Naruto Primer Lost Chapter: All

Grand Finale

Ahh…the last chapter. The FINAL chapter. We'll say outright that there will be no Naruto Primer PLATINUM or anything like that. The whole Naruto Primer series is over upon the completion of this chapter. But we DO plan on writing again, and you can catch a brief preview of what's to come at the end of this chapter. As far as this chapter goes, it was inspired by Fishy, and a lovely inspiration that was.

We already had a wonderful Christmas chapter. And, since it was only so recently New Year's, it can only be expected that Christmas came for a second time. Which meant, of course, that it was time for a Secret Santa swap. And, for the purpose of this story, the twelve core students that we've come to know and love decided to chill with each other and swap presents even though that would never happen.

So, after drinking eggnog, decorating the yard and getting dressed in their Christmas jammies, everyone gathered 'round the tree to open their presents.

"Ho ho ho!" said Naruto as he stood up by the tree. "Since I'm the best ninja here, I'M going to be Santa!"

"Hey!" said Chouji. "SHIKAMARU is the best ninja here because he's a chuunin and we're only genin!"

"Isn't Shino the best ninja here because he won the art contest?" Kiba Kibaed. Shino adjusted his sunglasses in response.

Everyone who was convinced that they were the best ninja just glared at all the people who were confused and didn't know better.

"WHATEVER!" said Naruto as he grabbed the first present. No one was going to stop him from being Santa. And he was going to open his present from Sakura and love it. Of course, he really didn't know if Sakura had been the one who had to get a present for him, but he was pretty convinced. "This first present is from Chouji to HINATA!"

"I hope you like the present I got for you, Hinata!" said Chouji

Chouji had had a rather difficult time shopping for Hinata. He didn't really know who she was or what she was all about…

"Thank you Chouji!" said Hinata as she opened up the gift to reveal a picture frame. "Wow! Thank you so much! I'll have to figure out what picture I want to put in here!" Chouji gave her the thumbs up.

"Next up is this present from Ino to Sakura!" said Naruto as he tossed a present to Sakura.

"I just HAD to pick Sakura." Said Ino under her breath as she remembered the day when they had all gotten together and picked random names out of a hat. She was dismayed to see Sakura's name there since they were passionate rivals and all, but she wasn't going to have that keep her from staying in the Christmas spirit!

Sakura cleared her throat, probably thinking the same thing. "Wow!! A scarf!!" she exclaimed, pulling out the scarf that was pink and red striped.

She glared at Ino. What sort of defect did it have?

Ino glared back. There was no defect…

"Merry Christmas!" said Naruto randomly, noticing that there was a bit of tense air between the two girls. "This gift is to Chouji… but no one signed it!"

"It's from me!" Kiba announced. "I didn't realize that we were supposed to sign them! It thought it was supposed to be a secret!"

"We clearly said that you were supposed to sign it so that all the mystery of it would come out when we gave the presents around." Said Sasuke as if it mattered at all.

"Oh well." Said Kiba with a shrug. He wasn't about to let it bother him. Ever.

Chouji unwrapped the present. "Wow…a water gun!" he said.

"I just love water guns." Kiba sighed, looking longingly at the water gun. It was quite obvious that he wanted it.

"This one is for Neji…" Naruto continued. "Oh wait, FROM Neji! This one goes to Shikamaru!"

He tossed the gift to Shikamaru, accidentally overthrew it and the present crashed through a window and out into the snow of the outside world. Everyone watched it happen, but no one did anything to stop it.

"Oops." Said Naruto.

"Well, Shikamaru?" said Ino. "Aren't you going to get it? Or are you too lazy?"

"It's dark and cold and I'm already wearing my pajamas." Shikamaru said.

"It was only a picture frame." Neji said. He wasn't offended that Shikamaru wasn't going to tromp around in the snow in search of the last minute Secret Santa group that he had picked up and wrapped in newspaper on the way to wherever they all were.

"And, yes, Ino, I know that must make me seem SO lazy…" Shikamaru started.

"Oh I don't care, Shikamaru." Said Ino even though it was obvious she did.

"This next present is addressed to Tenten and it's from Hinata!" Naruto announced as he was very careful not to throw the present at Tenten…especially since she was sitting pretty near him.

"Yay!" cheered Tenten as she opened up the present.

Hinata was suddenly getting nervous. Would Tenten like the gift?

"Wow!" said Tenten, pulling out a picture frame. "A picture frame! You can never have too many picture frames!"

Out of all honesty, Hinata just didn't know what to get Tenten and had been really distraught when she picked Tenten's name. When in doubt, go with the picture frame.

"Thanks Hinata!" said Tenten.

"Your welcome!" said Hinata pleasantly.

"All right, this one's to Kiba!" said Naruto. "And it's from…"

His heart sunk.

