Hey guys! Chapter 20 has arrived! I have to say, I've been quite excited about this moment for a while. I don't want to give anything away, but I really really hope people enjoy this one. I am so grateful that it is actually impossible to put into words that people have carried on reading my story! Obviously that means a thank you to everyone who's reading but I'm giving out specific thanks to my regular reviewers, that means Devil'sLittleBabyGirl (Happy New Years to you too, and I'll try not to do it again!), demon lilith (I'm afraid you'll have to wait a couple of chapters for your answers, but they are DEFINITELY coming) and most of all to Aiko of the Akatsuki (thank you a million times for inspiring me not only with your kind reviews, but also with your own amazing story! I owe you).

Disclaimer

I really really wish I owned Naruto. But I really really don't.

Study In Contrasts

I woke up the next morning in a really good mood, but it took me a moment to work out why.

Then I remembered that last night my friends had dropped everything to help me out with my schoolwork.

And I had finally started to get some answers out of mum about her separation from dad.

And I was throwing a party that evening.

Well that might just explain it.

I practically jumped out of bed and into the shower. I've always loved washing my hair in preparation for a party. I take a little longer over it than I do normally, making sure that I get every single strand clean and then every last trace of shampoo washed out after. I put my hair up in a towel while I got dressed and then went downstairs for breakfast.

Mum was just finishing a cup of coffee, clearly in a bit of a rush, but she paused when I came in.

"You're looking very cheerful this morning!"

"I am pretty cheerful," I replied with a grin, "very observant of you."

"I have to head off, but before I do: I decided to leave the house to you tonight."

My face lit up, "Thank you! You won't regret it, I promise!"

"Good! I'll be back by half past eleven. You ought to be winding up by then anyway, seeing as it's a school night. Will any of your friends be staying over?"

"I don't know. But I'll find out today and text you if you like?"

"Sounds good." Mum smiled at me, "Gotta go, see you tonight. Have fun!" She dumped her empty mug in the sink and left, grabbing her coat and bag on the way out. That was the last element of the party planning sorted then, now all I had to worry about was making sure nothing too catastrophic happened during it.

I made myself some hot chocolate and went back upstairs to take advantage of mum's expensive hairdryer.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura met me at the bus stop, running up and skidding to a halt in front of me.

"Today is the day." She intoned solemnly, then broke into a grin, "I sure hope your house is all ready!"

"If it isn't I'll just have you sort it out after school." I poked my tongue out at her and we both laughed. "Hey, do you think anyone's gonna need to stay over after? It's not finishing too late, or at least that's the plan, but my mum raised the point."

Sakura considered for a moment. "Nah, I don't think so. They'd have said already."

"That makes sense. By the way, thanks again for helping out last night."

"Seriously, quit thanking me: it was no problem."

The bus arrived and we got on, heading straight for the empty seats at the back.

"How many people will be there tonight then?"

I did another mental count, "I think it was about seventeen including us. Oh, I forgot to tell you yesterday; I texted Deidara"

"Aha! And are he and his friends going to put aside the giant dickhead sides of their natures for the night?"

"So he says. If he can't control himself I'll just have to kick him out."

Sakura looked amused, "He's about a foot taller than you."

"I have my ways." I replied with a mysterious smile, and Sakura snorted.

"Oh I bet you do."

"Hey!" I faced her with mock indignation, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Sakura just giggled, which of course set me off too, and we spent a couple of minutes trying to look each other in the eyes without collapsing into hysterics again.

"So," she said eventually, still grinning, "am I coming straight to your house after school to help set up?"

"That'd be really great. You seem like a natural organizer – which could probably be useful"

"Whoa Ino, don't go mad on the compliments there."

I laughed again, whacking her with the back of my hand, "Oh shut up. Wait – I actually have some serious news!"

"Go on then."

I hesitated before telling her, "My dad wants to meet up with me this weekend."

Sakura looked at me seriously for a moment. "Wow. That's pretty big for you, right?"

I nodded, "Yeah... I'm a little nervous. I saw him the other day... did I actually tell you about that?" from the look of complete bewilderment on her face, I'd assume the answer to that was a resounding 'no'. "Oh, right, well he came round out of the blue..."

"What was that like?"

I laughed lightly, "a bit of a disaster actually. He tried to hug me, I dropped a glass and ran up to my room, then escaped over to Hinata's house – but not before he managed to make some slightly inappropriate comment about me being popular with the boys in my class."

"Ouch."

"Exactly." I shook my head, "He's... well this is the problem: I don't know who or what he is now. It's very weird."

