Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Dedication: To my wonderful sister.
Rant: I'm trying out a chaptered story! Exciting! I don't remember how the idea took form, but I liked it. So enjoy and please review? :D

From: Ino Yamanaka
To: Sakura Haruno
Subject: All hell is about to break lose – for you!

My cousin is coming to town. God loves me, he hates you!

Ino

From: Sakura Haruno
To: Ino Yamanaka
Subject: Shit, shit, shit!

When? How many weeks do I need to stay AWAY from your house?

Sakura

From: Ino Yamanaka
To: Sakura Haruno
Subject: Panicking already?

Do you know there's 52 weeks a year?

Ino

From: Sakura Haruno
To: Ino Yamanaka
Subject: I'm perfectly calm

Wonderful. Lovely. Perfect. Awesome.

Sakura

From: Ino Yamanaka
To: Sakura Haruno
Subject: In your dreams, Forehead

Yeah, I know! But he's here in about… five minutes or so.

See you tonight. Breathe easy, I'm taking Naruto with me!

Ino

I closed my laptop after mocking Sakura a little – okay, plainly torturing her – and personally I was ecstatic. Humming, I made my way to the front porch, waiting for the familiar yellow car to drive in and seeing Naruto Uzumaki again. As I pulled my hair into a ponytail, the Uzumaki's car arrived and my cousin climbed out, a grin on his face. He dragged a large trunk, but soon abandoned it to run up to me.

Naruto suffocated me in a hug – when did he get so strong? As he let me go I stared at him incredulously. "You've grown taller than me!"

"Yeah, you're rather short now, aren't you?" He smiled as I punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"I'm the tallest girl in my class!"

"Whatever makes you sleep at night…" The boy laughed at my annoyed expression.

"I am!"

"We know, Ino dear, we know." My mum put a hand on my shoulder and I stopped myself from shouting insults at Naruto.

The parents walked inside after a brief discussion about the weather and Naruto and I followed suit. My mother told me to show him to the guest room and I quickly agreed, wanting to make the day go fast – I wanted to be at Sakura's as soon as possible.

"This is your room. It's white, I know. Paint it orange or something." I showed him his room for the nearest year and he nodded.

"Good." He walked inside and did a circle to see anything not white. "This is depressing!"

I peeked inside. "Rather."

A shout was heard from the kitchen and we hurried downstairs, entering to see a discussion about gardening.

"What did you want to talk about?" Naruto asked.

His mother fixed him with a threatening eye cast while his father smiled.

"Haven't I told you to behave?" she asked, sounding tired.

"Yeah, yeah… anyway, what is it?" He was never known to be patient.

"Were leaving now, see you soon." Kushina hugged her son and I stood there, waiting for the goodbye to end.

Minato hugged Naruto after Kushina stopped suffocating her son and then they were out as quickly as they came. Suddenly the kitchen felt empty with just me and my family plus Naruto.

"What do you want for dinner?" My mum turned to the cooker. "Ramen?"

"Sounds awesome!" Naruto exclaimed and sat down at the kitchen table. I dropped down next to him, readying myself for a tough conversation.

"Mum…" I started, and then cleared my throat. "Mum, dad, I was just wondering, can I go to a party at Sakura's tonight?"

My dad looked at me over the morning paper. "When does it end?"

"I don't know, but it should be around twelve or so…" Actually, I had no idea if I was being honest.

"And Naruto?" Mum said, absentmindedly fixing the food.

"He'll come with." I faced Naruto. "Won't you?"

He looked up to face my gaze and nodded. "Sure, I'll come."

"And is that okay for Sakura?" Dad asked.

I flinched. Not so sure about that one.

"Of course it is, Dad!"

Both me and Dad knew it wasn't really under the of course category, but I said it anyway. Dad looked at me sceptically and put his paper at the table. Naruto and I cringed under the I'm-not-so-sure-about-this look and I turned to my cousin, begging for help. Neither of my parents could say no if he asked.

"Come on, uncle!" Naruto fired of a smile containing blinding white teeth.

My dad looked like he was still thinking it over, but mum cracked. "Sure you can, kids."

"Thanks mum!" I beamed and hugged her before dragging Naruto out from the kitchen before she had a chance to change her mind.

We went to the living room, watching TV for awhile. The program was about monkeys, and I remarked how alike Naruto and they were. I earned a pillow in the face. We continued to watch – neither that interested, but nothing else remotely good was on – and talked about the bizarre things monkeys did.

Suddenly, the door bell rang, but I couldn't bother standing up and open up, so I continued watching the monkey program. Naruto took the remote and switched channel when the monkeys were just about to create babies.

"I do so not need to see that. I'd be scarred for life," he muttered, flipping through the channels. I laughed.

"Sensitive?" I said mockingly.

He grinned. "I didn't know you got turned on by watching monkeys have sex."

He was hit by a pillow in the face. I turned to the telly again to see a model walk with a very weird piece of clothing on the catwalk. Naruto quickly switched channel.

I was going to start whining when Shikamaru and Chouji entered the living room. I jumped out of the couch to greet them. I hugged them both, Shikamaru muttering something about being strangled.

"This is my cousin, Naruto," I presented Naruto to my childhood friends.

"Don't bother Ino, I remember." Shikamaru sighed. "Because of you my favourite cloud watching spot doesn't exist anymore."

"I still can't believe you blew it up!" Chouji exclaimed, then laughed loudly.

Naruto grinned sheepishly. "Sorry… I got a bit carried away. But it was damn fun to see all the faces afterwards!"

The boys continued to talk in glee about old memories – Naruto hadn't been here for three years – and I settled down on the couch again. When they were about to start watching a stupid car building program, I turned of the TV before they got too interested.

"What are you here for?" I asked.

"I love your politeness, Ino," Shikamaru said dryly, rolling his eyes. "Mum wanted us to go see you, it's a pain, but we did it anyway."

"Yeah, it's been awhile." I felt a little guilty over not seeing them the whole summer – we lived just a few streets from each other – and not even thinking about them. Shikamaru might not say out loud that he'd missed me, but I knew he had, and was thankful for it.

I quickly felt like changing the subject when the tense silence ensued. "Going to Sakura's tonight?"

The two boys shared a glance.

"Not sure," Chouji said, his eyes darting form the windows and the door to the kitchen.

"Why?" I asked as Naruto turned on the telly.

"Well…" Shikamaru was about to say something, but shut his mouth.

They were hiding something.

"Well…?"

"We boys were thinking of doing something just us boys," Chouji blurted out quickly, avoiding my gaze.

I heard him perfectly fine. "You two are going there and that's final. She'll feel really sad if it's just me and Naruto there!"

"Fine." Shikamaru sighed, not bothering to argue.

Chouji did the same and we all turned to watch the telly. Naruto had switched to the monkey program.

I never thought monkeys could be so entertaining. Seriously.