Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

In my time away from this story, I had graduated college. I am now a proud graduate with a Bachelor Degree of Arts in Psychology. I am also incredibly blessed—or cursed—with an eternally young baby face, so at my work, I am asked if I am still in school. And I answer "No, I graduated!" They assume I mean I graduated high school, and ask what college options am I looking at or if I am interested in college at all. I then happily inform them that I am, in fact, 23 and have graduated college already. The reactions I get are hilarious, and my co-workers in the know actively look for people who assume I am younger than I am so they can set up bets for how young they assume my 'true' age is. So far, the youngest age guessed is 16.

Anyhoo, onwards with the chapter!

Not much had changed since Sasuke had the meteoric realization of his feelings towards Naruto.

Time had passed. It was now December, and the semester was ending. There was an influx of assignments to be turned in for grading, as if it would make a difference at this point. Those who truly needed to worked diligently on the assignments—the rowdy, often drunk fellows down the hall had been quiet this week—while those with solid grades did the work while mostly focusing on upcoming finals.

The weather had also gotten colder. Barely anyone stayed outside for longer-than-necessary periods of time, and the campus was practically a ghost town at night when the meager warmth the sun provided was gone, leaving the campus a very cold place. Decorations for the upcoming holidays popped up on campus as well. From public places like the cafeteria and the library to personal decorations set up by students outside their dorm windows and doors.

Social patterns had gotten busier. Since Thanksgiving, Sasuke and his acquaintances had, it seemed, been officially integrated into Hinata's band of friendly idiots. That meant that they saw each other nearly every day.

They mostly congregated together during lunch times. It was now customary to eat in the cafeteria with the commoners. Dinners were spent separately, though. The commoners chose to continue eating 'food' provided by the cafeteria while Sasuke and his acquaintances continued to go out and eat proper meals at restaurants. Hinata divided her time evenly between the two groups.

Despite spending more time together as a large crowd, not much had changed in the interactions between the two groups. Or at least, nothing monumental had altered.

They were all friendlier towards each other. It was, of course, understood that it was two groups hanging out together and not a singular entity of friends. But this was mostly explicit during times of greetings and partings. Time spent in the middle when they were hanging out together was subtly more amicable and integrated.

This mostly applied to the groups as a whole, though, and not individuals; or, perhaps, one individual in particular.

Naruto.

On Thanksgiving, Sasuke realized that he may or may not have developed feelings for the blonde commoner. He was eternally debating on the validity of such emotional states. As well as having and intense personal examination of the implications thereof. But bottom line, he understood that he was needlessly aware of Naruto and reluctantly recognized that there was an attraction.

However, it seemed to be entirely one-sided.

Sasuke was at an unfortunate loss. Though he himself had realized how he wanted to become closer to Naruto over the break, it quickly became obvious that the blonde did not desire the same.

Naruto was friendlier to the 'preps' since coming back from break. He engaged in conversations, and no longer overtly insulted them; not even Neji. On the surface, it appeared that Naruto had accepted the 'preps' as his friends.

But Sasuke and his stupid crush on Naruto noticed everything about the blonde. He saw that the commoner was not comfortable around the 'preps'. It was obvious to Sasuke by the way Naruto smiled. It was different between the two groups. With the commoners, his smile was boisterous as well as generally exuberant. But when he smiled to the 'preps', the smile was just as large, and pulled at his cheeks and made blue eyes squint, but they felt hallow in comparison.

It was also obvious by the content of which Naruto spoke with to the different groups. After Thanksgiving, Naruto certainly spoke more often with the 'preps', but it was mostly nonsensical topics. He carried on small talk conversations, but he never spoke of anything personal. Two weeks after learning of his crush on Naruto and listening in on conversations, and the most Sasuke learned was that apparently the blonde had a penchant for instant ramen.

Which was fine, Sasuke constantly told himself. Crushes were fleeting. True, he never had much experience himself, but how many times had he been confessed to about someone's crush on him? This would go away on its own.