"Well I'm going to want you to at least call, but preferably come over, as soon as you're done meeting him so we can discuss and dissect every second of conversation."

I shot Sakura a sideways glance, "The alarming thing about that is that I'm not sure any part of that was a joke."

"Oh ha-ha! Fine, not every second. We'll take a segment of six to ten seconds from every two and a half minutes, create line graphs to represent the changes in mood-" by that time we were both laughing too much for Sakura to carry on.

"Y'know," I said after taking a deep breath to calm myself down, "Fun though that sounds? I think I'll just send you a summary."

"Fine. Be that way." Sakura turned away dramatically, somehow managing to smack her head on the bus window as she did so. It took us the rest of the bus journey to recover from that one.

/\/\/\/\

I walked to art with Shikamaru after break as per usual.

"So I can count on seeing you tonight?" I asked, trying to put a subtle hint of flirt in my tone without sounding like a slut.

"Uh, yeah."

Good thing I didn't like the guy for his conversational skills.

"Wow, that's deep." I teased, "Good to see you're feeling so sociable today. That'll help you enjoy the party."

He looked up at the ceiling as we walked, clearly exasperated.

"Oh fine, fine." I said, "Don't talk to me then. I don't care." I heard him sigh and turned a grin on him. "Aw, don't worry Shika. I'm just messing with you. How are your sketches going?"

"Drawing is a drag." He proclaimed, and I nodded along.

"It certainly can be. I had about twenty basic sketches finished, but I ripped them all up."

There was a short pause. Then, "Seriously?"

"Yup."

Another pause. "Why?"

I shrugged, "I don't really know. They were just... wrong somehow. Kakashi sought me out to tell me that they weren't up to scratch and when I went back to look at them I realized he was right. So I ripped them up. I have to start from scratch now."

"That's..."

"Pretty sucky." I finished for him, and he nodded. "I just hope that inspiration strikes soon or I'm going to have way too much to catch up on." Shikamaru held the door of the classroom open and I followed him through, only to find myself whacked on the head by an unknown force.

Strike that, whacked on the head by a very known, very blonde force.

"What the hell was that for, pretty boy?" I snapped at Deidara, who simply grinned at me, still holding his weapon of choice: a hollow plastic rolling pin.

"You wanted inspiration to strike, bimbo." He retorted cheerfully, "I'm just helping out, hn."

I rolled my eyes, "You're funny, you are," and went to sit down next to Shikamaru.

"By the way, yeah," Deidara said as he sat himself down next to me, "is there a dress code for this party?"

Unbelievable. "So not only do you have a girl's hairstyle, you're also stressing about what to wear? For real?"

"Yeah, in fact I'm trying out some new foundation today as well. What do you think?" He deadpanned, "But seriously, yeah. One of my chosen friends is a girl and she wants to know what to wear. Hn."

"Ahh," I said in a knowing tone, "Bringing your girlfriend? Tell her to go with club-casual." he looked at me blankly, "Basically, anything you'd wear out during the day but shorter, tighter and preferably with a bit of sparkle."

"I'll pass it on, hn." And with that he stood up again and went over to his sculpting in the corner.

"What an ass." I muttered, and Shikamaru nodded distractedly. I watched him work with his clay for a little while though – I had nothing better to do until our teacher showed up to help me out. "Talented ass though."

"What are you talking about?" Shikamaru asked, and I laughed.

"Just trying to see the good in people. Don't mind me." Shikamaru shook his head a little despairingly.

Almost fifteen minutes later Kakashi came in, his nose in a book.

"Hey, sir." I walked straight up to him.

"Ino. Excellent. Let's talk about your sketches."

"I threw them out." I said simply. "You were right, they were... not bad exactly. Just lacking."

Kakashi nodded, "Tell me what the idea was."

"Well, I wasn't really sure-"

"That will have been the problem."

"Yeah. What I was going for was taking the prompt 'perspective' and thinking of looking at things from different points of view."

Kakashi was nodding enthusiastically, "I like that idea. But what was with the classroom objects?"

I shrugged, "Trying to make something unusual out of the usual. I'll come up with something better, I promise."

"Good." I turned to go back to my seat, but I heard a cough from behind me and turned back around. "Try thinking of something important to you. You usually make better art out of things you care about."

"No problem."

I sat down next to Shikamaru with a new idea already forming in my head and my fingers itching to get sketching. So maybe Kakashi wasn't as bad a teacher as I'd thought at first.

