well. "
She looked at the two boys apologetically, but was surprised to find that they didn't seem to mind.They had listened to her very attentively, literally hanging on her lips. Sai with a fascinated twinkle in his eyes, Naruto with a very doubtful expression on his face.
Then they reached the border and only a little later the ambassador arrived. Sai stayed calm for the rest of the day and didn't bring up the Christmas theme again. So Naruto quickly forgot that they had ever talked about it in the first place.

_____________________Flashback end_______________________________

It rang.
From one moment to the next it all came back to him. Goosebumps crept up his back and neck. With mechanical steps Naruto went to the door and opened it for his unexpected guest. He still hoped that he was wrong and that it might just be the neighbor who wanted to borrow some milk, sugar or butter.
Hope was dashed all too quickly, however. Of course it was Sai who was waiting for him at the door. He had the terrible red Santa hat from St.Nicholas Day on his head and of course he was also adorned with his eerie, emotionless smile."Merry Christmas, Naruto!", He wished him instead of a greeting and stepped into the apartment of his blonde teammate without being asked. "Is Sakura here already?"
“Sakura?” Naruto had the feeling that his jaw was derailing. It felt like she'd left her original place and was now somehow floating between his mouth and the carpet. "What should Sakura be doing here?"

Sai smiled at him while he took off his long winter coat and hung it on a hook near the door. "I wrote her a message and asked to come over here tonight. Well, actually I wrote the message on your behalf. I figured she'd probably be more pleased."
“You have what?” Horrified, he looked at the black-haired boy, who apparently did not notice this horror.
Completely calm, he walked past Naruto into the apartment and put the large burlap sack he had brought with him next to the table.He reached in with both hands and what he brought to light was almost enough to put Naruto in a state of shock. It was a small, green fir tree on the top of which someone had stuck a straw star. And a moment later this would-be Christmas tree was on his dining room table.
"Sai ..." he started, but it wasn't finished yet.
A chain of lights with little stars, an angel statue and a few candles appeared from the shallows of the burlap sack and after Sai had distributed them all decoratively somewhere in the room, he reached in again and then pressed a bowl into Naruto’s hand.
"Will you put them in the fridge, please?" Sai asked with an innocent smile that even rivaled the angel who was now standing on the windowsill. "That's the Christmas pudding."
"You did ... did you do that?"
"Yes."
Naruto didn't ask any further. It was enough. More shocking facts would be just too much for him right now.He disappeared into the kitchen with the pudding bowl as fast as he could and just as he was putting it in the refrigerator, the doorbell rang for the second time that evening.

"Ah, Sakura. Come in quickly, otherwise the Christmas roast will be cold," Sai greeted the new guest. Seconds later, he poked his head through the kitchen door. "Are you bringing plates and cutlery for three, Naruto?"
While the words "Christmas roast", "plates and cutlery" and "for three" were still buzzing around in the blond's head, his body followed this request automatically.
When he returned to the next room, Sakura and Sai were already sitting at the table and looking expectantly in his direction. Between them, next to the small Christmas tree, stood a pot, from which it smelled very tempting, on the table. Naruto's stomach growled. That one bowl of instant noodle I just saw wasn't really filling for a boy who was still growing. But even if he wasn't hungry, as tempting as it smelled ..."Have a seat!", Sakura shouted impatiently. Her mouth watered at the smell of the food too. Naruto quickly grabbed the last free chair and sat down with his friends. He handed each of them a plate and the cutlery and was the first to fish for the pot with the Christmas roast.
"Naruto!" Protested the girl next to him. But he grinned at her like a rascal, whereupon her anger evaporated pretty quickly. In addition, Naruto did not start to eat as soon as he had filled his plate, but grabbed Sakuras and filled something up for her as well.
"Here you go."
"Thank you," she replied in surprise when he offered her the filled plate.
Sai came last, then they all wished each other bon appétit and started to eat. The taste of the roast kept what the smell had promised and all three finally took a second helping. Sakura also took out two bottles of wine that she had brought with her."Where did you get that from?" Asked Naruto and jumped up to get them three glasses.
“I asked my father. He always allows more than mom.” She fiddled with the corkscrew for a moment, then the bottle was open and the first round of wine was distributed between the three glasses. "Have a Merry Christmas!"