The Uchiha had to reassure himself of the fleeting nature of crushes yet again as his traitorous eyes roamed once again to Naruto's direction.

He was in the history class he shared with Naruto and Shikamaru, and was finding it increasingly difficult to concentrate on the lecture. The professor made little effort to make the material interesting, but that was not surprising. It was not up to the professor to make sure things were remembered but up to the student.

A paper was due next class that was unofficially serving as the final. There would be a written test on the last day of class, but that was more formality than anything. The bulk of the final would be this paper. It was due on Tuesday, so this was the last class students had before working on it over the weekend.

However, Sasuke had already done most of the work. This paper had been assigned for a while, with how important it was for the grade, and the class had been reminded of it soon after coming back from the break. Because of how cold it was, the Uchiha rarely left his room excepting for classes and meals, so he had done most of the work beforehand to avoid boredom.

So Sasuke felt no guilt in being distracted today in class. He was practically done with the class; assured to get an A.

The students started to pack up their stuff, unofficially indicating the time. The professor acknowledged this by holding a finger up to signal that this would be his last point. As usual, Naruto nodded to show his understanding, and Sasuke could feel the barest hint of a smirk tug at the corner of his mouth in response.

When the professor finished speaking, there was a mad dash for the door. The chair next to Sasuke that had previously been filled by its usual sleeping upperclassman was moving a bit from the force of which was used to propel away from it. But Sasuke stayed in his seat, observing Naruto.

The blonde was talking with Shikamaru and was gesturing to his notebook. Although Sasuke could not see Naruto's expression, he could tell that the blonde was vaguely distressed. Shikamaru was shaking his head no.

They stood up, still talking, and Sasuke stood up as well. He headed out the door with a couple of other people. Lately, he had made it a habit to leave before Naruto did so he would have absolutely no reason to suspect that the Uchiha spent most of classes watching him. Sasuke usually walked over to Senju Hall and then went to lunch with the Hyuugas.

That was his intentions, but then he heard, "Oi, Teme!"

Sasuke paused in his steps. He moved slightly to the side of the hallway to be out of the way. He looked back, carefully keeping his expression blank, and firmly ignored the butterflies in his stomach that reacted to Naruto's voice calling out to him.

Naruto was walking up to him, his expression faintly uncomfortable. Shikamaru was next to him, his own expression simply bored.

When the two reached Sasuke, they were silent for a moment.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow, silently asking them why they stopped him. He was quite careful to keep his eyes shifting between the two of them rather than staring solely at Naruto.

Blue eyes would not meet his, though. Naruto was keeping his eyes everywhere but at Sasuke, looking awkward. He was shifting from foot to foot and was rubbing the back of his neck.

The Uchiha was secretly quite amused with the display. Usually, Naruto would put forth an attitude of swaggering confidence around 'preps' such as Sasuke, and went through great lengths to upkeep that persona. But at the moment, the blonde was awkward and obviously a bit embarrassed and it was endearing.

Sasuke was careful not to show his true feelings about the situation show, though, on account of how he knew that if he did, that would surely confirm to the commoners in front of him that he held a certain…attraction for Naruto. So he sensibly schooled his expression to remain detachedly questioning, and shifted his gaze to Shikamaru for answers.

In response, Shikamaru rolled his eyes and muttered "Troublesome," under his breath and nudged Naruto's side with his elbow.

Naruto reacted by dropping his arm down from rubbing the back of his neck to jab his friend right back.

Shikamaru heaved a sigh of deep suffering. He stuffed his hands in his pockets as he addressed Sasuke, saying, "Naruto has two things to ask you. I'm going on ahead." He then broke away from them and sauntered down the hall.

Ignoring the swoop in his stomach at Shikamaru's words, Sasuke was valiantly attempting to keep his thoughts in the present and not imagine scenarios where the blonde in front of him would ask him if he wanted to go out for dinner, drinks, or even asking if they just wanted to fuck.