/\/\/\/\

Sakura and I caught the first bus back, practically fizzing with excitement. We got back to my house and I immediately set to moving anything breakable to safe places while Sakura went and hid all the jewelery and other small, expensive and therefore easily steal-able things upstairs. Just in case – after all, Deidara and his friends were a bit of an unknown quantity.

Hinata arrived just over forty minutes later laden down with food, which was Sakura's cue to go out and buy soft drinks and fetch her clothes and makeup. The three of us had decided that it would be more fun to get ready together.

I put out most of the food Hinata had provided in bowls on the kitchen table – for the record, we had Doritos, salt and vinegar chipsticks, midget gems, maltesers and, bizarrely, mini sausages – and she helped me pull together my best music into one party playlist on my ipod.

When Sakura got back with massive bottles of coke, lemonade and fanta I knew we were almost set. It was only five o'clock so I fetched a ready-made pizza from the fridge and stuck it in the oven.

"Y'know something," I said as I sat down at the table with them, "I think we've done a damn fine job so far."

"Definitely." Sakura said, seconded by a firm nod from Hinata. We ate the pizza together without a lot of small talk, just enjoying hanging out together and feeling like we'd achieved something.

"I have to say," Hinata commented as I chucked away the pizza packaging, "I'm looking forward to meeting your friends from your old school, Ino."

I laughed, "I'm just hoping nobody kills anyone. If we get through this evening without any serious injuries I'll count it a success."

Hinata looked a little worried for a moment, but Sakura nudged her with an elbow.

"I think Ino's exaggerating the potential danger."

"Just a little," I said with a grin.

"Anyway, when are we gonna get ready?" Sakura was looking up at the clock.

"It's, what, half five now?" Sakura nodded, "Well, we could start getting ready soon. I reckon we should aim to be ready by six thirty – that way there's no way anyone will turn up before we're done."

"That sounds like a good idea." Hinata said, "What should we do until then?"

Sakura shrugged and I looked around the kitchen, slightly hoping that I'd get inspiration from the sink or surfaces.

I heard my phone ring from the hallway and went out to get it. The caller ID said Kiba, and I picked up a little nervously.

"Hey."

"Hey! Ino, how're you?"

"I'm good thanks Kiba. Just setting up for the party tonight – you still coming?"

"Hell yes! Even if you haven't spoken to me in freaking ages."

"Ages! I saw you on Monday! It's been two days!"

"We used to meet up every day." His tone was jokey, but there was a question there too.

"Just because we don't see each other 24/7, doesn't mean we're not best friends." I said decisively.

Kiba laughed, "Okay, fair enough. I'm looking forward to this y'know. Can't wait to meet your new friends. And this guy you have a crush on!"

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten that I'd told you about that."

"Just ages ago. I even remember his name."

"Ooh, get you!"

"Shut up. I'll be expecting a personal introduction to this Shikamaru guy, so I can give him the best friend seal of approval. Or otherwise."

"I look forward to it. I gotta go though, Sakura and Hinata are here and I ought to be entertaining them like a good hostess."

"Got it. See you later Ini."

"Laters." I hung up, smiling at the phone, then walked back into the kitchen where Sakura seemed to be harassing Hinata over something.

"You'd better," Sakura was saying in an ominous voice, "Or I'll take the matter out of your hands."

"Sakura..." Hinata was blushing furiously and regarding our pink-haired friend with horror in her eyes.

"It's a party! A match-making party, amongst other things! We're trying to get people together! Join in the spirit dammit!"

Ah. It was about Naruto.

"Hinata," I sighed as I sat down, "Can I ask... what do you see in him?"

Hinata looked down at the table and pressed her index fingers together at the tips. "I like... his determination to succeed... his loyalty to his friends... his kindness..."

"He does also have a six-pack." Sakura put in, and Hinata promptly fainted. Sakura and I looked at her pityingly.

"Does he really?" I asked as I got up to get a glass of water.

"Yup. He and Sasuke go to the same gym, and I go sometimes too. For the swimming. Naruto is, technically speaking, fit. But I have no idea how it's possible to actually fancy him."

"This is what I'm struggling to get my head round." I agreed, pouring the cold water out on Hinata's face. She came round spluttering and Sakura helped her to her feet.

"Come on," I said, "Let's go upstairs and start making ourselves beautiful."

/\/\/\/\

One hour and eleven minutes later all three of us were ready, and looking fantastic.

Sakura was in a crimson tank top and black denim hot pants over black tights and very funky ankle boots in the same shade as the top. Her makeup was equally dramatic, bright red lipstick and thick eyeliner.

