Sorry for my lateness! I couldn't finish it before Christmas. I did this fanfict for my deviantART club, Iruka-fanclub.

I wanted this story to be a kakairu one with a little bit of sasunaru, but I guess it rather turned out the other way around. Or maybe it's just because I am expressing in my writing my habit of focusing myself on the side stories and characters. Probably. It's cuter that way, isn't it?

Thanks a lot to wasureru who was kind enough to correct my oneshot! No more stupid mistakes!

It's my first fanfict and I'm rather proud of it. Don't be too harsh on me. Reviews would be very appreciated

Merry Christmas everyone

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On Christmas evening

That special evening, Konoha was covered in a thin layer of snow. While he was making his way to Iruka-sensei's house, Sasuke wondered why he accepted the man's invitation. Since his parents' death, he didn't appreciate Christmas as much as before, and spending the evening unwrapping presents at Iruka's suddenly seemed like a pain to him. But he knew there was no turning back now, especially since he gave his word to Kakashi-sensei that he would show up.

Kakashi-sensei. The reason why he was presently walking through the brisk air and the snow to Iruka-sensei's house. His teacher "convinced" him to come to the chuunin's Christmas party when he started talking happily about a certain picture that had been taken during a mission a few weeks before... The blackmailing bastard. Plus, he promised him that we would help him finding a good gift for Naruto if he did come. At the thought, Sasuke eyed suspiciously one of the gifts he was holding. Kakashi seemed to know what kind of presents people usually appreciated... Naruto was ought to like it, right? What if he didn't like it?

Not that he cared anyway. Hell no. Well, maybe. But just a tiny little bit. Not much.

He could have bought him something without Kakashi's help. Tickets for free ramen would have made Naruto's day, but it seemed... not enough. He wanted to give the blond something special, something that he would not receive everyday. Fortunately, Kakashi somehow... knew that, and helped him getting something he hoped Naruto would really appreciate.

Sasuke suddenly felt a hand drop softly on his shoulder. He quickly turned around to find his sensei looking at him, his single eye curved and a huge pile of presents kept in balance in his left hand.

"Yo"

"Hn" Sasuke grunted.

"Maa, don't look so gloomy. We both know that you don't hate going there as much as you pretend you do"

"..."

They walked silently in the snow, side by side. They made slowly their way through the frosted village to Iruka-sensei's house. As they approached the front door, Sasuke started to feel a bit nervous and uneasy. Why was he so nervous? It was only a stupid Christmas party...

They both stopped at the door and stared at it for a while. Sasuke looked up and realized that his sensei, under his usual bored look, was as nervous as him, if not more. They looked at each other and then stared at the door silently. Kakashi finally sighed, and his arm reached up to knock at the door. But the door opened before he could, showing a warmly smiling Iruka wearing a tight scarlet pullover. His sensei blinked at the (beautiful) sight, seeming breathless.

"At last! Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke, we were waiting for you! Don't stay outside like that, come in" the man said kindly.

"Ah... Thank you for inviting us over" answered after a while Kakashi, his eye curving. "I brought sake!" he added happily while showing a bottle of alcohol summoned out of nowhere.

"You shouldn't have"

They gave their clothes to the chuunin and made their way to the dining room, where Naruto was placing plates on the table (which made Iruka panic a bit, knowing Naruto's goofiness). Sasuke then noticed that Kakashi put on normal clothes for the occasion – a black turtleneck that hid his face, a marine shirt and tight jeans. He even seemed to have tried to comb his untidy hair (tried being the key word of the sentence)! Sasuke was unsettled by his teacher's new look, but he had to admit that he looked quite handsome. Naruto noticed it too, and started commenting loudly on it to annoy his always-cool-looking sensei. When he subtly mentioned the fact that an oddly good citrus scent was coming from the man ("Kakashi-sensei, did you perfume yourself? Woah, are you meeting your girlfriend tonight or what?"), the silver haired man gave him a glare before talking nonchalantly about a certain picture taken a few months ago. Naruto suddenly became very silent.

Sasuke smirked. So he wasn't the only one the jounin had blackmail material against. Iruka was very silent too, looking oddly at the silver haired man. When their eyes met, he looked away quickly and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his finger, trying to suppress a light blush that was forming itself on his cheeks.

Iruka took away their presents to add them to the ones that were already under the huge Christmas tree decorating his living room. After that, the brown haired chuunin served them a rather good meal – nothing exceptional, but it was very good anyway. Kakashi poured Iruka and himself some sake, which made Naruto protest loudly. He said that Kakashi wanted to get Iruka drunk to do naughty things on him – that deserved him a good slap behind the head from an irritated (and lightly blushing, as Sasuke noticed) Iruka. The rest of the dinner went rather well – Naruto and Sasuke quarreled, Kakashi teased Iruka and the chuunin blushed, choked on his sake several times and scolded the boys with his stern teacher tone for trying to throw food at each others.

When they finally finished eating, Naruto led them to the living room – or rather bounced his way to the Christmas tree while yelling "GIFTS TIME!" (almost uncharacteristic of him). Then they unwrapped their presents on the floor by the glowing tree. Sasuke found them surprisingly ingenious and had to admit that he liked the ones he had been given: he received a beautiful black shirt and the last tome of his favourite manga from Iruka, a set of kunai and a cooking book from Kakashi and cd of a music band he enjoyed from Naruto (though he doubted that it was more Iruka's choice than Naruto's). The others received great presents as well.

After a while, there was only two gifts left under the tree: one from Kakashi to Iruka another one from Sasuke to the blond boy. Iruka thanked politely the jounin for his present and started unwrapping it. When he saw what was inside the box, he blushed madly and looked at Kakashi with eyes as large as saucers plates. Naruto and Sasuke eyed the box suspiciously at once.