Thankfully completely oblivious to the direction of Sasuke's thoughts, Naruto glared at the direction of Shikamaru's retreating back and muttered "Traitor," under his breath.

With a large amount of effort, the Uchiha pulled himself out of his imaginings. Clearing his throat, both to gain Naruto's attention and to center himself, he said, "You have something to request of me."

There was a minute flinch before Naruto turned to fully face Sasuke. He raised his hand towards the direction of his neck before pausing, and instead fiddling with the zipper of his orange jacket. His other hand shoved itself into his jacket pocket.

Blue eyes shifted away from Sasuke again as Naruto mumbled, "It's not askin' for help, or anything like that. It's more of asking for a favor of sorts."

It was obvious to Sasuke that there was a clear difference between the distinction of words; one that he understood quite well. 'Help' would require the asker to lower their pride and potentially be in debt to the other. A favor, though, was between equal parties.

Sasuke inclined his head once, both to show understanding and to indicate that the conversation could move forwards.

Despite not looking at the Uchiha, Naruto nodded his head in response and muttered, "Right, uh," he stopped fiddling with his zipper and returned to rubbing the back of his neck. He dipped his head down a bit, staring awkwardly at the floor and shuffled a shoe a bit. "Well, the thing is, we have a paper due on Tuesday. And that's basically our grade."

Sasuke knew this, of course. He had an inclination of where the conversation was going, so he grunted, "Hn," to show he was following along.

Naruto stopped looking at the floor and swung his head back so he was looking at the ceiling instead. He shoved his hand in his jacket pocket and pushed both hands down so the front of the jacket was stretched. "Yeah, so," he said, clearing his voice a bit before continuing, "I have a topic in mind, but my notes about it are a bit sparse, y'know? I asked Shika if I could borrow his, but his are even worse. He just sort of…I dunno, knows this stuff. So his notes are just the dates and a couple of names. And that's helpful and all, but I need more if I wanna write about what I want to write about…"

"You find Shikamaru's notes insufficient and request to borrow mine," Sasuke summarized, getting to the core of the favor being asked. He was generally not a talkative person, preferring being concise. While extended conversation with the object of his attraction was desired, Naruto was not making eye contact and his body language was fidgety and distracted.

Finally, Naruto turned his head to face Sasuke, his eyes unwavering as he said, "Not 'borrow'. Just look at for a bit."

For the moment, the blonde's stance was firm, and Sasuke understood why again. It was to further indicate the equality between the two parties and to affirm that the favor being asked was not one to have an expectation of paid interest or true need behind it.

Sasuke barely inclined his head to show understanding again when Naruto returned to babbling again, shifting his weight from foot to foot, though keeping his eyes on Sasuke and hands shoved in his pockets. "Yeah. I was thinkin' that I should just write about something else altogether. But Shika said that I should ask you first, so, yeah…"

Shikamaru was a man sent by the heavens above, Sasuke thought to himself. But he did not say that, or anything else that would incriminate himself in front of his crush. Instead, he simply said, "Alright."

Naruto blinked for a moment at Sasuke in surprise, and after a pause, he asked, "What?"

"You can look over my notes," Sasuke expounded. He placed his own hands in his coat pockets at a specifically sedate pace; carefully exuding the airs of someone agreeing to a small favor rather than someone whose hands were sweating because his crush was still talking to him.

The blonde paused for a moment, as if waiting for Sasuke to take it back. He even asked, "For really?"

Sasuke inclined his head and grunted, "Hn."

Naruto's eyebrows shot up in surprise. His expression then melted into his large smile. "Heh, cool," he said, squinting his eyes a bit.

Sasuke did not, could not, say anything in reply for a moment. He was completely enraptured by the expression in front of him. For two solid months he had yearned for that smile to be directed at him, and finally it was.

They were both silent for a moment, before Naruto dropped his smile. He cleared his throat and set his mouth in a half grimace, half fake smile. His eyes were open again, set on Sasuke. He removed his hands from his pockets and crossed his arms in front of himself, leaning back a little bit and no longer shifting his weight around.