"…Sakura…"

Even though he knew it was only the luck of the draw, he had hoped that at least the love they shared would guide Sakura to the piece of paper with his name on it! Unfortunately, such an event would have to be saved for another day and another circumstance!

"Kiba, don't get upset if it's not what you wanted…" Sakura said, knowing Kiba's tendency to be loud. And annoying. And speak his mind.

"Don't be silly, Sakura!" Kiba said. "Why would I be upset if it's not what I wanted?"

"Well…cause it's not a water gun…" Sakura said under her breath, not meaning for Kiba to hear.

"Hey!" said Kiba. "You're not supposed to TELL me what it is!"

"I didn't!" said Sakura. "I just said what it WASN'T!"

"Just open the present!" said Naruto since he was holding a gift that was addressed to himself.

"Okay, okay!" said Kiba as he opened it up as fast as he could. "Oh! It's a picture frame! How nice!"

Sakura didn't know what to get Kiba either.

"THIS one," Naruto said loudly, trying to get attention back to himself. "Is from Lee! And it's addressed to…oh! ME!"

He chuckled to himself as he began to open the present.

"I hope you like your gift!" said Lee, bouncing excitedly in his seat.

Naruto pulled a green bodysuit out of the wrapping. His eyes widened with pure joy and innocence as he unfolded it and held it up to himself. "WOW!!" he yelled. "Lee! How did you know this is what I always wanted?!"

"Because it's obvious that EVERYONE wants a green body suit like mine!" Lee declared.

Everyone coughed.

After Naruto marveled as his new gift, he finally got around to picking up the next present.

"To Shino from Tenten!" said Naruto.

Tenten gave a sigh of relief that she didn't purchase a picture frame as well.

Shino took the gift, shook it a bit and then opened it. It was a CD.

"Aaron Carter?" said Shino with a raised eyebrow.

Tenten felt so smart. She had asked Kiba what Shino would like the best.

Shino only sat there silently. It's not like that part was different, but this silence was not like the others. He was in shock.

"Do you already have that one, Shino?" Kiba asked, leaning over and looking at Shino's gift.

"ANYWAY!" said Naruto, not really caring about Shino. Or Tenten. Or Kiba. "Here's a gift from Sasuke to Lee!"

"I hope it's a Christmas spar!!!" said Lee excitedly as he ripped open the wrapping like a buzz saw. Sasuke slapped his forehead as Lee pulled out a twenty-five dollar gift certificate to Papa Gino's. "WOW! It's not a spar, but it's ALMOST as good!!! THANKS SASUKE!!!"

"Lee has the best present…" thought everyone who had a picture frame. And Shino.

Sasuke must have actually THOUGHT about that gift!

"This one is to Ino from Shikamaru!!" said Naruto.

"You actually got me a present?" said Ino. "I would have thought you'd be too LAZY!"

Naruto threw the present to Ino but Shikamaru intercepted it.

"You're not going to get the gift until you stop accusing me of being lazy every five seconds." He threatened.

"Geez, Shikamaru, don't you think you're overreacting?" said Ino as she snatched the present from him. He didn't really enforce his threat or even attempt to keep the gift away from her. I guess he was just…too lazy.

Ino opened up the gift.

It glowed.

"It's…it's…" she stuttered as she pulled the set of five CDS out. "The Most Relaxing Classical Songs in the World…EVER! Shikamaru, you're my HERO!!"

"Yeah well…" Shikamaru sighed.

"Then again, you ordered them off the television so that meant you were just being too lazy to get up and go to the store—" Ino started JUST to get a rise out of Shikamaru and when she did, she quickly added, "Shikamaru! I was just kidding!!"

She hugged her present.

"I didn't even have to become a chuunin!" she said happily.

No one else could appreciate the Most Relaxing Classical Songs in the Word…Ever. No one else understood. Except for Shikamaru who always had to hear Ino complain about how much she wanted and NEEDED those CDs.

"Only two left!" said Naruto, getting the attention again. "This one is from Shino! And it's to Neji!"

Naruto handed the present to Neji who opened it to reveal an Aaron Carter CD.

He stared at it in a stupefied state for a minute.

Then he looked over at Shino. "Didn't you JUST get this as a gift?" he questioned.

"Yes." Shino said.

Neji observed the wrapping. "Isn't this the same wrapping?"

"Yes." Shino said.

"Hey!" said Tenten. "He re-wrapped my gift!"

"Shino!" said Kiba. "That doesn't work unless the person who gave you the gift isn't there! Not to mention the fact that we all watched you get that gift no more than five minutes ago!"

"Which also means that you didn't buy me a gift originally…" Neji said with a frown. He wasn't offended… he was just… offended.

"Whatever." Said Shino as if it was in his power to just shrug off the occurrence.

