The Referee raised his hand after the hard match. Both of the wrestlers had fought hard, but the blonde boy won in the end with a crucifix. Not the prettiest one he'd ever seen, but it got the job done. He didn't seem as excited about the first place he just won, but more on giving the blonde haired girl in the stands thumbs up from the mat.

After everything finished, Naruto and Shikamaru both took gold in their brackets. Sasuke came in a close second to a boy named Sasori. He wasn't pinned, but he got beat in points by two, just by a lousy takedown. Sasuke did not take losing well, almost as bad as Lee did, but he seemed to calm down after a couple minutes. Naruto and Shikamaru got their gold medals, and Sasuke got his silver. When he passed a trashcan, he promptly threw it away. There was no need for him to remember his loss, just a waste of his mind space. Shikamaru put his medal in his bag and walked away from the group, no doubt to get some sleep, like he always did. When Naruto got back to the group, he walked straight to Ino and put the medal around her neck.

"I always keep my promises." He whispered into her ear as he slid it on. After they left the meet, Naruto took Ino to her restaurant of choice, which happened to be a very fancy Italian restaurant. Naruto had never been there before, but he knew that he would need a lot of money during a date with a girl like Ino, so he came prepared. He made sure he had enough money to buy her anything she could possibly eat, and by the looks of her figure, that wasn't going to be that terribly much. When they walked in, Naruto opened the door for Ino, and there was no sarcastic comment or joke.

'He's really trying to be serious; I can tell he's uncomfortable being somewhere this fancy, especially on a first date. But he's being an actual gentleman, maybe I should bring him places like this more often.' Though Ino as he pulled out her chair for her to sit, also. 'I never would expect this from an idiot like naruto, but hey, he surprises everyone at one time or another.' When she sat down, she noticed a little clank on her chest, and realized that she was still wearing Naruto's medal

"Naruto, do you want this medal back tonight or can I give it back later?" asked Ino

"You can keep it for yourself. I've got enough already, I've almost got a perfect record since 9th grade." replied Naruto in a quiet voice. He was scared that he said something wrong again, but to his surprise, Ino smiled.

"That sounds nice. I should come to more of your meets, so you can win me some more of these." She said, holding up the medal. The waiter came and they ordered their food. Naruto had regular spaghetti and meat sauce, while Ino had a shrimp salad.

'That doesn't seem very Italian to me' thought Naruto 'Oh well, whatever. I just don't want to get yelled at again, so let her do what she wants.'

As they ate, they talked about school, and their friends, and how their teachers were all Satan incarnate. After the dinner, they walked out of the restaurant. It had started to rain lightly, so Naruto and Ino hurried to his car before it started to rain hard. Naruto turned on the car, and Ino started flicking through the radio channels to find the perfect station. It was a soft rock station, and the music made Naruto want to fall asleep, but he could not, because he still had to drop Ino off, and it was starting to rain harder. Naruto looked at the clock and it read 11:47.

"Holy shit! We're so late. I hope your dad won't be too pissed at you, and I'm sorry if he is." apologized Naruto.



"Its okay, Naruto, don't worry, my dad'll be fine. How about your parents, will they be okay with you being out this late?" Naruto's head dropped and his eyes watered a little.

"No, I'm sure they won't say anything about it." Replied Naruto in what was almost an inaudible whisper. Ino, not knowing whether or not she said something wrong, decided that she shouldn't say anything else.

Ino stared out the window of the car, and thought about that night. Naruto had been an almost perfect gentleman, except for when he shouted at the waiter for not having ramen on the menu.

"I had a good time today Naruto, believe it or not. You aren't that bad of a date, and you play the gentleman role quite well if I do say so myself, and I've got pretty high standards." said Ino in a kind of proud voice. Naturo, glad the date went well, went home and fell asleep. It had been a day full of victories, in more ways than wrestling. There were only two things going through his mind on the drive home, the next day, and seeing Ino the next day. He drove into his parking spot and went into his apartment, fell onto his bed, and fell asleep before his head hit the orange and black pillows.

The next morning, Naruto opened his eyes and looked at the clock. He was feeling a little groggy, so his hearing and sight weren't that amazing, but he could hear a buzzing, and saw an eleven on his clock. He slept in. Late. He scrambled to get ready, and realized that he was all ready late, so there was no need to hurry. He shut off his alarm, got all of his things ready, ate his breakfast, and started his walk to school. When he got there, it was about lunchtime, so he went to the cafeteria. About 5 minutes after he got there, people started filing in, and Shikamaru noticed the blonde spiky hair sitting at their table already. He was sitting facing away from the table, looking half-asleep, head rolling back on his neck, staring at the ceiling tiles. He seemed to be counting them, but Shikamaru knew better. Naruto was terrible at math; he was the only junior still in Algebra 1. He worked hard to keep his D- average, and he was damn proud of it.

Shikamaru told Naruto that he wouldn't be able to practice because of him missing half of the classes for the day.

"Like I care, man… I'm not failing, and that's the only thing I'm worried about, even though I may have the worst grades in school history…" Replied Naruto, expecting Shikamaru to laugh at his pathetic attempt at the joke, but he was silent. He never did laugh when it came to grades, mainly because he was about the smartest kid in the school. Advanced everything, 4.0 GPA, Scholarships to every good college imaginable. With all of the hard work that Shikamaru did, it was a wonder that he still had time to wrestle, especially with how lazy he was.

The bell rang, and the two boys walked to their classes. Naruto to P.E, and Shikamaru to pre- calculus. As Naruto was going to P.E. he saw Ino, who was still wearing his medal around her neck. She was walking with a group of her friends, and when she saw Naruto, she waved him over to her.

"This is who gave me the medal. If you don't know, he's Naruto Uzumaki, and we're going out."

Oblivious to the dirty looks some of the girls were giving Naruto, Ino kept talking about something, but Naruto wasn't listening. He was too busy trying to make himself as small as possible. He wasn't good with not being accepted.

"Ino, you do know who that is don't you? That's dead last, the kid who's still in algebra 1, the kid who has almost no friends accept the guys on the wrestling team. He's a loser, even if he is a good 

wrestler. You must not have known any of this, since you're going out with him, but now you do, and if you know what's good for your reputation, you'd break up with him right now." Said the blonde cheerleader to her left, in a snobby I know everything voice. Naruto was trying to keep a straight face and not look sad, but it was hard, considering that everything she said was true.

"Who gives a shit if he isn't popular, he's the only guy with enough balls to actually ask me out, and he's a nice guy, if you get to know him better. So fuck off and deal with it. Besides, other than the fact that he only wears orange, which I will be changing soon, he's really cool and he's hot. Unlike some of the douche bags you guys are going out with, like Neji, that emotionless bitch. Don't look at me like that Ten-Ten, you know its true. " After her rant, Ino gave Naruto a hug and a quick kiss on the cheek and walked away. The other girls looked at Naruto like they were going to jump him, so he got out of there as fast as he could. After school, he looked for Ino. He wanted to thank her for standing up for him. He looked all over for her, but he remembered he had her number. He dialed her number and it went straight to voicemail.

"Hey there," said Ino's recording in a seductive voice. "I'm not here right now, I'm so sorry, babes. Leave a message after the beep." Ino, It's Naruto. I guess you're not there right now but I would really like to thank you for earlier. It meant a lot to me to…" He stopped. As he passed the nurse's office, he saw a long head of blonde hair lying on the bed, unconscious…

'Oh shit.'