The Uchiha's own expression and position remained the same, but he could feel his stomach drop a little at the sudden change in Naruto's behavior. He understood what had happened in front of him with an all too familiar clarity.

It was obvious to him that Naruto was putting his guard up again. Even though Sasuke had just agreed to a favor, the Uchiha was still a 'prep'. And for some mysterious reason that Sasuke could not fathom, Naruto seemed to absolutely abhor 'preps', and was most likely scolding himself for letting his guard down in front of the Uchiha.

It was unfortunate, but Sasuke understood all too well the strain of keeping a guard up. It was practically all he grew up with in his aristocratic world. It was a necessity. Sasuke understood why he and his acquaintances had hardened such a guarded mask, but what puzzled him was trying to comprehend why Naruto would feel the need to have such a mask or why the blonde felt the need to maintain it around them.

He did not get to think about it more because Naruto cleared his throat again, though it seemed more for his own benefit than to capture anyone's attention.

"Right, so the second thing," Naruto scratched his arm but did not unfold them. "We're hungry, and it's the last full day of classes of the semester. Plus, we're a bit tired of cafeteria food."

Sasuke inclined his head to show understanding. Most people only had one class on Fridays or were off completely. And cafeteria food could hardly be classified as 'food'.

"It's not really asking, but we're all celebrating by eating at McDonalds. You guys wanna come with?" Naruto asked, smiling a controlled grin.

The Uchiha wanted to argue that such fast food could not be classified as 'food' as well, and was probably even worse than whatever the cafeteria served, for at least there he could grab a salad and eat with relative ease of knowledge that his tuition was partially paying to ensure the food was handled well. But he did not say any of that.

Instead he grunted, "Hn." Because he was helpless in front of that smile. It was not as enrapturing as Naruto's earlier smile, the one he yearned for. But this was still…pretty, and still made his stomach butterflies react.

Then Naruto's stomach rumbled. Whiskered cheeks darkened a little as Naruto ducked his head, lowing his hands a little to cover his stomach.

"Heh," Naruto chuckled, looking up with a more genuine grin on his face. "Guess we better get a move on."

Again, Sasuke was helpless in front of the blonde's smiles. All he could do was grunt, "Hn."

Naruto rolled his eyes as he started to walk down the hallway and said, "You're such a talkative person, Teme."

Sasuke did not reply. Instead, he silently walked with Naruto. His mind was getting ahead of himself again, imagining scenarios where the two of them walked together in the cold, and one would offer to hold hands for warmth. Or they could swap jackets. Or they could break away from the others and eat their food together.

He could feel the edge of his mouth tugging up in a small smirk to himself; maybe going to McDonalds—despite how it seemed to scream warning signs for indigestion and food poisoning simply by proximity—would be worth it.

A Commoner's Love

It was not worth it. It was definitely not worth it, Sasuke thought to himself as he was slightly shoved through the doorway of McDonalds.

Despite a promising outlook, considering how there was a McDonalds within a mile of campus, there was no walking together as a group to the fast food establishment, nor any chances for anything Sasuke had imagined with thereof. It had been deemed too cold to walk there, and there was a near unanimous decision to drive there to keep warm.

Sasuke could not find any fault in logic, for it was cold, and it did make more sense to drive. So he did not object, lest his reasoning be found out…which was not preferential.

So they had all driven to McDonalds. The commoners all packed themselves into a clown car of a van, which they cheerfully proclaimed to be their main and preferred mode of transportation for it saved gas and let them travel together. Sasuke and his acquaintances were under no such monetary restrictions, though, and chose to drive in two cars. The boys drove in Neji's car, while the girls drove in Hinata's car. All had cars on campus, but the Hyuugas were parked the closest, and the goal was staying out of the cold for as long as possible.

Such was the logic when everyone bunched together and rushed inside, shoving each other along the way. People had rushed out of the cars and packed together, almost knocking down a piece of decoration the establishment had set up for the season, and annoying Sasuke along the way and making him regret coming along at all.