After the first glass of wine, it gradually didn't bother Naruto that his apartment had become so surprisingly a place for a Christmas party. After the second glass he had forgotten that he actually didn't want to celebrate Christmas at all and after the third glass he enthusiastically joined in the song that Sai and Sakura were singing. He didn't know the text, but what made the difference? The goodwill was there, yes! But when he started singing "O Tannenbaum" to the rhythm of "O you dear Augustin", Sakura and Sai decided for him that he would gradually have enough wine.

"Who is hungry enough for the Christmas pudding again?"Sai asked and got up before the answer even came. But of course it was positive.
Half a minute later, Sai was back in his seat and distributed three roughly equal portions of pudding to the bowls he had brought with him.
"Take care of your teeth," Sai warned his two teammates when Sakura was just biting something very hard.
“What is that?” She spat the metallic tasting thing on the palm of her hand. It was a small coin. "Money?"
"Yes," Sai said frankly and smiled at her. "And if you find the other coin in your serving, you will be your boyfriend for the next year. At least that's what they say."
Despite his intoxicated state, Naruto had noticed. With even greater hunger he went for his pudding, obsessed with the thought of finding the other coin. "I can find the Münsche schischer, Scha-Sakura, gansch schischer ..."

Sai also went back to his Christmas pudding and only Sakura, whose appetite had decreased a bit after the coin was found, continued to eat very slowly and watched the two boys with a quiet smile."Nothing there either," slurred Naruto, who had almost reached the bottom of his pudding bowl. He chewed on the last spoon for an extra long time, but that also prevented the coin from getting in. He hadn't found her. Jealously, his gaze wandered to Sai, who had also already finished his pudding. "Well, su ... satisfied?"
"I don't have the coin," Sai said with a smile.
"NOTHING?"
Sakura put her hands over her ears. "Naruto! Don't scream like that."
"But then what?"
Confused, one looked at the other until Sakura had an idea. She spooned through the last of her own pudding. There it was, the second coin. Shaking her head, she held up the two small coins. "What does that mean? Sai?"
“I don't know.” He made a thoughtful face, crossed his arms and stared at a point on the table in front of him. "Maybe you're too obsessed with yourself to have a boyfriend."
The icy silence that followed his words made him look up in amazement."I think I said the wrong thing," he stated with a look into the angry faces of his friends.

It was lucky for Sai that Naruto and Sakura were in such a good mood today and therefore quickly ready to forgive him.
A few minutes later, after Sakura had agreed to help Naruto with the dishes and went into the kitchen with him, Sai prepared the highlight of the evening. He imagined the surprised faces of the two when they came back and saw that.
He took out the burlap sack that had not only contained the Christmas decorations. No, there was more in it. Two more things to be precise. Two gifts wrapped in colored paper with white bows. Sai drew a ribbon that had come off a bit and then placed both presents under the miniature Christmas tree on the table.

"Giving presents!" He called into the kitchen. "Come on! The dishes can wait until you have unwrapped the presents.""Presents?"
"Of course. It's Christmas."
They went back into the dining room and there their eyes immediately fell on the parcels under the Christmas tree. Two identical gifts, very thin, but certainly about a foot high and at least ten wide. Sai had written their names on two cards attached to the ribbons. Naruto and Sakura looked at each other briefly, then both reached for the gift with her name on it at the same time. While Naruto tore off the wrapping paper in a hurry, Sakura took her time, opened the bow and looked for the places where the paper was stuck in order to open it carefully.
So it was Naruto who got the first reaction. “Wow!” Very meaningful in a very unique way.
Sai's smile at that moment actually seemed real when he asked, "Do you like it?"
"Well, and how!"

Next to him, Sakura gasped as the paper fell, revealing a lifelike portrait of herself."Oh, my god! Sai ... I knew you were good. But not so good ..."
Sakura doubted that she actually had such fine features as this picture showed her. Nevertheless, this work of art had not falsified anything. It showed Sakura's large forehead, her slightly too round face and her hair looked just as unruly as it actually was, and yet even all these blemishes looked just wonderful in this picture.
"Thank you very much," she managed with difficulty. Actually, she