"Great." Said Neji sarcastically. "Now I have an Aaron Carter CD."

"THE FINAL GIFT!" said Naruto in a very dramatic voice. "It's FROM me… to…" Naruto waited for dramatic pause.

"Don't be stupid, Naruto!" said Sakura. "We ALL know it's for Sasuke since he's the only one who hasn't gotten a gift yet!"

"Yeah, and we also all know that all you got him was a Christmas spar." Added Kiba.

"What?" said Naruto, wondering how they could have possibly known something like that.

"I hate spars." Said Sasuke. He mostly just hated being duped out of presents. After all, there's no Christmas at the Uchiha residence so he was pretty excited about receiving a gift only to be disappointed. Poor Sasuke.

"So now what?" asked Chouji. "We're already in our pajamas."

Everyone stared at each other.

"God bless us." Said Kiba. "Everyone."

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Well, the Naruto Primer is finally over after 202 chapters. Whew!

And we promised a preview for our next story that's due to come out at around the beginning of December. So look for us and visit our site, The Kiba, for more info! We'll probably start posting stuff about the new story we're writing before we actually submit it here.

So here you go. Check out a little piece of it!

Title: -As I See It-

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Humor/Romance

-Sasuke-

It was a chuunin vest. Shino passed the chuunin exam.

Where I could not succeed, he did.

I quickened my pace and tried not to look back at him, but I knew he was thinking the same thing. He was mocking me on the inside. Curse Shino. I'm so much better than him.

-Chouji-

"Wow, Shikamaru." I said. "Being a chuunin must be really tough."

Shikamaru didn't reply for a good while. I think he was captivated by the clouds and was waiting for the right answer.

"Yeah, Chouji." He said finally. "It really is."

-Lee-

"Lee, NEJI'S a chuunin now!"

I gasped. Part of me wanted to be happy for him, but part of me was insanely jealous. Though, I wasn't about to show that.

"That's why he's not here today, Lee!" said Gai. "For he is not required to train with us now that he is a chuunin!"

-Hinata-

"Should we wear these party hats?" I asked.

"Of course!" Kiba said as if I was silly. "That's why we got them!"

Apparently he didn't notice the fact that they said Happy Birthday. "But they say 'Happy Birthday' on them…" I pointed out.

"Well… they do…" he said, looking at the hats. "But Shino's not going to notice! I'LL make sure he wears one."

-Naruto-

I then looked over at Sasuke who looked like he was ready to kill anything if anyone said something to him. I wondered what brought that on. He was perfectly fine a minute ago.

Um…when I said 'perfectly fine', that term is completely relative. He's usually really really angsty and unhappy, but he was ready to go on a warpath just then.

-Neji-

"Your father would be proud."

Oh sure. He had to act all noble by bringing up my father. As if that was supposed to make me happy and cheery that, oh thank god! My father would be proud of me for passing the chuunin exam! That was good news to hear that I most definitely would have never been able to figure out on my own, if not for the fact that my uncle did not come in and tell me so.

-Kiba-

"I'll walk you both home." Shino said.

"HOME?!" I demanded. WHAT ABOUT THE PINATA?!

"Yeah." Said Shino. "We could have our pow-wow shindig on the way back to your houses."

"Oh Shino." I said truthfully. "You saying 'pow-wow shindig' has just made my day."

-Sakura-

"Good morning, Sasuke!" I said, springing to my feet.

Would he notice my hair? Would he notice my new clothes? Would he notice my nails? Oh wait, I didn't paint my nails…

He didn't look at me.

I was sad.

-Shikamaru-

If someone paid me for every time I found myself somewhere I didn't want to be, I would be able to retire being a ninja at only thirteen.

Sure, it's not like I actually knew where I was, but all I knew is that I didn't want to be there. As far as I'm concerned, as long as I'm not looking at the clouds in the comfort of my backyard or any other familiar area of Konoha, I don't want to be there.

-Tenten-

I was outside jogging when I saw Neji walking towards the Hokage's office. I figured he was going to go and get his vest, but I decided to ask him anyway. He only half agreed, and mentioned that the Hokage only asked to see him and it could have absolutely nothing to do with getting his vest. We all know better.

I didn't know why, but I asked him if he wanted me to go along with him. He shrugged and said whatever, so I followed him to the Hokage's office.

I don't know why I do it. Maybe it's because no one else does.

-Shino-

"Well, you're home." I said when we reached his house.

"Okay." Kiba said, back to his regular demeanor. He went up to his house.

He opened the door. I realized I should thank him for the pow-wow shindig. "Kiba." I said. If he didn't hear me, I'd just forget about it, but he did. And he turned around, waiting.

"Thanks for the pow-wow shindig." I finally said.

"No problem, Shino!"