Hinata was more demure in a silver skirt and short sleeved shirt in light purple. We'd dressed it up a little with a chunky chain necklace and she was wearing knee-high deep purple boots with only a very slight heel over flesh coloured tights.

I'd opted for a black mini dress with an enormous cutout section in the back, thick black tights and four inch patent leather black heels. Sakura had put my hair up in a basic French twist and I'd finished off the effect with a dark grey denim jacket. I knew I'd only have to take it off as soon as I started dancing, but the point was that it slightly de-formalized the outfit.

At quarter to seven there was a knock at the door and I opened it to see Deidara, looking surprisingly normal in jeans and a black and white striped shirt (open with a dark grey T-shirt underneath). He was carrying two plastic bags and he held them up like a peace offering. I accepted with a grin, "I see you're useful for something then. Come in."

He followed me inside, looking around at the hall and into the living room. I suddenly felt weirdly self conscious.

"Nice house, hn." He commented, inspecting a photo of a forest that my mum had hung up near the bottom of the staircase.

"Uh, thanks." I saw Hinata appear at the top of the stairs and make her way down, followed by Sakura.

"Is this the alcohol?" Sakura asked with interest, taking one of the bags to sift through the contents. "We have a lot here; we should probably put about half away until later or people will just go nuts and get wasted before we're an hour in."

"Good idea, I'll go put this lot away. Could you set those bottles out on the table?" Sakura nodded and I went through to the kitchen, opening the fridge and moving things out of the way to make space.

"Need a hand, yeah?" Deidara's voice at my ear made me jump, almost dropping two bottles of mango Bacardi breezer. I heard him laugh at me and I scowled.

"No, I'm fine thanks. Did your friends stand you up?"

"They're coming later."

"Which goons did you invite?"

"None of the goons you've met already. Hn."

I sighed, exasperated. "Why are you so easygoing all of a sudden?" He just laughed, sitting himself down in one of the wooden chairs. He looked ridiculously long, his legs stretched out in front of him and his arms folded loosely over his chest. His hair was in its usual ponytail, with a fringe of sorts over his left eye.

"Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer, yeah."

I shook myself out of my reverie; I hadn't even realized I'd been staring at him. He was smirking at me and I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever, pretty boy." I turned away and carried on stacking bottles in the fridge. Guys like him you had to watch out for; their egos were so easily inflated but took a lot of maintenance, and once they thought they could get any kind of positive reinforcement from you they'd never leave you be.

I finished with the fridge and checked the time. Six-fifty-eight, and right on cue there was another knock at the front door. The guests had begun to arrive, and operation match-maker-party was officially in action.

/\/\/\/\

Twenty minutes later everyone was there and I paused the music for a moment.

"Hey!" I called out, "Thanks for coming everyone. I'm gonna make this brief, but this is technically a party for introductions so I'll just sort that out and then I'll leave you all to your own devices for a moment." Nobody looked like they were laughing at me and everyone seemed to be paying attention, so far so good. "This should be quick and painless: I'll call out a name, when I call yours you just give a little wave so everyone knows who you are. Sorted?" There was some uneasy shuffling but nobody screamed out in protest so I just carried on.

"First off we have Sakura," I paused to allow her to wave, "And Hinata... Naruto," he couldn't resist yelling out as he waved, something that sounded like 'believe it', "Lee" who had to jump up and down like an idiot when his name was called, "Sasuke... Neji... Shikamaru... Choji... Gaara," All of these people managed to just wave when I said their names, although Gaara barely lifted his hand. "There's Deidara too, and his two friends who I don't actually know."

"Konan and Pein, hn!" Deidara called out helpfully.

"Thanks. Anyway, that's the Konoha High crew sorted. Then there's Kiba... Temari and Ten Ten! I think that's everyone. Thanks for bearing with me guys, enjoy the party!" I turned the music back on and stepped down, heading over to Shikamaru.

"Hey." he turned around and saw me, offering a small smile and raising his bottle of beer. "You enjoying yourself?" I asked as I came up next to him and he nodded.

"Yeah, the music is pretty good." I grinned and nodded, then felt somebody tap me on the shoulder.

"Super cool party Ino!"

I turned around, "Thanks Temari. I realize you guys are outnumbered, you coping alright?"

"Yeah," she said with a dismissive wave, "We're being forced to mingle, but that's cool." She smiled at Shikamaru, "Nice to meetcha."

He nodded lazily at her, "You too." and I left them to chat while I went to see whether Ten Ten had managed to corner Neji yet. I found her in a corner chatting with Hinata.