Once inside, there was a flurry of noise as people decided what they wanted to order.

"I'm not all that hungry," Sakura commented, her voice carrying throughout both groups.

"If it is cost you are worried about, then you do not have any reason to be concerned. I shall pay for you!" Lee gave Sakura a Nice Guy pose, being ever the gentleman.

Sakura smiled a small, strained smile as she tried to say, "I—that's not—"

"Hey, that's a great idea!" TenTen interrupted with a wide grin. "I'm guessing you all don't spend much time here, so we can treat you."

"That is not necessary." Neji argued from next to her, "We are perfectly capable of paying for ourselves."

Naruto snorted and said, "We're not doubting your 'capabilities' to show off your phallic allowances. It's called 'being nice'."

"Yeah!" Kiba chimed in immediately, "So let us be nice while we treat you for joining us on our end of semester tradition!" He then turned to Hinata and started asking her if she wanted to order something; obviously intending on being the one to treat her.

Next to Sasuke, Neji was glowering. A little of it was aimed at the man talking to his cousin, but most of it was aimed at Naruto.

Sasuke was tempted to sigh. He had hoped that what had happened after class was indicative of Naruto warming up to himself and his acquaintances; especially since the blonde had been careful to be so polite to them lately. But it was little comments like that that showed the blonde still held low regards towards 'preps'.

He refrained from sighing, and from externally reacting at all. Coming here was an annoying mistake. He observed people pairing off with a certain amount of detachment, hoping that this would all end soon.

It was sort of amusing to see that Lee was paying for Sakura. He kept trying to convince her to order a hearty and large meal and to not squander her appetite, while she was trying to politely decline, explaining about diets. TenTen had wrangled Neji's arm and was telling him that he would not be getting away with only ordering a bottle of water. Ino had her arms hooked between Chouji's and Shikamaru's, seemingly abandoning her own diet as she was rattling off what she wanted to order. Chouji was nodding along while Shikamaru had an expression of the utmost suffering.

Kiba was leading Hinata towards the cash registers. His arm was behind her, looking like it was going to wrap around her waist, but was hovering about half an inch away. She did not seem to mind, though, as she was intently looking at the menu options. Naruto was nearby and was pointing at the ice cream despite how cold it was outside.

Sasuke did not care. He really did not. If they were truly being paired off, then the hoodie one, Shino, would pay for him and either Chouji or Naruto would break off and pay for Sai. It was only logical, not that Sasuke cared.

"Naruto," Shikamaru suddenly called out from next to Ino and Chouji, his shoulders slumped while she practically dragged him towards the registers.

The blonde being called out raised his head like a Meerkat and looked over at Shikamaru, his blue eyes questioning while he had a goody smile on his face.

Shikamaru jerked his head towards the back of the group and said, "You should pay for Sasuke."

"What? Why?" Naruto asked quickly, the smile dropping from his face. He looked over to Sasuke while the other carefully did not look back.

A one-shoulder lazy shrug was the response while Shikamaru drawled, "To pay back for the notes." The Nara then turned his attention back to Ino as she successfully dragged the two boys to the cash registers to order.

Orange shoulders slumped minutely. Then Naruto nodded to himself before making his way to the Uchiha.

Sasuke saw him approach, but carefully kept his gaze on the menu options. He did not want the other to know how his stomach butterflies had reacted to the idea of being paired together, or how his mind was screaming mental projections of thanks to Shikamaru for being a wonderful man.

When Naruto reached him, he stuck his hands in his jacket pocket and said, "So, if I pay for you, we're officially square, right?"

Remembering how specific Naruto's words earlier had been, Sasuke deliberately kept his eyes on the menu and said casually, "There is nothing to pay back. It is just a small favor, not a request."

Naruto's eyes brightened for a second before his posture relaxed some. He seemed taken aback at Sasuke's words. He recovered quickly enough and said in a slightly cautious voice, "'Kay. Is there…anything you want to eat?"

