (fake of course, it would be hard to obtain a new one each year...).

Tobi then put the presents under each tree, sadness consuming him as he saw that each member bought one thing for everyone but him. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts and decorated the rest of the base. He brought out games and the missions and paperwork for the next three months. Adter setting up the games, he did all the paper work then checked the time, 3:00. Tobi had just enough time to set his connections to do the missions. They would get twice as much money and not have to work for a while.

After he finished that up, he went uo to his room and deactivate his alarm. While he did that he checked the time once again, 8:59. He blinked as the time changed, 9:00. Now it was time for him to go and wake everyone else up, starting with Pein and Konan. As Tobi bounced up and down on their bed, they started to get up and glared at him. "Leader-sama, Konan-sama, it's christmas!" he exclaimed. They got up, continuing to glare, and went to wake everyone else.

When everyone went down stairs, their eyes began to scan the room. The whole base was simply...magical. "Holy fucking shit! Tobi you little fucker, you really out did yourself this year, fucking show off!" Hidan cursed in pleased disbelief as he walked around the room. Seconds later Kakuzu wacked Hidan upside his head, grumbling about how it was to early for his crap. Tobi was pleased with the awe and admiration in everyones eyes, well, except for Kakuzu, but even he had a slightly pleased look in his eyes. Everyone was downstairs, except Zetsu whom they were waiting for.

"Zetsu!" Tobi squealed in delight as he saw Zetsu drag himself into the living-room. "Hi Tobi, merry christmas you little shit. Hey! Be nice, sorry Tobi." Zetsu said, and plopped down on a chair. "It's ok Zetsu! Tobi is just so happy your here!" Tobi exclaimed. Everyone besides Zetsu rolled their eyes at this. Then, before anyone could say anything else Tobi started to push them to the tree room. "Last chance for last minute gifts I suppose, right un?" Deidara inquired.

"And no putting fragile or expensive gifts that could break under them either, and you had better not waste more money when someone tries to get you a new damn present!" Kakuzu shouted, and before Hidan could start yelling at him for beig a greedy ass, Tobi ran out of the room. An awkward silence prevailed as they waited for him to come back, and when he did, he came back with a huge gift about three feet taller then him.

"Sorry, Tobi was going to give Zetsu his gift later, but Tobi sees everyone is giving breaky stuff now!" he exclaimed childishly, handing the gift to Zetsu. "Thank you Tobi, yeah thanks brat." "Anymore fragile items?" Pein inquired in a bored tone. "No Leader-sama" "Nope" "No" "No more from meee!" "No none at all" "No" "Hn..." "No, un" "No". "Alright then, you may all open your gifts." Pein anounced, and everyone tore into their gifts, well, except Tobi whom had only 3 from Zetsu.

After everyone opened their generic gifts, they went for Tobi's. This year they got a special goft pack suited towards their personality, a 'fruit' basket that was really just their favorite treat in a fancy basket, fancily designed, and large gift sets of basic ninja tools. Zetsu got all of this, but minus the 'fruit baset', in place of it was the fountain.

No one bothered to thank Tobi, except for Pein,Konan, and Zetsu. And as everyone began celebrating later that night, Tobi rushed quietley to his room for a quick smoke. As Tobi climbed out his window onto the roof of their hideout because, unlike what most people thought, the Akatsuki base was on TOP of a mountain rather than inside one.

As the smoke wafted from his cigarette, Tobi lookeed at the stars. He traced the constellations with wisps of gray smoke, starting at the bright glowing end of his cancer stick. The sound of someone sitting down beside him startled Tobi. "Fuck" he cursed quietley when he dropped his cigarette in surprise. "Damn...Zetsu what do you need?" Tobi muttered, upset, not turning around.

Zetsu sat down and grinned at him in slight amusement. "How'd you know it was me?" Tobi rolled his eyes, "Your the only one who would notice my absence and care," he smiled, "and don't dodge my question." Zetsu cursed and told him about how Hidan was hiding all the alcohol again because 'It's fucking blasphemous'. "I didn't even know that the little shit could use that word," Zetsu muttered, more than just a ittle pissed off.

Tobi turned away from Zetsu, rolling his eyes at him. "Hey, you o-" as Zetsu was trying to talk to him, Tobi blew a cloud of toxic smoke in his face and smirked. Coughing and spluttering, Black Zetsu glared while White Zetsu teared up. "You fucking shit head! I said I wouldn't talk to you tonight because of your damn sensitivity, but you know what? Fuck that and fuck you! C-calm *cough* *cough* down..." Zetsu pushed Tobi off the roof and went back inside.

As Tobi was falling, he took great care in tracing the outline his smoke lined breathe left behind. "A star? Chidori? A weirdly shaped rock? Perhaps Zetsu?" He snickered at the last one. Just as he was about to fall, he went intangible and gently righted himself. As soon as he was back to normal, he walked up the side of the building victouriously smoking his cigarette.

When he got back up he went into his room. He put out his cigarette, tossed it in the ash tray, and flopped onto his bed once again. He'd have to appologize to Zetsu somehow...but for now, the sweet sirens call of sleep tempted him. As his eyes drifted shut, his last thoughts were "I hope he forgives me, dear kami I'm so stupid..."

Later that night, Zetsu went to exchange appoligies. "Tobi I wa..." Zetsu trailed off when he saw him sleeping. Rolling his eyes, Zetsu climbed into the bed and wrapped himself in Tobi's arms. "Merry Christmas idiot." That night, Zetsu fell asleep with a smile.