Naruto threw out his old wrestling gear, and put his new gear in his gym bag. He put the fifty dollars in his wallet and shoved it quickly back in his back pocket. He decided he had some people to thank, so he took out his phone. He called everyone and thanked them repeatedly, despite the other boys telling him that it was no big deal, and that he deserved all of the stuff he got. After he finished his thank-you's, he called Ino.

On the third ring, he heard a tired hello come from the other end of the line. He didn't realize how much more excited he could get, even after receiving his gifts, but to hear her voice, even though it was a little fuzzy from his piece of shit phone, brought his mood up even a couple more notches.

"Hey, Ino, what're you doing on Friday night? Wanna go somewhere?" asked the excited blonde.

"Uh, sure Naruto, that sounds good, can I go back to sleep? I'll talk to you tomorrow, when I'll be awake enough to yell at you for waking me up in the middle of the night." replied Ino, her voice still groggy.

"That's great! Except for the yelling part… I'll talk to you tomorrow, love you b-" he stopped, mid word. 'Shit shit shit shit shit! I said it again! What the hell is wrong with me?' he mentally screamed at himself. After a silence that seemed to last forever, Ino finally said

"Well, I'm gonna go back to bed, see you tomorrow Naruto." Naruto could tell by her voice that she felt just as awkward about what he had said as he did.

'Oh well, whatever… it won't kill anyone if I go to sleep, right?' and he jumped on his back onto the soft mattress that that Sasuke's family had bought him. He pulled the orange covers over his orange and black pajamas, and fell asleep.

Ino lay down on her bed, trying to sleep, but something was keeping her up. She couldn't tell what it was, but she just couldn't sleep. There was a nagging feeling at the back of the blonde's mind that just wouldn't go away. After about fifteen minutes of wondering what it could be, she finally realized what it was. Naruto. She took out her cell phone and started a text. She deleted and rewrote it about nine times before deciding it was good enough to send. She scrolled down her names list until she found the one with hearts around it. She hit the send button and a few seconds later, Naruto's phone vibrated. The blonde boy, who had not put his phone down before he went to sleep, felt the vibrations and it woke him up. He looked at his phone, and, underneath the clock that read two AM, was a box that said one new text. He opened it up and it was from Ino. It was a fairly short message, mainly talking about how she had been happier since they had met, and how she was looking forward to Friday night. He was about to delete the message, until he saw another line of words after a couple blank lines that read

"I love you, too."




A/N- I know, I know, ridiculously short chapter, and I'm sorry if it pisses you off… I haven't updated in a while, and I thought that was an okay place to end the chapter, and stuff happened in that short time, so you cant complain about that. If you hate me now because of the shortness of this chapter, so be it. Reviews, as always, are welcome, even the bad ones.