Sasuke allowed a small narrowing of his eyes at the menu before turning his gaze to Naruto, "This is not my preferred place of establishment, and I have no need to partake in such swill."

Naruto snorted and rolled his blue eyes. "I'm being nice, asshole. So choose something before I choose for you and make you eat to the last bite."

"How is forcing me to ingest substance I clearly do not want 'being nice'," Sasuke asked, allowing sarcasm in his tone. He folded his arms together and raised an eyebrow.

A wicked grin formed on Naruto's face as he pulled out a ridiculous frog shaped wallet and sang, "Because IIIIIIIII'm paying, bastard."

"Excellent choice of names to call me in a public establishment where children might be present," Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Pointing out someone's word choice or grammar mistakes means you don't have a counter-argument so I win!" Naruto called out in a rush as he crackled out a laugh, darting towards the registers and cutting in front of Sai and Shino.

"Coffee!" Sasuke called back in response. He had a suspicion that the blonde would follow through with his threat of ordering something disgusting if Sasuke did not choose, and even the smell was nauseating enough so he did not want to even attempt to call any potential bluff.

Naruto raised a hand to show understanding as he turned to talk to Kiba and Hinata in the neighboring register line.

Hoping that meant the blonde understood that he wanted only coffee, Sasuke turned to sit where others were congregating. Ino and Sakura were already sitting together, as well as Neji. He took his spot next to Neji and asked, "What did you order?"

Neji allowed a small sigh as he subtly nodded in the direction of TenTen, who was waiting by the registers talking with Lee, and said in a resigned voice, "A plain McChicken sandwich meal with medium fries and a bottle of water."

Sasuke minutely winced at his suitemate's predicament, knowing how they both were all too aware of the unsanitariness that were synonymous with fast food.

The Hyuuga nodded his acknowledgment before people started arriving at the table with the nauseating 'food'.

For the most part, the two groups adhered to their usual cafeteria arrangements. Which gave Sasuke a little bit of the thrill, knowing that if this remained true, then Naruto would be sitting across from him, with the meal that he paid for the both of them.

His imaginings turned out to be true for once today as Naruto made his way to the table with Kiba and Hinata, and sat down next to them, ending up in front of Sasuke. He had his own tray of food, but handed a cup of McCafé coffee in front of Sasuke.

When Sasuke warily eyed it, Naruto snorted amusedly, saying, "You can stop actin' like it's going to poison you. It's black coffee."

Sasuke turned his gaze to Naruto, raising an eyebrow, silently asking how he knew his coffee order. To his knowledge, he had never ordered coffee with the blonde.

Naruto rolled his eyes and said, "Hoitee Toitees like you are turned on to coffee by the time you are fourteen. By now, you're a junkie, and only the strong stuff can quench your fix."

Sasuke's other eyebrow shot up as Naruto demonstrated once again questioningly accurate insight into the aristocratic world.

"Just drink your coffee, bastard," Naruto ordered while he grabbed his own drink; a bottle of milk meant for children ordering a 'healthy' option meal.

The Uchiha obeyed and sipped his coffee, to which he was pleasantly surprised to find was indeed not sugared or otherwise marred. Next to him, Neji was once again glaring. But this time, not because of what Naruto had said, but at Sasuke. Or, more specifically, his coffee and lack meal, while Neji was presented with a tray placed in front of him by TenTen with his own 'meal'.

She was about to ask something when—luckily for Neji—she was unintentionally cut off by a group reaction to Sai, who just sat down and had a tray almost overflowing with food in front of him.

"Whoa! Did you get something for all of us?" Kiba asked, greedily eying one of the various burgers on Sai's tray.

"No," Sai denied, accepting a second similar tray from Shino, "I have been introduced to a part of this establishment where an entire menu faction has a wide variety of options all for a dollar each."

"The dollar menu?" Chouji clarified, scooting his own similarly full tray away from Sai's as to not confuse the two.