"Ka - kakashi-sensei...?"

"Ahhh, I knew you'd like it" answered the jounin happily.

"Huh! What?"

"You secretly love these things, don't you?"

"N-no! I-I mean, it's-"

"Maa, there's no need to be shy, Iruka-sensei"

"But – "

"Hey, hey, we want to see what's inside the box too!" whined Naruto loudly.

"N-No way!" the chuunin said at once, blushing even more and hugging the box closely. Kakashi simply laughed softly and passed his hand in his spiky hair.

"Unfair! Come on, show us Iruka-sensei!"

"No!" even more blushing and sweatdropping.

Sasuke then feared the worse. The boys looked at each others slyly before jumping on the chuunin and his oh-so-mysterious present. But Iruka wasn't a chuunin for nothing: he dodged their attack easily, still holding his box away from his ex-students' curious eyes. Unfortunately for him, Sasuke and Naruto weren't known for giving up. After 10 minutes of playing cat and mouse in the living room in front of a highly amused jounin, the boys succeeded into making Iruka drop the box. Naruto took it and looked what was inside before his ex-sensei could even protest. He wasn't expecting what he saw. Sasuke looked into the box and saw... a cute stuffed dolphin!

"Whaaaat? A stuffed animal?" asked the blond boy loudly.

"Yup" answered happily Kakashi. At his words, Iruka blushed and quickly took away the box, feeling humiliated.

"What was the big deal? It's only a dolphin..."

"But... Isn't it, huh, a bit... girly to like stuffed animals...? Asked the chuunin hesitantly, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

"Of course not! I like stuffed animal too! They are great!" yelled Naruto at once, a huge smile on his foxy face. That earned Sasuke a small smile that only Kakashi saw.

"There was no need to make such a fuss about it, Iruka-sensei. We all have our little passions, and there is no shame to it" Kakashi added.

Iruka then sighed, smiled weakly at him and thanked him for his well-chosen present and words. Naruto took the dolphin away from his sensei and looked at it with a smile small. That was such a cute present! Sasuke saw his current sensei sighing, looking releived. It wouldn't have surprised him the man was somewhat scared that Iruka wouldn't love his present.

"Ano sa... Guys, what did you think you would find in the box?" the chuunin asked to his ex-students after a while.

"Knowing Kakashi-sensei, something perverted for sure!" said Naruto at once, Sasuke nodding behind him. Naruto just ducked in time Iruka's slap.

"Maaa, you guys sure don't trust me at all" Kakashi said happily.

"You should have more confidence into your sensei, Naruto! He is not the perverted old man you think he is. See, there is nothing perverted into a stuffed animal" scolded the brown haired man.

"I'm glad that you like your present, Iruka. Now you can think about me when you hug your dolphin it at night in your bed and imagine it's me " the jounin added.

silence

"Ka-Kakashi-sensei!" yelled Iruka, blushing and frowning at the same time.

"Whaaaaat? That's what stufffed animals are for!"

"I knew it! You're just a pervert! Because of you, I'll never see stuffed animals the same way" Naruto said while pointy an accusing finger at his teacher.

"Let's forget about all of this, guys!" Iruka sweadropped "There is one gift left for Naruto under the tree..."

"NANI? I want my present!" cheered at once the blond boy. Sasuke's eyes widened in realization and he quickly took the gift away form his friend, holding the blue box tightly in his arms.

"I... changed my mind. I don't want to give it to you anymore"

"WHAAAAAT! You can't do that! You gave it to me!"

"Well, I'm taking it back now" answered Sasuke bluntly.

"You can't! I want my present!" yelled Naruto, aiming for his last gift.

Kakashi and Iruka then watched the boys fighting together in the living room. The chuunin looked bemused at his ex-students, while Kakashi just smiled knowingly.

"Maa, kids these days..."

"Kakashi-sensei, did you help Sasuke choosing Naruto's gift? Asked Iruka slowly with a small smirk on his lips.

"How did you know? "

"...An intuition"

They both stayed silent for a while, enjoying the moment.

"Kakashi... Thank you" came the silent thank from the younger man.

"Merry Christmas, Iruka-sensei" answered softly the silver haired man. Then he took the stuffed animal in his hands and showed it to the other sensei. "So... Will you hug me at night?" He added with his single eye curved.

"You...!"

Then a loud "crash" could be heard, something sounding a lot like a lamp being broken by a goofy blond ninja.

"NARUTOOOOO!"

"Gomen nasai, Iruka-sensei!"

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Later that night, when a certain dark haired genin went to bed, he hesitated before bringing a cute stuffed fox with him. He then put it on his night table, sat on his bed and glared at the fox for a while. He lied down on his bed, his back turned to the orange stuffed animal, a frown on his face and a light blush on his pale cheeks. After a while, unable to sleep, he sat up again, sighing. He looked at the fox beside him, thinking. Then he got up and went into his wardrobe, looking for something special.

Later that night, when a certain blond haired went to lock his front door, he found a stuffed black cat in front of it. He looked around and saw nobody, so he took it in his arms. He smiled: the cat remembered him of a certain black haired friend of his. He looked around a last time before taking the cat with him in the warmth of his house and closing the door silently, wondering where it was coming from.

Later that night, when a certain brown haired chuunin cleaned out his very messy living room, he found a cute stuffed dolphin under his sofa. He took it into is hands, looked at it silently for a long time before sighing and smiling softly. He looked outside the window to be sure that he wasn't being watched and hugged it in his arms tightly, smelling its scent deeply with a slight blush on his cheeks and a small smile on his lips.

Much later that night, when a silver haired jounin lied down in his bed, he smiled happily into the darkness. He had nothing to hug, but it didn't matter because he had the greatest Christmas day he had had for a long time.

Owari