"Hey Hinata, Tenny." Ten Ten frowned at me,

"You know I don't like that nickname."

"Yeah yeah," I teased, "You gathering information?"

She laughed and shook her head, "Just chatting actually."

"Oh yes," Hinata said, "You have a crush on my cousin?" Ten Ten nodded casually and Hinata tilted her head, "Would you like me to introduce you?" Ten Ten froze, obviously not quite as relaxed as she'd been pretending, and I laughed.

"Go on, take a chance! Hinata, just take her over." I watched as Hinata led Ten Ten over to where Neji and Sasuke were talking earnestly and I couldn't help but smile.

I felt somebody come up behind me and grab me round the waist and I jumped about a foot in the air with an 'eep!'

"You are hilarious when you're surprised."

"KIBA!" I threw my arms around my best friend and he laughed.

"Wow, not happy to see me then?"

"I've missed you these past 48 hours!"

"C'mon, let's dance."

Kiba pulled me closer to the speakers where Sakura and Naruto were dancing along with Lee and a very reluctant Choji.

"So," Kiba muttered in my ear, "I couldn't see Shikamaru properly from where I was. Where is he now?"

I cast my eyes over the room but couldn't see him obviously. "Dunno. I'll point him out if I see him though."

"You enjoying yourself?"

"Yeah, I am. You?"

"Definitely. These guys are, in their own way, very cool."

I grinned up at Kiba, "See! This is what I was saying all along." He shot me a skeptical look and I laughed, "Okay, not all along. But recently!"

"And I never doubted you for a moment."

We danced to a couple of songs, enjoying the feel of the music in the air, then we were joined by Ten Ten who was smiling to herself.

"Going well?"

"Not sure," she said, "but I spoke to him for easily five minutes about maths, which we're both taking, and he's actually just gone to get us both drinks."

"Fantastic! Conversation with the ice cube is a feat in and of itself! You go girl!" Ten Ten beamed at me, her eyes sparkling.

"Hinata's really sweet too, isn't she?"

"I know." I said, feeling like a proud mum. "I'll go find her actually, see if I can get her dancing too."

I located Hinata in the kitchen, nibbling on a dorito. "Come on," I said sternly, "You're missing good music!"

She looked nervous, "But Na-N-Naruto's in there!"

"That, my friend, is exactly the point." She looked more than doubtful, she looked almost scared. "Hinata, you look amazing. Come out, dance with me and Kiba and show off a little. Or at the very least lose yourself for a bit. It's fun, I promise!"

Anxious as she seemed Hinata followed me back through to the living room and to the now slightly larger crowd of dancers – we'd been joined by Deidara, his friend and his girlfriend. I tugged Hinata into the middle of the crowd with me and started dancing, closing my eyes and letting the beat and style of the song dictate my movement. I didn't look up to see if Hinata was copying, I didn't even look up to see if Shikamaru was watching, I just let myself enjoy the feeling of dancing freely among friends.

When you really get into it you can dance for quite a long time without getting bored or having to take a break, but after about twenty minutes Sakura and I went back through to the kitchen again to get drinks.

"You're a natural dancer," I said to Sakura, "I never knew that. Do you go to parties a lot?"

"Not really." Sakura looked pleased, "It's fun though, isn't it?"

"It really is. Maybe you can come out with my lot sometimes?"

Sakura laughed, "Think about one of the girls in your group and you'll realize that that really isn't a good idea."

I though of Kin and Sakura at the same party and grimaced.

"Sorry, wasn't thinking."

"No problem. But I'll tell you what might be an issue."

"What's that?"

"I think some people may have gone upstairs."

Oh great.

I sighed and put down my half-finished Bacardi. "Can you look after that for a minute? I'll just go embarrass them all into coming back down."

"Cool. See you in a minute."

I went upstairs, and sure enough both mine and mum's bedroom doors were slightly ajar. I was about to interrupt the people in mum's, but the door opened and out came Pein and Konan. I stared at them, wondering what was going on. Didn't they care that Deidara was just downstairs? They certainly didn't look bothered, except for perhaps being slightly worried about my mental capacity as I gaped at them like a goldfish. They just headed down the stairs, cool as you please, leaving me to wonder whether I should say something or not.

Still reeling slightly, I went and opened the door to my room, peering in. There were two figures in there, up against the wall and clearly kissing. I cleared my throat and pushed the door open a little wider and the pair sprung apart. With the light from the hallway on their faces I could recognize them easily.

Temari and Shikamaru.

Shit.