Sai smiled, "Ah, so you have heard of it. I never have, before this. So, naturally, I must introduce myself to this personally." He then started to unwrap one of his burgers and eat it, his expression not giving away what he thought of the taste.

Naruto and Kiba burst out laughing. "Man, that's a riot!" Kiba explained.

"No. This is a value," Sai interjected before taking another bite.

Shikamaru commented, "I can't believe you've never eaten off the dollar menu before. It's the two A.M. mecca."

Sai finished his burger quickly before started to unwrap a different one. "I do hope this menu option remains available through the holidays. I wish to show it to Danzo later."

"It's a permanent company-wide thing," Chouji explained kindly before asking, "Do you mean when your guardian comes to pick you up for the holidays?"

"No. Danzo is quite the important member of the school board, so we live locally," Sai explained. He took smaller bites of this burger, seemingly wanting to savor it. "We attend a holiday dinner each year provided by the board, so perhaps I shall introduce them to this value meal as you have for me."

Naruto and Kiba laughed even harder at this. When they quieted down a bit, Kiba turned to Hinata and asked, "Hey, are you in on this dinner shindig? Maybe you can help Sai out on his cause!"

Hinata was giggling before she shook her head and said, "N-no. We att-attend the Ch-Christmas B-Ball hosted by th-th-the Uchihas each y-y-year."

Naruto turned to Sasuke and narrowed his eyes. "Why are you always the one hosting these things?" He sounded a bit indignant, but more so playful than offensive.

A month ago, Sasuke would have pointed out that his family was the most affluent in the community, and would have desired to point out how it was a means of family connections to host such events. But now, the most prevalent desire Sasuke had was to hear that laugh again; and to have it be because of something HE had said.

So instead, he made sure his face was expressionless as he deadpanned, "Because my family has the Halls for the biggest Balls."

There was a slight pause, and then the entire table burst out laughing. Naruto especially, which made Sasuke unable to resist a smirk befalling his face.

He was careful to not look to the side at Neji, because he could see the Hyuuga give him a peculiar look in his peripheral vision.

When the table finally quieted down after a while, Sakura leaned forwards so she was better able to face Sasuke and asked, "Is this one like your Thanksgiving one? Or can we get some invitations?" she gestured to Ino and herself.

It was Neji who answered as he gave Sasuke a sidelong look, "The guest list is far more extensive. So your families should have be notifying you of your invitations before long."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed as he endured Sakura and Ino's squeals of joy. He did not dispute what Neji had said, nor did he look at the Hyuuga. There was an unspoken challenge in how he had answered for the Uchiha and subtly invited the two girls when he knew that Sasuke had not bothered to remind his parents. The reason for the challenge was unknown, but it could not be anything good.

The other half of the table was entirely disinterested in the Christmas party affairs of the elite, and let it known by how Naruto announced, "This is boring. Let's dump Shino in the balls pit!"

Shino spluttered useless disputes as Naruto, Kiba, and Lee grabbed his limbs and started carrying him towards the children's play area.

Sasuke allowed a snort of amusement as Shino was dumped into the pit of colorful and disgusting balls, his eyes on the blonde who had jumped in after him with shouts of joy. Maybe this trip to McDonalds was worth it after all.

And that was the chapter!

MAN! This story is running away from me fast! The characters have evolved passed what I had originally envisioned for the story. I was not expecting Naruto and Neji to be this at odds with each other. But as the story progressed, so did the characters. I hope you like Sai! Originally, he was just sort of there. But I adore him so much that I gave him a bigger role, and now he is my favorite character to write, if that wasn't obvious.

This chapter was supposed to be a bit longer, but my schedule is so hectic that I could barely get this one out in time for the upcoming holidays. So, please accept this as an early holiday present, and please leave reviews on what you think about it!

Thank you so much for those who favorited and followed this story! I definitely have not forgotten about it! And an extra special thank you to those who reviewed! You are the reason this story got updated finally! Thank you so much! Your support keeps my muse alive and willing to update!